Terra Rustica Studio GIVEAWAY!

Carol Dekle-Foss

A short and sweet post from me. A giveaway, from my hands to yours.  

How to win? Simply leave a comment here or on our facebook page. I want to know how you handle stressful times. What do you do that is positive to calm your nerves? I personally venture out into wilderness and vanish among the mountaintops. When I was a young girl and things were stressful or scary, I would climb the tallest tree I could find and sit there for hours.  I would return home with the sweet smell of sap stuck to my fingers and a renewed sense of courage and hope.🌲

Lake Tahoe, Emerald Bay

I found such solace and peace in those moments, so it's no wonder I escape to the wilderness during uncertain times still to this day. As much as I would love to climb trees, I settle now for just taking their photos.

Winner will be selected on Wednesday, November 23rd, and announced on the Love My Art Jewelry facebook page.

One winner will receive all beads and pendants pictured.

We are having a sale in our Etsy ceramic bead shop! Enjoy 25% off your entire order with coupon code, AUTUMN25.

Latest porcelain creations..

Carol Dekle-Foss

Hi Everyone! I hope you have had a chance to enjoy some wonderful summer activities! I have stayed home most of the time, which isn't like me. This time of year, I'm usually camping, visiting the beach, or hiking in our amazing Sierra Foothills. After the accident though, I felt like I had lost three months so I have been really focused on catching up and working on new designs. 

 Lately, I've been influenced by affirmations and positive quotes, so I've been incorporating some of my favorites into a new line. Below are a few I've made so far. 

My first batch of "it is well with my soul." I just love this quote. I made them into pendants so they can be worn close to the heart. They need a different glaze for sure, one that highlights the font better.  I changed the design to include a cute border.

These pendants are in their greenware state, I'm so excited to see them glazed! I plan on making more designs like this. If there is an affirmation or quote that you think would be a great addition, please let me know!

Latest designs fresh out of the kiln...

A new petal shape.

More yummy cherry blossoms.

Mandala, lotus and swirl charms and pendants.

First try at the "just breathe" quote. 

A large flourish pendant.

These beads are supposed to be carved with lotus petals. Ugh...not quite as I had envisioned!

Also, I've been working on some porcelain cone ring holders. I like the swirl leaf base and the shape is good, but I wasn't going for little brown turds. Lol! I think spaced in my booth they won't look like turds in a toilet. Hahaha! I'm working on the glaze color. Any suggestions? 

Alright ya'll, give it up for the husband!

Ronnie's beads...

and his very first pendant!!! Isn't it adorable?? It's so much fun watching him play with clay.

All of the above will be listed by the end of this week to our Etsy store here. Minus the turds. Haha! 

Thank you for reading. I hope your were inspired to create!

Ring display-TUTORIAL...and latest porcelain creations

Carol Dekle-Foss

Hello everyone!  Recently, I ran into the problem of not having a way to display new rings for an upcoming festival. I wanted to display them in a simple, unique way that would make each ring stand out. It seems like booth design is an ever evolving challenging process! For me, rings are the most difficult to display.

Here's what I came up with for the festival.

 I just cut a slot into little wooden rounds! They display nicely this way, and I also like being able to move them about. The only problem is the rings keep falling over! So annoying. 

 I decided to give it another try and do a tutorial with what I came up with. 

I have a plethora of little rounds that my husband cut out and these leather swatches. I wanted to use what I had on hand so this is what I made.

I just glued two rounds and a piece of leather together. I cut the edge of the leather as well to make it look a bit worn and frayed. It's deeper now so the ring sits in there much better. I'm still deciding if I like it though. See, always a work in progress! If the customer wants, I can always include the display with the ring as an added bonus!

Here are the easy steps:

After I glued all the pieces together and let dry, I marked the thickness of the band with a sharp edge.

I then used a diamond cutoff wheel and flex shaft to cut the edges. A tiny saw blade might be better for this step, but they freak me out! Yep, I'm scared to death of saws, even tiny ones!

I improvised here and used a little screwdriver as a chisel. I hammered the top of the screwdriver lightly to cut out the ring slots. It's so simple and fun to make! 

I think I like the idea of cutting out larger rounds that can hold 5 or 6 rings, and then have 3 or 4 scattered around the booth. That way I can organize them by style. We'll see!

Also, last week my husband and I were able to play with clay. 

I never get over how different they look when they come out of the kiln!

Here are some of our favorites.

Oval Deep Roots pendants.

These mandala pendants are so yummy!!

Sacred spiral pendants. Oh my, I love the swirling glaze pooling in the crevices.

Such a sweet detail. Leaf swirl pendants.

Dreamy cherry blossom pendants! I have a few listed in the shop.

And lastly, these adorable teensy weensy beads. They are so cute!

So how do you overcome the challenge of displaying your jewelry? I would love to hear from you!

Bud Vases as Needle Holders at Bead Fest Philadelphia

In just a week I will be arriving at Bead Fest in Philadelphia to get my artist table set up.

This is the first time in 6 years I have done this show myself.

Marsha Neal Studio Artist Booth 570A Bead Fest Philly Aug 21-23, 2015

My friend Darlene of D7Studio

(booth 366) has been taking my bead work with her to bead shows here in the north east US since I stopped doing shows. And I feel that at least for Bead Fest (and Bead & Button) it is time for me to reconnect in a physical presence way with my friends and customers.

Darlene will still have the majority of my "bead" work at her booth 366 with all kinds of cool jewelry supplies and other artists work (Nolly from Nolly's Folly).

My artist table 570A will focus more on my bracelet kits, sculptural beads, vessels and small terrarium pieces. And I am right with Staci, Diane, and Nikki - it is going to be such a fun creative area (all of the show will be - but especially the area where the artists are!)

So for those of you that do work with any kind of crafting needle - you should swing by and get one of my small vessels. They were originally intended to be used as bud vases for teeny flowers (my little kids like to pick flowers for me - but usually they don't have much of a stem) but they sweat water, so they are now only for "dry use".

Here is a quick shot of the various stages of me making these small vessels. I use my own bisqued clay texture plates that I made with flowers and seed pods from my garden. The clay is cut to a general size, and is rolled into the plate to get the reverse image. I have to work quick to not have cracked walls, as these are not large pieces of clay. 

Here they are drying out on a piece of drywall scrap after being made (the drywall helps absorb the moisture from the clay and helps avoid stress drying cracks).

The bottoms are kept a bit thicker to allow the piece to stay upright while in use.

And one of my favorite parts of figuring out the design of these is allowing the bottom of the piece to come up around the sides and create this organic line and bevel. The line collects the glaze during the firing and allows for puddling. The bevel conveys a sense of the piece being lighter.

And above you can see the dried seed pod from a newer plant (Begonia) that I used to press into the clay a couple of years ago. Makes me want to start to make some new plates with the growing season coming to an end in a couple of months. My favorite time of the year to collect!

And if you are attending Bead Fest Philadelphia August 2015 copy and print this $5 weekend admission pass! The regular fee I believe is $14 for the weekend pass (free if you are taking classes).

Hope to see you there!

Creating a Custom Bead Tree

by MaryAnn Carroll

Some History:

It has been awhile since I used my little doll kiln to fire beads. I do fire in our large wood-fire kiln, but that is only when Bill has enough large pieces to fill it up. A few weeks ago I decided I would sit down and create lots of mid-fire (approximately 2200 degrees F) cone 6 beads and a bunch of cone 10 (can fire to approx. 2400 degrees) beads for the wood kiln so I would be better prepared.... I am the type that is often scrambling at the last minute!!

Here they are completely dry and getting bisque fired. I bisque fire to about 1850 degrees F and that preps them for the glaze that will be applied. There are a few other things in there that I am making for our upcoming show that we are organizing called Potters for Pets that will be at the CNY SPCA in Syracuse, NY.  We also have a Facebook page for this event. We are really hoping for a big turnout, since this is the first show that we have been in charge of. (A little promo here) If you are in the Central New York area, it would be great if you could share our event! It is a first annual, so we need all the help we can get!!

So, I typically leave my warped, very used bead trees in my kiln after use. This time I went to look and there were two of the four! I searched and searched..... no luck. Being that I have a husband who most of the time likes to please, he made me a couple more, but it will be weeks before they are ready to use.  My bead trees are made to get the most out of my kiln. The original group has gone through at least 40 firings and are badly warped. Even warped, I make them work.

Since I use a mid-fire clay, my bead trees are made from a higher fire clay (cone 10) which can go to up to about 2400 degrees F. You could make this out of the same cone that your clay is, but I don't know how well it will hold up. My original trees have been fired to cone 12 in the wood-fire kiln many times. They have taken a bit of a beating as you can see. That's okay.... it is just the beads that need to be pretty!

What we originally did is take the measurements of my little kiln. We then designed trees (this was a few years ago) that would work just right inside the kiln utilizing the most space.  The new ones are a tad bit narrower as it was always a tight squeeze getting all four trees in and there is nothing worse when you carefully set the last tree in a your hear, "ping!" A bead has left one the of trees!!!! Yup, that means that they ALL come back out to start all over. Needless to say, loading the kiln is not one of my favorite things.

With all of that said, I thought I would share how to custom make some of your own bead trees. I cannot compare these to what you can purchase online, but I can say that I can use the most space possible with my own design. You certainly need to start by taking your own kiln measurements and go from there. Also, take into consideration that as a rule the clay will shrink 15%.

The Tutorial:

Here is one of the new trees shortly after being built. This time Bill added some supports on the side to see if this will help slow down the warping. To create this, he use a slab of clay that was rolled out. He then scored and slipped the clay to connect the sides and the base.

Here is a link of a score and slip demonstration. 

After doing that we waited until it dried to a leather hard stage.

In the leather hard clay, I used a pencil tip to begin the spacing that I want. It is best to stagger them as you will see later. I start by measuring approximately 1 inch apart.

I did pull out the ruler after the first row. so that I could stagger more accurately to make the most holes that I could. That is another benefit to making your own. 

After the pencil measures, I started to puncture the holes with a toothpick (I use toothpicks for everything when it comes to clay!) Never just push it through. You need to use a rolling motion.

What I found, however, was that the clay was a little too hard and I was afraid that I wold break the tree. I grabbed what was closest to me. I get lazy sometimes and don't like to get up when I am in the middle of something! I then took a that little piece of nichrome wire in my reach (the same high fire wire that you will hang beads on when you fire them) and used that to puncture the rest of the holes.

As you can see, I did not put the hole all the way through. Instead I pushed it (turning the wire) until it just started to poke out the other side. You don't want to put too much pressure on the clay. If it broke, it would be a very sad day.

You then go to where it was punctured on the opposite side and push the wire through tuning while doing that. This process gets repeated multiple times. I think I did this at least three or four times. 

Once you are satisfied,, you can take one of your clay tools. I would tell you what this one is called, but at the moment I cannot remember. If you are over 50, you get it! You can pick a tool that you are most comfortable with. This happens to be my "go to" tool.

Then I wiggle the holes to make them bigger than the nichrome wire that will be used to hang the beads. The reason for this is that the clay will shrink 15% as stated earlier. I also do not like them to fit too tight. I like to balance the beads on the wire.

Here it is after an hour of work. It takes many times to get it just right. Leather hard clay is not something you want to be rough with. It will break. Now the only thing left is to let it dry slowly. It will be a couple of weeks before I can fire this tree for use with my beads. You do have to fire this before using. I would recommend at least a full firing to cone 6. Certainly, if you use lower fire clays such as earthenware, you would have to make some adjustments.

So, as those dry, I am going to use my old dependable warped trees to fire this batch of beads that I made. As you can see I have glazed beads balancing on the nichrome wire.

These are all fired now. It took two firings for all of them.

By custom making my bead trees, I am able to avoid using shelves like you see in this picture. This was a pain and takes up space that I cannot afford.

Here is on group fired. One took a hit by tipping into the kiln brick. I was able to use my dremel to sand that white off of it. It is the pendant on the top left. that is because I just balanced a broken tree between two kiln bricks. Not the the best move...... live and learn.

And..... guess what was found a day after making the new trees.  I am sure that I don't need to tell you that the answer is... the two missing bead trees!!!! Yup, Bill found them out by the wood-fire kiln. Isn't that always the way? The good news is that now I have some extras.

Enjoy your Friday.