Another Branching Off

Just as I broke off from this blog to make one dedicated to writing, I have now set up a jewelry-dedicated blog. I hope to use it in a professional-type capacity, and decided it'd be more professional to have a blog that didn't feature my bar-related posts. Ergo: http://curlytreedesigns.blogspot.com/ Look for future bead posts here instead of this blog.

Bead Stats: In Case You're Wondering

My plan for my long weekend was to do massive amounts of beading & polymer to prepare for the craft show on the 1st. Thanks to the monstrous order and lots of pretty things, beading took most of my time. So what did I accomplish? Let's do this numerically.

Polymer pendants: 14-ish (I haven't counted yet)
Polymer bead sets: 2
Earring pairs: 2
Necklaces: 19

Whew.

The Monstrous Order Makes Itself Useful

Katherine just came in and picked out jewelry for her Christmas shopping. All the necklaces she chose are pieces I made over the weekend, and two I made just last night. And just that quickly, I've got a handful of necklaces fewer than I had yesterday and Katherine's knocked out a chunk of her Christmas shopping. Symbiosis is cool.

The only bad part is that a couple of the necklaces she picked are ones that I wanted. Oh well, I've got plenty more where those came from, and a whole strand of dark red faceted pearls I haven't even touched yet. Faceted pearls: more money, but a lot more oomph. Now if only Katherine would stop buying all my faceted pearl necklaces so I could wear one for a change. The count right now, Katherine: 2 - Me: 0. Fortunately, this is a very positive thing to be sad about.

All About Themes

On the other blog, I've been on a kick talking about themes. We all have them, whatever we're making. My featured jewelry this week is a few pendants in the same theme. I like trees, can you tell? With jewelry and art in particular, the interesting thing about themes is the variation.

Right now I'm also on braided things kick, and of the necklaces I've made during the binge, three are braids. I like the way the texture works, both when you have strands of the same thing (I made one of coral chips) and strands of different things (coral, shell, glass). They're chunkier necklaces than I've tended to make before, but fun by way of branching out and expanding my comfort zone. One of them might even work for Katherine's Christmas shopping.

Another thing you'll also see a lot of in my work is silver. I love my spacers. They're so nice for adding length, texture, and tend to dress things up. Themes, patterns, motifs. There's no escaping them.


P.S. On the pendants, the surface color all comes from gold and copper pearlescent powder + TLS. The differences you see in saturation, tone, and gloss mostly come from how much TLS I used. The two diamond pendants are the best example of this since I even used the same coloring (gold in the middle, copper on the edge). With the one on the top right, I painted on TLS that had the powder mixed right into it - thus the greater saturation - and the gloss comes from using my old toaster oven instead of my regular oven, and it gets very hot very fast. Greater heat, greater gloss. On the bottom left I put TLS on the pendant, then stippled powder into it on top.

The Earring Post

By request, here is an earring picture. This is how I store my earrings, and my cords from graduation (though that second part wasn't planned, it just turned into a convenient spot).

As you may have guessed, I have far more necklaces than earrings. I tend to go in phases with wearing earrings and right now I'm not in one. I love hanging them this way because it's simple, I can see everything at once, and it serves double duty as a kind of wall art.

If you're interested in one of your own, they're really easy to make. Get a wooden frame. Mine was an old picture frame. Get some screen big enough to cover the frame plus extra for wrapping around. Put the screen on canvas-style, pulling the edge behind the front and stapling to the back of the frame. You could even do decorative things with paint, if you're moved to do so. All-in-all the project takes about five minutes and then you've got a crafty place to hang your earrings. (Doesn't work so well for stud earrings, obviously)

No Bar Highlights

Why? Because I had Friday and Saturday off and only five tables on Wednesday. Of course two of those five came in at 10:30 and a little after (i.e. the time I can finally leave if it's slow) and I didn't get out of there until close to midnight. Though, on Wednesday, I did get a marriage proposal from one of our regulars who was rather drunk and/or depressed. "Wanna marry me Ali? I'll make you miserable the rest of your life."

How can a gal say no to that? Well, like this, "No thanks."

It's been a while since I've been proposed to, I guess I was about due.

So, why the weekend off? Because I got someone to cover for me Friday and we're only using one waitress on Saturdays right now. More specifically - because the Writing Marathon was on Saturday and thought it was a good excuse to have a "regular person" weekend. So, instead of spending Friday and Saturday catering to other people, I indulged myself and spent time with friends. Definitely a good deal.

The really good deal is that it ended up being a four day weekend, since I usually have Friday and Monday off from campus. Though I didn't plan it that way, it's perfect, because you know what came in the mail on Thursday? That's right, the monstrous bead order. Since Thursday, I've made eleven new necklaces and two pair of earrings. And I still have the rest of today and all of tomorrow to continue my binge. To quote Martha, "It's a good thing."

A Note on Pearl Powders/Surface Treatments

Pearlescent powders are great to use with polymer clay. Their main problem, though, is that if you don't seal them, they'll rub off. Now, if you're mixing the powders right into the clay, this is a non-issue. However, if you're using them as a surface treatment, as with the carved pendants, it is an issue.

My first experiment: I found a clear acrylic at the hardware store (originally intended for sealing wood) and used it to seal my first pendants. Unfortunately, the bond isn't as good as I'd like and the acrylic will peel off. I've heard people say that baking the acrylic on will help prevent peeling, but I've not tried it yet. Also, I like things to be really durable, not just sorta. So, I tried to think of another way.

My second experiment: I'd just been reading about using liquid polymer in projects, so it was on my mind when I sat down at the table. I had a "eureka" moment, and wondered what would happen if I used TLS to help set the powder. It worked beautifully. I like to texture my pendants with a hard bristled brush, and adding TLS tends to fill-in that texture, but at the same time, it adds some of its own. I like the result, it makes it seem a little more organic. Here are two texture examples.

Light TLS:

Heavy TLS:

Carved Pendants

Supplies: Baked polymer pendants. They should have a thin layer of color on top - in this case, pearl powders (mixed with TLS to set them) over a black polymer base.

Lino carving tool

Step 1-?: Pretty self-explanatory, start carving. For this one, I used the spot where the two colors meet as a starting point.

I added some lines, then a few more, and this is the end result. One tip: it's better to have shallow initial cuts than those that are too deep - you can always go back over the line again to deepen it, but you can't really fill in. Also, controlling your pressure = controlling your carving tool, which means your lines are more likely to go where you want them to.

Monstrous Order and Custom Work

"Medford, Or"
-Tracking info on FedEx website.

In preparation for the craft show I'll doing on Nov. 1st, and as a treat for myself, on Saturday I placed a very large bead order online. It's quite the indulgence, and not a cheap one, but I'm justifying it on the basis of the sheer quantity of what I'll be getting for the price, the fact that I won't need to do any bead shopping for a very long time, and having some orders for custom work.

Katherine and her husband are starting on their Christmas shopping and four of the gals they're shopping for are going to have jewelry made by me. I've started on a couple of possibles for these ladies, three maybes right now, and I think I'll be able to bring in a collection for Katherine to choose from next week.

Custom work is tricky in that you start with "A set with blues, greens, and/or purple, about yay long" and then go through the bead stash to find colors, shapes, and sizes that might work, then start mixing and matching, all the while thinking of what would fit the style requested. Still, challenges like this are fun, and with the monstrous bead order on its way, I'll have lots and lots to choose from.

I know I've been slacking on pictures, but there'll be some new jewelry up soon, I promise.

Makes Me Think "Flintstones"

This is one of my questionable necklaces. I'm not sure if I completely like the end result. Flourite faceted nuggets, flourite chips, and grey seed beads.

Feeling Like a Drug Dealer

"You suck."
-Katherine

Yesterday I wore a new necklace and Katherine said she wanted it, with earrings. I mentioned that I'd made a handful of new necklaces over the weekend and she said, "uh oh." Today, I wore another new necklace, which she also wants. That's where the "you suck" came in. It's great to have a fan, abuse not withstanding.

Katherine: It's terrible, I'm addicted.
Me: Well, there are worse things.
Katherine: Yeah, crack.
Me: See?

Of course, for all that she might feel guilty about her jewelry addiction, I reminded her that I'll always have twice as much at my house. Even if she buys an average of one new necklace a week, there are still those weeks (or weekends) where I'll sit down for a couple of hours and make half a dozen new necklaces in one go. She wasn't reassured.

Present for Julia

This one was a tough necklace to pull together, I just couldn't figure out what would go with the polymer beads. Finally, I went in an earthy direction, playing off the wood-like look of the polymer, and found something that worked. So, with the polymer is wood spacers (black), glass bicones, and seed beads.

I'll Be Watching You

A couple of years ago I went through a watch phase. It all started when I found a silver watch abandoned in a drawer at the Raptor Center. This watch was great because the band was solid and I could attach it to my belt loop so I didn't need to wear it on my wrist. Then I made belt-loop watch, then I made a couple of watch necklaces. This is one, Camii has another. I liked the whole functional jewelry idea, though I've since stopped wearing watches of any variety and now rely on my cell phone as a time keeper. Though, now that I'm talking about my belt-loop watch, I kind of want to take it out of retirement.

Anyhow, this necklace was made when I bought a watch, then butchered it for the face. They do sell watch faces by themselves, specifically for beaders, but cannibalism was cheaper and I was able to find a watch face I liked better than what the bead shop offered. I added seed beads and semi-precious chips to make a wrist watch into a neck watch.

What to Call It?

Now that I've built the etsy.com shop, I find the hardest part of it all is the prose. I make the jewelry. I take pictures of the jewelry, but then I have to describe the jewelry. Not only that, but I have to use descriptive, enticing language when I do. Talking up one's own work is kind of awkward. I have no problem saying, "I love these beads, they're gorgeous," but saying, "I made a gorgeous necklace" is tougher. It's been an exercise in un-humility. Definitely a learning experience.

This brings us to the necklace below. I'd like to offer a couple of this design in my shop, but I'm struggling with what to call it. I need a word that denotes a variety of different elements coming together, and that connotates positive things. So, while I love "goulash" I fear it lacks a bit in terms of class. The best I've come up with so far is "collage." Anyone else have ideas?


Ok, so the necklace itself: A short one, and very dense. I think I have nine strands on it, but don't quote me. It's chock full of blue, gold, and white/clear seed beads with a tad of red, green, and whatever else thrown in. The larger glass beads are blue and blue/green.

Grand Junction Necklace

Sorry I've been slacking on the weekly necklaces. Etsy has been my main focus as far as jewelry goes, and I'm slowly but steadily working my way through picking pieces, photographing them, editing the picturs, and posting them in my shop. Whew, much more time consuming than I would've guessed.

Here's the scoop on this nifty necklace: Each bead (except for the silver spacers) in the necklace is from my visit to Camii in July. It started with the wonderful pendant and went from there. I love the colors, and the way it came together. A pendant and the seed beads at one store, the lava rock and goldstone from another, and the goldstone because it was left over from Camii's ankle bracelets. I keep getting compliments on this one, and I love the story behind it.

Etsy Shop

If you build it, they will come. Right? Well, it's built.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5284452

Thank Gosh for Vases

I started thinking about vases, about how handy they are for jewelry pictures. Then I remembered the vase I got, filled with roses, for my birthday. It's got a big wide shape and I thought, "Hrm... could it work?" Take one wide vase, add a natural light desk lamp and a gray shirt, and this is what you get.

Testing 1-2-3

In preparation for setting up an etsy.com shop, I've been playing with my camera and various ways of photographing my jewelry. I've got earrings down just fine, now if only I can figure out something that works as well for necklaces. Of the batch I did, only one necklace came out a way I like.




Here are two earring photos, with two different backgrounds (tan stationary and the blank wall of my office).

An added plus with using a tall vase for the earrings is that it gets them right up near the light, which helps the finished picture quality.

It's Like Goulash

Jenny: Did you get a haircut?
Me: Yeah, about two months ago.

I like goulash necklaces because they're a handy way to clear out oddball beads. You only need a few of whatever because you add them to whatever else you've got and string it all up and do a multi-strand necklace. As long as you're operating within a certain color scheme, you can't go wrong, even though the beads you use are all different sizes and shapes. It's all about texture, and it works out beautifully. So, this necklace is all manner of glass seed beads and crystals, with a few brass bugles thrown in for flavor.

The reason I mention the haircut is because I struck a deal with Lita on my last one. Instead of paying her cash, we made a trade. I got a haircut, and she got two necklaces. One of which was this one.

Variations on Chain Earrings

You can easily modify the look if you skip "folding" the chain.


Or if you use a longer section of chain.