The Return of Mismatched Monday!

After I returned from the bead cruise last month I came away with an amazing amount of inspiration. I ended up creating and writing tutorials for 8 pieces that will debut in various bead magazines over the course of the rest of the year and into early next year.

A few days ago, I sat down thinking I would still be filled with inspiration but then nothing happened.  Apparently, I used it all up....or so I thought!  I decided to start organizing my massive bead collection and in the process I ended up finding lots of beads I forgot I even had!

Among the forgotten were these ceramic leaf pieces that Karen had made.  They were in two separate locations in my office.  Since they had the same glaze and theme I thought they would be perfect for some mismatched earrings!

I then made a whole new mess in my office searching for the perfect pieces to go with them.  I pulled some newly acquired czech glass, brass beads and a brass dragonfly that was in my bead cruise bag.

It was fun to return to the mismatched earrings again and now I feel the urge to make MORE!  Have you been inspired by organizing your bead collection?

Earring Resources:
Ceramic leaf charm & bead-Starry Road Studio
Brass dragonfly, ear wires, jump rings and bronze wire-Fusion Beads
Czech glass-Arte Bella Surplus
Brass beads-Hands of the Hills and Rings & Things

Happy Beading!

Diana P.
Suburban Girl Studio LLC

Ocean Inspired

I have always been inspired by the sea. This week I happen to be in Florida visiting my daughter Audrey. We visited the ocean today and I got re-inspired all over again. :)

Inspiration...

Photo by me, taken today (Feb. 22), Florida Atlantic Coast 

Shells collected by me today

Craggy shell I found today - amazing color and texture!

The Beads...

Inspiration (photos by others, as noted)...

Atlantic Ocean by Merek Misztal

Ocean by Omar Fallaha

The Beads....

Inspiration (photos by others, as noted)...

Ocean by Orient-Express

Ocean by Katarina Stefanović

The Beads....

Inspiration (photos by others, as noted)...

Unknown source, via One Trick Pony

The Beads...

I end my stay in Florida this Thursday (back to the frozen North!). I'm sorry to leave so soon - I really enjoyed my brief re-aquaintance with my old friend the Sea.

beachcombing from Karen Totten on Vimeo.

Easy Earring Tutorial

I made these super easy earrings a few months ago and thought I would share how to make them.

I adore these very rustic discs that Diana P makes (find some here and here, here and here.). After making these earrings, I bought a couple more pairs because I love them so much.

To make these, you will need:

-Glass headpins by moi (Jen Cameron) that look their best when viewed from the top down (some look better from the side). I have no headpins listed right now, but probably about 50 of them sitting in a box in my studio if you're interested.

-Ceramic Discs by Diana Ptaszynski (Suburban Girl Studio)

-Ear wires (I used Vintaj)

-plus basic pliers, hammer and bench block. Possibly wire cutters 

Instructions:

Just a warning, it will take longer to read the directions than to make a single earring.

-If you are particular about length, measure about 3/4" to 1" length of wire from behind head. Otherwise, eyeball it. The length is determined by personal preference and also how far from the edge the hole of the disc is.

-Bend wire at the length determined in the last step. Gently fold wire into a U with the disc at the bottom of the U and glass head on the short wire side in the front of the disc.

-Bend the end of the wire containing the glass head and cross it over the other leg of the U. Decide where you would like the wrap would be. Grasp both legs with needle nose pliers and wrap the head around the other leg until it's facing the front again.

-It should now look like this:

-Then you will make a loop to hang from the ear wire. Bend wire to one side.

-Make loop using round nose pliers.

-Once you've done that, you will make messy wraps above and below the glass head. This adds an interesting design element and locks the head into place.

-I hammered the loop holding the discs and the loop holding the ear wires for this pair.

-Repeat for the 2nd earring.

-Wear them. Or gift them, if you can stand to part with them...

What do you think of the bark? It's my new photo prop. 

Have fun with this and show me what you make!

-Jen Cameron

Glass Addictions

Mudlarking

For anyone who may not know, 'Mudlark' was the name given to people who scavenged for valuables in the mud of the River Thames at low tide in the 18th and 19th centuries. Now obviously that's not exactly what I've been doing but I have been playing with a different sort of mud with the aim of making something that might have some artistic merit or value...

One of the things I really love about being part of this AJE team is the huge capacity my team mates have for sharing and supporting one another. You may just have noticed in the last couple of weeks that some of them came back from ArtBliss very excited about the new techniques they'd learnt and were eager to put into practice and about this time last week, that excitement got us all talking about mixed media work and where we wanted our creative paths to go.

I'd been saying for a long time that I wanted to have a go at making ceramic beads and I even bought a sample pack of clay way back last year. I only have a small, low temperature kiln so am limited to what I can do and have to admit to being a little bit intimidated by long and what seem to me to be complex firing schedules. But my team mates were having none of that and immediately proffered advice and information on how to get started and, more importantly encourage me to just have a go. Well, they got me so fired up (pardon the pun) that I got up on Friday morning and set straight to making some little tiles for glaze tests and some beads...

I found working with the clay very therapeutic especially as you have so much longer to work with it than you do the metal clay I'm used to where speed is of the essence to keep the clay conditioned. After a couple of hours I had a good few beads which I left to dry so they changed colour to a dusty grey...

At this point I had to do some shopping as I had no kiln furniture or glaze for the latter part of the process and I have to admit that I did disregard some of the advice I'd been given. Karen quite rightly suggested testing just one or two glazes before investing more but I'm afraid that's not in my nature. When I start something new I can't help diving in headlong and I was helpless when faced with an array of gorgeous colours and so of course I bought 10 of them! Some of them are hiding from Karen here...

I also ordered myself a bead firing rack and was very impressed when it arrived the next day until I realised they'd sent the wrong size...how frustrating to have your plans delayed when you're so excited!

But anyway, I needed to bisque fire my beads before I could do any glazing so after pestering people with a mass of questions all weekend I bit the bullet on Monday and put them in the kiln and left them to fire overnight. Next day I was delighted to find this little pile of goodies all intact and crack free - phew!

By Tuesday the replacement bead rack hadn't yet arrived arrived so I set to and glazed my beads so they'd be ready when it did. It was not at all disconcerting that from 10 glazes I could only discern three colours most of which were nothing like the colour they would be when fired!

So yesterday the bead rack arrived...eek! Now I really had to be brave! After another round of questions about cones and ramps and soaks (might seem simple to you ceramic folk but it had my head spinning!) I took a deep breathe, programmed the kiln, shut the door, walked away and started counting down the hours...

The firing finished late last night and I was literally holding my breathe when I opened the kiln and found these...

Not perfect by any means but all in one piece and nothing stuck together so I am totally 'chuffed' (very, very happy) with the results - especially these two...

I would just like to say a huge thank you to the AJE team for their encouragement over the last week, especially Karen and Caroline who have answered and explained endlessly and without whom I couldn't have done it (excuse me while I have a Gwyneth moment...) and who were waiting like expectant grandparents for news last night.

And if you're wondering if I'm hooked...well I was looking at high temperature kilns yesterday and one of these just happened to fall into a shopping cart...oopsie!

So who has something new they want to try but is a bit nervous about giving it a go...do let us know. I would thoroughly recommend diving in if you can as it's such a great feeling of achievement when you do.

Lesley 
The Gosssiping Goddess

Component of the Month Reveal: Pie Beads!

Hello again everyone - It is time for the Component of the Month Reveal! 

Be sure to visit the blog links below to see what everyone made with their "Pie" beads!

Here's the links to our participating blogs:

Shirley Moore
artZhodgepodge
Boot-C
Jennifer Cameron
KristiBowmanDesign
Diana Ptaszynski
Kristen Stevens
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Lesley Watt
Francesca Watson
Melissa Meman
Joanne Tinley
Linda landig
Sue Kennedy

And in the beginning there were beads...

Kaz Baildon lampwork beads

Welcome to another inaugural post, this time from me, the AJE United Kingdom Correspondent. Not one of those reserved Brits you hear talk of me...been here 10 minutes and already given myself a fancy shmancy title! In all seriousness though I'm absolutely delighted and more than a little surprised to find myself here at all. I've only been involved with jewellery for a few years and I know there are people out there with heaps more experience than me, but I do love what I do and I hope I can share some of my passion with you. More about me here if you're interested.

Wondering about what to write for this first post got me thinking back to those early days working with hobby store beads and how quickly things changed. Knowing there must surely be something more interesting out there I did a 'quick' Internet search and several hours later had to be surgically removed from both my laptop and my credit card and now I have a serious addiction to art beads and components. These days I buy them from all over the world but back then I shopped much closer to home so it was UK artists that set me on the journey which got me here today. There are of course many, many talented jewellery artisans in the UK but for now I'd just like to introduce a few that first piqued my interest. So, let's get to some eye candy shall we...

Lampwork was my first art bead discovery and with it the work of the Kaz Baildon  of Cheeky Cherub Designs. Kaz has a wonderful eye for combining colour and is an absolute perfectionist in her work. I'm a real sucker for etched beads and earthy, saturated tones which she does brilliantly but her repertoire is immense.

Kaz Baildon lampwork beads

Kaz and I have a synergistic working relationship - I love her beads and she loves my design style so it's not unknown for me to turn her beads into jewellery which then finds it's way back home to Kaz.

Kaz Baildon lampwork beads, necklace by THEA jewellery

Kaz also makes and sells the murrini and frit blends she uses to decorate her beads and even though I can't make beads I had to have some...they look great on enameled copper.

Next up is Anna McDade, the jewellery designer whose work first had me reaching for the sheet metal and saws, not that I have ever come close to imitating  her. She specialises in detailed pierced work and etched metal pieces, often with animal and bird motifs.

Anna McDade jewellery

Anna has also developed a covetable range of etched components and handmade beads in a variety of metals including anodised aluminium.

Anna McDade components

I really only started working with ceramic beads in my designs to any great degree earlier this year but Caroline Dewison of Blueberri Beads was the one ceramic artist whose work I did use early on. Her little sea urchin beads have become almost a signature design but how could anyone not fall in love with a pair of star gazing raku hares? Fairy tale charms and electroformed copper and ceramic beads are also on Caroline's menu and if that's not enough, she's started making lampwork beads too now.

Caroline Dewison ceramic beads

Last but not least is Diane Turton of SowZere Designs (sow's ear) who was responsible for my early introduction to fibre in jewellery with her beautiful hand dyed silk ribbons and strings. Now this will have Jennifer Cameron smiling since we share a love of but mental block in the use of fibre...yes I did pull the loose threads off and iron the sari silk Jen sent me with my bead soup this year! That block doesn't mean I don't have a huge stash of this gorgeous silk though and I'm petty adept with the strings now.

Diane Turton silk ribbons

My fraying issues may also be a thing of the past now as Diane's 'Raggy Ribbons' (centre frame) don't fray any more than they have already when you get them - marvellous!

So there you are - just a few of my compatriots who helped me on my way before I'd even found a niche with metal clay. You can visit their shops using the links below. Oh and a little bird tells me  Kaz is in need of a big new torch to put into practice some techniques she learnt in Australia recently so she's extending her mailing list sale to AJE readers with 30% off in her Etsy shops at the moment - coupon code OCTOBER30.

Kaz Baildon lampwork beads 
Kaz Baildon frit/murrini        

Anna McDade jewellery
Anna McDade components
Caroline Dewison ceramic beads
Diane Turton hand dyed silks

And just in case you haven't had quite enough I've put together an Etsy treasury with lots more British talent - just click on the picture. Enjoy!

Lesley
The Gossiping Goddess