Monday, March 21, 2011

Vernal Visions Challenge Entries

The deadline to enter the Bead Mavens' second challenge is midnight tonight. The theme for this challenge is "Vernal Visions," which is all about the vernal equinox and the start of spring. For my first entry, I thought of the cherry blossom trees that always bloom right around the start of springtime. I sought to mimic these little flowers with Czech glass lentil beads and Japanese seed beads, and came up with a satisfying little flower design which is self-supporting and holds its shape quite well. 
Collected together with bronze bugle and round seed beads for the stems and branches, we get a long, blooming branch of a Sakura tree:
For my second entry, I thought of another special event that takes place right around the start of spring, my mother's birthday. When I think of my Mom I always think of pearls, and I was itching to work with some lustrous keshi freshwater pearls that don't really fit into my usual geometric style. They became the fringe on some round beaded beads, which I complemented with pink Light Clusters beaded beads. Since both beaded beads can be strung through multiple openings, I strung through them using two lengths of beading wire in a crisscrossing pattern, with additional pink and peach freshwater pearls:
A little detour gives the necklace its focal, and an overall Y-shape:
Thanks to the Bead Mavens for putting on this fun challenge! Check out the rest of the challenge entries here

What's your favorite springtime design?

10 comments:

  1. Beautiful!!!!!!!!!! I like the pink flowers!!!

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  2. I just had to say how much I love your cherry blossoms. They're so cute and the finished necklace is just lush and brimming with positive energy.

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  3. The Chery Blossoms are my favorite - they are wonderful! Great job!! ~KM

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  4. Sakura is so beautiful. I love it.

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  5. I've had a look at the other entries and your Cherry Blossom design wins hands down! Those flowers are so realistic I can almost smell them! Well done!

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  6. Your cherry blossoms are fantastic!

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  7. Que bello, es una hermosa creacion

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  8. Thanks so much everyone! I was really happy with the way that the cherry blossoms came out, and it was a great challenge for me to get out of my geometric comfort zone to piece the necklace together semi-randomly like the branch of a sakura tree. After coming in second in the Ice Queen challenge, I don't know if I can place in the challenge twice in a row, but I certainly enjoyed making these pieces.

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  9. I have to agree with everyone and say those cherry blossoms are divine. I think they would also make very adorable forget-me-nots. Would you ever consider doing a tutorial for them?

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  10. Thanks Shampagne! We must be thinking on the same brain wave, because I just tested out this design in blue last night and you're right, it makes adorable forget-me-nots! I'll have to snap some pictures of them. I am working on the pattern for this design - stay tuned!

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