Hanging my head and hoping for the best......

by MaryAnn Carroll

For those of you that know me, you know that I am a resource teacher and do my jewelry and bead making part time. Four and a half years ago I stopped selling beads online after a tragic event sent my life into a tail spin. I won't launch into that story here because I couldn't possibly cover it in a paragraph or two. Once things started to slow down from that a year later, I just didn't have it in me to list anything anymore.

There was a time that I did very well selling beads and so so selling jewelry. I opened an Indiemade shop, but get virtually no business from it. It wasn't the site, it was me. I just didn't want to promote, take pictures, list, write descriptions, etc. to sell. The time has come for me to stop avoiding what I remember being a lot of work and get back into the bead business. I've probably written about this exact same topic before, but this time I am feeling the push to do so.

My goal is to retire at the end of the 2018 school year. I will be 58.  I am in my 31st year right now. I have been lucky to have a job that I like for the most part. It's a little scary to think about not having the same income. I have all of these thoughts running through my head.....

What is something happens to my children or grandchildren and I cannot help? Are they going to be okay? What if this? What if that?

I need to STOP!!! and remember the advice that I always offer others. Most things in life are out of our control and it is rarely the things that we try to control that end up being something that we are faced with.

So, with my retirement goal in mind, I need to get ahead financially. I thought Handmade at Amazon was going to be the boost that I needed to start selling again. I do want to do this full time when I retire from teaching.

So, I signed up and was accepted. Well, it turns out since I sold a half dozen things on Amazon in 10 years, I have a seller account. It would not let me set up shop. I spent way too many hours on the phone and on the internet trying to take care of this glitch.....

.....only to find out from my friend Staci Lousie Smith, who, if you know her, you know that she knows the ins and outs of online anything, that they aren't taking beads and components at this time. Why the heck did they accept me?

They launched yesterday and sure enough I didn't see beads and components. I did see the number 43,000 or something close to that next to jewelry and I was like..... NO WAY!  I cannot compete with that. Hopefully, I will be over all of my frustrations by the time Amazon decides to include components.

So today, I am hanging my head when I say that I am going to give in and start my Etsy store back up. I left Etsy as soon as they included manufactured items, and in all honesty, when I searched for ceramic beads just the other day I was a little appalled at what I was up against, but I am going to give it a shot again.

So, Etsy, here I come..... for a while anyhow. I will wait to see what happens on Amazon and maybe I will make the switch. But for now, I am motivated to start selling again.

assorted porcelain beads

wood-fired stoneware beads

porcelain beads with shino glaze

porcelan beads pistachio shino glaze

I also checked out examples of what you will see when I get started back up!

I hope that ceramic beads are still in style......

A BANGLE GIVEAWAY

by MaryAnn Carroll

Hello All,

I have a quick post for you today due to time constraints going on in my life right now. Hopefully, most of you have social media sites and can share this post because that is what I am going to ask you to do to be entered to win two custom made (fit for you) copper bangles like the ones pictured. Please share on your social media sites and let us know where it is that you shared. You can enter up to two times..... meaning share in two different places.

If you don't have social media..... please come up with some way that you could be entered.... perhaps you could share on email with a friend, share with someone in your household, share with the mailman, etc.

Get your creative juices flowing. I will announce a winner in one week..... that'd be next Friday!

Please leave your comments on this blog post...  Those will be the only ones counted.

Have a great weekend!!! MaryAnn

All of this for Wood-Fired Beads?

MaryAnn Carroll

I must say that I am pretty lucky to be able to include beads in regular wood-firings. It is definitely a rare happening, since, who would build a 34 cubic foot kiln to fire beads in? My husband, of course. I think he does this just to keep my happy! Yes, I am SURE he does this to keep me happy!!

The truth is that there is quite a process that goes into wood-firing. The first part of the process is the same for all ceramic artists who use a wheel and fire with methods such as electric or gas. You start off with clay...... and a wheel....

Then, a few steps follow.... like skill, knowledge, artistry, practice, more practice and more practice, until you get it just right. Nothing can replace the time to perfect an art like practice.

This is Bill at a recent "throwing" event near our home.

Once the piece is thrown, it is left to dry until leather hard. At this time, the thrown piece gets trimmed.... Well, MANY pieces get trimmed. To fill his wood-fire kiln, it takes about 300-350 pieces depending on the size of the pieces.

A leather hard bowl that has been trimmed.

Now, it takes about a week or two for the piece to dry completely. At this point, they go into his electric kiln to be bisque fired. A bisque firing basically prepares a piece so that it can be handled without breaking during the glaze process.

This is one shelf prepared for a bisque firing inside of the electric kiln. Typically, 4-5 shelves similar to this are stacked.

A grouping ready to be removed for glazing.

 After they are bisque fired, it's time for the glazing....

As you see, he has a little of the female appeal going as strongly encouraged by me....

This group shows the wadding on the bottom of some pieces. I will explain that more when I post Part II of the process.

Look at the picture below. Do you see where the arrow is pointing? That is one small rack of my beads. You might be able to see why wood-fired beads are rare. These kilns are not built for beads and most who go through the labor of building a wood-fire kiln are doing so for the love of this form of pottery making, as well as for larger works of art.

Bill is preparing for another firing now. I will keep you posted for the 2nd half of the process. It's even more involved that the first half. You can learn a little more in advance by visiting his website and/or his shop.

Here are some beads from some past firings.

 

 

Thanks so much for reading and for supporting artists who create handmade with handmade.

MaryAnn

Using wire creatively

MaryAnn Carroll

There are a few more weeks left to get your entries into this month's LMAJ Boot Camp Wire Work-Out. The blog hop is scheduled for June 17th, so be sure to get those wire designs in by clicking the Flickr button on the side.

Last night, after a very long day at a show with my husband Bill, I was pooped when we arrived home at around 6:30. We are heading back in an hour or so with the weather looking not so promising. My daughter and granddaughter came over to spend some time with us. While relaxing with some wine, I decided that I would do some Etsy searching for wire designs. I'd like to share those with you. Wire is so fun! It is one of the very first things that I tried when I was getting bored with stinging and wanted to add something a little different.

Cecile Stewart Jewelry

Karisma by Kara Jewelry

Kiawah Collection

Nanfan Jewellery

Open Lotus Jewellery

Wind Dancers Studio

Zoro Plateado

There you have it! I love wire :o)

Please make sure to join in and get your creations on Flickr soon. Please remember that we are asking for your designs, we will accept those related to our current theme.

As always, thank-you for supporting artists who create handmade with handmade.

MaryAnn

The Love of Art Jewelry...... Featuring Karen McGovern

MaryAnn Carroll

I'm not sure when I was first asked to create discs for fellow artist Karen McGovern. Quite some time ago, she wrote to me and asked if I would make some discs similar to others I have sold, but with the holes in the center. If you recall in a recent post, I was having issues with punching center holes. I had drilled the first order, but had some problems with that method. I did solve that problem and opted for the Neiko hole punch. So far..... so good. Thank-you to everyone who helped me make that decision.

Back to Karen..... She is definitely a one-of-a-kind talent. She took the discs (similar to those pictured here) and created some incredible art jewelry.

.....starting with this very cool cuff.....

She has a recent blog post with the unique pendant pictured below.....

complimented with.... the beauty of rings......

Her imagination is unstoppable.....

Karen recently taught a cold connecting class in Traverse City, MI. These beauties are the results from that class.

And... lastly.....as they say...... 

"A picture is worth a thousand words!"

Before finishing up, I would like to share a few words that I took from Karen's Etsy shop regarding her other passion:

"Every day is Earth Day at Beadkeepers. The art and jewelry you see here is inspired by nature and created to raise funds for wildlife conservation through the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation.  Life is too short for boring jewelry!"

Check out Karen online:

http://beadkeepers.etsy.com

http://www.beadkeepers.com

http://www.beadkeepers.blogspot.com

http://www.rarespecies.org

As always, thank-you for supporting those who create handmade with handmade,

MaryAnn

It's Not About Beads or.... Jewelry.....

MaryAnn Carroll

..... because I have not been about beads for the past five weeks. I've had all I could do to write up an article for Belle Armoire and also make "some" jewelry for our upcoming LMAJ shop. Hopefully, I will find time today to take some pictures and start uploading. So.... what have I been doing you ask? I'm happy that you did ;o) Ohhhh, about four years ago when I had one grandchild, I decided to go on a "handmade" mission and make her all kinds of things.

One of the first things I made her was a toy box. I purchased the handmade toy box from a man that lives about an hour from me. It was pretty rough, but the price was right. I sanded and sanded until I had it smooth. I then painted a book theme on it. The theme was, "Are You My Mother" by P.D. Eastman. The reason for that choice was because it was my son's (her Dad) favorite book. He, too, was a first born. I remember thinking he was the smartest child in the world when at age two he could recite the entire book! I did come down to earth eventually and realized that although he was smart, he wasn't the smartest child in the world. I wanted to save that time in his life so that is what I did. I don't have pictures of that because four years ago I was not blogging, on Facebook, etc. I still have to bring my camera to their house one day so I can take some pictures.

So..... what I hadn't thought about was that I would have more grandchildren. I didn't think about the time that all of that creating takes until there was a request for more.... And, being the good Nonnie ;o) that I am, I obliged. Although, these gifts were supposed to be done last Christmas,they had to be put on hold until this summer due to some family issue running interference. I thought that today I would share with you what I've been doing all August through the first week of September.

With that said, I will keep the rest of this brief. My granddaughter Chloe received the Miss Suzy toy box. Miss Suzy was my sister's childhood favorite. My hope is that my grandchildren will treasure these boxes and pass them on to the next generation :o) I'm not a painter, really.... and I have painted VERY little in my lifetime. I had to let my self-criticism go and just let the brush flow.....

 

My favorite book was Harold in the Purple Crayon. My youngest grandchild Benny seemed a perfect fit for this theme.

 

 

A little closer....

 

I did have a mishap with the white lettering. I had outlined it with a fine paint marker. When I painted on the urethane, it smeared!!! OMG! Fortunately, I thought quick and just wiped it off knowing I would have to redo the lettering. The second time around did not come out as good..... but by that time, I was okay with the fact that I got it done!

So, now that I have finally finished these "chapters of my life," I am hoping to get into some Fall jewelry creations. I'm excited that we will be starting an LMAJ shop, so I've got to get busy creating for my listings.....

Have a great Sunday!

MaryAnn