Glazing Beads

I've been glazing in the spare time I've had.  These beads to your left have been dipped in a watery black underglaze, left to dry, then wiped off with a sponge.

I love this effect, though it is very time consuming. 

Here are some rounds in which I combined two glazes of green. One is a sage green and the other is an apple green.  I don't know how they will turn out. You are in as much suspense as I am.

I love how the beads look on the skewers, kinda like a bouquet of flowers.

Here are some beads that I added a sprig of clay on top of a texture, then textured the sprig.

The blue-green glaze had some blue crystals in it and they melted nicely in the firing.

It's been a fun year experimenting with beads: glazes, textures, iron oxide decals, etc ....











I didn't expect to be diagnosed with cancer earlier this year but it is nice to be past cancer treatments and getting my strength back.  In case you are wondering, the cancer is in remission and my doctor's don't expect it to reoccur. I'm having regular tests and biopsies the next few years to make certain of all this, though.   

Thank you to everyone who wished me well and prayed for me.  That touched my heart greatly.  It's been a wonderful year and this next year my daughter and her husband are making me a grandma. I'm so looking forward to meeting little Ruby Makayla who will be born near the end of April, perhaps May.

But most of all I'm thankful to God who got me through some very tough months, and my mother who sacrificed her time and energy and took care of me. My husband was incredible too, as he always is and has been.  Thank you to my friends who stuck with me and by me ... May God bless you everyone!  See you next year!

Popsicle Stick Bead Textures

I went searching around my studio for simple geometrical textures and stumbled across this Popsicle stick (or is it a coffee stirrer?) which caught my interest.

There are not many of these beads in my stash because I was experimenting.  I do like how the glaze turned out.  This particular celadon glaze below is one that was discontinued by the manufacturer last year. I had about 1/4 of a jar left and these are some that I did glaze.

I used this glaze on a few other beads made from different clay bodies and on each one, the glaze performs differently. 

 I like this texture and will probably end up using it again.  I hope to find another glaze that does as nicely as this one does. 

I have some of these beads in my shop for sale. Click Here and Here to check them out.

Bossy Bead Necklace by Jean A. Wells

I created this bead in a whimsical fashion, adding texture and sprigs of clay to the stringing holes to form this very fun 'bossy' buttery yellow nugget bead.

Jean took this bead and fashioned it into a most gorgeous necklace.  She hung it from a hand formed bail made from square copper wire and added faceted yellow and purple Czech beads for emphasis.

The whole effect works wonderfully.  The necklace is 20" long but if you prefer it shorter, she'll be happy to change the length just for you.

 Definitely take a moment to check out Jean's blog, her store, and also a more detailed description of this necklace.

Bracelet by Kathy Mortensen

I always love seeing what jewelry designers end up doing with my beads.  Kathy Mortensen purchased these beads back in October and created this beautiful bracelet.  The silver is a lovely way to complement the green delicate scroll ceramic beads.  Thanks for sharing, Kathy!

Sunflower Seed Beads

These beads have had a black underglaze put on them and I wiped most of it off so the dark color would sink into the recesses.  I made five sizes, small, medium, and large.  These range from about 13 mm to 24 mm from hole to hole.

I am planning on firing these nine different colors. 

I have been calling this style "Harvest" but when I look at the unfinished beads I can't help but think they look like a bunch of sunflower seeds.

These are the nine colors I will end up with when these are all fired. (see last photo).

What will I be doing with the rest of my day?

That's easy .... glazing glazing glazing. And tomorrow I'll be firing firing firing.  It's going to take a couple of firings, though because I will have to use my smaller kiln.

In other news, my large kiln is still out of commission. I'm waiting on a part to come in the mail.  I had thought it was the coils, but as I was removing them from the kiln, I saw the 'infinite switch' had a burnout.

Then I had a flash of memory. I did this same thing last year with another infinite switch issue.  I had perfectly good coils then, too.  My kiln has two infinite switches. One for the bottom and one for the top. Last year it was the bottom one that burnt out. This year the top burnt out. But I didn't look to make sure before pulling the coils out and by the time I realized it wasn't a coil problem it was too late.

I suppose I could have stuck those coils back in their slots but I probably would have ended up ruining the firebrick.

I am also in need of some slip on connectors in order to connect the switch to the wires, but the place I ordered the switch from was out .... and I think I may have some extra in my stash somewhere around here, but I'm not certain.  I wonder if hardware stores carry those slip on connectors?  If not and if I don't have any, then I'll check the ceramic stores around here and if they don't have any, I suppose I will have to wait the three weeks the online store said it would be before they would be back in stock.

New Beads

These came out of the kiln yesterday and I plan to list them later this week on Etsy.

These are nugget beads, each one unique with various textures combined with sprigs. 

I am particularly drawn to the lavender bead at the bottom left.  I did not think that texture would come out that lovely. 

I also quite like the yellow texture, too.  I'd like to try that texture in different colors (maybe a lavender?).

Thanks for stopping by!

Fun Experiment with Sand and Beads

A good friend of mine brought back some sand from two of her trips. She used some of the sand in a bowl which she fired to cone 10 and it came out really neat. She gave me some of it and also some other sparkly sand and told me to have fun. So I did. I mixed each type of sand in some clear cone 06 glaze and coated each bead.

I didn't want to get confused as to which bead I put what at, so last night I took this photo on the left. The bigger bead was coated with the sparkly sand and the smaller bead was coated with the other sand.  

I probably should have used the same clay with each bead, but I didn't.  The bigger bead was made from b-mix cone 6 clay and the smaller bead was made with frost cone 6 clay.


I fired these at cone 1 though. Why? Because I had other beads firing at that temperature and stuck these in at the last minute.

These came out rather rough, but I like the texture of the sand. I think I would like to add another coat of clear gloss to these and refire.

Fun Necklace by Jean A. Wells

It is always exciting for me to see how jewelry artists fashions necklaces, bracelets, earrings, etc ... out of beads that I and others have created.

This necklace has several bead artists.  The handmade ceramic cardinal bird by is by Cindy Dolezal.  The handmade stoneware fall seed pod is by me.  The handmade porcelain stoney bead and leaf pendant is by Ingrid Mueller and the handmade polymer clay bead by Alison Crenshaw.  Then there are some beads by Earth Tones,  a Vintaj brass twig, some Antiqued brass chain, some Deerskin leather lace, as well as a handmade brass clasp.  This measures  18-1/2" with a 2-3/4" leaf pendant.  It's just stunning!

Here is another photo of this necklace.  I love the background which this necklace lays upon. Notice also the bright red cardinal, it is such a beautiful bright focal piece, and the twig it sits upon has a leaf dangling from it. It's a lovely combination!

Here is the bead of mine that Jean used.  It is made with Trinity stoneware clay, bisque fired, coated with iron oxide, wiped off, fired to cone 10 in a natural gas kiln.  I only made a few of these as I don't have regular access to this particular gas kiln.


Click here to visit this necklace. Click here to visit Jean's store.

Kiln Elements

I am busily making beads. So far I have 100 small harvest beads and 100 small smooth, and now I'm working on the next size up. So far I have 60 in total with 30 harvest style and 30 smooth style.   I'm trying to get enough to do 10 in 10 different glazes in each size. I haven't decided if I'm going to do a bigger size. I might, but probably not as many.  Decisions decisions.

The photo on the left is what they look like right now. Some are dryer than others, hence the color variation. 

About a week ago my big kiln had a bad firing because the top set of kiln element coils burnt out. I had to unload everything. I refired the beads in the smaller kiln but the pottery still sits on my table waiting to be refired.

Yesterday the box was delivered with four coils (my big kiln takes four elements).  I plan to put the new ones in on Saturday when it is going to be about 70 degrees outside.

I have had this kiln about 10 years and this is the third time I've changed the elements. I must be hard on elements.  Maybe I ought to stop peeking inside my kiln before it has cooled down enough. Yep, that's probably it.  Or maybe it is because it sits outside. I dunno.  I just replace 'em when they burn out.

Latest Firing

 These are what came out of the small kiln this morning.  These beads are all fired to cone 1 and have a black underglaze in the recesses.  Yesterday morning I had to rescue them from the big kiln.

The night before I discovered the element coils in the big kiln had burnt out and were not glowing at all.  It still had about two more hours to fire.  The bottom set of element coils were glowing brightly, but not the top.  I know from previous experience that the kiln was not going to go to temperature.  So I shut it off.

In the morning I loaded these beads into the small bead kiln and this is how they turned out. 

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.