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. 🙂

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Art Bead Scene September monthly challenge

Tags

art bead, Autumn, earring, handmade bead, nature, necklace, polymer clay, SEP ABS

It’s a lucky coincidence that I have something for this month’s Art Bead Scene challenge. I’d just made a pair of earrings to co-ordinate with the Bronze Oddment necklace I made a while ago and, as I was uploading them to my etsy store, I realised the colours were perfect for this month’s painting.

View of the Pond at Charleston, East Sussex by Vanessa Bell
Oil on canvas, 79.8 x 84 cm

Here are the earrings. I used polymer clay beads which I made myself together with glass seed beads. They are attached to tiny brass washers I found in an old bracelet and bronze coloured niobium ear-wires. I like how the shards of polymer clay suggest the falling leaf motif of the curtain.

Oddment earrings by Cate van Alphen

And here’s a new image of the necklace they were made to co-ordinate with.

Bronze Oddment Necklace by Cate van Alphen

Sedbergh Sheep Fest 2015 – part 2

Tags

cane, cross stitch, earring, handmade bead, polymer clay, sheep

I have been making sheep for this year’s Sheep Fest in Sedbergh. I’ve already done one post, and here are some more of the sheepies I’ve made.

Cross stitch sheep pendant by Cate van Alphen

I still had some of the polymer clay cross stitch sheep cane left over from last year’s Sheep Fest, so I reduced a length to make into beads.

Cross stitch sheep jewellery by Cate van Alphen

Cross stitch sheep earrings by Cate van Alphen

I had an odd number of beads, so I also made some phone charms.

Sheep charms by Cate van Alphen

These sculptural sheep are from a mould of an original sheep I made. I put some off-cuts from a sheet of green cane veneer on the back to keep them interesting from all sides.

Sheep earrings by Cate van Alphen

I have some more painterly sheep pendants in progress. They might feature in a WIP post soon if I don’t get them finished.

Slate stack earrings

Tags

Cate van Alphen, Cumbria, earring, handmade beads, polymer clay, rustic, slate, stone wall

I while ago I started making stack beads from polymer clay. The rustic look reminded me of the dry stone walls around Cumbria which I love. So I made more beads in slaty grey for earrings. I have now, finally, got round to listing them in my Etsy shop.

Earthy slate stack earrings by Cate van Alphen

Mossy green slate stack earrings by Cate van Alphen

Slate and starling wing earrings by Cate van Alphen

Enjoy ;).

Queen of Hearts’ Earrings

Tags

Alice in Wonderland, Cate van Alphen, earring, handmade bead, playing card suit, polymer clay, queen of hearts

I was inspired to make earrings for the Queen of Hearts from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. They feature polymer clay focal beads handmade by me.

Queen of Heart’s Earrings by Cate van Alphen

Of course I couldn’t resist making earrings based on the other playing card suits too.

Playing card suit earrings by Cate van Alphen

I think they’d make fun mismatched pairs. They are all available now in my Etsy shop.

Art Bead Scene – December 2014

Tags

art bead, bead earrings, Cate van Alphen, DEC ABS, earring, handmade beads, monthly challenge, polymer clay

The earrings I made for this month’s Art Bead Scene Challenge may seem a little abstract because I can’t share all the steps I took to get there (yet!). The beads I used are handmade by me from polymer clay (other than the gold seed beads in the last pair of earrings).

Choir of Sint-Bavokerk, Haarlem 1635 by Pieter Jansz Saenedam
Oil on Oak Panel, 37.1 x 48.2 cm

Rustic sequin stack earrings by Cate van Alphen

Monochrome earrings – inspired by the geometric structure of the painting.

White stack and glitter bead earrings by Cate van Alphen

Earrings with gold glitter beads (because it’s Christmas). I thought I could get away with these because of the gold chandelier in the painting.

Offset stack bead earrings by Cate van Alphen

The last pair is a bit of a tangent away from the painting. I was worried the stacks of flat disk beads looked a little like electric power line insulators so I tried a pair with the holes drilled off centre. I discovered that I needed to drill two holes to prevent the beads spinning around inelegantly. I was trying to achieve a look of an impossibly precarious cairn. The idea is pretty much the opposite of the order and structure of the painting, but don’t tell the muse!

Copper and orange

Tags

Autumn in the air, bead, copper, dangle, earring, lampwork, orange, wire wrap

Is that Autumn in the air, or just Summer having a cold shower?

I used a pair of (non pedigree) lampwork beads and this free tutorial to wrap the dagger beads to make these copper and orange earrings.

September Sheep

Tags

bag charm, cane, cross stitch, earring, polymer clay, sheep, sheepfest

I have been making some more polymer clay faux cross stitch sheepiness for Sheepfest. Well, when you’ve spent a whole weekend making a cane, you simply have to!

Cross stitch sheep earrings by Cate van Alphen

Cross stitch sheep earrings by Cate van Alphen

Cross stitch sheep bag charm by Cate van Alphen

I also made some matching pendants, but I forgot to photograph them before I took them to the Craftworkshop.

Baaa-ye for now.

Rustic stack beads

Tags

beads, earring, free tutorial, gradient, handmade, necklace, polymer clay, rustic, Sonya Girodon

I was inspired by Sonya Girodon’s necklace “Skeleton Coast“ to make beads by stacking layers of polymer clay.

I was quite pleased with my efforts at the time but unfortunately now that I look at them in comparison to hers they look horribly juvenile. Or maybe it’s just because I’m having an “everything I do is horrible” day? 😦

Gradient stack bead earrings by Cate van Alphen

Earrings with dangle by Cate van Alphen

Anyway check out Sonya’s work, she even shares a tutorial for making beads similar to the focal ones in the necklace.

July Sale 20% off

Tags

20% off, bracelet, earring, handmade beads, jewellery, necklace, polymer clay, sale

I have been dusting off my Zibbet shop and I’ve decided to have a sale. There’s 20% off a mix of jewellery including earrings, necklaces and bracelets.