Mysteries of the Heart

Arteria Arcanum, another new piece made with one of my ceramic heart pendants wrapped in Vintaj brass. I will demo this at the Bead & Button show in the Vintaj booth in a couple of weeks. I love this piece, I have made a few of them.

This one in particular is very unusual, as the heart itself is a one time only finish. It was first a test tile for a purpley glaze, but it went all wonky and bubbled. It was useless, and not even a pretty purple. So I shrugged and slathered it with a metallic pewter glaze (the fixer of all things) and refired it. I don't know what made it turn green and runny, but it is lovely! The kiln can be a mysterious chamber, just like the heart. You never know what will emerge from its energy and warmth to surprise you.

whoa... with that bit of poetry and zen mastery, I leave you today, to enjoy a little relaxation time with my hubby and our friends...

Royal Venation

Another quick blog post today, my schedule it full this morning and I am motivated! The piece above is another pendant I plan to demo at the Vintaj booth at Bead & Button. I think I am calling it Royal Venation, after looking at some botany terms having to do with leaves. I love learning new words! I have done this filigree wrap around an almond face before, and it has been very well received, so this is another variation, and one that I like very much. I would like to complete it into a piece of jewelry, a necklace, but I need to glaze up some more leaves for the body of the necklace, so that will take a few days. I hope to fire up a big kiln on Sunday, filled with stock for the show. Ack, that means I have to get glazing today, so I can load it tomorrow morning and hopefully spend the rest of the day with friends, enjoying the holiday weekend. Have a great day, all!

a-muse-d

I have been so very obsessed with the steampunk inspired line of late, I fear I have neglected to talk of much else. And since most of my beads are still put away from the last show, and I am not making much stock from my other lines, I have not blogged about much else, as it is not really close at hand or in sight. But I am reminded this morning, with the Bead & Button show very closely approaching, that I need to break out my other stock, and glaze up any bisque I have, and start to think about my work as a whole and how I will display it. I remembered that I have many, many Muse Stones in stock, some shown above. I think I need to make a finished piece of jewelry with one, a horizontal one, because I have only ever done really simple *pendant on a cord* types of things with them, and I think they could use a good example for display.

Oh look how easily I am distracted...*wandering off with a handful of them to my bead desk*...

Production Piles

I am feeling highly motivated today, or at least *right now* So I will keep the blog short and just show you a few things happening around the studio, these past few days. Above, some of my favorite Steam Stones so far, taken in an artsy picture with an old beautiful pottery book I have. Hard to let these guys go, but they have left me already, whisked away to their next place, to secret project land. Maybe we will see them again someday.And here, three bowls full of greenware charms. This is mostly the result of spending yesterday afternoon at my friend Sheryl's house, working and chatting with her and her sweet daughter as we all smooshed around in clay. It really motivated me for some reason, which is really promising, because it has been SO long that I have worked with others around, I was afraid I might be distracted and hindered, but yesterday was not the case. There are probably 200 or so beads in here, more than half from yesterday. I do love seeing the fruits of my labor like this, in overflowing piles; it is very satisfying. My confidence is up and I am going to go dig into the aforementioned secret project for a while...see where it takes me...

Pandora's Keys

A quickie post today, with something new! A necklace I did yesterday that I think I will call Pandora's Keys. I stole a few minutes at my beading desk, which is covered with an explosion of brass and porcelain and tiny bits of wire, I should tell you, and I worked this together very quickly. Seriously, sometimes the best stuff is done on the fly, when I am not all wrapped up in the logistics and pressures of designing. Not to say I didn't have a goal in mind...I did. I wanted to make a new Face Stone wrap using Vintaj findings, with my medium round face. I have tried on several occasions, but could never get the right mix, and last night it just seemed to work itself together. I love when that happens! I plan to demo this pendant, among others at the Vintaj booth at Bead & Button. More details later...
Another picture of the rest of the necklace, simple chain and some screwed links, plus a small keyhole link at the clasp.

Steamy Shoe Shopping

Um yeah, so these are my new steamy shoes. Not so sexy steamy, huh? Perhaps you were thinking some strappy heels or something. Nope, not for me, these are more Steampunky steamy. I went out last week with my buddy and Bead & Button Show travel companion Diane, both of us on a quest for shoes. This show requires 4 days of being on the feet all day long. Working retail for decades, I developed heel spurs from the concrete floors. They used to be very painful. Now, since I don't have to stand up daily for long hours, my feet are much better, but doing a show will trigger my poor feet into painful sadness once again. So I was seeking a shoe that was comfy, could hold my prescription insoles, had some ankle support (my foot doctor had told me this was good for my feet) and which I could steam-ify a bit. I am going for a more tomboyish look, so an ankle boot was ideal.

So Diane and I went to Footprints, where they had lots of Birkenstocks and Danskos. She found a cute pair of red Danskos that she thought were perfect and they were adorable on her. I struck out. Everything was sandal-ly (well, duh..its Spring...almost Summer!) so no ankle boots. We went to another store, Soul Sisters in Royal Oak, which was full of more fancy shoes, girly shoes, with lots of heels and straps and pointy toes. The kind of shoes that would make me fall flat on my butt at the first step. But alas, I scoured the store, and behold, in the corner, these little boots that looked like they were already mud encrusted. I fell in love.

The shoelaces it came with are real rustic leather strips, and they are ok, but I wanted something a little more interesting. So I added some dark pretty silk cord and a few old skeleton keys that I bought on Etsy, one at the center and two on the ends. I like the idea of the keys clanking around when I walk. I have to test it out still though, as I only have made the one side. I think I will like it though, and I will wear these around before and after the show, with my regular clothes. Speaking of Etsy and steamy shoes, I am incredibly tempted by the spats I see there, like this and this. But I think my new boots will do... for now...my shoe shoppy need has been fulfilled.

Ornamentation and Extra Extra Links

Today is Extra Extra links day, so that will follow below, but it is also extra imagery day. In my studies last week looking at Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts, I remembered these beautiful objects I saw in Chicago. After much googling and finally needing to ask my Chicago friend, I found the things that were rattling around in my brain. The items in this post are various decorative hardware elements designed by Louis Sullivan for the old Chicago Stock Exchange building, I believe.

Many of these are from the elevators, the round medallion at the very top is an elevator grille. I remember it, seeing an image of it before, and remember it being round and beautiful, but I thought it was a manhole/sewer cover. So I was on a wild goose chase this week using that as a search term. I did not find it that way, obviously, but I did discover there is a world of beautiful manhole covers, and people who study them, and even people who travel the world and take rubbings of them, like people take rubbings of tombstones. Who knew?
How fascinating...Sullivan, the designer of these highly ornate hardware elements, appears to have coined the term "form ever follows function" which, given the way the term is often used, seems to be quite ironic. ooh, an interesting footnote in the Wiki, and an interesting question for me to ponder today...Is Ornament Functional?
This week, I hope to show you pictures of stuff around the studio. The displays for Bead & Button are coming together, some of my neato steampunk accessories are getting crafted, and show stock is starting to be made and pile up...very slowly. For now, your Extra Extra linkage:

About.com Jewelry Making Wire is a great medium for jewelry making, and with this new DVD review you can find out how you can turn straight wire into super cool bangle bracelets.

Art Bead Scene Obessing over details leads Cindy Gimbrone to revise her MF Bird. No, she's not frustrated she means Modern Folk Bird.

Jennifer Jangles Blog See the first ceramic beads Jennifer made.

Jewelry & Beading What to do with those odd-shaped treasures you pick up on vacation this summer!

Katie's Beading Blog Feeling the economic pinch in your purse? There are plenty of ways to make cool jewelry with stuff you already have.

Naughty Secretary Club So many social networking web sites and so little time. Find out how Jen utilizes websites like My Space, Indie Public, Twitter and more to help promote her jewelry business Naughty Secretary Club and spread the crafty gospel.

PearlEsq. Check out what blingy wonders Robin's been beading while recovering from her knee surgery!

Savvy Crafter Need a card for your favorite beader? Candie may have just the thing!

Snap out of it Jean! There's beading to be done! Margot will be posting in a cool crafting group but still visiting here. When I get the url, I will post it for that group. Until then, check out this repost of her fantastic pocketbook which I adore and treasure she made me!