Monthly Challenge January 2014

If you are here for Grow your blog party please visit here .

I have been making myself busy with some challenges every month. And this challenge is one of them. The rules about this challenge is very simple, we need to create something based on the picture inspiration the challenge creator choose. It does not have to be a jewelry, it can be anything , like a bag, crochet etc. The main idea of this challenge is to challenge ourself to be more productive every month. The Creator of this challenge is a creative lady from Indonesia her name is Lili Krist. She own an online store which is specialize in handmade Java beads. You can visit her store here.

For the first challenge she chose this picture below. Before sunrise in Atlantic ocean.

Photographed by  Philippe Brunoro 

When I saw this picture above I knew right away that I have at least one focal beads that I am going to use. A couple month ago I tried to make some Faux Paua shell from Polymer Clay. And finally I got a chance to use this one of these Faux Paua wannabe :-D.

I choose this marquis shaped beads made from polymer clay for my focal, and added some soutache braid and some imitation glass pearls and also some seed beads.
And here it is my entry for this challenge.

The Atlantic Pin

Here is another picture with slightly different angle :-D

Thanks for visiting my blog and if want to see another participant creation you can visit them here.

Grow Your Blog

Welcome to my "Grow Your Blog Party" everyone !!!

I am so happy when I read about this event. Grow Your Blog was designed by Vicki to bring more readers and Followers to our blog. I guess this is what I need to invite more friends to visit my little blog. I am just started this blog no more than a year ago and this blog mostly about my hobby and my passion which is Handmade Jewelry making.

Let me start by introducing myself to all of you.
My name is Asri. I am Indonesian who is now living in Indiana,USA, far away from my home country.
Since I was a little girl I always been a crafty person. I started with making my own clothes *it was a simple one, a skirt* at age 15.
My interest in making clothes was because my mom was a seamstress, well she is still a seamstress right now. And I grew watching and helping her with her work. So she inspired me a lots.
And then I finally decided to learned to make embroidery instead of going to college, so in my early twenties I am working with my mom in our small boutique in Blora,Central Java Indonesia.
These picture below are my embroidery I have made a few years ago.

After married and then have a baby, I moved to United States for my husband Master and Phd degrees. And from that moment, my interest on crafting has changed. Since I could not bring my embroidery machine with me, I started to find another hobby to fill my crafty mind. I end up made a lots of cross stiched projects during my stay in the US. Until we moved back to my home country Indonesia.

I started making jewelries after a nice young lady in Craft store in Indonesia taught me How to make a headpins. It was very popular item in Indonesia back then. And from that moment, I guess I kinda starting to like making jewelry. I started to make my own  necklaces, earings and bracelets. And starting to sell them.

My pins/brooches I have made three years ago

It was my favourite brooch 

In 2012 my  family got another chance to stay in United States. This time I fallen in love with seed beads. I made some bracelets using only seed beads. It was time consuming, but I loved it.

And I also started bloging and documenting my work, so in my blog, you will see lots of story, about challenges I have joined or some new jewelry I have made. I also try playing with new media such as polymer clay and soutache braid. And it is fun to mix them in one design, you can see some of them here. And if you want to see some of my polymer clay beads collections you can see here My polymer clay applique beads. 

For this event I am giving away this lovely Black and Yellow pendant/pin.  Anybody have a chance to enter, just leave a comment and give a Like in my page.Asribeadswork Facebook Page. One winner will randomly selected and I will announce the winner on February 15th 2014. And please write your name and email address so I can contact you if you win. 

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you like it :-D. Please head over to Vicki's blog to check out another almost 600 participants. Woooww

PS: Just found out that I have not put my Follower button until today, please do follow me if you like.

Soutache Jewelry with Polymer Clay Cabochons

Today, I am going to share my handmade jewelry made of Polymer clay as the focal and embroiederd with soutache braid and seed beads. It was fun to create my own focal beads, I can choose which color we wanted. And I am really enjoying every process to make these jewelry.

Some of my collection here are already sold and some still available in my shop here , but some of them I keep for myself :-D.

Red and white polymer clay and soutache pendant

Winter Blue Necklace and earing

Black, White and Grey Soutache necklace

I made this necklace for December Challenge in OOTB

Pink and Black pendant

Gardenia Necklace

Sweet orange

Breast Cancer Awareness Brooch

Black and Yellow Brooch/Pendant

Pink and Purple with Black soutache Pin

Orange in green Necklace

I made this necklace for my gift swap partner in Bead soup cafe Facebook group  Kelly Hosford Patterson .

Winter Forest # The 11th Non Blogger & Blogger Challenge

This is my second challenge for Non Blogger & Blogger Challenge in Bead Soup Cafe Facebook Group. The theme for this time is Winter Forest, and hosted by Dini Bruinsma. She was the winner of the 10th Non Blogger & Blogger Challenge. Dini choose a picture for our inspiration for this challenge, and guess what??. She painted the picture by herself.

Painted by Dini Bruinsma

After I saw the painting, I decided to make these jewelry sets of necklace and earings. At first, I only made some Cabochon made of Polymer clay with Winter in the forest in my mind. And finally, I choose this cabochon with flowers applique  as a focal for my necklace. And off course I also made some beads with flower appliqueto go along with the cabochon.

Winter Flower in the Forest

Materials:

Polymer Clay Cabochon

Polymer clay beads

Soutache braid

Gunmetal wire

Vintaj chains

Seed beads

Please visit here for another participant creation.

My Polymer Clay Cabochons with applique

Yaaaayyy...
Finally I got "ME" time back.

My daughter started her regular time for school yesterday. And now, I can back to my project and some postponed order. Also starting to mark  my calendar for some challenge I have signed up.
During winter break, I managed to make some beads for my stash. I think, I am going to share with you today. I love using Cabochon as my focal point, and I will make some embroidery around them. Sometimes, I used seed beads, but I often combined that with soutache braid.
Here are some of my Cabochons collections.

I made this bead after I saw a tree covered in fresh snow.

These sets of cabochon and two round beads, are also inspired by winter.

Still inspired by winter

I just love to put some falling snow in my beads :-)

I guess these sets more like Spring color to me :-D
I will share my finished jewelry sometime soon. Have a nice day...

Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year!!!

I hope it's not too late to say that. I know I am little bit behind updating my blog. My daughter occupied my laptop since her winter break, it was started 3 weeks ago :-D. I think she is going to need her personal laptop soon :-D.
It has been crazy weather around here in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. We had frigid temperature below average winter temperature. It was about -17 F or -38 with wind chill. And again, my daughter school has been closed for tree days. She got 3 additional break from school. Which is good, because we can stay warm inside the apartment.

Notre Dame main building

I took the picture above 3 days ago, before the blizzard. It was still quite warm to walked around the campus. And until today, we still snuggled up inside the apartment, to keep ourself warm  :-D. Well, school still closed.