August ABS Challenge Piece

Summer Thunder

By Hosteen Klah

Weaving, Wool

Mom and I finally completed the August ABS Challenge piece. I have come to the conclusion that mom and I will never finish a piece before the end of the month. But - at least we completed it :)

I wanted to share some of the process of us creating the piece. Above is a picture of mom drawing out a pattern to put on the copper to saw out. There is very rarely, if ever, that I will draw out the design - mom is the one I have nominated to make the designs!!!

Once the pattern has been drawn, and scanned for future pieces, then it is glued down on 20g copper. Mom doesn't like to saw out the perimeters of the pieces so I actually sawed out the perimeter. I also started sawing out the larger designs - since I hate sawing out the smaller designs in a piece.

Almost done being sawed out.

The piece after it has been sawed out, file and sanded. The next step is me enameling the piece.

A picture of the enameling process.

And then I make lampwork glass beads to go with the pieces we create. I have several reds laid out to use for the beads.

And finally - the piece is laid out in several variations and then we decide what we like before we string it. The above picture is mom stringing the beads on a test wire to see if we like the way it looks. I think we went through two different layouts before we decided what we liked.

So - here is the final piece:

Mom and I don't have a name for the piece yet. I really love how it turned out - I think it is one of our more awesome pieces.

Here is a close up of the pendant. I wanted the pendant to be black and then pull in the tan and red from the painting. Mom does awesome sawing!

A closeup of the lampwork glass beads I made that is accented with Jasper and gunmetal spacer beads. The necklace is long enough to slip over your head - so didn't need to use a clasp this time.

So - that is our piece for the August ABS Challenge. I think mom and I had a lot of fun with the creation of this piece. If you have a chance - check out the two ABS Challenge boards on Pinterest - Beads Monthly Challenge and Jewelry Monthly Challenge.

Another Working Studio Weekend

Mom and I had to walk around the yard on Saturday morning, it had rained the night before and we wanted to see if any more of the rose buds had opened up. This is a pic of one of the opened roses - they smell oh soooo good.

Mom's sawing station

This weekend mom worked on sawing out the August ABS pendant and started sawing out a koi plate.

This is the sawed out, filed and sanded pendant for the August ABS challenge. Now I just enamel the piece - which will happen next weekend. We didn't have enough pieces filed and sanded for me to have an assembly line as I enamel.

This is mom sawing out the next piece - a koi plate. Mom likes the difficult pieces - she likes to see how far she can take the saw blade and how far she can take a design.

This is mom's view of the koi plate - like the image of the saw blade with the design.

This was my setup for making beads for the August challenge piece.

This is my view with the torch going - I have my mandrels to the right, glass in front of me and frit to the left.

This is a picture of the bead before I put it in the kiln - can't tell it is red glass - it looks black.

This is Saturday's bead haul. I have another kiln full of the same colored beads. You will see why in the next photo.

This is the challenge piece laid out - you can sort of see the sketch of what I did to the right of mom's hand. Once we laid out the beads, with accent beads, we found out I didn't make enough red beads, so I ended up making another whole batch of red beads - I even made a few small ones that mom can use to make earrings.

So - that was our weekend in the studio. I am hoping to get out into the studio in the evenings to file and sand some pendants and earrings so I can do an enameling session this weekend.

More pictures will follow.

New Designs and Things

Mom and I working

Mom and I have been trying to get out into the garage/studio more. This is us this past weekend working on making up test charm bracelets. Since we don't have a bracelet mandrel (mom was making up the bangles for me) she was using a paint can, rubber cement jar and a wine bottle to form the bracelets. Improvise, adapt and overcome!

So, here are something we have been working on.

Dragon Plate - went into a shadow box for displaying

Mom loves this piece - and it actually sold at our
show at the Broadway Library Show.

Kokopelli after I finished enameling them

Kokopelli in a shadow box - this sold at our show at the Broadway Library

Frog pendant

Leaf pendant

Copper word bracelets:

Just Breathe bracelet with our lampwork beads.
I textured the copper on our cement floor in the garage since we don't
have texture hammers or texture plates.

You Matter bracelet with our lampwork glass beads

Be Awesome bracelet with our lampwork glass beads

Handmade copper word charms:

Word charms I made from etched copper that I then patined with colors

Mom made the test bangles so I could wear the
charms to make sure they can stand up to
someone wearing them. I love how they
sound when I wear them all together!

Sawing projects:

The pile of stuff to saw out is to the left and the scrap copper is to the right.

These are things I actually sawed out on Sunday.
Five pair of earrings (at the top), and four pendants.
Now to add them to the pile of stuff to file.

All the stuff to be filed and sanded. If you know of any filing or sanding
fairies - can you send them our way :)

Mom drawing up the piece for the August ABS Challenge. Maybe
we will actually finish the piece before the end of the month :)

So - that is what we have been up to lately. Hopefully I will get better at the blogging again. I have been mostly posting to our Instagram and Facebook pages; if you want to keep up with what we have been doing.

May and June ABS Challenge Pieces - Yes We are Alive

via Bing Images

Yes - mom and I are still here. For the last month we have been on vacation with my niece and nephew, one of my fur babies passed away (I am still devastated about him passing away) and then I was at a conference. So, it has been pretty busy. I also am having a hard time getting back into blogging. I have been posting on our Facebook page and our Instagram though if you want to see what we have been up to.

Mom and I have been working in the garage and we had our first summer show. I plan on posting pics of the pieces we have made and of our show, but I thought I would share the May ABS and June ABS pieces we made.

May ABS Challenge Piece:

May Monthly Challenge-Untitled, 1926-1954,
 by Augustin Lesage, Oil on Canvas

Aztec Bird

When I first saw the painting all I could see was a bird shape - so mom drew up the picture of what we both saw. So we are calling the piece "Aztec Bird".

Both mom and I loved the colors in the painting - so that is what we used to enamel the pendant and then the beads are the green with the accent colors from the bird pendant. It really isn't our usual style but that is what I love about these challenges - get you out of your box.

The pendant is sawed out of 20 gauge copper that mom has fun sawing. Then we discuss the colors. Mom actually drew the pendant on a piece of paper and used colored pencils to color in the colors she wanted me to use. We have lots of colors going on - I love it.

I made two different types of beads - both have a base color of green with two different types of frit I used that I wanted to pull the colors in from the painting and pendant. The accent beads are pink Czech beads and blue glass beads.

The piece is long enough that you can just slip it on over your head. I think mom and I did really good on the collaboration of this piece.

Of course just so you know when I was enameling this piece it was almost 100 degrees in the garage - I had sweat pouring down my head and back while I was enameling this pendant and the pendants for the June ABS piece. I was not a happy camper - but I am happy with how the pieces turned out :)

June ABS Challenge Piece:

June Monthly Challene-Feuilles, 1928
By Seraphine Louis, Pigments on Canvas

Both mom and I wanted to pull in the colors from the painting and the leaf shapes. We wanted to make a it a double strand to use all the beads I made for the piece.

For the pendants I used an oval shape that we sawed out of 20 gauge copper. I then fold formed the pendant and then shaped it to look like a leaf. I then enameled it with the colors from the painting - so there are three different pinks I used on top of white enamel.

I made two types of lampwork glass beads for the piece. One has a base color of white with pink frit on top of it - the other bead is transparent with pink frit that I feathered to make the design. The accent beads are freshwater pearls and Czech beads.

I really love the colors of this piece.

So, we are up to date as of now - we didn't create a piece for July. I am looking forward to seeing what August painting will be. Maybe we can actually finish a piece before the deadline :)