My latest challenge, enjoy.......

 

A member of Artisan Whimsy challenged us to help her design a new studio.

I believe she may benefit from a couple of my studio ideas.  She wanted pictures, so here they are.

 

First, here is a picture of my workspace - it's not big enough but the table was a gift from a supportive friend and I use TV trays to add to my space.

 

 

The TV is a recent addition (soon to be hung on the wall), a little large but it's fun watching Beads, Baubles and Jewels for inspiration.  A smart addition, which doesn't use too much space is shown below:

 



 

It's great because it's verticle. 

 

A little background, this is a relatively small basement room, becase we are hoping to move next year I wanted to keep the room as nice as possible.  I would prefer a work space that's a little more rough and tumble.  With that said, I wanted lots of craft storage that didn't look too industrial.  I'm fortunate enough to have an Ikea near my home so I thought it would be the perfect place to find inexpensive storage.  Look at what I found:

 

 

 

As you can see it takes up most of the wall and hides most of my stuff.  It's basically two seperate book shelf units and I added doors.

 

 





The workstation below used to be in my kitchen but I kept thinking how wonderful it would be as a work bench for glass and metalwork.  It's great for many reasons, but especially for the fact that it has a stainless steel top and wheels.  As you can see my tredmill is tucked away behind it, but the work bench is easily rolled out of the way.

 

 

The doors open up to all sorts of intersting tools.  I also keep my chemicals tucked away in this cabinet (pickeling compounds, etching supplies, patinas, solders, flux, etc.)

 

 

 

I screwed this small shelf to the end of the work station.  As you can see it's the perfect place for my enamels and frit.  One last picture - the two things that I could not live without in my work space, my kiln and my fridge :-).  Lots of pics for a space that's approximatly 12' x 14'.  Hope you enjoyed the tour.

 





 

 

 





 

 

 

UK Inspiration Challenge - Reveal

UK Inspiration Challenge - Reveal

The Isle of Wight Flag Committee ran a public competition in association with the County Press newspaper to design a flag for the island. They received over 350 entries. This was the winning flag designed by John Graney and was approved in April of 2009.

I took inspiration from the flag and designed this necklace.  The triangle on the flag denotes the artist's loose interpretation of the shape of the island.  The silver dangle on my necklace is my interpretation of his design.  The waves appear in various places on my necklace.  The waves appear in the lampwork beads and also (although hard to see) they also appear on the silver tube beads on either side of the largest beads.  This was a fun and challenging project. I hope you enjoyed learning this tiny bit of history associated with this beautiful island.

 

 

 

Below are the blogs of those taking part in the UK Inspiration Challenge as at 11th November - please add this list to your blog post if you are taking part, thank you!

The HostsLesley Watt Gossiping Goddess

Rebecca Anderson Songbeads

Pippa Chandler Pip's Jewellery

Teresa Hulley Bo Hulley Beads

Natalie McKenna Grubbi

Jo Tinley Daisychain Designs

Dorset

Gale White Bantering Bird on Flickr

Ginger Bishop Lilmummylikes

Cece Cormier The Beading Yogini

Therese Frank Therese’s Treasures

Cilla Watkins Tell Your Girlfriends

Sherry Baun

Kay Toodles and Binks

Edinburgh

Therese Frank Therese’s Treasures

Kashmira Patel Sadafulee

Caroline Dewison Blueberribeads

Pam Sears Crazy Creative Corner

Sherry Baun

Leigh Thow Jewellrleigh

Lucy Haslam

Bath

Cynthia Machata http://antiquitytravelers.blogspot.com

Pam Sears Crazy Creative Corner

Sherry Baun

Isle of Wight

Duane Clark Bizzy Bead

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson Sharyl's Jewelry

Leigh Thow Jewellrleigh

Jean Wright Just Beadey

D Lynne Bowland Islandgirl’s Insights

Lisa Lodge Pine Ridge Treasures

Sherry Baun

Liverpool

Jean A. Wells http://www.jeanawells.blogspot.com

Shalini Austin Jewellery by Shalini

Doris Stumpf Glaszwerg

Sherry Baun

Lennis C Windbent

Southampton

Sherri Stokey Knot Just Macramé

Sherry Baun

Leigh Thow Jewellrleigh

Kathy Lindemer Bay Moon Design

 

             

Friends from the UK Jewelry Challenge

Well, my latest obsession with the Social Site Artisan Whimsey has challenged me, once again.

Here is the challenge:  Can you create a piece of jewellery or a jewellery component inspired by where the UK Blog team live?  (They're British you know so they spell it jewellery.)

The list includes:
Dorset
Edinburgh
Bath
Isle of Wight
Liverpool 
Southampton 

They provided us with the history and a brief description of each area and all we have to do is make a piece of jewelry inspired by that location.

If you know me, you probably guessed I chose Liverpool.  I love the Beatles... welllllll.... I did some research and once I saw pictures of the Isle of Wight I changed my mind.  Here is a photo that I came across on the internet:

Stay tuned for my entry!

Dee

Artisan Whimsy - Hooter Challenge :-}

I recently joined a social group called "Artisan Whimsy Bead Chat."  It's a social group of like-minded jewelry artists.  IT IS SO MUCH FUN! I can hardly get any work done because I'm afraid of missing something wonderful on this site.  I've learned several new techniques, found new sources for frequently purchased supplies and made new friends.  They occasionally post challenges and contests.  The picture below is my entry in the "Show us your Hooters" challenge.  I hope you enjoy my entry.

This is Sterling Silver sheet metal sawed and overlayed over another sheet of Sterling Silver.  The eyes consist of sterling silver wire and the piece dangles from one of my simple lampwork beads decorated with silver frit.

Talk to you soon.

Duane

 

 

Learning New Techniques

I was fortunate enough to take a class last Spring during the Art and Soul Art Retreat in Virginia Beach.  The class, Painting with Fire, was taught by Barbara Lewis.  Anyone who knows me knows I love my torch.  I was introduced to mixed media at the retreat so I thought I would apply it to my jewelry.  This piece incorporates copper that I domed to create dimension and a Victorian element that I also domed to lay nicely over the copper base.  I enameled the copper in black.  I added the art deco dangle to the Victorian focal piece and wanted something else to make it pop.  I added two of my simple flamework beads and plan to revisit the piece in a couple of days to see what I think.  Thanks for visiting!

Some new Summer earrings

I've recently made a few pieces to match my Summer wardrobe.  It's fun being able to throw a few simple lampwork beads together with some great Sterling findings and create something that is one-of-a-kind.  :-}

Fun day in a Virginia winery.

 

Date with my son!

Yesterday I prepared several pieces for the kiln (finally) and intended to fire them today (I got a better offer).  My son is taking me to Baltimore for a double header baseball game, plus crabs and beer!  I'm still going to post two projects that I did manage to complete yesterday, hope you like them.  The one called "Love Letter" is a simple lampwork bead that I created with a bronze clay focal piece made in early January. The other Bronze piece is from an antique mold that I purchased through Cool Tools.  Tomorrow while my kiln is toasting up my basement, I plan on doing a little lampwork (retirement is wonderful)!

Had a great week, my girlfriend is taking her first lampwork beading class in Newbern, North Carolina so she came for a visit.  We had three days of beading.  I introduced her to several new types of glass and she taught me a thing or two.  All-in-all we had a great time, but our beads improved by leaps and bounds over the course of three days.  The last beading session included a glass of wine and our beads really got pretty ;-}

Here is a picture that I posted on facebook, I hope to have many similar projects completed by end of week. (Oh, by-the-way, I'm supposed to be cleaning - instead I'm dreaming about having fun in my studio).

Girlfriend Bead Bash

I've been waiting to share my lampwork bead enthusiasm with someone, anyone.  How fabulous to be able to share it with my best friend!  My longtime girlfriend took several lampwork bead classes and she is as addicted as I am.  The only problem is she lives in North Carolina and I live in Virginia.  Well she is coming for a long overdue visit and we plan on beading, nonstop for three days (well except for a little good food and wine!)  Pictures will follow :-}

Drop Box

Drop Box

Jewelry 2012

I'm trying to figure out how to photograph my work and then how to start my Etsy Store. There is too much computer knowledge required in my little jewelry making world. Oh well, some day this will all be easy for me.