Shipwreck Beads and my friend Linda Landig

On my way to Portland earlier this week for the Art and Soul Retreat

I stopped by Shipwreck Beads and met my online friend Linda Landig!!

 We had so much fun shopping and taking in everything this amazing store has to offer,

 then we sat down and shared. She brought some of her finished work

 and it was so much fun to see these items that I've only seen online

 and pick them up and hold them,

 Linda does beautiful work and I enjoyed spending the afternoon with her!!

Here are some of the wonderful beads I purchased at Shipwreck.

Most of my purchases were firepolish beads,

 they are so beautiful and versatile.

I've already used some of the beads I purchased to finish a bracelet

 I've had on my table ready to assemble for several weeks.



http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/3877175



It's a bit of a drive for me to get to Shipwreck but I know

I'll be making the trip again and hopefully meet up with Linda too!

Kristi

Painting With Fire

I attended one the Painting With Fire
 classes taught by the awesome Barbara Lewis

 at the Portland Art and Soul retreat this past Tuesday.

  I had some great and some not so great results, I need to practice some more.

But I learned so much and can't wait to play!

My absolute favorite are the Copper Beads,

 I love the way they look when they are enameled and they have such a luscious feel.

 As soon as there are more beads in stock I will be getting some,

 along with some of my favorite enamel colors!

Here are the Copper beads, I was experimenting so there are lots of different elements on each bead.

The next photo shows the beads that got squished, heat them,

 put a coat or 2 of enamel on them and while they are still hot take some flat nose pliers and squish away, heat some more squish some more, until you get the shape you want.

This will also take some practice,

 getting them evenly squished and they also sometimes pop open at the seam

 so you have to continually ease the seam together as you squish.

I included some of my not so successful beads too, 

 you can see I never got the seam closed here and there.

Below are most of the rounds I enameled.

 I've been playing with torch firing beads at home for a few months

 and for me the thing I couldn't master was getting the beads off the mandrel,

 I think I finally learned how to do that.

The morning of the class I was trying to find out which room the class was in,

 when I walked in this room I instantly knew, I'm quick huh...lol

So many colors so little time!

Bags O Beads,

it was fun to just stick your hand in and play with them,

 it's not often you have that many beads in a bag like that.

Here are the tables, all set up for each student to go for it!

Thank you Barbara, I had so much fun in your class. I regret that I forgot to bring my book for you to sign and I regret I wasn't able to stay for the second class. But I learned so much and had so much fun!

Until next time my friend!

Kristi

Don't miss the LMAJ Cyber Sale on Sunday Oct 2nd.

http://dreamsomedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/09/love-my-art-jewelry-cyber-sale.html

Love My Art Jewelry Cyber Sale

Mark Your Calender!
Sunday October 2nd!
I'll be joining a long list of Handmade Artisans in the

 Love My Art Jewelry Cyber Sale

I will post the Coupon Code on Saturday Oct 2nd

Hope to see you there, lots of wonderful Handmade jewelry and components!

Kristi

Experimentation Part 3

So after getting my headpins out of the kiln with quite good results I might add,

 see Experimentation Part 2 ,

 I decided to go a step further and try to torch fire some enamel on them.

OH YA!!

I think I'm going to be doing lots of experimenting with this!!

Yummy huh?!?!?!

This was the very first one I tried,

 can you imagine the Happy Dance that this created!!!

I started with my little cheap butane torch and dipped it 3 times...I think, it's all a blurr really!

I want to do this again!!!!!!!!!!

For these I pulled out my big Barbara Lewis Painting With Fire

 Burnzomatic Mapp Gas torch,

they are very pretty too, in a much more subtle way.

Accept for......

On the end of one of them are these....

very cool...

dot sort of things...

that almost look like sequins.

How did I do that?????

Good question.

This last one is an attempt to recreate my first one by going back to my little torch,

 cool, but not as spectacular as the first.

Good thing I'm going to a Barbara Lewis class in Portland next week.

Maybe I'll find out why I got some of these results so I can do it again!

Kristi

Experimentation Part 2

Partial success, I'm actually quite happy with the results,

 enough to have another go and do some things different.

 The main problem seems to be the wire,

 I've never tumbled wire (not to mention fired wire in the kiln) before

 so I just tossed them all in the tumbler with everything else.

 I think maybe all I need to do is wind them all up so they aren't sticking out every which way.

 Check out my original Experimentation for the before pictures, here are the after pictures.

Ammonite, of course my favorite by far,

 1 fairly severe break in the wire but I think there's plenty to play with!!!

The worst breakage of the bunch,

 one is totally intact the other basically no wire to work with at all.

These were the very first sets I tried, they've been sitting around for a few months.

Basically just blobs of clay with very slight texture.

 I quite like them and think I'll definitely use them.

 One wire broke but I think there's enough to work with.

You won't be seeing any of these in my Etsy Shop

But watch for them in the not too distant future,

I hope......

Kristi

Experimentation

For some time I've had in the back of my mind that I wanted to try to make headpins with Metal Clay. I actually started some several months ago and they've been sitting there unfinished since then. I had another idea I tried last night and this morning so I finished them all and they are ready for the kiln. They may not be worth the time it takes to make them but I'm hoping they are so cool they are well worth it.

These along with a pretty full load of my usual components should be in the kiln tonight.

Kristi

Bead Table Wednesday

Wednesday just keeps coming around, good thing too!!!

 I've been pulling beads together around a wonderful set of Lampwork beads I received recently from Loupiac, the shop is on vacation mode at the moment but these gorgeous beads are certainly worth waiting for. I hope to have a bracelet put together in the near future.

Featured on Jennifer Jangles Blog

Wow, what a lovely surprise this morning. Wonderful Jennifer Heynen of Jennifer Jangles featured my Bead Soup Earrings along with several other Bead Soup creations on her blog this morning. I feel so honored, thank you Jennifer!

http://jenniferjangles.blogspot.com/2011/09/morning-have-you-had-chance-to-hop.html

Kristi

Big News

At least I think it's big news, kind of scary and very exciting. Today is the first day of my new 4 day work week. My regular extra day off will be Monday, I hope it's going to free up alot of creative time for me as well as time to take better care of myself and do things I never have time to do any more. I've got to work even harder to make sure I provide lots of wonderful goodies that people like so I can make it work. After nearly 12 years in this job, 40 hours a week, it feels like a big step to cut my hours even by 1 day.

So today, I hope to list lots of goodies I've had stacked up over the last couple of weeks. Plus the batch I fired last night. My first listing on my brand new day off are these lovely leaves, I've had them made for quite some time and decided this was a good time to share them!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/82088024/handmade-copper-leaves-pair

Don't forget about the Bead Soup Blog Hop Party, I'm still working through the list myself. My goal is to do about 40-50 per day so it's gonna take awhile. I'll have a BSBP 2011 Page/Tab at the top of my blog for at least the next couple of months so if you loose track of the list it's there for you.

Kristi

Playing with my Light Box

Living in the Pacific NW and being sun challenged much of the year I figured I needed to break out my light box once again because sun breaks will be fewer and fewer as the days bring us in to fall and winter. I've never been all that happy with the photos I've been able to take in it but I'm playing with positioning the lights and which backgrounds work well, and where to put them within the box all that and I'm actually coming up with some that I am fairly happy with.

Here are a few examples of items soon to be listed in my Etsy Shop.

In all these photos I'm using one of my big

 old Wood Texture Blocks to prop them up and I'm loving that!!

I'll always choose photograghing in actual sunlight

 but I'm happy to have an alternative I can live with.

Kristi

I Heart Macro Lampwork Bead

I made no secret about it in yesterday's Bead Soup Reveal I love these Lampwork Beads I got from my partner Jennifer Cameron of GlassAddictions.

 They are so cool I thought they were the perfect item for my close up shots today.
So much going on in these beads, so many layers and subtle color changes!!!

 See for yourself!

Check out the other lovers of close ups at Studio Waterstone

Kristi

Bead Soup Blog REVEAL

No more teasing, it's finally here!!!

I have an awesome Blog partner in Jennifer Cameron of GlassAddictions!

I also have well over 300 Bead Soup Partners playing along.

I'm just gonna reveal the 2 items I made with Jenny's Soup Ingredients

I'll start with the earrings and I have to say I am in love with the beads she made for me, I want more!!

Jenny, did you hear me, consider this my order for more of these amazing beads.

I paired them with some of my Copper Ammonite squares,

I love the way they turned out.

Now for the necklace, the earrings weren't a big stretch for me but the necklace was.

 I tried to go a little crazy with the color and somewhat a symmetrical design, I hope it worked.

Be sure to check out all the other participants.

I'll have a Tab/Page at the top of my blog available whenever you visit my blog.

Take your time, there are alot of wonderful reveals to get through,

 take your time savor the soup over the next few weeks.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed my Soup!

Kristi

Bead Soup Teaser

WOW, the big reveal is tomorrow.
 Gotta finish my main piece and try to make at least one more.

 Getting nice pictures without any decent light between now and tomorrow is my biggest challenge. Fortunately I took a few preliminary shots of an unfinished piece to use as my teaser.

There is a Tab/Page at the top of my blog with all the BSBP 2011 participants and links to their shop, I'll leave it up there for a long time because it will take a long time to get through well over 300 participants!!

My partner is Jennifer Cameron of Glass Addictions,
 she sent me some awesome stuff!!

Prepare to be teased!!

Party is tomorrow Sept 17, see you all then!!!

Kristi

BTW Sept 14 11

For Bead Table Wednesday I'm going to share some of my newest beads. The other major thing I've got going on is my Bead Soup and I can't show you that! The reveal is on Saturday the 17th, not far away.

I'll start with these amazing Raku Beads from Wonderous Strange Designs

Next I have 2 sets of Clay beads from Bohoulley Beads through the Beads of Clay shop.

Some of you may recognize the purple beads above because the day I received them I paired them with the amazing Lampwork Headpins from Raida and made this pair of earrings that are listed in my Etsy Shop.



http://www.etsy.com/listing/81523394/handmade-lavender-ceramic-and-lampwork



Below are the 2 sets of Lampwork Headpins from Raida of HavanaBeads.

Below are a pair of Raindrop Headpins, this is the second set of these I've purchased...gorgeous!

That's all for now, be sure to check out the other BTW artists on Flickr.

Kristi