A Little Bird Called Hope

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all..."
~Emily Dickinson

Thank you to Lorelei for coordinating this fun little challenge.

The idea is simple...take the same {or similar} components from Michael's and create a piece of jewelry out of it.

If you watched me when I cook anything you would know that I don't follow recipes well. And I rarely read instructions. So I did what I normally do: substitute and replace some ingredients from the list. Here are the components that I picked up:


I didn't care for the carved wood cubes so I decided to bring in some wood rondelles that I had on hand. I chose a slightly different white chain, a little larger size. I fell in love with these little ceramic rondelles and used only the green ones to draw in the jade rounds, but these had a pop of red. Then I found these cool twisted/faceted red glass beads. When I saw the little bird in the Industrial Chic line, I knew I had to have her. And from my own stash I supplemented with red glass spacers and seed beads, green and black betel nut cubes, two vintage buttons, two antique copper plated branches I just got from Nunn Design. Oh, yeah... and a stunning flame-red egg that was custom made for me from Kelley's Beads. {It is my favorite of all the eggies she made for me!}

I have been wanting to use the egg for a long time. When I started messing around with the beads and pulled out the red, I just knew that I had to put that egg in there.

When I am designing I have a little trick that I use {maybe you use it, too?}. I call it "The Rule of Three." This is an actual rule that shows up in things like economics and medicine and mathematics. As a former English teacher we would use The Rule of Three to create an engaging pattern that had brevity. Bullet points with more than three bullets make your eyes glaze over. Think about how effective it is in storytelling... the Three Little Pigs or Goldilocks and the Three Bears or even the Three Musketeers... In writing groups of three are more satisfying and effective. Think the Three Stooges. Three is a magic number.

And since three is a mathematically a triangle, I like it even more {shout out to all the Tri Deltas out there!}

I call this necklace "The Little Bird Called Hope." Some patterns and the colors are all arranged by threes, sometimes in a triangle. See if you can spot it. Three white pearls. Three pops of red. Three flowers. I tried to balance everything so that the colors and patterns aren't right next to each other. That is a great way to play with asymmetry if you have never tried it before.

Here is where the hope comes in... Do you know Andrew Thornton? His writing grips my soul with its poetry and depth. He makes the most striking jewelry and has been published in many places. His family owns Green Girl Studios, components that are enchanting and magical. I have had the good fortune to meet him at the Bead & Button. I enjoy having a conversation with him. I never miss a chance to visit his blog. I love that he makes my mouth water seeing what he made for dinner, and it makes me chuckle picturing him hopping out on the side of a country road to admire a weed, and of course I really appreciate the thought that goes into each new creation he makes. Andrew brings joy to many of us. But he is going through something dark and terrible in the form of cancer. His bravery has touched my soul. But being a self-employed freelance artist means there is no such thing as a sick day. So I thought that one way I could help was to auction off this necklace in his honor and send him the proceeds.

If you would like to bid on this necklace, "The Little Bird Called Hope" please leave your name, email address and bid amount in the comments. I will leave this auction open for five days, ending at 11:59pm on Thursday, October 21st. And for anyone who bids and is not the highest bidder, I will draw a random name out of a hat and send a little something their way.

To be fair, I I will even send out a little something to a random winner of those that comment regardless of a bid. Please leave a comment, making sure that your email is turned on so that I can contact you.

Thank you for stopping by and thank you in advance for your bids, if you so choose.

Please go and check out all the great results from the challenge by clicking the links below:

Jewelry by Lorelei

Mary Harding

Hilary of Fryestyle

For My Sweet Daughter

My Life Under the Bus

Kristie of DreamSomeDesigns

Linda Landig

Copper Diem

Andrew Thornton

TyneBodenNecklaces

Raida of HavanaBeads

Erin of Treasuresfound - you are here!

Molly of BeautifullyBrokenMe

Beading by Malin de Koning

AuntieAnnie

Gr8Findings

Deborah M Purdy

Spirited Earth

My Critical eye

beads by breul

Beads for Busy Gals

Cynths Blog

Nayas Organized Chaos

For the Love of Beads

Jamberry Song

Peacock Fairy

Elysian Studio Art

Designs by Debi

Enjoy the day!