Right beads, wrong place

Tags

bracelet, mokume gane, necklace, polymer clay

I made a necklace. I like the beads, and I like the necklace but sadly I have a horrible suspicion that I’m going to dismantle it.

It’s an asymmetric necklace with a mix of different shaped beads in different sizes. It works well on the beading board, the problem is when it’s on a body…

… the square shaped beads lie horizontally instead of face on. See that pesky bead at the bottom? What do you think, is this a feature or a fail?

I like the big square beads, but I now realise the hole needs to be offset if they are to hang correctly at the bottom of a necklace. I should have remembered this from my big lentil necklace. The weight of the necklace is all wrong if I rotate it so that the square beads are on the side instead.

It works quite well as a multi-strand bracelet provided that you don’t move your hand at all. I’m trying to decide if I should take the necklace apart and use the beads to make four stacking bracelets instead.

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Are we there yet?

Tags

bracelet, jewellery, necklace, polymer clay

It’s been ages since my last post. I have been waiting to tell you about my very own, fabulous, online shop. This is not that post! 😦 I won’t bore you with the technical details, other than to say the gnashing of teeth and tears involved in its creation continue.

In the meantime here are a few pieces of jewellery that I dropped off at the Craftworkshop in Sedbergh yesterday.

Yellow retro necklace by Cate van Alphen

There are a couple of necklaces featuring my polymer clay beads.

Blue flower necklace by Cate van Alphen

And a pair of elasticated bracelets.

Blue bracelet by Cate van Alphen

Purple bracelet by Cate van Alphen

Green Jewellery

Tags

bracelet, cabochon, earrings, green, kaleidoscope cane, necklace, polymer clay

I have been making some green jewellery using the polymer clay beads I made last year. These, and other green goodies, are now available in my Folksy store.

Big bead choker by Cate van Alphen

Macrame and leaf button bracelet by Cate van Alphen

Kaleidoscope cane cabochon by Cate van Alphen

I also made some earrings using my Blue Palette.

Blue kaleidoscope earrings by Cate van Alphen

Polymer clay challenge – week 33

Tags

2016PCchallenge, bracelet, handmade beads, polymer clay, yellow

Here are a couple of bracelets that I made using my polymer clay beads. Since I actually made them last week I’ll put them down for week 33 of 2016 Polymer Clay Challenge, even though this blog entry is a bit late for that.

I used the colours from my Yellow Palette.

Polymer clay challenge – week 19

Tags

ArtVessel, beads, bracelet, mosaic, polymer clay

This week my Art Vessel is still a work in progress, but I do have a bracelet that I made.

Work in progress by Cate van Alphen

I made this bracelet mainly to practice knotting beads.

Polymer Clay Challenge week 10

Tags

2016PCchallenge, art bead, ArtVessel, bracelet, handmade bead, polymer clay

This week for my 2016 Polymer Clay challenge I have a sneak peek of a lantern that I’m making and another ballet-time bracelet.

Polymer clay and glass lantern WIP by Cate van Alphen

I decided to do another lantern since the previous one I made was a bit disappointing when illuminated. This time I’m using glass nuggets so it should be more exciting when lit. I’ve only completed a small section, but it’s promising. I just hope it will hold together when I’m done since I’m intending to leave some gaps.

Yellow polymer clay bead bracelet by Cate van Alphen

I used beads from last year’s Yellow Palette to make this bracelet. It’s available from my Folksy shop.

Polymer Clay Challenge – week 8

Tags

2016PCchallenge, art bead, bracelet, handmade bead, polymer clay, retro

This week I have decided to alter the parameters of my challenge – because it’s mine so I can! Last year I tried to do my weekly blog on a Thursday, this meant I could play on Friday evening because I didn’t “have to” finish something off for the challenge. My vessels are taking longer to make than I expect, which is fine because I love doing them, but now I am trying to simplify my ideas to fit them into a self-imposed timescale of a week. I’m not enjoying the stress and I don’t believe artists get bonus points for how quickly they work (unless you use the time is money* equation).

I am now also using the beads I made from last year’s challenge to make finished pieces of jewellery. I do this when I’m waiting while the girls do ballet etc. so it comes out of a different time budget. Therefore I have decided that my challenge will now be as follows: I will work on my vessel each week, and if it is not finished within a week I will post some of my ballet-time jewellery instead.

Maybe by the end of the year I’ll be able to work quicker and more efficiently and have a vessel completed each week? But for this week it’s a ballet-time bracelet.

I used beads from my Orange Palette for this bracelet. I made the red stick beads specifically for it after pairing the square retro beads with the gold pearls. You can find it in my Folksy shop.

Hooray! Tonight I can play. I’ll probably finish off the trinket box I’m working on. But I don’t “have to”. 😉

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* I don’t think money is the best measurement of an artist either.

Art Bead Scene January Challenge

Tags

art bead, bracelet, Cate van Alphen, earring, handmade bead, JAN ABS, polymer clay, star, starfish

As my girls would sing “For the first time in forever…” I have made an entry for the Art Bead Scene monthly challenge. I do follow along every month and usually plan something, but I don’t often get to sit down and make it.

Landscape with Stars by Henri-Edmond Cross
Watercolor over graphite on paper, ca. 1905–1908

I had been thinking about making polymer clay star beads over Christmas, so I thought it would be easy peasy to make a couple for a pair of earrings. But, then I had enough clay for three stars so I thought the third would make a nice charm for a bracelet. So I made a few more beads in different shapes to make a bracelet. And a few more stars in different sizes…

Polymer clay jewellery by Cate van Alphen

In the end I didn’t use the third star charm and I now have a bowl of beads waiting to become something when they grow up. The bracelet ended up daintier than I planned. The chunkier beads in the bracelet irritated me – I think because I use my hands a lot.

Star bracelet by Cate van Alphen

Initially the earrings were just supposed to be the large star charm on the bottom hung from an ear-wire, but they grew.

Star earrings by Cate van Alphen

The back shows a little cross-pollination with Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”.

Back of earrings by Cate van Alphen

Some of the stars twist around the wrong way but they look quite cute – like little starfish. Sometimes I feel like my sparkle is hiding on the inside too so that’s ok. 🙂

Polymer clay challenge week 36 – beads

Tags

2015PCchallenge, bead, bracelet, handmade bead, Indigo, polymer clay, wire

This week of my Polymer Clay Challenge it’s indigo beads so, technically, here is the bead I made. It’s a bit boring, but there is a little bit more to the story…

Polymer clay bead by Cate van Alphen

I wanted to make some compound beads to go with my compound focal from last week. I started off making a few test beads, which looked perfect for a bracelet. So I whipped up a toggle so I could finish that.

Polymer clay and lapis lazuli bracelet by Cate van Alphen

I made compound beads by joining my double-sided disk beads together with liquid polymer clay onto wire. I’m still fascinated by the way the colours hide depending on the angle of the bead. These are now part of a half-made necklace. I need some more spacer beads to finish it, but I haven’t been able to make them yet.

Indigo stack beads by Cate van Alphen

I didn’t think sticking beads together with liquid polymer counted much towards the challenge, and I’d run out of time, but I still had the clay from the hole of the toggle. I pierced a hole and shaped the sides slightly, so I have officially made one bead for the challenge this week!

Polymer clay and wire toggle by Cate van Alphen

Polymer clay challenge – week 2

Tags

2015PCchallenge, bead, bracelet, brown, handmade beads, orange, polymer clay, red, retro

My orange colour palette includes orange and chocolate brown which is a colour combination that screams “retro” at me. So for this week I used one of  the techniques from Syndee Holt’s class in the Virtual Retreat.

See the black bracelet with wasabi and cerise dots on square tiles (bottom left)? Retro – right?

I made little polymer clay tile beads featuring central dots of contrasting colours. The beads have two parallel holes and a flat back so they would be ideal for use in a bracelet.

 

I couldn’t resist doing several colour combinations…

I’m not sure that the red beads play very nicely with the others though.

What do you think – is the red too loud or does it add a nice bit of pep?