Components?

I did a small batch of siler PMC today. I've been considering selling these pieces as components rather than always making finished jewelry. I am curious if there are PMC/Metal Clay lovers out there who for whatever reason are either not interested in or not able to make it themselves who might want to purchase components? I would have Bronze available as well as some silver.

I'd love to hear your opinions on the subject.

Here is the new batch of Silver I made today.

Here is a batch of bronze from a few weeks ago, some have been made in to jewelry some have not, but this is a possible example of some components I might have available if there is interest.

I have also listed a number of items in my Artfire Shop.

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2818341

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2818095

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2810664

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2810710

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2812298

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2817892



And last but not least,

 I created this fun treasury "Confessions of a Vintage Storage Junky" onEtsy. Please take a look and comment, click and share as much as you'd like!

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

My Bead Soup Reveal

My first Bead Soup, what fun this exchange is. More than 200 swappers this time around, thank you Lori Anderson for making it all happen!!

My wonderful swap partner is Shelby of Sundown Bead Designs! Here is her Etsy Shop SundownFindings and her FB Fan Page.

My goodies came beautifully packaged, something I did not do a very good job at (hangs head in shame), I'll do better next time!!

I had to jump up and down when I saw what there was when I opened the package. Awesome pendant crafted by Shelby herself I'm sure, as well as a number of findings and bead caps!!! A couple of enameled beads, some big chunky coral beads which I adore!!!  2 fantastic lampwork beads, some shell and wood beads too. I mustn't forget the lovely silk ribbon in a beautiful deep cocoa brown.

Shelby did me good, I have a couple of ideas swimming around in my head and I look forward to sitting down and creating with this fantastic new stash of goodies!

Kristi
http://dreamsome.etsy.com/
http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

BTW

Time for Bead Table Wednesday.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1601463@N21/

 Started this little project last night

Recycled Glass, Autumn Jasper, Faceted Green Aventurine, Pebbles

 and finished it this morning.

 

Beach Comber

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2801678

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

Randomness and Shop Updates

Where to begin, lots of fun stuff to share.

I'll start with a trip to the Ben Franklin store, I found some gorgeous Rhodochrosite stones that I promptly came home and made a necklace. I paired them with a Heart pendant I recently made from BronzClay and some cool Gray Wood beads. Perfect combination!! I will be making earrings to coordinate to list on both my Etsy and Artfire stores by the weekend so if you're interested keep an eye out for them. Here is the necklace listed on Etsy.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66572987/bronze-heart-rhodocrosite-wood-metal

Also at Ben Franklin I found some amazing little display pieces, they had drawers similar to my printer drawers but on a much smaller scale. My husband and I are discussing how best to make them work as display pieces for using at shows.  I believe we're going to be putting rods across the top of each row of boxes so I can either hang the earrings directly on the rod, each one in it's own little shadow box OR when/if I get earrings cards I can hang each card in it's own section.

Each one is about 12" by 18" with each window about 3.5 x 4. I can't wait to give them a try, here they are.

And then...there's this absolutely adorable little set of drawers, 5 metal drawers and 3 wood. This can also be used as a display if I choose. But as you can see it works pretty good for taking photos of my earrings. Can always use another interesting prop for that!!

These earrings are a brand new pair as well, just listed on Etsy!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/66664372/bronze-and-pebbles-starburst-earrings

I also found this beautiful off white tray, also more than likely to be used at shows. It's very vintage looking and I love the little cut outs around the edge. I'm thinking it will also double as a photo prop!

Lastly, I'll give you an Artfire shop update. These Sunny Happy earrings with bright Yellow Chalcedony and Ceramic beads from Bulgaria are so much fun!!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66664372/bronze-and-pebbles-starburst-earrings

I actually have a little more to share but I'll save that for another day.

I hope you enjoyed today's randomness!  Oh and if you missed my last Post about Rag Tag Home Grown Photo set ups, go take a look!!! And don't forget, I opened a Flickr group just for us to share our unusual set ups, it's so much fun to see what goes on behind the scenes!!

Thank you!
Kristi
http://dreamsome.etsy.com/
http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

Rag Tag Photo setup

Somebody recently asked me about my photo set up, I actually think my little space is pretty funny so I thought I'd share. I used to use a little traditional light box but was never really happy with it, and I didn't like being confined to such a small space so I quit using that some time ago.

Then when I moved in to my new studio space I just chose a corner of my soldering table close to the window (just in case we get some sunshine in the beautiful Pacific NW) and I've been fairly happy there. I also from time to time, again weather permitting, I load up a pile of jewelry and go out to the greenhouse to have a photo session. Haven't had enough sun to do that for some time.

So here it is, my little photo studio corner. I have a light that I have paper taped over to diffuse, a big piece of white art cardboard which I hope reflects the light back.

Above are my favorite props, my absolute favorite being shown in the center here is a little piece of wood I found out in the yard last summer. It looks like a knot from a tree that has been around the block a time or 2. It's so perfect as a background and I can even hang earrings from it in a couple different places.
 Like this

Then there is the other piece of wood I found in the yard that has what look little trenches from bugs burrowing under the bark, when it had bark. This one works especially good with bracelets because I can actually put it in the bracelet to give it some form
like this

The bottom is from a piece of furniture, both the front and back

 are so good for propping pieces up or laying them on the back in all kinds of different ways like this

Here is a shot of that little knot of wood being propped up to hang earrings from.

Above is a larger piece I often use for necklaces, a piece of furniture that we found when we moved in to our home.  I like to take long shots of them laying along that piece of decorative wood

 like this.

 I also use it for bracelets and earrings as shown in the previous picture.

 From time to time try to use that big curl that's hanging off the edge, but things tend to fall through, but I keep trying.

Props are lots of fun, especially when you find a few that coordinate with the type of work you do and you can use them over and over again. I also have 3-4 pieces of slate that have a variety of colors and patterns that work great too.

I created this Flickr group fo you to share your unusual photo and creative set ups I hope some of you will share!!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ragtagphotostudio/

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

FusionBeads Blog Challenge

Well I made it, just barely.  I had too many distractions along the way and just couldn't seem to get started on this one. But I think I'm in Love!!! That's what I'm going to call this bracelet because I absolutely adore it. Three strands of personality, with a base of the neutral faceted firepolished glass beads from FusionBeads and those adorable little off center multi color Japanese seed beads which I will absolutely get more of and use often. Then add the tiny splash of Turquoise Squares and all that Juicy Mango and Papaya color in the Lucite and Coconut shell beads, it's just so warm and inviting. But it also knows how to have FUN!!

I chose not to use the leather cord and I used a different toggle clasp, I probably strayed from the original set of beads we were supposed to use more than usual but I can't complain about the results, hope you like it too!!

http://lorelei1141.blogspot.com/

http://erinsiegeljewelry.blogspot.com/

http://beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com/

http://beadhappytoday.blogspot.com/

http://thebeaddreamer.com/blog

http://KristiBowmanDesigns.blogspot.com/

http://fryestyle.blogspot.com/

http://www.madmaggiedesigns.blogspot.com/

http://reginaswritings.blogspot.com/

http://www.mylifeunderthebus.typepad.com/

http://jennibead.blogspot.com/

http://maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com/

http://silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com/

http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/

http://fireflymyst.blogspot.com/

http://www.awishandacloud.blogspot.com/

http://spiritrattles.blogspot.com/

http://formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

http://songbeads.blogspot.com/

http://beautifullybrokenme.blogspot.com/

http://threeredbeads.blogspot.com/

http://christinec3.blogspot.com/

Kristi
http://dreamsome.etsy.com/
http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

BTW and Fusion Bead Readers Challenge AND ABS Designer of the Week!!

Today I'm combining Bead Table Wednesday with Fusion Bead challenge. That's what's sitting waiting to be creating today. Since the reveal for the challenge is barely 2 days away I guess I'd better put it all together. I think my additions are going to look nice, thinking bracelet this time maybe...

It's a good time to share a picture of my girls in one of the spots they often hang out when I'm in my studio. It's a shelf under my soldering table that I've put a nice cushy blanket on, they usually sleep under there but they also look out the window and

bark at the birds on occassion.

Oh and some breaking news, I just saw that I'm

 Designer of the week on the ABS blog!!

 WOOHOOOOO!!!

Gypsy Princess Necklace

Kristi

http://DreamSome.Etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

January Art Bead Scene Challenge Necklace

And what a challenge it was for me. I love doing these challenges especially when they push me to something completely new. Using the Sari fabric was definitely that and it was not easy, but I couldn't be happier with the resulting necklace. Thanks to the help of Linda at BurntOfferings on Etsy I was able to get just the right combination of fabrics to use as my necklace. I sent her the inspiration photo and she picked a couple of bundles for me to choose from and I think we did good!!!

I tried to create somewhat of a tuturial for this blog post, I took pictures along the way of most of the steps in creating my Gypsy Princess Necklace. I am working on creating earrings using the fabrics as well which I will share in a future post.

First of all I'll share the inspiration photo from the
 Art Bead Scene Blog!

Brown River by Wayne Thiebaud

An amazingly beautiful piece with lots of bright colors!

In the beginning, there was the Bronze Focal piece,
Faceted Mookait rounds,
Small lampwork beads from Radiant Mind,
Tiny Faceted Iolite Heishi.
I was unable to use those gorgeous
chunky Yellow Chalcedony Nuggets because the holes are too small.

I chose the fabrics I wanted to include
 and looped them through the hole of the focal
I added some Antique Bronze chain so I'd have something
to anchor the beads I wanted to attach along the necklace.

I wire wrapped the colorful little beads I wanted to use
 and added them along the bottom of the pendant.

Wire wrapped a few more little beads and added them up the chain,
some of these beads had to be moved as it all got twisted around and wrapped together.

I wrapped the ends with wire
and looped them over then secured them to create the loops for the clasp.
Clipped off the extra fabric leaving nice tails,
pulled on the fabrid to create the frayed rough finish to the ends.
Most of the wire I used was Copper that I used
MissFickleMedia solution to give them lovely green verdigris.



Here is my finished Gypsy Princess Necklace



Thank you everybody at Art Bead Scene Blog for giving us these wonderful challenges every month!

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

I had to add the earrings I made to go with this necklace.

 I have lots of Sari fabric to use so I'll be making more.

These earrings are now listed on Artfire.



Etsy and Artfire Updates

Here are a couple of newly listed items.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/65951807/bronze-leaf-rainforest-agate-greek

I used Missfickle Media solutions to verdigris these bits of copper, I love the color!

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2747703

And a batch of Bronzclay right out of the kiln!!

Look at that color!!!! To die for!!!

Watch for these to be listed later this weekend.


Kristi
http://dreamsome.etsy.com/
http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

Movie Night

When we both sit on the couch to watch a movie or tv and the girls join us we have always called it "movie night". Sometimes we're all covered in blankets having snacks, sometimes we're mean and clip their nails while they are comatose.

Here are the girls enjoying some dad time,

 they really love "movie night"!

Shasta and Ginger

Shasta in the zone, you think she's happy?
Daddy is rubbing her belly, what could be better than that?!?

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

Soup's on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

http://lorianderson.blogspot.com/p/bead-soup-blog-party.html

 

This is my first time and I'm really looking forward to it.

Come join us, we're gonna have a blast!!

 

 

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign

 



Stone Age

Yesterday I received more incredible Vintage Ceramic beads from Embroidered Soul on Etsy. Some time ago I received some awesome Beach Stone components from AllyBead. As soon as I saw these particular dark gray and blue Vintage Ceramic beads I knew I wanted to try to use some Beach Stone, and I wanted to try putting it all together with leather cord AND I wanted use the excellent Heart Charm from Artisan Clay. Sometimes things just flow in your brain, you know?!?

Now that you know all the players lets have a look at everything used in this bracelet.

They look so cool just put in to piles like that don't they?!?!?

 I look forward to using all of these in other designs.

Here is the finished bracelet just listed on Artfire.

Here are coordinating earrings.

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2720299

Here are a few other recently listed items...

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2717895

http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=2717834

Kristi

http://dreamsome.etsy.com/

http://www.artfire.com/users/KristiBowmanDesign