Straw-bear-y

Straw-bear-y
Just a goofy doodle.
(ball point ink and colored pencil on paper)

I save all the doodles in a box and when I have a show, or open studio, I let 'em rip.

Using archival photo corners I mount them on archival comic book backer boards and then slip each one into an archival comic book sleeve. A super way to get them out there safely, economically and in a nice tidy package. Get them at your local comic book store (duh).

Make More Birds

Good thing I still love making these little glass birds.

I attach the bails with 2-part epoxy.

A bird in the hand is worth... $18.

End of Summer Bracelet

It's my favorite time of year, when summer starts to yield to fall.
There's that feeling to the air, the garden is overspent, it's full on tomato season, the first apples are picked.
The kids are still excited to be back in school but it's not yet time to unpack all the sweaters.

So, one last summery bracelet, after this it's on to autumn colors. 

Leaves and Sky Bracelet : flamework glass beads and sterling silver

The lumpy little clouds are made with Effetre 'Sky Blue Opalino' glass and the leaves are Effetre'Mosaic Green.'

I am starting to get the hang of hammering my own clasps.

This is the photograph that inspired the bracelet.

It got blogged a few weeks ago, but everyone is always asking me where "my inspirations" come from.

And, bonus, the drawing for the bracelet from my jewelry sketchbook.

South Bethany Beach, Delaware

Did you miss me?
I was away being a complete slug - it was perfect.

When we arrived the ocean was angry. Such a storm.
After that, six days of the nicest vacation weather ever.

I sketched a little, read a ridiculously lo-brow book, picked up shells and wandered the beach.
We drank fancy Dogfish Head, since it is the local beer when you're at the Delaware shore.
One whole day I spent learning, from a master, how to bar-be-que a pork shoulder.

I just want to go back.

Flies By Night

By special request, a new pair of fly earrings.

Hand hammered sterling silver ear wires, garnet bead heads, graphite black glass bodies, iridescent carnival glass wings and a jade bead for each butt. They're up in my Belvedere Etsy shop.

If you're a diy sort of person there's also a pair of fly beads available - ready for you to make your own buggy mischief with.

They are not easy little boogers to make. The wings are made off mandrel and then carefully added later to the bead. In this pic I am at the very last step - reducing the glass wings to bring out their iridescence.

Bug ideas from one of my bead sketchbooks.

Droppings

I'm always saying that I don't like my beads to look machine made, I don't even like them to look handmade, I want them to look like they just fell off a plant - and these new large pendants are what I am talking about.

They were each sculpted on the end of a mandrel and then the wire loop was epoxied in place.

Here's a page of notes from my sketchbook on how I made the bails.
If it's too "sketchy" feel free to ask me to explain it in more detail.
p.s.I used 16g wire.

Simple Pods

These make wonderful bracelets and pairs for earrings.

Here's a small batch of 'seed pods' made with transparent purple and wrapped with honey colored lobes.

Orange centers with transparent striking orange lobes.

Ice Berries

The upcoming sequel to the Ice Balls bracelet will be... Ice Berries.

The same round headpins with wires that have hammered spirals on their insides, but this time the beads will have little lobes of glass down their sides.

Here are a couple of test beads that are fresh from the kiln.

The ball of the headpin is pale gray transparent and the little leaflets, or lobes, or leaf lobes (whatever) are medium transparent gray.

This is a nice glimpse into my sketchbook - a couple of pages that are still in process.

When I find an image in a magazine that intrigues me - sometimes its a group of colors, or shapes, often it is a plant or a painting. - I scissor it out and glue it into one of the books. Pretty soon I might start drawing ideas on the page and when, and if, I make beads from that page I will glue in a photograph of the finished product.

Puttering

I futzed around too long yesterday and by the time I got to my studio there wasn't time to heat up that big kiln, figure out a plan and productively play with fire.

So, I drew in my bead sketchbooks.

Pondered why I have so many red and orange colored pencils.
Came to no conclusions but did eat some Valentine's chocolate.

Sketched some more -

- then watched the trains come and go from my fourth floor perch.
I like to think of it as the penthouse.

Revisited a great book on bead making called  "Beads of Glass" by Cindy Jenkins.
Wondered if she's a Cynthia or a Lucinda, like me. Nobody calls me Cindy anymore, don't even try it.
Chewed some clove gum and was pleased that I still knew how to construct a gum wrapper chain.

Dipped a mess of mandrels.
They're the stainless steel rods, coated with clay, that the molten glass is wrapped onto when beads are made. Few things are as pretty as a bouquet of freshly dipped mandrels.

Swept the floor and called it a day.

Spring Nuggets

I wanted these to look like raw amber - except pink.

I started with simple round base beads made with different shades of translucent pink - Cim's rose quartz, Cim's crocus and Cim's Gelly's sty. Once the beads had a nice shape I added thick swipes of transparent pinks and lavenders randomly around them - transparent pink, Cim's larkspur and Cim's pink champagne. I melted the bumpy swipes in just a wee bit to makes them more bulbous than lumpy.

Notes from my sketchbook:

And a test pair, in the same style, with Cim's Ming blue with  swipes of transparent teal.

Triple Play

moon beads : sketchbook # 2 - pages 30 & 31

chinese lantern : sketchbook # 2 - pages 40 & 41

golden berries : sketchbook # 2 - pages 104 & 105

clicking on the photos will open a large version.

Fairy Stories

A few more pages from an old, old bead sketchbook. Book # 2 - pages 46, 47, 48 & 49.
If you click on either of the pictures you can see a much larger version.

Baby beads. I think I had been at the torch about a year when I made some of these. It's hard to say because I am always adding and subtracting from the pages. Lately I have been better about scribbling in dates.

Did you know that sometimes when you encase silver foil in pink glass it changes to gold?

Alchemy?

I think not, my guess is that some of the gold in the pink glass precipitates, or plates, itself onto the silver foil.

Who knows?

In any case it is a very cool effect. Poor man's gold leaf.







This bead, one of the original "Fairy Stones" has a base of Cim's Gelly's Sty that was rolled in silver foil and then encased in transparent pale pink. Once it was all encased I spot heated the bead and added the facets with a cheese knife. A cheese knife? Yes, one of the all time great bead shaping tools. Get a stainless steel one in any kitchen store. I like one with a nice pointy end. The hand faceting gives beads loads and loads of sparkle and it's lots of fun to do.

More Milk Please

My what a lot of 'milk glass' beads and jewelry I've made.

Book 2, pages 12 and 13 (above and below).
So many little snippets of paper - I think the white and clear 'twisties' above are actually waxy birthday cake candles. And the skull earrings - Mable & Sable. I still have them and wear them regularly.

And there are more milk glass pages in a later sketchbook, there's plenty of milk still to be spilt.

Book 3, pages 16 and 17 (above and below).

Click here to see the white peony petal bracelet.

I am sure that I have made dozens of milk glass 'dove' beads.

Mable and Sable today.

Milk glass 'hobnail' beads, bone skulls, vintage carved ivory rose beads, freshwater pearls, seed beads and gunmetal wire.