Jewel Tone Colors

I finished making a bunch of rondelle spacer beads in the metallic jewel-tone colors.

I like to make these beads in colors to match the double-sided lentil beads to use in our jewelry pieces.  I created some new jewel tone color combinations and updated them in our ArtFire studio and Etsy shop.

More Rondelles in Stock

I'm finally caught up (for now) with making more rondelle spacer beads and have my new colors now listed in our ArtFire Studio as well as our Etsy Shop.

It seems we are always running out and is hard to keep these little babies in supply.  I like to organize all the rondelles and cube spacer beads in a drawer in little containers.  I don't know if our drawer has looked this full in a long time!

If you are interested in making these yourself and have never worked with polymer clay before, my tutorial, "Make Your Own Rondelle Spacer Beads" is just for you.

And I have some yummy color recipes for using Kato clay that are perfect for making these beads.

If you want to learn how to mix up your own colors and blends and a cool way to organize them, you will learn all that and more from my complete Clay Color System.

Even if you are an experienced clayer.  I have received comments from people who have purchased my tutorials saying they are clear enough for most beginners to understand yet enough tips and other information that a more experienced clayer would appreciate and enjoy.

Spaced Out on Rondelles

I finished another tutorial which I started some time ago.  You might recognize the rondelle beads from a post I did on the blog here several years ago where I shared my original idea.  I found it to be too tedious and time consuming after a while and since learned how to streamline my production by tweaking a few things and eliminating several steps and I can now make them in half the time. (Click on the photo below to go to it.)

In this tutorial I will show you how to make special templates from clay to use in making your own rondelles so each bead is consistent in shape and size.  You can also make them in any color you want to match or coordinate with your other beads for that perfect jewelry design.

I have also included in this lesson how to make the cube shaped beads like the ones shown here in our Bargello Bead Necklaces.

As well as how to add the rich pearl and metallic colors with mica powders.

These can be made in the same matching colors to coordinate with the beads I show how to make in My Textured Tubes & More and Double-sided Textured Beads tutorials.

This lesson is very simple to follow with detailed instructions so even a clay beginner can follow them.  You do not need to invest in any fancy equipment or tools for this lesson as I have provided instructions for making your beads with or without a pasta machine and using objects that are easily available. 

Christmas Tinsel in Red and Green

We are in the Christmas spirit right now and created these coordinating pieces in a rich Christmas red and green.  The pieces sparkle and remind me a lot of Christmas tinsel.  The clay beads used are  textured tubes and our large pearl rondelle spacers in #52 olive green.

New Beads - Double-sided Textured and Pearl Rondelles

I've created some new beads using my double-sided bead technique which are now listed in both our ArtFire Studio and Etsy Shop.  If you want to learn how to make these fun type of beads, we have a tutorial available that will teach you how.  They are a lot of fun to make and the designs are endless.

These are our Funky Swirl Beads in a choice of five yummy colors.   The fun stretch bracelet shown is in the Purple Orchid (Pantone fall 2010 color) beads and include some of our new larger-size 10 mm rondelle spacers in the same matching color.

  

Another new series listed are the Vintage Rose in both dark and light tones.

And here are some fun jewelry pieces created with them:

  

  

The rondelles on the bracelet and necklace are part of our new pearl collection.  I have been working on perfecting our rondelle spacers and these ones have mica powders applied that match the textured beads. The luster on them is extremely deep and rich looking and they come out super smooth.

These three colors were the first ones I created and now I'm on to experimenting with more. 

Clay Artist Feature - Beth

I received a feel-good e-mail yesterday.  Beth from San Diego shared some photos of work she had done with some of our tutorials and I must say I was very impressed!

She made some really nice beads from the Extruder Swirl Cane:

And here is a necklace she created with those beads and some of the clay rondelles.

She also made more necklaces using the clay rondelles and seed beads as spacers.  I love how they turned out!  In the first design she used a copper button clasp and copper seed beads between each rondelle.

I love the terracotta and copper combined with the turquoise in this one....

She says that she likes making the rondelle spacers while watching TV like I do as it is the perfect thing to do and relax at the same time.

What surprised me the most was when Beth considered herself an amateur and doesn't sell any of her work yet.  I'd say she is at least on the right track and we are looking forward to seeing more of her work in future!

New Look

Last weekend our followers reached 300!  I wanted to do the happy dance and celebrate!

We hope you have been enjoying our blog so far and we will try to continue to share with you more of our latest work and some fresh and new ideas.

I decided that since our home studio now has a new look that our internet studio (blog) needed one as well.  Other than the new color you will notice the sidebar has changed.  We didn't get rid of our favorite links but just moved them into a better place.  They now have their own page in one of the tabs at the top.  I categorized them in different interest groups so they are easier to find.  There is room to add a whole lot more which we will be doing over the next while.

I have enjoyed working in our new finished studio this past week.  At the moment I'm writing several new tutorials that should be published shortly.  I've been also working on some new color palettes for our beads and jewelry.  We have the small rondelle spacers in our basic color palette available for sale but we will soon have them available in a larger size as well as in more color choices.

This palette is in the Pantone Fall 2010 colors of Purple Orchid, Lagoon (turquoise), Woodbine, Endive, Golden Glow, Living Coral, Lipstick Red, Chocolate Truffle and Rose Dust.  I am in the process of mixing up some of these gorgeous fall color combinations into some of our new bead and jewelry designs.

This is our new jewel-tone color palette of lime green, teal, blue, grape, magenta, orange crush, melon, sunshine yellow and almond.

And here is a sample of some new lentil swirl beads in a combination of the magenta, melon, sunshine yellow and lime green now available for sale in our Etsy shop and ArtFire studio.

Handcrafted Rondelle Beads

I love the finished look of using rondelle beads in jewelry but it is a little difficult to find them in the colors we want so I developed a way of making my own.  This way I can make them in any color or size I want to match our other beads as well as making the hole size to fit exactly as needed.  Each one is formed by hand and may seem a little time consuming but I think the finished end result is well worth it.