It's time to talk folks. I mean, what's up with the MIA, Cindy? You're pretty faithful to the blog and I can't imagine what would take you away.
You're right. What would take me away?
Another website.
That's right, another website. You all know that I have another life as a sign language interpreter. I've found it necessary to develop the business in that field and so it's taken away from the time I have to blog.
The website isn't quite ready to unveil yet. I'm putting all my free time into it.
While away from blogging, I had to upgrade my iPhone and have discovered a whole range of photography apps. So here's quick snapshot of some of the beads I haven't quite finished. Enjoy your day and I promise I'll be back as soon as I can!
I've been weighed under with illness and work this past week, Dear Readers. I've been catching up with my to do list and reading some of my favorite blogs. I clicked over to LMAJ late Saturday to check out their designer of the week and this is what I was greeted with....
So, it's with a big smile that I give you the Bead Bloggers links for the week! Enjoy!
A Bead A Day
A 1 minute jewelry project? Lisa shares a swarovski component that can be used to make a SPARKLY ring!
About.com Jewelry Making
For gemstone fanatics, earrings are the perfect way to enjoy fast projects that include all their favorite stones.
Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene loves a wall of beads. Stop by and see if you don't love it too!
Beading Arts
Have you heard of a hair fascinator? Come see what Cyndi put together with a handful of Swarovski crystals and a length of thin gauge wire!
Beading & Books
Michelle shares a behind-the-scenes look at her work doing technical edits on a jewelry magazine.
Carmi's Art/Life World
A new bronze pendant from Artbeads.com inspired this new necklace from Carmi.
Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie explores the old craft of paper quilling in an experiment combining the technique with resin for jewelry
Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean reviews a comforting and beautiful book for beaders which she herself has often turned to as a "bridge over troubled waters": Beading for the Soul, by Deborah Cannarella
The Bead Dreamer
Book Review: Steel Wire Jewelry. Love alternative materials and modern, whimsical jewelry design? This book is a must have. Project one is an earring wardrobe! Read the review in full.
Many of my fellow artists have picked a word or a phrase to inspire them or to focus on for the coming year. I've been introspective lately too thinking about where and what I really want to do. There are alot of changes going on in my house and it's time to re-think.
I need to keep things simple. So in the spirit of KISS, I have chosen one single word 2011. One I will bring myself back to when I start to get sidetracked.
Do.
Don't surf the web looking for inspiration (or a use it as a way to avoid actually doing something).
Do.
Make something.
Keep forging ahead in your new designs.
Make it rather than think it.
Do.
An outgrowth of the red lotus pods, I made this heart with the same set of wormhole like texture and shabby chic look. I embedded Vintaj colored 20 gauge wire for the loop. I love hearts and have collected them on and off for years. I have to say I'm at a loss though with what to title it. Any ideas?
I'm a tactile kinesthetic learner, a doer. I work with my hands everyday either in sign language interpreting or in art. I experiment with different media to find the right one to express the concept I have in mind. Glass beadmaking is done by hand but you don't actually touch the media (hot glass) when you're sculpting it. Sometimes, I just want to get my hands on the media and lately, it's been polymer clay.
Christmas morning, I was surprised by a creative burst that felt new but was really an evolution. I started this polymer journey with the faux carved wood hearts.
I kept along that path exploring the texture, poking dots into the clay to make it look like aged wood. Where would it go next? I was following the texture and then I made this...
...a folk style bird. I made several of the birds and really liked how together with the hearts, it was a logical series.
Then, on Christmas morning, it evolved yet again and in an unexpected direction. I got up and knew I had to make lotus pods...
...why lotus pods? I'm not sure. I love the lotus as a symbol and incorporate it into my personal jewelry. According to the website, Exotic India Art, the red lotus signifies:
...the original nature and purity of the heart (hrdya). It is the lotus of love, compassion, passion and all other qualities of the heart. It is the flower of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion.
I made the red lotus pods with a passion that morning, furiously handcrafting a dozen before anyone else woke up. A special gift that's particularly appropriate to today's auspicious date of 1/11/11!
I promised yesterday I would follow up the State of My Studio post with the inspiration for the new faux wood painted hearts. Really, it was Andrew Thornton on his Thursday giveaway post that got me thinking when he characterized my work this way:
Andrew's gone to the core of how I approach beadmaking. I'm always working on a new media, a new technique to expand my ability to express a design. Different media lends itself to different techniques and I'm on a constant quest to expand my abilities in all media.
That quest usually finds me buying books. Today, I'm going to share which books have taken up residence on my workbench and are serving as the inspiration for the new faux wood carved painted hearts.
I'm really taken with idea of hearts, hinges and bezels. It was her steampunk inspired hearts that was exciting to me and I just had to learn how to make them! I bought the book because of the hinged heart on the front. I didn't realize she had a Steampunk Heart free download on her website or a youtube video on how to make a heart.
But you shouldn't get the impression that I'm sorry I bought the book. The book is a jewel of humor and technique - right up my ally. I get to laugh while I'm learning a new media. Steampunkery is full of useful information for the less experienced (like me) and beautiful to look at with a story woven through it.
Christi's design aesthetic is distinctive and quite different from my own. So after playing with a few of the heart projects in the book, I wanted to go off in another direction with the hearts.
Wanting to create a heart in a style of my own, Enchanted Adornments was the go to book. I've said how Cynthia's book is full of tips and techniques unique to her style and aesthetic. I love her style but again, it's very different from my own. It's how she creates that style I'm interested in learning.
Pages 38-39 lie open on my workbench, the section is entitled, "Texturing Clay." A quote kept going over and over in my mind:
"Unique textures will keep your work exciting and completely your own."
Spurred on to make a heart that is completely my own, I made some texture tools. But sometimes the simplest can be just what you're looking for.
This one looks like an large old nut or seed found in the woods with small natural holes that has been carved into a heart. The texture makes me want to reach out and touch it. As it sits on my workbench, I can't resist picking it up and turning it over in my hands.
Each path to a new bead series is a passage to learning new techniques and exploring another media. It's the key to my designs.
Beads of Clay (BOC) is hosting a State of My Studio Saturday. It's a post updating readers on what's going on in your studio. I make beads but not of clay and this isn't Saturday. But I feel we're close cousins since back in the day BOC got their start on the Glass Forum on WetCanvas and that's how I came to know many of my BOC friends. So I'm hopping on board and hope BOC doesn't mind an interloper!
(Outside entrance to my glass studio in the warm summer weather.)
Here's a visual glimpse into my office/studio. Right now I'm working in polymer clay. It was 38 degrees this weekend so I grabbed the opportunity to work in glass.
Next blog post will talk more about the inspiration and process of my polymer explorations. But in the meantime, tell me, is your studio affected by the weather? Are you frozen out? Or maybe it's too hot?
February is when the seed catalogs arrive to remind me spring is not far away. Always a welcome site in my mailbox, I look forward to seeing warm sun and rich red tomatoes even if it's only in a picture from one of my favorite catalogs, Cook's Garden...
I'm reminded of gardens planted in the Victorian Style and brought back to life by expert gardeners. One of my favorites is the Pilgrim's Rest, an award winner at the Chelsea Garden Show last year.
In Colonial and Victorian times, keeping and encouraging bees in your garden for pollination was common and a bee skep like this one from Bee Craft
It's this tradition and a wishing for spring to arrive that inspired by latest polymer clay bead creation, The Victorian Garden Bee Skep.
Even if spring isn't here, I can create beads that remind me that eventually, spring will arrive.
Thank you for all the lovely compliments on the grunge beads! I've decided to dedicate a page to them on my website so check them out. I put up the Faux Bois pendants first, one in black and white (noir) and the other in color.
Last week, the studio was at 8 degrees - needless to say, I wasn't able to get in there and melt any glass. Yes, the hot kiln helps to warm the studio but once the outdoor temperature goes down to 35 degrees, nothing will heat it. So, in my never ending quest to keep fingernails instead of biting them down to the nubs because I can't melt glass, I'm happily kneading and rolling polymer clay.
I'm calling this one, Flying Ace. I love the little propeller and wings. I've thought for a long time that my gear beads needed a bead-pal to go with it and Flying Ace is just the bead to do it! Hey, if you're name has Ace in it, you know it's gonna be good!
Last week, looking for beads to make rather than biting my fingernails down to the nub, I took out my stash of polymer clay. I worked up a batch of faux ivory with my hands mostly because I couldn't find my pasta machine (TBC keeps trying to organize me, problem is, I never know where he puts things!) I intended to work on some prototypes based on drawings I'd made for pmc. I made some prototypes but then started making other kinds - just to experiment.
I kept thinking about the "inchies" I bought. They are a "grunge style" Alice in Wonderland set. I printed them, grunged up the back with alcohol inks and stamps, added a layer of Diamond Glaze and pounded eyelets into them. I like the slightly dirty/dark look and who cares how much ink I got on my hands?
Somewhere in the back of my mind was the grungle style. I wanted a lots of color but not bright color. I wanted the worn but not antique look - more akin to the Chinese ink and wash painting with a dark, deeply colored worn look seen below.
(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)
So I went to the local art supplies store and bought some India Ink. Rubbed it on to the beads and rubbed off the excess. I wet sanded with fine grit sand paper to give the worn appearance. Like your favorite t-shirt or jeans that you really should throw out but they're so comfortable, you just can't!
...she'll make beads! I don't know if you know the children's book, If You give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff but if you are, you'll get the joke.
The reason I played with the title of the children's book is because I'm frozen out of my studio. It's unheated as I've complained about for years now but we won't be remodeling it soon. I need to make beads, I need to use my hands and when I'm frozen out, I start to bite my nails as a substitute. When that happens, I troll around my office for what I can do at the coffee table and I found it, my stash of poly clay.
I know normally, we don't refer to a "stash" of any medium but it applies here. I add to it every so often and don't make much with it. But lately, I've been drawing out some ideas for the bronze clay and thought I'd try to work them out in polymer first.
Sometimes, I just want to get my hands into a medium as opposed to working the medium with tools like with glass. I love glass but you can't touch it to work it. There's something very satisfying about manipulating the polymer with your hands.
I played with the ideas I have drawn out and technique as well - things like do I prefer to insert an eyepin or do I prefer to make a beadhole? I cured my experiments and snapped a quick photo to post.
Making these prototypes by getting my hands into the work, satisfied my need to create beads. Guess cold weather isn't all bad, huh?
