Hong Kong Chronicles and Studio News: French Country Giveaway Winners

I'm not going to be a very good judge. I like BOTH of the designers who entered the French Country bead giveaway. Since I have enough beads for both, both Mel P AND Hilary won the beads. They both have different design styles and I'd love to see what they do with the beads. I think I'm going to start a Flickr group for these Inspiration and Design Challenges...I'll post the name of the group and invite y'all to join when it's ready. Mel - I'll drop the beads in the mail today with your other win...Hilary, I know most of your address...just need the street and number.

And on to other amusement

Occasionally I think I need to change the name of this blog to...The One-Woman Three Stooges show. Featuring me! and sundry, unsuspecting Hong Kongers. For the uninitiated, I am a klutz. Let me clarify: I am an uber-klutz. My family and friends know this well. Now, I share this aspect of my life with you.

Today's topic: How rain adds an extra layer of danger adventure to Life in Hong Kong.

THE EYE-POKE


Okay. The dog has nothing to do with tonight's topic. I just had to get a picture of the random dog walking in the random crowd outside of work.

Back to the subject at hand. Does anyone see the danger here? ANYONE?

Okay, maybe pictures do not do the situation justice. Let me 'splain, people. I am taller than 50% of the people here. To give you a picture, three of the ladies I eat lunch with on Mondays come up to my armpit. (I know. Not that pleasant for them. I do try to use strong deodorant.) But, coming back to me...do you see where that puts their umbrellas? And consider that 50% of the population is shorter than me?

It's already narrow and crowded.

Add rain (umbrellas) and you shrink the walking space further. Therefore,

I often have to float my umbrella over other people and duck and weave to avoid the umbrella points that are coming straight at my eye.


THE BANANA PEEL FALL


What do you get when you combine ceramic tiles and rain? A Buster-Keaton-Laurel-and-Hardy-Charlie-Chaplin-Three-Stooges-Marx-Brothers banana peel slapstick fall.

Yep.

Did that last Wednesday.

Before I give you the rest of the story...why, oh why do they use ceramic tiles as the OUTDOOR ENTRY to the homes in my village?
The rest of the story: When I picked up Molly from the dog-sitters on Wednesday after my trip to Shanghai-Beijing (pictures coming), I went to get her in between rain bursts. I was walking Molly and her box with food, bedding and water on a little trolley. Instead of going the long way, I walked through the village along the front of my apartments. They have CERAMIC TILE in front of their patio entrances. Does no one see a problem with this?

All I know is, one minute I was walking. The next minute, I was laid out flat on my back, dog food spilled everywhere and Molly sniffing me and asking, "What's wrong, Mama? Why are you lying down?"

I have a sneaking suspicion that is the reason why my back has been hurting me since Wednesday.

Studio Time: Urban Kiwi Necklace and Earrings

A cheerful, spring-y burst of color adorns this Urban Kiwi necklace and earrings. Who says Urban has to be serious and grown up? The pink is a cheery CiM color called Rose Quartz, paired with a juicy Vetrofond Odd Lot called Kiwi. The chain begins with some hand-coiled and cut jump rings, mixed with handmade eye-loops. The rest of the chain is finished in hand-made eye-loops with sterling silver balls. The necklace is 18 inches long with the drop, an additional bubble cluster of 1.5 inches.

The earrings are an even smaller cluster of 1-inch drop earrings.

Juicy and summery. Available in my Artfire shop.

Studio News: Urban Lavendar Earring Giveaway

Mel P over at Kookie Designs is the latest winner. Mel, email me with your contact info. Congratulations!

Studio News: French Country Bead Giveaway

I'd like to do a design challenge. I'd like to give these beads away to a jewelry artist. My ideal artist is someone whose repertoire of skills and style is different than mine or someone who wants to challenge themselves along a different design track. I've already done a simple design in French Country. Anyone else want to try?

How to win: comment on this post with a link to your gallery of work. I will choose a designer and announce the winner on Friday, May 29.

The French Country bead set
warm, pale, earthy yellow reminiscent of color-washed country kitchen walls
deep, transparent, sparkly Sapphire blue

Provence, France in the summer
Bicycling through the countryside
Imprinting lavendar fields on your mind
Sipping wine in a warm, cozy cafe
Nibbling on a plate of cheese and fruit

The hearty laughter of close companions

The deep friendship of kindred spirits

Studio News: Banana Folk Berry Winner!

The winner is: Shaiha over at Life on Ash Street. Congratulations, Shaiha and send me your address and I'll pop these in the post ASAP!

Also, check out what Kristin at KS Jewellery Designs did with the Kiwi Beadberry giveaway from last month. I bought her tutorial on the wire flowers she does. I'm very impressed with her wirework. Her tutorial helped me refine some of my wirework and continue to put the silversmithing off for now (yay!).

And one more quick note: Mel P at Kookie Designs is doing an earring giveaway as well. Check it out!

Studio News: It's Giveaway Week over on the new blog!

All kinds of giveaways this week on the new blog.

Studio News: Urban Lavendar - Earring Giveaway

I love Creation is Messy colors. They are so dreamy! Part of it is the names chosen for the colors. How much fun can you have with colors called Heffalump and Chalcedony? This much fun! These are simple Folk Berries in a base of Heffalump (a pale lavendar) drizzled with a bit of Chalcedony. It makes for a lovely, light gradient of color. Very subtle.


These earrings are 1 1/8 inches from the drop. They rest on sterling silver and have a double loop of hand-wound, hammered jump rings.


Want to win these? Sign up for my newsletter and post a comment to this post! Winner will be announced next, Sunday, May 24.

Studio News: Banana Folk Berry Bead Giveaway

I keep hearing yellow is the "it" color of the year. Okay. I just like yellow. Would you like some buttery, earthy yellow beads? These are some of my Folk Berry beads. They are Vetrofond Odd Lot of a pale, buttery yellow with a reactive core. The result reminds me of a banana peel.


Enter to win by commenting on your favorite thing in my Artfire store. Winner will be announced on Friday, May 22.





GLASS NOTES

Color: Vetrofond Banana Odd Lot - a smooth, mellow yellow with a reactive center that creates beautiful, gentle striations when wound as a disk. It reminds me of a ripe banana peel.


Rod Size: my lot was 6mm rods


How the glass feels to me: The rods melted similarly to other opaques...fairly quickly and required quicker work since it melted easier. I found this glass a little more sensitive to thermal shock. If I was too quick to warm the rod, I could feel it crackle through the rod. If I didn't slow down, 1-inch chunks would pop off. (I would reclaim these as a bead by carefully perching the little chunk of glass on top of the mandrel and melting it into a bead.) I found this glass required additional time for warming in the flame. When I was working on refining a bead's shape, I would keep the wafting through the top part of the flame to keep it warm. However, once the glass was comfortably warm, it worked similarly to other opaques.

Studio Time: French Country - CiM Sapphire

Although I have been working with the theme, "Urban Primrose" for the last month, serendipity sometimes takes over. I have been getting to know my new lampwork setup and renewing my knowledge of the individual glass colors and ended up with a kiln full of blue and yellow beads.

How can you NOT do French Country?

Only this is French Country Kanna style: the blue is a deep Creation is Messy Sapphire that glints and glimmers and is achingly beautiful. These are the organic, faceted beads I call Glibble Berries. The yellow is a beautiful, earthy yellow, reminiscent of buttery yellow color-washed walls. It's an odd lot of Vetrofond Banana with a reactive core that gives it the summery earthiness. Together they become French Country.

GLASS NOTES

For other lampworkers, I am working through my glass stash and getting to know individual colors. I will be building up a library on my website of how I interpret the glass. While this is probably mostly just a library for me, I'll go ahead and post my findings, just in case anyone else can find it useful. Thanks!

Manufacturer: Creation is Messy

Color: Sapphire - this is an achingly beautiful, vivid, blue sapphire. I have done an encased version and done plain spacers. Encasing dulls the blue. The plain color is dramatic. My opinion is that this color should never be encased...it's too pretty. Also, this color looks great as nuggets or with facets. This is a standard color for CiM.

Rod Size: 6 mm

How the glass feels to me: I have been finding CiM colors to be a bit stiffer in the flame. The good part of this is that the stiffness gives you a little more working time for shaping. The challenge is switching between opaques that are softer and back to CiM colors that are generally stiffer. Once your mind assimilates the differences, you get some beautiful effects with CiM colors. Warm the glass slowly in the flame. When you work it slow, the way it wants to be worked, the resulting beads are crystal clear.

A surprising effect: I had been working this glass faster because of working with other opaques and discovered a fun little effect. If I warmed it too quickly, I could feel the rod pop and see shattering through the glass, although the glass didn't actually splinter off. I would warm the glass again and still form a bead which would then include hundreds of bubbles and created a look similar to seeded glass.

How to work to achieve various results:

Basic clear: warm the glass slowly in the flame and wind slowly

Seeded look: to get all over bubble inclusions (similar to seeded glass), waft the glass quickly and closely to the flame until you feel the rod shattering at the end. Once it shatters, slow down (so it doesn't pop off) and let the glass melt back together then begin winding onto the mandrel. Continue winding slowly and forming the bead as desired. I found this easier to repeat with a rod that had been warmed and set aside aside, then re-warmed.

Studio Time: Urban Chocolate Earrings

I have some beads leftover from the month of April with the demure theme. I have these tiny, Hershey's Chocolate colored Cherry Berries, a mere 6mm wide. I also had a pair of the chocolate-y beads with little dots of pale blue. I paired these with hand-wound, hammered, sterling-silver jump rings. They are 1.75".

Available in my Artfire shop.

Artfully Meandering: Wistful

turn face to sunshine

lean forward, touch reflection

wistful gaze, full heart

Creative Finds: Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts

One of my favorite books of late is the book Taking Flight~Inspiration & Techniques to Give Your Creative Spirit Wings, by Kelly Rae Roberts. The book is deceptive: it looks sweet and easy to read. Well, it is sweet...but, I found it very thought-provoking. While I usually skim books looking for bits and pieces of tutorials I can use in my art, this book actually took me two weeks to read. Two of the chapters, "Unearthing Buried Dreams," and "Facing Your Fears" contained some thought processes that helped me overcome some of the "inner chatter" that was holding me back. Very cool stuff.

© 2008 by Kelly Rae Roberts

Book photo printed with permission of the artist

Of course, you can just purchase this book straight from Amazon, but there are two ways you can support us artists. If you wanted a signed copy from the artist with a limited edition print: click here. If you are buying this book because of my recommendation (I get a referral commission and you still pay the Amazon price) click here.

Studio Time: Urban Primrose Lariat - 18-inch necklace

City = gray

Primrose = deep pink

I imagine this lariat gracing the throat of a woman who is urban and defined, fabulous and fine. A woman who recognizes the value of intricate handwork and doesn't mind stepping off the well traveled path. A woman who knows her tastes.

This piece is the pinnacle of my Urban Primrose design theme. When my mind settled on the Urban Primrose theme over two months ago, I started looking at my beads and mentally sorting through the catalog of skills I have (versus the skills I would like to learn) and settled on a simple pairing of brightly colored beads in a small cluster with a lot of silver. In a lot of ways, this was a labor of love. I've been working on this necklace for two months and it represents hours and hours (I've lost track of how many) of work.


The labor-intensive part of this project as the super-fine chain maille in 22-guage Argentium silver in Byzantine weave. To give you an idea of how fine, there are nearly three Byzantine links in one inch of this necklace. The width of the necklace is a mere 3mm wide. This is super fine, delicate handwork and the result is a stunningly beautiful chain. There are 38 Byzantine links in 14 inches of chain. That's 532 jump rings woven, with care and closed with precision in butted chain maille. (Side note: in butted maille, strength depends on the design and I depend on Urban Maille to help me create a strong weave.)



Another component I have had in mind was this toggle loop. You have to wiggle the pearls through the toggle, but the end result gives you some wearing options...a choker with a dangle or a regular necklace. I did four versions of this toggle loop before I settled on one that matched the picture in my head and the design of the neklace. Kristin at KS Jewelry Design had a tutorial on wire-wrapped and hammered loops that helped me refine the design.

As I was finishing this piece off and looking at the toggle loop, I realized I didn't want to finish the design entirely in chain maille. I broke up the expanse of chain maille with three wire-wrapped hammered eye-links, linked with sets of hammered jump rings.

Available in my Artfire shop.

Artfully Meandering: Urban Primrose Design Challenge

Need a creative challenge? Click over to my new blog for the May Inspiration Challenge Urban Primrose.

Studio Time: Urban Primrose

organic / geometric

color / monochrome

natural / manmade

The urban/natural dichotomy was my inspiration for this month's theme.

Inspiration Challenge

Within your art medium, what dichotomies push your boundaries? What is your current comfort zone in the realm of color, texture, art medium, inspiration source? What is the opposite of your comfort zone? For example, if you like organic design, can you try precision? If you like color, can you experiment with monochrome? Can you experiment with texture?

Ready for a challenge? If you take up this challenge, send me photos or blog links!

My inspiration generally springs from elegant, clean, and organic. Southwest U.S. style is my favorite style. The reason I mention this is that anything Urban is a design challenge for me.


If you want a sneak peek at my urban inspirations, you can pop over to my Flickr Gallery or Artfire Shop. Stories behind the actual pieces will be posted throughout the month. Below is a quick little preview of the goodies to come.