Friday, October 09, 2009

To Each Their Own

At this very moment, I am sitting in my living room, there is a fire roaring in the woodburner, the kids are outside together playing nicely, and yeehaw, my laptop is working again!! Do you hear the choir of angels signing and feel that sense of everything being right the world? LOL, no? Me neither... but it is a good day.

I have so much to tell you all about! I feel like my blog is suddenly an old friend I haven't seen in ages and I need to catch up with. There is today's topic, stuff around the house, news about the book, new jewelry I have been working on, and hmmm... what else? Oh, we have the Fall Walk this weekend, and the boys won their first football game in three years last weekend!! Hopefully I can get to everything over the next few days. Don't let me forget anything.

Today's post is the one I have been most excited to share. I was working on it the afternoon that my computer's ac adapter died. It left me with half my photos on my laptop and the other half trapped on my camera memory. I got to work on my very first round robin!! What is a round robin you ask? In this case, it is a jewelry exchange between a group of friends that has each lady working on each piece. The result is one of a kind keepsakes that have been created with wonderful energy and enthusiasm. They are truly special things.

A few weeks back, the lovely Lorelei had a random drawing for participants to be in a round robin. Now, I wasn't picked for it, so I sent Lorelei an email telling her to please rig the results next time so that I get to be involved. LOL. She responded with an invitation to participate in a separate exchange. Of course I wanted to take part!! The little birdies tweet tweeting together on this project are wonderful. There is Lorelei Eurto (d'uh, I told you it was her idea), Mary Jane Dodd, Barbe Saint John, and little ole me.

We started by each creating a necklace "start"... a few inches of a little sumthin' sumthin' to fire the imaginations of the next person in line. You can see the start of my necklace HERE on Lorelei's blog. Everyone mailed their starts to Lorelei, and she added to each. From there, she sent all the necklaces to me... and I added to each.

This is what I recieved from Lorelei:

lorelei_before

And here is what it looked like when it left my studio:

lorelei_after

I added a pretty pair of egg shaped lampwork beads on vintaj brass colored wire from Parawire. I think the beads (one transparent purple, one toupe-ish) pick up the subtle purples in that darling pendant she started with. I really held back. I had to remind myself that there are two more ladies that need to add to this and I have to leave them something to work with.

This is what I started with for Mary Jane's necklace:

maryjane_before

And here it is after:

maryjane_after

For this one I added a simple rustic ring of glass for an accent to the clasp. I used a sterling silver link that mixes up the metals in this but pulls out silver in that tiny HINT charm in the pendant. I also put a tiny disc on the back side of the button that Lorelei added.

This is the piece from Barbe:

barbe_before

And here is how I sent it out:

barbe_after

I totally think Barbe can pull off the big lampwork disc I added to the beaded side of this necklace. Her handmade pendant totally followed me all around the room. It had her eye on me making sure I did a good job. LOL. On the opposite side of the chain, I used some red jump rings to trap a small red glass ring. I think it is super funky and super fabulous!!

I can not wait to see my necklace when it comes back to me in a few weeks. I sent all of these off to Mary Jane the other day, once she addes to things, they will travel on to Barbe. I have begged and pleaded via email to get someone to add a pendant to mine!! LOL, I am shameless. I can't wait to see what they pick for me. This was such a fun and inspiring project and I really want to do it again!!

Who's game?

17 comments:

sandi said...

I've been following Lorelei's blog and the other RR, too. Amazing work by everyone. I'm sure you'll get your pendant!!
I must say after taking recent Tracy Stanley classes, mixed metals are growing on me.
PS - Rec'd my ChainStyle copy; as always luv your pieces.
sandi/chgo

ps - You'll be able to tell your release date soon??

mairedodd said...

i do have them and am looking forward to this long weekend to have some time to listen to them sing to me... it's so much fun to see how they are all evolving... you did a beautiful job! and i love the additions to mine! :0)

Pretty Things said...

I would so love to do something like that!

barbe said...

I LOVE what you did to mine!!! and no worries, I WILL add something handmade and FABULOUS to yours as well!! woot woot can't wait till they all get to MEEEEE LOL

Unknown said...

all the necklaces look great...it's so much fun to watch the "making" of each of these necklaces...can't wait to see what you get back for yours

Lorelei Eurto said...

beautiful!!! I love what you did to all of them! Such fun! I couldn't have picked a better group of girls! I love how different each of us are and personality is shining through with each addition.
I will cherish my necklace for sure!

Alice said...

I would love to do something like this too (in fact I'm sort of jealous), but I feel my skills are not up to par with all of you. I'm just now getting to mixed metals, and still really only stringing (I say 'only' like stringing is a bad thing-but its not). It sure would be fun!

Cindy said...

Your pieces are wonderful, Kerry!! Love how you added your glass to each of them.

Christine Brandel said...

I'd love to do something like that -- a necklace or bracelet round-robin. If you decide to start one.....Me!me! I'll play!

TesoriTrovati said...

As much fun as it was to be on the inside of the bracelet exchange, I can see the appeal...it really is super fun to see all this talent coming together and creating fabulous things! I am so excited for each of you! I love watching the progression...there should be more of this collaborative creativity in the world, don't you think? Imagine what we can do when we work together!
BTW...LOVE, LOVE your pieces in ChainStyle. That is my new favorite book (okay, at least until the next one I pre-ordered shows up...you have a few weeks!) Enjoy the day!
Erin

P.S. Tell your kids AWESOME JOB on the big football win. We're hoping for the same tomorrow!

Yvette said...

I wouldlove ot get involved with something like this but not sure about being 'across the pond' so to speak.....

Leslie Gidden said...

Oh kerry! Think of me too next time you all do something like this! Everything looks great! Just beautiful!!!

Sharon said...

All of the necklaces look beautiful and your beads add that extra special touch! I certainly wouldn't mind joining a round robin next time you're gathering participants!

Alison Hodges said...

These are all lovely! What a great beginning!

Nancy Sells Puffer said...

How cool are those?! Throw my name into a round someday, would ya? That would be so fun to do...

Beth Hikes said...

This is so cool! I love watching the progress and how it builds. Mary Jane, thanks so much for honoring my Wind Horse charm by placing it on this beautiful necklace.

RockerJewlz said...

Fabulous, what fun to these at different stages on everyone's blogs!