Fresh Baked Designs

Adventures in jewelry making

A Wire Work Out! June 16, 2013

Filed under: Archives — Fresh Baked Designs @ 7:48 pm
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Wow, two blog hops in one week!

 This one today is the other regular challenge that I told myself I’d commit to this year

and I’m so very glad I have.

Love My Art Jewelry offers everyone a boot camp about every two months.

The first one was making and using ball head pins.

Hand texturing metal was the second boot camp topic.

The current one was all about working with wire.

And I love adding wire work to my jewelry…nothing too intricate, mind you.

If you are a regular visitor to my blog you no doubt know about my love of copper.

Copper wire is so lovely to work with. And cheap!!

I use copper first on most new designs when I need to work out the details.

For this blog hop I posting photos of some new and some old pieces I’ve done.

( of course, click on the images to enlarge)

blue wraps

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And the newest work finished up today…

in one of my absolutely favorite color palettes of browns and turquoise.

wire flower necklace

Wire flower necklace2

Now for more wildly wonderful wire work, head on over to Love My Art Jewelry

and see what others have blogged about!

 

June Art Bead Scene Challenge June 13, 2013

Filed under: Archives — Fresh Baked Designs @ 10:20 am
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Hello, everyone!

Art Bead Scene hosts a wonderful monthly challenge with inspiration from a fine art piece.

The one caveat is that your original design must include at least one hand-made art bead.

June’s art work is a gorgeous watercolor that simply makes me want to pack my bags

and go spend a month at this seaside village!

june 2013 - franklin carmichael - jackknife village - palette 2

Jackknife Village, 1926

Franklin Carmichael

Watercolor on Paper

Color palette by Brandi Hussey

About the Art
In step with the fashions of the times, his work increasingly reflected the flat, simplified design popular in the 1920s.
During the late 1930s and 1940s, he branched out and worked on wood engravings and linocuts, all with the same precision and rhythmic quality of his paintings.
About the Artist
Canadian artist, Franklin Carmichael, May 4, 1890 – October 24, 1945.
The youngest and original member of the Group of Seven, Franklin Carmichael was born in 1890 in Orillia, Ontario. His father was a carriage maker. Carmichael arrived in Toronto at the age of twenty and entered the Ontario College of Art, where he studied with William Cruickshank and George Reid. In 1911, he began working as an apprentice at Grip Ltd. for $2.50 a week. He then joined Tom Thomson and other painters who were training to become serious artists, joining them on weekend sketching trips. He moved to Belgium in 1913 to study painting but due to the war soon returned to his native Ontario to rejoin the other artists. Carmichael was greatly influenced by Tom Thomson and shared space with him at the Studio Building in 1914. He was also on the fringe of the group because of his difference in age and was closely associated with the newer members of the Group of Seven.
Along with A. J. Casson and F. H. Brigden, Carmichael founded the Ontario Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1925. He also founded the Canadian Group of Painters in 1933, which several members of the Group of Seven would later join. He taught at the Ontario College of Art from 1932 to 1945.
Famous for his watercolours, many of his paintings depict Ontarian landscapes.

This painting that calls back a bucolic life was a delightful inspiration with so many directions to go.

I finally decided to go purely with the colors on this one.

Especially the lovely purple mountains and azure waters.

When I started dabbling in the acrylic paints for these two polymer clay beads however,

I’m afraid I got a teensy bit carried away with the vibrant side of these hues.

Jun ABS 2

June ABS submission

I seriously thought about toning them down to more closely match the colors in this painting,

but in the end, fell in love with my original choices, plus a dash of gold for the rolling hills.

Wouldn’t these be perfect for a seaside summer vacation?

 

Library Outreach June 8, 2013

Filed under: Archives — Fresh Baked Designs @ 10:31 am
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Our local library branch offers so many community outreach programs…

besides the venerable preschool story time…

they offer literacy  and computer classes, yoga, needle work class, anime club, mystery book club,

and I love this one…Paws to Read with Buddy (a friendly Schnauzer).

What kid wouldn’t love reading to a furry friend!

There are so many more.

For several years now, one of the librarians has organized a jewelry making class.

To fund this twice monthly offering, she receives a small amount of money

from the library’s used book store to purchase tools, beads, and findings.

Dianne also donates her time scouring bead stores and the internet

for the best deals on beads to stretch this money.

About 20-25 folks have a grand time sharing ideas, learning how to create wonderful jewelry, and socialize.

At no cost to them!

 At the end of the month, the library will host its annual tribute to the Fourth of July,

with an Old Fashioned Independence Day Festival for the community.

Music, Food, Games, Crafts, Half-Price Book Sale, and more…

The jewelry class will be selling some of their pieces as a fundraiser for more class supplies.

If you live in the San Diego area, do come out and support the wonderful outreach of the Rancho San Diego library.

 Saturday, June 29th, from 11:00-2:00.

At the most recent session, one of the ladies brought in some sweet bamboo tiles.

We were ooohing and aaahing over these.

And she said that they were originally from a place mat she bought and took apart,

but thought they might be repurposed into jewelry.  How cool is this!

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(Found this place mat on line at Amazon..set of 4 for under $16. That’s a ton of tiles!)

 

A few of us took some to experiment with.

 I decided to stamp these and make some simple pendant necklaces for the jewelry sale.

bamboo tiles

bamboo tile 2

 Also finished another copper link set I started yesterday with some of the pretty beads Dianne had for us.

This set will also be donated for the fundraiser.

library necklace set

I LOVE MY LIBRARY !!

WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY ?

 

Last Class June 5, 2013

Last night was the last jewelry class until the fall.

I’m really going to miss this weekly time of learning and working in the lab.

However, the exciting news is that the next session will be devoted to jewelry casting!  Whoot!

There are some in the class who have done this before and shared some really great pieces they made.

I have particularly enjoyed making component pieces from sheet metal…

texturing, doming, and learning(attempting) the skill of bezel setting stones.

Here’s a little gallery of some of the jewelry I completed during this session.

 

hope and joy

Hand cut, lace textured aluminum components

cherry lace 2

 

 

 

Nov 13

 

Die cut, textured copper with a wash of emerald alcohol ink

 

embossed ovals

 

Copper washers stretched in the rolling mill, then textured

 

turq. bezel earrings

 

Bezel set turquoise with textured sterling swirls

 

 

bead mix

 

Hand textured copper disc with glass, bone, and ceramic beads

 

copper close up

 

double wrap necklace

 

Spent some time at the end of class making a small stash of copper discs

and ball head pins to tie me over until the next session in September.

 Hope it’s enough!

 

Rustic and Refined…Kashmira’s Anklet Blog Hop is Here! June 1, 2013

Filed under: Archives — Fresh Baked Designs @ 12:05 am

Congratulations to Kashmira Patel of Sadafulee jewelry on hosting her very first blog hop!

And it’s all about anklets…just in time for summer, too.

Designing anklets is not as easy as it looks. It’s not necessarily just longer bracelets on your foot.

 Feet have a bit different topography, so to speak, from one’s wrist and hand.

So this was a fun challenge for me to take on.

 I decided to go with a contrast of designs here.

These can be fun accessories for your sandaled or bare feet

at the beach or fancy parties this summer!

The first one is a rustic look with braided leather, pewter button, and stone danglie bit.

A bonus with this one…one daughter preferred to wrap it 5 times around her wrist.

Another awesome look!

rustic anklet

rustic 2

And what would I be wearing with this anklet??  (a little Polyvore fun):

rustic set

For the more refined and delicate look, I went with some gold scalloped chain

embellished with gold daisy spacers and pretty glass beads.

The beads were soooo sparkly in the sunlight!

refined anklet

sara anklet

No shoes in this Polyvore set…just bare feet and the sparkly anklet peeking out.

Refined set

This last anklet is the only one I already had in my personal jewelry stash.

I made it a few years ago to wear on a memorable Kauai vacation.

And I’m keeping it in hopes of returning there someday soon.

Kuaui anklet

Thanks for the fun, Kashmira!

For more anklet goodness, visit these blogs. Enjoy!

Kashmira Patel (your hostess)

Kaushambi Shah (will post on Kashmira’s blog)

Jean Wells

Mischelle Fanucchi

Shellie Grindie

Ginger Bishop

Monique U

Cynthia Machata

Libellula

Kay Thomerson

Mimi Gardner

Anindita Basu

Rita (Toltec Jewels)

Gina Hockett

Tammie Everly

Jessica Murray

Dyanne Cantrell

Ema Kilroy

K Morgan

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson

Cheri Reed

Rochelle Brisson

Michelle Buettner

Sandra McGriff

Stephanie Weiss

Shelley Graham Turner

Vickie Foley

Lynda Carson (here)

Roxanne Mendoza

Dagi

 

Congrats to the Winner! May 31, 2013

Filed under: Archives — Fresh Baked Designs @ 2:58 pm

Thanks so much for all the lovely comments regarding the give away necklace and brio collection

and I’m happy to report that they will have a new home very soon!

And the random number generator chose…

     Eight, Ocho, Huit, Otto, Acht, Tahm, Ba, Oito, 8

Come on down, Nyssa!

Please get me your email ASAP and I will mail your tidy little package directly to your address.

Don’t forget to come back sometime this weekend, if you can, to Kashmira’s Anklet Blog Hop.

There will be links to all the other 29 participants.

 And I’ve got three different looks to share with you.

 

Quick Post for a Fun Blog Hop May 28, 2013

Filed under: Archives — Fresh Baked Designs @ 10:34 am

This is a quick invitation to come back by here this Saturday, June 1st,

for a fun Blog Hop all about ANKLETS!

Hosted by Kashmira Patel of Sadafulee.

Meantime, to whet your appetite and provide some eye candy…

no, wait…foot candy…check out what Pinterest has on this topic.

Here are just a few to get you started thinking…

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Okay, what I’m thinking is that it’s time for that pedicure…

 

 
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