Art Bead Scene Monthly Challenge _ September

I imagine a writing table near this window and someone periodically glancing at the view as they indulge in the retro act of corresponding to a loved one via a written letter.  The words are flowery and sepia toned and spill onto the page as if they were tumbling directly from the heart.  Which of course they are.  A trinket is attached - a leaf - inspired by the greenery of the view.  The path in the right hand upper 1/3 of the picture is the path they take to post the letter.  It is cobbly but then passes into a patch of soft silky green enclosed by a fence.   Here is the necklace I made that I think represents this image to me.  It  features my handmade poly clay script focal and beads, gemstones, hand dyed silk cord and chain.

I was also taken by the lovely blending of the weathered palette and subdued tones in the picture.   A polymer clay bead I  made earlier this year reminded me of this view.  This was my bead entry.

Beading Make Over - When Too Much is, Well, Too Much

I am sure most of us have had the experience in which we get into some passionate frenzy with something and fall in love with our art whether it be words, beads, jewelry, painting --- whatever ---and we find we can't edit.  We just can't bring ourselves to chop one itsy bitsy comma away.

 Now, normally, I am one who tends to have trouble adding more.  I get this tight feeling in my tummy and wince when I think of more, more, more and have to look away to let my hand do what it pleases.

I had just gotten home from the Clay Carnival in Vegas and was rummaging through my beads looking for candidates on which to practice my new riveting technique. Once the riveting was done, I felt the beads needed something more.  But what I was not sure.

Then I saw it out of the corner of my eye.  A wad of ribbon had heaped itself over a large wooden basket I keep it in.  It was literally dangling over a couple shelves and I could see it out of the corner of my eye every time I used the computer.

I don't have any ears missing or anything like that but I felt mad (in an insanely giddy way) when I saw it.  I suddenly knew just what to do and my head and heart and hands were all in sync.  Away I went and came up with this piece which I initially liked...

Until a week or so later when I took a picture of myself in it and felt it looked too over the top.  Here is that picture below.  Decided it needed a trim.  Common sense does kick in with some distance. he he.

 Here is the final product. I removed ribbon on bottom and trimmed the top ribbons. Phew!  That was close!!!!  This one is now in my shop at:  Shanty Chic Beads on Etsy

Scenes from Las Vegas Clay Carnival

Living in Key West, FL certainly has its pluses.  Getting access to good poly clay and other beading classes is not one of them.  So when I saw there was going to be a poly clay class in Las Vegas with masters from around the globe, um, I salivated.  Yep, big ole puddle in my studio.

Before I was even finished drooling cause every class was spectacular, I registered.  You know I did not want my mind to kick in with all the reasons why I should not spend the money.  I went with my heart.  And boy, am I ever glad I did cause it awakened a whole new level of creativity in me.

The first class I had was with Jana Roberts Benson.  We created pins using a technique of layering clays, inking with alcohol inks, and slicing that Jana has perfected.  Here is the result.

Next up I think was Judy Belcher's class in which we explored a 50 shades of gray technique by creating canes with black and white clay.   Here is my result. These will likely be earrings.  I wish I could really get a good shot cause these look like they move!!!! and no, I have not been indulging in cocktails!!!!

It just kept getting better.  Next up was Bettina Welker's class where we learned how to rivet beads to create movement!!!  Oh, was I excited about this technique.  In this class we basically all made one of two necklace designs though we embellished as we pleased and some students went off the grid a bit.  I stuck to the design but embellished to fit my tastes.  Also, I altered the colors of the skinner blends we created to achieve a brighter color.  Here is the result.

Creating all kinds of critters using sculpting techniques is one of Leslie Blackford's special talents .  I wanted one of my beads to be a rooster cause, well, I do live in Key West where roosters freely roam the streets.  Little did I know that Leslie gets the willies just thinking about a rooster or chicken.  ha ha.  But, she was game in giving me tips.   Just did not want to look at my guy, Referee rooster.  Also created a jailhouse clown and a abstract ring from scrap clay.  These are Snap rings that you make by attaching your sculpted bead to the snap part of the ring.  Here is the result.

Dawn Schiller's speciality is creating gnome like creatures with great detailing. She showed us the basic technique and then we each were able to make our own creature.  My little man is rocking some hair.

Natalia Garcia makes some really contemporary pieces and has the coolest little glass rounds she uses to create tiny bowls that look like ceramic bowls.  I was so enamoured with how the bowls turned out, I bought 2 bags of the glass rounds.  For her class, I created this pendant.

On the last day, Donna Kato taught how to make a rocking funky flower ring that involved making a ring base, transferring words, and adding clay flowers.  I totally sucked at cutting the shapes for the words so I had Donna help.  Need to practice that for sure.

This was not my first experience using Kato clay but this time I fell in love with it.  Love the sturdiness of it.  I baked a really really thin piece and it did not break.

I can't wait to see what Donna (who manages the festival) comes up with for the Clay Carnival 2016. Donna also manages a craft site which has awesome tutorials.   Click on following link to go to her education site which includes beading and other art classes besides clay.   http://craftartedu.com/

Jasper Intrique Blog Hop - The flight of the Octupus

The mailer arrived and as always I was anxious to see what's inside.  Lisa had been sending a lot of colorful stuff my way.  I had expectations.  So as to seem more civilized, I used kitchen scissors to cut open the mailer rather than tearing into it like a ravenous bead hound.  Out came the beads in a nice clump.

 Yikes - they were brown!!!!.  Now, brown used to be a favorite color but since moving to the Rock (Key West), I have been excising that color from my wardrobe in favor of bright island colors and working primarily in brights.  They were lovely beads, but I felt uninspired.  Then I saw the Octopus bead.  We locked eyes and I immediately knew he was a kindred spirit.  I wondered how to make the best use of him.

  I thought about creating poly clay beads to go with him.  I thought about using him as a pendant in a necklace.  I thought about painting him.  I thought about creating a poly clay mold from him (which I did by the way).  Anything but just using him as was.

 I think one night he snuck into my bedroom while I was sleeping and re-programmed my brain cause the next day I was sure that what I wanted to do was to just let him be and to use the beads I was given and see what happens.  The result was a funky, swingy multi-strand bracelet.  

Here is the stash I received.

And here is the bracelet.

We would sing and dance around because we know we can't be found.  Now I have that tune in your head.  he-he.

Thanks Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures.  To view the rest of the hoppers stuff, go to Lisa's page at http://gratefulartist.blogspot.com/ or click on one of the links below.

Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Susan Anderson, La Main Tresor

Karin Grosset Grange (France), Ginkgo et Coquelicot

Shaiha Williams, Shaiha’s Ramblings

Sheila Prose, Cheap Charms

Terri Wlaschin, Baking Beads in the Keys

Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures
Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera
Lisa Prewitt Knappenberger, Li Raysa Designs

Blue Fantasy Blog Hop and it's Spikey Cool

Two broken needles, three mistakes (corrected), one bead broken mid design, and 4 design ideas later, I turned out the necklace.  Here's how it went down.

 I was digging the crap out of messing around with the spike beads but nervous as a virgin bride at the same time.  It's my first time out with them and when the package came and they were in it,  I felt that same mix of horror/fascination I got the first time viewing The Exorcist, when Regan does the 360 degree head turn on Father Karras.  Freaking scary, but you can't look away.  I had not worked with them before, but I thought a bead embroidery piece might work well, as long as I had seed beads to match.

One thing about living in Key West is there are not a slew of bead stores, so if you don't have seed beads in stock and you are 5 days out from the deadline, you're outta luck.  Fortunately, I did have beads that I think worked well.

Every experienced beader knows that now and again, a bead, thread, or stitch will misbehave like it's possessed.  Most times we can rescue something from its demonic undertaking and carry on.   But, when my bead broke, it was way back in the beginning of the design of one of the medallions.  I had already edged the piece and was stitching and tying off thread when it happened and I had never had that happen before.  I wanted to throw myself down the stairs like Father Karrass did in the Exorcist movie, except there are no stairs in my house.  No -- next idea please.

I decided to see if I could sneak a new bead in along with the other beads.  Beads can be funny about you adding beads in a row after the fact, and refuse to let the new bead lay (or is it lie) just right. However, I think I pulled a quick one on them with it being really late at night, cause even I have trouble telling just where that new bead is.

Oh, and did I mention how an edge bead just decided to up and free itself from the design after I had completed the edging.  This I could not figure how to rescue, so I pulled the whole dang thing out and redid it after a long, low hissing sigh and a few choice words.

The beads weren't finished taunting me.  I had finished the fringe and tied the thread off when I noticed one of the fringes was missing a bead.  Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  After loud prolonged moaning that alarmed even my bead hardy dogs, I figured a way to rescue it without completely redoing the fringe.  I started a new thread and stitched through all the fringes, except for about the last three (one of which had the missing bead).  I cut the thread they were on so there would be a long enough thread left to stitch back through the design and tie it off.  Then, I added the last three fringes.  So several of the fringes now have two threads passing through them.  Not a bad thing, I figure.  Ha-ha, naughty beads, I got the last laugh.  Or, did I?

My First design idea was to link the medallions into a bib style necklace (see picture just before the earrings), but was not digging how that was looking as I went along.  Next, I was going to just use one medallion in the necklace, but felt it looked too common/boring.  This is a  blue FANTASY  challenge after all.

This will tell you more about me than I really want you to know but when I first saw that this was a Blue Fantasy challenge, all I could think of was the Fantasy Suite on The Bachelor in which the dude gets to hook up with 3 girls (one at a time of course) in nice hotel suites before he picks two to meet his mom and dad (ha, ha -now that I read this it sounds so ridiculous).  Anyway, if I were the gals, I would want to be rocking a pretty hot necklace for that event, eh?  With that in mind, I decided to make a long one-stranded necklace with the linked medallions, which I was happy with, until I saw there was about a half inch gap in the strand.  How did that happen????  I know I pulled the thread really tightly as I was stitching and tying it off.  It's a conspiracy, I thought.  Those conniving beads convinced the thread to pull a quick one on me.  This meant war!!!

 I was determined to make it work despite all the bead shenanigans.  I prayed to the bead gods long and hard (translate desperately) for a solution and came up with the idea of doubling the long strand by hooking the center to the medallions.  Of course, this meant the necklace was now too short to close around my neck, so I added a jump ring to secure a few beads to the end on each side and Voila..

 Here is what I started with.

And Here is what I made.



I was going to link these medallions in a bib style but decided against that.   Spike in left corner had just been glued to lacy's stiff stuff prior to stitching.  Medallion is right corner is completed.  Medallion in center still needed to be edged.

Nothing too fancy but I like them.

Now on to the rest of those hoppers with a big thanks to our host, Lisa Lodge.

Your hostess:  Lisa Lodge, A Grateful Artist

Kim Dworak, Cianci Blue

Karen Grosset Grange, Ginkgo et Coquelicot

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Jo-Ann Woolverton, It's a Beadiful Creation

Heather Richter, Desert Jewelry Designs

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Candida Elkins Castleberry, Spun Sugar Beadworks

Shaiha Williams, Shaiha's Ramblings

Eleanor Burian Moore, The Charmed Life

Gloria Allen, Wings and Beads

Laurie Vyselaar, Lefthand Jewelry

Terri Wlaschin, Dances in Fog

Lisa Prewitt Knappenberger, LiRaysa Designs

Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Raissa de Guzman, Abloro

Jill Bradley, Jilly Beads

Sometimes you Just Gotta Rework it!

This necklace began it's life as a a straight forward stringing piece.  I checked the archives but unforunately, right before I moved, I got into a "search and destroy" mission and removed most of the files from my computer, including the original design of this one.  I am clueless as to why this frenzy involved deleting most of the pictures of my old work.  It's true I was planning to ditch this computer.  And, yes, it's true, there were some early designs that made me cringe.  Still...????   Anyway, here it is today with gorgeous handmade lampwork flowers from a German artist whose name slips my memory.  Her work is so exquisite.

Gemstone and Metal Blog Hop - The big Reveal

Yikes! I am doing this on my SmartPhone (while swearing) surrounded by boxes from my recent move to Key West. No matter.  The beads must go on!!!

Unfortunately,  I just realized to add pics from my SmartPhone, blogger only let's me take a picture. So, I can't access my gallery that shows da booty I got.   It was a lovely mix of picture jasper shapes and silver findings.

That cool leather triangle focal is from Melinda Orr. I threw in a few of my painted beads and wire, and some ceramic beads just cause I could, he- he.

Next I went Tribal.  I really love mixing shades of brown and then throwing in that chunky eye bead (agate?) I had around for ages. I think it was watching me the whole time.  But, I outspooked it cause I was damn near giddy crazy when I finished. 

Thanks for checking me out. Here are others who participated.  I need to send you to our gracious host, Lisa lodge's page.

http://gratefulartist.blogs post blog's lot.com