Art Elements Theme of the Month :: All Things Christmas

 

It's been a while since I have made enough for one of the Art Elements themed challenges to warrant a blog post, but I've actually been fairly busy with holiday themed items lately for a series of online shows I've been a part of over in my friend Anna Pierson's Sagahus Components Facebook Group.  Yay!  

I made a little collection of earrings using upcycled tins pairing them with snowflake charms and really fun Italian glitter resin.  I think my favorites are the ones with the embossed silver snowflakes that I cut from some small storage/gift tins that I snatched up last year at Michael's after the holidays.  

I also made a few more wintery versions of my etched copper earrings that use the leftovers from my Christmas ornaments.  I like the combination of the copper evergreen patterns with pewter charms and luckily I had the perfect niobium ear wires in grey with copper accents.  

I don't always buy a ton of holiday specific artisan beads, but this year maybe I just felt the need for a little extra Christmas cheer.  I snagged some fun enameled charms from Lindy's Designs (left and right below) that I paired with more of the Italian glitter resin.  The middle pair of earrings below are some adorable, slightly mismatched poinsettia ceramic charms by Golem Design Studio paired with vintage German marbled resin and Czech glass.

Necklaces featuring artisan beads with some holiday flair were also on my creative docket.  I bought a set of partridge and pear ceramic lentils from Golem Design Studio at Bead & Button last year and I knew I wanted to make a tree for the little bird!  I used the general idea from one of Heather Power's tutorials to shape the tree out of copper wire and then hammered the whole frame to work harden it.  I then filled in the tree with a mix of seed beads, Czech glass, and Swarovski crystal pearls in colors to coordinate with the ceramic bead.  The middle necklace features a whimsical reindeer enameled pendant by Lindy's Designs strung with tons of Czech glass and some lavender candy jade.  The necklace on the right is a stack of polymer clay goodies from Humblebeads.  Love the the little red bird, it's sweet nest, and the snow kissed pinecone she made.  I added a few elements including some copper plated branches and Czech glass beads.    

If you've been following my creative journey on Instagram or Facebook you know that I've been having lots of fun with beer bottle caps and bead embroidery.  Bell's Brewery has some of the best bottle caps around for their seasonal beers.  They had a holiday ale with a cute Christmas tree on it that has become a couple of pins so far... and I'm still hoping to make one more as a gift but it will probably be late.  The middle pin below is the Fulton Brewing logo but it kind of made me think snowflake surrounded by silver.

Last but not least, I made another batch of saltwater etched Christmas ornaments this year.  It's a fun but sometimes frustrating process as you don't always get a clean or deep etch.  I only had one true failure this year... so that's good!  I really should do some non holiday, non ornament etching at some point... or at least start using some of those things I've done in the past.  New Year's resolution maybe??  

I hope you've enjoyed my little tour through this year's holiday makes!  Wishing you all a joyful holiday season!

Art Elements Theme of the Month December 2019: Handmade Christmas

First off, let me just say that I hope that each and every one of you has had a delightful holiday season... whatever holidays you choose to celebrate.  Our Christmas holiday was spent making and eating tons of yummy food including my very first (and thankfully, quite successful) attempt at making gougeres (also known by me as cheesy poufs!), spending some quality time with good friends that we don't see nearly enough, and finally getting to the new Star Wars movie!

I love the idea of sharing all the handmade goodies that we create this time of the year.  Seeing what other creatives have been up to and how they respond to each theme of the month is always fun, but I especially love seeing the special holiday treats that everyone dreams up.

For me, this handmade holiday challenge reveal isn't too very different from what I did last year, but I thought I'd share what I've been up to anyway since I do have some new designs!  Once again, I went a little bit overboard with the saltwater etching.  I had a friend who has a guillotine cut down a bunch of copper sheet for me into manageable rectangles.  I stamp my images on the copper pieces using rubber stamps and StazOn ink and then etch them using batteries and a hyper-saturated kosher salt solution.  Fun mad science times!!

After the pieces are done etching, I antique them with liver of sulphur, cut my desired shape out, sand and file the edges.  When that's all done, I punch any holes I want and add beads and/or charms and a ribbon to hang them.

Some of the ones I made this year are designs that I used last year and some are totally new for 2019.  Here's what I've managed to make:

Three brand new designs!  

Happy Christmas was new this year... I love the leaf charm and red "berry" beads on this one!

The middle one was new this year and the first one I sold.

I added all of the ornaments that didn't sell in my holiday shows into my Etsy Shop (you can see what I still have for sale HERE).  From that I ended up with a special order for a very specific saying... "Deck Them Halls Y'all!)  Since I didn't have a rubber stamp for that, I had to get creative!  Luckily, Heather Powers had shown us an image transfer technique at her Inspired by Nature Retreat in 2018 so I went to work trying to figure out how to use that for the desired results.  I played around with the words and some holiday graphics in PicMonkey and then got them printed onto transparency film.  From there I was able to transfer the image onto my prepared copper and proceed with the etching and ornament making process.

Special order ornaments.  I'll be making more of this design for next year!

Last but not least I'll share an ornament that's doing double duty for this reveal as well at the last Art Bead Scene Art Journey challenge of the year.  I had pulled a large porcelain snowflake pendant by Nancy Adams of Round Rabbit thinking that I might make a necklace with it for the ABS challenge.  The more I looked at it, the more I thought that it was just too big for me for a necklace.  I switched gears and whipped up a little Christmas ornament that currently is gracing our tree.

That's all that I have for this month, but this is a blog hop.  I hope you'll check out what everyone else created for a Handmade Christmas!

AE team: 

Lindsay

Jenny

Sue

Karen

Claire

Niky

Cathy

Guests: 

Sarajo

Kathy

Mary

Hope

Tammy

Evie and Beth

Divya

Merja

Sarah

We're All Ears December 2019: Use Your Leftovers

This is the fifth year of the We're All Ears "Use Your Leftovers" challenge!  I haven't looked back to last year but I expect that I'm doing something similar since I've been knee deep in salt water etching for the second year in the row!  I honestly have made much of anything else this month... I knew had good stock built up of everything other than Christmas ornaments for my holiday shows.

If you want to see most of the ornaments I made this year, I have them for sale in my Etsy shop.  You can see them HERE.

Anyhoo... for my contribution to the Use Your Leftovers challenge I present you with the pieces that I made from the etched copper sheet left over after I cut out my ornament shapes.  I used my handy dandy disc cutter to cut as many circles as possible out of the extra copper then gave them a good tumble to help smooth any rough edges.  Then it was time to match things up for earrings, punch holes, and dome them.  Yes, there are some necklaces in the mix too, but that's just how I snapped my pictures as I was making things.    

This is a blog hop.  Pop on over to the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what everyone else made with their personal craftermath!

Honey Do List September 2019

This is the fourth year that my husband Eric has been giving me a design challenge each month to get me out of my comfort zone and to help clear out my bead stash... it's the Honey Do List 2019!  I know that I'm not the only one who loves a good design challenge, so I'm hoping folks will continue to play along with us!

Here's this month's inspiration and what Eric had to say about it:

This month I went with a little less color and a little more pattern and texture.  Both of these shots were from the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in England.  These are ornate Celtic crosses that I just love for the beautiful Celtic patterns.  The first shot includes the ruins of the old Monastery, and the second has the more modern church as a background. Try to come up with something Celtic, crosses, or ever patterns from the church windows or brickwork.  Go crazy!


When approaching a new challenge, I often will opt to start with a fairly quick and easy project first.  That way, if life gets too crazy, I still have something completed come reveal day!  My first project falls into that category for sure.  I remembered that Eric had given me a couple of buttons with a Celtic knot work design a while back... the hardest part was finding them in my messy studio!  I made a quick little bracelet with one of the buttons, grey speckled seed beads, and black leather.  Cute and quick!

When Eric gave me this month's challenge, the first thing that came to mind was to use some stamps I borrowed from a friend to make some etched copper pieces.  I dug out the Celtic set that was in the giant bin of stamps my friend loaned me (I should probably to check to see if she wants them back yet!) and got to work.  

I etched several pieces of copper filled with a variety of designs that I thought would work for earrings, necklaces, and even Christmas ornaments!  After etching and antiquing those sheets, I got out my sheers and started cutting out some designs.  I ended up with three finished necklaces and one bracelet.  I also have the two ornaments cut out and filed, but haven't finished those up yet.  

I kept all the pieces super simple to let the etched focals shine.  The center necklace features a Celtic hound design.  I wanted to add a little visual oomph to the pendant so I ended up shaping it into a nice curve.  The other two necklaces are variations on a theme.  They use the same base etched design but cut out differently.  I started with the one on the left where I tried to cut along the scallops of the design.  For the one on the right, I kept the lines smooth for easier cutting and filing.  (Can I tell you how much I hate filing??)  Both versions have Swarovski crystal dangles.

I'm really digging the bracelet I made.  Again, the work was all in the bracelet component so I wanted that to be the focus of the design.  I just added a nice copper plated chain and lobster claw clasp after I curved the oval piece.  Voila!

All of my pieces from this challenge will be on sale at the Art Wander this weekend.  My house is Studio K if you're in the area and want to visit!

I had hoped to make some earrings, maybe even try my hand at soldiering some posts, but I didn't quite get that far.  Fingers crossed that some of those get done before the Art Wander starts on Friday!  (That's probably what I'll work on today.)

But wait, there's more!  My friend Roberta Szymanowski made a couple of pieces that she asked me to share here.  Here's what she made and what she had to say about each of them!

This is a prototype bracelet using Fimo's very new leather effect clay in gray. I patinated it with Vintaj Nouveau Silver and added emerald accents with FolkArt Color Shift in Emerald. Sealed with Vintaj glaze patina. 1.5mm dark grey metallic leather sliding adjustable closure with natural copper beads. Inside of bracelet is lined with genuine leather.

I'm confident of the durability of the clay since artisans area making handbags from it, but I'm not yet confident of the durability of the finish on it. Hence, prototype.

Since the inspiration has considerably more weathered detail and texture than color, I attempted to replicate the ancient feel in my clay cross. Additional texture is provided by the recycled sari silk but contrasted by the beauty of the Conamarra marble (Ireland's national treasure!) and the Vesuvanite beads. All other elements are sterling. A simple knot ties at the back.

Story behind this piece: I imagine the cross being an ancient family heirloom over time converted perhaps into a rosary. Only a small segment remains, the rest lost to time and memory. It's now held together by a precious piece of silk.

Gorgeous pieces, Roberta!  I'm so glad you played along with us this time!  

Now it's your turn!  Please add links to/photos of your own creations below.  I love seeing what everyone else is making too!  Check back on October 1st to see what Eric has in store for us next month!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Art Elements Theme of the Month: White

For the December Theme of the Month over on the Art Elements blog Claire Fabian chose "White" to inspire us.  She shared some truly lovely inspiration photos over on the blog HERE that I encourage you to check out.  I honestly have less white beads in my stash than probably any other color making me initially thing that this might be a BIG challenge for me.  (And, yes, rules lawyers, I know that white is technically not a color, but explaining that makes my head pound.) 

Not surprisingly, since I live in MinneSnowta, I chose to focus my creative energies on the idea of snow flakes this month.  It also doesn't hurt that tis the season for selling snowy creations!  :)  I happened to already have a pair of copper clay charms by Kristi Bowman sitting on the corner of my bead mat waiting for attention when this month's theme was announced... serendipity!!  I made little links with copper wire that I had antiqued and lovely matte star cut crystal quartz and some plated hematite for a little flash.  I love how this pair turned out and it's going to be difficult to part with them!

As I mentioned in my recent post for We're All Ears, I've been doing tons of saltwater Christmas ornaments and playing with the leftovers.  Some of them had snowflakes on them... perfect for the white/snow theme I was already working on.  The snowflake is the star of this tiered necklace which mixes the etched copper circles, brass chain and findings, and a small Swarovski crystal bicone.

I made a few different pairs of etched copper earrings featuring snowflakes as well.  I kind of felt like I just couldn't stop myself! 

Not a new creation, but on the same day that I saw the theme announcement, I was also reminded by Facebook of a post from back in 2014 when Erin Prias-Hintz was doing her 30 Word Thurdsays.  The picture I took of snowy drifts totally fit the theme so I thought I'd go ahead and share it with you all!

Snow blown into drifts.  

In the light of setting sun, 

I squint my eyes and can almost believe that 

I’m standing amidst dunes of sand.  

Dreaming of warmer days ahead.

Guest Artists

Alysen

Anita

Beth

Cat 

Divya

Elaine

Hope

Jill

Karin

Kathy

Lucy

Rozantia 

Sarajo  -  You Are Here

Susan

Tammy 

Art Elements Team

Caroline

Cathy

Claire

Laney

Lesley

Marsha

Susan

We're All Ears: December 2018: Use Your Leftovers

I have to admit that Erin's Use Your Leftovers challenge is often one of the toughest of the years for me... that's because I don't really tend to have the kind of "craftermath" that she's challenging us to make use of.  My space is so limited that I really don't tend to leave beads out on my bead mat once I've finished a project unless I know I'm about to use them for something else that got sparked when I was creating the primary creation.  In the past, I've cheated a little bit and tackled some earring UFOs (unfinished objects) of making something from new beads that I haven't gotten around to putting away (I won't show you the piles of bags that fall into that category right now!)

Anyway, for this, the 4th annual Use Your Leftovers challenge over on the Earrings Everyday blog, I finally have true craftermath and actual leftovers to make new earrings with!!  Woo hoo!

Since Thanksgiving I've been on an etched Christmas ornament making kick.  I mean, I've been a machine with the salt water etching and still may try another small batch.  Here is a peek at just a few of the ornaments I've made so far.

Some of these have already sold, but there's still time for a special order!

So, as you can imagine, when I cut my ornament shapes out of the small pieces of copper sheet that I've etched, there's a decent amount of copper left over.  Here's the pile from my most recent batch!  If you really look you can see that there are some places that there's just extra design left over from what I cut, and some places where I had tons of extra blank space so I filled in with extra stamped images.  Now you may wonder what I'm going to do with all of that!  Why, use my handy-dandy disc cutter of course!!

After cutting as many circles in various sizes as humanly possible (trying for matched pairs first), it was time to file any rough edges.  Fortunately, my little Pepe cutter is a wonder and the circles mostly just needed some light sanding and a little brush with steel wool to be plenty smooth.

Next came the process of matching various pairs up for two-tiered earrings and deciding which ones would be singletons.  So. Many. Circles.

Some I went matchy-matchy with the patterns... some I added some Gilders Paste to parts... some I added charms or bead dangles... some I went a little more random.  I love them all!!  I'm hoping my customers enjoy this new collection even half as much as I enjoyed making them!

Not earrings... but I also made a couple of necklaces that I'm just too excited about to not share at least one of them!  I ended up with some singletons of different sizes so I put some together.  This one has gone off to live with my good friend Kathleen in Georgia!

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.  This is blog hop, so I hope you'll pop over to the Earrings Everyday blog HERE to see what everyone else has created from their craftermath.

Art Elements Theme of the Month: Stars

This month Laney Mead over at the Art Elements blog chose the theme of "Stars" for the theme of the month.  At first glance, the theme seems pretty specific, but she left it open for a broader approach.

My first design plays on the star of the ocean... the starfish!  I had gotten the idea to put a bunch of Unicorn Beads drops along my bracelet chain (instead of a different type of bead I've been using) from one of my fellow Inspired by Nature retreat goers.  I thought that these turquoise with white, cream, and black had a beach feel and coordinated nicely with the two-holed starfish bead from Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  I added a fun shell charm and some Czech glass beads to the clasp side of the bracelet to finish things off.

I remembered that I had some Twinkiedinky charms that I bought a while back.  They have a quote on them from Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers...  "You can't expect two stars to drop in the same field in the same lifetime."  So the star theme plays out here in words instead of shapes or images, but I've been waiting for an excuse to play with these!

Lastly, I ended up making one Christmas ornament with a star pattern across a heart shape.  I used a borrowed rubber stamped image as the resist for this salt water etched copper.  I added the little dots around the border by hand with a Sharpie.  That one sold at last Sunday's Holiday Market but the other 4 are still available.  :)  I plan to work on another round of these ornaments this week.

This is a blog hop!  Take some time to see what starry creations that everyone else created!

Guest Artists

Jill

Divya

Alysen 

Kathy 

Tammy 

Cat 

Samantha

Anita

Karin

Sarajo - you are here

Rosantia

Kimberly

Art Elements Team

Jen 

Jenny  

Niky 

Laney 

Claire 

Cathy 

Marsha 

Caroline

Susan

Lesley