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!

Beach Vacation Jewelry Designing

I'm getting ready to leave tomorrow with the boys on a much deserved trip to the beach!  Yay! Fun in the sun, or not, as the weather report seems fraught with clouds, rain and storms. (sad face)  As much as that seems like a downer, I don't really care.  If I can look at the waves, and hear them thunder to the shore and walk with sand (wet or dry) under my bare feet, I think I will be okay!

From our trip to the same beach a couple years back!

If you are like me,  when you go on a family trip, you need some creative things to keep your hands busy when you are bored or the rest of the fam wants to do something you are not particularly interested in.  What to bring, though?  Lately, my jewelry creation interests have been in the fabrication mode...soldering, enameling, metal clay and polymer clay firing. Can't bring the kiln, torch or toaster oven!  So, I usually resort to...beads and wire.

This trip I have decided to focus on some unfinished projects first...

My mixed-media pendants and metal clay pendant in various stages.

These are in various stages of completion...some just need a clasp, some need to have more links added, etc.  They have been in my "to do" pile long enough.

I also want to start a new "rosary" project.  I put quotations, because this will not be a traditional Catholic rosary in the sense that I am going to use my metal clay components, and I may or may not do the full 50 Aves with 6 Pater beads.  I guess we'll see.

My white copper components and gorgeous tiger-eye!

This is a perfect beach project for me, as all I need are wire, beads, pliers and a cutter.  How to pack it, though, so it doesn't take up much room and is all in one place?  I found these cool boxes at The Container Store ages ago and I like the flat, briefcase-like design.

Nice and flat, so it can stack in your suitcase.

Just add your materials, toss in your new favorite jewelry magazine for beach reading and for stabilization of the contents and you are all set!

I do have a couple of projects I wanted to get done before I leave...something new for me to wear!  My beach jewelry wear is usually very simple...just earrings, and maybe a bracelet or necklace at night.

I hoped to get a couple new pairs of earrings made for me...these are on my table right now:

Gorgeous stoneware by Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio, ceramic flowers by Joan Miller, and my favorite Czech glass beads.  Combinations to be decided and probably changed 20 times!

I would also like to create a beachy-themed bracelet with these gorgeous beads and maybe some leather...love Diana's starfish connector....I have been saving it! Don't Sue Kennedy's ridged lampwork beads fit with Diana's mix perfectly?

Yummy mix of beachy colors!

So, this is my rainy day beach plan!  Who knows, if we have wonderful weather, there may not be any free time to sit and do any of this, but at least I am prepared!  I'll try to follow-up and show any finished pieces next time!

How about you?  What kind of creative projects do you like to take with you on vacation?  We would love to know!!!!

The Magic of Fireflies: the June Theme Challenge

Firefly/Lightning Bug image found here: http://managementscience.biz/lightning-bugs/

As you may recall, the theme for the June AJE theme challenge is fireflies/lightning bugs and is open to all component makers and jewelry designers. I thought it might be fun to learn a little bit more about fireflies. Especially because I knew absolutely nothing about them except how beautiful they're flashing lights are.

It turns out, what we are witnessing is a call to mate. Males fly around flashing their lights hoping to impress a female. The females stay on a perch on the ground or on a shrub. If they are impressed by what they see, they flash back. If they aren't, they don't flash and the male can't find them in the dark.

Example of amazing photography from Firefly Experience. 

According to the Boston's Museum of Science Firefly Watch website, The female decides which male to mate with based on the nuptial gift she receives. The nuptial gift "contains sperm to fertilize her eggs and food to help nourish them. Research on some species, including a local Photinus, suggests that the female is swayed by the brightness and duration of a male's flash. The more robust male firefly can produce a brighter flash and offer a larger nuptial gift, thus making him the preferred choice."

To most of us, the flash of fireflies look the same as every other. However, there are lots of variations. From the same Firefly Watch website:

Each species of firefly has a fairly distinctive flash pattern, which each differ in a number of ways:
-Color
-Length
-Number of flashes
-Interval of time between flashes
-Time of night they are active
-Flight pattern

Flashes can vary for a number of reasons, including temperature, time of night, time of year.

Image found on Backyards for Nature

If you are interested, you can volunteer to watch for fireflies in your backyard to help scientists with their research. For more info, visit the getting involved link, and if it sounds like something you would like to do, there's a link at the bottom to sign up. 

The AJE team have been working on their theme pieces a little bit here and there. I showed a few components last time, but we have a couple new pieces to share.

First up is Lesley's stunning firefly pendant: 

And Caroline tried out some prototypes in glass that are just magical:

We hope you'll join us in this challenge! It's super easy to participate. 

1. Goal - Have fun! Try something different! Be inspired by the magic of fireflies! Make something that fits within this theme. This can be an artist bead, a component, or a finished piece of jewelry.    

       *You are free to use any artist bead/component in your design -

• from an AJE team member 
• of your own creation
• from another artisan bead maker... 

2. Share/Reveal - Reveal date June 30th

If you would like to be included in the blog reveal at month's end, please email Jen at jennifer.glassaddictions (at) gmail.com. Since this is open to all, this is the most efficient way to be included. Emails need to be received by June 27th  to be included. 

February 2015 Component of the Month Reveal

Hi and welcome to the February Component of the Month Challenge/Blog Hop! I had the honor of providing the components for this month, and I chose to create metal clay pieces. After getting a kiln last year, I have been playing with copper and white copper metal clay and am really loving it. For this COM, I decided to carve a rubber stamp and used it as a starting point for all the pieces. It all started with this drawing...

As much as I loved the dots around the design, the carving tool wouldn't really work for them. For the metal clay pieces with extra holes, I used a drill bit while the clay was leather dry.

I hope you will go and show some love to those who have created designs using them!
Here are the participants.

Guest Participants:

Michelle Mach
Patty Miller
Divya N

AJE team:

Jenny Davies-Reazor
Susan Kennedy
Melissa Meman
Rebekah Payne
Lindsay Starr
Kristen Stevens
Francesca Watson
Lesley Watt

February COM...Metal Clay!

Hi all, it is time to show off the component of the month for February 2015!  I have the honor of providing this month's component. After polling the group, I decided to do some metal clay.

I am new to the medium, but as I talked about in previous posts, love it and strive to find my voice with it!

These are all copper, using the same original carved stamping by me.  The dots around certain designs are actually holes through the design, hard to see in the photo!

Three (3) of you will win components in copper, or white copper, not shown here, to create a design and bring your own unique spin to them, You will then participate in our Component of the Month blog hop!

Leave a comment on this post to win a chance to receive components of my choice and blog about your creative experience! You must have an active blog to participate.  Comments should include blog name and an email to contact you.

I will choose participants on Monday, 1/26/15!

You're really growing on me!

I can’t believe it’s been a fortnight since my last post. Where has the time gone??? A lot of it has been spent playing with my bronze clay. I didn’t realise that I’ve spent 2 weeks working out firing schedules and coming up with new ideas, so this is pretty much all I have to talk about this week.

To start, an update on the pieces I made 2 weeks ago. If you follow me on Facebook, you may have already seen that I cracked the firing schedule, and managed to successfully sinter the lentil beads and hare pendant.

It took 4 days of constant firing and adjusting, but I’m now confident that my creations will stay in one piece.

A good tip I picked up while researching, was that the majority of problems with pieces not sintering properly is to do with the first part of the firing and burning off the binder rather than the top temperature. Once I’d discovered that, I altered the schedule and it worked. It was a happy day! 

The lentils didn’t work brilliantly, they turned in to bronze with no problems, but they warped as they were fired and one cracked, I wonder if bronze clay is similar to ceramic clay in that it will warp if dried too quickly? A test for the future! 

I didn’t have anything to polish the insides with so you can’t make out the designs too well, and unfortunately the CZ clouded, but it’s all lessons learned (and the opportunity for shopping!)

One thing I really like about this brand of clay (Goldie hard) is that it’s really easy to fix. As I said, one of the lentils cracked, so I packed in some wet clay, left it to dry and ran through the schedule again. It filled the crack perfectly!

Once I had a couple of firings under my belt, I tried some more complex designs. Another hare, this time with an embedded bronze setting and some leaves and flower vines.

And then finally on to an idea that has been sitting in my head for a long time… making bezels. 

I rolled thick pieces of clay and carved out the inside with an undercut around the inner edge to set a tiny sculpture. 

I really like the variation of effects and colours you can get with this bronze. When first fired, it's rough with a grainy texture, but once polished, it's lovely and shiny and can range from bright and yellow to a warm gold.

Originally, I wanted to fill it with ceramic clay, but the firing temperatures are too different and trying to work out the shrinkage would have been a nightmare, so I created the design in polymer clay which was carved and baked in place. (I didn't realise how mucky I'd got it, I should have washed my hands properly after the polishing!)

Once cured, I painted it with acrylics.

I have some sealant on the way to finish this off and make it more durable, but I’m really pleased with how it’s looking so far (although I think his eye needs a bit more colour) and have a hundred and one ideas for more!

Metal clay, I owe you an apology, you’re not that bad after all!

Metal clay - A love/hate relationship

Hadar Jacobson (City of Rings)

This year, one of my resolutions is to make something with metal clay. I’ve been trying to do it ever since it arrived in the country. I remember paying £10 (a huge amount as a poor student) for something like 10 grams of silver clay. Yes, it was a long time ago! It was PMC and all the instructions were in Japanese. I spent a long time creating a beautiful pendant, but couldn’t properly understand the picture instructions and it exploded right in front of me pretty much as soon as I put the torch on it. I should have just given up then… it’s never got much better!

I am determined that this year, I will master it and produce something wonderful, perfectly formed, fully sintered, an unexploded masterpiece… or at least something that doesn't crumble to dust! 

Gordon K. Uyehara 

I’ve tried most brands of clay so far, all equally unsuccessful, so for this round, I am trying Goldie bronze. I bought a test kit last year with 5 colours/types of bronze and 1 of copper. It’s different to others that I’ve tried as it’s not premixed. The majority of packs I’ve had before went off after I’d opened them, so I like the idea of mixing small amounts to test with.

The bronze comes in powder form and is mixed with water. I am using the hard version of Goldie Bronze.

I added a small amount of water and the mix started to turn crumbly. I guessed that I didn’t need much more water, so used a spritzer to add small amounts.

The clay started to form in to a solid lump.

It’s a bit like making scones! Once it’s bound together, the clay has to be conditioned by folding and rolling away from the seam for a few turns. You can feel it firm up as you work. It’s then left to rest for half an hour (maybe more like bread than scones!) I like that this clay doesn’t stick to your fingers as others do. It did stick to my non stick mat though???

Never one to start small, I took one of my many drawings of things I’d like to make in metal clay, a hollow lentil bead.

I rolled the clay 3 cards thick, and cut circles. They were formed into a half lentil shape over a painting palette 

Then I cut 2 more circles and lightly drew the design for the front of the bead.

This circle was formed over the palette and the design cut out with a scalpel.

They were then left to dry. I had some clay left, so rather than let it dry out, I made a hare pendant with cubic zirconia for eyes. No idea if this will work, but it’s worth a try! 

The hard bronze was really easy to use, similar to working with ceramic clay. It held it’s shape well and took lots of fine detail.

The lentil halves still weren’t dry, so I mixed up some of the Roman Bronze and made another. This clay is completely different. It’s fluffy in comparison to the hard version. It didn’t hold it’s shape very well and the grain was much larger, so it wouldn’t take much detail. What I did get on there was difficult to do. I think this would be better suited to simpler designs, where the rough texture of the design is the main focus. This hare got CZ eyes too… in for a penny!

Finally, the halves dried out, so I made up some clay paste and stuck them together. After drying again, they were sanded and cleaned up. And here they are ready for firing. You can just about make out the carved design inside... I'm hoping that with a patina and polish the design will be a bit more prominent!

Although I had tried the bronze before, I took the advice to do a test firing (thanks Lesley!) and I’m glad I did. The test strips didn’t fully sinter, so I don’t have finished pics to show you. Glad I didn’t put the proper pieces in, hopefully they’ll be done for my next post!

I hope this time's the charm... Keep your fingers crossed for me!