Bead Soup

After simmering for almost a month, the Bead Soup Party has begun! As I was a bit of a late signer-upper, I was partnered with the lovely Lori Anderson, the host of the swap. I mailed off a lovely package of mixed beads that worked together well, with a hand-forged metal pendant and clasp. In return, i received such a lovely box of beauties! This is what arrived at my doorstep a couple weeks ago.

In this box were so many little lovelies! I received lovely two tone 'artistic stone', a pendant and lovely beads of adventurine, a sterling silver clasp, and some great silver beads from Bali. I was so overwhelmed with all the pretty little rocks here! I have to admit, when buying beads for myself I am usually buying fairly cheap ones, so I was awed at the chance to work with so many special beauties!

After much deliberation and hard work, here's the final product! I had not too long ago visited a history museum with an impressively inspiring collection of ancient Peruvian relics, including a lot of gold jewelry. I picked up the middle gold piece there, knowing I'd find a use for it and it's many, many holes. I used all the different varieties of lovely beads Lori sent me and am so excited to still have leftovers of some for later use!!!

Here's some more detailed shots to finish the post off. I would highly recommend joining in on our blog party day today, and checking out what all the other bloggers have to offer! Just check out Lori's post here to see all of our many, many participants in this great swap, and what they created.

Day of the dead hand chain

I have decided to enter a piece into the fantastic challenge on the Objects and Elements blog. This round, the challenge is to put something unusual in a bezel. I had a couple cool hand-carved skulls, so i was ready with some ideas. I really love reading and seeing all the challenges, and this time I decided not to sit idly on the sidelines.

I was currently making a piece of jewelry for a friend back home in Canada's belated birthday, and i was going on a 'Day of the Dead' theme after seeing how awesome these carved bone skulls looked with metal roses.

The bezel form was from a stuff-swap with the lovely Amber Dawn. In the bezel i put a handcarved korean skull surounded by three metal roses(echoed later in the wrist part of the chain, more pics to come). The background is simple scrapbooking paper, and after aranging everything i filled the bezel with resin. I then drilled four holes through the resin and bezel to fit it into the formation as needed.

I really encourage any of you to pop on over to the Objects and Elements blog challenge, as the voting starts tomorrow October 23rd. Good luck to all the participants!

Music Leaves Necklace

I was playing with resin while creating this one. I resinated some musical score paper... lots of fun. I would highly reccomend to anyone trying putting resin on paper. It gives it such a glassy sheen on top. It also gives the leaves almost a seethrough quality. This necklace is inspired by the pretty, pretty leaves i often see popping up in Deryn Mentock's work. She truly has a lovely website, which you should definatly go check out
here

Teal Night

Here's a new necklace I'd made a bit ago. I was inspired while poking around the Art Bead Scene blog about a month ago... they showed a necklace where they took a bird and wrapped it around flat bead, like a hug. I loved the idea of it and had these pretty flat pieces i'd picked up earlier. After experimenting wrapping a pretty blue bead in a flat copper piece, i was delighted with the results. The necklace simply took off from there.

I created many of the parts of this myself. The star was a simple woodcut from michaels, which i painted blue and wrapped in wire. The circles i put star beads within and filled partly with clear resin. I also used a couple blue stone beads, a strange structural piece i picked up earlier, some shell buttons, and a moon pendant. I was trying to keep with an 'ocean at night' theme... i am so happy with how it all came together.

Nest Necklace: Project number 4!

A couple posts back, i posted a teaser post with a glass jar of beads and wire. At that time, this necklace had been pretty much finished... only lacking a drill. After much searching, i finally found and bought a drill over the weekend. A couple quick holes and jump rings and voila! I really did have quite a productive long weekend, finishing off 3 necklaces! One i showed in the previous post, one is in this post here, and one i will be posting next. This one here is project number 4 from Stephanie Lee's book 'Semiprecious Salvage'. I have really been loving this book, and i am so pleased to have finished this piece. Stephanie's book is lovely, as her her fabulous blog, and you should check her out here.

I did stray somewhat from the design layed out by Stephanie, but my main goal was to learn the skills offered in the creation of the necklace. In her piece in the book, she used one of the fabulous porcelain doll arms. It reminded me so of the porcelain bisque dolls from germany. I would love to have something like this, as they speak to me so strongly, but as of yet it is not in the cards. Instead, i created the bird nest similar to one discussed later in the book (ok... yes... i peeked ahead hahah). I also decided to add the links i created, linked from a tutorial posted by the lovely Derryn Mentock (I had so much fun creating these links... you should go check out her easy to use tutorial on how to creat them :) here.

So, for those of you who have not seen stephanie's book, the square part of this piece was created using a square of copper sheet metal. I then did a simple transfer of a reversed book image, of a bird in a tree. After thus creating a resist, i put the square in Ferric Chloride (an acid) which etched away, creating a nice bird pattern. If you have any questions about this, post me a quick note in teh comments and i will help you out :).

Good luck to all who are entering my 'One World One Heart' draw.

Challenge entry

I stumbled upon the Art Bead Scene blog not too long ago... i was intrigued by their idea of having a monthly challenge. This month, the challenge was to create a necklace based on Van Gogh's 'Irises'. I have always found this to be a beautiful painting... I decided to enter.

The point of the 'Art Bead Scene' blog seems to be to promote using hand-made beads (they call 'art beads') in jewelry as opposed to using the factory created beads. I do see where they are comming from, but i am glad they are not so hardcore about it that it feels limiting. MANY different mediums for creating the beads (including wood carving as i used in mine) are accepted, glasswork and polymer clay seeming to be the most common. This is my submission to the challenge.





















I was inspired in a variety of ways for this piece. My first point of inspiration here came from the blog of the lovely Daryn Mentock, from one of her lovely curled wire journal pages. I saw it and i just knew i had to make one myself. The idea for the beads with the wrapped wire came from a flickr picture i'd seen while surfing around, but i forgot to write down who it was or a link (too bad, as hers were gorgeous). The ideas for the pendant bead was all my own. I had stumbled upon a super cheap wood carving kit at a local stationairy/art store, and even though i have ZERO experience or training with wood carving i decided I couldn't resist. I had a lot of fun, keeping it simple, carving the 'leaves' into the wood here. I then painted it up with a mix of paint and pearlescent medium.

I finally bought a drill this weekend and, as it was a four day weekend here in Seoul, i have been having so much fun drilling to my hearts content and finally finishing a couple of projects that were just waiting for the drill. More necklace posts to come!

In conclusion, wish me luck having my name drawn from the contest, as i would win a wackload of handmade beads if they pull my name. I am so excited to see what the theme will be next month!

One World One Heart

Well, i'm a week after the official beginning, but i guess people still have close to a month to come visit my blog and comment... I have decided this year to participate in the 'One World One Heart' blogging event.

For those of you who are not familliar with this event, it is where a bunch of bloggers all have giveaways on their blogs. In order to be eligable for this giveaway on my blog, all you need to do is leave a comment on this post. In order to participate in my giveaway, you must have a blog of your own that you keep, but you do not have to do a giveaway of your own. Please make sure to leave some way to contact you if you are the lucky winner! The point of this event is to increase traffic to artist blogs, discover new blogs and to generate more of a 'togetherness' feeling among artist bloggers. If you want more details, please visit the 'One World One Heart' main site here.




For my giveaway, I am offering two things. The first person who wins will get a bracelet i created myself. It uses links and swirls from wire that i wraped myself, and nice green beads that spin around on the swirls.


For a larger picture, you can click here on the picture.

The second winner will get a selection of jewelry supplies such as chain or beads, scrabooking papers, ribbons and other such miscellanious stuff useful to a jewelry artist, or to a mixed media artist.

Good luck everyone! Remember, post a comment on this post (only this post) to be eligible to win. You must post before February 11th, as I will be posting the winner on February 12th.

One World One Heart

Oh no! The One World One Heart contest has started and i don't yet have something to give away!! I knew i wanted to sign up this year. I checked it out last year and looked at a couple blogs. Even if i did not win anything, i enjoyed seeing all the giveaways, and looking at all the new blogs. Give me time, and i will get something up for this soon! I just need to finish off a project to give away. I feel like i have about 3 projects but they aren't done yet.

If you haven't heard of the 'One World One Heart' event yet, you should check out the website here

Deryn's tutorial!

Did anyone follow the link I posted to Deryn's fabulous tutorial yesterday? You really should. I checked it out, and decided to create the links she showed myself. I really had a lot of fun making these, and i was quite pleased with the results. I also have a couple suggestions if you try this yourself.
























Check out the totally sweet links i made from the tutorial! I find myself quite proud of how they turned out. I made the white ones first, and they are slightly smaller. I used silver wire, musical score paper, yellow transparent beads, and one pearl for this one. For the second one, i used shiny brown/brassy wire, blue scrapbooking paper, thin gold wire and pearls for the beads. I am really quite pleased with how these turned out.

This is a good tutorial to follow, as the pictures are clear and the instructions are sufficiently explicit. I did learn a couple things/change a couple things while doing it myself:

1) Use good quality wire. I have not yet found good wire here in Seoul, and therefor have had to make do with cheap stuff. The hammering and twisting puts a fair amount of strain on the wire. Three of mine that i was making snapped from stress midway through.

2) You can use a variety of things instead of the fabric she used. I used paper on both of mine. For one of the sheet music, i made the triangle as she suggested. However, i find that if you have a pattern on your paper (or music notes) it becomes quite difficult to read after the layering with the triangle. I prefer myself to have more of a long rectangle, and just wrap it straight like that. It doesn't create the pleasing bump as you see in hers, but it does keep the pattern on your paper visible and makes for a tidier look.

3)I was forced to make small modifications as i lacked some of the supplies Deryn had access to. I only had needle nosed and round tipped pliers, with wire cutters built in, I had no bench block or pillow, and i had no sanding block. I found that i worked this out okay, using the pliers on hand, the floor as a bench block and skipping the sanding. I can see how these would all be useful things once we get to have the mad skills Deryn does, but it is still possible for us who lack the supplies to create these links.

All in all, this is a really wonderful tutorial that i would highly recommend checking out :). I don't yet know what exactly I will use them for, but i suspect the brown ones will look very nice in this necklace i've been working on. I've been slowly working my way through Stephanie Lee's Semiprecious Salvage. For those of you who have this great book, I am currently working on the 4th necklace in the book (the one with the doll arm). I think these links will match in nicely.

Fabulous Tutorial

This picture is from one of my favourite blogs. The incredibly talented Deryn Mentock has put up a tutorial on her blog, Something Sublime. The fabulous jewelry she shows on there is beyond sublime, it is absolutely stunning. I adore her style, and the beautiful necklaces she creates. It is often tempting to just go wild and buy out her etsy shop... and i totally would if i had the money to spend (about 200$).

Just today, Deryn has put up a really wonderful tutorial for her 'wrapped beads'. You should really go check this out. Here is the link directly to the tutorial. I will definately be making something for this, and i will show them in a post when i get them finished.

New blog link

I have created another blog for my talk about my life here in korea. I find that i may have two fairly different audiences for the two topics, and have decided to create a second blog for that reason. On it, i will show pictures of my life here in korea, and talk about how things are going. Here, i will continue to show my art. If any of my blogfriends here want to come visit my new blog, you are more than welcome! I may even have a giveaway or something there soon... we will see.

The link to my new blog is http://daleskoreanadventure.blogspot.com/

Leaving date!

Those of you who might have been following my blog know i have been talking about my impending trip to korea... i finally have a date for my flights!!! After 2 months of waiting, i move to Seoul, Korea next wednesday! Wish me luck with my flights :).

Also, i went to send a friend a link to the mint tin present i'd been creating, and discovered i never did post the final product! Silly me. This is my presnet to my friend Erin. It includes a hand made bracelet and the tin case. The hanging charm is etched and rusted copper and the framed charm is resin. I discussed the process i went through (and it WAS a process) in previous posts.






















I wrapped it up all nice for Erin. I hope she likes it :).

Lastly, i had been recently linked to a book giveaway on a new blog... Ilka's Attic. She is giving away her book Exhibition 36: Mixed media demonstrations + explorations. I myself am intrigued by the idea of getting a mixed media book... i'll have to keep an eye out for it next time i'm at the bookstore.

Resin tips and a fabulous link

First i'd like to put out a thanks to the lovely Carmi. She really came through for me last post, when I asked about what to do when your resin does not cure propperly.

I thought I'd throw out there what I have learned myself so far about working with resin, as I didn't really find a sastisfactory answer on the internet before Carmi came along.

1)The humidity of the air affects the curing of the resin. I had done work with resin before, but it dried outside on a hot, dry summer day. This time, it cured in my basement. I found large differences with results between the two (the dry air being the better result).

2)In order to remove the bubbles forming in the resin, use a bbq lighter and wave the flame back and forth over the surface. The heat causes the bubbles to go away.

3)The amount of hardening agent in relation to the amount of resin is very important. If there is not enough hardening agent, the resin will not cure propperly.

4)Be very careful when working with resin. It is extreemely difficult (impossible?) to clean off if your resin drips on your a) table, b) hands, c) jeans, d) mistaken parts of your project. (Unfortunately, resin dripped on all four for me. Luckily, the jeans were old and already ruined when dripped India Ink).

5)Resin makes a really neat coating on top of paper. I used the leftover resin from remaking my charm and coated two backgrounds for ATCs that i'd made... it dried really neat and shiny, as if the piece was made from plastic. Well worth trying :).

6)Sometimes, after you mix resin, it goes CLOUDY! I don't know why this happened. Any commenters out there that can answer this, i will edit the answer in here.

7)Don't glue resin charms onto the main piece until you are CERTAIN that they have cured properly.

8)If there are small scratches on the surface of your resin, you can sand it or add another coat of resin to smooth it out. ( I haven't tried this one myself yet, but this is what i read on a blog)

So, as you can see, I definately learned some positive things and some negative things about working with resin. I decided to follow Carmi's advice with the previous embelishment i had been working on, and just add another layer of resin that would hopefully cure propperly. It was clear when i mixed it, but when i looked at it again about 5 minutes later, it had gone quite cloudy! I tried washing it out, hoping it would get out the resin (where i learned lesson #4 lol). This did not work at all. I had to pull off the charm, which wrecked the paint. I therefor had to re-prime, re-paint and make a new charm for the piece. I have created a new charm now that I think I like even better, and all that remains is for me to screw it onto the main piece. I'll post this once it's finished. Good think Erin isn't around to pick it up yet!


I'd like to mention a fabulous project that I was linked to at Amber Dawn's blog. They are selling this beautiful necklace, done as a collaborative project, to raise funds for breast cancer. WAY TO GO, LADIES! Not only is the necklace absolutely stunning, I love how the money goes to such a great cause.




Edited afterwards:

Thank you so much to Amber Dawn for her fabulous comment she left! She left a comment on the post two previous to this one, with her tips about working with resin. Her advice here is fabulous, and I just had to add it to the post here so everyone could else noticed it too! It was too good to just sit in the comment section...

Here it is:

"Always mix the resin and hardener 1:1
or 2:2
Always the same of each not more hardener.
As for the cloudiness, your image could be bleeding into the resin.
A way to prevent this is to seal the print outs and art work with package tape. Place package tape on BOTH sides of your paper burnish it.
OR you can seal it with clear sealer stuff.
I personally find that rubbing alcohol works VERY well at getting resin off of my hands and work surfaces.
Just work on wax paper over more paper, like old newspapers and you are good to go!
When mixing your resin, stir slowly. Don't use a paint brush or painted stick.
You can use wooden or plastic swizzel sticks.
I use a flat surface to mix my resin and scrape the resin back and forth to mix it. Credit card offers or old credit cards snipped into smaller sections are PERFECT for doing this!

Doing it fast causes cloudiness or big bubbles.
ALWAYS use good ventilation.
I damaged my organs/kidneys years back because I didn't know that an open window wasn't good enough. I also got a lot on my skin!
Now I use a fan which pulls the air out of the window, and I have another window open to create cross ventilation. ALWAYS ALWAYS WEAR GLOVES!
Dale, I am sorry your project didn't work out.
But the learnig process is FUN!
Best wishes!
Amber Dawn (Think Pink) "



What gems of information! Thanks Amber for all of that. I know for myself, I think it answered the question of why my resin went cloudy. While i did use a clean bamboo skewer for stirring, i stirred it quite quickly, and in a 'stirring' motion, definately not a pushing motion. I think that was my problem. Good to know... i'd have done that the next time too!

Judy's fabulous tutorial

I stumbled across a fabulous felting tutorial for an absolutely stunning project on Judy Scott-Kinross' blog. I absolutely adore the project she made and she has a wonderful tutorial laying it all out. Fabulous! Go check it out!

As for myself, i now have all the supplies i need for the next jewelry project, except nickel. Where on earth do you get nickel?????? Could i use copper instead, or are there certain special properties nickel has for etching and jewelry making?

New Sommerset Studios issue and new felted bracelet

I bought the new Sommerset Studios issue in May. However, Cloth Paper Scissors is released at that exact same time, and both are bi-monthly. So i have to wait TWO LONG MONTHS before i can get another magazine of either one! So i try to space them out and make each last as long as possible. I read the Cloth Paper Scissors issue back when i first got it, and I really did try to save the Sommerset Studios issue till June, but it just didn't work... last night i was sitting around and simply HAD to start it. I'm still trying to stretch it out and make it last as long as possible, since the new one isn't out till July :(

I was so pleased to see that one of my favorite bloggers, Stephanie Lee, at Semiprecious Salvage had an article in there. She made a fabulous mixed media birdcage that was just wonderful :). I loved the fun, rustic feel to it. If you haven't checked out her website yet, you totally should :).

As well, i recently finally finished off a felted bracelet (actually, because of it's width it's called a 'cuff'). I really liked the way it turned out with the deep green dye. I used the fancy Jaquard dyes and it worked really well. Boiled it in vinegar and dye for half an hour and voila!

Inspirations aboud!

This is my third post of three today. So much to say... easier to digest for myself, and you guys too, in smaller chunks.

I have had no lack of inspiration lately. I find that i am being challenged and pulled in so many directions. I love all the challenges and projects i am finding!

One highly inspiring thing is the release of this bi-monthly period of Cloth Paper Scissors and Somerset Studios. I haven't had a chance to actually look through either yet propperly, but from a quick flip through i saw awesome articles, from projects with alcohol ink painted vintage spoons to advice about keeping an interesting blog (which i obviously have not read yet... jj). I can't wait to really get into them. While at chapters picking them up, i also came across this fabulous new beading book in their craft/art section. They made such fabulous jewelry pieces, mostly necklaces, like fiber wrapped wood beads, fabric wrapped beads, ribbon and linen based necklaces... they had so much! I was fascinated. If only i could remember it's title or author for you. Oh well. I will eventually buy it, it is inevitable. I'll post it when i buy it, so you can see it's awesomeness for yourself lol.

I am also loving the challenges i am seeing on blogs. I was a regular viewer, and occasional participant, of the weekly challenges on Jen Worden's blog. She has now changed it to a monthly challenge, but has made it geared to somewhat more intricate, thought out, larger projects. I love the first monthly challenge she has created, which is to create a triptych using found text, a type of tape and a found object... how great! I am definitely interested in trying out such a fun, cool project! It is totally worth checking it out on her blog here.

I also just recently found another blog that had a weekly 'creativity challenge'. While the main focus seems to be to writing and literary arts, she seems supportive of visual artists popping in as well. She has a weekly challenge where she gives a prompt and the winner judged from this prompt recieves a 10$ gift certificate! I am not sure how much chance visual artists are given for winning there, as it seems pretty heavily literary there, but it is worth a try and is fun. Worst case scenario, i have a new piece of art created! (or... worse case scenario i don't participate at all..). The prompt for this week is something about a 'cup of coffee'. I may try this one... we'll see. Maybe i'll wait till next week. I'm not really feeling this one, being a non-coffee drinker.

So, i am pleased with the challenges abound. I find them so inspiring. No lack of ideas now. Just choosing which to try. Do i want to try making fabric covered beads? Or maybe a ribbon based necklace? Or try another felted piece, maybe a fabulous wrist piece type of thing like Gillian has been creating in her etsy shop... or something new from the magazines just picked up! I love this...

Bluegirl

I have been looking around, checking my blogs, and i saw that Bluegirlxo has a new post. She has created this thing of beauty with her 'Uplifted Voices' book. I would totally recommend going and checking out her beautiful art. I find it so very inspiring that i want to try out some of the things she does there. The next of rocks? Fabulous. If i actually do some of these type of projects, i'll post pics here on my blog for all of you :)

Tribute to Kelly Rae Robertson

I was flipping through old issues of Cloth Paper Scissors, and i saw the beautiful art of Kelly Rae Robertson. I love reading her blog and i find her art style absolutely inspiring. I am drawn to the softness/strength of her women. I also love her use of colour and layered paper (in some paintings). Looking at the magazine, i made a version of her beautiful work.

I started this months ago, when i glued a collage of green papers down onto cardboard and cut it to ATC size. I always knew i would create a Robertson-style painting on top of it, but i just wasn't ready yet. Today, after looking in the magazine, i finally felt ready. I drew a sample sketch in my art book/journal. I was so pleased with the results that i felt ready to make this art :). After drawing the woman with pencil, I traced the lines with black gel pen (note to self... get better gel pens. This one was kinda crappy and didn't work so good. Myabe because it's old?)

After the lines were down, i mixed a variety of acrylic colours, mixing all of them with pearlescent medium. I was going to make just the wings shimmery, but then i liked the colour so much that i made them all like that. After all, who doesn't need a little extra shimmer in their life! Haha. I know i do :)

I wonder where this fabulous card will find a home? Will the artists on ATCsforall love it, or ignore it? I hope there will be someone that feels about it the same way i do :). I do find that the comments at the atc site are rather lacking lately, since the move of sites. Hopefully it will pick up later??

'Get your butt in gear and finish the darn work' challenge

While this is not the official title for the challenge, this is how i view Jen Worden's challenge for this week. And even with the poke in the butt by the challenge, i was still a day late hahaha. Oh well. Luckily for me, her challenge was running late too so i was able to submit my piece for the challenge.

I have just recently stumbled upon DJ Pettit's blog. I find her work to be fabulously inspiring. She is absolutely fantastic at incorporating sewing into her art. I was in awe especially of her one painting of a woman posted on March 5th. If you're having trouble finding the post or something (though it is quite easy to find), here is a link to the pic.

I started this piece some time ago... i would say that i started it about 4 or 5 months ago, if not more. Then life happened. However, with my fresh reminder and inspiration by DJ, i decided to finish this one for the challenge.

This piece was created with watercolours on watercolour paper, and then stitched with my sewing machine. I believe the original inspiration came from a cloth paper scissors magazine?

Red Dawn

Another day, another monocromatic ATC!

Well, maybe not one EVERY day, but it does seem like i am churning out quite a few lately :) This one took me two days to finish (one for the background, one for the painting and collage). I have now done green, orange and red monocromatic ATC's, and have a blue one currently in the works (will show when it's done).

This one was inspired looking at the pictures you see that just seem to be so touchable. They have so much texture to some of them! I was looking through my copy of ARTFUL BLOGGING (which FINALLY arrived :):):) ) and i was simply inspired by one of Bridgette Guerzon Mills' paintings. The texture was so strong, and the colours beautifully layered. I used this painting as my original inspiration, and then went a different direction in many ways. I have always been inspired by Bridgette's work, and am a regular subscriber to her blog Contemplating the Moon. I was very excited to see her blog featured in Artful Blogging. You should totally go check her blog out.

So, on my ATC, I first tried creating dimension with gesso, but i found it wasn't enough. Maybe because I have too cheap quality, wal-mart gesso? hahah Is gesso supposed to make mini clumps on the picture??? I just don't know. To create more dimension, i glued down scraps of various papers of varying textures, and put even more gesso on top of them. Painted, glued down and created an impression of a grain elevator, stamped a title and voila! Another finished.

This card was created for Jen Worden's current weekly challenge (yes, this time i am going for the current one!). Card created.... now i need to fulfill the second part and give it to a complete stranger.... hmmm... this will be harder than i expected. While it is true that almost ALL my art goes to strangers, as i trade ATC's online, it is different sending my art to a non ATC collecter. I am somewhat nervous with this part :S