BTW ~ Inspiration and Dimension

Remember these cool shells and things?????

Well, they inspired these.

And that's whats on my beads table!  (check out the flickr group Bead Table Wednesday to see what other artists have on their table)  These are still in the patination process right now.  I cannot even wait to play with these in some jewelry designs!!!!
If you want to see how these flat copper discs.......................

Become these cool 3-D little charms.................................

.................then hop on over to Love my Art Jewelry for my tutorial of how to make them.

BTW and A Giveaway or TWO!!!!!!

Well, Bead Table Wednesday is here again...and its about time I did another giveaway.  First of all, here is what is on my bead table...........

(left)This photo here is a close up of some idea's I have rolling around for Lorelei's C-Koop Enameled Shadowbox Challenge.  I think I love these little boxes.

These (below) are just some wings and such, and a bezel with a Lisa Peters Art Bead that needs to happen.  That wing focal on the bottom broke into all those pieces in the kiln.  I am still not sure why.   Maybe it wasn't fully dried.  Anyway- I was determined to save it....so I riveted it to a copper backing, and its now called, "Broken Dreams".

Ok- and now for the giveaway..................or TWO!

First I have this lovely pendant.  I made it for my sea glass and shell drilling demonstration last Saturday. 

It's a sterling silver bail and swirl, with genuine aquamarine and pink seaglass dangling from it, all adorning a large mother of pearl donut. Its bold and perfect for summer.  It will fit on most chains, it comes with an 18" silver plated snake chain.

The second giveaway is for you jewelry designers. 

This one is for two pieces of genuine sea glass, top drilled, two shells top drilled and one bronze ammonite charm, also top drilled, from my Artisan Accents store.

To enter, leave a comment, and I will pick two winner randomly next wednesday, August 3rd.  You get additional entries for facebooking or blogging or both, but PLEASE leave an additional comment for each way you shared.  Also- make sure I have a way to get ahold of you.  If you do not have a blog or your email linked to your blog, please leave your email in the comment.  If you win, and I cannot get ahold of you, a new winner will be picked.

So good luck, and thanks for checking out my bead table this wednesday!

A Day Trip, A New Discovery and BTW

Last Friday, the family and I took a day trip to LBI, NJ.  The weather was perfection.  We packed some snacks and a lunch and off we went.

We ALWAYS walk out the rock jetty from the light house, to where the bay meets the ocean.  If you have been to see Old Barney, you know where I mean.

Its always a beautiful walk, with little tide pools and lots of cool rocks.

When we got to the end of the island, we had a happy surprise.  The tide was WAY low and there was a ton of "stuff" to salvage on the beach. We found sea glass and shells, and lots of junk (which we try to clean up while we are there).

 The kids could go out sooooo far and never be in deeper then their knees!

If you want to find out about my new discovery, please click here and hop over to Love My Art Jewelry.  Its about a piece of jewelry~ and the beach........................but I won't tell you here!  Sorry!

And, it is Bead Table Wednesday again!  Here is what's on my bead table.........patina'd wings and such. 

I should be doing an Artisan Accents shop update by the end of the week, and these should be part of that.  So stay tuned!


So, how's your summer going???  Any fun trips?  Has it inspired anything new in the studio?

Kids, Sister in Law, Sea Glass and ~ Bead Table Wednesday

Man- do I miss these guys.  They are home for the summer, and I have been soooo very busy, I can't stand it!  They are doing Bible School this week, so that is fun for them, but I can't wait until next week, when my show is done, and its all about them!

This year, I am trying to manage my time better, but its a learning process.  Now that I make my own components and findings, I am realizing HOW much more time I need to spend getting those things stocked, before I can even begin to create.  So, I am behind.  I had very little sea glass jewerly for this festival, and have been filling my display like crazy.  Its getting there, but its still kinda bare.

A new tradition has kinda formed with my "week before the show" panic.  My sister in law (I just LOVE her~ it is rumored that I married her brother, just to gain her as a sister.  I will not comment on that though...LOL) moved very close to us last year.  So she now comes over one night and helps during my mad dash to finish up.  She does things like sew the little bags for my jewelry, and package up pendants, like these below.  We put on some good tunes, drink a little wine, and gab, and gab and gab (oh yeah- and work too!).  It's extrememly fun.  I look forward to that "break" in my crazy show prep week.   I totally owe some kind of awesome necklace now!  She really rocks.

Now- Bead Table Wednesday.  Oh my word.  Time if flying by.  Ok- here's the table, or a small, semi-clean section of it anyway.

Bezels, charms and sea glass swirls waiting to be assembled!

Yes- I made more bezels, these are all silver.  I just love them.  I used very rare sea glass colors- I thought they deserved only the best.  Well, even thought I knew better, and though I was very careful, my Liver Of Sulphur got under the sea glass.  RRGGG!  This one is ruined.  I thought of selling it for a discount, I mean, I would wear it, but if you are a sea glass collector, it really takes away from the value, of the perfect lime green sea glass.  So, since my sister in laws favorite color is green (and she likes bright colors), and she didn't think this looked bad, I think this will be hers!  She will rock this necklace, and I would be honored to have her own a nice silver piece of my jewelry. 

So thats it.  I need to make charm necklaces today (to which my hubby says, "oh those are my favorite"~ to which I give him funny looks, never realizing he even noticed my jewerly, so sweet!)  I need to make the rest of those pieces laying on my table, waiting to be made into complete necklaces.  I need to wrap some rings, and drill some more glass to take with me.  *sigh*  Getting there.
At least all these earrings are done.  I need to do a few more pairs, but Whew!!!!  I hope that 65 pairs will be ok!

Now- if you all wouldn't mind praying, or doing an anti-rain dance for Lewes DE this weekend, I would appreciate it.  Thanks!!!!!

Now to go and see whats on your bead table, because I miss my bloggy time!

Picture Story of 18 Bezels ~ BTW

Well, it is Bead Table Wednesday again, where we get to show off what is on our bead tables.

What is, and has been on my bead table for three days, are bezels.  I named them lilly pad bezels, due to the texture I gave them.  I wanted to make a lot, so I would have enough bracelets and necklaces for the Lewes DE Coastal Arts Festival next weekend.  Here they are, all 18 (there were 21, but three fell by the wayside, due to complications in the soldering stage.............)

 I thought it may be fun to walk you through the journey I have taken the past three days, while making these.  I like pictures, who doesn't like pictures, so come with me, on a bezel adventure.

First I select the sea glass and items that I want to bezel.  Then I trace a larger outline on copper, cut it out, file and sand the edges.

 Next, I match up the items with their copper counterpart, and trace them so I can add the texture to the outer portion of the bezel.

 Three: texture added.  I use the flat back side of my rivet hammer and slowly turn the copper as I hammer to acheive that sunburst pattern.  I then make sure the hammer the entire piece flat so the bezel will lay flat.

 Four: measure, cut and solder the bezels.  This part I hate.  This part has no pictures.  Once they are measured, cut and soldered, I then sand the bottoms flat, and then solder them to the copper.  This portion took me ALL DAY yesterday, about 8 hours!

 Five:  clean them and shine them up.  After they are soldered, they go into the pickle pot.  Once the tarnish is removed, I used my dremel to clean them up a bit.  Then I matched them back up with their items to be bezeled.

 Six:  Place items inside bezels.  I glue mine. I know you shouldn't have to if the bezel is right, but it makes it easier when bezeling irregular shapes like sea glass.  Once the glue dries, your item won't move around as you bezel it.

 Seven:  secure the bezels.  I like to use my wood dapping blocks as much as I can, because I tend to go off the bezel as I firm it up, and I don't want to scratch my sea glass!!!  I only use my burnisher at the end.

 Eight: punch holes, file backside to remove any excess lip from hole punch

 Nine: add texture with pliers- bending up and down.  Then sand along back and side edges to smooth again and sand all along bezel

 Ten:  add patina to antique them.  I use gel Liver of Sulphur and apply it with a q-tip (real high tech, right?)  I do this because it gives me the most control.  When you bezel items like sea glass, that are transparent, you don't want any of the L.O.S. to get under the stone, or you will have dark spots on it, and its ruined.

 Eleven:  I rub the LOS off with a dry paper towel.  This really gives the copper and great brown color.

 Twleve:  I polish the silver bezel with a cloth to shine it up, so it contrasts the copper.

Thats all folks!  Easy as pie! (that is sooo sarcastic, my POOR hands and fingers!  I will never take on so many at one time again!)

Now I have to make them all into jewelry.  So I will see you later.  I can't wait to see whats on YOUR bead table here!

BTW...........and I am listing, and some reviews, and CHECK it OUT!

So, this Bead Table Wednesday, and it is more like office desk wednesday.  This is the day I take some pictures, edit them, and list some new stuff in the Artisan Accents shop!!!  Here are a couple sneak peaks of items to be listed.

  Most of these are not patina'd.  Wanna know why?  Because I found the most awesome carbon, called Magic Carbon from the Cool Tools website.  (this is the product review part of the blog today)  It gives the best antique patina to the bronze, that I just ended up cleaning them and sealing them.  I think they look great.  If you are working in bronze clay, I highly reccomend it. Another item I love from Cool Tools, is the No-flake firing foil.   If you have fired bronze or copper clay before, you know that the steel pans begin to flake off in a messy black mess in your kiln.  I have even read that this can be bad for your kiln.  So I thought I'd try this product.  I LOVE it!  I love that you can make the box any size you need it to be.  I love that it is so clean.  I love that it is not expensive.  Can you tell I love it.  Bye bye steel containers!!!!!  So those were some new products I used with this batch.

I have some patina'd components coming up too, just not today.  They are still in the finishing stages.

I am also going to do some destashing in my Artisan Accents shop.  So stop by and see what I am sharing this week.  There are some pendants, sea glass, beads, ect.....

Below is the little textured shell bead. Last BTW I had pictures of the molds I made for them.  I am happy with how it turned out.

And below is a little "Moon Baby" component for bracelets.

And thats it.  Bead Table Wednesday, is office and photo editing day.  Oh well, its gotta be done.  Have a great week!!!!

Oh yeah- check it out:  I have a cuff that made Art Bead Scene today.  Its featuring one of Artisan Clays beads.  You should hop on over and see all the other cool focals and bracelets that were featured too.  Fun stuff!