Simple and Cool

Tags

Anne Potter, Bead Table Wednesday, Heather Powers, Humblebeads, Jewelry Stringing Magazine, Swoondimples, Travelogue Magazine

The hot temperatures in my area, my own aesthetic and the inspiration of a new (to me) jewelry magazine has resulted in today’s necklace. Right now it is 91 and only getting hotter. I am lucky to be able to be inside with air conditioning, but I like having jewelry that I could wear outside even in the heat and still stay cool.

In addition, I’ve recently learned about an electronic jewelry magazine by Anne Potter called Travelogue. She was a frequent contributor to the late, lamented Jewelry Stringing magazine. Travelogue offers great photos of travel-related inspiration and then projects based on that inspiration. The projects are very doable but can be customized to your own skill level. Not based on any specific piece but just the feeling of simplicity, I took some beads I really liked and made this effortless piece.

The owl focal is by swoondimples. His name is Stewart. I got it in 2016 when the Pantone color of the year was a duo – rose quartz and serenity blue. The pink Czech glass I got in a destash. I just really like pink. It was my favorite color as a little girl, and although sometimes I like to think that has changed, it really hasn’t. I believe that is why I was more intrigued with the Pantone color that year than some other people. I had something else in mind for those little pink beads, but this project asserted itself. I was actually going to use some other spacers in the front for an accent, including some more rustic metal to give the piece a little bit of a harder look. But I decided on these simple eye beads I’ve had since the beginning of my beading days. Since I’ve kept them this long, they deserved to be used.

This sweety tweety little necklace will be fun to wear with my sundresses this summer.

One other thing about this post: the picture. It’s very sunny here, and usually I would have to wait until dusk or perhaps early tomorrow morning to get a picture. This picture was made possible in real time right after I made this necklace by Heather Powers of Humblebeads. I love her beads and other artwork as well as the free projects she shares on her Bead Table Wednesday videos. A couple of weeks ago, she made one about taking better photos with your cell phone. Oh my goodness, she gave a few easy tips that really helped my photo game. It was fun to put them into action after watching the video this morning. Thanks, Heather!

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Vintage

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Heather Powers, Humblebeads

I’ve been really enjoying vintage beads lately.  Also, I’m starting to be able to get back into making jewelry! So for this post, both of those things have come together in a necklace made of vintage and vintage style components. If you don’t know, I got a tendonitis in my thumb and wasn’t able to make jewelry for a couple of months. I am doing much better now, and started a necklace last weekend that I finished this weekend. I’m trying hard not to over-do it. 

The focal is a faux tin piece by Heather Powers of Humblebeads. She has a technique where she puts an image on steel and it doesn’t scratch or come off. The pieces have such a nice feel and really look like vintage tin.

In the actual vintage category, my mother had given me this vintage glass bead necklace. The worn patina of color with the white bead showing underneath is so lovely. I probably would have re-strung that necklace and worn as is with no additions, but it was too short for me. I think the beads work well with this piece, and I paired them with some vintage Preciosa rose shaped beads. My idea was to hang little beads from chain at the bottom. Once I decided on fringe chain, though, more beads seemed like too much. I didn’t want it to get too busy around the pretty focal. 

I’m really pleased with how it turned out. (Do I end every post that way?) Here’s a shot of MooKitty helping me with the photos for this post. Thanks for visiting, and you can look forward to more finished jewelry in my posts again.

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The Never-Ending Search for Storage

Tags

Bead Table Wednesday, Heather Powers, Humblebeads, Nile Corp.

Recently I watched a video tour of Heather Powers’ studio where she creates her fabulous Humblebeads and shares wonderful free projects on her Bead Table Wednesday videos. I love seeing inside people’s studios. If you do too, watch the video.  Anyway, she was casually showing her enviable trove of art beads in these great sectioned wooden trays she had stacked on her table. I thought she had found a slew of them in an old farmhouse barn at an estate auction or something, when she said they were from Nile Corp! Oh. My. Goodness.

I immediately went and ordered a bunch. They are on sale and some sizes/colors are out of stock. I hope that doesn’t mean they are discontinuing them! But at least I got eight. I originally intended them for beads, but an ongoing storage need I have is also for jewelry.

I originally started out with this old wooden rake for some jewelry storage in my studio. Once it became full (it’s only not totally full now because when I wear a necklace, it gets put away elsewhere.) 

Then I ordered some super strong magnets and repurposed this calendar system for jewelry storage. Then I ordered more magnets and employed the side of my filing cabinet.

And more magnets that moved some of my jewelry into other parts of the house.

But I still have a mess on just about every surface, and a lot of it is jewelry.

This poor little cabinet always looks like this except for a day or two after I clean it. Mostly jewelry and jewelry-related items. Some random mail I’m pretending I’ll attend to “soon” and that blue thing a duster fits on that shows I at least intended to dust at one point. The wooden box with the building has jewelry in it, but it’s always covered with other jewelry, so I never wear whatever is in it. (It was covered with jewelry right before this picture, but I cleaned off the jewelry to try the experiment you will see in the next photo.

Here is one of the Nile Corp. trays with jewelry in it! If I put jewelry that fits fully into the cubbies in these, I can stack about three on each side of that little cabinet and keep it much cleaner.  

Chunkier jewelry can still hang. I’ll try this and see if it helps me keep a tidier area and a better way to find the items I’m looking for.

Whenever I do a storage post, I like to ask – what are your storage solutions? Share in the comments.  Pictures welcome!

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Patina Day

Tags

B'sue Boutiques, Bead & Button, Candie Cooper, Humblebeads, Vintaj

It was patina day for me and my mom. I bought some Vintaj patinas at Bead & Button.  My mom recently had an idea for changing a pin she had with patina. I recommended Vintaj so she got some patina as well. So we decided to have a patina day, and it was a ball.

I had seen one video by Heather Powers of Humblebeads about using Vintaj patina, and my mom and I watched another.  Thank you, Heather!! It was wonderful to get a little view into how the patinas worked. I was especially happy to see how fast they dried. Impatience drives a lot of my design style! So, on to the show.

I did not get a before picture of my mom’s pin, but it was all black and too dark for her. She had wanted red and bought garnet. It was more pinkish than red, but my mom made it work by layering it with white gold. She had planned to leave the middle black crystals but decided to use white gold on those as well. Definitely the right decision!

The first piece I worked on was a bracelet. I had some really heavy, textured vintage chain from B’Sue Boutiques. I thought I would patina it and then add a bead dangle. After I use the verdigris patina on it and the Vintaj reliefing block to take some of the color off the high spots, I loved it so much I didn’t want to add anything else. My mom had the perfect clasp to go with the heavy chain, so I used the verdigris patina on that too.  I love the outcome. Here is a picture with some of the original chain. 

This picture doesn’t show how the metal sparkles through the patina. It’s the best! My mom also used the verdigris on some brass in the form of ball chain for a multi-strand bracelet.  It turned out great as well.
I had also seen a post by Candie Cooper with a tutorial for a Mod Podge cuff bracelet. I had a much smaller channel bangle form, but I decided to make something similar. My bangle was just plain silver (forgot to get a picture) so I decided to randomly paint some patina on it to make it look like old metal on the parts that would show. I combined the colors earth and white gold. I didn’t rough up the metal much (the impatience, you know) so it’s streaky. But it works for my purposes. Earlier this week my dad got a package with some great, thick paper packaging. I decided to use that as the base in the channel.

I added several coats of Mod Podge. You can see what now looks like aged metal on the inside of the bangle.

Then I added some vintage rhinestone chain. Very cute!

I also used verdigris and white gold on some vintage flat brass chain that I have plans for later.  Here is a picture of some original and patina chain.

I also did just a few trials on a couple other brass pieces.

Here is the front and back of some random pieces.  On the top left I used garnet and then the front of that piece has white gold. On the right I used verdigris and reliefed it back on both the back and front.

Although it has nothing to do with patina, the other project on the docket today was to put a little more interest on a leather and metal bracelet my dad made. He took a thick piece of leather and paired it with a nice metal slider. It seemed a little plain, so I suggested some rivets. My dad was impressed that I had a leather punch and a rivet setting kit. (The kit is from my card making days!) That’s just what it needed. 

I leave you with a picture of my two finished bracelets together. If you haven’t tried Vintaj patinas yet, I recommend it.  My mom and I plan to get more colors and do more experiments.

 

 

 

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Bead & Button Fun #2

Tags

Diane Hawkey, Hand of the Hills, Holy & Pure Gemstone, Humblebeads, Joan Miller Porcelain, Patti Cahill

Welcome to part 2 of my Bead & Button show and tell.  I had intended to focus somewhat on gemstone strands, and one of the booths I had seen people post nice stuff from was Holy & Pure Gemstone. But as I’ve noticed at other shows, I find all those strands too overwhelming, especially when I have to calculate the discounted price in my head. But, I did get some wonderful, colorful beaded chain there. 

They had a ton of chain, very good value, priced a marked.  Next year I would spend more time getting chain and maybe try to be patient and get at least one strand of beads.  Knowing what to expect is half the battle.

I love, love, love Joan Miller Porcelain, so I got a couple things from her. 

Joan Miller was sharing a booth with Patti Cahill, and I fell in love with this bead. I believe this is my first Patti Cahill bead, so that’s good I bought something new.  I’ve noticed that I stick to what I already like.  Next year I would like to branch out more.

I am very happy with my Humblebeads purchases. I have wanted the monarch items for a while. I knew I would get some disc beads because they are my favorite. I love the black, blue and white ones. I saw those posted by someone on preview night and set my sights.  I am going to try this project by Heather Powers with the lentil bead.

I did get some metal spacers like I planned from Hand of the Hills. I liked how they displayed their strands. They were on colored velcro strips. Each color of velcro indicated a specific price. I loved just opening the velcro to get the strand, so easy!

Last but not least, I got some Diane Hawkey beads. I am a huge fan. I got some beads and a cabochon (that I’m going to ask my mom to bead around).

And I got some pendants.  I especially love that little bar that says “I exist as I am, that is enough.” 

I would like to go back next year. I feel like I would be able to focus on other things. At shows, I do tend to stick to what I already know and like. I did get a couple new things, and I didn’t get any African strands, which is something I usually focus on. I feel so satisfied with my purchases this year that I think I could branch out a little next year to maybe see who has other things like vintage beads or maybe some fun or fancy clasps or artists who are new to me.  After all, the artists I love now were new to me at one time.

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Tile Trials

Tags

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

Tags

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!

 

Winter Wonderland

Tags

Humblebeads, Supply Your Soul

Well, it’s not really a winter wonderland as the title of this post suggests.  It’s kind of a winter ugly, slushy mess.  It keeps swinging from cold and snow to rain and warmer, and we’re left with dirty snow and slush here in Wisconsin.  So, I thought it would be fun and cheerful to make a pretty winter necklace, and what better bead than a cute little Humblebeads snowman?

I added a bunch of charm dangles – all different like snowflakes!  I put it all on beautiful lightweight aluminum ball chain with sea glass patina from Supply Your Soul. This is a sweet little necklace that I’ll have fun wearing all winter long.  In addition to her Humblebeads website and Esty store, Heather Powers has a Humblebeads VIP Party Facebook page where she often sells new designs and things not available in her shops.  She also does giveaways and a Bead Table Wednesday video with tutorials and tips.  Come visit!

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!