How it is Made

by Staci L. Smith

My dear friend over at Handstampin Metal Mama posted this GREAT little insight into recycling scrap and making a pendant.  I just had to share it with you.

I just love seeing how things are made, with process shots.  

First of all, she uses Argentium Silver, and highly recommends it.

To recycle her scraps, she finds ways to melt and use them.  

And she turned these into a sweet little pendant!

Isn't that just GREAT?  And because it is so pure, you don't need solder, you can just fuse it together!  Virtually no fire-scale or anything.

You can find her work here on facebook

Handstampin Metal Mama
https://www.facebook.com/groups/metalmamashandstampin/photos/

Here are some of the wonderful things she does with her metal!

Thank you Metal Mama for sharing your process with us!

Never underestimate....

I started this piece last June.....

I stamped three or four and then, life intervened, and they were left by the wayside.....And quite frankly, I wasn't sure how to finish them at that time....I just had these vintage stampings that I saw a vision for... but I couldn't quite finish them. For many months, I couldn't or wouldn't finish them...I was dealing with some health issues and general malaise...depression I couldn't codify or chose not to...

I had this magnanimous shape....in the shape of a hurricane (which comes naturally to me since I live in Florida)..which at some point in June 2013, I chose to stamp with a quote from one of my favorite novels of all time, Little Women.......that I resonated with....so I made some quotes and finished them with my saw and then... they still just sat there.... For months...almost a year! And then one day, I woke up and they decided to be finished.

The actual point of this message is...Don't Stop! Don't throw away an idea that you feel passionate about....Stick it in a drawer...or put it on your table and just keep staring at it....but the point is...some day, even if you don't feel it today...you WILL come back...and that amazing IDEA you had at one time...it will make sense again...and if it doesn't, you will....

The Bead Show

by Staci L. Smith

If you follow me at all on facebook or my personal blog you will know I am prepping for a bead show.  So, either you are loving all the process pics and beady sneak peeks, or getting tired of hearing about it.  (I hope you are loving all the pics)  Anyhow, I'd like to tell you a little bit about Berks Bead Bazaar.

 

It was the first bead show I ever attended and I was immediately in love.  It's not too big, but has everything you could want and then some.  It is run by bead artists Joan Miller and Louise Mehaffey.  I think having a show run by artists brings an extra level of creativity to the show.   They pick unique bead artist, as well as wonderful vendors for gemstones, findings, ect.....

 

Last year was my first year vending as a bead artist there, I guess  Berks is a place for firsts for me.  I fell in love with it- the customers were wonderful and fun, my fellow artists and neighbors were wonderful.....great time was had by all.

 

I hope if you are local, or within travel distance, you will try to come out and visit the show.  If you do, please make sure to let me know you who you are so I can meet you in person!

 

My display will look roughly like this (minus the wall and pictures hanging in the background)...............

 

 

My daughter Julia is helping me at the show (she is 8), and has a tray of her own beads available to sell as well.  She is saving up to buy her own beads (below) at the show! (gotta start them young)

 

 

And here are some of the goodies I will have for sale.  I need to finish up another tray or two this weekend, and then pricing begins.

 

 

Prepping to vend a bead show is crazy, but I have to say, I love being up to my elbows in beads.

 

Anyone here who doesn't like being surrounded by beads?  Yeah, that's what I thought.  Who doesn't love beads?

 

Here is the link to the show again www.berksbeadbazaar.com and there is a coupon for $1 off your admission!

 

 

Is it always your fault?

By Julie Holmes

overly used / New

Artists can be the most self critical people.  We have such high expectations, lofty aspirations and a keen eye for the off kilter.  Turned inward, that eye can be brutal.  Are we sometimes much too quick to judge ourselves?  I think so.  I’m 53, so when the grains of enamel started showing up on the wrong side of the wire, it’s my eyes.  Poor eyesight.  Got to be.  Or…maybe, it’s the hands.  That’s it.  The tremors of old age are setting in.  It always works to blame the parents.  You know, the ones that grew up in the depression and taught me not to waste, not to spend, not to buy a new $2.00 paintbrush in order not to ruin a $200.00 cloisonné.  That might work, except they don’t know anything about making cloisonné.  All I know is  I broke out a new brush and the grains of enamel started behaving better.

done in class / done in studio
(Click to enlarge)

Then there were the black dots.  They started invading and I blamed myself.  I had learned to use a dedicated brush for black enamel.  I had become lax in my practices.  It had to be grains of black enamel stuck in my brush and making it their dastardly mission to destroy my perfectionistic perfectionism.  Why had I suddenly entered what will become known as my “black dot period” after my death?  Well, it turns out the black dots only show up on pieces I made during a “glass on copper” class using the community kilns.  I assume it may have been airborne bits of their scalex, or maybe just airborne firescale ...or the black dot fiend that hid under the table and threw black dots at my work when I wasn’t looking.  All I know is I figured out it never happened to pieces I made in my own studio.

And sometimes in our efforts not to be perfectionists…we aren’t imperfect enough.  This was to be an asymmetrical piece.  The shape drawn free-hand to be as carefree as the subject matter, only it wasn’t off kilter enough.  My son said it looked like I had tried to make it symmetrical and failed miserably.  So instead of looking cool and artsy…it just looked sloppy.  All I know is we are all human, and humans aren’t symmetrical either...and I like this piece anyway.

My point is, don’t assume YOU are the reason something didn’t turn out.  Check the expiration date, see if the temperature setting has changed, check the weather, your astrological chart and the moon phase. And sometimes, when the results turn out wrong, but unsuspectingly, happily magical, just be grateful that you were born with the desire to be creative and are here today to witness and take the blame for your own perfect genius. 

Do you use a sketchbook?

Recently I was going through old sketch books attempting to identify so different patterns of creativity. I don't generally sketch out as many ideas for my jewelry or beads as I do work out ideas for my paintings and other work.

I found my sketchbook I kept in my very first jewelry class and was really taken by how much my ideas took shape over the pages. I thought I would share some from the very first project from my metals class took shape.

A large part of my senior thesis in painting had to do with birds. Here is one sketch where I was working out ideas for a painting.

The requirements of this first project was to complete a piece using cutting-and-piercing metal and any cold connections. Here you can see where I was working out different ideas for the sawed parts and various designs that did not make "the cut".

In between sketches, there were brief little pages of notes that I took in class or wrote down the names of artists whose work inspired me. A neat little hint that I wrote at the bottom is to bend wire solder at the end into a semblance of the shape of the letter rather than attach a label that will most like fall off before you finish the length of solder.

Here you can see my final idea and a tiny mock up I made beforehand. This specific professor often encouraged us to make models or mock ups before we began to help us work out specific design problems that might arise during the process. (That's a polaroid of me a friend took at the time! I can't believe I ever had hair that short!)

Here is an image of the finished pendant. I'm still not good at tube rivets! Finished piece: Copper,  Nickel, Cardboard, Laser Printed Acetate, Feather, Stamping, and Texturing.

After reminiscing through this old sketchbook, I'm excited to begin trying more mock ups and design sketches as I work on a piece.


Do you keep a sketchbook of your jewelry ideas? Do you sketch items out or make models to avoid potential design flaws? I'd love to hear if you do!

guest post - genevieve williamson

An Unexpected Turn

I have a confession. I spent years thinking of myself as an artist without ever writing an artist's statement. My excuses were many and probably not uncommon. I've compiled a list and have used all of them at one time or another.

1. Why do I need a statement? My art should stand on its own.
2. I can't put art into words - after all, isn't that part of why I make art anyway?
3. I don't know how.
4. I'm an artist not a writer.
5. I don't have the time.
6. Artist's statements sound pretentious.
7. No one really cares about artist's statements.
8. I work intuitively; I never really think about why I do what I do.
9. What if I dig deep into my soul and find that there is nothing there and my work is shallow, pointless and a waste of time? (the scariest of all!)

And so, with all of these excuses at my disposal I successfully avoided an artist statement...until one day when I was presented with a creative opportunity that required one.  It was time to do this. I figured a statement doesn't need to be my life story. It just needs to sum up in 2-3 paragraphs, the basics of what goes on internally that leads to external.

I started with free writing, jotting down anything that came to mind about my work and my process. No sentences, not even complete thoughts - I just wrote anything and everything that I thought of over the course of a couple days. "Strong contrast of shape, size, color; repetitive pattern; groupings; interesting connections..."  I kept a piece of paper on my desk and covered both sides. I saw patterns develop, bit and pieces became sentences and several sentences turned into two short paragraphs. I did it!  It was amazing how just putting it all out on paper made me see how that my work, while informed by my many interests and experiences, eventually comes down to relationships, visual and human.

So surprisingly writing a statement wasn't that hard, didn't stop my work, or slow me down or prove to be a waste of time, in fact its actually been quite energizing, like looking at something from a completely different perspective. And it turned out to be less about fulfilling an obligation for a gallery and much more about self discovery. And I think it will probably mark a turning point in my work.



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you can learn more about genevieve here:


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from my sketchbook.

by Barbara Bechtel

Over the last few weeks, I've been working taking simple forms from my sketchbook and translating them into stamps for my beads and pendants. This marks a change in how I've been working. While cleaning out my studio, I went back through my older sketchbooks and saw the way I used to work out ideas in my head, specifically for a painting. I realized this is not the same way that I work with polymer clay.

I decided to try and work the same way and I would if I were working on a painting.

 I took this simple shape and drew a design to be reproduced in a hand carved stamp.

 Here are some of the stampings in progress. While I'm carving, I periodically test out the stamp, to check where I need to remove more material.

Here is one pendant that has been baked but not finished (left) and one on the right that has been finished. (right)


This marks a poignant change in the way that I've been thinking about my process as it relates to bead-making. I'm really excited to see where this takes me.

Have a great Sunday!

Barbara Bechtel is a bead and jewelry designer and mixed media artist residing in Merritt Island, FL. You can read more about her at her blog, Second Surf.

guest post - brenda gebhart

One Thing Leads to the Next

That’s how the bullet casing bezels came to be.

It all started with the workshop “Uncommon Tassels by Susan Lenart Kazmer”.  One of the examples paired ribbons with a bullet casing.  I had to make one for myself, when I was done the tassel looked great  but the casing was  so  . . . . boring.

Some paper and wire took care of that.

The beginning of some funky earrings, or so I thought.  They were to long with the tassels attached to wear.  No problem just cut off some of the brass.  What I didn’t realize was how  thick the base of a casing is, they were to short for the tassel to be attached.

But what a fun mistake that turned out to be.  The perfect bezel.

Nothing like the plan.

 One thing leads to the next and the next.

editor's note:

you can visit brenda at her blog - www.romantic-decay.blogspot.com

& view her fabulous work - www.romanticdecay.etsy.com

thank you so much brenda!

process

mary jane dodd

'the creative process is a process of surrender,

not control.'

~ julia cameron

i worked on an entry for a juried show entitled 'process' this week... i knew what i wanted to do, the ideas falling into place like so many dominoes tumbling one after the next... 

like standing at the edge of a cliff, my comfort zone was surely left behind when my chest began pounding... i was doing something i hadn't tried before - and the deadline was only days away... 

if one is admitted to the show, images are placed with each entry... images that allow the viewer to see the process behind each work... i really love that idea... for how can one know what goes into something otherwise? unless of course you speak to the one who made it... 

there is a sense of ultimate freedom when i work like this... 

'freedom is not given to us by anyone;

we have to cultivate it ourselves.

it is a daily practice...

no one can stop you from being aware of each step you take

or each breath in and breath out.'

~ thich nhat hanh