Art Beads - not just for jewelry!

by Patti Vanderbloemen

Don't hate me for bringing up Christmas on November 16th...but...we have spent almost all of last week decorating our house for Christmas. Yes...in November....before Thanksgiving. Personally, I despise anything Christmas-related BEFORE Halloween. After that...it's fair game with me! Actually, I am hosting several get together's at my home beginning on Thanksgiving, and I have TONS of decorations that I have accumulated through the years. If it's not done by now..it ain't gettin' done!

The majority of my decorations are handmade. Some from craft shows I have attended through the years...but most have been made by me or my extremely talented mother. She has dabbled in all crafts - ceramics, lapidary, jewelry making, sewing, quilting, crocheting - if I have any creativity at all, it comes from my mother's genes (no disrespect to my Dad)!   

It is a CHORE to decorate: empty plastic bin after plastic bin, move the everyday stuff out of the way and pack it away, dust, arrange, rearrange, put the plastic bins away. It's a workout. But I must say, each year as I open the bins and pull out a special decoration, memories - sweet memories - flood my mind.

While I promise to end this post as it relates to the title - Art Beads - I thought I would share just a sampling of what I have uncovered this past week.

The Snow Babies collection - anyone else remember these? I believe the original "maker" of these gems is Department 56. I have probably a hundred of these hand painted lovelies - most are ornaments - painted by either me or Mom.

Some of my Snow Babies are not ornaments, but stand alone decorations.

My parents lived in Florida for at least 25 years. When I visited, I preferred to stay indoors as I absolutely despise the heat (sorry Karen - way too hot for me where you live!) So, during yearly visits, Mom would plan craft marathon sessions, and we would sit and paint ornament after ornament, while Dad watched football, golf, etc..

This little guy has such a mischievous face...

This one of Mary and Jesus is still one of my favorites that my mom painted - a dry brush technique. The eyes are perfect, which is why I know this is one of Mom's creations and not mine!

My favorite ornaments were made from light bulbs! Yes - light bulbs! Flesh-tone painted (Mom had to paint the eyes), lots of glue and batting, and felt...so cute!

Somewhere - there are matching reindeer light bulb ornaments...but I cannot find them...yet!

One of my trees - I have 3 - is decorated with about 20 of these quilted poinsettia flowers that Mom made just a couple of years ago.

Mom moved in with us five years ago - and her focus nowadays is quilting. I have gorgeous handmade quilts, place mats, and the most beautiful table toppers- for pretty much every single season! Yes...I am blessed!

On to the art beads!

For the past few years, I joined Sally Russick's Ornament blog hop. I loved participating in  this hop - swapping handmade ornaments made with art beads.  

Pam Ferrari gifted me these tiny little treasures a few years ago, made with her lampwork beads. Look at that angel on the left - a bead cone for the body!

Susan Kennedy combined one of her gorgeous handmade lampwork beads with Crystals from a chandelier for this ornament.

I sent Susan Kennedy this ornament, with a perfect holly-themed bead by Donna Millard, and a bit of metalwork by me. 

I was  attempting to recreate the striping on the sides of a drum with wire...for some reason, the song "The Little Drummer Boy" was stuck in my head when trying to come up with an idea.

Last year, my partner was Jenny Davies-Reazor - who pretty much does everything in the World of Art - polymer clay, ceramics, metalwork, bead work, etc. She asked me a series of questions related to my favorite things, and then sent me this sweet felted ornament (yes...coffee is my favorite beverage)!

Every evening - usually by 8:00 PM - I can be found on my sofa - I-Pad in hand.  This is "my time" to peruse Face Book, You-Tube, etc.  Very recently, the very talented Raida Disbrow of Havanna Beads posted pictures of the cutest Santa Lampwork Beads I have ever seen!

I had to have them!  Even the backs have Santa's fluffy hair - in glass.

I knew I was going to make ornaments....but I had no clue what to make. My mother suggested I create a bead frame...similar to this necklace I recently made.

I did not want to use silver, as these ornaments will be gifted - who wants to polish silver ornaments every year?  Not me. So, copper it is.

This "geometric style" frame is a smaller version of these bangles I recently made - very cool technique - squared sides in a circle.

The next bead frame is for a very special lady.  I donate the proceeds from jewelry sales to Miracle Horse Rescue - a sanctuary that has been near and dear to my heart for over 13 years now.  Stephanie and her husband have devoted their lives to rescuing these animals in need.  So, I personalized this bead frame just a little, by soldering a little horse shoe (right side up for luck) to the top of the frame.

I just need to add my ornament hangars, and I am done!

Years ago at Christmas-time, I would be the one wearing the loud, Santa sweater with matching jewelry. Suffice it say, with age, my style has mellowed and it's all I can do to get out of my sweats these days But, I still love to use the beads - and ornaments are a perfect solution for me!

Thank you for hanging in there for my very long trip down memory lane!

Now...go make something beautiful!!

Patti

Wool Over My Eyes!

About a year ago I was asked to work part time at the Sarafina Art House.

I had taken a few "in home" kitchen table classes with Sara Renzulli before the Art House opened, and after attending the 2014 Open House, then a workshop, she asked if I wanted to join their small group to help with orders, stock, and to learn more about working with wool.

Sara teaching me how to dye locks and fibers.

I have always been drawn to fibers - especially wool.

And to be able to work and learn in a place that is so positive and creative - it can only affect your direction of creativity.

 Sara has many tutorials on sculpting with wool over armatures which makes for great practice and getting to know the materials and push the limits...

 I used to want to be a Marine Biologist when I was younger, but I get motion sick standing up too fast. And so now I am choosing to go back to what calls to me (this is just trying out some forms).

I am really getting to understand more about sheep, goats, and other animals that we use their fur (wool, hair, etc) and the processes that it has to undergo in order for it to be usable in crafts such as needle felting, wet felting, spinning, sculpting, and at some point - wearable art.

These two guys above remind me of the dwarfs from the Hobbit and LOTR movies and are the first figurative creations I made in the style of "forrest folk" (Lee Charlton and Sara Renzulli video).

I may just have to make myself a little gathering of dwarfs for my studio to keep me company!!!

And I am trying to keep a bit up on getting to the gym and spend time with my family.

So my time in the clay studio has been put at the back burner - not completely, but it is definitely relatable to binging on Netflix then not for a while... 

I have a craft show this weekend and I have lots of earrings, my bracelet kits, and needle felting ornaments to take with me.

After that - I will hopefully get around to updating my Etsy shop with new items.

And you know - a lot of them will be wool!

We are pleased to bring you Doug Napier - The Jewelry Monk

         

 

  Hello, let me introduce myself. My name is Doug Napier but some of you may know me as "The JewelryMonk"... I will get into that shortly.  I have been involved in the jewelry industry since 1985, mostly in a manufacturing setting. I started working with a company doing simple assembly work and picked it up relatively quickly. The thing about me is, I am never really satisfied with only doing something good, I am more interested in learning something new. From a manufacturing setting, I brought this zeal into soldering, plating, polishing, stone setting, mold making, and lastly model making, and this is where I thrived. Model making is the art of creating the original designs for manufacturing through metalsmithing, wax carving and casting. The "model" is then cleaned up and a mold is made, which the production runs are made from. If there is any blemish at all in the model, it will show up in every piece of jewelry made from that mold, so attention is paid to detail. I have been a modelmaker for companies from South Dakota, Seattle, The Dominican Republic, New York City, and back to South Dakota where I currently reside. I also have a studio at home. Over the past 15 years, I have also combined my model making skills with computer aided design, but my heart is at the bench and even more so as a teacher.

               Let me get a bit personal and tell you a story that changed my life. A number of years ago I lived in the Dominican Republic for a couple of years training model makers how to make jewelry. I didn't speak but about 10 words of Spanish...... interesting times. Driving back and forth to work every day along the Coastal Highway was one of the most beautiful drives..... but I digress.  Along this drive, when I got into the city of Santo Domingo, at every stoplight, there were always people asking for money. Un-Peso-Por-Favor, or in English "Can I Have a Peso Please"? Peso's were pretty cheap, so I always kept a bunch of peso coins in my vehicle, a 1963 Chevy Pickup..... (another story)

               This one particular day I stopped at this stoplight and I noticed this Dominican lady standing there with 7 children, all between the age of 1-10, the 1 year old was on her hip. The light turned red and the lady and her children dispersed and tapped on all the car windows with their dirty faces.... Un-Peso-Por-Favor..... I started thinking to myself, this lady has quite the business going on here, the light changes every 2 minutes, loads of cars, loads of dirty faced kids.... she is probably making good money..... in fact, she is probably making better money than I am...... I started to feel dirty and angry inside. Then I heard a voice speak to me. It was not an audible voice, but it spoke to me deep inside my being. I heard, "Your job is to give, not to judge who you think is "worthy of your pesos", You are a giver, not a judge. How would you like to be judged the same way you judge?" WOW, I was shaken, and have looked at the world differently ever since.

               So I give...... and my website www.JewelryMonk.com has been a vessel of giving back to the craft that has given me so much. I started JewelryMonk.com close to 2 years ago and it has been truly a joy. Some of the ways I teach right now are:

1. Tutorials, in fact when I first started this site, I did 90 tutorials in 90 days!! If you are new to this JewelryMonk journey, go ahead and check it out and scroll down and go back a few pages and check out some great content.

2. Podcasts, I have been doing a few podcasts lately and plan to continue them. If you are not familiar with podcasts, they are like internet radio shows that you can subscribe to and listen to whenever you please. You can listen to them at the website, or download them from iTunes or Stitcher onto your mobile devices or smart phones and listen to them at your leisure, or drives to work, or sitting at your workbench, etc.

3. Video teaching, this is new to me, and I am still pretty uncomfortable in front of the camera, but I will get better, and the video and audio quality will get better I promise, but I created my first video teaching on Bezel Setting Tips. It can be found at www.JewelryMonk.com/BezelSetTips  Check it out and let me know what you think. There will be more coming.

So this is a long intro, but it is my way, I guess, to say thank you for inviting me into your Love My Art Jewelry World, and inviting you to come on a journey with me. If you will have me, I would like to contribute here at the Love My Art Jewelry Blog every so often.

Again, thanks for letting me stop by and I hope to see ya soon. You can also follow along on FaceBook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Just look for "JewelryMonk"

Now...... Go Make Something Shiny!

Doug

An Interview with Ginger Allman of the Blue Bottle Tree

by Staci Louise Smith

I know I have referenced her site a million times.  It's because she does her homework.  When Ginger posts to her blog with a review, new info, or a how to, I KNOW it has been tested and she has asked questions and contacted people who have used these products for years, and manufacturers..........she is thorough.  That is why I send anyone who is new to polymer, or has any kind of questions to her site.  

There is a lot of mis-information out there on the web.  In the age of You Tube and blogs, anyone can post a tutorial, even if its the first time they have done something.  I cringe when I read tutorials giving people mis-information.  I read them, and I know what they make won't last (like using too thin wire to make a bracelet or clasp, or not finishing ends of things, leaving pointy wire...not sealing things that go against skin....I could go on and on).  Or they say to varnish your polymer clay beads in nail polish (never ever ever do that ....please!!!!  Ginger has a few great posts on finishing your clay too!!)

http://thebluebottletree.com/varathane-best-polymer-clay-sealer/

http://thebluebottletree.com/seal-polymer-clay/

http://thebluebottletree.com/spray-sealer-for-polymer-clay/

Anyhow, you get the idea.  She is the real deal for solid info on polymer clay.  

Well, she did an interview with me for her blog.  I am honored, and it was a cool experience to be featured by her.  You can read it here.  

http://thebluebottletree.com/staci-louise-smith/

You all know I put my life out there through various social media outlets, but it was fun to answer some questions on things you may not have known about me.  Enjoy!

(and while you are there, take a peek around her site- there is so much information there- just amazing!)

What is IFTTT?

Carol Dekle-Foss

  I was inspired by both MaryAnn and Karen last week to link my Facebook page to twitter. I was so happy with this discovery, that I began to wonder. Could there be a social media management tool to link my other social media sites? That would be amazing, and a major time saver. It might even motivate me to post more.
So after a few hours sifting through google, I found IFTTT. "If This Then That. It works by automatically connecting platforms and services across the web. 

There are so many social media sites right? Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Google+, Youtube, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, etc etc. Oh, and let's not forget blogging. One would need a clever marketing team to keep up with it all!  IFTTT helps tame the social media beast by using different 'recipes' that you create tailored to your needs and how you use the web. Let me share with you some of my recipes and my new social media strategy using IFTTT.

First, I just started using Hootsuite to post to my facebook page, twitter and Instagram. They only allow three social media sites for free. And that is where IFTTT can help. You create your recipes with hashtags to share to other platforms. Here is a screenshot with the recipes I am currently using.

The first recipe is a post from Instagram to my Instagram board on Pinterest. So now when I post to Instagram with the hashtag #terrarusticadesign, it publishes automatically to Pinterest. Love it! The second recipe is a post to Tumblr, and the third to Flickr. With Hootsuite, and IFTTT, that is SIX posts in just one step. How cool is that?? Unfortunately, IFTTT doesn't have all social media sites, like Google +, but I think they are adding more all the time.

I am in no way affiliated with IFTTT, I just love how helpful it is and thought I would share. It's a great tool that you can tailor to your own needs with many options. Their platform is also easy and fun to work with.

So what is your social media strategy? Do you use any social media management tools that work for you? How do you deal with all the social media options, and which ones do you prefer to use? I would love to hear your thoughts!

What to do with all that silver scrap?

by Patti Vanderbloemen

Recently, Carol did an awesome post on recycling some of her silver scrap into silver sheet (that post is right here).  I think it is an awesome idea...it is on my very long list of things to do!  I always save my silver scraps...they are thrown directly into this empty cool whip container on my bench.

That container weighs 2 1/2 pounds (yup - POUNDS)!!!  I knew it was accumulating - it has been quite a while since I turned in my scrap for credit at Rio Grande. However, I reuse a lot of the bits and pieces in that bowl. A tiny textured piece of sheet can become a bead cap, or even just a tiny accent on a back plate. The wire scraps are balled up in the flame for additional textural accents on pendants, rings, etc.  You get the drift.  With sterling silver so cheap right now - I am still going to wait before turning it in to get the most bang for my buck .  The price of silver has only smidged  (I know - not a real word...yet) upwards lately, so I will wait until it soars (or I use up all my scrap).

I have made a few charms from the scraps - melt down a few small pieces of wire/sheet into a ball, flatten it, stamp on a design, and solder on one-half of a jump ring for a bail.

But today, I thought I would show you how I make teeny weeny post earrings with some of that scrap.  Some of us - including me - have double, triple, etc. pierced ears, and tiny posts look great whether worn alone or in that second hole in one's ear.  

I tried to take good step-by-step pictures - I wish I had a third hand (on my body...not my bench). Anyway, take two pieces of equal amounts of silver.  I very roughly wind my silver into a coil - for no particular reason except in melts into a ball quicker than if left straight.  

I always use my charcoal block to melt any metal - it retains the heat better than a firebrick. That's my firebrick on its side - making it just a tad hotter in that area of my soldering station.  An oven effect, if you will.

Just roll your flame around the silver until it balls up.  Let it cool from red hot to gray before you move it off the block with your tweezers for quenching - otherwise, you run the risk of re-shaping that perfect little malleable mound of silver with your tweezers.

Quench and pickle.  Now is a good time to make sure the balls are the same size - they should be if you used the same amount of silver to melt in the beginning (I say SHOULD here, because my eyes are not perfect and I don't always pay attention to my measurements when prepping silver for melting!)  If not the same size - just remelt that ball and add a little bit more silver scrap.

I like to use my Peddinghaus hammer (link here) for flattening the balls into discs. It is just a bit heavier than my Goldsmith hammers - though any hammer works here.  

Then - stamp the little discs to your heart's delight.  My example below features a tiny little horse head stamp.  Now, before you solder on the earring post to the back of the earring, take your center punch and hit it once in the back of the earring where you will add the post.  This extra step provides two benefits.  1) It is so much easier lining up the earring post in my third hand when soldering - it sits right in that little divot.  2) It creates more metal-to-metal contact with the post to the earrings. The solder flows all the way around - into the divot -  providing a very strong, secure join. 

This is how I store my solder.  Each tin holds 3" - 4" pieces of solder wire.  Each tin is labeled "hard", "medium", etc.  I cannot remember where I first saw this tip, but I have been storing it in this fashion for years.

Inside each tin, I store a pro polishing pad (link here)- I swipe the solder wire to clean it completely, before I cut off the required pallions.  Both your metal and your solder needs to be clean before you hit it with the flame.

And, for the past year or so, I keep a very small amount of flux in a resealable plastic jar at my soldering station - this happens to be a seed bead storage container.  Flux dries out so quickly - it is a pain to keep opening and closing the large jar during a project (not to mention the number of times I have completely forgotten to put the cap on the jar at the end of the day, only to come back 10 hours later to flux that is hard as a rock). This way, the large jar keeps the flux in the right consistency, and if the small jar dries out - I add a touch of water to reconstitute the flux, or rinse it out and start with fresh flux.

Flux the earring, place the post in the divot created with the hole punch, and line up the third hand to hold the post in place.  This can be a fiddly process - I always seem to be holding my breath at this point, so as to not disturb the post! :)

I tend to pic solder - it is simply easier for me.  Just ball up a pallion of solder, it will attach to your warm solder pick like a magnet - and then place the ball of solder right next to the post.  You could just place a pallion of solder in this position as well - but I am creature of habit.  That tiny little red circle in the picture below (click the picture to zoom) is where I place the solder.

Now, the thickness of the earring, in my example, is much greater than the thickness of that ear wire. So, I start by heating the charcoal area around the earring, thus, heating up the metal.  I used Medium solder, so it's melting point is lower than the melting point of the sterling silver (Easy solder could also be used - I just happened to grab Medium). 

This part goes VERY QUICKLY. After the solder has melted, I wait a few moments before even trying to remove the earring from the charcoal block.  Then, quench and pickle.

The soldering action will anneal that post.  To harden the post, I line it up in my flat nose pliers, hold on to the earring, and VERY GENTLY twist - not even a quarter turn of the pliers- to the right.  You can actually feel that earring post instantly harden.

Then, oxidize (or not), throw them in the tumbler for half an hour, and done!

Little bitty earrings!

Yet another design that is hard to photograph...

Are these too small for you?  Solder on half a jump ring to one end (I do this BEFORE I solder on the earring post), and wire wrap some beads into the loop.

I know that not everyone likes post earrings.  Personally, I have very long hair and I love wearing posts as my hair tends to get caught in the french ear wire - style.  It's nice to have options!


***********************
A final note on earrings posts.  Yes - you could use 20 gauge sterling wire, cut the post to length, make sure it is 100% absolutely flush before soldering, round the ends, and- using your flush cutters - carve a tiny groove in the end to create a "stop" for the ear nut. I have tried this method and it is too frustrating to get everything perfect. So, I buy the ear posts already made - a pack of 20 - enough for 10 pairs of post earrings - for under $5 at Rio.  Here is a link to the posts that I use (click here).  They come in different lengths.  I tend to use the 1/2" length, as I can get a better grip on the earring when attaching the ear nut - it's a personal preference.

Photo credit: www.riogrande.com

And these ear nuts/clutches fit perfectly on those posts (link here).

Photo Credit: www.riogrande.com

Anybody want to share their ideas for reusing their silver scraps??  I do have a few scraps left! LOL! Would love for you to share your ideas, too!

Thanks for dropping by today - now go make something wonderful!!

Patti