Earth Day Design Challenge Results

Congratulations to Laura of Prairie Peasant! Her recycled miniature book necklace swept the votes in the Earth Day design challenge. Her design was the favourite, winning with 53% of the 32 votes!

Thanks to everyone who voted! Stay tuned for our next design challenge coming in the summer! 

Earth Day Design Challenge Entries

The theme for the latest WEST Design Challenge was Earth Day. WESTies were encouraged to design or curate something  focused on re-using, recycling, up-cycling and reducing our impact. 

Here are all of this month's entries, in order of submission. There is a poll at the end of this post. VOTE for your favourite submission! The poll will be open for one week, and the winner will receive a special spot of recognition on the blog until the next design challenge!

Dayle from vbling says: "I [was] very excited about this design challenge and got to work right away with something I've been wanting to make for ages." Her lovely necklace is already sold!

Turquoise Butterfly Necklace by vbling

Krista from KristasJewellery says: "I bought a pair of earrings a while ago and never ever wore them or knew what to do with them so I took the aluminum charm off of one of them and made it the focal point of this necklace. I used three Picasso jasper stones as they are an earthy green and felt that they went well with the classic black and white of the pendant."

Pendant Necklace by KristasJewellery

Laura from PrairiePeasant says: "These miniature book necklaces are made from recycled leather, vintage buttons and offcuts of paper from larger projects. I have been wanting to work more with leather and these little mini books are the perfect project to start off with. All the leather I have is either scraps salvaged from various sources or garments that friends have given me, knowing that I might be able to use the leather in some way."

Leather Miniature Book Necklace by PrairiePeasant

Lisa from BitchinKitsch'n'Kitchen says: "This Earth Day, celebrate by whipping up a nice, fresh batch of home-squeezed juice! Perfect for oranges, lemons, limes, or tomatoes! This fantastic juice press has survived since the 1930s, and has many more years of life in it."

WearEver Aluminum Juicer from BitchinKitsch'n'Kitchen

Andrea from WeAreBoundTogether says: "The wood that covers the book are from salvaged scraps and leftover oak wood. Wood is sanded smooth and lightly finished with non-toxic danish oil which retains the natural colour of the wood. The script has been hand burned with a pyrography pen. Working with wood has been a rewarding experience, I love the earthiness and feel of wood and that these pieces are no longer in the back of a scrap pile."

Oak Book Pyrography by WeAreBoundTogether

Vote for your favourite design challenge entry on the poll below. Only one vote is allowed, so be sure to choose your fave!

The poll will close in one week on Sunday, April 20, at midnight, and the result will be posted on Earth Day. The talented winner will receive a spot of recognition on the WEST blog until the next design challenge. 

Earth Day Design Challenge

We're all hoping spring will be here soon; what's better than another design challenge to get us thinking about flowers blooming and trees turning green! Earth Day is on April 22, this year, so let's use that as our inspiration. The theme is here on the blog and the WEST forum on etsy. Take this inspiration in whatever direction your imagination leads. The goal is to challenge yourself, be inspired and enjoy the creative process!

Recycled Floppy Disc Notebook from WeAreBoundTogether

As you think about the theme, add comments to the discussion thread on Etsy about your process. Take pictures of your process and the finished item and post them in the discussion thread when you are done. It's interesting and inspiring to others to hear the story about how you arrived at your finished product, so go ahead and share a few comments about your process! The results of the challenge will be posted after the deadline, and then voting for your favourite will commence. 

Recycled Vintage Maps Button from PeriwinkleDzyns

Bohemian Oval Coiled Mat by PrairieThreads

The new theme for this challenge is Earth Day! Re-using, recycling, up-cycling and reducing our impact are all great angles for this challenge. Will you turn that old t-shirt into a new grocery bag, maybe you'll find remnants of fabric and make a light spring scarf, what about just finding a fabulous vintage piece to add to your home decor? I know we all love mixing old things with new to achieve the perfect look. You've got a whole month to come up with your design ideas and create. The deadline for this challenge is Friday April 11, with the entries being posted on Sunday April 13. When the entries are posted, you can vote for your favourite entry. The winner will be announced on Earth Day and featured on the blog side bar until the next design challenge. 

Fabric Flower Necklace from Heidi-and-Seek-Boutique

A few notes:
Create something new, especially for the challenge. Entries for each challenge must be finished by the posted deadline. Vintage and supply sellers are welcome to participate too, with a focus on artful photography and careful choice of item.
Happy designing! I hope this challenge and the few ideas I found in WESTie shops inspire you!
Ready... Set... Get Creative! 

W.E.S.T. Design Challenge: "Earth Day" Results

The WEST design challenge for April was in honour of Earth Day.

Three of our talented jewelry designers came up with their interpretations of this theme with beautiful results.

First up is Marcella of Waterlelie Jewellery with a recycled vintage coin from Brazil on a sterling silver chain with a chunk of citrine.

Brazil Vintage Coin Pendant/Necklace

Gorgeous!

Next up is Wendy from The Silver Agenda with her Green Blooms Necklace:

Wendy writes:
For this challenge I wanted my piece to be comprised of recycled materials. I'm happy to say that I have switched my metal clay supply to a brand that is made entirely out of recycled silver. The Prehnite briolette that is suspended from the fine silver pendant came from an old pair of earrings that were broken. Absolutely no materials were wasted in the making of this piece.

Green Blooms - Recycled Fine Silver and Prehnite Wire Wrapped Necklace

The next project comes from Corina and Emily from jake and cleo.

Corina and Em write:
We used dill flowers to leave the impression of a flower garden or trees on our fine silver pendant. The pendant was created with 100% recycled silver which starts as a silver clay and when fired results in .999 fine silver. Happy Earth Day! We're looking forward to real gardens to start popping up in Manitoba :)

I couldn't find the listing for this particular one (sold perhaps?), but I found a very beautiful one using blades of grass. Check out their shop for more eco-friendly creations.

Aren't these interpretations of Earth Day just exquisite?

_________

Stay tuned for the announcement of the May WEST Design Challenge!

Treasury: Earth Mama

I created a treasury on Etsy today entitled: Earth Mama

Mother's have a wish to leave a beautiful, sustainable, healthy earth behind for their children and grandchildren after them to enjoy. Here are some eco-friendly and mother nature celebrating products for mamas to ensure their wish is granted. (All products are handmade by the wonderul and talented team W.E.S.T).

In celebration of both Earth Day (April 22nd) and Mother's Day (May 8th).

I chose my favourite items in orange, brown, and red for this particular treasury. Very earthy don't you think?



Click the photo or click here to view this treasury.

For Ruth

Ruth is the WEST Team's fearless leader. She likes to reuse bits of what many would consider junk, or even trash, to make new things, in particular jewelry. This is for her:

Several weeks ago I started to watch a show called "The Lazy Environmentalist" and I was enjoying watching the host find easy ways for many people to be a bit more enviromentally friendly in their day to day lives (to be honest I was kind revelling in it, going yeah you suck, I recycle, I walk to work etc..) then they did a show about jewelry and I was oh! This was followed a few week later "Eco-trip" doing an episode on gold mining - I was oh yeah you really need to get on this!

Since I have been searching for more enviromental friendly options for my modern jewelry designs. I have found out my silver is ethically mined (good) & I am slowly switching to vintage beads, tagua nut beads, and recycled paper beads. In my search for inspiration I found on Treehugger a post about a jewelry label called Spacefruit by Becky Crawford.

She makes jewellery from plastic bottles she finds "on the beaches as well as from a recycling center where they'd otherwise be turned into things like carpets! Each shape is cut out individually by hand so no two necklaces turn out the same, so colours will vary! Almost every colour combination is possible but please be aware that purple is very rare!"

medium disc plastic necklace & bracelet

cluster petals brooch & earrings

very wiggly necklace

So I was inspired! I have been collecting out of my recycling the plastic lids from different containers.  Cutting them into organicly shaped cirlces (I did ponder getting a circle punch but thought that  it defeated the purpose and was a bit boring) .  I have only finished one pair of earrings so far but I think I may keep it  up as it was fun cutting up the lids (I have saved all the scraps to use maybe to use in a clearplastic ring made of biobased epoxy resin with plastic sprinkles???)

 Vox earring with yellow plastic discs on Argenitum Sterling Silver - coming soon