Dana's Jewelry Design

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Art and Soul Retreat - Porland, OR

If you have never been to an art retreat you are missing out especially if you love art and various crafts. This year I'll be teaching at the Portland retreat my Bonsai Gem Tree class, Friday, October 5th. It is a full day class so you will have time to make not only a little bit larger tree than normal but learn all my secrets to a great tree design. You will complete a tree in class all ready for you to take home.

This is the style we will be making.

Come join me in this adventure of sculpting wire and gemstones to form a tree.

Also, if you find you want to learn this tree style and can't make the Art & Soul Retreat, I also teach at Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, WA a various of classes. Feel free to check out what they have to offer. Please note that the class at Shipwreck is only 3 hours in length and you will make a tree but it will be smaller in size.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

A Little Peace

Sometimes we all need a little peace but I found a deeper meaning to this earring and necklace set I created yesterday. I'm not sure what drove me to adding the peace charm at the bottom of the pendant but it seemed to balance out the oddness of using bullet casings for jewelry. Sorry folks, this set is already going to a good home tomorrow but if you want a set, just let me know.

I also have been busy making little drawstring baggies. I usually make them to use when someone buys a piece of jewelry or lately I've been making about 20 a month for the children in the oncology department at Mary Bridge Children's hospital. These were a special order for a Mary Kay representative who just happens to be my niece Shelby. She is really into the pink.

Last week hubby, my mom and both my niece and nephew and their spouses took a couple of day trips. Our first trip was to the ocean (Pacific) at Grayland beach. It started out cloudy with a few rain showers going but once we got there...nice and sunny. Such a treat. The dogs even got a good run in. We love going this time of year and during the week as there aren't very many people on the beach.

I like this shot as you can see Buddy the spaniel running in the distance, hubby keeping a watchful eye on him and Leo thinking he just found some food. We are always catching him with crab shells or something in his mouth.

My nephew and his wife just having a bit of fun. Oh to have that much energy.

My niece and her husband and I can just hear her saying "just one more shell".

The next day we headed up to Seattle to Pike Place Market then to the Seattle Center to view the new Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit and the Space Needle. We packed a lot into one day and our feet were sure tired at the end of it but we all had a great time and have the pictures to prove it. I highly recommend the glass exhibit...so worth it.

My mom with my niece and her husband at Pike Place Market.

You just can't imagine the beauty of this exhibit unless you go to it. My pictures certainly don't do it justice.

Here we are at the top of the Space Needle. It definitely was a picture taking day.

After a couple of days of high activity, I was glad to get back to our normal routine and just a little peace.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Having Fun With Charms

For the past several days...okay more than a few days, I've been trying to get caught up on all the art charm swaps I'm in. I am hosting a Postal swap and a Pendant swap and like a sucker I just couldn't resist signing up for 2 sets each.

The pendant swap was pretty easy as I love to play with wire. So I made several different types of wired up pendants. These first ones are all the same and I call them my crystal ball pendants as they are made out of quartz crystal.

This next set was me just playing around. It was kind of fun.

Then the hard part started.... My postal charms, oh what to make. I was not very creative at all and finally decided to make my soldered charms for my first set. I just love these. I used mostly old stamps that my husband had rejected out of his collection. Can you believe we found one in here from 1895. Yup, someone is going to receive that one in a swap.

My next set was harder to figure out and finally I just glued a ton of postage stamps to a piece of card stock as a collage and then used Diamond Glaze to affix a glass piece over the top of the pieces that I cut out. A simple coil and loop for the hanger a little more Diamond Glaze on back and there you go, postage stamp charms. Probably out of all of them, these are my favorite because they are so different.

Another swap I signed up for was the Amulets and Talisman swap. This was hard. I did lots of research and several test charms. It was hard keeping them to under 1 1/2". The bottle charm got kicked out as it was too big and I ended up not liking the triangle with the eye in the middle. So four different charms the amulet bag made out of leather and filled with various protective stones, the symbol of the moon out of silver with crystal, the wishbone in gold (not really just brass) and the protection amulet with a binding and protective stones.

So, I think I am now all caught up. Whew, that was a lot of charms. I can't wait to see what I get in return.

One more thing, I have a Bonsai Gem Tree class coming up June 30th at Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, WA, so if you have been wanting to learn how to make a gem tree, this is a great starter class. Come have fun with us.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

I Need Sheet Metal

I've been playing again in my craft room and normally when I play I'm painting or doing one of my other hobbies but yesterday and today was actually playing with sheet metal and wire. I wanted to make some copper bangles but didn't have any sheet copper but did have some sheet metal the color of copper and silver in 24 gauge. It is a little thin for bracelets but thought I would work up some ideas anyway. I really like how the copper colored one came out and I think in a heavier gauge metal it would work really well.

Funny thing that while I was at the craft store buying fake flowers (see last paragraph) I just had to go over to the jewelry and beads section and I found some sheet metal with patterns embossed. So, I got to play a bit more. Here is the set I created with the antiqued gold tone metal pieces.

I think for the other metal pieces I'll get out the big guns (the Dremel) to help with the filing and polishing as doing this with a little jewelry file was time consuming. The bracelet is my favorite piece but they all work well together but I do have to change up the necklace a bit as I just don't like the chain dangles from the top.

Since I was playing and there was no pressure to create something fantastic, at the home improvement store hubby bought me a copper tube cutting tool. This is too cool. I already had the copper tubing but had no way to cut it and never even thought about cutting it up into little pieces for beads but this was so much fun.

It's just this heavy chunky chain and I love it. I may have to make more. I think I'm obsessed.

To take a break from jewelry making, I decided to redo my front porch... ha ha, those of you that know me know that I can not grow flowers at all. In fact, plants and I don't get along and they seem to just wither and die a slow death. Well, last Fall I got the bright idea to put fake (silk) flowers in my flower pots out front. So, I planted sunflowers and mums. It looked so much better than the dead flowers and lasted all Winter. Well, it has been past time for me to update the porch for Spring/Summer. So, off to the craft store I went and found all kinds of silk flowers for my pots. My front porch is now ready for warm weather and I don't even have to water them.

On that note, I'll wish everyone a happy Memorial Day and let us all remember the Veterans who have given their life so that we may have freedom. Thank a Veteran today.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Struggling with Design

Today I am beating my head against a wall. I have indecision with me and I really don't like him. Note I did call it a him as that is what I believe it to be as my muse is a woman. I've been working on some Amulets and Talismans for a charm swap. I've done quite a bit of research so they at least look somewhat authentic and then just trying to figure out how to craft them was giving me fits.

Here is what I have so far:

We are challenged by size as we can't go larger than 1 1/2" in length so I immediately have to eliminate the bottle with all the healing and protection in it (agates, seeds, salt, rosemary) as it will be too long. I don't like the triangle with the eye in the middle... it just needs something more. The other four, I'm okay with. Would love comments, ideas or anything else you might suggest.

I made some really cool crystal ball pendants that would have been great for this swap this past weekend but alas they are too long, so they will get used for a pendant swap. I think the rock crystal is about a 16mm.

If I would have thought about it, I could have gotten some a bit smaller. I think they would have made a great charm and had significant meaning.

Well, If I'm going to get finished with these blasted things I better get back to it. Have a great Memorial weekend and be safe. I'll be posting an update on my art blog later today if you want to check that out.

Cheers, Dana

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Button Swap Blog Hop Time

Some time ago I mentioned that I was participating in a button swap hosted by Cindy Wimmer over at Sweet Bead Studio... now what do we do with all those buttons? Well I decided to make some jewelry. My partner was Christine Stonefield over at Sweet Girl Design. She sent me some wonderful buttons to play with. Our challenge was to use at least one of them in a creation of some kind and it didn't have to be jewelry.

Here is what she sent. Don't you just love the large ceramic one... How did she know that I love leaves and all things trees. My first thought was to make a journal and use one of the buttons for a closure and I may still do that but I really had to so something with that vintage lovely at the back.

This was the first piece and I knew I wanted to make a ring and this is the perfect button for that added flash for when we go out in the evenings.

This next piece just kind of created itself. My first thought was to make some of my signature wire leaves and dangle them off the bottom but when that didn't look good I moved it to the top and added gemstone beads of jade, malachite and unikite as dangles at the bottom. Since I felt it still needed something I tied a bit of sari silk in the middle and used the remainder to hang around my neck. Yep the perfect pendant.

I am so going to wear this today as my mother and I are going shopping for Mother's Day.... okay we really don't have to have a reason to go shopping but since I couldn't get the guys to agree to a picnic up on Mt. Rainier, we will just have to suffer through.

So if you would like to blog hop around and see all the other fantastic button works of art, here are the participants and their partners.

Enjoy and Happy Mother's Day!

Alice Peterson and Kim Bender

Angie Blasingame and Billi R.S. Rothove

Billi R.S. Rothove and Angie Blasingame

Birgitta Lejonklou and Pam Farren

Bonnie Coursolle and Tania Hagen

Brenda Salzano and Hope Smitherman

Cat Kerr and Heather Powers

Cece Cornier and Jeannie Dukic

Celeste Thurston and Christine Damm

Christine Damm and Celeste Thurston

Christine Stonefield and Dana James

Cilla Watkins and Lori Bowring Michaud