New Designs

This is the last day of Summer in Texas as school officially starts tomorrow.  It is 100 plus degrees outside most days and the ground is parched from the heat.  Road trips to visit family and friends and to explore the great state of Texas are done for this Summer.  With a new school year comes the promise of new discoveries and mixed emotions.  The opportunity for my girls to discover new knowledge and friends, but more rigid schedules and no sleeping in.  Fall will bring cooler weather and a welcome relief from the Texas heat.  School sports will begin and be added to my busy schedule.  All in the great circle of life that I live as a mom and artist.   

Sometime I have a million ideas, but not enough hours to explore them.  Yet, I am thankful for the moments I spend in my roles and I am thankful when an idea becomes tangible.  I am always excited to open the kiln, to see what was earth is now art.  I love the art of pottery for its inconsistencies and variety.  That a glaze is never the same, and that it has a free nature about it.  It amazes me that mud can be manipulated and made so beautiful.  Each bead I make is made entirely by hand, from forming and cutting the mud or clay.  To texturing and shaping it, with molds that were once mud and now they become press molds to recreate a design that has been etched into them.  The kiln is the only item that requires electricity, it takes me weeks to be able to produce enough to fire the kiln and it takes approx. 9 hours to fire and more that 24 additional hours to cool before I can lift the door and see the fruit of my labor. From the day I pull the mud out and start a bead until the day it comes from the last fire of the kiln is a 6-8 week process.  So in the spirit of new discoveries, here are some of my latest designs that began at the start of summer and are just now ready to share at the end.

 These beautiful beads have a large dimensional; flower in vibrant orange and yellow.  I made this set for myself using some agate beads and cord for the pendant and one of my distressed leather cuffs and cord to assemble the cuff.  It is a beautiful set to wear.  I have these beads available in my shop.

 This Elli bead features a horse head with a leather texture background.  It is curved and would be a great start to a western bracelet.  A different type of horse below, a seahorse.  This one is flat for a pendant but I made some curved for cuffs, this is a larger version of my ELLI bead.

 

 

 

This is a set I made for a friend using the last of a glaze that I had (This color is no longer available) 

I mixed my beads with Azurite stones and it is a great combo of blues and greens.  I made 2 pair of earring to give her some variety. 

The above great design was made with my art washes bead by Christina Hosford.  She made the bracelet as a gift for her favorite artist friend Brandi Dayton She made her a double strand bracelet with Labradorite, Phantom Quartz, Garnets, Kiwi Jasper, Mookaite and Turquoise.   She states that "It was a really fun piece to make, and I really enjoyed working with your pottery piece."

I hope you enjoy the new designs, I will have them in my shop soon.  If you don't see them in the shop send me a message and I will send you the link.  Thanks, Cindy

Happy 4th of July

I am adding some new beads to my Etsy shop and with the song America the Beautiful in my head I decide to honor America and show off some of my new beads.  Happy Birthday America!

O beautiful for spacious skies,

https://www.etsy.com/listing/155838203/pottery-cuff-bead-in-a-daisy-pattern

For amber waves of grain,

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/155832034/2-pottery-flower-beads-in-autumn

For purple mountain majesties

https://www.etsy.com/listing/105538971/3-rectangle-curved-beads-in-purple-grape

 Above the fruited plain!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/155831596/kalidescope-pottery-cuff-bead

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

https://www.etsy.com/listing/127714573/pottery-cross-cuff-bead-in-brown-with

And crown thy good with brotherhood

https://www.etsy.com/listing/155838789/spacious-skies-pottery-pendant-little

From sea to shining sea!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/155831846/pottery-fish-bead-in-tea-green

New Bead Designs

I have been working on getting out new designs for 2013, and the first batches are coming out of the kiln and the kiln is filled as I type with a load that is nearing 1945 degrees Fahrenheit.  So I wanted to introduce you to some of the new designs.  And with anything new comes the need for a name ummm....see older post for more on this dilemma. 
Introducing the LaDonna Bead, this bead has a tag or industrial feel.  It was inspired by a friend of mine who showed me this great found object she and her nephew rescued from the parking lot of a truck stop.  It is large and light weight and looks like it was made of metal.  LaDonna has a great shop filled with metal work and pieces made with found objects.  

The LaDonna in Stormy Blue

 On the sample piece I attached beads and a key using some recycled oval jump rings.

In Black Ice

The new Zephyr bead is curvy bead that is flat for pendants and earrings and I will have it in lots of colors and textures. The sample below is in Autumn and has a lace texture.

 The Edith bead is a square bead and comes in a large curved version for cuffs and a smaller flat version for earrings and pendants.  The smaller ones would be great linked together.  The sample is shown in copper brown in the whimsy pattern.

 This lovely decorative bead is the Rosemary bead, it is nicely curved for bracelets, shown below in Turquoise blue with a floral pattern.

A new little fish, in a soft tea green with brown letters, I will be making fish in lots of colors, a great little Christian bead it will be fun to design with.

 I have more designs still drying and hope to have them done soon, luckily there is a roast in the oven and time for me to post them and get them ready for your designs.  Enjoy the new designs, stop back to see all the new colors soon. 

Recycled Blue Jeans Wrap Bracelet Tutorial

I love denim, so comfy and casual.  I recycled part of a leg of jeans and made a cute wrap bracelet and wanted to share the process.  I started by ripping a one inch strip of denim from an old pants leg.  The strip is approx. 16 inches, you may need more or less depending on your wrist size.  I frayed the edges by removing some of the threads from the sides of the denim.  Be sure and rip the length of the jean leg, the part that goes up and down. Then gather your supplies, I have scissors, needle and thread, jump rings, a 4 inch piece of 8 gauge copper, a hammer, some pliers, a metal block and one of my oval pottery links.

 Fold over approx. a 1/2 inch of the denim and stitch with a running stitch to make a loop.

 Knot the thread to finish and then add one heavy duty copper jump ring in thru the denim loop.

 Add a 2nd copper jump ring.  Repeat with the other side of the denim.

 Attach one of my pottery oval links.  This one is in stormy blue.

 Take about 4 inches of 8 gauge copper wire and form a circle with your round nose pliers.

 Flatten the link with your hammer and metal block.  Cut the ends so they are the same size and hang over the opening of the pottery link about a 1/4 of an inch.  This is a simple toggle but you could make a fancier one if you wanted to.  Attach the toggle to the other side of the denim. 
One side now has a toggle and one side the pottery link.

 Wrap the denim around your wrist, and secure with the link and toggle.  Easy Peasy, and ready for wearing.  Mine is going to be a Christmas gift, and as easy as these are you might want to make several of these. You could use ribbon, sari silk, embellish the denim strip, extend the length of the denim and wrap multiple times.....endless combinations.  Enjoy!