Giveaway Winners of the October Component of the Month Design Challenge

I accidentally pulled 3 names for the giveaway, and since I have a few extras that I will be listing for sale later this afternoon, I decided to send out 3 sugar skulls to 3 guest designers. And the winners are: Karin Grosset Grange, Staci Louise Smith, and Solange Collin. Congratulations!

I still need to take photos of the sugar skulls available before I can list them, but they will be up later today. Anyone who purchases a sugar skull can also participate in the component of the month blog hop on October 30th. 

Introducing me.... Laney Mead

I am a new member of the admin team here at Art Jewelry Elements and thrilled to be part of a great group of extremely talented artists - the head pin challenge of last week left me with a serious addiction to head pins and making them!  I am a lampworker, writer, mother to 2 grown up kids who refuse to leave home, wife, cleaner of house, walker of dogs, chief dribble wiper  (we have a special needs cat, he was brain damaged at birth and dribbles, more about him further down.... ) and de-hairer of the furniture.  What I am not, is a cook or shopper, I do neither well so my husband does those jobs and has been known to leave me easy meals in the fridge should he be at work! 

I thought I would introduce myself via various photos I found whilst looking for one - which I didn't find - and wasting the last 30 minutes or so!!

So this is me... the cute one in the frilly knickers petting the dog, Barney, whom I was told was the most aggressive hound and the person who is headless (!) is my 19 year old mother (she was too young!) wringing her hands in terror.  That was the beginning of my love affair with animals and is in the early 70's - don't you just love the frocks of the day!!  

This is where I live, the beautiful, rural countryside of Hereford, in Herefordshire UK.  We are just 13 miles from the Welsh border.  My bedroom window looks out over the Black Mountains in the Brecon Beacons in Wales and we have the greenest grassland in the UK, because it is nearly always raining!!

One of my walks through the ancient woodlands with my dogs, this Old Man Oak tree is over 300 years old, I tell him all my secrets.

I have drawn since I could hold a pencil and had big dreams of being a famous artist but due to being fostered in my teenage years I hit the job market as soon as I left school at 16 in a bid to leave home for good.  All my artist endeavours have been through just sitting and doing, I am self taught in everything I do from the pencil drawings below to the glass I do now.

Some of my drawings were made into dog tags, prints, key rings and cross stitch designs, to name a few.  I love to draw and although I don't do it to this level any more I still doodle in the evenings, but I do it for pleasure.  Making money from pet portraiture in pencil is hard work as each drawing can take over 50 hours and that is for a small one.

I did a few whimsy ones too!  This one is called 'Bottom's Up'.  I used to keep chickens but being this rural, the fox and the badger came one night and my girls are no more.  I  miss their fluffy bums running around the garden and chasing Defi, my youngest Golden Retriever who used to annoy them!

Some of my doodles, I love eyes, they are windows to the soul.  These are just for pleasure, although I have been known to sell the odd one every now and again, I do them for me not for profit.

I 'found' glass completely by accident.  A chance 'go' with my (ex) sister in law who used to use fused glass and I was hooked.  I was shown how to light the torch and what a mandrel was and left to my own devices.   Hours of practice in the converted studio: my easel was packed away and my bench was set up.  I started with flowers, but I always wanted to create my pencil portraits in glass.

No matter how hard I tried the portraits 'went' whimsy so I ran with it for a few years.  All my animals had bums, stories, googly eyes.  They are all beads and if they didn't make me smile going in the kiln they didn't make the grade! 

This one is 'The Mummy Cat'.

'Baa-Humbug' was made for a friend who is an author and had just finished writing a book on English sweets and the heritage of them around the UK.   Great book!  For those not in the UK the Humbug is a black and white mint sweet (candy):  Bah-humbug is a miserable old 'git' and the saying was made famous by Shakespeare's Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.

I write tutorials too, this one is for badger beads, but I have done leaves, roses, bees, butterflies... all whimsy ones.  You can find them in my Etsy shop - links at the bottom.

I have written for several magazines too, this is the most recent tutorial I have written and it was published in the 2016 September issue of Glass Line.

..and was for this elephant bead.  My glass work has finally come full circle and now my beads are more realistic, just like the pencil portraits I used to do.

A Lynx, the customer wanted the holes in the ears so they could affix the fluffy bits of the Lynx's ears themselves. 

I have also been experimenting with boro glass and marbles, they are getting more and more round! 

The Wolf, my favourite animal in the kingdom, this one is made with enamel glass powders.

And finally...  I write about my special needs cat Gordy, who is a British Short Hair and more recently Teeko, a Birman,  who is 15 and came to live with us last year, for Cat World magazine.  Gordy is almost 4 and he is a forever kitten, he has limited balance, dribbles and can never go outside on his own due to not learning from his mistakes.  He wears bibs (this is an old article) to protect his fur and those are specially designed for him by Claire of Clasicats.

This is one of my favourite photos of Gordy my son took him outside in the sunshine to play cars and he loved it... Gordy was quite happy too!  Gordy can go outside but can not be unsupervised.

This is all my gang, my dogs Izabel and the reason I am also known as Izzybeads, she is 10, Defi is 6 and came to live with us at 13 months old and Teeko who used to live next door but they moved to Spain so he came here.

And that is me!  You can find me at Art Jewelry Elements but also on my blog

Dust, Dribble and Dog Hair

on Etsy

Izzybeads

and also on FB, I do have a business page but I prefer to use my personal one so come and be my friend!

Laney Mead

Bead Fest: A Feast For The Eyes

Bead Fest was held over the weekend.  It's one of the highlights of my year and I've been attending since 2004.  I've even been a vendor at it 3 times (and might again in the future).  This year I went for fun; to see friends and do some (lots) of shopping.

Welcome to Bead Fest

You need to be careful at Bead Fest.  It's easy to go waaaaaaaaaay over budget in a short period of time (ask me how I know).  I told myself to lay off so many art beads this year...hahahahahahahaha!  Ok, yeah that didn't happen.

Gardanne Enamel Components

Explain to me how I'm supposed to do that with such fabulousness like Gardanne Beads enameled pieces?

Thornburg Bead Studio

Nikki/Thornburg Bead Studio brought some of her gorgeous lampwork urchins with her.  I ended up buying a bunch of lampwork headpins from her though to assist me with our AJE headpin challenge.

Penn Avenue Pottery

Tracey/Penn Avenue Pottery had oodles of fun ceramic beads to choose from.  I found myself trapped (totally against my will) at her booth for awhile, with my hands stuck (yes, I couldn't pull them out) in those trays.

Staci Louise Originals 

After my escape from Tracey's booth, I ended up at Staci's booth (that's a lie, I'd been there probably 500 times already by Saturday morning...my apologizes to Staci).  Her booth looked like a magic unicorn had visited with all the beautiful rainbow colors.  I added more beads to my gigantic Staci-collection.

Staci's bags

In addition to her beads, Staci also brought some of her hand-dyed and stamped bags with her.  I own a luna moth bag and it was perfect for shopping the show.

In fact, several bead-makers brought other art with them in addition to their beads...

Diane Hawkey

Diane Hawkey had some of her whimsical pot head planters and house sculptures for sale in her booth.

Beaded Chic Fused Glass

Donna/Beaded Chic has been playing with fused glass lately and brought some new pieces along with her table full of lampwork!

Marsha Neal

Marsha Neal had beads, tiny pottery and her needle-felted creations at her booth.  

Jenny Davies-Reazor

AJE's own Jenny Davies-Reazor had some of her gorgeous tiles and needle-felted/bead-embroidery pieces for sale at her table.

Firefly Design Studio

Michelle/Firefly Design Studio had her beach-inspired dishes with her!

And of course there was gorgeous jewelry at the show...

Marcia Balonis and Pam Garbig

Marcia Balonis and Pam Garbig had a table full of beautiful samples and kits for sale.  I brought home one kit and will be writing about it on here in the near future. 

There were also great tools for sale!

Lucet

New AJE member, Cooky Schock had a booth and I came home with a lucet and some cord from her. You might recall the recent blog post that Cooky wrote for us about the lucet.  This great little tool helped make my 5+ hour car ride home go much quicker!

Xuron

Treated myself to a new Xuron plier.  Soooooo comfortable!

Funky Chain, ParaWire, Gemstones

This was just the tip of the iceberg of what was available at Bead Fest!  You're probably wondering what I brought home with me, right?  Let's take a peek...

Pottery Purchases

A bunny pot head planter from Diane Hawkey, a ring holder from Marsha Neal and a dish from Michelle/Firefly Design.

Tools and Kits

The lucet, cord for the lucet, some dyed Stiff Stuff (Bead My Love), spiffy new XBow Series Xuron pliers and a fab kit from Marcia Balonis.

Art Bead Haul

And this is the art bead haul.  So many beads, pendants, headpins and cabochons!  

Bead Fest 2016 was fabulous as always and while I hate to see it end, my wallet requires a year to recover.  See you in 2017, Bead Fest!

Happy Beading!

Lampwork Tutorial Roundup

How many lampworkers are reading this blog, raise your hands?  Do you like to get info on tutorials to try out? Are you a new lampworker and would like some ideas?  This post is for you! 

One of the most important books, in my humble opinion, for any lampworker would be Corina Tettinger's book, "Passing the Flame." If you want a comprehensive book on glass beadmaking, I haven't found another that is this good. It is somewhat expensive, but worth it! The link above is for Amazon.com.

Another publication of Corina's that I have found very valuable is her Spotlight Publication, "Spotlight on Silver."  There are many excellent mini tutorials in this little publication on how to use silver foil in your beadmaking. The link above is for Frantz Art Glass, where you can find this mini book. Corina also teaches all over the world, if you're interested in taking a class from her.

For inspiration, there is nothing better than 1000 Beads by Lark, Kristina Logan Juror.  There is so much eye candy in this book, you can't help but be inspired by the glass beads that are included.

For fun, I really like Jennifer Geldard's tutorial, The Bird!  She not only is a glass beadmaker but also an artist.  She makes some awesome birds and this is the one I made from her tutorial. Unfortunately, at the time I am writing this post, I can only find one tutorial available, which is the Ornate Series.  Here's a link to her web site, maybe you can ask if she will be publishing The Bird tutorial again.

Another FREE tutorial I really like is from Laura at Chestnut Ridge Designs - she has some awesome tutorials on her blog and offers them for free!  How generous!  Here are some beads I made from one of her tutorials (the link goes to her tutorial page on her blog).

Another tutorial that I really enjoy is from Patsy LeBlanc - her Tide Pool tutorial from etsy.  This tutorial gives you a great basis to make the beads she shows, but also to go forward and make your own discoveries.  She has the silvered enamel powder available in her etsy shop if you use up all the powder your receive with your tutorial!

If you're feeling a huge lack of inspiration, as I am, you could purchase Kim Neely's "Creativity Bootcamp" tutorial. Kim's beads were the first beads I ever coveted on eBay, although I never purchased from her - her beads typically went for astronomical prices!  This is a great way to help you jump start your creativity and get out of the creative slump that we all sometimes experience.

Another resource which is awesome is to subscribe to Soda Lime Times - it's an emag published once per month for $4.95 - what a bargain!  Many many well-known lampwork bead artists provide tutorials in the magazine, and you can purchase back issues as well.

In addition to all of these great tutorials, you can always find free tutorials on glass purveyors web sites, or YouTube.  I like Glass Diversions for some great basic tutorials on using CZs, or working with Copper Leaf/Foil. 

Frantz Art Glass provides tutorials on their blog as well as showing you examples of all the new colors that are constantly being produced, by Effetre and CIM. 

Mary Lockwood offers some free lampwork tutorials on her blog!

Lampwork Etc. also has a section that provides free lampwork tutorials.  

And don't forget we have some great FREE lampwork tutorials right here at the AJE blog!

In fact, if you Google, Free Lampwork Tutorials, you will find so many your head will spin!  I hope this post today was of some value to the lampworkers who read this blog, and I hope you enjoy these great tutorial resources!

Susan Kennedy