"As we leave 2010 behind, we welcome the coming year with new ideas full of creativity and inspiration. This time around we ask that you create a ‘Winter Enchantment’ design that represents what you find beautiful or inspirational about the winter season. Whether it is the beauty of a snowflake, a winter landscape, a sport you love, the coziness of a blazing fire, fun indoor activities shared with family and friends, a vacation to a warmer place, a favorite winter themed story/poem or any other themes of winter you can think of."
This is my first piece for Winter Enchantment challenge:
I have already completed four pieces for this challenge with the beads from Artbeads.com. Today I'm going to share with you a bracelet called Ice Queen. Why Ice Queen?? Well, here in Central Ohio, instead of the massive amounts of snow other Midwestern states have gotten, we received ICE! And more ice. Everything has been coated with ice for a week now causing havoc in some areas here in Columbus and in other parts of the State. Ice has been covering the electric lines pulling them down, or causing tree branches to break off damaging property and barely missing injury to people. Frodo and Arwen don't mind skating around the yard which has a proper coating of ice on top of all the snow, but Fiona just stands at the door, looks up at me with her blind eyes & says "I ain't goin' do it!". So I have to brave the ice & take her out front. Finally, the temperatures have gone up this past two days so some of the ice has melted, but as I look outside my window, I see more snow coming down.
For Ice Queen, I used a variety of blue round Toho seed beads in size 8, 11 and 15. Now I usually don't wear anything blue, but when I saw this button many years ago for sale from a NIADA artist in Detroit, I had to buy it. I had hoarded it away all this time & when I needed something to really pop this bracelet, it came to my mind. Now, it did take me three days to find it in my boxes of treasured beads, but I was so happy when I found it & made the connections to the beaded strap and then went crazy embellishing. The strap started out with some round dyed mother of pearl round. The button itself was glued to a stiff backing and then peyote around the bezel. It is finished with a seed bead picot. Now the fun part-EMBELLISHMENT! I used 6mm crystals Swarovski 3700 Margarita Beads.
I have three other projects that I finished this morning since Fiona woke me up BEFORE the crack of dawn to eat. But I'm going to share those with you later. I also have almost finished one of the two pieces I've been working on with the destroyed Napali Mist collar I made last year. I just need to finish up a herribone tube and then put them all together.
For those who have warm weather...I'm jealous. For those in cold wintery landscape...keep warm.
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Disclosure...As a reviewer of products at Artbeads.com, I receive the seed beads and Crystals above free of charge. I have been asked to review these products and give my honest opinion of the products...positive or negative. I am not being compensated by Artbeads.com for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.
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