Busy...busy...busy....

Sorry I have been missing but I've been trying to get some bead sets done for Bead and Button and for Etsy.  Here is the first little pile of goodies.  They are sets done with the base colors of Parrot Green and Light Turquoise.  I think there are about eight sets in my jumbled pile.

What Am I Going to Wear with my Latest Creation?

Different necklines look better with certain necklace styles.
 

Turtle necks – best with longer necklaces

Crew necks – best with short necklaces such as necklace ‘collar’ or bib styles

Scoop necks – fill in the space with multiple strands of beads or larger scale pendants

Strapless – look great with chokers or short pendants, leaving your lovely décolletage bare

Square necks – look for pendants with an angular finish to harmonize with the angular neckline

Asymmetric necklines – look for necklaces that aren’t symmetrical, instead a necklace that has it’s own asymmetry can work, alternatively a long string of different sized and shaped beads can work well.

Halter necks – these create a narrow V neck – so look for a narrow pendant with a sharper end
V neck – ideally a necklace that matches the shape of the V – depending if it’s a wider or narrower V neck.

Collared shirt (button down) – there isn’t much space for anything too wide, so a choker style works if you have a long neck, if not a slimmer pendant that sits above the last open button.
Boat neck – a long string or two of beads is ideal for this neckline.

Cowl neck – this neckline is already detailed and has volume, so either a short and small pendant or a pair of feature earrings instead of a necklace.

Sweetheart – a curved necklace that has width that will balance the open décolletage of this neckline.

 

This great information comes from Imogen Lamport.

I couldn't sleep tonight and was amusing myself by surfing around my Facebook posts and found this posted by my friend Anne Sturdevant.  I just had to back track it and check out where it came from.  Jewelers kind of work backwards.  They create the piece and then are running around trying to figure out what shirt in the closet goes with it.  Or, better yet, I go out shopping for a matching color - Ha! I usually end up copping out and getting a white or a black because I can't find what looks right.

 

Well, Imogen has certainly got my attention She has plenty to say about fashion and finding the right things to complete great looks for your wardrobe.  It takes a bit of doing to shock me but her site managed that easily.  Really, where has this site been all my life while I was struggling to figure out what to wear.

 

Look at that great visual on necklaces!!!!!!!

 

The title of the original post is:

                                         "How to Choose Necklaces to Work with Your Neckline"

                                                  and it's from Imogen's Inside Out Style Blog

 

I really think you will like her blog - I'm totally smitten and am adding it to my Favorite Blogs list.



Soldering, anyone?

When I first started soldering there weren't the plethora of videos and books out that there are now.  You had to go the traditional route and attend a class or a school.  If you were lucky you had a friend who could show you.  Rio Grande Jewelry Supply has always been a great resource for information so I thought I'd pass this along.

 

Soldering Videos 

 

 

Progress...

Baby steps, baby steps...but always forward ho!  Pieces to cut and shape for the earrings and  Metalliferous  is out of my favorite wire to bend for earring hoops - poop.  Well, it will just give me plenty of time to do some resin work on these and others.  I even finished a small kiln load of the ceramic bits and pieces.  When it all comes together I'll probably end up with about ten pair and plenty of leftovers for more.

Leave it to Albert

 

"If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then is an empty desk a sign?" ~Albert Einstein

 

There couldn't be a better excuse for my "works in progress" mania than that quote.

Thank you Mr. Einstein.

Components are my "Happy Place"?

I feel like Nemo in my happy spot.  The exception being that nothing is complete.  I'm sure my friends would say that once I actually sit down and start creating a finished piece I certainly won't "want" for anything because all the pieces are in various stages of nearly complete.  You know, a patina here - a resin there.  Making rust on tin and glazing little bits of this and that.  I really think I'm trying to talk myself into the fact that there isn't a room in the house that doesn't have some kind of artistic chemistry going on.  Let me show you....

Clay bead caps and dangles (in progress)

Glazing piles of stuff (in progress).

Patina mania (uh, in progress) so I can resin some paper stampings into them

 

A stack of tins (to be cut up and stored for future use) - oh yeah, the dog has knocked over this pile twice!

 

And this is the tip of the iceberg that is piling up everywhere...kitchen counter, two folding tables in the front room, my end table I didn't even take a picture of - it's full of drawing tablets, paper cut outs for the cabs, bits of stones to wrap.  The list is endless.  Uh, then there is the portable cafeteria tray that has two pair of half finished earrings.  It's like I figured out the puzzle of what worked and stopped.  Gheeze!  Does anyone but me work like this sometimes?  I need something for ADD, I'm sure of it.

And - this doesn't even cover the fact my work table is full - somewhat spilling over.  And, oh yes - there is another and....I need to stop what I am doing and go back to lampworking because I need glass beads to sell at the Glass Act booth at Bead and Button in a month.  Oh puck....who knows a geneticist who can clone me!

Class with Jari Sheese

I told you all about being at Portia's but I never really got to rave about our instructor.  I wouldn't rave if it wasn't any good - I'd just kind of keep my mouth shut.  But, there isn't any need to be coy about it - Jari Sheese was a phenomenal teacher.  It would be a shame if she were to retire teaching but that is the word from Jari so if she's taking a break I'd find a place you can sign up for a class and do it fast.


Jari Sheese working a twisted stringer onto a button top.

A great selection of Sheese's Buttons


Did I learn a lot?  You bet.  I'm showing you a photo of Jari's buttons and they are labeled as hers - but she taught us how to do that....they're fun.  As I said in the previous post I had the opportunity to use plenty of Double Helix glass (love that stuff) but what I loved even more was the fact that Jari knows the subtle nuances of using it to it's advantage.  Just about anyone can make it work in an organic bead but it does take someone with great skill to use silvered glasses in a controlled way.  I learned to lay down the glass - reduce it - use stringer work - bring it back out of it's silvered state - lay down more stringer.  I mean, whoa, you can get a lot of looks out one type of glass by knowing when to reduce and what to add to it that will react with it - or not. 

Then - to top it all off we made ornaments.  To look at Jari's ornaments I thought to myself, "Oh hell, there is no way I'm going to be able to make one of these."  But by the time she was done guiding us through the steps and letting the pieces anneal overnight - well, there we all were.... with finished ornaments.  All different and all beautiful.  It takes skill to orchestrate ten students through that process and we all finished.

An ornament by Jari Sheese

We all finished buttons, ornaments, silver glass experiments, pendants, and Jari even showed us how to make her earring drops - and we made those too.  I came home with a ton of techniques and notes for more experiments.  There wasn't a bead in Jari's extensive collection that she couldn't recall the colors used or the order she put them on in. 

Did I have a great time?  Absolutely, and Jari's instruction was a HUGE part of that art retreat experience.  I love having a great teacher at a great studio.  There's not much to go wrong with that equation.

And what did I make in class...plenty.  But I thought I'd show you this since Mary Kay Stout sent me photos of the ornament I took home.  What do you think?

It Ain't Heavy - It's My Earring!

I've been making some longer and larger earrings lately.  Since I'm from that age of huge earrings you just might think it's my earring of choice.  It never was but I'm getting bolder with age.  During that time they just kept growing in size until we all looked ridiculous if we were wearing a stud instead of severed elephants head.  Our heads tilted and our collective ear lobes ached.  While ear lobes naturally grow with us for the rest of our lives some of them began to look stretched, then our tiny holes contained slits in them rather than the original small hole.  Short of surgery to repair the cosmetic damage caused by years of this type of abuse, via vanity, what's there to do?

 

I know this is an ethnic preference but this does look painful to me. Although I have to say the ones below don't look any less painful to wear for an evening, let alone a lifetime.

 

Well, you could have guessed that my favorite jewelry to create is earrings.  I thought, as I was matching pieces up, it was high time to have some parameters on what might be acceptable as an earring weight.  Is there a rule?  Does it matter how heavy the earring is if it's really stylish?  No? Yes? Truthfully lots of you are just going to say it doesn't matter if you like the earrings and you'll wear them no matter what - everyone does have variances in their tolerance for weight.  I've been there before and I guess wearing an inappropriately heavy pair of earrings once in awhile wouldn't, in the long run, hurt your ear lobes.  But, I can't wear a pair of those for whole evening before they go in my purse.....and If I'm going to spend either the time or money on a pair I want to feel like I'm going to love the look of them and how they feel in my ears.

I've been working with glass, stones, ceramic, and recycled components for my new earrings.  I've also taken to adding tin to them.  I love recycling the tin.  It was a design decision based on weight and color.  I wanted to have more volume in my earrings - maybe a couple of royally large "statement pieces".  I could create a very large hollow glass bead and that would definitely give me the volume but glass still has a weight to it.  If it's hung on a pendelem (such as a chain) it will "feel" heavier than if it were on a short head pin.  It's the nature of the science.

Since I have to weigh out materials for casting I happen to have a very dependable scale on hand.  So, I googled earring topics (earring weight) to see what I'd come up with.  I love having potential info at my finger tips. 

A lot depends on the kind of earring attachment you are using - obviously a post with a wide clutch on the back is going to help distribute more weight than a standard earring nut - and, of course, common sense dictates they are going to better handle weight than a wire.  Even the gauge of earring wire is helpful.  But after reading quite a bit of material it seems like there is mostly agreement among the designers.

Judith Ripka, award winning designer, feels that 4 grams per earring is a good weight to stay under.  Some say a total of 10 grams for "art" earrings is reasonable, others stay to 7 grams per pair - max.  So, it looks like maybe a design limit of 3.5 grams per earring is reasonable (give or take your choice - wire/post/style and science).

Without a scale how much is a gram?  Well, 3.5 grams = 1/8 oz. (the average size tea bag).  Other weights to help guide you (me) on my quest for earring perfection:

Paperclip            - 1 gram
Penny                 - 2.5 grams
Quarter               - 6 grams
Reese's PB Cup  - 9 grams
2 Nickels            - 10 grams
Average Egg      - 50 grams
Dove Soap Bar   - 100 grams 
Average Apple   - 150 grams

Trust me - I'm unlikely to make anything as large (heavy) for my ears as the last three items on that list !

New Ceramic Earring Parts (coming right up?)

I liked the way the tiny little "love" charm worked on the new tin dangle earrings I assembled a couple of posts ago so I decided to make a batch of earring parts.  Here's what I have so far.  They're fun to make but I get the feeling they are going to be a "beach" to paint if I want to do more than dip them in a glaze....ugh.  I know I'll love them when they're done but sometimes I bite off a little more than I can chew.  LOL - what artist doesn't?

Piles of tiny new clay earring components to glaze

I still need to post my photos of what I did in Jari Ann Sheese's class.  I'll try and get those photos taken today.  I just have to show you what she guided us through.  The ornaments are pretty incredible if I do say so myself.

More Rain and Snow

It's never going to stop!

The rain, sleet and snow.

Can you figure out what this is?

 

It's a great optical illusion - I'll tell you what it is at the end of the post.

 

 

This one cracks me up - but it's how I feel

 

and I especially like this one....read it, love it?

 

Shepard Faerie Art Print

 

But war it is! - It just cost me over $300 to untangle a mangled mouse from my car fan.  So, that's it - the mice may not live in peace in the garage.  I've declared war and I'll probably be reincarnated as a mouse and I feel bad but not enough to pay to have this done again.  Sorry, it's just been too cold - too long this winter.

 

The optical illusion is through the dashboard window of my car.  It's a window and blinds through the rain.  Weird, huh?

 

Have a great Saturday and try to Make Art - Not War.