I know I have been negligent in getting some new material up here! Lots of summer company and deadlines have kept me focused elsewhere! I have been working on my classes for the Bead and Button show for 2013 and wanted to share the process with you.
I teach the same techniques every year: Cold Joins and Connections and in-depth Resin. To attract students to my classes I need to have new ideas and new designs. This year I learned how important the design and photo are. I had this piece above that just had a nice balance and photographed really well and it sold out at every show. I think the $40 stone helps too.
So thinking that the expensive stone would make my look, I spent some green on some nice stones. When when I got home and starting designing of course none of them fell together quite as nicely as I wanted. The problem is always the time factor. I think of it all year, it's just that other things take precidence and once again I was up against the deadline and running out of time very fast! Creating under pressure is a two edged sword.
I started with some sketches, trying out lines that appealed to me. Here are my journal pages...
I wanted to use some ideas with curves, height and movement with the necessary rivets. I have been teaching hinges for the past three years so I was looking for a new spin on that too. I usually start making as many peices as I have time for and then choose my favorites.
I made this back piece out of bronze, it was one of the shapes that I was loving. I like riveting curvy pieces and was headed this direction but it wasn't really speaking to me so it's still sitting on the work bench in this condition.
I also wanted to do a tabbed piece and made this one with the chevron shape and loved the look but it was just too heavy--so I cut off the bottom. I had riveted all the pieces to a back plate and when I finished I kind of wondered if I should have attached them with chain, but that seemed like it had already been done. I will continue to play with the chevron shape--I like it a lot. The round stone with tabs is a look I will keep playing with too. The trick with tabs is not to get them too strong and I'm still playing with the proportions.
I did get to the warehouse and make up lots of new packets of The Overflowing Stash so leave a comment for a chance to win some!
The next installment will be the designs that I submitted to the show so sign up for this blog to recieve notice of when it's posted or follow me on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ObjectsElements
