August Component of the Month Reveal!

It's reveal day for the August Component of the Month!

Rustic Stoneware Coins

Each participant was sent a rustic stoneware coin pendant to create with.  Let's see what everyone created!

Guests

Cindy Martin-Shaw

Samantha Wescott

Jenny Kyrlach

AJE Team

Kristen Stevens

Caroline Dewison

Sue Kennedy

Linda Landig

Diana Ptaszynski

Jenny Davies-Reazor & Lesley Watt

Jennifer Cameron

Lindsay Starr

Niky Sayers

P.S.  Thanks to everyone who joined in!

~Diana P.

Suburban Girl Studio LLC

The Making of a Rustic Stoneware Coin Pendant

This month, I am providing my rustic stoneware coin pendants for the August Component of the Month.  I thought it might be fun to show off how these pieces are made.

First 3 Steps

All rustic stoneware coin pendants start their life as a ball of speckled brown stoneware.  I then flatten each ball and impress the texture into it.  I have two texture sizes I use for these pieces.

Removing the center

Once each piece has been textured, I remove the center using a variety of cutters.  

Greenware coin pendants

The pendants are then left to dry for several days.

Cleaning up the pendant

Once the pendants are completely dry, I clean up any rough patches with water and a sponge.

The little kiln and some bisque

After all the pieces are cleaned up, I load them into my little kiln and bisque-fire them.

Glazed bisque

The next step is to glaze the back and the textured portion of the pendants.

A tray of glazed pendants

I then use a wet sponge to remove some of the glaze, leaving glaze only in the textured sections.  This leaves much of the brown stoneware exposed.

Adding crackle glaze

After the initial glaze, I apply a white crackle glaze to each piece.  This helps give the piece that primitive, aged look.

Tray of glazed pieces

Once I have enough pieces to fill my large kiln, I load it up and turn it on.  The kiln will run for several hours and I'll unload it the following morning.

Finished pendants

If all goes according to plan (it doesn't always), then these are the fabulous end result!  Thankfully, we had zero issues with the kiln and all of them came out great.  And that's how rustic stoneware coin pendants are born!

Happy Beading!

P.S. If you are sad that you weren't randomly selected for the COM, I do have some of these pieces available for purchase in my Etsy shop, so you can still play along!  

August Component of the Month Giveaway!

It's time for the August Component of the Month Giveaway!

Rustic stoneware coin pendants

Up for grabs this month is one of my rustic stoneware coin pendants!  Each piece is made to look like an ancient finding just dug up from the depths of the earth!

Want to play along? Here are the rules…

• I will giveaway 1 stoneware coin pendant (chosen at random) to each of the 2 winners selected randomly from those who leave a comment below this post. Your comment MUST include your EMAIL AND BLOG address so we can contact you should you win.
• Please — only leave a comment if you can commit to creating a finished piece and blogging about it on the reveal date.
• The names of the 2 winners will be announced on Tuesday, August 4, 2015.
• This giveaway is open to US and international countries, but please be aware that these will be posted from the US and international addresses will have longer postage times… sometimes up to 3 weeks.
• The blog reveal will take place on Sunday, August 30, 2015.

Good luck!

~Diana P.

Suburban Girl Studio LLC

Simple Summer Pendants

Now that summer is finally here (thank goodness), I don't really want to spend my time locked inside the office making intricate jewelry while the weather is gorgeous. Instead, I'll make a bunch of simple art bead pendants that are perfect to slip on a ball chain necklace and wear with my tank tops.

By the Sea pendant

Just stack a few coordinating beads together, hang them from a ball chain and you are ready to go!

By the Sea: 

Porcelain anchor bead: Suburban Girl Studio LLC

Polymer seashell pendant: Second Surf

Flower Power pendant

What I love about this is I can whip something up in 15 minutes.  So if I buy a new top and have nothing to go with it, 15 minutes later I've got a cute handmade pendant.

Flower Power: 

Stoneware pendant & beads: Suburban Girl Studio LLC

Assorted Ball Chain

And ball chain is inexpensive and comes in a wide variety of sizes and colors.  You can have a whole assortment on hand to mix and match with your new pendants!

Floral Fire pendant

If you do craft shows, this is also a great way to add a lower price-point (but quality) item to your booth.

Floral Fire:

Lampwork beads: SueBeads

Tropical Punch pendant

Tropical Punch:

Hand-painted acrylic bead: MyElements

Ceramic charm: White Clover Kiln

Catch of the Day pendant

In addition to stacking pendants, you can also whip up a few charms and then just slide the charms on to the ball chain.  I made this set for the bead cruise and I'll be wearing it again on my Bermuda cruise in a couple of weeks!

Catch of the Day:

Metal clay fish: Staci Louise Originals

Lilac Loop pendant

Lilac Loop:

Porcelain loop: Suburban Girl Studio LLC

Hand-painted acrylic bead: MyElements

There are so many fun options with this style.  If you are stressed making something more intricate, take a break, grab just a few beads and make yourself a simple pendant!

Happy Beading!

Design Retrospective

Over the past few weeks I've been having a clear out of my photographic files. I love that the digital age makes it so easy to take and store photographs but that ease also means I tend to hang on to too much for too long so a cull was necessary. Needless to say this has taken longer than planned because the photographs are in themselves a distraction and much time was spent reminiscing.

Obviously I have many, many photographs of the jewellery I've designed and whilst going through these I realised that they charted a clear path in the development of my relationship with Art beads and hand made design elements.

I've not been making jewellery that long in the scheme of things - just seven years or so and I originally took it up as an antidote to s stressful job and something to do on winter evenings. My first bead purchases were commercial hobby store and online bead shop buys which and the resulting jewellery utilised very basic techniques.

Always one to search out something more with whatever I'm doing I spent hours trawling the Internet and before very long I had discovered the wonders of lampwork beads... I was completely Smitten and my art bead stash was born.  Sterling silver accents and finding also made their first appearance at this point as I felt the art beads deserved some better and silver had yet to go through the roof in price!

Lampwork implosion beads by Sally Carver

Lampwork beads by Kaz Baildon

Lampwork beads by Julie Fountain

Again these techniques involved with these pieces were fairly  basic stringing and wiring and I really wanted my designs to have more of me in them. I started playing with wire to add another dimension and a new love affair began that still continues...
 

Lampwork beads by Kaz Baildon and Sally Carver

Further down the line leather leather began to work it's way into my designs. I loved the casual, colourful, boho feel you could get with  this very versatile medium and it very much suited my own personal taste in jewellery.

Lampwork beads by Julie Cannon

Lampwork beads by Lori Lochner

Whilst developing these techniques for myself I also attended workshops in silversmithing and metal clay and that saw me combining my own metal pieces with my beloved beads.

Lampwork beads by Pinocean

Lampwork bead by Sally Carver

Later a further workshop added enameling into the mix....

One of the last elements I added to my design repertoire was ceramic beads and little did I know at the time that I would end up making these myself and love them above all others. I continued to mix and match with other mediums to develop what I hope is my own style.

Ceramic elements by Karen Totten and Diana Ptaszynski

When I started making jewellery I had no idea than I would ever make jewellery components to sell to other people or that that aspect would takeoff and become the bigger part of my business. This inevitably means that these days I make a lot less jewellery but when I do you can still see these earlier design elements and techniques making an appearance and forming the foundation of my design ethic. 

Ceramic cabachon by Lesley Watt - Polymer clay mixed media technique by Jenny Davies-Reazor

Polymer clay roses by Leah Curtis

Pendant by Lesley Watt

Lampwork bead by Julie Cannon

Etched copper focal by Lesley Watt - Polymer clay mixed media technique by Jenny Davies-Reazor

So what do you see when you see when you look back on your old designs is there an identifiable trend or have you taken yourself of in a completely new or surprising direction...That's the beauty of jewellery design...so many things to try! Happy designing.

Note: Apologies for beads that have not been credited but I no longer have the details for some of them and my memory is not what it was..