7th Do Over Challenge

I was delighted to be able to participate in Jeannie Dukic's 7th Do Over Challenge. This is my second time being able to play with an old piece of her jewelry. Jeannie states the challenge as this:  "I will send you an old, tried, boring piece of my jewelry for free and you will repurpose into something beautiful and amazing."  All we pay for is the shipping and handling.You must use at least 50% of the original piece in the new creation.

Without further ado, here is the piece that I was sent.

Butterfly by Jeannie Dukic

I love the vibrant colors and how colored the butterfly, but was unsure as how to proceed. Finally, I took a deep breath and dissected the piece and found different lengths of chain and beautiful, colorful crystals. Then the search was on for a focal and a design. Nothing seemed to work.  At all. Couldn't find anything that matched the colors properly. And then- voila! Hidden away in a drawer I found a painted shell pendant and when I put the crystals next to it, I heard music! ( Okay, not really, but I was delighted) I kept the design fairly simple so that those gorgeous colors would pop.

After playing around with some different variations, the last thing to figure out was how to attach the pendant to the chain. I was stumped. Then came Cindy Wimmer's The Missing Link to the rescue. While this link wasn't intended to be used as a bail, it added something different to the piece and I love it! I named the piece Hanami, which is the Japanese cherry blossom festival, and what this reminds me of.

 

 

Hanami

 

 

Here's a closer view of the Lightbulb link I used for the bail

And then, because there were some left over crystals, I used some of the chain to make a pair of earrings, so here's a picture of the whole set.

Hanami set

Thanks, Jeannie, for a chance to be part of this. This set is staying with me and will be worn Easter morning.

Stop on by the other participants and see how they transformed Jeannie's jewelry. Here's wishing you a wonderful Easter filled with the joy of Christ's resurrection and sprinkled with splashes and dashes of His amazing joy and grace!

Christie

Jeannie K Dukic
Dagi
Judy Campbell
Veralynne Malone
Christine Murrow      (You're here)
Shai Williams
Lola Surwillo
Christina Hickman
Katrina Taylor
Becky Pancake
Roxanne Mendoza
Charlene Jacka
Inge von Roos
Mary Govaars
Penny Houghton
Beti Horvath
Ginger Davis-Allman
Molly Alexander
Linda Britt

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!