Oldies but Goodies - Aventurine

I'm a few days late for this new Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge, so without much ado I'll give you the collage for today's topic - aventurine, a translucent quartz with tiny inclusions that give it a shimmering look. Its most common color is green as you can in fact see in all of the entries, but it can have other colors as well, like blue, red, orange or yellow.

1 and 5 MC Stoneworks

2 and 4 and 7 Cat's Wire

3 and 6 RioRita

Oldies but Goodies - Carnelian

"Although now the more common term, "carnelian" is a 16th-century corruption of the 14th-century word "cornelian" (and its associated orthographies corneline and cornalyn). Cornelian, cognate with similar words in several Romance languages, comes from the Mediaeval Latin corneolus, itself derived from the Latin word cornum, the cornel cherry whose translucent red fruits resemble the stone. The Oxford English Dictionary calls "carnelian" a perversion of "cornelian", by subsequent analogy with the Latin word caro, carnis, flesh."
Huh. Thank you, Wikipedia, I have never read the word cornelian before. You never stop learning, do you?
What I do know, however, is that the warm orange-red of carnelian reminds of so many things. A warm fire, fall leaves, sunsets ... what do you associate with carnelian?

At any rate this is what the latest Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge is about, the warm colors of carnelian (and other stones from the entries, but honestly, would you have noticed? ;-)).

1 and 6 Jewelry Art by Dawn

2 and 7 RioRita

3 and 4 MC Stoneworks

5 and 8 Cat's Wire

Oldies but Goodies - Edgy/Steampunk

Why two topics today, you ask? It's easy, yours truly doesn't do steampunk and our challenge mistress graciously added edgy, so I could play, too.
I think it makes for a fabulous mix of items in our Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge today, don't you?
We have it all, gears, eyes, an octopus, spikes, dangles, pendants, earrings, a great hat, something for everyone!

1 and 8 Cat's Wire
2 and 5 Jewelry Art by Dawn
3 and 9 MC Stoneworks
4 and 7 RioRita
6 The Crafty Chimp

Oldies but Goodies - Oval

I don't have a story for you today, but a question. What is your favorite shape in jewelry? Do you prefer it rounded or rather with angles and points?
When I looked through my cab stash and thought about what appealed to me over the years, I found that I have always been very drawn to oval cabs. I'm not sure if that has to do with my jewelry making beginnings when an oval cab seemed to be the best choice for wire crochet bezels or if this is in fact my favorite shape. I'll let you know if I ever find out ;-)
Oval was the topic for the new Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge, so here's this week's collage for you. Maybe there's a topic you'd like to see sometime? Let me know!

1 and 8 MC Stoneworks
2 and 6 RioRita
3 and 5 Cat's Wire
4 and 7 Jewelry Art by Dawn

Art Elements Design Challenge and Blog Hop - Faerie

Will I ever learn? Don't even bother, I'll tell you. The answer is NO, NEIN, NON, NEE, NEJ (I could keep going, but you get the idea).
The worst thing about it is that I had a plan for the Art Elements Design Challenge and Blog Hop for which Caroline gave us the topic "Faerie" - which should have given me hundreds of ideas -, not at the beginning of the month, but last weekend. It came sudden and I didn't jump on it right away. Because I never do. Because I have to roll it around in my head first and let it grow on me.
That's how my brain works. It takes a very basic plan or vague idea and then it grabs bits and pieces out of the air and adds them to it or discards things again. Imagine a manikin. You put a basic dress on it and then you start adding a scarf, a belt, gloves, you don't like the scarf and take it off again, then the belt, then you add a shawl, maybe take the gloves off and add a bracelet instead - only my brain uses colors and shapes.
That sounds creative, doesn't it? Instead it's mostly chaos that finally spits out something, and if I'm lucky, it's something good - if not, it ends up behind the summer house like Mr Mo's poor plasticine wife (see "Mary Poppins in the Park", a book that I love very much), well, actually my infamous WIP drawers.

Unfortunately life got in the way over the last week. Work, a crafts class, and then I got sick which sucked up the last bit of motivation. Since Wednesday I have been thinking about opting out of the challenge, I even started writing the email once.
Instead I pulled myself together yesterday and ended up with a variation of my idea because, let's be honest, this was bound to go wrong at some point or at least stray from the original plan which had been a small fairy that I wanted to put on ... no, I'll keep that one to myself, it may still be happening, who knows.

Small, yes, as small as I wanted my fairy to be, no. The proportions had been slightly off, enough so to make me uncomfortable about it when I was looking at her, so I needed to add to the arms and legs which meant I needed to add to the head and body.
I don't know yet if she's a WIP. Maybe she needs some wings after all although I don't think so at the moment. After all she could ride the ladybug, he may look a little small for her, but he's tough through and through (and reminds of the time when I dabbled in polymer clay). Or she could take the "Exotic Butterfly Airline" (I made that strange looking butterfly after I won that box of Twin Beads and ran out of ideas for them) ? ;-) 

 

Now let's see once again how much more organized our other blog hoppers were! :-D

Guests
 
Alison -  Alysen - Cat (aka me) - Divya - Hope - Kathy - Sarah - Tammy - Vic

AE Team Members
 
Caroline - Cathy -  Claire - Jen - Jenny - Laney - Marsha - Niky

Oldies but Goodies - Copper again

I'll keep it short today for several reasons, instead I want to ask you to go this post where I talked about copper the first time.
Of course I have new items in the collage that I made with entries for the Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge today.
Maybe you'd also like to tell us if you prefer copper or other metals yourself and what you like about them or not!

1 and 8 Jewelry Art by Dawn
2 and 4 MC Stoneworks
3 and 7 RioRita
5 and 9 Cat's Wire
6 and 10 The Crafty Chimp

Oldies but Goodies - Pumpkins

Before the last family dinner my sister called and asked me if I'd like some pumpkin soup for a starter. What kind of question is that?? I love pumpkin soup! And I hate cutting pumpkin just for myself!! I really do, you know, so I would never turn down an offer like that.
Yup, pumpkin season is upon us (and pumpkin spice season ;-) although that is not such a big thing here in Germany, so the squabbling between fans and people who hate it leaves me unfazed), so that will be the topic for today's Jewelry Artisans Community Oldies but Goodies Challenge, too.
Not everyone makes actual pumpkin jewelry, though, so pumpkin colors were allowed as well.

1 and 10 Jewelry Art by Dawn
2 and 8 The Crafty Chimp
3 and 5 MC Stoneworks
4 and 6 Cat's Wire
7 and 9 RioRita