June Art Bead Scene Challenge Beads

I have been following the Art Bead Scene for a while now and occasionally make an entry for the month. This month's painting is Feuilles, by Lois Seraphine

I had make a cane with some of the colors in the painting a while ago, and decided to use the cane to make some lentil beads for the challenge. The cane was in a leaf shape and it seemed to fit the painting well:

The lentils are a versatile shape for earrings, bracelets and necklaces.

Owl Delicious

I could not wait to get Deb Hart's Tutorial from Craftartedu. It captivated me and I have made lots of beads, but I have never done cane sculpting before. It is a great tutorial with clear concise instructions. My owl is not perfect of course, but I would not expect him to be.
I began by making the canes described in the tutorial. For the feather cane I used blue, white and turquoise, since those were the colors that I wanted for my owl. Here are the canes that I used - the eye cane and the peacock cane I had already made for another project.

I had never made a project this involved before and was surprised at all the steps that needed to be completed before I even got to start adding the cane slices. It is definitely a labor of love.
Here is what my owl looks like:

I made some mistakes of course but I am quite pleased with the way that my owl came out in the end. I  may just hang him in my studio for inspiration, as I now have a number of new ideas in mind to use this method. Thank you Deb for an excellent tutorial and I had a lot of fun making this guy!

Bookmarks

I love making things. I guess that I always have. My Mom and I would craft together. She would make all sorts of things to sell at the church bazaar to make money for the church. She passed away several years ago, but when I make beads with flowers I always think of her, because she loved flowers. I have been making beads for a long time and mostly think of making jewelry with my beads. I had these brass bookmark hooks for a long time and I decided that I needed to so something with them.
I used waxed linen cord and some of my birds and hearts to make some bookmarks for Mother's day or graduation. I think that they came out really pretty will definitely will be making more.

Spring Butterflies

Here in Florida it has already started to get warm. I can see the signs of spring everywhere. Flowers blooming, birds and squirrels also signal the signs of spring to me.
I have been busy making beads that make me think of the flowers blooming and butterflies.
Here are some pictures of my newest beads:

Are you ready for spring?

Bead Hoarders Bloghop Reveal 2014

I decided to enter into Lori Anderson's bead hoarders blog hop because I wanted to use some of my beads that I have purchased over the years. I do not purchase that many beads now, but I do have a large number of beads that span the last 10 years.

I wanted to use some flower lampwork beads, enamel headpins, and a leaf bead from green girl.

I really like the red and green lampwork flowers from mermaid beads and decided to use the enamel headpins from GetYourbeadOn to make Christmas earrings. I added a couple of poinsettia clay beads that I had made a few years ago. I really like the way that they came out. I ran out of time to use the other beads for this hop.

I want to thank Lori for hosting the blog hop and I can not wait to see what everyone else made.
Please go here to see what all the bead hoarders have made.

Art Bead Scene Beads

I wanted to make beads that mimicked the petals of  the orchid and leaves. I created a cane with the pink petals of the flower and applied them to the deep green of the pods. I am quite happy with the outcome.

I have not decided if I will make a bracelet or necklace with the beads.

Making Polymer Clay Canes and Beads

I thought that some of you might like to see the process that I use to make my beads.
The first step is to make a cane out of polymer clay. Here are some pictures of canes that I have made recently along with the beads that I made with the cane: