Tag Archives: lampwork

A Clockwork Orange

1 March 2020

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“Clockwork Orange”

I do believe this necklace will be as much fun to wear as it was to create! Making it was a real adventure in my orange drawer…I know, I should get out more.

It started with the orange and red lampwork* glass hearts by Pumpkin Hill Beads (MA) that I bought last October and have had sitting on my worktable percolating. So, when I organized the large stash of Helen’s beads that I bought last November (see January 1, 2020 blog for story), two strands of red-orange beads fell in love with the hearts. I pulled out the orange drawer and right on top were these vintage Lucite circles in orange and red. It’s so predestined, isn’t it?

I checked the red drawer also and found other goodies, all of them vintage glass or Lucite (plastic used in costume jewelry from 1950-70 and loved by me because the colors are so real.)

The large orange circles are end-capped by square reddish vintage glass with modern hieroglyphic marks. The necklace is longer than usual at 25” because I believe the circle and heart centerpiece demanded some space on the torso. It dangles for 4”.

The centerpiece only wanted to be assembled one way: a red and an orange circle butting up together (how to tie them together was my big challenge) with hearts attached in some pleasing way.

The clasp is an orange circle and a silver toggle. The earrings had to be long also and they emerged with sterling silver earwires that drop 2’’ from the lobe to the tip of the orange heart.

I present my March 1 creation for your aesthetic discernment. $140 for the set plus $7 shipping.

*Lampwork: artist-made glass bead sitting in front of a flame with a mandrel in one hand and glass canes in the other.

 

A MAX MOMENT

BROMANCE is in the air. Max and his best buddy, Ralphie, also a Labradoodle, but a standard sized one, are inseparable and non-stop for an entire five-hour playtime at Sunshine Pet Parlor (Hull, MA). When I bring Max in, Ralphie is already there and he comes running to the gate to greet Max. Max enters and falls on the floor to indicate his submissiveness, jumps up and they dash through the pet door to the backyard for hours of doggie rough and tumble.

 

Black and White Glass. Happy New Year.

1 January 2020

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“Illusory Simplicity”

This necklace began with the black and white polka dot beads. Polka dots are a favorite pattern of mine and once I started this necklace, I couldn’t stop.

There is a Japanese artist I love not only for her colorful bobbed hairstyles nor only for her wild and crazy clothing, but for her life-long obsession with polka dots. In February I will see Yayoi Kusama’s work live at Boston’s contemporary art museum. Kusama is now 90 years old and has featured polka dots in her art since she was 10 years old.

In the necklace pictured above, the plain black beads are onyx; the XL black and white beads are made in India; the clasp is a simple silver metal one. The centerpiece and the two earrings that almost match are lampwork glass made by a friend of mine from Palo Alto in the late 90’s. The earrings drop 1 7/8″ from the ear lobe.  The necklace is 19” long. It weighs 4.5 oz.  $99 for the set.  Free shipping.

“Pattern and Motif”

This black and white necklace has a craft feel. All of these beads were Helen’s (see story below). I made it this week as a companion to the polka dot necklace. Note the pale hints of pink and lavender in the striped beads. The clear glass beads with the squiggles were also used for the earrings.   There is lots of black and white going up one side of the necklace and down the other side. The clasp is pewter. The earrings hang 1 3/4” from the ear lobe. The necklace is 19” long.  It barely moves the scale, weighing only 1.4 oz.  $75 for the set.  Free shipping.

The Best Bead Shopping Ever!

Who ever knew I would return home from a recent trip to California with five bags of beads that made my suitcase ten pounds heavier? My friend Helen is switching from beading to quilting and offered me a unique shopping experience right at the kitchen table!

Once home and as soon as I had the time, I emptied them onto my work surface and they covered it entirely! It was bead heaven. What fun I had sorting them by color and putting them away in the drawers of the apothecary chest! Even more fun were the 15 piles of beads (see tray, top right) that immediately inspired me as future necklace potential. I will let them percolate into necklaces during the next few months. Yesterday I pulled out the glass bead centerpieces and found a half-dozen artist-made lampwork beads to add excitement to the percolation. I’ve promised to send Helen pictures of the finished product.

A Max Moment

Max is wearing the latest couture for groomed dogs. Gone are the bandanas with pinking shear edges. In is the sophisticated bowtie!

Max is now 20 months young.

2020:  May it Bode Well for All of Us!

I am feeling awed that today is 1/1/2020.  I have a deep seated feeling that this year, this decade, may  be good for humanity.  I can’t predict the future, but I can pay attention to my feelings and share them with you.

No matter what 2020 brings, doesn’t 2020 have a nice ring to it?  Let’s make the most of this New Year!

 

Blue and Green Colors. Transparent and Opaque Beads.

1 October 2019

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“Polyglot”

When I found myself stating at a blank page not knowing what to say about this necklace, I telephoned my sister Nancy who is mad for blue and green, on her person, in her home, in the world. “Why?” I asked. “Because they remind me of the sky and grass,” she answered. “They feel fresh, soothing and welcoming.”

This was a happy necklace for me to make.  I love the beads and I agree with my sister.  But I didn’t know quite what to blog since there is no story. So I will tell you about the beads.

This necklace started with three Venetian blown glass beads combining cobalt blue and lime green, inspiring the blue/green mix.

Next, I placed the cobalt and lime drawers on my work table and the necklace practically designed itself.

The two large lime lampwork glass beads were purchased from Marj Bates from nearby Scituate. A strand of vintage frosted faceted glass lime beads was selected as the basic infrastructure to hold the necklace together. I found the funky, chunky glass spirals in the cobalt drawer and do not remember where or when I bought them.

Feels strange not to have any stories about the beads…but allow me to distract you with the clasp. It is 18 karat gold-plated with olive crystals bezeled onto both sides of the circle as well as the ends of the toggle. An elegant ending to the poor necklace with no story!

The earrings feature two different shapes of the blue/green Venetian glass with old but charming blue glass dangles. Warning: it’s an asymmetrical look!

Details:   The necklace measures 20.5” in length. The earrings are 1.75” long from where it hangs in your ear to the bottom of the dangle.  Price:  $119 the set plus shipping (about $14) since I prefer to double box this much glass and ship it priority.

A Max Moment

I am so embarrassed that he has also has nothing special to report this month. He mostly behaved. His hair is growing back far too slowly for me. Some wise guy called him “the dog with a lion’s tail.”  This shot shows his growing obsession with his “blankie”  (security blanket) as well as his goofy tail.

OPEN STUDIO.AUGUST 16-18.HULL,MA

13 August 2019

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COME BY TO SEE NEW WORK.

SHOULD BE GREAT WEATHER FOR ART-STUDIO-HOPPING.

ALL WEEKEND I’LL BE CELEBRATING MAKING MY 3000th NECKLACE, BRACELET OR EARRINGS.  IT ONLY TOOK 24 YEARS.  HA!  BUT WHAT FUN ALONG THE WAY!

FRIDAY, AUG 16 FROM 6 TO 8 PM.  wine and cheese to celebrate 3000.

SATURDAY & SUNDAY, AUG 17 & 18 from 10 TO 4.

CATALOGUES FOUND AT HULL BUSINESSES.  ALWAYS FREE.

Whimsey Bird

1 June 2019

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A touch of whimsy always makes my day.

This lampwork glass bird is one of many whimsical beads Stephanie Sersich, Topsham, Maine, creates.  Sersich today is 43 years old and introduced herself to the bead world at age 25 with a public lecture and an article in the legendary “Lapidary Journal.”   Two big influences contributing to her success are her creative Mom and a major in metalsmithing and painting.  As she says, “I learned engineering and color which led me to making my own glass beads.”

She then developed her own “Spiny Knotting” method to allow her to bind many of her colorful beads into a single bracelet or necklace.  Check them out on her website sssbeads.com.

I have often wondered why I preferred the hunt for fabulous beads like Stephanie’s instead of making them.  It has a lot to do with the fact that my youthful focus was on getting an English degree, living in Paris and Lisbon, and being a corporate HR professional.  I didn’t buy my first bead until I was 50 and living in Hong Kong, entertaining myself while my husband organized his company’s South Asian footprint.  But I loved the hunt!  From the Hong Kong Jade Market to Beijing’s outdoor flea markets, Shanghai’s treasure-filled antique shops, from small entrepreneurial silver shops in Bali, to the giant pieces of turquoise I found in Tibet, and the amazing beads on small Indonesian islands of Sumba, Komodo, and Flores.  For two years, I never thought of making my own beads.  Just acquiring them.

And I can safely say that is true today, 25 years later.  I was determined, however, to put my own creative stamp on each necklace.  To balance color and texture, to be bold, chunky and fearless, but above all to never stop searching for the odd, eccentric, remarkable bead.  And to do that, I expanded my search to fulfill the true definition of a bead:  something with a hole in it which can be strung.

Stephanie’s bird and fiber dangle is 3.5″ and the pink Czech glass bead necklace is 24″.  Featured in the necklace are molded glass pre-war German semi-circle beads plus glass flowers at the end of the necklace and in the earrings.  $139.

 

Happy Birthday, Max. One year Old!

12 April 2019

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It’s good to be one.  A lot of treats are coming my way.  Plus hugs.  Maybe Mom won’t think I am a puppy anymore.  She always excuses my bad behavior by calling me a puppy.Auntie Sandra sent me this gift from Napa Valley:  a matching collar and leash from Mumm’s Champagne House.  Auntie and Mom love to drink French Champagne when they are together!I expect to have more fun like this now that I am growing up.  I love to steal things Mom leaves within my reach and run around the house with them in my mouth, taunting Mom.  Ball point pens and those mechanical pencils Mom has are my favorites!  I have set a goal of one a week and I am very successful!  This deliciousness was from destroying ablue gel pen…I have my eye on her green one.I got her electric toothbrush recently.  Catch that cocky look in my eyes?  I’m good at this.  One day I got her orange agenda from some silly place in Paris.  She started crying so I felt I’d better drop it quickly.  I hate that “Drop it” command. I like to watch the world go by from high places here in the backyard and in the car where I perch on the console.  There are so many interesting critters on the ground, airplanes in the sky, and lots of water everywhere with those white birds.By the end of the day, I am really tired.  So I snooze while Mom watches TV and eats dinner.  She always shares her bully stick with me.  Yummy.  I’m also happy when I go to my crate to sleep beside Mom’s bed.  I get a good sleep so I can start the next day’s activities fresh!He’s a gem, but I predict he’ll be a puppy for another year.  I’m just grateful I survived the first year!

———-CORRECTION on April 1 Post.  The lovely heart of lampwork glass that was the centerpiece of the “Nightingale’s Eye” necklace was attributed to the incorrect artist.  They are buddies and share a booth at my most favorite bead show, Beadesigner, held in Watertown every October, but I want to correct it now.  LORI HEIDEN-ENGLE is the fabulous artist!!!

Find out where she is selling her glass beads at http://www.heiden-engle.com

 

It’s Springtime! Nightingale’s Eye.

1 April 2019

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“Nightingale’s Eye”

The nightingale, a European thrush, is unknown to Americans other than through its history as a romantic, even poetic, bird with an amazing night song. (1)

Before I connect this necklace to my chosen title, let me tell you how I choose titles for my necklaces…and why I choose titles.

First, why title a necklace? I started making bead jewelry in 1993 while living in Hong Kong with nothing to do but wander while my husband was on an 18-month work assignment. While wandering, beads seemed to attach themselves to me. Since an acquisition gene controls a part of my life, I just collected beads. Soon I had to hide them under the bed. No surprise, my husband asked me why I had so many beads…Surprisingly, I answered, “To make necklaces!”

Oops. A commitment. Good reply, it turns out. I started at the dining room table in Hong Kong and liked what I did. I had fabulous beads. Still do. So I made some decisions: this is my business; it’s appropriate to make a profit so I can keep buying beads without guilt; I’m now an artist; therefore I treat my work like a painting (Important insight. I had plexiglass boxes made so I can hang my works like two-dimensional art.) Also, I titled my work. Whew, took two paragraphs to answer that one.

How I choose titles. When we returned to Menlo Park from Hong Kong, while reading the NYTimes Book Review, I started underlining catchy phrases. Mind you, only an English major wants to memorialize catchy phrases. Then I listed them on notepaper. I did this for less than a year. I just went to my studio to count the pages–23. I still use them and have never expanded the lists.

When I finish a necklace, I prepare a tag. First is the title. The feeling of the necklace is fresh in my mind as I review the lists and a title that corresponds jumps at me. It’s totally intuitive. So simple.

Back to the nightingale and the necklace. I recently named this necklace and when I started writing today, discovered how an intuitive pick from my long list of titles was the correct karmic choice.

There is a Ukraine legend that a nightingale flew to Ukraine from India and heard only sad songs, so it sang its song to cheer them up. The people responded with happy songs, and since then, nightingales visit Ukraine each spring to hear happy folk songs. This was my spring necklace, created in the winter, correctly, if surprisingly, so named for spring. Full circle.

Details: it is 20.5” long accompanied by earrings that are 1.5” long. $119 the set. The necklace features a lampwork glass heart by Louise Erskine (MA) and two large Venetian blown glass beads. The remaining beads are rock crystal and faceted glass crystals. I love how the aqua of the crystals refracts through the clear beads. Sterling silver clasp.

To hear a nightingale sing, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TepTnlERuRo

Max will turn one year on April 12. I shall post a birthday salute!

July 1, 2018: Faux Pearls and A Real Puppy

2 July 2018

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“Dreams Die Hard”

I wanted this month’s featured necklace to have a short story because I have a longer story I am eager to share.

“Meet Max,wearing a necklace of abalone shell and pearls made in California by Elaine”

Max is the feature this month: a Labradoodle born on April 12, 2018 and welcomed into my home on June 19. Yellow Lab Maxie passed away on February 3 and it didn’t take me long to realize I missed my canine companion and I hated the quiet house! To fix it, I did a lot of research and found an experienced certified breeder: Marianne Hannagan at Autumn Haze Labradoodles in Newmarket, NH.

The result is an 11-lb cream-colored mellow male puppy who should be 30 lbs at maturity. He is quite delightful even though he exhausted me the first week! Week two is an improvement as we adapt to each other. We have started Obedience Training.

He now sleeps in his crate, assembledlast week by my brother-in-law, and already loves it! He walks into it often. Amazing.

He is full of puppy energy. I think he turns on a go button and runs for60 minutes, then switches the off button and sleeps for more than an hour. Since I’m getting up at 6am, I try to outsmart him by taking him to the garden where I cut, deadhead and weed while he runs up, down and around. Then at 7, it’s food, coffee and the newspaper while he cools down and sleeps. For the rest of the day, it is all about Max outsmarting me as I follow him around, removing low-hanging stuff, re-arranging electrical cords and putting my belongings up high.

Max was in the studio with me as I made this month’s necklace.

It is sweet and quiet, even though it looks so shiny in the photo. It is made with faux pearls which have no background story, in a pleasant pale yellow. The lampwork glass heart is made by Louise Erskine (MA) and is pale yellow at its center surrounded by several shades of soft green.

This necklace is 19” long; the centerpiece is 1.5″ long; the clasp is brass; matching earrings with vermeil earwires are included. $79.

 

March 15: Creative Clasps, Chapter 2

15 March 2018

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Why bother with unique clasps? Answers: it’s all about the hunt; it’s a challenge to put something creative at the back of the neck; it makes me stretch.

Anyone can use store-bought clasps or even seek out artist-make clasps at the big bead shows. I too use these old stand-bys for the majority of my necklaces. But it is fun to rummage through my drawers and cubbies to see what odd find can be made into a clasp.

I made a decision early on that I didn’t want to create beads. It suited my personality to engage in a hunt for the odd, quirky, overlooked, repurposable, full-of-character item that can function as one part of a clasp—either the circle or the stationary part or the toggle or moving part of the clasp. Yes, I am a collector. My finds are my treasures.

This particular clasp find is a 1960’s vintage plastic circle that was a good color match to the necklace. Plus, it added texture to the already-rich necklace: look closely at the crisscross pattern.

I designed the toggle part of the clasp from sterling silver wire.

The centerpiece is thick handmade glass I purchased in Murano, Italy, with a distinctly aqueous pattern in bold tones of aqua and pale grey with some darker streaks. It is 2” diameter.

In a stroke of great bead karma, Drawer 15 (Grey) contained the palest shade of grey faceted Czech glass beads which are the base of the necklace and speak to the centerpiece. Also note the four artist-made lampwork glass beads bookended with rare vintage Italian oval glass beads in aqua.

Statistics for this necklace follow:

Title: “Murano Waves”

Length: 21” plus centerpiece.

Featured beads are described above. Matching earrings with 7/8” dangle are included.

Price: $110.

 

I made a trip to Murano & Venice in 2013 and blogged about it here on June 29, 2013.

February 15: Cut some Ball Chain, Add a Centerpiece!

15 February 2018

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My Blog Plan for 2018 is based on a first of the month posting of a special necklace and its story which was also 2017’s plan, only weekly. I also thought I might post a more lighthearted piece of work mid-month.

There is nothing more lighthearted than ball chain. My first exposure to it was a lucky rabbit’s foot I received as a birthday present as a kid. Today such a gift would have PETA picketing outside our family home. I just attached it to my pencil bag and petted it for good luck.

Otherwise folks used it to keep their keys together. Maybe it should have been called key chain? Or dogtag chains? Or pull cord chain?

My selections from the top include fancy sterling silver ball chain with the Egyptian Ankh and Nefertiti pendants.

Then three brass ball chain 24-6” long, with picture jasper, brass and copper, and ceramic snake pendants.

 

 

 

Next, 36″long ball chain with faux Amber resin and lamp-work glass with silver dots.

Finally, ordinary ball chain with picture jasper, lampwork glass and pewter in 24-6″.

Ball chain really keeps prices down!  They range from $11 to $25.

The top two sterling silver are $35 and $38, left to right.