Feather with Love

I found this fascinating challenge on the Bead Soup Cafe's (BSC) face book page. The hostess posts an inspirational picture on BSC's main page, along with a short blurb to get everyone inspired to create something. This is the fourth in a round robin event for the Non-Blogger group, though bloggers can take part :-)  Then on Feb 10th, Posting Day, everyone who has signed up posts a picture of each item they have made. This time round the challenge was a as you can see to make something inspired by the bright colours of a red macaw - a bit of a challenge as these primary colours are difficult to wear all together at once!

I decided to keep it small, simple and picked up on the "love" part of the challenge with a pair of heart shaped earrings made from silver wire. Once the wire shapes had been made - a marker pen made an excellent mandrel for the outer curve - I wired on some red glass bicones from Dubai's amazing Chinese emporium Dragon Mart to suggest the body of the parrot and made a pair of dangles using similar blue bicones and a little hint of yellow via a couple of seed beads. Et voila:

 Now I've cracked the shape I think I'll make a few more in other colours for your truely using sterling silver wire! About 8-10 cm of 0.8mm wire is required for each earring plus a headpin for each dangle and another couple of similar lengths of thinner (0.5mm) wire to attach the red beads. The latter depends on the size of the beads used. If you are doing this yourself don't forget to file the wire ends so they don't tear your ears when inserting.

Seasonal Challenge

This months MJ Challenge is to produce a piece of jewellery based around the main theme of Christmas, or one of the other themes or projects in Issue 32 of the magazine. So either a unique creation, or a piece based on one of the featured projects could be entered.

I decide to mix and match basing my entry on the cross-weave technique project (MJ page 69) but using Christmassy shiney red glass beads and a rhodium plated flower pendant that looks a little like a poinsettia. By using slightly smaller beads than those originally specified the result is a open lacey collar. The interspersed seed beads are silver foil lined clear glass which just add to the sparkle. All that's needed now is an outfit to wear it with over the Christmas season!

If you'd like to enter the challenge yourself then click here for more details. It closes on November 30th, overseas entries welcome.