The BLOG 5 Awards: Artistic, Style, Journalistic, Educator, Newbie

As you know, today is the day of the 5 Blog Awards. How does it work? Cynthia, Kashmira, Janice, Gloria, Christine, Therese and I will each be giving our awards on our blogs.

We've chosen bloggers who we believe best represent one of the 5 categories. When a blogger is given one of the awards, we are inviting them to join the hop and continue building a linky group of awarded bloggers.

Without further ado, here are my choices:

ARTISTIC

One of my favourite artist and blog is Metal Me This. Lisa creates incredible textures in metal and goes further to colour them splendidly. I have been watching her work for months now and I never get tired of seeing her bright and happy metal sheets or cuffs.

Another favourite of mine is Ex Post Facto Jewelry - Heidi's creations are fresh and her style is always inspiring. Her pieces are brilliant and her stories are quite funny, it's a pleasure to take your tea while reading what's she's been up to.

STYLE

I am in love with the work of yet another Heidi - My Bead Therapy. She does marvelous wire work. I can stay on her site for hours, just browsing through and admiring her bird-houses and all the stunning wire work she's creating.

 

A beautiful Canadian artist, Marie from Skye Jewels is not only a wonderful designer, but an inspiration too. She always finds a smile and a good word, she's always helping others - even when she's the one needing help. Her designs have the most organic feel I've seen, they remind me of a walk through the forest and they always paint a peaceful picture for me.

EDUCATOR 

I have many places where I find inspiration or a nice tutorial, but these are my favourite ones:

Magpie Gemstones - Szarka had a large assortment of tutorials and she also does one of the best jobs in educating the customer about gemstones and materials.

Not a jewelry design blog, Brandi Girl is a gorgeous designing tool. Brandi had great colour palettes you can use for inspiration, she has great design tips for pictures and for editing your blog, and many other visual tools and ideas.

Right from the BeadFx store in Toronto comes the BeadFx blog: much like Magpie's blog, they regularly post articles on local art jewelry news, as well as tutorials and - very important for any new small business owners - the Business Chat (a series of articles on business tips).

NEWBIE

A very funny and spirited artist, Dee from Cherry Obsidia is always a pleasure to talk to and her blog is no different. She's not a 'newbie' in the artistic sense, but we use the 'newbie' as defined by a blog who has less than 100 followers. Maybe that will change now :)

Another wonderful artist is Kirstin from Yay! Jewelry. Indeed that's what you think when you visit her blog - and as she righfully describes herself, her jewelry is earthy and fun, and you can see her love for texture, colour and nature in each of her pieces.

JOURNALISTIC

Patti from My Addictions Handcrafted has amazing and very thoughtful stories on her blog. One can spend days just browsing her posts and admiring her jewelry too :)

Because there is more to life than jewelry (nah, I am just kidding!) and because life as a parent can be though (yes, I am not kidding) - we all need a way to laugh so we don't go nuts. My best place to go is I've Become My Parents. Barmy has the most wicked sense of humour ever - and his stories usually strike a chord, as his son is just one year older than mine. It's always good to know you're not alone!

THE BLOG HOP RULES: there are no rules, but we do have some suggestions. These awards were designed to point out some of the great blogs out there. And you can choose to pass on your award to as few, or as many as you like. So if you've been tapped on the shoulder and given one of these awards, we would love to see you display it proudly on your blog. Join the blog hop and show off that lovely blog of yours. We would, of course, love to hear why you like to blog, and why you chose a fellow blogger for an award. So let's get hopping!

This is a Blog Hop!