Meet the Almendra, an Almond shaped bracelet focal bead made of pottery

 Meet the newest shape Almendra, why Almendra? It is a beautiful almond shaped bead and being from Texas we speak some Spanish.  Almendra means almond in Spanish. These are a large focal bracelet bead, that is approx. 33X62mm (approx. 1 1/4 inch by 2 and 1/2 inches).  Curved to fit your wrist. It has holes on the sides, add a chain, leather or even macrame to finish into a bracelet. These are hand made of pottery by me a few at a time, the clay is textured, cut, dried, sanded, fired, glazed and ready for your creation. It is a 4-6 week process to turn mud into these beautiful beads.  I have a few listed in the shop and they are ready to ship.  I have more drying and will bisque fire soon, I have made them in different textures and colors also.   

Here is a peek inside the kiln, I finally thought to photograph it before unloading.  No matter how many times I fire a load it is always exciting to open the door after it has cooled and unload the beads. The upper right photo is a bowl of beads waiting to be photographed and listed.

I made just one for myself, I like the color combination and the different matte and shiny portions of the glaze.  I had a strand of 16mm round fire agate beads that I have been wanting to use and I love how this turned out.

 I also made some little tear drop shaped beads, they are drying and I will have some in the shop soon.  They will be fun to make earrings to go with the new Almendra cuff beads.

Introducing Belle

Belle is a new shape in my line of pottery cuff beads.  Why Belle? Much like a Southern Belle, this shape of pottery cuff bead is beautiful, with a flirtatious curve to hug your wrist.  She is also flamboyant in size much like the Southern Belles' hooped skirts and wide brimmed hats.  The bead is approx. 1 inch by 2 and 1/2 inches.  Available in many colors and textures. 

Aqua Fresca

Purple

Blueberry

TuTu Tango

Tamale Red

This design is by MagpieARTicles on Etsy, she used a 3 piece set for the pendant designs below. and added accent beads and antique brass chain.  Send me photos of what you create using my beads and I will post them on an upcoming blog. 

Ready for Fall

The weather finally dropped to the 70's here in Texas, wow Fall is on the way. In the spirit of Fall I have new designs that bring on the feel of the crisp air and the changes of seasons.  I have been having fun enjoying combining glazes to create Fall inspired combinations. Here are some of the new combinations.  I will have all posted in the shop soon.

Caribbean and Copper

Copper Brown and Autumn

Aqua and Tutu Tango

 This Boho inspired set includes a pottery cuff bead and a coordinating pendant bead.  The acorn cuff was made by making a mold of an real acorn from the oak trees in my yard.

A wonderful acorn in this fall design

         And more sets with a pottery cuff focal bead and a pendant bead.

Stormy Blue and Tidal Pool Green

Mocha Mint and Espresso

Black Ice and Bright Tamale Red

 

Mirror Blue and Autumn

 A feel of earth and sky above and just the earth below.

Espresso and Rare Earth Brown

A set of 4 pottery beads in a mix of matte and gloss black and a touch of red

The black and red set is a combination of matte and gloss black and red.  It is almost like a volcanic eruption, and the colors mix is gorgeous and earthy.  This would make a great set with metal or thread woven amongst the holes.  See most blog post below for a sample of this design in a combination of blues and greens.  I have more that I will be adding soon, I hope you enjoy seeing the new designs.  

I also want to share some photos of finished pieces that were sent to me by customers.  I love seeing the kids (my beads) all grown up. LOL ...I hope you enjoy seeing these lovely designs below.

Stunning new set of four pottery beads, hot out of the kiln

 

I will admit that my favorite color is turquoise, so I may be biased about my love of these new beads.  The worldly mix of blues, greens and browns.  This is a combination of an experiment of glazes gone right.  I made one set for myself and loved them so much I have made a handful of sets and just posted them to my ETSY shop.  They are slightly different as I did not add the side holes on the earring beads.  The finished pieces were made by adding some copper wire to the beads by stitching it to the beads thru the set of two holes and I dangled some small glass seed beads from the set of three holes on the side.The cuff bead is 30X60 and has a  hole at each end, I attached it to a leather cuff using copper screws and nuts and a few daisy beads as washers.

 

 The earrings were made by adding small glass beads to the bottom using jump rings and I attaching to fish hook wires.  I also stitched some copper wire thru the bead. Please note the ones in my shop  do not have the additional side holes, I found they were not surviving productions due to their small size, so the ones in the shop are missing the additional holes.

 The pendant was made in a similar manner, I fashioned a simple bail by winding the wire around a small mandrel.  (don't have a mandrel just use a screwdriver as it is round piece of metal and will work fine)

 Here are the beads that are in the shop, BEAUTIFUL.  They cost a little more, being a supply item I really try to keep the cost as economical as possible, but these are much more labor intensive and I had to charge a tiny bit more.

Available at www.CapturedMoments.ETSY.com

Sharing some of my pottery pieces in bracelet designs

In September, I will have some bracelets in a new mall a friend of mine is opening. I am excited to have a new fun place to shop and a location to display finished pieces I have made.  If you are in the College Station, Texas area you can stop by and visit.  Here are some of the designs I will have in the shop featuring my pottery beads, natural gemstones, leather, sterling plate and pewter accents.  If you want to make your own bracelets my pottery beads are available in my shop.  I hope you enjoy!

This design features a adjustable leather cuff

A leather cord wraps multiple times around your wrist in this design

This design has a simple beaded band

Natural gemstone beads accent the pottery focal, I also have earrings to match some of the designs.

Teaching at VBS Creative Arts Camp

This week I taught 12 girls at Vacation Bible School how to make paper beads.  I promised the girls I would put their handy work on my blog.  The girls were all 4th-6th graders and we made paper beads as our art project.  To keep it simple (FOR ME) I cut scrapbook paper, comic book pages and magazines into one inch strips.  The girls used modge podge for glue and they rolled the paper around coffee stir sticks.  This made it easier for the girls to roll the beads and left a good hole for running the elastic thru the bead to assemble into cuff bracelets and necklaces.  Once the beads dried we coated the beads several times with the modge podge to help the beads be more durable.  The beads dried overnight on wax paper so they would not stick to anything.  I bought some plastic pony beads in case anyone was short on beads to complete their project and they look cute incorporated into the designs.  We used elastic from the fabric department to assemble the cuffs.  The cost of the project average $3.50 a girl and they all made 2-5 pieces.  The greatest cost was for the elastic as the cuff designed used two yards per cuff.

Cute cuffs made with rolled paper beads and pony beads

Some of the girls made necklaces to match their cuff bracelets

Our supplies and samples

 Top right shows a bead on the straw or stir stick, they came off the straws once dry,  Bottom right shows strips of paper ready to roll into beads.  I copied some funny pages and ran them thru the printer, noticed the print is only on the top of the page as you will not see the white at the bottom once the bead is rolled.  Top left is a sample of one of the girls work and the bottom left shows a cuff being tied off to complete the design.  I added a little modge podge to the knot to keep it tied securely.

Lots of fun colors

Top right shows a simple but cute pendant one of the girls made.

The diagram on the photo above was on the dry erase board to show the girls how the elastic needed to be threaded into their beads for the cuff design.  Basically the elastic enters from each end and crosses in the middle of the bead and comes out the opposite end it entered and repeat...and repeat again. It took about 16 beads to fit most of the girls. The girls had a great time, and I hope they all now have a new fun hobby to do.

Thanks, Diana, Alana, Macy, Chelsea, Elizabeth, Bre Anna, Jamie, Molly, Hanna, Callie, Favor and Maddie for a exciting week at CAC.  
Ms. Cindy

In the Hart of Dixie

Stephanie from Sassy Belle Wares on Etsy makes beautiful bracelets and one of her lovely designs was recently on Hart of Dixie a fun TV show that reminds me of allot of people I know down here in the South where I live in the great state of Texas.  Stephanie had the opportunity to gift the stylist of the hit CW Network series Hart of Dixie as part of a collaborative gift bag from The Artisan Group. Stephanie states that "Hart of Dixie is one of my absolute favorite shows so I was beyond thrilled when the bracelet was worn by actress Deborah Lacey as the character Madame Van Horn!"  The bracelet appeared in episode 22 entitled "Second Chances" which originally aired on May 16, 2014.

It features a Elli focal bead in a sunflower design in turquoise and orange made by me  and is accented with Swarovski pearls in coral, orange and turquoise and agate beads in a mix of yellow, orange, and aquas.  Stephanie has a lot of cute bracelets in her shop, stop by to see more great designs. 
Enjoy! Cindy

Deborah Lacey wearing bracelet on her left hand.

A close up of the finished piece.