Studio Wednesday

Nov12

We are now entering the late fall and I think that the darker bronzy colors of trees and leaf are making their way into my jewelry. I beaded these earrings today. The photo doesn’t do justice to the gorgeous antiqued gold black twisted bugle beads. I made a bugle bead ladder and then added the light orange and bronze beads along one side of the ladder with a 2-bead brick stitch. After beading that side, I added a tapered fringe on the other side, using the same beads and the russet glass leaves. I like the way the outline of the leaf veins matches the light orange beads.

A carpet of dark russet leaves lined the path on my walk the other day. I’m so glad to live in a place where we experience all 4 seasons. I’m ready for the weather to grow cooler at this time of year. In the evenings, I’ve been cozying up next to a roaring fire in our new fireplace insert. Wow, that insert really works great. When it reaches a certain temperature, a fan turns on and blows the heat (that normally would be lost up the chimney) out into the room. With the fireplace downstairs in my studio, we have set up a small fan in the stairwell to bring the heat up into the rest of the house. So, with my fire going and the house nice and warm, I am very content at this time of the year. I feel so blessed.

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
– John Muir

Studio Wednesday

Nov5

Last weekend I made some sterling silver eyepins and epoxied them into my faux jade polymer clay word charms. In my studio today, I finished each charm with a dangle and placed each one onto a stainless steel cable choker. These chokers are great. Finished with a magnet clasp, I am amazed at how easy they are to put on and take off. I tested the strength of the magnet by giving the choker a tug and it stayed in place.

From left to right above, the dangles are fancy jasper, turquoise, red tiger’s eye, pearl and a glass leaf.

I made the dangles with headpins I created myself with 20 gauge sterling silver wire and my micro torch. I have a confession to make. I’ve had this torch for years and today was the first time I ever used it. I’ve always had a fear of flames and torches. That’s probably why I don’t do more metalwork. When I took a metalsmithing class several summers ago, my heart would practically thump out of my chest every time it was my turn to solder. I always made sure my teacher was close by but I was still very nervous.

I’m happy to share that today I pushed past my torch fear and put my micro torch to work. After going over the directions quite a number of times (ok, probably 10 times), I went out on the back deck and filled the torch with butane. I was so elated when I turned it on and it worked. I kept telling myself that it was a big lighter and that helped ease my anxiety a bit. I rested the torch on the firebrick and turned it on. Then, with my other hand, I grasped a 2 1/2 inch length of silver wire with a pair of old pliers and lowered the end of the wire into the flame just beyond the blue cone. The best way to do this is to hold the wire vertically, not tilting it to either side but straight up and down. A ball formed on the end of the wire very nicely and I removed the wire from the flame. After resting the wire on the brick, I made the next headpin and so on until all pieces of wire had a ball on the end.

The balls were all black from the fire but they cleaned up rather nicely with some steel wool and a polishing cloth.

While I worked, Jack kept a close watch for bunnies and squirrels…

Studio Wednesday

Oct15

I’ve had a really lousy week so far so I decided to cheer myself up with some lemon and orange slices. No, not the fruit and no, not the candy that looks like the fruit but the polymer clay cane variety. I’ve been thinking of making a fring-y bracelet for awhile now, using lemon, orange, lime and pink grapefruit cane slices, and today was the perfect day to start that project!

I took a break around mid-day and went for a nice long walk. What a beautiful warm fall day. It was so peaceful and quiet except for the swishing sound of my sneakers on the newly fallen golden leaves. I love their sweet dry smell. The sky was so blue and the trees were ablaze in orange, red, gold and maroon. As I looked up at the trees, I could see the leaves falling down like a soft rain whenever the breeze kicked up. A perfect moment…

Studio Wednesday

Oct8

Today was not the usual full day in my studio as I was organizing and packing for my trip to Texas tomorrow. I was able to string the necklace for my turquoise cabochon. Originally, I wanted to have each strand directly attached to the beadwork framing the cabochon but the beads didn’t lay right when I tried it. Then I tried adding a bead in between a couple of the caramel picot beads on top. As I did that, I realized that I could peyote stitch a piece coming out of the top. Furthermore, that piece could be built up 3 rows, one for each of my necklace strands. The small oval turquoise beads were purchased at the Whole Bead show a couple of weekends ago. I brought the cab with me to the show so I could match the color of the turquoise. It’s amazing how many different colors turquoise beads can be! I’m still mulling over what to do with the clasp.

I also got a little time in on my September journal bracelet. The turquoise beads on either side of the tree spirit face were also purchased at the Whole Bead show. I love the crackle pattern in them.

I looked on the Weather.com website and saw that it will be 87 degrees down in Texas. It’s a good thing I hadn’t put my summer clothes away just yet. Be back on Sunday!

Studio Wednesday – The Birth of a Freeform Peyote Bracelet, the Final Part

Oct1

For the final phase of my bracelet, I created a rectangular paper template and placed it underneath my beadwork so I could see which areas needed to be built up. You can make a flowing organic shape that does not have straight edges, if you’d like. Use your imagination to draw any shape template to use as a guide.

Now it’s time to create my clasp. Because my bracelet is wide, I’ve decided to place 4 medium size pearls along the left edge to see how they would look.

I like the look so I go ahead and sew them on one at a time, being careful of the spacing as I bead.

Once they’re all placed on my bracelet, I reinforce them by running the thread back through each pearl. This is an important step to make sure they are securely fastened. You can even go through the beads a third time if the holes in your “buttons” allow it. Switching to a thinner needle can help in this process. Now it’s time to add loops to the other side.