The Power of Money

I have a big bag of money from around the world--some of it I collected on my own travels, and some of it my mom gave me. I've hung on to it for years. Wouldn't it be cool, I thought, to use some of these coins in a piece of jewelry? But alas, I lacked the patience to drill them. (This is why I need a drill press.) So they languished in a drawer. I ran across them again yesterday, and pulled them out and pawed through them for a while, reminiscing, and put them away again.

Today I decided it was time to seriously work on my inventory for the little component shop I have in mind. I started working on some charms with some wire weaving, idly thinking about what a pain in the ass etching is and how beat up my brass texture sheets are and isn't there anything lying around the house somewhere that I could use to pound a cool texture---

OH MY GOD. THE COINS.

I leapt up, the Metal Muse on my tail. I was driven now.

I furiously dug in the drawer for the bag of coins, hauled them out and dumped them on the living room floor (where I do my hammering, hunched over like a Balinesian basket maker.) I pawed hungrily through them, looking for patterns, lettering, borders...

I found some with intriguing, intricate patterns and decided what I would do.

I annealed my copper pieces in the torch (until they glowed orange), quenched, pickled and cleaned them.

I took the first one, and positioned it atop a coin:

I fastened it in place with painter's tape:

Then I pounded the crap out of it with various hammers (with the coin underneath my copper shape), first with my really big one, then a little tapping in the center with my chasing hammer to make sure the center of the design was deeply impressed in the metal.

Et regardez!

Cool, right?

I did a bunch more with the more artistic looking coins:

The coins I eventually chose were from Japan, South Africa, Mexico, Swaziland and a bunch of British coins that I think my grandmother might have picked up on a vacation somewhere--the British ones are all from the late 50s and early 60s. The designs on them are fabulous! The beauty of these coins is how tough they are--they really take a beating! And they don't really cost anything.

I like how the copper shapes look almost like relics--like those misshapen coins you see brought up from sunken ships.

These will be destined for clasps, focals, connectors, and maybe even a little pair of earrings. I might attempt a little patina embellishment on them.

Stay tuned for the finished products!

Letting Go of Preciousness

Pink Champagne

I bit the bullet this weekend and created some new pieces. A recent Etsy post has been really helpful--Artist Noah Scalin shared some tips for getting your creativity flowing. His first tip was "Let Go of Preciousness." He explained: "One of the biggest creative stumbling blocks is our need to get things right. Believe me, I’m a perfectionist myself, so I know how hard it is to let that go. The reality is that treating your creations as precious little things to protect keeps you from the world of possibilities the comes from trying new things out, making mistakes, and getting things wrong." I wrote "Let Go of Preciousness" on a sticky note and put it in my wallet.

I am the absolute worst about agonizing over every little detail in a piece, as if somehow every little detail has to feel exactly right or the whole piece will be a failure. Pretty silly, there really is no "right"--tomorrow I'll feel different about that little detail anyway so might as well just stick some stuff together and move on. The pendant below features a focal of pink fire agate (it so reminds me of pink champagne), lampwork in encased khaki by Kelley Wenzel, and more lampwork in pale coral pink and sherbet from The Spacer Shop.

I finished two other pieces I had been wanting to make with this same front toggle closure. The focal on this one is a festive "fiesta bead" from Indonesia (via Happy Mango Beads)--it makes me think of summer and margaritas!

Margarita

The toggle is made from heavy gauge sterling silver, and the connector rings attaching the cotton cording are nickel silver wrapped in sterling. The focal bead is about 60mm long--great size for a focal.

This last one is an idea I've been working on--I had done a prototype earlier with a green button, but I needed to tweak it a little. This one has a clear button of recycled glass from Happy Mango Beads, with a circle of art paper underneath that I sealed with several coats of decoupage medium. It's fastened to a copper base with ball headpins.

Spring

The beads include moukaite, mint green glass discs from Happy Mango Beads, and rosy lampwork from The Spacer Shop. Hand-dyed ribbon from Jamn Glass.

I'm waiting for the weather to warm up so I can do a trial run with resin. Sounds like I need to put about 10 more coats of Mod Podge on my art paper before I can do that step. Oy. Not sure if I'll have the patience.

Bead Soup Blog Hop

This was my very first Bead Soup! Many people know I don't like being told what to do (so I rarely do things like color challenges or kickboxing classes), so this was a real stretch--not only being told what colors to use, but what ACTUAL BEADS to use. Good thing my partner was Donna Millard! She sent me some fabulous lampwork, and some great accompaniments for them. I don't usually go for bright colors, but I had admired this set of beads in Donna's shop, and bless her heart she sent them to me!

Here's a picture of the raw materials from Donna (lampwork spacers and large tablets, Czech glass flowers, vintage tin discs, beadcaps and connectors, a brass toggle clasp, lucite flowers in various colors, and metallized plastic coppertone beads.)

There was more than enough to make a few pieces. I started with a necklace, and decided copper would go nicely with both the orange and the aqua in the lampwork beads.

The little lampwork spacers Donna sent with the large tablets were, of course, perfect accents, so I used those, and threw in a few favorite copper beads, some of my own copper beadcaps, and the vintage tin caps, linking all together with copper wire. The Czech glass flowers in aqua were just perfect to dangle from the lampwork focal, along with a copper flower charm. I just happened to have some fabulous hand-dyed silk ribbon in lime green, which tied in the lucite flower in lime. I added some rectangular link chain, and that was that!

Next I thought I would do a bracelet. I used essentially the same elements as for the necklace, minus the copper beads:

I created a toggle clasp with the focal bead, and again used the lampwork spacers, tin beadcaps, lime lucite flower, Czech flowers, silk ribbon and carnelian. I also added a little verdigris patina beadcap by Shannon LeVart on top of a faceted round of red agate.  I strung the beads on Beadalon in "satin copper", with tiny emerald green seed beads in between to give some drape between the beads.

Next I decided I would try some earrings with the little tin discs, combining them with some patinated copper rings by Shannon LeVart, and seed beads. The vintage floral design adds a nice touch!

I also wanted to do some earrings with the tin beadcaps. I ran out of the lampwork spacers, so I pawed through my stash to find some gemstones that would work. These green aventurine roundels below were just the right shade of mint green--like a lighter version of the kelly green in the lampwork. I mixed them up with tiny turquoise heishi, and hand-formed copper earwires embellished with bright turquoise blue seed beads.

I'm so tickled to have a few of the wonderful focal beads left. I can't wait to use them again!

Be sure to visit the other Bead Soup participants!

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

5.  Alesha Conklin and Becki Mendivil

6.  Alice Peterson and Carol Dillman

7.  Alicia Marinache (Canada) and Dita Basu

8.  Amanda Dittloff and Brandy Thomason McNair

9.  Amanda Tibbetts and Andrea Trank

10.  Amy Freeland and Kay Mallery 

11.  Andra Weber and Christine Murrow

12.  Ann Sherwood and Diane Welte

13.  Barbara Bechtel and Kerry Bogert

14.  Barbara Lewis and Cat Pruitt

15.  Bonnie Coursolle (Canada) and Fay Wolfenden (Canada)

16.  Carmel McGinley (Australia) and Tracy Stillman (Australia)

17.  Cassie Donlen and Deryn Mentock

18.  Cathie Carroll and Janel Dudley

19.  Cece Cormier and Morwyn Mullins

20.  Charlene Jacka and Christina Hickman

21.  Cheryl Brown (Canada) and Diana Ptaszynski

22.  Christina Stofmeel (the Netherlands) and Eva Kovacs (Hungary)

23.  Christine Damm and Deb Brooks

24.  Cilla Watkins (Canada) and Elaine Robitaille (Canada)

25.  Sabrina Straub (Switzerland) and Kathy Combs

26.  Cindy Cima Edwards and Eleanor Burian-Mohr

27.  Cory Celaya and Rhea Freitieg

28.  Courtney Breul and Dana Hickey

29.  Cynthia Abner and Jennifer Boreck

30.  Cynthia Tucker and Jean Peter

31.  Debbie Goering and Heidi Post

32.  Dee Elgie (UK) and Joanne Lockwood (UK)

33.  Dian Hierschel (Germany) and Eniko Fabian (Austria)

34.  Diane Cook and Lyn Foley

35.  Donna Bohler and Lisa Lodge

36.  Donna Millard and Kiersten Giles

37.  Doris Stumpf (Germany) and Eszter Czibulyas (Hungary)

38.  Elisabeth Auld and Eva Sherman

39.  Elke Leonhardt-Rath (Germany) and Marjolein Trewavas (UK)

40.  Ema Kilroy and Laurie Keefe-Cecere

41.  Erika Nooteboom (the Netherlands) and Giorgia Rossini (Italy)

42.  Erin Grant and Jean Wells

43.  Evelyn Duberry (Canada) and Gaea Cannaday

44.  Genea Crivello-Knable and Heather Powers

45.  Ginger Bishop (military, Okinawa) and Martina Nagele (Germany)

46.  Heidi Kingman and Lori Greenberg

47.  Helen Kemp and Lisa Wangeman

48.  Helene Goldberg (Australia) and Karen Vincent

49.  Jamie Hogsett and Jeannie Dukic

50.  Jeanette Ryan and Jelveh Jaferian

51.  Jennifer Cameron and Tania Spivey

52.  Jennifer Justman and Kari Carrigan

53.  Jennifer Tough and Lorelei Eurto

54.  Joanna Matuszczyk (Poland) and Julianna Kis (Hungary)

55.  Joanne Tinley (UK) and Michaela Pabeschitz (Austria)

56.  Julie Anne Leggett and Kelley Fogle

57.  Karen Hess and Linda Landig

58.  Karyn Bonfiglio and Kathleen Lange Klik

59.  Kashmira Patel and Kat White

60.  Kat Barron Miller and Kelly Morgan

61.  Kathy Lindemer and Rose Binoya

62.  Krafty Max and Sandra Miller

63.  Kristen Latimer and Pam Ferrari

64.  Kristie Roeder and Lea Avroch

65.  Kristina Johansson (Sweden) and Penny Neville (Canada)

66.  Krisztina Erlaki-Toth (Hungary) and Nicole Keller (Germany)

67.  Lara Lutrick and Lisa Suver

68.  Laura DeMoya and Lisa Hanna

69.  Libby Leuchtman and Melanie Brooks

70.  Linda Koch and Rosemarie Cowit

71.  Lisa Chapman and Menka Gupta

 72.  Lisa Liddy and Marion Simmons

73.  Lori Anderson and Marcie Abney

74.  Lori Bowring-Michaud and Mary Govaars

75.  Lori Dorrington and Maria Rosa Sharrow

76.  Lori Finney (Canada) and Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp (Canada)

77.  Lynn Bennett and Mandi Ainsworth

78.  Marta Kaczerowska (Poland) and Milla Starchik (Canada)

79.  Mary Harding and Shannon LeVart

80.  Mary Jane Dodd and Stacey Curry

81.  Melinda Orr and Molly Alexander

82.  Melissa Meman and Michelle Escano-Caballaro

83.  Michelle Jensen and Sandra Young (Canada)

84.  Nan Emmett and Nicole Valentine-Rimmer (Canada)

85.  Nancy Boylan and Suzette Bentley

86.  Natasha Lutes and Patti Vanderbloemen

87.  Pam Hurst and Rebekah Payne

88.  Patty Miller and Sara Rhoades

89.  Rebecca Anderson (UK) and Lori Anderson

90.  Rebecca Sirevaag and Sharon Driscoll

91.  Rochelle Brisson and Shannon Chomanczuk

92.  Rosa Maria Cuevas (Mexico) and Tejae Floyde

93.  Sabine Dittrich (Germany) and Sally Russick

94.  Sandi Volpe and Sarah/Saturday Sequins

95.  Shanti Johnson and Tracy Mok (Canada)

96.  Skylar Brez and Theresa Buchle

97.  Sonya Stille and Traci Zeller (Canada)

98.  Stefanie Teufel (Germany) and Tania Hagen (New Zealand)

99.  Stephanie LaRosa and Vonna Maslanka

100.  Terri Wlaschin and Wendy Blum

Flower Child

Spring must be drawing nigh, because I just keep making these flower beadcaps...I have fuchsias on the brain!

With swirling berry lampwork from BeingBeads:

Berry Blossoms

With icy blue Czech orbs and pearls:

Ice Blossoms

With minty aventurine and Czech glass in "prairie green":

Minty Blossoms

With Czech glass in semi-mirrored copper, with copper pearls:

New Penny Blossoms

With more lampwork by BeingBeads in delicious cobalt and kelly green:

Cobalt Blossoms

With big fat roundels of glowing, milky opalite!

Glowing Blossoms

I have some flower caps in gunmetal-finish nickel ready to go too...Maybe tonight! "Rustic Blossoms."

Some Earrings

I decided the weekend would be for earrings. I made five pair, and one more pair is half done.

This pair features little orange-red seed beads from my Bead Soup from Donna Millard, tiny green turquoise heishi, large blue magnesite discs, pewter heart charms, and ruffly sterling silver beadcaps. The magnesite and heart charms are from Happy Mango Beads.

This pair is based around some "oil slick" lampwork beads from BeadAbundant (Etsy). They have such a lovely antiqued brass shimmer, I had to combine them with brass. I added garnets and pale purple seed beads to bring out the plum tones.

I started with Karen Totten's ceramic leaf charms for this pair, and added some verdigris patina discs from Shannon LeVart, pewter birch leaf charms, and little seed beads in periwinkle. Sterling silver earwires. Birch  leaf charms from Happy Mango Beads.

This pair is a little plain, but I really love these beads. The olive green is sort of glassy and rich. I like how the ivory base has some buttery golden patches, like a perfectly toasted marshmallow.

This pair below is my favorite new design. I wanted to try them first with just a smooth copper cap, but I think I would prefer them to be textured. They remind me of a fuchsia blossom--that's what I was going for with the little "stamens" dangling from the bottom. This pair sports a pair of lampwork beads from BeingBeads. I have another pair half done with green aventurine roundels and little Czech glass stamens in prairie green.

Lune Grows Up

With its own little website!

I recently had a piece accepted for publication, and wanted to have a website link that could be included in the magazine (I didn't have one last time, which is why, I suspect, I got almost zero traffic from the article). I had an old domain name at GoDaddy I'd been hanging onto forever, and decided to activate it. I used Wix.com to design the site, and boy was it ever easy!!! You can design the whole site before spending a dime--so you know whether you want to spend the money--and the fees for a basic service are very reasonable. I highly recommend it! (I do NOT, however, recommend Website Tonight at GoDaddy--non-functional piece of junk.) This site was based on a pre-fab template, but you can change all the colors, backgrounds and photos to make it completely your own, and adding/subtracting elements is easier than falling off a log.

Here it is: www.lunestudio.com

Bead Soup Booty!

I got my Bead Soup package on Monday from my partner, Donna Millard. She very kindly sent me a set of lampwork I had admired in her shop (YES!!) They are the large tablets above in the wonderful patterns and colors--there were some coordinating spacers as well! I love this color combination. Donna also sent an assortment of lucite flowers, all in colors that coordinate with the lampwork, as well as an antique brass finish clasp, some of her vintage "cosmos" connectors and discs, handcut vintage beadcaps in the same retro floral pattern, and some copper finish beads. It was all very charmingly wrapped!

I have some ideas already, and I think I shall probably be making at least a few different items with my new stash!

And here is a picture of the collection I sent to Donna (which she has received so there's no spoiling the surprise):

Double flower clasp, flower connector, beadcaps, textured washer, and (although you can't really see it there at the back) a length of olive green leather lace with textured/riveted ribbon ends, all handmade by me from raw copper; rhyolite and ice flake quartz nuggets (in olive green); dark green and copper pearls; a couple of seed pod-like copper beads; Czech faceted glass in copper mirror finish; and a couple feet of rectangular rolo-type chain. Not a great picture but I had already put it all in baggies when I realized I had forgotten to photograph it and I was too tired (i.e., lazy) to take them all out again. Maybe Donna will have a better picture!