Finally Fall!

It seems that Fall has settled in this week. The familiar nip in the air, the trees starting to turn, leaves flying. I love it all - I am so glad it is finally upon us. Naturally, I've been seeing a lot of Fall-themed jewelry and beads of late. I thought I'd share a few that caught my eye...

Starting with components and beads, the first image that caught my eye was this photo posted on Facebook by Shannon LeVart of Missficklemedia, of her stunning fold-formed and patinated leaves:

Next, I saw that Heather Powers of Humblebeads posted a snapshot of some of her fall beads. I went to her shop to explore and found more. I love her work!

When I asked my blog colleagues for their own Fall offerings, Lesley Watt of Thea Elements produced these lovely bronze acorns and pine cones. I love the rustic craggy texture of these!

Diana P. of Suburban Girl Beads makes awesome leaf and nature impression beads and connectors, including this one:

And I like the richly enameled leaves that Susan Kennedy of SueBeads makes, like this one:

As for jewelry, here are some lovely offerings...

This pendant is from Linda Landig of Linda Landig Jewelry. I like the playful design with berry-like beads accompanying Erin Siegel's fall leaf pendant.

I couldn't help but fall in love with this Lorelei Eurto piece featuring a black raven - one of my favorite birds! The raven bead is by Diane Hawkey.

Kristi Bowman made these yummy Fall Earrings:

And here's a pretty Fall necklace with an owl (another bird that I love!), by Martha Thomas of Martha's Ruby Acorn:

And finally, on a more mixed-media note, I love this sweet little hand woven purse embellished with beads, by Marlene Kazor Quigley of MarkaZo.

Thank you for taking this visual tour with me. I am SO ready for Fall - my favorite time of year!

Saturday Share: Be Still!

We all have some of these beads in our stash.  You know, these little flower beads that are shaped like shank buttons...flat faces with the hole through the pointy backside?  Or those little blobs of glass with the loop in the back?  We see them and say, "oh, how sweet...they will be perfect in this design! I will wow the country and make a million bucks!"  Then, you start trying to incorporate them and they just. will. not. stay. put!

What usually happens when you try to wire wrap these!

I have taken apart so many pieces trying to get these sort of beads just right.  Sure, you can wire wrap them like charms, but they usually end up facing down, so no one can see their pretty carved faces!

Pretty ceramic charms by Diana P. of Suburban Girl Studios, my torch-fired enamel components, and yes, the evil Czech glass flowers with the hole in the backside!

A couple of days ago I created these earrings and I really wanted to use these little flower beads.  After watching one spin around on the wire, making me dizzy, I had a V8 moment,. Duh!  It dawned on me that I could use a technique I learned long ago...a herringbone wire-wrap.  I have always used it as a decorative technique, but never as a functional one.  I thought I would share it with you today.

Materials needed:
evil bead in question
wire of your choice...1 guage that is strong enough to support your bead, and 1 smaller gauge, flexible enough for wrapping
Flush cutters for close snips

• take desired wire you want your bead to be strung on (I'm using 22g sterling), then take your smaller gauge wire (this is 28g) and start a wrap around the larger wire
• Once you have it wrapped tightly 1 and 1/2 times, trim the small gauge wire and squeeze the end as tightly as possible
• slip your bead onto the wire

• Bring the small gauge wire over the top of the bead and wrap around the wire in an overhand direction
• bring the wire around the other side and wrap around your starting point, also overhand.  
• Continue this pattern until your bead feels secure.  I usually use 3-4 wraps.  As you are wrapping, smooth the wire against the previous wrap, so that is lays nicely and doesn't kink.

• nice and secure!
• depending on how you are using your bead, finish the ends.  Here I have made wrapped connector loops.

Here is one of the cute Unicorne Glass blob beads that I have always frustrated me!  The holes in these are big, so I used 16 gauge sterling and created a ball, then did the same wrap.  I am using 22 g to wrap, so I had to anneal it a bit to make it easier to wrap tightly.  This technique does double duty for this type of bead...decorative and functional.  Keeps the bead in place but still provides a nice frame!

Well, there you have it!  Hope this inspires you to pull out those frustrating beads and give them a second chance!

Happy Saturday!

Melissa Meman
Melismatic Art Jewelry
Art. Life. Love.

Freeform Friday: Art Camping

Art Camping

Art Camping - thats what I like to call it. There is a tent, you hike your stuff in to your site, set up and hang out in the woods all weekend.

Some people call it Artsfest at Annmarie Gardens. (Seen here is my set up last year - early stages)

This week I was hit by a doozy of a head cold. And I have a show this weekend. I took Monday off and then started tackling the to-do list. Granted most of it got done Thursday - but I thought would share my experience with you...

This post and the whole week brought to you by copious amounts of coffee and "cool" Kleenex...








Since I am a highly skilled procrastinator - I spent what little energy I had early in the week making more stuff. I have new "Mythic Nature" ceramic pendants that hadn't been seen at this show last year, and I wanted to represent them in jewelry. And making jewelry - simple wire wraps is something I can design and create when I am low energy, and drink coffee simultaneously.

The work table on Wednesday. Yes, I am watching "The Chew" on my iPad. Don't judge. 

The guest room looks like a bead store exploded. Well, in some ways that's not far off... I had to switch out the trays of beads, pendants, etc with the trays/inserts of finished jewelry. I don't have enough, you see, so its musical trays.

Then there are the earrings I made in a frenzy a week or so ago. (I love to make earrings - not that you'd know since I never get them posted to the AJE earring challenge...) They have to be carded, labeled and priced.

This is my living room. I know it doesnt look like a huge pile but let me give you a tour: 

• 1 tote ceramic sculptural shrines
• 2 totes ceramic decorative tiles
• 1 tote fabric and packaging material
• the "office" box
• small tote OOAK tiles
• tent walls
• wooden crate of frames and jewelry display items
• 2 IKEA bags: large lucite risers/levels, table risers, pennant flags, cigar boxes/display, banner, bungees, blocks of wood.... 
• Not pictured: tables, tent, chairs, hanging wire/mesh frames

Phew! I am tired just typing all that. I always stage upstairs the day before a show as all that lives in my basement and I have to haul it upstairs! (Clay is heavy.)

Necklaces need chains... 

Necklaces  labels and tags... 

 Needless to say I wont get it all done today (Thursday). As you read this I am traveling to my campsite - I mean the show, three hours away. (The good news is I stay with a friend - keeps costs down, fun and wine will be had by all. ) I will set up the booth Friday afternoon, and finish set up of my work Saturday morning. The site is secure, and it seems so civilized: stroll in with a coffee, naturally! on Saturday morning in your nice show attire, and have the heavy lifting done already. Just remove the Daddy long legs and replace with earrings!

Now - dont get me wrong - I am not complaining. I choose to do this. My previous career as a HS ceramics teacher? Chose that too. I love doing shows and talking with people, and the woods is a stunning setting, especially this time of year. But it is quite a bit of work...

To-go tupperware

I am sure I will be pricing things at my friend's house tomorrow night. I am sure I will be pricing things Saturday during the show. That's fine by me. I like having things to do - in fact I have this little Matroska ready to go... I think working on something/demonstrating is a great conversation starter!

So it Thursday night and I have more to do... let me just show you pix from last year... so you can picture me art camping this weekend! 

 Have a great weekend everyone! 

Jenny 

www.jdaviesreazor.com

Patience is a Virtue: Mould Making

Caroline of Blueberri Beads so enjoyed writing for our readers, she's written another article for our wonderful AJE readers. Today she covers mold making. Enjoy!

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I've had a busy week this week, all my kids are in school and I've had some time to make some plans and get organised. I did expect to be standing here after week 1 with armfuls of creations, but I seem to have just run around trying to do everything at once... I think I need a lesson in pacing myself!

So next week is going to be better, I have a plan of action and am working at things in stages. So I thought I'd share stage 1 of what I'm working on.

For my first project, I'm going to make a ceramic moon cabochon and set him in copper. So as I want to it to be repeatable, I first need to make a mould.

I have discovered a great way of making really sharp moulds using polymer clay and RTV moulding silicone which I'm going to share today.

I use Super Sculpey original to make my masters. Although I like to sculpt in clay, the polymer makes a much better mould as it's less porous and so far, has worked every time! Unless ceramic clay is glazed, the liquid silicon will stick to it and destroy the mould when you come to take out the master.

Here are the moon faces ready to make in to moulds.

The moulding compound I use is the same as the 2 part putty, but comes in liquid form. I didn't really get on with the 2 part putty and found it difficult to use around anything that wasn't flat. The liquid type is much more cost effective, so you can make a decent size mould that should last for a long time.

To hold the master and the moulding compound, you will need to make a container, I've found thick cardboard works really well. Make it into high sided boxes.

Roll a sausage of Blu-tak and stick it around the bottom edge of your master and stick it in the box. The blu-tak will stop the silicon from seeping underneath and keep your master from moving about.

Weigh and mix the 2 parts of the moulding compound in a cup taking care not to add too many bubbles. The type I'm using is condensation cure and has a working time of about 15 minutes so don't hang about too much! When the mixture is an even colour it's ready to pour.

Pour it into the mould in a slow stream, this helps to remove any bubbles that are there from the mixing.

When the mould is dry (I leave mine overnight) peel off the box and remove the master. You might need to trim it a bit with a scalpel blade to make sure your clay comes out easily, and that's it! To use with clay, I brush a bit of oil in to help it release.

Here's the clay when it's just come out of the mould,

And here they are after being trimmed and cleaned up, drying out ready for firing.

And after promising to be patient, I was in a rush and put these in to fire on Sunday and put the wrong program in, completely missing the slow ramp section of the firing. I opened to kiln a few hours later to lots of little exploded moons... Good job I have moulds!

-Caroline 

Blueberri Beads