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(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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 FriendsKay Thomerson KayzKreationz (you are here)
Audrey Belanger Toki No HouroushaAlicia 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 LorilliJeanJayne Capps Mama's Got To DoodleAndrea 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 MirandackPenny 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 SweetsJael 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.
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.
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