Beads and Bread: heather collin

Friday, February 1, 2013

AJE-Component of the Month Reveal

Today is the day!And I actually have TWO reveals today! If you are looking for the Seam Binding Challenge, go here.
I was so very stoked when I got the email from Karen Totten, of Starry Road Studios, telling me I had won a component. The very talented folks over at Art Jewelry Elements hold a challenge each month, and a couple of lucky commenters get to play along. Here are the components for this month's challenge:

(photo courtesy of AJE blog)

I got one of the caramel orangey ones. And no, I didn't think to take a pic of it when I ~~ripped~~ gently opened the package! I adore ceramics, and have spent many happy hours painting figures in a friend's pottery shop.

So, I know Karen calls these pie beads, but I didn't immediately think 'pie' when I saw it. The first thing that struck me was the beautiful color. The next was the wonderful swirley design she stamped on it, with her own handmade stamps.
As when I participated in the challenge before with Diana Ptaszynski's component, I knew I wanted that baby front and center on a bracelet.
I have had a love affair with CRAW for quite a while now, and I have some gorgeous matte beads from Brightling Beads that just seemed perfect for this project.
I did run into some hiccups along the way. I tried to bezel the ceramic bead. And, while it looked pretty, it wasn't the concept I was going for....so...I ripped it out. Yep. First time for me to do that much work, and just rip it out with no hesitation!
Here's the bezel:

And because the bezel made the piece so large, I needed two ropes of CRAW on either side....

So then, when I ripped out the bezel, I had these ropes that I need to tie into the focal somehow, without overwhelming it....

Now, you see those cute little beaded beads in the center of the ropes? Those were from the amazing Liz Reed of Crimson Moon. She provided a free tutorial on them, and I just love how they brought the two sides of the rope together. Thus they became my solution.

They mimic the shape of the ceramic bead, and the swirl of color.

The swirl pattern on the CRAW came about from a conversation with Heather Collin, and further playing with the pattern.

Close up of the clasp, also done in CRAW.I love the contrast of the matte and shiny, and the raku color with the dreamsicle orange.

Thanks Karen and AJE for letting me play along this month. It has been such a joy!

Blessings, Shirley

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Echo Creative Club

I have the pleasure of being a guest blogger for Jeannie Dukic's Echo Creative Club. Jeannie not only sent me some of her Fractured Beads, she also sent a beautiful pendant by Marie Voyeur-Cramp of Skye Jewels.

Jeannie wanted me to use her beads with the pendant. No prob. Got this in the bag. Hmmm....well, my first challenge was how I was going to hang the pendant. Oh, I'll bezel it. I've been bezeling everying in sight. Except...it didn't want to be bezeled. It was a horrible failure. Not a prob. I'll hang it from the hole....that is not centered with the butterfly. I'm just the tiniest bit ocd on stuff like that. The hubs to the rescue, drilled a hole on the other side so my butterfly would hang straight up and down.

I thought I would use a RAW rope that I've made a couple of times recently, and include the beads into it.

Hmm, nope, they didn't like that. Tried putting them at the beginning of the rope, just before the pendant. Nope.

Getting just a bit anxious here, cause Jeannie asked me to put them all together. But, well, those pretty beads wanted to be the center of attention all by themselves. So of course I listened!

I've recently learned kumihimo, and absolutely love it.

I love the echo of the dark brown that shows through the fracture of Jeannie's beads. I didn't have that exact color, so I picked it up in the golden seed beads, and also in the raku beads that have the brown, and blue hues. I also used a dark brown and golden tan cording for it.

See how happy it is? This is a new favorite in my wardrobe!

Next up is Marie's pendant...

Isn't she pretty? A beautiful garden of colors for my butterfly!

A flowery beaded button for the clasp.

See, all nice and straight! :)

My last piece is a new look for me. I really love where these beads took me.

A CRAW bracelet! For my non-seed beader friends, that would be Cubic Right Angle Weave. And it is a very special one, because the awesome Heather Collin wrote the tutorial for this after I asked her a question! You won't really be able to see the swirl pattern, since I used such soft colors, but it is there, I promise.