Four Days of Non-stop Polymer Clay

Looking for my Bead Soup?
I am home alone and look what trouble I was able to get into. 

I spent 4 solid days into the wee hours playing 

with this new Stroppel Technique, 

chopping up old canes and scraps and this is what you get.  

Love it!  

I tried it with 3 different base colors; black, white 

and lastly gold which I was hoping might come out a little like 

Gustav Klimt's quilt in his painting "The Kiss". 

Here are some of many creations from this polyholic binge:

This is my favorite piece from the session- It can be either a shawl pin or a hair accessory.

Here is a closer look - it is thoroughly buffed and then antiqued with silver paint. 

A pair of earrings made with trimmed edge scraps from the gold Stropple cane.

A black heart on gold with the Chatoyant- (mica shift) technique.

Ths is a bullet bead - can you see the person standing there?

This was created with Stropple scraps using a mirror image trick. 

Still loving my acorn mold- scraps again.

More autumn leaves. 

Green swirl buttons.

Green blend large button.

Green Swirl Large button.

First Green Blend Shawl Pin.

Second Green Swirl Shawl Pin.

Stay tuned- there is so much more- I just need to photograph all the work.  

Have a Spectacularly Spooky Halloween Y'all! 

Heather-Aquariart

A little late for BTW but finished on time for ABS

Don't you just love acrynoms.
  (!#$%#@&*^+_) I  DON"T!!

Really they can mean a million different things to millions of different people.

It can be so confusing.  

If you follow regularly you may know that BTW on my page is not "By the Way" 

but Bead Table Wednesday and I missed it this week.
(But you can go get inspired by the other jewelers)  

ABS is not the abbrieviation for those (troublesome sagging) six packs I used to have 

but the Art Bead Scene Blog Challenge. 

So now that we have all that sorted out. 

Here is my entry for the Art Bead Scene August Challenge inspired by Frederick Ramsdell. 

An Art Deco Poster for American Crescent Cycles. 

I love the poster, the girl's long flowing hair and blowing dress have such nice movement. 

I wove hand dyed silk ribbon in an auburn shade 

through some really unique antique brass chain I have that reminds me of bicycle chain.  

I was picturing in my mind a pendant that was a bicycle wheel on one side 

and had a portrait of the girl inlaid in the other 

so I got out my polymer clay and started mixing colors to match the palette.  

(Unfortunately my green turned more blue in the oven) 

My eye was drawn to the wheel with the silver spokes, pink rim and white washed tire.  

This inspired the pendant which I made first and then baked.  

Next I added the bezel on the front and the handles 

which if you look closely resemble the handles on the bicycle in the poster. 

I spent a lot of time sketching to create a line drawing portrait 

to insert in my bezel with the girl's profile and flowing hair.

When I finally had a successful result I minimized it in Adobe Photoshop 

and printed a whole page of her.

You may see her again in other jewelry. 

One of the last additions to my necklace is my favorite part- 

the three graduated loops of antique brass chain hanging from the pendant. 

I knew I was finished when I added that. 

It balanced out the whole design.

I also am in love with this leaf chain that is dangling from the knot of silk. I have been adding it to everything I make- it is sooooooo nice.
I inserted the white lily, which you see many of in the poster, just for the photos,
I never found a place for it in the necklace.
I made that a long time ago and it is still looking for a home.
I am really puzzled by how this all came together.  

No sketch, except the portrait, just intuitive combining of ingredients and well, 

sometimes that's when I do my best work. 

Let go and let it happen.
Click here to see some more wonderful creations!!

Bead Soup for Beth Bricker

Okay, this is the teaser. 

Beth's Bead Soup is in on it's way to her. 

Meet my Bead Soup Partner caught at a Bead Show.
Beth is on the Right- with the great smile.
Do you think Beads make her happy?  I do.I had fun with Adobe Elements and disguised the pictures I took of her ingredients. I don't think you will recognize anything in this but that is the point. Surprise!!  

Bead Soup a la Jurassic Park for Beth
andI love this one, came out really abstract after about 8 filter effects.

Bead Soup el Cognito

I sent her a really nice clasp, handmade by a favorite etsy artist I will divulge later.

I made the focal pendant and all of the polymer clay beads 

and then poured in a lot of spicy beads to warm it up. 

I am anxiously waiting my ingredients for the Party too! 

(Saturday) 

Okay, that was yesterday, the teaser above, 
(Now you know one of my little secrets, I started to prepare this post yesterday for today)
my husband brought in the mail and 
Guess What?!!@%$&*
My Bead Soup arrived from Beth!! 
(Today- Sunday)
I had to wait until this morning to photograph it all.
Beth was so generous!!
and there are beads I have never ever seen before in the mix! 
This is so exciting.
 I need to take you through 
the visual experience of opening this package of goodies

The mysterious package- I think she discovered that I sew too!  

A kind and encouraging note and more fabric related wrapping- love it!!  

Oh my, very organized, all labeled and carefully packaged!
This is a lesson for me.  I am learning from this.

This is unbelievable!! So many truly unique beads!
I am so wowed by how many I have never seen before.
You need to see some of these close up:

We have mountain sheep here in Nevada but I have never seen
Horn, Antler or Deer Bone beads
in any of all the bead stores here in town
and I have been in them all.
 I love them!  
I think that deliciously nubby big bead is the antler bead,
it is really amazing- wish you could see it from all angles! Can't make a truly tasty broth for the soup without some Bone can we.
Also I have never seen undyed howlite or seeds quite like these. 

There are some really different czech beads too.  I love all the earthy tones.
They are making me yearn for a vacation in the Montana Mountains,
where I could wear a plaid flannel shirt with my jeans like this cloth
and not sweat to death like I do here in the Desert. 

I think she may have figured out some of my favorite colors
with the Mardi Gras beads and the Turquoise.
The Black Tourmaline is so unusual- love the chunky randomness of the facets,
I couldn't quite capture it's true beauty because
I over slept this morning and the sun was already too bright. I love copper and will probably be adding even more to the mix

The Earthy Howlite Focal and a gorgeous Copper Clasp. 
(sorry about the tint, the sun was not cooperating outside
so I moved indoors for the rest of the photos)

Last and most precious,
an alternate Focal; a Rusty Key.  
I found all these ingredients really inspiring and can't wait to get to work. 
Thank you so much Beth for your amazing package of goodies!!
I am going to get started with some wire wrapping,
right now,  with Copper of course!! 
Be sure to come back on September 17th for the Blog Hop Reveal. 

Inspired by Nature: Tiger Lily, pendants and flower centers

I am on a roll, another very productive week as I gear up for my

 Arts and Crafts Fair at Mt. Charleston. 

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.

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! 

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. 

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!