April Design Challenge & Blog Hop

It's Reveal Time! If you follow us on  Instagram  or Facebook, you've seen a few updates on this project for Art Elements' April Challenge. This is my 2nd participation and I'm lovin' the group of artists over there, they are so talented & friendly! I'm going to continue these challenges and you can too. Watch for a new blog post on March 1st (or 2nd...). The Blog Hop links are at the end of this post. Warning: please heed suggestion made by AE below about grabbing a beverage :) ...

This month's theme was Horses and the first (ok, second) idea that I had was 💡Seahorse💡. These little sea creatures fascinate me, and I have lots of  'inspiration' photos that I've gathered the last few years so thought 'why not'. Copper is my go-to wire and I think the blues & greens look cool with copper. Have you noticed that we love alliterations here?

If you know me, you know I don't like too many rules, so this is my liberally interpreted original design. That's what ART is all about isn't it?
 I chose Abalone for the tum-tum and these are 2-sided so they can be turned to show their best face 😀. It's about the choices kids. Tiny Aventurine rounds are wired in a figure 8 pattern to give some texture and 3 Sunstones act as that cute little fin that propels Seahorses thru their natural habitat.

Work in Progress

I started with a 5-wire weave in the middle so it could be used as a backing for the brooch pin, then just winged it for all the other steps. I hammered the head and tail flat to add some interest and really like how the weave around the tail turned out. It's hard for me to do a piece without adding spirals in there somewhere .. the eye is a Black Spinel bead wired into one of said spirals. Wasn't completely sure how to use some of the extra wires, so I wrapped and coiled them to interpret seaweed (+ spiral)!

Remember ... I like choices, so I followed this tutorial (which I saved months ago) and just happens to be by one of those Super Artist gals mentioned earlier. Must be Karma!! I made a Brooch to Necklace Converter out of heavy gauge copper wire (last pic) that just slips onto the pin, then close the pin. Yes, the brooch pin is offset on purpose. If the recipient is a little OCD, she / he can fasten the pin on a slant and the Seahorse will be straight!!

This silk ribbon's named 'Abalone' ... go figure!

Hiding from Predators 😛

Pin to Brooch Converter is removable

Et Voilà! Thanks for reading this installment of my Design Challenge adventure, please DO Comment, Like, Share among Social Media and check out each artist's blog link below to find out how they were inspired by the Horse theme!!
Al

Art Elements Comment: 'grab a cup of your favorite beverage and settle down for a whole herd of equine creations.  Here is the list of participants:
Guests:'
Alysen (that's me ya know!), Anita,  Beth,  Catherine,  Jill,  Paulette,  Raven,  Sarajo,  Tammy

 AE Team Members:

Caroline,  Cathy,  Claire,  Jen ,  Laney ,  Lesley ,  Marsha ,  Niky,  Sue