Rustic Reloaded

As I wrote in my last blog, I wanted to attempt using darker colors when making Rustic Beads. This time I tried a dark blue.  

 I found out quickly that dark colors just aren't my thing. At least, this shade of blue it not.

 So, back to the lighter colors I gravitate towards.

Only textured on one side.  Will have to make post earrings
out of them, I suppose

 The yellow/green combo is one that really speaks to me

 Close ups of my favorite beads of the group.

 A little darker this time.  I also tried a bit of a different distressing technique on these pairs.  The finished look is more scratched up and worn that I was able to achieve before.  Kinda like the result and want to play some more with the idea.

 I saw a quick demo on  how to make lava beads at clay camp, but did not win the tool needed to create them.  Found it in my local neighborhood hardware store (this is a great place to wander the aisles, they are an older store with lots of goodies tucked away just waiting to be discovered). These were colored using the same technique as the rustic beads, but I did not distress them.  They have problems enough of their own without my beating on them.

A big thanks to Ginger Allman of The Blue Bottle Tree for her Rustic Bead tut.  I am having so much fun with it.

Beads and more beads

After almost a month away due to illness and major family issues, I finally made it back into the studio.
Before getting sick, I had started a couple of veneers using the Controlled Marbling tutorial by Lynda Mosely.  Sunday, I had the chance to make them into beads, rather than the gorgeous pendants she is known for.
   This time I used a combination of light blue, yellow and ecru, interspersed with white.  I really like the light green color that appeared where the yellow and blue mixed.  I did not add any details to the veneer.

 Had a small strip at the end of this veneer where the colors blended together too much for actual stripes to appear. I added a few inlays from an old swirl cane for a bit of color.

Only had a tiny bit of this color combo.  I really like it.  Two matching beads for an earring set  And one lone bead for who knows what.  I have a box of "who knows what" beads that is set aside for "something" in the future.  Maybe I will use them in Lori Anderson's Bead Hoarders Challenge in July.  We'll see.

 I have found that in this technique, there are sometimes places at the ends of the veneer sheets, where the colors are no longer distinct.  I discovered that sometimes, these over blended areas have the prettiest colors. Add slices of an old bulleyes cane from my tiny cane stash (I really gotta try caning again - maybe I will be more successful now that I understand clay better than I did in 2006).
 

After these beads were made and baking in the oven, I still had urges and fiddly fingers.  An open package of translucent clay was sitting on my table, so I got out the inks and went to town.  Laid down some gold foil on a small sheet of translucent clay, rolled it through successively smaller settings on the PM, turning it 90 degrees each time to crackle the foil.  When it was thin enough, I got out my inks and colored it (used Butterscotch and Plum this time).  After the inks dried (boy, I so had to be patient here - used the drying time to finish my previously made beads with LPC, zap with heat gun and rebaked to a shiny luster), I I used the sheet to veneer white bead cores. The gold foil adds a real sparkle to the beads, and I am very happy with the depth of color.  The pictures just can't show that.

I call these my Fire Lizard eggs (homage to Pern)

This weekend promises to be a nice one here in the Pacific Northwest. Good weekend for visiting the Whole Bead Show in Lynnwood.  I will be able to visit the booths of several artists that I have "meet" on line and see their work in person.  I love how this medium has connected so many people with common interests.  Some live in my area and I may be lucky enough to connect in person with them over the course of time. Some live in other countries, and I will probably never meet face to face, but can get to know a bit through the Internet.  I guess I am feeling my age, as I still marvel at this. The beads I just made would not be possible with the Internet.  Lynda lives in South Carolina ... me, outside Seattle.  We would never have "meet" without the computer.  Maybe younger people, who grew up always having computers, can't relate to how marvelous this really is. ( OMG! ... I have become my parents .... when I was your age  .... walked to school, in the snow, uphill - both ways!!!  he,he)

Goal Accomplished (kinda)

I had made a resolution at the start of last year to write something in my blog at least once a week.  To facilitate that goal, I joined the Flickr Group "52 Earrings in one Year" started by Anke Humpert of Anart Island Studios.  While did not  accomplish the goal of posting every week ... I sorta did it in clumps.... I feel good that I finished all 52 pairs by December 31st.
   I just realized it has been a whole month since my last post ... whoa, really ... what the heck was I doing all that time"  No new beads to speak of ... my shoulders are the latest part of my body to start to go.  Cranking the pasta machine is right out for now, at least till my physical therapy starts to show better results. I did get a change to dig around in my stash and find some beads I made earlier this year that I worked up in the last few weeks
  So, tonight I posted my last earring pairs to the group.  I had a lot of fun doing it and got a ton of inspiration from the others who posted to this Flickr group.  I discovered new artists  (not just polymer)  and blogs to follow.  Started pinning a lot at Pinterest.  I can (and have) spend hours there just jumping from one board to another - talk about inspiration!.
    Here are the last 4 earrings from the Challenge.
    The first pair of beads I made up were made from the Texture Tut I got from Lydia at Diva Designs.  They are named after Bette Davis ... the bumps remind me of her famous line  "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride".

Bette Dee 

 These beads were made by coloring a base white bead with Pan Pastel Chalks. I made a whole set of these to make into a necklace, but haven't got around to that yet.

JW Patches

 Several of the blogs that I visited off the Flickr earring group do asymmetrical challenges. It is hard for my scientific mind to let go and not strive for absolute symmetry.  This is my attempt at it. It really bothers me that they are not the same length.  This is something that I hope to overcome.  I am currently working on an asymmetrical necklace to help this process along.

1 Pod ... 2 Peas

 My last pair for this challenge were made with a short band of scrap clay left over from another project. It was too colorful to wad up and use as bead guts .. there is no such thing as wasted clay

The Golden Band

Next post will hopefully be my further trials with asymmetry.

A Rocky Path

I finally broke down and bought something off of Etsy.  I have been purposely avoiding it for years.  Not because I don't like it ... heaven forbid.  It is the fear that I will go CRAZY and buy every thing in sight once I discover how easy it is.
    It is taking  lot of restraint to be good ... there are so many interesting items to be had just with a quick click of the mouse.
    I have been able to limit myself so far to a pair of earrings and beads from Lynda at Diva Designs.  I have been following her work for years now.  She was the first follower on my blog when I started it almost two years ago now.  I have purchased several of her very well written tuts in the past, but used a check rather than signing into Esty.  Now that she is a full time designer, it turned out to be better for her monetarily if I went through Esty, so now I have an account. .. so many shiny things.... opps... getting off topic
   This leads me to another Esty purchase I made last week.  One of my flickr contacts is River Valley Designs, and one of the techniques she uses and has written a tut on, is called Rocky Path. I have long admired pieces that she and others have made using Rocky Path and tried to figure it out on my own, with limited success.  So I finally broke down and purchased it. I am in love ... it is a playful technique and I love the serendipity of it - you can't predict exactly what is going to happen.  I love surprises.
   I have made two earring sets so far and would make more today, but I must get ready for the Artisan Show this weekend.

Using Yellows and Orange Inks

Pinks and Yellows

 

Where does all the time go?

We are almost to the half year mark on the 52 earring project.  I can't believe that the year is almost half over.  We are fast approaching the solstice, one of my favorite days of the year.  I suffer from SAD (as do a lot of people in the Pacific Northwest), so sunshine is a great boost to my emotional well being.  Seems this year, tho', we are not getting enough of it.  I heard on the news that we have had only 3 sunny days so far this month ....
   Opps, got distracted.  My topic is the 52 earring project, not the weather.
   Anyway, the theme for this week's 52 earrings is "half".

 
  I don't cane much and when I do it is not a complex cane at all. I made a skinner blend using a light yellow and the new Premo Magenta Pearl.  Rolled it into a bullseye cane, and added a thin layer of white clay.  Then the cane was reduced and stacked.  Easy for me to do.  Veneered a scrape clay bead gut, rolled it around in my hands a bit to smooth, cut in half. Then topped with the Magenta.  The hardest part was cutting the Magenta with the exacto-knife to fit on the top of each half.  Thanks to Julia Sober for this technique that she showed us a few years back at a NWPCG demo.