Beads of Clay UFO Sighting, me!

Get to know a little more about me at the Beads of Clay Blog UFO Sighting

A Day We All Remember

Thoughts and prayers for all of those affected on this day 11 years ago.  You will always be in our hearts.  Peace.

Stringing Magazine Feature

Earlier in the year I submitted a couple pieces to Stringing Magazine Fall 2012 for their Ultimate Guide Shopping Section, one was chosen and it was great to see it in the magazine!

The pendan featured is the one above, I took several pictures of the actual magazine page and it just didn't come out good, which I came to the conclusion that the resolution in the magazine was not the best.  So I found a picture I had from before.  This is a porcelain pendant of a heart with thorns glazed in several colors, and each color takes three coats.  Lots of work.   I also have the one below available in my etsy store.

The forgotten blog..... and Roses

You may remember this blog post  back a couple months ago, carving rubber stamps was a project to do for a while.  And finally it was done but then it took a while to do something with them.  This picture  above was taken back then to show how stamps work with inks.

The following pictures are of pendants using the rubber stamps, I used the big swirl above. I called them Roses because that was the intent and that's what they remind me of.  These will be in my   etsy store later today but in the meantime enjoy!

New Batch of an Old Favorite "Spring Flings"

Pieces I got out of the kiln this  morning.

You all have seen the pieces I make called Spring Flings, I get orders on these often so I make a batch every other month or so.  This is the most recent one I made and thought I share since I desperately needed a blog update.  You can see the more detailed process on how I make these Here  I will have several of these to list on  etsy in the next couple days.

Pieces are still wet.

Here they have been drying for a couple days.

A couple pieces in the bisque (one firing) stage.

Leaf sets for earrings.  Finished with a clear top glaze.

First Friday Art Walk Sale

First Friday Art Walk Sale today May 4

Get 15% Off using coupon code FFAWBOC at check out

May 27 I will be participating at the Patchwork Show in Downtown Santa Ana

new location at the Artist Village  on Sycamore and Second St.

Come!

Rubber Stamp Carving for Clay Projects

Darn!  I knew I've been gone from here for a while....  but almost two months?  That's a first one for me...  I think.  Maybe I was gone longer before and I just don't remember.  Anyway, this is what I've been doing all this time.....being sick twice!  And more recently for three weeks but I am happy to be feeling better since yesterday and getting ready to create stuff and catch up with some custom orders that I have been able to slowly work on as I was sick....

I took a clay class online, and you know what the beauty is of online classes? No grades! so while I watched the videos did the first project before getting sick.... and that was it.... first project and I stopped. I don't have to worry about an A+ or an F!  I love it.  Well, in this class one of the many projects we did were carved stamps on rubber.  I did a few a couple weeks ago playing with it, just random carves which I will do a post later.  But today this is what I did.

Transfer image onto rubber, I found image on google,

Carved stamp and outside areas, it took me about 20 minutes

Played with ink pads to see how image came out.

I want to eventually use the rubber stamps to do monoprints in clay, do direct stamping on clay and use portion of design for pendants, and use on paper crafts as well.  The uses are many and it really saves on manufactured stamps for which I can say I have a  big selection, but it's nice to know this is something I made.  The design of this stamp is a lotus flower, it needs a little tweaking and cleaning around.

Stamped a piece of clay to see what cleaning needs to be done to improve piece.

The top image with the blue background is also a technique that I will be using in clay,  underglaze pieces with a color background and bring out the image with a different color glaze.  The results will be great and colorful as you can use as many colors as you want.  Now, do you think this looks like a lotus flower?

Anyway there is tons of tutorials for carved rubber stamps on google, so a quick search will give you lots of ideas.

What do you like best?

Mixed color bead sets like these?

Or bead sets in the same color glazes?

Most of these are listed on my Etsy Store  and the other ones are coming up soon.  If you have a minute please leave me a message and let me know what's your preference.

Fresh Off the Kiln this Morning!

This is what my kiln looked like this morning through the peephole!

And this is what they looked liked when all beads were collected, touched, admired, played with, admired again, and put into this pretty dish I got the other day!

             Aren't they pretty?   

Where does time go?

As January almost ends and seeing the neglected blog I figured is about time to pay a visit here.  Where does time go?  I don't know, all I know is that it comes and goes too fast.  So to all of you out there with a bit of shame I finally say, Happy New Year!

I was really excited earlier in the month when I was tagged in Facebook by Janice from J-Lynn Jewels Janice is the Designer Highlight for the month of January in Bead Trends   The piece below is one of the many pieces that Janice had featured, it has a pendant I made with a swirl and a milky stone looking glaze, the pendant is made from porcelain clay.

Janice has many pieces featured in the magazine.  Here is her Facebook Page of Published Designs so you can see the variety and beauty of all the pieces she creates.  Gorgeous, romantic, breathtaking designs that make you want to wear them all.

Visit Janice's Etsy store she also makes altered art wood scrabble tiles, lampwork beads among other things.