Keepsakes

Do you have a wedding dress that you know will never be worn again?  Is it a to beautiful to be kept in a box on the top shelf of your closet.  Maybe you would enjoy it more if you could wear it in another way?

I had a customer ask me if I would be willing to take the cuff of her wedding dress and make keepsakes for daughters and her to wear.  She already had a heart bezel that she knew she wanted to be used for the focal piece, beyond that she let me take control of the design.  I filled the heart shaped with bits of the lace cuff, a ruffle and the button loops then wired the buttons to the top and tied bits of the fabric to the loops.  It's a large piece and I know she's going to be thrilled with it.

Bits of the Past Wedding Dress Pendant

You can see the bezel better in this photo along with the bits of tied on lace and buttons.

For her daughters I made two smaller pieces with bits of the leftovers tucked in between glass.  I also hung one button off the cuff of the dress on the bottom of each charm.

Bits of the Past Wedding Dress Charms

When I do this again I think it would be nice to make a second charm with the couples names and another with the date. 

Chain Chain Chain

I have 2 shows this weekend one downtown Battle Creek on Friday, Spring into the Arts Art Walk from 5-9.  I will be in the Lynn Ivan Salon in the same block as The Arcadia Creek Brewery.

The second show is Saturday 9-5 and Sunday 10-4 in Lansing at Michigan State University.  The MSU show is our first outdoor show of the year and I really hope it's nice weather.

Today I made 3 of these extra long chains they can be hooked on any link and can be worn long or doubled up like you see below.  They measure about 50 inches long and would also look really fun worn as a belt.  I can also make these shorter if you didn't want them quite this long.

Soldered Copper Big Link  50"Chain  $50.00

Soldered Copper Big Link 50" chain $50.00

The Button Swap

Cindy from www.sweetbeadstudio.com organized a button swap and I had a few buttons I could part with so I joined the group.  The rules were to contact your partner and find out what types of buttons and colors they like and send out four from your collection.  I was matched up with Maureen Baranov who sent me four beautiful buttons that then sat on my shelf until last night when I knew something had to be made out of them.  Always working best under the wire (LOL) I hammered out the best working heart pin I have ever made.  I received four buttons but only had to use one in the finished piece, since I was working on something small I decided on the one black jet glass bead with some really nice sparkle pairing it with four other much smaller beads from my collection.  The finished pin is going to look great on my gray wool jacket.

Antique Button Pin it measures 3" across

These are the beautiful buttons sent by Maureen 

Please visit the other bloggers that will also have their finished button jewelry posted today.

Alice Peterson  and Kim Bender

Angie Blasingame and Billi R.S. Rothove

 Billi R.S. Rothove and Angie Blasingame

 Birgitta Lejonklou and Pam Farren

 Bonnie Coursolle and Tania Hagen

 Brenda Salzano and Hope Smitherman

 Cat Kerr and Heather Powers

 Cece Cornier and Jeannie Dukic

 Celeste Thurston and Christine Damm

 Christine Damm and Celeste Thurston

 Christine Stonefield and Dana James

 Cilla Watkins and Lori Bowring Michaud

 Cindy Wimmer and Mimi Gardner

 Cynthia Machata and Julia Johnson

 Cynthia Riggs and Lori Finney

 Dana James and Christine Stonefield

Diana Ptaszynski and Erin Prais-Hintz

 Emma Thomas and Rebecca Anderson

 Erin Prais-Hintz and Diana Ptaszynski

 Erin Siegel and Sharon Borsavage

 Heather Powers and Cat Kerr

 Holly Westfall and Sally Russick

 Hope Smitherman and Brenda Salzano

 Jayne Capps and Kim Dworak

 Jeannie Dukic and Cece Cornier

 Jenna Meyers and Kristi Harrison

 Jenna Tomalka and Karen McKillip

 Jenny Davies Reazor and Sandi Volpe

 Julia Johnson and Cynthia Machata

 Kalaya Steede and Kylie Dickman

 Karen McKillip and Jenna Tomalka

 Karen Mitchell and Renetha Stanziano

 Karla Morgen and Mary Govaars

Kay Thomerson and Shannon Chomanczuk

 Kim Ballor and Laurel Steven

 Kim Bender and Alice Peterson

 Kim Dworak and Jayne Capps

 Kim Roberts and Partner unable to participate at this time.

 Kristi Harrison and Jenna Meyers

 Kylie Dickman and Kalaya Steede

 Kym Hunter and Lynda Moseley

 Laurel Steven and Kim Ballor

 Linda Djokic and Patty Gasparino

 Line Labrecque and Teri Baskett

 Liz DeLuca and Lorelei Eurto

 Lorelei Eurto and Liz DeLuca

 Lori Anderson and Niky Sayers

 Lori Bowring Michaud and Cilla Watkins

 Lori Finney and Cynthia Riggs

 Lynda Moseley and Kym Hunter

 Marianna Boylan and Tracy Statler

 Mary Govaars and Karla Morgen

 Mary Harding and Stacie Florer 

 Maureen Baranov and Tracy Bell

 Melissa Martin and Theresa Fosdick

 Michelle Hardy and Peggy Johnson

 Mimi Gardner and Cindy Wimmer

 Nicole Valentine Rimmer and Niki Meiners

 Niki Meiners and Nicole Valentine Rimmer

 Niky Sayers and Lori Anderson

 Pam Farren and Birgitta Lejonklou

* Pam Ferarri and Stefanie Teufel (will share their reveal on a later date)

 Patty Gasparino and Linda Djokic

 Peggy Johnson and Michelle Hardy

 Rebecca Anderson and Emma Thomas

 Rebekah Payne and Sue Kennedy

 Renetha Stanziano and Karen Mitchell

 Rose Binoya and Shanti Johnson

 Sally Russick and Holly Westfall

 Sandi Volpe and Jenny Davies Reazor

 Shannon Chomanczuk and Kay Thomerson

 Shanti Johnson and Rose Binoya

 Sharon Borsavage and Erin Siegel

 Shirley Moore and Veralynne Malone

 Stacie Florer and Mary Harding

* Stefanie Teufel and Pam Ferarri (will share their reveal on a later date)

 Sue Hamel and Terry Carter

 Sue Kennedy and Rebekah Payne

 Tania Hagen and Bonnie Coursolle

 Tania Spivey and Teresa Gagne

 Teresa Gagne and Tania Spivey

 Teri Baskett and Line Labrecque

 Terry Carter and Sue Hamel

 Theresa Fosdick and Melissa Martin

 Tracy Bell and Maureen Baranov

 Tracy Statler and Marianna Boylan

 Veralynne Malone and Shirley Moore

Tumble Etched Bracelets

I finally got some bracelets made out of the tumble etched beads in my past post.  The top set of beads change colors depending on the light that they are in.  If you look at the bead in front it's a very nice shade of lavender because it's in natural light but the back bead was getting more light from overhead and is a beautiful blue.  

Lavender/Blue Tumble Etched Bracelet $49.00

Cherry Red Tumble Etched Bracelet $49.00

Turquoise Tumble Etched Bracelet $49.00

Tumble Etching

You see a lot of etched glass in the bead world and most of the time these pieces are etched with a something called etch all.  Etch all is a chemical etching agent that comes in a paste form or a liquid.  For beads a liquid is much easier to use and for years I used this chemical to etch my glass beads.  About two years ago I read that you could tumble etch beads and other glass goodies.  To do this you simply need a tumbler, some sort of heavy grit material I use little glass pony beads that  I got from a hobby store and a tablespoon of fine carbide grit (600) along with a spoon full of sand from the beach.  The sand from the beach is my addition and you don't have to use it but it's a nice in between grit.  I throw everything into my little dedicated tumbler barrel fill it with water and tumble over night.

Tumble Etched Beads

Little Glass Pony Beads, any size would do.

I am sure you are asking why I would bother when simply putting the beads in Etch All for 10 minuets would have etched them just fine but this is where you would be wrong.  See when you tumble etch the surface is so much smoother and doesn't have the bite that chemical etching does.  I like to compare it to the difference between wearing silk next to your skin or cotton.  The other reason for tumble etching is that I am not a huge fan of using chemicals when they are unnecessary. This is my small way to cut back and it's cheaper in the long run and I don't have to purchase or have the chemical shipped.

BTW this works best on smooth beads, things that are raised will leave a background that is unetched or unevenly etched.  This could be a great look so you may want to try it.

Carbide Grit 600,  you only need a tablespoon of this stuff not 5 pounds.

New Hair Ties

The past few days I have spent working on making twisties and learning how to apply them with out having glass fly off in every direction.  I hate making something just for practice so I decided that these would make great hair tie toppers.

Ruffle Hair Ties $10.00

Ruffle Hair Ties $10.00

40 Dots Only Bead Challenge

Heather Trimlett put out a 40 bead challenge where you choose two colors and make 40 beads only using dots.  At first I it wouldn't be that hard, I love doing dot beads but after the first 20 it got tough.  My beads are strung onto the leather in the order I completed them starting in the center.  I started with some of the basics and moved on quickly to masking dot techniques that I had never tried but had seen others do an loved the look.  As time went on I had to wrack my brain for ideas because it turns out that 40 beads are a lot to do with the same technique being limited to only two colors, I used CIM Phoenix and Moretti Dark Red Purple.  I loved the fact that the Phoenix turned different shades depending on how long it spent in the torch but in the end I think it may have been cheating a bit :).

Making these beads was truly a worth while learning experience and I'm glad that I spent the time to complete the project.  I plan on keeping this strand as inspiration for future beads, they are just to pretty to separate.  I may make a necklace just so that I can enjoy them outside my studio.

Please check out Heather's page explaining the challenge and her Pinterest where she plans to post the results of the challenge.  Quite a few of my beadie friends are planning to take the challenge so I hope to post photos of their work soon.

If you are a lampworker I suggest that you take this challenge and push your limits.

All 40 dot beads  Not For Sale

40 dot bead challenge

40 dot bead challenge

40 dot bead challenge

Added Later:  after all the work on these beads my friend (I think she is my friend LOL)  Jamey pointed out that the instructions said they had to be melted in.  Honestly I don't have any problems making all melted in dots.  My problem lies with leaving all the dots up and the same size not half melted in and half still standing.  Making 40 different all melted in dots would be almost impossible since I ran out of ideas for melted in dots long before I ever came close to 20.  So I throw out this challenge to you can you make 40 totally different beads with all the dots melted in.  Not 20 and then switch the base color and do them again but 40 totally different ones?