Friday Picks - Vintage Glass and a New Mixed Media Project to Try Out

Sorry for the brief post today - just haven't had the time this week to do a lot of new designs and get them photographed. I really need to put some quality time into taking pictures and building up my inventory on Art Fire. There are days when I wish I could do this full time and really get everything I want to do done. But, it's the day job that pays for the beads, and so much more, right now, so I can't really give it up.

I'm very fortunate (and quite honored) to be one of The Beadin' Path's design partners. Pictured above is the wonderful assortment of vintage glass beads I got from The Beadin' Path a bit earlier this week. Just A Tish has already made a fabulous necklace with hers! These are shapes and colors that really challenge me, so I'm going to have to get quite far out of my comfy zone! I'm looking forward to it, and then sharing the results with you next week.

In addition, I've gotten an order in just today from AlphaStamps which included a Brass Pendant Kit (see below) that I'm very excited about trying out. I love those ribbons!

Now I'm just going to have to figure out how to put it all together! I've not yet tried to make anything like this, and I'm just slightly intimidated, but I was enchanted by the collage sheet and the little frame transparencies, so I took a leap. I got a couple other goodies from Alpha Stamps, as well, will share more about that when I have the finished jewelry to show off.

Thinking About Weekend Crafting

My order with Annie Howes came in the other day - two part "doming system" resin kit, a bottle of Glamour Glaze, ten small clear glass domes and some really adorable Chiyogami papers.

I'm not 100% sure how to use the glaze - no instructions came with or on the bottle (not that I'm critizing, nothing like that was promised at point of sale, and I'm a real believer in caveat emptor) - so I'm going to experiment with it as if it were Diamond Glaze (which has online FAQs) and see if that works. I was thinking that I'd use it to seal and protect small hand drawn decorations or small printed designs in collage type pieces (yes, I am finally going to use those Rings & Things brass frame blanks).

I'd hoped to use the glass domes on the bracelet blank, but they might not work. I'm beginning to get a tad depressed everytime I see the poor unembellished gunmetal blank lying there waiting for me to get inspired.

Meanwhile, tonight, I'll do some more organizing - this time I'm down to the bead level, not like last weekend where I was moving boxes and setting up the worktable. Should be a lot less exhausting.

And...will this be the weekend I finally give polyclay a try? I'll let you know!

Need Inspiration? Just Follow the Links!

Have you seen Just A Tish's gluable bracelet form ideas yet? Check out her Gluable Challenge 4&5 (collage, fabric!), Gluable Challenge 2 & 3 (a Yummy Candy Inspiration) and for a giggle (Oops!) - Gluable Challenge - FAIL! I love the picture of the squished clay...I get this flashback to SNL's claymation dude, remember Mr. Bill? "oh nooooooooooooo!"

Or how about Lampwork Diva's ideas? Copper Kisses for $4.00. and also Glue is not my BFF

Another fun one was A Bead A Day's Fun With Bracelet Blanks - has a very chainmaille look to it.


I'm still trying to figure out what to do to finish the one I showed yesterday - and I have two more bracelet blanks to do - one is gunmetal, and then work on the two frames, which I think I'm going to do some mixed media collages (Tish beat me to it, but GMTA!) with to use as pendants, so I need to buy resin.