Thursday, March 29, 2012

First Spring Gardening Day Sights and Signs

First Signs of Garlic


First and Second Signs of Chives

First Leaves  Black  Currants


First Leaves Raspberries

First Task--cut back the raspberries


How wonderful that we have had an early start on Spring.  Here is what I have been seeing and doing in my garden.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Button Giveaway And Button Swap Blog Hop



I am excited about this Button Swap blog Hop and have signed up for it.  There are still 3 days left to do so if you want to join in.  I am so honored that Cindy asked me for a photo of one of my ceramic buttons for her blog post about the hop.
Now I am going to have a button Giveaway to celebrate!!!

You can win a set of 4 of my ceramic buttons similar in style to the one pictured below.

 All you have to do is leave a comment and a way to be contacted.  You can increase your chances by mentioning my Giveaway on Facebook or Twitter and telling me in a separate comment. I will pick a winner by Random Number Generator on April 5th, in plenty of time if you want to use any of these to send to  your chosen partner.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Bead Star 2012 Ceramics Category Some Suggestions

Toggle Clasp in Spring Green in my Etsy Shop

The entry dates have been posted for Bead Star 2012!!!  They are  April 1, 2012, and ending on April 27, 2012.  You can get all the particulars for the annual bead contest here .

And even more exciting than that they have a Ceramics Category this year.Here is how they describe it:  CERAMICS: Designs created using predominantly ceramic beads.


                                So I thought I would offer a few suggestions from my Etsy Shop.
Young Birch Leaves Pendant in my Etsy Shop


Milkweed Pendant in my Etsy Shop

Raku Fired  Daisy Pendant  in my Etsy Shop

Ceramic  Toggle Clasp in my Etsy Shop

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Daisies Past and Present

I have been painting quite a few Daisy Pendants lately and thought I would take a look back at some of the ones I have created.  Most of these have new homes, expect the last one.  I love this splash of color to remind me that Spring is near, despite the new covering of snow on the ground this morning.  Happy Spring Ahead  Weekend !!
Thank you all for stopping by my blog and still stopping for the Bead Soup Blog Party.  I so appreciate it.

Thursday, March 08, 2012

And the Winner Is

I want to thank all of you for your very wonderful comments on my Daisy Pendants and all of your congratulations for being on the cover of Stringing Magazine.  I apologize for being a little late on announcing the winner.  But here it is


And the Winner is:

Sally Anderson

Congratulations!!!!!

Saturday, March 03, 2012

5th Bead Soup Blog Party---The Reveal

Bead Soup From Shannon LeVart aka Miss Ficklemedia

Welcome to the 5th Bead Soup Blog Party--The Reveal-- and blog hop-- organized by our Hostess Lori Anderson  the day we have all anxiously awaited to show what we created with the Bead Soup sent to us by our Party Partner.  I am  lucky to  participate  since this time the cutoff of 200 participants out of about 400 who signed up to share beads and create and blog about  was determined by the famous Random Number Generator.  My very talented and generous blog partner is Shannon LeVart aka Miss Ficklemedia.  Some of the beads she sent me are in the photo above.  You will meet more of them as we go along. Just in case you have never met Miss Ficklemedia,  you can  visit her Etsy shop and see the rustic components she forges with her torch and hammer.  Her talent is one you will not want to miss.

I have had a great experience working with her components and I have written a Bead Soup Blog Party Diary to give you a real time experience with my creative process.  I have even included a video.  You can see all of this here on my blog.  Click the page tab above titled  Bead Soup Blog Hop Diary --The Making.  Since you have lots of artists to visit I want to keep this part of the blog for the pictures of what I made.

I made a wrist wrap bracelet with the lovely deep red Sari Silk that Shannon sent.  I embellished it with the pearls, copper beads and verigris charms from my Bead Soup.  They are attached to wire wrapped bands and loops that I attached along the bracelet.  It wraps around my wrist twice. The clasp is one of my handmade ceramic toggle clasps designed especially for fibers.


Patinaed shells and sandollars from Miss Ficklemedia surround this fiber wrist wrap bracelet

I then went on to work on components for the neccklace and earrings.  I wire wrapped the pearls and copper beads Shannon sent with the sweet ball head endpins she included in her package.

this closeup shot lets you see how cool  Miss Ficklemedia's  ball end ear wires, soldered rings and earwires are.  The turquoise beads are some of my handmade matte glazed porcelain beads.  They fit right in with the color palette.

More of the sweet components from Shannon

The necklace was my challenge and my joy.  I wanted from the get go to integrate the veridgris chain into a freeform peyote stitch necklace.  I had no idea before I began working with the beads how I would do this.  If you have ever done free form peyote you know it can be quite nervewracking if you have a deadline looming. You either come up with a  piece of jewelry that works out or you have to start all over.  No taking it apart and redoing once you have done it. 
  About the beads I used.  I only used the bright turquoise porcelain ceramic beads and the seed beads from my own stash.  The rest came from Shannon.
Starting with some closeups, here is my necklace:

Gorgeous chain wire wrapped to the toggle clasp Shannon sent. You can see the tiny seed bead loops I made to attach the chain and wire wrapped beads to the peyote stitch core.


The copper beads are stitched into the free form peyote stitch part of the necklace.  Shannon's components hang from different beaded loops in the peyote base.



Lots of  nice drape from the graceful components.  They are small and delicate and rustic all at the same time.  They helped me give the necklace a nice flow.  I could feel Shannon's presence guiding me as I worked. Thank you Shannon for all the beautiful pieces you sent me.  

Now I hope you will hop along and visit as many other beaders as possible on this list below which has live links.  Thank you Lori for making this wonderful event possible.  I have loved participating.

                                                                   Hostess, Lori Anderson


Special Book Sneak Peeks, Cindy Wimmer
1.  Adlinah Kamsir (Singapore) and Hajer Waheed (Kingdom of Bahrain)
2. Adrienn Lukacs (Hungary) and Agata Grygiel (Poland)
3.  Agi Kiss (Hungary) and Carolien Muller-Genger (the Netherlands)
4.  Agnes Asztalos (Hungary) and B.R. Kuhlman
7.  Alicia Marinache (Canada) and Dita Basu
15.  Bonnie Coursolle (Canada) and Fay Wolfenden (Canada)
16.  Carmel McGinley (Australia) and Tracy Stillman (Australia)


21.  Cheryl Brown (Canada) and Diana Ptaszynski
22.  Christina Stofmeel (the Netherlands) and Eva Kovacs (Hungary)
24.  Cilla Watkins (Canada) and Elaine Robitaille (Canada)
25.  Sabrina Straub (Switzerland) and Kathy Combs


32.  Dee Elgie (UK) and Joanne Lockwood (UK)
33.  Dian Hierschel (Germany) and Eniko Fabian (Austria)
37.  Doris Stumpf (Germany) and Eszter Czibulyas (Hungary)
39.  Elke Leonhardt-Rath (Germany) and Marjolein Trewavas (UK)


41.  Erika Nooteboom (the Netherlands) and Giorgia Rossini (Italy)
43.  Evelyn Duberry (Canada) and Gaea Cannaday
45.  Ginger Bishop (military, Okinawa) and Martina Nagele (Germany)
48.  Helene Goldberg (Australia) and Karen Vincent
54.  Joanna Matuszczyk (Poland) and Julianna Kis (Hungary)
55.  Joanne Tinley (UK) and Michaela Pabeschitz (Austria)
65.  Kristina Johansson (Sweden) and Penny Neville (Canada)
66.  Krisztina Erlaki-Toth (Hungary) and Nicole Keller (Germany)


76.  Lori Finney (Canada) and Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp (Canada)
78.  Marta Kaczerowska (Poland) and Milla Starchik (Canada)
83.  Michelle Jensen and Sandra Young (Canada)
92.  Rosa Maria Cuevas (Mexico) and Tejae Floyde
93.  Sabine Dittrich (Germany) and Sally Russick
95.  Shanti Johnson and Tracy Mok (Canada)
97.  Sonya Stille and Traci Zeller (Canada)
98.  Stefanie Teufel (Germany) and Tania Hagen (New Zealand)

Friday, March 02, 2012

REVEAL/ BLOG HOP Tomorrow BeadsofClay First Friday Art Walk Today

                                       
The REVEAL/BLOG HOP for Lori Anderson's 5th Bead Soup Blog Party is tomorrow.  I hope you will come back and see what I made with the lovely components sent to me by my partner MissFicklemedia.  See you then.

Today is the beginning of the BeadsofClay Professional Artists Team First Friday Art Walk which I am participating in on my Etsy Store.  Use coupon code BOCFFAW for a 10% discount on everything in my shop all weekend.                              
                                                               New in My Etsy Shop
Daisy Pendant with Orange Petals in my Etsy Shop

Rustic Toggle Clasp in Green in my Etsy Shop

Forest Fern Pendant in my Etsy Shop

Check out the Beads of Clay Professional Artists Team here  www.blog.beadsofclay.org/

Raku Bead Video Part III