It’s time to hop!

 

Being a member of the Facebook B’Sue Boutiques Creative Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/bsueboutiquescreativegroup/) has been such a wonderful experience.  I belong to a lot of jewelry-making groups on Facebook, but this one stands out as the most caring, sharing group!  I consider myself an accomplished jewelry maker and bead weaver.  Learning about assemblage jewelry from this group has led me down a new creative path – and has given me a way to repurpose all that jewelry I have hoarded for years.  I must confess that I have bought even more vintage jewelry since joining this group.

Brenda Lansdowne, who owns B’Sue Boutiques (http://www.bsueboutiques.com/), is a savvy business owner and a wonderfully creative jewelry artist.  I cannot begin to tell you how much I learned the past few months – from her blogs, her videos, and her posts.  I believe that the way we ensure that jewelry artistry grows is by sharing what we know so that future jewelry artists can learn from us old-timers.  Brenda epitomizes this concept – she shares her 25+ years of jewelry design with us all.

One of the things that Brenda and her design group have done is to present the group members with monthly challenges.  I have not always participated in the challenges but I have gotten such inspiration from the members’ posts of their challenge pieces.

For September, Brenda offered two related challenges –  “Vintage Flair….a piece driven by fashion trends (color, style, etc) that gives a nod to the past (vintage design)” is the monthly challenge to the Facebook group; and a Blog Hop challenge with the same theme.

I really love the September theme but I am not a blogger – I am not a blogger – I am not a blogger!  Oh, hell, I started a blog just for this challenge.

Brenda selected four American-made brass pieces from her shop inventory and asked us to choose one and use it in an unusual way.

When I saw the photo, I thought “Oh goodie, I have two of those pieces.”  I chose to use the Cuff stamping in my challenge piece.  It is a good thing I already had the cuff because, as usual, I waited until this week to actually construct the piece. I had written down ideas and planned the overall look in my head for a couple of weeks.

Part of the challenge is to use the piece in an unusual way.  So, I cut the cuff into two pieces – one to use and one in case I had to start over.  I wanted to create a necklace with the altered cuff piece. I colored the piece with “Old Silver” Inka Gold, a product I learned about from Brenda’s group.  I loved the look it gave the brass piece.  I bonded it to one of B’Sue’s necklace blanks and secured it with clamps to allow the glue to cure.

       

While patiently waiting for the glue to cure – not! – I scrounged through my vintage jewelry pieces and other B’Sue components and came up with a vintage cameo that I purchased at a garage sale.

I bonded the cameo to a brass oval so that I could glue the pretty rosaline opal czech rhinestone chain around it.  And added a vintage pink rhinestone bow at the base of the piece.  Also cut a B’Sue leaf pinwheel stamping in half and placed on each side of the central piece.

And here she is!  The ceramic roses are from vintage earrings. The neckpiece includes pink Swarovski Pearls, pink Czech crystal rondelles, vintage gold-filled spacers, vermeil daisy spacers, and vintage gold-plated stampings.  I actually assembled three different neckpieces. The others were too light & too heavy. There are bits of pearl cup chain added to cover the necklace blank because, as I learned from Brenda, the base piece should be covered!

     

This challenge was a double challenge for me – the toughest part was the blog.  I am not a blogger!  But maybe I will show up occasionally just to keep you wondering.

Please check out all of the other B’Sue bloggers who participated in this challenge.  I can hardly wait to see what inspiration I get from their creations.

Hugs from the little house at the lake.

Ginger

P.S. My website is up – only a few items listed. That is my next, and ongoing, challenge.  www.LynnLeighDesigns.com

List for Blog Hop September 25, 2015:

Brenda Sue Lansdowne

Jewelry Making Outside the Box

Mary Deis

The Rose Sword

http://theroseswordmdeis.blogspot.com/

Jann Tague

Clever Designs

https://janntague.wordpress.com/

Lori Beekman

B.Accessorized

https://baccessorized.wordpress.com/

Renee Hong

Fine and Dandy Jewelry

http://www.fineanddandyjewelry.blogspot.com/

Cynthia Wainscott

Exotic Peru Jewelry

http://exoticperujewelry.blogspot.com/

Dana Hickey

Magpie Approved

http://magpieapproved.blogspot.com/

Mary Beth Quigley-Spiker

Q Settings

https://qsettings.wordpress.com/

Karen Eaton

KJewelry Creations

http://kjewelrycreations1.blogspot.com/

Shari Gardner

SLG Jewelry Designs

https://slgdesigns.wordpress.com/

Alison Huie

Ally’s Baubles

http://allysbaubles.blogspot.com/

Pamela Anger

Novegatti Designs

http://www.novegattidesigns.blogspot.com/

Carole Carlson

Beadsophisticate

https://beadsophisticate.wordpress.com/

Cindy Peterson

Howling Dog Jewelry

https://howlingdogjewelry.wordpress.com/

Marcia Tuzzolino

Aurora Designs

http://auroradesignsjewelryblog.me/

Charlotte Smothers

Sea Horse Ranch Life

http://seahorseranch.blogspot.com/

Catherine Shattuck

Victorian Rose Boutique – You are here! 😉

https://vrbrose.wordpress.com/

 

Clare Wells Nemeth

Papercrafting Magic

http://papercraftingmagic.blogspot.com/

Erin Whitacre

Shattered Time

https://shatteredtimejewelry.wordpress.com/

Lynda O’Mara

Lomara Creative

http://www.lomaracreative.com/

Ginger Hammond

Lynn Leigh Designs

https://lynnleighdesigns.wordpress.com/

Ingrid Anderson

Lilis Gems Artisan Jewelry

https://lilisgems.wordpress.com/

Deb Beechy

Beetique

http://www.beetique56.blogspot.com

Harry Wood

Oscar Crow

http://oscarcrow.blogspot.com/

Delyssa Maxwell

Past Time Fancies

https://pasttimefancies.wordpress.com/

Paula Gaskill

Lovely Layla Bugs

http://lovelylaylabugjewels.weebly.com/blog

Irene Hoffman

Heart’s Dezire by Irene

https://heartsdezirebyirene.wordpress.com/

Alexandra Sefton

Imaginary Jewelry and Altered Art

http://wilywolverine.blogspot.com/

Leslie Carver

Adorn Divine Designs

http://adorndivinedesigns.blogspot.com/