Bead Fest: A Feast For The Eyes

Bead Fest was held over the weekend.  It's one of the highlights of my year and I've been attending since 2004.  I've even been a vendor at it 3 times (and might again in the future).  This year I went for fun; to see friends and do some (lots) of shopping.

Welcome to Bead Fest

You need to be careful at Bead Fest.  It's easy to go waaaaaaaaaay over budget in a short period of time (ask me how I know).  I told myself to lay off so many art beads this year...hahahahahahahaha!  Ok, yeah that didn't happen.

Gardanne Enamel Components

Explain to me how I'm supposed to do that with such fabulousness like Gardanne Beads enameled pieces?

Thornburg Bead Studio

Nikki/Thornburg Bead Studio brought some of her gorgeous lampwork urchins with her.  I ended up buying a bunch of lampwork headpins from her though to assist me with our AJE headpin challenge.

Penn Avenue Pottery

Tracey/Penn Avenue Pottery had oodles of fun ceramic beads to choose from.  I found myself trapped (totally against my will) at her booth for awhile, with my hands stuck (yes, I couldn't pull them out) in those trays.

Staci Louise Originals 

After my escape from Tracey's booth, I ended up at Staci's booth (that's a lie, I'd been there probably 500 times already by Saturday morning...my apologizes to Staci).  Her booth looked like a magic unicorn had visited with all the beautiful rainbow colors.  I added more beads to my gigantic Staci-collection.

Staci's bags

In addition to her beads, Staci also brought some of her hand-dyed and stamped bags with her.  I own a luna moth bag and it was perfect for shopping the show.

In fact, several bead-makers brought other art with them in addition to their beads...

Diane Hawkey

Diane Hawkey had some of her whimsical pot head planters and house sculptures for sale in her booth.

Beaded Chic Fused Glass

Donna/Beaded Chic has been playing with fused glass lately and brought some new pieces along with her table full of lampwork!

Marsha Neal

Marsha Neal had beads, tiny pottery and her needle-felted creations at her booth.  

Jenny Davies-Reazor

AJE's own Jenny Davies-Reazor had some of her gorgeous tiles and needle-felted/bead-embroidery pieces for sale at her table.

Firefly Design Studio

Michelle/Firefly Design Studio had her beach-inspired dishes with her!

And of course there was gorgeous jewelry at the show...

Marcia Balonis and Pam Garbig

Marcia Balonis and Pam Garbig had a table full of beautiful samples and kits for sale.  I brought home one kit and will be writing about it on here in the near future. 

There were also great tools for sale!

Lucet

New AJE member, Cooky Schock had a booth and I came home with a lucet and some cord from her. You might recall the recent blog post that Cooky wrote for us about the lucet.  This great little tool helped make my 5+ hour car ride home go much quicker!

Xuron

Treated myself to a new Xuron plier.  Soooooo comfortable!

Funky Chain, ParaWire, Gemstones

This was just the tip of the iceberg of what was available at Bead Fest!  You're probably wondering what I brought home with me, right?  Let's take a peek...

Pottery Purchases

A bunny pot head planter from Diane Hawkey, a ring holder from Marsha Neal and a dish from Michelle/Firefly Design.

Tools and Kits

The lucet, cord for the lucet, some dyed Stiff Stuff (Bead My Love), spiffy new XBow Series Xuron pliers and a fab kit from Marcia Balonis.

Art Bead Haul

And this is the art bead haul.  So many beads, pendants, headpins and cabochons!  

Bead Fest 2016 was fabulous as always and while I hate to see it end, my wallet requires a year to recover.  See you in 2017, Bead Fest!

Happy Beading!

Happy Dia de Los Muertos!

Today is the Dia de los Muertos, when the gates of Heaven open and the spirits of the dead visit their loved ones on earth. 

Celebrated in many regions around the world, the elaborate celebrations in Mexico are the most well known, and most spectacular. Families weed and plant; paint and repair the cemetery plots where they will gather this night to celebrate. Offering mass, songs, stories, food and drink - this is a festive celebration honoring and remembering the departed. Not spooky of morbid in any way, it aims to acknowledge death as a part of life, and encourage one to live life to the fullest  - as death will come. 

Decorations abound with marigolds/cempasúchil or flower of the dead.

Families create ofrendas (offering tables/altars) at home that welcome the spirits with food and libations. Mementos and pictures, marigolds, candles... The four elements are represented: fire/candles, water/beverages & alcohol, earth/fruits & vegetables air/papel picado flags.

Day of the Dead ofrenda altar from Old Town San Diego. Pix by JDR

Sugar skulls are an iconic Day of the Dead image. Made of sugar, chocolate... you name it - they are meant to represent a departed soul. They are also exchanged amongst the living in the context that "our friendship/love will be stronger than and survive beyond death".

sugar, chocolate, icing! Oh my...

Day of the Dead has become increasingly present in popular culture here in the states the last few years. Shown below are highlights from my collection - including the bride and groom we had on our cake table at out wedding. Love that will last beyond death... While many of my pieces come from Austin TX and Albuquerque NM where I have family, I found some great stuff at Target this year...

Calacas and calaveras

The Day of theDead theme inspires me greatly - as you may have guessed by now. This year after my annual batch of polymer skull pendants I have been working on sugar skull tiles! I am glazing them as we speak...

Jenny's polymer pendant skulls and new ceramic tiles. 

Lesley found some fabulous sugar skulls in jewelry and clay from fellow artists near and far:

Maku Raku

Staci - Louise Originals

Joan Miller Porcelain
The Jewellery Girls Place

Javier Martinez

Graves Co.

So today, wherever you are, remember your loved ones that are no longer with you. According to Mexican legend, there are three types of death: The first occurs when all bodily functions cease and the soul leaves the body; the second occurs when the body is interred, returning one’s physical shell to the earth; and the final, most definitive death, occurs when no one remembers you. Raise a glass, tell a tale, remember them fondly... and know they are with you. 

Previous posts: 

Linda's Day of the Dead in Oaxaca

Jenny's Sugar Skull tutorial

For more info:: Dia de Los Muertos article

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

On My Clay Table

I'm FINALLY back in the studio making beads again.  I've been lacking bead mojo for awhile due to a variety of reasons.  It was nice to be back in the studio but I'm taking things slow.  The focus right now is to catch up on swaps I owe people, fulfillment of pieces for event donations and restocking the shop with some popular pieces.  Hopefully once these things are done, I can spend some time just playing and get some of my mojo back.  Let's have a little peek...

Porcelain

Here's the block of porcelain before I got to work.  I love the weird, earthy and musty smell it has.  

Porcelain slab

The first order of business was to roll out a slab of the porcelain.  I pulled a bunch of leaves outside for the autumn collection.  Because I use real leaves, I have a limited time in which to make this collection.  Once the cool weather rolls in and the leaves fall off the trees, I can't make more of these pieces.  They truly are seasonal work.

Porcelain leaves

I made a series of buttons for a friend who does leatherwork and the rest are pendants and charms destined for the shop and the Ceramic Art Bead Market. 

Leaf cabochons

There was also the business of making lots and lots of little leaf cabochons for Beki Haley's Beaders Dream Retreat.  I'm sponsoring the event, so each attendee will get a porcelain or stoneware leaf cabochon in their bag.  I am working on the stoneware pieces today while the little kiln runs a bisque-firing.

Porcelain beads

I'm also running dangerously low on beads so I rolled some up.  Most of these will be glazed to coordinate with the leaf pieces.  

Speckled stoneware

After I completed the porcelain work, I cracked open my speckled brown stoneware.  Mmmmm there was that nice earthy and musty smell again.

Rustic stoneware coins and beads

I made a bunch of rustic stoneware coins for the shop AND for next months Component of the Month (you won't want to miss that one).  I used the center cut-outs to roll some beads.  I also made a bunch of disc beads for a wedding order I'm trying to complete.  

As of right now, I'm still working in stoneware and I've got a bisque-load running in the garage.  Sea urchin cabochons and more little leaf cabochons are on the table today.  I'm really looking forward to completing this batch because I plan to move away from so much production work and start playing more.  I'd like to spend some time coming up with new designs and also working in art that isn't necessarily bead-related.  Change is good.  

So, what's on your work table?

Happy Beading!

How to Spark Inspiration/Motivation, Part 387-D

So, a short and sweet little lesson in sparking inspiration when you are so absolutely unmotivated you could cry! The last few weeks have been totally stressful for me...my day job has been converting to new financial systems and I have had to focus on training and learning an entirely new way of doing my job, which involves sitting at my desk staring at a computer screen. I have been so mind-weary every day, creativity has been lying dormant.

Today after work I decided to just sit at my bead table and look. There were some things that had been sitting there for a while that I just hadn't played with yet. I pulled out a couple of bags from recent purchases and looked at them. Walked away, came back, walked away, etc...

Small raku-fired beads by Keith O'Connor

I saw this pile of raku beads I got from Keith O'Connor's trunk show at my friends house.I remember loving them so much when I saw the stacks of these he had in almost every color of the rainbow. I wanted some of each, but was strapped for cash so chose pairs of my favs.  I intended to used them as pairs in projects...earrings, probably. When I saw them all in a pile like this, though, I thought...don't fight it! Use them all!

Copper bracelet with Keith's gorgeous beads.

I didn't add anything else, just wire-wrapped them with copper wire and made a quick clasp.  Simple, yet totally effective!  Disclaimer, I used a stupid headpin as my charm that wouldn't patina, so I'll have to go back and fix it!

Karen's gorgeous beads!

The second package I picked up was an auction I won at the Ceramic Art Bead Market on FB from our own dear Karen Totten!  I remember when I bid on them how much this color combination moved me.   I have been looking at them and fondling them for a while.

Wrap necklace with Karen's beads, an enameled bead by me, and one of Keith's raku beads.

I have been seeing lots of simple wrap necklaces...beads or other components on each end of a long chain that can be wrapped around the neck or just looped over in front.  I thought this was a cool way to show off gorgeous beads in a different way.  I hope to be creating a few more of these.  Again, pretty simple, yet colorful and unique!

So the crux of today's lesson: You don't have to be inspired or feel creative. Take the time you need. It's okay to walk away from something and come back to it as many times as needed. Trust your first instinct. Take a chance.