Bead Table Wednesday--Hits and Misses

I've been busy with spring cleaning and haven't worked on jewelry much this week.  I did ball the ends of some more wires in both copper and brass.  I made the above clasps out of some of the brass.  I'm not real happy with them.  I started with too much wire and the clasps are over sized for the necklace, above, that I intended them for.  I'll go back and start with shorter wires and maybe 16 gauge instead of 14 gauge.



I also have these.  I found the rhinestone brooch at a thrift store today.  The hardware and Russian military flight pins are from Etsy. The antique square is from an antique store.  I've been looking for a small square in hardware stores but haven't found one that is suitable.  I like this antique one better than any of the newer ones I've seen.  It fits right in with my small collection of antique measuring devices.

Scroll down and check out the giveaway I have going.  I'll be selecting a winner late Thursday evening, probably right before midnight.

Bead Table Wednesday

Heather over at HumbleBeads started a Flickr group and blog posting of what's on her beading table every Wednesday.  Many have joined her.  Here's my first Bead Table Wednesday.



It's quite the eclectic group this time.  I'm not sure what I'll do with it but the quartz crystals will be wire wrapped or soldered, and the lock plates will become bracelets or pendants.

Day Six at Adorn Me: Carnivale Time Party!

Sunday evening was the Carnivale Time dinner, desert and entertainment.  Attendees were also invited to compete for a 1st prize Visa gift card with an item  made in one of the classes. 

After dinner and desert the instructors (Lorena Angulo, Thomas Mann, Stephanie Lee, Keith Lo Bue, Kim St. Jean, and Melanie Schow) got together and looked over all the entries. Then Thomas Mann announced that for the first time the instructors had decided that instead of one first place there would be a 1st and 2nd runner up. 

2nd runner up was Carol Graves with her beautiful necklace done in Kim St. Jean's Memorabilia Necklace class.  Unfortunately my pictures are pretty poor, but the necklace was made of mica sheets encasing seeds, a seed pod, lichen, fibers and other things. I really liked her selection of unusual items, especially the pod and lichen, and the way the seeds were sandwiched in the mica.  I loved the way the items fell around Carol's neck when she was wearing it.  All the items perfectly balanced and complemented each other in shape and color.  Congratulations, Carol!

 

Next up was the 1st runner up:  ME! Here's my finished necklace from Keith Lo Bue's Precious Little class. I named it Urban Tribe.

The first place winner was Lynn Bacon-Trzcinski with her Found Object Ring done in Keith Lo Bue's Precious Little class.

I was happy to see Lynn win.  I think her piece was technically the most difficult piece in the competition because of the things she had to work with. Unlike most of the students at Adorn Me Lynn does not have a jewelry background.  She is a woodcarver.  She showed us some pictures of some of her work which is very detailed. She came to Adorn Me to broaden her artistic horizons.

Lynn had to make her ring from 3 things: the sunflower stalk she found outside, the drawer handles that were discarded by another student, and a bracelet she had brought from home made of small beads strung on elastic. She was a little stymied at first in class when Keith wouldn't let her use glue or wire to hold it together.  Instead, she pegged it with bits of wood! The sunflower stalk was very difficult to work with because the center wouldn't hold things stuck into it. Lynn persevered though.  She took the drawer pulls apart and nested them.  Bits of the hardware from the pulls were utilized elsewhere in the ring.  The bracelet was strung around to make the band, and parts of it were worked through the stalk and up into the knobs to hold them on. Bits of stalk or wood were feathered and run through the top of the knobs for an organic flower look.  The ring has an overall organic look: the knobs remind me of some fantastical flower or lichen.  

Here are a couple of views.

Congratulations, Lynn!

The evening ended with a magical performance by Jamie Salinas. His magic act was superb.  And he was very funny.  If you ever get a chance to see him in action you are in for a great time.

As you can probably tell I had a great time at Adorn Me and hope to attend next year. 

My next post will be a review of a new book, Kumihimo Wire Jewelry by Giovanna Imperia.

Day Five & Six at Adorn Me: Precious Little

Saturday and Sunday I had Precious Little with Stuffsmith Keith Lo Bue. This was a two day class so I'm covering it in one post.  I'm kicking myself now for not taking more photos, especially of the cool things the other students made.  It's easy to just get caught up in what's going on in class and forget photography.

Saturday one of the first things that happened was we had to get a plastic bag and go outside and forage for stuff.   None of us were prepared for the cold front and very windy weather that had hit Houston so we ventured out after putting on warmer clothes.

There were a lot more things out there than I thought there would be.  Who knew the parking lot was so loaded with nails? Fortunately this was a part of the parking lot that isn't used. The hotel was only built a little over a year or so ago so there was still debris from the construction.

Here's my stuff, minus the things I used later and the section of rebar I found:




Back inside we were instructed to select 3 things from what we had brought to the workshop from home that we didn't think we'd use and discard them on a table. Then we all took turns picking from the discards.  I picked three nails discarded by Pedro Quintero from Venezuela, and a grouping of small driftwood from the east coast (okay, I confess, I cannot remember the other student's names), and a sewing machine bobbin.

Then Keith told us to make something wearable (or that could be held up for at least a few seconds like we were wearing it) using only one of the things we found outside, one thing we brought from home, and one thing we took off the table of discards. If one of the three things was wire, for example, we could use other wires because it was all one type of thing.   Oh my...what to do?

I had found two things that looked like nails on steroids.  Keith told me they are spacers used in concrete block construction. I started playing with them and the three nails and worked out a pleasing arrangement for a necklace.  The thing I used from home was black annealed steel wire.  I had no choice in that since I had to have something to "string" the necklace on.

The "nail" spacers were completely covered in rust when I found them. Sandpaper, then various dremel attachments took the rust off. It was a surprisingly good feeling watching the metal reveal itself.


My first thought was to weave the wire into a collar.  I did a couple of rows of this but the big spacers wanted to turn in the weave so I took it apart and wire wrapped it.  One of the things I had to do was fix the pieces where they wouldn't fall out if the necklace was turned upside down.  The two big spacers needed something in front to balance them so I used some rebar wire to make coils.

This is what I ended up with and the end of the day:



At the end of the day we presented our jewelry to the class and discussed our process of making the jewelry.

All of the other students made impressive wearable items and demonstrated considerable creativity. Some made more than one item.  Particularly interesting was a ring made by woodcarver Lynn Bacon-Trzcinski. More about her ring in my next post.

I was also very impressed with a brooch made by another student. Once again, I apologize for forgetting names.  The brooch was constructed of a couple of bottle caps if I remember correctly.  She had chosen a brass dog "id tag"--not the usual kind, but a brass capsule that screwed apart.  There was a split ring on the tag.   She constructed the pin for the brooch from the split ring on the dog tag.  I would never have been able to do that.  If I'd thought about it I'd have dismissed the idea as impossible. She did say the split ring was the very devil to straighten out. This is very creative thinking.

Keith asked me if I would have made the same piece without the restrictions.  I think the restrictions actually helped me--I'd have spent too much time deciding what to do and use and wouldn't have learned nearly as much or gotten as close to a finished project as I did. I'm going to use this idea in the future--not all the time--but once in a while to push myself. I have a lot of trouble "coloring outside the lines."   I also have a tendency to procrastinate and over-engineer things.  I found that working this way was very satisfying. 

Sunday we were given the assignment of working on something that had some aspect of autobiography, or continuing on the project we did on Saturday.  We also spent time learning the proper way to drill holes in metal, glass and other items. I now understand why my drill bits would only work for the first two or three holes. I think I'll be using a lot fewer drill bits in the future.  I had never drilled glass and I feel that I can do that now.  Here Keith demonstrates techniques for coiling the rebar wire, which handles a little different from the usual jewelry wires.



I got a little design work done on my autobiographical piece done, but no construction.  It did finish up the necklace I started on Saturday.

Keith Lo Bue is featured in the current issue of Belle Amoire Jewelry and his jewelry is on the cover. It's a geat article.  Check it out: