Anchors Aweigh - The Reveal

The lovely and wonderfully talented Rita of Toltec Jewels came up with a great opportunity to showcase the talents of artist Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio, challenging a group of us to create jewelry based on her adorable anchor beads.  Cute, cute, cute!

(Caution - bad nautical themed puns may follow.  I apologize in advance.)

Several ideas came, and mercifully sank into the depths of oblivion before they could catch wind and sail too far. But then freeform peyote came to my rescue and gave me a way to add the flavor of waves and water, with lots of oceanic shades of blue ranging from deepest blue to the white/blue of sea froth.

It occurred to me today that the earrings are a good metaphor for the past three months. Lots of things in my life have kind of been at loose ends, drifting as if at sea (if you want to torture the comparison.) With uncertainty on lots of fronts, life has been a bit freeform, turning in unexpected directions and certainly not symmetrical or predictable.

As soon as I finished the earrings, one of major uncertainties in my life was resolved. So I'm going to look at these earrings as a talisman for smoother sailing and calmer seas ahead.

Thanks to Rita for setting up a fun challenge, and thanks to Diana for her artistry, which was a great source of inspiration.  Please sit right back and take a (three hour?!?) cruise through the rest of the creations made by the other participants.  Bon voyage!

Featured & Honored Artist:           Diana Ptaszynski

Diana's Shop:                           Suburban Girl Beads

Diana's Blogs:                          Suburban Girl Studio

                                                  Art Jewelry Elements

Hostess: TJ                               Jewel School Friends

Bobbie Rafferty                        Beadsong Jewelry (you're here!)

Chris Eisenberg                        Wanderware

Heather Richter                        Desert Jewelry Designs

Michelle McCarthy                  Firefly Design Studio

Kathy Lindemer                       Bay Moon Design

Dini Bruinsma                          Angaza by Changes

Cynthia Machata                      Antiquity Travelers

Kathleen Breeding                    99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall

Linda Younkman                      Lindy's Designs

Robin Reed                               Artistry HCBD

Marla Gibson                            Spice Box Designs

Gina Hockett                             Freestyle Elements

Renetha Stanziano                     Lamplight Crafts

Marianne Baxter                        Simply Seablime Jewelry        

Christina Miles                          Wings N Scales

Marybeth Rich                          A Few Words from Within the Pines

Shai Williams                           Shaiha's Ramblings

Cheri Reed                                Creative Designs by Cheri

Monique Urquhart                     A Half-Baked Notion

Jennifer Reno                            Musings of a Crafty Jenny

Shirley Moore                           Beads and Bread

Tammy Adams                          Paisley Lizard

Melissa Trudinger                      Bead Recipes
Jill Bradley                                 JillyBeads

Adventures In Patinas

Do you work with patinas on your metals?  I make all of my clasps from sterling, gold filled, and copper wire, but I've never really explored putting a patina on them. 

Then I read a really cool tip from Rena Klingenberg on how to oxidize metals using hard boiled eggs. And I decided to play.

I started out with shiny copper wire, and boiled up a couple of eggs. When the eggs were ready, I put a coil of wire, a copper clasp, and the eggs into a zip lock bag, and smooshed (a highly technical term) the eggs, shell and all, into a big gooey mess.

Then I waited about 20 minutes.  And this is what I got!

I need to polish them up a bit, but this is what they looked like straight out of the bag. I was so excited about the possibilities, I threw some more wire and a toggle in the bag, wanting to see what happened if I left it over night.

Sadly, when I opened the ziplock the first time, I must have let out enough of the sulfur gas to make further oxidation impossible. So after an overnight egg bath, this is all that happened.

Lessons learned? First, if you're going to do this, pull together all the metal you want to oxide to do in one batch, because the magic doesn't happen with leftovers.  Second, my husband is a wonderful, patient man who's gotten used enough to my weirdness that instead of calling the folks from the loony bin, he just said, "why is there a bag of smashed eggs and wire on the kitchen counter?" as though it were a normal thing.

I've also read about using a salt/vinegar mix to patinate copper, too. That may be the next mad scientist experiment!

Freight Trains, Gas Leaks, Wearing Tablecloths -- Must Be Show Season!

Egads. I have been out of the loop on blogging recently (family stuff that's kept me far away from the computer, but that's beside the point). The upshot is that I did two shows last month that generated plenty of stories, but I have been remiss in sharing them here.

The first show was in the downtown of a small town east of Louisville. It was my first time doing this show, and I had heard good things from artist friends. Most of the show was set up in the park, but I was on the street next to the park. We really were in the heart of the town, and every few hours, a freight train would rumble through, half a block from my booth.

Yep, that's the 12:07 freight  from Louisville...

Running concurrently with the art show, and just a block away, was the town's colonial heritage days celebration. There were numerous people in colonial costume walking around to publicize the event, and even a few stilt walkers and giant puppets.  Gotta say, I think the stilt walker was cute, but the giant puppets were vaguely terrifying -- I imagine they provided traumas that many children in attendance that day will be dealing with in therapy sessions when they grow up.

What the colonial heritage people didn't warn us about were the colonial cannons, which were shot off several times a day, at unexpected moments and on no apparent schedule. Dear lord, they were loud, and boy howdy, did they startle the bejeebus out of people walking down the street!  But every time they shot off, I thought, "another story for the blog, people.  It's another story for the blog!"

Saturday's weather was hot. HOT. So did I check the weather forecast for Sunday? Of course not. I dressed for hot weather.  (You know where this is going, right?)  Yep, it was 50 degrees and cloudy all day. I was wearing shorts and sleeveless blouse. Thank goodness I had a table cover that I'd used for a Christmas show among my setup stuff, so I spent the day wrapped in a red tablecloth. I may have looked ridiculous, but I was warm! (And no, there is no photographic evidence of my poor fashion choice.)

Imagine this in Christmas red. That was my wrap all day Sunday. Classy, huh?

The next weekend (after carefully checking out the weather forecast for both days!), I did a lovely small show just north of town. When I went to set up on Friday, there was a distinct aroma of natural gas in the show area. Turns out that the guys who were setting up the music tent accidentally hit an underground gas pipe when they were hammering in the anchor spikes, and the utility guys were scrambling all over the place to fix it.

Fortunately, the leak was fixed, the show went off without a hitch, and it was a beautiful weekend. I'd been playing with my booth setup for a while, and this was what happened:

If you do shows, you know that the perfect booth is a constantly moving target, but I was pleased with this. A few tweaks on the to-do list, but not bad.

No real "oh my gosh" moments from this show (other than being relieved that there was no way anyone could blame me for the gassy smell), but there were two things that saved my life.  First was the fabulous food truck down the street, where I found this delicious ham, chevre, and red pepper aoli crepe (yes, from a food truck, and every bit as tasty as it sounds!!). 

Second was my little fan, which kept the air moving around inside my tent just enough to keep me from melting when the sun was high and the breeze was low.  Sometimes it's the littlest things that make the biggest difference!

No more shows for a month, so I have a great excuse to hole up in the bead room and make stuff!  Have you been to any great art shows this summer?

Creative Spark Summer 2014 Reveal

My beads for the Summer Days and Nights ZNet Shows design challenge. Aren't they yummy?

I am so thrilled to be on the design team for ZNet Shows! They have the most delicious cultured sea glass, crystals, and other fun things that are perfect to create your own gorgeous creations.

Several times each year, we are challenged to create pieces from ZNet pieces that are sent to us, sight unseen. This time, the challenge was to create daytime casual looks AND dressier night time looks, both featuring the cultured sea glass.  Here's the link to Creative Spark, the online magazine of all of the designers' creations.  But if you're interested in the thought process (yes, there actually was one!) behind my pieces, read on.

I know the selections were sent at random, but I would almost think some good elf was sitting on the shelf when the packets were doled out, because I am an incurable sucker for this spectacular shade of teal/ocean blue, and the soft lavender reminds me of the inside of a seashell that you might find on a sunset stroll down the beach. I opened the package and made very happy sounds. "Squee" was likely uttered.

I wanted my designs to relate to each other somehow, and decided that the necklaces would involve chain, and the earrings would have some movement.

The cultured sea glass shapes are strung on leather, with ZNet Show chain leftover from another design challenge. I made the toggle from one of the dumbbell shaped beads, which inspired the bracelet:

You can see more clearly here how I used the dumbbell as a toggle.  Even though it's drilled end-to-end, the shape allowed me to tie the leather securely around the middle for a lasting connector. Now if only my torso was shaped like this bead...ah well!

The adorable starfish beads screamed to be the focus of the earrings, and the lentils dangling from the leather provided the casual, swinging mood I was looking for. These got worn the day they were made. Like I said, I am a completely sucker for this color.

Now for the dressier pieces.  First up, the necklace, again with cultured sea glass and chain, this time sterling silver chain from my own stash.

This shade of blue is a little lighter, a little more subtle, and a perfect foil for the delicate purple. I can see this necklace being worn to a romantic picnic on the beachfront or to a candlelit dinner overlooking a beautiful mountain vista (two of my favorite summer destinations -- not that I'm channeling my own vacation wishes here or anything...)

For the bracelet, I used the lovely lavender barrels in a matte finish. This was my opportunity to try making a chain, so what you see is completely fabricated from 18-gauge sterling wire. It is really slinky and sensuous on the arm.

Finally, the earrings.  They're pretty simple, but since there's a fair amount going on with the necklace, I thought simple would be good.  Plus, both beads are suspended from the same headpin, so they swing gently and independently as you move.

 Thanks to ZNet for the opportunity to create with such lovely materials. And thanks to Hope Smitherman for editing Creative Spark and for so kindly nudging each of us to remember the deadlines. Please go check out the online zine, and check out the individual blogs of each of the design team, where they'll give you a more in depth peek into their creative process.  Here they are:

Amy Severino

Andrea Trank

BeckyPancake

BobbieRafferty (you're here!)

BR Kuhlman

CharlieJacka

ChristieMurrow

ChristinaMiles

ChristineStonefield

CynthiaMachata

CynthiaRiggs

DonettaFarrington

HopeSmitherman

KashmiraPatel

KathyLindemer

Kay Thomerson

KellyPatterson

KlaudeteKoon

Lee Koopman

Lisa Lodge

RenethaStanziano

SandraWashington 

Shaiha Williams

SherylStephens

StephanieHaussler

TammieEverly

Breaking From Tradition - Some Previously Revealed, And Something New

I want a tutu.  And some kick ass boots like these girls.

That beady superhero, Cynthia Machata, sent a group of her friends some really cool howlite spikes and said, "Go forth, and play!"  

These were bold gemstones. Large, double holed, and gently squared off.  Below is a pair of the black spikes, although I got a mix of black and white spikes. 

They were far too funky to make something safe and predictable. So I pulled out my funky alter ego (currently taking suggestions as to what my alter ego's name should be...) and went at it. 

I revealed the first thing I made a while back.  If you want to read the whole post, here's the link, but here are a couple of pictures:





This necklace went to a gallery, where the owner asked that question: "Do you have earrings to go with this?"  Well, no, but give me 24 hours, and I whipped up some options (along with the blog post about it):





The gallery took the black pair.  The white pair has been among my inventory at my recent art shows, where people have thought they look like chickens, faces, and Madonna's 1980's bra.  The imagination of art show patrons never ceases to amaze me!

Anyway, that left me with two black spikes.  I thought about doing a quick peyote bezel around them to make earrings, but instead decided to join them with a square stitch belt.

It's a deceptively simple pendant that could go on a leather strand (appropriate for its punky nature), a black cable wire, or a beadwoven necklace (tubular herringbone, perhaps?) Deceptively simple because those suckers got a little squirrely and squirmy when I was trying to weave them together and weave the thread through the holes to keep everything firmly anchored.  Anyway, I love the illusion that I've embellished a larger double-pointed bead, rather than creating it from two separate spikes.

A million thanks, and a million and one hugs to Cynthia for the inspirational fun!  Wanna see who else played along, and what they created?  Here's the list!

Therese (Therese's Treasures) http://theresestreasures59.blogspot.com/

Bobbie (Beadsong Jewelry) http://beadsong.blogspot.com/

Christine (One Kiss Creations) http://onekisscreations.blogspot.com/

Janet (Honey from the Bee) http://www.honeyfromthebee.com/

Cynthia (Antiquity Travelers) http://antiquitytravelers.blogspot.com/

Triple The Fun - A Time To Stitch Challenge Reveal

Therese and Christine have done it again! This time, a challenge to take a basic bracelet pattern and switch it up for three variations, changing base color, bead size, etc.

I took my jumping off point from one of the pieces I made for the latest Bead Soup Challenge, specifically the lower section of the neck strand of this necklace:

Essentially, it's a herringbone with twin beads, embellished on the side with Czech bricks and triangle beads. Although I doubt I invented it, it was a stitch I developed during the BSBP process, and I was really happy to have an excuse to explore it some more.

Thing is, I didn't have any more bricks (kind of a tila chopped in half) in my stash. (Note to self #1, put bricks on the beady shopping list).  So I chose to use tilas, thinking the translation would be easy.

Not so.  The size was just off enough to make it weird.  Some things I tried were way of in proportion and just flopped around like a beached fish.  Others were just ugly.  So, in the spirit of challenge, I punted (friends, this is the closest I will ever, EVER get to performing a football-related action, aside from those associated with being a rabid spectator).

Here's variation number one: herringbone center with twin beads, edged with tilas and daggers.  I love it.

Variation number two, this time with the tilas turned 90 degrees from the first bracelet, and with drops added, mainly because I didn't have enough of those fabulous red polka dot daggers to do the whole length. (Note to self #2: add sexy red polka dot daggers to beady shopping list, too).  I love this one, too, although it's a little more cha-cha flashy than the first.  It would be perfect to wear to an Alabama football game...

Variation #3 is the most buttoned down, but it's still blingy with the silver twins -- this time a herringbone with twins, tilas, and narrow daggers. While I fabricated the clasps on all three, this is the only one that I made a beaded toggle clasp for.  I wore this one at an art show today, and I can testify that it feels slinky and grand.

All three together, progressing in order of creation from bottom to top:

Thanks, Therese and Christine, for pushing my creativity once again!  Here's the list of everyone participating.

Hosts:

Therese

Christine

Participants

Kim

Maryanne

Lola

Dagi

Shirley

Alenka

LiliKrist

Amy

Crystie

Sally

Cynthia

Bobbie  (you are here)

Karin

LizE

Becky Pancake

Karin G.

Ana

Wendy

Mary H.

Jasvanti

Clouds, Chills, and Jingly Men -- The Show Season Begins!

If you're looking for the BSBP8 reveal, go here!

This past weekend was my first show of the season. It was the first time I'd done this show, but I'd heard it was a nice one, so I was excited.

I was by myself, so to get my tent up I had to use the "crawl under the frame and push up from the center" technique. Quite effective, actually, unless you're like me and forget to plant your feet firmly on the slick grass.  Yep, I promptly fell right on my butt. But I was under the tent, so no one could see me blush (though they may have heard me laughing at myself).

I was happy to have the tent up and weighted down quickly, though, because all of a sudden the skies turned dark, and the 30% chance of rain became a 100% certainty.

Thankfully, there was no lightning with this storm, because I was
in a metal-framed tent underneath a very tall tree. 

Saturday dawned rain-free and chilly. Silly me, I believed the forecast and left the extra jacket at home. Thank goodness I'm still carrying an extra few pounds of fat insulation, so I was okay, but I did drive the whole way home with the car heater blasting at full force!

My new table covers worked well, but I forgot the curtain rods, so no drapes - oops!

And there's always one oddity at every show. This one didn't have swarms of locusts or torrential storms. This one had jingly men. A group of six men, dressed in what looked like English folk costumes, gathered on the lawn in front of my tent and did an odd combination of dance and whacking at each other with sticks, all while wearing big ol' bands of jingle bells strapped to their knees. While I admire the commitment and bravery it may have taken, I must admit I was relieved that their performance was brief.

Curious? Here they are!

As for the show itself, it was as nice as advertised.  Terrific volunteers supporting the artists, an indoor bathroom for the artists (seriously, that one thing sold me on going back to this show!), and some wonderful art. A couple of weekends off, and I'm on to my next two shows.