Nature Inspired Jewelry - Stone Cottage Adventures

Hello! My name is Marci.  I am the Master Mind of  Stone Cottage Adventures .  ;-)

Our home is an old rock farmhouse built in the 1930s. There are two greenhouses, a vegetable garden, herbs, several flower beds, lots of hobbies and too many pets. Thankfully, our neighbors love us!  They say being our neighbor is like living next door to Old MacDonald and Martha Stewart!

It is such an honor to guest post for Inspiration Cafe !  I love the diversity of their creative posts!  The question "What inspires you?"  is frequently asked at  Inspiration Cafe . 

I am inspired by my heritage and the craftsmanship of my Ozark Mountains.  Many of these skills are taught at  Ozark Folkways .  You might enjoy this post about it .

 Have you met my gourd decorating teacher, Linda Ashmore ?  

I've written about her before  here !

  Let me show you why she is the teacher!  
Here are some of her creations!

She participates in the Silver Dollar City Harvest Festival and 

also has space at a shop in Eureka Springs.

This group of spectacular gourds are available at 

Ozark Folkways  near Winslow, Arkansas.

Today's class focused on jewelry made from gourd scraps 
and an interesting paint technique.

For the paint, Linda layered glops and sputters of paint on parchment paper.  Then she swirled this hodge podge of paint with a broken paint brush, just enough to blur any harsh lines.  The paint is allowed to dry a couple of days.

The dried paint is then peeled from the parchment paper.  It's pliable and can be cut with scissors, similar to wallpaper.  Have you ever seen anything like it?!

Linda also brought a table full of doo dads!  

With her expert direction, we went to work!

Classmate Rebecca created this wonderful flower!  She kept her gourd project mostly natural with just a touch of bling.  It looks great against her red sweater!

She plans to wear it as a pin, but the glue was not yet dry!

I was able to finish three pieces. The one on the left 

incorporates turquoise and copper wire.

Gourds have naturally occurring freckles and dimples.  The round piece had an interesting heart shaped blemish in the center, so I painted it purple.  Then noticed a second, smaller heart.  So it was painted, too.  Next, I glued the dried paint wallpaper around the edges to frame the hearts.  That blurring of color is just fascinating to me.

 For the square piece, I simply layered the dried paint wallpaper for an interesting effect.  Using Loctite, pin clasps were glued to the back of each gourd scrap.

How you would style these jewelry pieces?

Spending time with Linda is always a treat!  While this class was not at all what I was expecting, it certainly brought new ideas, which brings new sources of inspiration! 

What inspires you?  I'd love to hear all about it!

;-)  -Marci