Pine Ridge Treasures blog hop beads.

I LOVE a creative challenge. It helps push me to try new things, expand my mind and test the limits of my abilities. Sometimes, just taking a break from my normal medium is enough to spark new ideas.

I recently saw a challenge posted on Facebook from Lisa at Pine Ridge Treasures. It's in the form of a blog hop, which is another thing that I have always wanted to do but never had the opportunity! Let's face it.. my blog is more of a personal captain's log than a memo to the crew. I'd love to get a few more people to have a peak at my work and understand why I love doing what I do so much.

Lisa sent me a mystery bag of beads. Needless to say they where far out of my comfort zone. I normally work with large gemstones and wire. These are a bunch of dainty glass seed beads and pearls. and all PURPLE!

There is a lot to work with here and this should be fun. But I'll tell ya.. currently I am totally stumped! I think I have an idea for a necklace and a bracelet. I want to try to use 100% of what I was given. I am allowed to use a few of my own beads to mix with this stash but I am not allowed to go out and buy anything new. I don't really have anything in purple, so adding contrast to this lot is another challenge. I'm excited to see what comes out of this.

A New Path

Two months ago, Chris and I loaded all of our stuff and our four kids into a minivan and a big old rented truck and started the thousand mile drive from L.A. to our new home in Washington. We arrived on St Patrick's Day. As a family very proud of our Irish side, this was the perfect day to start our new life in our new home.

Once I had the older kids registered for their new schools and most of our boxes unpacked I began my quest to find my local bead and art supply shops. I was thrilled to find Bird Tail Beads just minutes from my house. Not only did this discovery totally cover me for all of the glass and stone beads I could possibly need but I also made my first Washington friend. The owner, Candy, is simply wonderful.

After visiting the shop a couple of times and showing Candy some of my work, she approached me regarding the possibility of me teaching some wire classes. Now.. teaching classes is something that I have thought about before and something that I have always wanted to work into. But I figured that would be down the road a little further. Well, Julie, think again! I told Candy that I would be thrilled at the opportunity and asked her to give me a week or two to come up with a class idea and a print out for the project.

It didn't take much thought before I decided that my first class would be a rosary. I had already been working on a cross that I liked and I have always wanted to make a rosary.. now I had a reason to. But the truly overwhelming part.. (well.. secondly overwhelming, right behind public speaking *gasp*) ...was how to get the ideas out of my head and into a PDF. I had never made a PDF before. I have only had experience with Gimp, Rhino, Maya and a tiny bit of Flash. So now it was time for a crash coarse in Adobe Illustrator. Which is far easier than I thought it would be!

So after 2 days of taking photographs, editing, putting it all together with written instruction, I had a 26 page PDF tutorial with 73 fully illustrated, easy to follow steps. Now.. I will admit, I am my own hardest most vicious critic but I am THRILLED with how my tutorial came out. Before my class, last Sunday I uploaded my tutorial to sale on Etsy. It felt pretty amazing.

Teaching the class went extremely well too! I only had three student, but how totally perfect it was. Not too many to completely overwhelm me but enough that I got to make a little pocket money. The owner of the shop, Candy was very pleased with how well the class went and has asked me to teach more. At least one a week!

So starts new opportunity. I am excited to rise up to meet it. Wish me luck! <3

The Making of the Gemstone Sparrow

  I joined the Etsy Team, Wired, back in May.  It was the first real team I had been in and being that I am new to Etsy I wanted to really jump in and be an active member of the team.  Shortly after joining, the team ran it's first Wire Design Challenge contest.  The theme was birds. Birds.. hmm.. I never much cared for birds and didn't really know alot about them.. but I do know tattoos! S o I decided to try to weave a Sailor Jerry old school sparrow.

  Historically, the sparrow tattoo started as a sailors’ tattoo.  Sailors used to get a sparrow tattoo for every 5,000 nautical miles they traveled.  Sparrows were also believed to bring a sailor good luck, so sometimes the sailor got his Sparrow tattoo before leaving the docks, hoping it would act as a talisman, and help bring him safely home again.

  The ancient Egyptians believed that sparrows would catch the souls of those who had died.  This belief was another cause for a sailor to have the sparrow tattoo, as if the sailor had the misfortune of dying at sea, according to the legend the sparrow would carry his spirit to heaven.

  Sparrow is different from most birds, when they find their soul mate, they stay with them till the end of their life.  For that reason, a sparrow is a symbol of finding your true love as Sparrows symbolize love, dedication and trust.  A sparrow is a symbol of finding your freedom.  Sparrows are known for traveling great distances, but always returning home

  This is a tattoo inspired sparrow made of Copper, Blue Agate, Green Jade, Citrine, Garnet and Copper Beads.  Totally hand woven and wrapped and totally one of a kind.  Intricately beaded she takes on the look of stained glass.

  The sparrow rides mid chest, hanging from 18 inches of copper chain. Her body is approx. 4x3 inches.

  I would love to take custom orders for works of the same style, if you have an image in mind please contact me!

  This piece is currently for sale at Copar Aingeal.

KariLu Jewelry: Featured Designer: Julie of Copar Aingeal

Thank you so much, Karissa for introducing me on your blog! It's an honor to be your first featured artist.

KariLu Jewelry: Featured Designer: Julie of Copar Aingeal: Now that you all know a little about me I'd like to introduce you to some of my fellow artisans. Now and then I'm going to introduce you to ...