6th Do Over Challenge

Some time ago I signed up for the 6th Do Over Challenge with Jeannie K. Ducik for the first time, and was delighted when I found out I would part of this. The guidelines were as follows: Each of the participants would receive a piece of jewelry that Jeannie made earlier in her career, and must use at least 50% of the Do Over piece in the new design.

Here's the necklace set that I was sent:

 All those little seed beads were a little overwhelming because I am not a seed beader.At All. So it was off to my favorite inspiration place, Pinterest. After searching through my boards and some new pins, I came across this:
                                               

I couldn't find the original site for this pin, because I would love to give credit to the designer. I love this design and the vibrant use of color. Isn't it beautiful? This became my jumping off point. I knew I wanted to use some original beads and recently discovered that Raina of Havana Beads didn't live all that far from me. I messaged her and was delighted to find that I could go meet her and see her gorgeous beads in person. Her studio is located in the colorful Fish House Art Center. Next time I'm definitely going to set aside more time to explore!
                                       

               


I had a lovely time talking to her and seeing not only her beads/focals/creations, but her workspace and some of the projects she was working on. Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of her beads by themselves but you'll see them in in the design below and in the blog entry tomorrow. After playing with this design several times, here is the final project.

African Leaf

Don't Raina's round ceramic beads pick up the color of the leaf focal nicely? I added a few wood and shell beads in with the seed beads on the right side and found some great horn beads that blended the colors in. I tried repeatedly to make the twist tighter on the one side, but with four strands of wire going through one crimp bead this is where it ended up. If you have any tips on how to keep strands tighter, I'm all ears!

Here's another look:

Thanks, Jeannie for letting me part of this very fun Do Over challenge. Now it's time to head on over and see what the other participants did with their jewelry!
Jeannie K Dukic 
 Penny Houghton
Susan Delaney
Becky Pancake
Therese Frank
Donetta Farrington
Molly Alexander
Mowse Doyle
Renetha Stanziano
Ginger Davis Allman
Kathy Richardson
Christie Murrow   (You're Here)
Veralynne Malone
Shai Williams
Beti Horvath
Linda Britt
Miranda Ackerley
Mischelle Andrade
Tracy Stillman
Charlene Bausinger
Deana Hager

Come back tomorrow to see what I made for the Autumn challenge- until then, may your day be filled with splashes and dashes of grace and joy. I'm off to try and finish my first 5K!