Saturday, 25 March 2017

Here I am finally!!!!

Welcome to the 9th Bead Soup Blog Party, Hoarders Edition hosted by the wonderful Lori Anderson, creator of the original Bead Soup Blog Party. Despite suffering through some really difficult health issues over the last couple of years she has returned better than ever with this year's event! There are approximately 150 international bead and jewelry artists participating today. The idea is to send some precious, hoarded beads to a partner chosen by Lori who sends similar treasures to you.Each person attempts to create jewelry that does justice to the beads they receive and posts pictures of it on their blog on the day of the party. It is an amazing opportunity to challenge yourself and make new friends all over the world and the day of the party gives all of us much inspiration and eye candy when we hop around to the other blogs to see everyone's reveals!
My partner is Sandra Wollberg from Germany who sent me the most beautiful handmade lamp work glass beads that she has hoarded for years. They are a wonderful soft, rich colour of spring green and stumped me for a long time. In the end I decided to keep it simple and to just highlight the beauty of the beads with a classic bracelet with copper accents. This is a lesson I've finally learned after years of jewelry design. It's sometime best to let the beads speak for themselves instead of trying to overpower them with my own message.

I think I will get a lot of wear out of this bracelet since it's just my style, simple and classic. I've realized that every piece doesn't have to be a statement piece! Now I just have to add a clasp and it's ready to go!
Unfortunately the beads that I sent to Sandra have been lost in transit and I'm just devastated that she hasn't received them. I'm hoping that she will still receive them and will have the opportunity to enjoy them. Here is the teaser photo that I took of the beads I sent.

Thank you sticking with me this far. Please hop on over to Lori's blog and see what she has created , then check out some of the other wonderful artists participating in the party!
Lori Anderson :: Hostess



Wednesday, 22 February 2017

Polymer Clay Challenge

Hi there! It's been 8 weeks since I started Katie Oskin's #2017PCChallenge and so far I've been posting new items every week on the group Facebook page.
Since I've become totally addicted to polymer clay cane making  I have amassed a LOT of canes!. So I've decided that my challenge this year is to make something every week that uses one of my many canes. I have about 30 boxes filled with canes and they just keep growing because I can't seem to stop! This is one example of the boxes.


Anyway I've managed to make some use of some of the canes with this challenge but there is a long way to go. Here are my creations for week 1- week 8.









So that photo heavy post is my latest polymer clay update. I hope you like some of my work. It sure is fun!
Take care.
See you soon!
Nan.

Monday, 20 February 2017

My beads have arrived from Germany!

Lori Anderson of Pretty Things has undertaken to host another blog party and I've signed up for it. Lori has the best parties and I for one, am very happy that she is feeling well enough after a couple of very tough years with illness. Of course as soon as she announced she was doing this there was a great response from the  online jewelry making world. She planned on 40 and hoped for 80 people to sign  up but she underestimated her popularity because there are 160 of us coming to the party! It will be a wild time since we are expected to visit everybody's blog on the reveal day. I can't wait!

 I actually started this blog 4 years ago in order to be part of the 7th Bead Soup Blog Party and also took part in the 8th annual party. I had a wonderful, creative time as a result and made 2 wonderful new friends with my partners. Hugs and kisses to Rita and Michi.

This time I've been partnered with Sandra Wollberg from Wiesbaden, Germany and even though I don't know her very well yet I can tell that she is very organized! We only received our partners last Saturday and Sandra sent off my beads right away. The postal system in Germany must be super efficient because I received the beads on Thursday , 6 days later! That must be a record.

She posted a teaser photograph before she sent the beads off.




Here are the lovely lampwork beads made by Korina Stieler (Germany) which Sandra has hoarded for many years.  I am thrilled that she has decided to give them to me for this event. she doesn't have an active blog but will be posting her creations on her pinterest page.

Beautiful shades of green, Photo doesn't do them justice!

If you'd like a sampling of Bead Soup please check back here on March 25th to see what Sandra and I, and 158 other keen jewelry artists create with our hoarded Bead Soup. Thanks again Lori for hosting the party.

Monday, 9 January 2017

I had this idea....

I have been having soooo much fun this past year experimenting with polymer clay techniques. It really is a rabbit's hole life where the more you discover, the more you discover that there is more to discover! During one of my clay adventures I had this idea for using translucent clay with one of my favourite clays, metallic gold. The results were great and when I posted them online I had several requests for a tutorial.

Since I love sharing what I do I decided to give it a try using the Adobe Spark app which makes it quite easy since you just use sequential still photos and write captions to go with the photos. No fussing with video and worrying about how you sound. The results are quite good although  the format is not to everyone's taste as far as viewing it goes. 
I posted it on Facebook and had some lovely feedback from many friends who also shared their results with the tutorial which was quite gratifying.( I can't seem to find those pictures)
Here are the links to part 1 and 2 of the tutorial.
https://spark.adobe.com/page/2gdAj/       https://spark.adobe.com/page/drKi4/

 However, life goes on and I spent a busy fall and holiday season which included my very first live polymer clay workshop which I taught at a local bead store, Beads of Colour, whose owner organizes a full term of fabulous jewellery classes.      
http://www.beadsofcolour.com/workshops.php  It was a thrill to be asked to participate and even though I'm totally self-taught, I soon realized that I have a lot of knowledge, skills and experience to share and help spread the love of polymer clay.Here's a picture of the some of the cuff bracelets made by my class.

  The New year started with a bang for me when Pearl Blay featured my tutorial on her jewellery making blog, The Beading Gem.
http://www.beadinggem.com/2017/01/translucent-polymer-clay-pendant.html
That was a lovely way to start the year and I received lots of positive feedback again!  Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, Toni Ransfield, an artist whom I follow on Facebook  http://www.exclusivedesignz.com/http://www.exclusivedesignz.com/, used my tutorial to make a cane and covered a pen with it. Her work is phenomenal and the resulting pen is stunning.
All of this activity made me realize that I have very negligent of my blog so I decided this was a good time to refresh my blog with some news and a vow to start posting again more regularly. I am participating in Katie Oskin's #2017PCChallenge 


   on Facebook again this year so will be posting about it regularly. 

I hope to join in the latest Bead Soup Blog Party being rejuvenated by Lori Anderson after a hiatus due to her health problems. The good news is that she's feeling well enough to undertake this event again.

That seems appropriate since BSBP was the motivation that inspired me to start this blog in 2013.
 4 years ago!!! How time flies when you're having fun....and I am having fun!
Have a great day....I'll be back soon!
Cheers, Nan