Elephant Beads

Elephant Beads

I have these ready to go into the kiln.  This week has been crazy busy with the ceramic class I'm taking and Hubby is doing some renovation on this old house.  First of all, we are interviewing contractors to have some energy efficient windows installed.  Also, Hubby decided since we are getting new windows that we ought to get a brand new look to the front of our house as well.  So he is planning to knock out this brick wall the elephant beads are positioned against and put up columns instead. I guess he's getting back to his Greek roots.

Speaking of getting back, let me get back to these beads. I hand sculpted each one of them.  They are fun to make and I have tried to make them before without any luck. The first time I made an elephant bead, it was just a fluke.  After that I tried several more times and failed, epically.  This time I went to the dollar store and bought a little plastic elephant and looked at that for several days and tried again.  So these are what I ended up making.  Some are bigger than the others and I do plan to make more. 

I have used a white stoneware and a brown iron stoneware and glazed them in a cone 6 shino glaze. They will go into the electric kiln and be fired to cone 6.

I also wanted to show off this mug I made in ceramics class last week.  I have done this type of sprigging techniques on beads and so I wanted to try this on something functional.  This is going to be a fun mug.  I'm not sure how I want to glaze it yet but I do want to use a glaze that will emphasize the round recessed circles.  I may use a red underglaze that goes to cone 10 inside each circle and then glaze with a transparent cobalt blue (we call it celedon blue in class, but it's really just a transparent cobalt blue). 

On the other hand, I think that I could use a dark cobalt blue underglaze in those circles with the celedon blue and that would be lovely. 

... and this is why I usually just dip my functional ware in clear glaze, it's hard to make glazing decisions!  lol!

What's She Doing?

I'm taking a ceramics class at the local college again. Yay.  This week I made 13 mugs and none of them look alike.  This is my favorite so far. 

It is wheel thrown, the foot trimmed by hand, stamped with all sorts of textures and shapes, and then I applied a handle.

I am going to rub underglaze into this after it is bisque fired and apply a transparent glaze over it. No, I'm not sure what colors it will be.

I'm doing these mugs for a fundraiser my son is doing for himself. He had $12,000 in doctor bills because of a cancerous mole. If he had it checked a year ago it wouldn't have cost more than about $300. 

This is to urge anyone who has a suspicious mole to get it checked out before it A. Spreads or B. You have to have minor surgery and get your lymphnodes checked -- especially if you don't have insurance. 

My son is fine by the way. The cancer didn't spread into his lymphnodes. 

Sheet Metal Rings

These are the rings I soldered out of sheet metal and copper tubing.  I set them in this log of clay in order to pour resin in the bezels.

If you look closely you can see pieces of tape that should have stopped up the resin.  However, the resin dripped right through the tape and puddled all over the rings. It was a disaster.  But like all experiments it had its merits. After I finished I thought to myself, "Now why didn't I just take polymer clay and stuff the holes and bake these things in the oven?  Yeah, that's what I will eventually do after I clean up the drippy resin that is all over these rings.  They also need to be polished and shined up.  First things first. 

I learned a lot about soldering with these rings though.  I am not fooling myself. I know they are ugly, but they are mine, therefore I am proud of them. lol!

Thanks for stopping by! -- Natalie 

Gardening

All this week I've been gardening out in the back yard.

Right now this is what my backyard looks like.  I have some container plants on the small slab where we also keep the bbq grill. 

In the back of the property on the right hand side is the pond my children dug for me many years ago.  It took them about five years.  It's solid Texas clay-mud so they could only get about 1" at a time. That's why it took five years.

My husband and I took turns getting it deep enough in the middle. We put old carpet down underneath the liner and I think it should still last many years. It's probably been there about 10 years now.

The perennials that have worked so well in past years died last year from neglect.

I was in bed for 6 weeks with the surgery, chemo and radiation, and of course it was in the week before June, June, and the week after June -- the beginning hot months in Texas, and last year it was very hot!  It didn't cool down until almost November.

Even after I was finished with treatments I had to get my strength back just to stand long enough to hold the water hose on those poor plants. In the end, I made it through last summer but they didn't.

I am going to try a few new perennials, some hostas and other leafy things.

Another thing I need to do is to thin out the water lilies and buy this pond a new pump and filter.  And I must weed, I have lots and lots of weeds.

The soft dirt of spring has already turned to the hard clay of summer and the trick for me is to water a patch the day before I weed.  Then the earth is spongy enough to release the weed when I tug.

Earlier this week I planted some white periwinkles around the pond.  I am thinking some red petunias might be nice too, but the gardening store I went to didn't seem to have any.  I like to support small businesses whenever possible.  We also have a farmer's market in my neighborhood so I'll try and stop by there. Maybe they will have some red petunias.

Thanks for stopping by. Sorry I don't have any bead news. I have some elephants bead sculptures that are going through their first firing today though.  :)   -- Natalie

Tool Aquisition (or is this my Brag Fest?)

 I've been on a tool buying binge lately.  Today the last 'biggie' item on my list came, this round bezel maker.  It will take a small tube and make it into a cone which then can used for stone setting. Or something like that. I'm not sure. I've only read about doing it so far.

I have, however, been soldering rings out of sheet metal and copper.  That I can do.  So now I'm going to try to make more elaborate things. 

 I got this dapping set and I really like it.  I also bought a small wooden one too.  I am amazed and boggled with all the things that can be done with this one tool at all and of course it does no good to have this without the disk cutter (below).

 This is a tool that is a ton of fun and easy to use.  I am sorry to say I broke the tiniest disk cutter.  I was using a heavy brass hammer and I really only needed a small hammer. I struck it at an angle and broke it right in half. I was looking online though and I think I can get a replacement for it.  Needless to say I've been extremely careful with how I hammer since then.

 I haven't actually used this torch set yet. I've been using a simple butane torch and so far it has worked really well.  I got some fuel regulator caps that allow me to use this torch with small disposable size oxygen and propane tanks.  It looks a lot of fun. I imagine when I graduate to silver I'll be using this exclusively.

This was the really big buy. It came last week and it is SO cool!  I have been doing all sorts of experimenting and found that it even picks up the texture of paper towels and imprints it into the metal.  I have been looking at You Tube videos and there are quite a bit of great tutorials of how to utilize texture in your metal.

This was made and packaged in India and I guess mine sat in a warehouse somewhere. The shredded packing paper smelled of mold and mildew and it stank horribly.  But the machine itself was well greased and in perfect working condition.  I did purchase the extra set of rollers to make wire from but I haven't put them on the machine yet.  The directions look somewhat complicated so I've asked hubby to help.

I think I am done buying the big tools. I don't have  a flex shaft yet, but my dad has one with all the attachments and said he'd give me that, but it won't get here for at least another month. I do have a Dremel though and will continue using that for until then. 

My dad and grandfather both were jewelry makers and rock hounds, so in one sense I've was exposed to this hobby since childhood.  I never thought, though, that I'd be venturing into this area myself someday.   

Copper Tube Beads and Ceramic Elephants

 I am beyond thrilled to find out that Jean A. Wells is going to have some of her jewelry design creations in the Fall issue of Stringing. One of the pieces has one of my ceramic elephants as the focal bead.

I am very excited and so I am going to make a few to have in my store when the magazine is released.

Usually I am not able to make specific things when I want to. I try to make one thing and I end up making another but this time I had to be focused and prayer is an amazing thing because I made this tiny herd of elephants this very morning.

This weekend I played with metal just a bit and I made these very simple copper tube beads. The end caps are made with plain sheet metal.  The copper was small plumbing tubing I found at the hardware store.

I was able to use a small butane torch and medium silver solder. I cut the end disks a bit bigger than the bead so it held the solder as if on a platter. After it was soldered I was able to cut the excess off with a small pair of snips.  The sheet metal is only about 26 gauge so it was easy to cut off. Then I used my Dremel to smooth out the ends and to polish the copper.

I really should go and get the pickle solution started, but I'm working so small right now that it is just as easy to use the Dremel.  When I start making more complicated pieces I will begin using the pickle.  :)  Thanks for stopping by! I hope you are having a fabulous creative day too! -- Natalie

Sheet Metal Ring

What's this you ask?  Well, it's what I'm working on instead of getting ready for my company who is coming this weekend.

Have you ever done that? You know you only have a certain amount of time to do something important, like scrub the toilet, and you put it off because there is something so much more fun to do -- like solder a ring that has been in your head for days and days.

I am learning how to fabricate rings at the moment but I am a cheapo so I got the most inexpensive materials to play with that I could find: Sheet metal and copper tubing at the hardware store.  The sheet metal cost me a whopping .35 and the tubing was $8 and the little tool to cut it with was under $10.  The butane torch was $10 or so (got it at Harbor Freight), the gas was about the same.  The solder (medium) was $20.  The flux was free (THANKS LOLLY) and so was the stainless steel pick and tweezers (THANKS LISA).  But the third hand was about $30 but when I searched for it I found an identical one for $12 (oooofph) and the charcoal soldering block was $9.  Then there was the ring mandrel ($25) and then the clamp to hold the ring mandrel ($30) and the rawhide hammer ($12) ... So this ring, while seeming to cost pennies, actually cost me about .... oh nevermind, it doesn't matter.  This is a lot of fun and I've been wanting to do it for absolutely ever!  Now I'm wondering .... what am I going to put in that teeny tiny bezel? 

Thanks for stopping by! -- Natalie

Famous Beads

I have been happily waiting for Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry come out. I pre-ordered it months ago. Even if it didn't have my beads in it, I would have ordered this book which is authored by Lorelei Hill Eurto and Erin Siegel. You can find it on Amazon to pre-order yours. It will be released on June 19th.

I found out a few months ago that my beads would be in this book and so I am going to make sure that these beads will be kept in stock in my bead store.  Every bead batch is a bit different of course, but I will use the same clay and glaze and they will be similar enough.

There are many ceramic bead artists featured in this book besides myself.  You may want to head over to the Beads of Clay blog because our group is giving away three of these books.

Here are my fellow Ceramic Bead Artists with links to their websites:

Elements Pottery, Gaea,Golem Studio, Lisa Peters Art, Mary Harding Jewelry, Marsha Neal Studio, NKP Designs, Yolanda's Clay.

Congratulations to all of us! :)

Here's a close up of the beads that appeared in this book.  I keep them in my 'rounds' section of my beadstore.

In any event, I am so glad and honored to be included in this book.  Thank you Lorelei and Erin!

Vacation ... Well Sorta

I took most of April off.  I didn't use the kiln much. I didn't list much. I didn't create much.  Instead I concentrated on my daughter who had our first grandbaby and my son who had been diagnosed with moderate melanoma on the same day she gave birth. It was bittersweet that day.

However, everything turned out fine.  My daughter gave birth to a 9 lb 3 oz perfectly healthy baby girl and my son learned a couple of weeks later that the melanoma had not spread to his lymph nodes as it usually does at that stage.

Happy Joy Joys abounded .... Deep sigh of relief ... thanksgiving prayers up to God ... some quiet time to absorb it all ...  and of course time to get to know Ruby, who by the way is the cutest baby in the entire known civilized and uncivilized world.  She smiled at me on Monday and that smile was so big that it took my breath completely away and my eyes swam in tears to where I couldn't see her anymore. I had to wipe them away and as I did, she gave me another smile. There aren't enough descriptive words in the English language for for that kind of happy.

 Saturday I had my friend, Lolly, over. I showed her how to lampwork beads and she showed me how to make a bezel.  Oh my ... what fun!

We are continually learning from our small bi-monthly workshops at each others' houses.  We had been quite mystified about soldering copper. It seemed that the copper had heated up fine, the solder melted and then the pieces would come apart. 

I finally kept googling copper and found that as a metal it has to fire hotter than the other metals.  What this meant escaped both of us, but we experimented and she found finally the answer!  Copper requires HARD solder, not easy, which is what we had been using previously.

Mystery solved.  So if you decide to play around with copper and solder it, just remember: use HARD solder.

Thanks for stopping by!
Natalie

The Wait Is Over

I meant to post these yesterday when they got out of the kiln but I never got a chance.

So here they are ... the beads that were in the kiln from my last blog post. 

I got to see my granddaughter briefly yesterday. She's just started her 4th week of life. The last three weeks have flown by.  Soon, before I can take a good deep breath, she will be half grown then full grown. 

That's how it is with children.  Suddenly it seems as though they skipped childhood and went straight to adulthood ... even though there were times when they were little that I thought I'd never have a spare moment all to myself unless I was using the potty (and sometimes not even then), lol.

But I digress ... um, back to the beads ... I did have a lot of fun making them, but I don't foresee myself making more of these unless I go on another trip. Each one takes a lot to make and I have to let my hands rest in-between.

I'll be putting these in my etsy store this week sometime (in-between seeing the grandbaby and all of that yummy grandparent stuff).  I'm going to put them in there as sets of 1, 2s, 3s, and so on.

Thanks for stopping by!

Beads Beads Beads

I've been making some pretty beads the last few weeks.  I have some in the kiln firing today.  But I should back up ... I've been taking short trips. This month I've been as far north as Amarillo and as far south as Galveston.  On the way there and back I sat in the passenger seat of the car and made beads. It's a nice way to pass the time.

I brought with me a brown iron-rich stoneware clay.  I used only these two 'tools', an aluminum knitting needle and a little do-dad that I grabbed and threw into my texture basket some time ago.

I made lines in the middle of each bead with the knitting needle.  I thought the lines would add great texture and the glaze (if I picked the right glaze) might pool nicely in the ridges.

One thing I have to do now that I didn't do a few years ago is wear reading glasses when I create beads. I have lost most of my near sighted vision due to the normal aging process.  Without glasses anything a foot or less from my eyes is incredibly blurry.

This most bothers me when I'm eating because I can't see my food!  I haven't started wearing reading glasses during dinner yet, but I see that happening in my soon to be future.

(um, getting back to the beads) ... so I took this little do-dad thing, and I don't remember where or what it came from, and I pressed circles in each side, with one in the middle and four on north/south/east/west, for a total of five round circles.

I liked this look.  And I almost stopped there, but we were miles and miles away from our destination and there was not much to do so I picked them back up and poked a bunch of holes around the circles with the knitting needle.

Last of all I remembered to put a stringing hole in each bead.  About a month ago I sat down for about three hours and created some incredibly detailed beads.

Unfortunately I forgot to add holes to every single one of them. I actually bisque fired them that way.  I don't know where my mind was ... it obviously wasn't in the right place.  I have them in a bag and I may or may not drill holes in them. I might just paint them with acrylics or something and use them as jacks (you know that game we all played as little girls and sometimes as big girls?).


(um, getting back to the beads) ... so I put these in the kiln when I got home and I did remember to put holes in each one, and they came out yesterday morning. I coated each one with a lovely Wisteria Purple glaze and they are firing today.

I was going to wait until they came out of the kiln tomorrow morning before sharing this blog story, but then I decided that it might be fun for you all to wait with me because I am always waiting to see how they come out and perhaps you would want to share in my anticipation.  lol!

Thanks for stopping by! 

And the Winner is ....

A couple of weeks ago I staged a giveaway about one of my whistles and said I would announce the winner on April 1st, NO FOOLING!

...and the winner is Jean A. Wells!  Happy April 1st day!

I already have your addy so I'll be putting it in the mail for you tomorrow!

I know you'll have fun with this small object of noise! :)

Metalwork in Clay

 I had so much fun today at Lolly's house!  She invited me over to have more fun with metal and settled me in at this wonderful desk her hubby made for us (seriously, he made it for us -- he's awesome!), one side for her and one side for me. It is my studio away from home. It is wonderful!

We took out our tools.  We started at 10 and took an hour for lunch and I left at 5:30. Time flew!  I can only hope I didn't overstay my welcome.

 I am trying to learn now to solder and I'm not having a lot of luck with the torch so I used an soldering iron and copper tape instead.  It was fun.  

This one has just a tiny bit of copper tape, which I cut into an oval and draped over both sides of the pendant.  Yes, I had to use a dab of e6000 glue.  It is a good solid hold though.

I fired these particular pendants a week or so ago. They are of an ivory stoneware clay and a dark red stoneware clay. I coated them with a pale pink glaze.  I like this effect of this particular glaze with these two types of clay. And of course, I love decorating using sprigs of clay.

  This is a pendant I wrapped all the way around with copper tape and then applied lead free (of course) silver solder.  I attached a jump ring to the back for a bale.   The great thing about this pendant bead is that the back is not covered so my potter's mark is visible.

I am thinking I may add some Swarovski Crystals to the little dimples in this bead.

 Here's another in the same style.

 A long long time ago I bought a few tiny mirrors and scrapbook odds and ends. So I made this. 

 I tried to solder two halves of copper domes together numerous times.  Here they are. This is called pure determination.  I used a clear flux and painted it on each dome.  I held them together with tweezers and attached a glob of silver solder on both sides to hold the two domes together.

Then I realized since the entire copper dome was covered with flux that I could simply 'paint' the silver solder on with the top of the soldering iron. So I did.  When I was done I pickled them and used my Dremel to shine them up.

 When I got home Joy was thrilled to see me.

Mister was extremely glad to see me too, because that meant the grill would be started, and the grill always means good smells and a bite or two of whatever is cooked that night.

So that was my very fun day!  Thanks for stopping by!

Something Fun to Show You - Micaceous Clay

I had to use Google to see how to spell 'micaceous'.  I often wonder what the Google spy/advertising staff thinks of me and my weird inquiries because I often use Google to double check my spelling.

My ceramics instructor this semester brought some micaceous clay to class that she had bought in Albuquerque, NM  earlier this year. She gave me some and told me to have fun. So I made this bead. I fired it to cone 06. I applied a clear glaze and refired to cone 05.

Do you see the golden glitter flakes?  I want to see what these look like with a transparent blue or green, or even yellow and pink.

Thanks, Jackie!  I'll go in halves with you next time you visit New Mexico.

Whistle Giveaway!

 I mentioned this a few weeks ago and now have a whistle that I absolutely love and so I want someone who also absolutely loves it to have a chance to win it.

As you can see, it is quite small.  1 1/2" from tip to tip.

It has a high pitch because it is small. Click here to hear this whistle.  To see how I make these, check out my tutorial.

I am going to run this contest for two weeks and will announce the winner on April 1st.  NO FOOLING!

I'll use the random number generator at the sidebar of this page to pick a winner.  TO QUALIFY all you have to do is promote my whistle shop in some form or fashion. You can tweet it, favorite it, add me to your etsy circle, facebook like it, blog it, email a link to a friend, you decide. Just leave me a note here letting me know how you promoted it and you will be entered.  ***The more you promote and leave a comment the more chances you have to win.

A word about my whistles ... they are very fun to play with.  But they also have this built in feature that if you blow really really hard on them they make no noise at all.    Of course, a regular size blow is quite loud, but it never gets any louder than that.

Side story:  I knew a lady years ago that would take great joy in picking out her gifts for her nephews.  I got the feeling she didn't like her sister-in-law because she picked the loudest most obnoxious toys she could find. This whistle only has a small annoyance factor and probably wouldn't work for that kind of a gift.

I'm just saying ...

SO what is the link to my whistle store?    http://nkpwhistles.etsy.com

Thanks and have fun!