Saturday, August 2, 2014

Summer Carnival Blog Hop and Chicklet Blog Hop

If you're looking for my reveals for either the Summer Carnival blog hop or the Chicklet Bead blog hop, please return later.  This has been an enormously busy summer for me (my youngest is getting married shortly and we've been helping with plans and showers). And with all the work we've been doing for the wedding and some other committments, I've sprained my wrist and hand and the arthritis has gotten worse in my thumb to the point I have dropped several things and broken them.  I haven't been able to knot anything, twist wire or hold onto anything well enough to finish my designs.  So I hope you can forgive me and check back later to see my finished designs.
Thanks for your understanding.
Kay

Saturday, July 5, 2014

ZNETShows Summer Challenge Blog Hop

Back in April I was notified that as part of the ZNETshows Design team I was part of a new challenge. This one was a Summer challenge.  The theme was 'Summer Days and Nights' and focused on their Cultured Sea Glass. We were to go to ZNETshows website and pick out the 2 colors we'd like to design with to design a daytime 'casual' set and a nightime 'dressy' set.  We were also sent a few other colors, beads, findings to go along with the sea glass we chose. I was interested in working with their red and black seaglass, so sent off my choices.  I thought I had a picture of the stash I received, but I can't seem to find it on my compurter. But what I received in the following pieces was the red sea glass, black sea glass and purple tube beads. The other beads I had received from previous ZNETshows challenge.  But these are the beads I used:


For the Dressy set these are the products I used :
Purple barrel nugget beads found here:

Jet Black Barrel beads here:

Glass pearls, Clear crystals and Oval Purple and Black beads (a type of dyed jasper).

For the Daytime set:
Anklet
Sand dollar beads in red, here:

Hourglass beads here

Earrings:
Small concave square here

Fish here:

These were all fun to play with. I hope you like what I made for my Dressy Nighttime set and my Casual Daytime set. 
Daytime (casual): This is 'Fun in the Sun at the Beach'


Nightime (dressy): This is Evening Mystique

Be sure to check out ZNETshows website for great sea glass and other beads, the ZNETshows blog for more about the design team and the other participants and the new ZNETshows magazine that has more about the design challenge and participants also.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Ocean Blog Hop

A while back, Lisa Lodge from A Grateful Artist blog issued a call for an Ocean themed Blog hop. I'm not really an ocean person, but I love walking along the beach searching for seashells and treasures, so this was like some found treasures when I received my beads. We were getting cultured sea glass and other beads. I quickly signed up. As usual I got so excited about the beads when I received them I forgot to take a picture of them. I was a little stumped at first with what to do with the variety. I had some starfish, some crystals, some glass tube beads, some clear glass daggers, off white heishe beads, some unique abstract shapes and a wonderful ceramic pendant. I knew I wanted to add a lot of color, since most of the seaglass was a light green or clear. For some reason, when I think of the beach or ocean I almost always think of macramé, so I also knew I wanted to do a little macramé for at least one of my pieces. So, for my first piece I made a macramé bracelet. I did loose knots around the abstract shaped glass using some of my orange and dark beige macramé cord.  I added some small orange and shades of green seed beads in between the shaped seaglass.  I used one of the starfish as the clasp and at the end made loops of the macramé cord to loop around the starfish as the closure for the bracelet.

Next I made a necklace with the long tube beads. I used long headpins to make them dangles and hung them between a series of green crystals, orange and green seed beads, the clear dagger and off white heishi beads. I also took one of the abstract shapes and wire-wrapped a dangle from one end and wire-wrapped the other end to hang as a dangle from the necklace. And on the other side I strung one of the clear/white starfish into the strand. I had a small link of chain that I attached to the necklace along with the metal circle toggle clasp. I really like the beachy feel to this necklace and the 7 wire-wrapped tube beads/focal. 


Finally I took a the last little short length of chain, divided it in half, wire-wrapped 3 dangles with the crystals, seed beads and daggers to make a pair of earrings to match. I really like the colors in this "Ocean" set and hope you do too.
And a close up of the necklace and earrings.

















I'm still working on my piece for the pendant. I'm trying a new technique and haven't quite gotten it finished. So come back later this week and I'm hoping to have it done for you to see.
Don't forget to visit all the other blogs participating in the hop HERE. And don't forget to leave me a comment letting me know what you think of my "Ocean" Set. These will be available shortly in my shop, KayzKreationz, along with my other Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz for your Home and Garden.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Waxed Linen Blog Hop

(If you're looking for my BSBP Reveal post and design click HERE) Recently Diana of Suburban Girl studio issued a Waxed Irish Linen blog hop. The participants were to use waxed irish linen  and preferably art beads to create a piece of jewelry. I had been wanting to try a tutorial I'd been eyeing so I felt like this was the opportune time to sign up for this. As usual I forgot to take a before picture of the linen and the art beads I got to use to try this. But I think you'll be able to tell what all they are in the pictures. I chose 2 different colors of linen, a tan and teal combo linen and got these great art beads on Etsy (I think it was from Sherry Stokey). I love the little beach house and the conch shell beads.  This is a wrap bracelet, which I've been wanting to try for quite a while. I've had quite a few challenges since signing up for this blog hop. I had non-stop company for almost a month, have had to be out of town several times when I wasn't planning it and seem to be developing arthritis in one of my thumb joints. But I've been working on it and finally got it done. Also, the instructions weren't quite as clear as I felt they could have been. I used to do macramé back in the 70's and used all of these knots, but had forgotten the half-hitch and had a little bit of a problem understanding how it was being described. But I googled the know and finally got instructions that I could understand.  I enjoyed getting back to some macramé and will be doing this wrap bracelet again with changes to it to make it my own design. I love the colors in the waxed linen and the numerous opportunities with macramé to make unique jewelry and other items. (I've even used macramé with my Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz like this piece below)

So here is my reveal for the Waxed Linen blog hop. Hope you enjoy it. And be sure to check out all the other participants in the hop either below or at Diana's blog, Suburban Girl Studio. (Hopefully I got the links all right)



Diana Ptaszynski - Suburban Girl Studio

Kelsy Vincent - Jill of All TradesCraft

Susan Kennedy - Suebeads

Linda Landig - Linda Landig

Kashmira Patel - Sadafulee

Jenny Davies-Reazor - JDaviesReazor

Vanessa Gilkes - Culturezine

Sandy Huntress - KeepSakeCrafts

Kay Thomerson - KayzKreationz - (you are here)

Sarajo Wentling - SJDesignsJewelry

Kari Asbury - HippieChickDesign

Rebecca Anderson - SongBeads

Melissa Trudinger - BeadRecipes

Ann Schroeder - BeadLove

Shai Williams - ShaihasRamblings

Blanca Medina - Peru-MeDesigns

Cheryl Brown - DragonFlyBeads

Johana Nunez Rivera - Artincendi

Lori Bowring Michaud - ArtfullyOrnamental

Kelly Morgan - SilverParrotDesigns

Barbara Bechtel - SecondSurf
Kristen Stevens - Kristen-BeadJourney

Heather Boardman - HeatherBoardman

Janet Bocciardi - HoneyfromtheBee

Kathy Lindemer - Bay-Moon-Design

Lesley Watt -TheGossipingGoddess 

Susan Kolovson - BeadInspired

Jayne Capps - MamasGottoDoodle

Michelle McCarthy - FireFlyDesignStudio

Cynthia Deis - ShinyLittleThings

Karla Morgan - TexasPepperJams

Erin Siegel - ErinSiegelJewelry
Becky Pancake - BeckyPancakeBeadDesigns
Kelly Hosford Patterson - TravelingSideshow
Sharyl McMillian-Nelson - SharylsJewelry

Inge von Roos - IngeTraud

Carolyn Lawson - CarolynsCreationswa

Linda Younkman - LindysDesigns
Sandi Volpe - SandiVolpe

Toltec Jewels - JewelSchoolFriends

Michelle Mach - MichelleMach

Jen Cameron - GlassAddictions

Dorothy Winchell - Winchell-Clayworks

Darlene Mansue - D7StudioBlog
Cory Tompkins - TealWaterDesigns

And if you're interested in any of my Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz. Thanks. Happy hopping.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Bead Soup Blog Party

It's here! Finally the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party!  Weeks ago, we signed up and were paired with our partners by Lori Anderson of Pretty Things.  My great partner is Katrina Taylor of Is the Babysitter here yet? blog.  This is the great soup she sent me:

There was a Natural stone focal bead, Czech glass beads and pearls, Swarovski butterfly, copper and brass components (clasp, beads and chain) and amethyst chips. And this is the adorable packaging it came in. Isn't it great?

I love it all, but I've been really challenged. There is so many great colors in this soup and I couldn't figure out what all to put with the focal and how to use the BIG hole copper beads.  Also, I didn't just want to string the focal. As I kept looking at it, I kept seeing FLAMES!  But I have to admit, I love flames. I used to have flame stripes on my truck until the stripes just became so worn looking and cracked/peeling that we had to take them off this last year.  So I seem to be drawn to flames/fire. LOL I knew then that I wanted to create a bail or encase the focal with metal and I wanted it to look as though it was surrounded by flames. So I set to work finding flame pictures I liked and then trying to draw them off to be cut out of copper. I went through about 5-6 different designs, drawing, cutting out, redrawing until I came up with this one that would work with the metal and focal.  But my challenge then was how to create the bail out of the same piece to hang the focal. And then what to hang it with, since now the focal is REALLY heavy! After finally figuring out how to do all that, I realized I wanted to flame paint/patina my metal, too, so it would look even more like flames. That was so much fun. I've just started doing some flame painting and was happy with my results. Here's a pic of the the front of the focal.

But now my challenge was how to create the rest of the necklace. I didn't want to add too much to it and take away from the focal, so I started creating bead links with the crystals and amethyst chips Katrina sent me. But I wanted to carry that flame look through, so as I wrapped the beads I hammered the ends of the copper wire and then folded it down around the beads, hoping to get a flame look to the links.  Then after taking a class on enameling, I got out my copper washers and practiced my enameling in some colors that I thought would complement the colors of the beads and the focal. I also wanted to enhance the great copper clasp that Katrina had flame painted  for me so I wire wrapped some of the crystals and beads to the clasp and simply wire-wrapped the ring for the clasp to attach to.  I'm happy with all my components, but not sure if I'm happy with the end result. I was going to use leather to hang the focal, but decided it wouldn't be strong enough to hold the weight of the stone and metal together. So I hammered another piece of heavy wire, textured it, punched the holes and flame patina'd it to slide through the flame bail on the top of the pendant. I like it, but the pendant keeps sliding around, so I may have to redo it or perhaps wire some copper wire around the hanging wire in between the 2 flames to hold it still. But I'm not sure it all looks right together. I'm hoping it grows on me, but if not, I'll try to redesign the necklace. I was running out of time to do anything more with it now, as I was gone for 10 days at the end of March, first of April and then I've had non-stop company since then till Sunday the 27th.  Plus I've developed a problem with my left hand/thumb joint. Not sure if I've just hurt/sprained the join or I'm developing some arthritis in it, but it makes it difficult to hold anything ( I picked up a glass a week or two ago and dropped it and broke it because of not being able to hold it) and it is difficult to wire-wrap anything. I hope you like the finished necklace.

Next, I wanted to make a multi-strand bracelet with more of the crystals, amethyst chips, large triangular gold and copper beads and some dark brown dagger beads. I was going to wire wrap some of the crystals, amethyst chips and other beads to hang from the gold chain, but again all the wire wrapping for the dangles on the chain piece that Katrina sent me has been a little difficult. So I think I'll leave them off for the time and see how I like it with the simplicity of just the chain with the beaded strands on either side of it. It uses the gold clasp Katrina sent me.

Finally, I loved these BIG hole copper beads, but they kept stumping me on how to use them. I couldn't just string them as the hole was too big, I couldn't find/didn't want to use bead caps on each end of them, so I finally came up with the idea of knotting some leather in between each of the four of the big, copper beads Katrina sent me. Then I wire-wrapped it to the copper clasp Katrina sent me. I haven't cut the leather on the one end yet as I'm not sure I like the clasp with it, but couldn't figure out how I might want to close it otherwise, so I may end up redoing the clasp/closure later, too. It also might look great as a necklace with a little adjusting and some other beads. Just not sure yet.

I hope you like all my creations with my soup.  And I completely forgot to make any earrings to match anything, but I'm thinking I may want to enamel some more washers and attach some of the crystal or amethyst chips to them for earrings if they aren't too heavy. :)
For the rest of the participants in the Bead Soup Blog Party visit Lori Anderson's blog Pretty Things. There were over 400 participants who all got amazing partners and soups to create with. They all will inspire you.
If you're looking for any of my jewelry pieces or my Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass kreationz for your Home and Garden, check out with my shop, KayzKreationz.  Thanks.  And please be sure to leave me a comment to let me know what you think of my pieces.

Monday, April 28, 2014

My Bead Soup party Partner and my Soup reveal

I'm finally getting a chance to post about my great partner for the Bead Soup blog party.  Her name is Katrina Taylor from 'Is the Babysitter here Yet?' blog.
She's a veterinarian from Pennsylvania, which is cool, since we do Wildlife management on our small Texas ranch.  She loves metal work which is great, because I love metal, especially copper and she created this great flame-painted copper clasp for my soup. But she hasn't been able to work as much as she likes because her work area is in a cold area of her house and the winter there has been exceedingly cold. But she put together a great soup for me.  Isn't this great?  (And she kindly left out any BLUE, since I told her I'm not a fan of blue.)  It contains a Natural stone focal bead, Czech glass beads and pearls, Swarovski butterfly, copper and brass components (clasp, beads and chain) and amethyst chips.  I love it all.  Now the challenge is what to do with it all to do it justice. (As usual I forgot my before pic, but Katrina had a great picture of the soup she sent me so she let me use it to show you this great soup.)

And here's the soup I sent her.  I wanted to send her a Texas themed soup, so I cut out the state of Texas with my saw, flame painted it (it turned out a great red, which I felt was very appropriate as we're always HOT here in Texas, LOL)  and riveted it to a textured brass background. I enclosed some lava beads, some hand created copper double-balled headpins, some Picture Jasper beads, some of what I call my Texas Tornado copper wire beads, a small brass clasp and a hand created Texas Yoke toggle clasp that I hammered and also flame painted, plus some teal leather.  I wrapped it all up in this Orange bandana, since we were/use a lot of bandana's in Texas. My thought was she could use some or all of the bandana in her creations, but she told me her son loved the bandana and confiscated it and she may not be able to get it back to use. LOL  So for all of you wondering what the theme was to my soup that I posted on facebook, here it is: TEXAS!  :)

Be sure to come back on May 3rd for the reveal of what I made with my soup. And for more of my jewelry kreationz or my Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz for your Home and Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Create Three Dimensional Jewelry book review

Kalmbach sent me another great book to review. This one is 'Create Three Dimensional Jewelry' by Heather DeSimone. Heather lives in Maine and has been taking apart and putting together jewelry for 35 years and has been co-owner of The Beadin' Path and beadinpath.com since 1993. She was influenced by the work of Miriam Haskell and realized she didn't have to 'string' beads, but could 'build' her jewelry. She dabbled in vintage beads, but got an e-mail from a man in the Lucite bead business that had some beads to sell.  She decided to check it out and came back with 3 semi-tractor trailer trucks with 40,000 lbs. of beads, plastic hoops, bangles and other components and decided to meet the challenge of using the brilliantly bold plastic pieces in her jewelry and inspiring others to use them, too.  She has done a great job of that in this book. She starts with materials (small beads), nailheads, sew-ons, filigree, beads and buttons and more.  Then she gets into the tools you need for stacking all the layers in your jewelry work and explains the Building Blocks of stacking and working in layers. In fact, she has other building blocks for stitching and creating surface adornment and constructing custom components, before you get into the projects. She describes elements you may use to incorporate into finished jewelry, then gives step by step projects for you to make. Along with that comes Tips to make your work go more smoothly, tidbits that are facts about jewelry or fashion for fun, and alternative projects based on the elements that are introduced in the projects. They are fun ideas to get your creative juices flowing.
I've been trying to work with/add leather to some of my jewelry, so I really enjoyed her 'Boat seats to Begonias' project. They found some overstock vinyl at a fabric warehouse and used it to create upcycled vinyl flowers to mix with metal, Lucite flowers and other materials for a fabulous Statement necklace.

One of my favorites, though was the Memory wire Cuff. I've been working with memory wire quite a bit and I loved the way she built on this cuff to make this wonderful bracelet.
The Silver Lining necklace is featured on the front of the book and another favorite of mine is the 'Down by the Sea' stitched cuff where she stitches found seashell beads and frosted glass to a copper cuff. I love it. Be sure to check out the book for both of these projects.
All in all, this is a great book to add to your repertoire for jewelry inspiration and learning how to 'build' your jewelry to make it unique and find your own style. I loved it.
If you're looking for some of my jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass kreationz for your home or garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Color of Dreams Blog Hop

Today is the day. I signed up for Rita of Jewel School friends' Color of Dreams blog hop. She graciously sent all the participants an orphan/ooak bead from Patricia of Color of Dreams Boutique to create with. We were to share a dream that has come true, one we are working on now, or one we hope for in the future. The one goal of the hop: we'll focus on our dreams as entirely possible, with the idea, "If we can dream it, we can achieve it". I love her pillow beads. They have so much color in them. This is the bead I received. Isn't it wonderful?

 I love reds and pinks so this was great. It also has a touch of yellow/orange and brown in it, plus a very pale green. Reminds me of Spring when everything is starting to grow, be born and bloom again. Which is kind of appropriate for my dream. I dream or hope one day that my jewelry will bloom, flourish so that people will want to buy it and wear it for themselves. Plus I also hope for a time when I have more time to play, experiment and create more jewelry and glass items than what time I have now. Anyway, I thought about what I wanted to create with my pillow bead. And since I had just gotten a new stamp set from PJTools (more on that in another post) I knew I needed to stamp a tag with dream on it, since this was about our dreams. Plus I wanted my bead to dream itself or fly on its own. So I created a 'dream' tag and a focal/dangle with the bead to hand together from this memory bracelet. Then I found beads I had plus a few I bought to bring out all the color in my bead. So this is my 'Dream' bracelet. I hope you like it.
 


To see what all the other participants created, go to Jewel School Friends blog and check them out or click on the links below. (Hopefully they work).

Honorary Artist: Patricia Handschuh
Patricia's blog:            The Color of Dreams        
Patricias Etsy:             The Color of Dreams
Hostess: TJ                Jewel School Friends
Kay Thomerson           KayzKreationz (you are here)
Audrey Belanger          Toki No Hourousha

Alicia Marinache          All the Pretty Things
Terry Carter                TappingFlamingo
Lori Schneider             Bead Addict
Jenny Kyrlach             Wonder and Whimsy
Asri Wahyuingsih         Asri's Beadwork
Dini Bruinsma              Angaza by Changes
Karla Morgan              Texas Pepper Jams
Debbie Rasmussen        A Little of This, A Little of That
Veralynne Malone          Designed by Vera
Kathy Stemke               Vintage Memories Jewelry Design
Mowse Doyle               Mowse Made This
Heather Richter             Desert Jewelry Designs
Lori Poppe                   Adventures in Creativity with LorilliJean

Jayne Capps                Mama's Got To Doodle
Andrea Glick                Zenith Jade Creations
Kathleen Breeding         99 Bottles of Beads on the Wall
Becky Pancake             Becky Pancake Bead Designs
Karin Martinez              Fairies Market
Miranda Ackerley          Mirandack

Penny Houghton           Smelly Nelly
Carolyn Lawson           Carolyn's Creations
Chris Eisenberg            Wanderware
Christie Murrow          Charis Designs Jewelry
Monique Urquhart        A Half-Baked Notion
Eve Shelby                  Raindrop Creations Jewelry by Evelyn
Cryss Thain                 Here Bead Dragons
Jasvanti Patel               Jewelry By Jasvanti
Nan Smith                   NanMade Handmade Jewelry
Sue Kennedy               SueBeads
Jean Yates                   Snap Out of It, Jean! There's Beading to be Done!
Debbie Rogers             Debbies Treasures
Marybeth Rich             A Few Words From Within the Pines
Shirley Moore              Beads and Bread
Shaia Williams             Shaiha's Ramblings
Kathy Lindemer           Bay Moon Design
Linda Anderson           From the Bead Board
Judy Turner               Silver Rains
Gloria Allen                Gloria Allen Designs
Regina Wood              Ginas-Design
Robin Reed                Artistry HCBD
Mary Goovars            MLH Jewelry Designs
Marlene Cupo             Amazing Designs
CJ Bauschka              4 His Glory Creations
Robin Showstack        The Crazy Bead Hoarder
Cynthia O'Toole          Sparkles and Sweets

Jael Thorp                 Jael's Art Jewels
Renetha Stanziano      Lamplight Crafts
And if you're looking for Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz. You will find some of my beaded, wire-wrapped jewelry there, too.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

8th Bead Soup Blog Party Partner and Soup Teaser

I've signed up for Lori Anderson's latest Bead Soup Blog Party. I love these. This is the 8th one. She pairs you with a partner, you e-mail back and forth so you can get to know each other a little bit and the you create a 'soup' of beads and other materials to send to each other to play with and create something with. I've always been in awe of all the talent I see while blog hopping all the other participants in the Blog Hop. (By the way, that's a requirement. You have to have a blog so that on a specified day, you blog about your 'soup', what inspired you and what you created).
This time around I was paired with Katrina Taylor. This is her first time to participate, so I'm doubly honored to not only get to participate, but be able to help/have fun with someone new to the Party!  She just started creating jewelry again about a year ago and most of what she makes right now is for friends and family. But after checking out her blog, I wanna go out, you wouldn't guess she'd only been doing it for a year.  She loves Metal beads, Polymer and Metal clay and glass, but says she doesn't really have a style. She mainly just lets the beads and materials 'speak' to her about what to make. She makes some of her own beads and focals and loves BLUE! LOL  As many of you know, blue is one of my least favorite colors, although I seem to be using a lot of blue lately.
She is a veterinarian, so we have something in common, since she likes working with animals and we do Wildlife management here on our small Texas ranch. She also likes to eat out a lot. LOL  So here is a teaser of the 'Soup' I put together for her.

And here is the wrapping it was sent in. Can you guess the theme for her soup?  

Come back in a few days and you'll get to see the soup I sent, the soup I received and find out the Theme behind the soup I sent. And don't forget to check back May 3rd for the Reveal. Be sure to check out my shop, KayzKreationz for my other jewelry, Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass 'kreationz' for your Home and Garden.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Beautiful Leather Jewelry book Review

Here's another great book from Kalmbach books. This one comes to us from Melissa Cable, called, Beautiful Leather Jewelry, timeless techniques for today's trends. Melissa is a mixed media artist who love to develope new designs and techniques with traditional and non-traditional materials from metal, leather, wood, clay and found objects. Since I, too, love leather and metal this book really called to me, putting leather, metal and other components together in great jewelry pieces.
She starts off with the Basics for Leatherworking using her 'key' to how leather works and how you can use it in your projects. The first section covers the different types of leather besides cow leather. Things like Snakeskin, Fish leathers (which I've been hearing more and more about and what to try as soon as I can find some) and even Ostrich leather. Melissa also covers the different types of tanning, dyeing and grades of leather besides how to purchase it and even recycle it.
The next section covers the different tools to use as well as equivalents you may already have at home to use on your leather. This includes things like stamps, corrugators and even mallets/hammers to use to texture/shape your leather. Next is a section on hardware to use to finish your leather or decorate it and then finishing it to make clasps/closures for your pieces. There's even a part on Special Effects for your leather like dyes, paints, and sealants for your leather pieces.
Then she moves into Making Leather jewelry starting with Technique Tutorials and then the Jewelry projects. I really like cuff bracelet, so the tutorials on cuffs really intrigued me. The Mesa Pendant was interesting to me, too, since I love texture and the stacked pieces were cool.  2 of my favorite projects were the Four Seasons collar since I also really like collars and the textured leather discs and metal discs together combined 2 of my favorite mediums.

The next one is the Laurel Necklace, because I really love nature and loved the shape, look and texture of the leather leaves in this necklace.
Finally at the end is a section on Beads and More Jewelry from leather. I especially liked the Rolled Leather Column Beads with the rivet decoration in them. I can see myself using these a lot in my jewelry projects. If using leather is something you've wanted to learn more about in your projects, check out Kalmbach books for Melissa Cable's book, Beautiful Leather Jewelry.
Here is a Leather/Metal bracelet I made for my Patina challenge I was in that was inspired by my reading Melissa's book. It uses Leather, metal, rivets, chain, patina and cogs/gears in it.


If you're interested in my 'Find Your Way to My Heart' bracelet or any of my other jewelry check out my shop, KayzKreationz. There you will also find my Stained Glass, Mosaics and Fused Glass 'kreationz' for your Home and Garden.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Weaving Freeform Wire Jewelry


Kalmbach has done it again, along with Kaska Firor.  They sent me Weaving Freeform Wire Jewelry by Kaska Firor to review and it's a fabulous book.  I love working with wire, and this book has my mind spinning with all the wonderful designs in it.  There's 20 beautiful step-by-step projects in this book.  It covers 5 different wire weaves, the Over-over, over-under, coiling, circular and looping. I'm thinking I don't really know anything about wire now. LOL Kaska was initially studying interior design in college, but took her first class in wire jewelry in 2000 and that was all she wrote, you might say.  You can feel her enthusiasm and passion for freeform wire weaving in this book, and she has done a great job of passing that on to the reader.
  She starts off with the basics about wire, frame and weaving wires, selecting your wire, wire shapes, wire hardness, wire size or gauge and metals and colors. She also cover other materials you may want to incorporate into your weaving such as beads and stones, embellishments and findings.  There is also a section on Tools and Supplies as well as Wire Techniques.  Her pictures are very well done and easy to see/understand.  She also tells you how to fix a mistake (which I'm sure I'm going to need a lot-at least at first). Then she gets into the Weaves. And after each weave, she has a project for you to try once you've practiced the weave.  I have seen so many wonderful pieces done with wire weaving and always wondered HOW they did that. Well now I'll be able to weave myself.  After the chapter on all the weaves along with projects to make from those weaves, she added Chapter 2 which take you to the next level and shows you how the weaves and techniques you learned in the previous chapter can be used to create more advanced, multi-level designs.  I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go that far with my wire work, but it doesn't hurt to dream.  Kaska teaches classes at her studio in Cincinnati, Ohio and displays and sells her jewelry at art shows in the Midwest.  She has won numerous awards and her woven bracelet design was featured on the cover of March 2012 Art Jewelry magazine.  So if you're ever in the Cincinnati area, look her up and take a class.  It looks like from the book, you'll love it.
There are so many great designs in the book, but so far my favorite is the Gnarly Bangle on page 59 which incorporates the circular weave and the cylindrical weave.  Just be prepared to use a LOT of wire. LOL  Here it is:
Isn't it wonderful? I can't wait to try making it.  And if you're looking for some of my other Beaded wire-wrapped jewelry, Stained Glass, Mosaics, Fused Glass kreationz for your Home or Garden, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.  Please comment below and let me know what you think about the book. Thanks. And be sure to go to Kalmbach and purchase the book to get your creative wire weaving juices flowing.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Patina Challenge Blog Hop

I had my post all ready to go, had the pictures uploaded and then had to go out of town. No problem, I was taking my iPad with me so I could polish it up some before posting.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to edit my blog posts on my iPad without deleting something.  I've tried a couple of times and it always happens. So lesson learned, just don't edit with an iPad. :)  Anyway, thanks for bearing with me and here goes:
Recently Kathy at BayMoonDesign issued a challenge. She was picking 10 people to send a Vintaj compass piece to. We were to patina it any way we wanted and then make something with it.  I haven't been happy with any of my patina efforts so far, but thought maybe this would help me figure out what to do and how to patina something I was happy with, so I signed up.  I got my wonderful compass piece, started to work on it and then had to put it up to go out of town for a business conference.  Well I THOUGH I had put it up, but my Manx cat, Lata decided he could get to it anyway. And when I came home from the conference, the compass was nowhere to be found. (It still is MIA, despite having turned half the house upside down. I'm sure one of these days it will turn up. LOL) Anyway, I e-mailed Kathy and asked if I could buy one somewhere so I could still participate.  She graciously mailed me another one.  This one I made sure was with me all the time so Lata couldn't get to it. I forgot to take a pic before I started the sanding, but in this picture I've sanded the point in the center, the direction letters, the edge and the little arrows (?) all around the outside ring.

I pretty much knew what I wanted to do with it, so now to get to work using my patina's.  I used some Ranger Alcohol Inks in the Weathered Copper which was greens/blues.  But after I got it done, I really wanted a little more color so added just a dab of Cinnabar so it would have a little of the red to blend with the red leather I was using.  I painted, sanded, painted some more, then used some Bronze Gilder's paste on it and finally sealed everything with a Ranger sealer. I think I'm finally happy with one of my patina projects.
I then took some brass and silver cogs and washers I had and patina'd them. I knew I wanted a 'steampunk' look to this bracelet(although I've never done Steampunk, so this is my first attempt at that also).  After I had the brass washers done I decided I didn't like the look of the silver cogs on the brass washers, because they just faded into the background, so I turned them over and hammered them instead.  Then I got busy punching holes in the leather. I had intended to texture the leather, but forgot. I HATE punching holes in leather because I don't have a hole punch strong enough to go through the leather. So I had to use a thick darning needle to try to start the hole and then my hole punch to finish out the hole.  This was very difficult, but I finally got all the holes punched.  However, after finally getting the little clips on the back of the compass pushed through 2 of the holes, they broke off while trying to bend them back over to hold the compass. So now what to do? I really didn't want to wire it to the leather, but Karla (from Texas Pepper Jams) and I had just gotten to play with our torches a week or two ago and had made some balled copper headpins. I punched 2 holes on the inside ring of the compass on the E/W sides, then took the balled headpins which added another little pop of red to the piece, pushed them through and twisted/spiraled them together on the back side. Viola!  My compass was now attached.
I had originally intended to rivet the cogs/washers to the leather, but realized I didn't have any rivets large enough for the holes in the washers, so stumped again.  I found 2 beads I thought would go well with the piece, took another 2 of my balled headpins, put them through the beads, through the cogs and washers and twisted/spiraled them on the backside, making sure all the wire and ends were smooth enough to not rub the skin when I wear the bracelet.
Then I attached a little silver heart I had to the bottom of the leather piece because I wanted to name this piece "Find your way to my Heart" (because of the compass) And finally I decided to make it a double chain bracelet, so punched 4 more holes in the leather, made my own jump rings our of some Annealed Steel wire I had, attached the 4 pieces of chain, made a clasp out of the same Steel wire and Viola!
"Find your way to my Heart"
Hope you like it.

Be sure to visit all the other participants of the blog hop below or going to Kathy's BayMoonDesigns blog. (Hopefully the links will work, but the way things have been going for me, they may not. LOL)   Thanks for bearing with me and stopping by.
Looking for more of my jewelry or Stained Glass, Mosaics or Fused Glass pieces, check out my shop, KayzKreationz.


Hostess:  Kathy Lindemer,  BayMoonDesign 

Jennifer LaVite, Dry Gulch Beads and Jewelry
Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations
Shai Williams, Shaiha's Ramblings
Jessica Murray, Whimsical Monkey
Tammie Everly, TTE Designs

Kay Thomerson, KayzKreationz Blog (you are here)
Claire Fabian, Saraccino
Christie Searle Murrow Charis Designs