Living and Creating with Melissa Merrill

Art and Soul Whirlwind – Part 1

Wow, with a week long schedule of classes I am grateful that I had not gotten sick before, during or after the event. I was able to enjoy every minute of the inspiration and creativity flowing at every turn.
So for my first class I took Beverly Gilberts ‘Beads on Metal’. I’ve worked with metal and beads before but not together in this way. I made a pendant.

Then used a couple of the techniques I learned in Nina’s class to create a necklace for it.

So on the back I stamped in the saying ‘we don’t make mistakes, we just have learnings.’ Which just fit especially during this week of classes.

The wire wrapped ribbon and stringing beads that make up the necklace were techniques I learned in Nina’s class.
I am working on a pair of earrings to go with my pendant necklace, though not quite finished.

Days 2 and 3 I took Nina’s Step into the Story class. Oh my, loads of techniques she showed us. Great group of ladies, several of my charmster buddies and I also got to meet the lovely Cindy Dean. At these retreats it is great when you get to meet the people behind their blogs you read.
So back to my creation. With all the techniques I learned I went ahead and put several of them into my piece.

The Nina knot is all along the necklace, with a couple of bezels, a cocoon bead, honeysuckle bead, the pussy willow wrap, a few dangly pearls from my grandmas.

Then the focal piece I changed out the original bezel with this stamped copper piece I did which reads Live Your Best and then the key hanging from it is stamped with the word Life, from my Tim Holtz collection. So the words read ‘Live Your Best Life’.

More to come.