The Key,...

~The Sea Will Forever Hold The Key To All That Is Me ~

 

A little while back I received an email from my ultra talented friend Jeannie Dukic of Jewelry By Jeannie. Some of you may remember last year when I participated in Jeannie's Design Group, the Echo Creative Club.

Jeannie makes fabulous beads (and really cool jewelry too, by the way), and not just any beads, but super great, polymer clay beads. I had never really worked with Polymer clay beads or pendants in my designs before Jeannie asked me to design with hers last year and wow, what a treat, let me tell you what! 

"My Cherry Tree" necklace by Michelle Buettner

 

I truly enjoyed designing with Jeannie's beads and pendants.  They helped me step out of my design box a bit and try new colors, new materials and different styles - it felt good. And challenging, too. 

So, in Jeannie's recent email, she asked me if I'd be interested in designing something with a few of her new beads she just 'perfected' to look exactly like lamp-work glass beads.

 

Um,....YES, I would! :-)

 

She explained how after much trial and error and going through A LOT of polymer to get them exactly right, she was ready to put them up on her website store and she thought about asking me to design something with a few of them. (Thank you so much Jeannie!!)

Polarity Beads - Jewelry By Jeannie

 

When I opened the package Jeannie sent me (which itself was a work of art!) I was delighted to find these beautiful beads staring back at me.

 

See what I mean - lovely!!

They really DO look just like lampwork beads!!

Incredible!

I was excited at their beautiful blue color. They remind me of aquamarine blue and the color of the sea.  I tried to put some of my aquamarine stones with them - but what I had in my gem stash just didn't go with these beads - mine were too 'green' or something,....not what I had envisioned. 

To me, these beads were screaming "Sea!! Ocean!! Waves!!", so I got out some of my glass beads that look like beach glass and went to work.

I grabbed some C-Lon cord (beadshop.com) in Turquoise and did a bit of macramé to mimic the 'wave' feeling I had with these and added some various sizes and shapes of seed beads in different shades of blues to the glass beads for some contrast in size and texture.

 

I know, I know,...you're all shocked that I actually HAVE seed beads aren't you?  Well, truth be told, I have two little 'bins' completely full of them. Why?  I don't know.  Food for the vacuum, I guess. I can hear it squeal with delight from the broom closet each time I get the bins out. Lord knows that other than stringing them (and I don't even do that very well!), I could never work with these little rascals.  I have such admiration for people who work with them.  I mean seriously, the art they create with these tiny little things just amazes me.

Anyway, I got in this 'zone', if you will, while creating with Jeannie's perfect polymer beads and here's what came of my creative session.

 

 

Jeannie's new beads are called 'Polarity Beads' and they are a dream to work with. So light and versatile. That's one of the main things I like about polymer clay pieces (other than the fact that they can actually look like any other material on earth),  - their weight - or lack there of, actually. It helps when designing pieces so you don't have to have objects of equal weight on the other side to balance the bracelet or whatever you're designing. And, for earrings, these beads would be perfect because they can be larger, but not have the over-the-top weight of some glass beads - thus not weighing you earlobes down. Yeah!! 

 

 

I used this little Heart/Key charm from B'Sue's Boutique as my focal for the necklace. You can't really see the inscription - especially since I used some gilder's paste (also from B'Sue's) over it - but it says:  "He who holds the key, can unlock my heart"

 

Well, the sea holds the key to my heart.

At least that's what it feels like when I'm there,....

 

 

I truly enjoyed creating with Jeannie's new beads and using them as the inspiration for this set.

 

I guess you could say they unlocked a sort of 'key' to a certain area of creativity for me!

"The Key" Jewelry set by MiShel Designs, Polymer Clay Polarity Beads
by Jeannie of Jewelry by Jeannie.

 

 

I hope you get the chance to hop on over to Jeannie's shop and check out all her other lovelies!

 

I personally have my eye on one of her newer Acanthus Pendants (the blue one will go perfectly with some of my Ancient Roman Glass Beads from both Happy Mango and Philip Mertens).

 

I mentioned to the hubs that it would be cool for Christmas - so we'll see what shows up in my stocking on Christmas morning!! :-)

 

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Keys to Creativity!

Cheers,

~Shel~

 

Back to Work!

Remember yesterday when I told you I was taking a "play day"? 

Well, here's a look at what took place:

Some un-finished designs just out of the LOS

I played around with some copper and brass,....hammering, putting texture on metal, punches holes in things, wire wrapping and even dipping stuff in LOS - Stinky!!

But it was fun!!

Mike playing with fire.

Mike was out in the garage workshop area - melting stuff!

Mike's pewter goodies

He's got this thing with melting pewter and making molds and cool stuff.  

Some of Mike's melting tools and his pewter crosses

This is my work area of the garage compared to his.

See the old sewing machine in the corner and that old clock up top from a few blog posts back?
Mike actually did learn to sew on that machine. And the clock, well, we're still trying to get it to work.

I don't usually play with fire like he does.

When I do,...it's just small stuff. Or if I feel like some heat, I turn on the kiln (which isn't often). 

My trusty, old kiln!

Haven't seen one of these since the stone ages, huh?! 

I traded our friend a 6 pack of beer for his first kiln he used with his dental business - I got the better end of the deal!  She's a trusty thing!

The Masked Rider hangin' with us in the garage studio

Even "Axl" (aka - the Masked Rider) was in on the fun.  Ever watch the t.v. show, In The Middle?  You know, Axl Heck, the no shirt wearing, walking around in his underwear, doesn't own a hairbrush, teenager?  Yep, that's pretty much our son too. Seen here in his 'Axl Costume' (un-masked)!

Having fun with colors!

 

I did manage to play with some of those beads I showed you all yesterday. The filigree ones were plastic and their color was chipping off so I thought it would be a good time to play with some of my alcohol inks. 

Their colors turned out really cool. Now I just have to seal them and then wipe them with some Ren. Wax.

Playing with all sorts of stuff

And, I played with some of my gilder's paste from over at B'Sue's Boutiques, too - used it on some of her brass findings and also on some of my embossed Vintaj blanks.  Fun Stuff!

Playing around with some Gilder's Past and Alcohol Inks

We played until later in the evening then fixed dinner and talked about our favorite part of the day.

Mike's Fun Crosses

A pewter ring and a pewter, screwy-thingy-ma-bob for the tree house.

Might have been seeing the storm roll in.

 

It was a beautiful, fun and wonderful day all around!

Hope you're all geared up for the week and that you took some time to play or relax this weekend!

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Getting Back To Work!

Cheers,

~Shel~

Video Tutorials

Here's a question for everyone: 

What media do you use for your video tutorials?

Do you just have a flip share camera video you download or a regular camera on a tripod,...your computer camera?

What forms of video and editing do you find the easiest for you or the best as far as quality and funtions? 

I'm a complete techno-idiot,

so the word EASY really interests me. 

But, being a bit of an anal perfectionist

(not always a good thing!),

I want to make sure the quality is good enough

for people to see clearly.

I'm asking because I've had people tell me they would like to see a video tutorial of a few of the earring wire styles

that I create and have for sale over on my

Shel's Jewelry Supplies Etsy site.

After you answer my questions about the types of video you use and download, what types of earring wire styles or other jewelry tutorials would you want to see?

I've seen so many really good jewelry videos but a couple of the one's that stand out for me are the ones by

B'Sue's Boutiques and the ones on Beaducation. 

I also like the ones that Szarka Carter 

with Magpie Gemstones does, too. 

All are completely different kinds of videos as far as the settings they are in and how they approach each subect - but they are all packed with excellent information, great techniques and loads of helpful hints and tips.

Click on the names above to go to a few of their videos and check them out - you'll be glad you did!

Have fun creating this week and be sure to give me some feedback - what you like, what you've tried, what you don't like, etc.

Any info or feedback at all is greatly appreciated!!

Until Next Time,

Peace, Love and Learning New Things!

Cheers,

~Shel~