August: Beadfest Prep and End of the Summer Fun

Beadfest is always a marathon to prepare for.  So many beads to make.  I started late this year, due to a million little things......it has been that kind of year for me.  

(I am in booth 572B this year, so come and find me, at the back end of artisan alley! Coupon for $5 admission at the end of post)

Anyhow, it is now only 3 days away and I think I will be ready!  It has been a blur of beads and painting and sealing and pricing and putting together kits!  Here is a peek at all I have done in the last 4 weeks............

making the beads

Painting (and crackling and sealing) the beads, which required some extra organization

and there was carving to be done.....

Set had to get tied together...........................

trays had to be arranged..........................

there was bronz clay that got made, fired, antiqued, polished and sealed......

Practicing my set up

first run

still working on it- it needed the shelves for more space, I like having lots of jewelry samples

Plus, my table is on an end, so I needed the right side to also be a "front" for people coming from that direction.  I think I got it mostly worked out now (I will have a sign up and a drape over the busy table cloth as well)

I finally have arranged trays of finished beads (they just need pricing, which will take the last two days I have)

I am teaching a class on Sunday as well, my Gypsy Wire Choker class

...........so there were kits to make!!!!

and lots and lots of wire to anneal (I used my gas stove ILO my torch and wow what a time saver!!!)

and then there was packaging them and labeling them, which I had help with............

AND, in the last 4 weeks, I have also found time to join the family with a couple day trips to the shore

and some time at Musikfest enjoying great music and friends

selfie with my brother 

I really cannot believe all I have done in the last 4 weeks.  I am going to need a vacation (and sleep)

(my September is never easy either!  It's catch up, tutorials, an anniversary- and three kid birthdays- plus getting in the groove with school starting- I will take a weekend for me in October!)

Even the kids have gotten the bead bug and dug out their beads to make jewelry the other day!

Anyhow, I hope you can come and see me at Beadfest Booth 572B- Artisan Alley, in the back.  I will be in a booth / corner with Marsha Neal Studio, Nikki Thornburg Studios and Diane Hawkey.  It will be so much fun!

Here is a discount coupon, just save it to your computer and print out to get in for only $5.  Feel free to share it too!

Oh yeah- one more thing-

I moved my Painted Polymer tutorial from etsy to my own Indiemade shop.  So if you want to purchase it, you can purchase it here now!

BTW Bead Table Wednesday~ What's Up Guys?

Well- after a long weekend away from my family and lots of prep work the weeks before, I took some time off last week to just hang out with the kids and catch up here. 

Our local library has great summer programs for the kids, and I just love it.  They get rewards for reading, they have free educational and fun entertainment on thursday nights, and the kids get a free book to keep each friday!  I think we are reading more now then we were during the school year.

So, now Tinicum Arts Festival is this weekend....but I am NOT freaking out (seriously~I am really not).  I have lots to sell.  I do need to beef up the bracelet department, and play with the new load of bronze from the kiln, because honetly, I don't think I could do a show without a few new necklaces. But I feel ready (for once) Tinicum is a great show, shady park, GREAT friends and vendors there, and wonderful customers.  It's one of the those places people come year after year, and I enjoy it very much!
I also took some time for me.  I dyed my hair (yes- I do it myself).  I wanted something funky and two tone.  So I dyed the back blonde and left the front brownish / red.  I don't look good with blonde hair against my face- it just doesn't go with my complexion....but I thought this way- I could be blonde and brunette.  I like it~ but it was such a bear to get it light.  Two applications of ultra blonde and a highlight kit later, I get reddish blonde.  I'll take it.  I love redheads.  (I hate taking pics of myself, so please ignore my funny face I am making)

So~ its bead table wednesday again, and all I have is a list and some bronze pieces sitting on my table.  I better get crackin if I want to get these made along with some more of my cuff bracelets.  I made lots of little sea urchin charms- since they were a hit as earrings at the last show, and I have had some orders for them too.  I also made a new mold from a large and really wonderful sea urchin for some pendant size pieces.  I think they will get riveted to some cool copper backings.

What I want to know is, what is pulling you out of the studio this summer?  Your children?  Your garden?  The pool?  There are so many wonderful distractions this time of year!

Bead Table Monday? I got Wings!

If you are still hopping the 7000 bracelets for Hope (I know I am) click here or scroll down one post.

This is what my bead table looks like right now.....a mess!

So~ I made some more Artisan Accents, some wings, some new stuff too (here's a hint: its kinda lunar)...you probably can't make them out in the pic too well, so you will have to wait and see.  Anyway, I will be listing later today, so check the shop.

 I only have three pairs of wings to list, but will be listing more later this week.  So stay tuned!  I have I wish I could list them all, but I have TWO big jewelry shows in a row coming up and I need to keep some for myself to make jewelry with to sell! 

Things are just crazy this week, its quarterly tax time again already, and I have NO CHARTS set up for 2011 yet!  So I have three months of paperwork to do!  (and like most artists, I don't like paperwork).

What have you been up to lately?  Any big shows coming up?  Any new projects you'd like to share?

Bead Table Wednesday

First of all~ I am sorry, I am a bit of a blogging maniac this week.  I promise, I will take it down a couple notches after the Bead Soup Party.

I actually have new stuff on my bead table (copper hearts are now to the side of the table:)  So I wanted to play.

This is a little bit of the aftermath of bead soup jewelry, and stuff, that I started while making bead soup jewelry.  Yes ~you can call it multi-tasking, I call it adult ADD.

I am really digging those colors.  I bezeled one of my bronz cabs I made and colored with Miss Fickle Media's wonderful patina set.  I can't wait until that necklace comes together.

 Then there is this mystic butterfly moon one I am working on.  The wings are made by me, in bronz clay, and again, colored with Miss Ficklemedia's patina's.  The other components, the flower link and the moon, I bought from Dime Store Emporium on etsy.  LOTS of cool components on there too.

Whew!  I am DONE blogging for now.  Really.  I'm serious.

Bronz Clay Adventure and Why I had to jump.....................

Here is a Bronz Clay giant donut by me, paired with an Artisan Clay "Stone Age" bead. 

So I have been wanting to try bronz clay for a year now, but didn't think I should jump into another branch of the jewelry world right now.  It is hard for me to stay focused.  Everytime I just get my feet wet in one jewelry area, I leap into another.  I am still not sure if this is creative genius or adult ADD, either way, its what I do.  Well- I took a leap and bought some bronz clay and supplies.  There were two things that drove me to the conclusion that this was a good idea.  The fist being cost.  I LOVE designing in PMC.  I love using art beads in my jewelry designs.  However, the cost of silver continues to rise, and my customers cannot all afford my jewelry.  I understand there will always be people who can't, but it is very important to me that most people can afford my pieces.  I have all kinds of price ranges, but always try to keep costs as low as possible. It is always hard for me to raise prices when supplies go up, or when things involved more time.  If you are a fellow artist, you know we are probably all severely underpaid.  If you take into account all the time we spend designing, creating our show displays, the time it takes to prepared for and set up for shows, the time we spend there selling as well as the time it took to make our art.  The time we put into web design, and makeing our business cards, and shipping, and promoting....our hours DO NOT add up to what we bring in.............Thankfully we love what we do.  I am I don't mind at all, if that means some lucky lady can wear a piece of my jewelry that she otherwise couldn't afford.  It makes me happy.

Sorry- I am getting sidetracked...(must be that adult ADD!)
So- the other reason I HAD to finally get some bronz clay was because I really wanted to use more mixed metals.  I love the look of brass chain and copper components.  I love the rustic feel they have and the natural color that accentuates the gemtones I use.  So- if I make beads and components in bronz clay, then I must get some new chains and wires and copper sheet. 

This also led me to other things, like etching copper sheet with salt water and a battery and rivets- I will write about them in another blog. 

So- Bronz Clay is very different from PMC.  It is fired different, and it feels very different too.  I could only find one book on it here, and its a very basic book.  So I think there will be a lot of experimenting in my future.  All in all, I love it and think I could be very happy working in it.  It will not replace my silver, but I plan have another line of jewelry in the mixed metals as well as my silver stuff. 
I like that it feels less sticky than PMC, however, it is harder to get it to stick together too.  You have to mix your own paste and syringe since they don't sell that yet.  I had a lot of air bubbles show on the surface of my pieces after firing.  I did read to make sure the air bubbles were out, but wow, its hard.  Thankfully it looks planned with my organic components I made.  I think I will have to stay with my rough, organic components until I master this a little more.  Also- any crack or weak spot will crack in the kiln much more due to the shrinkage (I used the fast fire bronz clay, and that shrinks about 20%)

None of this is what I found the most challenging.  It was the finishing that blew my mind.  My book said you have to wash the surface after firing, so I brass brushed it and then I didn't like the color.  I was looking for a browner bronz, and that made it real brassy.  I think I should have just soaped it up with my hands and then shined up the high spots.  Anyway- I though I would use liver of sulphur to darken it again, but it didn't give me a dark dark color.  (I found out that jax will blacken it if thats what you want)  Liver of Sulphur did brown it a bit, and perhaps with time that would have done it, but it was not quite what I wanted.  Then- polishing the high spots was tough.  The entire piece had a texture to it, which I like, but it made it hard to polish...you really almost have to sand it away, with a fine grit paper.  Even that is hard, and I couldn't do it by hand, I had to use 1200 on a stick for the pressure.  I at no point tumbled it or burnished it.  I think it would give it a shiny gold like appearance, which isn't what I was going for.  I ended up using a dark brown acrylic paint to antique the surface.  I painted the entire surface with it, and then wiped it off with a wet cloth and left it dry for days.  This isn't really the method I plan to use, but this was my practice batch....so I tried it.  I do like how it looks though.
Here is another note- while I had the bronz peices soaking in L.O.S. I also added a copper piece that I wanted to darken.  The pieces of bronz that touched the copper are forever black where they met.  I am sure there is some way to fix that, but I don't know how yet.  So FYI- don't mix metals in the L.O.S. soak.

My last tip, is make sure you finish it in the dry- prefire stage as well as you can because it is a harder metal to file and finish after firing.  I could have sanded more and saved myself some work at the end.  When you are working in that pre-fired / dry stage, the piece is flexible, and can become mis-formed, so handle with care. 

All in all, its very cool and I will work in it again.  I hope to even launch a line of components to sell, using molds for some of my favorite pieces I make. 
If anyone has tips or links to more information on bronz clay- please leave a comment.  I think this is a fun new medium we can all share our trials and learn more about it.

Bumpy Bronz Donut by me.......