Home By Toni Morrison ~ an Inspired By Reading Book Club post

Sometimes I wonder why Andrew lets me stay in “the club”. 

I don’t think I’ve met a deadline yet.

The Club is the Inspired By Reading Book Club, the brain child of Andrew Thornton, owner of Allegory Gallery in Ligonier, PA.  Each month we read a book, create and blog. This month our book was Home, by Toni Morrison.

It’s the story of a young black man reclaiming his life after returning from the Korean War.

The San Francisco Chronicle said the book “Brims with affection and optimism.” Perhaps I missed much of the symbolism, but I found it to be somewhat dark and depressing. Because of that, I had a difficult time deciding on a project.

At the very beginning of the story, Frank Money and his younger sister sneaked into a crawl space to watch two horses in an overgrown field.  One was rust colored and the other deep black.

My design idea was very literal – I had planned to use a Green Girl horse pendant with black onyx and carnelian.  The horse looked too rustic and out of place with my faceted onyx so I ended up with two necklaces.

I removed the horse, added a black onyx nugget as a focal piece and highlighted with sterling silver bead caps and daisies, and shiny copper nuggets.

Then - I hung the horse with a hammered silver ring from a silver chain. (I mass produce the rings so I always have a few in stock.) I wire wrapped more of those shiny copper nuggets to the chain for texture and interest.

Please go to Andrew's Blog to learn more about the book and check out the other talented members of the group.

Spring Awakening Challenge

When I saw the beautiful blue and green palette of the Spring Awakening  challenge, I just had to have the kit.

Every month or so Andrew Thornton puts together a collection of beads and components for the Allegory Gallery Challenge and blog hop. 

Participants purchase the kits and then work their magic. It is so much fun and inspiring to hop around and see the completely different approaches everyone has taken with the same raw materials.

I like to sort and organize the beads by shape, color, type or whatever catches my fancy.

The first beads to catch my fancy were the green and black glass – maybe vintage German?

My first thought was to use peridot, but that didn’t show off the beads.

Back to my stash for black onyx.  Perfect!

The additional assorted greens are from the kit. Of course, the bracelet is finished with one of my signature toggles.

You may have noticed that I’ve been obsessed by multi-strand designs lately. I decided to challenge myself to use some (a lot) of those smaller beads Andrew always includes. This bracelet went through a few reincarnations before completion. I’m quite happy with the finished product. 
It received great reviews at the Ollie’s (the gift shop that carries “my line”), although I haven’t put it up for sale yet.

Finally, I had set aside an eclectic mix of beads to go with Andrew’s mystery component, a polymer clay pendant in a lovely shade of spring green.  It was fun to create a mismatched, yet balanced “chain”.

There's plenty more to play with, including that luscious green waxed linen cord. Check back Monday to the earring designs floating around in my head.
I’m looking forward to hopping later to see what all the other creative folks have done. 

Hope you’ll join me!!!

Paula Kramer http://cavecreekbeads.blogspot.com

Jeanne Steck http://www.gemsbyjeannemarie.blogspot.com/ 

Christina Porter http://queenbeedesignsny.com 

Ann Schroeder http://www.beadlove.wordpress.com

Michelle McCarthy of Playing with Clay www.fireflydesignstudio.blogspot.com 

Lennis Carrier http://Windbent.wordpress.com 

Alison Herrington http://www.AlisonAdorns.blogspot.com/ 

Andrew Thornton http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.com 

Geek Love ~ an Inspired By Reading Book Club selection

 Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn, is one of those books that took me by surprise. I had a completely different idea as to what the book would be about. I suppose if I had actually taken a good look at the cover, I might have had a clue.

My predictions really don’t matter ~ what does matter is the fact that I was intrigued by the story and couldn’t put the book down. I actually stayed on the stationary bike at the gym for a full 45 minutes because I didn’t want to stop reading.

Geek Love follows the lives of a carnival family. The father has genetically engineered his own freak show by giving his wife drugs and other concoctions during pregnancy. Each child has a different abnormality that makes him/her “special”.

When I read that Arturo, also known as “Aqua Boy” was born with flippers instead of limbs.  I immediately thought of Cynthia Thornton’s Green Girl fine pewter pendants. I remembered she had a few sea turtles so I contacted Cynthia and she put a them aside for me to pick up in Tucson.

Have sea turtles – now what?

While taking an enameling class with Joni Kisro I had a brainstorm. 

Shapes cut with
Potter USA's pancake dies.

Use an enameled piece as a focal and hang the turtle from it. I went back to Joni’s the next day after picking up trade beads at the African Market and put my plan in motion.

When I returned home, I dug through my stash for coordinating components, decided on a design and got to work. I haven’t decided on a closure so for now the necklace is adjustable - just tie the extra long waxed linen wherever you want.

 The glass spacers are from Robbie Daly.

Back to Geek Love…

And “the Reds” – The girls who worked the midway and ticket booths all had to have red hair, natural or otherwise. I wanted to play off of that somehow. Strolling through To Bead True Blue, I paused at the Woman Shops World  booth. Maybe they had sari silk or ribbons I could use.

Then, there they were ~ tassels!

And I found little red crystals to match from African Gems.

I had it in my head that I wanted to crochet a really long wrap around necklace. (Cynthia Thornton was crocheting necklaces with some sort of fiber while I chatted with her.) 

But, alas, at that point I was back in North Carolina snowed in and had to make do. 30 gauge brown Parawire worked perfectly. (yes, another Tucson purchase!)

I am seriously obsessed with this clasp I created!

Just for fun I put together a few pair of coordinating earrings.

These ceramic beads are from Golem Designs  with Vintaj caps.

If you haven’t read Geek Love, you should!

You should also visit the other members of the group and perhaps think about joining us next time! 

Alison Herrington

Jeanne Steck

Sarajo Wentling

Rachel Stewart

Mary K McGraw

Andrew Thornton and Laurel Ross   Andrew's blog will give you more info about the group.

It's In The Mail! Bead Peeps Swap and Hop

I can't wait for my partner, Gloria Allen, to get her package!
I had such a hard time deciding what to send her.
I didn't want to give away anything...  
I love my beads!!!!
Hope she does too!

Here's a sneak peek...

New Earrings 2015 ~ Weeks 9, 10

Isn't it great to take a class and get excited about what you learned?
That's what happened in Tucson this year. I fell in love with die cutting shapes and enameling. Last time you saw the enameled earrings I made at the workshop.  This time I took it a step further.



Since I don't yet have a hydraulic press, I dug out and oiled my disc cutter. I actually had to punch out 3 to get two that match.  No worries, no waste - the third will become a toggle clasp or pendant.
After doming with my dapping set, I torch enameled with Thompson's "opaque aquamarine green". (yes, it does look somewhat turquoise).  I was so happy to find a nice selection of Thomson's enamels at Ornamentea in Raleigh.






This pair started with the purple trillion shapes I enameled in Tucson, but they needed something more.
Remember - No Waste?  I enameled the small circle left from the first pair (Thomson opaque bitter green)







Of course, I had to revisit silversmithing. The next two pair were forged from 20 gauge sterling silver wire... soldered, hammered and textured. Both sets of rings were actually formed on the same size mandrel.

I'm excited to say that all of these earrings are now for sale at Ollie's in Downtown Wake Forest, NC. (as of yesterday!) 

And I'm even more excited to say one of my necklaces has already been sold!

Ollie's is a great little coffee shop/gallery/gift shop. Denise offers unique items from local artisans.

Thank you, again, to Sarajo Spurgeon Wentling for hosting this challenge. 

Please click here to visit her blog to see what the other talented designers have created.

And check back soon to see what else I've been up to!

Earring Monday ~ Weeks 5, 6, 7, 8

Yep - I missed a deadline while in Tucson - so - here I am catching up with 4 weeks of earrings...



First up ~ I also participate in Andrew Thornton's Allegory Gallery Design Challenges. About a month ago, we had the Desert Sands Challenge .Here's my post for that. I finally put together a pair of earrings with some great teardrops from that kit.





I love to take classes and learn new techniques when I visit Tucson for the gem shows. This year was no different. I took a torch enameling class from Joni Kisro at her studio.

We learned how to use Kevin Potter's hydraulic press and pancaked dies to shape earring components before enameling. I am in love with big tools!!!
I love the idea of transforming metal and adding color.
We were able to press out shapes for 12 pairs of earrings. Each pair could have an enameled shape and a back plate.

After "flame painting" these, I decided the colors were too pretty to hide behind anything!











I absolutely love these elongated hearts! One of the dangers of torching outside is that nature sometimes does unexpected things.  Can you find the the fried fly wing?


I know there's definitely more enameling in my future!

This last pair I designed for a friend who asked for something simple to go with her royal blue Mother of the Bride gown. Understated and elegant...

Thanks so much, Sarajo Wentling for encouraging me to take on this challenge.
Please visit her blog for the other participants!

See you in two weeks with more earrings!

Meet My New Friend...

Do you love a good challenge?
Do you like to meet new, creative people?

I do!  
My latest new friend is Gloria Allen. 
We were matched up as partners for the Bead Peeps Swap and Hop. We have to send each other beads, a clasp and a focal, with at least one piece artisan crafted.

If you really want to learn about Gloria you have to read this heartfelt blogpost. 
Because I can't give you any better insight than Gloria, herself, does!

Isn't this necklace stunning????

It's obvious that Gloria is inspired by Vintage and loves pinks, lilacs and pearls. 

So my challenge is to decide if I will force her to go completely outside the box or allow her to work within her comfort zone. 
Yeah ~ that's the teacher in me speaking.  
(It's called working within the "zone of proximal development" ~ provide just enough challenge to encourage growth.)


Don't worry, Gloria, I have some great ideas roaming around in my head.
You and everyone else will have to wait to see what I come up.