Autumn 2013 Bead Design Challenge!

I just sent in my entry for Bead Happily Ever After's Autumn 2013 Bead Design Challenge!  The theme this year was “Break Out of Your Color Comfort Zone”!  All you had to do was make something with at least two itmes that you purchased from their etsy store etsy bead shop.

If you have ever read my blog, you will have seen that I tend to make things in my favorite color range which are the autumn/fall colors of orange, brown, yellow with some green and red thrown in.  This time I didn't use any of my favorite colors unless you count the gold chain and gold bead caps.

I used lapis blue spacers as the focal with moonglow blue rounds and moonglow white tubes.  I plan to wear this with either a blue or red shirt and blue jeans.  I just need to get a set of earrings made.

I need to improve my photography skills as it is much prettier in person.  I sent in the middle picture as only one picture was allowed.

Thanks for stopping by.  Comments are always welcome.

Carolyn

Octoberfest 13 Reveal

Today is the reveal for Jewelry School Friends second annual Octoberfest.  This blog hop celebrates the fall season by sharing recipes, jewelry, beads, home decor, family, & friends.

I design jewelry and would like to share several pieces that I made. 

The first piece is made of yellow rounds and black shell squares.  I found the shell beads on the discontinued rack a couple of months ago and thought they would come in handy at some point.  The yellow beads I have had for several years.

The second piece I made used up the last of the black shell beads and some orange rounds that I have had for several years.

I made matching earrings for each set.

The last piece I made was for a challenge that just ended, The Bead Shop in Liverpool.  I had bought some autumn themed glass beads.  Orange and brown leaves along with brown ovals and yellow rounds.  I made a matching bracelet and two sets of coordinating earrings.

Thank you for visiting.  Please visit Jewel School for a list of the other participants.

Challenge of Music reveal

Erin Prais-Hintz of Treasures-Found.blogspot.com issued a challenge to make something, be it jewelry or some other craft, that was inspired by a piece of instrumental music.  I thought of a song right away but it had a single word at the very end of the music.  I asked Erin about it and she said to go for.  Then I had to try and find the music.  It wasn't readily available at home.  So what to do?

One of the types of music Erin wanted us to listen to was music that paints a series of pictures.  My friend and beading partner Evelyn found some music that she wanted to use as her challenge piece so I listened along with her and decided to use her piece of music for the challenge also.  If you look at her piece and then at my piece you would not believe that we listened to the same piece.

Ralph Vaughan Williams was an English composer of many types of music, symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music and film scores.  The music that I listened to was "A Pastoral Symphony (Symphony No. 3)" which draws on his experience as an ambulance driver in World War I.  He would go up a hill to view the sunset.  There is a cadenza for trumpet in the second movement that is based on a bugler's practice where the bugler repeatedly played an interval of a flattened seventh instead of an octave.  It was first played January 26, 1922 in London conducted by Adrian Boult.

Here is a link to YouTube: A Pastoral Symphony

It has four movements, each different.  The first is Molto moderato which is contentedly calm in tone but has a darker central section.  It often features solo instruments.  This is the section that I listened to to make my piece.  The second movement is Lento moderato a slow movement opening with a horn solo followed by a cello solo leading to the trumpet cadenza.  The third movement is Moderato pesante which is introduced by a brass section followed by some fast music (the only time fast music appears in the symphony).  The fourth and final movement is Lento starting with a wordless soprano voice sung over a soft drumroll.  The orchestra then begins a elegiac rhapsody followed by an impassioned outpouring of feeling followed by violins playing the opening soprano melody with the soprano singing the music into silence.

 Here is what I created:



A Pastoral Symphony Necklace and Earrings

The set is made from peach and yellow opaque beads with pink, Lt. green, and amethyst faceted beads.  Also included at aqua glass disks and Lt green glass leaves. 

My information was obtained from Wikipedia and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society websites.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to visit all the other bloggers that participated in the Challenge of Music.

 

Erin Prais-Hintz Alenka Obid Ali McCarthy Alicia Marinache Amy Severino Amy Grass Carolyn Lawson  you are here Cece Cormier Cynthia Riggs Ema Kilroy Emanda Johnson Emma Todd Erin Kenny Evelyn Shelby  Evie and Beth McCord Gerd Andersson Holly Westfall Jennifer Justman Jenny Davies-Reazor Jess Green Judy Campbell Karla Morgan Kay Thomerson Kristina Johansson Lola Surwillo Lynn White Malin de Koning Mallory Hoffman Mary K McGraw Melissa Meman Melissa Trudinger Michelle Escano Michelle Bourbonniere Michelle Heim Michelle Mach Molly Alexander Molly Schaller Monique Urquhart Niky Sayers Pam Farren Rebecca Anderson Sally Russick Sharon Palac Sharon Driscoll Susan Kennedy Tari Kahrs Tracy Stillman Veralynne Malone