Last Day of 2015

It is finally time to kiss another year good-bye.  Dave and I have both faced many challenges (good and bad) this past year and so look forward to a fresh start and new experiences for 2016.

It is always good to learn new things and I am always pushing myself to experiment with the clay and using the computer more.  We managed to open our own online store which took many hours to set up but very rewarding in the end.  I also created my first video tutorial which is part of the new 2016 Polymer Clay Adventure Retreat!  I will be teaching how to create colorful Kite Beads and a Kite Focal Bead.  Then I show you how to put it all together to create a statement necklace and matching earring pieces.

There are other exciting projects from 24 other teachers so the whole year is packed full of learning new things and it all starts January 1st!  There are forums so you can connect with your instructors and ask them questions as well as make new friends who share the same passion.

I still have more copies of my soon to be published "From Scrap Clay to Art Deco" tutorial to give away.  If you would like to receive your free copy, then register soon here.

And if polymer clay is not your art form?  There are two other retreats this year that you can take part in!  A Quilted Adventure Retreat and an Art Jewelry Adventure Retreat!  So sign up soon so you can be a part of this great fun!  You can click on any of the photos above or the button below to register.

See you there!

More Radiating Lines Kite Beads and Matching Earrings

I made more beads in different color variations of the Radiating Lines style necklace I showed you in my last blog post (click here to see).  I learned how to make my own texture plate to create these kite style beads from Helen Breil's "Radiating Lines" tutorial.  They are not put together yet but are added to our "finishing" bead pile to be put together later.  They should be finished in time for the Lake Country Art Walk along with more new creations we are working on.

copper and teal kite bead set

oil slick kite bead set

Here are some earring pieces I created to go with the above beads and the necklace I showed you last.

Radiating Lines Necklace and Lake Country Art Walk

We are really excited about being in the Lake Country Art Walk this September.  It is a real impressive show with more than 300 artists represented.  It is a nice place to spend the day and even relax in the courtyard for a snack or lunch and enjoy some great live music.

We will have a wide range of scarf jewelry and accessories available with many other items including our popular interchangeable art bead earring system.

I haven't posted any jewelry pieces lately and thought I would show you one of my favorites.  I made this one a while ago for myself to coordinate with the vintage jacket Dave bought for my birthday last year.  It consists of four "kite"beads with a large focal in the center.  It is textured using my own plate that I designed and created based on Helen Breil's "Radiating lines" tutorial.

To learn how to make your own kite beads as well as other free tutorials available on my blog, click on the "free tutorials" tab at the top of this blog.

Summer Magic

This is another piece I entered into the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts which I titled Summer Magic.  I've made several kite bead necklaces before.  You can see them here.  This time however, I decided to have some real fun and play with this one by making them into an actual kite.

I had an original plan for the design but some of the ideas for the individual pieces changed as I worked on them.  I was planning on creating some skinner blend mica shift ones like in a necklace I made a year ago.  I liked how the texture came out on these however and so decided to leave them in this form and highlight the areas with some gold mica powders instead.  I textured and highlighted my tube beads in the same way and added them to the other half of the necklace for a different look rather than have the kite beads go all the way around.  The gold heishi beads and colored crystals add some sparkle and an overall finished look to the piece.

Making my pendant turned out to be the bigger challenge.  I wanted the piece to be wearable and not too heavy.  To get the shape I wanted, I hand-formed my kite shaped mold first.  I then pieced my colored clays to fit over the mold so after firing it would be hollow.  I then used some sculpey light as a filler which really made a difference in the overall weight of the pendant itself.  

I handformed the clasp myself out of gold filled wire and clay and again buried all of the double strands of flex wire and the connectors inside the beads so they don't show or detract from the whole design.