Kamloops North Shore Art Walk

As a member of the Kamloops Art Council, I am excited to be in the Kamloops North Shore Art Walk this year.  Each participating artist is teamed up with a local business on the north shore where their work is on display (and for sale) from July 29 to September 5.  Our jewelry will be at Heather's Fabric Shelf which is a perfect match for us as they already sell our buttons.

Here is a photo of our display featuring our bargello style pieces which we felt fit in with all the gorgeous and colorful quilting fabric.

This is one of the new sets on display in a Pantone summer color combination of Coral Rose, Beeswax and  Peapod.

Tooled Leather Look Cabinet Knobs

We received a unique custom order request the other day.  This customer had purchased some gorgeous knobs for their kitchen cabinets that were made from a resin-like material but had a tooled leather look.  Unfortunately these knobs kept breaking and they could not purchase any more as they were discontinued.  They really loved the design and if you saw their house, you would understand why as everything was decorated with a real country western flair.  A friend of theirs had seen our work at the Cowboy Festival last March and told them about us.  They sent us a broken knob and asked if we could possibly match them to replace the broken missing ones.

This was a big challenge with several details to work out such as making a good moulded impression of the original piece, mixing the right clay base color as well as the paint for staining.  After several attempts, I finally ended up with a replica that looked almost exactly like the original.  (Can you tell which one it is?)

Here you can see them on their cabinet drawers in their gorgeous country style kitchen --

They said I could share some photos of their beautiful home with you.  Every light fixture is totally unique.

Everything was so tastefully decorated with a country western style right down to the saddle barstools...

One of the most gorgeous pieces in their home was the bathtub!  It is made from copper and was imported from Mexico.  Dave says it is the kind of tub you need a life jacket if you don't know how to swim!

We are happy we had the opportunity to work on such a project for this beautiful home and meet some very beautiful people who live there as well!

Blog Debris - Finding a Name

We were looking for a name for our colorful stacking type buttons for children's clothing and decided on Rainbow Garden.

I wanted each of the colors to be of items you would find in a garden so I discovered if you google the name of a color and type in the words "color _____" and fill in the color (example: color yellow) you will find all sorts of information about that color along with several links to a wide range of possible names.  It was a lot of fun and I discovered some cool colors and inspiration in the process.

Where do you find names for your work?

2011 Western Canada Summer Games - Nightly Arts Festival

This August, Kamloops will be hosting the 2011 Western Canada Summer Games and we are excited to be a part of this great event!  The Kamloops Art Council is heading up a Nightly Arts Festival which will take place at the Heritage House at Riverside Park each evening (August 6-13) from 4:00 to 8:00 pm.

As a member of the Kamloops Art Council, a selection of our jewelry will be for sale at the Heritage House.  Both Dave and I will be there helping out on the Sunday (7th) evening so if you are in the area, please stop in to say hi.  I will be demoing (weather permitting) my millefiori canes and bead making that same evening from 6:00-8:00 pm.

New Rings For Summer

Other than wearing my wedding band, I've never been one to wear fancy type rings until now.  Since I'm the type that everything in my wardrobe has to coordinate I discovered adding a ring as an accent piece can be  more fun.

These rings went out to the Shuswap Festival of the Arts gift shop this week.  We filled an hors d'oeuvre dish with some glittery silver sand and the rings fit nice.

Here are some new designs for the summer.  The top two are made using my sculpted flowers technique.  The bottom two were using left over blends from our Bargello series and have Swarovski crystals embedded in the centers.

Fiesta Buttons

Here are some new fiesta style buttons that match the fiesta shawl pins.  These ones are gigantic size and measure 2" across which will go great on a large quilted bag or jacket.

New Fiesta Shawl Pins

I had some orders to fill for shawl pins so made up some extras with a new design.  These ones we are calling our Fiesta series.  The swirl on the end of the sticks were made using my same technique as I use for my double-sided textured beads.

We added these shawl pins to the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts gift shop today with a few extras left over that we will list in our Etsy shop later in the week.

More Bargello

Here is some more bargello style jewelry in different color combinations.  This one is in honeysuckle pink, peapod and Beeswax on a black background.

These two sets below are created from the same bargello colors.  I showed the blue one below to you before but when the same bargello slices are arranged on a different color background like the turquoise shown here, it gives a whole new look.

Summer Night Concert at Fireweed Art Studio

We had a great time at the Fireweed Art Studio yesterday where some of our jewelry pieces are sold and I am teaching classes there this summer.  This is Lynn Erin who is the main artist and owner of the Fireweed Art Studio.

Every Thursday evening in July and August, there is a live outdoor concert on the front lawn put on by Lynn's partner, and great musician, Sylvain Vallee of the Vallee Music Studio.

The weather didn't seem to want to cooperate at first and there were off and on showers right up until it started so some of us were huddled under umbrellas to keep dry.

When the music started the rain stopped and the sun broke out which made the music even more enjoyable!  That is Sylvain on the far right on the keyboard in the photo below.

There were about 100 people who turned out last night which was a nice number considering the rain and all. There was quite a variety in music and we are already looking forward to next weeks concert.

Set-up at the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts

We set up our display at the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts today which took a lot of planning and arranging.  This year our set-up features some of our new "series" designs.

We painted some picture frames to add a little more style and color to our display.

As part of our Bargello series we have some basic pendants.  These ones I used the Tibetan silver bezel frames which I show how to fill without using any glue, in my tutorial, Fabulous Faux Turquoise.  We order larger quantities of these frames at a time so have some available for sale in our ArtFire Studio.

Finished more beach bracelets

We finished off a few more beach bracelets in some new colors.  They are strung on cotton cord with a slider clasp so they are easy to put on and take off as well as comfy to wear at the beach.

We added these along with some more rings to our display at the Fireweed Art Studio in Scotch Creek making our beach bling jewelry line even more complete.  (Click on the photos for a larger view).

My first Beach Bling Jewelry making class is this coming Thursday here at the Fireweed Art Studio.  My students will make their own beach shells and by the end of the class will go away with several jewelry pieces of their choice created from them.  Click here for more information as well as an up-to-date class schedule.

Embossed Clay Earring Tutorial Featured

I just discovered a new site today called All Free Beaded Jewelry.  It is a site that lists all sorts of links to free tutorials for jewelry making on the internet and they featured our Embossed Clay Earring Tutorial there.

  

Of course you can make these earrings in other colors or shapes and are great for coordinating with your favorite outfit.

We have more free tutorials available on our blog for you to enjoy and you will find them all listed at the top of this page.

Surprise

A package arrived today that we had ordered from the U.S. a week ago Monday.  We ordered the day they ended the postal strike and were worried things would be backed up at Canada customs due to a mail backlog but we received it in good time.  We have some classes scheduled and were in desperate need of some tools such as acrylic rollers, shaped cutters and tissue blades for our students to use.

We were also low on some findings that were needed to finish off some pieces for the Shuswap Lake Festival of the Arts show.  Now we aren't so pressured for time in adding the final touches and we can be ready for set-up on Monday.  Here are a couple more bargello style necklaces in black and white for a different look.

All the little black rondelle spacer beads are made from clay as well as the cubes.  We make these in matching colors by the hundreds now and I share my little secret on how to make both in our Making Rondelle Spacer Beads tutorial which has become quite popular.

Balancing act with Buttons, Bargello and Beach Bling

Things are extra busy for us this time of year with the Shuswap Festival of the Arts just around the corner.  It is an 8 day show where we have our work for sale in the gift shop there.   It seems there is always so much to do before then with finishing and tagging everything and fine tuning our display.  This year has become more of a balancing act with button orders to fill, custom orders to finish and preparing for several classes to teach.

We finished off some more bargello style jewelry this time with some slight design variations.  The earrings were quite popular and we sold out so we are making more.

I love creating bargello style patterns in the clay.  After the various blends are created, they are stacked, sliced, and then arranged like a quilt pattern on a clay background.  I'm currently working on some more color schemes and will have some to show you this week.