Making Wild Horse Beads: The "Hole" Story

This weekend I had a mess of various polymer colors scattered over my worktable (in addition to some leftover leather scraps from another project)—I've been working on a few new color schemes for my Flying Arrow Horses.

These little horses are currently my most favorite bead to make. Okay, yeah I have to admit that my favorite bead to make changes quite a lot… but there's really nothing wrong with that—I love making what I love making most and enjoy going with that flow.

For all my Wild Horse beads the most tricky part of their making is piercing the hole, or at least it was and for the longest time I put off making them because I didn't like doing the holes. If you've ever tried to pierce a nice, long straight hole through a long, thin piece of squishy polymer and actually get it to end up where you want it at the other side, and without damaging the detail you have so carefully created, you know what I mean! It wasn't until one of my lovely customers asked me about making horses that I started to consider it more seriously and finally I made my first batch of Wild Horses and in the process figured out how to make piercing easier and nearly fool proof. I highly doubt if I'm the first one to do holes this way, but whatever… I just love that it works for me!

So today… you have my Wild Horse "Hole" Story…

They all start out in a mold that I made from my original sculpture. Yes, I use molds for many of my beads—they make it SO much easier to make dozens of the same shape without the annoyance and extra time of trying to match them up. I only cast for the most simple details, and then add the rest by hand. Right before I remove the horse from the mold, I use a large needle to create the hole channel—the key to my easy hole!

I do all the detailing with the little horse resting on the needle, this fills in the hole and keeps it from collapsing while I work.

Once the details are all applied and I'm happy with them, I test each horse to ensure they can stand. I love that these beads would also be perfectly happy living in a shadow box!

They then must pass inspection from my sweet little cat Grapenut, aka Mr Fluffy. He often sits in my lap while I work, chin resting on my table, watching the beads take shape. He takes is job very seriously and was bugged by the fact that I wanted to take his photo!

After a short trip to the oven for the first curing, I fill in the hole channels with raw polymer.

I add a thick layer of polymer to the back, trim…  

… and finally pierce! The piercing runs smoothly through the raw polymer filled channel giving you a nice clean and straight hole!

And lastly, I carefully trim away the back to give it a more finished carved texture. 

One horse completed and ready for final curing… time for another cup of coffee and more horse making!

And here's the finished result… after a few washes of paint and polishing…

These are my russet brown horses… the palomino horses that I was working on in this post weren't quite ready for a photo shoot, but will be following after into my shop in the next few days!

The End.

Rebekah Payne

Tree Wings Stuido

Shop: treewingsstudio.etsy.com

Blog: treewingsstudio.com

The Journey - Part Two

“Life lessons are not journeys traveled in straight lines but are crossroads

formed years and miles apart.”

― Gina Greenlee, Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments on the Road 

In my last post I shared some of our team's early work, with the thought of encouraging you on your own creative journey.  Its fun to look back and see how far we've come.  It helps to put things in perspective and it gives encouragement that the future will bring continued progress.

In Part One of this series, I highlighted the journeys of Karen Totten, Jennifer Cameron, Melissa Meman and Niky Sayers. Today let's take at look at Lesley's, Sue's and Rebekah's early work.

Lesley Watt
Lesley started out designing jewelry.  Later she branched out into making jewelry components as well.  Here is an early necklace and earring set she made, before discovering the world of art beads. Lesley says that, "This was the starting point of my design career and it highlights how much I've learned and how much more depth and breadth there is to my work now.

Discovering art beads was a transformative experience for each of the the Art Jewelry Elements team members.  Lesley has made art beads in polymer clay, metal clay and most recently she has been working in stoneware clay.  Here is a picture of her first ceramic beads from 2013.  Lesley says, "I was really excited about these and they still make me feel like that because it was the start of a huge passion that teaches me something new with every batch of beads..."

And here are a few more of Lesley's early ceramic beads.

Sue Kennedy
Sue started making lampwork glass beads about 10 years ago in a class with Mike Mangiafico.  She says, "They only had ugly colors and short rods back then for us to use - there are so many more colors now. You can see the obvious flaws - the wonky beads, the off-center dots, the bubbled up clear glass. But I also see many beads that have great dimpled ends and a hint of talent!"

Sue goes on to add, "These are beads from my next class with Mike (the first class was a sampler I believe). You can see marbles, plunged dots, "caterpillar' beads, hollow beads, how many spacers can you fit on a mandrel beads, an off-mandrel bead etc. And again, wonky beads and not so pretty beads. But more and more practice. Mike was very encouraging to me and I'm so glad he was, because I have been very happily making glass beads all these years."

Rebekah Payne
Rebekah found so many great pictures to share, that several of us encouraged her to do a blog post just about her own development as an artist. I'll just share a sampling of her early work here.

Rebekah is well know for her sleeping critter beads. Here is what they looked like before they became beads! Rebekah says, "The rooster "Button" was my first critter sculpture in polymer—I made him in early 2002. My little beagle, Suzie and the brown owl on the burned tree came next, probably in 2003… somewhere in between there and 2004, I made the chinchilla. I loved chinchillas at the time!! I made the falcon, other owl, and the song birds (and a bunch other birds!) in 2004 for an art contest and to raise money for me and my sisters to adopt a horse.

And here are some of Rebekah's earliest pendants. She states, "I was thinking of making jewelry to sell and these are my first attempts at making my own pendants in polymer from early 2005. The photo makes them look much better than they really are in real life for some odd reason… Thankfully I used the wrong kind of finish and they have a case of the "everlasting stickies", so no one will have to own them!

"This one is one of my first dragon necklaces I made in 2007 for my short, but unsuccessful venture on eBay. I'd been working on this dragon style off and on for about 2 years at this point. My painting was starting to reach a point I liked with the blending of colors… my sculpting skills still need improvement though! Loved seed beads back then!"

I hope you have enjoyed this little bit of reminiscing. All of us are on a journey. None of us can know where it will lead us, but we can savor the trip.

I'll share more early work in my next post.  Till then, enjoy the trip!

Linda

Linda Landig Jewelry

Reposting an Old Favorite… Star Burst Earrings How-To

Hey everyone! Happy Independence Day to all of our USA readers and a happy Saturday to everyone else! It's a crazy busy weekend for me… haha! more so because of bead making than anything else (Are you surprised?!), but I'm happy for any excuse to spend more time with family so I'm planning on enjoying it with them too.

For today's post I'm reposting an old favorite from July last year with an added little treat of red, white and blue goodies at the end… I hope you'll enjoy this re-run of my Independence Day inspired earrings tutorial!

July 5, 2014… I've had a very busy week at work—both my "real job" and my studio job have seemed endless! And so waking up Thursday morning suddenly realizing it was my turn to post on AJE this weekend and feeling my brain start spinning as I realized I didn't have a post idea, was an unsettling way to start the day to say the least! My first thought was to show you my new beads… but wait those new beads aren't finished! My second idea was a tutorial—but of what?! I started making a mental list of all the cool beads in my studio and possible ideas. And then I thought of stars and fireworks—could I make jewelry inspired by the Independence Day celebration? I don't mean red, white, and blue. That's nice and all, but not my thing—in my mind those colors are for the flag and not wearing—that's me though and I never dress for any holiday. I wanted something that could be worn any day, no matter the occasion… My mind wandered onto some tiny howlite stars… hmm… olive-golden beaded beads from awesome AJE team member, Kristen Stevens… purple peacock faceted beads maybe?… Sounds interesting, right?

Anyhoo… all this going through my brain before coffee was a bit of a mess so I put the idea out of my mind and got on with normal stuff. Hot horses wanted their food and fly spray (right now!) and I needed to say "hi" to kitty before he thought I had forgotten all about him, and oh yeah, drink coffee… and then check emails.

All that out of the way, a second cup of coffee in hand—and star earrings here I come!

And a tutorial for you! Take a look…

Supplies you'll need:

- 22 gauge bronze wire

- 2 beaded beads

- 2 10mm faceted czech glass beads

- 8 4mm howlite stars

- earwires (again, I left this very minor detail out of my photo!)

Tools you'll need:

- tape measure

- wire cutters

- round-nose pliers

- flat-nose pliers

- bent-nose pliers

- permanent marker

- 800 grit sandpaper

1. Cut 2 lengths of wire each 3 inches long and 2 lengths of wire each 2 1/2 inches long. Smooth the ends with sandpaper—or if you happen to have one of those fancy schmancy tools actually made for removing burrs, by all means use it and make it easier on yourself—I had only sandpaper on hand and it works great in a pinch!

2. Use round-nose pliers to form a tiny coil at the end of one wire, put two stars on the wire, and form a second coil. Repeat with the 3 remaining wires. I like to work both earrings simultaneously to keep them the same.

3. Next mark each wire slightly off center with a permanent marker—make sure both long wires and both short wires are marked so when bent they will be the same length.  Grasp the marked point with the round-nose pliers…

4. …and bend the wire around, crossing the ends over…

5. …remove the pliers from the loop, grasp just below the loop and gently bend the stars down…

6. … so they look like this. Repeat with each wire to make your star charms.

7. Cut a 7 inch length of wire and take one of the longer star drops and one of the shorter ones and wrap tightly together. Repeat with the remaining star charms. Time to put the earrings together!

8. Cut an 8 inch length of wire and start to form a wrapped loop—don't wrap or trim yet!—slip a star charm onto the loop. Then add one of the beaded beads and glass bead.

9. Form a wrapped loop at the top of the glass bead… and finally wrap the loop at the base of the beaded bead. I did it this way because I didn't want a whole jumble of wire at the base—by having the wire already pulled tight after forming the wrapped loop at the top first, it was much easier to keep the wrap at the base flat and neat. Repeat for second earring and add your earwires… and go enjoy your new earrings!

And now some lovelies from the AJE team inspired by red, white and blue!

Bright and cheery ladybug earrings by Linda Landig

Sweet little red flower headpins by SueBeads… they look a bit like fireworks, don' t you think?

Gorgeous soaring bird beads…

…and drifting feather beads by blueberribeads

A radiant silver and chalcedony heart pendant by Bits By Niky

Stunning autumn red bracelet focal by THEA Elements

A little leaping lunar hare in silvery gossamer white by yours truly, Tree Wings Studio.

Athena's Owl pendant by jdaviesreazor

The most adorable little red, white and blue sail boat you ever saw! Also by Lesley Watt of THEAElements

And last, but certainly not least—a beautifully rustic Aqua Spiral Fossil connector by Starry Road

I hope you enjoyed my re-run post for today!

Wishing you all a most wonderful weekend… holiday or not… I hope it's fabulous in every way possible!

Rebekah Payne

Tree Wings Studio

Blog: treewingsstudio.com

Shop: treewingsstudio.etsy.com

Horse Bead Roundup

This weekend you'll find me busily working away in my studio making lots of little wild horse beads…  

Horses are such a great inspiration for me and my mind is constantly filled with more ideas than I have time to create! I already have plans to make these same wild horses in other colors and with various new patterns… but my first batch has already raced off to new homes and was followed by requests for more, so I quickly set up a pre-order yesterday morning and got right to work restocking.

These little horse beads are my small way of sharing my love of this magnificent creature! Each one is handcrafted in polymer clay in the worn and rustic style that I love, and inspired by the wild mustangs of my dreams… with a little touch of ornate detailing inspired by the carved wooden horses of India… and of course, a little sprinkling of sweet character inspired by my two best friends and very own noble steeds: Lady and Strider!

I have to say too… I really had quite a blast photographing them! It's not everyday that I have a whole herd of wild horses on my back deck!

And now, for my horse bead roundup! These lovelies below are some of my favorite horses in art jewelry element form… 

Pewter Indian pony bracelet link by KDemARTe

Rustic freeform shape, hammered texture, and tiny tribal patterns—what's not to love?!

Ceramic horse and foal pendant by FireflyDesignStudio

Such sweetness!

Original ink drawing polymer clay pendants and brooches by ChevreFeuille

Probably my very favorite designer of horse pendants, ever! If only I could pick one and make a purchase… ah! but my polymer clay needs eat into my bead budget too much! I often find myself stopping by Christina's shop wondering at what new horses she's created. I love her painterly style—so whimsical and full of life!

Ceramic celtic knot essential oil horse pendants by ThisOnesMineDesigns

Gorgeous rustic texture and pattern on these.

Hand painted mustang on genuine turquoise cuff bracelet by BelleRayneJewelry

I know I'm not the only one who wishes Belle would create her hand painted components for jewelry makers. Her detail is stunning!

Earthenware equestrian pendants by DappledGreyDesigns

Suzanne says she was never quite able to find equine-inspired jewelry that was unique and elegant, and reasonably priced, so she decided to design her own. I'm glad she did! I love the simple sketch-like designs paired up with beautiful glazes.

"Horse at Stream" bronze pendant by virginiamiska

This little chubby horse is way too adorable!

Spirit horse totem pendant by AngelWhisperer

It's no secret that I horde love Birgitta's gorgeous components!

Lampwork horse head silhouette focal bead from AJE's very own SueBeads

Love the beautiful agate-like quality in the swirling of the glass! 

Sterling silver horse portrait bracelet link by RLDesignStudio

I'm always drawn to the beauty of line drawings. The simple lines are so my style and I love how easily a focal like this can be paired up with other components.

Grulla Dun horse lampwork glass pendant by JoyMunshower

I'm amazed at the amount of life-like detail Joy puts into her creations—I'd love to sit in her studio and watch her create one of these beauties!

Fine silver spirit horse pendant by SoulQuestDesigns

One last beautifully simplistic, yet striking, design!

I hope you enjoyed my roundup of these beautiful horse beads, components, and jewelry… and maybe found a few you couldn't live without!

Happy Saturday everyone!

Rebekah Payne

Tree Wings Studio

Blog: treewingsstudio.com

Shop: treewingsstudio.etsy.com