BEAD!!!

Porcelain Beads

I have been thinking about a word for 2012 and have come up with BEAD!!!  as a daily challenge to myself.

I like that it is very open ended and have been trying it out since late Dec.  Seems to work for me most days.  I may have missed 1 or 2.  So far I have glazed and fired the Porcelain beads above and made most of the beads in the following pictures.

Sunshine Charms

Doublewrap peyote stitch bracelets

Book Beads

Herringbone Beads

Made up the pattern and stitched quite a few of these Herringbone beads.  They are quite versatile.  I have put them in necklaces, earrings and bracelets. 

The best part about a daily challenge is that it keeps the ideas flowing.  I don't have a minimum requirement for what BEAD!!! means so if I am short on time just a few minutes will qualify. When I am not beading, I notice that I am thinking up projects or ideas for beads.  So far it is stimulating and fun.  Hope it lasts.

Icy Wonderland

We had quite an ice storm here last week.  The sun finally came out and I took these spectacular pics of the ice on the trees.  It had been 15 degrees below 0 the night before.  Went from rain to below zero in a day.  Hence the ice stayed around.  Today it will be 40 degrees above 0. I can hear the ice falling onto the roof. I am glad I got out with the camera in time to catch these beauties.

My raspberry plants iced and then snow covered

I love close up shots of ice.   Quite a build up here

We finally ventured out and this is what the road looked like.  Trees bent over and branches touching the ground.  Many folks were without power.  We were very lucky to have not lost it at all.

Winter blues have to be some of my favorite colors!!

I hope everyone is warm!!  Some never have to worry about this kind of weather.

I grew up in a warm climate and am still missing it at times.  But this kind of scenery helps make up for being cold!!

What would You Do?

Melissa of Chinook Jewelry is offering us a blog challenge called What Would You Do?  She would like to know what I and you would use for components and stringing for this gorgeous pendant.
I thought I would take the challenge and here is what I would do:

I would use one of my very rustic toggle clasps with a hand stamped pattern that vaguely echoes her pendant

Then I would use some of my porcelain beads to string with it.  These are greener than they look in the picture.  Toggle clasp and beads are available in my Etsy shop.

And finally I would use this beautiful silk to string the necklace together, perhaps with some chain or leather cord added in---not sure about that yet.

What do you think?

Melissa, this is a fun challenge and good for me to exercise my designing brain!!  I look forward to the next one.  You can see what the other participants are doing here

First Friday Art Walk. Today and all Weekend

This is First Friday Art Walk Weekend.  I will be offering 10% off everything in my Etsy Shop and free shipping ( via refund) for the weekend.  Use BOCFFAW during check out to get the discount.  This is a Beads-of-Clay/Etsy venture.  You can visit  other Beads-of-Clay participants by going to our blog and clicking on any of the pics in the lovely Treasury there.  Happy Shopping!!

Enjoyment!! Happy New Year All

I am enjoying my Holiday time !!  Had the wonderful pleasure of seeing the new TinTin movie with my grandsons, their parents and aunt.  All seven of us in those plastic 3-D glasses in a MultiPlex theater.  My first 3-D.   The movie was such a heart warming experience.  My sons grew up on TinTin and now my grandsons are having the experience too!!

A fun beading project I mostly finished before we left.  A herringbone stitch necklace as a Christmas gift for my daughter-in-law.  I amused myself in the car putting on the last touches.  She was so pleased with it.

Our first salad with the wonderful seasoned olive oils and vinegars we received for Christmas from them.
We tried the Cranberry Pear White Balsamic vinegar for this salad.  Yummy!!

I was so impressed by these buttons my daughter-in-law made here last summer in my studio.  And since she isn't a knitter, she bought a sweater and sewed them onto it.  They look so perfect there.

One of my grandsons goofing around in the silly optical glasses we got for him.  He is into being a rock star at age 10!!

Our Tree of Life.   This is a rubber tree that I have had for many years.  It grew so large that it was circling our dining area ceiling and was held up by many props.   Finally this summer we had to take it down.  I was so sad to see it go but it was getting to be too much of a cleaning challenge.  Gradually I pruned back the branches and was finally left with a three foot high stump with just one tiny branch that had a couple of leaves on it.  I decided to re pot it, put it outside and see what would happen.  By the end of September there were tiny buds all over the trunk.  They kept getting bigger.  When it got too cold for it to be outside anymore, we brought it in and put it back in its old spot.  Before long the leaves began to sprout.  Once it was cold  enough for us to begin heating the house, it grew even more leaves.   This is a very recent picture of how wonderfully it is doing.  Our Tree of Life  Full of New Growth.  What a joy!!  What an affirmation of the spirit to stay alive!!

A recent photo of me with a hat that is supposed to cover my ears but slips up and bunches out my hair.  My husband says it looks cute and reminds him that I am a Lion, so he took this pic.

Happy New Year to all!!

 May your days be filled with new growth,

enjoyment and the spirit to be alive and seize life in the present.

Rustic Winter Earrings Tutorial

Rustic Winter Earrings by Mary Harding

I have been making a lot of earrings lately for the 2 local shops where I sell my jewelry.  And I love to make ceramic charms and made quite a few of this little fir trees this month.

 Since I enjoy tutorials so much I thought it would be fun to combine my current "obsessions" into a project to share.  So here goes.

Rustic Winter Earrings Tutorial
 Materials
2 Handmade ceramic fir tree charms by Mary Harding in my Etsy Shop
2 large copper washers ( about 1 inch in diameter)  (Harbor Freight carries these, so does Rings and Things)
4 jump rings 9mm  antique copper or brass
2 jump rings  antique copper  or brass 7mm
2 sterling silver earwires  or copper if you wish.

Tools and Supplies
Ball Peen Hammer
Metal Bench block
Hand held metal hole punch size 1.25mm  (Rio Grande has the heavy duty kind)
Chain nose and bent nose pliers
Renaissance Wax
Steel Wool size  000
Liver of Sulphur
Sunshine Cloth or Soft cloth
Tissue or cotton rounds (cosmetic)



1.  Use the ball peen hammer to pound and texture your copper washers

Pound them on a metal bench block.  This is what they look like before you texture them.

Head of the ball peen hammer and the copper washer partially textured.

Completely textured copper washers.  (they look gold in the photo but they really are copper)

2. Use the hand held hole punch to put a hole in the washer for attaching the earwires
TIP  the copper will be thinner after you texture it and makes it easier to punch the holes with the hand punch

This  is a heavy duty  handheld hole punch.  You could also use a drill press with a 1/16 drill bit.


3.  Patina your copper washers in a Liver of Sulphur solution made with a small chunk of liver of sulphur and some distilled water.  It does not need to be heated to work.   Be sure to wear rubber gloves or use a sieve to put them into the solution.  Make sure you are working in a well ventilated area.

                               Rinse in cold water once they turn black.  Dry with a paper towel.

                     This is how black they will get in the liver of sulphur.  Not to worry it rubs off.
4.  Use the 000 Steel Wool to rub off the patina until the desired effect is achieved.

This is how they will look after you use the Steel Wool.  Amazing difference!!                               

5.  Apply a small amount of Renaissance wax  with a cosmetic cotton round or tissue paper to each of the copper rings and let them dry about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile you can attach the 9mm jump rings to the Fir Tree charms using your chain nose and bent nose pliers,

and then the 7mm jump rings to the  9mm rings.

6. After the 30 minutes,  the Renaissance wax has had a chance to harden, so you polish it with your Sunshine Cloth or a piece of soft fabric.  It should keep that level of polish because of the wax.

7.  Now attach the last 7 mm ring to your polished textured copper washers. 

Using the 7mm jump ring already attached to your tree connect your assembly to the 9mm jump ring on the copper washer.  See pic below.

8.  Last of all attach the entire assembly to your earwire, close it, and your earrings are ready to wear.

An alternative is to make the same earrings smaller using a  3/4 inch diameter copper washer.  You will use all the other supplies and directions to make them.

Happy First Day of Winter!!!

Amazing Book Link

If you love paper and books you will just love this link about some mysterious paper cuttings from and about books that have been showing up in a library in Scotland.

Maple Seed Wing Necklace

I am totally blown away by this beautiful necklace that  Erin Prais-Hintz, Tesori Trovati Jewelry, made from my Maple Seed Wings Pendant.  She made this as part of her Paint the World with Your Palette: 2nd Annual Challenge of Color Blog Hop!  This necklace was the Caprese Hues Palette.  You can see more of Erin's work and the others who participated here I love the texture of her necklace and the incredible greens she found to compliment the pendant.  Thank you Erin!!

First Friday Art Walk TODAY

                         Beads of Clay
                First Friday Art Walk on Etsy
                             TODAY

I hope you will stop by my Etsy shop today and enjoy the FirstFriday Art Walk discount in my Etsy store Today only--10% off everything in my shop.  Please use coupon code BOCFFAW at checkout and a Holiday special of free shipping.  I will refund any shipping charges since you can only use one coupon code at a time. ( I just learned this from a customer.) Please check out the Beads-of-Clay blog for more participating Etsy Shops.

 
Here are some of the new pieces in my Etsy Shop:

Thank you for stopping by.

The Culprit

Have you ever had the experience of your keyboard going haywire and eating up your words, changing your margins, jumping all over the place and typing numbers instead of words?  Well I have been dealing with this for quite a while but didn't know that it was that keyboard in the picture that was making my life so difficult.

 I was reluctant to take my tower into the computer shop since I could muddle my way through.  Finally I talked to one of the guys at our local computer store, the Computer guys and he told me to make sure that I didn't have the number lock on..  That was not the case.  Then I unplugged my keyboard and restarted it.  It was then that I noticed that the Number Lock light was coming on randomly and without me doing anything to make it come on.  So that is when I got the idea of trying another keyboard to see it that was the problem and lo and behold my old one had gone wild.  Turns out that is not an unusual event.   Well now that I have the new one installed I am typing just fine.  I have even blogged two days in a row ( including this post)!!

BTW 11-30-11

On my Bead Table--  These soon to find their way into my Etsy Shop.  Some already there.

Sweet Fir Tree Charms  Some for projects and some in my Etsy  Shop

                           You can see what others have on their Bead Table today here