Amazing Designs by Marlene

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The Studio Sublime Challenge Blog Hop

Black and white is one of my favorite combinations to work with, especially since polymer clay presents itself with so MANY possibilities. I have a ton of black and white canes, so when Sally of The Studio Sublime came up with this Challenge Hop, I was ready. LOL, I had the set I present to you done within the week, and have been patiently (NOT) waiting until today!

My jewelry loving granddaughter was over one day and helped me put every slice from the myriad of canes on these beads. She was soooo proud when she finished, she even asked to take some home with her. I found out later from mom, she gave everyone in the house one as a gift from her.

I had the idea to drill the largest oval both lengthwise and through the center so I could use it as a bail for the dangle I had in mind. After wire wrapping the sterling silver to it and then redoing the messy wraps several times so the beads I attached worked right, a final swirl was added to the center.

Then the stringing started and I realized I needed something to complete the necklace for around the neck, and after hunting through all my stash boxes realized it was time to make more plain black and white swirl beads for it. I finished it off with a cute pewter lock and key toggle.

For the earrings that went with this necklace, I used more of the small black candy swirl tube beads, one of which I used above the focal dangle, attached them to three different silver chains, and added white capped black beads to silver twisted connectors (was fun trying to get the head pins though them).

The design was to imitate the abstract feel of the pattern of the beads used in the necklace. The earrings hang almost three inches, so I added them to long tailed sterling silver ear wires to balance them out.

Here is the complete set.

Hope you have had as much fun with this Challenge as I did, and thank Sally Russick for hosting it.
Here are the other participants, and a linkup beneath the list if you want to add your blog post.

Sally Russick < Our Hostess

Marlene Cupo <You are here

Sunday, June 16, 2013

SUMMER ELEMENTS Blog Hop by TOLTEC JEWELS

Dear sweet Rita (Toltec Jewels) of Jewel School Friends decided a while ago to get us all ready for the Summer festivities, by having a hop to feature what ever we enjoy most about it.

For me, living here in Florida that can only mean "beach time". Not that we didn't also love the Jersey shore when we lived there, but it is so much easier to go when the kids have to pack up their kids, and we just go along for the ride!

Now you know when you are packing that carry-all, there is one thing that can not be forgotten. No, not the towels or beach blanket, no, not the SPF50 sun screen. It's the nylon bag of plastic pails, shovels and shapes for the obligatory sand castle creations that are planned, by you know who.

Did you ever wonder why, when the little ones have a whole ocean to play in, they HAVE TO dig a hole and then try and fill it with water, one pail at a time?

Of course, if you have older cousins, that pail of water may have a whole 'nother use.

One day after one of our wonderful adventures, I decided to create a beach theme pendant to memorialize those precious moments, which I call "A Day at the Beach". I stamped and painted a skinner blend to mimic the sky and the ocean coming together. Then I took some of that sand that always finds its way into your clothing and included it into the shoreline of the pendant. Of course, the plastic pail that was used for all the water fun, and then a collection bucket for sea shells, shiny stones, some sea glass if we were lucky, had to take its place on my beach. No self respecting shore is complete without sea grass, and gulls flying over, so they too got created and attached.

To complete the scene I added tiny real sea shells that had a special meaning for our family, and used even more of them to create the necklace for the pendant. Our oldest son got married at Sandals in Antigua, and our two other sons went with my husband and I to be there for it.

You know there is more to the story though. One evening, my youngest son drove me to a secluded, rocky beach to enjoy the sunset, and it was full of these amazingly perfect miniature shells. Why did we collect so many? Well, since he dropped the rental car keys almost immediately upon getting there, it then took us an hour to comb through and find them again. To this day he still cringes when he sees any of those shells.

Please enjoy the other blog posts from so many wonderful entrants in Rita's Blog Hop.

Toltec Jewels (Hostess) http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/

Marlene Cupo http://amazingdesigns-marlene.blogspot.com/

Cheri Reed http://creativedesignsbycheri.blogspot.com/

Ailsa Cordner http://www.bramalfiebeadsetc.co.uk/

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

Nan Smith http://www.wirednan.blogspot.com/

Sherri Stokey http://www.knotjustmacrame.com/

Christie (Charis Designs) http://charisdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com/

Carolyn Lawson http://carolynscreationswa.blogspot.com/

Susie Harris http://jewelleryjunkie.blogspot.com/

Andrea Glick-Zenith http://zenithjade.blogspot.com/

Nelly May http://smellynelly.blogspot.com/

Melissa Trudinger http://beadrecipes.wordpress.com/

Dini Bruinsma http://angazabychanges.blogspot.com/

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

Cory Tompkins http://tealwaterdesigns.blogspot.com/

Gina Hockett http://freestyleelements.blogspot.com/

Karen Martinez http://www.fairiesmarket.blogspot.com/

Liz http://beadcontagion.blogspot.com/

Jasvanti Patel http://jewelrybyjasvanti.blogspot.com/

Solange Collin http://www.blog.ahowinjewelry.com/

Gerda http://gerdascraftsblog.blogspot.com/

Karla Morgan http://texaspepperjams.blogspot.com/

Anindita Basu http://alankarshilpa.blogspot.com/

Alicia Marinache http://www.allprettythings.ca/

Andrea Trank http://heavenlanecreations.com/

Dyanne Everett-Cantrell http://deelitefuljewelrycreations.blogspot.com/

Mischelle Fanucchi http://micheladasmusings.blogspot.com/

Tanty Sri Hartanti http://tjewellicious.blogspot.com/

Shaiha Williams http://shaihasramblings.blogspot.com/

Mary Govaars http://mlhjewelrydesigns.com/

Becca Sirevaag http://godsartistinresidence.blogspot.com/

Lennis Carrier http://windbent.wordpress.com/

Regina Wood http://www.gina-design.blogspot.com/

Sue Kennedy http://suebeads.blogspot.com/

Kathleen Breeding https://www.facebook.com/99BOBOTW

Saturday, April 20, 2013

HBBH 3 ½ ~ A Very Merry Unbirthday Party ~ The Reveal

The Invitations went out and 30 wonderful artists and creative jewelry people RSVP to join Shelley and me in a celebration of each other's Unbirthday. We had so much fun with this surprise HBBH and I hope all of our attendees did too!

My partner in the hop was Lori Schneider, who works in a very challenging Alzheimer patient care center. Bless her for that. She makes some gorgeous pieces which are seen through her blog. Love the "feather necklace" she did for the Facebook Non-Blogger Challenge, which you can see here. We contacted each other about what month our birthdays were celebrated. Her's is in June, and we decided on bracelets for each other.
From the chart we originally posted on the Hop, Alexandrite was listed as her birthstone, but she mentioned pearls, so what's a gal to do?

Well, both of course!

I had received the most delicious milky white, and deep purple dew drop pearls from DiYana Alcalde, in a swap and decided they were perfect for Lori's first bracelet. I decided to do a modified double strand of them with antique silver spacers I had in my stash to bring them together. Problem was the stones in the center of the spacers were a chartreuse green (UH, NO) so I plucked them out and replaced them with smaller pearls to match the ones from DiYanna.

Once everything was strung together, I used an antique silver clasp with extender from a muse box I had gotten a while ago from Brenda Sue Lansdowne.

It's a somewhat under stated design, but I think right along the lines of what Lori will like.

My next task was to tackle the Alexandrite colored one. It is one of my favorite colors and I had beads hoarded that matched it perfectly.

Some Alexandrite beads taken from a bracelet that was in Brenda Sue's muse box, along with a fantastic gold tone box clasp, some Czech glass beads from CascadiaBeads, and other complimentary colored goodies from my stash, which I did up in a three strand bracelet.

Lori almost didn't get this one. Not because I wanted to keep it, but several others did, including my daughter (birthstone is Amethyst), so I had to get it into mail to Lori, without them knowing.

If you want to see more about what Lori made for me