Finished Farthing in an Oil Slick Bracelet - COM Update

Last week I posted about my Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month for July, but I ran into some complications!  I had to redo my bezel, and just didn't get finished.  Well, I had hope to work on it over the weekend, but that didn't come into fruition, so I picked it back up this week.

All the components...copper bezel, connector rings, farthing clasp by Niky Sayers, and gorgeous lampwork by Sue Kennedy.

Fast forward, I not only ruined the 1st bezel attempt, while trying to solder on the connector rings on this one, totally melted the silver bezel again! Note to self...attach copper connector rings first, since they need much more heat than the fragile fine silver bezel! Duh!

Anyway, I finally got it done and am really pleased with it!  I textured the backplate and ditched the little silver balls...too fussy, I think.

I love Niky's farthing clasp right next to Sue's big flower cab!

You can really see the iridescence of Sue's beads in this light!

I curved the connectors slightly so it would lay on the wrist better!

This beauty is already listed in my shop!  Hey, did you know I was offering 30% off everything in my shop?  We have had a hard summer financially...healthcare costs and just blew our rear wheel cylinder on our main vehicle and had to spend money out the wazoo to fix!  Now, school is about to start and those back-to-school supplies are killer!  Use coupon code BRAKES30 at checkout for a limited time. I am going through and listing other inventory that has never seen the light of day, so keep checking back!

Thanks for stopping by!

May 2015 AJE Component of the Month

May's component of the month features Sue Kennedy of SueBeads.  She is one of all time favorite lampwork artists and I have many of her lovely beads, but this month she went in a different direction and offered us her gorgeous beaded beads!

A gorgeous pile of beaded beads!

The ones I got!  Love those colors :)

I was going to not do earrings just because she sent a pair, but I had technical difficulties while working on the necklace design I had in mind, so at the last minute, I said why fight it!

I paired these beauties with another pair of beauties by Sue...her flower stamped beads!  I love these beads and I have gotten several colors in the round and her chicklet style.

I added some golden yellow Czech glass lentil and flowers to bring out those colors in the beaded beads.

This shows how the little lentil beads will hang when worn.

Another view in outside light!

These are long, not quite shoulder sweepers, but they definitely make a statement and I think would be perfect for summer!  I will put them in my shop later today!

Thanks for stopping by...I hope you go visit the rest of this month's design team!

Guests

Elisabeth Auld

Mischelle Andrade

Karen Martinez

AJE Team

Susan Kennedy

Jennifer Cameron

Diana Ptaszynski

Kristen Stevens

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt

Melissa Meman

Linda Landig

Caroline Dewison

Lindsay Starr

Niky Sayers

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/

March AJE Component of the Month ~ Moth Wings

Caroline Dewison of Blueberribeads sent us some gorgeous porcelain pieces!  We had a choice of moths or bees!

Here is what I created...I wanted to offset the beautiful gold metallic glaze with some pops of bright color, but decided to stay fairly monochromatic, so chose teal.  I rounded up some Czech glass beads, then went through my stash of art beads and found a pretty borosilicate lampwork bead by Julie Delaney, and a lovely ceramic swirl bead by our own Karen Totten.  I remembered some pyrite nuggets and briolettes that I had and wire-wrapped them into the necklace with brass wire.

I decided to create a hook clasp and just use one of the component's links for the loop!

There you have it!  Simple, but bright and beautiful!  I had been holding on to these pyrite briolettes for a while...I think they work perfectly with this!

Sorry for the drab photos...it was rainy and gross yesterday and I waited until this morning to take photos, but didn't have enough light!

Now, go forth and check out all the other gorgeous goodies created by this month's design team!!

Guest Artists

Helen Simon – Helen's had to drop out due to a hand injury - get well soon Helen!

Niky Sayers – http://silverniknats.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/aje-march-component-of-month-reveal.html

The AJE Team

Caroline Dewison – http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk 

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

Susan Kennedy - http://suebeads.blogspot.co.uk

Kristen Stevens - http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.co.uk

Keirsten Giles - http://cerebraldilettante.blogspot.com

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

Melissa Meman –  http://melissameman.blogspot.com (you are here!)

Rebekah Payne - www.treewingsstudio.com

Lesley Watt - http://thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/aje-component-of-month-march-reveal.html

Linda Landig - http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/luna-moth-necklace/

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

Creating with Cabochons Challenge/Blog Hop

Sally Russick, the talented, sweet, and generous artist behind The Studio Sublime is hosting another wonderful challenge/blog hop, Creating with Cabochons!  This one hit home with me, as it has been my goal to practice and work on my soldered bezel-setting skills.

I set out by choosing a few tasty cabs (short for cabochon, in jewelry-speak) and had the dream of trying a few different settings.  I had an idea for 3 different pendant settings, and at least 2 rings!  I have been collecting favorite stone cabs for a while in various shapes and sizes, so I pulled a few out and started playing.

Then, as things tend to happen, I saw one of Sue Kennedy's glass frit cabochons at BeadFest last month, and my mind started racing in a different direction.  Still soldered, bezel-set, but a totally different look from the designs with stones I had in my mind.

Copper and sterling, embellished with a 4mm turquoise cab...this was a bugger!  I melted the first one while trying to get the silver balls to stay on, and I must have used way too much solder, since even though I checked it about 20 times, once I was ready to set it, I had to tap and push and stretch to get it to fit.  As it is, I am scared it might pop out!   Overall, I am pretty proud of it, however!  I may go back and do copper chain and 86 the flowers!

Oh, by the way, all the other pieces I had high hopes of completing and amazing everyone with?  They obviously didn't come to fruition. Although, I did get one about 88% complete with great results (for me), but I must have gotten too cocky, as I botched it at the end.  It was going to be an asymetrical setting with 2 stones.  Luckily, I was able to salvage the larger setting, so I will continue on with a new design in the near future.  Here it is in mid-salvage with the stone just there...sorry, I forgot what the stone is.  I think I am going to create a new back plate with room for something for embellishment, and just solder this to it.  I am purposely hiding the top where I cut off the ruined piece which was a smaller round bezel for a 10mm carnelian :(

About 2 days after I signed up for the challenge, I remembered a honkin' big labrodorite cab I had that I cut out of a mass-produced pendant I bought ages ago.  The setting was really ugly and the cab has a big fault in it, but it really has amazing flash.  I started wrapping it with a needle-lace technique I learned a few years ago, but I put it aside, unfinished.  I decided to finish the initial bezel, but didn't get a chance to completely finish it.  My idea is to add some tiny faceted labradorite I have around the edges, and create sort of a lacy bail.  More on that later...

Thanks, Sally, for kicking my pants to get me to actually work on something that I have been wanting to but putting off!  Practice, practice, practice!  But hey, this is a Blog Hop...there are lots of other artists that joined in and have been working on amazing things, with lots of different techniques.  Who knew there were so many ways to incorporate cabochons into your designs.  Bead-woven bezels, wire-wrapped bezels, tab-set bezels...the list goes on and on!  Go and check out the awesome-ness!

Your Host:  Sally Russick

D Lynne  Bowland

Alicia Marinache           

Lynn  Jobber           

Jenny Davies-Reazor           

 

Jo-Ann  Woolverton           

Marde Lowe           

Dawn Doucette           

Mary K McGraw           

Gloria Allen           

Cheri  Reed           

Sonya Stille           

Elizabeth Owens Dwy           

Veralynne   Malone           

Tania Hagen           

Lynsey  Brooks           

Christina Miles           

Holly  Westfall           

Kathy  Lindemer           

Patti Vanderbloemen           

Therese Frank           

Adrienne Berry           

Liz   E  

Tanty  Sri Hartanti           

Ginger Bishop

Renetha Stanziano           

Marlene  Cupo           

Sandi Volpe           

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson           

Niky  Sayers

Mischelle Fanucchi           

Tracy  Stillman           

Skylar Bre'z           

Ann Schroeder           

Paula Kramer

Jess Green           

Susan Kennedy           

Stacie  Florer           

Cathie  Carroll           

Susan F.   

Michelle Caballero       

Sabine Dittrich           

Kristina Johansson           

Kimberly Sturrup-Roberts           

Melissa  Meman           

Cheryl McCloud         

Michelle  Timms           

Cindy  Pack                 

Lynda  Carson

Cynthia  Machata           

Julia  Harris           

Karin  Slaton

Ingrid  Anderson           

Karin Grosset Grange

Jasvanti Patel 

Inge  von Roos

Molly Alexander

Toltec Jewels  

 

May Component of the Month, featuring SueBeads!

It is that time of the month for Art Jewelry Elements' Component of the Month blog hop!  It seems that I am only getting the chance to blog when I have a challenge deadline, lately!  I was able to sneak in a more personal one yesterday, sharing some photos of my boys, though.

This month, our lovely components were created by Sue Kennedy of SueBeads.  Sue is an amazing glass artist, and if you are familiar with my work, you will see that she is one of my favorites!  Her beads are always consistent and lovely! Expecting nothing less for the challenge components, I was thrilled and excited to receive mine!

I have to admit, I went through about 5 designs before I decided on a necklace, but once I decided it would be a focal pendant on a chain, it sort of made itself!

I had an etched brass disk, just waiting to be used, and I decided I wanted the pendant to also be a toggle, so I punched out a 1/2 inch hole with my disc cutter, then riveted the lovely bead with one of my double headpins swirled around in the back.  To bring out the pretty purple Sue edged the bead with, I dangled a small amethyst briolette from the bottom.

Unfortunately, I didn't punch in the spot I had measured and it sort of hangs a bit wonky, so I may have to play around with figuring out how to fix!

There you have it!  Go check out what others at AJE and the winners of Sue's component giveaway came up with!


Guest Bloggers

Lorelei Eurto   http://www.lorelei1141.blogspot.com/
Birgitta Lejonklou   http://lejonklou.blogspot.com/
Heidi Post   http://www.expostfactojewelry.blogspot.com/
Lola Surwillo   http://beadlolabead.blogspot.com/
Kay Thomerson   http://kayzkreationz.blogspot.com/

AJE Team

Jennifer Cameron  http://glassaddictions.com/
Jenny Davies-Reazor   http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog
Susan Kennedy   http://www.suebeads.blogspot.com/
Linda Landig   http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/
Melissa Meman    http://melissameman.blogspot.com/
Rebekah Payne   http://www.treewingsstudio.com/
Jo Tinley     http://daisychaindesignsjewellery.blogspot.com/
Lesley Watt    http://thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com/

AJE Component of the Month Blog Hop - April Edition!

Hello out there!!  Today's post showcases lovely lampwork headpins, created by our fearless leader over at Art Jewelry Elements...Jennifer  Cameron of Glass Addictions.

I was thrilled to receive 2 pale blue transparent headpins with swirled copper wire inside!  You know me and swirls!  She indicated that we didn't have to use both headpins, but how could I resist?

I have been holding onto some special brass flowers to add to my enamel arsenal, and I decided they would be the perfect component to pair with the headpins.  I enameled them in a base of robin's egg blue, then dusted some orchid into the folds and torched.  Then, for good measure, added a bit of transparent raspberry!  I totally love how these turned out and have a few more sets of these that I will be playing with and offering for sale.

I decided to make some tiny caps for the headpins in the same orchid/raspberry hue.

Finished with some of my hand-wrought sterling and copper earwires, and embellished with Czech glass flowers, these awesome earrings measure about 2.25 inches.

Thanks for stopping by to see my creation!  Go see what everyone else came up with...you'll be glad you did!

Guest Designers:

Erin Prais-Hintz

Kathy Lindemer

Alice Peterson

AJE Team:

Susan Kennedy

Francesca Watson

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt

Melissa Meman...you are here!

Linda Landig

Jen Cameron

7th Annual Bead Soup Blog Hop Party - Round 2!

Welcome to the 7th Annual Bead Soup doo-hickey!  Sorry for delay in getting my post up.  My son went on a camping trip with the Boy Scouts this weekend. He was supposed to have left yesterday afternoon, leaving me with all kinds of creative time while his Dad was at work.  Alas, it was not to be...it rained really hard and they decided to give the ground time to dry up, so they left out this morning.  There went my Friday night crash session!  No worries, though!

For those of you in a parallel universe who have never heard of the Bead Soup Party, it is a fun challenge/swap/show and tell/blog hop dreamed up by the talented and super sweet Lori Anderson.  Participants get paired up and they swap a bead soup mix. This can include just about anything...not very many limitations, except for maybe plastic, or stuff you would otherwise throw away!  You must include a focal-sized component, and a premium clasp.  Premium?  Not just a lobster or spring ring type...more fancy!  In turn, the recipients of said bead soup can create whatever their heart desires, as long as it includes the focal and the clasp, and they don't even have to be in the same piece!

So, now that we are all on the same wavelength, let me introduce you to my partner, Pia Kaven!  She is a fabulous lampwork artist who sent me some gorgeous beads!

At first, I was sure I would be able to create something fabulous and innovative in my sleep with these!  I mean, look at them, how could I not?  After sitting down to work with them, though, the ideas just weren't coming.  The embossed beads were my 1st priority...that yummy big focal is really heavy, so I wanted it to be balanced.  After a few iterations, I decided to create a wire frame around it. I sketched out several ideas and finally came up with this.

I textured the copper wire and wrapped the focal onto it, then embellished it with one of the smaller spacer beads Pia sent.  I knotted several of the coordinating beads on some leather cord in a teal color that I got in a box of cool goodies from Melinda Orr. I made some little tubes from some etched copper to wrap the leather with, inspired by Keirsten Giles' lovely copper work, then connected the leather section to some copper chain.  Finishing touches include some Czech glass flowers (old habits are hard to break) and a swirly copper hook clasp I made.

With the smaller embossed beads, I created earrings in the same design.

The clasp Pia sent was very sweet...I couldn't fit it into my idea for the main design, though, so I decided it would make a perfect clasp for one of my Swarovski rosary bracelets.  Another one of Pia's beads...this one with swirly seafoam-y color...was added as the Pater bead.

Here is what I sent Pia...go and visit her blog and see what I created.

For the full list of participants of this round, go over to Lori's blog... there are a lot of us, so have fun!