Creative Chaos: October 2013

I think you all know that autumn is my favourite season, and that my all time favourite holiday is Halloween. This year I haven't really been in the blogging or blog hop mood... I've done a couple challenges, but nothing compared to my usual, and this has carried straight through into my favourite season and holiday. Because I haven't been able to enjoy this time of year much so far, I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for Diana's Halloween blog hop. Joining this hop accomplished three goals for me.

#1 - Get the creative juices flowing and participate.

#2 - Celebrate my favourite holiday.

#3 - Use some of my art beads!!

Yes, that's right.. one of the rules for this hop was that our pieces had to contain an art bead :) This meant I had to break open my hoard and actually *gasp* use some!

I had two pieces designed and started ages ago... but got stalled on the energy and will power to finish them. This turned out, despite my pre-planning, to be another last minute muse-fest :) Saturday night I finally set aside the pieces I'd been stuck on and pulled out a different art bead to feature.. and wham... my muse and I connected and we were off :) Since then I have managed to finish four pieces... including the two I'd stalled on :)

First up we have a fun piece made with a purple coated wire recycled from a pair of earphones ( yes, the kind you listen to music with ;) ). I knotted in some green catseye beads, and finished it with a piece of recycled silk. The focal is a fun polymer clay tentacle pendant made by Marlene Cupo of 'Amazing Designs'

Next I grabbed a different box, and pulled out anther artbead from a different artist. This one became a simple necklace of 8mm black agate & dalmation jasper rounds, combined with some antiqued copper spacers and bead caps. the smaller rounds towards the back are glass. The focal is a fabulous bat from Marsha Neal Studios

Once I had these two done, I went back to the two original pieces I'd been struggling to finish. I ended up changing the designs on both in order to convince my muse to lend a hand and get them finished.

Both designs changed a fair bit. What was originally going to be several strands twisted with the focal hanging beneath, and the silk around the neck... became this. Shell chips & czech glass, recycled silk, chain & of course, a skull key pendant from MarlasMud.

And lastly, a three tier, off center, hand-made beaded chain design shifted to a centered two tier design. This is a mix of handmade beaded chain with both blacked steel & raw copper, featuring czech glass in peach & aqua, with some magnesite spacers. The lampwork beads are from Gail of Oregon Handmade, and the skull focal of from MarlasMud :)

Sorry for the bad lighting ... last minute muses sessions result in poor lighting... It's a fact of life for those of us with a light tent.

I have a few other Halloween pieces on my table that don't contain artbeads that I might show you yet this week, along with another artbead featured piece or two. In the mean time, check out some of the other halloween creations from my fellow hoppers :)

Thank you for hosting a great hop, Diana :)

Hop List

~ ~ ~

Diana Ptaszynski http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com

Staci Smith http://www.stacilouiseoriginals.com/

Kathleen Breeding http://99bobotw.blogspot.com

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

Dianne Miller http://www.artbydianne.blogspot.com

Lisa Liddy http://www.lisaliddy.wordpress.com

Toltec Jewels http://www.JewelSchoolFriends.com

Linda Landig http://www.LindasBeadBlog.com

Laura Medeiros http://Www.zoeowyn.blogspot.com