And now for something completely different......

Sometimes, It is good to be a hoarder:

Necklace componants:

Mother of pearl antique belt buckle.

Mother of pearl beads, buttons.

Agate beads.

Faux pearls

Real pearls

Glass beads

Seed pods

Wooden beads

Coconut shell beads and buttons

Shell beads

Brass beads and tiny brass bell

Moon stone beads

And for spice: Black onyx and glass beads

Wait, there's more!

Yesterday I thought I had been to Ali Baba's cave. Just when I thought it couldn't get more boggling, I was nearly boggled to death.

Pendents? you said pendents?

How about donuts of every kind of glass or stone? And all kinds of sizes.

How about finished jewelry?

Turquoise?

And all I bought yesterday was boring tools.

No photos, but it was a bonanza.

More Bling

Second assault on the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show today......

There's umpteem ga-zillion shows around town that have minerals, gems, supplies, tools, fossils and beads.

I've only concentrated on the bead shows part and I'm in total sensory overload. Here's only a small sample of the displays. Some booths are full of bling. There must be enough crystal strings to go to the moon and back. And pearls--there's barrels of pearls. Every color and shape you can imagine. But not the really good ones--the ones that have been irritating an oyster for say, three to five years. Some of these look like they were taken out last Thursday. Not for serious jewelry.

Some booths are full of precious and semi-precious stones. There are worlds of polymer clay and Bakelite. I had to forcibly avoid the buttons.....There's all kinds of silver do-dads and some people who have nothing but fancy clasps. Uuuugggghhh

Click on the photos to get the full impact.

I found some intriguing colored copper wire that might work with clay as well as jewelry. That's the great thing about looking outside your own box--new materials can inspire new creativity. As a matter of fact, one vendor who stocks buttons and a special backing was telling me her supplier was not making many of these backs anymore. (I was wanting to purchase some.) So I was telling her about kiln wire and that maybe it would work for her. I got home yesterday and sent her all the info to check out.

I picked up some silk wrapped bands from a most unique booth and am in the process of putting together six necklaces from that inspiration alone.

I learned how to knot pearls and beads and have found some really good tutorials on the web. Just search for Jewelry Making and you get a huge data dump.

Making my own beads and pendents has definitely gone into my creative stew pot.

Tucson Bead Show

Just got back from 2 days prowling the halls of the Tucson Bead show, part of the megga Gem and Mineral Show. Today, I spent the day at To Bead True Blue. Two huge display areas showing everything from crystals to precious clay and fimo jewelry.

Yesterday we went to the African Village, a very large area of extended tents filled with carvings, iron works, fabrics, beads, furniture, rugs---absolutely boggling. Had to leave early because a storm blew up and all the tent-holders had to roll down all the sides and close down to keep the tents from becoming airborne. Not fun to be standing in a dancing, flapping tent with rain and wind swirling around.

Here's a shot of one of the tables laden with piles of beads before the storm roared in. (Click the picture to get a full view of the beads.)

These chairs were completely covered with seed beads.

We had previously visited a tent that extended about the length of a football field showing beads, fossils, metiorites, minerals, jewelry, even stone sinktops, bowls, plates and even a desk.

If I just concentrate only on beads, there are at least four more venues to visit during the show!!! Don't know if my budget will survive.

The Mexican Agate Necklace

I finally finished my Mexican agate/bead necklace yesterday.

I decided to put the big clasp on, at least temporarily because in all the time since I bought the beads last year, I have not been able to find another that I liked.

I still feel this isn't the final clasp but it will do until I find the right one.

The beads are threaded onto a very fine silver chain. The spacers are African clay beads (black and white) and antique black glass beads.

I wound up making the jump rings out of pieces of regular dress pins. Anything larger in diameter wouldn't fit into the fine links of the chain.

It works well, actually, since I have this nifty pliers tool for making links.

Two Terra Cotta Pendents

I love terra cotta pendants.

The first one is slightly dished out.

Don't think it shows much in the photo.

I used black underglaze at the leather hard state to make the decoration, then fired it to bisque.

I didn't want to put a glaze on the finished piece, but did use liquid tile finish, which is a product for sealing terra cotta floor tiles.

The second pendant is sealed with the same thing.

Both are not that big--the black and tan is about 1 3/4 inches across; the second is about 2 1/2 inches long.

A Square Bead

This is a solid bead. Made of porcelain.

I haven't a clue what I'm going to do with it.

I just like it.

Think I'll make some more.

"Wedgewood" Beads

These handmade beads are also hollow and decorated in a technique called pate sur pate, meaning clay over clay.




The body of the bead is made of colored bisque.

The decoration is made by creating a white slip and applying it with a fine-point brush.

Quite tedious.

They are fired using a bead rack holder in the kiln.











Another bead using the same technique but this time the addition of tiny white clay balls. Very tedious. I use dental tools to apply the little clay balls to the bead.

Bone Buttons

Isn't this a great bunch of buttons?

I picked this selection up somewhere and instead of taking them to the sewing machine/button boxes, I took them to the studio.

They are there in a plastic bag, in the desk to remind me to do something with this look. Maybe replicate them with porcelain and underglaze and attach them to something. Maybe to decorate a whole bowl/platter/pot with a design in the spirit of the buttons en mass or just one.

I don't know yet, but they are there----

To remind me-----

The Glazed Bead

Here's another version of the decorated bead. Only this time, instead of being bisque, it's glazed.

The glaze softens the appearance of the leaves, but I love the minute crackle that happens.

Hand Made Beads

Yesterday, when I was making a necklace with some clay and antique beads, I ran across several beads that I made of porcelain.

I've never photographed them before except once, using another bead several years ago, for an article in Studio Potter.

I have several different ones, each hand constructed and made with a different technique.

They are not large as you can see. They're hollow. I used a marble and made a two-part mold to form the ceramic beads, then cut the holes for stringing with either a needle tool or a bamboo skewer.

It's best to let them get leather hard first, put them on the skewer so you can work on the exterior and then enlarge the hole for stringing.

All the decoration is hand formed and placed on the surface using either a very light touch or a needle tool/dental tool.

This bead is bisque, fired on a bead rack in the kiln. The clay is porcelain fired at 04 cone electric.

I've never sold any of these beads--I haven't a clue what to ask for them. Any suggestions?

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

Wow. I just got my toes wet at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.

It's one of the biggest shows of it's type in the world and venues are sprinkled all over the city. I can see why people come from all over the world to this event.

It's very easy to get into sensory overload cruising through display tents and huge rooms with tables overflowing with shoals of every color and type of beads, pendents, glass, fiber, wood, metal. Bedazzling walls laden with strings of crystal, glass, silver, etc., aaaaaagh

I went the first day to a relatively small venue in a hotel north of town. Several large rooms were bursting with wares while two wings of the hotel had individual rooms set up for the show--on two floors.

This string of beads really caught my eye. At first I thought they were clay beads and was amazed at the marvelous texture. The vendor told me they were Mexican agates.

They had a good heft about them and a wonderful texture. After spending several hours looking at wares until I was cross-eyed, I had to return to buy them.

Don't know what I'll do with them yet, but the following day at another show, I found some spooled fine silver chain that I think will be great to string them on.

Yes, I am hooked. I've only gone to just the bead and jewelry part of the shows, but I've seen things there I've either been searching for or haven't seen before.

And the great thing is, most of the vendors will bargain!

Boxes and Beads

From time to time, I've made handmade boxes cutting the parts out of hard greyboard and covering them with luscious papers.

The first one is designed to hold several sizes of the small double-pointed knitting needles that are used for making socks. I wanted to keep the needles sorted since at this size, it's difficult to see the numbers and eventually over time with use, the numbers tend to be worn off. Also, I wanted to be able to pick the needles out of the container easily, so by tipping the box forward, the needles all fall to the front, still in their individual compartments and easily accessible. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the needles in the drawer, but they are in small compartments that have a 'bridge' holding them in.

The rope is rafia strands, twisted in the technique used by Japanese to make rice straw rope.

The bead. Ah, the beads. Believe it or not, in the first box shown, the bead is hollow. It is extremely light, yet it is strong because it is made out of porcelain from a two-part plaster mold. I took a large marble and poured wet plaster into a small, rather tall box. As it was beginning to set up, I placed a small child's ball which had a generous coating of liquid soap all over it into the plaster half-way. After the plaster set up and cured well, I applied a good coating of liquid soap to the plaster. I mixed more plaster and poured it into the box, let it cure and then removed all the cardboard. Voila! a square two-part mold. To make the bead, I poured liquid porcelain into both halves, let them set up enough to very carefully remove them and join the center together to form the whole bead. (I learned later I could make a two-part mold with a pour hole, but I'm sure it would have been just as much work as the two halves technique.) Handling beads this way certainly takes a light touch!


This bead is only fired to bisque range. After the clay was set up and was easier to handle, I carved out small openings and made the string hole. The porcelain here is colored with a stain and made in the same way Wedgewood and Minton made wares using liquid slip in white in a technique called pate sur pate (paste over paste).

I wrote a short article for Studio Potter about the process and included several photos of a few of this and other beads.

The box pictured here is a lesson in how to make a sliding drawer. The funny thing is, you make the drawer; THEN construct the box around it. Trickey. This bead is a hand-formed and glazed with a transparent glaze.

The last box is one made for my sister. (A purchased bead tops off the box.) This idea is a box made like a perfume box with a top that slides upwards. It is also a sock knitting needle container and the needles fall forward and fan out when the top is opened.. You can't see it in this photo, but the box has 6 compartments--three on one side and three on the back. If I make this design again, I would incorporate a tiny draw-string to corral the needles before sliding the lid back on. Or, make little sliding compartments that could be pulled up to select the right needles. I would put the needle size numbers on the top so it would be easy to pick the size.