Showing posts with label kristi bowman design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kristi bowman design. Show all posts

Monday, December 8, 2014

Wrapped Disc Earring Tutorial




* You'll need 20 or 22 gauge wire, I'm using Copper.
 The gauge is somewhat of a preference unless you have small beads that force you to use a finer gauge.

* Disc beads with large holes.
In this case I used gogeous Lampwork beads by Sheila Davis.

* A small amount of Sari Silk Ribbon to coordinate or match the rest of your pieces.

* A Pair of beads or 3 smaller discs of flat beads that can be stacked.


Roughly pull the Sari Silk through the hole a couple of times, then start pulling the wire through.



You can either use 3 strands or more depending on the look you're going for.
However many you choose to use start on the outside and end in the center so you have wire to string your second bead.
Bend the center wire at 90 degrees and secure it with the other wire and cut away the excess.


String your bead and create the ring to add your earwire.


Wrap more Sari Silk in between then wrap it with more wire and trim the excess and tuck the wire ends in.


I made this pair with finer gauge wire so I could string the triple freshwater pearls.
I did a much rougher job on the wrapping as well which is usually my preference.
You can be neat and tidy or messy depending on the look you are going for on your finihshed pieces.







Kristi

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

New York Recap


As many of you know I took my first journey across the country for the Whole Bead Show in New York last month. It was so much fun!! I finally got to meet some of my Art Jewelry Elements friends and other online friends and made some new ones too!!


Here I am with AJE's  Diana and Jenny!

Kristi, Diana and Jenny!

I also met the amazing and fun Lea Avroch!

Kristi and Lea!

I also met Anne Gardanne, Ren Farnsworth, Beth Shea.
 Unfortunately no pictures, I was by myself so didn't get a chance to take as many pictures as I would have liked!

This the first day of the show, I arrived at 6am to get my table set up.
An extremely long 12 hour day!
Only a handful of people came that early.
I'm part way through the component sorting process in the photo below.



Organizing my components was the most time consuming, they were all in baggies!
I think I'll do it differently next time and cut my set up time in half at least.



I also finally got to meet Andrew Thornton, we didn't get a picture together but he took this one of me open for business!


I didn't have much change to shop but I managed to go to The Bead Goes On booth that has some very cool and unusual stuff.


I love the Resin Tubes, Beaded Beads and very cool Copper Covered Plastic rings. I've already used a pair of the Resin Tubes and I am working on a pair using the Copper Rings!

I also picked up these awesom Xuron plyers, I love my Wubbers but these are so lightweight and then ends are really fine which are perfect for very fine work. I've already used them a ton!



I do wish I had been able to hang out for a day or two after the show was over but it didn't happen this time. If I ever make it over again I'll find a way to do that so I can actually see the city!


Kristi

Friday, August 29, 2014

September Component of the Month WINNERS!

Here are the winners of the September Component of the Month!!


Kari Asbury
http://hippiechickdesign.blogspot.com/

Sarajo Wenting
http://sjdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com/

Shirley Moore
http://www.beadsandbread.blogspot.com/

Congratulations!!


Kristi

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

September Component of the Month and Giveaway!

Winners have been announced HERE
Thank you!

Hi there Beady People!!! It's time for the September Component of the Month Giveaway!!

This month I made something new and I hope you love them as much as I do!!



I call them Goddess Vessels! They are good sized Focals made with Copper and White Copper in several different designs!


 I'll be giving away 3 of them to those that are randomly picked from the comments.
Let me know your preference in color and texture and I'll do my best to get you what you want!


Want to play along? Here are the rules…

  • I will giveaway 1 Goddess Vessel to each of 3 winners selected randomly from those who leave comments below this post.
  • Your comment must included your EMAIL address and a link to your blog, so we can contact you should you win.
  • Please — only leave a comment if you can commit to creating a finished piece and blogging about it on the reveal date.
  • The names of the 3 winners will be announced on Thursday August 28th.
  • This giveaway is open to US and international countries, but please be aware that international addresses will have longer postage times… sometimes up to 3 weeks.
  • The blog reveal will take place on Sunday, Sept 28th, 2014.


Kristi

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

The Whole Bead Show

This past weekend my AJE friend Linda Landig and I were vendors at the Whole Bead Show.

Linda on the left, Kristi on the right.

It's always fun hanging with Linda and the other Artisans.
We've done this show a few times now so it's like a big happy family!

My Copper Components on display.
Linda's new Ceramic Components.


It's always fun hanging with Linda and other artisans.



Here's some of the wonderful tables of goodies we tried to resist!

Lara Lutrick

Lori Bergmann

Gorgeous Buttons!


Oh ya!


Red Coral
 I seriously squealed when I saw these!!
#hadtohavethem

Blue Opal, Silver Moonstone, Leopardskin Jasper
I already made earrings with the Leopardskin Barrels that I'll share on my next Earrings Everyday post!


Pearls!

Beads from Felicia Wartnik

Beads from Lara Lutrick
Already looking forward to next year!!


Kristi

Monday, April 7, 2014

Combining Copper Clay

It occurred to me a couple of days ago that I should try combining the regular Copper Clay and the newer White Copper Clay so that's just what I did. I had it in my mind it might look a bit like Shibuichi and I think with a little more practice it will.

Please excuse the terrible quality of the work in progress photos,
 the lighting at my work station is not intended for photography.


I started with something very simple,
 lay a sheet of copper on top of a sheet of white copper and make a jelly roll.
I remembered way in the back of my brain from a class long long ago that when combining clay like this you should have one a bit thicker than the other. I chose to make the White Copper clay the thick one. I made it 7 cards thick and the regular Copper Clay 4.


Take slices from it and flatten them out.
I would roll one direction then turn it and roll the other direction,
I was not aiming for a perfect circle.
I made these 4 cards thick, I think next time I might go for 3 cards thick.
For those who might not know what I'm talking about
we measure clay thickness by using regular playing cards.
Tape 2 cards together, tape 3 cards together and 4 cards etc. 
Personally I use almost exclusively 3 or 4 card thicknesses, if I need more I just stack them on top of one another.


Here they are dry and almost ready for the kiln!
Just have to decide where to put the holes.



 And below here they are out of the kiln.
I LOVE the result


I love the way the metals alloyed to create a t least one more color,
exactly what I was hoping they would do.


My favorites of the finished pieces.

The things I would do differently next time I try,
Make sure the 2 pieces of clay have a solid connection to avoid the cracks
Not that I mind the cracks but I think a little more care would improve the end result.

Copper......Mixed Copper/White Copper....White Copper


I took the unusable ends of the jellyrolls and mushed them together.
I love the resulting color so I'm going to experiment more with mixing the 2 clays
 together to form this wonderful gray.
I'll be playing with the recipe to try to get a more distinct color.

Kristi