Welcome
to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a
sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a
related question of our readers and hope you’ll leave comments! As an
incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.
Congrats to EmandaJ who is the winner of last week’s Simple Truths Ornament made by Erin Prais-Hintz! Please email Erin at [email protected] with your mailing address so she can get your holiday goodie out to you!
I have been getting ready for the holidays lately, helping to make lots of holiday presents for my customers on the weekends at Rust Belt Market. While I don’t have a lot of holiday specific designs, I did make one design that reminds me of Christmas.. this Candy Swirl pendant. These pendants start out as black and white drawings that I scan and Photoshop to make a very graphic jpeg file. After getting the file done, I upload it to RubberStamps.net, who then sends me a rubber stamp that I can use on my porcelain clay! I love this process, because I can draw up anything I can imagine and have it easily transformed into a clay pendant, and it is quick and easy to build up a big library of designs.
Here is an example of the sort of Story Necklace that we make at the Rust Belt. It’s a mixed media collage of metal keys, charms, and gears with recycled sari silk ribbon. Holiday inspired, but also recycled and a little industrial…festive and funky but not too sweet.
This week, you can win this pair of Earthenwood Studio ceramic pendants: one Candy Swirl and one Holiday Peace pendant.
To enter to win, comment here on this post and tell me about your favorite holiday sweets!
Melanie Brooks is the ceramic beadmaker behind Earthenwood Studio, who blogs from her Metro Detroit, Michigan home.
Alice
December 10, 2011 at 8:00 pmI love your candycane inspired pendants!
As for holiday treats, I'll take them all as long they don't have coconut in them. I've got a giant sweet tooth!
Sabine
December 10, 2011 at 8:06 pmYay! Detroit!
My favorite holiday sweets are hot chocolate with a splash of peppermint snapps, brownies with a powered sugar "snow" topping, and "forgotten" cookies. They are a type of meringue cookie that is left in a just turned off oven overnight.
Your pendants are great! Thanks!
Ann Rishell
http://mycriticaleye.com
Kristi
December 10, 2011 at 8:10 pmMy favorite holiday sweets are homemade fudge, and rice crispies (colored and shaped).
TesoriTrovati
December 10, 2011 at 8:10 pmOh boy! I am loving this pendant. Those are my favorite holiday candies! Too bad I can't win ;-(
And thanks again for the notes on the Rubber Stamp place. I need to start using that service!
Enjoy the day.
Erin
Carol Creech
December 10, 2011 at 9:02 pmWhat beautiful pendants! I would love to win. As for favorite holiday sweets…hmmm, where to start? 😉 I have to say I am a big fan of cookies – one of my favorites are chocolate crinkles. Yummmmmmy! Thanks for the opportunity!
Carol
Diana P.
December 10, 2011 at 10:08 pmThat's a great pendant! Thanks for the info on the rubber stamp site as well! As far as favorite holiday sweets…I can't get enough of those old fashioned filled hard candies. Yum!
Jean A. Wells
December 10, 2011 at 10:40 pmMy favorite holiday treat is homemade divinity. Of course, when that is not available, store bought divinity will do just fine.
Jean A. Wells
December 10, 2011 at 10:42 pmOops, forgot to comment on this post. Love the swirl design and the red and white are such a festive contrast. Love it.
EmandaJ
December 10, 2011 at 11:04 pmOoo! I won, I won! Yay! Thanks Erin.
Love the rubber stamped porcelain pendants. What a great idea!
Emanda
Meadowland Designs
December 10, 2011 at 11:13 pmHi, Melanie!
The pendants are fun and nice and {dare I say it} sweet!
My favorite holiday sweet would have to be rather new and not candy.
The recipe is called Sparkling Cranberry Gems and can be found at KingArthurFlour.com. {although my family modified it to be gluten free} They taste yummy, look very pretty and are hard to stop munching on 🙂
debb
December 10, 2011 at 11:16 pmBeautiful necklace and beautiful pendants! I love peanut butter cookies with kisses, and peanut brittle, and peppermint ice cream. yep, that's my favorite…lol (I have never met a sweet I did not love!)
stephanie_mcginley
December 10, 2011 at 11:55 pmPeppermint candy is my favorite Christmas treat!!! So, naturally I love the pendants!!! How fun!!!
Stephanie
[email protected]
Shirley
December 11, 2011 at 4:01 amOh! I adore that peace pendant! And I love learning about the design and stamp process. That is very cool. Thank you for such a lovely giveaway!
jenna
December 11, 2011 at 5:41 amFavorite holiday sweets? There's a topic I can get into. Peppermint bark comes to mind. Mmmmmmm.
Loving the candy swirl pendant. It could be paired with so many different things to fit into other seasons and themes.
Beth
December 11, 2011 at 2:40 pmhey Melanie, You know what the swirl looks like to me? The Japanese flag, which I think is gorgeous. My son had a full size Japanese flag hanging on his bedroom wall for some strange reason, but I always liked it. Any hoo, love the necklace and thanks for the rubber stamp scoop too, that's a great idea.
Kathleen Lange Klik
December 11, 2011 at 2:49 pmThank you for sharing your creative process. That is awesome that you can have your design turned into a stamp, i'll have to look into that. Love the swirl pendants, great for holiday and year round! My favorite is the peace pendant. I love the design and shape.
My favorite holiday sweets are cookies, any kind! The only time of the year that I bake cookies!
Erin S
December 11, 2011 at 6:00 pmLove the "peace" pendant! Hard to pick a favorite holiday treat, but I like rum balls a lot! And gingerbread men!
Jean A. Wells
December 11, 2011 at 6:05 pmI tried this yesterday but still don't see my post, so I guess it didn't go through.
I love the contrast between the red and white – red is one of my favorite colors.
My favorite holiday sweet is divinity. During the holidays I usually get homemade, but store bought will do the rest of the year.
avnish gautam
December 12, 2011 at 9:17 amThanks for sharing this valuable blog and amazing information with us.
Pine Ridge Treasures
December 12, 2011 at 4:14 pmThanks for the chance to win these lovely pendants! I love anything peppermint!
Steph L.
December 12, 2011 at 4:43 pmThose pendants are too cute! My favorite holiday treats are candy canes. Thanks for the chance to win!
The Crazier Sister
December 12, 2011 at 9:51 pmMy fav treat will always be peppermint candy canes used as stir sticks in my hot coco! (mmmmmm, coco, peppermint stick, warm fire, good book, my dog nearby….)
Shaiha
December 13, 2011 at 1:06 amLove those pendants!
As far as treats… it really is a toss up between frosted sugar cookies and fudge
Cynthia
December 13, 2011 at 7:46 pmMy favorite holiday sweet is my Mom's homemade toffee (covered in chocolate and pecans). To die for!
Love the red pendants – they are so festive and fun! Thanks for the chance to win!
Gem Rose Designs
December 13, 2011 at 9:23 pmMy favorite holiday sweet (and guilty pleasure) is EGG NG!!!
Love these pendants. Hope I win!!
Rosemarie
For My Sweet Daughter
December 14, 2011 at 2:48 amI like my brother in laws peanut butter pie. Yummy and he only makes it at the holidays.
Kathy
December 15, 2011 at 3:18 amMy favorite holiday sweet is a treat called buckeyes. My mom and I used to make them–basically peanut buttler balls rolled in chocolate. Yum!
kiwiken
December 15, 2011 at 3:56 pmDoes gingerbread count as a sweet? If it does, that's definitely my favourite. Unfortunately I can't eat any storebought gingerbread any more (tends to contain nuts, and I'm allergic), but my mom gave me a big box full of homemade ones. Most sweets I used to love contain nuts 🙁