Featured Studio of the Week: RougeRiverBeads

Our Ajdjss Guild featured studio this week is Rouge River Beads aka as the mother and daughter team, Glenda and April. Glenda has been a crafter all her life. She admits that the need to create is in her blood. She loves sewing, quilting, folk art, and of course jewelry.

You know the saying " the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" well in many ways this is definitely true. Glenda's daughter April has been bitten by the same "bead bug" as her mom. Actually, they call it an addiction to beautiful beads--now, that's something we all know a lot about!

This very creative mother and daughter team work together to bring to all of us wonderful "finds" to "fuel" our creativity. This is very comforting to hear. Glenda and April are in the process of slowly adding more wonderful supplies for our creative imaginations.

Some of the supplies in their studio are a variety of findings like head pins, eye pins, bead caps, split rings, and ear wires. They also have the sweetest little flower beads, lovely faceted fire polished beads, cracked glass beads and more. Shopping in this studio is truely fun because of the variety of supplies to be found here.

You must really take a few moments to check out all that Rouge River Beads has to offer.

If you have any questions for Glenda or April please contact them through their studio:http://rougeriverbeads.artfire.com/

Also check out their blog for more interesting information:

http://rougeriverbeads.blogspot.com/

Featured Studio of the Week: SilverRiverJewelry

Our Ajdjss Guild featured studio Silver River Jewelry aka Sonja is a very passionate lady. Her family, the outdoors, reading, and of course designing jewelry are her most important passions.

Sonja really loves designing jewelry. The entire process of creating pieces of jewelry is quite fascinating to her. Sonja feels that finding the perfect combination of stones or beads is just like a treasure hunt. The manipulation of metal using a hammer and fire is very exciting to her. When she digs an ordinary stone out of the ground and opens it to find true beauty inside it is so really satisfying to her.

Sonja's jewelry designs are made using a number of different techniques. She strings, wire wraps, does metal simthing, and cuts stones. Wow--she does it all and in such a beautiful and skillful way too!

Sonja's creations are elegant, affordable, very beautifully made with a touch of whimsy. She makes a variety of pieces ranging from pendants, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, pins and brooches, rings, even belt buckles.

Custom orders are always welcome by this very talented jewelry artisan.

You must visit her studio to see the lovely variety of designs and pieces she has created.

If you have any questions please contact Sonja through her studio: http://silverriverjewelry.artfire.com/

Ajdjss Guild July Blog Giveaway

July 1st at 11:59PM the Ajdjss Guild's 2nd Blog Giveaway begins--And this time it's all about the color Green!!!
Green is the color of nature, fertility, life. Grass green is the most restful color. Green symbolizes self-respect and well being. Green is the color of balance. It also means learning, growth and harmony. Green is a safe color, if you don't know what color to use anywhere use green. Green is favored by well balanced people. Green symbolizes the master healer and the life force. It often symbolizes money. It was believed green was healing for the eyes. Egyptians wore green eyeliner. Green eyeshades are still used. You should eat raw green foods for good health.

Okay so here goes:

1.Nine Guild Studios--9 green items--

2.Visit each studio with the special green item. If the item is a piece of jewelry describe the outfit in detail what you would wear with it. If the item is a jewelry supply piece then describe in detail what you would make with it.

3.Come back to our blog and leave your comment and the following: Studio name, name of green item, your name, your email address so we can contact you if you are the winner.---
You receive one entry for the above mentioned info.---
You receive another entry if you have a blog and you mention this giveaway on your blog with a link directly to our blog--must include your blog link so we can check it.---
You don't have a blog? Promote the item on twitter, facebook, google, thisnext.com etc--must include your link to the promotion and receive another enry.---
Buy one of the items and get 5 more entries---must include the info about order for us to check. The "bounty" for this giveaway will be 3 items from our guild.

Prize 1) Is a beautiful ring donated by NothingbutString - Emily

Prize 2) Very Beautiful Earrings by Jsmaz - Jeni Prize 3) Last but not least this wonderful bracelet by Gemkitty75 - KathyTo view the items click on each name.
1. April
2. Heather
3. Bonnie
4. Jeni
5. April
6. Cindy
7. Amy
8. Marissa
9. Margo

All participants who have entered the correct information from above will be placed in a pool using random integer generator.
You can contact me with all your info by clicking on Beadlady5 at the left side of this page or simply including all your info in your comment below.
GOT IT? Now let's Rock "Green !" Good Luck to all. Contest ends July 19th at 12:00 Midnight.

The Ajdjss Guild Earring Challenge

Our first guild challenge was a success not to mention alot of fun. We had 10 different antique brass and turquoise "funky" earrings entered in this challenge and each one was a unique, original, creative, and funky design. Voters did not have an easy time in picking just one favorite. But, after some agony to decide voters came through and were able to pick their favorite funky pair of earrings.

The tally was made for the voting and we came up with the most voted for earrings, the very close 2nd most voted for earrings, and a tie for the 3rd most voted earrings.

The most voted pair of earrings was created by Jeweljunke "the awesome masks", the close 2nd most voted pair of earrings were created by JSmaz "the awesome filigree wrapped turquoise drops", and the tie for the 3rd most voted pair of earrings were created by Gemkitty " the awesome daisy chandeliers" and by Beadlady5 "the awesome etched dangling hoops with a rose and dragonfly charms".

Kudos to all the jewelry designers for creating such fabulous funky earrings for this challenge.

And a special congratulations to Jeweljunke, Jsmaz, Gemkitty, and Beadlady5.

Each of the studios with the most voted earrings will receive a special gift certificate for jewelry supplies graciously donated by our own guild supply shops: SupplyCloset, StarlightSilver, RougeRiverBeads, and RougeRiverBeads.

In short: You guys Rock like crazy!!!

Featured Studio of the Week: popnicute

This week's Ajdjss Guild featured studio of the week is "popnicute" aka Kay. Kay has been an arts and crafts fanatic since she was a little girl. She has experimented with many different art forms during her "growing up" years. This love of art led her to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Graphic Design. Well, kudos to you Kay!

Kays says that jewelry has always fascinated her. When she wears a piece of jewelry it has to be something she feels is really unique. In fact, she often makes a piece of jewelry that is so very unique just to be much different than anyone else. I guess she has a little bit of the "rebel" in her.

Kay's jewelry techniques run the full gamet from stringing, paper clay, fabrics to quite recently wire wrapping. However, it seems that wire wrapping has become a great passion for her. She is so passionate about wire wrapping that this technique is what will be dominating the designs that appear in her studio today and in the future.

Kay's talents do not just revolve around making jewelry alone. She seems to be quite a good teacher and has made some great tutorials for others to learn how to make fabric bracelets and a special wire wrapped toggle. When you visit her studio you will find these interesting tutorials for sale along with her unique and fabulous jewelry creations.

Kay invites you to visit her etsy shop: http://popnicute.etsy.com/ and also to view her complete jewelry collection on Flickr.com and deviantArt.com

She also has a jewelry blog: http://kaysommers.blogspot.com/ that she invites you to follow.

Any questions about popnicute and her work? Please contact here through her studio:

http://popnicute.artfire.com/

Ajdjss Guild Challenge

The Ajdjss Guild placed a challenge to all artfire jewelry designers to create the funkiest pair of antique brass and turquoise earrings that they can.
Well, this challenge ran for 3 full days and now has ended. At this time voting for the funkiest entry is happening until June 28th at midnight, EST.
Join in the fun and cast your vote on this thread:
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Chatterbox&file=viewtopic&forum=11&topic=13392

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and vote for your favorite pair of earrings.
ta, ta for now---Margo aka Beadlady5