Sunday 28 February 2016

February Art Bead Scene Inspiration

The Art Bead Scene hosts an inspiration challenge every month. Participants must use an art bead in their design. The idea is to take something from the inspiration, a theme, colour or colours, shape, whatever strikes you as a starting point, and make an original piece based on it. This month’s inspiration is this Vogue cover from 1925.





Vogue Cover - Simultaneous Dress next to
the Simultaneous Car by Sonia Delaunay
Illustrated by George Lepape from January 1925

Orphism is a term originating from 1912 when French poet and art critic Guillaume Appollinaire identified the new style of Cubist painting. Simultanism is the strand of Orphism practised by the Delaunays. The name comes from the work of French scientist Michel Eugène Chevreul who identified the phenomenon of ‘simultaneous contrast’, in which colours look different depending on the colours around them. For example, a grey will look lighter on a dark background than it does on a light one.


Simultaneous Flower

My inspiration was the colours used in the illustration, kicked off by the lovely porcelain glazed flower pendant by Lisa Peters Art. I added apple red ceramic beads from Cindy Pack which, though they aren’t the reddish-orange shade in the illustration, worked well with the flower cabochon. I added blue glass beads to make the deep blue colour stand out, and used white beads to help pull the colours together. Black steel wire holds the cabochon nicely to the waxed linen cord I strung the beads on. Gunmetal chain and a silver plated lobster clasp that I added a dark patina using liver of sulphur.

I have to admit I’m not quite happy with the pendant bail. There may be some modifications to it before the necklace is posted in my online store.

Edits: See how I changed up the bail here.


Please visit all the other participants of this challenge. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Friday 26 February 2016

New Earrings

I’ve been getting ready for my craft show tomorrow, sorting products, pricing, double checking calculations, putting all the new earrings on my handmade cards. When I had all the earrings carded I saw this amazing little stack.





That’s 40 earrings in the last two months alone. I was pushing some new skills to the limit. I just hope that when I pick up again it wasn’t just the blush of beginner’s luck and I can do as well again.


You can find me at Winterloo 2016 tomorrow Feb 27, from 11:00 – 7:00, at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex, Hauser Haus, 101 Father David Bauer Drive, Waterloo. I will start listing any that are not sold in my online store next week.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.


Monday 22 February 2016

Want to Learn Soldering?

Have you ever wanted to learn soldering? Not just read about it but actually be successful at making something using soldering? Check out this post by Pearl Blay on her The Beading Gem blog. Today’s post is a review for a book about soldering. The book, Simple Soldering: A Beginner's Guide to Jewelry Making, by Kate Richbourg, is published by Interweave.

There’s a great giveaway too. Enter by 6 pm EST Monday, February 29 2016, a week from now, and you have a chance to win a copy.




I like to follow all types of blogs and those that focus on jewellery have a special place in my list of favourites. Often these blogs provide information, tutorials, guidelines, rules, what have you. In my opinion some are very good and some are very bad and Ms Blay’s blog definitely falls into the very good category.

Ms Blay posts all kinds of interesting information in many types of media. Though her main focus is jewellery she does not hesitate to post about other types of art. Take some time to look through her blog. You may find you get hooked too.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Tuesday 16 February 2016

My New Shop

I took the plunge, opening a new store on Etsy. Come visit it and let me know what you think.





I had a store on Artfire for about 4 years but chose to change host sites recently.


I did a lot of research into the best options. Because I have a full-time bill paying job I don’t have the time needed to support a standalone shop. A large, well managed host site was my best option.  

Why did I choose to move to Etsy and away from Artfire? There are several ways that Artfire operates very differently from Etsy including currency management, seller fees and general ease of use.
  
For me, a Canadian based seller, the Artfire currency issue was the biggest problem. Artfire requires the seller to post item prices in US funds and buyers have to do their own conversion to their native currency. This is fine when currencies are stable but just does not work when the value of foreign currencies swings up and down from day to day.

Added to that a smaller audience, lower ranking level for search results and a very different rate structure and the decision almost made itself for me.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Tuesday 9 February 2016

First Show of 2016

I’m looking forward to participating in my first show of the year:
Winterloo 2016
Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex, Hauser Haus
101 Father David Bauer Drive
Waterloo

Show hours are 11:00 am to 7:00 pm

This is the 14th year for the Winterloo festival and the first year with craft vendors. Festival organizers are trying something new and have waived entry fees to the show. I’m not expecting there will be a large crowd and am really doing this for the exposure.


I think it should be lots of fun since the Kitchener Waterloo residents love festivals and this is a popular one. If you’re in the area come on out for the festivities. Check out more here.



Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.