Inspired by...Solar System

"Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels."
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline

The Solar System project is a 3rd grade right of passage around here. When Sport-o came home with the paper he announced that we needed to buy styrofoam balls. Um...no, son. If that is the example, then every kid in 3rd grade would be buying out the stock of styrofoam balls in a 50 mile radius. You will be different, I said. He railed against that, but ultimately I won{I am the mommy, after all}. We came up with the idea to use polymer clay to make the planets, complete with glow in the dark rings on Saturn and tiny silver beads strung on memory wire to simulate the stars. Now we have this project in a shoe box under his bed forever {I can't wait to bring it out to show his kids someday...or sell it on eBay for a premium!}.

So when Tiny Dancer brought the paper home, she naturally wanted to do the same as her brother. Um...no, daughter. Not only will you not get to use styrofoam balls, but you will not be using clay, either. She thought about and then her eyes lit up. "I know!" she exclaimed. "We'll make jewelry!" {I knew I raised her right *wink*}

This may be the most expensive solar system project ever. We went to Michael's and sought beads and components that were in the colors and relative sizes of the planets. Very surprising that there are all sorts of beads out there that really do mimic the pictures we have of these heavenly bodies. Of course, now I have a strand of large sponge coral Jupiteresque beads that need a home, and a great deal of rings that we didn't end up using for Saturn. But we sure had fun.

Believe it or not, Tiny Dancer did the majority of the work. Dad helped string a bit of Earth and the Sun, and I helped with the finishing,We were inspired to name our Heavenly Body Jewelry Collection by the lines of a song that played repeatedly on Sport-o's Blue's Clues boombox, by the green stripe-clad Steve. Following are the words and our inspired jewelry designs.

The Sun's a hot star

Mercury's hot, too

Venus is the brightest planet

Earth's home to me and you

Mars is the red one

Jupiter's most wide
Saturn's got those icy rings

Uranus spins on its side

Neptune's really windy

Pluto's really small
Well, we wanted to name the planets
And now we've named them all
~Blue's Clues boombox as sung by Steve

Since we were Inspired by... the jewels in our skies to create these works of wearable art, I thought this would be the perfect Inspired by... challenge to start out the new year, new decade.

How it works:

• Create a piece of jewelry (earrings, necklace or bracelet) using the inspiration of the entire Universe {think planets, asteroids, comets, constellations, Milky Way, etc. Be creative!}
  


• Post your picture to the Flickr account here.
  


• If you are so inspired {and I hope you will be!}, feel free to create as many pieces as you like for challenge and post to the Flickr account, but your name will only be entered once. (For extra BONUS ENTRY opportunities, see below). You have until 11:59 pm CST on Sunday, February 28th (revised the date to give you more time!) to post to the Flickr account. {Since the Universe is so large, I thought that I would give you more time to create your heavenly body designs!}
  


• Check back on Feburary 15th when I will announce the RANDOM winner of this Inspired by...challenge. Check back later this week for the prize...
  

In the description of your picture be sure to add the following:

• Title of the piece
  


• Short description of your inspiration
  


• Your Name
  


• Your email address
  


• Your blog or website

BONUS ENTRY OPPORTUNITIES:

• If you use an art bead in your piece {art bead is defined as a bead or component created by yourself or another artisan}, be sure to point that out in your description {with a link to the appropriate artisan’s website, shop or blog} and you will have TWO extra entries.
  


• If you blog, Facebook, Twitter, sky write or take out a billboard to publicize each week’s challenge, be sure to let me know {leave a comment on that week's challenge} and your name will be in for ONE extra entry.
  
  
• That's a total of FIVE ENTRIES!
  

Go and get inspired today!

Enjoy the day!