April Art Elements Theme - Bees

One of our Bee images on metal prints - you can find in our Etsy shop

This month's Art Elements Theme is Bees.

Mom and I love making bee pieces and taking pictures of bees (We usually will take the pictures at the little hort park near my work, but haven't been there yet this year. I am not sure when I will get over there since we aren't supposed to go back to work until after June 30th, maybe). We have one customer who loves it when we have metal prints with bees as the images. I think she has bought all of our bee images and now she is working on purchasing the butterfly images. I think we only have one bee metal print left in our shop. The yellow one above just sold right before the lock-down.

Mom and I have made bee pendants and a bee necklace in the past. One of my former co-workers bought our bee necklace when she retired. That necklace is still one of my favorite pieces that mom and I made.

For this theme challenge mom and I decided to make a plate. But, we wanted to give the plate a three dimensional look, so we started off with the plate in two different pieces. So, here is the process.

We first had to find an image mom and I both agreed we liked. I found the image on Pinterest. Then mom prints off the image and makes a pattern (I am so glad she is good at this part because I suck!). Once mom has the pattern drawn out - we print it off again and then glue it to the copper.

The flowers were sawed out of a large piece of copper in the shape of a circle. The bee was glued onto a smaller piece of copper. I actually sawed out the perimeter of the circle. The rest was all mom because I have no idea what her plan of action was on the sawing. Plus mom wings it a lot when she saws. I DO NOT wing it - I must have a pattern. I am in my box, I stay in my box :)

Mom then files and sands the pieces before it is handed over to me for enameling. You can sort of see mom's dirty hands after filing the bee.

Before enameling I took a picture of the bee and plate and how mom wanted the bee placed on the plate for enameling. The way I enameled the two pieces together is the same way I enameled the piece for our February Art Elements Theme - Letters.

This is the first layer of enamel on the pieces. I enameled the circle plate backside first and I also enameled the backside of the bee first. I wanted to have that done before I had the fun part of connecting the bee to the plate. There was some sweating going on when I connected the bee, let me tell you.

This was the final enameling - I used my heavy iron to try and make sure the plate was flat. Mom and I still have not decided if we will display this piece in a shadow box or leave it as is. We are afraid you won't be able to see the the bee off the plate if it is in a shadow box. We are still playing.

So after all that I am sure you want to see the final piece.

Here you go:

I am really happy with the way the whole piece turned out.

I hope you enjoyed the process and the final piece.

Now go and enjoy what everyone else created for this month's theme!

AE team:

Niky

Sue

Jenny

Jen

Cathy

Marsha

Guests:

Tammy

Cat

Alysen

Kathy

Sarajo

Kelly

Evie and Beth

Hope

February Theme Challenge – Letters

A bracelet we handstamped in copper with our lampwork glass beads - I love this saying!

This month's Art Elements monthly theme is letters.

I love this idea! I love hand-stamping copper with sayings. Mom will handsaw out the copper for bracelets and key-chains and I have so much fun finding different sayings to stamp into the copper. I think the most fun is trying to find fun things to hand-stamp. Like the bracelet above.

I love words! I just wish I was a wordsmith. I am in awe of writers. I love books and the stories that can take you into a whole new world. I don't have that ability. I wish I could come back with a smart retort or be able to explain things in detail, but that is not my ability. I just enjoy those who can get their point across so eloquently.

So - our piece for this month's theme. I was thinking of hand-stamping something, but mom found an idea way cooler.

Click the image - or click here

Mom found this cool video on YouTube. It is about 10 letters that have been dropped from our alphabet. If you have the time, take the 10 minutes to watch the video. It is pretty cool. I actually knew two or three of the letters from my English classes. Wow, that information actually stuck with me. It is funny the little trivia that sticks in your head.

So, these are the 10 letters that were dropped from our alphabet. Mom had a whole design idea going, until the nightmares.

Mom's idea was similar to this, but she started to have nightmares about the letters. She said we couldn't make the design like this now. I don't know if the letters were chasing her or what, but we ended up not making the design like this.

Mom sawing out the letters

I thought of just using the letters as pendants in necklaces. Or some how connecting them as a bib necklace.

Mom had a better idea.

Mom ended up sawing out a back plate and then connect the letters to the plate. I thought mom wanted to connect the letters by wire wrapping them on the plate. Mom was thinking of maybe gluing them down after enameling, but I didn't like that idea.

I thought instead enamel each of the pieces separately and then enameling them all together. I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but what could we lose (except all the copper and the work). 

Go big or go home baby!

Last weekend was gorgeous - so I didn't end up freezing while enameling. Mom and I cleaned all the copper before the first layer goes on.

I had to get a picture of the letters so I knew what the front of the pendants looked like. I like to enamel the back of the pieces first. This gives me an idea of what the colors will look like, plus it is the back of the piece. If I make mistakes on the back you won't see them.

I always start with a clear transparent layer first. That is just how I was taught and why change after 12 years. The first layer is always clear and then each layers is a different layer of color until I am happy with the piece. So, a piece can have anywhere from 3-5 layers (sometimes more).

So, here is one of the color layers. This is still the back of the piece. Once I finish the back of the piece I flip over the pendants and do the same process to the front. I am sure other people do this differently than me, but this is what works best for me.

This is me laying out the pendants on the back plate. I had a picture of the layout next to me as was laying out the letters. I then had mom come out and check the plate before I put it into the kiln.

This is the plate before going into the kiln. Once it went into the kiln I held my breath for the two minutes it was in the kiln. I wasn't sure if this would work or not.

Here is the reveal of the final piece:

There you go. At least it didn't turn out as a big piece of junk :)

This was a lot of fun! Thanks Jennifer for the fun theme this month.

Thanks for sticking with me until the end.

I hope you take the time to see the other participants:

Guests

Tammy 

Karin

Kathy

Evie and Beth - you are here

Divya

Hope

Anita

Art Elements Team

Claire

Lesley

Jenny

Cathy

Niky

Jen

December Theme Challenge – Handmade Christmas

2014 Christmas Ornaments given as gifts to the Studio b Zumba instructors

This month's Art Elements theme challenge - Handmade Christmas. This was a fun challenge because it allowed me to go back and look at the things mom and I have made, in the past, and have given as gifts. So this was a nice stroll down memory lane. Though I don't have pictures of all the gifts I have given in the past, which was dumb.

Mom and I did want to work on a piece to make in December. We were lazy though and didn't get them completed (I should I say I was lazy and didn't feel like enameling - though I should have when it was 61 degrees out).

Mom found the pattern for the cat and dog Christmas ornaments. I think mom is almost down filing and sanding the dog (the cat was already done). If it is warm again I will work on enameling them. Once that is done we will display the two pieces in small shadow boxes.

Mom and I have created Christmas ornaments in the past to either sell or give as gifts. I think we even have a few left in the Etsy store. We even have done a Christmas ornament swap, but it has been a few years.

2016 Studio b key chains

This is the year mom helped me create key chains with the sayings from each of the Studio b instructors on them. It is hard to see what the key chain says say, but the all start with "b" because of Studio b. If you want to see how they key chains were made you can go to our EB Bead and Metal Works Facebook page. There is an album about the key chains there.

2017 Studio b instructor initial pendants

In 2017 mom helped me created 20g copper pendants with the initials of the Studio b instructors. I then tried to be sneaky by asking them all what their favorite colors were (I asked for three or more colors). Once I had their colors I went to town on the enameling. Mom was great on sawing out the initials for me (because I would have never done the initials as intricate as she did!!!!).

2018 Studio b bowls for the instructors

In 2018 I decided to go with enameled copper bowls. I still had the FB message from 2017 with the instructors favorite colors. So, mom and I sawed out the bowls and then mom pounded them into different shapes for me. There is actually a video from when mom was pounding them into shape that I posted to FB.

2019 Soap Sack for Work

This year I decided to crochet soap sacks and give soap as gifts to my co-workers. In July I started crocheting my own wash clothes, loofah and soap sacks. I also started buying handmade, local soaps to use.

I found the soap sack tutorial on YouTube. The first one I made was awesome. The next 10 I made just seem to get worse and more worse (mom said they looked fine, but I could see all the mistakes).

Mom could tell I was very frustrated. I finally told myself to stop, watch the video and write down the instructions (the links to the instructions no longer work on the YouTube video). Writing down the instructions seemed to help.

The first 10 soap sacks I made I will donate to S.A.C.K. They give out soap sacks to the homeless (I plan on making more later, but need a break) to use with soap.

The soap I gave with the soap sack is from a local business woman. She is normally at the farmer's markets and she was actually at one of the shows mom and I attended in November (I bought more soap). You can find her business on Facebook called Next to Godliness. Her soaps are amazing!!!! I highly recommended her soaps if you are looking for homemade soaps.

These are the soap sacks I made up for my co-workers. Each soap sack has a different soap for the person. I know two of my co-workers were just leaving the sacks on their desk so they could smell the soap :)

Mom and I haven't been lazy all of December :) We have been knitting preemie and chemo caps to donate. These are the preemie hats we have completed and mom has boxed up to mail to various hospitals.

We just have started on knitting the chemo caps again - I think we only have four done right now.

I am also teaching myself how to crochet finger-less gloves. I would like to see if I can also donate these for people who are going through chemotherapy. I have been told that those individuals become very cold. So, thought this might help too.

I am using YouTube videos to teach myself. Again I am doing something wrong, not sure what I am doing wrong, but I have written the instructions out. So I am hoping that helps me figure out what is going on. If you haven't figured it out yet, I am stubborn and I will persevere, dang it!

So, that is it for the handmade Christmas.

I hope you check out everyone who is participating in the blog hop.

Guests: 

Sarajo

Kathy

Mary

Hope

Tammy

Evie and Beth (here)

Divya

Merja

Sarah

AE Team

LindsayJennySueKarenClaireNikyCathy

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a great New Year! I can't wait to see what 2020 brings!

Sale in the Etsy Shop - 20% Off

There's still time to give the gift of handcrafted jewelry, bowls, key chains and metal prints. Visit the shop on Etsy and get your orders in by December 18th to meet the USPS shipping deadline.

Shop Sale - 20% Off Everything Until December 2nd

Everything is on sale in our Etsy shop from now until December 2nd. We are also offering free shipping - the coupon code is XMAS2019.

November Theme Challenge - Fossils

It is that time again - the Art Elements Theme Challenge reveal - Fossils. I am really looking forward to seeing what everyone has created. This was a fun challenge - as usual.

Mom actually did the searching for ideas this month and she came up with the above idea. As long as you can saw it out mom the happier I am. Though again with the small holes - those are the bane of my existence when I enamel. Though they really give the person the feel that this is a fossil pendant.

I think I rather use a dental pick to get the enamel out of the holes than sawing out the pendants. I am soooooo glad mom likes to saw.

What the pendant looks like before I start the enameling process. After mom saws out the piece she then files and sands the copper.

The enameling process. I like working in batches so I can have an assemble line going. Thank goodness it isn't too cold out yet. I think it was about 50 degrees out when I was enameling on this day. Not looking forward to when it gets colder - the heaters can only do so much when I have the exhaust fan going (it sucks out all the heat - which is alright because I really don't want to die from the fumes).

Mom and I went to our favorite bead store to look for "fossils" to go in our necklace. We ended up purchasing petrified wood, leopard jasper and fossil stones.

I used crackle enamel for the pendants. On the bottom pendant you can see
the crackle cells I was going for. Unfortunately the top pendant didn't get the
crackle cells I wanted. I still love how these turned out though.

I ended up taking photos of the piece outside - because again we are actually having warm weather. Plus I liked how the necklace looked against the cement walk.

Mom and I ended up using the petrified wood and fossil stones (the fossil stones are the triangle beads). I love the concept of the necklace, but I am not happy with the way the necklace lies. I think I want to make some lampwork beads to add to the piece and maybe some seed beads between the larger beads.

So, far now this is our piece for the Art Elements Challenge Theme - Fossils.

I hope you take the time to check out everyone else who is participating. Thanks for stopping by!

Guests

Cat

Tammy

Susan

Dawn

Michelle

Sarajo

Evie & Beth

Divya

AE Team

Jen

Lesley

Sue

Claire

Jenny

Niky

Free Shipping from Now until December 26th

In our Etsy shop

Mom and I are offering free shipping, when you spend $30 or more, from now until December 26th in our Etsy store.

I just re-opened the shop this Sunday after mom and I finished our last show of the season on Saturday.

The coupon code you can use is: XMAS2019

I am still adding more items - I have some pendants, earrings, necklaces, key chains and enameled copper bowls that I have to take pictures of and I will get listed.

If you don't see something in the shop - contact us and we can work with you to create something special.

You can see most of our work on our Facebook page - EB Bead and Metal Works, LLC.
Look under Photos and Albums.