Finished Projects for Humblebeads Book-Along Challenge

Beautiful Elements by Heather Powers

During the month of March, Heather Powers of Humblebeads is hosting a book-along challenge based on using her latest book Beautiful Elements. The challenge is to create a piece of jewelry inspired by a project or technique in Powers book. Entries can be submitted until March 25th on the Humblebeads VIP facebook page. She will randomly picked winners from all the entries on March 26th. Prizes include a $100 and a $50 gift certificate from Humblebeads.com.

Beautiful Elements is a mixed-materials jewelry-making project and technique book that teaches simple techniques using wire, metal, and polymer clay to enhance and personalize beaded jewelry. I am working my way through Beautiful Elements and I shared some of what I learned and made in a previous blog. Now I want to share what I completed for this challenge.

acorn headpins by BayMoonDesign

I made a number of these polymer clay acorn headpins by following the directions in the book.  I mixed my own version of the acorn color.  I didn't have the Spanish moss that Heather recommended but I had an emerald green color and yellowish green.  Using the photo of the acorn in the book, I created my version of the green color and I used bronze PearlEx that I had on hand for the caps of the acorn.  I used 2 of them along with some Czech glass flowers to make earrings.  I absolutely love how easy it was to wrap the acorn headpins for these earring. I also love the look of the dark annealed steel wire on the headpins.

Beginnings of Acorn earrings by BayMoonDesign

I then added some sterling silver ear wires that I made from directions in the book.

Acorn Earrings by BayMoonDesign

Once again I used the  dark annealed steel wire for making the wreaths described in  Heather's book.  I made the headpins and turned them into the acorn earring above by following the directions in the book.

Copper Oak Leaf and Acorn Pendant on Wreath by BayMoonDesign

I also used the dark annealed steel wire to make the wreath for the necklace pictured above.  Once again the directions are in the book. You can see I used some more of the acorn headpins and turned them into charms. There are patterns in the book for use with metal.  I used the oak leaf pattern from the book and copper to make the oak leaf that I added along with a Czech glass leaf.  I used gunmetal chain and clasp and added a Czech glass leaf to give the neckline some interest.

Acorn and Leaf Necklace by  BayMoonDesign

I am pleased that I have been able to add to my skills with this book.  I hope you will join the challenge or stop by the Humblebeads VIP facebook page to see what others have created.  I decided to enter my necklace in the challenge.