Free moving closures

This is one of those ideas that has taken me literally for ever to resolve.  It’s been in and out of drawers and pushed to the back of my table far too many times.  No more, I need this idea to finish some necklaces I have planned – especially since I personally prefer a shorter necklace length.  Can’t go over the head all the time…
I’m also planning to sell some of them (and others) in the shop so you’ll see in the photos that I have left the wire unfinished and sticking out of the mechanism (with some length) so that anyone who buys it to use in their work can make design choices about how it joins on.  This may be changed, we’ll see how it goes.


                   
                  




You might be wondering why these are at all novel and it’s this simple feature:  the wire stays stationary (attached to your necklace ) while you screw and unscrew the clasp.  No more tension on the screw buried in the decorative part of the closure that will cause it to undo...and the  closure itself looks more like a bead than anything else.



                                           
Undone…
                                                

There is a simple construction/mechanism that I designed ( I hesitate to use the word mechanism because it is very simple) that lets the wire move freely within the bead, but remain securely attached!  Very handy.  Great for bracelets as well and a bit of a change from a toggle!  


                                            




There are also some other types of clasps I’ve been working on – these for example.  Two arms are joined by a screw and a polymer covered nut joins and secures the two sides.

                               
                                                        




                                                     


I have plans for much smaller and more ‘fine-boned’ closures of this type, but I need to source out really good quality tiny machine screw and nuts.  Perhaps my optometrist could help me here?  Or perhaps you other maker types out there?
Then, there’s this:  enough said….



                                               



I’ve certainly had an interesting couple of months to start the year.  Best described as alternately exciting and frustrating.  I have 5 or 6 ideas that are all fascinating to me, but were going nowhere for the longest while.  This was one of them!  It feels good to have made some progress, because my  store has surely suffered for my inability to move forward: this state of mind often moves into other areas that have no reason to be stalled!


Back tomorrow with news of a shop update: it’ll be a big one….also some other big news!

Shamefully overdue shop update

Just to let anyone know who might be interested that I'll be doing a big shop update at noon tomorrow. I have been diligent about working and finishing, but so much less so about listing.  I confess that I have at least 150 listings to add to my shop - by this, I mean work that is finished, tagged and ready to be photographed and written up.  There won't be 150 new listings tomorrow, but there will definitely be close to 30 or so -  some pods sets, some single pods, and some interesting new beads in sets, pairs and singles.  ( and some old bead friends as well.....)


I can’t explain this delay except to say that lately, I’ve felt compelled to experiment continuously with all kinds of stuff. Some ideas have proved to be fertile and interesting directions, others… not so much…but – I feel compelled to try anyway.  As though it were a race to the idea I have in my mind.  This may have something to do with the fact that the polymer world changes so rapidly and images and ideas go viral almost instantly.  For me, this creates a self-imposed tension ( I stress the self here) to try to resolve ideas and incorporate them into my vocabulary.  Perhaps a kind of ‘taking possession ‘ of the idea!  It’s ridiculous really, but there it is.

I think I just need to turn off the computer for a while…except to list, of course!


Listings will go live at Noon tomorrow in my Etsy shop!




                                                            

                                           


            If you’re wondering what these are, well….


I think my kids might think I’m a little nuts getting out the camera to take picture of the sanded paint ridges on my old, old front door.  My wonderful kids are helping me with painting the trim on the front of the house – you know, sanding, scraping, primer, then 3 coats instead of the optimistic one coat you were hoping for.
I didn’t sand these cracks until after the first coat of the final paint  ( shoulda…).  But the paintings created by sanding back through the layers are so beautiful in their simplicity.                            
                      



             

                                            




And now they are gone…

Permanently covered by 2 more coats of this blue (totally influenced choice after seeing the Van Gogh exhibition…).  I will play with these images in my computer and see what else can happen!

A second thing -

Must be a record for me, two blog posts in one day. 
Yesterday I received my package from my  Bead Soup Blog  Party partner - she is Marie Cramp of Skye Jewels.  I'd  just like to give you a taste of things to come:

the mystery-

 After opening, I have a generous number of beautiful flat tiles with very evocative images.  I know this is going to to a true challenge for me because I rarely, if ever, use images in my work.  Oh , Lori.....

 What I immediately gravitate towards in these tiles is the sepia/magenta/blackness of them, because I work with these colours all the time.  Maybe I'll be able to find a way in...
Also included are lovely brass finish findings, bead caps, chain and a clasp - another challenge, I ususally make everything in polymer.  (Don't despair,  you'll find those pliers somewhere in the mess on your desk).

 And finally, these lovely little glass beads!  The way to an ex-glass blower's heart...something I can always relate to!

I will succeed, I will!  (But it will be difficult).

Thanks for everything, Marie!

Giving in

Sometimes you just have to give in to the urge to work something through - even if the timing couldn't be worse!  In the last few days I've been struggling with the ongoing paint job at the house (enough said), listing on Etsy, making some custom orders and helping the kids finish their Halloween costumes (required for school tomorrow).  I swore I would not help them this year, but somehow last night I helped my son make a matador hat and today I have to finish the edges of a bird costume that my daughter has almost finished.  She is actually becoming quite handy with a sewing machine - an essential life skill in my little world...

When those serendipitous things happen in your work, it is such a gift that you should just accept it and work with it instead of struggling.  Sometime ago I bought a set of metallic paints to use with polymer, but every time I tried them the result was so disappointingly garish that I would throw all the results away and curse my inability to resist temptation in art supply stores.

These new beads came about as a result of using up scrap bits of transfers and putting them onto the surface of my hollow beads.  It occurred to me that this might be a good way to use metallic, because there is some movement in the action of applying the metallic tile to the bead which removes the static quality of painted metallic.  It's this quality that I think I've identified as being the one I dislike.

It started late one night (after cleanup) with this set of beads -

You can see the tile and the random texture I used to fill the intervening spaces - nature abhors a vacuum and so, apparently, do I!

Then a couple of days later I dragged out the metallic paints...do you ever have an idea you think is great and might work but you are almost afraid to try it because  you will be so disappointed when it doesn't work?  That mindset, that's how it was...this little fellow popped  up because stripes are on my mind.

I liked the fact that the metallic paint was visible, starting to break up, and married well with the texture.  So then these followed, all  taking little tiny steps towards other ideas.

I do like the painterly landscape quality of this particular set.  What's fun is learning to control the degree of spread of the tiles, and you do have a LOT of control - which I like.

This is the last one so far -

It has a quietness about it because the metallic is buried under translucent. Just one of the literally hundreds of possible variations for this technique.  I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in a tutorial on this technique, or if it is just my current enthusiasm that is making me a little blind here?  Do let me know!

Sorry for the long post - if I could discover how to put photos side by side on Blogger I would be a happy woman!  I think I must be missing something very obvious...

Credit where it's due...

 I realized that in my haste to post about printing on baked clay I neglected to give credit to the person who invented it - shame on me!  You can read all about it on Foah Designs website.  I was very hesitant to try it because printers and I have a long history of disasters together, but eventually I convinced myself by acknowledging that my printer was already 10 years old and I would love a new one anyway.  If you follow her directions exactly in the tutorial,  it works perfectly!  I love the qualities of the finished print.  It is perfect for flat applications ( but sadly not for beads, I'm still researching that..), but the print is fragile and needs to be protected with a layer of liquid polymer for durability.

I think Foah Designs is Pam Hall.  I'm guessing this from looking at  her Etsy shop - but I'm going to email her and thank her for sharing the results of her experimentation!

Here is a picture of one of her lovely wallets made using this technique: