Large Hole Beads and Leather - Perfect Together! AND a Giveaway!

I have been on this large hole bead-making kick lately, mostly because I love making them.  But they are fairly versatile.  I have customers who use them on dog leads, bracelets, and who just collect them! Here are some of my recent designs.

Today I'm going to show you some bracelets you can make withe the ammonite pressed ones!

My friend Melinda Orr (who lives fairly close to me but I only seem to see at Bead Fest!) makes awesome jewelry and has this amazing ability to just sit down and experiment and come up with really cool things!  She also has a great shop and she was the first person I thought of when I wanted to use leather with these beads.  We did a little swap, and I sent her some ammonite beads sets, and she sent me some leather, clasps and jump rings.

Here's what I  made with the beads and components!

This first bracelet was made with four strips of 2mm leather, end caps and a pretty floral clasp.  I twisted the leather slightly to make it a little bit interesting!  In adding the end caps, I glued one end on first, then added the beads, then cut the leather to length and added the final end cap. I used E6000 glue but Melinda says you can even use super glue! 

This second bracelet was made with 4mm leather, some pretty large hole silver beads in the swirl shape that matches the ammonite shape, and end caps and lobster clasp.  The ammonite large hole beads move a little bit in this design, which is fine with me, but if you don't want them to move at all, you can use larger leather diameter or what I did in the next photo.

For this bracelet, the leather is more like 6mm width.  I had a harder time getting the large hole bead on the leather, but found one that worked.  I used two enameled headpins that I made on the ends of the large hole bead.  You could do this if you didn't want your beads to move like the ones above.  This clasp is a copper magnetic clasp Melinda sent along. I also decided that if I wanted to use the larger, 6mm leather width, I could just double-dip my large hole bead mandrel to make the hole size slightly larger on the bead!

I can't wait to hop over and see what Melinda made with the beads I sent her.  I had a sneak peek so I know at least one is pretty awesome!  Please visit Melinda's Etsy Shop, and her Bandana Girl shop, for awesome leather components and many other items! 

Please visit Melinda's blog here to see what she made!

I am also offering a giveaway - please comment on this post and on Melinda's and you will be entered to win these beads - drawing by Melinda on Friday!

Susan Kennedy

Let's talk Patina

pat·i·na/pəˈtēnə/

Noun:

A green or brown film on the surface of bronze or similar metals, produced by oxidation over a long period. A gloss or sheen on wooden furniture produced by age and polishing.

There is just something so gratifying about patina.

 I am always amazed what mother nature can achieve ~ 

My goal is to reproduce, enhance and enjoy.... 

Looking at it draws you in and you want to know more.  

What's the story behind it?

It's romantic...

It's wondrous...

It's mysterious....

Today I wanted to share some of my favorite results, my inspiration & through the coming months, take you on a journey of understanding patina and achieving unique results.

My biggest inspiration is from Jana Scott in State College, PA.  

She created an extensive photography collection around patina and rust.  

Jana Scott Photography 

Once I saw her work...

I was totally hooked and began my own personal journey in patina ~ 

I hope you'll join me in trials and tests as I forge ahead! 

Melinda Orr 

Art Jewelry Elements Debut

Hello and Welcome to the grand opening of the Art Jewelry Elements blog! We are super excited to be offering this brand new collaborative blog to all jewelry designers who want to elevate their designs to the next level. While our team is very diverse in skill set and media used, every one of our team members creates handmade elements (or components) to be used in art jewelry and has had work published or about to be published. We also make jewelry with our components and know the quirks involved with working with handmade components.

Our goal is to build a community of people who love art jewelry, love making art jewelry, who aspire to make art jewelry, and to those who just like looking at pretty pictures. We will focus on building your art jewelry business, getting published, challenging you to stretch yourself and flex that creative muscle, lots of tutorials, tool and product reviews, studio organization, giveaways, news, trends, and so much more. 

Meet the Team: 

Today is just a quickie meet and greet. You will get to learn more about each of us through a fun interview.

Jennifer Cameron: That's me! Team leader. Primary media are glass (lampworking) and wire. 

Kristi Bowman: Creates her gorgeous elements using CopprClay and BronzClay. She was also my bead soup blog party partner for the 4th BSBP, which was awesome because I love Kristi's work. 

Linda Larsen: A mixed media artist who writes the BEST tutorials on her Objects and Elements blog and will have tutorials to share here too. 

Barbara Lewis: The queen (and author extraordinaire) of torch fired enamel components. She is also in the process of moving and opening a bricks and mortar studio in Florida. It might be a while before we hear much from her. 

Melinda Orr: Works magic with metal and patinas and is the founder of Creative Bead Chat on Facebook (it's an open group, so if you are on facebook, ask to join!)

Karen Totten: Last but not least is Karen, our resident ceramic guru who creates the most gorgeous components. I've used a few in my work.

This is just the beginning of what is to come. While we still have some work to do on the blog and our various social media site designs, please stop by, say hi, and stay a while.