Freebie Friday #8

Welcome to another FF :)

To the new followers and readers, the first Friday of every month is Freebie Friday - which means you'll discover a giveaway of some sort that will run until the last Wednesday of the month.

Last FF I put together a bead mix, the one before that I did some handmade chain. For August, I was originally thinking of doing either some jewelry or some handmade components, but the month got away from me >.< too much work, too little time *sigh* Shame on me for all that procrastinating I tend to do >.<  The other day when I realized it was time to post the new FF and I didn't have anything set aside for it, I'd thought of ransacking my new goodies and maybe offering up a pendant and a few coordinating beads...  then inspiration struck.

While hanging out in the Bead Soup Cafe, someone posted the Pantone Fall color chart.

( picture via artbeads.com )

Hmm.... I wonder if I have enough of those colors to put together into a Pantone Fall soup?

hmm... yup :) Looks like. 

 So there you go... The winner  for August will get a nice yummy Fall Pantone Soup :) The beads are a mix of everything... seriously. That big yellow leaf is made of deer antler,  the orange nuggets are dyed magnesite, the little brown ones are wood... the rest are shell, porcelain, clay, Czech glass, glass, and acrylic.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

  For those who are unable to use the Blogger 'Follow' feature, Subscribers &  Email followers count as well. Just put which way you follow in your entry :)

I gotta run , get some more work done on my challenge piece for tomorrows reveal and hop, then while that's drying, go buy some coffee while it's on sale, then come back and finished & photograph my pieces :) Totally last minute run-a-round, as always :)

~ Skye

Gratuitous Bead Porn....

I figured it was long past time to show some of the goodies I've received over the last few months.  

We'll go back and start with the little bead swap Lori Anderson organized over at the Bead Soup Cafe  waaaay back in March . Lori herself was my partner and these are the goodies she sent my way.

Bead Swap goodies from Lori

Aren't those fabulous? I took three close ups and remember deleting one of them... and yet now I only have one close up O.o I think I just saved the one because it shows the toggle clasps, the stone eggs and the 'hope' charm...

I just love those stone eggs.. and the steampunky toggles... I just get too many ideas for them and then freeze up because..I have too many ideas >.< lol

So next we just ahead to May to another Bead Soup Cafe swap arranged by the lovely Lori... the Pantone Spring Color Bead Swap.

Here are the beauties my partner Solange Collin , of Ahowin Handcrafted Jewelry, ( and her etsy ) sent me from France.

Pantone Spring Color Bead Swap

Aren't all of those so yummy? Again, soooo many ideas .. TOO many ideas >.< lol I've finally decided I NEED to use some of those trade beads in the one piece I've been working on. I just HAVE to.  The sodalite chips and the turquoise chips are vying for a place in another project, but as it stands now I don;t have enough of either for the full thing... so unless I alter the design enough to make it work... or my one friend who's selling off all her beads has chips in the same ultra small size that I can nab... I may see if Solange can  hook me up with some more. I can either pay her outright for the cost of the beads plus shipping, or we can work out a trade or something :) 

 Had enough photos? I have more... could split them into multiple beadporn posts...

 .. hmm... nah, I can squeeze a few more in here yet... ;)

Let me see.... what ones to share...  The 'Beads for Bloggers' from Tanya of Fusionmuse I'm saving until I get the info on the beads themselves.... and Keith's lampwork beauties are being saved for another post as well....( Keith is the ubber talented newbie glass worker boyfriend of Lauren Potts of Lp's Jewelry)

Ah... here's a few more I can share in this post :)

Last month over at Creative Bead Chat, Marla James of MarlasMud posted a comment about her friend Karen's shop and the new fiberwire she was selling. Karen's daughter makes it and has some gorgeous color combos done and for sale at Starry Road Studio , and Marla asked if anyone would like to try it.  Since I was the first to reply, I got to try it :)  Marla bought me some!

Starry Road Studio goodies

This is the 'Ooolala'... one that looks to be sold out at the moment. The  beads are a gift from Karen :) I have other beads from her that I had definite plans for back when I bought them... and yet still have not used them >.<  I started a couple things with the wire and then changed my mind almost immediately lol

Next we come all the way up just a couple weeks ago... I entered a little giveaway over at one of my favorite blogs, Scorched Earth and received an email from Petra informing me that I'd won one of the selections... but the one I'd named was already taken... then she gave me the photos of the other choices, including some beady goodness that hadn't been there before. One of them I liked even better then my original choice.

So I got this large heavy duty blue plastic mailer all wrapped up into a tiny little bundle with massive amounts of tape holding it together ... lol  and when I opened it I found this. A little black organza bag ( LOVE that!) jammed full of little tiny tissue wrapped  hand made clay goodies, and a little blue bag full of gemstone rounds :) I actually didn;t take a close up picture of the gemstones...I got too carried away with all of Petra's handmade treasures!

Love!  

My mom loves the nest best of all, and you have to admit, it is pretty damned cute :)

I rather like the feathers.. and the shells... oh and those little 'mangers' :) totally not ending up as anything religious coming from me though lol ;)

Well that's it I think. All the ones I'm going to share in a multi post, anyhow :)

The solo features are coming up soon though... and I think tomorrow I might do a MacroMonday and share some of my non-bead photos :)

I'll leave you with one more photo though... I bought these babies at 'The Hottest Yard Sale Under The Sun' ... a local deal that runs on day and they block off a huge chunk of the main street for. It's not a 'yardsale' anymore though...most of the stuff out for sale now are over stock or left over seasonal from the various stores along the way, along with street performers and various fundraising tents.  Over at the city hall, there's a nice shady, cobblestone section between city hall and a block of stores known as 'Artists Alley' where every Saturday in the summer various artists set up their work to sell. There's a sketch artist there that I've bought several pieces form, as have my mother and brother. I don't have any of my own though.. the ones I bought were all for other people >.<   Any how, no I didn't buy a sketch from him... this post is about beadporn.. why would I toss other stuff in here?  No no no no.

I bought THESE,

No clue what I'll do with them. I still haven't used my other glass work like this...I included on in the beadsoup I sent Shaiha back in the BSBP4, and while I HAD plans for the others.... haven't done them yet  >.< lol

Think it's time for me to pull out that muffin pan and fill 'er with these 'projects' so I can see them sitting there waiting for me.

That's it for today :) I hope you enjoyed drooling and didn't short out your keyboards ;)

~ Skye

Creative Chaos Challenge Reveal!

Okay :) We're here!

A while back I made up four kits of various objects that I offered up for grabs to three of you. It was the first step for the first Creative Chaos Design Challenge :)

And here we are... reveal day :)

Joining me in this little jaunt outside the normal are Shaiha of Shaiha's Ramblings , Alicia of All The Pretty Things , and Rochelle of A Creative Chelle .

A refresher of what the kits contained ;

 

The month kind of got away from me. I had some designs started, then things kept getting in the way and they got shoved aside. Then, when I pulled them back, I ended up discovering I'd forgotten my original idea... misplaced the design I had sketched out... and then when I got past that, I found mistake that had to be fixed >.<

My challenge was indeed challenging ... lol Or rather 'challenged' >.<

I didn't use all of my ingredients, but I ended up being able to use a bit of everything except the white shell pieces. I'm not loving some of them, and some need to be taken apart and have some things fixed.. in one case for no real reason, just that I noticed something that is now driving me nuts just knowing it's there >.< lol

So without further ado... here are my designs for the challenge.

The large blue shell pieces were combined with some fake pearls to make a pair of earrings.

 The washers were linked together to make a pair of earrings, and a bracelet. with a large lobster clasp to make it adjustable.

 Necklace with buried 'treasure'

This is the bottle, and the idea I had for the Skull blog hop a few weeks ago that the weather messed up on me. ( the red suede cord is only loose there due to the way the chain is laying... when worn, it's pulled even with the chain) .

 Here's a close up so you can see the skull partially buried in the sand. The sand is sealed 'mostly' in place so it doesn't shift around. There are a couple long rice pearls in there too to look like bones, but they didn't want to show up in the photos.

  This bugger was the first design.. the pendant was a lucky find after I had picked out the colors and started the chain.. it was in a mixed bag of beads and buttons I picked up for a buck and matched  nicely.. so I added it. This is the two creamy buttons, one of which is attached to the clasp.. that I made :D

It's also definitely getting redone.. again. I think I'll take the pendant off and shift the buttons around a bit...

  

See...I made that twisted wire hook and eye all by myself :) It was SUCH a pain in the ass to do, to, let me tell you >.<

 

 This is just a quick little choker that I need to add some weight into the front of... I think maybe a few little blue crystals or something....  either that or turn it into a wrap bracelet...

  ....and here is the last quick little bracelet... that I actually really like..I'm wearing it right now :)

 I took one of the white buttons and ran the cord through two of the holes, then looped it around and poked both ends up through the other two holes...

 

You pull the cords to loosen it enough to slip it on, then pull the two ends to tighten it again, then just tuck and wrap the ends. It is REALLY comfy... and simple.. and I like it :)

And that's it.  The last two were quickies I did just to use up some more of my stuff, and I took all of the photos this afternoon... thus the crappy lighting, sorry >.<

I can't wait to see what these same items were turned into by the others :)

Here are the link to the other participants :) Be sure to stop in and see what they made :)

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

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

Rochelle - http://acreativechelle.blogspot.ca/

And for those interested, the kits for the second Creative Chaos Design Challenge are all ready to go :) I'll be posting signs up some time this week :)  And July 6th is the new F.F. giveaway post for those wondering why it hasn't gone up yet ... it's the first Friday of the month ;)

~ Skye

Creative Chaos Challenge Preview

Alrighty... so you're probably all wondering what was in the first Chaos challenge kit ? I know Kashmira  is... she's been hounding me to share pictures ..I've been slacking to torment her ;)

Now that the other three participants have received their kits, I guess I can show you what we'll be working with :) 

So here's the pile o' goodies....

What?

 Not a good enough picture?  Shall I break it down for you?

*sigh* oh alright... lol

There are two of these buttons...I only took a picture of one because as soon as I hear Shay got her kit, I dumped out mine and started sketching... and I already have these two part way into a piece ;)  This is the one little left over spare I had in the same color and size.

 One little glass jar with a cork :)  The ones in the kits were filled with a mix of seed beads... they're not technically a part of the kit...I just used them to fill the bottles to help make them more durable for shipping ;) Plus I figured little beads were a nicer filler than cotton balls ;)

One white nylon butterfly ....on-a-steeek ;)  (... any one who gets that joke is awesome :) )

A piece of dark blue faux suede, and a piece of baby blue and white 'feathered' ribbon :)

And assortment of different sizes of star washers, both interior and exterior.

Some shells. Now these actually WERE jewelry... but not very attractive jewelry lol no I didn't take a before picture... be glad of that ;)  I included these because the blue shells are larger than most of what you see used, and the white had acquired rust marks around the hole. I did try to gently remove the rust, but.. no go.  Perhaps the others will have better luck, or will just find a way to work around it... or with it ;)

And lastly, two more slightly smaller buttons :)



They each also received a little gift of thanks for participating :)

The rules are simple.. they have to use some of these items to create jewelry... ( the more of it they use, the happier and more impressed I'll be ;) ) They don't have to use it 'as is'; they can alter any or all of the items in any way they want. They create, they photograph and they share on June 30th. I think I'll have them use at least a third of that pile. 

I'll have a couple little prizes as well. One will be for the one you all vote for as your fave piece , and the second prize(s) for any of them that manage to use ALL of the kit. 

 

So make sure to come back on Saturday June 30th and check out the four blogs ( nice small hop ;) ). I'll have something set up to collect your votes on your favorite piece... and perhaps I'll have a little surprise drawing for those who place a vote or leave a comment on the blogs ;)

Yes, there will be a second Chaos Challenge kit. I'm thinking of having the sign ups either in June or July, and the hop would be August or September... I haven't decided yet ;)