Art Bead Scene Challenge – February

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Art Bead Scene, Artisan Clay, Erin Prais-Hintz, Kristie Ann Roeder, Tesori Trovati

The monthly Art Bead Scene Challenge offers a piece of art for participants to use as inspiration for making an art bead or something that contains an art bead.  The inspiration piece this month is the oil painting The Two Crowns by Sir Frank Dicksee.

The colors in this piece are so rich, and that’s what inspired my piece. I was first drawn to the white of the horse, and I thought I had a white clay and glass pendant by Kristie Ann Roeder of Artisan Clay. When I went to look, it was white and teal, which worked as well!

I also used a rosebud charm by Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati, a gold flower connector, moonstone rondelles and some teal and rose colored Czech glass.  I kept trying to think of a design I liked using gold sari silk because the painting definitely brought that to mind. But they just didn’t work for me, so I used a little piece of it as a photo prop.

I think this necklace looks appropriately opulent (more so in person with the moonstone flash.)  I’m pleased with this necklace, and I love the Art Bead Scene challenges for encouraging me to use and combine materials I otherwise might not.

 

Earrings Everyday Reveal: Use Your Leftovers Challenge 2016

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Earrings Everyday, Erin Prais-Hintz, Use Your Leftovers Challenge

I was catching up on my blog reading when I saw the 2nd Annual Earrings Everyday Use Your Leftover Challenge.  I had so much fun joining this challenge last year with Erin Prais-Hintz that I was excited to see it and join in again.  I immediately went and took a picture of my craftermath.  This table has been clean at times in the intervening year, but here it is again in a very similar state.

So I look at the silver lining: much to choose from for my earring bonanza! Here is what I quickly put in my tray.

Because last year’s challenge re-started my earring making, I already had some nice bead pairs on the table from earrings I’d tried during the year that did not work out.  Now those beads are getting a second earring chance!  How nice.

I made a few pairs right away.  I’m not someone who enjoys working under pressure, so I didn’t want to wait to until the last minute and have nothing. I chose some of the easy earring supplies for these – charms and connectors.  If I wore earrings, the pearl and crystals would be my favorite of this lot.

I really love this next group. The middle ones with the Herkimer “diamonds” are my favs, but it’s not easy to pick.  All three pairs of these are very me.

I made all of the above earrings on the first day in two different sessions. Once I get going, it’s just so fun!  The middle earrings didn’t photograph very well – the black beads are lovely faceted numbers.

I found that once I got in the earring making mode, I wanted to continue.  So the next morning I made these two pairs soon after I woke up.  Using leftovers actually makes it easier to create; I’m not overwhelmed with choice.  In fact, when designing I often default to what is on my bead table.  There is more than one good design for any material, and why not use what is right in front of me? For example, I love these color shell stack earrings.  So easy!

Here is a different kind of leftover.  I didn’t make these with leftover materials (that I remember) but these are leftover earrings that were sitting on my bead table (already on a card!) I made these in January 2014 for myself based on a design by Erin Siegel. Almost three years these have been rattling around my house!  Ridiculous.  So I added them to the group.  I stopped wearing earrings soon after I made them due to sensitive ears and never wore them.  Let someone else enjoy these.

I like that it is easy to make so many different styles. I feel like I have a nice selection for a variety of people with different tastes which is good because I will be donating these to Ears to You.  They provide earrings to girls and women of all ages fighting cancer and accept donations of new handmade or store bought earrings.  (They have also branched out to helping boys and men with cancer too.)

My guess is that I spent less than two hours making all of the earrings you see here.  Great way to use leftovers and have something to show for it!  Thanks Erin and Earrings Everyday!  Go to the Earrings Everyday website to see what other people made with their craftermath, and subscribe to the blog if you want to see great earrings all year long!

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Ionu Owl Necklace

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Erin Prais-Hintz, Ionu owl pendant, Southern Poverty Law Center, Tesori Trovati

Recently I bought this fabulous Ionu (as in watchful eye) owl pendant by Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati.  I have long admired Erin for the beautiful jewelry and components she makes, the way she branches out and challenges herself with new ideas and mediums, and the way she uses her art to inspire and bring positivity to the world.  Which brings us to these pendants.

Each one is different, and they are just cute as all get out.  I love how charming they are, how much personality they have.  But what I really love is the idea behind them.  Erin was feeling stuck because of the hatred, intolerance and fear in the world, and this is part of the way she unstuck herself.  Eighty percent of the purchase price of each pendant will be donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center.  They are dedicated to “fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society.” I think it’s easy to feel overwhelmed in the face of large problems, and I appreciate people who find ways around that to take action.  Read Erin’s very eloquent thoughts behind this pendant here.

I wanted to start wearing mine soon.  It makes me feel good. At first, I was planning to knot some manik-manik lampwork with it.  I picked out some beads, but they seemed too busy for the owl.  Then I was planning to look through my Czech glass, but on the way I spotted a box of glass pearls.  I first decided to use a bag of grey pearls, but then I was struck by a bag of mixed colors and sizes.  I combined the two. This is one of my go to styles – beads knotted 1/4″ apart on waxed linen.  So easy to wear.  And I like the idea of the mix of beads. Kind of like all people are beautiful pearls even though we are all different. (There’s even one freshwater pearl on there!)

It’s very snowy out here today, and there is too much glare for me to get a really good picture.  But I wanted to share this right away.  If you need a gift idea for someone and this would make them feel as good as it does me, check it out.  Or even just donate directly to SPLC.  Don’t get stuck.  There is always a way forward.

Reuse: Bead and Supply Storage

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Diana Ptaszynski, Erin Prais-Hintz, Gentle Breeze Honey, Potter's Crackers

Most of my beads and supplies are stored in plain cardboard boxes.  They are a great long, shallow shape, very utilitarian and stack well.  But when I envision my finished studio (always a work in progress) I want a little variety along with a bit of charm that I see in the studios I admire like Diana Ptaszynski’s and all these great ideas from Erin Prais-Hintz.

Lately, I’ve found that food packaging has started looking like good bead and supply storage, especially the higher quality packaging I find comes with local, hand made foods.

First up, I love Potter’s Crackers that are made right here in Madison, Wisconsin. (They are sold all over the country and online; I encourage you to try some.) My current favorite flavor is Apple Graham, which I’m pretty sure they were making the other day based on the delicious smell coming from their suite that happens to be just across the parking lot from my office.  I often pass by on my way to lunch.  Anyway, they have various packaging, and I had always bought flavors that come in cellophane. Recently, I bought some that came in a little wooden berry basket.  I just couldn’t throw it away, and I realized it was a nicer fit for my stringing wire than the cardboard box I had been using. It has the added benefit of easily seeing what I have.  Just looking at this picture I see a brand I don’t like that I should move to my practice stringing area as well as three (!) “but it might be enough for a bracelet” spools that, stored face down, fooled me into thinking I have more wire than I do.

About a month ago, I tried my hand at a bead weaving project.  I don’t generally do any bead weaving, so I had to get the needles and stringing material from my mom.  I needed a way to store the needles that would keep them (and me) safe and easy to find.  About that same time, I finished off a tin of Altoids Smalls mints.  The hinged tin is the perfect place to store needles. I can pop it in the drawer that houses my pilers and always know where to find it.

Next I finished a jar of spread (delicious on lightly salted rice cakes) from Gentle Breeze Honey made a little over 20 miles away in Mt. Horeb. I’m left with a sweet little mason-type jar too nice to throw in the recycle bin.  It is such a perfect small size and will be good for a slew of findings, pretty beads or buttons or materials for a project that can marinate together in the jar until they’re ready.

These are products, and therefore containers, I’ll be getting again.  I won’t always need to keep them, but I like the idea of at least considering ways to reuse sturdy containers rather than throwing them away or even recycling them. If I were a really crafty sort, I would even go further to making these pretty, like this idea I saw on Pinterest. Hmm…maybe I’ll have to make that one of our family craft projects.

Do you ever reuse everyday items (and anything creative) for bead, supply or jewelry storage?  Please let me know in the comments.  I’m always looking for ideas!

Hidden Cove Challenge Reveal

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Allegory Gallery, Andrew Thornton, Earrings Everyday, Erin Prais-Hintz, Hidden Cove Challenge, Miss Fickle Media, My Elements

Allegory Gallery hosts challenges with beautiful and inspiring kits curated by artist Andrew Thornton.  Today is the reveal for the Hidden Cove Challenge. Here is a picture of the kit from the blog post because I never remember any more to take my own.

There are so many beads I love in this kit! I used some of them, but I didn’t get to use the three wooden half rounds.  They are gorgeous and certain to be bound for a special project.  My first idea was to use the Mystery Component, a beautiful mermaid pendant handmade by Andrew, with lots of dangling blue beads to look like water, but nothing I tried in that vein worked out.  Instead, I used one of the beads I loved, the Czech glass square, to highlight the pendant along with chain from My Elements in that same bright, beautiful turquoise.

I feel I’ve almost got the look I was going for anyway with the way Andrew’s mermaid is floating up toward that blue.

Next, I used some fabulous sea glass beads. They didn’t seem like glass to me. Were they really faux glass made from polymer? They are absolutely beautiful and have a wonderful texture.  I built a little cairn with them.  I don’t think I knew that word before seeing the image and explanation of it on Erin Prais-Hintz’s Treasures Found blog post a few years ago. I love that image of the stacked stones and the fact that it means something, whether to mark a memory, site or parts of one’s life.

I used a few of the dangles I had originally thought of for the Mystery Component and put it on the wonderful cotton cord.  I wanted to show this full picture because I used a favorite swirl clasp from Miss Fickle Media. I wanted to also show a better close up of the pendant.

I also wanted to use the fabulous large vintage acrylic bead. I found a vintage pendant bar in my stash that I thought would help highlight it nicely.  I added a few more favorite beads from the kit as dangles and some vintage chain.

And last but not least, there were two blue organic rounds that seem like polymer that I loved and decided to make a rare pair of earrings with them.  A challenge over on Earrings Everyday got me making earrings again, so I might as well continue. I also used up the last two dangles I had already made.  I hate to waste a headpin!

I feel like the theme of this challenge influenced the style – simple for warm weather fun by the water.  I still have so many wonderful beads left to use in the future!  Thanks you Andrew and William of Allegory Gallery for another great challenge.  Visit the Facebook page to see what other people made with their kits.

Art Bead Scene – March Challenge

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Art Bead Scene, Erin Prais-Hintz, Green Girl Studios, Simple Truths Sampler Club

The Art Bead Scene blog challenges artists to use an inspiration artwork to make something with an art bead.  The March inspiration is the oil painting “Still Life with Pussy Willows” by Taisia K. Afonina.

I liked this painting immediately.  The colors are beautiful, the subject matter is really happy and comforting to me, and I had an easy time thinking of an art bead to use.  Quite a while ago I got a pussy willow pendant from Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati.  Erin makes a piece every month inspired by the ABS artwork for her Simple Truths Sampler Club.  As a member of the club, I was thrilled that the March piece is a different pussy willow pendant. I love when I can use my art beads and have them too!

I had actually made this pendant into a necklace before, but I found I never wore it, and it was just waiting in my “take it apart” box to be made into something that would get more love.  The challenge was perfect! At first I tried to keep an element that I liked about the first necklace – tiny grey rice pearl dangles that echoed the pussy willows. When I finally stopped holding onto that, I was able to move forward with the necklace, inspired by this painting, the pendant was meant to be.

I used a silver bead with branches and leaves above the pendant.  Before I started looking at beads, I wanted to focus on the silver of the teapot and the blue of the cups (teal or cobalt depending on the device I’m looking at.)  When I was looking at my stash, I started to gravitate toward wood like the stalks of the pussy willow. To me, the scene could be very elegant or shabby chic.  That is left to the mind of the viewer.  I am more comfortable with a slightly more earthy interpretation, so I went with some sandalwood beaded chain, Czech glass knotted on waxed linen, including the teal I liked, and a Green Girl Studios floral clasp.

This is a very comfortable necklace to wear, and I love that this beautiful pendant will be seeing the light of day more often.  Check out what other designers made based on this inspiration painting on the Art Bead Scene Pinterest page.

We’re All Ears – December – Use Your Leftovers

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Earrings Everyday, Erin Prais-Hintz, We're All Ears

Erin Prais-Hintz, one of the contributors to the Earrings Everyday blog, had a fabulous idea for her monthly challenge, We’re All Ears, this December.  Usually she shares a visual inspiration, and participants make one or more pairs of earrings based on that and share on the third Friday of the month.  For this month, Erin challenged us to use leftovers hanging out on our work tables (go on, you know you’ve got some) to make earrings.  That sounded really good to me because I’ve had creative block for a while about making earrings. Erin laid out the challenge like this:

1.  Take a picture of the craftermath of your bead fest. I’m not scared to show my mess. I’ve done it before.  I live in my truth (and my mess).  So here it is.

At least I’ve managed to scrape off the front so I have a little work space.  Next step:

2.  Quickly organize sets of coordinated (or not) materials to work with.

I didn’t agonize.  I just picked up things I thought would work well and put them in the sections of this box. (I think it was originally a tea caddy.  But once you start beading, everything starts to look like bead storage.)

3.  CREATE! Erin suggested putting on some music (which I did) and making it fun. That sounds a bit obvious, but sometimes I go into my studio and just sort of stress myself out.  That’s no good!  So I just let it be fun.  I made three pairs of earrings during the first session.  I started to get antsy after that, so I thought I’d better let that be it.  I had a good time.  I only took apart one earring and redesigned because it wasn’t working.  Pretty good.  I’m happy with this first session.

Later the same day, I was writing this post and reviewing Erin’s suggestions. She said set your own pace – set a timer or make one pair a day – whatever works.  So I figured I’m always good for one pair.  I went back to the studio and made one more.

As an additional nicety of this process, I cleaned up a little.  In addition to using up some of the bits of my craftermath, as I dug around my bead table to supplement what I had put in the box, if I found finished pieces of jewelry, or whole, identifiable bunches of beads or art beads, I labeled them as necessary and put them away.  Yay!

Then I started to think, well, I could make one pair each day.  How hard is that? So here is the next day…and the next.

And then I made a few more on the weekend.

I got the hankering to really work on cleaning up my space, so I started to focus on that rather than making earrings, but while I was doing it, of course, I made one more pair with things I unearthed. All together, I made 12 pairs of earrings; I don’t think I’ve made that many in the past year, and here I’ve done it in less than a week.

I am so happy to be making earrings again.  I also loved using up some leftovers which often just languish.  Thank you, Erin and Earrings Everyday! I will donate most of these to Ears To You and save a couple to drop for art abandonment.

Go visit the We’re All Ears December reveal on Earrings Everyday and see what others made.

Crystal Clay Experiments

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Becky Nunn, Crystal Clay, Erin Prais-Hintz, Nunn Design, Sherri Stokey

I have wanted to experiment with Crystal Clay since I saw this use of it by Erin Prais-Hintz.  I’m generally a chicken to try new stuff because, as my dad was commenting recently, when you start learning something new, you have to start here and I want to start HERE!!  But, I’m getting better at learning to slow down, practice and know that if I keep trying I’ll get better.  So, I’m willing to show my experiments here.  My mom did this with me.  Here is a getting ready picture.

I didn’t end up using any of the beads on the left that I had a big plan for; you know how that is!  But I did make that heart bezel into a steampunk piece.  That was my mom’s idea.  The end product was one of our favorite experiments.  I wanted to try a variety of techniques.  We pressed items into the clay in patterns (random or not), rolled clay in beads, used chain in a Nunn Design itsy charm and put clay on the top of an itsy bottle from Becky Nunn tutorials and stamped and colored the clay from a Becky Nunn example and a Sherri Stokey blog post.  We’re pretty in love with those Sherri Stokey examples.  She’s the macrame genius behind Knot Just Macrame.

We chose silver and copper Crystal Clay for our first experiments.  We are big fans of metallic, but we were disappointed in both of these colors.  They are very flat and not metallicy at all.  Next time we are going to experiment with mica powders in them.  You don’t need much clay, so although we made a total of 12 (small) pieces, we have more than half of each color left.  We are also going to buy brighter colors for our next experiments.

So here is our big make.  My mom said her favorite is the steampunk heart.  I like that one, but it would be more fun with a different color clay.  I really like our itsy charms with the crystal and ball chain.  That’s from a tutorial, so that makes me think I’ll like the finished product more if the design is well thought out.  Since this was our very first time, we were mostly just seeing how the clay worked.  Neither of us is a big fan of the really random stuff – my orange button where I just pressed the clay filled bezel into a pile of beads or my mom’s green itsy bottle top where she rolled it.  I was impatient when I tried to place beads really carefully, so I trashed it and started over.  I have a plan to do a very big bezel placing beads really carefully in a pattern, so I know I’ll have to focus on that one project and take it very slowly to have any hope of making it work.

We agreed that our favorite technique was stamping and coloring the clay.  I used to have a huge collection of rubber stamps.  I got rid of those in an art swap but had saved a few.  We used one of those, and I didn’t think much of it. I couldn’t find the few patinas I had, so we just used acrylic paint and creme paint.  I don’t really know what difference there is for epoxy clay purposes.  Feel free to enlighten me in the comments if you know.  So first we painted on our base color and let it dry.

Here are the pieces painted their base color.  When I saw this, I was so disappointed.  My mom’s green really showed the pattern well.  My brown drowned it out.  We let them dry and sanded the high parts so that we could highlight them with gold creme paint.  (I figure this is what Gilder’s Paste is like).

Wow, what a difference the highlighting made!  The contrast is great with my brown.  My mom’s doesn’t show up as well if it’s not in the right light.  Lesson learned: think about how colors work together.

We watched lots of videos about clay and stamping and patinas and what have you.  We are excited to try again with more knowledge and more supplies.  We found some bezels we really love in this shop.  Mica powder is on our list, and we bought a four sided stamp at Michael’s the other day.

So, here is a finished piece with my itsy bottle top using Crystal Clay.  The little tag charm says “create” because despite having lots to learn, I’m willing to create using new techniques, tools and products.  My lid has slightly too much clay on it, but it turned out pretty well.  I’m excited to try more experiments!

Wisconsin Bead Artists

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Aardvark Art Glass, Cathy Lybarger, Donna Millard, Erin Prais-Hintz, Jubilee, Kylie Parry, Mary Cullinan, Tesori Trovati

I have lived in Wisconsin in various cities most of my life.  I love so many things about this state – the four distinct seasons, the casual, friendly atmosphere wherever I go, and the art!  I think many people feel that way about their home state, and that’s nice.

When my interest in art beads began, I was fascinated with how many great bead artists are in Wisconsin!  Right here, under my nose, but it took the internet to introduce me to most of them.  I thought it would be fun to highlight a few of my favorites.

Erin Prais-Hintz is an amazing artist.  She writes moving blog posts, makes wonderful beads, gorgeous jewelry and inspiring drawings.  I am a member of her Simple Truths Sampler Club and receive an art bead/beads from her each month.  Here are some of Erin’s beads I am hoarding.

Mary Cullinan is the artist behind Jubilee, and I am in love with her colorful raku beads.  Here is a sample of her beads and a necklace I made with one of her house beads.

                                               

Kylie Parry is one of those artists whose work sells out quickly, so I don’t always get what I want.  But I treasure what I have.  Here are a couple of her beads in my collection.

Cathy Lybarger of Aardvark Art Glass has amazing sculptural beads.  My knowledge of her work actually pre-dated my education about art beads.  She had a shop near the now closed Jade Mountain Beads.  My boss from a previous job and I spent many lunch hours in those shops.  Below is a necklace I made with one of her mask beads many, many years ago, and a cactus bead I bought recently at a bead show here in Madison.

Donna Millard is a great lampwork artist who also makes lovely vintage tin bead caps and other components that I love.  You’ll have to rely on the links, because I don’t own any of her work…yet.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a few favorites that came to mind. Let me know if you have a favorite Wisconsin bead artist – listed here or not – or if you have a favorite artist from your own area.

Good Stuff This Weekend

Tags

Bead Gallery, Erin Prais-Hintz, Gaea, Halcraft, Michael's

A while ago, I gave my mom a Gaea face bead and asked her to bead around it. I didn’t give her any instructions, color suggestions or anything.  I knew she would come up with something wonderful.

Meet the Gaea Medusa bead!  I love it.  The colors are great too.  My mom also made some matching beaded components that I can use with this or something else.

I think I must have plied my dad with tales of people who have used rusted metal to good effect in making jewelry.  One day on a walk, he found this and saved it for me.

You can see it’s a really good specimen.  It’s a little dangerous.  It’s got a couple of nails rusted into it that I need to cut off.  I hope someday I can transform it into something wonderful.

After a couple of days of very relaxing swimming, taking walks, and sitting on the porch in near perfect weather (a rarity) we took a trip to Michael’s.  My mom was looking for a frame, and I needed to restock my smaller sizes of plastic bead baggies.  Of course we had to look at the beads as well.  The Bead Gallery green label beads were on sale.  I picked a couple of different wooden beads I can use as spacers and saw the silver metal connectors Erin Prais-Hintz used in her Halcraft June Pretty Palettes reveal.  Lovely!  My mom got a strand as well.  I added a couple lengths of some fun multicolor lampwork beaded chain.

A fun weekend was had by all!