You KNOW you are addicted to beads when ...

It's official ... I'm certifiable!

I had a molar extracted this afternoon.  On my way home, I saw signs "Bead Show".  What the heck?!?  I am on the email list for this bead company and did not get a post about a bead show this weekend in my neck of the woods, or would have gone in the morning.

" Bead Show!" I say to my husband.
" Tooth just out" my dear sweet reminds me.
Didn't hesitate a second .... "Still numb.  I'm going before the Novocaine wears off"

So I did, while he went to the pharmacy to get my pain meds.  So far, it has not been too bad, but I popped a pill  prior to the numbness completely wearing off. And in 6 months or so, I can get an implant so that the empty spot in my mouth will no longer drive my tongue crazy.

So, what has been the craziest thing you ever did to get your bead fix?

And now a geek moment  ....

A bit of a change

I don't always work with polymer, even if that seems to be all I ever write  about. That and cats, can't forget the cats.
 
I read on another blog (sorry ... I don't remember who's blog.  I would love to give them credit), about using inks to color washers.  Thought it was worth a try so scrounged around in the garage and "borrowed" a few from my hubbie.  He won't miss them (I hope) and will never recognize them in their new colors.

Alcohol inks were applied after a base coat of light colored acyclic paint (used Adirondack Dabber from Ranger).  After they dried, resin was applied to both sides, fully curing between sides.  After that, there was a really ugly zinc color on the inside and outside edges, where the base washer showed through.  This I painted gold with a metal acrylic pen.  And yes, you are seeing pink dots on several of the washers.  Vintaj Patina was applied with a toothpick to get the dots before the resin was added.

These washers were finished before Clay Camp and have been sitting around on top of  the same block of wood since then, Finally got the idea of how to make them up into earrings yesterday. This was the first time I tried making a "sloppy" wire wrap. I really like the look of this type of wrap, esp on earrings done by Kristi Bowman.  I really don't have the technique down well, but hope to improve with practice.  Who knew it was so hard to be messy?

I was reading The Polymer Arts Blog the other day, when Sage Bray was highlighing "mystery"  artists from Pinterest.  She discussed how sometimes the artist's identification gets lost in pinning and repinning.  I have noticed this also ... sometimes I try to follow an intereting piece back to the source only to find the site no longer there.  Because of this, I am going to start "signing" my work. Nothing fancy, since I don't have any special editing software.  I just used Picasa - free and easy.

Can't seem to get beyond simple

 I spend way too much time on Pinterest.  I have three earring boards so far, polymer and non-polymer. You would think that unique designs would rub off on me.  But. ohhh noooooo!  When I sit down to make earrings, all I can do is put some beads on head pins and call it an earring.  I even sweat over which beads to use .... it can take me 15-20 minutes to find a configuration that is pleasing to me and it is just plain simple.   Fancy and creative .... that seems to elude me for the present.
    I want to expand beyond that, so I am going to be taking an earring class from Bea Grob tomorrow at ArtWorks in Edmonds.  Bea is a wonderful artist from Switzerland who is friends with Meredith Arnold (another well know mixed media artist from this neck of the woods).  Bea will be using Pardo Translucent, which I am very excited to finally break down and use.  She had some of her earrings with her at Clay Camp, and they are DIFFERENT than what I usually make.   Maybe something will rub off .... crossing fingers and wishing very hard....

These are some of the earrings that I made recently, mostly using the beads I made at clay camp.

Translucent clay. textured then highlighted with Pan Pastel Chalks. Kinda look a bit like glass.

Wonky beads made into earrings.  You can't tell from the pix, but the pink beads are bigger than the other two bead sets.

Clay was textured by rolling on a texture mat.  Beads on top were highlighted with chalk. The bottom beads were highlighted with Inka Gold Pewter colored paste.

Textured beads are colored with chalks. After baking, I used tinted Kato Liquid Clay to antique and give it a shiny gloss.  The brown bead was  created from a Sutton Slice veneer.  The light green was pearl clay tinted with ink.  Just used scrapes from my table .... no clay is ever wasted!

My favorite beads from clay camp were the green disc beads.  I really like how they turned out. The blue beads were made from the Rustic Bead Tut by Ginger Allman. The pink are simply textured with an old button, then highlighted with chalks.

During my picture taking session, I had help from a different source than usual. She was just fascinated by the dangles.

The Mighty Quinn looking to attack my earring prop.