Cool Painting Tool

This is a really cool online abstract painting machine http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/brushster.htm . Click on "Auto" on the lower right of the painting area or create your own.

The New Beadwork - Where are they now?

The New Beadwork by Kathlyn Moss and Alice Scherer, published 1992, was one of the first books featuring bead art. I got curious as to whether these artists were still around creating beautiful bead work. So I spent a few hours searching for each artist. All the artists in the book are listed below even if I didn't find anything about them.

Jeanette Ahlgren
Beautiful loom woven sculptural forms

Marcus Amerman
Marcus Amerman creates bead pictures that depict the history of his Choctaw and Hopi heritage
Beaded Butterfly Buckle
Beaded Face Bracelet
2004 Dubin Native Artist Fellow
Quilt Art
The Man with No Name

Hanne Sue Anaya

Susan Anniskett

Lucia Antonelli, More

Ann Bailey

Carolyn Prince Batchelor - Painted Paper Beadwork

Frieda Bates - Beadwork of the Southwest

Lori Berry - Author of How to Bead Earrings: An Artistic Approach

Elizabeth Bertuccio

John Binzley - Beaded Bags

Virginia Blakelock

Flora Book

Joe Bowman

Kate Boyan - The Dream Bag

Jimoh Buraimoh, The Heritage: My Life and Arts (autobiography)

Michael Van Chapman

David Chatt
Blog

Carlos Cobos

Evelyn Cohen

Theresa Cole

Deon DeLange - More Techniques of Beaded Earrings,
Techniques of Beaded Earrings

Edward Derwent

Mary Dickey

M.K. Dilli

Angela Gauthier

Ascha Gellman

Jeannine Goreski

Mary Owen Griffin

Sherry Hart

Mary Hayslip

Valerie Hector


Mary B. Hetz - Jewelry Collection (no beadwork shown)

Mary Ann Hickey

Mimi Holmes

Edgar Jackson

Peggy Kendellen

Martin Douglas Kilmer

Dan & Eve King-Lehman - Fused Glass

Joanne A. Laessig - Beads & Embroidery

Jeanne Leffingwell - Beaded Sky Curtain (not a good picture),
Bead & Button - Loom Project Pattern ($3.95)

Richard LeMieux

Gwyn Lewis

Jacquelyn Lillie - Earrings & Bracelet (middle of page),
Bracelet,
4 pieces,
TO BEAD OR NOT TO BEAD

Merry Makela - The magic of beaded spherical nets : techniques and projects (book) - available used

Margot Marcotte

Sherry Markovitz - Beaded Sculpture, Artworks


Nome May - Blesséd Bead

Linda McCormick

Luisa Morca-Bush

Kathlyn Moss

Cheri Mossie

Juanita Nelson

Howard Newcomb

Gretchen Newmark


Lindsay Obermeyer - Gallery of Bead Embroidery

Constance O'Shaughnessy

Carol Perrenoud - Corn For Dinner

Don Pierce

Susan Planalp


Sylvia Pomeroy

Pat Poole

Barbara Jeanne Rice

Helen Rogers

Axel Russmeyer

Pam Saporta

Skip Schuckmann

Joyce Scott - Kickin' It with the Old Masters at the Baltimore Museum of Art,
Maryland ArtSource

Verena Sieber-Fuchs

Marcie Stone - Sculptural Bead Artist

Cid Suntrader

Natalie Tatz

Ken Tisa

Camilla Trondsen

Elizabeth Tuttle

Setsu Ueno

Gladys Urschel

Donna Wasserstrom

Betsey-Rose Weiss

Steve Wofford

Natacha Wolters

Connie Wyatt

Bead Art - Where Are They Now?

Bead Art, edited by Alice Korach, was one of the earliest books featuring beadwork as art. It was published in 1998 by Kalmbach Publishing Company who also published Bead & Button magazine. I frequently peruse the book and one time I got curious as to whether these artists were still around creating beautiful bead work. So I spent a few hours searching for each artist. All the artists in the book are listed below even if I didn't find anything about them.

Chris Allen-Sickler

Kenneth A. Arthur

Beth Barron

JoAnn Baumann

Terry Bell

Robert Bruningham

David Chatt

David Chatt's Blog

Olga Dvigoubsky Cinnamon,
More by Olga

Barb Davis

Debra Dembowski - Figurative Jewelry & Sculpture,
More by Debra Dembowski,
More by Debra

Sylvia deMurias

Rosie Dixon

Joan Dulla

Nancy Eha

JoAnn Feher

More JoAnn Feher - Northwest Bead Society Member beads from the 20th Anniversary Commemorative Necklace (2003)

Jacqui B. Fehl

Diane Fitzgerald

Susan Etcoff Fraerman - Revelation on Hubbard Street,
One Soul:Shoe Number Fourteen , In Memory of Noah,
THE BLUES, SHOE NUMBER ELEVEN,
Katie Gingrass Gallery

Jocelyn S. Giles

Patty Haberman

Valorie Harlow, More, and More

John W. Lefelhocz - Quilts

Richard LeMieux

Laura Leonard

Eleanor Lux

More

Liz Manfredini

Ann Terepaugh Mitchell

Nicole Nagel

Liss Niforos

Jan Nix-Westhoff

Colleen O’Rourke

Kristen Frantzen Orr - ArtGlass Beads & Jewelry

Christy Puetz, More

Madelyn C. Ricks, More

Rachel Roggel

Ruth Marie Satterlee

Pamela Schloff

Carol Shelton

Nancy Smeltzer

Sandy Swirnoff

Thalia Tringo

Carolyn Veerjee

Sally Wassink

Loomed Beadwork, More

Dustin j. Wedekind

Alison F. Whittemore

Michelle Williams

Laura Willits

Bead Journal Project - June

I joined the Bead Journal Project coordinated by Robin Atkins and I will be creating 12 bead journal pages, one per month, starting this month (June). I decided to go with a garden theme keeping with the whole Beaded Garden thing. Here's the beginning of my first 4" x 4" bead embroidery journal page.

I wanted some dimension to the square so the petals are dyed something that are about 3mm thick. There's a hole at one of the ends but these break easily so they don't work well in jewelry. They're sewed and glued to the Lacy's Stiff Stuff. This has turned out to be very frustrating because the glue doesn't hold due to all the bending the piece endures as I embroider around the petals. I should be able to get a bit of glue under the petals when everything is finished and hopefully that will hold the pieces in place. The center is a crystal spacer set in silver plated metal and the outline of the petals is size 15/0 seed beads.

YOJ - Week 16 - Ripples, Depths and Shallows

The silver colored elements in this piece were purchased years ago at a show. As I was organizing my colored wire this progression of colors jumped out at me. The pinks and purples are 26 gauge wire and the jump rings, which I made, are black 22 gauge wire. I had difficulty with the jump rings because the cuts were messy and some of the underlying copper is showing . . . maybe I need new or better wire cutters (any advice will be appreciated). Where I cut the wire that's wrapped around the silver elements it was very sharp and pointy. Is that normal or do I have bad cutters? Do I need some sort of file? I only have a small pointed diamond file that I used to clean out and smooth the holes from when I took a lampwork class. I used that as carefully as I could but some of the color came off in places. I usually use a permanent marker to touch up in these situations but I don't have all the necessary colors for this piece. In spite of the problems this was a fun piece and I love the colors.

Now that my hand is feeling a little better I was able to spend more time creating this week.

This next piece was inspired by a necklace by Lynda Musante in the summer 2007 issue of Bead Unique magazine (issue #13). The disc beads are about 1/2 inch diameter and are by Karen Ovington.

My favorite bead stitch is the African Helix which I learned in the early 1990's from Virginia Blakelock's book Those Bad Bad Beads. This necklace was made months ago but I just put all the elements together this weekend. And finally 3 pairs of earrings. The wavy silver pieces are from Saki Silver, located right here in Cincinnati, Ohio.

YOJ - Week 15 - Drifting, Sea Foam, Rolling Waves

I love these beads! I had so many cool ideas of things to do with them but ended up being limited and frustrated by the fact that the holes don't line up. Out of 7 beads I could only find 3 I could get wire through. Carpal tunnel is still a problem and while I have lots of on-theme ideas I'm not able to execute them right now.

Vintage Beaded Basket

This sweet vintage beaded basket with beaded flowers and leaves was purchased on ebay several years ago. The basket is about 3 inches high without the handle. I especially like how the handle is done (see closeup below). If you have any idea when this might have been created please leave a comment.

YOJ - Week 12 - Frosty Breeze

This pendant evokes the shape of an icicle in the colors of winter. I used silver elements from Saki Silver, crystal AB, white alabaster and black diamond Swarovski crystals and freshwater pearls.

YOJ - Week 11 - Windchines in the Breeze

I started off making a bracelet but the beads are too long to lay properly on the wrist so I decided to make a necklace. However, I ran out of silver wire and then had a flare up of carpel tunnel so this one awaits finishing. The beads have a really cool iridescent-AB-rainbow kind of finish. I'm not sure what to call it but it didn't capture well in this photograph.

YOJ - Week 10 - Ocean Breeze

YOJ - Week 9 - Whirly Whirlies

I'm catching up after weeks of no internet and not much motivation to create. In an effort to learn more wire skills I created this heart from instructions at www.BeadStudio.com. It's a little too busy but I had fun making it. I'd love to know how wire artistsl make such great looking spirals. Mine have points where I've used pliers to adjust it. The wrapped beads cover it up but you can see what I mean from the back view. More of week 9.

YOJ - Week 8 - Atmosphere

My interenet connection was down for 2 weeks and then I got sick so week 8 is really late. I'm trying out more new wire techniques. For the larger wired bead I used a tutorial from BeadStudio. I don't have any tutorials for the smaller piece so I just made it up as I went along. It took a lot of tries to get it to look halfway decent. I couldn't decide what to do with these pieces and I want to find instructions for the smaller one so I can do it properly. I have a set of these faceted rhodonite beads in graduated sizes so this will eventually become a bracelet or necklace.

One of my self-imposed challenges is to use materials I already have and I don't have a lot of wire in gauges heavier than 26. I only have small amouts of 18 and 20 gauge silver, a lot of 22 gauge black and a fair amount of 24 gauge gold and silver.

YOJ - Week 6 - Wild Winter Winds

I've probably made hundreds of French beaded flowers using this technique but it's a lot different using heavier wire and no beads. The pendant on the left uses size 8/0 beads and the pendant on the right 11/0 beads. The wire is 22g artistic wire. I wouldn't wear either of these but they're helpful experiments. Here are the other entries for week 6.

YOJ - Week 5 - Breath

Again, I just wasn't inspired by Breath so I decided to work on my wire skills which is one of my goals in participating in this project. I have no wire skills except for making wrapped loops so anything I do with wire is a learning process. The blue green glass beads on the feather earrings are vintage German glass.

YOJ - Week 4 - Faerie Wings

For this week 4 project, I looked at a zillion fairy related web sites and waited for inspiration but none came so I made this flower. I didn't have enough of the silver wire mesh (WireLace) to make as many petals as I would have liked so I filled in with some beads and a giant button.

Here are a couple of favorite fairy wing sites from my search:

Wing Creations by Christina Pirnie
Making Wings for Faires and Fantasy Creatures
Fairy Art Dolls by Cheri Desiree
Costume Wings
Fairy Wing Tutorial
Chris' Fairy Garden
Make a Fantasy Fairy
Fairy Jewelry

YOJ - Week 3 - Take Flight

Week 3 is a butterfly created with the Ganutell (Maltese) or Klosterarbeiten (German) technique which is similar to the basic French-beaded flower petal. It also looks like the herringbone weave used by wire artists. This piece looks a whole lot better in person and to my eye looks messy in the photo. The wire is called crinkle (or bouillion) wire which is used in the above techniques and in the floral industry.

YOJ - Week 2 - Kisses in the Mist

Kisses in the Mist had me baffled but mist shouted rose quartz at me hence these earrings. A simple project this but one which addresses my goal of improving my wire skills and acquiring new ones. Making a wrapped loop for a briolette has had me baffled for months and months. These earrings took about a dozen tries before I was willing to photograph the results.

YOJ (Year of Jewelry) - Week 1

The theme for the first quarter of Year of the Year (YOJ) is Atmosphere. The specific theme for week 1 was Morning Zephyr. Whenever I hear the word zephyr I think of a boyfriend from 15 years ago. His parents bred Arabian horses at their farm in Michigan named Zephyr Ranch. I bought about a dozen of these horse charms back then but never made anything with them and this was the perfect opportunity. I tried really hard to think of a light morning breeze but all I just couldn't break the association of zephyr and horses. The brown glass beads have been in my stash quite a while and I like how the smaller gold-plated beads are a 3-dimensional echo of the flat diamond shape. I don't know if the gold is painted or etched on the brown glass but perhaps someone who sees this will know more about these beads. The matching earrings (out of focus) make the set rather whimsical. Kentucky Derby is a big thing around here (Cincinnati, Ohio) so maybe this set will sell at that time (if you're interested just email me :)

Charm Swap

I've been beading for over 20 years and I've been online for at least 15 years but this is the first swap I've ever participated in and it was so much fun! I created beaded beads from a pattern in Bead & Button (I can't find the issue right now). This International Charm Swap (ICE) was hosted by Amber Dawn, an incredible and amazing swap hostess.

I received creatively wonderful charms in return. I'll probably be making a charm bracelet, which, of course, I'll post here when it's finished.

First Post

I created this blog a long time ago not knowing what I would do with it. But starting in January I decided to participate in the Creative Wire Forum's Year of Jewelry and this is a perfect venue to post my weekly creations. There will be other topics here too although I don't know yet what that will be. So . . . welcome! and please post your comments . . . what fun is a blog without comments!