The winner is….. Martha Reese!!!! Congratulations Martha! You’ve won the bracelet pictured below!
Thank you to all who entered the giveaway. I appreciate each person who visits my blog and hope you will continue to do so. Hugs!
Linda Landig Jewelry
This month’s Component Of The Month was made by Art Jewelry Elements (AJE) team member Niky Sayers. Niky, who is from London, England, used 2 old farthing coins to make a very cool bead. I didn’t know how much a farthing was worth or when it had been in use, so I looked it up. A farthing was worth a quarter of an old penny and there were also half farthings and 3 quarter farthings. They were taken out of circulation in 1961.
I knew that I wanted to make a multi-strand bracelet with my farthing bead. I thought this raku bead, from Odd Designs, would add some color while also tying in with the coppery color of the coin. At that point I decided to go for blue and coppery brown in the whole bracelet, along with some smaller spots accent colors.
The blue lampwork glass bead (above, right) by Jen Cameron of Glass Addictions was perfect for my third focal bead.
Each of the three strands of smaller beads has a mix of blue and brown glass beads, with some accent colors and some small copper heshe.. Although each strand is different, they all have some blue glass seed beads with a copper sheen and some of the copper heshe. These common components help to tie the overall design together. 
I finished the bracelet with a handmade ceramic button by Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio.
Thank you Niky for sharing your awesome metalsmithing skills with us in the form of this uber-cool bead! In addition to the AJE team members, 3 lucky guest artists also received farthing beads. My Farthing Bracelet is available in the bracelet section of my shop.
Check out the blogs listed below to see what everyone else made with their farthings.
I am always delighted to read your comments! Hope to hear from you.!
This month’s components are beautiful beaded beads by Sue Kennedy of Sue Beads. I love her beaded beads and her color choices!
Sue’s beaded beads are an obvious choice for earrings, but this time I decided to switch it up a bit and make a bracelet.
I paired Sue’s bead with a lampwork bead by my friends at Beads and Botanicals. and a pretty matte bead with light blue stripes.
I enjoy making bracelets that go from one strand to multi-strands and that was my approach here. When I started my Facebook Destash Group several weeks ago, I realized that I’d been neglecting my gemstone collection, so I chose some amethysts and pearls for the for the first two strands.
Although I rarely use Swarovski crystals any more, they were exactly what this bracelet called for in the third strand.
While I like each strand to be different, I try to tie them all together with some repeating components, in this case, I have light purple seed beads and small, blue cubes in every strand.
At this point, I knew that my usual brass or copper clasps were not going to work at all for this bracelet. Instead I selected a beautiful, hammer textured sterling silver toggle clasp. Ooo, so lovely!
When I was a kid, I had a little garden plot where I grew purple irises. They made me happy and so does this “Iris Bracelet“.
Check out my new life-sized wrist model! This is her début! Does she help you picture how the bracelet would look on you? I hope so.
The Iris Bracelet is available on my website.
The Component of the Month Challenge is a blog hop. Enjoy all the eye candy by visiting the links below.
Autumn is my favorite time of the year. I was even born on the first day of autumn! I put together some wonderful autumn inspiration boards on the Art Jewelry Elements blog today. You might want to check them out.
I’m going to be doing an online trunk show on October 18th and 19th. I’ll be posting more about that soon. But you should know that I’m busy making some cool autumn themed items to offer on trunk show. In the meantime, I’ll highlight some of the fall items that are already in my shop.
These earrings combine the most beautiful, flawless smoky quartz and faceted carnelian with gorgeous lampwork glass leaves from Havana Beads. Love these!
Since I love autumn colors so much, I have a lot of jewelry in those wonderful oranges, golds, reds and browns. When you click on the photo, it will take you to the listing in my shop.
Here are a couple of flower pendants in autumn colors, for you jewelry designers out there. We have fall dahlias blooming in this color in our front yard right now.
I hope you are enjoying sunny, golden autumn days. Go outside and play in the leaves!
I am always delighted to read your comments! Hope to hear from you.
Toltec Jewels is hosting a blog hop today, featuring Chicklet Beads from Susan Kennedy of SueBeads. I have designed with Sue’s Chicklet beads before and I really love them, so I was excited to have the opportunity to use these beads again.
Here’s a bracelet I designed with Sue’s Chicklet beads, in May 2014.
Cornflower Bracelet
For today’s blog hop, I received a plum purple colored Chicklet bead. I like the way these tab beads lay flat in a bracelet design, so I combined my Chicklet bead with other artisan beads and came up with this “Plum Delight” bracelet.
Plum Delight Bracelet
I combined Sue’s Chicklet bead, with a lentil shaped bead from Beads & Botanicals and a ceramic bead from White Clover Kiln.
Plum Delight Bracelet
Additional accents include tip-drilled pearls, purple Czech glass bird beads, fire polish beads and ovals of Chinese Charoite.
Plum Delight Bracelet
Thank you Toltec Jewels for hosting this wonderful blog hop! And thank you Sue Beads for your lovely lampwork beads!
Plum Delight Bracelet
Now check out all the other jewelry designers who created awesome designs with Sue’s Chicklet Beads!
Once a month Art Jewelry Elements (AJE) hosts a giveaway and jewelry reveal. May’s giveaway component was made by Susan Kennedy of Sue Beads. Members of the Art Jewelry Elements team, plus a few lucky guest artists were given a set of these beautiful lampwork glass flower beads that Sue made for us. I was given the blue set on the far right.
Beautiful flower tab beads from Sue Beads.
First I must say that I really love these beads. You know me – I ❤ flowers, plus I like the unusual shape. The fact that this shape lays flat on the wrist, makes them especially well suited to bracelet designs. I do have an earring design in mind too, but that will have to wait till another time.
Cornflower Bracelet
I used one of Lesley Watt’s gorgeous brass bracelet bars as the focal of my bracelet. Sue’s beads frame it perfectly. I love these three together. I think they were made for each other! I furthered the floral theme with two Czech glass flower beads. The rest of the bracelet is fire polished beads and little glass seed beads, finished with a decorative antiqued brass toggle clasp.
Cornflower Bracelet
It is a simple design, but quite eye-catching and elegant. I can personally attest to the eye-catching part. I wore it today and the lady at the grocery store asked me about it and wanted not just one of my business cards, but several to share with the other women who work there!
Cornflower Bracelet
I named this bracelet after the beautiful blue Cornflower (aka Bachelor Button). When you look at the photo below, you’ll see what a perfect match this name is.
Cornflower
Want to see more gorgeous jewelry with Susan’s lampwork glass beads? – Here are all the links. Have fun blog hopping!
Guests
AJE Members
Linda Landig – You are here.
I am always delighted to read your comments! Hope to hear from you.
April’s Art Jewelry Elements (AJE) giveaway was hosted by the multi-talented Lesley Watt of Thea Elements. Members of the AJE team, plus a few lucky guest artists, were given one of these delightful, ceramic button clasps that Lesley made for us.
Button Clasps from THEA Elements
Here’s the bracelet I made with the clasp that I received.
Happy Day Bracelet
I combined Lesley’s clasp with an enameled bead in a matching color, a yellow-peach colored ceramic cube from Suburban Girl and a faceted polymer clay bead from Second Surf. The back of the bracelet has 3 strands of glass cube beads, interspersed with purple Czech glass seed beads. I strung them all on denim blue Irish waxed linen and added a Czech glass flower dangle near the clasp.
Happy Day Bracelet
I called this the “Happy Day Bracelet” because I had the most delightful day when I made this bracelet. I began the day with my first session of a volunteer job tutoring a young man in basic reading skills. Our first session went much better than expected. I felt that old thrill that I always experienced as a teacher, when I could see that real learning was taking place. There’s nothing like it! After the tutoring session, I came home and made this bracelet. Then after dinner, I went to Marion Pollman’s studio for a ceramics lesson. We glazed my first batch of ceramic pendants and charms. I can’t even begin to express how happy I am that Marion is helping me to make my ceramic dreams come true! After all that goodness in one day, I was just certain that this had to be called the “Happy Day Bracelet“!
Happy Day Bracelet
Want to see more gorgeous jewelry with Lesley’s awesome button clasps? Here are all the links. Have fun!
Guest Designers:
I am always delighted to read your comments! Hope to hear from you.
Yes, you read that correctly: Super Bead Sunday! It all started when Shannon German, (Miss Fickle Media), jokingly posted, “Is there a special activity going on today?”, on Facebok. Heather Powers (Humble Beads) replied, “Super Bead Sunday? Can we declare that???” I chimed in with, “I’ll second that, Heather!”. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Heather quickly wrote up the following rules:
Then she and Marla James put together the following prizes: Prizes: a $48 gift certificate from Humblebeads and a collection of ceramic beads from
Marla’s Mud worth $60! And the crowd cheers for Heather and Marla!!!!
And so did Boeing.
There’s even some special beer for the occasion.
And last but not least, here is my “Team Spirit” bracelet!
Team Spirit Bracelet
Team Spirit Bracelet
Once a month Art Jewelry Elements (AJE) hosts a component giveaway and jewelry reveal. December’s component was made by the talented Rebekah Payne of Tree Wings Studio. Members of the Art Jewelry Elements team, plus a few lucky guest artists were given awesome polymer clay beads that Rebekah made for us. I love these. They are so unique and I especially like that the sides of the beads look like they’d been roughly formed on a potter’s wheel
Goodies from Tree Wings Studio
Rebekah and I share a favorite color: orange. I am especially drawn to burnt orange and the colors of autumn. Happily those are the colors of the bead she sent me, along with a sprinkling of white dots. Those whimsical dots resulted in the name I chose for this piece, the Spot On Bracelet!
Spot On Bracelet
The flower beads have a Picasso finish and were perfect with Rebekah’s focal bead. I like the way they add texture to the design.
Spot On Bracelet
Speaking of texture, the charcoal colored ceramic bead on the left and the green bead on the right are handmade by Mary Hubbard of White Clover Kiln. Mary does a great job with surface textures on her beads and I love the way she achieves layers of color with her glazes.
Spot On Bracelet
The large round bead to the right of the focal is an enameled bead that I won in a giveaway from Barbara Lewis of Painting with Fire. I’ve been experimenting with enamels a bit, but my beads don’t come out this nicely yet! Maybe that will be happening in 2014!
Want to see more gorgeous jewelry with Rebekah’s beads? Here are all the links. Have fun!
Guest Designers:
Stephanie – Confessions of a Bead Hoarder
Ann – Bead Love
Karin – Ginkgo et Coquelicot
Melissa – Bead Recipes
AJE Team:
Karen – Starry Road Studio
Diana – Suburban Girl Studio
Kristen – My Bead Journey
Lesley – The Gossiping Goddess
Jenny – Jenny Davies-Reazor
Linda – Linda’s Bead Blog & Meanderings
Melissa – Melissa Meman… Art, Life, Love
Susan – Sue Beads
Rebekah – Tree Wings Studio
Caroline – BlueberriBeads
I am always delighted to read your comments! Hope to hear from you.
Once a month Art Jewelry Elements (AJE) hosts a component giveaway and reveal. November’s components were made by the talented Kristen Stevens of Beadwork By KAS. Members of the Art Jewelry Elements team, plus a lucky guest artist were given gorgeous beaded beads that Kristen made for us. I received awesome green beaded beads, (3rd pair from the left).
Beaded beads by Kristen Stevens
I decided to take sort of a free form approach to designing with Kristen’s beads. I had no plan when I started, so I just started grabbing various beads that were on my work table and that I thought would look good with Kristen’s beaded beads. I supplemented those with other beads from my stash and moved them around until I had a pleasing arrangement.
Autumn Breeze Bracelet
Originally I want to finish the bracelet with a pretty coiled link that I learned from Cindy Wimmer’s book, The Missing Link, but the link ending up being too small to be on scale with this chunky bracelet. Instead I used a basic spiral hook and eye clasp, with a rustic patina.
Close up of Kristen’s Beaded Beads
In addition to Kristen’s beads, I included lampwork glass by AJE Team Leader, Jen Cameron, raku beads by XAZ Beads and handmade ceramic beads by White Clover Kiln and Slate Studio.
Autumn Breeze Bracelet
I was kind of stuck for a name for this bracelet, but I finally decided to call it Autumn Breeze, because I made it on a windy afternoon. I enjoyed making it with a playful spirit, rather than having any preconceived notions about how it would turn out. I quite like it. I hope you do too.
Want to see more gorgeous jewelry with Kristen’s beaded beads? Here are all the links. Have fun!
AJE Team
Jennifer Glass Addictions
Lesley Gossiping Goddess
Jenny Jenny Davies-Reazor
Caroline Blueberri Beads
Melissa Melissa Meman
Rebekah Tree Wing Studio
Sue SueBeads
Kristi Kristi Bowman Design
Diana Suburban Girl Studio
Linda Linda’s Bead Blog – You Are Here
I am always delighted to read your comments! Hope to hear from you.
Linda's Bead Blog & Meanderings 