Beads of Courage Pittsburgh Bead

I have recently committed to making 100 of this  bead designed by a 15 year old Pittsburgh Beads of Courage patient.  I love the whimsy and fun that it contains.  It looks optimistic and hopeful to me.

I exchanged emails with the young designer and she has given me her thoughts, so we can add a small design to the back as well.

First, I need to make the prototype.  I've tried a few already and am still working to find the right scale, colors, design and darn it- yellow that doesn't react with the sky blue] base color.

Cute, isn't it?

Which Is Your Personal Taste?

I love having a nice outdoor fire on a cool evening,   Here are two very different fire containers from Etsy.  This top one is a FireBowl which is handcrafted and 100% recycled.  You can find it HERE.

And this second one, is also handcrafted, this time by Modfire on Etsy.  It is made to order and comes in a variety of colors.  You can find it HERE.

So tell me, which one is more your preference?  And why?  They are two very different, cool styles that do essentially the same thing.  I relate it to many of our other art/craft styles.  In my glass bead making world, I see a contrast between modern streamlined to a more earthy/organic style.  Both beautiful in their own way.

So..., tell me what you think?

Preview of Spring 2011 Shoes

Here are just a few of Dior's Spring 2011 shoe collection. You can find more on this website.

All I can say is that I'd love to design jewelry to go with them. They make me dream of all kinds of fun ideas.

New Mini Website!

This past weekend was busy for me. I was working with Rose Wilson of http://www.webdazynz.com to build a mini website for me.

Wow, what a sweetie to work with. She told me that she's been doing this since 1999. Here's an excerpt from something that she told me, that really hits home. "My tagline is 'Simply Cool Websites' because I still adhere to the same principle that a website should be simple and clean by design, uncluttered, and easy to navigate. I am a firm believer in the fact that if a site is too hard to focus on, that people will click off your website pretty quick and be on to the next one."

Yep, couldn't agree more. And one of the first comments I received on it was that they liked that it looked "organized" with my diverse style of beads.

I saw Rose's ad on www.lampworketc.com and knew the time was right. I already have a mini one with my business name, "Studio Marcy", but thought adding another one that leads to my etsy shop as well, under my own name, Marcy Lamberson, would help potential customers find me in the google search system. Rose took care of securing the url and that kind of stuff too. She'll just send me the bill to renew each year.

And the whole process was easy. Rose communicated with me so fluidly, that I knew I would get what I wanted, even if I wasn't sure at the start. For some reason, I got it in my head that I wanted the color red to star in my new site. Now I've never really had a lot of red before, but thought this was the time to test it out. (go ahead, roll your eyes here.) Some of the journey was finding a color I love that I wanted with the red. As you can see, Rose helped me find a way to use aqua, my favorite color.

She is a corporate website administrator by day and does this and lampwork at night. Someone who understands us! (and heaven knows, I sure tested that.)

So stop by and see my new mini website http://www.MarcyLamberson.com and Rose's website http://www.webdazynz.com And if you decide to try her out, please tell her I sent you.

See you tomorrow right here!

Teaching Beginning Jewelry Making

Recently a family friend, home from college came over to learn some basic jewelry making. (Isn't she a cutie?) I asked on my Facebook page, what would others suggest that I teach her? (btw, please friend me, if you haven't...Marcy Lamberson). The response was wonderful and although we didn't have time to do enough, it sure gave me an idea of what folks thought is important. And I can't help but agree.

We only had time for tool & supply info, wire wrapping, crimping, jump ring operation and we made some earrings, necklaces and how to make pendants.

But I'm posting some of the responses on my query. Please feel free to comment and add more of your thoughts. I found them all so valuable. My thanks to Lauren, Ilse, Patrick, Moon, Ann, Nell, Andrea, Heidi, Mona, Jessica, Susan, Debra, Cindy and Arlene for posting on that thread.

Here is what my Facebook "Think Tank" said.....

• Basic tools and where to find them...how to find tutorials online...how to measure for necklaces and bracelets so that they fit. :-)

•Don't forget about the nylon pliers, for no mar work.

•Definitely nylon pliers. After wire work I would start with cold connections, if the student wants to go to metalsmithing, or maybe chain maille. What about teaching Viking knit, now that you know how?

•I'd go copper over sterling or fine silver then...maybe working with found objects? Or upscale/recycle materials?

•Hammering and riviting and soldering fine silver would be cool! :)

•I think besides these fine suggestions, i'ed add doming and how to use the flex shaft to make a hole and polish and how to ball up the end of wire..oh and the ever important how to properly open and close a jumpring!!

•OK, saving money tips- use silver plate for headpins (you don't see most of the pin anyway) from FMG (OMG are they cheap) and join an online bulk buying group like Beads and More on Yahoo or Bulk Bead Buys (BAM is more active...). those groups allow you to buy a lot of things through wholesalers in smaller quantities.

Back the the headpins- I do recommend sterling earwires, but use the SP for earrings..... FP crystals are a lot less than Swarovskis. College girls will go wild for all the earring possibilities!!!
Creating patinas on metals.

•How to finish of necklaces with crimps and stuff so it looks professional I always feel like my necklaces are cheap looking due to the 'finishing" touches..

FP is probably Fire Polished and usually refers to crystals.

•Oh the other thing I have a a hard time with is multi strands and how to do them so they hang right and are of course finished right.. LOL
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I'm sure more of you have ideas that weren't mentioned. Please feel free to chime in and add to the list. We'd all benefit from it.

I'll see you on Sunday right here. Taking tomorrow off for a little catch up time. Bye!

From Design Pattern to Bead

Well my ongoing creativity workshop, Finding Your Voice (my group is called "people who just won't leave", had an assignment a couple of weeks ago, that I thought might be interesting for all of you to try. I think it relates to other art forms other than just beadmaking.

We had to click on "random" under patterns on the Colour Lovers website that I recently mentioned. Then we had to interpret a bead from whatever design we received.

I was really happy to get this pattern because I've always loved paisleys, but knew it was far too complicated to
interpret the entire picture on one bead. I needed to
simplify and distill the main element out of it. Which of course was easy, because it was the same design made into a pattern.

I had to decide how many paisley elements I wanted and pondered between 1 and 3. It came down to, what would look best? Because I wasn't sure how intricate I would make them and how small I could make them, I chose just one.

I needed a deep green that had yellow in it for the base and a lighter bright green as well as aqua. That was easy too. Unfortunately, I didn't have the original with me and my memory didn't work. (that will teach me), the main teardrop shape should have been aqua and I would have liked it better. As Doris Day used to sing, "Que Sera Sera" (what will be, will be). And if I were ever making it again, (we're only allowed one shot in class), I would add more detail and contrast to my bead. This bead is about .8" tall, so I would stick to between one and three paisley designs on it still. (By the way, I put mod dots on the back- kept it to the 60's vibe)

And again, if I were making the bead one more time, I'd want to reconsider the shape of the bead. Would a flattened bicone be more interesting? If so, how would the paisley design be laid out? What about a large lentil with more of them on it? So the question of the day is, what shape would you make it and how would you interpret this design? I'd love to hear your opinion.