Sunday, November 20, 2011

Soldered Collage Pendant Class

In our warm, dry classroom at Brea Bead Works today, we watched the chilly rain come down while we assembled tiny collages and soldered them between two pieces of glass. When I first signed up, I didn’t know why it was such a long class (noon to 5) but now I realize that to build thoughtful collages and have the time to learn the construction of the pendant, you need to take your time.

Here’s my work space:

 

Packages of glass on the upper left, cutting board, glue stick, scissors, papers and a copy of a Paris postcard I cut up.
Front of collages:


Back of collages:


Our fabulous teacher, Jennifer Soltero. She’s holding an awesome shadowbox necklace she created! All the BBW teachers are so talented! Marie, who I found out late in the class time, is from my old stomping grounds of Boston, took this picture of us because Jennifer is kinda shy and didn’t want to pose alone :-)


And here are the finished pendants, front:


When I was trying to come up with themes for my collages, reading and Paris came to mind immediately. For the Read project, I printed out the names of my four favorite books and staggered them from line to line for the background. And as I said, I copied a French postcard, both front and back, for the Paris one.

And back:


Jennifer generously brought papers, glitter glue, paints, stamps and stamp pads for us to use. When I saw the dragonflies, I knew that was my third project!

I love the idea of telling stories in such a small format. The real challenge is getting the hang of burnishing the copper tape correctly and soldering. Just like getting to Carnegie Hall, it takes practice, practice, practice. And a new soldering gun, apparently, since mine just wouldn’t work today… Grrrrr… Oh, well, it’s already on order!

So, next up, another metals class just after Christmas. What classes have you all got lined up?



Do What You Love!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Wild Parrots!

The Husband and I spent part of our last day of vacation at Olde Town Orange.  There's an actual traffic circle there and in the center is a placid (if you tune out the cars) little park with a fountain and huge palm and evergreen trees.  Sometimes, if you're lucky, like we were today, you can hear and see dozens of wild parrots.  They're pretty amazing.


I hope you'll get an idea of what we saw and heard.  After I'd put my camera away, at least 50 parrots did a fly by and soared away into the distance!






A few years ago, I was sitting in the parking lot at the Bowers Museum before a Bead Society meeting and I was surprised by these colorful, noisy birds in the nearby trees.  I've heard different stories about their origins but no one really knows how they got here...  Want to learn more about the wild parrots of Southern California?  Go to here, to Amazornia .

It's been a nice, quiet vacation.  Got a lot of little things done that are difficult to get to during the workday, plus The Husband has been working every weekend in October...  It was good to just spend time together and be away from the Day Jobs.

Do What You Love!
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Saturday, November 12, 2011

Don’t Be Afraid to Start Over

I remember when I was in high school home ec sewing class. Vaguely… Anyway, I hated to start something and have to tear it apart when I realized it wasn’t working. I had no tolerance for going back and making it right. But I was young and silly and impatient.

 
Now, I understand that sometimes you have to look at your work and decide to make it better. There’s satisfaction in doing something because you want to do your best and you recognize that what you’re looking at is NOT your best.

 
For example, I was looking at some Christmas jewelry I made a few years ago that didn’t sell and were sitting in my Expired Listings on Etsy. One necklace, a simple pendant on a chain, had a wrapped loop that just looked messy~gaps between the wraps and not tight against the bead:

 
So I remade it this year, relisted it and sold it within a few hours!

 
I also took the two other necklaces I had with these cute stained glass Christmas Trees and remade them. Here’s one of the originals, both were similar in design:

 
Not well designed~I think I’d just started creating the Bead N Charm necklaces and went a little overboard!

 
Here are the two new necklaces I made, plus a pair of earrings:


Cool gold chain and starry glass beads


Silver hearts and red chains


Cute earrings with fire polished sparkle

I don’t consider the original designs a failure. I’ve just evolved and refined how I create jewelry. It’s a big success when I take something and make it into something better. I think that’s the most important aspect of this exercise--making it better is such a pleasure.

 
When you’re not happy with what you’ve made, MAKE IT AGAIN! If you’ve got old projects sitting around, gathering dust, because they didn’t live up to your expectations, bring them out into the light and give them new life. You’ll be glad you did.