welcome

mary jane dodd

malachite azurite 

each month, our very generous readers/supporters donate their wares to our artspark... recently, i was contacted by laura and karl hansen of cabbing rough... she offered to donate to our group every month so that you very lucky people (who need only submit to the artspark challenge) might win one of the beautiful stones they will provide....

think of the techniques you can start learning to use them - prong setting, tab setting, making bezels of beads or metal, wire wrapping... 

cabbing rough has a blog, etsy shop and flickr group... their family was even featured in the etsy blog... for this truly is a family business... you can follow all of the links to learn more... 

i asked laura to share a bit about cabbing rough so that we could bring people to the name... 

My husband Karl and I work together cutting our stones, it started as a hobby but we now work full time from home. We have 4 children Dylan (12) Tyler (11) Molly (6) and Charlie (4). Our kids are the center of our world. They are all very involved with what we do as well - rocks are fascinating to kids! Especially our daughter Molly, she can cab a rock herself with almost no help, and can identify more stones than most adult collectors!

 

Karl and I are both completely self taught. In fact, we tried cutting our first rocks with a tile saw because we did not have the money for lapidary equipment. It was just about 6 years ago I ran into a 92 year old man at a flea market that sold us our first grinder and saw for $90.

 

Cutting stones is the greatest job I have ever had. It's amazing to be able to take something that looks like nothing, cut it open and find the amazing colors and patterns that are possible. I love the thought that the rock I just cut may have sat for a millions of years in one spot. A dinosaur could have stepped on the rock I cut this morning!

 

So we take rocks and cut them to look beautiful, then send them all over the world to become something amazing by some of the most talented artists. When I work on a rock, I often imagine a finished jewelry design for it. My favorite part of my job is too see our stone in a finished piece of jewelry.

 

We sell our stones on etsy. My mom actually pushed us into etsy about a year and a half ago. We never thought there would be any market for our hobby. Since then we have cut and sold over 3000 stones through the marketplace. And through etsy I have made so many very good friends.

there is even an article on how to cut a rock on their blog... 

dinosaur bone

so welcome laura and karl to our little village... and many thanks to you for your generosity... 

august's artspark theme will be announced shortly - be on the look out for cabbing rough's beautiful donation for the month... 

You Decide.....

by MaryAnn Carroll

The other day I needed some wire to complete a project so I ran off to a local chain supply store.  I got what I needed, but while there, I decided to browse the bead aisles and check out the latest commercial supplies and the prices.  I'll be honest, my main focus was ceramic. 

I came upon some new styles that I hadn't seen before.  I then checked out the price....  YUP!  less than mine.  Not as much as I expected though....  I looked at where they were made..... YUP! looks like it must be a factory that mass produces.  I wanted to take a picture with my phone, but thought that might be illegal tacky....

My guess is that there is a good chance that they were created under less than satisfactory conditions and that they would not be held to the standard that the majority of handmade bead artists hold themselves to.

For example, is there lead?

You certainly do not see a list of ingredients when you are buying beads.  There are certain chemicals that have been proven to be dangerous to your health.  Another great part about buying handmade is that you not only have a right to ask artists who create handmade if they are creating their product with that in mind, but that you can easily contact the artist as well.  It would be pretty difficult to trace down the products that I was looking at and find the answers to those kinds of questions. 

Then.... 

...there is quality.  I don't know about you, but if I'm making a piece, I want it to look like the Queen of England would wear it to the royal wedding....  hmmmmmm......

Well.... okay.... that is a

slight exaggeration......

...maybe just the young granddaughter of the Queen when she wants to be sportin' some style in her casual attire.

Back before I learned the differences in beads, I purchased many, many, many, many, many and even many more commercial beads than any one person should have.  I went into my studio and dug through my stash.  I thought that putting them side by side might be the best way to ask,

"What differences are so obvious that they just knocked you in the face, dropping you from your chair, leaving you to crawl painfully back up to the computer and say, 

"Where the heck have I been?"

As for where they originated.....

....The commercial beads on the left are from unknown places.

Those on the right, however, are from (top to bottom)

http://julsbeads.etsy.com

http://gaea.etsy.com

http://gardannebeads.etsy.com

http://cabbingrough.etsy.com

Once you have recovered from your fall.....  You know.... the one that you had just a couple of minutes ago..... feel free to add your thoughts about the beauty of handmade.

....and what kind of person would I be if I didn't say.......

~thank-you for creating/buying handmade with handmade~

Nature at LoveMyArtJewelry

By Kelli Pope

 Even though the July Art Spark has ended, I continue to LOVE the idea of inspiration from NATURE. Looking around, it seems all of the artists at LMAJ feel the same. Here's an ode to my fellow LMAJ artists, and their "Natural" talent..............................

Mary Ann's "stones"... sure to add a natural, earthiness to any piece of jewelry.

Maire Dodd's beautiful flowers, forever frozen in time

Patty's beautiful flower. Such a wonderful color combination.

LeAnn's rustic dragonfly & flower pendant would add a casually rustic touch to any necklace.
D'Arsie's wonderful little birds.... they've graced many of my own pieces. Aren't they darling?

Jen's GORGEOUS leafy necklace! What a showstopper!

Izzy's necklace! What a whimsically wonderful creation!!

And last but not least, Staci's beautiful wings would give any piece a magical touch!!!!!

What a talented bunch of artists!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't you just LOVE handmade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Man Behind the Mask GIVEAWAY...

by MaryAnn Carroll

Well...

.....every time Bill fires, I seem to find myself a favorite.....  Sometimes, I just like to display them on the shelf over the sink until they sell, other times, I don't want to give them up.   This is a keeper.  I just fell in love with the little guy as soon as I saw him.  The story behind him is that one day, months back, Bill and I went to a house "sale" where they were selling ceramic molds from the 60's.  Not quite sure how I felt about the guy who was selling his father's molds from years ago since he was trying to get top dollar for something that they would have to pay to dispose of since there is a VERY limited market out there of people wanting anything like this.

Well...  Bill did buy some molds and I did take home some greenware that the guy gave to me for free since it was also 40 years old and it was pretty iffy as to whether or not is would make the ride home.  His Dad had been a high school ceramics teacher and died about 40 years ago and his Mom had recently passed.  The greenware had been there all these years.  I took them since I thought I could fire them and have my grandchildren and nieces glaze them for entertainment.

Anyhow.... Bill took some of these molds and made some crazy little creatures from combining various rabbits, ducks, people, etc. This guy is one of those. And since I'm puzzled as to what to name him I am asking for your help. If you would like to win this sampling of wood-fired beads, how about offering a name to help me decide. I will pick my 10 favorites and then randomly draw from that.

These just came out of the wood-fire kiln yesterday.  Wood-firing is not the same as raku.  If you would like to learn more about Bill's wood-firing click HERE to keep updated on his blog.  For more work by Bill.... (there will be some new listings soon), click HERE to be taken to his Etsy shop.

And.... now for what I had in the wood-firing..... I'll be listing some and keeping some. I am so behind on listing these days and I still have another glaze firing coming up this weekend. My mind is getting a tad bit overloaded. When I reach that point, I just don't know where to begin.  With that said and with an overloaded brain that is incapable of coming up with anything catchy to say, here are some gorgeous beads that the pictures are not giving complete justice to.

Thanks for reading......

MaryAnn

Home Sweet Home

Hi, All! It's been a while since I've been on the LMAJ blog. I'm just now feeling a little bit settled since we made the big move from West Texas to North Carolina. It's been a long trip in more ways than one. Life could not be more different here. For one thing it's really, really green.  West Texas summer is hot, dry and kind of brown. And there are hills here and it rains...a lot.

The house we moved into hasn't been lived in for more than 3 years. You can probably picture the state of the gardens. Total wreck. We've spent many hours out there cleaning things up. It's something of an obsession of mine right now. I love to grow things. Yes, I know this is a jewelry blog but we're getting there. Truly.

The heat last week chased me back inside and to my new studio. Air conditioning is the best thing since sliced bread! I'd show you pictures of the new studio but it's a disgraceful mess right now. It's starting to feel like home sweet home. Maybe another time I'll give you a tour?

These are some of the things out in the garden that are inspiring my work right now. Coreopsis, bitty baby tomatoes, new leaves, tickseed. It's not so much about the colour as the shapes. I love the form of seed heads, the unfolding of leafs, opening blossoms. I take a little tour every morning as the day is getting light. I'm looking for new small wonders to reveal themselves. I'm never disappointed and always feel quite in awe of the beauty of quietly growing things.

Bronze head pins. I never in a million years would have thought I might make head pins. But they just seemed the way to put together beads into something that mirrored my feelings about all of the lush green growing things out there in my little world.

And bead caps. I have one hundred zillion ideas in my head for bead caps.

These are my tomatoes. OK, I know they don't really look that much like tomatoes. But that's the great thing about taking a leap from the literal to the abstract. You can use what you see, what feels good as a spring board to expressing your own unique world view. 

So what's inspiring you right now?

Beading the Heat: Go Mobile!

by Patty Lakinsmith

 A few months ago I started a system for beading that's working well for me.  I'm not one of those who cleans up after every beading session, and this system at least helps to contain the disaster.  A little.  I've started taking my jewelry assembly work mobile.  For me this usually means in front of the TV while the baseball game is on in the living room (Go Giants!  Beat the Phillies!).  I do my soldering and hammering and other messy and noisy stuff in my jewelry studio, but simple assembly and wirework can be done anywhere. 

It builds on the system of using the oblong black jewelry trays with the velvet liner pads.  I put everything I'll need to assemble a piece in the tray, and I can take it anywhere to work.  I keep separate trays for my work in antiqued brass and silver, and only include the supplies I'll need to make a particular style.  I'll grab a set of lampwork beads or some focals, a tray, some gemstones, and my round divided container that contains things I use often - seamless rounds in several sizes, daisy spacers, crimp beads, etc.  It makes it very easy for me to "riff" on certain themes and produce a number of pieces using the same theme, colors, and components.  It's also not too messy and can be easily set aside when necessary.  Since I started storing my gemstones in clear plastic divided boxes, sorted by color families, it makes it easier to find things.  Could it be that I am finally organized?  Weeelllll, I wouldn't go that far, but I feel like it might be a good start.

We have been fortunate here in the San Francisco Bay area not to be suffering with the oppressive heat the rest of the country has, but on warmer days or just those where I want a change of scenery, I like to head outside to my new favorite shady spot.  My mom and I recently refinished this loveseat that her dad built years ago, and it's on the deck under an arbor thick with wisteria, and surrounded by fragrant jasmine.  I do my best gardening on the deck in pots, where my treasures are safe from predators and more regularly loved, and it's wonderful to soak up all of that inspiration Mother Nature serves up every single day.

How about you?  How has the heat affected your creative work?  Have you found a clever way to beat the heat?

Art Spark Winner for July

by Izzy Winterhart


I hope everyone is staying cool in this heat.  When I first posted this challenge my husband and I were finishing our gorgeous deck build.  These past few weekends we've been building a Japanese style walkway off the deck.  This weekend temperatures hoovered in the 100's and let's just say we were insane to be out there in it...  We don't have a lick of sense.


Something magical took place in our back yard this past spring.  In a old, dead holly tree about 50 or so feet from the back of our house, two Barred owls chose to build a nest.  (We named them Ollie and Hollie).

Two adorable feathered babes were born  And after about a month we got to see two sweet babies occasionally peeking out from the tree.

Ollie, Hollie, nor the babies were a bit scared of us and I could always get close to take some amazing photos.

One night we spotted one of the babies several feet from the nest.  I was scared because he was perched on the very top of the old tree and I didn't want him to fall.  It wasn't long when I realized what he was doing.  He was leaving the nest.

I took this shot just as he flew from the perch and crashed just below on the ground.  Oh, my heart sank.  But Ollie was close by and talking to this little guy the entire time.  With a little guidance, nudging and love Ollie helped this babe find his tree.  

The babies leave the nest after a few months, find a tree close by and they stay there until they get the flying thing right.  Sometimes we'd catch this fellow flapping around from limb to limb then climbing back up with his talons.  Then we didn't see the babes anymore.  We occasionally hear Ollie and Hollie talking to each other but don't see them much.  I miss my little owl family.


So when I saw this beautiful necklace in our Art Spark Gallery, well it melted my heart.  I thought of my little owl family and the happiness they brought and it made me smile.  I just adore this necklace.

Needless to say Erika, supere67 your piece won me over.  Here's what she had to say about her Owl Family Necklace.

"I’ve always loved owls. My favorite is the snowy owl, followed by the Saw Whet Owl (the smallest owl in nature.) So it was only natural to incorporate that love into jewelry. I also love to use ceramic beads; since they come from the earth, they are inspired by nature themselves. The same goes for stone beads. Somehow, using something that came out of the ground makes me feel closer to the earth.

So I decided to use ceramic owl beads and pair them with stone and wood beads, for a very earthy feel. When I started looking for owl beads on etsy, I saw so many varied interpretations of the owl. Some were funky, some were whimsical, and some were just plain cute! It was a lot fun working with different artisans to collect all the owls for this necklace! My goal was to use a different artisan for each owl (although Branch Designs had three owls in her listing, and I used all three in the piece:))

The colors of the piece were also inspired by nature. All the tans and browns remind me of the forest trees where the owls make their homes. The blues of the sodalite, lapis and blue lace agate remind me of cornflowers in a meadow.

The necklace has owl beads from the following etsy artisans:

BranchDesigns
artknacky
kylieparry
ALDDesigns
lesliejunedesigns
ClaymatesPottery
SummersStudioEtc

I also included a ceramic round from etsy's NKPBeads and a ceramic cube from etsy's Jubilee, blue lace agate, river stone, petrified wood chips, sodalite, lapis, jasper and wood."

You win lots of fun stuff.

Please contact Melissa at www.chinookjewelry.com and let her know you won Art Spark so she can send you the lovely beads she donated.

And contact MaryAnn through her Etsy shop so she can send the wonderful beads she made for the challange.

Oh, you lucky thing, one more.  Contact Maire Dodd through her Etsy shop so she can send the book "Making Metal Beads".

Thank you so much for submitting your necklace and bringing back the memories of the little owl family.  And thanks to all you other creative souls who entered some amazing pieces in this challenge.  It has been so much fun to see how you are all inspired by nature.

Winner of the Gorgeous Ring.....

by MaryAnn Carroll

created by Lu from CiaoLucia on Etsy.....

is....

Lori from Pretty Things!!!!  Congratulations Lori! 

Please contact Lu through her Etsy shop with your address.

~thank-you for creating handmade with handmade~

MaryAnn

'simplify,

mary jane dodd

simplify.' 

~ henry david thoreau

sometimes in the simplest things we are most challenged and most rewarded... 

during the course of this past week, i tried something new... 

making leaves...

this experiment, while novel to me, felt anything but... instead it was as if they had been there all along... the techniques i had been applying elsewhere finding their true purpose in these types of pieces... 

'the clearest way to the Universe 

is through a forest wilderness.'

~ john muir

my artspark challenge entry

Art Spark tangent (again)

by Kelli Pope

In preparing for my Art Spark assignment, I walked out into the backyard to take in nature. No real sparks hit me. With 2 large dogs and a pretty small back yard, we keep it simple - grass and, well grass. I went out front and looked at the flowers, the beautiful grass and other shades of green, our towering maple tree.... hmmmm.... still no spark. Then my mind started wandering (my mind? :) really?? ) to the last time our 2o month old granddaughter was here in the front yard. It's been so incredibly hot out, the most fun thing for her to do is play out front in the sprinkler. I'm not sure who enjoys it more, her or us. She is just so incredibly delighted by water. We've bought her a few toys to have here at our house, but she usually prefers to play with what she's not supposed to. So, I tend to get creative. (By "creative", I mean, I gave her a plastic cup to play with in the sprinkler.) She LOVED it. She'd put the cup in the spray, and of course, to her delight, it would shoot out of her hand across the yard. If she bent too far into the spray and it got her in the face, she would just giggle and run! OH, the pure joy of the sprinkler on a hot day!!!!!!!!!!! AHA! A spark!!!!!

(sorry about the fuzzy pic. I pulled a still from the video we shot.)

So, once again, I've taken a perfectly WONDERFUL art spark assignment-NATURE- and gone off on another tangent.

My hammered copper sprinkler, with silver water!!!

Have you completed your Art Spark piece yet?? How does NATURE spark your creativity?

We're Having a Heat Wave!

by Jennifer VanBenschoten

And of course, our air conditioner is broken. Up here in the Adirondacks, we're just starting to feel the heat that has been baking the rest of the country for nearly a week now. Our air conditioner ceased to work yesterday afternoon, and until we can get a new one later today, it is going to be a hot, sticky and uncomfortable in the house. Lucky for me, I can go into Lake Placid later and sit in the air conditioning at the local coffee house and use their free wi-fi for work!

So, while I contemplate how much I really dislike the heat, I thought I'd share some of my favorite Etsy items with the theme of snow and ice...

These ice cube nuggets beads by Catalina Glass will make the temperature drop!

I love these icy blue glass beads. These would make lovely spacers in a beadwoven necklace.

Maybe I could put this lovely beadwoven choker in the freezer for a few minutes and let it cool my neck.

Just looking at this piece makes me yearn for a good winter storm.

And these lovely Cool Waters Goddess Totem earrings might be just what I need to bring a little bit of cooling rain to upstate New York!

What do you like to do to cool off in the heat? I need some ideas to keep my core temperature down until I can get in the pool later this afternoon!

"OOOoooooo.....................What is this?"

By Staci L. Smith

I don’t know about you, but I am a real stickler about making sure the jewelry I make is good quality.  I give a guarantee, and if, for some reason, it breaks, or they are unhappy, I will fix or replace it.  Now, I don't mind doing that at all, because I want people to be happy, but I don’t really want to be fixing stuff all the time either.  Mostly, I don’t want my customers to be without their jewelry.

In order to avoid this, I test it.  When I create a new design, I make sure to wear it around the house, carrying diaper bags, and groceries.  Cleaning, playing, ect…..  Only then do I feel confident enough that my design can be worn and worn and worn, with no worries. 

Since I have been working in copper, I have been agonizing about how it wears over a long time.  I use patinas on my copper and bronze, and seal them.  I tell my customers NOT to wear them in the ocean, or pool in order to protect the color.

So, last Friday, we went to  Long Beach Island for a day trip, and I decided to see what would happen if I wore one of my necklaces to the beach.

before fun in the sun and surf

I picked this one.  It has some copper loops with a verdigris patina on them, sealed with permalac and wax.  It also has a copper bezel that is only waxed lightly.

I did not go into the water completely, but I did play in the surf with the kids. 

(Oh, it was such a nice day for it too!  Lots of stuff on the beach to salvage as well!)

On the way home, after a 12 hour day trip, I took off my necklace and looked at it.  “OOoooooo…………..What is this?”  There, on my lightly waxed copper, was verdigris beginning to develop.  It had patterns, as if it were splashed on.  Splashed……………like from water..........from the salt water!!!!!  (and yes, my mind was a tad slow to put this together.  I try not to think too much after a day in the sun)

After fun in the sun and surf

So I did what anyone would have done, and Googled “patina by salt water” from my phone.  Guess what?  It works.   It’s and it’s all natural.  I am totally trying this, and hope that when I do it on purpose, it looks as cool as when the ocean did it by accident. 

So this week I plan to Google more ways to naturally patina my metal.  I am always trying to keep my studio as green as possible.  I also may buy Tim McCreights DVD on patina. 

I hear he tells you all about using household products to color your metal surfaces. 

WOW!  I just love when something like this happens.  I really wanted to find out if my patina would hold up with the salt water (and it did, though I still don’t recommend wearing it in the ocean), but I found out something new and exciting too.

So, share with me……..have you had any happy accidents?  Discovered something totally different then you set out to?