Thank you and An Exciting Achievement a BeadStar Finalist

My Desert Dusk necklace     Finalist for BeadStar in Seed Beads

I want to thank all of you for your wonderful comments on the bracelet I made for the 7000 Bracelets for Hope  blog hop.  You were all so encouraging and generous with you time and words.  Thank you SO much.
I also am very excited to see that I was included as a Finalist in the BeadStar Competition in Seed Beads.  That means that my necklace along with 19 other lovely pieces was chosen to be voted on for the final winners in that category.  I am especially pleased to be a finalist in the seed bead category because of my free style and intuitive, rather than patterned approach to bead weaving.  I feel so honored,  If you want to vote on all or any of the 8 categories for BeadStar please click here.  The link will take you to the page where you can view all of the finalists.  They are spectacular.

7000 Bracelets Blog Hop

Today is our blog hop in support of the 7000 Bracelets For Hope campaign.  Lori Anderson has been the coordinator of our participation in the Global Genes Project.   Each person who signed on to this event has agreed to make a bracelet , blue in color,( the color of their denim blue jeans theme)  and donate it to the Global Genes Project.They in turn will give the bracelet to a parent of a child with a Rare Disease.  

The Global Genes Project is  a non-profit advocacy organization that aims to raise awareness about the prevalence of rare diseases worldwide.  They developed the 7,000 Bracelets for Hope™ campaign to draw attention to an estimated 7,000 different chronic, life-threatening and fatal rare diseases and disorders affecting approximately 30 million Americans and millions more globally. I am so pleased to be a part of this campaign.

The bracelet I made is composed of all handmade components made by me except for the copper chain and jump rings.  The beads are stoneware in a glaze color that I made from two colors that I had.  It came out very denim blue I think.  The leaf link is made by me from porcelain clay.  The bead caps are handmade from copper and hand stamped with the word love and hearts.  The spiral wrapped clasp is a sized down version of the one featured in a tutorial by Sweet Bead Studio.  The blue bird and heart are also made from Porcelain clay

I like to think that this blue bird, the New York state bird, symbolizes hope and happiness

A heart to symbolize compassion and love

Thank you for stopping and supporting this important awareness campaign.  I had a very happy time making this bracelet and hope it gives some joy to whomever receives it.   You can visit the others in this blog hop by going to Lori Anderson's blog and clicking on the participants names.

2nd Saturday State of My Studio Beads of Clay

It is 2nd Saturday at Beads of Clay and I am linking up to the post with these pics from my studio on Saturday, April 9.  This pic above is of the Gauguin inspired flowers I am making.  Here they are all glazed in my special mix of layers to create that intense tropical red I am hoping for.  Actually now they are fired and some are in my Etsy shop and a pic of them together will be on my BTW post tomorrow.

On Saturday I also glazed these beads so that they would come out close to a denim blue.  I am using some of these to make a bracelet for the 7000 Bracelets project and blog hop coordinated by Lori Anderson.

The blog hop is on Saturday April 16.  I have finished my bracelet and the cool part is that everything part of it is handmade except for a bit of chain.  Thank you to Sweet Bead Studio for the spiral clasp tut.

BTW April 6, 2011

I was excited to get the red color on the top left flower. These red flowers are the glazed version of the white bisque ones I had on my bead table last week.   It took some fancy mixing to get that rich of a red.  The red flower below is not quite the color I was hoping for.  The round blue colored pendant in the right hand corner is made with porcelain frost clay.  This is the first porcelain pendant I have glazed with my cone 06 glazes.  The colors are fine.  Mayco states on their bottles that their colors are not changed by the higher temp of cone 6.  Seems to be true in this case.  I do notice though that the details of the image are significantly softened by the higher firing temperature.

Here is a close up of the flower

You can visit all of the other Bead Table Wednesday pics and see what others are up to by clicking on the BTW button in the right hand column.

Thank you for stopping by.

Glazing Day

I spent a lot of time yesterday hand painting pendants, toggle clasps and charms.  The picture above in terra cotta and teal was serendipitous.  I didn't intend the teal to be quite that color and quickly added some more green to change it to my usual color.  But when I see it on the terra cotta clay, I see how great it looks.  Actually even better.  I may do more this way.  Of course colors change once I put on the clear glaze and fire them.

A few toggle clasps hand painted and drying before I put on the clear glaze.  I seem to never tire of taking photos of work in progress.  These should arrive in my Etsy store later this week.

And about the red flowers.  I have the glaze test strips cooling in the kiln right now.  I will get a chance to look at them about Noon today.  Can't wait.  And since waiting is hard, I glazed one flower before seeing the test strips.  Hope it comes out well.  I will share on BTW this week. 

Hope you have a great Sunday.  I will be outside raking and  hopefully planting some Spinach and beets.