South Shore Beader - Eilen Lipkind, EML Designs

I met Eileen at Homespun Treasures where we both had our jewelry designs. We immediately became friends and I remember asking her if she would like to join a group of Jewelry Designers? She said yes and we've been part of the group ever since.

Eileen, in my opinion is one of our more prolific designers. She tries anything and is always learning new techniques. The one above shows her wire wrapping talents but also her talent with fused glass. She was the first one to buy a kiln and make fused glass. She also does PMC pieces.


This is one of her "special" pieces made from a picture, fused in glass and made into a book mark. What a special gift.



Here she has taken special pictures and made them into pendants. Grandson and favorite dog!

You can see Eileen's special designs at her site and on 1000 Markets. Check them out.


B

www.bevsjewelry.com and www.bevsjewelry.1000markets.com

South Shore Beaders - Marilyn Oliveri

Continuing my features of members of our South Shore Beaders group, today I'm featuring Marilyn Oliveri . Several members of our group met Marilyn at our favorite local bead store, Beadcache in Mansfield, MA. We had gathered in the upstairs room to meet with Linda, an employee of Beadcache who had offered to show us how to end Kumihimo ropes. We had recently learned the technique and ending it nicely was our next thing to learn. Marilyn came in and heard about our "gathering" and not to miss out on anything, joined us upstairs. One thing lead to another at it often does. She is now a regular member of our group.

We found out that Marilyn does bead crochet. The results is a similar rope to Kumihimo but in Marilyn's hands, they are spectacular. Her choice of beads, focals and color is always part of her process to make the perfect piece. Needless to say she spends many hours on each piece.

She explains her process:

"The necklace has a pendant made from bronze clay. I made a mold for the pod from a seed pod from a plant in my garden (false indigo/baptisia australis). I used a magnolia leaf as a template for the base. Completing this pendant almost became a 'career' because of some of the issues I have in working with bronze clay. I had to do multiple firings to repair cracks and joints and then simply to change the color until I was satisfied with the results. I love gardening and have extensive perennial beds so I call this one 'Seeds of Inspiration.' It's one of my favorite pieces."

Inspiration indeed! Look at the colors in the pendant and the layers!


The second piece demonstrates how an original idea transforms in to something different.

This piece is titled "Santa Fe Sunset" Her process is explained:

"I had crocheted this rope for one of my bronze pieces, but wasn't really happy with the combination. So I went searching in my box of "focal beads" and loved the coral donut with it. Then I had to figure out how I was going to combine the two pieces in a different way.

"I spent some time with Gerri at the Bead Cache and she patiently showed me various wire wrapping ideas, but I kept coming back to the larks head knot and coiled bale that I had had in mind initially. I've only just begun to fool around with wire so this was rather ambitious, but I wanted to try it.

"Then Rich brought out gold-filled half round wire which I'd never worked with, but it is SOOO elegant! I went home and used "practice" wire to try many of the techniques Gerri had shown me in addition to the larks head knot. I was pretty timid about moving on to the $9/foot gold filled wire, but as they say, nothing ventured. . .

"After an entire afternoon on top of the hour or two I spent with Gerri, I'm very proud of the result."

I really enjoy hearing the stories that go with creations made by jewelry artists such as Marilyn.

We all tend to inspire each other. These two pieces are real inspiration.

Thanks Marilyn for letting me share your talent and lovely pieces.

B

www.bevsjewelry.com and www.bevsjewelry.1000markets.com

South Shore Beaders - Ann Spano

This is not a necklace I made but it is from one of our South Shore Beaders group, Ann Spano.

Ann makes some spectacular pieces, very bold and mostly all parts are made by Ann. She is an inspiration to all of us in the group and has been very willing to share her knowledge with the group.

We met her at the Fuller Craft Museum's Wednesday evening craft group. Some of us were attending a regular display at the Museum and wandered into a nice find. The Museum has a free group where anyone can bring your favorite craft and join, chat, show, learn. When they realized we were jewelry designers, we were told to stay a bit and meet Ann Spano, a member who regularly attended the group and was a jewelry designer. We ended up staying for several hours and chatted with Ann. One thing lead to another and Ann was now a member of our group. What a find!

When I asked her if she made all of the components she replied:"I did use a couple of premade bead caps along with the pieces I domed for the lanterns and of course the beads in both projects were bought. The lanterns used an inlayed bead and for the other, I just haven't tried drilling stone yet!! Aside from that, I made the components." Look at these pieces - she made all but a few of the components! That involves some bronze metal clay and lots of other metal work.



I have seen both of these pieces in person. While these are good pictures, they do not come close to showing how beautiful they are. Each lantern is all by itself a work of art and there are five of them!

I'll be featuring some of our other talented jewelry designers in the South Shore Beaders group in the near future. Stay tuned.

B

www.bevsjewelry.com and www.bevsjewelry.1000markets.com

Saturday, seven of the South Shore Beaders gathered to have a demo on making some copper earrings. Of course the techniques apply to many other ideas. That's part of the fun. Ann, our teacher, as with all of our gatherings had a hard time getting our attention. But she persevered and we behaved. We watched as she punched out a circle from a copper sheet with a metal punch. (We quickly learned that this technique required many tools and new equipment.)

Then she made small holes in the circle for attaching jump rings and other adornments.

Next came using a steel dapping block and a dapping punch set to transform the copper circle into a dome shaped circle. Of course, a hammer was involved. Ann instructed us in the fine art of forming the dome with out ruining the copper.

Then came the fun and somewhat scary for first timers, using a torch. We talked a bit about safety and different types of torches plus how to turn it on and off. (An important part of the instruction.)

Ann then pulled out her other fun pieces of equipment. Steel Bench Block, Annealing Pans with Pumice, high heat block and cross-locking tweezers. We frantically started writing a wish list and thought about up coming birthdays etc.

With the torch, Ann transformed the copper color into a salmon, orange, pink, black mix of colors. She told us how much heat to use and all that important stuff. The transformation was fun to watch. She then quenched the hot disk. Then the oo's and ah's and planning in our minds of the next steps.

All in all it was another fun gathering of our group complete with plans and ideas for more.

B


www.bevsjewelry.com and www.bevsjewelry.1000markets.com

South Shore Beaders and coping

My wrist is getting better but now I'm getting impatient with the things I still can't do.

Wednesday, we had our monthly gathering of the South Shore Beaders. With the usual show and tell, I got a little jealous. New PMC pieces, new fused glass etc. We still had lots of fun and sharing.

Saturday one of our group members is giving a demo on coloring copper with heat. I can do that since it is a demo. That will be lots of fun.

I've been doing some changes on my web site too. (something I can do) On my Facebook (Bev Carlson) and Twitter (Bevsjewelry) pages I've offered a discount for finding a new feature I've added.

Send me an email to bev@bevsjewelry.com letting me know the new feature and I'll send you a code giving you 10% off of any purchase. (Combine it with the May/June specials for 30% off those items)

Have a nice weekend everyone!

B

www.bevsjewelry.com and www.bevsjewelry.1000markets.com

South Shore Beaders Etsy site Part 2

I hope you enjoyed part 1 and here is part 2:





This necklace is made of Montana Moss Agate oval briolettes known for their dendrite and ribbon effect in the stone.
Designed by Judy T.













The Blue Lagoon Necklace shown here is
designed by Arlene Abramson.
Arlene used handmade glass beads in shades of blue, aqua,
and turquoise (beads are hand made by a local glass artist, not Arlene)
mixed together with blue resin beads on a blue cord.






This is one of my chain maille creations. The pattern is "Romanov" and contains cobalt blue stones in the middle of the Romanov circles.
Designer: Bev Carlson






I hope you have enjoyed these pieces and will visit our shop at:

www.southshorebeaders.etsy.com


B

Southshore Beaders Etsy Part 1

Last night we had our monthly South Shore Beaders gathering. As usual, fun was had by all. For the first time we had what comes close to a meeting. That is we insisted that only one talk at a time, at least for the first 15-20 minutes. Do you know how hard that is to do???? After that we had our usual show and tell and "Where should we go for our next field trip?" Oh yes, we welcomed two new members. A growing group!

Some of us came with questions, some with announcements. We talked about our fledgling Etsy web site. It seems to be working well with more and more pieces being added. Then it hit me!

Feature some of our members items in a blog post. Duh! So, today's and tomorrow's posts will feature

The South Shore Beaders:


Here is a lovely piece by Marilyn Oliveri. Marilyn specializes in bead crochet. Her focals and endings are very special and unique to her style. This one she calls "Checkers"




This piece is designed by Eileen Lipkind.
Eileen loves to design summer and ocean themed pieces.
She calls this: Dreams of Summer Starfish Necklace








The third piece is designed by B'Jeweled (aka Donna)
This is called: Arizona Desert and Sky Bracelet
Magnesite chips surround an Amazonite Oval Centerpiece Stone.





Check out all of the designs at our web site: www.southshorebeaders.etsy.com

More featured tomorrow.

B

South Shore Beaders Field Trip

Yesterday the South Shore Beaders went on a Field Trip to the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA. Wow! What a place.

We gathered at 5:00 PM and spent several hours looking at the various exhibits. Somehow, the name "Craft" doesn't give the pieces their due. Now, that may just be me but Uber Craft or extremely Artistic craft or Artisan Crafts might fit better.

We went from room to room oohing and awing at the pieces. We finally went to what seemed to be the end corridor only to find a new Gem! The Education class rooms and the workshop for those who just wanted to come and craft with others. We hit the right night, Wednesday. A group gathers around 6 - 7 PM and just does their own thing. We saw several making "Dream Catchers" each one very different from the others. Another lady was there because she wanted to learn how to knit. She pulled out several beautiful scarves she had made. Her choice of yarns, mixed together made some spectacular pieces.

We asked about the schedule of classes and since most of us are interested in jewelry were told that we should wait a while and Ann would be here. She makes lots of jewelry. While waiting, we had fun talking to the people already there. Our group almost filled a table but Ann shortly joined us and then the conversations really got started. What classes have you taken and the infamous passing our jewelry around. How did you do that? Where did you get those stones? Do you buy on line? What are your favorite sites? and on and on.

Then we all had a laugh when one of our group started laughing about a post she (and several others) had seen on The Beading Daily blog. It was called "The Beaders Handshake"

"That’s when you walk up to another bedecked beader (maybe someone you don’t even know), stare at her chest, freely pick up the focal piece on the necklace she’s wearing, get a goofy “wow” look on your face, look into their eyes, and then finally say 'Hello!' ”

We had just done that to Ann when she walked in.As the conversation rolled around to point out that we all had much in common, Ann mentioned that she is going to start teaching at a bead store in Mansfield. We, in a chorus said "The Beadcache?" Of course, many of us met there and all frequent the place often. That is where I teach Chain Maille classes.

We are all sure that we will be back to the Fuller Craft Museum. If you live close, you should check it out.

B

South Shore Beaders

Last night we had our monthly South Shore Beaders gathering. I certainly wouldn't call it a "meeting". We had much too much fun to be a meeting.

We have a new member. She found us on Google. Now, we think that is wonderful and a little amazing. It seems if you search for "South Shore Beaders", my blog posts came up and she emailed me and and came to our gathering. We think she is "keeper" and sent her home with several of our boxes. (Each one of us have boxes that have been collected by our audiologist member - repurposing boxes that hearing aides come in and are now used for our jewelry projects)

Since we had a new member we took time during our dinner to tell something about ourselves. This was very nice since we all found out something new about each other.

However, the highlight of the evening was when we decided to open an Etsy shop as a group. We all went home with assignments to get started.

Oh yes, we had our usual show and tell which is the most fun. What a talented group we have. The interesting thing really is how we encourage and teach each other.

A good time was had by all.

B

South Shore Beaders

Last night we had our monthly meeting of the South Shore Beaders. The group has about 8-9 "members" who are jewelry designers and live in the local area (South of Boston, MA)

With the busy holiday season over we were all ready for good "bead talk and sharing". Our simple reason for getting together.

There were only 6 of us last night and we started gabbing as soon as we were seated. The restaurant we go to is Bertucci's and they nicely give us three tables off toward the back of the restaurant. It is nice and quiet and we can stay as long as we like.

The waitress has a bit of a problem getting our orders as we are usually all talking and tend to ignore her. However, since we go to the same place all the time, we know the menu and our favorites and it isn't that hard once she gets our attention.

Most everyone brings some thing for "Show and Tell". Last night's items were new fused glass photo pendants, some beautiful crocheted black and gold ropes, a Kumihimo necklace, and a gorgeous felted hand bag. (Someone took a bead break)

Before we left we had decided on our next meeting date, a date to learn how to crochet bead ropes, a date to learn graduated Full Persian earrings and of course times when we would attend the Innovative Bead show in Marlboro this coming weekend.

All in all it was a great gathering with lots of fun and friendship.

B

Doing things even if Afraid

I just finished reading a post on the blog of a 1000Markets shop. Abelee's http://www.1000markets.com/blog_posts/675

The title of the post is "Do it Afraid". She talks about stepping up to do something even if you are afraid. For example, doing shows for selling her products even though , at first, they did not work out well. Each improved when she conquered her fear.

It reminded me of a discussion we had at our recent South Shore Beaders meeting. We were laughing about the phrases we have come up with to explain our "problems" that we some times have in making our jewelry. We all need to see that we are not alone in these problems and eventually "forcing" us to step out and do something. Friends are good and Groups of Friends are even better!

One of our laughable phrases is "FOF" and lately "FOG". Fear of Finishing and Fear of Glue. Very silly but sometimes we recognize that it is true and we need to work afraid anyhow.

Fear of finishing is interesting since we are almost finished with a piece, then something holds us up. "I can't find end caps I like" or "The clasps I have just don't go". And on and on the excuses go. I'm sure you can think of a few of your own excuses.

Just do it comes to mind also.

Fear of gluing, well that seems a bit different. There are many steps in making jewelry and gluing is one that we often do, "Just to make sure" something will hold. Is it necessary? Sometimes, and sometimes not. Just another thing to make sure our pieces are as perfect as we can make them.

But gluing is messy, takes time and don't forget about putting the top back on. One of my favorite things my husband says about glue is "If the glue is really good, you shouldn't be able to get the top off" One of the reasons I only buy small sizes of glue is that they always dry up before I use the whole tube. So, does this help you to understand "FOG"?

I won't make any comments about what else "FOG" could represent.

;-)

We will be on vacation next week and I'm not sure if I will have Internet access. So, Happy Thanksgiving to you all and thanks for reading my blog.

B