Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales!

To kick off the holidays, Friday, November 23rd through Monday, November 26th several Beads of Clay members are running specials in their shops. To save 25% off any item in my Clayworksnh Shop Friday through Monday, use coupon code BOCCYBER at checkout. Save on Pendants, Beads, Components, Shawl Pins, Finished Jewelry, Ornaments and more!

The Giveaway

I'm running a earring giveaway for this event. Anyone making a purchase during Black Friday through Cyber Monday in my Clayworksnh shop will be entered to win this prize. The winner will be picked at random on Tuesday, November 27th.

These handcrafted earrings feature my Clayworksnh stoneware beads glazed in cobalt blue and deep purple.  I added some jasper, amethyst and antique gold leaf charms and used gold plated & copper findings to complete this fun to wear pair.

 ~ Please also visit Beads of Clay Blog for lots of daily Giveaways!  Happy Shopping and Saving!

Artisan Whimsy Berries and Leaves Challenge

There's no denying it.  The holidays are on the way!  To get things cooking and into the spirit, Artisan Whimsy is having a Berries and Leaves challenge.  The perfect time to reveal my Scarlet's Ladder choker necklace!

This elegant lacy look necklace features three gorgeous detailed reversible Yuletide Melody Ophan holiday lampwork beads by Michelle Veizaga of Sun DoorBeads. A Holly Bead, a Kissing Ball Bead, and a Ribbon Bow Bead. I fell in love with these the minute I saw them and have been dying to play with them. 

I framed the lampwork beads with wrapped loops of my Clayworksnh earthenware clay roundelles in red, forest green and light green combined with red and metallic bicones. Oval copper chain and jump rings join the ladder rungs together. 

Red ribbon woven through the chain loops completes the holiday look and feel of the necklace, and the piece is finished with an antique copper plated pewter leaf toggle clasp by TierraCast.

Stop on over to Artisan Whimsy to see the other entries in the Berries and Leaves Challenge!

My Bead Table Blog Hop Reveal Time

Welcome to the My Bead Table Blog Hop!

The last blog hop hosted by Lisa Lodge was so much fun, I decided to join in again for this My Bead Table Blog Hop!  Lisa sent each participant a randomly selected bag of beads and elements, and the challenge was to blend these with beads currently on our bead table. Since I had recently been working on some pieces to submit to a publication, all of my tools and a wide variety of beads were already covering my workspace. Perfect timing!

These are the beads that Lisa sent me for the challenge:

Decorative wooden beads, lucite flowers and leaves, some gorgeous turquoise teardrops, sparkling yellow raspberries, and so many little treasures. 

And here's what I made~

I'm partial to blue, so this was the first piece I made using this fabulous turquoise teardrop as a focal with some of the other turquoise blue beads Lisa included the mix. I used some of my silver chain, wire and a toggle I had as well as a few of my own seed beads and turquoise nuggets to finish the piece.

The second is a bracelet featuring some delicate and fun lucite flowers, and a variety of lovely glass beads in varied shades of yellow and blue. The focal is a handmade lampwork bead by Michelle Veizaga of Sun Door Beads which magically went perfect with this mixture.  It was just meant to be.  Again, I used some silver chain and silver findings I had on hand with a few of my own seed beads etc. to fill in complete this piece.

The bead mix Lisa sent also had several of these round bright orange beads that look good enough to eat.  I thought they went well with the decorative wooden beads that were also included, so I wired them up with copper and put them together using some beading cord and copper chain, and made a pair of earrings to match.

I hope you'll check out all of the creations made by the other My Bead Table Blog Hop participants:

My Bead Table Blog Hop

Your Host: Lisa Lodge
 

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution

Ginger Bishop, lilmummy likes...

Tanya Boden, Fusion Muse

(You are Here) Lisa Boucher, Lisa’s Clay Happenings

Michelle Buettner, Mishel Designs

Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life

Mikala Coates, Maybe Just Perhaps

Marlene Cupo, Amazing Designs

Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's

Mary Anne Klinglesmith Flesch, Hand Crafted Serenity

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress

Mary Hicks, Falling Into the Sky

Tina Holden, Polymer Clay Bytes!

Shelly Joyce, Au jour le jour

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Susan Lloyd, Designs by Susan

Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers

Kashmira Patel, Sadafule .. always in bloom!

Inge von Roos, Inge's Blog

Kristen Stevens, My Bead Journey

Sonya Stille, Dreamin' of Beads

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas

Sandra Wollberg, City of Brass Stories

Thank you Lisa for hosting another great hop, and for such a varied and beautiful mix to work with!

October Happenings at Clayworks

Happy Anniversary to Kelsey and Sam who just celebrated their 2nd anniversary on October 2nd!

  We have such great memories of the event. It took place in the mountains of Plymouth NH, and the rain took a break that day just for us.

  It couldn't have been more perfect.

Since they had a fall wedding, Kelsey thought it would be fun to make some acorn earrings as gifts for her bride's maids that would match the color of their gowns.  One day when Kelsey was over for a visit, we took a drive into town and checked out the local bead store.  We were pleasantly surprised to find they had the exact perfect chartreuse glass beads that were just the right size for a nice acorn.  Then we took a walk in the woods behind our house, and found a treasure trove of acorns that we could use for the acorn tops.  Voila - Sweet little acorn earrings all set to go, on little cards that Kelsey made on the computer. The wedding party loved them and they're fun to wear anytime!  Crafting these together with Kelsey was the most special part to me and something I'll always remember.

Since I had an abundance of acorns leftover from the project, one day I had the bright idea of trying to use some of them for a jewelry piece.  I threaded a headpin through some gold vintage filigree bead caps and glued them to the acorn tops, then made a loop with the wire for stringing.  To make them more durable, I brushed on a few coats of Mod Podge sealer and they were ready to go!  Combining the acorns with some turquoise discs, some of my Clayworksnh stoneware beads, and little baby acorns made from beads and Hawaiian puka shells, I wired them up on some antique copper chain, and was really pleased with this fun little fall bracelet!

I submitted it to Bead Trends and am excited to say they published it in their October 2012 issue!

It's found in the Mixed Media section.  Thanks again to Bead Trends for choosing one of my pieces for your beautiful publication!

Other October Happenings:  I'm excited to be a part of the newly launched Artisan Whimsy site which features everything you can imagine about beading and bead artists and members of the Creative Bead Chat Facebook page. 

 A site for bead makers and jewelry designers of all mediums to share their work, useful tips of the trades, giveaways, and much, much more.

Sharing my Big Moment!

It's always fun to pick up an issue of various publications and see pieces from some of my fellow Beads of Clay friends, or see a piece that features one of my pendants such as the "Swept by the Sea" necklace by the wonderful and talented designer Cherrie Fick in the July 2012 Bead Trends issue.  These people have all been encouraging inspirations to me, and I've learned so much from them. As well as Lori Anderson who hosts the Bead Soup Party Blog Hops.  Participating in a few of the hops pushed me to learn more about different techniques, and I found I really enjoy working with wire!

In the spring I decided to start submitting some of my pieces to a few publications. Why not?  What's the worst that can happen?  A little rejection? Ah, that just makes me stronger and more persistent. My Autumn's Allure bracelet that I made with my stoneware components was the first finished piece I sent for consideration to Bead Trends.

Usually when I'm designing a piece, I just take some similar beads and findings on hand, and start randomly putting them together, and what happens, happens.  But this piece happened a little differently.  The idea came out of nowhere, probably in the shower, and I roughly sketched it out. Yes, roughly.

So I had a visual of the finished product before I began. When we went to Florida on vacation in February, I took along a mold I had made from real maple and beech leaves, and created my stoneware maple leaf connectors and beech leaf charms, as well as some stoneware rondelles to match. Then glazed the leaves in bright fall colors, and accented them with my favorite combination of Coyote cone six glazes turquoise and teal, and oasis blue.

From the roughly sketched idea, I assembled the pieces using copper wire and elements, and added some dangles of real turquoise nuggets, Czech glass Apollo gold leaf beads, and smoky topaz seed beads.

When I received an e-mail from Tatia, the editor at Bead Trends that my bracelet was selected for the September issue, I was beside myself and promptly sent it off to them.  Then when I checked out the digital issue last month, I was definitely blown away to see none other than my Autumn's Allure bracelet on the cover! 

Wow.  I am so excited, and equally grateful to Tatia and the Bead Trends staff for choosing my piece.  It's a thrill to see my work in such a beautiful, quality publication.  If you haven't checked out Bead Trends, I highly recommend it for their superb photography and presentation of all levels of techniques and ideas for the latest in jewelry trends.  You should definitely see the September issue which is brimming with fabulous fall pieces by my friends Cherrie Fick, Shannon Chomanczuk, Amanda Cargill-Austin,Erin Strother, and more!

Weekend at the Camp

Barry and I made our end of summer trip up to the camp to enjoy some of the great weather while it lasts and it couldn't have been any better.  Sunny days and we had the pond to ourselves for the most part.  It was perfectly quiet with the exception of the occasional blasts from the nearby shooting range, but other than that it was glorious.  

I of course took the kayak around to scout for signs of wildlife and check in to see how the pond monster was doing. I spotted a few turtles, frogs, dipper ducks, and these creatures. A prehistoric bird and a malnourished horse. 

We had a few fireworks extravaganzas that Barry blasted off from a little raft with a rope attached.  While cleaning up the next day, I was admiring some of the artwork on the fireworks packaging.

One of the limbs from the giant old oak tree in front of the camp had fallen recently and had to be cleaned up.  It fell right where I've done my sunbathing on the beach many a time.  Unfortunately the old tree is on it's way out. It's been a part of the family for many years.

This is prime acorn harvesting season so I gathered up a batch while the gettin' was good. They're wonderful for fall craft projects and photo props.

 It wasn't too windy, so I set up an outdoor glazing studio on Barry's newly refurbished picnic table.

Ah, the camp.  Until the next time.  Hopefully it will be before next summer!

Last Blast of Summer!

It's not quite labor day yet, but there's change in the air and the leaves are already starting to show signs of autumn color.  Celebrate the remainder of summer by adding some pieces to your bead stash from my Clayworksnh Etsy shop. 

Thanks so much!