With some of the beach rock beads and glass beads from yesterday.
The hollow rock beads, of fine silver PMC, are from a batch of beads I made a few years ago.
Tag Archives: beach rock beads
A good day for beads
I never did get on the mailboat this morning. I played it safe and stayed home when I started feeling like I was coming down with some kind of bug. I slept and read for the morning and found some energy to work in the afternoon, turning a dumb day into a productive one.
It was easy to feel inspired with ideas when this package of beads from Leese Mahoney arrived in the mail.
I imagine combining some of the “earthy” rough textured beads with some of my own beach rock beads. I finished up a batch of drilling I had started last week, and waxed and buffed the beach rocks.
Holly Kellogg asked what the polymer clay swirl beads looked like after they were fired, so here are two photos for you, my buddy Holly!
Buffing the beach rocks with a muslin wheel got me wondering about buffing some of the polymer beads. I already had a clean (no polishing compound) buff for the rocks, why not try it on the translucent clay to see how it changed the appearance? The photos below are late afternoon shot, done in a hurry, but they show the difference between the un-buffed beads (top row) and the buffed beads (bottom row).
The copper beads I covered with translucent clay were among the most disappointing when I first fired them. After buffing them with a muslin wheel, I really like how they look. Especially the beads with a little white beneath the translucent salmon. When an experiment changes from something I would not bother to repeat, to something I can’t wait to explore further, that’s a good day.
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Bench shots
No, it’s not a spring snowstorm drink. Although we did lose power for a few hours this afternoon, convincing me that taking a nap was exactly the way to beat the storm.
With several necklaces in progress, and only one finished, I took some photos of what’s on my bench. My process is to string beads, on and off pieces of wire, until I like the combination. No matter how many times I organize the beads in front of me, I always end up with messy piles to feed my creativity. Out of sight, out of mind, you know. I like to have everything out where I can see it. I might sketch a few basic ideas, but my best results come from trial and error. I worked all winter to create and gather lots of components, so I could make a big mess finding ways to put them together.
I really liked making the pod bead, below. I might pair it with the reddish glass beads from SueBeads.
Beginning a beach rock necklace with some PMC beads.
Considering ways to put sea glass together.
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A day in the studio, at last
It seems, so far, I have found plenty of other things to do this winter, and it was a relief to get back to thinking about jewelry today. I have an abundance of things to inspire me, like components I have purchased from other artists on Etsy, that I plan to combine with my own handmade silver beads.
I am pretty excited about these glass headpins from SueBeads and the dark blue glass beads made by Dreamscapes Studio.
I love all the colors in the components below. Again some glass headpins, and some red glass beads from Suebeads, the patina-ted copper links and copper beads from Miss Ficklemedia, and way in the back are a few of my own copper and bronze beads, reminding me to find my bronze and copper clay and get to work making more of those.
I have also drilled some local beach stones, and they are ready to go for some new necklaces.
Unwaxed stones:
Same stones after polishing with Butcher’s wax, to enhance their already smooth surface, giving them more of a wet look:
It’s time for me to begin my 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. routine of uninterrupted studio time. I find if I avoid answering the phone, or starting any house work, and simply stay in the studio for 4 hours straight, I can be pretty productive and usually continue my studio time into the afternoon. I don’t understand why I have such a hard time disciplining myself to make time for something I love to do. Having a set schedule and telling people I am unavailable for those four hours helps me believe that’s what I deserve to be doing.
If you work from your home, how do you make the time to do it? How do you keep from becoming distracted and drawn away by the day to day maintenance of your home, community, kids, etc? I’d love to know. Please leave a comment!
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Barbara S Fernald Jewelry 