Echo Creative Club September Reveal

In my last post, I shared the beads I am using in this month's Echo Creative Club Challenge. They are gorgeous Caribbean Blue peeled paint beads from Jeannie. Here's the photo of the beads again: 

I created 2 pieces with these beads (and still have a few leftover to work into other projects!)  The first piece is a necklace that is a long, beaded chain with a filigree focal that I used to drop one of these larger beads. I used turquoise and gold Swarovski crystal pearls to keep the colors uniform.

The next piece is a pair of earrings. I plan on doing a pair just like these with bronze findings to match the necklace, but originally I did them with 14K gold filled findings as shown here. They have Czech gold glass metallic pearls and crystal golden shadow Swarovski crystals.

Pardon my crappy lighting - hard to get decent pics inside my house and I haven't been able to get any recently outside due to a hectic day schedule.  

I hope you enjoy the beads and the jewelry. If you want to check out Jeannie's amazing jewelry, visit her store by clicking HERE

Be sure to check out Kristin's and Jeannie's blog post reveals as well by clicking on their names below.

KRISTIN     JEANNIE

Echo Creative Club September Beads

I am honored to participate for the last time in the Echo Creative Club. It has been a blast getting to use Jeannie's fabulous beads in my projects and share with you all. This month, I had some beautiful round peeled paint beads in a Caribbean blue and gold/copper color.  You can purchase some of her beads for yourself HERE. Make sure to check out her other beads, pendants, and jewelry!

Stay tuned for my reveal tomorrow, Wednesday the 25th of September to see what I created with her beads!

ECHO Creative Club Reveal

I was so excited to once again participate in the Echo Creative club. Thank You to Jeannie who organizes it all and mails us her fabulous beads and pendants to work with on her own dime.  How lucky are we?!  My last post was a preview of the bead that Jeannie K Dukic sent me for this month's ECHO Creative Club Design Challenge. If you missed that post, here is the bead she sent me.

It is a pretty green gin blossom pendant. She has a ton of other ones in all sorts of colors, but my favorite of her new ones are the patina'd versions. Check them out by looking at her SHOP.

So I decided on using Leather Cord with this one. I'm kind of on a leather kick right now, and it felt more organic than chain, which I just wasn't feeling with this one. I boldly opted for a dark emerald green color, and green beads...yeah I went there. Consider me Irish. Here is what I ended up with:

I know its really green...if I redid it I'd probably try a bronze shade leather instead, but that's ok, its a perfect necklace for St. Patrick's day and any day for someone like my sister, who is a true redhead and wears green a lot. Maybe this will end up being a future gift for her. : )   

Thanks for checking out my piece and be sure to visit the other participants:

Dagi http://www.kokopellidesign.blogspot.com/

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog

Lisa Lodge   http://www.gratefulartist.blogspot.com/

Lori Anderson  http://www.prettythingsblog.com/

Echo Creative Club Design in Process

Once again I am a lucky participant in the Echo Creative Club, where I get to take a handmade set of beads or pendant made by the awesome Jeannie K Dukic and create something with it. This month I am using this cool green Gin Blossom pendant. You can get one for yourself HERE.

I think I'm going to use some of the new leather cord I just got with this piece. The reveal is on June 25th, so check back to see what I design with it!

- Jessica

April ECHO Creative Club Reveal

It's reveal time for the Echo Creative Club!!  If you missed my preview post, I have one of Jeannie's Lonely Heart Pendants. 

Last year I had another style of heart from her, and I created this awesome necklace that I decided was too over the top for it to be wearable. Now I'm not saying I wasn't proud of the design, I did put a lot of thought and time into it, but at the end of the day, it was too much for my personal style to really wear it. And I do love funky hearts, so I wanted to make something this time that I could and would enjoy wearing. I already knew I wanted to make it longer this time so it would fall below my bust line. Everything that falls above it looks funky on my thanks to my body type. dI ended up using this fine rolo antiqued silver chain and some fun steampunk gears and links. I made a connector by glueing a Tim Holtz tiny gear onto a slightly larger copper gear, then used a hole punch to make it a link. It is 2 sided, so if it flips around, it looks the same. I knew I was going to keep it simple but asymmetrical, so I balanced the other side with 2 smaller links, and used a section of double chain between to give it more weight. Something told me to stop there. I know it is simple, but that's how I like my jewelry most of the time b/c I am usually running around in yoga pants, such is the life of a mother. That being said, I wasn't trying to take the easy road necessarily, but rather wanted to highlight the pendant itself, which is really the star, and compliment it with a similar asymmetrical, whimsical feel in the chain without totally overdoing it. I used a larger gear to link the pendant to the necklace and voila! What do you think?

I hope you like it, I have been fretting over whether it was too simple, but at the end of the day, I like it and will definitely be wearing it - today in fact! Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, please visit the other participants listed below!

Dagi http://www.kokopellidesign.blogspot.com/
Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog
Lola Surwillo  http://www.beadlolabead.blogspot.com/

Creativity in the Works

Hello all,

March came and went quickly thanks to our wonderful 9 day vacation to Orlando. April has been a month of catching up, custom orders, and preparing for a 3 day show I'm doing at the end of the month. It is also a month of creativity, as I have 2 different design challenges in the works. The first is the Polymer Clay Bead Challenge with the Echo Creative Club. We take a bead that is gifted to us by the ever creative Jeannie K Dukic and design something with it. This month, I had one of her fabulous Lonely Hearts Pendants.  

Isn't is cute?!  I think so. I will post the final piece I made on the 25th of April.

Next up is the one and only Bead Soup Blog Hop! My partner for this event is the oh so talented Cassie Donlen. Click her name for her website, or click HERE for her blog.  She is an incredible designer and glass bead maker, among other mediums. She sent me a gorgeous bead soup including one of her focal enameled flower clasps found HERE as well as 3 of her candy pop beads, found HERE.  There were also an array of other glass beads, some of her handmade glass bead headpins, fantastic funky chain, and a beautiful dyed silk. It was like a bead filled birthday! I am so lucky to have been paired with a bead maker as talented as she, so please check out her stuff and show her your love and support if you are in the market for some unique components! Also her finished jewelry is fantastic! I especially love her cool, funky bangle bracelet sets! 

Here are photos of the soup she sent. First, the attractive packaging was so cute!

Then you open the boxes and bag, and here is what was inside!

Here is a close up of the beads, spacers and headpins, and focal clasp, I just love everything about all of them!

I've had so much fun working with these colorful and whimsical components. I can't wait to show you all what I made. The reveal date is April 27th, so look for my reveal on that day!

Thanks for checking out my creative challenge components and reading!

REVEAL for Echo Creative Club

I received 4 pendants from Jeannie for the months I'm participating in the challenge, and it was pretty hard to decide which one to go with. After way too much time pondering and daydreaming, I ended up going with the Purple Anemone. Here is is:

I combined so many different beads trying to brainstorm a design, but I ultimately decided to keep it simple and sweet, much like the pendant itself. I chose Swarovski crystals in Lilac and Golden Shadow shades, which happened to match nearly perfectly with the shades in the pendant. Tanzanite was pretty close as well, but it was quite a bit darker than the lilac, and I found the lilac to be sweeter. I combined the crystals with lovely figaro chain from vintaj natural brass, which also has a feminine, sweet look to it. For a little extra bling, I took a 12mm rivoli and made a setting with a vintaj filigree to enhance the pendant.  Here is the final necklace:

You can purchase a pendant of your own from Jeannie HERE  They come in 3 different colors.   Check out her other awesome pendants and beads as well.

Please visit the other blog participants shown below. 

Dagi http://www.kokopellidesign.blogspot.com/

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog

Jessica Klaaren (you are here) http://cellardoorjewelry.blogs

Thanks for reading!

Echo Club Preview

The month of February turned out to be a lot busier than I expected! I ended up having to move my booth space at a store I sell in that is over an hour away to a new glass case they made, then I had a new store open here in town that I had to quickly inventory and price jewelry for (not to mention make a few new pieces) I had to have numerous doctor and dentist appointments and had an opportunity to send jewelry to the Wendy Williams show, and had to quickly make, package, and ship out all of that. In the meantime I've been working overtime at the day job in order to save up some money for our Disney Vacation AND I did my own taxes, and with 2 schedule c businesses, that definitely took a lot of time. Oh not to mention the interview for the paper and the fact that I had to create a studio in 2 days because a news crew is going to be at my house TOMORROW to interview me for a segment.  Needless to say, my 1st Echo blog post where I reveal the pendant is very very late. The truth is, I didn't even decide on which pendant I was using until last night, and I finished the necklace up at about 3 am this morning in order to have it ready to photograph today. So forgive me for not having a preview earlier, I just hadn't decided on what I was doing yet. Since I have some more time until my next month in the club, I should be well above schedule for the rest. : )  So here is the pendant I ended up deciding on. Forgive the photo as it was about midnight when I picked the pendant and had to take the photo indoors where my lighting is terrible. 

This is the Purple Anemone Poppy Pendant. You can purchase one for yourself HERE

Thanks for reading and check out my reveal blog tomorrow!

ECHO Creative Club December Reveal

  Merry Christmas everyone!! I was honored to be gifted some of Jeannie's beautiful peeled paint polymer clay beads to create something with for the Echo creative club December group. The beads are just beautiful - smooth and round with a peeled paint effect of copper with gold flashes on black. Here are what the beads looked like when I received them. There were more than 4, but I'd already used some in the design when I remembered I needed to get a before photo of the beads! (my bad, promise it won't happen again!)

I first decided to do a bracelet with them, and I paired them with a copper toggle clasp, a couple of lampwork glass beads in black, ivory, & amber, black obsidian, and Swarovski crystals in topaz and crystal golden shadow. I wire wrapped the beads together in a continuous beaded chain with 22 gauge wire. I then made a pair of earrings since I had a few beads leftover. I paired the beads in the earrings with crystal copper Swarovski crystals and an arte metal butterfly that is lightly dusted with a coppery shimmer.  

Here is the Bracelet

It looks great on the wrist, the copper and neutral color scheme works with many colors and outfits.  It is boho enough to be casual while still being nice enough to be dressed up. I'm very happy with it and keeping it all for myself...Merry Christmas to me, thanks Jeannie!!

Here are the Earrings

I think they are fun and the butterflies make them different from the norm, and I like the shape and length it gives the earrings.

You can visit Jeannie's store and get some awesome PMC beads for yourself HERE  

Please visit the other participants' blogs using the links below!! 

Cindy Cima Edwards http://www.cindycima.com/

Donna Martin Bradley http://strandedbeads.blogspot.com/

Jeannie K Dukic http://site.jkdjewelry.com/blog

You are Here:   Jessica Klaaren http://www.cellardoorjewelry.blogspot.com/

Karen Williams http://baublicious.blogspot.com/

Kashmira Patel http://sadafulee.blogspot.com/

Kristen Stevens http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/

Lisa Lodge  http://pineridgetreasures.blogspot.com/

Lola Surwillo http://www.beadlolabead.blogspot.com/

Shannon Chomanczuk http://www.formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/