Winter Jewelry Making Contest

[Lorri Ely]

Hello, everyone. It's time for a new contest! The holidays are behind us, so it's time to make some more jewelry!

Make your own unique jewelry project, and upload the photo here:
http://making-jewelry.ning.com/photo

And, be sure to respond to this Contest posting (click Reply To This, below) and tell us a little bit about your piece and what inspired you.

I will select our winner on January 31. Some lucky member will win a fun prize: a jewelry project kit! Woo Hoo!

Have fun making jewelry, I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

[Carolyn Nau]

This was inspired by the energy of New Year's Eve. I've been pondering these sapphires for 6 months and suddenly they came together with a string of green quartz brios. I started off with a simple one strand necklace, but when my husband called it "cute", I got more creative and by adding a gold chain was able to stretch one string of sapphires into a 2 strand necklace that is stunning rather than cute.

I wore the necklace to a drumming/meditation (great way to bring in the New Year) and the theme of the evening was all about intentionality and dreams. When I got home I looked up the properties of the yellow and rose sapphires and it's all about intentionality and prosperity. It felt like an incredible way to celebrate the New Year by making a necklace that has such wonderful properties. I think every woman in the group wore this necklace for a while on New Year's Eve...and everyone had a hard time taking it off. I sold it on New Year's Day to my favorite customer...but she was lovely enough to let me hang on to it for a few days...I wore it constantly, and it even looks great with my leopard-print bathrobe:>)

[Lorri Ely]

Gorgeous! What an amazing story, and great way to kick off the new year! Thanks for sharing, Carolyn. I have plenty of positive intentions and hopes for prosperity in the new year as well. I hope all our members feel the same way :-)

[Lorri Ely]

Very colorful and fun! Nice inspiration story, too! Happy New Year!

Paul said:

This New Years Eve Necklace reminds me of the ball coming down in New York-Times Square bringing in 2009. In fact, that was the source of my inspiration. Its so cheerful looking you want to wear it everyday. It fits nicely with any outfit from casual to elegant attire and with a cheerful smile you'll be the princess of any gathering. The necklace measures 17 inches and is enriched with colorful glass pearls. However, the heart and soul of this piece are the hand-made raku clay beads that are unique in everyway. The color created in 1800 degree temperatures is different on each bead, making this necklace a one of a kind that changes on each firing in the kiln. The sparkling silver-spacer tube beads connect with tiny silver beads at the top of the ball. Memory wire connects the entire ensemble with powerful magnetic clasps for easy on-easy off assembly

[SANDY HIRSCH]

As we were watching the GOLDEN GLOBES we noticed that many of the actresses were not wearing necklaces.
My loved one commented something from the corner of his mouth that amounted to something else wanted to be exposed.
Here is the final product..
I hope you enjoy it !
Sandy Hirsch

SMSdesigns.etsy.com

[Lorri Ely]

It was REALLY HARD selecting only one winner for the Winter Contest. Our winner of the contest is Carolyn Nau for her stunning and classic Sapphire Dreams necklace! I liked the story as much as I liked the necklace.

Sandy Hirsh was a very close second place, and Linda Lee and Leigh had some amazing necklace designs as well, and Imani had lots of cool earring designs. This just tells me that next time I need to do a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prize!

So many wonderful photos were uploaded in January! Thanks to everyone who entered, your jewelry designs are all inspiring, unique, and personal, just like you! A new contest will start up soon, so watch the site for details.

There are almost 800 of your jewelry photos on the site, so keep them coming, we all really enjoy sharing your ideas and inspiration. As always, thanks for your participation and for making this site so much fun. :-)

[Paul]

Good Job Carolyn,
Hey tell me something...We've been fighting real hard to get the Winter Olympics here in my neck of the woods at
Lake Tahoe and lost out to some area in your neck of the woods.
I know it gets cold where you live but I didnt know there were mountains there ?

GOOD JOB,. YOU WINNER PERSON YOU !!!

[Carolyn Nau]

Paul...I can't even imagine where they'd have the Olympics here...they have a few "bunny" hills. Must be farther up North where I haven't been. We just got back from Minneapolis and drove through a few hills...but no mountains!!

I'm psyched about winning. I've never entered anything before, but this necklace just seems so special I just had to. I only started making jewelry the end of June after going to the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee and spending gazoodles of money and coming home with an entire dresser full of beads. I decided maybe I should learn to do something with them. :>)

[Carolyn Nau]

Lori,
Is there a place on the website that you're going to post all the entries and their stories?

My husband is really psyched about finding ways we can promote this to local tv station and I'll put the info on my website www.carolyncreation.com and my page on the www.bioelectricshield.com site as well. I think we can work out a few connections that'll get us all some notice.

I'd love to see lots more people joining the group and finding out about this wonderful forum for sharing.

thanks a bunch for all your doing...and wow, I never entered anything before, but this one just felt special.

Hugs
Carolyn

[Paul]

How about we try a bracelet contest with SPRING colors..eh?

[Lorri Ely]

Hi Carolyn! All the photos are in the photo section of the site, but only two of you provided stories this time. For the next contest, we'll try to get more stories :-) I sent you a prviate message (check your inbox) so I can send your prize, let me know if you didn't get it! Thanks so much for participating in the contest!

[Lorri Ely]

Sounds like a good plan, Paul!

Paul said:

How about we try a bracelet contest with SPRING colors..eh?

[Jenny Israel- BKB]

This set was inspired by the Winter Solstice. The day when the Winter turns back toward the Spring.
Winter doesn't have to be lifeless. Why not embrace the icy beauty of this time of year!

The components are Swarovski Snowflake AB Crystals, silver sparkle-ball beads, silver plated findings and chain, silver plated tree charm, Handpainted Ceramic bird bead, and a Swarovski nugget in the ring.