SilverRose Designs

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Art Bead Love Tour
Stop #5
Who's next?

Welcome to Stop 5 on the Art Bead Love Tour! Started by the wonderful creatives over on Love My Art Jewelry as a way to spread the beauty of and love for amazing Art Beads, this amazing work of art is right now gracing my bead table. The beads in front of me are a true feast for the eyes, and I can't wait for everyone to see what is available on this incredible piece. It's journey alone is surely as beautiful as the art beads themselves. I mean, can you just imagine how many people have contributed to this amazing thing? Not only the bead artisans themselves, but also the stopovers this gorgeous thing has had where different designers and artisans have handled the lovelies and contributed to the ever growing piece of work. The stories these pieces could tell... And so, how can you be the next stop on this amazing journey? It's easy, and details follow.


This is the chain as it left for it's lovely journey...

Here are the pretties as they arrived at my house...

Here are the lovelies I took

And what I gave...plus more ;)
Tropical Girl, Second Surf, Barbara Lewis
Earthenwood, Gaea, StudioJuls

(and I'm sorry these aren't the best pictures...I forgot my camera at my parent's house this weekend! These are instagrammed...)

And so, now, do you want to be the next stop on the Art Bead Love Tour?

Please read through the post below carefully.

The Art Bead Love Tour is an ongoing project to spread the love of handmade to new and exciting places. It’s a way to reach people who may have never stumbled upon the Love My Art Jewelry blog on their own, and give them a chance to share the love of handmade. We chose to use a chain to link beads as a symbol of how this project links us all together~ in our unity to stand behind handmade.
This tour is basically an art bead swap, which will go on and on and on. Here is how it works.

PLEASE.......
....please read the entire post before entering.

The Details:

1. The winner of the chain will be allowed to take up to 30 beads from this chain. They will then replace each bead they took, with another handmade bead, charm or pendant of equal quality. It is so important that the quality of the beads be maintained, so that we can keep the Art Bead Love Tour alive. We want to share consistent quality with the next winner. If you make your own handmade beads or components, it’s a great way to get your beads into the world for people to try them out, or, if you hoard collect art beads, it’s a great way to share your collection and get some new additions as well. (Art Beads should be handmade by an artist, and not mass produced, such as Hill Tribes Silver beads or others like them). Remember the focus is on creating handmade with handmade and beads/components taken should be replaced with beads/components that are made by an individual not an organization.

2. The winner must have a blog, and will post pictures of what was taken and what was added, in order to keep an account of the chains progress and to keep our followers drooling. Please be sure to give credit to the bead artists as well.

3. The winner will then have a giveaway, just like this one, to keep passing the chain on and on. Rules can be copied and pasted from here.

4. When you repost your giveaway (remember you can copy and paste from here)-a list should be added to show where the chain has gone, with links to each previous blog. Ultimately, this will end up being a very long list!

Look where the chain has been……

Love My Art Jewelry

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio

Shaiha's Ramblings

Jen Judd Rocks!

SilverRoseDesigns

5. Chain must be shipped to its new home via Priority Small Flat Rate box with delivery confirmation. Please package it carefully.

6. There will be a button on the Love My Art Jewelry Website that links to the current blog and giveaway- so if you have the chain, it will link to your blog, that way our followers can have another chance to win it.

7. You MUST exchange your beads and have your giveaway completed within two weeks of receiving the chain. (Please please please, if you can not adhere to the above rules, do not enter the giveaway at this time. It will go on and on and you can always enter at a later date.) There will be a button on the side bar of our blog so that you can track where the chain currently is.

How to Enter:

1. You must have a blog to enter.

2. Leave a comment below (make sure your email is linked to your blog or leave it in the comment. Entries without emails will not qualify)

3. Share on Facebook, Twitter or your blog for extra chances to win. Leave a comment for each way you share, with a link if possible.

4. Winner will pay shipping and will be billed through paypal-small priority flat rate box with delivery confirmation $6.00.

5. Open only to our readers in the United States- due to problems with tracking and shipping overseas (sorry). Please note- I am having a small giveaway on my blog for our international friends only!!! So hop over to enter.

6. Check back here on MARCH 13th to see if you’ve won.

7. Good luck and share the love of handmade! Please, if you have any questions, you can email Staci directly at staci.lousie@hotmail.com

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Happy March!

My first order of business today should be this little man.

Happy fourth Birthday Nathaniel!

I love you so very much, and wish a happy and healthy year to you :)

We'll be celebrating his birthday tomorrow with our extended families and friends,

but today it's just us for a small family dinner and cake.

Perfect.

I'd also like to thank everyone who visited yesterday for the Challenge of Music Blog Hop. Erin, as always, was a fantastic host, and I really enjoyed visiting everyone's blogs to hear what they listen to, and see what they created. One thing I didn't mention in the post yesterday was that the song I ended up choosing, Courage Is..., I'd found quite by accident on Sunday. Night. At about 11:00 p.m. Just before bed. And that song just called out so loudly to be part of this challenge that I couldn't resist. Which meant I'd only one day to put together something and blog about it. So yeah, pressure. No doubt. But it all ended up okay in the end!

However, I did want to share the song that I was originally going to use for the challenge. Mika is another artist who I've just recently come across and fell in love with. His music is quite different from The Strange Familiar, and has a completely different pull and drive to it. He's a singer-songwriter from England with a phenomenal vocal range, as is evident by his songs. Please take a listen.

This particular song was my original choice for this challenge. It's emotional and a bit dark. But it has moments of, well, not quite lightness, but perhaps sort of, at the end. For me, it a reminder. No, not of past romantic entanglements. But rather of a particular darkness that my family has had to endure. A darkness no family should have to work through. It's okay though, that darkness is a part of our lives, and we've dealt with it. And are stronger as a result. The lyrics? These:

This is the hardest story that I've ever told
No hope, or love, or glory
Happy endings gone forever more

If you'd like to hear more of Mika, YouTube has a few of his videos up - check out Grace Kelly, Relax Take it Easy, and Rain for a start. But be aware that some people just don't get his vocal range. It's quite high. (He's a countertenor - like Chris Colfer, aka Kurt from Glee.) My husband was quite startled when I had it blaring from the speakers the first time ;)

I've been wanting to participate in a Photo of the Day type of challenge for a while now, and have finally decided to throw my hat in the ring. Here's hoping I'll be able to do it every. single. day! LOL Hosted by The Maternal Lens, here's the challenge I'm going to participate in! Do you want to do it with me? Please do, and let me know! And check out my photos on FB, Twitter and Instagram...

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Challenge of Music
blog hop

Normally, when it comes to a challenge or blog hop I have a tendency to be very verbose. Not today. Erin Prais-Hintz's awesome idea to challenge us to create something based on a specific song really drew me in from the first moment. I've struggled with coming up with something to say that will properly introduce the song I've chosen, and the reasoning behind it. It's just not happening, though. I guess it simply shows how powerfully music affects a person. I know it does me. Especially this particular song. So this time around, I'm going to simply let the music speak for itself.

This is a group that I've just found, The Strange Familiar. Their song, Courage Is..., touches an emotional core that I try to avoid reaching with any regularity. It intensely moves me. And I hope the necklace I've created shows how intensely the song affects me.

The pendant is simple and rustic. It's a copper tag that I cut out, hammered for texture, stamped with "Courage Is" as reminder to myself, and then partially enameled.

The necklace features dark blue freshwater pearls and white freshwater pearls that were wire wrapped. Copper chain and a handmade clasp complete the necklace.

What I was thinking while creating this piece was that courage is such an overused, but seldom completely understood word. Courage is something that we all need, and can show itself in so many different ways. I truly hope this necklace portrays what the song was trying to convey. If it does, I'll be content.

Thank you, Erin, for organizing this challenge. Music touches so many people. Thank you for letting us show how it affects us.