Some new stuff

I finally had some time last week to sit down and play with my clay again, and I decided to play with some chalks and ink treatments, and came up with this sunburst pendant! I like the rustic and "unfinished" appearance, and the colors are just so bright and lovely!

For a little more color, I added some orange howlite and red web jasper, and hung it from brass chain. I'm really happy with this little necklace, and fingers are crossed that it finds a good home!

Some new stuff

Something I had been wanting to try this summer was making carved Polymer Clay nuggets. They were actually a little easier than I thought they were going to be, once I got the right blade for carving. I had started out trying to use some wood-carving tools I had, but they weren't quite sharp enough, so I switched over to a much sharper blade, and that made the process move more quickly.

When I envisioned this project in my head, I had always been planning on making some sort of rainbow bead project, so I came up with this bracelet and necklace!

The bracelet beads had somewhat bigger holes so I was able to easily string them on leather, and finished with a button closure. This is almost EXACTLY what I had in mind when I was designing this bracelet in my head!!

And the necklace... *sigh.* I apparently have a weakness for this style, with the ribbon, but I think it is just such a great contrast between the rustic clay beads and the finished silk ribbon. I couldn't decide how to finish it off, so I'm leaving that up to the customer! You can just tie it at whatever length you choose!!

I'm layed up right now after having a fatty cyst removed from my left shoulder yesterday. It makes it hard to use my left arm much right now, but I can tell this is going to help a lot with my overall should pain I've been having. Already, I haven't been experiencing some of the "pins and needles" that I had been having frequently, so I'm really hopeful that this will be a good thing. In the meantime, I've been getting a LOT of inspiration, and making a lot of plans for new projects. (I also ordered some new supplies from Etsy last night - I'm really excited!!).

If you are a Facebook fan (and if you aren't, why not?!?), you have seen that I'm going to have a 200 fan giveaway. My plan was to have the piece (it's a necklace) done tomorrow, so I can announce the giveaway, but my recovery is a little more painful than the doctors had anticipated, due to the amount of muscle involved. Hopefully I'll be able to work on it tomorrow or this weekend, so I'll try to announce the giveaway by Monday!!

Trying something new

When we were checking out the fantastic bead store in Branson, it was obvious that the shop owner was quite the fan of wire wrapping. I'd taken a break from wire for a while, since silver was pricing itself out of my studio, but she mentioned trying copper, and I was inspired by her many cuff bracelets that she had made. This one, is my first attempt:



I don't know exactly what those beads are, but aren't they fun? Some sort of composite, I think, but they were nice and chunky, and just what I needed!! This particular design was actually pretty easy, so after I make a couple more, I may write up a quick tutorial for it.

I remembered over the weekend that I'd gotten some metal plated cabochon settings in a grab bag (not a good grab bag like at Auntie's beads... this one was pretty much a bust). I'd been reading that gold and pink were a hot color combination for spring/summer, so I thought I'd give this a shot. There is gold leaf mixed in with the 2 pink tones, and I paired it with my favorite accent color, stringing it from silk ribbon. This really does scream summer to me! It's just gorgeous in person, and not too big - only about 1" long! I also made one in shades of olive green, with Navy, Denim, and Purple accents.

So what have YOU been working on this week?

Something new

Sometimes, I really get the itch to try out a new clay technique. I had been wanting to try out making these little embroidery-style flowers for a while, and recently, I had my chance! I made the pendant below on a light silver base, with rhinestone centers. It was actually easier than I had anticipated. (It also sold very quickly out of my store!)


I wanted to make MORE in that style, so with the Pink Variscite stone from my grab bag in mind, I created the beads below today.
I'll line the whole necklace out tomorrow, but I think I might need some smaller turquoise beads to go with it. I'll have to go through my stash in the morning. I like the gold with it, because it looks really great with the green, especially... I've had all of these Vermeil spacers sitting around for almost a year, but I think they will work well in this project.