Steam… I mean, Bead Porn

I just received these lovelies in my mail – my bonus prize from the “Hardware Store” challenge over at Treasures Found. Five of Earthenwood’s awesome steamstones – if you like these, you can see (and order) more of them here. Mine are:

• a steamgear charm in “rusty engine”
• a steam bit accent in “rusty engine”
• a round bolt bit in “desert pine” (I think, not entirely sure about the glaze colour)
• an oval black pendant with a white key
• and last but not least my favourite of the five: a gear disc with a centre hole, nice and smooth like a pebble, with an earthy matte brown glaze

I love them all so much! Thank you, Erin! And I will definitely show what I’ll make with these!

No post yesterday, because I spontaneously decided to watch “Avatar” with some co-workers… and afterwards spontaneously decided to have a drink or two. Haven’t been at home before midnight. Probably no post tomorrow either, since we’re headed for the pub again… so, see you on the weekend!

Inspired by… the Universe

As you may have guessed by the title, the long awaited next challenge is up on Treasures Found – and the new inspiration is nothing less than… the entire universe!

Isn’t that awesome? I love the stars… I even used to have a little telescope on my balcony (right now I don’t, for lack of a balcony). Nevertheless, I was a little overwhelmed at first. Erin mentioned in a comment that googling the Universe brought up some really colourful pictures, and so it did – but in my experience (that is: for the naked eye, not Hubble), the nightsky is all black and silver. Nothing against that, actually. But I had been creating colourless all the past month for the Art Bead Scene challenge, and I was tired of it. So, colours then. My first idea was to create an Art Bead specifically for this challenge, inspired by a particular picture. But, I will have to try a new technique to achieve what I want, and I have no idea if it will work out at all. And that means that this project will take time – but I wanted to start beading immediately!!

I had sorted my polymer clay charms in the past few days – mostly stuff I made out of leftovers, or trials for a new technique. I rarely used any of them, but now there was a whole heap of little, colourful stars. Really colourful, actually. Some mokume gane experiment, one block of green and blue, and one of blue and violet, turned out a lot more… intense than I had expected it to. It looked like candy, really, except that it was sparkly as well.

Consequently, the little necklaces I made look quite a bit girlish and cutesy:

Bronze Connectors – New Style

Okay, they don’t really look that different here – I should have put them side-by-side with some old ones for the photo. The effect is actually quite nice, they turned out to look very antique. I used a little greenish-blue eyeshadow in addition to the copper powder. It also looks more metallic this way… or at least it did before I put glaze on it. I didn’t want the glossy effect I had on the last batch, so I tried liquid polymer clay this time. Well, it’s not as glossy. It stinks awfully unhealthy when baking, though – I don’t really feel comfortable using that stuff in my kitchen oven. And the effect is just the same as before – it looks like glazed ceramic now *sigh*.

On a happier note: I love the owl!

Kiwiken’s Art Beads

So this is the last drawer I haven’t shown yet: my own handmade beads. These are just connectors, beads and larger charms, though – there’s an additional box with all the small charms. I definitely need a larger storage drawer! I hate putting different things together in one case… The metal core beads are stored in two cases because of the different hole size, so I don’t confuse them.

Today (besides making copies of stamps) I experimented a little with my “faux bronze connectors” (the small round disks in the left case above), but the new ones aren’t glazed yet, so I can’t show them before tomorrow.

Christmas Bead Shopping II

This is the rest of the beads I bought over christmas. I really don’t understand why it is so hard to get metal beads around here, especially golden or bronze ones. The green and purple beads on top are some kind of gemstone, I don’t know what exactly (but they’re definitely dyed). The white beads at the bottom are painted porcelain – the small ones with flowers in green and orange, the larger ones with golden chinese writing.

And isn’t the little chili pepper cute? (I love hot food, so I had to get that one, too)

I am just sorting them and storing them away, so I thought I should take a little snapshot. Which reminds me, I really need to take a picture of the dragon hoard of beads I made and didn’t use so far…

Some Simple Earrings

Just trying my hand on something different, in an unusual colour combination – lavender and khaki. Inspired by the colour wheel I posted a few days ago.

Sorry for the short post, but I don’t have much time today… I’m out for dinner with my co-workers. Finishing my pile of jewelry will have to wait for the weekend.

Broken Pieces

Some old and broken jewelry that used to belong to my grandmother. Two bracelet links and a necklace. I think the links might make a nice pendant, maybe the pale gold (it’s not as bright as it used to be) would look good with green.

As for the necklace… well, I don’t like the combination of the bright gold and pink (both are more intense in reality than in my picture). However, I could imagine the pink beads with reddish brown wood and bronze. And the golden part maybe with blue or green. What do you think?

Paua

My mom gave me these three lovely paua shells for christmas! I love the play of colour on them (unfortunately it is impossible to capture on a photo). The large one even has a hole, so I can string it as a pendant! I don’t know what to do with the others, as I don’t want to glue them, and I’ve never done any wire-wrapping. Maybe I should try it…

Pink Tea Roses

Another necklace I recently made. To be honest, I don’t know what to think about it. I’ve been working on yet another, but I won’t finish it tonight – maybe tomorrow.

Wavy Washer Necklace

As you can see, I finally managed not only to finish my Washer/Hokusai necklace, but even to take a photo of it… Considering that I planned it first in August to submit to the Art Bead Scene monthly challenge, and then again in december to submit to the Inspiration is Everywhere Hardware Store challenge… oh well. *sighs*