Saturday, October 20, 2012

Jeannie Dukic's Do-Over Jewelry Challenge

It's time to reveal what I received from Jeannie (items from when she was newer to jewelry design and creation), and what I made from the pieces sent to me. This was a great swap...Jeannie is a delight to work with...welcoming and encouraging. I hope she does this again, although I suspect she may be running out of "old" stuff!

Here's what Jeannie sent to me:

A simple strand of lovely Czech fire-polished AB faceted crystal beads, in an icy sage green color, which I love.  Since I'm very, very fond of the warmer, darker antiqued copper and bronze findings, I decided to switch out the silver for my current favorites.  I took apart the strand of beads and the earrings, and started playing with wire and different beads and findings.  Here's my first creation:
The necklace is about 19 inches long, before the pendant.  And a closer look at the pendant detail:

I've been admiring the multi-strand bracelets I see everywhere, but have never actually made one myself.  After educating myself with a You-tube tutorial, this is what I made:
Recently, I ordered some curved tube beads from Fire Mountain Gems, and they were offering cheap multi-strand necklaces (by Blue Moon Beads) for only $1.00 each.  On a whim, I ordered several of these, in various colors.  The sagey green seed bead strand and yellow bead links are from the green necklace I received.  I'm all about parting out stuff I wouldn't ordinarily use, and making it work as part of something else I like the looks of...and here you see that I ended up with a triple-strand bracelet.

My favorite things to make are earrings.  I wear them all the time, they are relatively easy to make, and they sell like hotcakes.  Here are some of the earrings I made with Jeannie's beads:
Okay, this picture will not rotate.  It is correct in Picasa (oh, how I struggle with Picasa), but this is how it loads here.  Annoying.
Honestly, I need to read the manual that came with my digital camera.  Most of my failings are due to photography skills, or my lack of photography skills.  This is definitely on my to-do list.  Promise.

I was amazed at how much fun I had making new stuff from the beads donated by Jeannie.  I have several of them left, too...and they will not go to waste.  I made another pair of earrings also, using the crystals and some antiqued copper skeleton leaf charms, which are long and dangly.  However, although I did upload my photos, they are not to be found in Picasa.  I'm so confused...

So Jeannie, thanks a million for sharing some of your personal beads with us, and if you ever want to do this again, I'm definitely on board!  It's been a total pleasure.  Please join us by hopping from blog to blog to admire what Jeannie's fans have made:

Miranda Ackerley http://mirandack.com/
Donetta Farrington http://simplygorgeous-donetta.blogspot.com/ (You are here!)

15 comments:

  1. Gorgeous color on those beads she sent you - really! The focal on your necklace - especially the chandilier-style bead - fits perfectly with the overall theme. And your multi-strand bracelet looks fabulous - kudos to you for venturing into new territory! Love the earrings! Your post had me giggling - I have such troubles with blogger - I place a picture, preview the blog and the picture is located somewhere else in my post! Ugh!

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  2. Thank you, you're a "delight" as well. I still remember your email you sent right after this challenge got underway.

    "running out of old stuff," Sadly no, and when I do, the challenge will change and I'll ask the participants to Do Over their own pieces. Ok, why am I here? Oh right.

    I love the swirly wire wrap on the beads and adding the chain and filigree really gave this matronly looking necklace new life. The earrings are simply gorgeous. Thank you so much for participating and I hope you join me for the 5th Do Over Challenge.

    You did a Excellent job on the multi-strand bracelet for it being you first.

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  3. Awesome job! I love that you found more to do over in the process, how perfect. I love when people take the wire across the bead, it's so pretty, I wish I had better wire skills. That's on my list. I found blogging - the actual process of putting together the post - a lot more enjoyable when I started using Live Writer. It was already on my PC , and it works great, so much easier to use, then just over to blogger to publish.

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  4. It was a fun challenge wasn't it? I love your earring designs! Czech beads are some of my favorites.

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  5. Live Writer...I've never heard of it. Must research; this process is killing me. Pictures so huge, with all the sidebar stuff overlaying the pictures (maybe the opposite, since the sidebar stuff was there first)...and it all looks perfect until I click "publish post"! Embarrassing, really. Thank you soooo much for the tip!

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  6. I have been using Microsoft Office/Powerpoint to upload my pics. It's all trial and error though. I love what you did with those green beads-my favorite color!

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  7. Beautiful set. Love the earrings and that focal is delicious!

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  8. I use Image Event to load my pics. I've used it for years when I did ebay and didn't want to pay for the extra pictures in ebay listings. But Image Event is $24.95 a year.

    I just love those beads Jeannie sent you and the things you created with them!

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  9. Really nice pieces. I love Picassa...one trick is to EXPORT the pic after you have edited them. THis saves a copy of the pic as edited. then upload those.

    Http://MirandAck.com

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  10. Beautiful pieces, I especially love the last earrings, they are like your blog name -- simply gorgeous!! I get your frustrations with blogger, I switched to Wordpress which is much easier to use (for me anyhow).

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  11. Love the original beads and, more important, I love what you made with them! All your pieces are truly nice - love the necklace...

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  12. Donetta, you did a FABULOUS job!!! I love what you created from such a simple strand of beads! Magnificent! And I LOVE love LOOOOOVE the wire wrapping you did on those beads!!! Just gorgeous!!!

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  13. Well you did a great job, what a sweet necklace, bracelet and earrings!

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  14. I love all of your creations but the earrings are "da bomb". Have you tried pic monkey? Picasa & I did not do well at all.

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  15. I'm so impressed with all the pieces you have created with the one simple strand of beads. The earrings with the flower sitting on top are my favorite.

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Thank you so much for commenting!