Faerie Finery: The Handcrafted Jewelry of FaerieCon

I just got back from spending my weekend at FaerieCon East.  What is FaerieCon? "FaerieCon is a fantasy convention, featuring artists and authors working in the genre.  It's known for its Masquerade balls and marketplace of artist/makers."~Jenny Davies-Reazor

Yesterday, the last day of the show, I took a final walk through the vendors and chose several to share with our readers.  I hope you enjoy a peek inside this fabulous world...

One of the first booths I stopped at was Crafty Celts.  Crafty Celts creates historically inspired Irish and Viking-style jewelry out of sterling silver, bronze and copper.  Their work was featured on the History channels "Vikings".  I'm considering a Viking costume for next renfaire season and this shop will certainly be on my mind for accessories. 

The next vendor that caught my eye was Twisted Bliss Designs.  Twisted Bliss Designs specializes in sterling silver wire-wrapped jewelry.  I was very impressed by their wire-wrapping skills.  Incredibly detailed, especially the fabulous headpieces. Unfortunately, many of my photos came out blurry so you should check out their Etsy shop to see more of their beautiful work.

Seeing Vagabond Metalworks in person was a true gem.  I was blown away and very inspired by Kest Schwartzman's metalsmithing.  Organic and eccentric, I just loved this work.  In addition to amazing metal jewelry, Kest also creates spectacular metal masks...

I wish I could've come home with all of them!

For those of you that love polymer and resin, Art of Joanne Schempp had these wonderful dragon egg pendants for sale.  Joanne carved the original dragon egg and cast a mold. Then she used polymer clay to create the eggs and set and domed them in gorgeous blingy metal pendants using resin.  

My friend Lithia, owner of Lithia's Creations, was vending again this year.  Lithia recently started creating pretty soldered pendants by upcyling broken plates and tea cups.  She also had some art bead jewelry this year including those pretty dragonfly necklaces featuring pendants from Round Rabbit.

And for our metal clay fans, the stunning work of Silvan Arts was on display.  Silvan Arts features nature-inspired jewelry crafted from metal clay, with many of the pieces incorporating gorgeous gemstones.  If you'd like to see more of their work, visit their Etsy shop.

And last, but certainly not least was AJE's own Jenny Davies-Reazor.  How else did you think I knew about this event?  Jenny has been vending FaerieCon for several years and she had a wonderful display with her pendants, necklaces and tiles.  

I hope you enjoyed this little peek inside FaerieCon's jewelry vendors!  I can't wait to enter the realm of magic again next year!

Happy Beading!

Diana P.

Suburban Girl Studio LLC

June Component of the Month Reveal!

What a whirlwind this month has been! I have been up to my elbows in clay - teaching an intensive pottery "camp" for teens and young ones. Whew! I hope to settle in and make a few pretties for Beadfest Philadelphia before too long!

Are you ready to see what the team and our special guests have created?

This is what I made:

And away we go: 

Guest artists: 

Leah - http://beadyeyedbunny.blogspot.com

Elisabeth - http://beadsforbusygals.blogspot.com

Jean - http://prettykittydogmoonjewelry.blogspot.com

Sarajo - http://sjdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com

The AJE Team

Jennifer Cameron -  http://glassaddictions.com/
Jenny Davies-Reazor  -  http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog (that would be me)
Susan Kennedy  -  http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com/
Linda Landig -   http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/
Melissa Meman   -  http://melissameman.blogspot.com/
Rebekah Payne  -  http://www.treewingsstudio.com/
Jo Tinley  -   http://daisychaindesignsjewellery.blogspot.com/
Lesley Watt  -   http://thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com/
Francesca Watson  - http://www.francescawatson.com
Diana Ptaszynski   - http://www.vintagebluestudio.typepad.com/
Kristi Bowman -  http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com
Kristen Stevens  - http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/

I am thrilled to have so many people trying these "organic ceramic" charms! I cannot wait to take a look! Thanks to one and all for participating in the AJE Component of the Month this month!

Jenny 

www.jdaviesreazor.com

Feel the heat! Ceramic cone 10 reduction firing...

This was on my plate this week - literally. It is a plate full of porcelain charms and pendants stamped with new (to me) designs and textures. Do you recall the post a while back where I made molds from a plethora of organic items? Star Anise, coral, sea urchins... they are finally seeing the inside of the kiln! 

The process can be slow - create, dry, refine, fire, glaze, fire... depending on the creator this can be a week - or a few months! For me I work in 2 very different clay categories. I work in earthenware, a lower temperature clay for my sculptural "Mythic Nature" pendants. I use commercial low fire glazes as they afford me a colorful, reliable palette with which to paint. These pieces fire in my kiln at home, an electric kiln, whenever I feel the need. Easy peasy. ( Temperature range - ballpark 1900F)

I also work at a ceramics studio where we fire to cone 10 reduction. ( More on reduction in a sec, hang on...) There are stoneware clays in a variety of colors and porcelain. The firing is done in a large, hand built gas kiln out in the courtyard. Its a bit rough, but a work horse. But it might get fired once a week, and it is a group firing overseen by my colleague who teaches the adult class. She fits in what she can, theoretically including student work before instructors, and trying to get a few pieces in from each student. So there is the waiting game, and I am an instructor so... Sigh. It can take a while to get small fiddly little charms in the kiln. 

Big Bertha in reduction. Yes - flames are flitting out!

With Beadfest coming in a few months - its a rush to make hi fire things now! I hope to include a few in each firing this summer, but classes are smaller and the kiln fires maybe every other week. 

This week - my colleague was away. So I loaded the kiln, and  it fired  today. And we did make sure to get my half shelf of charms in.... I wanted to show you the process: 

My porcelain

From the last firing... 

The kiln on the far left. Panarama shot. Pots everywhere... we got 95% of this in the firing. 

Building shelf by shelf, the full kiln, bricking up the doorway.

It took the 2 of us two hours. While this style kiln allows great flexibility for placement of shelves, it has to be rebuilt and reconfigured every firing. It fires with propane to app. 2377 degrees, and can take approximately 8-10 hours. It will cool for a full day, and as the weekend is here - we wont unload until Monday. It is nervous anticipation, like taking an exam and awaiting Christmas morning - all in one!

The reduction firing - in layman's terms - means that during the firing cycle one purposefully reduces the oxygen intake via vents on the kiln. This causes a "reduction" atmosphere inside the kiln - oxygen is leached from the clay and the glazes - magic! Or to be technical: "A reducing atmosphere is also used in order to produce specific effects on ceramic wares being fired. A reduction atmosphere is produced in a fuel fired kiln by reducing the draft and depriving the kiln of oxygen. This reduced level of oxygen causes incomplete combustion of the fuel and raises the level of carbon inside the kiln. At high temperatures the carbon will bond with and remove the oxygen in the metal oxides used as colorants in the glazes. This loss of oxygen results in a change in the color of the glazes because it allows the metals in the glaze to be seen in an unoxidized form. A reduction atmosphere can also affect the color of the clay body. If iron is present in the clay body, as it is in most stoneware, then it will be affected by the reduction atmosphere as well."

So there.

Its art and alchemy. 

Its primal. 

Its hot. 

Its chemistry. 

It can be a surprise... 

And I have to wait until Monday... 

Have a good weekend!

Jenny 

www.jdaviesreazor.com

June Component of the Month and ... a giveaway!

News Flash: 
June is right around the corner. Hello Summer! And this month's CoM is... 

... earrings pairs!

April/May issue

I am thrilled to share these with everyone - for a few reasons:

• My kiln was broken for 2 months. My friend Marsha helped me trouble shoot causes, order parts, and taught me elemental repairs. ( Kiln humor - we replaced the heating coil elements as option 1). I am very happy to have my bestie up and running again - this was her first glaze load! 

• These organic earring pairs were included in Step by Step Wire magazine this past past issue. 

• I will be expanding this line to porcelain, and high fire glazes in time for Beadfest in August!

My pieces and Suebeads below. 

And you have heard that we are in the midst of a fabulous 52 week earring challenge, right? With a Pinterest board and all that. Here are the details if you are late to this... 

So without further ado: 
Organic ceramic earring pairs.

Hand stamped, from organic forms including star anise, poppy and eucalyptus pods!

Here's how the giveaway, challenge, and blog-hop will work (please read all the information carefully!):

• I will give away 1 earring pair to each of 3 winners selected randomly from those who leave comments below this post. 
• Please include your EMAIL address in your comment so that I can contact you ASAP should you win.
• Please (PLEASE) only leave a comment if you can commit to creating a finished piece and blogging about it on the reveal date.
• I'll choose the color, so you'll be surprised!
• The names of the 3 winners will be announced on May 31st in the evening so I can get international packages out if need be!
• The blog reveal will be Sunday, June 30th!

I am excited to share these with you! Do you want in on this organic ceramic goodness? 

Jenny

www.jdaviesreazor.com

Freeform Friday - Organic

... from Merriam Webster:  Organic 3a  : of, relating to, or derived from living organisms...

...from Albert Einstein: "Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better. "

Today's post is inspired by nature, and organic texture. I am focussing on texture this month; my friend Cooky Schock and I are doing a collaborative year long exchange on our shared blog at Coast 2 Coast Creative. And natural textures are my absolute favorite. Mother Nature was truly an  inspired artist when she created marvels like sea urchins, tree bark, and seed pods! Oh seed pods... 

Eucalyptus pods from San Diego.

I use these frequently, one of my fav motifs. And such different designs, such diversity! They remind me of Medieval quatrefoils. 

Ocean and sea themed found objects in my studio. 

Plant and pod pieces gathered in my studio.

SO for this Freeform Friday I decided to make some molds. Positive and negative; and share some of my organic inspirations. These type of elements have been used to make impressions since early man was texturing clay pots. (Makes the pots less slippery when wet...) No one can fuss about copying, since we are all inspired by similar items. You can't copyright a peach pit! The trick is using them in your own creative way...

Polymer texture plates pulled from the original objects. When cured these can be texture press plates as is - a "negative" of the original. I will use them in both earthenware clay and polymer.
 L to R: peach pit, acorn cap, star anise, magnolia pod, poppy pod.

Ocean pieces and their "negative" polymer pieces. The sea urchin had to be taped back together for the picture...

When I make molds of my hand carved ceramic pieces, I cast them in plaster. That process ruins the original, as it is forcibly taken from the mold when set. For more fragile objects I have started using various brands of RTV. This "room temperature vulcanizing" mold material is so fabulous! ( I have used Micro Mark's and Alley Goop) Simply mix equal parts, press, set aside. Fifteen minutes or so - there you are! I cast my cured polymer pieces to have a flexible version of my new texture vocabulary. 

With the brain coral and seed pod shown above - I used the RTV on the polymer "negative" - resulting in a RTV "positive" that replicated the item's direct texture. Pressed in design? Raised up design? I can do either... And for one more positive image... I used black polymer to make positive stamps from these three RTV molds. The ideas I am having of that star anise pod! ( far right) pressed into clay, glaze pooling in the design... yummy. And poppy pod earrings? Sweet!

Many of my fellow artists at AJE are also inspired by organic textures. Leaves, sea urchins, shells... in porcelain, stoneware, bronze and copper... Feel free to browse! 

L to R: Kristi Bowman, Lesley Watt, Karen Totten, Diana Ptaszynski, Kristi, Lesley, Diana.

Until next time...

Jenny

www.jdaviesreazor.com