Salamander House Studio

The Vagaries of Freeform

2012-01-28T10:38:00.001-08:00

After the dog crashed into my beading tray, causing carefully arranged piles of beads to go cascading up in the air and eventually all swept up into a common dustpan, it occurred to me that I've not done any freeform peyote in a long time. As much as I like to sort beads into lovely little piles of like colors & shapes, it's also a delight to let the needle choose as it goes, building something truly unique and magical. I think what I've begun here will be a bracelet when it's finished, but it might just decide to be a necklace. Either way, I'm enjoying this happenstance journey caused by the dog.

Curly Earrings!

2012-01-08T20:07:00.000-08:00

Aren't these cheerful and fun? They worked up fairly fast, and they are very light. There's a bit of subtle sparkle from the Swarovski crystals at top and bottom. I might have to make a bunch of these!

2012-01-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

I finally have some new work to show! After a long dry spell, I'm working a lot suddenly. This necklace is a re-worked piece that originally had the lampwork beads on a flat sterling chain. It was very pretty, but tended to pull the owner's hair, which is never good. So I played around with Cellini spirals till I got one I liked. And here it is!

2011-09-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

I made a bunch of earrings the other day. I'm getting better at making wrapped loops that are actually round, and suddenly I want a huge spool of wire to play with. I also started making... I am not sure what, exactly. Components, I guess. Little runs of beads and wires that are not long enough to be a necklace, not long enough to be a bracelet, but that maybe will someday find friends and join up to make something. And I have some new ideas sort of simmering.

It's been a long fallow period, I'm hoping that coming into the rainy season will bring some of these new ideas to birth. I'm ready.

Updateless Update

2011-08-30T13:08:00.001-07:00

Is this thing on? I haven't beaded anything in what seems like forever. I've been working at other jobs for money as the recession seems to have taken the bottom clean out of the artisan jewelry market. After a 10 hour day on a ladder, I'm just not inspired to do much more than look at other beaders' blogs when I get home.

But there should be a lull in the painting & hammering work come fall, and I hope to bring some of the ideas I've been having to life.

So, yeah- still here, more or less.

Eleanor Roosevelt and me

2011-04-18T19:00:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Roosevelt said that you should do something every day that scares you. So I said yes when a friend of mine asked me if I'd like to teach a class on making beaded stitch markers. I've got til September to finalize the instructions and make samples. I'm certainly nervous about it, as it will be my very first class, but I'm also really excited about doing it.

Prototype Gertrude

2011-02-01T21:54:00.000-08:00

Around Christmas, my friend Colleen came over bearing Kenneth Branagh's magnificent Hamlet, which we watched. I was enthralled, but not so enthralled I didn't get distracted by a quick glimpse of Queen Gertrude's beautiful choker, which she was wearing in exactly one scene. I started thinking about shapes and colors, and beautiful queenly necks. Then I had to figure out how to make an open diamond, which counter-intuitively enough, ends up working only if started as a square. That took a week to figure out.

But then I had the basic shapes, stitched them together and promptly stalled out trying to figure out how to extend the piece around the neck. I decided on smaller diamonds, and then the necklace said to me, quite loudly and a little rudely, that it needed to be reversible. Reversible? Are you sure? It was sure. So then I stitched up doubles of the diamonds, and tried to attach them to the backside of the diamonds already in place.

The lesson there was that the time to make a necklace reversible is when it's still in a little pile of components on one's tray, not after said components are all stitched together. But it worked okay. Then there was the matter of a clasp. Which I decided would only work with the elegance of the rest of the piece if it was completely symmetrical and detachable (which also gives plenty of room for size customization, a little collection of 3 or 4 different length clasps is going to give you 3 or 4 different necklaces).

Then it was a matter of draping the wing parts, and dropping the dangles. That's when I realized that my diamonds were too big- or too big for my neck, at least, because the wings don't hang quite the way I envisioned- they sort of pool around the clavicles, which is a nice enough look, but not what I wanted. I think my next take will have the large central diamond, then decreasing diamonds all the way around. We'll see where this takes me. But here's the prototype.

Mermaid

2010-12-10T10:44:00.000-08:00

And it's finished! This is one of the more complicated necklaces I've ever made- it's a peyote stitch that adds two beads every other round- that's what gives it the interesting spiraling structure. It's finished off with clear glass drops. The toggle button bead thing is a right angle weave cluster of drops. Here's a closer look:

Really? Who runs out of those?

2010-11-24T09:55:00.000-08:00

So I'm in the home stretch on the spiral peyote guy and I ran out of clear drops. Arggh! I can't wait for a shipment because the US has Thanksgiving this week with no mail and I really, really want to finish this. So I'm venturing out into the very cold craziness that is retail the day before Thanksgiving to find some beads. The good news is everyone else is going to be at the grocery store, right?

In other, totally unrelated and completely personal news, I shaved my head again. I wore my hair in a buzz cut for 10 years, then decided to see what it looked like and grew it out over the last 5. I am so glad to have my "real" hairdo back!

Here's a picture of another new pendant- my lampwork with sterling chains and Swarovski crystals. I'm really happy with it!

Surfacing

2010-11-21T22:49:00.000-08:00

I've had a parade of house guests for over a month, with a just a few days in between them. I've been working on one piece the whole time, and I'm somewhere near done with it. It's going to be worth the wait, I think. It's a twisty spiral peyote necklace in soft raku green beads finished with clear drops that may be dew or may be ice. Stay tuned.

You Gotta Play Hurt

2010-10-27T10:33:00.000-07:00

I've been having a run of injuries lately, mostly to my hands. This has resulted in me getting a lot less beadwork done than I'd like. I'm trying to be much, much more careful from here on out. As I heal, I'm trying to catch up on photography and blogging.

Here's a new pendant made with one of my lampworked beads, some gold-filled chain, and some Swarovski crystals.

Now I'm off to try to find a flat surface in my studio. I'm sure there's one in there somewhere...

The View From The Studio

2010-10-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to teach myself to work with wire. I love the look of wrapped loops, and I'm currently head-over-heels in love with the new Sunshine color by Swarovski. So I made a pair of earrings. I took a photo of them right away, and after downloading the photo, realized that it says a lot about my process. I seem most comfortable creating in the midst of chaos!

Anyway, here are the new earrings, amid the clutter.

I Won A Gold Medal!

2010-10-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited! Fire Mountain Gems has awarded The Tzarina's Collar a gold medal in the Wedding and Holiday category of their Gemstone Contest. The necklace came home yesterday with a beautiful plaque and a lovely gift certificate. I'm overwhelmed and beside myself!

Here's a link to the page with the info: Fire Mountain Gems Gallery of Designs

But What Do You DO All Day?

2010-10-12T10:29:00.001-07:00

What do artists do with all that creative free time? I often wonder about other artists, so I thought I would try to wake up this semi-moribund blog and share a little about my latest project.

It started, as so many things in my life have, at a church rummage sale. There was a lovely, odd-shaped bottle sitting on a card table. It was full of ... something that was once perhaps fruit, and it probably decorated a church lady's kitchen, where it looked like jewels in the autumn sunshine. As the years went by, though, it lost its sheen. The fruit broke down into something lumpy and brown, the wax seal on the bottle grew sticky and then dusty. She couldn't bear to just toss it in the trash, though. Not after it had given her so much pleasure. She tucked it into the box earmarked for the church sale.

I scooped it up with a clear vision in mind. I would clean it out, bead to my vision's specifications, someone would instantly fall in love with it and buy it. My visions are fairly diverse but they all have the same ending.

And it sat on my kitchen counter for a couple of weeks before I started to scrub it up. When I opened it, the vinegary smell made my eyes water. I upended it over the sink and all the vinegar ran right out. The fruit was too swollen and wouldn't fit through the neck. I filled the bottle with hot water and shook. One tiny lump of fruit came out.

I dug a pair of long hemostats out of the studio and went out into the garden where there was a fresh breeze. For the next two hours, I painstakingly drew tiny gobbets of ex-fruit down the narrow neck of the bottle and threw them into the garden, much to the amusement of my dog and the disgust of the blue jays.

To be continued...

YaYo Beads

2010-06-29T12:39:00.001-07:00

Yayo Beads
Originally uploaded by satyridae

Last fall, one of my oldest friends died after a shockingly short illness. I went back to her house to help her kids sort through the accumulation of a lifetime and brought her ashes home with me for scattering later, when all the kids would be available. Laurel's ashes went on my cookbook shelf, cozied up to The Joy Of Cooking, which book she bought for me a thousand years ago.

I got used to having her there on the shelf, and though I'm not a believer in any sort of afterlife, I did address the odd remark to the urn. Then I started to think about beads. Glass beads in particular, and I wondered if there was some way to incorporate ashes into a bead for some sort of permanent memorial. The internet confirmed that not only could it be done, it had been done. I got in touch with all the kids to make sure they would be okay with that. They agreed, and I decided to give it a try.

I was shockingly unprepared for the visceral reaction I had to opening the urn and realizing that the pile of grit and ash and metal (metal?) was all that was left of my friend. I sifted a tiny bit of powdery ash into a baby food jar and walked blindly into the studio where I sifted the ash through several very fine mesh filters until I had something more like face powder than ash.

I lined the powder up on a graphite pad and was inevitably reminded of cocaine. At this point I started talking aloud to Laurel, crying and laughing at the same time. I lit the torch and laid down a base bead of black glass. Once it was a good shape, I got the surface of it cherry-red and lightly rolled it through the line of ash. Then I encased the ash with a thick layer of clear. As I said before, I'm not a believer in any conventional sort of spirituality, but this was perhaps the most profound experience of my life to date. I felt my friend standing at my shoulder, and as I made bead after bead, I was able to say some of the things I didn't get to say after she got sick and died so fast. When I had a kiln full of YaYo beads (what the littlest one called her- he couldn't say Laurel- and of course it caught on) and no more tears left, I gathered up the tiny bit of ash that was left and put it in the garden.

The next morning I took the beads out of the kiln. They were spectacular- each one a tiny universe of stardust spangled across a black or blue background. The ashes look like galaxies, like the promise of infinity, like maybe somehow it all makes sense. There were enough that all of the kids and all of their kids could have one. There was one that quite clearly belonged to me. And they resonate.

John Kasch

2010-05-22T09:36:00.001-07:00

John Kasch
Originally uploaded by satyridae

Since this portrait has arrived safely at my sister-in-law's house in time for her birthday, I can show it to the world.

This is the project that's been taking all my time lately! I was working from my late father-in-law's Navy portrait. This is a companion piece to the portrait in beads I did of my late mother-in-law, last year.

My sister-in-law was surprised. I think she likes it. :-)

John Botts Quote!

2010-05-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

"The interest in color is always present. A simple comment might be that where color seems least present, or most lacking in intensity, one finds more color."

A quote from John Botts, the artist who I swear kept me alive when I was a teenager, and who I am only now beginning to appreciate.

Under Construction

2010-04-14T16:01:00.001-07:00

Under Construction
Originally uploaded by satyridae

Here's what I started with this morning. I chose the lampwork beads first, from my last torch session, and then I made some bead soup to go with them. I am envisioning a multi-stranded necklace, with the dotted bead as the central focal.

Custom Order

2010-04-01T20:37:00.001-07:00

Custom Order
Originally uploaded by satyridae

Another adorable custom order. This one was really fun because the customer and I traded a bunch of emails back and forth, trying to come up with designs and backgrounds. She was awesome to work with, and I want to do lots more custom stuff. I love helping someone get exactly what they want!

Dancing Harlequin

2010-03-10T12:06:00.001-08:00

Dancing Harlequin
Originally uploaded by satyridae

Here's a cute little made-to-order bracelet. The vintage button is really special- it's glass coated with some sort of AB reflective finish, which really adds a bit of sparkle.

Snow Princess Lariat

2010-02-23T16:32:00.001-08:00

Snow Princess Lariat
Originally uploaded by satyridae

Finally had an overcast day (imagine that, in the Pacific Northwest!) and got some photos of some of my newer beadwork.

This, the Snow Princess Lariat, is all pearly white with accents of 24K gold-plated delica beads scattered randomly along the 71" ndebele rope and sparkling Swarovski AB crystals at the termini of the fringes.

It can be worn as a necklace, a choker, a belt, a headband- the possibilities are nearly endless.

Oh, Domino!

2010-02-07T22:05:00.001-08:00

Oh, Domino!
Originally uploaded by satyridae

I woke this morning from dreams of my grandmother. She's been dead a little over a year, and I find myself with her fairly often in dreams. We used to play dominoes by the hour, and last night we played again. So I woke thinking of dominoes, and then I thought of beads. I generally think of things in the context of beads! I sat down with my pencil, and before too long had a basic sketch. I had to bead it right away, so the bulk of today has been spent making this bracelet. I think it's pretty cute. :-)

Lung Outlines

2010-02-05T09:04:00.001-08:00

Lung Outlines
Originally uploaded by satyridae

I got the lung outlines done late last night. Early this morning. Whatever. I can stop any time I want to.

Liver & Stomach

2010-02-04T17:37:00.001-08:00

Liver & Stomach
Originally uploaded by satyridae

I got started on beading the doll today. The liver is size 11 seed beads, the stomach is size 8. I though the stomach ought to be a little chunkier. I've got the lung color picked out, and will be starting them next.

Next!

2010-02-02T17:54:00.001-08:00

Next!
Originally uploaded by satyridae

I found this wonderful plain cotton doll the other day, and the idea for my next bead embroidery project was born.

Here's the initial sketch of the viscera.