Beadyness from 2013 and Plans for 2014

Hello again! I hope you all are enjoying these last few crazy days before Christmas relaxing with a nice big cup of something warm and your favorite beads… Ha! I know that's just what I'm doing! ;-) Oh well, we can try…

In discussion for our last blog posts for 2013, our fabulous leader Jen Cameron suggested that we each share a new or favorite technique we learned this year and something we each hope to learn in 2014. So here's mine…

I can't say I learned any new techniques per se — mostly I just experimented with some ideas. As you probably already know, I really enjoying painting and have a paintbrush AND beads in hand whenever possible. (And of course paint all over my fingers and whatever surface I happen to be near!)

In my playing, I made variations of these beads — using scraps from past projects and adding a crackle effect with paint — it's a simple technique, but with very nice results. You can see my mini tutorial here.

Then I came up with this idea, doing more painting on the raw polymer surface…

Textured and painted in many, many thin layers and finally crackled to make these colorful "Tattered Butterfly Wing" beads. I'm really loving this effect!

And then one rainy day when my plans to go hiking were soaked, I made these…

Rainy Day Pendants made with tiny hand drawn umbrellas on shrink plastic and embedded in polymer… polymer that was painted, of course. They sure made my rainy day less dreary! These were inspired by Rebecca Watkins of Artybecca. You can see some of her designs here.

And, finally a peek at a technique I have in my sights on for 2014…

Bead crochet! My focus for the past few years has been my own bead making and my poor bead stash of gemstones, glass lovelies and art beads has dwindled down to a very embarrassing teeny tiny amount.

More and more I've been thinking about expanding my jewelry making and recently when browsing Etsy I stumbled across the above gorgeousness in someones favorites and knew I would have to learn how! It wasn't the first time I'd seen bead crochet, but these striking designs really caught my eye and inspired me. These are by Ann Teplova of Chudibeads on Etsy where she shares her beautiful creations and her tutorials.

Her patterns are amazing!

Ann's work got me looking for more examples and of course I couldn't forget about AJE teammate, the talented Kristen Stevens — she is always whipping up some beautifully detailed creation. These are a couple of my favorites…

And, I'm sure you already know about Kristen's beaded beads — gorgeous too! They were the CoM for November and I made these new earrings with the pair she gave me…

Finally, a few more bead crochet designs from Pinterest…

1.Autumn Lariat Necklace 2.Crazy Bead Crochet Rope Bracelet 3.Autumn Spectrum Necklace 4.Bead Crochet Lariat Necklace


So, hopefully for me, this new year brings more beads to replenish my stash and time for jewelry making. What new techniques have you learned this year? Do you have anything planned for 2014 yet? Do share!


Wishing you each a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year with lots of time to enjoy family and beads!

Making a list....

And I'm not checking it twice - I keep adding more to it! And the topic of this list? Why, new jewellery techniques to learn of course! It's that time of year, the eye of the storm, when all the organisation for my eldest's birthday is done and Christmas Day itself is over, all the Christmas orders are safely with their new owners and before the new school term starts, before my January sale gets really busy and before I start organising my youngest's birthday. So, of course my mind turns to new techniques I'd like to learn next year and the projects that have been on my "to-do" list since the beginning of this year!

At the top of the list is learning how to make a locket. I've made simple lockets that are held together with a ring through holes in the top and slide apart, but this time I want to add in a hinge. None of the techniques needed are new for me, but making such a small hinge will certainly stretch my soldering skills! The picture above comes from a great Ganoskin tutorial that teaches how to make both hinged and slide lockets.

A little further down the list there's a note telling me to make more rings. I only tend to make rings as commissions, and rarely make them to list in my etsy shop or on my website but I've got a desire to turn some of the pretty stones I've been collecting over the last few years into some equally pretty rings. I think this part of my list is partly a response to the fact that I've spent a large part of the last couple of years building up my made-to-order collections that I sell in galleries and my collection of clasps and components in my Daisychain Extra shop. I fancy spending a bit of time playing and making more self-indulgent pieces! Don't worry though, I'll still keep coming up with new clasp designs as well.

A project like this beautiful ring by janieartjewelry on etsy would satisfy my desire to etch silver as well!

Source: etsy.com via Joanne on Pinterest

Further down still (but still nowhere near the bottom of the list!) is etching. I teach my college classes how to make their own texture plates using salt-etching, but I've never etched sterling silver before, mainly because the chemicals needed are too nasty to use at home where I do most of my work. A couple of my more advanced college students have asked to learn how to etch silver though, so I think I'd better learn how to do it properly before I attempt to teach them! Thankfully the post that Francesca wrote a couple of months ago should help me with safety information and resist ideas though.

So, that's a taster of my to-do list - what are your jewellery plans for the coming new year? What techniques have you always wanted to learn? Or is there a particular style of jewellery that you want to make more of next year? Whatever your plans are there are two things that I'm sure of - we'll all add more to or lists as we go through the year, and we'll all have lots of fun as we work through them!

Oh, and in case any of your jewellery to-do list requires new jewellery components, don't forget that some of us currently have sales in our shops! See Jen's post from yesterday for all the information you need!


Jo Tinley
Daisychain Designs 

Winter Inspirations: a work in progress

A few weeks back I shared some winter inspired color palettes with you and yesterday since I'm on shop break (no new bead making until January 1st), I pulled out those palettes and my beads, and started making things.

I had the right bead colors and some ideas for both palettes, but after trying a few different designs, I stuck with the Blue Spruces for my color theme:

And here's what I came up with… so far… it's a work in progress, and I expect it still has at least a few changes to go through before I finish.

My own little sleepy squirrel bead and green woodland rounds in polymer clay, along with red creek jasper, glass, wood, and some brass. I would like to get a bit more grey and white in too.

Little acorn charms! No, there were no acorns or oak trees in my palette, but when I decided to use the sleepy squirrel, I couldn't help but give him a couple acorns to snack on.

What have you all been working on these day? Have you finished any fabulous new jewelry designs? I'll bet many of you will be giving jewelry to friends and family in just a few a days! ;-)

Or maybe you're just too busy with all the Christmas preparations that making jewelry hasn't even made it on to your to-do list! I do love this time of year, but I'm beginning to long for things to slow down a bit!

Well, for me, the rest of this necklace will have to wait until after Christmas… I'll let you know how it goes… right now I have pies and cookies to bake!

Wishing you and your loved ones a most joyful Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Rebekah

treewingsstudio.com

Designing Beads and Jewelry for Men

When it comes to jewelry, if it isn't a wedding ring or a watch, the men in my family don't wear it. My teenage son won't wear jewelry even though I see other teenage boys wearing it all the time. This means my designing for men "muscle" is pretty weak. However, I have been trying to create some jewelry designs geared specifically towards men using leather and heavy chainmaille etc.

I have not been making beads specifically for men because I tend to make what I like, which involves lots of pink, purple, and blue like these (also, the men in my household have told me beads aren't for men and I guess I believed them....big mistake!):

However, I have a male customer who loves the Nightmare Insomnia series, thinks it's very masculine, and has requested I try to make them specifically with men in mind. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to not pick up some of the "girlie" colors? Well...for me it's very difficult.

Before I even started my first torch session, I had a plan so I didn't grab for the pink or purple. This is what I came up with during my first try:

These use a black base wrapped in fine silver foil, ivory colored stringer designs (glass rod that has been pulled to the same diameter as a string). Then encased in clear to magnify the effect of the silver droplets and the organic reactions look of the stringer.

I have lots of color combos that I dreamed up and still need to try.

Do you design jewelry or components for men? What kind of tips do you have?

Have a great week!

-Jen Cameron

http://GlassAddictions.com

 

Posted with Blogsy