Inspiration, Dimension, Tutorial of sorts……..

By Staci L. Smith


I love the beach.  I could spend hours upon hours, just standing there, where the land meets the sea.  When we go,  I can often be found scouring the shoreline for goodies……mostly sea glass, but also shells, old, full of holes, broken, smoothed, beach stones, driftwood, and anything that makes me look twice.

They end up in bowls and cups and sometimes just piles everywhere in my home. I just love to look at them, and they always inspire me, and remind me of the shore I long for.


You see, I love texture, so to me, these little items that I collected become endless inspiration.........the shapes, lines, and TEXTURES find their way into my jewelry.

I promise, this is going somewhere!  Stay with me.

So the other night, I was in my studio, with lots of sheet metal. I wanted to make something with texture and dimension to it. I tried some fold forming and made some cool leaves…..but I needed it to be round. Thats what was in my head, and I wasn't going to rest until they I had them (I am drawn to circles and spirals, in case you didn't notice..…)

So I got out my handy dandy, super awesome, disc cutter and began to cut out discs. I cut them out in all kinds of sizes, and then I went further and cut some of the centers out of them too. I planned to make some funky version of a lentil bead for charms and pendants.

Since I walked you through the inspiration, I will walk you through the process. It amazed me how simple it was. It amazed me, how transformed my little metal discs were. I loved it so much, I made a zillion of them (ok, not a zillion, but a lot for sure)!

First, take two discs, one a little smaller than the other.

Place the larger disc on the dapping block, and dome it.

Take the smaller disc, place it on a rubber block, and with a center punch, make pointy dots on it for texture. (you can make any texture on yours, this was inspired by a shell a found with little points on it)

Then place that disc, texture side down, in the dapping block and dome it.

Then punch a hole in the larger disc towards the top.

Smear some Easy Solder Paste on the bottom disc where they will meet.

Put them together, lentil style, and place onto your solder block.

Torch it.

Quench it.

Pickle it.

Voila.

Then tumble and patina.  These were antiqued in Liver of Sulphur.

There are still cookin’ in some cool Miss Fickle patina’s.

Do they look sea shell like in nature?  Do they have that "found by the sea" feel to them?  I think they kinda do.....
Tomorrow these will get buffed, and sprayed, sealed and then waxed.  Then, they are ready to go.  Some for my designs, some for my shop. 

See, you can take any simple design idea (like a lentil style bead) and turn it into something all your own....all you need is a little inspiration!!

Have you ever taken a common shape or form, and re-made it into your own style somehow?

August Art Spark monthly winner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU to all who entered the monthly challenge!!! We had many "HAPPY" entries.

Unfortunately, there can be but one winner...........


so without further delay................

...........................drumroll, please.....................................

the

winner

is

MOLLY ALEXANDER

"The color red. I gravitate towards it without thinking. It warms my heart and makes me smile. It makes me feel alive. On days when I am down, I put on red lipstick and the world seems brighter. A red sweater in the cold winter warms me despite the temperature. My house has touches of it throughout, so I can go into any room and feel it radiating through me, lifting me up from where I am, despite circumstances.

Life and love. Happiness. The color red.

These beautiful poppy lampwork beads are from Tanya McGuire, and the pewter leaf is from Lynn Davis, and they hang from a soldered copper chain I made to go with them. "
Molly Alexander
www.beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com

CONGRATS MISS MOLLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please tune in next month for our SEPTEMBER ART SPARK CHALLENGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beads-of-Clay Cyber SALE

by MaryAnn Carroll

Check it out!!!  Today is your day to add to your ceramic bead collection....

or....if you don't have one yet, today is a great day to try beads-of-clay in your projects.....

Why don't you head on over by clicking HERE 

for easy links to all of the shops that are offering special sales...

Here's a preview of what you will find.  

This treasury was put together by Marsha Neal of Marsha Neal Studio.

For the actual treasury, click HERE.

As always....

~thank-you for creating handmade with handmade~

MaryAnn

Double the Fun.... Double the Giveaway.....

by MaryAnn Carroll

Double the winners....  This time you have TWO chances to win..... Yes, TWO!!!

We have these lovely earrings created by our own Mary Jane Dodd.

This is what Maire says about these copper beauties....

small simple om earrings - measuring 1" or 25mm

I love them!!!

 And.... I just LOVE these, too!  Look at all of the handmade with handmade!!!

Jean, whose Etsy shop is jeanawells, created these and donated them to Love My Art Jewelry

for our bi-weekly giveaway.  Thanks Jean!

Ohhhhh....and there is the question....  hmmmmmm.....

The question:

What handmade materials are your favorite when it comes to buying components for jewelry or creating your own?  Why?  If you do not create jewelry, what are your favorite styles of handmade jewelry?  (example: combination of silver with lampwork)

Here's how this will work:

Everyone has up to three chances to enter.

For those of you who have other social network sites:

1. One chance to win by leaving an answer to the question.

2.  Post it your blog, facebook, twitter, etc. and come back letting us know (each time) that you did.  Please leave the link to that post.  Please pick no more than two addtional social networks to post on.

For those of you who don't have a social network site:

1.  One chance to win by leaving an answer to the question.

2.  Visit our website http://lovemyartjewelry.com and sign our guestbook letting us know that you are doing so because of this double earrings giveaway and come back to our blog and tell us that you did that.

3.  If you have not already, join one of our members blogs (they can be found at our website by clicking on the members name) and come back to let us know that you did.  If you follow all of our members blogs, then leave a comment on one of any member's most recent blog post related to their post and come back and tell us about it.

I hope I'm not writing too much and making it confusing.  Ultimately, whether you are a social networker or you are not, you have up to 3 chance to enter to be one of two winners for the earrings pictured.

~Thanks so much for reading~

MaryAnn

reminders

mary jane dodd

'nature is an infinite sphere 

whose center is everywhere 

and whose circumference is nowhere.'

~ blaise pascal

on the east coast this week we are being reminded of the power, the reach, the wonder of the natural world... (mother nature is equitable, we all get turns)

and so i grew quiet and became attentive... 

i know that the brilliance of autumn is just around the corner...

and that, as always, balance is key... 

New pieces, and new adventures!!!

by Kelli Pope



The last couple weeks have been a blur, with putting pieces in a new shop, and preparing for not one, but TWO private parties. It's been jewelry, jewelry, jewelry around the Pope household. And then, in September, all of the shows start, and it will be time to dust off the tent, and start stressing over booth set up again.

Here are a couple of my favorite pieces from the last couple weeks.

Hammered, antiqued copper and hammered sterling silver

Hammered, antiqued copper with patinated components from me and MissFickleMedia

The highlight of today however, was receiving this book in the mail. While I have no idea when I'll have time to start enameling, I can't wait to do so. And can't imagine anyone better at showing me how! (.....maybe it will be my New Year project........)

And last, but not least, I FINALLY bought a kiln!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ain't she grand!!!!!!!!!! :0) I can't wait to put her to good use!!! Many, many, MANY thanks go out to my good friend Mary Ann for firing all my beads for me up to this point, and giving me SUCH wonderful advice.

Meet Me Halfway

So, here's a little joke that I stole from my sister's blog:

There's a devout man who prays to God every day. Every day, he gets down on his knees and asks, "Dear Lord, please let this week be the week that I win the lottery. Thank you. Amen." He does this every day for years. He never loses his faith. One day, he gets down on his knees once again and asks, "Dear Lord, please let this week be the week that I win the lottery." After all these years, God finally feels like He must intervene. He appears before the man and says, "Hey, I'll do whatever I can, but you have to meet me halfway. At least buy a lottery ticket!"

Well, I found that the Universe was giving me one of those "Meet Me Halfway" messages a few weeks ago. I had missed a deadline for submitting my work to a publisher, and I felt terrible about it. But there was nothing else to be done - I had just started my new job over at Beading Daily, I was trying to get my son ready for his summer preschool sessions (preschool, already!) and we were trying to keep up with the massive amounts of produce coming out of the gardens. (Nightly pickling and canning sessions so that we have vegetables all winter long!) 

So I was very surprised when I got an email that included an extension in the deadline! I knew that I needed excellent photographs of my work, so I quickly emailed my friend Nancy Dale over in Vermont. She and her husband Sherwood Lake had offered to take some photographs of my work - Sherwood is a professional photographer! I quickly packed up eight pieces of my favorite beadwork and sent them off.

I was delighted with the images that came back to me:

 

I won't know for sure whether or not any of the pieces actually make it into the book, but even if they don't, now I have some professional quality photographs of some of my favorite work!

I think it was Woody Allen who said that 80% of success is just showing up. Even if my pieces aren't selected for the book, I showed up. I think that a lot of creative success is exactly that - just doing the work. If you don't make the stuff that's not-so-good, then you won't be able to move through it to the great stuff. If you don't send in your applications for art shows and craft shows, then you won't be accepted.

Now go into your studio and MAKE STUFF!

Men wear jewelry too

by LeAnn Weih 

It started with these two bracelts that I made for myself. Then I made another for my daughter. Peter remarked, "you know, men wear jewelry too."  I should not have been terribly surprised by this revelation. A couple of years ago my 7 year old nephew went into a bit of a pout when I made his sister a necklace. We ended up selecting a bronze dragonfly and a simple leather cord for him. Or there were the men who would come by my table at art market and look at metal pieces and then be disappointed that I didn't have cords that were a good length for men.

So this started me thinking maybe I should make Peter a bracelet or two. So I challenged myself to use the basic design of these two bracelets to come up with the masculine counter parts. Bronze components seemed an obvious choice but most of the pieces I make are decidedly on the feminine side.

So I made up some new styles of components that were a bit more rustic and had a somewhat heavier feel to them. I used much heavier leather than in my bracelets. All of the beads I have are more feminine than I was looking for in men's jewelry. So instead I made up coils of heavy 16 gauge bronze wire and used them in place of beads.

Your turn!

Do you make men's jewelry?

What do you look for in the design of men's jewelry?