Simply Strung

My friend Sara chose this bracelet from my inventory to give her sister for Christmas. Mary and Sara both have very small wrists, so today I resized/restrung it for her. It has a commercially made lobster clasp & ring connection made of rose gold plated copper. I hand formed the little copper spiral dangle.

handcrafted hammered copper closure

with glass and metal beads . Finished this bracelet today. I did have the bead design all  laid out on the bead board last night so I was ready to start stringing first thing this morning. It feels really good to finally be productive in the studio again. 

Bracelet 12142011

Here is the newest bracelet, just finished yesterday.
This is just a quicky documentation photo.
Setting up the photo booth on the dining room table.

Boy have I ever lost track of time

I just double checked the date I posted the bracelet documentation photos, it's been a year !!! 12/13/2010 is the date on that BLOG entry. In yesterday's post I said that I had made all those bracelets in the spring, then realized two of the gift bracelets and one of the sold ones were Christmas presents !! I did, however make 2 pair of earrings in the spring, again, they were gifts. Let's see, does that mean I need a deadline to produce work? I hope not, that usually stifles my creativity.

This morning, as I walked past my work table on the way to the coffee maker, I was happy to see the work in progress. I am a very visual person and during the day I can think about what to do next. Probably won't be able to work on it today, though. Church first, then lunch out with church friends, then a Christmas Concert at 3. Maybe tonight I'll have enough energy left to sit in my TV watching chair and wire wrap a bead or two. We'll see.

Beading Again

Finally I am back to work in my home studio. It seems like forever since I've been able to sit and work at my jeweler's bench.  I made about 8 or 10 bracelets last spring (two I sold, 2 I gave as gifts to friends) and I now have determined they all need to be remade. I like them all, they have "my voice" from the standpoint of color and composition, but nothing that I feel sets them distinctly apart from what any other bead artist might do. Simple bead stringing isn't enough to make them notable and recognizable as my work.  So that's my new challenge to myself.  I have spent considerable time in self-study the last 6 months with books and videos and am ready to move forward.

Creativity group tomorrow. Homework is: bring a piece of work that you think really represents your voice as an artist. Wow, do I have anything that meets that criteria?