Bead Arts

Christi Freisen

The newly redesigned Bead & Button website has a marvelous gallery now, with pages and pages of inspiring images to make you drool. I have always especially liked the work of Christi Freisen, aka cforiginals. Many of the images included are winners of the Bead Dreams 2007 contest.

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I’ve got two pieces with instructions in the current issue of Jewelry Crafts magazine. They were both a lot of fun to make, and even more fun to wear! The first one, Framed, uses greeting cards and polymer clay. The second one is a shimmering mix of copper and turquoise.

Framed

Copper & Turquoise

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My friend Amy Fraser has an amazing collection of pendants out for the fall and winter. She’s calling it the Prophecy Collection. Take a look!

Don’t miss the artist profile that Amy did for Bead Arts either!

handmade-beaded-jewelry, polymer-clay, beads, beading, mixed-media, wearable-art

Take nine artists, a color scheme, and a “can do” spirit. Some assembly required. What emerges? A story that we’re all proud to be a part of.

We’ve been waiting for this moment for more than a year! Our traveling charm necklace is finally up on auction. All of the proceeds will be donated for breast cancer research. The auction ends Sunday, September 16.

You can read the story of our necklace here, and a direct link to the auction is right here.

Thank you for looking, and thank you even more if you bid!

Love from,
Leah, Bobbi, Wendy, Amy, Ellen, Dorothy, Dulcey, Illaya, and Cyndi

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You’ve probably already read our story, but I’m going to include it again below so that those who are not familiar with it can read it. The time we’ve been waiting for is almost here! “A Charmed Life” will be auctioned off, starting Sunday, September 9 and ending on Saturday, September 15, on eBay. Search for it using the phrase “a charmed life necklace breast cancer”

Starting in April 2006, a small group of my artist friends and I have been collaborating on a charm necklace project. None of us have ever met in person as we live all over the country, but this project is working towards making us feel closer in so many ways!

All of the charms were sent to me to be assembled, and then the necklace began its journey from one member to the next. Each of us wore it on a special date…everything from art openings and reunions to a concrete convention. We’ve shared our pictures and stories with each other as the necklace has made the rounds. Our ultimate aim, though, is to auction it off this summer and donate all the funds to breast cancer research.

The stories from those who’ve worn the necklace and the reactions of those who see it are quite gratifying. We’ve had people stop us on the street, cross crowded rooms, and even chase us down to get a better look at it. Everyone immediately senses that there must be an amazing story behind it. We’re hoping that our sale will be amazing too: we would really like to make a major contribution to breast cancer research with the auction of our piece. Every one of us in the group has someone we love who has struggled with one form of cancer or another, and many with breast cancer specifically. [Note ~ The necklace will be up for auction on eBay in September 2007. Search on the phrase “a charmed life necklace breast cancer”]

The participants:
Wendy Van Camp
Illaya Brown
Bobbi Chukran
Leah Hitchcock-Ybarra
Dorothy Lueloff
Ellen Chasse
Dulcey Heller
Amy Fraser
Cyndi Lavin

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Only its temporary home though! In about a month, our collaborative charm necklace will be auctioned off to support breast cancer research.

For those who never heard our story, or who don’t remember it, here’s the summary:
Over the course of a couple months, a small group of my friends and I collaborated on a charm necklace project. None of us had ever met in person, but this project certainly made us feel closer in so many ways. The artists who participated with me were Wendy Van Camp, Illaya Brown, Bobbi Chukran, Leah Hitchcock-Ybarra, Dorothy Lueloff, Ellen Chasse, Amy Fraser, and Dulcey Heller.

Each of us made a charm in an “ocean” color palette that we all agreed upon. The charms were sent to me last July (2006), and it was my responsibility to get them all to play nicely together! Since we had spent quite a bit of time discussing palette and size issue, this did not turn out to be a problem at all.

Our necklace then made the rounds to all of us. We each wore it to a special event and had shared pictures and stories with each other. Some wonderful experiences resulted from the travels of the necklace. In the midst of this, Belle Armoire magazine put out a call for collaborative necklaces…could there have possibly been any better timing? As soon as we finished passing it around, I packaged it up and shipped it off to be photographed for the magazine. “A Charmed Life” should appear in the Sept/Oct issue of Belle Armoire!

So now it has temporarily come back to live with me until it’s time for the auction!

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media

Every month, Polymer Clay Central has a challenge scheduled, sponsored by different clay companies. For example, the Polymer Clay Superstore is sponsoring July’s challenge, called Wave That Flag. For information on each month’s challenge, visit the challenge rules page!

Here is an example of a previous challenge winner, from the April 2007 challenge, Textured Beads

Necklace by Arati Jawale

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ClayfulminglesThe Spirited Bead
Beautiful polymer beads by Karen Lewis, aka Klew

Clayfulmingles
Mia Rox’s polymer cane beads

Beyond Beads Gallery
Porcelain beauties by Jean Christen

CF Originals
Spectacular critters and more by Christi Friesen

Columbine Beads
Raku beads and pendants by Linda A Hendrix

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A couple of weeks ago, I sent a jpeg file to the Michelle, the editor of Belle Armoire magazine, to ask if they might be interested in an article on the techniques involved in making such a piece. She replied that although the techniques were of interest, the necklace itself was just too much of a monstrosity! She didn’t actually use that word…I did! Because it is a totally over-the-top piece, which I shared with you when I finished it. You can see it here if you’d like.

Anyway, Michelle said that if I wanted to make a scaled down version of the piece, they would love to have the article! We also discussed me making a few more smaller pieces like pins to further illustrate the possibilities with the particular technique. Of course, I’m not going to tell you right now what that technique is…you’ll just have to get a copy of Belle Armoire when it comes out! But here’s a sneak peak at the centerpiece of the new project:

Chablis

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Technique Tuesday!

Joy has offered a quick and easy video tutorial on making buttons from polymer clay. This is very basic information, but since I don’t do a whole lot with polymer, I learned several very clever tips from Joy!

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media, polymer-clay, buttons

I met Toby and Penny Attrill through our blogs and was quite taken by Toby’s really fun knotted jewelry…some made with ribbon and some with hemp. Toby put together some images of his work that he’s allowing me to share with you, and also some information on how he got started.

Toby Attrill is a young jewellery maker; he has designed various collections and also creates to commission. He is assisted by Penny, his Mum, who helps with some design ideas and also a lot of the administration. Toby has always been artistic, going to ceramics class for a few years now, enjoying cooking, sewing, texiles, creating artworks on the computer using Photoshop, and making things with his Dad in his workshop. The jewellery started a couple of years ago on holiday, where he met up with another boy who made beads from polymer clay. Toby came home, and started experimenting himself, making bracelets from the handmade beads, selling them, and gradually embellishing them more with shells and buttons, collecting ceramic fragments, buying hemp and ribbons, touring antique fairs for vintage beads, and finally now also using sterling silver in his creations. He supplies 7 shops and sells quite a lot from our blog.

You can see his designer range at: Attrill’s Blogspot
To find out more about his work in general see: Natural Attrill
To see his latest jewellery and ceramic creations, and generally what we are up to, visit our blog, and PLEASE say hello, leave us a comment! Natural Attrill Blogspot



Penny & Toby

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media

Welcome to another Technique Tuesday!

1. 
   Originally, I had planned to make this a much more complicated necklace, but as I played with a few ideas, I finally realized that I really didn’t want to distract too much attention from the central medallion. So I settled on three knotted cords and a strand of ribbon yarn. I chose colors that would not only look good with the fish, but would also look vaguely like running water.
2. Cut all your fibers to at least 25 inches if you want an 18 inch necklace. I used a straw cut to various lengths in order to space the beads out properly on the cords. I used a mixture of vintage lucite and ceramic so that it wouldn’t get too heavy. Knot below and above each bead, and cut all the ends even when you’ve finished.
3. 
   Wrap the ends through and around a large jump ring so that the raw ends point downward. Pull the knots tight and glue them with jeweler’s cement for security. Attach a chain to one of the jump rings, and attach a clasp to the other end of the chain. When the cement has dried, clip the ends close.
4. 
   Finished!

Polymer clay pendants available from Amy E Fraser.

Copyright 2007 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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Make Art Monday!

These adorable medallions were made by my friend Amy Fraser from polymer clay!

Trout Season

Tomorrow I’ll outline the really simple steps to making this cute necklace.

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media

Technique Tuesday!

Here are the super-easy steps to creating this pendant

1. 
   Stamp black polymer clay with a texture plate. Cut slits at both the top and bottom for jump rings and gently mold the clay closed around them. Bake according to the directions for your brand of clay.
2. 
   Mix liquid sculpey with gold mica powder. Wipe it all over your clay and let it settle in stamped parts. Rebake.
3. 
   Sand the surface with fine sandpaper to remove mica from the raised surface of the texture. Now the piece will look like a mosaic with black grout! Add another thin layer of plain liquid sculpey to the surface if desired and bake one more time.
4. 
   Create dangles to attach to the bottom jump ring. I kept the middle bead “floating” by using a small crimp on the headpin. Use Diamond Glaze or E6000 to glue brass stampings or other charms to the pendant surface. Add a large jump ring or bail to the top.

Copyright 2007 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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Make Art Monday!

While I was messing around with some texture plates, doing a short series of some of the things you could use them for on my mixed media art blog, Layers Upon Layers, I found an interesting way to create an inlaid look very simply:

Tomorrow for Technique Tuesday, I’ll be explaining the how-tos!

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media, polymer-clay