Saturday, August 6, 2011

Inspired by Nature: Tiger Lily, pendants and flower centers

I am on a roll, another very productive week as I gear up for my
I am getting excited to go back and hope to do well.  
I have lots of new items to inventory to price and tag. 
I need work out my display options again.  
A little change to keep it interesting. 
I will list my items that don't sell on Etsy next week.
I had so much fun with the resin last week I finally tried a product new to me. 
JudiKins Amazing Glaze.
I didn't want to wait for 3 days for my pendants to cure, 
especially my Orange Lily for this week's Inspired by Nature Challenge. 
This has to be the fastest solution for creating bezels with photos or charms...
I printed my pictures, sprayed them with Archival Spray on both sides
( I have an ink jet printer so they would run if I skipped this step.)
Then you glue the picture into your bezel,
I used super glue, 
pop it in the oven at 300 degrees for 2-3 minutes,
let it cool and you are done. 
Plus if you get any bubbles or mars on it you can reheat with a heat gun and cool it again! 
I love this, so simple and my pendants look great. 

Here is my Orange Lily photo I transformed with Adobe Elements,


another picture of my Lily Necklace and Earring Set:
  a wave photo for a future challenge 
and 
This one is a picture of me at about 3 years old. 
(a personal reminder to take good care of myself)
I have also been wanting to make centers for my fabric flowers with polymer clay.
I created one for poppies, one of my favorite flowers, baked it then made a clay mold.

It works so well I made two more


and now I can use up my scrap clay making these little beauties 
and paint them any color I want!  
I am sooooooo excited!  

Well, I would love to hang out here all morning 
but I have to pack up all my treasures for tomorrow. 
Thanks for stopping by, I will be doing more visiting next week.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Bead Table Wednesday - Resin and......

I am gearing up for a the Arts and Craft Fair at Mt Charleston,
so this will be short but sweet! 
(They look like candy) 
First some close ups from the resin tray above.
I used fabric scraps, chopped up scrap threads, 
glitter, embossing powders, 
metallic sand found in Michael's florist section in gold and silver  
and the two part resin that takes 72 hours to set. 
So my office door has been shut, 
My Cat, Gracie, 
who always seems to think that anything new I make is for her 
and the other two hairy beasts are not not welcome. 

and 
My best faux fire opal so far!


This one has glitter and embossing powders sprinkled over 
polymer clay scraps I chopped up into tiny pieces with my blade. 
They were then rolled and squished together
and cut over a plastic bag so they would dome. 
Most of the resin poured off but I think I managed to get a light coating. 
These will hopefully make nice pieces for bezels, rings and necklaces. 
All for now, to see the other wonderful tables click HERE! 

Sunday, July 31, 2011

BIG HUGE GIVEAWAY!!!

One of my very favorite Art Bead Artists :
Heather Powers is cleaning out her bead inventory.  

The Humble Bead Big Huge Giveaway Set !!!

These beads are to die for 
and to have a chance to get a batch for free 
of her truly unique and amazing beads is crazy wonderful!!
Hurry tonite at midnite is the deadline!!! 
Click HERE 
to see what you have to do to have a chance to win.  
If you would rather go to her etsy store and pick your own beauties, 
click the same spot and look for her code so you can get 20% off.
You can go to her etsy store right from her blog. 
This is exciting, 
I think the heat is getting to all of us but shurely Heather Powers has gone mad!! 
( Just Kidding Heather) 
I had one of the most productive weeks of my life this week.
Here are pictures of everything I made after Bead Table Wednesday and the Art Bead Scene July Challenge deadline I managed to make:

The mythical characters called Nymphs, Sirens or Mermaids 
have always intrigued me.
I love the ocean and  this focal from 
Green Girl Studios has a quote by Crouseau. 
I watched all his documentaries about the sea. 
He says:
"the sea, once it casts its spell holds one in its net of wonder forever". 




I used these wonderful twisted blue glass beads to represent waves and added the mermaids ride: a sea horse charm.


Next:
My Waves Bracelet
I used blue and turqoise in this one. 
I made the polymer clay turquoise swirl beads and flat spacers.
The rest are glass beads.




This one features a naked lady. 
 I like to think she is skinny dipping in all that blue green water!


For this bracelet I used memory wire covered with coiled pink artist's wire and beads.  
I made the polymer clay flower beads 
textured on both sides so they look great 
no matter where they turn. 
The pink stone is dyed howlite, 
the green, crackled glass. 
The necklace below is extra long.  
I love this length for summer- 
looks great with a cool cotton shirt.
Fortunately we had very cloudy weather yesterday morning- perfect for photographing shiny beads.




This one was a quickie with glass and shell beads on memory wire.  
I love the flower dangles, I picked up the pink curled glass beads at Road 2 California last year.  
Sorry I can't remember who the vendor was. 
They remind me of one of my favorite flowers, fuchsias, 
combined with the bright green glass and crystals.
A few orphan beads found their place in these earrings.

I am finally parting with some of my favorite finds.
This butterfly bead is an amazing little ceramic focal for this bracelet.

And the Star with a bead wired in really shines in this bracelet. 
The reds, oranges and browns remind me of hikes in the Valley of Fire. 
Here was a super quickie made with painted bone beads 
and the speckled beads are some kind of nut. 
(like me).  
This one has an extra long length too. 

And one more orphaned lampwork bead found a home, 
Queen of some necklace to be. 

Last but not least a Macro shot of the dragon side of this lovely etched deep navy blue bead. 
studio waterstone
Click HERE to see more Macro Photos
Well I made all that in one day, so I took a rest yesterday and floated in the pool
with one nicely iced stien of Rogue Chocolate Beer!! 
Come on back on Wednesday for Bead Table Wednesday. 
Happy Weekend to you all!