A Different Kind of Bezel

Hi, everyone.  Welcome to my little corner of the world.  I'm so happy you could join me.  Today I'm back to beading stuff!  I'm still obsessed with Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.  Kate McKinnon has announced that the second volume has gone to print and I can't wait to get my copy of it!   One thing I have learned about this process and the idea behind Kate's approach to it in the books is that once you have figured it out and know the method you can use it in many different ways.  Which brings me to the pendant I'm going to share with you today. 

Jo Ray, who designs and teaches at Bead Soup in Savage, Maryland, has been experimenting with the belly band.  That is the starting point for many of the bracelets in CGB.  It's a modified RAW technique that is really quite simple but brilliant.  Jo decided to try using it to bezel around a marble.  You could also use a large bead.  One thing led to another and she came up with a 4 sided bezel which intrigued me.  So, I took her class and after the class was over she and I were talking about the versatility of the whole concept of using the band and creating wings and horns.  As we were talking I had a light bulb moment when I knew what I was going to do with what I just learned.  I don't have a picture of the class project because it was put aside when I got home.  It will become a future experiment!  I started over and changed a few things and ended up with this.



I started the bezel the way Jo taught it, but I used a single needle instead of the double needle that she used.  My process for stitching the four bands around the marble was changed and at that point the whole thing took on a life of it's own!  What I ended up with wasn't what I had thought I would end up with!!  But, I love what happened and I'll go back to the class project and see what that becomes and if I can stick more to the vision I had.  Anyway, back to this one.  Once the bezel was finished and the marble was in place I peyote along the band and increased in one space to begin the wing.  As I worked each band I moved the increase down the peyote so that the wings would be stepped down away from each other.  Once the bands were finished I did a herringbone finial at the bottom and placed a crystal drop inside.  For the bail I used peyote stitch to create a loop and hung the pendant from a ball chain.  Here are some close up photos.



 

 

 

I feel this method of working geometric beadwork is only inhibited by imagination.  It's a very freeing sort of process, one where one idea grows out of another.  Right now I've moved on to the Rick-Rack bracelets section of the book and I'm having a great time working on my first version of that idea!  Once again, horns (because I can't get enough of horns and wings) are making an appearance!  Stay tuned. 

 

Along with all this wonderful beady fun I'm having this summer, my daughter and I decided to add to our ever growing list of things to do and take a beginners Zentangle class from our friend Patti at The Queen's Ink.  Patti is a certified Zentangle teacher and her work is so beautiful.  So, I've been working on tangling as much as possible.  You'll see some of those results soon,  I'm sure! 

 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I hope you are having a wonderful summer.  It's going by so quickly and I'm trying to enjoy and savor it.  Hopefully you are too! 



Summer of Color4: Summer

Hi, everyone!  Welcome, I hope you're enjoying summer and getting time to relax and have some fun.  I'm sad to say that this is the last week for the Summer of Color 4!  I can't believe that we've spent 6 weeks creating from the color prompts that Kristin posts each week.  But, here we are and I have to say that I just love the colors for this week.  Tangerine, raspberry and a pop of lemon!!!  What's not to like?!  Seriously, that combination says summer on so many levels!  Here is what I did with them.

 

 

I couldn't decide what direction I wanted to go in with this color combination.  I love it so there were several directions I could have taken.  But, in the end, I decided to go with my favorite, flowers!  And, I had to throw in another favorite, a flapper bathing beauty!! 

 

I started with a number 10 tag, as usual, and colored the background with Ripe Persimmon and Picked Raspberry Distress Paints using the marbling technique.  Once that was dry I sprayed it with some Dylusion sprays in the same colors.  I finished by spraying some of the wonderful new sprays from Lindy's Stamp Gang using a glimmery coral pink and an light orange.  Once all of that was dry I used StaysOn ink in Claret and a Wendy Vecchi background stamp to add some texture to the background.  I cut strips of paper from one of the sheets from last year's Graphic45 Bohemian Bazaar collection.  Over the glued down strips I put the word "summer" in grunge board letters that I painted with Mustard Seed Distress Paint and sprayed with Perfect Pearls Sunflower Sparkle.  I gathered my collection of raspberry, orange and yellow flowers and glued them to the opposite side.  I stamped the flapper in Picked Raspberry DI and colored the parasol with light orange Copic marker.  Once it was all dry I nestled her among the flowers.  Here are some details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, there you have my tags for the Summer of Color.  I want to thank Kristin for all the hard work she does to make this the success that it is every year.  I've decided that next week I'm going to make a box to hold my six tags.  I was going to make an envelope book but they became more dimensional than I had envisioned.  So, a box it is.  Stay tuned for that! 

 

 

Thank you all for visiting me today.  I've so appreciated the wonderful comments you've left on all my tags this summer, as well as on my other posts.  Have a wonderful week.

 





SOC4: The Sea is Calling Me

Hello to you all!  I'm happy to have you with me today.  I'm sharing the 5th project for the Summer of Color 4 challenge today.  I can't believe there is only one week left for this challenge.  Kristin does such a great job of keeping the fun and excitement coming every week.  The colors for this week were royal blue, red and a pop of light blue.  So, this is what that became in my studio.

 

 

Once again I thought of the beach.  I love the Graphic 45 collection of papers this summer.  I had wanted to use this lovely image of the girl in the sailor top for some project and this was the perfect one.  I covered a size10 tag with the plaid paper from the collection and die cut the ornate frame from white corrugated cardboard.  I spritzed it with a spray made from royal blue Gelatos and water.  Then I used my finger to rub gold Gliders' Paste on the raised ridges.  I think it gives the frame a worn look that you would find in something resting by the sea. I glued both the image and the frame down and then I cut a coral branch from a piece of cardstock that I had in my stash and glued that over part of the frame. 

 

 

When Tim presented his July tag I thought his recipe for making sand was brilliant and I wanted a project to use it on.  Well, once again this was the perfect project!   So, I mixed all the ingredients, surprisingly I had all of them, (supplies and directions are on Tim's blog, here) and applied the sand to the bottom of the tag.  With Glossy Accents I added some seashell beads, small wooden beads, sequins and royal blue sea glass to the sand. One of the stamp sets that was part of the By the Sea collection had the stamp that I used here.  I thought it fit the expression on the girl's face.  I stamped it using Stormy Sea DI on a piece of watercolor paper and sponged the edge with the same ink.  The tag was finished off with another idea from Tim's tag, linen ribbon that had been stretched apart so that it resembles fish net.  Here are some details.

 

 





 

 

 



 

 

 

There you have my tag for this week.  I had a great time making this tag.  I got to use papers that I wanted to play with some more and I also got to make "sand" Tim Holtz style! 

 

 

Thanks for coming by once again.  I really appreciate it.  Have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy and create art!

 





More Geometric Beadwork

Hi everyone!  I hope you're having a great day!  I wanted to share with you my continuing obsession with Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.  Developed by Kate McKinnon and some other fabulous beaders, the method has me completely engrossed!  When I think of beading now I think of the geometric piece I'm working on or the next piece I'm going to start.  I started at the beginning and I'm working my way through the process and inventing as I go along.  And, that's the idea of Kate's book.  To take the basic instructions and fly off in your own direction.  When I last blogged about this subject (which you can see here) I mentioned that you would be seeing horns and wings next.  Well, here they are in my newest bracelet.

 

 

 

Honestly, the choice of prop was unintentional.  I didn't realize how it mimicked the bracelet until I was editing the picture!   Anyway,  I used my favorite colors, turquoise, lime green and lavender, along with black and white.  The beads are Delicas and drops, along with some 15s to pull in the edges.  I started in the middle of the bracelet with Kate's technique of MRAW which stands for Modified Right Angle Weave, and took off from there.  In the beginning I was only going to do the horns in the middle and then put a plain peyote band on either side.  But, the pull of the wings caught me and wings there are!!!  The Horns are the dimensional peyote in the middle bands and the Wings are the lovely things on the edges. For the clasp I stitched two clear snaps to the ends and added triangles to hide the edges which I could see but probably no one else could!   I could do this kind of work all day!  Here are a few details.

 

 

 

A wing.

 

 

The Horns tipped with a drop bead.

 

The clasp hidden by added triangles.

 

 

I have another finished piece which grew out of a class I took with Jo Ray at Bead Soup.  Jo has started working with the bellyband, the name used for the MRAW starting band, and has done some wonderful bezels based on it.  I just finished my variation and I'll be taking some photos today, so stay tuned.  I've also just started a Rick-Rack bracelet which is another version in Kate's arsenal of great ideas! 

 

Thank you so much for joining me today.  I hope you have a wonderful week and create something you love!

 

 

 





Summer of Color4: Dreams

Hi, everyone!  Welcome to you! I hope all my US readers had a wonderful 4th of July.  I'm here to show you my latest entry in the Summer of Color4 challenge.  The colors this week were pink, apple green and a splash of dark green.   They aren't colors that I usually work with and the tag is very feminine but I think the message is a good one.   Here is what it looks like.

 

 

 

I started with a size 10 tag and embossed it with a Spellbinders embossing folder.  I then used Mowed Lawn Distress stain over the entire tag.  Once that was dry I swiped it with Library Green Archival ink.  I had some pink paper flowers which I spritzed  with Glimmer Mist in Bubblegum Pink.  While they were wet I crumpled some of them and dried them.  One I attached to a piece of floral wire "stem" so that it looked like a bud just opening.  I glued all the flowers to the top of the tag and then added the bud so that it hung down from the others.  I used Sparkles and some Glossy Accents   sprinkled with Rock Candy glitter for the centers. 

 

 

I cut a piece of white cardstock with a Spellbinders Nestibilties die and stamped the sentiment with Library Green Archival.  I then used Faded Lipstick DI to color the edges lightly.  I applied it with foam tape so it would be raised from the surface of the tag.  Here are some details.

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

It's hard to believe that the summer is going so quickly and that this challenge is at it's 4th week!  It's great fun and it does challenge me to use combinations of colors that I would never think of using.  I love having that nudge!

 

 

I hope you all have a great weekend.  Thank you for being here.  I really appreciate all your visits and comments.  

 

Majestic Medallions, Seth Apter Style

Hello, everyone!  Welcome, I'm so happy to have you join me today.  It's the first day of July and I can't believe how quickly the summer is going!  I love summer, even the hot humid days.  Today I want to share one of the projects I made during a weekend of workshops with Seth Apter.  My daughter and I always try to fit in all of Seth's workshops at our local paper arts store, The Queen's Ink.  We learn so much and have such a great time.  Seth is a great teacher and he's fun to be around.  The workshops this time around were on Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday.  What I'm going to share today is the Friday night class. 

The class was on using the Majestic Medallions line of products that Spellbinders has come out with.  Seth is a Spellbinders Blog Team member and he has taken the Majestic Medallions and used them in his own style, layering them with other metal components and paper, then putting them on paper or other substrates.  In the class we worked on two 6x6 projects and had another medallion to take home. 
Here are what mine look like.

 

the one I finished in class.

 

the second one that I finished at home.

 

 

 We started by creating the background on the first substrate.  Seth creates fabulous backgrounds and he shares his techniques in his classes.  On this project we started with layers of paint.  We then moved on to sprays and dry brushing Silks and other paint mediums.  One option that Seth demonstrated was to take an old credit card and run it over the background in various directions to achieve a cross-hatch texture.  You can see the marks it makes in the first photo.  Once we were satisfied with the background we started to build up layers for the medallion.  Seth had provided a lot of hardware like washers and such and also several Spellbinder dies along with a lot of paper for us to use.  Here is a detail of the first project.

 

 

 

 

 

I used  several metal components including a washer and a large bottle cap.  After gluing them all together I topped it with a resin flower.  Some of the components, including the medallion, I rubbed with Gilders' Paste for some added patina. 

 

 



The second medallion I started in class but finished at home.  I had patinated it with some green paste wax and decided on the components I was going to use.  I hadn't done anything with the mat board that we were going to use for the base.   It was black mat board and when I got home I decided to use some different green and copper sprays rather than paint it.  I  wanted the blackness to show a little.  I used some new sprays that I just got from Joggles.  They are from Lindy's Stamp Gang, which was a new company to me.  They are fabulous sprays because they have a matte base with a mica glimmer.  I used a green and a copper and built up layers.  I also used some Glimmer Mist in lime green and copper.  In the Saturday class we had used some fiber paste and Seth had suggested that if we had a small plastic bag we could spread some on the bag and let it dry.  So, I did that and when it's dry you can just peel it off!  I decided to color that with the sprays and use it for the first layer of my medallion.  I really like the texture it brings to the whole piece.  Here is a detail.

 

 

 

 

 

You can see the great texture you get from the fiber paste background.  I used some lime green paste wax to highlight some of the high points.  On this medallion I used some filigree pieces I had in my stash and also a metal flower as a top layer.  I want to use these two pieces together so I wanted them to coordinate.  By using copper on both of them, and then the different flowers as the final layer, I was able to have coordinating squares which I will frame when I find the right frames.

 

 

This class made me look at the Spellbinders Majestic Medallions in a new light.  Layering them opened up a lot of new possibilities for using them. 

 

 

Thank you for joining me today.  I hope those of you in the States have a wonderful 4th of July celebration.  We'll be having hamburgers and hot dogs with our family and friends in our back garden.  It has become a tradition we all look forward to!  So I hope you can make some memories and some art this long weekend!  



Summer of Color4: Summer Garden

Hello, everyone!  It's so great to have you join me today!  I hope your summer is going well!  My summer is going too fast for me, but I do love summer and I try to grasp every bit of it! 

It's been a busy week here.  We've had family visiting and it's been a great time.  But, that explains my lateness in posting my tag for this week's Summer of Color challenge.  So, this post will be brief.

The colors for this week were gray and lavender with a pop of plum.  The gray and lavender were not easy colors for me to work with.  Honestly, they always make me think of Victorian ladies coming out of mourning.  But, I decided that was a downer so I was going to go with my favorite subject, Gardens!  Victorian gardens to be precise because I couldn't get away from the Victorian vibe! 

Here is what I made.

 

 

 

I started with a number 10 tag and covered the whole thing with Weathered Wood Distress Stain.  I then ran a line of Brushed Pewter DS along the edge.  I daubed some embossing ink on a piece of bubble wrap that was sitting on my table and randomly pressed it onto the tag.  I used Ranger's Antiquities embossing powder in Cement and heated it.  I then pressed the bubble wrap over parts of the embossed areas and embossed again with silver embossing powder. 

 

 

The image of the lovely Victorian lady was from my stash and is a fabric piece that I glued in place.  I used part of a Memory Box die cut in a lavender paper to frame her and give the illusion of her looking through a garden gate.  One of my favorite dies are the new Tim Holtz trellis dies.  I used a different lavender paper to cut them.  I then used a plum paper to cut another trellis and used the inner pieces for my "pop" of plum color.  I used Glossy Accents to fill in some of the openings and the plum pieces to fill in others.  One of the things I love about these dies is that the inner pieces can be used alone and I love using two colors together as a shadow.  You can see I scattered those around the tag.  I glued a spray of lavender and plum "berries" below the focal and added some Kaiser Craft Sparkles to the background.  I finished it off with a piece of sequined lace trim from the stash.

 

 

Here are some details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, there is this week's tag!  In the end I had a great time using these colors which is why I love this challenge.  Thanks once again to Kristin for hosting and for coming up with such fantastic color combinations every week! 

 

Thank you all for visiting me.  I so appreciate your visits.  I hope you have a fabulous weekend and I'll be back soon.