Shades of Oranges with the agate technique:

My new shades or orange agate/ stone beads. This time the only solid color clay is an orange and a gold. The other 13 layers are different shades of oranges and yellows done with alcohol inks or just plain translucent’s. There are 15 layers of clay in different thicknesses .

January Bohemian Vibe Challenge

with Christie Friesen

My challenge features a blue hand painted flower with a compass to tell you which way to travel.  A little whimsy in my jewelry makes it unique and fun to wear.This piece reminds me of Alice in Wonderland just needs a rabbit and clock.  Maybe it is the color of the flowers.  Please enjoy my necklace.

Follow your artistic passion even with vision issues

Excitement….Passion…..Love…… Creativity…..Sharing….Learning

That pretty much sums me up when I am making jewelry and being a part of the Build a Line Challenge .  Please visit the other artists blogs under B’Sue Boutiques Blog Hope Page .     My Beetle jewelry line is called…. Wait for it….   I know the suspense is killing you… but it will be worth it. …

The Love Beetles Jewelry

Brooches

Rings

Necklace

Earrings

Bracelets

I am making a 5 piece jewelry line featuring my beetle bugs. The body of the bugs will be polymer clay faux agates in various colors.  No two bodies will be the same pattern as in real life no two agates are the same.  Price point will fall between $15.00 – $38.00.  

My jewelry design process is to first make all the agates from polymer.  Bake – Sand – Buff to a smooth shine, then attach to the beetle.  This is probably the most time consuming part of the beetle jewelry.  But it will be easy to teach someone else on how to make the faux agates.  The process is simple and each agate maybe the same in colors the look will look like real agates.  Here are some samples in different stages of completion.

The next step in my design process is to set out the brass components I am using from bsueboutiques.com .  The brass is of the highest quality and USA made.  I will lay things out in a rough design and then take pictures of the various designs.  I then look back at the photos to see what is most pleasing to the eye for the composition of the piece.  The piece I started this process with is my brooch as that is what the composition  looked like to me.  Here are a couple of examples:

Come join me and the others in the B’Sue Build a line challenge and see my new  line to completion.                   

The Love Beetles Jewelry

Bug Invasion

Part Two…………

Oh know!!! I have a  bug invasion in my blog!!!  What am I going to do?

This is just a hint as to what I making for my jewelry line. And the Bugs are running amok as my Mom would say.  Today is the day for the First Blog Hop with bsueboutiques.com  Brenda is  offering a group of artists a Master class on how to build a jewelry line.  She did it with $20.00 in her hand and became very successful for many years and now is teaching our B’Sue Boutiques Creative group.  There  are 56 artists in this first Blog Hop lasting 3 months.   

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Part one

Part one……..   Let me start from the beginning….

There was a little girl (Cindy Eastwood)  who loved to catch bees in a mason jar. She would take the jar and lid and capture the bees flower, leaves, and stems into the jar.  Cindy was never stung but did enjoy viewing  the bees safely in the jar.  You see Cindy’s Dad and  Grandpa were Entomologists.  So having beetles pinned in boxes and labeled as to what species they where was quite normal.  My Dad showed me how to catch bugs safely in a butterfly net.  Cindy’s backyard had a giant willow tree which always had monarch butterflies.  Cindy with Dad’s help made a cage for the caterpillars out of an old oatmeal tub and some wire screen.  Cindy collected the gentle monarch caterpillars, placed them in the cage and off to school they went for a science project.

The reason why I picked  beetles for my jewelry line was because my Grandpa studied beetles that would help with prickly pear in  South Africa in the 1940’s.  He worked for the United Nations and United Kingdom studying insects.  He was even asked to work for the Smithsonian.   He has written 3 books and they are in the Smithsonian today.

Stay tuned for more childhood stories as I share my artistic journey creating my very first jewelry line.  

We had a Oregon Duck/Ohio football party and were sadden at the loss.  But I am still proud that the Ducks made it as far as they did.  They should be proud as well.  Ohio’s Quarter Back was just awesome.  Very talented young man and I see him going places.

GO DUCKS! 

New Cuffs online retreat with Polymer Clay Adventure

First project was 5 different cuffs.  I learned a lot.  The only problem I was having was getting things straight and even.  That is a challenge with my vision.  So when you look at the pictures with the crystal cup chain up close they are not perfectly straight.  But this is what makes it handmade and not factory made.  It has my love and personality in the design.  I tried hard to make the cuffs my own design with a hint of the tutorial as the base.  These are really fun to make. Now I need to decide whether to add a chain to them.

 This was my first Cuff and I gave background a tooled leather look.

My next bracelet was the extruded half round tubes.  I changed the color to bronze and added turquoise to change it up.

I made two different sizes with this one,  I am using a 2″ brass blank I purchased from B’Sue Boutiques.com for my base.

I back the bracelet on the brass blank for a half hour. Then I take it off the brass blank and bake another half hour.

This was a technically challenging piece getting the look just right. But after 3 tries I finally got it. Looks a little industrial for me.
I am usually the pretty looks.  I going out of my little box and experimenting with new looks.

This is a soft pink/purple color cuff accented with crystal cup chain. 2mm,

This was my vision challenge cuff. Trying to get things lined up straight.  When I am looking this close at something and trying to focus I see very little.  So even though the bracelet is only 2 ” wide I am only seeing about an inch at a time.

I still love it and is very pretty.

 This is my last cuff with purple and gold.  A Moroccan feel to it.

Welcome 2015!

So far 2015 is going to be busy with learning new techniques both in my mixed-media jewelry and polymer clay.

My first endeavor is being approved for a three month challenge of Designing my own jewelry line. I will be sharing my artistic process, the reason why I picked this thing, and share photos of my progression. The challenges from January to March and I’m so excited to be a part of this with Brenda Sue boutiques.

My second endeavor they share this with Polymer Clay Adventure. This is an online course for the year with 24 projects and 22 teachers from all over the world. I have just completed my first lesson about making dangles five different ways. I am currently in the process of standing buffing and polishing and will share these pictures when they are done. The classes are not all jewelry related which is fine it will expand my knowledge of how to work with polymer clay and I know I will learn new techniques. I will also be sharing the photos from this challenge as well.

I am also involved with Bohemian vibe and Christie Friesen through Brenda Sue boutiques creative group. These are monthly challenges with polymer clay. Christie gives us the ideas for the month and this is also a challenge. January a spring garden necklace and I’m so excited to get into this as I can make it my own.

I will be sharing more of my learning experiences classes, photos, and stories along the way. Thank you for being a part of my journey.

And remember

Follow your artistic passion even with vision issues