Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

This blog post is not intended to be a review of 2015. In my next to last post, back in October, I made a comment about probably stretching myself too thin and my muse going MIA. Well, that’s exactly what happened. Not only did I lose my creative spark, my whole body felt like it just went “Hmphhh” and deflated. I did 2 shows in November and December and, other than my regular display during the Christmas potluck lunch at my bill paying job, took the remainder of the year off, concentrating on family and holidays instead.

Came the start of 2016 and I’m working on getting back into the game. I decided to take a break from some of my social media interactions (Facebook rabbit hole) and concentrate on getting my studio and shop cleaned up.

This is how the studio looked before:

Stuff piled on top of stuff, projects on top of projects, tools lost in the clutter.

The mess had even spread to a footstool I hijacked “temporarily” from the family room, and to my old bead storage cabinet (emptied out when I bought this one).

There were other surfaces that were covered too but I had cleaned those up before Christmas. Yeah!

After putting away everything that wasn’t sparking ideas and cleaning up tools, I put Heather Powers muffin tin solution to work. Everything that I wanted to do something with went into the muffin tin, including repair work and things needing redesign.

This is what my bench looks like now, with only 2 projects in progress.

And here’s my muffin tin.

Needless to say, there are layers in each pocket and on top of the muffin tin. That’s okay though because it is organized by type of project and work needed.  I’ve already made a dent in the contents and am feeling more hopeful than before the holidays. Now I need to start work on my online store.

As for that footstool? It’s back where it belongs.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Art Bead Scene October Inspiration Challenge

For the month of October this image of the Egyptian goddess Ma’at was selected.

The winged goddess Ma'at is the symbol of truth, order, law, morality and justice. She is one of three goddesses painted on the walls of the tomb of Queen Nefertari who lived around 1300-1255 BC and was the first wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II. The goddesses received the queen's offerings for her journey to the afterlife. Ma'at, pictured squatting with outstretched wings, wears a red dress. Her green wings are extended to shield the queen's cartouche.

 

Ma'at from Tomb of the Queen Nerfertari, 1255BC, Valley of the Queens

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.

I chose to use the colours of the artwork and, to a certain extent, the cartouche symbols, as my inspiration.

Beautiful 5mm potato shaped freshwater pearls and 10Kt Gold Filled clasp were used to make this necklace and bracelet set. Although they were lovely with the shades of blue, purple, copper and green I felt like something was missing. They sat on my bench for a while waiting for the right touch.

This colour palette suggestion attracted my attention and brought the pearls back to mind.

The predominant shades of purple-y blue, copper and greens fit perfectly. Now I needed that finishing touch, the perfect art beads. I went searching through my vast haul collection of art beads and these little lovelies called to me. They are rustic ceramic coins from Cindy Pack of Art & Soul. I was attracted to the shades of blue with the brown ceramic. They felt right with the pearls. The coin on the necklace is imprinted with a paisley pattern and the one on the bracelet has a swirl pattern. Keeping with the direction of the clasps, I used 14Kt Gold Filled jump rings and pendant bails to add the ceramic coins to the strung pearls.

 

Rustic Ceramic Coins by Cindy Pack, Art & Soul

Please come check out what everyone else has made too.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day

Do you like Resin Jewellery?

Resin jewellery is something I keep looking at but have not tried. I did purchased the resin mix so long ago that I don't even remember what brand it was. I have a feeling that if I used it now the resin would come out yellow. That would work with an antiqued look but is that the way I want to go? Who knows right now.

Sometimes I feel like I am stretching myself too thin and when this happens I lose my muse. She seems to say "Enough! I can't juggle any more things". Problem is, the interest doesn't go away. Instead it keeps intruding on my thought processes.

Today, I received an email from the Beading Gem about a give away for...what else but some resin jewellery supplies from Little Windows!

So many lovely things on their site. Here's an example of some charming personalized earrings from the Little Windows Project Center page

Too much browsing was just too tempting. I entered the contest on Pearl's excellent Beading Gem site, but am proud of myself as I did resist ordering products here and now.

Go check out the Beading Gem. The site is run by Pearl Blay, a Canadian like myself. She describes it as being "the place for all those stories I never get to tell, melding all my passions - writing, reading,crafts,  history and science (I was then a scientist by day) into this blog." All kinds of helpful information on many different jewellery media is provided by Pearl, and there are lots of other draws on a regular basis. Perhaps you'll fall for the "making bug" too.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

We’re All Ears October Challenge

Every month the Earrings Everyday blog hosts a design challenge based on a theme. This month the challenge was inspired by Iris Apfel, whom she describes as being “the quirky and oh-so-colorful nonagenarian fashion icon that I simply must put on my Christmas wishlist.”

After spending some time googling fashion images for fall 2015, Erin Prais-Hintz provided several photos of outfits by designer Monique Lhuillier, all in shades of aubergine.

I chose to make earrings to complement these outfits.

Last year I had cut some brass discs and on two of them stamped a pretty butterfly, which I proceeded to etch. The etching was not as deep as I had hoped and they had languished in a drawer since. When I saw the lace in the inspiration outfits the airiness and lightness of the butterflies came to mind.

The deep aubergine colours reminded me of some Swarovski crystals that I also had stored away. The shape of the beads reminded me of wings. They seemed to be a natural fit for the butterfly etchings. I continued the theme with brass wire wrapping and ear wires.

Flight of the Butterfly

Please click here to see what everyone else has made too.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

He’s a Silly Cat

Do you remember seeing this boy? About 2 months ago? He was claiming my bench as his resting spot. Here he is in the arms of one of his favourite people, my daughter Allie.

Lucky has decided he needs to do more exploring of the house.

A couple of weeks ago Allie was home from college for the weekend. We were chatting away, taking some of her laundry out of the dryer when this happened.

All of a sudden he just hopped right up into the dryer, even got comfortable and lay down in the warm clothes.

It took quite a bit of coaxing to try to get him to come back out. Eventually we ended up reaching in and pulling Lucky out. For the rest of that day’s laundry chores it was a battle to keep him out of the dryer.

Since that day, he does like to check out the dryer but I have been able to discourage him from getting into it. Maybe it’s a good thing that my washer is a top loading washer.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Art Bead Scene September Inspiration Challenge

The Art Bead Scene hosts an inspiration challenge every month. Participants must use an art bead in their design. The inspiration for September is an oil painting on canvas by Vanessa Bell, View of the Pond at Charleston, East Sussex.

View of the Pond at Charleston, East Sussex

by Vanessa Bell, c.1919

Oil on canvas, 79.8 x 84 cm

Collection: Museums Sheffield

In 1906, when Bell started to think of herself as an artist, she formed the Friday Club, in order to create a place in London that was more favourable to painting. Vanessa Bell is one of the most celebrated painters of the Bloomsbury group. She exhibited in London and Paris during her lifetime, and has been praised for innovative works during her early maturity and for her contributions to design. (Reference: Wikipedia)

I chose to use the colours of the artwork as my inspiration.

First up are these sweet little earrings, made with Lampwork flowers that I received recently. Unfortunately I forgot to mark the bag that I placed them in. I think they came from Susan Kennedy of SueBeads. I paired them with glass leaves that matched the green dots at the tips of the flower petals. I also used complementary seed beads and matched waxed linen to the colour of the flower petals and the leaves. The earrings hang from sterling silver ear wires.

Flowers by the Pond (Sold)

The predominant shades of green, and the trees and bushes in the paining, inspired this pendant. The ceramic leaf and the green and brown beads are from Leslie Watt of Thea Elements, and the blue ceramic rounds are from Gaea Cannaday. I used cotton cord to tie the pendant together and hung everything from a brass box chain, with a lobster claw clasp.

 

Near the Pond

Please check out what everyone else has made too, starting September 30th.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Photography Woes

Like many jewellery artisans I have struggled with taking good photos of the pieces I make. There’s lots of advice online and much of it is good. I find though there are still some things I struggle with, good lighting, staging, and composition for example.

Over time I have been slowly developing my style and preferences for photos. I feel I have finally gotten to a point where I am satisfied with photos taken outdoors, and with the staging and props aspect.

Here are some before and after shots, with details of the differences:

Before – Spirit Waters Necklace

After – Spirit Waters Necklace

The before photo was taken indoors, in my handmade light box. My biggest problem is that I don’t have the correct bulbs. I even went out and bought a special bulb designed to mimic natural light. Only problem is, I purchased on in the warm light spectrum. It’s way too yellow.

The after photo was taken outdoors, on top of tile for our barbecue “kitchen”. The beautiful, true colours of the necklace can finally be seen.

This is the barbecue kitchen I mentioned:

Before – Floating Above Earrings

After – Floating Above Earrings

Again, the before photo was taken indoors in my light box. In the after photo, also taken outdoors like the necklace, the earrings were hung from the side of a hurricane lantern we’ve had for years, this one:

The lantern has aged and rusted a bit since the earring photo was taken, but it still makes a great background prop

Before – Flying Free Earrings

After – Flying Free Earrings

The before photo is one of my first attempts to improve my photography. It was taken outdoors. I used a special sewing pattern “paper”, a type of cloth made of fibres that cross in random directions and are fused together. The underlying surface shows through the loose weave and distracts from the earrings.

The after photo of the earrings was not cropped tight to give a perspective of size. The 3 inch long earrings are sitting on some pieces of slate from a broken roof tile. This perspective doesn’t quite work for these earrings and later on I figured out how to hang the earrings from the larger bottom piece and get it to stand.

And the final set of photos:

 

Before – Framed Splendour Necklace

After 1 – Framed Splendour Necklace

After 2 – Framed Splendour Necklace

The before photo of this necklace was taken in the days before I had a light box. Considering there was no proper lighting it’s surprising how well the photo came out.

The props for both of the after photos were just purchased on Saturday at an outdoor antique market about an hour away from home.

After photo number 1 uses an antique wood heating grate, which is apparently the type originally used for in floor ventilation openings. I was told that the grate would be placed into an opening in the floor just above a wood stove. Heat from the stove would rise to the upper floor through the opening. I took this photo wide in order to show off the grate itself.

After photo 2 is one of the first photos taken with my new to me bust of a young goddess or handmaiden. I’m not sure which she would be or even how old she is. I was so excited to find her I forgot to ask. Truth be told I don’t think she’s all that old. The status is extremely light and has been repainted to give a slightly worn appearance but the coat of paint is much too smooth for an antique or vintage item. She’s a little smaller than what I would prefer but I’m happy with her.

Except for the counter tile I’ll be able to use all the props indoors when the Ontario weather changes. Now I just have to find the right lights.