Artists Helping Artists

Artists Helping Artists Silent Auction

Several artists in the blog community have decided to band together to help a fellow artist in need.  The earrings below, currently featured at Earrings Everyday, are available here today by silent auction, as part of an "Artists Helping Artists" fundraiser.  

These earrings feature three each of my textured copper beadcaps, in graduated sizes, antiqued and tumbled to a high shine. They're stacked atop each other, with little amber foil Czech glass cone beads peeking from the bottom, on my hand-forged copper headpins. They hang from a pair of my handmade earwires. All the copper in these earrings, including the earwires, have been sealed in a protective lacquer to preserve patina and shine and guard against sensitivity. They're my interpretation (although more polite and less gelatinous) of a graceful, golden jellyfish!

The starting bid for these earrings is $18.00 (a steal!).  International participants welcome! Shipping costs will be included in the winning bid amount. Auction closes Sunday, December 11 at midnight.

Would you like to be the winning bidder?

Please leave a comment along with your bid. If you are the winning bidder, you will receive an invoice after the close of the auction. There must be a way to contact you. If you have email preferences turned off in your profile, please leave your email.

Many people are auctioning items to help out! Please visit these the other artists below and place your bid!

List of participants:

Heidi Post

Marie Cramp (together with Lori Anderson)

Barbara Bechtel (together with Staci Smith)

Erin Fickert-Rowland
Erin Prais-Hintz

Keirsten Giles

Andrew Thornton
Jennifer Justman

Karen Totten

Kristi Bowman-Gruel

Nan Emmett

Maire Dodd

Amanda Cargill Austin

Janice Everett

Rebecca Anderson

Shannon Iko Chomanczuk
Patricia Chaban Gasparino

Feel free to return and bid again!

Happy bidding!

  

Challenge of Color Blog Hop

This is the second color challenge I've done--the first one was with Erin too! I don't think I've ever done any other challenges. There's something about the way Erin structures this one that doesn't tweak my inner rebel. I'm OK with it.

I've been intrigued by purple lately, and wanted to do something in the purple family. My palette was "Mineral Brights" (I read the word "brights" and groaned inwardly, but it was all right after all):

I wanted to use brass in it, rather than silver, and I started with that and some heavy gauge leather cord that got me to the cafe au lait color.

Then I hauled out virtually every bead I own in shades of violet, periwinkle and putty. I strung and restrung and strung again. Changed my mind about a pendant twice. And this is what I finally settled on last night:

Indonesian glass beads in ivory and periwinkle (I interpreted that center color as more blue than gray, mainly because I don't really have any gray beads, so I fudged on that one just a little) from Happy Mango Beads, matte glass tile beads in violet, glass seed beads in a deeper violet, little wooden spacers, tiny lilac seed beads, and a brass-over-pewter Ethiopian Coptic cross, also from Happy Mango Beads. (I actually had some other small glass tile beads that were a closer match to that center color, but I just couldn't make them work.) Just didn't have anything in that deep indigo, so I fudged on that too.

This will eventually be for sale in my Etsy shop, probably tonight or tomorrow evening.

I Can't Stay Away From Bars

I confess. Bars just suck me right in. I can't walk by a bar without stopping. When I'm working a bar I just feel so cool and sophisticated, you know? And don't tell anyone, but I have a bar in my car too. Well, actually four bars. Two matching pairs to be exact.

Wait, what?

Yes, you heard me. I'm going through my BAR phase!! Don't you just love a rich, burnished copper bar? I know I do. I was thinking "Cosmopolitan" with this one:

Cosmopolitans on a Copper Bar

But then I was in a mood for something with Blue Curacao (with a side of Won Ton--I'm all about fusion cuisine):

Blue Lagoon with Won Ton

Tonight I'm in the mood for Grand Marnier. Or maybe Tequila Sunrise. Or both. Mixed together. We'll see what happens with that...

Three Bracelets

I am pursuing my "hinged" bangle bracelet design. Finished these over the weekend but I was too tired to photograph them until yesterday:

"Azure Islands" (or, "What I wear at my posh Grecian villa.")

Found some matte crow beads in my stash from Happy Mango Beads that matched perfectly. (That's always thrilling.) These luxurious lampwork beads are by Kelley Wenzel. I'm calling it "Azure Islands" which is coincidentally what Kelley called her beads. Hey, why reinvent the wheel, right?

This one is all about worn jeans and beat up leather boots. Like Thelma and Louise.

Dangerous in Denim

Ceramic focal bead by Mary Ann Carroll. Burnt horn rounds, with a mixture of nickel and sterling silver wire.

This one will look familiar to you. I got some more of these swirly sunset colored beads from my friend Pat (BeingBeads on Etsy)--these have a little more fuchsia and purple in them, and I added some wrapping to the rings I use between the beads:

A Wrist Pop! Lickable.

Well that's it. I have one more half done. Hopefully I can show it to you in the next few days!

Fooling Around

With metal wire and sheet.

These are some things I was hammering in the car recently--Some 12 and 14 gauge gauge copper wire, and some copper sheet. I decided to decorate them a little with stamping and antiquing and try them out as earrings. This first pair I left simple, with some faceted glass in a sort of lavender-periwinkle that changes color depending on the light source (lavender in sunlight, almost aqua in fluorescent light).

With lavender glass

I've been thinking of tourmalines lately (but not wanting to spend the $$, so instead I got some berry and pine green seed beads to sort of get in the tourmaline mood), and wanting to try wiring seed beads onto things so these are a real experiment! They ended up looking really Christmasy (I didn't expect that! Maybe it's the way the top curls over, makes me think of elf shoes)--probably need some black in there to really pull off the tourmaline thing. But I like them anyway. So they'll just have to sit in the shop until December. Ha.

Pink and Green Extravaganza

These last ones I'm not so in love with, although I like the beads in them.

Tulips

I think I've had enough of the bar earrings for awhile now, but I'm glad I discovered that wiring seed beads isn't very hard. They were very cooperative! Think I might do that again elsewhere.

The Buttonator (that's Button-ator, not Butt-O-Nator)

That's me. Or perhaps, the Disc-o-nator. (I missed disco by about 5 years, but I did see "Thank God It's Friday" about 12 times. I had a Donna Summer album. And Saturday Night Fever. I still occasionally listen to the BeeGees but "Nights on Broadway" makes me cry too much and I have to turn it off. I know, I'm not right.)

You might recall I used these BlueSeraphim raku lampwork discs on my protoype necklace for my Button-ator technique.

Well, I have now used them in a bracelet. (That was always my plan--and then earrings. Not there yet).

Aren't the colors amazing? I'm so inspired by these beads.

The other beads here are: navy blue Mykonos ceramic washers (from LindenAvenueDesigns), purple aventurine, green turquoise, ivory and brown bone spacers, and one little cobalt blue glass bead I got from my "junk" container. Antique gold plated pewter daisies and modified beadcaps. I used a rising sun stamp on the bigger one. Four strands of super soft cocoa leather cord from LeatherCordUSA.

Tada. That's it, that's all I got. OK time for PIZZA!!!!

I've Been Featured!

The wonderfully inspired and talented Libby Leuchtman at LibbyLeu glass has featured me on her blog! She is going to be doing regular blog posts about other artists whose work she connects with. I stopped by her blog when I was doing the Bead Soup blog hop and was knocked out by her new "onion dome" focal beads (I visited Moscow once, and Red Square, and was really wowed by the cathedral architecture in the Kremlin complex--her photo of St. Basil's really took me back!), and then I was totally floored by her podlettes when I visited her Etsy shop.

Copper Green Podlette Pair

Are those not the sweetest little things? Mysterious and graceful! Lori Anderson did a gorgeous bracelet with them by the way, check out the podlettes in action!!

And these gorgeous amber ones:

"Red Roof Tile Podlettes"

From Libby's Etsy profile and shop announcement:

"My name is Libby Leuchtman and I have been making glass beads for 13 yrs and designing jewelry for 20 years. All my beads are handmade by me and kiln annealed.

"I have always loved art and started out as a muralist. About 13 years ago I saw an artist at a show that had handmade glass beads. I signed up for a class two weeks later, and the rest is history. I founded the St. Louis Lampworkers Society, St. Louis Bead Society and I am a member of ISGB and the Torchworking Director at Third Degree Glass Factory www.stlglass.com. My beads have been collected for the Kobe Glass Art Museum, and appeared in several books. I have been teaching glass beadmaking for 8 years."

She also makes larger pod focals, also breathtaking and utterly unique!

Kalypso Frit Pod

Stop by and visit Libby at one of the links above!

Who's Not Afraid of Blue? That Would Be Me!

I'm doing aversion/desensitization therapy. With blue. Eye-popping cobalt blue!! I was pretty gleeful when the cobalt glass tile beads I got from Fire Mountain matched the pendant (that I got at the craft store) exactly. It HAD to be matchy! And then I had this strand of opalescent blue discs from Happy Mango that I have never used (but perversely bought in spite of my blue thing) and they matched too!!! I knotted it onto navy silk beading cord, with some nifty bead tips ("Hot Tips") I got from Fire Mountain. They look like little embossed leaves.

The pendant here is pictured on my model, "Ivory", with a gorgeous sarong given to me by a very generous customer. Can't wait to wear it when the water gets above 70 degrees!

Leather: The Path to Casualness

Plowing through more of my stash of lampwork--these again by BeingBeads in an amber and blue granite pattern. I wanted to do something a little more casual and rustic-feeling, so I got myself in the mood with some deerskin lace in cocoa from Magpie Gems. I started out with some very lightly oxidized brass beadcaps, but they added too much glitter to it and just weren't giving me the rustic feeling I wanted. So instead I used the same beadcaps, but deeply oxidized in ammonia fumes to a dark bronze. I added more of my teal quartz (wish I had bought four strands instead of two...), a little wood, and some nifty fluted dark brass tube beads I got locally. The connectors are the ring halves of some little brass toggle clasps. I wrapped the leather ends in oxidized brass wire and finished it off with a hand-formed brass S-clasp. It's about 19" long.

My First Button

I've been intrigued by buttons in jewelry for quite a while, but had been putting off designing anything around a button.  Well, I was finally forced to use my first button last week out of sheer necessity--the eventual wearer is very sensitive to metals, and the buyer and I settled on a button and loop closure in lieu of a traditional clasp to avoid as much irritation as possible.

I found this sweet little resin shank button in brown and oatmeal in the shape of a poppy at the local knitting store--even the shank was plastic so there's no metal at all in it. I created the loop from glass tile beads in peridot.  The necklace is strung on two different gauges of brown silk cord. I hid tiny little silver daisy spacers deep between the wood wheel beads where they won't touch the wearer's skin, but they add just a little bit of shine. 

The beads include ice flake quartz in olive green, porcelain in olive and black, amber, glass tile beads in peridot and a soft whiskey color, tiny glass seed beads in a matte cocoa finish, and lots of wood. I like it best twisted a little.

It was a little challenging to make; I thought half a card per strand would be enough (1 meter) but the knots took up a lot more length than I expected and I had to add a length of thread to one of the strands about 3/4 through to finish it off.  (It's about 19" long). Worked out fine, but I had to do some engineering.  Changed my mind twice about three or four strands, and eventually settled on four.  Phew.  I was nervous because you can't really undo those knots without wrecking the thread, and once you're started, you're committed.  The only way to change your mind is to cut it up and start over.  I'm kind of surprised I didn't have to do that!!  Lesson I learned: if you put enough crap in it, it'll look fine no matter what.  The buyer loved it, hopefully her birthday-girl friend will love it too!

I really want to do another piece like this with another button--I have an idea percolating, inspired by our stormy, glowering lilac-charcoal skies and the vivid trees with their tiny, brand new lime green leaves.  Might have to do some button shopping.

Yak Bone: It Doesn't Get More Elegant Than That

I found these lovely, rustic pendants on Happy Mango Beads a while back--they are handmade of yak bone by Tibetan refugees living in Nepal, and inscribed with the words "Om Mani Padme Hum", a common mantra associated with Tibetan Buddhism. (Even though looked it up, I have no idea what it means. Perhaps some of my readers are Buddhist, or Tibetan, or both, and can explain it.) I thought the pendants were lovely and the words inscribed probably reflected something good. If it's good enough for the Dalai Lama, by gum, it's good enough for me.



The necklace above was made with the ivory-hued pedant; I have another in a rich brown stain as well. I used brown silk beading cord, but ended up not exposing the knots. The cord was really too fine for the knots to play much role in the design so they're mostly hidden. Instead I used really tiny matte finish seed beads in a cocoa color between the ivory bone spacers, and silver heishi between the dark jasper roundels. Fusion Beads has some awesome seed beads, in every finish and color imaginable. It's like collecting nail polish. I keep buying them but I never use them!

I have a stockpile of smaller, really beautiful beads I'm going to start using though, even the itty bitty beads. A friend I recently made a custom piece for begged me (OK, begged is a little strong, but she did say "pleeeaase") to make some more delicate pieces with smaller stones and beads. So that's what I'm going to do, probably knotted and strung. I especially love the little collection of small "glass tile" beads I found on Fire Mountain Gems a long time ago. They remind me of rough gemstones.



But before moving on to the micro beads I had to make this first. This second piece is the same design I've been doing a lot of bracelets in lately--several months ago I bought a pile of big 12mm beads thinking to make earrings out of them but they ended up in bracelets and necklaces instead. Still going to do earrings. Just haven't quite gotten to it yet. This one is with 12mm faceted red agate beads (I'm just enamored with these beads--I can't stop looking at them), some carnelian, red glass (that I cannibalized from some stretchy bracelets from the $10 accessory store in Vegas) and a couple milky-blue sea opal drops. Raw brass rolo chain from Ornamentea, that oxidizes so nicely--in a flash!! Absolutely no varnish on it, I love that.



On a side note, I seem to have some deep metaphysical affinity with rugged-looking ruminant beasts. First the yak bone, and then it turns out, according to my Google Analytics account, that the top search term for my Etsy shop for March 9-April 8 was "how to spin qiviut." Qiviut is, I have come to learn, musk ox underwool. I do not use musk ox pelt in my jewelry, and I don't believe I ever mentioned musk oxen in any of my listings. It's just not a creature I think about much, and it never occurred to me to find one and shear it and make a sweater out of it. But by some circuitous route, on 8 separate occasions, curiosity about how one might turn musk ox fiber into yarn led people to my jewelry shop.

Getting it Out of My System

Apparently I'm harboring some purple in my psyche that needs exorcising. I had this laid out alongside my Easter blossoms necklace and finally put it together the other night. Found these big pietersite barrels at a bead show last year, and loved the colors so much i bought them on impulse. There was so much lilac in this strand, and some of the beads (not the ones I used here) had broad bands of what looks exactly like tiger eye in them. I combined them here with lilac stone, tiger eye, Czech druk beads and freshwater pearls, and of course more of my bead caps (wish I had a metal punch that punched out flower shapes or something. I'm betting Harbor Freight doesn't have anything like that.)



I'm hoping that I'm also harboring lots and lots of blue that is going to be exorcised soon, because I have lots and lots of blue beads now. And a lampworker named Karen Hardy contacted me, asking me where I got my bonefish pendant, and as a thank you for pointing her to Happy Mango Beads she's sending me some of her beads. Blue beads! It's fate I tell you.

Signs of Spring

I was determined this weekend to use some more of Kelley Wenzel's beads. I had bought some of her "raku egg" beads earlier this year, and had been incubating ideas in my head. I wanted to draw out the lilac in them, so that was my starting point. It actually came together rather quickly, for a change. One of the gratifying things about Kelley's beads is you don't have to work very hard to make them look spectacular in a piece of jewelry! Less is more, and keeping it simple is best so they can really have the spotlight.



I love the colors in these beads--lots of soft amber, a little pale green, and surprising swirls of lilac. The larger bead was actually among the set that Kelley initially surprised me with, and I was thrilled to see how perfectly it complemented the raku beads. The little egg beads are mostly transparent, with the swirls of color in them, and the larger bead is opaque. It reminds me of Jupiter in its Easter bonnet. They are perfect together. I combined them with some simple Czech druk rounds in lilac, a couple of rustic Chinese jade rounds (I felt it needed a little bit of matte finish in there somewhere to turn down the frou-frou factor a notch), and a couple lilac pearls just for fun. I had done the brass spirals several months ago, without any idea what I would do with them, and I liked how they echoed the shape of the beads. The bead caps are my own.



The egg beads are, as their name implies, egg shaped, and the holes are nearer the "top" of each egg, so that if strung, there would be a "dancing" effect, like top drilled pearls. When I wired them onto the bead caps, it created this (in my opinion) utterly charming crocus effect. They look to me like crocus just starting to open. Perfect for an Easter necklace!



I'm really pleased with how this turned out. I think it's my new favorite thing I ever did. Thanks for making it easy, Kelley! Can't wait to do more!

P.S. I think I finally have some inspiration for one of Leann Weih's (Summers Studio) blue-green lentil focals that might almost be worthy of it. Hope to do that tomorrow, along with a little more PURPLE!

The Sea Dragon

I bought two strands of these gorgeous teal-dyed quartz rounds at a local beadshop when they were on sale--I had no idea what I was going to do with them but they were irresistible. (I don't know why I have this lust for teal, but I have an aversion to actual blue. I mean, are they really that different?) I had multiple scenarios for using these beads, none of which resembled the pictures below. First I was going to get teal ribbon and knot it and dangle them in between. But can you find teal ribbon to match? No. I even inquired about a custom order but was so frustrated by the seller's garbled non-response I said screw it. Tried some sea green silk cord--gah, NOT. Tried teal blue satin cord--again, GAH! OK, black then. Maybe Greek leather. No, too stiff. Black silk then. Huh, the dangling thing isn't going to work. (Where have I heard THAT before.) Which also would probably conceptually disqualify black satin cord. Finally decided to just wire wrap the damn thing. And I nearly fell out of my chair when some of my new boro beads actually coordinate nicely with the quartz. Well, I guess good things DO happen to bad people.



Et voila! Some handmade nickel bead caps pounded flat to fit the boro beads, a little amazonite roundel to finish off one side, and some antique silver-plated rolo chain from Ornamentea.

The two larger boro beads are from LAJewelry on Etsy, and the smaller is from BeingBeads on Etsy (my local supplier). Unbelievable how close they match! The holes on the boro beads are pretty big and I had to drop a few 8/0 seed beads in there to pick up the slack with my 20 gauge wire. Seemed to work fine.



The pewter dragon pendant is from Happy Mango Beads. They have an awesome selection of ethnic-inspired pewter, free shipping, and they ship fast. They also recently started carrying a selection of gorgeous pewter beads. I'm sure you'll be seeing them on here pretty soon.

In other news, I got my Fusion Beads order with my vast assortment of blue and purple seed beads, so I am theoretically prepared to start my project with Pat's blue beads (see below). I should have that wrapped up in about a month. If I don't get sidetracked. Or if I don't decide I don't like it. If we win the lottery it'll be longer because I'll be in the desert playing golf. The watered part.

New Boro Beads from Pat!

Pat stopped by yesterday to bring me the beads she made for me for my special project. Here they are!







Aren't they lovely? Even though I suck at photographing boro beads? The lighter set is in a more denim/cornflower blue, with hints of plum and light sage, and splashes of rich cerulean blue. The darker set has a deep midnight blue ground, with varying shades of cerulean blue and cobalt, with hint of deep red plum and soft green. My photos just don't capture all the color variations. Just what I had asked her for! I'm super excited because there's a bunch of other gemstone beads I can combine them with, beyond my "special" project ("special" meaning I didn't have any of the items necessary to make it and had to go out and buy them all. It's a compulsion, like becoming unbearably thirsty as soon as the plumber turns the water off. I keep getting fab ideas involving materials I do not possess.)

Pat Redinger of BeingBeads on Etsy makes really lovely boro beads--really eye catching patterns and wonderful combinations of colors (see my previous post). She also sells them singly! How great is that? Sometimes you don't need a whole set, or you might want to mix and match. Check out her shop!

Look What I Bought!

I just couldn't wait. I started circling over Kelley's shop this morning and there were GORGEOUS BLUE BEADS!! I've been neglecting the color blue and that was going to be my next thing. I warned her. Or tipped her off, rather. And there they were. ADD TO CART.



There was another set of beads in a barely-there palette of cream-to-creme brulee, lavender, and sky blue. I love subtle shades, and these beads are so versatile in their coloring I could combine them with all sorts of things and they would be spectacular. I love how clear they are--I think it will be a nice contrast to the usual opacity and semi matte finish of the types of gemstones I use. ADD TO CART.



And then to just really cement my dedication to using lampwork, I bought a couple more from another seller, LA Jewelry Designs.



I've been really into this slatey teal color lately. Haven't used it yet, just...collecting things. I love colors with a lot of gray in them. ADD TO CART.

OK, just had to share. Best go get busy with the pendant I'm making with the first of Kelley's beads.

She Likes Me!! She Really, Really Likes Me!!!

Remember when Kelley Wenzel of Kelley's Bead Studio blogged about sending some beads "way up to the Tundra?" Well, guess who the lucky tundra-dweller was? Guess. Just guess. Seriously--just guess.



Yes, it was Moi. Me. Me me me me me!! All I can say is SCORE, MAN!!!! DUDE!!! SCORE!!!! GET OUT!! OMG. OMG. Get. The hell. Out.

DUDE!!!! SCORE!!!!!

Of course this was utterly unexpected. It was totally Ninja crack dealer--never saw it coming and now I want more. As I told Kelley, it provoked a multi-stage reaction:

(In chronological order) 1) (get package) mild bewilderment (what did I buy?) 2) (look at return address) deeper bewilderment (I bought that?). 3) (open package, read note, drop jaw.) Get out. GET OUT!!! OMG!! GET OUT!!! 4) (open box, look at beads) SCORE!!! I SCORED!!! SCORE!!! (stand up, do a little dance) 5) (sit down again) Awwww!!! She likes me! She really really likes me! 6) O. M. G. 7) (very) brief moment of stunned silence. 8) dawning admiration for sly and very effective crack dealer marketing scheme. 9) bead fondling. 10) Repeat #9 as necessary throughout the day.

I already have plans for almost all of these beads. She chose them so well, they fit not only into the designs I have in my mental pipeline, they would even fall seamlessly into stuff I've already created. (I'm tempted to take stuff apart and put them in there). I'm so touched at the care she took to look at all the designs I've posted and choose beads that harmonize with my favorite palettes. I feel so special!! And totally seeing what these beads could add to a piece of jewelry. I was actually working up to buying some lampwork but couldn't really picture yet what I would do with it. Now that I have fondled them in my grubby fingers I know how I want to use them. And I'll be circling Kelley's shop like a vulture.

Thanks again Kelley!! You rock!!!

Accidental Bead Porn

I went to a little bead store near my office looking for (only) this:



I came out with this:


(loads of magnesite in green and turquoise, and these cool little blue glass beads)

and this:

(sponge coral in orangey red--SIGH, my new favorite material--tiny tiger eye rounds, little crazy horse stone rounds, couple glass beads in red with pink flowers (don't know what seized me there), a strand of yellow turquoise and some ultra cool carnelian tube things. Plus the little Swarovskis. This stuff was 50% off, and it was already pretty dang cheap. None of these strands was over $5. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT SHIT? I went and bought up a bunch of magnesite, and one sponge coral donut. Drove to the park to do a little work, got distracted pawing through my stuff, and was seized with the conviction that I HAD TO GO BACK AND BUY MORE!!!! Who knows when I would find a sale like this again? So I immediately fired up the jelly bean and raced back to the store. The clerk looked inquiringly at me when I blew through the door. "I need to buy more," I said. "Oh GOOD!" she replied. And I bought more of the coral (like 5 smaller donuts and the big barrels), the tiger eye (so many colors? cool), and the crazy horse stone.

I have old bead porn from Happy Mango that I never shared. I've been hoarding it between the mattresses and I take it out at night when I'm alone. But it's time to share. This weekend.