Build A Line Challenge from B'sue Boutiques, Alexandra Sefton Part 1

¡Hola! I'm Alexandra Sefton of Imaginary Jewelry and Altered Art, and I'm tickled pink to share with you the first Blog Hop of the Build A Line Challenge from B'sue Boutiques.  Here in Part #1, I get to reveal my secret theme for the Challenge and tell you a bit about myself and why I chose to do this 3 month master class with 57 other wonderful jewelry artists.

At the end of the 3 months, and in the 3rd Blog Hop, we will get to reveal the 5 finished pieces of our new line!  Before I tell you about my theme, here's a bit about me:  my career was teaching 5th-6th grade and then High School Spanish, but now that I'm retired I finally get to find myself and my passion, which is creating beautiful jewelry and altered art pieces.  It seems I'm a student now, and there's no end of fun, new friendships to be found, and  new things to learn.  Most of what I've learned about life, I've learned from my cats (LOL).  Many wonderful fur buckets have come and gone through the years, but here is my current creative staff: the big black and white guy is Edward ScissorPaws and he's a big talker and purrer.  The little one is Moki, and the green one is Freddie my 8 armed muse!

When you go to my Etsy shop you'll find that I LOVE colors!  I could eat and drink them all day and all night.  Most of my jewelry is made with artisan lampwork glass and polymer clay, lots of crystal bling, Czech glass, and  other elements.  Here are some favorite things I've made, including my specialty: cha cha dangle bracelets.

So--my theme is: Time to Imagine--Nature.  With this new Challenge, I wanted to create a metal nature line that would incorporate different metals, lots of birds, leaves, flowers, trees, squirrels, foxes and so on.  My greatest passion, at the root of my being, is the natural world God has created for us.  I love to walk, imagine and explore the outdoors, and see all the plants, flowers and wildlife. Here are some of the wonderful components, mostly from B'sue Boutiques, that I might
be using. (www.bsueboutiques.com) I hope this line will make people happy and want to fly with the birds!  Thanks for reading!  <3



Visit the links below to see all the wonderful people participating in the blog hop:

Brenda Sue Lansdowne, B'sue Boutiques : Jewelry Making Outside the Box

Marcia Tuzzolino : Aurora Designs

Jann Tague : Clever Designs by Jann

Judy King : Apt to Wander Studio

Linzi Alford : Magpie in the Sky, Spoil Heap Tales

Cynthia Wainscott : Exotic Peru

Carole Carlson : Beadsophisticate

Lynn Stinten : Dragonzwench

Marica Zammit : Bead Lovelies

Catherine Shattuck : VRBrose

Michaele Collie : The Vintage Gem

Mary Craig : Jewelry Alchemy

Lee Koopman : Strega Jewelry

Erin Whitacre : Shattered Time Jewelry

Monica Casady : MJCasady Copper Works

Leila West : Leila Nicole Designs

Cindy Peterson : Howling Dog Jewelry

Leila Belcher : Leila Bee Designs

Gloria Allen : Wings and Beads

Pamela Anger : Novegatti Designs

Tammy Adams : Paisley Lizard

Lynda O'Mara : LOmara Creative

Elizabeth Hildreth : MadScientistsDesigns

Dana Hickey : Wind Dancer Studios

Janet Calardo : Jan Lea Designs

Maria Clark : Sweet Willow Designs

Lori Beekman : B. Accessorized

Jennifer Kroeger : Relic Charm

Amy Jorgensen : Hoarder's Corner

Robin Reed : Artistry: Handcrafted Bead Designs

Ingrid Anderson : Lilis Gems

Louise O'Shields : Desire Divine Jewels

Susan Killam : Killam Creative

Mary Katherine Deis : The Rose Sword: Artisan and Vintage Collectible Jewelry

Nike Bottalico : Nike Bottalico

Susan Bowerman : Woodside Wireworks

Kristy Le : Kristy Le Trendy Jewelry Designs

Jan Peters : Stylized Vintage

Mitzie Crider : Needful Luxuries Occasional Blog

Gina Hockett : Freestyle Elements

Linda Anderson : From the Bead Board

Alexandra Sefton : Imaginary Jewelry and Altered Art

Melida Boman : The Journey of Pens and Things

Teresa Shurter : TreeZ's Treasurs

Melissa Latimer : Smithed Up

Renee Hong : Fine and Dandy Jewelry and Art

Nadine Edris : Moondance Jewelry

Lori Meyer : Parisienne Girl

Jennifer Merrill Williams : Artists of All Stripes

Denise Lussier Poirier : Jewelry by Denise

Renee Allen : Small Stuff Design

Autumn Adams : Autumn Dawns

Elizabeth Owens : 1996 Shabby Lane

Kat BarronMiller : Midnight Kat Productions Art Jewelry

Sandra Ballard : Mama San's Mojo

Coral Law : ab:coraldesign

In Like Flynn--whoever he was!

Well, I took the plunge and now am officially in the B'sue Boutiques Build a Line Challenge with 57 other excited, looney folks!!  Each one of us has come up with a theme and will be building a line of jewelry with a distinctive style all our own to go with that theme.  Right now it's all very hush hush--we don't even know what the other participants are doing!  But we are having our first Blog Hop on Jan. 23!  I'm so excited!  I've never had a blog before and never done a Blog Hop and they sound like so much fun.  There will be more info forthcoming and you will be able to follow our hop along with us.  Until next time--Live large and have fun!

If you want to see more, visit her wonderful shop or check her out on facebook!

My Crazy Beadin' Cha Cha Life

So how did I get started beading and making jewelry and living the crazy chaotic crafter's life?

First you'd have to know that I am ALL ABOUT COLOR.  I eat it and drink it and can't get enough of it.  My house is a chaotic mess of colorful things  and I usually wear bright colors.  Lime green is my favorite since I was little, but right up there is bright turquoise, fuchsia, bright yellow, reddish purple, and the list goes on and on.

So, 50 centuries ago when I was in elementary school, I used to have groups of imaginary friends with whom I played--my fave group being the pirates.  Somehow I had some shanks of seed beads and would bury my treasure in the neighbor's yard!  The short version is that I always wanted to be creative but couldn't find my niche.  (More on my forays into other crafts in another blog.)  A few years ago I realized that at each craft show I went to, I stopped at EVERY jewelry booth.  One time in Estes Park I bought a millefiori necklace and started thinking...What if I could make my own jewelry in just the colors I love?  So I fell out of my comfort zone, took a class at one of my fave local bead shops, Alley Cat Beads, and lo and behold....I found I was successful.  I completed some earrings, a bracelet and a necklace and I was in love with the process!

I showed some of my first things to people at work and they were very nice but as I look back at those things, they were terrible!  But I have experimented, and worked and learned and hope that at this ripe old age, I still have many years of hand and eye co-ordination left to keep creating.  There is such a thrill in going to my magic room, messing around with my beads and coming up with an object of beauty. I found that I love making multi-colored cha cha bracelets as in the above photos, love the rustle of all the dangles as you wear them, and love how pretty they are.  They take a ridiculous amount of time to make, most have 60-80 hand wire-wrapped dangles.  In an up-coming blog I''ll write more about my love of cha chas--and I don't even know how to dance!!

In 2011, I started my etsy shop selling my creations and have done several craft shows. (www.wilywolverine.etsy.com)  In up-coming blogs I'll talk about why "wilywolverine" and why
"Imaginary Jewelry".

Right now, I am super excited to start the Brenda Sue Boutiques Build A Line Challenge.  You can look for more info here on that in days and weeks to come, but I hope to be creating many new and wonderful things!

So Live Large and Have Fun!  :):)

Hello all you wonderful friends, beaders, artists, and everyone out there and Happy New Year!  It certainly is flying time again--great visual imaging!  Time to fly into a new year full of happy (we hope) surprises.  Time to open the door and fall out of our comfort zones.  Time to let our spirits soar.

This year brings me a HUGE challenge--way far out of my comfort zone and very exciting!  No, it's not the challenge of learning not to use so many exclamation marks!  And not the challenge of cleaning up the house or even my magic room where I create in a tiny space because every possible surface (tables, shelves, walls, floor--you get the picture...)  is covered with stuff, stuff and more stuff for the over-stuffed.

It's the B'Sue Boutiques Build a Line Challenge!  My next blog post will have a photo and tell you more details.  But we have 3 months to work with Brenda Sue Lansdowne and the incredible people at B'sue Boutiques Creative Group to learn branding and building a product line to promote our creations and learn how to get the word out to more people about how much fun it is!  I can't reveal yet what I'll be creating--it's a secret for now-- but I will be blogging about it along the way and sharing lots of fun things with you, including how I got into this crazy life in the first place!

As time flies by, I will also be introducing you to some favorite lampwork glass, polymer clay and jewelry designers, and creators, in case you hadn't seen their work or would like to know more about it. And I'll be talking about time and flies--I mean flying and lots of other fun stuff. So stay tuned.  May you all live large and fly high to your dreams!   TTFN   <3