February 2015 AJE Component of the Month...featuring Metal Clay Morsels

by me!  Yes, it is my honor to have provided metal clay components for the design team in copper and white copper.  Read about my design process for them here.

I chose to make a pair of earrings with a couple sets of my left over components in white copper.  I used larger circles that were stamped with the very center of the carving, and small circles stamped from the swirl.  I connected them with Czech glass flower beads in a pretty cornflower blue shade, then added sterling ear wires that have been embellished with more Czech glass.  

I hope  you will go and show some love to those who have created designs using them!  Here are the participants.

Guest Participants:

Michelle Mach

Patty Miller

Divya N

AJE team: 

Jennifer Cameron 

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Susan Kennedy 

Melissa Meman...you are here!
Rebekah Payne

Lindsay Starr 

Kristen Stevens

Francesca Watson

Lesley Watt    

January AJE Component of the Month Free-for-all!

or "Use your Stash"  as this month's host, Jenny Davies-Reazor coined!  It was decided that after the chaos and hubbub of the holidays was over, rather than have one person create a COM to share, we would dig around in our stash and find treasure that has been hoarded away and create something from it.

In my totally characteristic way, nothing I created is completely finished!  I have started some very cool things however, and have ideas for others.

This necklace features a gorgeous focal heart by Sue Kennedy...I have to say, this wasn't from a hoarded stash, I just got it from her after coveting it for a while!  The matching bead in the flower was, though, as well as the purple flower bead by Karen Totten.  This obviously needs a clasp, patina and possibly other tweaking!

Here is a really cool ceramic focal by Jenny Davies-Reazor.  I dangled it beneath an old key I had  and used some wire-wrapped jasper as a chain.  That's my copper  metal clay hanging on the bottom.  Needs a clasp, patina and something else wrapped on the key, I think!

Tiny fold-formed copper leaves, embellished with sweet heart headpins by Jennifer Cameron!  Perfect for the season and surprsingly, complete!

Fun ceramic charms by Linda Landig are embellished with enamel cups by me and some Czech glass.  I need to patina the shiny sterling!

So, those were the pieces even close to being finished.  I have so many more things I wanted to create with components from my AJE team, but there just wasn't enough time.  I am going to give you a peek at what is up next on my plate, though...

These are gorgeous pieces by Diana Ptaszynski that are somehow going to turn into a fabulous necklace!

These colorful Czech glass beads are going to be added to different lengths of chain and bundled together to dangle beneath Lesley Watt's sweet bronze flower cap!

Sweet woodsy owl here by Karen Totten is going to be a necklace, perhaps with a copper armature surrounding him!

It has been really fun and inspiring to use these "hoarded" treasures!  Here is a list of others that participated in the challenge. Make sure to stop by their blogs and say hi.

AJE team: 

Kristen Stephens 

Susan Kennedy 

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt    

Melissa  Meman

 Lindsay Starr 

Jennifer Cameron 

Caroline Dewison

Linda Landig

Guest Participants ( aka winners)

Lee - Strega Jewellry

Shai - Shai’s Ramblings

Samantha- Wescott Jewelry

Kathy - Bay Moon Designs

Nikki - Silver Nik nats

Melissa Trudinger

Becky Pancake

Yvette - Blue Kiln Beads

Karin - Ginko et Coquelicot

Bonus participants! 

Sarajo Wentling

Leah Curtis

Susan Delaney 

February 2015 is my month to contribute a Component of the month for  the Art Jewelry Elements blog hop challenge!  I have the honor of providing this month's component. After polling the group, I decided to do some metal clay.

I am new to the medium, but as I talked about in previous posts, love it and strive to find my voice with it!

These are all copper, using the same original carved stamping by me.  The dots around certain designs are actually holes through the design, hard to see in the photo!

Go to the blog for a chance to win!

Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month, for November 2014

I am happy to be back on the last day of the month to share my design for the AJE COM featuring cute beaded ring components by our own Kristen Stevens!

Because Kristen is just so cool, she sent me a green set AND an indigo blue set!  These are made from twins, meaning they have 2 holes and they have a very cool iridescence which is very hard to capture in photos.

As per my standard MO, I waited until the last minute and created a pair of earrings with my indigo pair yesterday!

I wanted to make the beaded rings part of something else, so I found some copper washers that were the perfect size, after some hammering!  I decided I wanted to attach the beaded rings to the washers, so I got everything ready by texturing, punching some holes for the wire and added interest, patina'ed everything with LOS, then tumbled.  These are always important steps to remember to do BEFORE attaching fragile components like these that you don't want to expose to chemicals, or water!

I used very thin gauged copper wire and wrapped the rings onto the washters.  I used absolutely gorgeous lampwork headpins from Sue Kennedy of SueBeads.  These are my most favorite color combination she does!

I added my own hand fabricated sterling ear wires, embellished with tiny glass beads and copper wire for the finished pair.  I think a tiny touch of red to bring out the red in Sue's lampwork would have been great, but I couldn't find anything tiny enough and just the right color red for the jov.  These worked in a pinch!

There you go!  Thanks for stopping by.  Here are the participating Team Members and Guests for the month.  Go take a peek at all the gorgeousness!

Guest Designers

Cindy Martin Shaw

Shai Williams

Karen Martinez

AJE Team

Susan Kennedy

Linda Landig

LesleyWatt 

MelissaMeman

Caroline Dewison

Francesca Watson

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lindsay Starr

Jennifer Cameron

Thanks again, Kristen!

AJE Component of the Month for August - Leather Feathers!

This month, our component comes from the talented Rebekah Payne of Treewings Studio.  She created these fun, organic leather feathers...she talks a bit about the process here!  We had our choice of an earring pair, or a larger focal feather.

I opted for an earring pair and received a gorgeous set with purple, blue and metallic designs!  I knew that I wanted to create a copper backing to somehow attach the feather to, but it took going to BeadFest this past weekend to solidify my idea in my brain!

Gorgeous lampwork headpins by Jen Cameron and Sue Kennedy!

See the ones circled in yellow? Yep, the orange swirls with purple stripes!  As soon as I saw them, I knew what I was going to do.  I set about making my copper back plates, adding texture, measuring, punching holes and creating balled headpins and earwires.  The plan was to rivet the feathers to the copper piece using the lampwork headpins at the bottom and copper balled headpins at the top.  The tips of the leather would be folded over so the copper headpins would go through twice, making a loop for the copper jumpring.

A not great photo of everything all laid out after I patina'ed and tumbled the wire and metal...except for 1 stupid jumpring that flew out of my hands never to be seen again!

Ta-Da!

The design itself, I really like...I wish my construction had been a bit neater.  I had a mishap with one of Jen's headpins...I started swirling the back and couldn't get it straight for some reason, so I gently straightened it back out, hoping I hadn't work hardened the wire too much.  When I went to try a second time, the wire snapped.  Luckily, there was enough left to work with to get it riveted fairly tight, but I may go back and add a drop of E6000 to make sure it holds.

Thanks, Rebekah for the challenge of working with a new medium for me!  I can't wait to see what everyone else created.  Here is the list...

Guest Artists

Karin Grosset Grange - http://ginkgoetcoquelicot.blogspot.com/

Ann Schroeder - http://beadlove.wordpress.com/

Claire Lockwood - http://www.somethingtodowithyourhands.com/

Toltec Jewels - http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/

The AJE Team

Jen Cameron - http://www.glassaddictions.com/blog

Diana Ptaszynski -  http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com

Kristen Stevens - http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/

Lesley Watt - http://www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com/

Jenny Davies-Reazor - http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog

Francesca Watson - http://francescawatson.com/

Linda Landig - http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/

Sue Kennedy - http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com/

Rebekah Payne - http://www.treewingsstudio.com/

Caroline Dewison - http://blueberribeads.blogspot.co.uk/

July AJE Component of the Month - Fused Glass Fantasy!

This month, the design team over at AJE was honored to work with gorgeous fused glass pieces by the multi-talented Francesca Watson.

She asked if we wanted cabochons or drilled pieces and I chose the red piece on the bottom right and left it undrilled since I thought this was a perfect opportunity to practice my bezel-setting skills!  And I was right!

I chose some scalloped bezel wire to use and originally was going to use a copper backing to create a pendant, but the more the copper laid on the work bench, the more I longed to jump in and use the sterling sheet I had stashed away.  I told myself I wasn't going to use it until I felt more proficient...sterling is expensive, y'all!  But, I jumped in with both feet!

I went with an organic shape, but when I put the cab in, I wasn't sure which side was going to be the top, or how I would attach a bail.  I punched one hole where I thought I might try to hang it, and didn't like it, so I punched holes in each of the scallops, then punched a few more, and then a few more! I also wanted to pierce the back so that the red glass would show through in a design...believe me, this was not the design I wanted!  It was going to be a pretty spiral, but after I got part of it sawed out, I realized how flimsy it was so I sawed it into a big hole, then tried to mimic the outer shape with the waves and holes.  After a trying soldering session (couldn't get it to flow) I finally got my act together, decided to use my bigger torch and finished it up.

I like it and am so happy I persevered and went with the sterling instead of the copper!  Here is the back...

Now, I need to get the rest of the design going!  I think I am either going to do a sterling viking knit or a handmade chain of some sort...what do you think?

Thanks, Francesca, for the gorgeous glass cabs, and for the design challenge!  Go see what the rest of our team created!

Guest Designers

Deb Fortin - www.studiok24.blogspot.ca

Toltec Jewels - www.JewelSchoolFriends.com

Carol Briody - cbriody.blogspot.com

The AJE Team

Caroline Dewison - blueberribeads.blogspot.co.uk

Susan Kennedy - www.suebeads.blogspot.com

Jenny Davies-Reazor - www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog

Kristen Stevens - kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com

Francesca Watson - www.francescawatson.com

AJE February Component of the Month - Fluttering Hearts

I am so honored to be part of the group of talented, kind and generous jewelry artists at Art Jewelry Elements!  One of my favorite things about being part of that team is participating in these Component of the Month challenges...it is so much fun to receive such gorgeous, unique pieces from these wonderful artists.  I have to say it is sort of humbling when it comes your turn to be on the 'component provider' end!

For February, I decided to offer hearts that I hand-cut from copper, shaped, then torch-fire enameled. The finishing touch was the addition of colorful glass frit.

I was trying hard to think outside the box this month and had something on my mind that I wanted to do...

I wanted to create a sort of  "milagro" type of sacred heart and did a search on Pinterest.  Wow, lots of inspiration there!  So I set to work.  I did some sketches, decided on one, then sawed it from copper.

I was going to leave it bare, with perhaps some texture, but changed my mind, and covered it with molten solder and embedded little brass flowers in.  I riveted the heart onto piece using balled copper headpins which also create a pin clasp in the back.  Not showing the back this time as I am not especially happy with it right now and am going to work on it some more with some other ideas I have for future pieces.

I chipped the heart as well when I was attaching it, but I just filed it down and patina'ed it with some liver of sulfur and left it...I think it adds to the "vintage" feel of the piece!

Below is our team of designers for this month.  I can't wait to see what everyone created!  How about you!

Guests...
Lori Bowring Michaud 
Kathy Lindemer
Kim Bender 

AJE Team...
Melissa Meman
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Rebekah Payne
Caroline Dewison
Kristen Stevens
Keirsten Giles
Sue Kennedy

What I've been playing with lately!

Hi all - Raise your hand if you are so tired of winter ice and snow that you could just cry!  Both mine are up!  It looks like those of us in the Mid Atlantic area are due for some more this weekend, so maybe I will get some new jewelry made.

I know I haven't been blogging here regularly, so I thought I would stop by and show you some photos of things I am working on!  Have been bitten by the polymer clay bug after taking a class with Christine Damm at ArtBliss last year.  Hubby got me some materials for Christmas and I have been slowly but surely making my way through a few designs.  There is definitely a learning curve, but have been making molds like crazy!

Here are a few completed ones...the skull is for my boy!

This next batch are some that need to be finished...yes, a few got a bit dark, but they will be painted!

Here are the hearts I finally finished, but not in time for Valentine's Day.  They will be going in my shop soon, though along with most of this stuff, and hopefully a bit more!  Those tiny flowers are being placed on some cute little birdies.

Speaking of hearts, the AJE Design team, along with a few special guests will be showing their creations made from my enameled fluttery hearts for the February Component of the Month challenge...Be sure to stop back by on Monday, March 3 to take a gander at what we created.  I am so excited to see how everyone used them!  I hope to get a few more of  these made soon as well!

Thanks for stopping by!  I promise not to stay so long between posts!

AJE Component of the Month Challenge for October

I was really excited to receive my gorgeous copper clay component from Kristi Bowman.  She managed to get some awesome flame colors in the copper.

 I really wanted a simple design, not to take away from the focal.  The curved shape just screams "bracelet"!!

The gorgeous ruffled lampwork bead is from Mermaid Glass...aren't those colors to die for?

I immediately knew I was going to use this faceted agate that I have been hoarding for a while.  I remember falling in love with the sunset oranges, cream and russets, and was going to make a wire-wrapped necklace of just the agate.  I still have enough, so I might just do that!

The lampwork was an impulse addition.  I knew that I wanted to include that awesome pop of indigo blue in my piece, but wasn't sure how for a while. I had tried several other beads to bring out the blue...some of my enamel (couldn't get the color just right)....some Czech glass (mmm, no).  I saw this beauty from Mermaid Glass and my heart skipped a beat.

I had originally wanted to make a special link for the clasp from Cindy Wimmer's new book, The Missing Link (fabulous, by the way, and if you don't have it, you need to get it!).  Since I was trying to stay simple and was running a bit behind, I decided on the big wire-wrapped loop that I flattened and textured a bit.  I then used a balled headpin to wrap the ruffle, and then added a swirled hook clasp.

I have to say, I love the way this feels on and I love that the somewhat eclectic color combo evokes something deep in me!

Thanks, Kristi, for creating such a fun and unique Component of the Month!  Go take a look and see what the rest of our team and this month's guest bloggers created!  Happy Wednesday!

Guests

Kym Hunter Designs
MiShel Designs

AJE Team Members
Jennifer Cameron Glass Addictions
Lesley Watt Gossiping Goddess
Kristen Stevens My Bead Journey
Caroline Dewison Blueberri Beads
Jenny Davies-Reazor 
Melissa Meman 
Rebekah Payne Tree Wing Studio
Francesca Watson
Kristi Bowman Design
Sue Kennedy

Playing Catch-up with the AJE Earring Challenge...Reveal 17

I am so behind on this challenge, I have decided to do double duty.  Hopefully, if I create an extra pair every 2 weeks I will be able to!

Here are 3 pair I created during the last couple of weeks:

Torch-fired enamel on copper, Czech glass and sterling silver

Some of my most favorite lampwork by Sue Kennedy, torch-fired enamel caps, Czech glass, copper and sterling.

Repurposed brass leaves, torch-fire enameled by me, Czech glass leaves, flowers and berrries; copper and sterling.

Go on over to the AJE Blog for the reveal to see a few I featured today, and be sure to click on the links of everyone else that participated!