Toltec Jewels: January 2014

Jan 11, 2014

Into the Forest Blog Hop

Welcome to another special creative challenge and blog hop hosted by Lisa Lodge of "A Grateful Artist" and Pine Ridge Treasures Jewelry!

Today we are all designing with a forest theme, almost as if we are walking through the woods together as we move "into the forest" with color and texture and style. It's a rich and uplifting challenge, warming us in winter and renewing us for the New Year as we paint the trees, greenery, sweet earth and soft light of the woods with our jewelry and beads.

The "Into the Forest" bead mix I received was full of rich olive green Czech rounds, spring green rondelles, leaf green Swarovski bicones, Czech AB peridot leaves, two shades of druk beads, aventurine nuggets, green mosaic turquoise, moss agate barrels, AB peridot size 10 round Czech seed beads, and silver leaf findings for a pendant and earrings:

I had so many design ideas from the kit! I planned on using my multicolored beadwork "leaves" (see below the triangles in autumn colorways) with the silver leaf focal to create a colorful leaf necklace, and use lots of Vintaj antique brass with the gorgeous olivine Czech fire polished beads.

I had ceramic tree and moon by beadfreaky and a bracelet cufff by Humblebeads out on my bead table to use also. I thought the small glass light & medium green rounds might be perfect as a rosary, and I could imagine some cool earrings made from the bicones and Czech leaves. I wasn't sure how to use the aventurine nuggets, although going through my gemstone beads, I realized I do have a strand of pretty amazonite large nuggets. They would be pretty together!

I wanted to use the stunning seraphinite gems and the beautiful cabs the amazing Lennis Carrier of Windbent made and gave to me -- inspired to celebrate friendship & the magic of the forest with her art beads & the rare, angelic (with wisps of white like angel wings) seraphinite! The combination would express my love of the forest, and the peaceful memories I have of being in the woods outside our suburb as a child. The stillness of the woods, the grounding beauty. As a girl, I spent years just sitting, enjoying, relaxing, talking to God in the woods. The woods feel nurturing and safe, renewing. How I love them!

I decided I would finally use my very special bead -- one so hard to find -- a bead of color! Most art beads of fairies or faces are all white folks, I came to realize, so that even Native, aboriginal, ethnic jewelry often ends up with a white person or Caucasian looking face in it! Don't get me wrong, my mom is Irish -- a very, very pale and beautiful redhead -- but I want to create diverse jewelry reflecting a diverse world. So, I'm always on the look for beads of color :)

This sweet fairy treasure is created by Sally Sutherland of Soul Silver! And she's not only a bead of color, but a fairy too! I knew right away she belonged in forest jewelry. And although I wish I'd created everything I felt inspired to make, I am still grateful to have the ideas for the jewelry & the spark of inspiration to create. Since I was thinking our hop was the 18th, I ran out of time -- but creating the fairy felt good and she deserves a special day of her own! I'm happy to have created Forest Fairy jewelry, and am so pleased that she can now be worn & enjoy being out & about -- fairies don't like to be stored away or they'll create mischief! ;)

I created a simple netted chevron gothic necklace (in a day! so it works up quickly) using Lisa's light green Druk beads and the perfect color AB seed beads (the free tutorial pdf is at the PBS Beads, Baubles & Jewels website, series 700, show 707-6, "Gothic" ). I added erenite ABx2 Swarovski bicones, blue crystal quartz rounds, and some Toho AB seed beads to reflect both shades of green in the fairy's gown & the three petal flowers.

Thank you Lisa for hostessing and everyone for creating another lovely hop!

Goodnight xxoo Rita

Artist Unknown -- A beautiful quilt!

Enjoy all the enriching and wonderful jewelry art created by all the hop participants!

Your hostess: Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Chris Eisenberg, Wanderware

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Janine Lucas, Esfera Travel Blog

Jasvanti Patel, Jewelry by Jasvanti

Shaiha Williams, Shaiha's Ramblings

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Monique Urquhart, A Half-Baked Notion

Janet Bocciardi, Honey from the Bee

Dini Bruinsma, Angaza by Changes

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Christina Miles, Wings n Scales

Elizabeth Engriser, Bead Contagion

Alice Peterson, Alice Dreaming

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Catherine Yvonne King, Catherine's Musings

Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles

Ema Kilroy, Ema K Designs

Jan 9, 2014

Meet Jewelry Designer and Blog Hop/Destash Hostess Extraordinaire, Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures

Lisa Lodge is a designer of classic, feminine jewelry.

Her designs can be found in publications such as Bead Trends,

Bead It Today, and the Artisan Whimsy Marketplace. She is a member of the ZnetShows Design Team and the Echo Creative Club.

Lisa's beautiful classic, feminine Pine Ridge Treasures jewelry

Lisa sells her jewelry locally and online at her Zibbet shop, Pine Ridge Treasures. In addition, Lisa is hostess to blog hops for fellow jewelry designers, and offers regular "destashes" of her Pine Ridge Treasures supplies and beads on Facebook at Destash-Pine Ridge Treasures.

Lisa's Autumn Bracelet Give-A-Way at Pine Ridge Treasures

Lisa's blog hops are extremely popular, with themes that focus on nature while challenging artists to create using colorways and materials that Lisa mixes and mails to each participant. Upcoming hops such as "Into the Forest," "Winter Sparkle," and "Ocean" will explore color, designing with crystals, and art beads. Follow Lisa's Pine Ridge Treasures business page on Facebook and blog, A Grateful Artist, to sign up for her blog hops.

I'll be participating in all of Lisa's upcoming blog hops, and look forward to seeing the beautiful art created for this Saturday's hop, "Into the Forest." Rather than simply post about the weekend's upcoming hop, I wanted to share all the great things about Lisa -- her jewelry, her hops, her destashes.

The popular "mystery mixes" at Lisa's Destash group on Facebook.

Lisa's motto for her blog, A Grateful Artist," is "Living Life with Gratitude and Sharing the Joy of Artistic Expression." Lisa Lodge is a terrific friend, super creative lady, and gifted jewelry artist! She inspires me. And, certain she'll inspire you too, I interviewed Lisa for today's post:

1) How long have you been making jewelry?
Three years.

2) What inspired you to begin making jewelry? How did you start?
It started as a project to create Christmas gifts for relatives, and as a stress reliever. It gives me a creative outlet after working all week at my day job. I love coming up with ideas and making them a reality. Currently I sell my work locally, and online at Zibbet.com. Most of my pieces are one of a kind.

3) Favorite technique?
I really enjoy stringing the most. I also enjoy working with wire. Earrings are my favorite type of jewelry to make. Maybe it is because I like variety. There are so many different ways to design earrings.

4) What do you like most about hosting blog hops?
What I like most about hosting the hops is providing fellow designers a platform to try out new design ideas (by using beads they may not normally gravitate toward), making new jewelry contacts/friends, and enjoying our mutual love of jewelry design. If we all gain design inspiration in the process, that is an added bonus! Based on the many positive comments I receive after a hop, I think that the participants are enjoying them! There is always room for growth and improvement. If the hops ever start feeling rote or stale, I will stop doing them.

5) Advice on getting published?
Become familiar with the publication you would like to be published in. What type of jewelry do they publish? What are their needs and specific guidelines? Follow the guidelines to the letter. Submit high quality photographs. Don’t become discouraged if you receive a few rejections.

6) When did you start “destashing” in earnest?
I would have to answer this question by starting with the “stashing” as opposed to the “destashing”. When I started designing jewelry I bought a lot of beads and findings before I really knew anything about making jewelry. Then, as I discovered art beads and handmade lampwork and clay, I just had to buy a bunch of those pretties as well! Before you knew it, I was drowning in supplies (not a bad place to be, I admit), but my wallet sure wasn’t happy. I started listing a few items in the Artisan Whimsy destash events, and then found a few destash groups on Facebook. Now I have my own destash group on Facebook.

7) What is unique about your destashing events?
I like to make the events fun, creative and unique by offering a variety of items in varying quantities and groupings. I like to offer “kits” based on color themes or nature themes such as “the forest” or “the sea”. I also sell “Mystery Kits” where the buyer is given a one word clue as to the contents of the kit, such as a color, or a material, like lampwork or crystal. The mystery kits are super popular, and often sell out within an hour or less. The creation of “Mystery Kits” has a long background for me – my sister and I used to create “Mystery Grab Bags” for our family garage sales many years ago. We placed create “Mystery Grab Bags” for our family garage sales many years ago. We placed items in brown paper lunch bags (stapled shut) with a one or two word clue on the outside of the bag. They were so popular that we had many people return year after year just for the grab bags.

8) What is your goal for the destash part of your business?
First and foremost, I am a jewelry designer and that is my main focus. In order to keep designing jewelry, I need the funds to purchase supplies. So - one of my goals for the destash is probably the same as most everyone’s: to be able to sell enough of my extra supplies to enable me to buy new supplies. (This is a never ending, yet fun cycle). I also have the very important goal of providing high quality, reasonably priced destash supplies to fellow designers in a fun format. Once buyers know the value of what you are offering, they will continue to come back.