Polymer cabs....

Hi everyone, 

  Well, I thought I was going to be able to post before this but I have been working on a polymer cab order for a friend of mine. We were in Dave Chatt's master beading class way back in '96 or '97 up in Split Rock, Minn.  We had a great time but lost touch over the years and she moved to Santa Fe and I moved here to Baltimore. She saw my work in Lisa Kan's beading book and gave me a call!  So, I am in the process of making some cabs for her...just a few...30!  to start...I hope she likes them.  I am antiquing them a bit differently than before and sanding the highlights with 600 grits sandpaper to bring out the little details. I am planning on making some for me when I am done with Hattie's and putting them in PMC bezels and doing some of my own beadwork. I must be in a creative mood this week because I signed up for Synergy2 in Baltimore in Feb. I ordered a dvd from Sarah Shriver on her Kaleidoscope canes and also signed up for a class with Dan Cormier after Synergy2 for 2 days and even ordered some bead kits from Marcia DeCoster  and got some beading books and some polymer books....I think my brain may explode sometime soon!  At least I will be having fun at the same time....and who knows what will come of it all?  So, I will post the photos for Hatties work and if you look closely at the photos, you may see my reflection...don't fall on the floor when you do!!  Have fun playing...Kelly

  

Lots of ideas..

Hi everyone,

  Well, this week has been a lot of ideas and the writing down of said ideas...sitting on the porch with a cuppa while doing it, so not anything new to show you. I have to get my first piece for the master's registry done by the end of the month so I will be working on that this weekend...or should I say playing? I decided to look over the registry program and work up the sets that I think go together so I could then decide what themes to use. For example, there are some that are well suited for a industrial look so I put them together while making sure that I had all the requirements covered...2 from A, 2 from B, etc.  It was harder than I thought.  I feel good about how I divided them up and now when our masters registry group decides what is our next project, I will have an idea of what to do.  we are going to try to get our first group in and juried by the conference in July. 

  Speaking of the conference...I have been asked by the powers that be to do  a demo with Miss Barbara Becker Simon... we will be demoing 3 techniques each in the span of an hour's time...I am excited about being asked and then the fun of planning and doing the demo!  I will tell you later about what we are doing...need to keep you all on the edge of your seats!!  There will be a video cam and everything!  I will give you a hint with the photos that I am posting....can you guess what we are going to be showing??  Anyway, have a great weekend, playing, of course...Kelly

A couple more photos...

I just looked at the photos to see if they were in focus and the second wasn't so I am sending out another one for those of you who are interested....if you click on the photos, you can see everything up close and personal....imagine my surprise....ok, let's keep the laughing down to a dull roar, please!!!!  Anyway, hope you like this one too.   I also thought I would throw in one of the construction photos for "The Gilded Cage".....not all the components but you get the idea...k

New Week, New Work....

Hi everyone,

   Well, I did it again...hey, isn't that a song??  I really have to stop hitting the enter button after I put in the title.....so, just ignore that last post!  Anyway, I didn't do much of anything this past weekend but think about my Master's registry projects and and getting some of them down on paper. I am in a group with 5 other ladies who are also doing their Master's Registry and we have decided what projects we are doing so we can work out any problems that may come up and to just be support for each other. We are starting with the brooch with the stilt rivets and I showed you my drawing, but I am going to change it a bit and take out the long pearl and put in one of the long porcelain nails I made. I think it will make more of a statement.  Since you have already seen the drawing of my piece, I will leave you with some plain old eye candy....hope you enjoy it...have fun playing in the studio...which is where I am going...I think...it is awfully nice on the porch right now.....Kelly

I thought you might like to see some of my bigger pieces....the top two are fabric cuffs with antique lace and metal lace and pearls and tiny 15 charolettes  appliqued onto micro suede with a PMC centerpiece of a mermaid. One cuff has white pearls and the other has dark pearls and they are meant to be worn over long sleeves that haven't any cuffs. They tie on. The last piece is a pendant that combines metal and polymer clay and I made it for the Master's registry as one of the candidate's choices. The image behind the bars is a nude bride and the keyhole covers all the important bits. The name of this is" The Gilded Cage". I may still use it...I may re-make it...I see room for improvement with it. It is almost 4 inches long and is quite heavy....oh, well....time to go to play....Kelly

New Week, New Work....

feeling bad about those photos....

Hi again....

   well, I am feeling bad about messing up those photos and when I blew them up, I saw that you couldn't really see Billy's urn bead....so, a smaller post to correct my mistakes...(guess that makes me my own gremlin!)  I hope these are better...enjoy, Kelly

More photos....

Hi everyone,

   Today it was nice enough to take some photos of the ceramic and porcelain beads that I covered with my scrap pieces of PMC.  The other day the only photo that looked good enough to post was Joan Tucker's of Off-Center Productions. So today you will get to see what I did to Marsha Minutella's, Joan Miller's and Billy Batt's.  I hope I put them in order. I will be teaching the stenciling technique that is on Marsha's pendants at the BABE Show in San Fran in November. I hope you can join us. It is really fun just to play with the clay and not have to worry about the sub-structure.  And, yes, you can combine the stenciling with your scrap pieces.....and then you can do beaded bezels around the edges of the flat coin pieces so that both sides show....I am going to use the small coins of Ms. Tucker's in a beaded bracelet...little enough to finish quickly and fun to wear....anyway, I hope you like them and that you all have a great weekend....Kelly     well, I remembered them in order but the blog gremlin but them in the opposite order...so it is Billy's first, Joan's second(and upside down....sorry about that, Joan) and Marsha's last....but not least....

Fired and finished....

Hi everyone,

  Well, I fired my ceramic and porcelain beads made by all my friends...Marsha Neal Minutella, Joan Miller, Joan Tucker and Billy Batts. I stenciled, painted paste on, wrapped and spliced and built up my old scrap pieces that I have been saving (just in case!) to cover the beads with. In my last post, I showed the beads with the scraps I was planning on using with the beads I had. So, I finally fired the beads last night and nothing exploded! Yeah! This afternoon I took them all out and cleaned them and then did a bit of the stinky stuff....you know, liver of sulphur....then I also layered on some inks to the surface to make everything work together a little bit better. Some of them worked out better than I thought it would and some not as well as I hoped. I won't tell you which is which....the photos are not so great...getting ready to pour and the sky was too dark...so I will show only one photo that came out ok....hope you like it. Have fun playing, Kelly       These are the ceramic beads made by Joan Tucker of Off-Center Productions....you should take a look at her website.....

playing with scraps....

Hi everyone, 

   Well, I had a fun weekend playing in the studio! I needed to do my last assignment for the PMC Voice workshop and it needed to be opposite of what I normally do. Since all my work is over the top with little swirls and frou-frou-... the only way to go was with a flat, square pendant with nothing on it.  I had a really hard time deciding what to make...think about your own work and think about its opposite....what would yours look like?  I also started playing around with all the scraps I have had laying around for I don't know how long!  I am layering them over porcelain and ceramic beads made by Joan Miller and Joan Tucker and Billy Batts. I will show you the before and afters (the afters in a couple of days....after they are fired and patina-ed). One of the pieces I designed with all my scraps may turn into on of my Masters Registry pieces.  My son has even named it for me..."Fallen Angel"...I will post the before photo.  I am going to mount it on a piece of golden mica sheet (maybe!)...or flame patina-ed copper sheet that I did years ago in a Marilyn Moore class.  Have fun playing and I hope you like these....comments welcome...Kelly

Wicker and new work...

Hi everyone, 

  well, it is now time to get working on my Masters Registry piece..the first one of the fifty!  I am in a small group of ladies who are working together for support and problem solving. The first project is the brooch with stilt rivets. I also have to work on my last assignment for the PMC Voice group. I think it will be the hardest yet...I am supposed to define myself, my work and then do the opposite.  How do I describe myself or my work?  Any hints would be great!!!  When I am descibing my work, I think dainty and frou-frou and then there are all those pod things....what is the opposite of all those different subjects?  I have to say, my son Morgan always laughs when I say dainty and frou-frou.....and my husband just smiles, shakes his head and leaves the room...what does that mean?   I think they are confusing me with my work! 

  And since I mentioned wicker, I should say that I got my wicker chair and can relax in that this weekend. My husband is thinking that we will need to attach them to the porch floor so no-one comes in the middle of the night to steal them. Too funny! Well, have fun this weekend....Kelly

From my demo....

Hi everyone,

    Well, last night I went to the Howard County Art Center to give a demo to the Baltimore Bead Society ladies.  Thought I remembered how to get there....I didn't!  Almost went to the next town....no wonder my friends give me compasses to drive with!  Just call me Gilligan! Anyway, got there and had a nice time. I demo'ed how to do Kuem-bo and enamel on PMC on the UltraLite kiln. And a lot of people showed up! I was afraid that I would be by myself....not really...but you know how it is!  Anyway, the ladies were very nice and were so quiet, just watching the screen that I was thinking I wasn't doing well. But everyone said they enjoyed it, so, yeah!  I thought I would show you what I did since some of you couldn't make it...silly reasons, like you don't live in Maryland and things like that....I started with doing the Kuem-bo to parts of each bead and I wasn't too pickie about the placement and then I let them cool and did a couple of layers of transparent enamel.  I really got excited with the yellow gold one, I love the blushie-pink in the center!  I am planning on sanding them both down with a diamond file to matte the surface and then I will antique them with liver of sulphur. I will show you the photos when I am done. I hope you like them. Have fun playing, Kelly

Latest assignment...

Hi everyone, 

  I was planning on posting a page on Saturday, but my internet server went down. I was going to show you my assignment piece before it went into the kiln in case it fired all weird. I had really thick areas on top of super skinny areas so I thought a lot of distortion would happen. But, it didn't....so I will show you both photos...and a couple extra...you lucky people, you!!!!  Anyway, the assignment was to meld two or three shapes together into one bead.  I went overboard after that, but what's new??? 

  In between all this, I went to Pier One and got some beautiful wicker chairs to enjoy the weekend and the upcoming season...I love sitting outside in the fall and winter. I thought my husband was going to faint when he paid for them though!!!  I tried spending less than 100$ but he went crazy....800$!  No wonder he is grumpy today!  We are going to see Harry Potter finally! Yeah!  Anyway, have to go get ready...hope you like the new pieces....have fun today, Kelly

Trying again....

Hi everyone,

   Well, you can see what happens when you hit the wrong button!  It is the second time I have done it that you know about!!!  I have caught myself more time than I can say!  Anyway, I got a call from the Baltimore Bead Society about a talk I am going to give on Tuesday night....good thing they called to remind me....I thought I was doing it in October! I will be doing a demo on Kuem-bo and enameling PMC. I am thinking I am going to also bring my PMC Voice pieces so everyone can see them in person.  I am hoping there will be someone to listen. Wouldn't that be awful if I showed up for the talk and demo and no-one else did? I hope that doesn't happen.  So, this weekend, I have to make some pieces to Kuem-bo...no brass brushing and then get some pieces tumbled for the enameling part....

  I also have to work on my latest PMC Voice piece...I will tell you more about that on Saturday or Sunday.  I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend (and, yes, the only reason I knew it was a holiday weekend was because of the phone call! Maybe I should get a calendar!)  Have fun playing, Kelly      Thought I would show you some Kuem-bo-ed pieces for those of you who can't come to the talk.....

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