Bead Giveaway at Inspiration & Collaboration

Oooh the beady goodness that is coming our way via a new collaborative effort between Genea and Artisan Accents!  Head on over to Inspiration & Collaboration for a sneak peek of what this dynamic duo will be offering to the bead community on Sept. 21.  While you are there be sure to read the rules and enter to win a set of these beads before they are even offered for sale!

Here is the gorgeous set they are giving away!

I WON, and a fun swap about to happen...

The other day my fired up gal pals over at the Painting with Fire ning, told me about another bead chat group on Facebook.  The Creative Bead Chat page is just a bustling hive of beading awesomeness, I encourage you to get on over there and join the fun.

The day after my jewelry pal Lynnea invited me over there, they had a day to honor their admins.  This is well deserved recognition I must say, as this is a huge group. In addition, they had a giveaway of 11 prizes, and I WON one of them!  This was a very welcome bright spot in what has otherwise been one of those crappy weeks that life sometimes throws your way.  I won a stash of beads from Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures.  Be sure to visit her shop and you can also find her blog (which I have been following for awhile) here. Here is the pic, I can't wait to see it in person, and start making some lovely fall inspired pieces with it.  I see at least one necklace, 2 bracelets and several pairs of earrings in there!

In other news, Suburban Girl Studio is doing a real cool art bead swap in which you make mismatched earrings using art beads.  I'm going to join in on the fun to try and stretch my creativity.  While I am not a very matchy matchy person, I often have difficulty creating asymmetric jewelry and am hoping this will help.  If you want to play along too, just click on Suburban Girl above to see all the rules and how to enter.

Works in progress...and a finish

As promised here is what has been happening in my studio this week.  Some of the pics aren't the best quality but I think you will get the idea.  Weather was a lil less than cooperative, and one got finished after dark so it wasn't taken in that lovely natural light.  Someday, I hope to have a light box for better indoor photography.

This first piece is a set of links for a "story board" bracelet.  This was inspired by my friend Linda Rheault overon the Painting with Fire ning.  She has done some really lovely ones with liquid enamels.  Mine was done with a combo of sgraffito and wet packing to "paint".  My links are far less realistic looking than I would have liked, but I will keep practicing.  It is called "Northwoods" (wonder where I came up with that?).  The links are supposed to be 2 branches of white pine, cattails, pine trees and a robin's nest.

These are some tube beads I played with this week.   My 6/20 mesh enamel came in and it really builds your bead much fatter, much faster.  It is still a bit of a process though and takes several minutes per bead to build them up nice and plump like the one on the right.  The tubing is copper and slightly smaller than refrigeration tubing.  6/20 mesh enamel is sort of finally crushed glass.  I need to play a bit more to figure out and solve why my colors are going "muddy" with this technique.  The top one with the stripe shoud actually be a vibrant orange.  the stripe is a thin piece of glass that I belive are called "cat whiskers".

Headpinus Gigantucus, also know as Giant Headpin.  OK, not as giant as it could be, but this was an experiment I will be working more with this week too.  It is 18 g copper wire that was balled on the end with a torch.  Then a few coats of 80 mesh enamel to make it "sticky".  then added some of the 6/20 to see if one could build bigger headins like you would build bigger beads.  Now we will have to see just how big I can get them without cracking :).

These are of the finally finished "Painted Daisies" bracelet.  I had originally finished it with fiber to go around the wrist, looked at it for over a week that way and still wasn't pleased so today I redid it.  This finish is foxtail (or full persian) chainmaille.  I cut my own jumprings for the first time for this, they are made from 19g dark annealed steel.  I don't mind making my own rings but really need to get a saw to cut them apart so that they will close more smoothly.

That's what I have for you for today.  I have some ideas rolling around my brain for tutorials.  Once our "outside" weather is finished and the garden is put to bed for winter, I will try to get those up for anyone who may be interested.

Back to school and back to the studio

There have been many things going on in my life lately and few of them have involved creativity or studio time.  I won't bore or sadden you with the details.  I will say only this, if you or someone you know lives with or has a mental illness do your best to be kind and not judge.  What can look perfectly fine on the outside can be an absolute tornado on the inside and behind closed doors. 

This weekend however, we were again blessed to be able to spend a few days at my aunt and uncle's lakeside cottage to relax and recharge.  It was WONDERFUL!  Good people, weather, food and boating.  Hubby and I slept in a tent, though there was room in the cottage on a "real" bed. Our thought was that this is probably the last chance to sleep out before the long western NY winter ahead.

Today was my son's first day of middle school.  It's odd how just moving up a grade seems to have matured him somehow.  Mind you, we have K through 12 in one school so it's not as if he has had to change venue.  But somehow it seems to have made him older and more responsible (for the time being anyway).

Back to school for him meant back to the studio guilt free and uninterrupted for me.  It was so good to wield the hammer and fire up the torch again!  I have a few works in progress and weather permitting I will try to post some photos for you all tomorrow.

Hope you all had a joyous and satisfying summer and are looking forward to fall as much as I am.

Giveaway at Earrings Everyday!

 I am absolutely in LOVE with the earrings being given away by Melissa Meman over at Earrings Everyday.  I cannot think of a single thing I own that I could not wear these with, from casual to dressy (not that I dress up very often).  So as much as I want to win them, I want you to have a chance too, just click on Earrings Everyday above to go and enter.

I'm not sure how I have missed following the Earrings Everyday blog before, but I will be from now on.  So much inspiration to be found there.  I wear earrings more than any other piece of jewelry.  I'm mostly a casual dresser, but earrings make me feel like I at least tried to dress up my outfit a bit.

I'm hoping I am back from my brief hiatus.  I miss blogging.  I miss being in my studio.  I miss normalcy.  It's hard to explain without getting too personal where I was and why, if it only concerned me I would be all too happy to explain..  So I will just say this about it.  Sometimes life throws you a huge curve ball,you see it coming to the plate.  But no matter how many times you have practiced catching this same pitch in the past, your glove misses this one and it hits you smack in the face.  No one on the team saw it coming either so they are just as surprised and upset as you are.  The missed pitch leaves you bruised and with nothing much fun or positive to say.  In time, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, cover your bruises, put the glove back on and hope you catch the next one.  That's where I'm hoping I am now, crouched and ready for the next wild pitch.  I'm sure my team hopes so too :).

Hiatus

On a brief hiatus due to unforeseen circumstances beyond my control.  Be back soon with some cool stuff to share.  In the meantime here is the view of the sunrise at my aunt and uncle's lake house where we stayed last weekend.

Peaceful isn't it?  Wish I could rewind the last 2 days and be there now, to enjoy tranquility again.

Have a happy week and look for me back here very soon :)

Beads of Clay GIVEAWAY

Stop on over to Beads of Clay they are having a giveaway of $100.00 worth of super yummy beads! 

Here's a sneak peek at the goodies.  Are you drooling yet?  Love that bead with the thistle :)



Cooked all day today for our weekend get away so i have no new works to show you today.  Look for some fun stuff early next week.  Enjoy your weekend!