I need more time ....

I didn't have time for a Monday Glass Challenge this week which is a shame because I didn't get any studio time to melt some glass.  The pages in my sketch book are bursting full of ideas and new techniques I want to try and old ones I want to develop further. But, I am not complaining because I do have a very busy couple of weeks.

I have also been looking through all my un-finished polymer clay work and have vowed not to make any more until I have finished everything!  It is quite daunting because during the Summer months I had a polymer frenzy and there is so much to catch up with.  I am hoping to squeeze this in between my work over the next couple of weeks and will hopefully have some pretty finished clay pieces to show you.  I thought I would share a selection of the beads that need to be finished!

 

I  made these beads as part of the 52 earrings in a year challenge.  I like creating this shape and thought rather than make them in one colour I would see what they looked like with a pattern.  I was going to cluster these and turn them into a pendant or a large flower on a bracelet.  I haven't decided yet!

These pendants are part of my experiments with Stroppel Cane.  They need sanding and polishing and if I make some black round beads could make a very striking necklace.....

Cara Jane showed me how to make these hearts and ever since she showed me I haven't stopped making them.  Whilst I have made quite a few of these, they still all need to be sanded and polished.  They will eventually be turned into pretty peices of jewellery .... sometime .... when I get around to finishing them ....

Finally (this is only a selection of the beads I have to finish) I thought I would show you my pink swirly tabs.  I want to create a lovely summery bracelet with these.  Although I do regret no having made a few more so I could make a necklace and earrings to match. 

Do you have an un-finished work?  Does it help to re-ignite any lost creativity?  Sometimes when I have one of those moments I do take a look through my beads and sometimes it creates a spark and them off I go on the rollorcoaster ride of ideas.

 

Sarah xx

www.beadscrumptious.co.uk
www.hypersmash.com

Hectic Week!

It was completely manic last week with all the end of term activities for the kids but I still managed to squeeze in my earrings for Week 14.  I completely confused myself over what week it was too.  For some reason I had two entries for Week 8 ...... I am going bonkers!

I made the beads for these earrings quite a long time ago and had completely forgotton about them until the other day when I found them lurking at the bottom of my bead box.  I can remember why they ended up there.  To be honest, I wasn't sure what to make with them and if I really liked them.

This has happened quite a few times.  I have had an idea for a set of beads and made them but they haven't quite turned out as I had imagined.  Now, this doesn't mean that they aren't very nice beads but when I am in the 'creative zone' they end up being put to one side whilst I concentrate on getting the design exactly the same as the image in my head.

I always keep these bead sets because I know from experience that in a few months/weeks time, I will look at the beads and see them completely differently.  Or they will become the spark of inspiration for a piece of jewellery.

Sarah xx

HyperSmash

A Completed Necklace!

I love you to Pluto .... and back!

I wrote about the inspiration behind this pendant in my blog post I love you to Pluto .... and back!.  I also wrote that I would show you how I turned this pendant into a necklace.  So ...... here goes!

1  Gather all your materials and tools.

I wanted the pendant to be the focus of the necklace so I chose materials that would compliment the colours within the pendant.  I used a thick black suede as the stringing material and included some handmade blue beads to enhance the colours of Pluto.  Now, my intention was that the blue beads would represent planets in the solar system of my necklace.  To achieve this I made these beads using polymer clay mixed with acrylic paints, silver leaf and lots of swirling .... but I will leave this for another blog!

2  Stringing the pendant.

When I made the pendant I turned one of the craters into a stringing hole.  I had a fairly good idea how I was going to make the necklace before I started so I made sure the hole was fairly large. 

This pendant would look good as either a long or short necklace but I like mine long so I cut 19 inches of suede and strung it (equally) through the crater/hole.  I know, you are thinking ..... mmmmm that is a VERY long necklace but I needed to ensure I had enough stringing material for knotting.  It will all become very clear as you continue reading ......

I needed to give the pendant some stability before I strung on any beads so I tied a knot in the suede at the top of the pendant.

3  Stringing Beads!

I placed a knot in each thread at slightly different heights and threaded a bead onto each one.   I had two smaller beads and thought these would look really good as two orbiting moons! I didn't want them crashing into one another which is why I slightly offset them.  I placed a knot above each bead to keep them secure.  I don't want them whizzing off into outer space .....

 

I placed a knot in the same place on each thread because I wanted the next set of beads to be in exactly the same place on the necklace.  I threaded the beads and added another knot to keep them in place.  They look like this ....

I didn't want to stop here .... I added another set of beads on top and finished them with a knot so they looked like this .......

ooops .... after the photograph ..... I added the knots on top of the beads to stop them moving around on the thread.

I placed the next two knots (one on each thread) at an equal distance from the set above and added one bead on each thread.

4  Finishing the necklace.

I cut each thread so that they were exactly the same length.  I then took my cord ends (centre of the photograph) and placed one on each thread. 

Then, very gently (using my pliers) I squeezed the cord ends together to meet in the middle and trap the thread ..... see photos ......

5  Adding open jump rings!

When I first started making my own jewellery I had a lot of trouble with these tricky little blighters until I read all about them in a magazine.  My biggest mistake was to try and pull them apart to attach onto things like cord ends and I couldn't get them back together again without distorting the ring and leaving a huge gap.  Well, I now know there is an easy way ..... all you need to do to open them is grip each side of the jump ring either side of the opening and slide one side forward and one side back ....easy when you know how! To close, all you need to do is the reverse and they slide together without leaving a gap!

I attached a large junp ring onto one cord end and a smaller jump ring onto the other.  No, I haven't lost my marbles .... there is a method to my madness! 

I attached the trigger clasp to the smaller jump ring and used the larger jump ring to attach to .... like this ....

6  A finished Necklace!  ...... Hooray!

When I am at craft fairs a lot of people like my beads but don't really know what they can make with them or how to go about making jewellery so I hope I have given you a few ideas.  My future blog posts will have some more ideas on what you can make using my glass beads. 

 

I have also been asked what you could make using my Enchanted Tree Beads.  I am thinking about writing a tutorial to share a few of my own ideas.  Maybe my next blog post?

Sarah xx

www.beadscrumptious.co.uk

Hypersmash.com

Love Flies!

Week 12 - Love Flies

Hello,

I just wanted to write a quick blog to show you some of the earrings I have made as part of the 52 earrings in a year challenge!  In my next blog post I will show you how I made my Pluto pendant into a necklace ... I promise!

Here are a few more pairs of earrings that I haven't included in my blog posts so far .....

Week 10

I decided to have a break this week from polymer clay and make some earrings using my own lampwork beads.  



Week 9



I made my own flower cane for these earrings and I do have a half finished pendant to add as well.  I was really pleased with these, especially considering I am quite new to polymer clay.

Have a great week!   My next blog post will be coming soon ....

Sarah xx



Hyper Smash

I love you to the pluto .... and back!

I have been very busy over the last couple of weeks designing and making this pendant.  I have had the idea for a long time and I have to say I am really pleased with the result.  It looks exactly like I imagined it would ... which doesn't always happen, believe me!

Anyway .... where did this idea come from?

Source: amazon.co.uk via Sarah on Pinterest

When my eldest son was a toddler he used to love it when we read, Guess how much I love you by Sam McBratney.  It is a lovely story about a little Nutbrown Hare competing with Big Nutbrown Hare over how much they love each other.  On one of the pages little Nutbrown Hare opens his/her arms as wide as they will go and says "I love you this much" so big Nutbrown Hare opens his/her arms wider and says "I love you this much".  Little Nutbrown Hare replies with "hmm that is a lot" and so the story continues until little Nutbrown Hare says "I love you right up to the Moon!" and Big Nutbrown Hare says "AND BACK!".

So, one day I was reading this to my son and (typical of him) he says very smugly "Well, I love YOU to Pluto!".  You can guess what my answer was .... "Hmm that is a long way ... I love you to Pluto and BACK!"   This has always been our special joke and now he is growing up (too quickly), I wanted to capture that memory in a piece of jewellery.

I have tried before ... Last Christmas my husband bought me some Precious Metal Clay and I decided I would use the clay to make three silver charms that would remind me of my three children.  I started with this idea and made a silver pendant in the shape of a heart with "to Pluto" written on it.

Whilst I enjoyed making it, there was something missing.  It was far too plain and didn't represent all the fun and giggles we had with the story.  So, I put the idea to the back of my mind until a couple of weeks ago when I was sat doodling on a scrap of paper.  Suddenly the idea emerged into this design!

I hadn't thought of using polymer clay before and with a few tweeks to my original design the pendant took shape.  I know, just in case there are some planetary boffins out there that Pluto isn't really this colour but I think I can excuse myself and use my artistic licence to change things around a little.  I wanted the pendant to be bright, bold and lots of fun! 

I definitely think I have captured the memory for my son because when he saw the pendant (and I didn't say anything ...) his face filled up with an enormous beaming smile, he grabbed hold of me and gave me the biggest huggle EVER! There were no words!

I have been asked a few times, how to turn my beads into jewellery.  So,  in next weeks blog post I will show you (with lots of photos) how I have made this into a necklace ... or a piece of "wearable art" as Chrissie would say. 

My youngest son likes the story about Aliens in Underpants!  Not sure how I am going to do this one yet!

Ooops nearly forgot ... the earrings to match!

Sarah xx
www.beadscrumptious.co.uk

www.Hypersmash.com

Barrington Court - Antony Gormley Inspired!

The inspiration for these earrings came from a trip to Barrington Court to see Antony Gormley's installation called "Field for the British Isles". The installation consists of 40,000 clay figures that had been meticulously laid out in three rooms completely filling the room so that no floor could be seen.  It was very impressive and it looked like there were thousends of little tiny people looking at you.  They were laid out so that the eyes of each figure faced the front and the figures closer to the front looked up towards the ceiling.  Very effective!  They were all very individual, different shapes, sizes and colours.  I wish I could of taken some photos but we were not allowed.  If you click on the link above you can view some of the official pictures.

The clay figures were quite small and had been made by a group of families in St Helens near Liverpool back in 1993.  Antony Gormley used the figures to completely fill the floor of one of the exhibition rooms at the Tate Liverpool in 1993 and as a result won the Turner Prize in 1994.  He is also very famous for the 'Angel of the North'.

According to the National Trust article Antony Gormley said: “ .....The instructions to create the work are very simple. You sit on the floor. You take a ball of clay from a pile. With your clay, you create a “body” in the space between your hands. You allow it to stand up, and make it conscious by giving it eyes with the point of a sharpened pencil. That repeated action of taking a hand-sized ball of clay, squeezing it between your hands, standing it up and giving it consciousness becomes meditative, the repeated action becoming almost like breathing, or a heartbeat.”

Well, knowing I had a pair of earrings to make for the 52 earrings a week challenge, I had to have a go!  But I wasn't alone making the earrings this time ..... my family had a go too.  It was great fun and my children loved it!  So I mixed three batches of clay in three slightly different colours and we each had a go at making our own clay figure.



We had such a lovely day visiting Barrington Court (and I am very sentimental) I decided to turn our figures into a necklace to keep as a memory of our day.

Sarah xx

Crumpled - Week 6 of the Challenge!

I need to start this week's blog by going back to Week 5 of the 52 Earrings in a Year Challenge... I wasn't very well last week (still not feeling too good mind you) and didn't have the chance to get my earrings made in time....so I will briefly mention them now....

I actually started Week 5 with an idea for a pendant.  With all this lovely weather I have gone back to a beach theme and being a Geologist, whenever I think of the beach...I think fossils....Ammonites!  So, I decided to make a jellyroll cane that looked 'kind of' like an Ammonite.  I made it using green, blue and black clay but found that it was too dark.  It definitely needed brightening up!  I tried to achieve this by wrapping multiple layers of 'brighter colours' around the cane and ended up with this.....

I really liked the style of pendant I had made earlier in May for The Beach, and decided to make a similar one using this cane.  I wanted to make a bright, bold pendant that would really catch a person's attention.  Hopefully I have managed to achieve this.....

I was going to cut a slice a cane with the Ammonite spiral in the middle and then make this into a pair of earrings but it didn't look right.  So I ended up taking slithers of the cane and placing them onto a sheet of clay.  Putting this through the largest setting on my pasta machine and the cutting out random circles until I found the 'one'.  I think this worked better....

Now onto Week 6.....

I am not sure what has been going on in my head this week (other than trying to fight off a nasty case of the flu) ... but I made these...

The idea just sprang out of nowhere!  I was happily chopping out rectangles of stripey clay and randomly decided to crumple them up! It was almost impossible to make the crumples symmetrical but I did have a good try....  After they had been cured and sanded I noticed the thin turquoise strip running down the length of the bead.  I decided to accentuate this with a strand of a very vibrant turquoise Tiger Tail and some seed beads.  I wanted to liven the beads up, bring out some of the colours and make them a bit more funky! 

Of course......I can't make earrings without making a pendant to match......

I am essentially a lampwork glass artist but I am really enjoying this challenge because it is giving me a chance to work with Polymer Clay and I am learning so much.  I think it will be interesting in a year's time to see if/how much I have progressed.

Sarah xx 

Week 4 - MonSwirl Earrings!

This week I decided to use the two swirl beads I made last week out of Stroppel Cane as my earrings for Week 4.  I made these beads using a Stroppel Cane.  The idea was invented by a lady called Alice Stroppel. Now, I had no idea this technique even existed until I was taught by Cara Jane during one of her clay days.  Cara told us all about Alice and how this was a great way to use up all of your clay odds and ends.  The effects are fantastic and now I can't stop using it!

The colour combinations I have used here put together within sandwiches of black clay really remind me of a chewed up Mondrian - hence the name of the earrings .... MonSwirl!

I did make a necklace as well this week but not out of the same cane as the earrings.  I have yet to finish that pendant (above).  I decided to use the heart pendant I had made using the same Stroppel Cane as the earrings.  It was Caroline Casswell who taught me how to make heart pendants. 

I started by making an oblong out of some 'left over' pink clay and added very think slices of the cane.  Then I turned this into a pendant.  I was really pleased with the finished result, especially after sanding and buffing.  It really helped to accentuate the colours. 

I added some more cane to a flat sheet of pink clay and put it through the thickest setting on the pasta machine.  Then I cut out 4 circles.  I was going to leave them as circles, then for a reason unknown to myself, I decided to distort them slightly.....and this was the finished result..

Sarah xx

The Beach

I don't know why but I love visiting the coast when it is pouring with rain and blowing a gale.  I don't think you can beat that feeling when you step out into the fresh salty air struggling to walk against the wind, the sea spray stringing your face and hearing the sound of the waves pounding against the rocks.  It is very invigorating!

My children LOVE the beach.  They love just being able to run along the sand, splash in the water and collect every single shell off the beach.  I mean EVERY single shell......mind you....who doesn't?  My husband is just the same...my poor little rucksack was full to the brim of salty, sandy shells.....but what inspiration they all found.....

I was absolutely captivated by these Limpet Shells with the abandoned remains of the Barnacles looking almost sculptural on the surface.  A piece of art in itself!

Now, sometimes I make things without consciously thinking about where the inspiration has come from.  Obviously I have been inspired by something that I have seen but I haven't realised that until I have finished the piece of work.  Does that make sense?

I sat down at my bench with all my clay thinking about what I was going to make for week 3 of the 52 Earrings a Year challenge (52 Earrings in a Year). I knew I wanted to make some bright and happy earrings this week because the weather has been so miserable I thought it would be good to bring a little 'summer' into my work.  I picked three very bright colours .... turquoise, mint green and lilac.

But what to do with these colours......I decided to make a Skinner blend using the turquoise and a little white but I deliberately didn't blend it in perfectly as you will see.  I rolled this up into a jellyroll cane and even though I covered it with black clay it still didn't look finished.  So I took the mint green and lilac clay and made a striped cane and wrapped this around the jellyroll, added another covering of black and was much happier with the result ....much better I thought....

As you can see from the picture I made a flat sheet using the remains of the Skinner blend.  I reduced the finished cane, cut thin slithers and added them to the sheet.  I put the whole lot back through the pasta machine on the thickest setting and cut out a round pendant.

Without consciously realising it I had taken the idea of the Barnacles and used this as the main theme for my pendant.....and my earrings for week 3.....because of course you need matching earrings!  Thank goodness I haven't started making bracelets too.....this could end up becoming 52 jewellery sets in a year!

I made some nice big round beads using the cane and decided to string them all onto black suede for a contrast to bring out the turquoise in the beads.  I do like a sparkle....so I also added a wrap around of pale blue seed beads almost mimicking a trapped fishing line glistening in the water....

....and of course my earrings for week 3.......

Sarah xx