Rustic Turquoise Ceramic Bead

I added this bead to my store today. I realized I didn't have any of my lentil shape 'ocean wave' beads in my store because they have all sold.  I went hunting in my stash and found this one in a turquoise glaze, which I had also applied an under-glaze onto in order to achieve this somewhat rustic look.  Click here to see it in my store.

1000 Beads Book out for Preorder on Amazon

I got the acceptance letter a few months ago, the last day of October actually.  I didn't really believe it until I saw the index where my name is listed on Amazon.com.  Many of the beads are available to preview. Mine are not included in the preview but I'm on pages 294 and 352.  Here's a link: click here to preview and/or preorder.

Turquoise Square Beads

These beads have all been turned so their holes face one another.  As you can see, their patterns are not exact or uniform, perfect for the project where you are aiming for a similarity between beads, yet want that unique touch.  I put them in my etsy store this morning.

Red Beads for Valentine's Day

A friend reminded me that Valentine's Day was fast approaching and so this morning I added a few sets of red beads to my etsy store.

Summer Pinks

I am beginning to stock up my etsy store with some bright spring and summer bead colors.  Take for instance, this beautiful dusky dark pink sprig and pierced bead.

I used the end of a pen to make the small circles, which adds a lot of negative space/interest to this bead, in my thinking that is.

Have you seen the new Pantone spring upcoming colors? If not, here is a link.  I sometimes try for what is going to be in season, other times I get lucky by accident. Other times I ignore it all together and simply glaze in colors that appeal to me personally at the time.

Here is another link to the spring 2014 colors on Pinterest.

Chartruse Egg Shape Finger-Nail Texture Ceramic Bead

I made this particular bead on the beach of Galveston. Our family had gathered for a small family reunion on my husband's side, and I had brought some clay to mess around with, as I often do when I travel.

I usually keep my nails fairly short, because it is difficult not to leave marks in clay when they are longer.  Plus, it is hard to get the clay out from underneath the nails.

However, this time I decided to make the most of it because, well, why not? The end of my nail was a perfect half circle.

I only made one of these (it's in my etsy store, take this link if you are interested.)

What I'm Working On ...

 I took out a couple of stoneware clays and step by step, came up with the beads in the second photo.

I started off with a ball, smashed it with a texture on both sides.  Wrapped a noodle of white stoneware clay around that circle.

Next I textured the sides with a small knitting needle, pierced the middle and added round sprigs, and pierced once again.

I think these would be fun as bracelet links, possibly buttons.

They are drying now and will be fired next week sometime.








 ... AND HERE THEY ARE!

Blueberries on a Bead

Fruit on a bead ... what a concept!  I had some of these decals and a light colored red bead in which to apply it. I only made this one.  It is available in my etsy store.  Yay.

For the Potters:  Ceramic Arts Daily has  a new downloadable PDF file on making glazes.  Here's the link. I have dabbled in this from time to time and it is always rewarding to tweak a recipe and come up with something that nobody else has in their inventory.

I also found this on the web: it's on Pinterest (a site that has for the most part baffled me). It's full of free jewelry design tutorials.  If there is some technique that has been baffling to you, there might be something on that board to clarify it.  Have fun!

Welcome 2014

Howdy and hello! 

I just added this sweet bead to my etsy store.   It's a glaze I have played with in the past and I think it is visually more interesting with the addition of iron oxide decals, of my own creation of course.

2014 is exciting. I have two beads which are appearing in a Lark book due to come out in April, if memory serves correctly.  I believe the title is 1000 Beads, and features beads of many mediums, not just ceramic, but glass and metal and paper and well, lots of mediums.  I was extremely surprised to get the acceptance letter and I have resorted to pinching myself to make certain I am not dreaming.

In the last year I have acquired chickens, one of which lays the most beautiful green eggs.  I am due to be a grandmother again, and you know what that means ... more fun!

The cancer is still in remission and because it is the first of the year I am due for yet another battery of biopsies and scans to make sure all is well.  I try not to think about it.

In any event, thanks for stopping by and I hope your 2014 is even lovelier than your 2013!

Natalie

What I did on My Summer Vacation

Yep, I was gone all summer.  I didn't set out to take of all summer, but here it is, September, and I realized that I have been having a fine time with the grandchild and the new hens.  Pictured are two of their eggs.  As you can see, one is teal green and one is a light brown. Both were delicious. Lol!

This weekend I'll be crafting some new bead designs and we'll see what I come up with.

In any event, great to be back. Hope you had a great summer, too!

Recyling Silver

 Ha!  Opps... I got a bit happy with the torch this morning and melted the floor part of my ring bezel. I added this in with the rest of my scrap silver.

I realized I had some chunks of 
silver my father gave to me a while back. He said I should sell it for scrap money to buy more silver. This is one of his scraps from years ago when he was working in silver. I got to thinking about that rolling mill I bought and haven't much used. I picked and annealed the silver scrap nugget, banged on it with a hammer to flatten it a bit, annealed it some more and put it through the rolling mill. 

Here is my rolling mill.

I repeated this process several times.Until it looked like this:  I again annealed and pickled and rolled, repeat repeat repeat ...

Here it sits on the charcoal.

So this is what I ended up with. It is about 26 gauge, full of cracks and such ... a lot of work for basically nothing.  

It was worth a try though to see if I could recycle it myself.  I guess I'll put it back in the scrap bucket.

Rings

 I am prefacing this with the fact that I am not quitting pottery or quitting making beads -- but I have been experimenting with metalwork.  

For the past year I've been reading and learning about making rings with bezels and I have finally come to the point where I have some equipment and supplies to work with. 

This weekend I made two rings, one copper and one silver, both with agate settings.  Each has its own set of flaws, most notably that the bezel on each of them have a very tiny stress fracture.  And I haven't worked on highly polishing them yet.

The copper ring ended up being almost a size 8, and the silver one about a 6 and a half. I'm a size 7 and I am baffled as to why they both fit my finger so well.  So much to still learn ....

Big Hole Beads

Hi again.  I've been deep in the studio, glazing beads, making beads, making mugs, glazing mugs ... I wanted to share something new.

It seems like many jewelry designers are enjoying working with beads with bigger holes because leather can fit through a bigger hole, as can ribbon and such.

I have been in the process of coming up with these like you see in the picture.  The bead hole is 3 mm wide. Usually my bead holes are 1 mm wide. 

I am hoping this size is big enough because if not I will have to find something bigger than a wooden skewer, which I suppose I could find in a knitting needle. 

In any event, I have drying right now about 30 of the 15 mm beads with the delicate scroll pattern. Some sport endcaps and some don't.  I still have a ton of small hole beads which I am still glazing and listing, but along with those some of these big hole beads will also be making an appearance.

If you design jewelry and you love big hole beads, tell me, how big do you prefer the hole to be? Thanks for stopping by! -- Natalie

Design Progression

It is relaxing and fun for me to sit with a bit of clay and come up with new designs. Some people plan out new designs with pen and paper and I wish I could do more of that. It is a great way to plan out the thought process.  

Me?  I gather a few things around me and plunge right in and see where it goes. My problem is that I have a tiny attention span and it almost physically hurts to make the same thing over and over.  

I have a button with this waffle texture and so I made these beads. And yes, I only made five of them. I had thought I would make 50 or so, but after 5 I was done. Finished. 

I grabbed a piece of clay and made a nugget shape and put a couple of round sprigs of clay and pressed it with that waffle texture and came up with a couple of nuggets. That was fun, but I only made a couple of these before getting bored again.  Part of me figures that if I'm bored then YOU'RE going to be bored, too.

 Instead of making a nugget shape, I made an oval shape and instead of making round bits of clay I made little ropes of clay and wrapped them around the oval and impressed the sprigs with my waffle texture.

These to me were not boring. I ended up making quite a few of them.  Notice the underside where the sprig does not go all the way around?  I like this bare area.   Maybe the glaze will do wonderful things.

 I glazed these with a light coating of avacodo underglaze and covered with a clear gloss to make them shiny and pretty.  

Most interesting to me of all is that after it is glazed, the waffle texture ends up looking like teeny daisy flowers.

BEADS AND POTS

I have been making beads and pots -- I have been so busy making them that I haven't blogged much or even listed the new beads coming out of the kiln.

These are some that are waiting for a first firing. 

I love having teapots that are small enough to fit inside the microwave to heat the water. This is my latest one.  Yeah, the lid is a bit wonky but that's just how my lids seem to come out. I'm working on it.

Here is a mug I made.  It is simple and the throwing rings are visible. Hopefully the glaze will bring those out more.

And here is another mug I made. I made a few similar to this one on the right last year and I really enjoyed the texturing process.