Making your mark

I've finally got back to making, I'm still waiting for power and water in there, but I'm not going to let that stop me. Not getting my hands dirty for over a month has been testing!

The studio is looking a bit more lived in now, especially as the kids have claimed half the table as their own. We hadn't even got the roof on and there was lego in it!

I've started off with making lots of my usual beads... birds, urchins, houses etc. I have a show coming up, so wanted to get those out of the way before the fun started and I get completely sidetracked!

It was while I was making some house charms that I got thinking about speeding up production. I like to put my initials on the bottom of some of my unique designs, but writing each one on takes time and they all end up different. I decided I needed a little stamp! There are lots of places you can send off for custom stamps, but being impatient I decided to make my own. I've taken pics as I went along to show how you can make one for yourself.

The tools you need are some soft cut lino, lino cutters (I got this nifty little kit where everything is contained within a stamp) tracing paper, (I use baking paper), a scalpel, scissors, a pencil and a biro.

Start by drawing around the end of your pencil on to the lino.

Take your tracing paper and trace the circle.

Draw your initials on to the tracing paper inside the circle.

Scribble over the initials with pencil, and place the tracing paper scribble side down on to the circle you drew previously on the lino. You need to trace your initials in reverse so that when you stamp they mark the clay the right way round.

Trace over the initials so that the image is transferred on to the lino.

Remove the surrounding lino with your cutting tools. Looking back at this, I think I would have got a sharper design if I'd cut around the edge of the image first with my scalpel, I will do that next time!

With scissors cut around the circle to remove the design from the sheet.

Glue the stamp on to the end of your pencil and leave to dry.

Test :) If the design isn't as sharp as you'd like, carefully trim it with the scalpel. Here's a picture of the final stamp with my scruffy finger for scale.

Now it's ready to use to make your mark and identify your work!

Caroline

http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk

Explorations in 2014

2013 left me feeling drained in the creativity department.  I thought that by taking the entire month of December off that I'd magically become inspired again.  I was wrong.  I've spent weeks feeling blah, uninspired and just uninterested.  I finally decided I'd avoid bead-making a bit longer and work on jewelry.  That was the first step in my creative turnaround.  I submitted several pieces for publication and they were all accepted....YAY!

With that spark, I decided that 2014 would become a year of exploration for me.  I need new skills and a new attitude about my bead-making.  After speaking with some friends, I chose a few things to work on that I hope will re-inspire me.

Jenny suggested I engage in some sort of mini challenge each day.  Since I don't have decent drawing skills I'm going to attempt a small doodle every day in my sketch book.  Craft-a-Doodle by Jenny Doh will be my guide.

It makes sense to then apply those simple drawing skills to my ceramics.  I headed over to Dick Blick and stocked up on linoleum blocks for stamp carving.  As you may recall, back in July I attended a workshop at CREATE Mixed Media Retreat and wrote about my experience in a rubber stamp carving class.  I"m finally going to make regular use of what I learned there.

I also picked up two books to assist in my stamp carving; Carve, Stamp, Play by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Making an Impression by Geninne Zlatkis.  I see myself using original carved designs for pendants and for functional and decorative pottery.  I'm not giving up on beads, I just can't see myself doing 100% beads at this point.  I need some pottery time back in my life.

Now I couldn't continue to avoid making beads because I'll be vending at Berks Bead Bazaar in March so I had to force myself to get back to work.  Those beads are just a few of the pieces I made last week.  I'm working slowly but I"m also allowing myself to play with simple shapes.  I've decide that my pieces don't have to be complicated.  I can use simple shapes and play with layering glazes instead.  I also intend to finish my new raku kiln this spring and get that started up again.

The reality is that I needed change and I'm going to allow myself to do just that.  Sometimes we have to step out of our box or comfort zone and try new things (or revisit old things).  My resolution for 2014 is to explore.

Will you be exploring something new this year?

Diana P.
Suburban Girl Studio LLC