Monday, June 27, 2011

Muffin Tin Challenge -- Completed!

Despite being too busy to bead this weekend, I completed the Muffin Tin Challenge today! My project tally: 5 necklaces, 4 pairs of earrings, 2 hair sticks, and a bracelet. And by the way, do you know how hard it is to fit a dozen pieces of jewelry (some of them quite large) into one photo?

I didn't quite stick perfectly to what I put in my muffin tin. For the big pair of earrings, I had picked out some malachite tear drops, but they didn't fit on the copper headpins! For the olive dragon necklace, I didn't have quite enough beads to make it long enough, so I added some bronze pearls to what I had picked out, and I also changed my mind on what style of clasp to use. And for the big dzi bead necklace, the focal was more red than I thought when I looked more closely, so in addition to the tiger's eye I had planned to use, I also used some red tiger's eye, which was actually in my tin because I used it for the key hairstick.

This was a great challenge. Picking out the beads for a dozen projects in one afternoon allowed me to sit down and create lots of jewelry at once without constantly interrupting myself to dig around in my collection for just the right beads. And it also took a way a lot of wasted time on decision making. Instead of wondering what I should make, I knew that I had to make something that was already in the tin, so I just sat down and did it. I'm pretty sure I'll do this again, even without a contest to urge me on. Thank you Art Bead Scene for turning me on to this idea.

17 comments:

  1. Your work is amazing. It looks like it would be right at home in a Gallery!
    Cilla
    www.tellyourgirlfriends.com

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  2. great work and color palette -)

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  3. This was an awesome challenge. I love how the shortened time frame and the compartments forced us all to focus.
    Enjoy the day!
    Erin

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  4. Sounds like you had a lot of fun with that challenge and look at all of the amazing work you did! Good for you, chica. =)

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  5. That's a beautiful bunch of jewelry you've got there. The green is so very yummy. Great work.

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  6. It was a great challenge, right? Way to go!!

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  7. I plan to challenge myself this way again too. Great work.

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  8. I only made it to ten So Yahoooo for you and yes it is very hard to photograph all of them in one place!

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  9. Wow! Lots of comments! I'll break this down into a few messages :)

    Thank you, Cilla! That's very kind :)

    Thank you, Steufel! I do tend to mostly work in earth colors... Had to throw a blue and black necklace in to break up all the green and brown. Ha ha!

    Erin, I'm so with you on that! It's such a brilliantly simple idea, I'm so glad to have it at my disposal now.

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  10. Thank you, Athena! It is really satisfying to look at that big pile of jewelry and realize that I made it all in just a few days :)

    CraftyHope, green is my favorite color! If you want to see more just check out almost any random post with new jewelry in it. LOL.

    Kate, such a great challenge! So glad I did it :)

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  11. Linda, you should definitely do it! It's so much fun and a great way to get a lot of quicker projects planned out.

    Under the Bus, ten is still pretty good! :D If I'd known that Heather was accepting any entry that had completed at least half of their projects, I might not have finished yesterday. I had to dig all over to find a replacement for the malachite tear drops that didn't work in the earrings.

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  12. You'd never guess that you didn't have enough time to bead this weekend. It was fun, though, wasn't it? Very nice work!

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  13. Bobbie, it was a lot of fun! Having all the beads already picked out made it so easy to just sit down for an hour or two and make a LOT of jewelry :)

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  14. I love all of the black beads you used- sometimes you just don't see enough black! Your pieces look great!

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  15. (Still hopping like mad for this challenge...busy, busy, what can I say ;)

    Oh, goodness, I love what you've created from your muffin tin! Those earrings are cool, as are the rest of your things. But those hair sticks!! *LOVE*!

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  16. Thank you, Erin! I use a LOT of black. The amount of black beading thread and black size 11 seed beads I go through is ridiculous, and I'm always looking for nice shapes of black beads to use in my stringing. I started out making a lot of Gothic designs and even now I still like to make things a little dark and romantic :)

    Holly, don't feel bad, I haven't even begun to hop! Having a busy, busy week and it's been too hot to think! But thank you, and by the way, hairsticks are the easiest thing in the world to make, if you find some nice sticks that are drilled horizontally! Such a fun way to use up those single beads leftover from strands, too.

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  17. Great work on the challenge. I love the variety of your projects. And that is a pretty good group photo.

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