Swap Necklace

We had a pendant swap on Beads of Clay Yahoo Group. We were paired with a partner, we send each other a pendant. We each design something with the pendant we receive. Then send in a picture to our BoC Flikr group This is the pendant I got from Melinda Orr at Orrtec Designs.

Here is my finished necklace. I had a perfectly matched little blue bird bead I had made. I knew as soon as I opened Melinda's package that I wanted to use it with her pendant. I think we must have used the same glaze.

Check out the current monthly challenge at Art Bead Scene Blog April Challenge This is my entry in the April Art Bead Scene Challenge.

Yeah!

I entered a necklace in the Beads of Clay Tetradic Challenge. I blogged about it here. Well I actually won! and today I received my prizes. A beautiful boxed set of Mary Harding Beads and Pendants. Mary has always been an inspiration to me. I feel like she just walks through a beautiful wooded paradise and just spots these perfect little pearls of scenery and then she goes back to her studio and creates them. These pictures will not do them justice. You have to see her work in person. Her blog is at. I can't wait to create something with these "pearls".

Custom Gifts

My niece asked me to make small personalized trinket dishes for 7 of her fellow graduates this year. > I'm pretty sure none of them follow this blog. Otherwise I just ruined the surprise. (Dont' tell Shelby, but I did one for her, too.)

She gave me the names and picked the general colors. Usually I don't like doing custom work because a lot of customers don't have a clear vision of what they want until you finish it and then they know what they wanted different. But Shelby seemed to be pleases. All she wanted was that they were each "a little different". I think they came out great.

I think I can, I think I can

I was notified that "beads" by Cindy Dolezal Designs are featured in this upcoming issue of Beads 2010 in the Rings section. I think I see one of my beads on the cover. It's almost completely buried but I think I see it. It's not available til April. I can't wait.

Easter Beads

I don't know about you but when I finish coloring a dozen or two eggs for Easter I always hate to throw away the Easter egg color in the cups. So this year I threw in some large unfinished wood beads I had and colored them. Similar beads were featured in Martha Stewart Living Magazine last summer or spring. She used fabric dye but these came out great. These are just the large unfinished wood beads you find at the craft store. Usually for kids to string. They are great light weight colorful beads to add to your creations! Have fun.

Anticipation

Sometimes I make beads just to feel the clay in my hands. With no real end in sight. This clay hasn’t yet decided what it wants to be. But sometimes I have a whole finished piece of jewelry in mind. Before I can start on the project I have to go through the whole process of making the beads I have in my head. I let them dry before I can get them in the kiln for the first firing. That’s usually not so bad in the middle of summer here. It’s pretty hot and arid so they dry quickly. But in the winter it takes longer. Then there’s the firing, glazing, firing again. Sometimes it turns out just like I had anticipated. Just as often the whole thing, which has a mind of its own, turns out to be something quite different.

A lot of potters refer to opening the kiln as Christmas morning. It really is like that. I can’t tell you how many times when I was starting out, I would open the kiln when it was still too hot. I just couldn’t stand the anticipation any longer. Sometimes the results of that were disastrous. So I’ve learned to force myself to be patient. I usually leave the kiln to cool overnight and open it in my pajamas with my first cup of coffee. One of my favorite things to do.