Art Elements February Challenge Reveal - Artisan Jewelry Inspired by the American Kestrel

Welcome to the Art Elements February 2019 Themed Challenge Reveal!  The theme of this month's Challenge was Birds of Prey or Raptors.  Makers were encouraged to submit any kind of artistic endeavor representing these magnificent flying creatures. We created handmade jewelry for this challenge as we have been prepping for our spring shows.  We are headed to Kansas City next week for the 58th Annual Gem, Mineral, Jewelry and Bead Show and we have been working hard to bring our customers lots of new jewelry designs and handmade components.

We are usually inspired by song birds like cardinals, bluebirds and robins, so working with a birds of prey theme with this Challenge was a little out-of-the-box for us.  We have a new song bird pendant focal that we are introducing in our Spring 2019 painted pendant collection, so we incorporated the feather coloring of a bird of prey for one of pendants, an American Kestrel!  We were struck by the lovely colors of the Kestrel, this little falcon features a coat of slate blue, rust, cream and a striking speckled pattern throughout the feathers.  Catherine hand painted all of these elements into our songbird pendant, and then we paired our new focal with a hand knotted crystal bead necklace from Deborah.  Our little Kestrel dangles freely from a hand stamped O-Ring that says "Fearlessly Authentic" - a fitting and inspirational quote!

We also created this boho pair of earrings in the same American Kestrel theme to match with our necklace.  These feathers, inspired by the American Kestrel, have been hand painted in our studio by Catherine and then accented with lots of bling by Gianna.  They're super sparkly and lightweight!


While looking up feather inspiration for our hand painted components, we discovered some interesting tidbits about the American Kestrel.  Read below to learn more about these adorable little falcons!

• The American Kestrel is the smallest and most common falcon in the US.

• Kestrels can be tamed easily and trained quickly - because of this (and their small size), they are popular falconry birds for working in the city.

These American Kestrel jewelry designs and lots more of our new handmade jewelry will be available at our shows in Kansas City, Joplin and Tulsa this spring.  Visit our website for more info on our Dry Gulch shows.

This month's Art Element challenge was hosted by Cathy Spivey Mendola - thank you for an inspiring theme.  Be sure to read through and visit all of the Challenge makers links below for more Birds of Prey inspiration - we'll see you in a few weeks for our next Challenge reveal!



Guests:
Tammy
Beth
Cat
Anita
Kathy
Alysen
Linda
Rozantia
Catherine You Are Here!
Hope
Sarajo
Melissa
Sarah

Art Elements Team Members: 
Caroline
Cathy
Claire
Jen
Jenny
Karen
Laney
Lesley
Lindsay
Marsha
Niky
Sue

Art Elements July Theme Reveal - Funky Seed Pod Jewelry

Welcome to the Art Elements Theme July Challenge Reveal from Dry Gulch.  We missed the June challenge last time, but we made sure to join the July monthly challenge!  We have enjoyed working on our project for the reveal the past few weeks in between getting ready for our summer shows this August.  We would like to send a thank you to hostess Jennifer for putting this challenge together. Don’t forget to visit all of the participating reveals, listed in the links at the end of this blog.

A selection of our late summer garden seed pods & dried berries.  We often use them as photography props.

This month, the Art Element's Theme Challenge was Seed Pods, one of our favorite things!  We tend to a flower and vegetable garden every year, and we always love seeing the different seeds our plants provide.  From the sweet little seeds we plant in the spring, to the dried husks of seed pods throughout the hot summer and cool fall, we enjoy finding inspiration in their rustic and organic shapes.  We have 2 shows that we're preparing for in August, a bead show and vintage show, so we focused on creating a pair of earrings that we could bring along.

 

This pair of earrings showcases our lampwork headpins.  We lampwork in our studio once a week and love to create funky shapes that can be used as charms or in earrings.  We named this shape Dew Pod because they look like little seed pods that have been studded with dewdrops.  In this pair, Catherine melted glass in beautiful caramel raku colors and then added soft metallic gold dewdrops.  Once the headpins were ready, Deborah then paired them with our Ancient Alchemy bead cone caps, filigree brass caps and sparkly Swarovski crystals.  We really like the juxtaposition of the shiny pod lampwork paired with the rough caps!

This pair of earrings and lots more handmade jewelry will be available at our shows in Tulsa, OK and Joplin, MO. Visit our website for more info on our Dry Gulch shows.

We would like to send another big thank you to Art Elements and Jennifer for hosting this fun challenge.  Be sure to hop around all the links below to see all of the participant challenge creations in this month’s reveal!

Guest Artists:

Tammy 

Raven 

Alysen

Anita

Cat 

Kimberly 

Rozantia 

Sarajo 

Divya

Caroline

Catherine

Kathy

Jill
Norma

Art Elements Team: 

Claire

Caroline

Lesley

Niky

Laney

Susan

Marsha

Jenny

Cathy

Jen

Art Elements April Theme Reveal - Cowgirls & Horses

Welcome to the Art Elements Theme Challenge Reveal from Dry Gulch! We joined the April monthly challenge and have enjoyed working on our projects for the reveal the past few weeks. We would like to send a thank you to hostesses Jenny and Cathy for putting this challenge together. Don’t forget to visit all of the participating reveals, listed in the links at the end of this blog.

The Dry Gulch Horses - Shorty, Rusty & Lucky

This month’s theme was all about the beauty of horses. We are inspired every day by the nature around us and our own animals, horses included, so we knew we wanted to create a project featuring cowgirls and their horses. As we have a vintage show that we are preparing for in May, we aimed at making several necklaces that we could bring to the show.

We love to create unique components and then assemble them together into new collage pendants. These necklaces feature patinaed filigrees, hand stamped charms and a hand painted bay horse charm. The pendant focals feature vintage cowgirl bezels that have been poured with resin, then bordered with handmade “barbwire” lariats. We finished off these rustic necklaces with our beaded stone and crystal chains, making them perfect for wearing out.

These vintage cowgirl necklaces will be available at our vintage show in May 2018 at Branson Market Days in Missouri. Visit our website for more info on this and more Dry Gulch shows.

Be sure to visit the links below to see all of the participants in this month’s reveal!








Participants:

Alysen

Anita

Beth

Catherine







Jill

Paulette

Raven

Sarajo

Tammy


Art Element Team Member Participants:


Caroline

Claire

Jen

Laney

Lesley

Marsha

Niky

Sue

Welcome to the Bead Peeps Swap N Hop 2018 Reveal!

Welcome to the Bead Peeps Swap N Hop 2018 Reveal!  Thank you Linda Anderson for being our hostess.  This was such a fun challenge, we were paired up with Joanne Louvaine Bell of Twinkiedinky, so how could it not be fun??  Below is a picture of what our partner Joanne sent to us.

And now, the story begins...

Our first creation

"Trinkets" - a ribbon tassel necklace made with vintage Sari silk ribbons and tied onto a vintage horse tack ring.  The tassel has been adorned with Joanne's wonderful "Doof" component, a copper bezel that she created - isn't she lovely?   Our tassel is attached to a hand knotted crystal necklace with a filigree bail. 

Our next creation

 

The loveliest pair of whimsical wings you ever did see! ☺  They didn't need much because they're so beautiful on their own.  These resin wings by Joanne were soldered by us with a touch of filigree.  We crown thee "Princess Lilybell".

Ah, but wait...

 

Here lies the crowning glory.  This seed bead flower of loveliness was made by Gianna.  This flower has a raspberry rivoli crystal center and is dripping with chain, Czech glass, Swarovski crystals and more fantastic resin wings from Joanne.  What beautiful, magical sprite wouldn't love this??!!?? ♥

It was so fun to be whimsical!  Joanne, you are the "Twinkiedinky" that put a sparkle in our creations.

Here is what we sent Joanne for the Swap, hop on over and see what she has created!

Also, don't forget to hop around and check all of the other fantastic bead peeps that joined this blog event.  View their creations by clicking the links below. 

Beaders

Linda Anderson http://fromthebeadboard.blogspot.com (Hostess)

Inge von Roos https://ingetraud.wordpress.com 

Kari Asbury https://kariasbury.com/blogs/design-challenges

Nadine Edris http://instagram.com/moondancemaine

 

Kathy Lindemer https://bay-moon-design.blogspot.com/

Hope Smitherman http://CraftyHope.com 

Marde Lowe http://fancimardesigns.blogspot.com

Christina Hickman https://www.instagram.com/laughingsalmon/

 

Terry Jeanette Carter https://tappingflamingo.blogspot.com

Lisa Johnson https://spudandmrsbutters.blogspot.com/

Catherine La Vite http://drygulchbeadsandjewelry.blogspot.com/

Joanne Bell https://joannetinks.wordpress.com

 

Rosantia Petkova http://bairozan.blogspot.bg/

Bonnie Robbins https://www.instagram.com/brobbins_wireandwonder/

 

Natalie Davidson http://www.northshoredays.com/

Robin Reed http://www.willowdragon.blogspot.com

 

Karin King http://www.maverickbeads.blogspot.ca

Jenny Kyrlach http://anafiassa.blogspot.com

 

Erika Price https://www.instagram.com/erikapricejewellery/

Sarah Reid http://www.instagram.com/sarahreiddesigns

 

Divya N http://www.jewelsofsayuri.com

Lori Schneider http://beadaddicted.blogspot.com

 

Robin Showstack http://heartsdesiresjewelryforyou.blogspot.com/

Nicole Rennell https://www.instagram.com/nicolerennelldesigns/

 

Fay Wolfenden http://torchfairy.blogspot.com

Shai Williams http://www.shaihasramblings.com/

 

Andrea Frank https://instagram.com/andreazeef

Cheri Reed http://creativedesignsbycheri.wordpress.com

Seed Beaders

Deborah Apodaca https://deborahapodacadesigns.blogspot.com/

Palak Udeshi http://kalaabhushan.blogspot.in/

 

Penny Houghton http://www.forgottentrack.com.au/blog

Paulina Russell Http://www.instagram.com/thewildbead

 

Heather Canepa http://www.instagram.com/canepaheather

Tina Hemr http://instagram.com/mariecaroldesigns

 

Naomi Knafla https://www.instagram.com/naomiknafla/

Michelle Marson https://www.instagram.com/ellecountry/

 

Rebecca White https://morganafeycreations.com/blog/

Laura Bosch https://www.instagram.com/lauraboschmultibeadia

 

Kathleen Breeding https://www.instagram.com/99bobotw.kb/

Becky Pancake http://beckypancakebeaddesigns.blogspot.com/

Bead Peeps Bead Swap Reveal Coming Soon

We're working on our designs for the big reveal this Friday, we're really having a lot of fun playing with all of the beads and handmade components our partner Joanne sent us!  Speaking of, below are a few photos of the fabulous goodies she mailed us from the UK.

Joanne owns TwinkieDinky on Etsy, and she specializes in making silk-screened butterfly wings and polymer clay leaves and many more creative components.  She sent us a collection of her wings and leaves, and Czech and pewter beads.  We love the fun ribbon and fabric she wrapped our goodies in too!

Below is our Swap we sent to Joanne.  We mailed off a collection of copper and green components with our handmade in-studio lampwork, stamped pendants, copper, Aventurine and even real Monarch butterfly wings from our Ranch (our wings only come from butterflies that have died from natural causes).  We can't wait to see what Joanne makes with her Swap components!

 

Be sure to check back this Friday for the big 2018 Bead Peeps Reveal and hop to all of the blogs that are participating this year.  Seeing all the different designs beaders and creators do with their swaps makes this Blog Hop one of the most inspiring Blog Hops of the year!

Have a wonderful and Happy Easter!!