NKP Designs

New Blog website

2009-07-30T20:42:00.000-04:00

Hi ... I imported this blog into my pottery blog, and am now hosting it on my website. If you have this site linked or are following it, it is now here:

http://blog.nkpdesigns.com

Also, if you are following this blog, please consider following the new feed. I'm going to leave this one up for about a month, but already I have quite a few posts on the new one. Click here to check it out. Thanks so much!!!

Natalie

Alphabet Ceramic Beads

2009-07-26T08:00:00.003-04:00

A few months back I acquired some letterpress ... perfect for making alphabet beads. The first step is deciding which clay body to use. I'll start out with a nice white. This particular porcelain clay body is quite translucent. If I use a transparent glaze, then it should break in interesting patterns over each textured letter.

I think I want a bead that fits nicely between the thumb and forefinger, so I'm going to use this home made bead 'measurer' which will give me a bead that is between 13 and 15 mm.

In trying to decide which letters to start off with, Wheel of Fortune pops in my head: RSTLNE ... so I'll make about 5 of each of those, plus five of each the vowels, and three of the rest of the consonants. Happy Clay Day!

Egg or Teardrop Shape Porcelain Beads

2009-07-25T08:00:00.001-04:00

Dangling opportunities abound with this shape of a bead. These are pierced from top to bottom, but I have some that are pierced through on the side, too.

I first started making this bead for a fellow crafter's Etsy store. I've been making them ever since in different sizes, shapes, and glaze combinations. This particular glaze may or may not be a fluke. It's the first time I've used this glaze combination and I really do like it so I'm going to try for more. I wrote down all the specifics in the glaze notebook I started keeping a while back. We'll see if it is a fluke or not.

Click Here to see more egg and/or teardrop shape beads.

Ceramic Bead Bone

2009-07-24T08:00:00.001-04:00

I rolled a slab of stoneware clay and then used a small bone shaped 'cookie cutter' to get this shape. I smoothed around the corners, then pierced with a hole fired and glazed it and refired it to maturity. It is 30 mm long and 18 mm wide and 7 mm thick. The hole is 1 mm.

I think this would be fun addition to a doggie collar or a focal point on a necklace for a doggie lover. Click here to view it in my Etsy store.

Ceramic Pendant Heart for Wirewrapping

2009-07-23T08:00:00.001-04:00

I have made more round beads than pendants and for some reason this particular day I was in the mood to make pendants. I used a pair of plastic scissors that is normally used in scrapbook making to cut these strips of clay. I lightly dusted the clay with baby powder so that the clay did not stick to the scissors. I used a small amount of water on a Q-tip to moisten the clay shaped heart in order that the zigzag strips of clay with adhere properly. Then I dried and fired this with several more heart shaped pendants

Click here to see this particular pendant

Ceramic Bead Sculpture - Elephant

2009-07-22T12:55:00.006-04:00

I have been trying my hand with small sculptures ever since the Etsy Mud Team Challenge a year or so ago. The sculpture challenge was a blast and I never would have tried any kind of sculpture without that challenge.

I started with dogs, then birds, then fish, now I'm getting braver with elephants. This particular elephant was made with soldate 60 clay from Laguna Clay Company and glazed with a cone 6 shino glaze. It is 31 mm from nose to tail and 24 mm wide from ear to ear and 25 mm from top of the ear to bottom of the foot. The hole (2 mm) goes through its back to its stomach.

The ears were very fun to make. I pressed them flat with my thumb on the palm of my hand. The small ball was perfectly shaped in that fashion into an elephant's ear!

I have this one in my etsy store. Click here if you're interested.

Bead Naming Contest

2009-07-21T15:34:00.005-04:00

Apologies for not having written anything in a while, a long while. I've been on vacation. I've started firing beads again only the last few days. I've come up with a few bead combinations. I am planning on making this one a permanent part of my glaze collection that I'm slowly putting together.

However, I am at a loss for what to call this glaze and thought I would hold a small contest and ask for help in naming this particular glaze.

So this contest is going to continue until I see something that I really like, and if I like YOUR suggestion, I will contact you and send you some thank you beads (at no cost to you of course) ... so leave an email addy in your comment.

This glaze is brushed over a terracotta clay, and goes transparent in spots, though the bead is completely covered with glaze. Have fun! And hey, thanks!

Etsy Yart Sale

2009-06-09T11:14:00.002-04:00

It has been almost a year since the first unofficial “Yart Sale” on Etsy. Yart sale? What exactly is a “Yart Sale,” you may ask? Visit this blog post in the Etsy blog "The Storque" and read about it and how your Etsy shop can become involved:
http://www.etsy.com/storque/how-to/ya-gotta-yart-4049/

The “2nd Annual Yart Sale” will be held from Wednesday June 10th-Sunday June 14th, 2009. This year the “2nd Annual Yart Sale” will be sponsored by the Etsy Supply Street Team (Team ESST). Although not an official Etsy event, it is Etsy supported as evidenced by the Storque article.

A “Yart Sale” is an artistic spin on the traditional Yard Sale: Art + Yard Sale = “Yart Sale”. There are many art museums, artists, and groups that have Yart sales annually to raise cash.

All Etsy shops are invited to participate. Choose to participate in your Handmade Store, your Supply Store, or your Vintage Store. If you have more than one shop you can participate in all of them.

To join the sale, simply post the following Yart Sale Announcement in the Shop Announcement section of your Etsy Shop and please include a short description of how you will be participating in the sale:
“I am participating in the Yart Sale on Etsy sponsored by Team ESST”.

Team ESST invites you to come, post, chat and shop on the “Official Yart Sale” thread in the Promotions Section of the Etsy forums. A new thread will be posted daily at 7:00 AM EDT beginning on Wednesday June 10th by the Etsy Supply Street Team with the forum title:
“SECOND ANNUAL YART SALE sponsored by Team ESST – June 10th, 2009”

Participating in the daily forum thread is a way that shoppers can find your shop. Simply post what you are offering. You could also encourage visitors to search “Yart” in handmade, supplies, or vintage. Even if you are simply offering a discount, it would be to your advantage to place Yart somewhere in at least a few of your titles or tags in your shop to draw those searching for items to your shop.

If you choose to get involved in the Yart sale sponsored by Team ESST (beginning Wednesday, June 10th-Sunday, June 14th). We encourage you to blog,tweet or post on your social networking sites to get the word out. Feel free to add your post links here after you have posted.

We highly recommend blogging before the sale to get Etsy people involved and during the sale to share what you will be featuring in your shops. You may choose to also feature on your blogs shops that are participating. Check out the Team ESST blog post and feel free to share the information and link our blog to yours:
http://teamesst.blogspot.com/

The Yart Sale certainly provides lots of promotional opportunity this week! Come on Etsy - join in!!!

(this information has been combined from various ESST sources)

Bisque-Fired Beads and some Buttons Too

2009-06-02T14:46:00.003-04:00

I took these out of the kiln this morning. They will all go in plastic baggies until they are glazed. This keeps them from getting dusty which will also help the glaze adhere easier, making for a nicer end result.

I have a hard time doing any one type of bead very long. I quickly get bored of the shape or the texture, even when I LIKE the shape or texture.

But that does help with coming up with new varieties. Click on the photo to see the textures better.

I'm Back

2009-05-30T12:24:00.002-04:00

I've had the store shut down for a few weeks. At first I shut it down because of the Swine Flu scare. Nobody knew at first how severe it would be and I figured with all the cases showing up in Texas that it might be good to help limit exposure. Of course now we know the virus was mild in the USA and all that good stuff, but then we didn't know.

About the same time my husband was called out of town on business to sunny CA and I jumped at the chance to accompany him and explore the Pasadena area for a few weeks. Now I'm back but only for a few days because he has to leave again and I enjoyed exploring the area and of course the beaches are such a treat.

I've popped into as many bead stores in the area as I've found and found one thing missing: CERAMIC BEADS! There are plenty of charms and gemstones and silver, but the only ceramic beads I've found are also plentiful at Walmart. On one hand I was sad because I was hoping to find some interesting bead artists, on the other hand I was thrilled because it means that all of the ceramic bead artists in the Beads of Clay yahoo group and others are really supplying an important need here online.

It's all good! Anyway, sorry no photos today. I will be starting the kiln for the few days I'm home but don't think I'll get anything new online before it's time to leave again. I think I'm going to take a small chunk of clay with me and a couple of wooden Popsicle sticks and sculpt some bead animals and clay whistles in my spare time. I think if they are small enough that they will travel well as greenware. We'll see.

Etsy Supply Street Team hosting a First Weekend Shopping Extravaganza

2009-03-29T19:24:00.003-04:00

Beginning on Thursday at 12:00 AM EST, the Etsy Supply Street Team is hosting another "First Weekend Shopping Extravaganza." This month’s event will run from Thursday, April 2nd - Sunday, April 5th, 2009.

ALL ETSY SHOPS - HANDMADE, SUPPLIES AND VINTAGE - are invited to participate by placing an announcement in your shop and joining in with promoting on the "Official" Promotional thread in the Etsy Forums.

This will be a “Shopping Event” similar to a Public Marketplace. There will not be a "Overall theme" since Etsy is a Global Marketplace hence, the seasons, cultures, holidays, etc can vary quite a bit. Although not required, we do strongly encourage shops to have a feature, theme or sale as this can pique interest and help you to draw people to your shop.

You do not have to participate for the whole weekend simply join in when you can on the Promo thread in the Etsy Forums. You can search for the official thread - “APRIL FIRST WEEKEND SHOPPING EXTRAVAGANZA APRIL 2ND-APRIL 5TH”.

It should be a lot of fun! Hope to see you there!

Misson ... (part three)

2009-03-20T20:24:00.002-04:00

Here we go ... two coats, thick glaze! The crystals in this glaze helped the glaze to pool to the bottom making what I would call a nipple bead. These are all about 12 mm hole to hole and about 14 mm at their widest.

The places where glaze is the thickest is definitely the same glaze as the originals. The originals were about 17 mm. I'm thinking that this batch might have pooled because they are considerably smaller. So one one hand I would say Mission Accomplished, but on the other, I still think I have to try these larger.

Sidenote: I researched my photo archives and found a date on the originals. I usually photograph new beads the morning I take them out of the kiln so the originals were fired on September 5, 2008.

I found a website which contains files of daily average temperatures for approximately 150 U.S. cities: Temperature Data Archive

On, September 5, 2008, the average temperature was 79.7 degrees in Fort Worth, Texas. It was just a bit warmer then than it is now. I'm always amazed by what I can find on Google.

I also found out that USA today has every bit of data I need in order to record weather data for a firing and I am certainly going to take advantage of that for future firings.

Mission .... Part Two

2009-03-19T13:17:00.002-04:00

This is bead batch #2. I fired these at cone 4 on three different clay bodies. On the left is an ironstone clay from Texas Pottery. The middle is a white Laguna stoneware clay called Soldate 60, and on the far right is another clay body from Texas Pottery called "Taos Red". The look I'm aiming for is on the far left.

When I uncapped this glaze it was a bit thick so I added water. However, I must have added too much water. Also, this clay body may have absorbed more glaze that it did last time simply because of the humidity levels this time of year. I'm not really certain, just rambling about the whys. So many things are possible. The color where it is thicker is very similar to the effect I hope to achieve.

Therefore, I left that glaze uncovered and later that day applied an extra coat. They're in the kiln right now. I'll know tomorrow!

Mission .... Impossible?

2009-03-16T11:14:00.004-04:00

The mission? To duplicate the wonderful color in these beads. I was asked by a customer if it was possible to get some more of these in my etsy bead shop and since I've been a very good potter and keeping actual notes on glazes and firings, thought, "SURE."

Now before we go any further, I must say that my notes were somewhat lacking. When I consulted them, they ran somewhat like this, "Love this glaze! (type of glaze and how many layers are described) Try it again with texture and deep holes. ... must put them on different kiln shelves again sometime soon, nice variations!"

Um, not very good very notes. Something like, "These ones, beads A were put on kiln shelf 2, the east side, during the month of (fill in the blank) when the temperature varied from ??? to ??? degrees. The sky was clear and it was not humid that day" would have been SO much better! Oh, it would have been nice if I had also mentioned what cone I had fired to, though I assume it is the normal temp that I fire beads to... although I was doing a lot of variations last summer when these beads were originally fired. Lesson learned.

Yeah, additional notes like that would have helped a whole lot. I know now.

So I looked through my bisque beads to see what I could experiment with. I had no rounds in stoneware available, but I did have some with texture. And the clay body on these beads I was almost certain was Ironstone and not Red Taos. I'm still pretty certain about that.

These are from a firing from about a year ago. I know these were fired to cone 6 because they are glued to a piece of cardboard and labeled. I have a lot of beads that I have documented this way and it does help tremendously. But I haven't done it with every new firing of each glaze combination. The flower bead at the far right looks like it might be what I am looking for. It is the closest of the three. However, I'm thinking I can find a closer match at a different temperature.

Normally I fire at either cone 6 or cone 06, but recently I've been firing mostly at cone 4. Therefore, the question is: did I fire the originals at cone 06 or cone 4? And which part of the kiln did I place them into? And will the temperature/humidity make a difference or not?

Here is an example of cone 06 on all three types of clay bodies. I put these in different places in the kiln and they all fired much the same way. I still don't know precisely what they would look like in a smooth round, but I do have a good idea.

Tomorrow I will fire to cone 4 and see what happens.

India Handpainted Beads

2009-02-14T12:28:00.001-05:00

This is my variation of India style handpainted beads. I had a teeny brush, and instead of the dots would have liked to do the small 'm's around these curves, but I found it impossible. So I used dots instead. These still need to be coated with a clear gloss and refired.

Handmade Textured Porcelain Wrapped Beads (and a couple of other techniques too)

2009-01-19T15:59:00.006-05:00

I've taken a few days off blogging to rejuvenate and that's been worthwhile. I have been wanting to do some radically different (for me) beads lately and taking quiet time to just play around with small bits of clay has helped me to do that (I think).

I went looking online for some texture ideas and one of the best places for me to find inspiration is antique buttons. I found some that I liked that looked kinda like, but not exactly, like this one near the bottom. I took the reverse image of it to come up with the press mold (the two near the top).

So here are a few that are now drying. I will try to glaze these with the types of glazes which will bring out the texture.

I would like to make more textures for beads like these. It was an interesting and fun process to bring these together.

I've been having fun sprigging clay onto bead forms and these were my latest experiments (photo to the right). With the first set beads I got to thinking about rivets and how copper metal rivets in sterling silver bead is just SO beautiful. I got to wondering how I could imitate such a look in clay. So that's the thought process that went behind these stoneware beads with the turquoise blue 'rivets'.

With these next beads (the bottom photo), I got to thinking how wonderful wire wrapped beads are and thought, "I wonder what would happen if I made an irregular shaped porcelain bead and textured it and then wrapped a coil of colored porcelain clay around it?"

I'm hoping these styles will look terrific with a simple clear gloss glaze.

Most Recent Firing

2008-12-26T19:00:00.002-05:00

Voila. Here is what came out of the kiln Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve Beads

2008-12-24T11:08:00.004-05:00

These are a few which came out of the kiln this morning. Potters are always saying that each time they open their kiln, it is like Christmas morning, and that is true. Christmas is about surprises, the biggest surprise of all happened when God revealed Himself to the world through His Son. Jesus Christ, wrapped Himself in flesh and was born of a Virgin some 2000 years ago. Amazing love ...

So whenever I say "It's like Christmas morning opening the kiln," I'm not actually thinking of wrapped presents under a tree, but the way Jesus Christ wrapped Himself in flesh and entered this world -- the biggest present ever presented to all of humanity! Tomorrow will be a day I'm thinking about that as I'm taking these out of the kiln.

New New New

2008-12-23T11:32:00.010-05:00

It is like I'm having the 12 days of firings and I'm on day 9. Lol! During Christmas break I'm trying to push myself and do new and different things with either glazes or forms or both.

These are a small textured nugget/round that I used a lowfire speckled glaze on. Most of the color burned out at the higher temperature, but it took the crystals and melted them in streaks and dots marvelously. The flower texture underneath is delicate, but easily seen.

This started out as a small porcelain round. I took some purple colored porcelain and rolled a tiny rope, attached it and applied a texture on top. This technique is facinating to me. I used some gray porcelain in this same manner in this batch, and I also combined the two colors together with textured ropes and dots.

I combined two glazes, one low-fire and the other mid-range fire to get this variety of colors. It is interesting and I do like it, but it would be somewhat challenging I think for a jewelry designer to pull all these colors together in a cohesive look. I do like how they came out, though.

These are the ones I am most excited about. The cobalt gloss glaze performed well in the indentions on each round. I want to find some more transparent glazes that will do this same thing.

Click on any of these photos to see the details of each bead and thanks for dropping by!

For Your Beading Perusal

2008-12-22T11:48:00.004-05:00

Here's this morning's batch. I have one last and final white sprigged bead ready for the Yahoo Beads of Clay bi-annual bead swap. This last one was to finish off the batch of 15 that I signed up to be a part of. In the original batch, one didn't make it through the firing. I put a tad too much glaze near the hole and it melted onto the rod and it would not be removed! That happens to a few beads each batch. It's all part of the process.

The rest of these are small squares/rectangles and nuggets that I coated with a low fire china sea crackle glaze that I pushed to a much higher temperature. They turned out a nice transparent forest green. I also applied this same glaze to two smaller white sprigged beads. Mmmm... I like them. Do you?

Also in this batch two of the moose pendants that I played with last week. Note to self: do more of these!

Today's Bead Batch

2008-12-21T11:12:00.004-05:00

I'm firing beads and listing as often as I can while I can. I'm pushing myself to attempt new glaze combinations, and these swirly smooth greenish brown rounds are my latest attempt. I had some shiny yellow rounds that I was not impressed with so I reglazed with another color on top. It's kinda like painting a wall in your house and putting on one color of a layer of paint on top of another underneath and the tone of one combines with the other to make a whole new color. With these are some varied textured rounds, too. Click on the photo to get a better look at all of these beads.

I used a different glaze on these blues than I normally do. I found a transparent cobalt blue glaze and all I did was fire this lowfire glaze at a higher temperature. These look identical to the two step process I had been using of first applying a cobalt blue stain and then a clear gloss glaze.

Fresh From The Kiln

2008-12-20T11:20:00.006-05:00

This is what came out of the kiln this morning. This bowl has some pink delicate scroll rounds, a bit bigger beige textured rounds of a new glaze that I am experimenting with ... I love how the scroll texture appears to be climbing out of the glaze instead of being recessed into the glass.

These whites are a new design for me. I'm thinking about putting together a video tutorial to show how they are done. This is an enjoyable bead to make and I am playing with all sorts of ways of applying these sprigs of clay.

Beads 12-19-08

2008-12-19T11:29:00.002-05:00

These are the very last of the Porcelain Cane "Santa Fe" that I created a few months ago. It wasn't a large cane, per se, but I don't know if I'll be able to recreate it or not. I somewhat like the fact that there might only be this and no more. Truly a bit of One of a Kind (OOAK).

The others are the last of the batch of celery glazed beads that I mixed up from two separate glazes. I named them "Salad Greens" because they are also the color of iceberg lettuce.

In the kiln today are some scroll texture beads with a new glaze that I bought and never have used before. I don't know if it will come out like the commercial sample or not. We'll see. Also some pink delicate scroll beads, and I glazed some more sprigged beads with a clear gloss. It's all fun!

Moooooose

2008-12-18T16:34:00.005-05:00

I have had an idea in the back of my head for a while and today sat down and implemented it. The question was how do I treat porcelain clay like paper in order to use this moose die? The answer was to roll out a small amount of clay paper thin and coat it with either spray oil or baby powder. My first attempt was to spray the moose die with oil. Miserable failure. I cleaned it out and my second attempt was to sprinkle the paper thin clay with baby powder. That worked. I was able to slide in the clay and press down to cut out the clay moose. I had to hold it with one hand and gently lift out the moose with a small tweezer. I ruined quite a bit of them this way.

Enough survived, however, to put onto a pendant shape. The baby powder kept the moose(s) from sticking, so I simply wet the pendant and pressed it onto the paper thin clay moose. Success! Yay!

These are what I ended up with. This was fun to do but it sure did make a big mess in the studio. I have seen this type of thing be done by polymer clay artists and silver clay artists, as well. Now I have tried it, too. Fun!

Today's Offering

2008-12-18T10:21:00.001-05:00

I pulled these out of the kiln this morning. Some have a scrolling texture pattern and others are a smooth round. I used a blue rutile glaze on them. The color variation from bead to bead is slightly different.

Bowlful of Greens

2008-12-17T10:01:00.003-05:00

This is a bowlful of Green beads which I took out of the kiln this morning. Already another batch is being fired. While I can, while I have the time, I'm going to fire as much as I can. This batch was a great experiment in mixing two commercial glazes together to achieve a new color. I took a light translucent blue and a translucent yellow and mixed them in somewhat equal parts. The rest I've written down in my glaze notebook so I do not forget.

I'm curious to find out what others think of this glaze. Do you like how this glaze draped over texture of the darker stoneware beads or is it a bit too much?

College Clay

2008-12-15T18:20:00.002-05:00

There is ongoing construction at the local college I am currently attending. The crew had dug into the ground to lay pipes, my professor saw this layer of clay and put some in a bucket. She let it sit overnight and the next day showed it to her classes. This is what I was given. Of course I made it into beads! This clay is a soft buttery yellow. We put some into the gas kiln and it fired great at cone 10. The beads in this photo were fired to cone 4 in my electric kiln with a clear gloss glaze.

I wish we had some more of that clay. I would love to play with it some more!

Listing Ramblings

2008-12-11T14:06:00.003-05:00

Listing can be done at anytime, but I have come to believe it is a process which I think a person has to be in exactly the right sort of mood to do with creativity and playfulness.

Taking pictures of beads is a lot easier than the setup pottery takes. With pottery I have to dig out the light tent, and set up the lights. I have to make certain it is sunny outside to take advantage of the small amount of light that does come through the window. However, with beads I simply switch on the light and clamp it to the bottom of my tv stand. I put several pieces of white typing paper on the floor, sit crosslegged resting my elbows on my knees, and snap away.

I usually take 8-10 shots of each bead set I am planning on on listing and I try to shoot at least 10-15 listings at a time. I end up using 5-8 of those listings because there are times the macro camera picks up small defects I don't see with my naked eye. I love my camera! At those times I pick out the bad bead and reshoot at a later time or there have been times I've included the offending bead, but said in the listing that it was free because of the defect. I don't think I've ever sold any sets with a free defect bead, so on my huge list of things to do is to reshoot those beads and rewrite the listing. (Update, the day this was posted I did sell this listing with a defect freebie bead: http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=12424863 Boy was I was surprised!

Other times I end up having what I call a fantasy bead (see above photo). The bead comes out much better in the photo than it looks in real life. That wouldn't be fair to a customer who was expecting a bead with all those colors. There have been beads that when taken out into sunlight looked exactly like the photo, so that's what I write in the listing. There have been times that the bead looked better in real life than in the photo. What to do? Reshoot. I do a lot of reshooting. I still have a lot to learn with basic photography but my goal is to take clear (not blurry) photos and portray accurately each bead in the best light possible without having the 'fantasy bead' effect. The bead in this photo shows up the pink blotches much more than the actual bead. It's a beautiful bead BUT if someone bought this bead they would be disappointed. So rather than create any more of them (I have four), I will use these four as Thank You gifts.

The listing itself is a different process. Every so often my mind works creatively and I think I write an interesting to read listing. But I have found that if my mind is BLAH that it is better to have a dry listing than something that is just trying to be funny. I can't force funny nor can I force creativity. When I occasionally have a witty listing, I suppose instead of listing I should be in the studio creating. Just a thought anyway.

Bead Colors

2008-12-09T19:05:00.002-05:00

Right now I have the beads of clay swap beads firing in the baby kiln. I have another load tomorrow to fire in order to finish those up. However I am only able to put one layer of heavy beads in the kiln because they end up toppling in the high temperature and fuse together. It's a mess. The good news is that I am able to put one additional layer of teeny beads on top of those, but that is all.

What I need are some rectangle kiln posts. I'm hoping to approach my professor and ask her if I can make some rectangle kiln posts out of fire clay next semester. This would so solve my problem (and allow me to lower my bead prices, too).

Swap Peek

2008-12-04T12:19:00.002-05:00

The Beads of Clay yahoo group that I'm a member of is having a Bead Swap and they are a lot of fun. Last beads swap I probably shouldn't have participated -- I liked the beads I sent but they were not anything that I thought out ahead of time. They simply fit the theme and so I used them. This time I have a bit more extra time and was able to put much more time into the project.

I guess I prefer making round beads to pendants. I tend to go blank with a flat space but round (to me anyways) has so many more possibilities. The clay that I am working with is very old and plastic as it has sat in the reclaim bin wet for a number of months. It was perfect to use for this type of bead.

I have these in a covered container and will let them dry slowly. If I let them dry in the open air the added coils will dry too quickly and crack. How do I know that? I tried this technique on some beads before and that's what happened.

In any event, here they are and I should have them finished in the nick of time.

Handmade Decals Preview

2008-11-18T09:44:00.004-05:00

Take a good look at these beads. Click on them and have a closer examination. These babies are the culmination of over a year's worth of head scratching and befuddlement. I love the idea of taking my own design that I created from scratch and making a decal from it -- but I love the commercial decals too. They're just pretty.

In the recent past I've drawn a bunch of cartoon-y-type daisies and for a variety of reasons they just don't fire well on the beads. I don't know if it is because there are too many lines to deal with or what... but I have only a few that I have been satisfied enough to put in my store.

While watched a documentary a few weeks ago on fractals, a flood of ideas came to me -- the patterns in these fractals are hauntingly beautiful. I found a fractal program on the internet and began playing around, zooming in, changing the function a bit (it helps that I do have a good bit of math under my belt though I would flunk any test given to me at this point in time -- I got a "B" in Calculus over ten years ago, and I will forever and ever find a way to shamelessly brag about that.)

After I had zoomed into a fractal area that I particular liked, I captured it and placed it into my graphic editing program and went to work further altering it, then I printed a sheet of decals and realized I had nothing to mount these beauties on. Now, I didn't completely use fractals -- there are some beads that are from designs that I've picked up here and there, but the bulk of the designs are from the fractals.

The next day I spent trying to decide which clay body to use -- you would think this would not be a difficult decision, but it was -- Should I use Bright White? Medium White? Creamy White? Brown? Nah, not the brown -- then I had to decide after they were bisque fired if I was going to put down an underglaze or keep the white. I kept the white and applied a simple clear gloss and fired them to maturity.

Finally, days later, I was able to apply the decals. I cut them into strips and all sorts of shapes ... teeny little things they are! I fired them to cone 04 (which took me waaaaay too long to figure out) and when they came out I had already pre-cut the small delicate pink roses to apply.

The hard part was to resist completely covering them with the commercial pink rose decals. I realize I have a tenancy to overdo and I didn't want to overdo these.

All in all, I am thrilled at the way this batch turned out. I would like to go bigger with this sort of design, perhaps a teacup or two (or three). We'll see....

Kilns

2008-11-13T15:44:00.002-05:00

I'm SO glad I have two of these. It never fails that when I start a kiln load after not firing for a couple of weeks, invariably the one I am trying to start will not start. I'm getting a PLOG error on the one that is not working. I think the wires probably just have to be tightened, however, I bought another one earlier this year for times just such as these.

Nothing like being prepared, huh?

So I have a batch of high fire beads going and hopefully the kiln posts will not topple and HOPEFULLY they will be pretty enough to take some photos of. Hopefully.

Fractals

2008-10-29T10:47:00.002-05:00

I watched a program on PBS last night explaining the history and development of fractals. It fascinated me to the point that I downloaded a free fractal program and started playing around. Wouldn't this look pretty on a round pendant or bead? Something to think about anyway.

Thank You Beads

2008-10-28T14:36:00.003-05:00

I recently was asked how I decide what to give away as my Thank You gift when someone buys beads. As I began answering I realized that it was kinda complicated. First of all, I consider what has been bought. Is the customer buying big beads? Small beads? Formed beads? Painted beads? If there seems to be a trend, I tend to include a bead or two from that trend.

Sometimes the beads I put in as thank you beads are beads that I have not put in my store, nor will ever put in my store. Why? It is not because they are not good beads, but usually they are beads that do not photograph well. For example, I have some beautiful coral beads, but no matter what lighting I put them in, they come out pinkish. Well they are not pink. And try as I might with the graphic program, I can't make them come out their true color. Therefore, if I have what I call a "Fantasy Bead", I will reserve them for a thank you gift. Many times they are my most beautiful beads... and because they don't photograph well, completely unique!

Don't get me wrong, indeed, there are times that I include beads that are already in my store or fresh out of the kiln that week. But what I never do is put in a bead for a Thank You gift that I am not pleased with. I mean, the point is to have the customer fall MORE in love with my beads, not OUT of love with them.

Years and years and years ago, the first time I ordered beads online I was a bit disappointed. They came in a dirty plastic bag, no invoice, the envelope had been used I don't know how many times -- the thank you gift looked like something small and broken out of a candy machine. The next time I ordered beads (a few years later), it was fantastic. The lady had packaged these beads so that it felt like Christmas morning. I oooh-ed and aaah-ed myself through each goodie layer and I never forgot how great that was to open up and gaze at those beautiful beads.

So I do take time to think about packaging and thank you gifts. I want to wow my customers. I buy soft fleece from the fabric store and pretty ribbon and I always use new plastic bags if the bag is scuffed up from being with the other bags.

How many beads do I give away as Thank You gifts? That depends on the size of the order. I try to be consistent. However, I probably should keep track of exactly what I've given and to whom, but I don't -- at least not yet.

The bottom line is that my customers and I each love beads and so I try to say Thank You the best way I know how -- with a bead!

Pretty Beads

2008-10-20T16:33:00.003-04:00

I was playing with my husband's calligraphy pens and these are what I ended up making. I still have to cover them with a clear gloss and fire them again, but I had fun experimenting.

Experimenting with Shapes

2008-10-17T13:31:00.004-04:00

I don't have any photos at the moment, but I have been experimenting with some home-made stamp designs. Lately I've been obsessed with squares, rectangles, circles, ovals, etc ... patterns have always interested me. I have a bunch of stamps ready to go into the kiln for a bisque firing and then I will be able to stamp shapes, teeny tiny shapes, into some of my beads. Come to think of it, I do have the bead which started this particular obsession. Here it is:

I stamped these beads with a square tip of a drill bit set. As I got to looking at it, I started thinking about mandalas and the different geometrical shapes on those and that got me wondering how I can fit such a lovely texture pattern on a bead.

Ancient Seal

2008-09-09T20:17:00.003-04:00

This is interesting. My assignment in Ceramics I was to find ancient pottery and write a small paper. My paper is actually on a vessel, but I found this beauty in an auction from 3500-3000 BC and it was going for a mere $450.

(from the website)

"The linear design represents two human figures crossed. The design can also be read as a double lined cross under a single line cross of "X" shape. D: 41 mm. Not published in Sarianidi, Die Kunst Des Alten Afghanistan. This remarkable seal has the density of limestone. A choice and very rare seal.">

Looks like it would make a pretty bead.

Bead Jar Winner!

2008-09-02T12:30:00.004-04:00

The actual number of beads in the jar was 734. Fellow Etsian Theresa from Theresa Rose Designs came closest without going over with her guess of 720! She wins over $50 worth of NKP Beads!

These are Theresa's 7 favorites! Visit Theresa Rose's Etsy store today for some gorgeous jewelry designs!

Congratulations, Theresa! I hope you will love these handpainted unique one of a kind beads!

Fresh from the Kiln: Bead Whistles

2008-08-13T09:52:00.002-04:00

I started out with 20 bead whistles. I went through each one for sound quality and ended up chunking six of them. They did make a sound but the sound had too much air in it, and it ended up sounding more like a wheeze than a whistle. I glazed 7 of them and on the way to the kiln dropped them on the way to the kiln. One survived (see previous post). These in the picture are the ones I gingerly and very carefully carried to the kiln and fired yesterday. These are the best of the best!

It was a Disaster!!!

2008-08-11T15:20:00.004-04:00

I had the worst kiln accident the other day. On the way to the kiln I tripped. The tray full of bead whistles crashed to the ground. Every bead whistle broke but one. I was devastated in the worst way imaginable! These were some that I had spent two days glazing. Intricate patterns abounded -- except for one which I thought I would paint different strokes of red!

I had no idea which of the whistles had survived. I bravely put together a small load of other glazed objects, loaded, and started the kiln. The next morning upon opening the kiln, I discovered that this plain red whistle was the 'winner'.

I am glazing today. Let's hope I don't trip again.

Two Tone Clay Bead Whistles

2008-08-07T14:21:00.005-04:00

I got brave. I tried it. It worked! Here it is! Then I thought, "Okay, try a three tone." And by golly I made a three tone. I blew into it All three sounds were perfect. Then, like the big fish that got away, the second time I blew into it, it didn't work. I probably should have set it down and let it dry out inside a bit. But I stupidly started poking at it and after that point, all was ruined. But I do know that it is possible to get three tones out of something this small. Next time I will be more careful!

Bead Whistles: The Sequel

2008-08-06T17:10:00.006-04:00

Bead Whistles are a blast to make. I finally have the process down!!!! It took all day to make the first four. That night I was able to make three more. The next day I made a nice big Orange Whistle (see pottery blog), then that night I was able to make three in a row with no mistakes. Today I made four, one right after the other.

Funny story. I had to make some more round balls. I have discovered that the ball really needs to be almost leather hard before I cut it in half and hollow it out, but I didn't want to wait a long time. So I placed five round balls on top of the hood of my car in a straight line. I went out about 15 minutes later and four were still there, but one in the middle was gone! That didn't make sense. I looked a few feet away from the car and it was squashed flat! I believe a bird must have thought it was food only to be disappointed.

More Beads

2008-08-05T09:49:00.002-04:00

I measured, rolled, and pierced about a hundred of these yesterday. It is a very monotonous activity but at the same time, relaxing. Thoughts can wander. Plans can be made. Decisions arrived at .... so this mundane project was much more productive in many ways than can be seen with the naked eye. OH, and after they are bisque-fired, they can be glazed. I'm looking forward to that!

Greenware Bead Whistles

2008-08-04T14:33:00.002-04:00

These are how many I have so far. Each one sounds terrific! The pitch on each is a bit different. One of these is very shrill.

I was thinking the shrill one could be marketed as not only a lovely pendant, but a safety device as well! We'll see.

Bead Whistles (continued)

2008-08-03T19:33:00.004-04:00

This came out of the kiln the other day and I love how it looks. The sound isn't quite as clear as the other one though. It's okay. But just okay.

However, I spent the day with small balls of clay (20 mm), hollowing them, putting them back together, adding a teeny mouthpiece and piercing with small sticks that I made myself by sanding bamboo skewers. All day. Many balls of clay. For four tiny, though beautiful sounding, clay bead whistles. I can't wait to bisque and glaze them!

Bead Video

2008-08-02T21:42:00.005-04:00

I spent most of the morning taking photographs of the beads which the winner in the contest I'm holding will get to choose from. So I made this page in which to showcase them. When taking these photos I did something I never usually do: I played with them a bit. I emphasized the contrast as well as added a gradient background. 99% of the beads look exactly the way they do in real life, but 1% have what I call the "Fantasy Bead" effect ... the color would show up like that in the sunlight but regular light ... not so much.

Also, it's been awhile since I made a photo video and uploaded it to You Tube. So here is another one. It is set to flamenco music I found on archive.org . Credits are at the end. Thanks for watching!

Cooking Kiln

2008-08-01T21:40:00.007-04:00

These are some more beads I have had in the small kiln all day. Also included is a small whistle bead which I glazed to look like a red pepper. Plus, there are some smaller beads for variation. I started these cooking about 9 am. They finished about 8 hours later. Right now the kiln is about 588 degrees. If it were cooler outside it might cool down quicker, but I suppose I won't open it until tomorrow morning ... unless I can't sleep, then I'll be up after midnight peeking inside hoping for no catastropies!

Here's a closer look inside. I can really pack the kiln with small beads, but with the 20 mm I can only fit two on a rod and about 7 rods per layer, a total of three layers. The bisque firing is great because I can pile them all on top of each other, but if I did that during the glaze firing they would all melt together.

I logged on this morning to find the treasury I was featured in was on the front page of Etsy. My pink beads are on the top left corner. I used to snag a couple of treasuries a week, but then summer happened and my time went completely out the window. So today I spent a good amount of time playing with the poster sketch tool Etsy provides on a future treasury.

Bead Whistle

2008-07-31T14:12:00.002-04:00

This not only looks pretty, it sounds pretty, too! I hope I can make more in this shape. This was the first small bead whistle I have made. The others are okay, but I don't like them as much as this one.

Beads for Giveaway -- Fresh from the Kiln

2008-07-31T13:56:00.003-04:00

Click on the photo to take a closer look. These are just some of the beads the winner of my current bead contest will have from which to choose his/her favorite seven. So actually, in reality, I'm not giving away $50 worth of beads, but $56 worth of beads (each bead is worth $8).

I'm having a lot of fun with this contest and after is is over, have different ones to implement.

Sharpie Update

2008-07-31T13:44:00.001-04:00

For what it's worth .... I decorated two beads with Sharpies, covered them with a clear gloss glaze, and fired them to cone 06. The result? Two beautiful snow white beads. The Sharpie colors did completely burn out -- even the black.

Sharpies

2008-07-29T14:22:00.004-04:00

There was some talk on one of the email groups about how not to use Sparpies to draw images on clay before glazing because unlike pencil, the Sharpies don't burn out. That caught my eye. I would love to be able to do something with a Sharpie. I recently bought this set of Sharpies so I got to some serious playing.

I really liked how this came out and all of them took quite a while to complete, so I went ahead and put a clear varnish over this particular bead. I put a clear glaze on another one and it will go into the kiln to be fired. We'll find out soon enough if Sharpies burn out. It may be that some colors will make it through, or fade a bit, and others will disappear altogether.

After playing with the Sharpies, I realized that my Bead Contest only has a month left. I want to give away very nice beads, not just some that I have laying around, and not bisque beads with Sharpie type ink covered with a clear varnish. This is a promotional contest to hopefully grab a few new eyes to look at my art beads, as well as to generate an email list for when I hold a sale (which is usually about once a year), AND to figure out what I'm doing that people seem particularly drawn toward.

After only two weeks the clear winners in my store are the Hand Painted beads. So I sat down with some 20 mm beads and some under-glazes and some teeny tiny brushes and these are what I have so far. These have not yet had a clear gloss glaze applied and fired. Hopefully this weekend I will have enough to put into the kiln. I figured that about another 25 will load up the kiln.

I think I will take photos and let the winner choose the beads. Each one sells for $8 and so I will let him or her choose their favorite 7. So I best get busy and finish painting so I can take photos.

Isn't it Lovely?

2008-07-17T22:03:00.005-04:00

It's one of my so-called "Fantasy Beads" ... I digitally altered by applying a sunburst gradient on the background. By mistake it bled into the actual bead. It ended up with somewhat of a translucent appearance. The real bead is in my Etsy store Click Here.

Another Front Pager

2008-07-16T17:11:00.003-04:00

It's so nice when an item makes it to the front page of Etsy. The views go through the roof and I usually make a few sales, if not on that bead, on something else in the store. Jessica put this collection of Etsy buys together in a treasury and it got picked to be on the front page.

These Sky Blue Melts beads are here

Mannequin

2008-07-15T21:30:00.004-04:00

I got so excited when the doorbell rang this afternoon. The UPS man dropped off my huge box that I ordered early last week: a Mannequin Torso.

I have some beautiful necklaces that I've made from high quality gemstones as well as my own beads, but to sell them they must be well displayed and so far everything I've tried I have not been happy with.

When I was in Manhattan earlier this year I was exploring the fashion district and one of the storefronts had a bunch of different type displays for sale and suddenly I realized, "Yes, a mannequin is exactly what I need". I don't have to explain how long a necklace is or where it will fall on the average busted women because a mannequin says it all.

It is also easy to get the closeups needed to show off the smaller details. Before, that's all I could do, but now the customer can view the bigger picture as well.

This particular necklace is made from lemon quartz nuggets, faceted carnelian, sterling silver bead spacers, and my NKP Teal Blue Textured Rounds.

Win $50 Worth of NKP Beads

2008-07-05T13:53:00.003-04:00

Summertime is here and I thought I'd hold a fun contest. Guess how many beads are in this jar and win $50 worth of my handmade ceramic beads. Click HERE to enter!

The contest will run from now until September 1st, 2008. All US Contest Rules will apply. Good luck to everyone!

6 'Hearts' in an Hour!

2008-06-30T22:12:00.004-04:00

This afternoon I noticed a bunch of new hearts on one of my beads and also noticed that they all happened early 2am or so around my time zone. I went over to check the Flickr Front Pagers area and sure enough ... my beads were in a treasury that made the front page of Etsy ... and one of the wonderful Mud Teamers captured it for the rest of us!!!

THANKS!!!

Yay!

2008-06-27T17:42:00.000-04:00

This treasury made it to the front page of Etsy. I put an orange box around my beads. It's always great to make the front page!

Getting Ready to Bisque

2008-06-23T21:26:00.003-04:00

... and after I bisque, I can glaze! I can't wait! Here are a few older beads that I plan on listing this week on Etsy.

Bead Whistles

2008-06-16T17:16:00.005-04:00

I've been making small bead whistles. I took a 20 mm round and after it hardened a bit, scooped out the insides, added a mouthpiece, and formed the holes.

The first one, was easy. The second took me about 20 tries to get it to sound correctly. Even now, it's not very good. The third sounds okay, but not as nice as the first.

I keep making variations of these. I'd like to just be able to poke the holes just right every time. Unfortunately, it seems like the first time I make holes for these whistles (no matter what the size), I do great. After that, it's a struggle.

Nonetheless, I'm still fascinated with these small toys/beads and plan to keep working on them.

Bead Carvings

2008-06-03T17:17:00.001-04:00

I was wandering around on the Etsy Mud Team thread and one of the members posted a link to this woman's shop. It is a cuff made from pvc, carved. So so beautiful!

The detail is incredible. I can't believe someone could do this with a knife. This woman's cuts are so perfect that I would feel perfectly safe is she were the only person available to cut out my bursting appendix.

This got me thinking about how to transfer this type of art to clay. The best way to attend a seminar for free these days is log onto ..... You Tube. How do you learn something new? YOU TUBE! It suddenly occurs to me that my last sentence could be a great jingle.

How do you learn something new?
YOU TUBE!

(and for the 'you tube' shout someone could jump out of a big tube, like a parody of being born....)

This is why I think I must have some sort of attention deficiency thing-ee .... I'm coming up with jingles instead of sticking to the subject on hand ... bead carving.

SO ..... (back on track) ... I went to you tube and found this video on fruit carving. Watermelon is not exactly the same consistency as clay but when leather hard, comes close. Watermelon is also somewhat round ... hey ... LIKE a BEAD! So what could I learn? Well, this was very cool! Watch it!

Off I went to make my own 'bead watermelon'. I hand rolled about 20 white porcelain balls before I thought about the contrast of light and dark. So I handrolled about 20 brown stoneware clay balls too.

It was time to roll thin sheets of white and brown to enclose each ball with (watermelon is red with green on top) and it dawned on me at that particular moment that I could have used that colored porcelain that I spent a fortune on last month. Then sanity took hold .... iffn' this experiment didn't work out, no big deal. If it does do well, THEN I'll use the expensive colored porcelain for future carvings.

I began by enclosing a white stoneware porcelain with a brown stoneware clay and visa versa. Because these clays both mature at the same temperature, they have about the same amount of shrinkage.

I put everything in one area on my living room floor in front of the tv ... always the tv ...even when it is not on: the tv! I would use the table in my studio if the table wasn't already completely full of other projects.

Ahem ... I have the two paper plates to put the two differently colored beads. The paper towels for .... whatever. And the small container of water to keep my fingers moistened.

I figured this would be similar to the same process as covering a polymer bead.

I began by cutting into the clay with a triangle shaped cutting tool that I already had! At this point I'm thinking I might have better luck with a watermelon and I'm also relieved I wasn't using the expensive colored porcelain. It dawns on me that the clay is not hard enough to work with. I set it aside and roll the messed up clay into little marble beads. Waste not want not. A transparent colored glaze would show the marbled clay underneath very prettily.

While I waited for the clay to harden, I got to looking at a small slab of clay and wondering what that tool would look like on it. Then I thought MUST CUT CIRCLES. I moistened the circles and put them on both sides of the brown round and thought it looked like a hamburger. I took a tool and put triangles on the sides and added dots. Then I thought it needed more dots. So I added more. Then I tapped it on all six sides so it was square. Hamburgers aren't square. Good job!

I made three buttons and a pendant out of four of the circles. I will glaze one side of the rest of them and glue a magnet on the back to use as thank you gifts for customers who buy mugs over at my pottery store.

I ended up getting three of the brown balls covered before the thin white slab became too hardened to work with. I tried moistening it, but it just wasn't the same. So instead I played with how those white strips contrasted with the brown clay. Fun!

(sidenote: couldn't help it. Sculpted an animal head. What do you think? Pig? Dog?)

I'm still waiting for that clay to harden enough to begin carving it. So while I wait I keep playing with other things and I came up with this next.

Since it was lunchtime, I washed up and made a steak burrito for lunch. I watched this You Tube video for inspiration. I googled "Carving pottery" and found this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=LjZ7YZ5_ENc

So ... maybe I should have just painted the outside of each bead with slip .... NAH!

Even though my bead carvings didn't come out anything like the watermelon carving in the video, I did learn a lot about working with two different colors/types of clay and also about carving in general. Below is what I ended up with. As you can see there is a lot of experimentation going on. And as I'm looking at these again I'm thinking about how much they remind me of chocolate .... mmmm.... chocolate.

--------------update-----------

And here is a finished Carved Bead.

Post NYC

2008-06-02T21:26:00.003-04:00

Manhattan last week was a blast. I came home with lots of new bead ideas. There's something about being in a different place for a few days that energizes and inspires.

To the left is a ceramic bead I made a while back. It has lots of little dots. First there are teeny tiny cobalt blue dots embedded in the blue glaze, and then on top of the blue glaze is an raised orange slip.

The teeny periwinkle blue beads are glass beads I made on a small rod. I have lots of these smallish beads here and there that I have made at one time or the other.

Eggs in Nests

2008-05-12T15:35:00.002-04:00

These nests with eggs in them were created by Goldilocks Barrettes from some egg shaped beads which I made especially for her shop. I love what she has done with them and lucky me, she has ordered more. So below is the process I go through in making them.

First I make certain the clay is the right consistency. It can't be too wet or it will stick in the mold measurer. If it is too dry, the clay cracks.

First I measure the clay and then roll it into a round ball. Next I shape the top with my fingers to make the oval egg shape. Last I pierce with a small knitting needle.

After these dry, I bisque-fire them in the kiln, and after they come out, I glaze and re-fire. Today the kiln is going through a bisque-fire. Tomorrow I will take them out and glaze them, then after the glaze dries, they will go back into the kiln. These are going to be pink with speckles (hopefully).

Mustard Texture Stoneware Rounds

2008-05-01T16:53:00.003-04:00

Oooo .... I put these in my Etsy store today. The glaze breaks over the texture in the most yummy way.

I'm behind on listing things in both stores. But I can't do everything every single day. That would be w*rk. This week I've been on the pottery wheel every day. Last week I was experimenting with pouring slip in bead molds. It's almost Friday, which means the week is almost over. I may buy a new bead kiln, too. Ooooo ... so excited!

I'm Just Saying ....

2008-04-18T10:48:00.008-04:00

I'm thrilled that the small sale that I'm doing has started off so well. I don't hold sales often so that may be the main reason. I don't know. What I'm really thrilled about is my repeat customers have taken advantage of this sale and I hope they are completely wowed when their beads finally arrive.

These are some of the recent purchases. I have a short attention span which is probably why I don't have a lot of the same shape of beads or the same colors. I've shared before how I love color and firing color in a kiln is always risky ... I just never really know for certain how something will turn out. Sometimes it is the placement of the item -- the top of the kiln is a slightly different temperature than the bottom. The humidity is a factor. The barometic pressure could be a factor. The temperature outside may fluctuate or not. I have begun the kiln on a hot morning only to have the temperature drop 30 or more degrees by the evening. Or the kiln cools down quickly or it doesn't cool down for days. That is why sometimes that shade of blue absolutely cannot be duplicated.

One thing I'm not is a scientist though there is a fair amount of chemistry involved, so because I'm not well versed in chemistry it is very much hit or miss for me when it comes to attempting to duplicate an effect. Some might say, "Hey, just keep a notebook." I have started doing that and I have noticed that if I want a certain color I know it will not happen unless the day is cold, under 40 degrees and stays that way for a few days ...same thing goes for summertime ... I have this one bowl design that I only glaze on the inside and I think because I throw the bowls so thin, that unless the kiln has a day or two to cool down, they just snap in half. It is devastating to open the kiln and find 12 beautiful 'cracked-in-half' bowls. Luckily that never happens to beads.

Esty Supply Team Sale

2008-04-16T12:01:00.002-04:00

When? Thursday April 17th - Sunday April 20th.

Search ESST on Etsy for other participating shops. Each shop will offer special deals. I'm offering free shipping off any order totaling $25 or more. Those who have ordered from me in the past know that I always include a nice thank you gift of an extra bead or two (or three depending upon how large the order is, so it goes without saying that a free 'thank you ' gift will also be included. PLUS I will be uploading many beads during the entire four day sale at TEMPORARILY DISCOUNTED prices. Snag them up quickly because as soon as the sale is over, those prices will go back to normal. ♥ I promise ♥ my shop will be worth checking back time and time again.

Make sure to look for the ESST in the listing title as well as the ESST SALE section on the right hand side of the page.

Photogenic Beads

2008-04-14T13:50:00.005-04:00

Some beads are more photogenic than others. Usually the photographer's problem is getting the bead to look as good as it does in the photo as it does in real life.

But what does one do when the bead looks better in the photo than it does in real life? THAT is my dilemma today! Actually, I began to have a dilemma trying to figure out how to spell dilemma. I'm so incredibly grateful for Firefox for showing each and every spelling error, but I'm also grateful for Google, who is the best spelling dictionary in the world. ....'did you mean ________" and then, Google ALWAYS spells it correctly!

In any event, so I will simply rephotograph this one!

New Beads

2008-04-07T23:14:00.002-04:00

These nuggets are a lot of fun to form with the fingers. Each one I take special care to shape like a rock.

These are textured rounds. These muted neutrals will go great on just about anything, casual or dressy. A jewelry designer will have fun with these I'm certain.

These nuggets are a natural color. Some who have seen them in person were surprised they were not real rocks, but handmade.

New Beads

2008-04-07T23:07:00.001-04:00

These nuggets are a lot of fun to form with the fingers. Each one I take special care to shape like a rock. I love the dark cobalt blue. I was experimenting with underglazes. Underneath this cobalt blue is a white underglaze. Next I used a cobalt blue underglaze on top of the white, and I finished it off with a clear gloss glaze. I used a red stoneware clay for the nugget.

These are textured rounds. These muted neutrals will go great on just about anything, casual or dressy. A jewelry designer will have fun with these I'm certain.

These nuggets are a natural color. Some who have seen them in person were surprised they were not real rocks, but handmade.

Marketing Ploy

2008-03-25T18:40:00.003-04:00

I have tons of gemstones that I meant to use to make jewelry with but have not utilized. I've been so busy with clay (beads and pottery) that I simply have not had the time. But oftentimes when I see a certain bead I think, "It's a SHAME not to use it with such and such gemstone."

This particular sunflower decal goes perfectly with these square yellow jaspers. So I'll be offering some combinations like this in my Etsy store over the next few days (or weeks).

It dawned on me that I can really tag these babies! I can label these types of listing in 'commerical' supplies because, well, the jasper are not hand made -- but because I made the porcelain bead myself I can also market it as 'handmade'. So I will have double the exposure.

I'm kinda of excited about that. It may not float, but it certainly is worth a try.

New Mexico Sky Turquoise Porcelain Rounds

2008-03-19T23:52:00.004-04:00

I put these in my Etsy store today. They are 20 mm with a smooth matte finish. I wrote in my description that this color of blue reminds me of the blue New Mexican sky I grew up with.

Now folks here in Texas, a state I have grown to adore the last 20 years, think the sky is pretty and blue -- but it is nothing like the southern New Mexico sky. The sun is much brighter there, probably because of the higher elevation.

Now I'm not dissin' Texas ... I would never (like some who have moved here) spell the vowels with an '*', Texas is a lovely in every way. I'm just saying that the sun is much brighter where I grew up. This time of year is probably my favorite time of year there, too.

This is one of several small pendants that I will be offering later this week, probably tomorrow.

Introducing My Lil' Sister and Newest Bead

2008-03-18T13:19:00.004-04:00

My little sister came to visit with my folks this past weekend. She is a well behaved two year old and I'm glad to have her added to the family unit.

Amazingly she does not crawl on the furniture one bit. She didn't even attempt a jump! I don't know what they did to her between this visit and the last visit. Apparently my folks are big fans of the The Dog Whisperer cable show... and now I am too!

This is one of my decal beads that came through the fire fantastically! I have had much trouble with this process. So much trouble that I have almost completely abandoned it and am in the process of having my drawings (such as this) transfered to a stamp instead.

Handpainting a bead (such as this one) is easier than applying the decal and ruining the bead!

At least the handpainted bead stands a chance! But this decal bead looks great! I like the translucence of the clay body which shows through. There are three 'decal' drawings on it. Of course, I will be putting it in my Etsy Store. I'll be adding it to the Focal Bead section.

Natural Gemstones with Ceramic Beads

2008-03-13T21:05:00.002-05:00

This is part of a necklace I made from some simple stoneware rounds and some blue stoneware 'knots'. The rondells are jasper, and so are the faceted rectangles. This was a simple design, but I find that simple designs are sometimes the most dramatic.

Jasper is one of my favorite gemstones. It is opaque (because it is formed from clay), so what better to put with ceramic beads but jasper? Next week Rings and Things will be making its annual wholesale trek through Dallas. So if you haven't yet made plans to go and you're in the area, now is the time to visit their website and plan your day!

Handpainted Bead Beauties

2008-03-12T11:02:00.006-05:00

Here are some beads that I will be putting in my Etsy store in the next few days. I handpainted the lot of them. I am finding out that I am enjoying this process very much.

This bead has such pretty colors. These are a combination of blues and yellows and oranges that are all transparent so they lay nicely layered upon one another.

Finding out which kind of glaze will have what effect is exciting. Opening the kiln is such a thrilling experience!

Here is a rose. It is a bit daunting to paint a rose on a bead, but I am getting braver with experimenting.

I have some decals that are very similar to the pattern I applied to this bead. I didn't realize until it came out that is how it would come out.

This last bead is one of my favorites. Unfortunately on the other side, the side that doesn't show in this photo is a blemish near the hole opening. It can be covered with a bead cap, but I will probably make this into a piece for myself and try again with this color combination.

Yellow Daisies

2008-02-25T16:37:00.001-05:00

Anyone who knows me knows that the daisy is one of my favorite flowers. They come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, but unfailingly cheerful, always.

Painting Plum Blossoms

2008-02-21T20:05:00.007-05:00

When I took art classes at college the professor drummed into our heads the need for an interesting background. I love Oriental paintings but most of them are background-less. I was at a local retail store the other day, one near my neighborhood, that specializes in Chinese porcelain and there was a huge vat as tall as I am that was absolutely gorgeous. The glaze was a smooth moss green matte, and the plum blossoms and branches were a gloss glaze. The contrast between the textures as well as the colors was absolutely stunning!

I'm bisque firing a bunch of green-ware tomorrow, beads as well as pottery. One of the vases I'm planning to put in the kiln demands some sort of painting on it. The shape of it would be perfect for some plum blossoms, I believe. However, I'm still unsure of the colors and the color scheme to use. Therefore, I'm experimenting with some beads, first. I often do that. I've found it's a good way to test out how the glazes will behave on a certain clay body, in this case Taos Red earthenware that I'm firing to stoneware temperatures.

In the meantime, I'm watching some You Tube videos on painting plum blossoms. And I'm going to also experiment some on the beads and see what I come up with. And when I am satisfied with whatever it is I come up with, I will paint THAT on the vase I am putting into the kiln tomorrow.

Brilliant Bead Artists

2008-02-19T19:21:00.004-05:00

I am amazed at the way these bead artists put together these works of wearable art from the ceramic beads I have enjoyed making so very much

This beautiful necklace is fromGyspy Spirit Studio's Etsy Shop. This is from her description:

This necklace was made possible by my wise purchase of hand formed ceramic beads from NKPDesigns on Etsy.

Included in the design are the focal turquoise green bead and smaller coordinating white and green ceramic nuggets by NKPDesigns.

Also I have randomly strung black agate gemstone nuggets, a couple of rare vintage white silver etched plastic beads (from the 40's and 50's era), a buttery glass disc bead, metal spacers, coordinating glass beads and czech faceted turquoise green colored beads.

All are strung on black beading wire strands. The length of this piece can be any where from choker length to approximately 24". The black satin ribbon ties measure 16" on each side of the necklace and the beaded portion of the piece measures 9" including the sterling silver rings.

And here is a beautiful bracelet from Designs by Lorelie's Etsy Shop. She also used an Imagine Link from Melanie of Earthenwood Studio, one of my alltime favorite ceramic bead artists. The LadyBug Ceramic charm is from my NKP Beads Etsy Shop. She also included some Red glass ladybug beads, green glass leaves, red glass flower Brass wire heart paperclips Vintaj brass lobster clasp in the making of this bracelet!

Blue Orbs

2008-02-19T16:56:00.002-05:00

This is one of my favorite glazes. Look for them in the next day or two in my Etsy Store.

Valentine's Trunk Show Etsy Dallas

2008-02-04T17:41:00.000-05:00

Don't miss this if you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth and surrounding area!

Over 40 local artists and artisans featuring: jewelry, soap, bags & purses, home decor, fashion accessories, art, dog goodies, baby items, journals & stationery, and so much more!

WHEN: Saturday, February 9th

TIME: 11am-4pm

WHERE: South Side on Lamar, Artists' Quarter

ADDRESS: 1409 S. Lamar, Dallas 75215 (across from DPD headquarters)

Spring Watermelon

2008-01-25T20:46:00.000-05:00

With a teeny tiny Yucca paintbrush that I made myself, I painted green stripes and pink dots all over this 20 mm porcelain bead that I also hand-formed and had bisque-fired. I re-fired it and as I turned it over and over in my hand I thought, "Wow! It's like Spring has arrived in this Watermelon!"

Stoneware Periwinkle Disks

2008-01-22T21:00:00.000-05:00

This periwinkle glaze practically dances over these stoneware disks. I impressed these with a handmade mold, bisque fired them, then glazed and re-fired them. There are 7 in this set. Approx. 8 mm hole to hole, 16-18 mm wide. Find there here.

Photos on a Dreary Day

2008-01-21T20:02:00.000-05:00

I had a bunch of beads come out of the kiln yesterday and I was looking forward to photographing them. However, it was extremely overcast today and the lighting was terrible. I have a light tent, but I haven't played around with that yet. Right now I take my pictures on a piece of typing paper that is on the table right beside the window while sunlight streams in ....

The reason is that I get extremely accurate color out of the beads. However, in overcast light I still get an accurate color but there is not light white background ... so I got playing with the fill gradient light tool in the photo program I use and these came out looking really fun!

I would have listed them today but like I just finished explaining .... the light is just not up to par to show them off to their highest potential. But I thought I'd share the fun photo anyway.

New Banner and Beads

2008-01-17T20:40:00.001-05:00

This is the newest banner for my NKP Etsy story. I keep getting bored and changing it out. I think I like this one though.

Here's the latest addtion. Go see it here. These
Mustard Eggplant Stoneware Beads
were hand-formed and pressed into handmade textures. The purple tablets are all 16-18 mm and the mustard 15-17 mm from hole to hole.

Speckled Celadon Textured Rounds

2008-01-16T23:20:00.001-05:00

These 13 mm Porcelain Rounds were hand-rolled, then imprinted with a zipper-like texture before being glazed with this speckled celadon, sea-green, glaze. I like the small specks of yellow and green which give it an added depth. Find them here.

Rose Tinged Porcelain Beads

2008-01-15T22:30:00.000-05:00

These are some beads that I pressed a rose stamp on both ends. When it came time to glaze I used the lightest of pink for a delicate effect. These will be going in my Etsy store. Perhaps they might be used for buttons on a bulky sweater.

Joining the Etsy Mud Team

2008-01-15T11:07:00.000-05:00

I'm a member of the Etsy Mud Team, which is a group of potters who network together to learn not only how to become better potters, but who help market each other's work. The link below is this week's thread:

http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=5412770

Get to know us and our art better. Each week we start a new thread in the Forum area under the section "Esty Teams". I believe at the moment there are over 80 members.

If you are a potter (meaning you work in ceramic clay no matter how small, including beads, buttons, and pendants), and have an Etsy Store, you are eligible to join. Convo montezumamudd for details on joining the Etsy Mud Team.

For those who are new to Etsy 'convo' is short for "conversation', which is basically an email which is sent from your Etsy account to their Etsy account. When you are logged in to your Etsy account, at the very top of your screen there is a link called "Conversations" ... click on that and then on the page provided, click "Start New Conversation". It is located in the upper right corner. Then just fill in the 'to' section and ask how to join the Etsy Mud Team.

Greenish Tan Porcelain Rounds

2008-01-14T22:30:00.002-05:00

I love how these have just the teeniest bit of olive green tinge to them. And the splashes of turquoise is an added bonus. 13 mm hole to hole.

Cappuccino Mint Porcelain Rounds

2008-01-13T20:55:00.001-05:00

Funny story about this Cappuccino Mint glaze. I misplaced it for a while. And then I used what I considered a 'mystery' glaze and voile! There it was! I was beyond thrilled. So I am going to upload a batch of four , 13 mm tomorrow to my NKP Beads Etsy Store.

Yay! More Beads!

2008-01-12T21:48:00.001-05:00

There is nothing better than lifting the lid to a cooled down kiln and seeing the newest batch of goodies. These pictured are some new fun ones that made it through the glaze firing. Some don't. Some slide to and fro on the rods they are hanging on and get glued to a neighbor. Others stick to the rods and refuse to let loose. A hammer is usually the only way to get a stubborn bead to let go!

... but that's a sad ending for a bead, don't you think?

Hand-Painted Daisies

2008-01-08T20:01:00.003-05:00

I have really enjoyed making these. After hand-forming and piercing the hole and putting it in for a bisque firing, I put a light pastel underglaze this bead before painting on tiny daisy petals. This reminds me very much of watercolors. Last I apply a coat of clear gloss glaze. Then each bead is put on a firing rod and goes into the kiln for its final firing.

Daisy Frost

2007-12-31T19:26:00.001-05:00

Here is the back and front of a bead I pulled from the kiln a couple of weeks ago. It is a new clay I've been wanting to try for a while, if I remember correctly the name is 'Southern Frost'. There is a Southern Ice, but I believe that is a Cone 10 clay while Southern Frost is a Cone 6 clay.

The other thing I've been doing is drawing a lot. I think I've tackled the ins and outs of firing these iron oxide decals but I needed to make some more and also make them smaller. So now I have a page of decal doodles and only have to wait until I have some glazed rounds to apply them onto. So I guess I'll be spending the evening a glazen'.

Measuring Clay

2007-11-14T16:45:00.000-05:00

I put a new demo on my webpage. It's on How to Make a Bead Measurer. Go Here to read it.

I also have joined a group called Ceramic Bead Artists. I have also put the tutorial there and will begin adding more as time allows.

Texas Pottery and Sculpture Guild show

2007-11-12T16:42:00.001-05:00

This weekend we had our big show. It went great. So many wonderful potters with their fabulous work on display! I wrapped. I love wrapping. I get to see everyone's art closeup. I also get to chime, "OH! You've bought my (fill in the blank)!" Fun!

Thank you to all those who bought my beads and jewelry. I hope you love it! Come visit my Etsy store and see more of it! http://nkpbeads.etsy.com

Oh So Beautiful Bracelet from Gypsy Spirit Studio

2007-10-31T10:01:00.000-05:00

Sharon from Gypsy Spirit Studio designed this beautiful bracelet using one of my large ceramic beads as the focal bead. It's the one almost directly in the middle (the BIGGEST, Yay!).

Sharon writes in her Etsy profile that she has been involved with some form of creative work all her life, whether it be supporting others art work or doing her own (although way too rarely).

She has sculpted clay, stone, and bronze; painted in oils,watercolor,acrylics and pastels. When not creating she has been a gallery director, an art museum director, an art auction coordinator, and a graphic art director(way before computers were prevalent).

Currently her work is focused on recycled glass(faux beach glass), driftwood, wire, beads, and shells.

This bracelet was hand formed using ceramic beads. Included in the design is the focal turquoise green bead and also some smaller coordinating white and green ceramic nuggets also made by me (Natalie from NKP Designs).

Sharon has randomly strung black agate gemstone nuggets, a rare vintage white silver etched plastic bead (from the 40's and 50's era), metal spacers, tiny hematite, glass and czech faceted turquoise green colored beads. All are strung on 3 black beading wire strands.

The bracelet measures approximately 8 1/4 incles including the toggle.

It is beautiful! Please visit her Etsy Store and buy it at once!

Celadon Ladybugs (or ladybirds)

2007-10-25T12:46:00.000-04:00

I'll be putting these in my Etsy store today: a set of five Celadon glazed ladybugs (or ladybirds as some prefer).

I got to wondering about why this color of green is called 'celadon' so off I went to Wikipedia. Thought I'd share it.

"Celadon colored pottery is a specific style of pottery produced in East Asia. It is normally associated with a pale sea-green pigment though the style originally was made with much darker pigments. The pale green pigment came from the Korean artisans who used specific clays and potting techniques to create the style now associated with the name. Chemically, celadon is formed by combining chromium oxide, cadmium yellow, and titanium-zinc white. It was most commonly used in Korean art and spread to the other Asian cultures. "

Chocolate Beads, Good Enough To Eat

2007-10-17T16:06:00.002-04:00

These are some stoneware beads that I applied a crystaline glaze onto and got some wonderful glazing effects. They look like light and dark chocolate melted together wonderfully! MMMmmm!

Daisies

2007-10-10T12:12:00.001-04:00

This photo reminds me of the old joke where you wrap your arms around yourself as though you're hugging someone!

I pulled this bead out of the kiln the other day and I'm very happy with it. It's here at the moment.

I just finished getting black and white Bead Swap beads packaged up to send to the Beads-of-Clay group that I'm a part of. There are 33 of us participating this Swap. The theme is 'Black and White'. After three failed attempts I am finally happy with the results. I'm not posting the photos, however, because I want the Swappers to be surprised. I do have about 10 leftover and they will probably show up in my bead store eventually.

New Batch

2007-10-04T15:15:00.000-04:00

This is a technique I should have thought about doing a long time ago. Basically these are pieces of clay, rolled and shaped, onto a round ball of clay to form flowers and leaves. Now onto glazing ...

HomeMade Decals Part Two

2007-10-01T14:54:00.000-04:00

WOW! They are sepia colored! I achieved this at Cone 06. Opening the kiln is always such a surprise! I thought they would only become sepia at a much higher firing, such as Cone 6. A few more firings will perhaps shed more light on the subject of why. As it stands for now, I had these in the big kiln. I fired at low for about an hour, medium at about an hour, high at about an hour, and then closed the lid. It was not a full load, however, and that could make all the difference.

This is one of the beads close up. I'm going to add it to my BEAD Etsy store which I only opened last week just for the beads. I have tried to blend the two different art forms into the same store, web-blog, etc .... but it is hard because I get sidetracked with one or the other and those who are only interested in the pottery (or the beads) are really only interested in that. For those that are interested in both forms, there are links on the side to the other blog/store and I would love it if you visited both. But if you don't ... that's okay too! I'm glad to grab your current interest.

For those who are interested in seeing these daisy forms on the pottery, check out my pottery blog. I am going to showcase a lovely teamug later today or tomorrow with all the Daisy characters.

I'm STILL Excited!

2007-09-26T16:42:00.000-04:00

I opened up the kiln and I was floored! For some reason the iron oxide black ink from the laser printer decal completely burnt out the red glaze, and itself in the process. But how cool is this?

The bad news is that it didn't burn out on all of them. I don't know why.

But when it worked: WOW!

I have a load in the big kiln right now, full of plain colored glazed beads of every underglaze. I can't wait to fit them all my with very own decals. There's no telling WHAT will happen!

Homemade Decals

2007-09-23T16:28:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago I discovered that I could design, create, and print my very own decals in my studio! I have been wanting to do this for such a long time, but my only option was to buy a $3000 set up ... however, I ran across someone in the Etsy Mud Team forum who was excited about a laser printer that used a black ink (iron oxide) and had begun making his own decals.

So of course there I was ordering the printer and the decal paper online and it seemed like it took absolutely FOREVER to finally arrive. Right away I printed a sheet or two and put them on a couple of items.

The first couple of tries I ruined because I didn't read the instructions carefully enough. I had fired the decal in TOO low of a temperature. I took it out. I touched it. The ink came off on my fingers. I was horrified!

Then I discovered that the decals work best on cone 08 through cone 6. So I did it again, except this time my glaze was so dark that the decal was hardly visible. I put it aside to work on some teapots and marketing and other projects.

This morning I got out a pad of paper and doodled away. I came up with several drawings, one of which is on the right. I took a photo of it with the camera, uploaded it, reduced it to 2 colors. I did the same with the rest and printed the sheet of paper out onto the decal paper.

Then I took some bright red beads and began applying them. Tomorrow they are going into the kiln. I'm! So! Excited!

-------UPDATE---------
I finally figured out that in my kiln that I get good results at cone 04. If I fire hotter, the decal melts into the glaze and begins a slow slide downwards. If I fire less hot the decal rubs off. But cone 04 works GREAT!