Thanks, HMB!

So, I won my category in the Trash to Treasure contest!!  My necklace was placed in the "Trashy Elegance" category, aka "I ain't no dang hippie!". :) 

Over 80 people entered some really, really gorgeous and creative pieces. I can't believe I was actually picked to win out of all those talented people!  It makes me think a few things:

1. Maybe I should enter some more contests.  You know, other than Happy Mango Beads.  :)

2. Maybe I'm going in the right direction for my life.  Is this the universe telling me that I have talent after all??

Trash to Treasure

It's time again for another Happy Mango Beads beading contest!  This time it's called Trash to Treasure and it's designed to make you reduce, reuse, recycle!  Categories include "natural" materials, recycled glass, paper, etc.  I simply went through my garage and found all the extra crap that has been lying around and waited for inspiration.  Here's what I found:

 And old, broken drill...

 a bunch of random stuff, including the cap to my old thermostat, a level, an old eraser, some hex nuts, various and sundry electronics pieces from when my hubby was extra geeky, a flashlight cup...

and my old kitchen faucet that had some FANtastic copper pipe and fittings with the kind of patina a jewelry maker could spend hours trying to reproduce.

I proceeded to cut "beads" from the copper pipe and take off every copper fitting and hex nut.  This stuff is fantastic. 

I was having a hard time coming up with jewelry inspiration for my new junk.  Originally I thought I would wire crochet it all, as that has become my absolute favorite thing to do recently.  But I thought I would challenge myself to do something different.

I have been coveting Lune Design's (Keirsten Giles) Ancient Roman Glass necklace (left) ever since HMB had a beading tutorial about it a few weeks ago. So, since imitation is the highest form of flattery, I thought I would use her beautiful necklace as inspiration for my piece. 







I used my lovely brass "beads" from my kitchen faucet, recycled paper beads from Bead for Life and recycled glass beads from Indonesia from HMB as the strands.  For the clusters on the left and right sides of the necklaces, I searched my junk box for round pieces and adorned them with other bits of trash and recycled/vintage stuff.

Here's what I came up with:

 I drilled through this Honeywell thermostat cover and added a piece of purple recycled glass, vintage yellow plastic flower (from vintage flowers I bought on etsy) and secured them with a little Swarovski head pin.  The eraser its laying on became a flower.

 Drill sprocket with small washers and hex nut adhered to it using E6000.

 Awesome naturally-patina'ed hex nut from my faucet with large recycled paper bead

Smaller hex nut from my faucet with itty bitty lightbulb. I love this little piece.

A little eraser that I carved into a flower.  The relief was obvious in low light, but in bright light it was kind of lost.  In the end I put a dusting of gold Pearl Ex on there to highlight the petals. 








You put 'em all together and....

 

My last task was to find a clasp.  After looking for ideas in my clasp container, I saw a toggle clasp and it dawned on me.  Use a tap!  (little steel bar on left)  My husband banned me from using his dies but I talked him out of a tap.  :)  I assure you, this little tiny tap is getting much more use on this necklace than it ever has in the garage.  

I'm so excited about this necklace!  I put a lot of thought and work into it.  Many, many hours of hunting through old boxes in the garage, pillaging laptops, drills, fixtures etc.  Obviously I hope I win *something* but if not, it's ok because I forced myself out of my comfort zone and learned A LOT!!  Thanks again, HMB! 

My Beading Heart

This February I entered the Happy Mango Beads "Bead My Valentine" contest.  Let me just start by saying I looooove HMB.  They have the BEST selection of natural, organic, funky, rare and recycled beads and the BEST prices ever. I get lots and lots of my beads from them.  Just my style.  

Anyway, I had never entered a contest before, but I thought this would be fun.  Also, I'm not big on "hearts" or Valentine's Day.  I've always thought of it as a cheesy holiday.  So needless to say it was a challenge to make something that was reminiscent of V Day and was also my style.  I looked at my beads and saw that I actually had some pink glass hearts that I had never used and tons of funky red beads - coral, recycled glass, white heart beads, various types of Czech glass, etc.  So, I gathered them up and decided to make a necklace using my FAVORITE technique - wire crochet.  I had a blast!  

AND I won first prize in my category of "natural, organic"!!!!

  
p.s. IF YOU WANNA BUY THIS BEAUTY, AND BE A PART OF HISTORY, YOU CAN!!  

Favorite new pieces

These are my first forays into Viking Knit pieces. (Yes, Viking Knit was done by the Vikings. Examples have been found as early as the 8th century.) My extraordinarily talented mother in law does the weaving and sends me long lengths of it.  From there I cut it and work it into a finished necklace or bracelet.  I'm interested to attempt earrings, too.  I've had the woven sections for months and months but have been afraid to do anything with them, lest I ruin a length of weave that took hours and hours to finish.  I've gotten over my fear and I'm glad I have!  I really like how they've turned out.  I like pairing the almost geometric weave with something organic and rough, like the raw turquoise or the seemingly random bunch of pearls. 

Excited to launch my page!

Last night at 1am we officially launched www.terravidadesigns.com !  The business and website have been over a year and a half in the making.  I began making jewelry to sell for charity donations in the summer of 2009 when I was raising money for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training (TNT).  I was training for the Dublin Marathon and had to raise over $7,000.  I had never in my life raised that kind of cash and had no idea where to start.  I'm not great at marketing myself.  I didn't have the time or sales skills to walk the malls and get donations from stores. I can't sell a glass of water to a dying man in the desert. 

I started making simple earrings and selling them on Etsy to friends and family.  100% of my profits were donated to TNT.  Eventually I got more and more creative and started remembering that I have a right side of my brain - something I hadn't used since before graduate school!  Once the money was raised and the marathon was over, I had big plans to keep up the creativity.  Like many best-laid plans before, it went astray.  I found out I was pregnant AND had to chase around a very VERY active toddler.  I slept every moment I could.  Now I have an even more active toddler and a super sweet 4 month old.  I'm still busy and I still want to sleep every moment I'm able, but for me it is more important to have something that is my own.  Something that helps define me as more than a mother. Something that reminds me I can do more than play patty cake (although that is very important!). 


If you are interested in using my site to help raise money for a charity, please contact me at terravidadesigns@gmail.com .