Tag: leather

Amulet bags: the March Art Elements reveal!

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Welcome – to the March “theme” reveal over at the Art Elements blog! This month Cathy said “amulet bags”. (You can read  her introductory post with a bit of background information here.) This theme is so wide open. and so inspirational – and I was so very, very captivated…

I started with ribbon – and a nod to the inspiration of Heidi Kummli’s stunning ribbon bags. These are hand sewn, as I do not own a machine currently – and they are lined with a watercolor-y batik fabric. I was torn between reading hem – and letting the ribbon be the star…

ribbon

Sakura inspired amulet bag with bronze clay floral by Lesley. Turquoise eye amulet bag features a milagro.

I have a tendency – and a desire – to sit and bead at least a few minutes a day; my meditation. This month, much of that time was spent sewing and stitching…The following trio are sewn from a thin, butter soft leather. This was actually a pattern for a doll purse! The purples are a bit wonky, but the brown may be my favorite. It it the contrast of organic/soft leather and machined/hard metal in the vintage button? I am not sure – but I love it. These three have small grommets on the sides to attach jump rings…

mini satchel

Mini leather satchels await straps… 

Now – I have a plentiful stash of leather scraps. From Lindsay, from friends who are leather workers at Rennaissance fairs… This stamped leather was from Lindsay – and the natural edge is a thing of beauty. All I did was fold it up, trim the inside edge, and stitch the sides! The hole in the flap was there – so I made a loop and bar closure.

fish heather

OK – now I am on a roll – my tasted do seem to really like leather for this challenge. Two more – simple envelope shapes… One has silks stitched in; the other – can you see the wee grommets in the right hand pix? I wanted these to be wearable, and not to worry that the soft leather would stretch or tear.

beaded leather

Brass stamping of moon and star. Ceramic bead by White Clover Kiln. Perfect size for a gemstone worry stone. 

Last one – This scrap is thanks to Elisabeth – from my recent Girls Bead retreat! I let the scrap shapes decide on the amulets. And then charms and more charms! I am sorry that I don’t have any of these completely finished with straps etc. I do plan to… perhaps in time for my first Faerie Festival of the year?

asymetrical

Simple on the surface – and then charmed! 

I so enjoyed this theme challenge! I will be making more! Thanks to Cathy for the inspiration. Please check out the team’s creations, and our guests this month:

Guests-

Samatha Wescott–
Oksana Bevz- 
Genevieve Camp-

AE Members-

Caroline
Cathy
Cooky
Lesley
Lindsay
Niky
Sue

August Component of the Month reveal – and a guest blogger!

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 Oh heavens August has been a whirlwind! Prep for Beadfest. The fantastic time that was had AT beadfest – hanging out with AJE team mates, shopping, selling… And now its the reveal date for the Component of the Month at Art Jewelry Elements blog. This month’s component is a hand painted leather feather from Rebekah Payne of Tree Wings Studio. Simply gorgeous! 

But best of all: Lesley Watt of The Gossiping Goddess is here in the US! We spend the last two days in the studio working on our pieces, hanging out, drinking tea/coffee and generally having a fantastic time at “art camp”. So with out further ado – the reveal: 

CoM faux bone

I wanted to back the feather in Faux bone to create a studier piece as a cuff bracelet. The Faux bone can be shaped when heated. I stamped, distressed, tinted with alcohol inks and sanded it until I had the level of color/rustic/patina that I wanted. 

CoM WIP

In homage to Emily Dickinson I had to engrave the word “Hope” on the underside. (” Hope is a thing with feathers that perches in the soul…”)  The feather is stitched onto the faux bone with waxed linen. I wanted to use these rustic beads from Diana/Suburban Girl, but the wire wrap links werent flexible enough in the small span of bracelet… 

JDR CoM bracelet.

Here is my finished piece – I  selected the colors to play off the feather itself. The triple strand included lapis, blue tiger eye, seed pods… I plan to wear it today!

Now over to Lesley: 

Thanks Jenny…

So for this reveal I have none of my usual kit around me to work with so Jenny has very kindly put her awesome studio and bead stash at my disposal and the contents of that together with my Bead Fest haul have been the inspiration for my design with Rebekah’s beautiful leather feather. I new before I left the UK that I wanted to incorporate the piece with metal and probably make a bracelet and that went perfectly since jenny was able to give me an impromptue tube riveting lesson  to produce this textured cuff element…

LW CoM 1

Then it was down to picking some beads to accent the cuff and I eventually decided on a beautiful Basha bead that I bought at Bead Fest which perfectly mirrored the blue of the leather. I also went for a linen strung multi-strand section combinng some brass and copper beads and a brass cone from Hands of the Hills and some lovely blue seeds I raided from Jenny…

LW CoM 2

Put all these together and this is the result which I have to say I’m really pleased with…it has something of a Native-American vibe to it and it wears really well.

LW CoM 3

It was great fun working on this project with Jenny, bouncing ideas around and seeing how our pieces started with similarities but ended up quite different…thanks Jenny.

You can check out what the other participants made using the links below: 

Guest Artists
Karin Grosset Grange – http://ginkgoetcoquelicot.blogspot.com/
 
The AJE Team
Diana Ptaszynski – http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com
Jenny Davies-Reazor – http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog
Francesca Watson – http://francescawatson.com/
 

Fern fronds… the June AJE Component of the Month reveal

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Has it really been a month? A month of creative students at Clay Camp, commissions, beads, books, and frolicking with the fae in the woods… Pictures to follow in short order. But its time for the Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month reveal – that’s for sure! 

This month’s lovely focal is the work of AJE teamate Linda Landig. Linda is new to ceramic clay and was generous enough to share some of her first fired treasures with the team and readers. When I saw this fern – I called “Dibs” as fast as my fingers could fly over the keyboard. From first glance, I intended to hang the fern pendant point up, and extend the copper along the bottom to have room for dimples and dangles. The fern was a bit larger that I expected, so I decided to keep the copper tab setting more form fitting. I flipped the setting as I decided to roll the tabs over the top of the piece – not only holding the stoneware in, but creating a channel for stringing material. The bottom tabs, and hole/dangel complete the secure tab setting. 

Fern tab setting

The back has a curled fern cut out, and is stamped with the words – peace, growth, strength. These are symbolic meanings associated with the fern. My initial suede lace arrangement (seen above) was too thin, too stretchy. I was committed in my mind’s eye to the suede as it was the perfect rust tone to echo the iron stain in the super detailed fern imprint. 

Everything in me wanted to use green. I was trying to avoid that as too predictable. I mean ferns are green, sure. but there isnt a RULE… In the end there is a bit of light green, as well as pod beads, wood grain jasper, copper chain… The necklace is very long, over 30″ – but that was the place it seemed to “fit” best.  I like its eclectic, organic design. 

Fern fronds CoM

(There are jump rings employed at variable spaces to connect the suede to the chain. Keeps it loose, yet under control.)

 fern fronds details.

( I included this one for scale – as my hand will give you a reference.) 

Thanks Linda! This was super fun – any reason to design unique tab settings, and I am there!

Please head over to the Art Jewelry Elements blog to see the team members and readers contibutions! There will be diverse offerings to entertain and inspire ! 

Seeing red… the AJE Component of the Month

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    Looking for the “inspired by Reading” hop? 

 

 Welcome to the April CoM reveal from us at the Art Jewelry Elements blog team! 

This month’s offering is presented by the fabulous Lesley Watt of Thea Too. Lesley has recently expanded her clay repertoire from metal clays to include earthen ceramic clay as well – and made this batch of stellar clasps. I was tempted to say “Surprise me!” as so many are really my style, but I LOVE  a  dark stoneware… 

Lesleys CoM clasps

When my clasp arrived – in lightening speed from the UK, I must add – I was simply seeing red. Not in anger, but in inspiration. THe dark stoneware was accented in the spiral design with just a hint of red glaze. I was htinking a bracelet bar in black and red, with some corresponding swirl/spiral design. 

CoM option 1

I textured and cured the black polymer bracelet bars, curing them on a can to maintain their shape. I wanted to experiment with polymer in this style of component, and test its strenght… It was going to have a copper stamped bar riveted on as well – adding structure and support. And on the third and final tube rivet… I broke the corner of the polymer. The saying “Know Thyself” is attributed to the Delphic Oracle, and a favorite of mine. 

My original plan was to make a triple wrap bracelet, starting with the bracelet bar and incorporating leather. So I went ahead with that plan and created a pair of charms – polymer in copper bezels. These two echo the color and pattern in Lesley’s piece.  I ended up with a double wrap bracelet.  

Seeing red CoM images

Yes, that is a fluted gunmetal ceramic bead from Caroline/Blueberri Beads in there. Ingredients also include: vintage resin, lava beads, and wire wrapped links. 

CoM WIP

I am very happy with the ingredients. I like the colors, the patterns and the textures as they are. I am not as happy with the overall composition or the fit. And I need to rewrap those wire wraps on the leather, they bug me. So I am dubbing this a WIP. I hope to revisit the bracelet bar idea in the near future, and use these ingredients again. 

Please! Help me out. Thoughts? Advice? 

Then you can check out my teamates and our guests this month. But first I would love to hear your thoughts… 

And thanks for stopping by! 

Guests
Johana Nunez
Leah Curtis
Perri Jackson

AJE Team
Lesley Watt
Keirsten Giles
Caroline Dewison
Rebekah Payne
Jen Cameron
Diana Ptaszynski
Kristen Stevens
Francesca Watson
Melissa Meman
Linda Landig
Sue Kennedy
 

 

 

 

Ammonites! The October AJE component of the month reveal!

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 Welcome to the AJE Component of the Month reveal! 

(If you are looking for the “Inspired by Reading” book Group – its here.)

 I love copper, the warm tones are very autumnal to me. So when I recieved this lovely copper clay bracelet bar from Kristi Bowman for this month’s CoM – I was thrilled. And to have spiral/ammonite textures? They are some of my absolute favorites. I love the combination of patterns that brings to mind suns, flowers… The heat patina on the copper had a flash of purple. That’s all it took… 

Kristis copper focal

 I wanted to accentuate the purple and play off the contrast between the copper and the flash colors. But I didnt have any amethysts that were right, and the seed beads and glass I had werent the right scale. So I challenged myself and went a bit outside my comfort level and used leather. I have a stash of scraps from my friend Betty at Emperor’s Needle. She makes clothing and accessories and is a regular at the Pennsylvania Rennaissance Fair. The purple was divine… 

Oct CoM bracelet

I paired the purple with 2 strands of size 8 seed beads to add texture, and color variation. I accented the focal, and drew attention away from the clasp with a lamp work bead by Sandi Volpe. ( My Beadfest swap partner, and friend). That bead cap? Yes, it looks familar! It is a duplicate cap from Lesley Watt/Thea Elements from last month’s CoM! Lesley did not recommend manipulating the bronze bead cap; but I dared, and was gentle yet persistant… and it worked! I curved the petals in to curl around the leather and hide the connections. I am happy with the way it came out, like the leather, and love the feel of it on!

On a second note – I have finally finished the polymer pod from last month – inspired by Lesley’s bronze petaled bead cap. Here it is painted and sealed. I am not sure what I am going to do with this one – but it has really started the creative wheels turning thinking of vessels and hollow forms… What do you think? 

 Sept CoM finished Sept pod open

Here’s to another great month at Art Jewelry Elements! Its a pleasure to work with such creative original artists! Please head over to the Art Jewelry Elements blog for links to all of the participants this month.  You wont regret it… 

A few my favorite things… Artists work from Spoutwood

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At Spoutwood Faerie festival – there are so many talented makers, artists, craftspeople, performers, artisans… there is no way I could give you an overview. Let me give you a series of pictures to highlight a few of my favorites, my friends and neighbors… 

Gorgeous parasols…

Parasols

Butterfly Bones – resin at its finest, many organic materials. Stellar display! (Shop here.)

Butterfly BOnes

Wing and Talon Leather – I was glad to get to meet and hang out with Donovan, my neighbor. He is a gifted artist, and makes the most exquisite masks. All by hand, hand tooled, hand painted, no assistants – his vision, his creativity. Those barrettes made me want to grow my hair long. Seriously. ( Shop here.)

Wing and Talon

Wing and Talon barrettes

Echo and Wild Jewelry – Confession – I own MANY of Jeannie’s pieces. I tend to purchase a new one each year at the MD Rennaissance Festival. I have been acquiring them for years… Over the last few years we have become friends as well. Her vision and her spiritual outlook mirror mine, she works in sterling, I work in clay…

Echo and Wild

Echo and Wild fairies

Molly Stanton of Elven Elysium. Its polymer. Look again, believe me. Gems, cabochon set, beaded stands, dangle… Molly is a gifted sculptress; you should see her figurative work!

Elven Elysium

Elven Elysium 2

Dancing Pig Pottery – another artist who I know from attending the MD Rennaissance Festival – I got to meet Virginia at Wicked Faire in February. Isnt it ironic that the potters always get along famoulsy, even when doing work as varied as hers and mine?  I now have a fantastic mug of hers for my morning coffee! ( shop here.)

Dancing pig pottery

DP detail

Like I said – just a few, a little eye candy for you! These artists are all creating their work themselves, 100% hand made. In the days of collectives, and corporate entities disguised as handmade artist/craftspeople – its nice to support the real deal! (That last comment refers to a recent Etsy scandal…)

 

 

FaerieCon m.a.g.i.c – G is for good friends, good neighbors

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Robert Frost said “Good fences make good neighbors” That sprang to mind when I sat down to gather my thoughts  for this post. Good neighbors make for a good festival. Good neighbors also make good friends – and vice versa. This FaerieCon I was in my regular space, my home away from home. I have vended the event three years running in the upstairs hall. Yes, its hard to select and filter what to bring for a 6′ table display when I am accustomed to a booth. But to be surrounded by friends, old and new; to listen to fantastic music during the Masquerades; take a look: 

JDR table

Let me introduce you to some of my gypsy fae family. 

Sarah and JDR

Sarah and I have been friends for years – she was one of my first friends when I moved to Delaware. One summer she and her teenage kids ( my students) gave me a wee soft sculpted artist doll mermaid. A few years later, she and I are set up side by side at FaerieCon. She was the person who introduced me to FaerieCon and planted the seed that we should each vend! And she is one helluva a baker, too…

Toadstoolsntreestump

You can find her on Etsy at ToadstoolsNTreestump!

Sarah and I met Kimberly of Goblin Bazaar at the first Baltimore FaerieCon. If her shop is closed – she is either out geocaching of catching fae critters… She runs an adoption agency of sorts, coaxing the critters in from the wild and finding them homes with open minded magically aware humans. Some need love, others understanding, but they find the right match in the end. 

Kimberly and JDR

And there are goblins. Nose Goblins, Oak goblins… goblins wearing exquisite leather masks – they might let you wear one as well with just the right bribery. Of course I am talking about Goblin Road! Robert represents this husband and wife business/team at FaerieCon, and he is a welcoming presence, a wealth of information, freely shared. He has a certain “je ne sais quoi”. 

Robert Goblin Rd

We adopted Dru` the oak goblin a year ago (?) and he is a welcome addition to our family. (Dru` is Gaelic for oak, naturally.)

oak goblin

One additional friend, although not on our hallway – Noelle! She is a multi-faceted actress, performer, artist who never ceases to amaze me. I am so glad that FaerieCon and Frenchy and the Punk brought us together! Wouldn’t quite be the same if you werent there, darling! (Scott and Samantha you were missed! Hope you can return to the Realm next year!)

Noelle and JDR

And this hallway was the place to be! New people to meet! Much fun to be had! (And the lights bounced! Inside joke…)

Meredith Dillman – I was familiar with her work from the Interwebs – great to meet her. A picture, you ask? Sorry, no. How about her work? I love “Kitsune”!

Dillman Kitsune

There are many faeries and lovely and mysterious ladies on her site as well. But I can never resist a fox fae!

I was thrilled to see Reyen Design Studios on the map across from me! I am familiar with their wool and silk felted creations from previous FaerieCons and Spoutwood. Hand dyed, merino wool felted onto silk – they defy words. A must to see, feel, wear. And such good neighbors! ( This picture is a rough phone shot, but I had to do it…) Serenading Satyrs!

Reyen satyrs

Last but not least – Danielle from Earthly Leather Designs. We were Etsy acquaintances, and I am thrilled her first FaerieCon was a smashing success! Here’s to many more! (And hoping we get to chat a bit next time!) 

Earthly Leather

Thank you for being the best neighbors a girl, and her dryad, could wish for. Have a wonderful year, til next we meet!