A Simple Green Nugget Necklace

I was digging around in my necklaces looking for something to wear yesterday and came across this necklace which I created a couple of years ago.  It was in the beginnings of what I call my 'rock' phase, whereas I was intrigued into making beads look as though they came out of the earth and had been polished.  In other words, the nugget bead.  I used simple shiny seed beads and simple silver tone spacers along with some dark green melon ceramic beads which I had also made about the same time period.  The toggle and clasp are also quite simple.  I like simple.  This makes me want to make some more nugget beads and see where the glazing takes me. Maybe I will do that sometime this week.  Thanks for visiting my blog!

Pastel Ceramic Beads in Porcelain

I have a batch of these cone 6 beads going in the small kiln today. I had enough glazed for two batches. The photo is from the first batch that I fired earlier this week.  The temperature outside is about the same so I am hoping the results will be the same.

The creamy vanilla beads look a bit buttery yellow in this picture but that is because they are next to the pinks and blues I think. By themselves they are not that color at all.

On all these beads, except the creamy vanilla ones, I put a purple underglaze on (Pueblo Purple by Duncan).  The underglaze turned this lovely blue color.

On the creamy vanilla rounds I put on Fern Green underglaze by Mayco. The color apparently burnt completely out.  I wonder if the beads would still be that same vanilla creamy look without the underglaze, or if it would be a completely different whitish color?  I'll have to try that next time I am firing to this temperature.  It would be a good experiment.

I was in the ceramic store last week looking at the underglazes and all the new bottles from Mayco have notes on each bottle saying what the colors do at cone 6.  My old bottles do not.  I suppose I will be writing on each bottle of my own what each underglaze does at what temperature from now on.

Painting with Nature - Literally!

This is a demo article on how to make a paintbrush from a yucca plant.  You can use any yucca plant. I happen to have access to a Red Yucca plant.  It doesn't matter how big or small the frond you cut off is. You can cut it to any shape.

I prefer a sharp diagonal shape.  The more a yucca brush is used, the softer the shape becomes.  This makes for a unique brush, but eventually you will have to cut and reform the edge.  Every brush is different which makes for unique brush strokes, which makes for very unique beads, well you get the picture.

This Red Yucca frond is lovely to use because it is firm and easy to hold. I typically cut the pencil length but you can make them longer or shorter.  The most important thing is to easily hold it in your hand. So make it a comfortable length.

Next stick the frond in a glass of water to soften. I let mine sit about 24 hours.

How long does a yucca brush last?  I don't know. I use them for a day or so and then I stick them on a shelf meaning to reuse them.  But six months or more may go by before I feel the urge to use one and by that time it is very dry and shriveled up, completely unusable.

Just go cut another one.  Yuccas can be 'harvested' any time of the year.

The yucca plant is made up of soft plant fibers.  After 24 hours simply use your fingernails to pull at the end, scraping off the green pulp.

If you don't have fingernails (like many potters and bead artists), do the best you can. If your nails are extremely short, you can try using the edge of a spoon or fork or knife.  Experiment.

This is the stroke that the paintbrush above left on my bead. A nice straight line. I just dabbed on the underglaze.

The yucca paintbrush holds lots of paint. You would load it the same way you would a watercolor or oil brush.  You will be surprised at how long one stroke can last.

You would pay a lot of money for such a nice paintbrush but the best thing about yucca paintbrushes is that they are free. 

Free is good.

Here is the same bead with a clear coat of glaze.  I fired this one to cone 1.

To finish this bead, I added some of my original hand drawn iron oxide decals and refired to cone 05.

Thanks for following along and if you make your own yucca brush, post the results so we can see your own unique bead creations. :)

Originally this article was posted on the Beads of Clay blog where I contribute articles once a month. I am reposting it here for my blog readers who may not be subscribed to the Beads of Clay blog.

Beautiful Bracelet by Jean A. Wells

This bracelet was created by Jean A. Wells and has some wonderful elements by many talented ceramic bead artists.  Read the descriptions by clicking here .

The focal piece, the owl, in this bracelet is made by Marti Conrad.

My beads are the brown beads with turquoise blue rivets.

This is a lovely piece.  Check out the rest of Jean's shop here.  Have an awesome day!

Beautiful Necklace by Jean A. Wells

  

This beautiful necklace was created by Jean A. Wells and feature three of my teal blue porcelain barrel beads. The Oval Silver Bead with Textured Leaves Design is not silver metal, but metalized plastic which makes it lightweight to wear.  Check out the rest of her Etsy Store.

Beautiful Bracelet by JewelsbyKat

This beautiful bracelet is from an etsy jewelry artist by the store name of JewelsbyKat.  It features four of my cobalt blue delicate scroll beads and a couple of lovely beads by Pottery Girl.

September Art Spark Winner

 The September Art Spark Challenge took place on the Love My Art Jewelry website.  The winner was announced September 27th here and so these beads, my Iced Pink Ceramic Bead Set are well on their way to their new owner!  Congrats to Sandra for her winning entry!  If you like these beads, you may like these that are already in my etsy store.

Beautiful Necklace by Jean A. Wells

 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/82550364/owl-artbead-necklace-with-copper-and 

I wanted to show off this listing by Jean A. Wells which sports one of my beads. It is the long tube bead in the top right hand corner.  That was a fun bead to make and I only made that one.  There are no more. So this one of a kind necklace is sure to please whoever purchases it.  Also on this necklace is a ceramic focal piece of an owl by Ceramic Bead Artist Marti Conrad -- beautiful!

Beautiful Necklace

 

I wanted to share this beautiful necklace made by one of my customers.  She combined a couple of my beads with other beads to make this art jewelry.  The porcelain focal bead with violets is one of my beads, and there is another one of mine that I have spotted ... that bead is in the top right side, the sort of white and with bluish violet at one end.  I think I see another one of mine but I can't be sure its mine so I won't identify it as mine. This is a lovely necklace!

Another Set of Pink Ceramic Beads with Purple Underglaze

Here is another set. I only made these three. That's it. Just these.  I just noticed these kinda look like a zebra stripe.  I'm trying to remember what I used to texture these. Was it the same rod I pierced them with or did I roll them over a texture?  And if I did roll them over a texture, which texture did I use?

I don't remember. I made these and bisque fired them.  Then they sat waiting for me to glaze them.  I have bowls and bowls of beads like this sitting around my studio.

Because there may only be one or two or three beads per style, I'm going to glaze some in the same series of glazes and put them in the same firings.  I've never utilized the search function provided by Etsy, so I have written into the item description to search " pink and purple " to find beads with the same kind of glazes. I think this is so useful, that I plan to go through some of my listings on items that are already in my store and streamline that a bit more.

Here is a bead that I used my piercing rod to add lines onto before adding spiral sprigs onto. I also used this same spiral sprig for the end caps. It is a very pretty bead and there is only just one in this batch, just this one.

It reminds me of a pink decorated pumpkin, rather an odd color for fall, but I like it anyway.

Pink 'N' Purple Textured Nuggets

I textured these just to see how they would come out.  I think nuggets are a fun sort of bead to play with in jewelry designs. They're funky, they're random, they're playful.  The can be used individually for emphasis or strung together for that cool Flintstone's sort of look.

They are also very organic looking.  I like making nuggets.  I measure the clay out in my homemade bead measures, which are little more than a block of bisque clay with a small hole I pressed into it.  Then I roll the clay into a ball, take it in my thumb and index fingertips of both hands, and squeeze and slightly twist the clay.

When I texture the clay I wait until after it is completely textured before making the stringing hole.

 I also have the same texture in these egg shape beads.

Pink 'N' Purple Nuggets

 It didn't take long before I thought of a better way to apply the Pueblo Purple underglaze.  I added water until it was the consistency of Kool Aid.  Then I placed each nugget onto a bamboo skewer and dipped them into the small cup.  After they dried, I lightly wiped them off with a sponge. This method was less wasteful because less underglaze had to be wiped off.

It doesn't matter if the underglaze gets into the stringing holes. It doesn't melt so the beads will not stick to the rods.

Last I coated them with the Pretty N Pink mayco gloss glaze.   These ended up a rustic sort of delicate pretty.

Pink 'N' Purple

These are handformed rounds that I pressed a stamp of daisies and flowers onto.  The purple underglaze was applied and rubbed off with a sponge. That left the dark purple glaze in the recesses.  This is a Pueblo Purple underglaze from Duncan.  Next I coated the bead with Pretty 'N Pink gloss glaze from Mayco. Like many of Mayco glazes, the Pretty 'N Pink glaze has been discontinued. 

Mayco has another pink glaze which I'm sure will be just as pretty and I will eventually have to try it.

Glazing Glazing Glazing

Monday I set up for a day of glazing and this is what the table in my newly organized studio looked like before I started.  I took some beads that I only had a few of, less than a dozen, and glazed them with the same combination of glazes, a purple underglaze and a pink overglaze.    After I was finished I set the beads aside to dry overnight.  Tuesday morning I put them in the kiln and waited.  First I waited until they were fired, then I had to wait overnight to let the kiln cool down enough to take them out of the kiln.   Today, Wednesday morning, even before I had a cup of coffee, I took them out of the kiln to ooooohhh and aaaaahhh over.  The rest of this week I'll take photos and highlight each style of bead.  Tune in tomorrow and the next few days to see the results.  Thanks for stopping by!

Studio Stuff

I have been attempting to straighten and clean my studio since before April.  I would have taken a before picture but frankly, it is way too embarrassing.  The last several months I stuck anything and everything into that small converted bedroom I lovingly call 'my studio'.

Since August I have been going in there every day and putting one or two things away and then closing the door.  Finally this weekend I had the strength and stamina to stick with it.  I put all the glazes in one place and gathered up all my bisque beads and dedicated shelf space just to them with the promise of glazing soon! DO YOU SEE ALL THOSE BOWLS OF BISQUE BEADS?  Oh my!  One way I relax is with a clay ball in my hands, picking off bits of clay to turn into beads.  That is why I have so many one of a kind beads. Plus, I get bored awfully easy and maybe make six  or so before trying something new or getting some new idea.

The other problem in my studio, besides trying to walk through it, was the vast amounts of clay I had stored in old plastic coffee cans.   I think I had more than 20 of them and right now they are all washed and cleaned and in the recycling bin outside for the trash men to take away this week. I am going to try to stick to three coffee cans from now on.  The more I allow myself, the more I will allow myself to store before using it all up and then I will be back in this same place in no time.

In order to put the clay into bags and not breathe all that clay dust, I went outside.  It was pleasant because the temperature was in the low 90's this weekend. I used a hammer to pound on those plastic cans to get the clay to dump out into a big bowl. Then I scooped up the remains and put them in large Ziplock bags.  Later I can put water in them and hydrate them as needed.  However, do you see all the bags of clay behind these Ziplock bags? Do you see all the bins of clay I still have to go through. I don't know how I acquired all this clay but somehow I have to make enough pottery to use it all up. I'm thinking "EMPTY BOWLS"!