Bead Makeovers- Taking Your Art In A Different Direction

I love cupcakes. Pink frosting with sprinkles sounds pretty yummy to me. And obviously a lot of other people like them too. This style and others tend to sell well in my etsy shop, http://www.StudioMarcy.etsy.com.

But other people make similar cupcakes and in an earlier blog, I mentioned that it's a good thing to reconsider beads that you make, that perhaps could be restyled, or taken in another direction. This can be good for you as an artist, and maybe add a little zing for your sales too.














Between watching Ace of Cakes, and wanting to incorporate a little of my surface decoration and sculptural approach, I decided to give one of my cupcakes a new twist. This one has a small branch made of aventurine with multi shades of green leaves. A sculptural butterfly in transparent aqua and a touch of lapis give it more dimension. To add a dollop of whimsy, bright pink transparent glass dots the surface too.

There are so many directions to try. I'll be adding more cupcakes over the weeks to show you more makeovers on them, and other beads.

In the meantime, if you are on Facebook or Twitter, please add me as a friend. I'm either under Marcy Lamberson or StudioMarcy. See you tomorrow....

Cool Tools: Fingernails or Smiles

Yesterday I was asked which tool I used from Etsy, for my angel's smile.

I'd like to introduce you to AMCreatures of etsy. Alexander is a sculptor who has developed his own tools for his art, but I found these and use them for glass too.

(Note: they have a wood base, so be careful, please.)

I use these for mouths, but I'm sure you'll find more uses. Please send me photos of what you do with them. I'd love to post some of their other uses.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_1&listing_id=12740211

Visit my blog tomorrow to see which of my beads I chose for my "pump up this bead" make over. And as always, please feel free to visit my shop, http://www.StudioMarcy.etsy.com

Ask StudioMarcy ~ Online Coaching: Kneeling Angel by Mona

Mona Rae Baroody is self taught and lives in Arnold, CA. She describes her style as eclectic- especially with color and shape. Mona loves to do commission work, because it inspires new ideas and learning.

Mona is a member of LEST, ISGB Nor Cal and the Sacramento
Area Beadmakers Group. Her shop on etsy is monaraebeads and her website is http://www.monaraebeads.com

Mona is happy with her concept of a cute, sweet little child praying. She is wearing a handmade, encased goldstone stringer halo and her wings, which Mona believes are upside down, but cute.

Areas that she would like help in include: a. hair with more texture, b. improved closed eyes, c. more realistic facial features...
"her cheeks are just pink dots, her nose is just a raised dot, should she have ears, she doesn't have a mouth." d. realistic body posture,

Honestly, I think she's adorable already. These are just tweaks .
1. Hair with more texture~ You have texture by making it look curly, but if you want to add more, then I'd suggest using cased stringer. Case an opaque in clear or a light transparent, and it will look more like individual strands. To give it more visibility, stripe
your cane with a variety of hair colors first, before adding the transparent and pulling it. I've included a few "strands" on my sample angel, so you can see it.

2. Improved closed eyes~ here's what I'd do. If you look at someone with closed eyes, you'll see that their eyes are recessed in their sockets. I would place a small dot of black where you want the eyelashes to be and then I would take a rounded tool and heat/ push a depression into where you want the eye sockets. So you have depressed black dot which looks more like a concave eyeball. Now you take your base skin color and put a small dot over the black and leaving a small rim of it for the bottom eyelashes. Point your flame over the top rim, and slightly melt just the top in. Voila, a closed eye.

3. More realistic facial features~ Mona, you can add more facial features, but let's chat about it. I'm not sure how large your face is on your bead, but making tiny details is very hard. Here are some simple things that might help...
a. for the mouth- make a depression like a small smile. I use a rounded tool that I got on etsy for a lot of my smiles. Unless you handmix the lip color glass, it's really hard to make it look good, when you're working so small. You can also make murrini for the mouth, if you want it to look really accurate.
b. for the cheeks- I like using pink dots, but you don't have to use them at all. Our cheeks don't look like pink dots. You can depress the sides of the head a slight bit where the cheeks go- more like our cheeks are. Or even add a dot where the apple of our cheeks go. The rounder and fuller, the younger the face looks. Personally, I like fat round cheeks- (slightly autobiographical)
c. for the nose- add tiny nostrils and give your nose a tiny bridge. That will make it look a lot more real
d. for ears- our ears pretty much go between our mouth and eyes. Make a dot where it's supposed to go and slightly melt in. Then reheat it just a bit, and take a small sharp tool and slightly life the ear so it has a center indentation and looks more ear-like.

4. Body position- go to google images and look at what other kneeling angels look like. Print out a few samples and put them near your bench while you're working. You'll notice that our knees extend quite a bit ahead of the rest of our bodies. Adding additional glass in that location would help. To give more definition between the thigh and calf, warm up that area, and use a sharp tool to indent the area more.

I've included a photo of my first try of a kneeling angel bead wearing blue. It shows some of the areas that I was talking about. It's available in my etsy shop, http://www.StudioMarcy.etsy.com

Thank you Mona. We all look forward to seeing your next angel bead.

Come back tomorrow for a mini tutorial on creativity and taking one bead from everyday, to much more interesting.

Call For Artists ~ Anyone Interested?

I received this Call for Submissions and thought I'd pass it on to all of you...

Making It: The Art of Contemporary Craft

(Swainsboro, GA) Gallery RFD seeks submissions for it upcoming exhibition titled
Contemporary Craft.

While the Industrial Revolution may have worked wonders for the production process in terms of output and standardization, it has arguably written the creatorial's role out of the process. As machines replace humans or minimize their necessity in ever more labor fields, we are witnessing nostalgia for the return of a human element, lest automation render us obsolete. Though few are clamoring to give up their tools of convenience, individuation and uniqueness are now novelties as witnessed in the rising popularity of mass-customization. Gallery RFD seeks submissions of work in any media that project evidence of a human hand or craftsmanship.

Submission deadline: Thursday, Oct. 31, 2008, 4 p.m. (EST)
Jurors: Christy Petterson and Shannon Mulkey, co-founders of the Indie Craft Experience in Atlanta, GA.

Exhibition runs Dec. 13, 2008 - Jan. 3, 2009
Opening Reception: Dec. 13, 2008, 5-8 p.m.

Further details and prospectus available on the Gallery RFD website: www.galleryrfd.org

Adding "Bling" To Your Beads

Once in a while you think your bead would be enhanced with a bit of sparkle. There are quite a few options, silver, gold or palladium leaf or foil, dichro, fine silver wire, aventurine copper flakes or perhaps you're ready to try Cubic Zirconium which are also known as CZs.

This Christmas Tree (http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7806618) has 5 CZs that are 2mm. The tree is about 1.2" tall with a 1/16th vertical hole. I skipped putting CZs on the back side, because it seemed like they would be wasted in that location.

There are all kinds of methods for placing CZs in your beads, but this is what I did.

1. Get out your CZs and put a few extra on your graphite pad, or where ever you're placing them.
(They are slippery!)
2. Warm your bead in the spot where you are going to put them.
3. Pick up your CZ with needlenose tweezers. Look carefully, because there is a top and bottom to them.
4. Warm your CZ slightly in the outer part of your flame.
5. Place it onto the warm spot of your bead and press in gently so it is sunk into the glass up to the top edge of it.
6. It is optional whether you add a bit of clear glass to case it. I have used CZs both ways, (with and without the extra clear glass and both ways work fine for me.
7. CZs can be purchased through http://www.pehnec.com/ Keep your choices small, and feel free to vary the colors of them.
8. To see a slightly different way to set CZs, visit www.KimMiles.com She not only makes beautiful beads, but she incorporates CZs and makes them even more lovely.

From Mundane to Magnificent

Creativity in any area tends to get my attention and this one did it. Who knew, that someone out there is making barcodes interesting?

These are done by a company called D-Barcode who has been making creative barcodes for Japanese product packaging. What a lot of fun!

Now let's turn this into a glass question...what are you doing in beadmaking that might look a bit like others, and how can you add that extra zing of creativity to make your beads stand out?

Later this week, I will take one of my beads that needs a shot of creativity and show you before and after photos of what I did to stylize mine. If you'd like to join me in this creativity exercise, please contact me through my website, www.StudioMarcy.com, and I can post an example of what you are doing too.

Happy Monday!

Random Act of Glass Kindness ~ Thank You Canyon Echoes

A few weeks ago, I saw some similar beads in Canyon Echoes' Etsy shop and I emailed her to let me know when she had more of them, as I'd like to buy them.

I love Canyon Echoes' beads. They are organic, have gorgeous layers and I love her use of silver with the glass.

The layers remind me of the layers of rocks that are visible throughout parts of Colorado- her home state, and my old one. You can almost imagine the the different periods of time that formed them. (Can you tell I'm an Archeologist's Mom?)

On Saturday, I received a package in the mail from Canyon Echoes. I couldn't believe my eyes. There were two perfectly matched beads in her beautiful style. I will be making a new pair of earrings on Monday and thinking of Johanna and her transcendent generosity whenever I wear them. You can find these beads and more of her styles at http://www.CanyonEchoes.etsy.com. Read her shop announcement to find out how to sign up for her monthly drawing.

Thank you Canyon Echoes. I appreciate you.