Tile Trials

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Andrew Thornton, Artybecca, Cynthia Thornton, Heather Powers, Humblebeads, Joan Miller, Staci Louise Originals, Staci Smith, Trinket Foundry

I scored a variety of beautiful tile left over from remodeling jobs (not mine, alas) and was excited to try them as photo backgrounds.  Here’s how it went.

Here are two pieces on a whole sheet of small, square tile. I wasn’t sure if I’d like this because of the spaces. But looking at it, I think it could work sometimes.  I can’t seem to get a nice picture of this particular necklace. I also tried on another day on other backgrounds. The tin bead (with the horrible glare on it!) is from Trinket Foundry.

Here is the same tile closer with a beautiful necklace by Andrew Thornton and Cynthia Thornton. I think the background colors are perfect for this piece, and I love the texture of the tile in this close up, but I’m not wild about how the webbing shows. Also, I know I’d get all perfectionist on whether the lines look straight.

Here are some photos on decorative bathroom tiles.  I actually have three designs, but I’ve only used two here.  i was in a hurry because the light was fading. The lampwork bead below is also from Trinket Foundry.

I think the bracelet below looks better on the patterned tile than the necklace above.  The design shows through the glass pendant on the necklace too much. There are so many variables in a picture that affect the outcome, but I can see that these tiles will be good for many things.  (They look fab in the bathroom too!)

I really like how this elephant by Staci Smith looks on the patterned tile too. I think small, bold pieces might fare best on the patterned tile.

Here is a necklace with a bird by Heather Powers of Humblebeads on three different smaller tiles put together. I actually really like this picture which surprises me. I would have thought the transitions between each piece of tile would be off-putting. I don’t find that. I like that there is a dark, medium and light, and I could position my piece to take advantage of that.  It’s often a problem to have a dark pendant and light beads because one inevitably suffers in a solid background photo.

Here are two pieces on a small square of kitchen counter.  It’s so much prettier in the kitchen, but I think both pieces look relatively nice, although again the bold elephant pendant does better than the necklace. The problem with this pieces is that, unlike the other pieces, it is shiny. That will cause glare, as you can see in the picture with the necklace.

The banana pendant is by Artybecca. The banana dangles are by Joan Miller. The Zola Elements chain is from Lima Beads. The clasp is Nunn Design.

The tile I think fared the worst in photos was this plain white/grey. It’s kind of flat and dark, and again when I need it bigger and put multiple pieces together, I won’t like the line.

I’m not sure this tile is great with these two pieces, but I do believe it will be great with many, many things.  It is gorgeous stone tile, and I have one very big piece that will be good for larger/longer jewelry when the colors are right.  I also have another partial piece with different colors/textures.

I’m very happy to have all these tiles, and will enjoy trying them in the future to have more options for jewelry photos.  MooKitty is also very excited about all the packaging I carried the tile home in.

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Inspired by Reading Book Club: Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

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Heather Powers, Humblebeads, Idea-Ology, Speidel, Tim Holtz

The idea behind Allegory Gallery‘s Inspired by Reading Book Club is to read that month’s book and make something inspired by it.  This month, the book is Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. I read this series years ago in college; it was fun to revisit it.  I liked it the second time around too.  The characters are real and generally sympathetic.  This book is told from the perspectives of various characters; my piece is based on the character Mary Ann Singleton. She’s a young woman from Ohio who goes to San Francisco on vacation and decides to stay.  She is looking for something else in life than the traditional path she was destined for in Cleveland.

I thought about the type of jewelry that was popular in the late 1970s when this book took place. There was a lot of minimalist gold and silver.  I remember the big names in stores I went to being Napier, Monet, and Trifari.  I remember wanting a Speidel ID bracelet with the passion of a 12 year old.  So those were the things rolling around in my head when I made this bracelet inspired by those things but made for today.

I used a Tim Holtz Idea-Ology word band as a bracelet bar.  The quote, “live the life you’ve imagined” is what Mary Ann was trying to do, as well as advice Mrs. Madrigal, landlady and sort of den mother to her tenants, might have imparted. I made the band part of the bracelet from gorgeous wobble beads by Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  I included two charms.  The heart is a nod to the Speidel ID bracelet of my youth that this was inspired by, and the vintage mouse charm is a reference to Mary Ann’s friend (and fellow tenant) Michael “Mouse” Tolliver.

Thanks to William and Andrew of Allegory Gallery for these great book club challenges!  This was a really fun challenge that took me back to the jewelry of my childhood. Have a look at what other participants were inspired to make on the Inspired by Reading Book Club Facebook page.

No Procrastination Necklace Remake

Tags

Earth & Stars by Joshua V. Davis, fromNothing, Heather Powers, Humblebeads

I do not like remaking things.  If I make something and end up not liking it, the poor piece will languish perhaps forever.  Certainly for months or even years. So yesterday I made a necklace.  I liked parts of it – the pendant, the color combination.  But I did not like the overall effect.  Somehow the round put me off in the middle with the chips.  It seemed like an unbalanced texture or perhaps size mismatch.  Here that is.

I really love this bird by Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  She calls it Mod Geo in Terra Cotta. (Not a good picture, but I’m taking it apart anyway.)  I love turquoise with it which might not be a natural color choice.  But the composition of this necklace is just off.  I slept on it overnight, and I’m still not satisfied.  I decided to change it up right away because I don’t want it to languish.  Finished, it will be a great necklace for spring and summer.

I had a bag of mixed beads sitting on my bead table.  I had made a necklace I really liked with them that I gave away.  Here was my chance to have another version of that necklace. That necklace had been heavy on pink, so most of the pink beads were gone.  I added white, turquoise and some handmade natural clay beads from the shop fromNothing Earth & Stars Joshua V. Davis.

This design still didn’t quite satisfy me, although I liked it. Perhaps if I had made it longer, I would have left it. But the white chips were still nagging at me. I had really liked them with the bird. I went to redesign it again. I thought about discarding the turquoise colored dangle which would open up more design possibilities, but I really loved that pop of color.  I decided to use just the mother of pearl chip knotted on turquoise blue waxed linen to tie in that color. Of course I didn’t cut the linen long enough (will I never learn?!) so I added some chain at the back.  Now I have choice of lengths.

None of these pictures is great, but I have no patience to wait for better light. Makeover mission accomplished in less than 24 hours.  That’s the way to do it!

 

New(ish) Beads Parade

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Andrew Thornton, Beady Girl Beads, Heather Powers, Humblebeads, Jennifer Tough, Joan Miller Porcelain, Project: Next Step

I haven’t had a new beads post recently, so I thought I’d show some new and newish beads.  I just went to take pictures, and anything that hadn’t been put away yet was fair game.  My studio is a mess again.  It’s going to get some attention during my upcoming time off.  So, here we go.

These gorgeous beads from Andrew Thornton actually are pretty new.  He saw some ancient beads he liked and decided to make some similar.  He is such an amazing artist. His beads are even better than the original. I am in love with them!

You can see more of Andrew’s work (as well as that of other artists) at Allegory Gallery and their etsy store. Andrew and his partner William are having a fundraiser for a special project for the gallery with some really fun rewards still available until December 15th.  Check that out here: Project: Next Step.

Next up are these from Beady Girl Beads.  I love the bright style, and fell for this matte heart.  The other beads were a gift – nice!

I’m a complete Joan Miller junkie. I could not resist this cat pendant from Joan Miller Porcelain. I also got these great floral bead caps, and this bicone bead. The bicone is truly one of the most beautiful beads I’ve ever seen.  This picture doesn’t really capture the metallic glowy goodness of it.

Here is a bonbon bead and leafy pendant by Heather Powers of Humblebeads. She has so many gorgeous things. I recently saw some blue toned bonbons on her Facebook page. Swoon! Her husband also makes some beautiful things like these connectors. 

Last but not least is this crackle heart by Jennifer Tough. I really like her work, and I had made a necklace with another of her hearts that turned out so great I wanted more!

Thanks for visiting.  Come again!

Art Bead Scene – November 2016

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Andrew Thornton, Art Bead Scene, Claire Maunsell, Heather Powers, Humblebeads, Lee Oscar Lawrie, Miss Fickle Media

The Art Bead Scene blog offers a great monthly challenge.  The editors share a piece of art for inspiration, and participants make something based on it using at least one art bead. The inspiration this month is a metalwork owl above the door to a room at the Library of Congress.  The artist is Lee Oscar Lawrie.

I really enjoy participating in the Art Bead Scene challenges, but I haven’t done so lately.  I’m not sure I would have this time.  Sometimes I’m overwhelmed with ideas and find it difficult to focus, but lucky for me I had help this month in the form of Heather Powers’ Bead Table Wednesday video this week in her Humblebeads VIP Party Facebook page.  It was a great post that talked about a few things including the ABS challenge and the uplifting power of art. I came away inspired as I did from last week’s video. Heather is the creator of Art Bead Scene as well as the artist behind Humblebeads.

I thought, yeah, I have some owls in my stash.  I started one necklace, but I wasn’t feeling it, so I decided to look for some other owl pendants in my stash by Andrew Thornton of Allegory Gallery and Claire Maunsell of StillPointWorks. I came across this wonderful bronze owl coin pendant by Andrew and knew I’d found my art bead for this challenge. Metal and majestic, like the inspiration.

I wanted to add something right above the pendant. After searching around my stash, I decided on this little mood bead. It changes colors, and I like that aspect of it. The necklace will look slightly different at different times.  While I was designing, the bead was mostly green.  Whenever I touched it, blue was the hue.  For some reason when I took the picture, it took on a golden tone like the yellow quartz.  I like that the bronze and the quartz have a bit of a monochromatic look like the inspiration piece.

I love the simple cut, and especially when the stones are drilled so that some are side to side and some are top to bottom.  I think that adds a nice design element.  I was originally going to use one of the marquis cut Montana agate beads above the pendant, but I couldn’t get both strands of the (1-ply!) linen to go through.  However, because I needed a little more length, I got to use two of the beads in the back.  I finished it off with chestnut opal patina hook clasp from Miss Fickle Media.

Please visit the Art Bead Scene Pinterest page to see more creations from the challenge inspiration.

Humblebeads Stacked Fall Necklace

Tags

Allegory Gallery, Andrew Thornton, Gaea, Heather Powers, Helen Backhouse, Helen's Bat Cave, Humblebeads, Karen Totten, Majoyoal, Mari Carmen Rodriguez Martinez, Starry Road Studio, Supply Your Soul, Vintaj

Heather Powers of Humblebeads makes great polymer clay beads. She also makes beautiful jewelry, and recently shared some tips and design ideas on a Work Table Wednesday video on her Humblebeads VIP Party Facebook page. She has made a colorful innovation to her classic bird beads.  In the video, she shows that she has also used the technique to make owls and offers some cute ideas to use each in pretty necklaces. I was inspired to use the bird I have.

I had so many ideas; this shows just a few of the beads I considered using. Heather showed a variety of leaves and birds together.  I thought about using this beautiful black round by Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio because I love the black with the grey bird.  But I couldn’t resist using a leaf. I don’t actually have a lot of leaves in my stash, but this one by Helen Backhouse of Helen’s Bat Cave went so well with the gold in the bird.  I loved the idea of using a Vintaj acorn bead cap. I also loved this mottled brown ceramic bead by Mari Carmen Rodriguez Martinez of Majoyoal. But I decided I wanted a pop of the pink/purple in the bird.  Some choices included dark and light purple ceramic beads by Gaea and a plastic bead. In the end, I used a polymer clay nugget by Andrew Thornton of Allegory Gallery. I used some beautiful patina ball chain in the Steampunk color from Supply Your Soul.

I couldn’t resist also using Heather’s idea to put a flower bead in a bead cap to make a little “crown” on top of the bird. This project was a lot of fun. It’s simple and easily customized to the beads you have available.

Building a Pendant

Tags

Heather Powers, Humblebeads, Saki Silver

I buy pendants for their look, not their size.  But many pendants tend to be small.  I like larger beads. I do like delicate necklaces, but since I’m designing for myself, I generally like a larger piece.  I’m kinda tall, kinda big.  I take up space.  I want my jewelry to take up space as well.  So, I’m starting to realize (yeah, slow on the uptake) what I can do to make pendants the size I need is build them out of several components.

I got this beautiful dogwood pendant by Heather Powers of Humblebeads that I’ve admired for a while.  I had been planning something else for it, but when I saw it near these faceted yellow-green stitchtite nuggets, I decided to use those. The colors are perfect together. Except the size and visual weight of the nuggets overwhelmed the pendant.

The easy fix was to take a few of the pink beads and one of the nuggets to make a longer, bolder pendant to balance the necklace. This also adds a design element over just a beads-and-pendant type construction. I strung this on waxed linen and used a Saki Silver bronze toggle clasp. I think it turned out very pretty, and this highlights the beautiful dogwood pendant better than if I had used it on its own.

Pinterest Interest and Other Random Stuff

Tags

Antelope Beads, Australian Art Beads, Bead Soup Blog Party, Ceramic Art Bead Market, Heather Powers, Helen Backhouse, Humblebeads, Kim Snider, Lori Anderson, Mandrel Beads, Melissa Gabelle, plastic beads, Staci Louise Smith, The Clay Hen, vintage beads

I get notification from Pinterest when someone repins a pin, and I find it fascinating what people repin.  It’s also fun when the notice is that someone repinned a piece of jewelry I made.  It’s still a thrill for me that someone would like what I made enough to pin it!

My most repinned pin as far as I can tell is this leather bracelet tutorial from Antelope Beads.  As of this writing, 154 repins!

Photo and bracelet from Antelope Beads

Just recently my pin of a gorgeous necklace Staci Louise Smith made for Lori Anderson’s Bead Soup Blog Party in 2011 is on the uptick; suddenly 23 repins. It’s fun to revisit these things each time I get a notification.  Most of my pins have few or no repins, so it’s notable when one gets into the double digits.  My jewelry board only has 303 followers, so those larger numbers are pretty good. The repins come in batches.  Someone repins and then other people see that, etc.

A couple of years ago when Pinterest first started trying to monetize their site, I wrote a post about moving away from it.  I didn’t begrudge them trying to make money, just the way they were doing it.  Because my alternative went kaput, I’ve made my peace with Pinterest.  Although my home page is crowded with sponsored and suggested pins I may not care about, I’m still able to scroll through and find a few things I like from boards I follow, and it’s a good way for me to save my own pins and likes for lots of inspiration and just plain eye candy when I want to enjoy it.

Now on to the Random Stuff.  I haven’t done a new beads post for a while, and I’ve amassed some things I thought I’d show.  Before I start, I want to acknowledge that my pictures are crap. I continue to struggle with photos, mainly (though not totally) due to lack of decent light. I keep working on it.

I’ve become a big fan of Melissa Gabelle of The Clay Hen.  I primarily buy from her on Facebook groups Australian Art Beads and Ceramic Art Bead Market.  But I was writing a post about something I made with her beads when I discovered she also has an etsy shop and couldn’t resist making an order.

I was also pleased to learn that Helen Backhouse recently opened a shop.  I had seen people using her beads left and right, and wondered how to get my hands on some.  Now here they are!  These actually came in pairs, but since I rarely make earrings, I gave one of each to my mom.  We’re both using them as pendants!  I had to show how beautiful they are front and back.

I also recently got a scrumptious order from Humblebeads. Heather Powers constantly comes up with new and beautiful creations.  I love her disc beads. They can add a nice accent to so many styles and designs.

Heather also provided inspiration for using these next beads by Kim Snider of Mandrel Beads. If you like her work, join her Facebook Group where she does trunk shows. You’ll increase your chances of getting some!

I continue to be enthralled with plastic.  Recently the owner of a local bead store that closed down (boo!) a while ago was selling off some leftover stock, and I picked up these (among other things.)

I also got a kumihimo disc because I don’t have enough techniques that I haven’t done anything about. Ha!

Because, as you can probably tell, I am an equal opportunity bead lover, I also recently picked up some vintage necklaces of various materials for a song in a Facebook destash.  These will be great to take apart and repurpose.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this somewhat random post.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Anne Choi Birthday Necklace

Tags

Andrew Thornton, Anne Choi, Heather Powers, Lorelei Eurto, Miss Fickle Media, Niky Sayers

I’ve admired Anne Choi beads for a long time.  In the past they have seemed out of reach.  I do have a bracelet by Lorelei Eurto with an Anne Choi button, but I had never bought a bead for myself.  Last year, I got one for my birthday. It is 100% me.  It says: “There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort” a Jane Austen quote.

It can be difficult to use a our most precious beads.  While I agree with Heather Powers in her excellent blog post giving us permission to enjoy some beads just as beads and not as part of a piece of jewelry, there are some I do want to make into jewelry and wear.  This Anne Choi bead might have been one of those collection only beads except I had the perfect strand of “I’ll never be able to use these” gemstones to go with it!  I had purchased a strand of rough rubies in an Andrew Thornton destash. They are very beautiful, and I couldn’t imagine ever using them until I got the Anne Choi bead.  I think they were meant to be together! I did stall for a little while, but I’ve only had the Anne Choi bead a couple of months.  You kindred bead collectors out there know that is nothing!

I added a pretty lampwork bead I got in a destash of items from Niky Sayers and knotted everything on waxed linen.  That is one of my favorite looks.  I finished it off with a sterling silver swirl clasp by Miss Fickle Media. It doesn’t photograph nearly as pretty as I think it truly looks. I will really enjoy wearing this.  I even have some of these precious rubies left for another project (or to just admire.)

Long Ago Inspiration

Tags

Heather Powers, Humblebeads, Lorelei Eurto

I finally made a necklace that has been in my head for years. I don’t know why it took me so long; it isn’t a complicated style.  It was inspired by a Lorelei Eurto necklace, but I can no longer find a picture of it.  Who knows what it even looks like.  But as Lorelei said in a recent blog post, jewelry inspiration is just a springboard for your own creativity, not something to follow exactly.  So in a way, it doesn’t matter what the original necklace looked like. Though it would be interesting. 🙂

I love this vintage chain. I believe that was in the original necklace.  These Starry Night disc beads from Humblebeads are the first Heather Powers beads I ever bought. She is a bead making master, and her disc beads are some of my favorites.  They are so versatile, and it’s amazing how she can so perfectly base them on a piece of art like this Van Gogh painting.

I think this is a very fun necklace, and I’m pleased with it.  Mostly I’m pleased I finally put it together!