Sales Continue through the end of the year!!!

All items in my Artfire Studio (including lots of new) are still marked down 15% plus free shipping.

Also...most items in my Etsy Shop are still marked down 30% or more.

Here are a few of the newly listed items from Artfire.

Kristi
http://dreamsome.etsy.com/
http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

Michael's Challenge Blog Hop

Another great Michael's Challenge, the brainchild of Lorelei Eurto. This is the second challenge I've participated in and I have to say this one was a struggle for me. I sat down numerous times and must have created 5-6 incarnations until almost at the last minute I finally found the design I was happy with.

This is entirely put together with wirework which I don't think I've ever done before. I guess that's why they call it a challenge eh!

Here is my final Necklace and coordinating Earrings using the beads chosen by Lorelei and my addition of colorful Resin Rings from ArtBeads and absolutely wonderful Lampwork Beads by Pinocean on Etsy. I've been coveting those cute little beads for some time and I was not disappointed!

Now it's time to HOP along to the other blogs

 to see what they've whipped up with the same ingredients, have fun!!!

http://lorelei1141.blogspot.com/

http://silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com/

http://blog.elysianstudiosart.com/

http://threeredbeads.blogspot.com/

http://starcitystory.blogspot.com/

http://erinsiegeljewelry.blogspot.com/

http://www.thistlefarmarts.blogspot.com/

http://therabbitmuse.blogspot.com/

http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/

http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com/ that's me!!!

http://rosebud101-fortheloveofbeads.blogspot.com/

http://jenjuddrocks.blogspot.com/

http://formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

http://www.mylifeunderthebus.typepad.com/

http://deborahmpurdy.blogspot.com/

http://beadhappytoday.blogspot.com/

http://pinkicejewels.blogspot.com/

http://craftyhope.blogspot.com/

http://gr8findings.wordpress.com/

http://tropicbeads.blogspot.com/

http://melissaruth.com/blog/

http://maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com/

http://beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com/

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

 

LMAJ December Call to Create

This is my entry in to Love My Art Jewelry Blog's December Call to Create challenge.

This one was a bit of a challenge, at least I thought it would be. I had trouble at first visualizing some of these colors together but when I looked through my bead stash I discovered they actually play quite well together. Just spashing some of the bright colors in with the more muted and soft gray's and neutrals and there you have it. The clincher was when I received that gorgeous Pink Snowflake Pendant from winchell-clayworks.com which I actually won in a Beads of Clay Blog giveaway recently, along with several other items that I will share in a future post. I knew right away this was what I needed for the finishing touch! I hope you agree!

Thanks for looking!

Kristi
http://dreamsome.etsy.com/
http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

Art Bead Scene December Challenge

Here is my entry in to the December Challenge at the Art Bead Scene Blog.

As soon as I saw the inspiration I knew I wanted to use this Dragon Fly pendant. This was a hand me down piece in a bag of destash I purchased a few years ago and he came to me with this gorgeous green patina. I considered Enameling him but couldn't bring myself to touch his naturalness.

The accompanying necklace has lampwork by Kelley's Beads, lovely faceted orange Carnelian Nuggets, green Freshwater Pearls, fun wood rectangles, antique brass chain and a handmade Copper clasp.
 
Kristi
http://dreamsome.etsy.com/
http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign
 

Fold Forming and Enameling Day 2

My oh my what a fantastic day, the end of a weekend full of fun and learning with friends...the very best kind!

Few words in this post, the pictures tell the story. Enjoy!!

These last couple of pieces below are from a bag of destash I bought long ago, I have no idea what metal they are but I can enamel them, that's what counts. I have lots more to play with too!!

And a picture of almost everything I did this weekend!

Last but not least, out inspiration!!!  Megan had boxes of copper pieces to show us and this is only part of it strewn across the table, pretty awesome huh?



And some individual shots of Megan's work.

THANKS!!

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign



Fold Forming and Enameling Day 1

I just finished day 1 of a great class with Nancy Megan Corwin, you can call her Megan at The Ranch.

I learned to fold form these awesome leaves out of copper and did a little bit of enameling. We'll do more enameling tomorrow and actually probably more fold forming too. So much fun!!

Here's a grouping of the leaves I made, the one in front that is more red than the others has been torch fired. I've really been wanting to do more enameling and I think this class will build my confidence quite a bit so hopefully I'll will!!

Not my best photography effort but it's been a long (and very fun) day. I'll try to get photos of the work of some of the other students too, some beautiful stuff!

I'm really looking forward to trying enameling on some of my copper clay work!!!

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

New Michaels Challenge

Woohoo, here comes another Michaels Challenge. I went to Michaels during my very short lunch yesterday, I've never seen the lines quite that long before. I mean...they are always long, like 5 people is typical but yesterday there must have been 20 people (at least) in 2 lines. That's 20 people in each line, not 20 total. Everybody was piled on top of each other, it was actually difficult to find the end. Needless to say I was a few minutes late getting back.

Good news is, they had all the beads for the new challenge started on Lorelei's Blog. I couldn't find the chain or the toggle clasp but I think I got the most important part. They did have my favorite linked chain in stock so I loaded up on that.

So here we go, here are the beads I purchased yesterday, now I have to decide what color I'm going to add.

Peacock Freshwater Pearls, Faceted Mother of Pearl Ovals,

 Transparent Glass with Silver Edges,

 and Chunky Black Quartz Nuggets.

Here's some pretty soft blue beads.

Or maybe a deeper Peacock Blue Kiwi Stone?

  

Then there's awesome Faceted Pearls in deep Red.

And Red-Orange Faceted Carnelian Rounds.

Yellow Faceted Mother of Pearl Rounds.

Love these faceted Carnelian Nuggets in Orange!

Or I might end up with something completely different. What do you think?

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign