Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Beads of Courage 2014 Reveal and Auction

This is my 2nd year to join Jennifer Cameron's Beads of Courage Art Charm Exchange and Benefit Auction.  About 40 bead makers and jewelry designers signed up to create Art Charms in an effort to support and raise money for a great cause, Beads of Courage.  


If you don't know about Beads of Courage, click the link to see what they do. It's an amazing organization dedicated to providing comfort and helping kids share their stories of what they've been through during their long illness. This is done using BEADS...how cool is that??


I created 11 Art Charms using this year's theme...SOAR

Beads of Courage 2014 Charm - SOAR

I decided to create angel wings using my new favorite medium...polymer clay.    


Angels soar high above to watch over and protect us.


I custom mixed a deep purple for the wings and a lighter periwinkle color to stamp the word "soar".  I hand cut and textured each charm using multiple tools.  The edges were smoothed and the stamped letters highlighted with black ink to make them stand out.  I also brushed a sparkly mica powder on each wing.  A hole was cut into the top corner so a jump ring could be added for hanging.  I created and added a faux rivet using black clay to help reinforce the hole and to add character.  On the back of each charm I added a tiny heart between the wings using liquid clay which helped to bond them and added the final special touch. 

Beads of Courage 2014 Charm Backside - SOAR

The benefit auction starts today and the start times have been staggered so everyone has a chance to bid and win a little piece of art.  See all the beautiful charms and bid to help us raise money for Beads of Courage right here: Click to go to Auction


Click the links below this photo to see the awesome charms that everyone else made.  Here's a peek of the charms I received in the swap:

Beads of Courage 2014 Charm Swap

Cory Tompkins: http://www.tealwaterdesigns.blogspot.com (THIS IS ME)
Jenny Davies-Reazor: http://www.jdaviesreazor.com/blog
Lennis Carrier: http://www.windbent.net





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Monday, October 6, 2014

Charms and Spikes

I love little details, here's some of my new polymer clay spikes and charms with pretty detailed textures.  

The spikes started out plain and then I tried adding some acrylic paint to show the texture more, I love how they came out...what do you think?






Thanks!
Cory




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Monday, June 23, 2014

Color Mixing and Polymer Clay Bead Making Class

About a month ago I saw a post on Facebook that Heather Powers was doing a new online class called The Art of Color Polymer Clay Bootcamp.  I was so excited not only to learn about color, but to do it using Polymer Clay!  I think the best part is that I can learn from one of my favorite bead artists!!  I knew I HAD to take this class.

 Week 1 has been amazing, this is a 4 week course but we have lifetime access to the "classroom" so the fact that I work a FT job is okay.  I can work at my own pace.  Heather has been so great with her gentle teaching style, she gives advice and let's us figure some things out on our own.  That's perfect for me, I don't want to be told all the answers, if I can figure something out I will retain it so much better.  

 Here are my 2 color wheels from this week.  

 CYM
CMY Color Wheel Polymer Clay
 RYB

RYB Color Wheel Polymer Clay


 Here's my complimentary palette chosen from 2 colors in one of the wheels above.
Polymer Clay Color Palette

and the canes I made using the palette
Polymer Clay stripe cane and leaf cane

and some beads I made using the canes

Polymer Clay beads


Polymer Clay beads using stripe cane
















Polymer clay beads with cane slices


I'm excited to see what we will be doing this week but I also want to explore lots more of these complimentary palette's to see what the other colors look like.

I will post more pictures of what I make next week.

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Saturday, May 24, 2014

Waxed Linen Blog Hop

Diana Ptaszynski owner of Suburban Girl Studio is hosting a waxed linen blog hop inspired by Erin Siegel who co-wrote the book Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry, with Lorelei Eurto. 

I love jewelry designed with waxed linen.  Since I had just bought some from Lorelei's Jewelry Accord shop I figured this hop was a great reason to show it off.

Waxed linen owl bracelet with art beads

The bracelet I made uses several Artisan Beads including a clay button I chose from a travelling bead box swap made by Lisa Peters (when I find out who made this I will update...if it's yours please tell me in the comments!!), my own TealwaterDesigns polymer clay owl and a gorgeous lampwork bead made by Erin Davenport, Fire Lily.  

TealwaterDesigns Owl Bracelet

I also used a blue czech flower (I am gaga over these), a chunky wooden bead I bought in a de-stash, Czech triangles and some metal leaves that I rubbed with bronze wax.
Polymer Clay Owl by TealwaterDesigns

I had fun making this bracelet.  I really love the clay button as a closure but it doesn't hang exactly as I would like so I might trade it out for something else.  
glass, czech beads, metal dangles

Thanks Diana for a fun hop!  Check out the others who participated by clicking Diana's name above.

Cory

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Friday, May 9, 2014

BSBP 8 Reveal Day

It's Reveal Day!!!

 This is my third year to participate in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party.  Lori pairs 500 people up to swap some beads, a focal and a clasp are all that is actually required to send and to use but there's always more...were all bead lovers, you know!!

 My partner this year is CJ Bauschka, read all about our swap.

 CJ sent me a focal connector with loops for hanging.  I have been working with polymer clay a lot so I decided to make something special to go with the focal.  Some ideas were created and I tried different things out but eventually I decided to make some organic style "spikes".  I have made lots of custom colors with clay but this time I used the clay color right out of the package, it's called Peacock Pearl...I love it!  
I wanted the clay spikes to be textured so mixed up some molding clay and made a texture stamp from the focal.  Using the stamp I made, I pressed the clay drops and got a nice texture you can see here.

And here is the finished necklace.  



To fill in the loops on the focal I dangled the beautiful teal button pearls CJ sent on each side of the spikes.  These were wire wrapped with micro faceted Apetite gemstones I have been hording for several years. 

I draped green stick pearls separated by the bronze firepolished beads CJ sent to expand the design a bit.  On each end of the focal I wire wrapped a polymer clay connector matching the spikes in color and texture. 


I draped more of the teal pearl and apetite dangles between the focal and chain on each side.  The chain also included some Swarovski bicones CJ sent.




The clasp is pretty neat, you squeeze it to open, I finished it off with a few more dangles...I really love those pearls and gemmies!!


So...I had these two clay spikes left over and I really wanted to make some earrings with them.  The color went really nicely with some polymer clay textured squares made by Lennis Carrier of Windbent.  


I connected everything with some slate gray waxed linen by Jewelry Accord and used a few more of those little pearls!  

CJ also sent me a pretty stamped metal focal,
I haven't come up with a worthy design yet...but I will!  Visit me again to see what I come up with!

Now, let's go see what CJ made...

Cory
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Thursday, March 27, 2014

BSBP 8 Swap

My partner for Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party this year is the talented Miss CJ Bauschka.  I recognized CJ from past hops but she has been busy so I haven't seen her around in a while.  CJ is very sweet and I'm glad she's back!

Here are some pictures of our BSBP swap...

What CJ sent to me
CJ sent me an Antique Bronze Multi Strand Focal piece and a stamped metal charm.  The clasp is a cool swivel style also in the dark broze color which I really like.  To round it off she added some teal (my favorite color) button pearls, bronze firepolished czech beads and Golden Shadow Swarovski bicones.  The ideas are just swirling in my head!
What I sent to CJ
I was a little late in sending my soup to CJ.  I really wanted to send her some of my new polymer clay art beads but I had many trials and errors before I decided on these.  I picked a lampwork focal that Marcia Seever from ShaZazz Creations in Glass made, isn't is gorgeous?  The clasp is a copper toggle handmade by Cheryl Foiles Designs (I got one for me too!).  I added some chain and czech beads and, of course, a few Swaros for bling.  I can't wait to see what CJ makes with this soup!

 The reveal date is May 3rd so stop back by to see what we make!


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Monday, January 13, 2014

New Directions

Happy New Year!

 I love BEADS!!  Yep, I said it.  I especially love art beads.  Since I got a little money for Christmas I decided to try making some.  A few months ago I bought some air dry clay to play with and I really loved the feel of clay in my hands and what I was able to make.  

 I decided to try Polymer Clay since it can be baked to become a solid, hard bead or pendant that can be used in jewelry design.  So far I really love it.

 Some finished pieces...







 And some unfinished...




 I like to just jump in and try things out when I get new "toys" and the pictures above are just me playing with stamps, paint and textures.  

 Now I am learning about mixing colors and trying some basic techniques to get a good foundation in this medium. I also bought some mold maker to design some of my own impressions...I promise to share when I get to that part.

 What new mediums or techniques are you trying this year?

-Cory
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