Freitag, 30. Dezember 2011

Ornament Swap 2011


Hi everybody,

I hope you had wonderful holidays. 
My family and I stayed at home and enjoyed some very quiet and pieceful days together. 

Oh, look!


 This is an incredible bell, isn't it? Renate made it for our this year's ornament swap. It blew me away.  Do you see the rock crystal? It makes a lovely sound. Oh, you should see this bell in real. 


And this totally cute little snowman was made by Steffi. To look at him always puts a smile on my face. He is perfect!! I love him!!


 Renate's bell was packaged in this beautiful cone which is an ornament itself. 



Thank you ever so much, Renate and Steffi. Not only for these incredible ornaments but for being friends and inspire me in so many ways. Just... thank you for being you. 
I am looking forward to our next German Ornament Swap in 2012!

If you want to read their posts about our little swap (and see what I made), please go to Renate's and Steffi's blog.

I wish you all a Happy New Year!!! 


Montag, 12. Dezember 2011

Greetings from the shabby side

Ahem.
Obviously it's almost impossible to describe these earrings without using ths S-word.
 No, the other one.
"Shabby" I mean.
 These are so shabby chic - I wouldn't believe that I made them if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes ;) I made them (in a slightly different version) for myself to wear with a special dress on a special occasion. I wore them with great pride and got lots of compliments on them, but don't worry, there won't be a lot more shabby chic here in the future :)
Aren't the miniature pocket knives cute?!
The German words say "aus Treue Rache wurde". It means something like "of loyalty revenge became".

Recently my computer has commited suicide.
I don't want to tell the kids that Santa won't bring them anything because Mommy needs a new PC. So this will have to wait.
And I don't have a lot of time anyway, so I doubt if I would write a lot more if my computer was still among us.

Montag, 21. November 2011

Y'Akoto's video below inspired me to these earrings. I absolutely love these vintage Mah-Jongg counting sticks and have to pay attention so that I won't use them in every further piece of mine ;) Soooo many ideas for these incredible thingies!

Dienstag, 15. November 2011

Sonntag, 13. November 2011

Work in progress

Hi to you all, sorry for having been so quiet lately. For some reasons I haven't created anything in a long while. Finally, here is some work in progress I started yesterday. Not much, I know. But it's a beginning. At least I hope so. I made these pendants from epoxy clay. The flat one (not finished yet) has an image transfer on it, then I painted over the transfer, glued the German words "Donner und Blitz" (thunder and lightning) from an old book on it and distressed the whole thing. It was just to try out if an image transfer of an inkjet picture would work on uncured fixit sculpt, and let me tell you: it works great!! Just press an inkjet print upside down onto the uncured clay, allow to cure, wet the paper and rubb it off. The hand has a kuchi charm as a bail. Have a great sunday!

Mittwoch, 26. Oktober 2011

Ancient Spirit - reworked

Remember the Ancient Spirit necklace? Someone has purchased it. A man. "Is it a present for your girlfriend?" I asked. "No", he said, "I want it for myself."
Okay. I truly loved the idea. But. I asked my husband to be my model, put it round his neck... and thought: "Wow, looks great, only the lipstick is missing!" It really didn't work for a men's neck and shoulder area. No way. Believe me.
So I asked my dear customer if he would allow me to rework it for him. "Okay", he answered, "but please keep it playful, keep it asymmetrical (but balance out the weight on both sides) , keep the ribbon part and the three strand part with beads and wirework, the scarab and the sea urchin spine. And make it a bit longer. Is that a problem for you?"
YES. It definitely was. Even more regarding the fact that I have next to no time these days.
But a challenge is a challenge is a challenge, right, Jo?!

So the first thing I changed was the color. I kept the pyrite but chose a thicker wire for it. Instead of the shiny czech glass beads in orange, red and lilac, I chose matt indonesian glass beads in black and grey tones with some stripes of red and other colors in them.
What followed was a long process of trial and error. What I liked was not what he wanted, and what he wanted wouldn't work for a man's neck, I was sure. Too fine, too filigree, too everything.
But then, in an e-mail, he asked: "What about a piece of a chain armor?" I was electrified. Immediately I knew that this was the missing link, the thing I had searched for all the time without knowing.

Here is what I came up with. Still not really the classical men's necklace ;) It looks great round my husband's neck. I love it, even my husband loves it... and my customer loves it too.
Just imagine it round a men's neck instead of the skinny model's neck.
I must admit that I would never have thought of a beaded three strand part for a men's necklace, and if I would have taken ribbon, it would have looked different from what you see here. It's his work more than mine. But still I'm proud.
And working on this necklace gave me so many ideas for more necklaces with Dorcas' incredible raku scarabs, that I have already purchased another three from her.


Samstag, 17. September 2011

Today's the day!!!

Today is Bead Soup Bog Party Reveal Day!
I'm so excited!
362 participants from 5 continents in 21 countries show what they have created!
If you still don't know what Bead Soup Party is, please go to Lori Anderson's Blog. Lori is the host of this event, and she does an incredibly wonderful job!
Thank you, Lori!

Now here is what my partner Jo from the UK sent me:



Please don't forget to hop over to her blog and see what she has created from the beads I sent to her!!! She is so talented!!!

When I first saw all those beautiful, shiny beads, I felt a little rebellious. Oh, I really loved them! Especially the lampwork beads are exquisite!!! And Jo made the soldered copper rings and the clasp by hand! Just beautiful!
But I thought I'd have to make something odd. And I tried. But whatever I did, Jo's handmade components and the lampwork beads were shadowed by the other components I had added. I wasn't happy with it at all!


Then I let the soup simmer again. The beads stayed in their bowl and I looked at them every day. The more I looked at them, the more I thought: "These are lovely beads! I could create something lovely with them! Why not just go for it!?"
I separated the purple beads from the white and decided to go with the purple and the copper for my bead soup party piece: a bracelet. A lovely bracelet that shall remind me on my lovely partner Jo and this wonderful event.

(There is a white necklace in the making and I have worked all night to finish it, but I didn't succeed.)


I linked the copper rings together using double head pins that I had made from some of the purple beads, some copper wire and UTEE.The lampwork beads are being accompanied by some of my etched copper bead caps (plus purple glass bead caps on one).


I know there are a lot of blogs to hop this time, but you can find some incredible artists here, so don't hesitate to visit as many of the blogs as possible!

Here's the list:

The Hostess, Lori Anderson and her partner, Manuela Wutschke

19. Anna Sabina­­­­ and Erin Siegel







79. Janna Harttgen (you are here!!!) and Joanne Tinley













For a total of 362 people making jewelry!

Amazing!

The next Bead Soup Blog Party will take place around February, 2012.