Artisan Component Market Grand Opening!!

Join me and my fellow bead mates for the grand opening of Artisan Component Market Place! To celebrate, I am offering a 25% discount with the code "GRANDE" We are also giving away tons of goodies!! Please help us bring to fruition a true artists selling forum. One that celebrates us fellow artists and won't bury us beneath imported mass produced crap!  

http://artisancomponentmarketplace.com/jeraluna/?page=2

http://artisancomponentmarketplace.com/

First Friday Art Walk Weekend

It's first Friday art walk time again for the BOCPAT members. Come check out our team website to see all of the fabulous bead artists with links to their stores. Beads of Clay Team

Many of us have coupon codes active through the weekend. Mine is BOCPAT for 15% off your order. Come see us!

Black Friday Cyber Monday Destash Event!

I have started my Black Friday/ Cyber Monday event  early by putting a lot of items into my destash/sale section of my shop.

I have also put up a coupon code for %25 off you order. ARTBEADS25

Here is a collage of some of my destash items I put up.

Most of these sets are going for around 10 buck.  Add your coupon and you have a dealio!

I have some new lovely bead and pendant sets that I am putting up.

New Paisley Pendant And Bead Sets

Here are some new pendants and beads fresh out of the kiln.  I hand carved some new designs and made molds out of them at the end of summer.  These new items are the first using those designs. 

They took awhile longer to glaze but I am happy with how they turned out.  You can see them in my shop!  They are double sided!!

Beautiful Porcelain Beads

I was messing with lowfire clay, raku and stoneware clay for so long I forgot how beautiful and amazing working with porcelain clay can be.

 This past week I was able to get a couple of glaze firings in and while it literally takes all day to fire the results are stunning. I have posted some bead sets in my shop... reluctantly, I might add.  I really really wanted to keep them!

My neck is out so I am going to put up some pictures and then go lay down.

Woo hoo It is the New Year!

My first post of the New Year and let me tell ya whew, am I ever happy that Christmas is behind us.  No I am not a grinch but dang the holiday's are tiring. My daughter has been sick with back to back colds since Sept so that didn't help and I caught one over the holiday too.

 While laid up in bed I did manage to roll a few hundred beads so I am getting back into the swing of things.  I also got some new raku and porcelain glazes that I am eager to try out. Tons of new ideas for the New Year!

I want to take my shop to the next level and my social networking too.  I feel like I am blogging to myself most of the time, I need to find my people.

I am also in the process of posting all of my old stock and making room for the new beads on the horizon so here are some pictures.

Panic .. oh my what am I to do!

Well I picked up my last paycheck and now that has happened I feel a little panicky.  I really would like to use these next few months to concentrate on my business and see what happens when I focus my energy into it instead of splitting it up between work and well all the many many other things that come along when you have a family. I am wondering with the extra hours where will it take me creatively. 

Well I have some craft show applications I need to fill out and send but darn it I don't like how my pictures are turning out when I printed them.  Arg... picture taking has become my nemesis.

I did manage to post some new items in my shop so I will throw up a picture of that.  I have a huge batch of beads that I am going to bisque tonight some with that lovely red clay. I am going to start offering bead sets as soon as I get these glazed.

I have to get to sanding them beads so thanks for letting me VENT!!!!

Laid Off

So I talked to my boss yesterday and he says he is closing down his office and won't be needing my services any longer. While I am upset about the job loss I completely understand his decision. I do the billing and payroll so I see what is coming in and it's been really slow for the past year. I know he has been hanging in there in hopes that business would go back to normal but it has been bleeding him dry. I was upset when I got home but I rubbed some vodka on it and I feel better today.

Today I organized my beads... I didn't really get finished. I have quite a mix of them.. boxes and boxes plus I have a ton of seed beads too. I use those little black trays with the velvet liners when I am working with them. You can fit a lot of beads on those trays and pretty soon they are overflowing. When I can't find any of my tools and there are bead trays strewn about on almost every flat surface in the house it's time to clean up and organize my beads.

Midway through my bead clean up I ran out to the mail box to see if my new Etsy purchase was in. Oh boy it was! Woohoo it lit a fire under my ass to clean faster so I could play with my new beads I purchased from Artebella Surplus. Such beautiful beads, oh the colors so perfect. Anyhow check out her store.

Today I posted some cute little Polka Dot Heart Earrings. I got a bisque fire going too! It is full of little cupcake charms, some little fruit charms, some shells and I made these bell shaped flowers. I will post the results as soon as I get the little suckers glazed.

So.... Long Time No Blog

Well it's been over a year since I have posted anything. What happened? I don't know... I guess I was in a creative funk. Everytime I made something I thought was really creative I would find out that someone already did a version of it. Meh...

So I decided to quit the blog for awhile and while I love reading about other peoples blogs and what they are creating I tried my damnest not to read em. Especially if they used the same medium I did. I wanted to create stuff and not worry about whether someone else did it already.

So over the past year I have created quite a bit of stuff. I have played with lots of clay and beads and wire and just had a great time! I have painted tiles and made collages and just fooled around. I also spent a lot of time just playing, with the kids, husband and family. I learned how to play rock band and the hubbie and I rock out with the kids sometimes martinis are envolved :P

My husband and I quit smoking last summer and I packed on quite a bit of weight. I bought this wii fit game it led me to actually liking to workout! I have lost 15 pounds and now am walking about 6 times a week trying to get it up to 5 miles a day.

I did a craftshow last weekend and it lit a fire under my ass to get to making stuff again and so hopefully soon I will be posting some pictures. I also have decided to be more myself in this blog I think I was trying to be something I don't know but not completely me... so I am gonna let the abrupt, quirky,nerdy, sometimes painfully shy, sometimes rude grumpyand bitchy, and sometimes sweet and helpful me, loose on this blog . Just warning ya!

I love RAKU!!!!

Last year in my Ceramic's class I got myself a taste of Raku, (Actually my first taste was about 20 years ago in my College Ceramics class, too young to appreciate it, but I digress) Ahhh I fell in love with it and have been itching to do it again, So after much thinking and a bit procrastinating I finally bought some Raku clay, glazes and various other implements you need and dove in. I am so addicted! Raku feeds that Veruca Salt part of my personality that screams " I WANT IT NOW!" I have a 25 pound bag of raku clay and 14 new glazes and I am gonna Raku my little heart out!

Looking for displays

I have been cruising the web for wooden compartmentalized bead displays. I don't know if I am getting the description wrong or if they all called something else but I am getting nothing. I have found some stand up bead displays but this is not what I want. I want to be able to show off my beads in a way that makes them accessible to people so they can pick them up and and imagine what they would make with them. Plus I think wood looks nice, warm and goes well with ceramic pieces. I am finding this so frustrating, I don't want to use plastic, ick. I have been using some little bowls but the bowls look messy to me scattered on the table. Oh well I will keep up the hunt.

Made in China

On my way home from work I decided to stop by the pottery supply store to pick up a bag of clay
and a couple of jars of glaze to play with. While waiting for someone to ring me up I noticed a new display of glazed beads. Oh wow BEADS my heart fluttered! (I have discussed my addiction to beads in previous posts :P) I was distracted by the pretty glazes and it took me awhile to figure out that they were selling bags of already bisque fired beads in various sizes and shapes. Interesting I thought picking up a bag, As I turned the bag over there it was the "Made in China" sticker! Oh boy for some reason this pissed me off! While I know these places sell tons of bisque fired ready to glaze goods like mugs, plates and tiles, this disturbed me. I love the process of making my own beads from the beginning of digging my hands into the wet clay to the excitement of opening up the kiln to see the results after the final firing, knowing that wow I did that! So no made in china short cuts for me thank-you!

In Search for the Perfect Round Bead

The best thing about playing with clay is the ability to make your own beads and design them anyway you want! I have been a bead- alholic since the late 80's when my best friend at the time had taken up jewelry making it was the beginning of a life long career for her she does beautiful and unique work take a look at her website .
For me it was the beads, I fiddled around with making my own jewelry but I think it was just an excuse to acquire more Beads!! So coming full circle in this tale, I get to make all the beads my heart desires. The downside is I sort of thought it would be easier. I am starting to think that I have some sort of affliction that prevents me from being able to make round beads. I am having a great time learning and playing and trying to reach the Zen of the perfect round bead, and I am getting pretty good at making ovals and tubes.

More Double-sided Pendants!

More fun from the kiln! I am really enjoying making this babies. They take a very long time to glaze but the it is a lot more fun too! I feel like I can get more creative with these, especially with layering the different glazes. I can't wait to make more. I will be putting them in my Etsy shop after work today.

Something New, Fresh out of the Kiln!

Here is a picture of this morning's gift from the kiln gods. These spikes are about 2 inches long and were very fun to make. I love trying out new things in search of my niche in the ceramic bead world. It seems that everything has been done, so I am just going to go with whatever pops into my head.