Cyber Sale

 

Today, August 29th, some members of the Beads of Clay etsy team are holding a cyber sale.  I am offering 20% off in coupon form.  Enter the coupon code BOC20 (take this link to visit my etsy store ) upon checkout to receive your discount.  Remember, with every order I always send a few extra thank you beads.

There are many other ceramic bead artists holding their own sales with varying discounts. TAKE THIS LINK to visit the beads of clay blog to see a list of all the participating artists.  

Thanks for looking!

A Necklace by Jean A Wells with some of my ceramic art beads.

I did a little tag searching on Etsy to see if I could find any jewelry with my beads in it and I did. I found this beautiful necklace in Jean A. Wells shop.

It has a wide variety of artisan ceramic beads including McCarroll, Ingrid, and Potterygirl1. It also sports copper beads and wood beads. It is strung on a Greek leather cord with handmade brass clasp and Measures: Approx. 18-1/2".

I think it is a simply stunning necklace.  McCarroll did the gorgeous pendant, by the way.

New Pots

 Yesterday I sat down to throw on the wheel. I haven't been able to do that since April.  Luckily all my clay had not yet dried out!  I like making this curvy shape and adding small feet. 

A good friend suggested I press words into the rims of some of my pieces, so this I did.  Also, I wanted to get some patterns into these pieces.  So I took a large cap that went on a bottled water and made a circle. Then I pressed a stamp shape into each circle. From the inside, I pressed outward to make a small bubble shape.

Last I took the end of a bamboo skewer and outlined each circle for emphasis.  

 I found an oval shape to use on this form.  I didn't add feet to this one, but I did trim the foot.

There are two things I dislike about pottering.  I dislike having to make certain rims are just so (the right thickness and smoothness) and I dislike trimming.  This is why I oftentimes put feet on my pieces.

My last semester in ceramics my instructor told me I was too advanced to be ignoring the undersides of my pots.  Since then I have been attentive to those areas of my pots.

I like this bowl so far the best.  I think it would hold salsa or dip or a steaming hot chowder.  That reminds me ... I just got back from the Oregon coast and if anybody goes, be sure to eat at Mo's, the original one in Newport is the only one that serves fresh homemade bread with its clam chowder... and it is the best I've ever eaten, next to my mother's of course.

I have two more bowls to add feet to and decorate.  These are bowls I will be donating to Empty Bowls this year.  If you want me to make you one, just leave a message.

Daisies and More Daisies

If you've ever spent much time looking around my Etsy stores, flickr photos, etc ... you may have noticed that I love daisies. I've drawn daisies since I was a small child.  My mother sent me home with a daisy drawing I did in third grade and I have put it somewhere special (meaning I can't find it to scan it into the computer, unfortunately!)

All my life I suppose I have been a bit obsessed with daisies.  This picture is one I drew of me and my daughter.  If you look closely, I am pointing a petal at her!

To add to all the drama is a busy background!

When I began working in ceramics, I still drew daisies. I made some into stamps.  This drawing on the left never became a stamp because by that time technology progressed to where I could print out my drawings on a laser printer with a special decal paper (quite expensive paper, by the way).


I am able to incorporate these images not only onto beads, but pottery as well.  Below is a porcelain mug I have decorated with not only brush strokes of plants, but colorful commercial decals as well.

This mug took four firings. The first was the simple bisque firing, which shrinks the clay so that the clay accepts the glazes easily. (approx. 1850 degrees, cone 06)

The second firing is where I paint on the brush strokes and apply a clear glaze. (approx. 2350 degrees, cone 10)

The third firing is where I attach the laser decals which I have drawn.(approx. 2165 degrees, cone 4)

And the fourth and final firing is where I attach the colorful commercial decals. (approx. 1422 degrees, cone 016)

It's a lengthy process but I love seeing it all come together.

And the best part is that I am still drawing daises! :)

Beads of Clay is giving away $95 worth of beads

Beads of Clay August month's giveaway is valued at over $95.00!

Take this link to visit the blog and enter.

A winner will be drawn on Aug. 17th.

~~~We use Random.org to pick a winner~~~

Maybe YOU will win!!!

 

 

 

Coral Swirl Sprig Bead

I am still having fun with this style of bead.  I press a swirl stamp into a round bead and add small sprig bead caps to each end hole.  I rub in an underglaze after its been bisque fired and cover with this Victorian Red glaze by Mayco.  The body of the bead is porcelain and the sprig bead caps are an iron stoneware clay.

This bead is 21 mm from hole to hole and 20 mm at its widest.

I have it in my Draft items to be listed later this week.  I am loving that new Etsy feature. I can get items ready to put online and Etsy has a  folder it stays in until it is time to put it online.  The old way was to save a link to the listing into a text file.  I always lost the text file.  :(

Ocean Wave Ceramic Bead

Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I was taking a extension class over at the local junior college in ceramics and while I went to class, I didn't have the energy to do wheel work or handbuilding or other things I normally would do.

So instead I just sat there and made beads.  This is one of the beads I made that semester.  It's shaped like a lentil, has small bead caps, and one side is decorated with this ocean wave motif. I used a needle tool to make this texture.

I just added it to my etsy store yesterday.  Here's the link if you are interested.

Green and Blue Sprig Ceramic Beads

These also came out of the kiln earlier this week.  These would work well in a statement necklace or bracelet.

I haven't used this glaze combination before.  Do you like it?

Pink Two Hole Bead Whistle

I added two holes in this whistle and it works great. The pink with the black underglaze gives this whistle an edgy flavor.


These bead whistles are so much fun to make.  This is the first time I've been able to add more than one sound hole successfully. 


The pitch is high, as would any small body whistle, and the holes just send that sound up even higher. 


Love it!

Terra Cotta Red with White Accents Ceramic Beads

I rubbed white underglaze into these terracotta sprig beads and coated with a clear overglaze.

Fun times!  Each bead is different, no two are exactly alike.

The kiln has been good to me this week, although yesterday when I went out to turn up the temperature, I discovered that it wasn't turned on at all.  I turned it off, jiggled the turning knob and it came on.

I don't know why I didn't notice that it was not on the first time though. I will have to make a note to open it up and have a look at the inner parts and see what was going on with that.

Pink Seed Pod Ceramic Beads

I could hardly wait until this morning to take these out of the kiln. I shaped them a few months ago and agonized on how to glaze them, finally setting upon this delicate pink with the black accents. 

I will sell them individually in my store, and in sets of two or three. Look for them soon.

Bye Bye Artfire

I deleted my items from the Artfire store yesterday and will be adding them to the Etsy store in the coming days.   Artfire was fun to try for a few months. I jumped in at the $5.95 pro price per month. The beads got a lot of views, but no sales.  I dropped to basic after the first of the year. I still got a lot of views but no sales.  Then I got an email saying Artfire was getting rid of the basic accounts and only taking Pro accounts.  So before I lost all my pics and descriptions, I copied them to my computer and deleted them.  I left a message saying I would be at my Etsy store.  I enjoyed being over at Artfire. I always meant to drive more traffic over there but I never seemed to find the time to do it properly. These are some beads that I'll be moving into my Etsy store in the next few days.

I took some beads out of the kiln this morning and put some more beads into the kiln. I'll have to take some photos later in the morning and share them tomorrow or the next day.

Thank for stopping by!

Back to Normal

Last night I sat on the couch and formed beads for the first time since late April.  I've had the shops shut down for the last couple of months while I've been going through chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  The good news is that I am now cancer free and well on my way to recovering my strength again.

In the meantime, I have really missed working in clay.  I had glazed some beads right before my treatments started and this morning I loaded those beads into my small kiln and they are currently firing. 


 Because I finally have enough strength to stand at the line in the post office to mail international packages, I will be re-opening my etsy stores (both beads and pottery) tomorrow (July 22nd).   Thank you for those who logged onto my facebook page and followed my progress and had so many kind comments, and especially thank you for all of you who have prayed for me and continue to pray for my recovery as well. I could never have gotten through the last couple of months without all your prayers.  It's nice to be getting back to normal. It's great to be back. 

This texture was made by sticking each bead multiple times with a very small coffee straw.  I added bead caps to these, too.

The next step was to glaze these black, wipe them down so that the black stayed in the recesses. Then  I glazed with a soft speckled pink.

This is also a style of bead that was in Beads 2011.  I'm trying to get some of these in stock in case anyone would like some.  I still have a lot of styles to glaze, but they are all bisque fired and ready to glaze at this point.

These to These

These are some of the bead shapes that made it into BEADS 2011, the buyer's guide edition in April.  There are three sizes, The papa bead is 22 mm hole to hole and 20 mm wide.   The mama bead is 19 mm hole to hole and 15 mm at its widest and the baby bead is 15 mm hole to hole and 13 mm at the middle.

And here they are in their finished state, just a simple black bead cap and clear glaze to show off their vanilla creamy whiteness.