Cocoon Beads

Recently the Charmsters group that I'm in did a "cocoon bead" swap. This was hosted by the wonderful Maureen, who always does a super job running a swap. Our inspiration for this swap was a couple of photos of beads that some of the girls did while at the Art & Soul retreat in Portland. I really had no instructions for making them, but I was impressed by their look: a wire base, wrapped in fabric or ribbon, then wrapped in a thin wire that has been strung with beads. That was enough to go on for me. I tried a few with a silk ribbon. They were nice, but not spectacular. I then pulled out my box of yarn. Jackpot! Thick yarn, wavy yarn, "hairy" yarn -- they all looked wonderful when wrapped with wire and beads. Each wire base was two inches long. I experimented with 12 - 24" of yarn, depending on how thick it was. I also used silver wire, copper wire, and black artistic wire. I found that matching the outer beads to the yarn color wasn't the best idea. They got lost in the yarn. Contrasting, brighter beads worked better. I also tried the "more is more" theory, and some of them really looked fantastic with a ton of beads. I ended up making six different kinds for the swap. Here is a photo with the yarns that I used.

I've seen these beads called fiber-wrapped beads, fabric-wrapped, and what we called them, cocoon beads. Going with the cocoon name, of course I just had to package them as if they were butterflies. I rubber stamped a card, punched holes in it, then attached the cocoons with wire, twisting the ends in the back.


Here are the groups of beads that I made. They were so fun to make -- my kids even tried their hands at it. I think for awhile I was addicted. I've even bought more yarn since I did these so I can do more.






For the swap, we send all our packaged beads to Maureen. In this case, there were 19 of us participating. Maureen then sorts them so we all received two beads from each person. She mails them back and -- surprise -- it's like Christmas when you receive that package in the mail! It's so fun opening it up and looking at everyon'e creations. I immediately put mine on a chain, and made one heckuva necklace. There were so many that I made another, more sedate necklace. But you've just gotta have a wild necklace like the first one -- and be bold enough to wear it out. I did, and got lots of raves from my friends.

Crystal Charms

I'm hosting a swap with my Charmsters group. The theme is "Crystal Twins," and the idea is to make two matching charms, using some kind of crystal. I used Swarovski crystals and some others. I like the idea of matching crystals with metal. I used brass and copper metals, and some sterling chain.

Latest Collage

Just so you don't think I'm only doing jewelry right now, let me tell you about my latest collage. When I signed up for the Fall Fling art festival, I decided to go all out and submit something for the poster contest. Well, I didn't win, but here's the collage I did for it. I prepared a wooden board using gesso, then painted with acrylics. I added oil pastels and charcoal pencil. The photos are color copies, and I added oil pastels to some of them. The whole picture is sealed with a clear gloss spray.


The theme was "Wild Things." I took photos of wild things around my home in Florida. Wild animals, wild plant life. The dolphin is semi-wild, since he lives at the Miami Seaquarium. We watched the dolphin show, then stayed around to take more pictures. This time of year we have mild weather, with lots of sun, so it's a great time to get some wonderful pictures. Here are some other photos I took that day.



This last photo is of a wild iguana outside. In South Florida, there are areas that have huge populations of these reptiles. I guess people had them as pets, then when they got too big, just released them outside. Since they're not native to this area, they have no natural predators. There's a neighborhood down south that is so overrun by them, that they call it Jurassic Park. So far, our neighborhood doesn't have any. But we do have a "Jesus lizard" living in our front garden. That's the kind that runs away when frightened on its back two legs, standing up. He's so skittish, I haven't been able to snap a picture of him.

My First Art Festival

Well, I did it. I entered my first outdoor art festival, displayed and sold my jewelry, and was a success. The weather was beautiful, and we had a good turnout. I sold quite a few pieces on Saturday. Sunday, however, was another story. Lots of people looked, but not many were buying. At the end of the weekend, I was pleased with the results since Saturday was such a good day. Would I do a show again? Absolutely. But maybe I'll pick a show that's bigger; this had only about 30 artists' booths. At least I can say now that I've done one. I shared a booth with another artist, but next time I'll go solo. I over-prepared for this one, and had so much jewelry to show that it looked a little crowded on my one table. Here are some photos.

Latest Jewelry

I had some friends over the other night, and we did some beading together. I've wanted to do a wire and bead necklace for awhile, and I finally made it happen. This necklace is made entirely with 18 guage wire. You cut a length of wire, then twist and bend it to the shape you want. The beads are Italian glass, given to me by my neighbor who bought them on a vacation in Venice. I love the bright colors, but what's really interesting is their size. Usually I'll use one large bead like this as a focal point, but I like the idea of using them all in one necklace. I'll be offering this for sale at the Wellington Fall Fling this weekend.

The Fall Fling is an outdoor art show hosted by the Wellington Art Society. I recently became a member of this group, and am jumping in by participating in my first art show. I've been making jewelry every day for the past month! Here's another one of my metal creations. This pendant is made from bronze and copper sheets and is wrapped with copper wire, and held by silver wire. I love the mixture of materials.

I used raku pottery beads in this necklace, and highlighted them in copper. I raku pottery takes on interesting colors while it is fired, and you're not sure of the colors until it cools.

This next necklace is a combination of glass and ceramic beads.

This final necklace combines it all -- raku beads, glass, ceramic, and copper. I made the pendant first, and sat on it for a month or so until I found the right beads to go with it. I love long, bold pieces like this. I hope the people of Wellington like bold pieces as much as I do!

New Jewelry

I'll be showing my jewelry at the Wellington (Florida) Fall Fling the weekend of November 22. I've been busily making more jewelry, and have posted a few photos here. I'm experimenting with some metal pieces, and I'm also experimenting with my photography. Hopefully my photos will show you the deep colors that I'm using.

For this necklace I used colored freshwater pearls and made a free form silver wire holder for a ceramic focal bead.

This necklace uses Swarovski crystals and Swarovski pearls. If you've never tried these pearls for jewelry making, you should seek them out. The wide range of colors are vibrant, hold some shine, and the color doesn't wear off. You can tell the quality and workmanship of Swarovski is behind them.

I've combined ceramic and glass beads in this necklace, and I've accented it with gold beads. This is a little bit of a departure, since I mostly work in silver, but since I'll be showing this at an art show, I need to satisfy the gold lovers!

One of my favorite mediums is metal, and you can see that in this copper pendant. The copper sheet has been cut, textured with a hammer, and folded. The dangle is a cut brass disk.

Art & Soul Portland

The first week of October I traveled to Portland, Oregon for my second visit to Art & Soul. Art & Soul is an amazing week full of art classes taught by artists from all over the United States (and some from other countries). You get to choose which day-long class you take each day, from a list of jewelry, journaling, assemblage, collage, painting and drawing classes. I use this trip as an opportunity to learn new techniques, work in different mediums, and try something I've never tried before. But the fantastic part of this trip is the people you meet. Since I went last year, I've "met" a lot of people through internet groups and have trades charms with them, swapped art, and worked on round robin art projects. I couldn't wait to meet these internet friends in person. This is the event where you need to be outgoing, uninhibited, and not be afraid to try something new or walk up to a stranger and introduce yourself. And so I would say, my trip was a success. I met and talked to about a hundred people. I learned new art techniques. I made some funky, interesting art -- if a year ago someone would have said I'd make some art like this, I would have said, you're crazy. So here's some of the art I made in Portland Art & Soul 2008.

I took Nina Bagley's class, Gatherings, on the first day. In that class we were attaching 3-D elements, pictures and dangles to old book covers. (I never thought I'd be ripping a cover off a book for art. But I guess that's what garage sales are for!) I learned how to use a Japanese screw punch, and how to work with mica. Mica had seemed very mysterious to me, not simply because I couldn't find it in any of my local stores. Now I've got my own stash of it, and will be adding it to jewelry and collage projects. Here are the "pages" I did in the Gatherings class.



Last year I took the class Vintage Metal Treasure Deck with Leighanna Light. I loved her techniques, teaching style, and most importantly, her personality. I took a class from her this year, too, called Funky Found Object Canvas Village. In this class, we used canvas, which we painted, collaged, then covered it all in gel medium, then painted again. The difficult part came because we were trying to get gel medium to try in a short period of time. It goes on opaque, but takes up to 24 hours to turn clear. It was dry enough to paint over, but we couldn't really see our collage work underneath to guide us. I went heavy on the final paint, and ended up obscuring a lot of my collage. But I liked the technique a lot, and admire the final results that Leighanna created, so I will do it again. Here is one I made in class.

My last day I took Lisa Kaus' class Be Still My Beating Heart. In this class we painted on wood (after she had primed it for us), added oil pastels and colored pencils, attached 3-D elements, then covered the whole thing in wax to protect it. Everyone did a tremendous job on their projects. This was a good way to end the week, with a great work of art to hang in my home. Here it is.