beading

DAY #307- OFF THE CUFF

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In order to complete a week’s worth of necklaces, I had to make a few bracelets to go with them right?

I’ve had a very busy weekend, but I squeezed in three bracelets today.

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In one way or another, these three tie in to the necklaces of the week. One by technique, one by materials and all by color.

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I have a bag full of these vintage 60’s acrylic and brass clasps.  They are what I call “Grandma Sheek”.  I love costume jewelry from the 50’s to the 70’s.  Hmm.  Maybe that’s because my grandmother would always let me play dress up with all her baubles.  Boy she had a wonderful costume jewelry collection.

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I always get asked, where are the earrings???

Well, I only where studs.  I figure with the bright clothing, colorful jewelry and crazy eye-glasses, I really don’t need to add one more thing!

I do when I sell jewelry, design earrings for other people, but the pieces this week were for me, so none are required.

I’m pretty psyched, I wore one of my necklaces out last night.  It worked perfectly.  It wasn’t scratchy.  It didn’t twist and turn.  All of the features I am generally looking for in a necklace.

So, I think this is it for jewelry.  I’m getting the itch to try making a print with hand-crafted stamps again.

So that will begin tomorrow.

I hope everyone enjoyed their extra hour of sleep this morning.  The turning back of the clocks always symbolizes hibernation for me.

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DAY # 305- STRANDS

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At the bottom of one of my jewelry totes, I found a note to myself:

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It had all the ideas that I’ve been trying to keep straight in my head.  Too bad I didn’t find it in the beginning of the week.  I feel like a squirrel who hides acorns for the winter, only to find them the following spring!

So this was an idea I wanted to get around to.  I wanted to create an accent jewel that was off-centered to the left and a bunch of strands of glass beads running through it.

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The accent jewel is created using polymer clay, glass seed beads and Austrian crystals.  I created a black backside that was open and could allow five strands of beads to pass through it.

I never made something like this before. It would take one or two more times to get it just right, but this necklace is good enough for me!

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It is so crazy, so funky.  It’s perfect.

By the end of this week I will have plenty of cool pieces to get me through the winter.

Now where did I leave those acorns…

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Day # 304- CRYSTAL CLEAR

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Before I go into my art for the day, I just wanted to say Happy Halloween!

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You know us proud parents, we just can’t help but share pictures of the kids!

We had a wet, warm and windy Halloween here in Rhode Island.  I think it may have even been in the 60’s.  It was a perfect night for trick-or-treating.

Let’s just say their buckets runneth over and I lay claim to the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!

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Today’s piece of jewelry focuses on a few things.  I have some tiny seed beads and I have Chinese Laser cut crystal beads.  If you’ve ever seen these crystal beads, they sparkle like nobody’s business!  The two are paired up and fastened to jewelry straight pins.  This means you take a straight pin and pliers and bend the pin to create an eye.  Let’s say for this project, roughly 60 times.

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Next each bead combo is attached to a silver chain.

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I also added clasps.

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and now I have one super sparkly necklace.

Have you noticed a theme this week?  Maybe that I create rainbow jewelry?  That I add every color under the sun to my jewelry pieces?  Guilty.  I do.  I love every color under the sun!

You may wonder, well what in the world would you wear them with?  surprisingly, everything!  Of course black clothing helps showcase my wares, but I also like to wear a lot of olive, red and emerald-green.  Sometimes my outfits contain every color under the sun and on those days super-charged highly-colored jewelry is perfect too!

I’ll leave you with what my sister constantly says to me “Mary, if I wore what you wore people would think there was something seriously wrong with me, however on you, it’s perfectly normal.”

Yeah, I take that as a compliment!

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Day #303- PRINCESS BERRY SPRIG

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If you’ve been following me this week, you know I’ve been bitten by the jewelry bug!

I have a function to go to Saturday night.  I don’t see myself shopping for a new outfit, so I better put something over-the-top around my neck as a distraction!

I named this necklace “Princess Berry Sprig”.  Isn’t that wonderfully silly?

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That was the vision I had the other day.  What if I strung all my favorite globe beads the way one would create a berry wreath.

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Of course this required wiring hundreds of little beads!

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After I finished winding the beads, I just knew there was NO WAY I would be comfortable wearing wires around my neck.

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So I created a satin ribbon buffer.

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I simply love the result.

Ya know, for many years I filled orders for stores that liked my designs.  However, I’d get these crazy little notes attached.  They’d say things like “Customer says no yellow” or “blacks and purples only please” or “store owner really loves hearts…can you add some?”  And of course I did.  I’m a decade older now and when I think of these silly requests I think of how those stores never really received “My Work”.  Can you imagine telling Kandinsky to only work in purples or maybe he should omit all yellow from his paintings?  What it did, was throw off my designs.  My natural talent and intuition is what comes out, if you ask me to change it, I’m just not sure what you get.

My point is, the past couple of days I have made pieces just for me and it feels great.  They are my colors and they are my style.   Now that I’m a little bit more mature, I feel like I can say to the world “You want more traditional? – Go to Kay Jewelers” , “You want something a little more earthy? – Go to your local smoke shop!”, “If you hate the color yellow, then probably my work is not for you.”

There are so many artists in this world and we are all so different. I used to worry about people stealing my ideas or copying my work.  I don’t any more.  I’m going to put my art out there and expect that it is not for everybody.  It is for very specific people and somehow I will figure out how to connect to those people. If every artist tries their hardest to stay true to their own vision and their own style, then there is room for us all.

When this 365 is over, I’ll probably set up an Etsy shop to sell all my wares.  And guess what?  You can count on there being yellow in my work, just a little purple and probably not a lot of hearts ;)

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DAY #300- A FUNKY KIND OF FLORAL

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DAY 300 WOO HOO!

Sixty-five days left baby!!!

Guess what I’m doing on January 2nd… NOTHING!

OK. Now I can get back to my jewels…

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Today and yesterday were spent on the road visiting relatives.  I decided to try making a beaded floral necklace while sitting in the car. I realized, I didn’t really show how I was making each flower yesterday.  Here is a break-down.

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After I made all the flowers, I then wired each single flower to another thicker gauge of wire.

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To protect myself from scratchy wires I glued black satin ribbon to the back.

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I finished up with some black beads and I am now in business.

It’s perfect timing too, I have a fancy fundraiser to go to next weekend.

Instead of picking some jewelry to go with my outfit, I am going to have to find an outfit to go with my new necklace!

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DAY #299- BEADS AND BAUBLES

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Greetings from the road!

I knew I’d be away this weekend so I needed to find something creative to do on my car ride.

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I’ve owned this necklace for years.  It’s my favorite. I love it!

I always wanted to try making a wire floral necklace. Today seemed as good as any!

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First I had to choose the right beads for the project from the hundreds I’ve accumulated in my basement.

I was looking for discs, ovals and tear drop beads.  I figured out all my possibilities and then reduced my selection to a few.  Next, I poly bagged them so I could work on one small flower at a time while in the car.

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This is as far as I got.  It took longer than I thought.  Each bead gets its own wire.  This meant I probably twisted over a hundred wires!

Tomorrow I still have a few more flowers to make and then I have to figure out how to wire them all together.  I don’t have a book or tutorial or anything, I’m just making it up as I go along.

Hopefully it works out.  I itch for new things as the seasons change.  You know, as the weather changes, your clothing changes.  Everybody likes a little something new. Luckily I don’t have to look any further than my basement!

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DAY # 293 – A TOUCH OF AUTUMN

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I started my morning with a walk through my neighborhood.  I felt like I was coming down with a cold and the fresh air could help.

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Like a small child I couldn’t help but pick up every other leaf.

The colors, shapes and textures knock my socks off!

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I decided to take out some of my jewelry components and create something autumn related.

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I took the smallest leaf I found and cut around it using polymer clay as my medium.  I used gold for the top layer and copper for an under layer.  I then took seed beads and inserted them around the periphery. It just so happened the actual leaf left vein patterns behind.

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This was perfect for recreating the veins in the leaf using red seed beads.

Now I must say, in hind-sight, If I were to do it again, I probably would have stopped right here.  I like the simplicity at this juncture.

…but you know me, I never stop.  I always take everything a little too far!

Generally, I would have to make 3-4 of these clay leaves before I perfect a design, but with a creative 365…I pretty much have to show my first try…

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So, of course I kept going until there wasn’t a spec of gold clay showing!

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I went farther than I should, but I do love the way it sparkles.

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I turned it into a pin that I can now proudly display as a celebration of autumn!

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DAY #282 – TOODLE-OO

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Say Hello to my feathered friends!

#282- TWEET (5)On Day #279 I created a collage with my family.   I decided to cut the sides off that piece. The nest-like collage was plenty busy and it didn’t need all the extra goings-on.

However, I didn’t throw the strips away.  They sat on my table for a day or two.  I kept on looking at all the pretty colors and textures of those strips and wondering what I could do with them.

At the same time, I had pulled all my polymer clay supplies out for Day #279 and hadn’t put those away either.

The third item left out was a cardboard egg carton.

As I looked at the mess I needed to clean up, the idea for little bird nests emerged.  I liked the idea of the skinny road-runner legs and thought it may be fun to put little birds in the tiny egg carton segments.  I also had left-over feathery string which I thought could cover up the base of the egg carton.

I used the fabric scrap strips as platforms for the birds I would make.

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These birds measure roughly 2×3 inches.  They are made with a polymer clay base and a mosaic application using seed beads and vintage rhinestones.  I love how the clay resembles tile grout. They are in essence, mini-mosaics.

They’re sweet as could be.  I put them on my window sill to greet me while I wash the dishes.

It’s a shame the sparkle doesn’t translate via photograph because these little birds glow with reflective light from the beads and rhinestones.

I have quite a few more pieces of egg carton.  I just might have to fill my window sill with birdies for the winter.

They could add some cheeriness to a dreary day!

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#117 – GETTING EARTHY

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It is so funny, for months I’ve been assembling these necklaces a little bit at a time, and it never occurred to me to add them into my Creative 365. So here is a glimpse of some of the things I’ve been doing at night after my daily post for the day.

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There was a pottery show last night at the Guild here in Wakefield.  These necklaces will continue to be on sale for the next couple of weeks. Like a dummy, I brought them over without taking proper photos, but here were 4 I just added today.  I have two more I am finishing and will bring over too.

If my work is generally too bold and bright for you, then today is your day.  This is as earthy as I get!  These are my pottery pendant experiments.  Some have a real Provence look to them.  Very rustic with hints of yellows, greens and blues.  Some are really bright, and others have an Egyptian motif.

On another note, proud Mama got to witness her daughter’s first pottery exhibition:

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Rhea del Rosario from Plum Pottery East, designed this totem in her kid pottery class.  My daughters submission is the one on top.  It was cool to see all the children’s work together.  Each piece has its own personality.  I left a link here to Rhea’s website, click on her name above.  I just love her slogan “IN ART, AS IN LIFE, FINDING YOUR CENTER IS EVERYTHING” .  Aint that the truth! Well said.  Wait a minute…I’m having a really tough time centering in pottery…is that a metaphor for my life? Am I off-center? :)

One more bit of sad news:

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It appears the planter I made for my mother’s birthday is not to be.  It came out of the kiln broken in six pieces. I’m sorry mom.  Here’s a photo to let you know, we were thinking of you!  Better luck next time…I’ll make you some bud vases for the spring…maybe you’ll get them for Thanksgiving :)

So if your local and looking for some not-so-blingy-bling stop on down at the Guild.

Enjoy your weekend everybody!

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#115 – POLYMER CLAY MOSAICS

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These necklaces are something I have wanted to make for some time now. They are based on some of my old designs from probably 2002-2003.  I wanted to make new ones because I never saved one for myself.  I sold them all!

What I cannot communicate via photograph is the amount of sparkle in these necklaces.  They are LOADED with Swarovski crystals.  I’d estimate at least 100 crystals per piece, so when you are wearing them, they glow! Any white spec you see above is a mirror reflection of a crystal, so if you actually saw these necklaces you would notice the crystals first and the color second.  Not true for this photograph though.

You’ll just have to take my word for it!

So back in the day, I would make these circular pendants (no hole in the center).  They’d have a sterling silver backing and generally measure about  1  1/4 inch in diameter.  For these new ones I made for myself, they are 3 inches in diameter.  Big statement pieces.

With all the crystals, they can be a bit dressy.

Oh hubby, you need to take me out for dinner so I have somewhere to wear my new necklace!

:)

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