Mosaic

I've got involved in a community project to make a mosaic sign for our Community Centre.  We started with the colour scheme of the Centre (red and green) and sketched out some designs.....

One of the group found a piece of pottery in the beck which runs near the Centre.  That pottery shard is now one of the petals of the flower in the centre of the sign....

Isn't it amazing what a group of people can do in a few short hours?

  

The sign still needs to be grouted.  I'll take a photo when it is finished and takes pride of place on our building.  

Raku Bowls

I’m still hobbling about with my injured ankle – which is slowing me down and I’m not able to spend as much time on the things that I show you on this blog.  You can’t safely wield a metal-working torch while sitting with your foot up!!  So instead I thought I’d show you what I made in a Raku class that I took last summer.
In case you don’t know Raku is a Japanese glazing technique.  You heat the pot up to 1000^oC in a kiln and then take it out while it is still glowing hot.  You quickly plunge it into an enclosed container filled with sawdust and allow the Raku glazes to work their magic.  The pots smell of wood-smoke for weeks after.    

We used some metallic-effect glazes….

And some crackle glazes…..

Because there are such dramatic temperature changes, you need to use a robust, gritty clay with this technique.  It was hard on the hands to throw pots on the wheel with such gritty clay!  But I did have smooth, exfoliated hands for weeks after!!

Resin Fragments

It started with fragments from an old Schubert manuscript, a reel of wire and some resin.....

...and then I made a few more......

...and then I threw some tissue paper into the mix for some colour......

...and then I thought I'd better start making something with them because I was getting overrun!....

(Amethyst and resin fragments)

I've been quietly making these over the last few weeks and have got rather inspired by them.  I particularly like them with the tissue paper because they have a wonderful translucency about them.....

 I think my plan with them next is to try a few different shapes and to start using soldered wire shapes.  

Shell necklace

I came across some sliced shells and, as I often do, I filled them with resin.  I also added some teeny-weeny chocolate brown pearls into the resin and finished it off with some knotted glass beads.  

(Resin, Shell, Pearl, Glass beads)

The weather has changed here in the UK - spring is definitely on the way - and I think this necklace reflects that. It definitely has a feel of summer about it - I don't think I'd have made it a few weeks ago when winter still had us firmly in its grasp (hope I haven't jinxed the arrival of spring by saying that!!).  

Bead Soup

My bead soup has arrived from Italy!  The recipe is.......

.....take a focal and a clasp....

....stir in some tibetan silver hearts, beads and elements inspired by nature......

...add a generous scoop of bead caps.....

...mix in some crystals, glass beads and mother of pearl.....

....and let it simmer until the 13th April.....

I'm very grateful to Jò for her generous bead soup.  I'm excited to get started with it.  There are things that I haven't tried using before but that is a big part of the fun of the Bead Soup Blog Party - you get to push yourself outside your comfort zone and try something new.  Please come back on the 13th April to see what I make with my bead soup.  

********Update: my reveal date has been postponed until the 27th April.  Poor Lori, who organises Bead Soup, hasn't been well recently and needs a bit of extra time to deal with the mammoth task of organising the Bead Soup Blog Party.  Get well soon Lori! 

Jò also sent me some lovely gifts - aren't I lucky?  The hair grips are gorgeous and she also sent me one of her fold-formed copper focals.  I haven't tried fold-forming yet - and after seeing what Jò has done I think I'm going to give it a try.  

Finally, I should say that my bead soup arrived a few days ago and I apologise for not putting these photos on my blog until now.  I've badly sprained my ankle and that has slowed me down somewhat this week.  I have a bay window in my house which is where I take my photos.  It is good because it has light coming in from three sides and it also has a really wide window sill for setting up the photographs.  However, the sill is quite high up so I need to stand up to be able to take the photograph - which has been a bit tricky with my sprained ankle!

Bead Soup!

I'm happy to say that I've joined in with the Bead Soup Blog Party.  In case you don't know, this is organised by the amazing Lori Anderson.  I don't know how she does it but I'm glad that does!  She has visited the blogs of over 500 people and paired us all up.  The rules are simple - send your partner a focal, a clasp and some coordinating beads - make something beautiful with them - and then show your design on your blog on reveal day.

I've been lucky enough to be paired with Jò from Italy.  She is a multi-talented lady - as well as making lovely jewellery, she does scrap-booking, painting, papier mâché, ceramics......head over to her blog to take a look.  She is also a lovely person - I've really enjoyed getting to know her.

She received my parcel of bead soup ingredients today.  I took a photo of what I sent her to show you but she has done an amazing collage of it so I'll leave it to her - go and see what I sent her.  The parcel that she sent me is still on its way from Italy.  I'll post a picture when I receive it.

Our reveal date is the 13th April so please come and visit our blogs then to see what we made.  It will also be interesting to see what the other Bead Soup participants have made - Lori has links to all the other participants on her blog.  

In case, like me, you don't know a lot of Italian you can put Jò's web address into something like Google Translate and it will put it into slightly scrambled English for you.  

********Update: my reveal date has been postponed until the 27th April.  Poor Lori, who organises Bead Soup, hasn't been well recently and needs a bit of extra time to deal with the mammoth task of organising the Bead Soup Blog Party.  Get well soon Lori!

Art Jewelry Boot Camp

I recently came across a blog challenge that seemed right up my street.  The Art Jewelry Boot Camp - run by the Love My Art Jewelry blog - gives a tutorial on a particular technique and then challenges you to do something creative with it.  The first challenge was to make balled head pins (have a look at the tutorial if you want to know how).  I’ve done this before – for example for this necklace - so I thought I’d do something I haven’t tried and balled both ends of the head pin to make a link.  

First, I balled one end of the wire and strung on two of the silver rectangles.  I then bent the wire into a semi-circle and scooted both rectangles out of the way and balled the other end of the wire – taking great care not to melt anything I didn’t mean to!  It got quite challenging to keep everything out of the flame as the chain got long!!  Here is a close-up of the links so you see what I mean…..

I like a bit of asymmetry so I added a couple of extra rectangles as a tassle (using balled head pins of course!) on one side. 

Go and have a look at the blog to see what other people have done with their head pins - you won't be disappointed, there are some wonderful designs.