All Tied Up...

The title of this post is a pun about the true subject that I will eventually get to: ribbon. But let me just explain about what I have been "tied up" with, preventing me from quality time in the studio....

I know everyone is in the same boat right now - the stress of the holidays! I have been feeling great in this second trimester, but the burst of energy I have has not been focused on jewelry (to my dismay). But instead to decorating the house, running errands (aka: shopping), wrapping presents, racking my brain for ideas for presents, cleaning and organizing the house, working on the nursery, getting caught up at work so I can enjoy my upcoming 2 weeks off. Luckily, I had moved my studio from the spare bedroom down to our sunroom back in June. However, lots of odds and ends were left in the spare bedroom to deal with later. Well, later has come and now it is an overwhelming task. The entire room and closet has been emptied out, with all of it's contents taking up space in my upstairs living area. This is so that Jon can paint. But even after the paint is dry, this stuff will not be going back into the room so it needs to find a new home. Whether that be to a new owner, the basement, who knows!?!?!

Anyway, the only jewelry I was able to work on was a few pieces to submit for consideration for a great new book that will be coming out. You've probably heard that Lorelei Eurto and Erin Siegel will be authoring A Jewelry Accord: making jewelry using cording, ribbon and lace. I am so happy for the success of these ladies and can not wait to see the completed product of all of their hard work! While they have already selected the 3 artists to contribute to the book, I was excited anyway to challenge myself with these materials that I don't work with often. The main material I decided to use was ribbon. I probably decided this because a.) as a scrapbooker, I had a lot of ribbon on hand and b.) it was probably the most challenging of the 3 materials to me. Here are a few of the pieces I made, which are now listed in my Etsy shop:

Orange Owl: I selected this owl ribbon as the subject to work around. The orange and brown swirled polymer clay rounds from Pam Wynn were the perfect match, so I started wire wrapping them from some wooden links. I then added some pressed glass orange rounds and brown ceramic dot beads as well. A few flower accents and detailed bead caps give the finishing touch.

Boho Butterfly: This is one of those pieces that came together as a surprise - it was not really planned. I had these geometric shaped bezels that I filled with butterfly images and resin. When I saw the ribbon wrapped loops laying next to them, I thought the unique combination of colors and textures fit together perfectly so I started linking them together. To end the necklace, I used more patterned ribbon which I had the perfect size end crimps for.

I plan to work on some more jewelry this weekend. We are supposed to get some snow, so what better way to spend some cozy time inside! Christmas lights and music on, candles lit, and a hot cup of tea! I have a few custom orders to finish for Christmas gifts, and then I hope the inspiration hits to make some fun new things!!!