Sunday, August 30, 2009

New Charm sets in store!

I am super excited to add 5 new charm sets to my etsy shop this week!
These sets are perfect for earrings, pendants, charms... All kinds of uses!
These charms are also available made to order in your favorite Artisan Clay colors. Just ask :-)

Here is a really fun use example. Oh So Charming, by my friend Staci of Staci Louise Originals. Staci is one of my friendly designers who are wonderful at using my clay pieces to their fullest potential.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

New Smokefired Donuts in Store!

It's about time that I added more smokefired pieces to my etsy shop!
I just listed 3 of my large sized donuts
First here is Grey and Black Smoke Fired Clay Donut Pendant or Necklace 6

and the flip side. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29976220

Next is SmokeFired Donut Ceramic Pendant or Necklace 7
and the flip side http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_1&listing_id=29977767

I really like how the copper effect worked on this piece!
All my donuts, pendants ect. have the option of being made into a simple cord necklace for no additional charge... Just let me know in your note to seller and I'll tie it into a great pendant necklace.
I have been wearing my favorite pendant this way! (probably 4 times a week)
Hope everyone is having a great day!
-Kristie-



Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Bead Fest Philly Part 2 Shopping!

Shopping at Bead Fest was all about finding my favorites in the booths surrounding mine.
Most of my shopping was for creative metal, something I don't have very much of around the studio. I got such a steal from Bianka and Jr from Chubby Chico I ended up with 4 packs of their mixed bags of charms. I have to say, my all time favorite is the cyclops! Closely following are the pirate and all of the face charms.
Look at this bag--my favorites here are the Acorns and Branches.

Birds and Nests
and I just had to have the coffee cups! I am also very impressed with the tea bags.
You will not believe all the different designs they have made! Seriously! there's something like 3000 of them. All designed by Bianka and all metal poured by her as well! If you would like some Uber-cool ghoulish charms for Halloween, you have got to check out CHUBBY CHICO CHARMS I'm telling you! Body parts! Organs! FUN stuff! and a STEAL! There is one shop I did venture away from my booth for. Green Girl Studios had just what I needed for an upcoming project- Sweet links. I hope they add a little shine to my project.
I am super excited to meet and trade with Kim Fox of Handfast Designs
Kim designs wonderful art clasps and I hope to be working with her in the very near future!
Kim was interviewed during Bead Fest for the upcoming PBS show Beads, Baubles and Jewels. I can't wait to see it. Kim traded this sterling clasp for a set of my smaller smokefired donuts. Kim will be using them in a necklace for her upcoming finished jewelry shows.
I was also very lucky to be across from the super friendly ladies of http://www.bellomodo.com/ Pam has a super selection of Vintaj pieces, Heather Powers beads, resin settings..... Tons of great stuff and super people behind the website! I bought some vintaj blanks so that I can try to get back to metal etching.
Last but not least I bought a few strands of faceted glass beads to compliment the crackling of my recycled glass pendants. I am really proud of myself for not going crazy buying stones left and right. I do love stones, but since I just had to buy new furniture to store my current collection, I put myself on restriction. I did well! Just 4 strands of 4mm rounds and a couple of rhondelles.
I also bought some mixed metal stampings from Metaliferous (sp?) and my husband traded my work for an Awesome Acorn bead from Credit River Glass. He's hiding it from me, he somehow got the idea that I might steal it...
Come on Josh! I was just holding it around my neck for a little while. ;-P







Monday, August 24, 2009

Bead Fest Philly Part 1

It's Monday night and I'm still all smiles about the weekend at Bead Fest!
I have to say, I was all about the people I met and having time to talk shop with beady friends I haven't seen in a while. I am so thrilled that I got to meet Lorelei Eurto, Kelley Wenzel, Jennifer VanBenschoten and so many new etsy friends! And Joan, Marsha, and Darlene you always rock my world! Show attendees were floored by all the wonderful samples, by Carol Dean Sharpe, MaryLou Holvenstot, Lorelei Eurto and Staci Louise Smith. I even sold one of Staci's samples to a super friendly and excited customer.
At one point things even got a little hairy when a row of vendors lost their electric at the same time the PBS Show Beads Baubles and (Gems?) plugged in their camera's to the Convention Center grid via my booth. Smarty pants Kristie just had to have the comment " I think you have to be union to do that, anything happens- I didn't see anything" Hehehe minutes later when the convention center coordinator had choice words for the crew I could have died...
Everyone loved my samples SO MUCH! I owe these 4 artists a huge THANK YOU!
I'm telling you girlies-- I had some pretty bummed looking editors when I said that they weren't my designs. Get on it girls!!! ;-D
Have I ever announced here that there is an Artisan Clay gift certificate for every time one of my beads is published and credited as mine? Just saying....
More on my new Bead Fest Stash to come!
Thanks for all of you who stopped by and said Hello! It was so nice talking to you!
(Mary Jane that means you, too!)


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Collaborations with MaryLou Holvenstot

Here are the last two collaborations with jewelry designer MaryLou Holvenstot. www.time2cre8.etsy.com

I received them in the mail yesterday and believe me you have to see them in person too!
MaryLou has such a wonderful way of describing her work and the process-- Here is how she described her Terra necklace-
"The last collaborative piece I was able to finish using some of Kristie Roeder's (aka artisanclay.etsy.com) incredible smoke-fired clay beads. The texture and tone of these beads are amazing, and I wanted to create a piece using three different sizes and shapes - one large focal (about 2" long), a smaller tube-shaped bead, and another smaller flattened oval.

The idea I first had was to just use Kristie's beads, but as I was looking through my bead stash I came across some beads in a variety of materials that all blended so well with the smoke-fired clay that I decided to assemble a variety of shapes and textures.

The beads included in here are root beer colored glass beads in all different shapes: square, cone, round, and lentil; and there are also wooden beads in several shapes and sizes and bone beads. The two open rings are both made of bone. They're all connected with bits of beadweaving - some peyote stitch and a tiny bit of ndebele rope.

There's also one longer section of ndebele rope, created with Japanese delica beads in matte pale gold and matte metallic dark gold. The rope ends in a loop, so the larger beads fit through easily. This allows the piece to be worn in several different ways - as a more "traditional" style with the focal hanging almost like a pendant, or with the ndebele rope at the back of the neck so the focal bead hangs to the side.

The name I chose for this, Terra, means "earth." So many of the components come from the earth, and the brown and beige tones of this look like earth and sand.
This piece is on its way to Kristie, so she can display it at the Philly Bead Fest next week!"

And here is how MaryLou described her Lilivati necklace-
"I was so excited to be able to use one of her clay and glass cabochons, and this lime green one has been calling out to me for a couple of weeks now. It told me it wanted to be paired with purple, and these shiny silver-lined red violet delicas were just the thing. The other beads I used are transparent pale lime green.

Another thing that excited me when I started making the bezel for this piece is that it worked to a perfectly symmetrical treatment! That let me play with the design on the front a bit, adding a single purple bead every so often so they're evenly spaced around the face of the bezel.

The back of the bezel was left open because I really liked the smooth texture and the concentric circles in the clay.The necklace portion is an ndebele rope (aka tubular herringbone) made from the same beads used in the bezel. It's mostly the violet beads, but I created a spiral the entire length of the rope using the pale lime green beads.

Now if I could only get my camera to cooperate... these pictures are a bit on the dark side, so I may take more later.

Almost forgot! The name I chose, Lilivati, means "playful, amusing, charming" in Sanskrit.:-) "


Check out MaryLou's shop! www.time2cre8.etsy.com She is wonderful to work with, and I'm sure you can work together to create that perfect something for your next event! (I know I have another wedding coming up)

Thursday, August 13, 2009

You have to see this! :-)

Have I told you about MaryLou? Mary Lou Holvenstot aka http://www.time2cre8.etsy.com/ has been working away at some wonderful jewelry pieces featuring my Art Beads. I will be taking these examples with me to showcase at Bead Fest Philly August 21-23. Booth #1346 I am such a lucky girl! Heart Suspended
Here's how MaryLou Described the process:
I decided to showcase it with a necklace made from two ndebele ropes and a single strand of beads, created using matte metallic dark bronze delicas, loosely braided to mimic the lines that appear on the heart.
The heart is attached to the necklace with a very funky bail... a piece of heavy copper wire which I found on the Lake Michigan shoreline. I just bent the ends around into little loops and then added a peyote strip and a loop to attach everything to the necklace.

I love how MaryLou has described the creation of this pieces as well!:
I love the pieces of driftwood I find lying on the Lake Michigan shoreline, and this necklace allowed me to use one of the coolest ones. There was just something about the shape that made me want to use it to suspend Kristie's donut focal.
I wanted something in the piece to mimic the lines in the donut, so I used three narrow strips of peyote (each only 2 beads wide) to suspend the donut from the peyote band that wraps around the driftwood. To let more of the wood show through, I left some gaps in the underside of the band.
Color was one of the big questions with this one. I love the colors in the donut, but I wanted something that would complement and contrast with it rather than something that would blend with it (maybe because the last piece was all browns and offwhites). This time I opted to go with dark red matte delicas for the beadwoven part.
With as much "activity" as there is with the structure, I didn't want to add more with mixing too many colors, so I just stuck with the dark red for everything.I thought of just making two peyote strips for the necklace portion, but as I worked on it I realized that it seemed weighted to one side, so I added another small piece of driftwood to provide a little balance.
The name of this piece, Atalanta, is Greek and means "equal in weight." Don't you think that's a good name?
And here I am working away to get ready for Bead Fest. I hope to have a great selection of both smokefired pieces as well as my recycled glass and stoneware donuts pendants and cabochons
I am looking to get in one more kiln load of Glass work before the show... and that happens today!
I hope everyone is having a great day!
-k-

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Thursday, August 6, 2009

So Cave woman!

SO... everybody loves the Art Bead Scene Blog, right? I do! Last month the monthly challenge was to create a pieces of jewelry inspired by the Lascaux Cave Paintings in France. I love it! Brown being my Absolutely Favorite color and primitive art another favorite, I jumped for joy!
I am so flattered that 5 entries in the Art bead Scene group Flickr pool included my beads!
First off we have MaryLou Holvenstot's Earthenwear. She made this bracelet for me to take along with me to Bead Fest Philly this month. It will be for sale at the show. The bracelet features one of my smoke fired barrels and MaryLou's fabulous bead crochet. ( I have been dying to get her to use one of my beads in her crochet for months!) check out MaryLou's shop here-http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=63053

Next we have 3 entries by the super sweet and talented May Jane Dodd
first we have Peek- featuring one of my large smoke fired donuts and a smoke fired barrel bead.
check it out in her shop-- http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28612300 I love that wire!


Next We have On Your Sleeve- This fabulous bracelet has so many art beads from so many awesome bead makers! check it out! http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28307386
raku ceramic beads from MAKUstudio.etsy.com
smoke fired tube bead from artisanclay.etsy.com
lampwork glass from LindenAvenueDesigns.etsy.com
drilled beach stone from StoneMe.etsy.com

Last from Mary Jane is this earthy bracelet featuring one of my oval connector beads. I really like the color of that glaze- Thanks to my friend Delana for the recipe!

And here we have my entry... It has more than 30 of my beads and I love it so much that I've kept it for myself! I wore it last weekend to a lovely garden party and received many compliments. Wonder what I am going to wear to the wedding this weekend? Hmmm? Maybe I'll just have to whip something up :-)
Happy Thursday Everyone!
I'm off to the studio.
-k-





Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Working away

I have been working hard to get ready for Bead Fest Philly this month! Here is a shot of the weeks new work. I am trying hard to finish as much new work as I possibly can. The count down has begun and panic has set in! I hope to catch up on blogging about tons of wonderful jewelry by some very friendly artists who have used my pieces in their work before the show.
Gotta run!
Buzz..... I'm a busy bee.......