Pretty Palettes :: Jubilee Necklace

Jubilee Necklace by Molly Schaller

It's time for Pretty Palettes! If you've been following along on the Halcraft blog, you know what I'm talking about. Each month Erin Prais-Hintz presents a gorgeous color palette for anyone who wants to participate to use as inspiration for a piece of jewelry or accessory. She uses beads from the Bead Gallery line available at Michaels Stores. 

Halcraft's Pretty Palettes Blog Hop Reveal

Have you checked out Erin Prais-Hintz' inspiring Pretty Palette posts on the Halcraft USA blog? If not, you're missing out on a great opportunity to stretch your beading muscles. I love how it feels to design with colors that aren't on my usual "menu."

Here's how it goes: Erin posts an image with an amazing color palette, and you follow along using her guidance of bead choice--and any others you might want to use--to create a project. Then you write a post about it on your blog and link up to the Halcraft USA blog to see what others have created. It's so much fun to see what others have made using these inspiring palettes and beads.

This month, I was lucky to have a beading buddy want to participate with me! Joyce is a friend who I recently learned has a talent for beading that had been on the back burner. Joyce's daughter and my daughter are friends, so we planned some time for the girls hang out while we treated ourselves to a play date of our own!

It was so wonderful to sit and chat over tea and cookies and BEADS! Joyce told me that she'd put her beads away in a special cabinet after her daughter was born, and she had wanted to pick them back up again. She was game for my challenge, and I'm so excited to say that we're going to make the Pretty Palette challenge a monthly "play date" for ourselves as well as the girls!

Here's this month's palette, which Erin pulled from the fabric of a dress that a friend is wearing to a wedding:

I love this palette--and the dress that inspired it--but it's definitely out of my normal range of colors.

It took a little bit of time to choose our directions, but once we got started, the time flew by. Joyce made some amazing earrings. She didn't put earwires on them because she has to use a specific type for her sensitive ears, so she's just holding them up in the photo. I wish I would have taken a photo of them on their own, as I loved how she was able to use wrapped loop drops to really make them special.

Joyce's choice of shirt goes really well with our color palette this time!

 Here are my own creations. Once I got started on the earrings I had a hard time stopping! I used mostly blues and purples, with a gold chain and inspiration beads.

Lots of little wrapped loop gold drops make these simple earrings look deceptively complex.

Beaded links and an amazing faceted bead give this necklace a vintage appeal.

The wrapped loop drops with bigger focal beads make a relatively simple bracelet a standout.

The textured chain makes these earrings longer than some, but I think the length is balanced by the pretty blue faceted drops.

More wrapped drops give sparkle to simple earrings with a lot of texture.

Here is a photo of the carnage on the table when we were done.

Remember these great little bead cups from my book club post? They still get a lot of use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even William got in on the fun and was quite the helper!

I hope you enjoyed my blog hop post! Visit the Halcraft blog again on February 5th for the next Pretty Palettes reveal from Erin. And let me know if you hope to play along, too!

Sending a Guardian Angel & Pretty Palettes for November

My Aunt Mary recently went through what I can only imagine felt like a nightmare. She lost the use of her right arm, and after some tests, a tumor was found in her brain. Cancer is a harsh and ruthless predator, and it has been prowling about my family more than its fair share in these past years.

Her surgery this past Monday to have the tumor removed tested her strength and faith, but thankfully, she's making a wonderful recovery, and--as amazing as this sounds--she's planning to continue on to her previously planned trip to Disneyworld with her granddaughter this Friday! 

Before the surgery I had been praying, but I wanted to do something more concrete with my hands, and send her something in the mail since a visit wasn't possible before the surgery. Matthew made a wonderful card for her. It said "We all love you <BIG red colored-pencil heart> Stay Tough."

We all signed it, and then I went to my studio to make something that I hoped would give her a little more strength and serve as a pick-me-up to let her know that we were thinking of her. I started by searching through my stash for a bead or charm with an inspirational image or word.

The perfect thing was this Guardian Angel charm from Green Girl Studios. In the same cubby was one of their bird toggles. Birds have always been a hopeful symbol for me, so I decided to use that as well. I knew that I wanted to make a long necklace that could also be worn wrapped around the wrist, making it a little more versatile, or it could even hang from a hook on a window as a reminder of all of us who are thinking of her while she's in the hospital.

My aunt has a wonderful sense of style. She likes to wear colors, and she has a sophisticated color sense. I decided to use the colors in Erin Prais-Hintz' Market palette that she shared on the Halcraft USA blog because they're earthy and went well with the tiny gemstone beads I wanted to use in the necklace. I didn't want anything too large so that the piece would be comfortable when worn, and I also wanted the necklace to be able to fit in the palm of my aunt's hand when wound around itself.

Here's the design I came up with. I love the color palette, and I ended up adding more orange, just because it felt right with the other gemstone colors. Because of the warmth of the gemstone colors I used gold tinted tiny seed beads--15/0, I think--between the faceted gemstones and also gold jumprings to attach the pendant to the necklace.

Here's a link to Halcraft's November Pretty Palettes page, so that you can see others' interpretation of the palettes.

Taking the time to string these beads was therapeutic for me. I thought of my aunt with each tiny bead and sent prayers her way as I watched the string lengthen.

Do you ever craft as a form of prayer or meditation?

Molly

Revisiting Felicia

Have you ever finished a beading project and wondered to yourself, "Hmmm. That might look great with these beads, too.  When I've got the time, I'm going to work on that."

That happens to me a lot, but I seldom make the time to revisit the design. When I work on projects for presentation on the PBS show Beads, Baubles & Jewels, I get a chance to work with the designs I love and remake or modify them to show alternative design and bead options.

One of the pieces that I'm going to be demonstrating on the show is called Felicia's Necklace. It was named after a wonderful, colorful, and creative teacher that my daughter had for 1st and 3rd grade.

Here's the original:

Felicia's Necklace

 

Then I made this one using some gorgeous bead caps and cones from TierraCast. I love the warm tones in this necklace, and those bead cones have such an amazing golden glow.



 Finally, I made one more, this time using TierraCast bead cones in silver and contrasting black beads. It's pretty, too, but with an edgier look.

Making these alternate designs is one of my favorite parts of getting ready to tape a few segments in Cleveland. I'm heading that way this coming week to meet up with Katie Hacker and many other beading pals! I am always so excited to see who else is taping on "my" days.

Have a lovely week and check back next week for more about my time taping in Cleveland!

Favorites...

 

As a designer, I'm challenged to make beautiful things almost every day. Most of the time, it works out, and I'm happy with what I make. Sometimes, a design is successful, but it's just not my style. Occasionally, it just doesn't work, and I have to leave the bead board and come back after a quick walk outside or a good night's sleep.

But every so often I make something that I love and wish I could keep. I'm sure you all know what I mean. I know Erin understands, as she wrote about feeling just that after designing her Toast of the Town Necklace which started the Quick Fire blog hop.

Well, The Collector's Necklace is one of my favorites. I designed it over a year ago for an episode of Beads, Baubles and Jewels, which you can usually find on your local PBS station. As it turned out, I wasn't able to present this project because I was late into my pregnancy, but Katie kindly picked up and did a glorious job presenting this project. Thanks so much, Katie! Just click here to see Katie present a how-to video, or click here for written instructions.

Everywhere I wear it, I get compliments, and it's such a versatile design! I made three different versions of it for the show, and there are so many more variations that I'd love to make, using a cute "you are my home" charm from swoondimples or maybe an aquatic themed necklace with this toggle from green girl studios. The best part of the design is that it makes it easy to use up those favorite beads of which you have only one or two left.

Even more exciting is you can win this version of the design by clicking it in Halcraft's Holiday Glam Giveaway!

Here's my first Collector's Necklace along with a two other versions I made for the show. Have fun making your own Collector's Necklaces. They're great gifts that also use up the favorite beads of which you have only one or two left!

Calorie-Free Candy Canes, Anyone?

 

Here's my take on Christmas Cane mittens. These tiny pearls were just the boost this pair of mittens needed to make them Christmas gift-worthy. I used the Wild Fire cord and a wide-eye needle, following the criss-cross pattern of the basket weave mittens.

 

I saw a few Christmas trees up in our neighbor's windows today. I wonder if it's too early to get out our tree as well. When do you decorate for the holidays?

 

 

Embellishment and the Bead

 

My most recent Halcraft Design Team challenge was organized around the theme of Holiday Gifts that are one-size-fits-all. I saw these beautiful gloves at my local Target store, and I thought that they could use a bit of beady embellishment! I used the glamorous Inspired by Vintage comonents from the Bead Gallery encap at Michaels to dress them up for a night out!



All I used was some Beadalon WildFire in white to stitch the sliders securely onto the gloves. I debated for a while about the "ring," but I thought that it looked like a little snowflake, so I went for it. What do you think?

I had so much fun that I made these two pairs as well!

 

 

 

I love the simple sophistication of the pendant on the blue gloves and I think the squared crystals on the tan gloves will peek out from the sleeves of a favorite wool coat perfectly.

The holiday crafting season is about to begin! Hooray!