Squash Blossom and Purple Inspiration

Something hit me this afternoon out of the blue.........yes, that's right an idea for a piece of jewelry! Where did it come from? Often I don't realize where the idea for a creation comes from until I'm well into the creation. This happened today so after I completed the pieces I went back and took the pictures of what inspired me.

This is the finished piece I've entitled: French Countryside

The French Countryside Earrings
A shape of the squash blossom inspired.....

The shape of the focal point of the necklace.

The oregano flower blossom was the inspiration for the purple accent beads in the necklace.
Here's where the French part comes in...... I made these charms from the ground up as they say. Shaped the wire then hammered it flat on a bench block, next cut out French book text and glued it onto the back of the wire shape. After it was dry then I sealed both the front and back with a thick sealer.

If you'd like to own this one of a kind necklace go to: Honey Girl Studio Jewelry

Creative Days......

I realize how lucky I am to have a career where I have the summers off....believe me I know. Every morning I wake up with the "hmmmm, what will I create today?" feeling in my heart and know that I'm very lucky to have the opportunity to do this. Well this morning started out with rain and a cup of coffee and the question, "what will I create today?". I'm not quite finished with it but I should get it completed today. Here are some 'teaser' shots......



My dream is to have a free standing studio one day where I can teach classes and have room to spread out all my "stuff". Will it come true? I don't know, but that's the beauty of dreams....they're free. What are you creating today?

Natures' Inspiration

As I've said many times, Nature inspires me in my creations. Here are a few examples the show what I mean.

I was looking through some photos I took in October and came across this one the other day..... which inspired me to make these pieces of jewelry.............



I took this photo yesterday at my moms. The day was warm and very windy. I remember thinking, the sky was so blue and the leaves so green whipping around which inspired me......

to make these earrings with the blue of the sky and the green of the leaves.

I also took this picture of a Gerber daisy. So vibrantly orange..........

which inspired me to use the same orange in this pendant.
All of these pieces are available at:

Honey Girl Studio Jewelry

New Jewelry Blog

Honey Girl Studio has a new blog for just the jewelry creations!
www.honeygirlstudiojewelry.blogspot.com
Pop on over and become a follower to enter to win a pair of earrings!

Bonjour!

Thinking of Paris lately. I took 3 years of French in high school and can basically say "hello", name a few animals and also say this in French, "the train for Paris will arrive at a quarter past noon"..... pretty useful eh?

My friend Tracey gave me some pages from a vintage book in French and I cut out words to use in these "tiny bubble" necklaces. They will be available at the Time and Again Store in Greenville, Pa, or you can email me and I can make one for you. I can even make custom ones with a name or word of your choice. They are $6 and that includes shipping.

This Eiffel Tower pendant was created on a wooden vintage domino. I'm keeping it for myself!

Another altered domino that I created for a Chinese auction at a local breast cancer charity event.

I hope all my friends in blogland had a fun Wednesday! Tomorrow is Thursday and that's my favorite day of the week!

Halloween Altered Art Book Tutorial

The Witch Sisters Altered Art Book tutorial. Thinking about Halloween and fall as the weather here has been fall-like for the past few days. Unseasonably cool. I made this altered book and thought I'd share the tutorial with my friends in blogland. If you'd like to own this book go here.

This is the finished book on the outside cover.

The inside of the book........

The first thing to do is to cut foamcore board and make a frame by building up the sides with 2 strips of foamcore.

This is what it looks like from the side......

Find an old hard covered book and tear out all of the pages......

With acrylic paint, paint the outside cover black.

Paint the foamcore tray that you glued together, black.

Cut a strip of decorative paper and glue to the spine of the book cover.....

Glue pieces of decorative papers onto the frame. Wrap around the edges with some of the pieces of paper.

Stamp on decorative paper and cut fit inside the foamcore frame.

Glue pieces of decorative paper inside the book cover and stamp.

Embellish the inside inside of the fram and glue it into the right side of the inside of the book.

Print out an antique photo, glue to chipboard cut out, add glittery hats.

Glue small pieces of foamcore to the back of the witches to make them stand out and then glue them inside the frame.

Ta-da! Done!

Can you imagine the story that could go with this book?

Midsummer Altered Arts Workshop

Saturday was the first annual Midsummer Really Cool Stuff Altered Arts Workshop here in beautiful Western Pennsylvania. It was very successful and everyone had a great time. We are thinking of opening it up to a larger group of participants next year. If you'd like to receive the email information for next year leave a comment and I'll put you on the list.Here Tracey is hard at work on her pendant. I'll be sharing pictures thoughout this week of the completed projects. Unfortunately, most of the workshop participants were camera shy. I think one was in the witness protection plan!

10:30 brownie break

L'amour pendant created from cotton webbing, ribbon, glitter, glass flat backed marble, ribbon, old key, charms and 45 minute eyelets!

Chateau Pendant created from webbing, velvet ribbon, eyelets, small flat backed marble, antique key, brass flower charm.

Summer Tree Pendant created from webbing, velvet ribbon, green felt, orange glass seed beads.

Tracey modeling her pendant.....
We also made altered cuff bracelets from the same webbing as the pendants. I made this one that has the words "laugh out loud" stamped on it. I like to laugh and I've know many people in my life that can make me laugh out loud. A friend of mine passed away a few days ago that I use to teach with and boy could this lady make me laugh out loud. We actually made each other laugh out loud pretty much every workday morning for 10 years. Hornyak was a good teacher and a wonderful friend. I'll miss her. I made this bracelet while thinking about all the times we laughed out loud together.

Me laughing out loud.....not a very flattering picture but Tracey said something funny! That girl can me laugh! I won't mind if I have wrinkles in my face from laugh lines as I get older but I hope I never have lines from frowning.The bracelet flattened out. Created from cotton webbing, torn cotton fabric, stamps, DMC thread, vintage shell buttons. I good mantra to wear on your wrist.

Midsummer Really Cool Stuff Workshop for the Altered Arts

I'm so excited, tomorrow is the first annual Midsummer Really Cool Stuff Workshop for the Altered Arts. I know it's a long title, but it says it all. The girls are packing up their art suitcases for a day of Altered Art fabulousness (I know it's not a word, but I'm using it!) Here are the classes being offered:
Soldering & Bandaides 101: Soldering for the Beginner
Twist, Bang, Loop and Sometimes Swear: Creating Wire Jewelry Connectors
Mind Your Own Pot of Beeswax: Beeswax Collage Techniques
Who Moved My Brownies?: A Brownie Tasting Break at 10:30
Hey Wasn't That a Belt?: Creating Mini Webbing Pendants
Polymer Clay: Bend Me, Shape Me, Stamp Me Anyway You Want Me!

I'll be posting pictures tomorrow night of all the fun!

They're still here..........

The Red Tailed Hawks are still hanging around!

The momma and the baby........

Look to the left.....

Look to the right.........


And twist your head the whole way around and look behind you!
These guys are a trip!