Bead Soup is in the mail… Here’s a preview.
Things will become clearer once I hear that my partner Wendy Chamberlain has received them. 😉
TTFN
Bead Soup is on its way
13 Thu Mar 2014
Tag Archives: teal
ABS July wishlist
13 Sat Jul 2013
Posted in Inspiration
Tags
art bead, bead, black, components, green, head pins, lampwork, lampwork beads, polymer clay, polymer clay beads, silk, teal, toggle
I love the colours in this month’s Art Bead Scene challenge, so since I am spending time posting to my new Etsy shop, I decided to make a treasury wishlist.
Portrait of Olga in the Armchair, 1917
Pablo Picasso
Oil on Canvas 130 × 88.8 cm
‘ABS July wishlist’ by Fulgorine
This is my wishlist of beads for the Art Bead Scene July challenge.
October earrings in November
18 Sun Nov 2012
Tags
52 earrings, ABS challenge, blue, circle, copper, earring, green, polymer clay, revolve, teal
I started making a pair of earrings for the ABS October monthly challenge inspired by the painting “Revolving” by Kirt Schwitters. I loved the painterly colours and the geometry of the repeating circles.
ABS Inspiration painting
“Revolving” (1919) by Kirt Schwitters
My idea was to make something similar to an earlier pair of earrings but using the colours of the painting and creating a circular shape. Unfortunately the earrings stalled because the blobby tail made them look like digits or inverted commas. They completely lost the geometry and elegance of the inspiration painting.
It wasn’t until after the challenge deadline had passed that it occurred to me to cut off the tail (which I’ve kept for another pair of earrings). It’s amazing what a big difference something so simple can make.
The earrings are actually more exciting when worn as they (quite fittingly) revolve and reveal flashes of the copper colour on the other side.
Long way round – petal pendant
18 Mon Jun 2012
I have been having great fun making hollow polymer clay doughnut pendants, however I have found it slightly irritating that the back of the pendants end up being sucked in and not completely flat (it still looks ok, but sometimes it’s not what I want).
Therefore with my latest doughnut pendant, I tried baking the backing disk before adding the domed front. This was a BAD idea. Firstly I had imagined that by using liquid clay I could get the front clay to stick to the back when I cut out the hole – this didn’t work. Also I had planned to cut out the corresponding hole in the backing while the clay was warm (I forgot this step until it had cooled completely so I don’t know if this would have worked). Besides once it was baked I decided I liked the solid back visible through the doughnut hole and I decided to keep it as a decorative feature. I drilled a small hole for stringing instead.
After baking, the edges of the doughnut were mostly stuck down, but the central hole had puffed up so it wasn’t touching the backing clay (sorry there’s no picture to explain). With some struggle, I managed to stick the front of the doughnut to the back around the hole using super glue. To do this I had squished the two together which resulted in the nice flat backing disk ending up domed so that the two could meet (this is what I was trying to avoid in the first place!).
Bake again and… disaster!
The super glue had stayed stuck, and the back went back to being flat causing the front to crack and go with it. I really loved the mokume gane surface of the clay so I didn’t want to abandon the pendant. So plan C? D? (I’d lost count by now)… petals!
I made three petals to cover the gap repair between the front and back, and I put a layer of micro beads around the edging.
The back of the pendant is beautifully flat. (I used Tania Podoleanu’s method to create the wavy pattern.)
I love the final result of this pendant, but I got there the long way round. Hopefully I can find a more elegant way to get a flat back to my hollow pendants. I’ll let you know if I do.
