Stripe Blends

The blended stripes in these beads and bangles are made from the same color blends I use for my bargello motifs.  It is my own easy method for creating color blends and shading gives them an almost 3-D effect with lots of depth.  I share how to create this effect in my tutorial, Building Bargello Motifs, as well as how to make this bangle and the tube beads with built in bead caps.

Candy Cane Tube Bead Tutorial

I made some candy cane beads a few years ago and finally got around to making some more.  These are fun to do and go great with the rondelle spacers.

Here is how you can make your own:


1. Make a "log" of white clay about the size of a large marshmallow and pierce it through the center with a steel mandrel or thin knitting needle.

2. Roll out some white, red and green clay (see color recipes below) on the 2nd or 3rd thickest setting of your pasta machine.  Cut a length of each color slightly wider than the clay plug.

3. Cut strips from each of the colors and arrange them around your clay plug.  I like to start with the red.  I cut 4 strips at about 1/4" wide and arranged them equidistantly around the plug.

4. Fill in the gaps with narrower strips of green.

5. Fill in the final gaps with white.  Roll a bit to smooth it out so there are no spaces between the colors.

6. Now roll out your clay plug by rolling it on the table and then lightly stretching it.  Keep repeating this process until you have a nice long tube.

When it becomes too long for the mandrel, cut it in half and set one half aside.  

At this point I like to trim each end off where you can see it is distorted but this is optional.

Keep the other half on the mandrel and continue rolling and stretching until it is the thickness you are happy with.  At this point I like to twist it to give that nice candy cane swirl look.

Now cut your tube into pieces.  I like to smooth the edges and roll each piece a little more so they are shaped nicely before baking so they will require less sanding after.  

Your beads are ready to bake, sand and finish.  Make sure you "tent" your beads with some aluminum foil when baking to keep the clay as white as possible.  You can also bake them in a pan filled with baking soda (be sure to cover the pan with foil during baking).

Tip:  With some clays like Premo, the red tends to bleed into the white.  I have found the white comes out much cleaner when working with Kato clay which is another plus.  If it does "bleed" a bit, the white will generally come clean again after sanding.

Color Recipes:  (Here are the ones I used but you can mix up your own)


Plug:  Kato white


White:  White Mix, Recipe # 1-2


Red:  Tomato Puree, Recipe # 4-6 (increase the red to 5 parts)


Green:  Christmas Green, Recipe # 7-5


** Above recipes found in my Clay Color System

See our new updated variation here.

What's on my bead tray?

I have a lot of bead inventory stocked up and working on some new designs for the coming Christmas shows and hopefully a few extras to sell online in our ArtFire Studio.  Here are some pieces on my bead tray right now.

I'm giving you a sneak peek at the two finished designs on the left.  The copper and black one is still "under construction".

The tube beads are the ones I show how to make in my Textured Tubes and More tutorial.  The holes on the tube beads are quite large which makes them great for stringing on thicker cords.  I wanted to cinch them up a bit for my wire work designs so I added some bead end caps between the tube bead and the crystal which help to fill in the "gap".  I think they give a nice "ruffled" look and add a bit of interest.

   

I also have these cool rings and was looking for a bead to go in the centre but wasn't happy with anything we had on hand so came up with a new plan.  I filled the center spaces with a clay "bead" and baked them right in.  I think they will go with the overall design I'm working on much better now.

Something fishy

I've been extremely busy this last week getting ready for our two big shows for the summer.  With father's day around the corner we've been working on some new items for men.  With so many lakes in our area, fishing is a huge sport and so I've been creating pieces with a fish theme.  I found an interesting bead and created a mould from it to make my own pins and pendants.

We've also created a series of textured tube beads to make beaded necklaces and bracelets.  Of course a lot of these beads are great for women as well.  They are a lot of fun to make and I'm working on a tutorial for these that will be published shortly.

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.