The best way to spend a Wednesday!

....Making polymer clay canes with Julie Sumner & Pippa Chandler

Some of you may know that a few months ago Smitten gained a new bead fairy in the form of Julie Sumner, talented jewellery designer and seriously speedy bead order packer! Julie pops into Smitten on Mondays to pull me out from under the bead order avalanche that will have squished me over the weekend.

Julie in her real life is a jewellery designer extraordinaire and has a stall every other Saturday at the Corn Hall in Cirencester where she sells her beautifully designed jewellery. The Corn Hall is full of talented arts and crafts people and amongst them is another Smitten customer - Pippa chandler, a hugely talented polymer clay bead and jewellery maker. Pippa's beads are incredibly sweet, you just cant help but smile when looking over her cleverly designed pieces.

A couple of the gorgeous pieces Julie has made and her stall at the Corn Hall
Here is the link to Julies facebook page  Made by Jules 

 

Some of Pippa's latest buttons and beads and her jewellery stand at the Corn Hall, Cirencester
Here is the link to Pippas Etsy shop -  PiPS

For a wee while now the 3 of us have been promising to have a little get together and have a play around with some polymer clay and at last on Wednesday last week we managed to have our day. Julie bought some delicious handmade soup and Pippa her knowledge, tools and as if that wasn't enough some cookies, lovely and chocolate too! I provided the coffee!

We had a fab morning learning how to make Klimt canes with an extruder. I won't pretend that we managed to get a lot done as we chatted and laughed as much as we made, so all in all a perfect day! unfortunately my camera battery died  after this one and only photo so I cant supply images of the process but did manage to take a few the next day of my nearly finished pieces.

 The Ladies at play, a cane Pippa whipped up in seconds and what I butchered it into! 

I do hope Pippa is not cringing!

And finally here are the beads I made with my cane, I sell Sculpey through the Smitten website (Pippa's and my clay of choice) but I wanted to try out some Pardo clay that I had stashed away. All I need now is a spare day to have another go with the Sculpey than I can see how they compare, sometime next year then! First impressions though would suggest that the different colours of Pardo have different consistencies making them not ideal for using together, especially in canes.

I've never made beads before only sculpted with polymer clay and that was for puppets and props not jewellery. I have to say I really enjoyed the process but not sure that I did Pippa's tutoring justice, I had to finish mine off after Pippa had left and I'm afraid I wasn't paying enough attention in class and missed the bit about smoothing the joins of the cane slices! I think I blended a little to much!

Thank you Pippa and Julie for a lovely day.......Oh and in case you were wondering......yes the soup and the cookies were absolutely lovely ;0)

Claire xx

Gossiping Goddess Free Bead Challenge

One of the best things about becoming a part of  the on line art bead scene is the generosity and kindness of my fellow jewellery and bead makers. I'm always delighted and amazed at how willing everyone is to share their design ideas, post free tutorials and generally give advice and tips. One such star is Lesley Watt, customer, on line buddy and now real life friend (we spent a lovely afternoon together recently where Lesley kindly shared some precious metal clay knowledge with me). Lucky Lesley was given a fantastic stash of lamp work beads by a friend Kaz Baildon recently and rather than hoard the lot she decided to share the love and give away some of the little beauties to, well to basically anyone who asked by leaving her a comment. Well I was one of the lucky commenter's and for my very small trouble of penning a few lines and the real hardship of pledging to make something with it when it arrived, I received this stunner of a bead.....

I have to say I'd fallen in love with this bead when I saw it on Lesley's blog post and had my fingers well and truly crossed that I would be the luck recipient..... well you know what they say... be careful what you wish for! I have admit to shear avarice with no thought for what I might do with this lovely treasure once I had it. I did however have one determined thought I wanted follow through the cherry tree theme into the necklace with some 3mm garnet coloured glass rounds but that was it.....And so the hunt began for the perfect beads to compliment my little cherry tree. I started of with these.....

 

It's a little difficult to tell but the fire polished beads were actually the perfect colour match for the green of the tree and the pinky base colour but every which way I tried them the completely overpowered the focal. So these were ditched and the the hunt began again, I eventually decided on these.....

As well as representing the cherries I also wanted to pop some blossom in there somewhere but just an impression rather than using flower beads. This is how I began....

 

....and this is how I finished.

Thank you Lesley, I hope you like what I've done with your lovely gift.

Here's the link to Lesley's original post - Free Beads Anyone

If you would like to see what everyone else has made then here's the hop.....

Lesley Watt - www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com
Cory Tompkins - http://tealwaterdesigns.blogspot.co.uk/
Rebecca Anderson - http://songbeads.blogspot.co.uk/
Marie Cramp -  http://skyejewels.blogspot.co.uk/
Claire Braunbarth - http://smittenbeads.blogspot.co.uk/
Heidi Post - http://expostfactojewelry.blogspot.co.uk/
Tiffany Smith - http://southerngalsdesign.blogspot.co.uk/
Sharyl Macmillan-Nelson - http://sharylsjewelry.blogspot.co.uk/
Ailsa Cordner - http://www.bramalfiebeadsetc.co.uk/
Linda Landig -  http://lindalandig.wordpress.com/
Caroline Dewison - http://blueberribeads.co.uk/
Renetha - http://www.lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com
Kari Asbury - http://hippiechickdesign.blogspot.co.uk/
Niky Sayers - http://silverniknats.blogspot.com
Purple Cobwebs - http://www.purplecobwebs.blogspot.co.uk/
Cilla Watkins - http://www.tellyourgirlfriends.com/

Therese Frank - www.theresestreasures59.blogspot.com

Claire Ennis - http://clairescrystalclassics.blogspot.co.uk/
Emma - http://apolymerpenchant.blogspot.co.uk/
Kathy Lindemer - http://bay-moon-design.blogspot.co.uk/
Alicia - http://www.allprettythings.ca/
Sandy Huntress - http://keepsakecrafts.net/blog/
Lori Bowring Michaud - http://artfullyornamental.blogspot.co.uk/
Amy - http://copperdiem.blogspot.co.uk/
Katherine Gale - http://terrabeadworks.blogspot.co.uk/

2nd Challenge reveal

Our second  challenge inspired  by The Red Rose & the White Rose by Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh was set by Rebecca Anderson, a bit of genius jewellery designer IMHO and boy did she pick a fantastic but seriously difficult image. I've hummed and hawed and changed my mind over and over, tweaked and rejigged until I lost the will to bead! Much as I love being a part of the fab five I do feel the pressure to come up with something a little bit clever each time and as any of you jewellery makers know, creativity can rarely be forced but can sometimes be coaxed! In both challenges I've tried my darndest to use as many of the components as possible and not to bring in too many extra bits however this time I did sneak in the infamous rustic pearls, a bit of a hit this year with the (Facebook group) 'Bead Smitten'. I also like to make something for each challenge, I'm the only one of the group who no longer makes either components or jewellery as my primary beading income but I do like to try and fit in, so this time the chiffon roses are my contribution. There were a couple of firsts for me in this project - waxed linen cord, part of Lesley's stringing lot and what a fantastic medium it is to use... I can't believe I haven't used it before but I will definitely be giving it another go soon. My second first is yet to come - I plan to use some liver of sulphur gel on the silver beaded necklace to tie in the wire with Jo's lovely components.... as per usual I didn't quite get the time to finish so I'll let you know how it goes, My Mum has earmarked this piece for her Christmas present so fingers crossed I will get around to it.

A reminder of the stunning painting - image courtesy of - The Hunterian, University of Glasgow 2012

A quick reminder of the components from - Lesley, Rebecca, Me, Jo & Bo!

I'm sure I'm not supposed to say this but we are revealing rather later than planned this time. It's that time of year for most of us, busy designing, making and running back and forth to the post office in preparation for the festive season, I'm sure it really does get earlier every year! Our apologies to the thousands... okay hundreds... oh alright tens of you who have been waiting for us to reveal. I hope it was worth the wait. xx


Necklace no. 1
I wanted to create something delicate for my main design, pulling inspiration from the subtleties and fine detail in the painting. I've used Jo's silver components and most of the accent beads along with the silk chiffon which I fashioned into a hopefully suitable MacIntosh style rose. It's quite a simple idea but rather time consuming to make as I decided to use silver wire and wire wrap each bead rather then string them all together.

Necklace no. 2
This was the piece that took most of the hum-ing and ha-ing - should it be a bracelet or a necklace and which of Bo's ceramic pieces to use and then dilemma of dilemmas where exactly to put Rebecca's clasp for best effect. After about 30 different layouts all photographed and compared this was the best combination... I hope :0)

A lot of argh's, grrrr's, oh's a fair few hurumph's went into this, with finally a hurrah and a phew! I hope I have done the beautiful components justice, thank you BPB yet again for the beautiful contributions and inspiration. I can't wait to see what beauties lay in wait on your blogs....

If you would like to how the other BPB's have used the components and interpreted the challenge pop over to their blogs (& Bo's facebook page).... please follow the links below.

Lesley Watt  The Gossiping Goddess blog

Rebecca Anderson  Songbeads blog
Claire Braunbarth (me) Smitten Beads blog

Jo Tinley Daisychain Designs blog

Teresa (Bo) Hulley Bo Hulley Beads facebook page

Thanks for stopping by.
Claire xx

Brit Pack Beaders - Challenge Two

So here we are again.....the inspiration & component reveal of the second Brit Pack Beaders blog hop challenge. The inspiration is a fantastic image chosen by Rebecca Anderson, The Red Rose and the White Rose by Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh.

I only came across this beautiful gesso a few months ago during a very cultural weekend (rather unlike me) where I watched 3 BBC 2 documentaries one of which just happened to be about Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh and the Glasgow Four. I have always quite liked the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh but I have never really felt the love! However when I first saw Margaret's work I felt as though a missing piece had been found to the style and instantly became a fan, The Red rose and the White Rose a gesso, painted and set with glass beads and shell on hessian was my missing link- Beads and fabric what more can I say! Rebecca's emailed her choice a few weeks ago and on receipt I think I gave a little squeal and a round of applause! So without further ado here it is.

(c) The Hunterian, University of Glasgow 2012.

...and here are the beautiful focals, beads, stringing materials components and clasp sent by the other BPB's

....and here in case you didn't know are the BPB's (the participants) and where to find them...

Lesley Watt  The Gossiping Goddess blog

Rebecca Anderson  Songbeads blog
Claire Braunbarth (me) Smitten Beads blog

Jo Tinley Daisychain Designs blog

Teresa (Bo) Hulley Bo Hulley Beads facebook page

The design reveal date is now set for October 31st so hope to see you then!

Brit pack Beaders 1st challenge... the designs

My apologies, I am officially tardy! This week has been non stop and there still is no stop! Friday is my Smitten Beads Open House, I'm in a complete muddle and only have 2 days to go so wish me luck! As a result I am late posting, late finishing & have no words prepared! So, I will be adding all the nitty gritty of the design process next week. But here without further ramble are my 2 finished pieces and 2 more works in progress. I hope you like. I'm now off for a quick peak at my fellow Brit pack beaders designs. Then back to tidying, pricing and generally running around like a headless chicken until I drop!

I will just quickly add a big thank you to Lesley for the idea and the other BPB for such a great challenge I can't remember the last time I enjoyed doing something quite so much!

Lesley Watt  The Gossiping Goddess blog

Teresa (Bo) Hulley Bo Hulley Beads facebook page

Rebecca Anderson  Songbeads blog

Jo Tinley Daisychain Designs blog

Claire Braunbarth (me) Smitten Beads blog

Blog Hop reveal

Sorry everyone we've had to jiggle the date of the Brit Pack Beaders Blog Hop reveal -We will now be posting all our designs on........

2 pieces already made and I'm working on the last today whilst watching more GB medals being won. Today is a good day!!!

The beads!

The bloomin beautiful Brit Pack Beaders challenge beads..

A little late in the day to post I know, but I always like to make an entrance! I received my first parcel about 2 weeks ago, however when we were figuring out the rules for the challenge, it was suggested that we put the parcels to one side and then open when we last one had arrived (which was mine, again making a late delivery) Can you possibly imagine having 4 little parcels containing who knows what beady delight sitting under your nose and having to resist tearing open the jiffy..... it was not easy but I did it.... right up until the point when I read an email from Lesley who had already opened hers. The laptop was dropped and the packages opened before I had even finished reading the email! So without further ado here are the beads I will be working with.
Da da........

I can't quite believe how well they work with each other and can't wait to get started. I was up rather early a few days ago drawing out a design, I had my eureka moment at 6.30am so had to get up and put pen to paper (5 minutes later I was prone again) I will tidy up the sketch and post my idea in a few days. I'm now off to see what delights my fellow BPB's have received. Thank you Lesley, Jo, Rebecca & Bo (Teresa) for your beautifully chosen beads.
 

Lesley Watt  The Gossiping Goddess blog

Teresa (Bo) Hulley Bo Hulley Beads facebook page

Rebecca Anderson  Songbeads blog

Jo Tinley Daisychain Designs blog

Claire Braunbarth (me) Smitten Beads blog

If none of this makes sense to you then have a look at the Brit Pack Beaders Blog Hop post introducing the challenge and all will hopefully become clear.

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