Starry Road Studio

Saturday, February 1, 2020

Berries! Art Elements Berries Reveal

Hi everyone! This month I hosted the Art Elements challenge and I chose the topic "Berries". The launch post is here...

Anyhooo, I planned to make a whole series of berry beads, but alas, Fate intervened. I had an accident at home (fell!) that resulted in a broken wrist. I had surgery about 3 weeks ago, and have been recovering. I was determined to make at least some tiny effort, so despite the pain in my left hand, I managed to make THREE WHOLE BEADS haha. Welp, here they are in all their glory.

Please hop to see what others made - I can't wait to see for myself! Enjoy!

Here's the Hop List:

Art Elements Team

Lesley
Karen <-- You are here
Cathy
Laney
Jen

Guest Contributors

Saturday, December 28, 2019

Holiday Creations - An Art Elements Theme Challenge

My Holiday Creations...

December was a flurry of activity to finish up beads I started way back in October. I had formed these Pine trees and snowflakes, and then got very busy with my "day" job. I'm a design director for an international consultancy. My current project is directing design of a suite of desktop and mobile applications for the Government of Ontario. Lots of travel to Canada!

Anyway, this is is what I started out with...

I made several more beads of various sizes, shapes, a few critters, and elements of woods and foliage... then they sat, waiting until I had time to load them into a bisque fire, glaze over a period of two weeks (when not flying back and forth to work in Toronto), and then glaze fire. Woohoo!

And finally, Voilà! Beads glazed! Here's a sampling. All listed, sold and shipped. I hope my customers will find joy using them in their own jewelry or other creations. ❤ ❤ ❤

Holiday Creation Blog Hop

To see what other artists were up to with their holiday crafting, check out the links below and feel free to leave a comment on each one. Enjoy!

AE team:

Sue

Guests:

All in all, 2019 was a pretty good productive year. I got lots made, sold and delivered. I'm a happy camper. :-)

I hope you are enjoying your Holidays. Have a Happy New Year!

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Ocean Talisman: An Art Elements Challenge

My Art Elements teammate and friend Lesley Watt made these amazing ocean-inspired ceramic components for our monthly Component of the Month challenge, and I was immediately drawn to make something with one.

The rough-and-tumble (like shells in the surf) nature of the piece led me to go for an appropriately bohemian and rustic treatment.

So I selected a bit of handmade copper chain that I made some years ago - actually my first attempt at forging and soldering chain - I created all the links using a good deal of solder which I left exposed, created the oval jump rings and linked it all up, then patinated the entire thing. I didn't have quite enough for a full 24" necklace, so I used a bit of copper chain I bought and patinated myself a few years ago, and placed this at the back with one of my links at the end for the hook closure (also made by me). I can adjust the length by hooking into a different link, as desired.

For the focal part of the piece, I used jasper rounds and one of my ceramic beads, along with some seed beads strung together on waxed linen, with a couple of my hand-forged links doubled up at the top, to fasten onto the chain.

The entire thing came together rather quickly, no doubt due to the inspiration of the focal.