Torched in Texas

Monday, May 20, 2013

Belle Armoire Jewelry Magazine

I'm so lucky to again be published in Belle Armoire Jewelry Magazine. Check out the Summer issue.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

About a year ago I purchased a pair of bronze clay dragonflies from Summers Studio on Etsy and they've been hanging out waiting for a home ever since. Last week my very generous friend, Diane Cook, gifted me a pair of shimmery green and gold briolettes. They reminded me of dragonfly wings right off. I love them together.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

White pelicans migrating back to the Pacific Northwest

I love it when you nature gives you little surprises. That happened today. A good friend mentioned last night at dinner that white pelicans had taken over a pond in her neighborhood. It's the first time they have come. I had never seen a white pelican. So, today I gathered my camera and went for a look.

They were a little shy at first - floating away when I pulled out the camera...

But then curiosity got the better of them and they floated back...

...until a cormorant diving nearby began stirring up the fish...then they got moving that way.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Metal Pods for Adorn Me! 2013

I've been playing around a bit this week practicing new ideas for my metal pod class at Adorn Me! Take a look.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Angel Wings Necklace

Ordered some lovely metal wings from Barbara Lewis and created this little sweetie. Completed her with a Stephanie Lee style chain from a recent online class I took.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

A plethora of patina...working on a new class for Spring Beads

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Grand finale of Sabrina Staub bead soup. Sabrina's lampwork is absolutely stunning. I so love these little orange and yellow toned beads she made. I wear a lot of these colors, so I was especially delighted to see these lovely beads.

Sabrina also sent me some really cool ceramic beads that I love. I am a turquoise lover, so they are right up my alley!

Sabrina, this was so much fun. Thank you again for such a wonderful soup.

Friday, September 7, 2012

A month or so ago I got a lovely package of beads in the mail from my BSBP 5 partner. We enjoyed each other's beads so much on the first round that we decided to do a little side swap on our own.

Here is what the lovely and talented Sabrina Staub sent to me:

And here's what I did with the beautiful soup.

The fabulous strawberry Sabrina made called out "keep it simple" to me. It would be beautiful hanging on a choker by itself, but I added a few stash beads and bitter green enameled beads to bring out the colors in the strawberry.

Sabrina sent a lovely combination of lime green and dark gray with a copper-colored swirl. She also sent some really cool lentil shaped beads that complimented the copper swirl. I mixed in a green bead left over from Kashmira Patel's soup. The colors were perfect together.

I love these orange and charcoal beads Sabrina made, but I have to admit that they were the most difficult to come up with a design. I'm still not sure I did them justice and may at some point try again. I had a focal I made in a Stephanie Lee class that had a touch of orange in it, so I used that as my main focal. I added some fibers and a chain that I oxidized. What do you think?

This focal Sabrina made is absolutely gorgeous. I have lots of purple in my stash, so it was easy to come up with some complimentary glass beads. This bracelet is strung on wire with a magnetic clasp. I love it!

Sabrina sent the beautiful lampwork blue beads. I had some raku in my stash that I liked with them. I strung the bracelet using the waxed linen Sabrina sent the beads on. It was my first time to use waxed linen and I discovered that I totally love it.

There are two more pair of earrings that my photos didn't come out well on. I will try again tomorrow, so check back.

Thank you, Sabrina, for this amazing soup!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

BSBP 6 - Third Reveal

Here's the lovely soup I received from Kashmira Patel:

And here is what I did with it:

Here are a few closeups.

I don't normally work with large round beads so the focal was a bit of a challenge. I played around with stringing it, but it just seemed to need a different look. When I discovered some cream colored sari silk with a gold thread in my stash, I decided to go chunky bracelet. I added some of the beautiful glass large hole beads and the disks Kashmira sent, tied a few knots, added some olive leather also from my personal stash and made a brass closure.

I wanted a totally different look with the remaining green and blue beads and disks so I scoured my stash and discovered a leftover shell from a stained glass lamp I made a few years ago. With my focal in place, the rest came together rather quickly. I created torch-fired enamel headpins in colors complimentary to the beads and wrapped them around blue leather cording to hold the beads in place. I had a lot of fun creating this piece and it is my favorite of the three.

I still had the clasp and some silver pieces Kashmira sent to play with. I added some enameled headpins (since I'm a torch-fired enamel addict) and created a fun little bracelet.

Thank you, Kashmira, for all these fun materials. You stretched me as an artist by sending elements I don't normally work with. It has opened my eyes to another world of possibilities.

Check out the other participants in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party.

Here are the other participants of the third reveal:

Hostess, Lori Anderson, Pretty Things

Agi Kiss, Moonsafari Beads
Alice Peterson, Alice Dreaming

Alison Sachs, Beads by Earthtones

Amanda Dittloff, Passion Smashin'

Andra Marasteanu, Bijoux de Monanage

Angie Szlovak, SweetBeads

Anitra Gordy, Leelu Creations

Ann Sherwood, Ann's Blog

Arlene Dean, A Glass Bash

Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution

Barb Solem, Vivi Magoo Presents

Barbara Blaszczyk, laboratorim Flory