Design Challenge: One Bead

Sometimes when I sit at my jewelry bench (well, desk), I get overwhelmed by the colors and textures of my stockpile.  To push myself to make something, I'll pick ONE item and force myself to design a piece around that.  This week, I chose this botswana agate coin bead:

The chevron striation is just gorgeous and I love the variety of colors:  grey, cream, brown and pink.  Well, I'm not a fan of pink, but the stone looks so neutral the pink seems to fit in.  I really wanted to showcase this stone, so I decided to create a mirrored background for it.  Using my handy dandy dapping block, I domed a silver disc so that it gently cupped the stone.  And here's the final product shot for the necklace designed around this bead:

Design Challenge: Produce a Lot Quickly

Thursday I gave myself a design challenge:  produce 5 pairs of earrings in under 2 hours.  I got this idea from back in the day when I visited a friend in art school; she was given the task of producing 100 drawings/paintings in a week.  Or maybe it was 75.  I don't quite remember.  I just remember the point was to make yourself CREATE, and having to do a lot in a short amount of time was supposed to help you get the juices flowing.

I ended up making 5 pairs of earrings and a necklace in about 3 hours.  Here's a sneak peek at what I made:

What kinds of challenges do you give yourself to get the creative juices flowing?