Creative Finds: Sarah Hornik's Think Pink!

For all your lampworkers out there, Sarah Hornik's Think Pink! IS A MUST HAVE!!! I can't believe she only charged $20 for all that info! It's sooooo good. Jam-packed with information on working in reactives.

The above is my favorite bead of the bunch I tried out. I haven't had much torch time lately, but one of my friends who took the original beginners class with me has been letting me get some torch time. I feel like I'm starting over. (Sort of...I've been re-photographing my original beads to re-post to this blog since the originals were lost...and I really have come a long way since the beginning.) I made more beads, but this is my favorite, paired with some CiM colors. I'd like make a bunch more and make a bracelet out of these colors of beads. It would make a pretty little charm bracelet.

As for working in reactives: Sarah has made learning reactives really easy. I can't believe I did such a cool bead! I've been afraid of reactives - they're more expensive and the stuff I've done so far...eh. It's all right. I just figured I needed more experience. Sarah took care of that. Just work with the glass. A few of my early attempts did get good reviews...but I would feel guilty letting the glass do all that work while all I did was make a round bead with dots. Now I know...that's just the beginning...let the reactives roll!

Studio Time: Oceanic

Thought I would publish a little more to look at. This is a necklace and earrings I did in June combining chain maille from Urban Maille and beautifully gorgeous colors from Creation is Messy. It's mostly Sapphire and a little bit of Peacock Green to get a Carribbean look. I will take some time to rave about CiM colors in another post. If you've been thinking about trying them out...you MUST. They are yummy.

In fact, this necklace is actually published on the Sapphire page.

P.S. - I was trying out Wordpress because some of the features were more user friendly. Blogpsot has improved since I left and now I'm back on Blogspot. I copied my posts from the Wordpress blog back here. The older posts are sans pictures (for now).

Creative Finds: Taking a Moment to Rave

I’m usually not one to camp out at my mailbox. In fact, I try to avoid it as much as possible. I mean, the only thing I get is bills. But…I was camping out on my mailbox. Ever since Laura started posting her study in reactives after she bought the Sarah Hornik tutorial on Think Pink, I’ve been going ga-ga over Laura’s twist on reactives. I’m not sure what caused that reaction…maybe because I’ve packed up my own studio for the time being and must live vicariously through other artists, maybe because I’ve seen all these other artists playing around with Sarah’s tutorial, maybe because it’s so cool to see the influence / collaboration of two artists who produce my favorite work at the moment. I dunno. Maybe all three. But, I’m the proud owner of the EDP Sampler Set. I’ve been camping out on my mailbox every day, wondering how long the post takes from UK to Texas. My little presents got here yesterday. And the above is what I did with them…

Here is what I must rave about…if you look at these beads from the side, look at that gorgeous detail around the bead holes! I don’t want to hide that. I also have the Rainbow Cogs from Laura that I’m trying to figure out how to display these gorgeous designs from the side. I think these beads with these designs around the bead holes would make great rings. I have some ideas in my head, but that requires some metalsmithing and other metal skills that I don’t currently possess. Oh, and the icing on the cake? Laura has managed this fine, intricate detail into only 9mm x 12mm! If you think the precision is jaw-dropping looking at your computer screen, wait until you hold these exquisite, delicate beads in your hands and think of the control it takes to get that fine detail in such a small space.

Finally, I put the yellow beads into the above earrings and strung the green beads into the necklace below so I could wear it today. I’m planning for this stringing to be temporary. I have a design in mind that will allow those green beads to stand out. In the meantime, I’m trying out different colors to see which one I’m going to stick with to accentuate the green beads. The high contrast of bead colors, as exemplified in the necklace below, is a signature design for me. Laura mentioned her design challenge is to be organic. Mine is to be monochromatic. I mean, I’m the type of person where white should only be an accent color. I lived in a white apartment for 2 years when I moved to Texas. My last two houses have been the antithesis of white walls. In fact, I was trying to think of any white walls I have in my current house. Only in my closets. Every wall in my house is saturated with color. Everything I wear has color. I also only wear white as an accent. But, I have narrowed the accent beads for the final design to green to accentuate the prettiness of the Psychedelic Peacock beads. Now I just have to narrow the greens down…I still want to try different greens…augh!

I think I will “need” to do a second temporary design to try out the different greens.

Studio Time: More Eye Candy

So, since jewelry is still a spare time hobby, I’m not going to be posting frequently. I haven’t posted the last few weeks because I’ve had a number of custom orders to finish up. However, I’m back working on regular things for sale. Still small quantity and varying designs…I’m still open for suggestions about what you would like to see!

For sheer eye candy, check out the latest Advanced Weave from Urban Maille. I love that Aislyn designed this with copper rings. This is a good way to learn a trickier weave. I also did the expansion pack of the Serpentine necklace in copper and silver with three twists…it’s really eye-catching. I’ll post that when I get a picture.

Studio Time: Dramatic Earrings

Ivory Splendor

Drama Princess

Glacial