Big Hole Beads

Hi again.  I've been deep in the studio, glazing beads, making beads, making mugs, glazing mugs ... I wanted to share something new.

It seems like many jewelry designers are enjoying working with beads with bigger holes because leather can fit through a bigger hole, as can ribbon and such.

I have been in the process of coming up with these like you see in the picture.  The bead hole is 3 mm wide. Usually my bead holes are 1 mm wide. 

I am hoping this size is big enough because if not I will have to find something bigger than a wooden skewer, which I suppose I could find in a knitting needle. 

In any event, I have drying right now about 30 of the 15 mm beads with the delicate scroll pattern. Some sport endcaps and some don't.  I still have a ton of small hole beads which I am still glazing and listing, but along with those some of these big hole beads will also be making an appearance.

If you design jewelry and you love big hole beads, tell me, how big do you prefer the hole to be? Thanks for stopping by! -- Natalie

Design Progression

It is relaxing and fun for me to sit with a bit of clay and come up with new designs. Some people plan out new designs with pen and paper and I wish I could do more of that. It is a great way to plan out the thought process.  

Me?  I gather a few things around me and plunge right in and see where it goes. My problem is that I have a tiny attention span and it almost physically hurts to make the same thing over and over.  

I have a button with this waffle texture and so I made these beads. And yes, I only made five of them. I had thought I would make 50 or so, but after 5 I was done. Finished. 

I grabbed a piece of clay and made a nugget shape and put a couple of round sprigs of clay and pressed it with that waffle texture and came up with a couple of nuggets. That was fun, but I only made a couple of these before getting bored again.  Part of me figures that if I'm bored then YOU'RE going to be bored, too.

 Instead of making a nugget shape, I made an oval shape and instead of making round bits of clay I made little ropes of clay and wrapped them around the oval and impressed the sprigs with my waffle texture.

These to me were not boring. I ended up making quite a few of them.  Notice the underside where the sprig does not go all the way around?  I like this bare area.   Maybe the glaze will do wonderful things.

 I glazed these with a light coating of avacodo underglaze and covered with a clear gloss to make them shiny and pretty.  

Most interesting to me of all is that after it is glazed, the waffle texture ends up looking like teeny daisy flowers.

BEADS AND POTS

I have been making beads and pots -- I have been so busy making them that I haven't blogged much or even listed the new beads coming out of the kiln.

These are some that are waiting for a first firing. 

I love having teapots that are small enough to fit inside the microwave to heat the water. This is my latest one.  Yeah, the lid is a bit wonky but that's just how my lids seem to come out. I'm working on it.

Here is a mug I made.  It is simple and the throwing rings are visible. Hopefully the glaze will bring those out more.

And here is another mug I made. I made a few similar to this one on the right last year and I really enjoyed the texturing process.

Colors of the Christmas Season

Many jewelry artists design jewelry based on particular religious holidays or spiritual beliefs. For example, I see elements of Buddhism, as well as Hinduism all year round in certain jewelry designs.

For the most part, many Christians prefer not to use images to represent the God of the Bible, and instead resort to the symbolism of color, and Christmas is the perfect season to rally around certain colors.

If you or your child has ever gone to a Vacation Bible School during the summer, you/he/she may have come home with a Salvation bracelet, where each bead on a bracelet represents an explanation of the Salvation process taught in the Bible.

Likewise, during Christmas, we Christians often utilize colors in jewelry to represent our beliefs. If I was to string some beads for a necklace I would choose three basic colors: White, Red, and Green, with Gold accents.

The white of the beads represent the purity, or the sinlessness of Christ. Being 100% God and setting aside His glory, He wrapped Himself in human flesh. God physically entered the world He created, thus, He was also 100% man, giving up none of His deity. While He lived on this earth He never once sinned, not in thought or deed, yet the Bible teaches He was tested in every way. He did what no human being born could ever do: be perfection and live a perfect life. White is the perfect color we have to represent purity ...

The red of the beads represent Jesus Christ's work upon the Cross. He was beaten to a bloody pulp before He was placed on the cross and when the guard stabbed Him with the sword, He bled out blood and water from His side. Because Christ lived that perfect life, His death was able to satisfy the wrath (intense anger) that mankind's sin had caused. Christians believe that a man can never pay for their own sins because no matter how long the punishment lasts, God's anger is never abated or  appeased. Only Christ's blood, because He lived that perfect life, could completely rid God's anger at mankind's sin.

This teaching about Christ's blood paying for sins repulses many regarding Christianity, but for the Christian it is a treasured belief because Christ's act of shedding His blood is a precious gift and act of love from the Creator to His creation.

The green of the beads represents the resurrection (coming back to life again) of Christ and what happens when a person lets go of self and stops trying to placate God's anger and simply accepts what Christ did on the cross. Though the body may die, that person will life forever with God in perfect peace and everylasting joy, being accepted by God in every way, forever.

Forever is a hard concept to grasp, perhaps that is why the Creature designed some trees to retain their green color all year round.

I do not have any gold beads, but I do have this intense yellow pendant. Gold represents the richness of being a child of God, not physical riches, but spiritual riches. I found this A-Z list over at Bible Study Planet and thought it was a perfect way to wrap this up. Have a blessed Christmas!

Accepted in the beloved (Ephesians 1:6)
Born of God (1 John 5:1)
Crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20)
Delivered from the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13)
Enriched in everything in Him (1 Corinthians 1:5)
Forgiven for Christ’s sake (Ephesians 4:32)
Grounded in love (Ephesians 3:17)
Hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3)
Instructed in the way of the Lord (Acts 18:25)
Justified by his grace (Titus 3:7)
Kept by the power of God (1 Peter 1:5)
Led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14)
Made near to God by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13)
Nourished in the words of faith and good doctrine (1 Timothy 4:6)
Ordained to eternal life (Acts 13:48)
Perfected forever (Hebrews 10:14)
Quickened together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5)
Redeemed from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13)
Sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13)
Translated into the kingdom of his Son (Colossians 1:13)
Unblameable in His sight (Colossians 1:22)
Victorious through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57)
Washed from our sins in His own blood (Revelation 7:15)
Yearned over by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26)
Zealous of good works (Titus 2:14)

How To Use Coupon Codes on Etsy

It is not so easy to figure out how to apply a coupon code on Etsy.  I found a screen shot on etsy and altered it with these red arrows and such.

I wish Etsy would simply have the coupon code box on the checkout page without having to click on the blue link to make it appear. But for now this is how it appears.  I'll link to this from my shop announcement.  Anyway, have a great day and thanks for stopping by. Hope this helps!  - -Natalie

50% off Sale on Beads

Hi everyone!  I'm having a 50% off sale on beads in my Etsy Bead store because I'm moving in my beads into my pottery store. It's proved to be too much to keep up with more than one store. I tried the whistle store and I sold a few whistles and it was fun but it was too hard to keep up with.  I've been thinking about it and waffled between bringing my pottery into my nkpbeads store or the other way around. Since my brand name is "NKPDESIGNS", I have decided to merge the beads back into the pottery store, as it was originally when I started out. 

Simplifying things is fun!  See my shop announcement for more details.  The COUPON CODE is  BEADSALE50  ... you gotta use the code in order to get the discount.   And hey, thanks for stopping by! -- Natalie

Tacky?

Sorry if this picture of my cut fingernails is a bit gross. 

I had my pottery show this last weekend and it took me about three weeks to figure out what to take, what to tag, and also to fire several loads of pottery.

During that time my fingernails grew ... and grew.  Today I cut them off because I'm going to get out the clay and fingernails and clay do not play together well.

There is that feminine side of me that mourns the loss of my budding long nails, but the practical side of me understands that unless I want to leave small crescent moons in all my pieces the nails must go.  Also, cleaning out clay from underneath fingernails is really really difficult.  So goodbye sweet nails .... hello CLAY! 

Thanks for stopping by!
- Natalie

P.S.  The pottery show was really fun! 

Announcements

I had these two owls and sent them along to the other two ladies who left comments on my owl giveaway.  I packaged them up before I applied the mailing labels so I do not know which lady got which owl.  

 Actually the one on the bottom looks a bit like a vulture.  Do you think so too? I think it is cute, though and if I tried to make another one like it, I don't know if I could. 

I want to thank all the kind folks who sent me prayers and good wishes while I battled the Elevator Cold. It seems to be going around and hits some people worse than others. It moved up and down from my sinuses to my throat to my voice box and then back up again and down again. It seems to be gone though but my voice still sounds a bit hoarse. It sapped my energy level though but I feel my energy level coming back again. Yeah!

I have an announcement to make, a small announcement. I am going to be closing up my etsy NKPDESIGNS store where I sell my pottery. I don't have the time to manage more than one store so I am going to move everything into my bead store with its own pottery category. I'm also going to be playing around with my picture presentation to see if I can get my photos of the pottery more 'homey'. It seems as though the dramatic shots do not work well on Etsy (big light dark contrast). Any thoughts on this setup would be appreciated. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

2nd Bead Packet Design Challenge

Note:  I set this blog article to run early this morning at 1:30 am to coincide with Sharyl's, but for some reason it didn't work.  :(  Anyhooos .... here it is:

For those who have been following Sharyl on her blog you know she has a "2nd Bead Packet Design Challenge" going on this month, where jewelry designers purchase a set of 9 pre-picked NKPBEADS and come up with their own designs ...Here is a link to her original blog post: Click Here

 Because my beads were in the spotlight I decided to make things more interesting by throwing in a $25 gift certificate to one of the participants by drawing a name out of a 'hat', randomly of course.  Here is a link to that blog post:  Click Here

For the 'hat' I used one of my pots that I made out of sparkly micacious clay.  I printed out the entries, cut and folded them before placing them into the pot.    I swirled my hand around exactly 20 times and then picked out a name.  

  The winner is: Whimsical Monkey!

WM:  Please leave your email address in the comments and I will contact you with instructions on how to collect your $25 in beads from my NKP Beads etsy store.  

   CONGRATULATIONS!

Below are the participants and their blogs. Please click over and take a look at each design.  Also, hop over to Sharyl's blog.

Sudafulee... Always in Bloom
http://sadafulee.blogspot.com
Kashmira Patel

All the Pretty Things
http://www.allprettythings.ca/
Alicia

Creative Designs by Cheri
http://creativedesignsbycheri.blogspot.com/
Cheri

Laren Dee Designs
http://larendeedesigns.blogspot.com/
Laren Dee Barton

Beads and Bread
http://www.beadsandbread.blogspot.com/
Shirley Moore

Alice's Beads and Baubles
http://alicesbeadsandbaubles.blogspot.com/
Alice Craddick

Tell Your Girlfriends
http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com/
Cilla

Whimsical Monkey
http://whimsicalweavings.blogspot.com/
Whimsical Monkey

KayzKreationz
http://kayzkreationz.blogspot.com/
KayzKreationz

Jean A. Wells Handcrafted Artisan Jewelry
http://jeanawells.blogspot.com/
Jean A. Wells

Thank you to all the participants.  This was a lot of fun!  I look forward to seeing all the beautiful items you designed with some of my beads.

Ceramic Owl

There is an Owl contest over at Artisan Whimsey, a new website for jewelry component makers of all mediums as well as for Jewelry Designers. 

I was hesitant to enter at first because I was afraid that my owl would look too much like someone elses.  However, I think I was able to craft a unique owl in the end. 

I used a glaze called "Waterfall".  It shows up nicely on this porcelain glaze.  I used sprigs of clay and textured with a skewer.  Both the front and the back have this same owl shape.

Voting begins on Artisan Whimsey on October  28th at Midnight and continues until October 30th midnight.  The winners will be posted on October 30th midnight.  There are two categories: one for component makers and the other for jewelry designs, a nice blend of participants I think.

Here's the link to vote at:  http://artisanwhimsy.ning.com/page/hooters .  I would urge you to vote for mine but there are already some spectacular entries posted. Just participate and vote for your favorite.  Then leave a post here and I'll enter you in a drawing to win this particular owl.  The voting doesn't start for two more days so bookmark this page to come back and vote and leave a comment at that time.

Yes, that's right, you don't have to vote for this owl but you can definitely have a chance to win it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Crazy Lace Agate Circles

I went to a small wholesale mineral show held in Dallas last week and picked up this pair of Crazy Lace Agate circles.  

I think they look like miniature landscapes. 

I plan to eventually work these in some sort of bezel, maybe clay, maybe metal, I don't know.  In the meantime I can dream. 

The Whole Herd of Elephant Beads

These are what came out of the kiln about a week ago.  I just wanted to share a quick pic of them. Thanks for stopping by!

Sharyl's Bead Packet Design Challenge Participants Announcement

I wanted to let my blog readers who may be following along that Sharyl of Sharyl's Jewelry has 10 participants that have been announced on her blog.  Read all about it here:   http://www.sharylsjewelry.blogspot.com/2012/09/announcement-of-participants-2nd-bead.html

If you asked to be a part of it and need details, the link above is the place to go to learn further details. She has all her packets of beads ready to be mailed.

As  I stated in this blog article  I am giving a $25 gift certificate to my bead store to one of the 10 participating designers to be revealed the day of the mini bead blog hop on October 27.  The winner's name will be drawn randomly.  It's going to be a lot of fun to see what designs the participants come up with! 

Marbling Clay

 I have three distinct types of bodies in these marbled beads:  brown stoneware, red stoneware, and porcelain.

This photo on the left shows what the glaze I used (Sea Glass Gloss by mayco) looks like individually on all three, and the fourth is a marbled nugget of all three clays mixed together.

It's a light glaze which lets the clay body shine through with a touch of minty green.

I have these four nugget beads on the right on sale in my shop right now. If you're interested: Click here.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Making of a Seed Pod Bead

At the end of the day it is great to relax with a bit of clay and some mellow music. Enjoy.