Silver Bee

Silver Bee is cooking...bead soup!

You may have already heard of Bead Soup Blog Party but in case you haven't it was created by Lori McDaniel Anderson. The first Bead Soup Blog Party was in December 2010, and it's been held twice a year since then.

So, first you sign up, then Lori does the monumental task of assigning you a partner. Nearly 500 particpants from approximately 38 countries signed up for the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party. Next you create a bead soup for the person you've been partnered with and send it to them. They in turn send you theirs and you each create with the soup you've been sent. When you are done you reveal what you have created with your soup. Today is my reveal!

I was lucky to have an international partner, Marjolein Trewavas, from Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. She is a textile designer who creatively up-cycles treasures she finds at auctions, second hand stores, thrift shops and anywhere else they may show up. In her words she creates an "eclectic mix of colourful sometimes vintage bazaar style pieces that are sometimes slightly kitsch, sometimes romantic and shabby chic but always visually stimulating and fun to wear or to have in your house."

After exchanging a few emails to get to know each other a bit more I went about trying to put together what I hoped would be a the perfect bead soup for Marjolein. 

It was so exciting when the parcel arrived from Marjolein and just as exciting unpacking it. I was overwhelmed by her generosity; there were so many materials that I had never worked with before.

   

She suceeded in pushing me outside my comfort zone which is a good thing. So it was time to get to work and see what I could come up with. It was a challenge. I tried many different designs and was happy with none of them until I decided I was going to cook up an 'everything but the kitchen sink soup' which just means everything goes into the soup pot. I put all the beads in a bowl and randomly picked a bead to wire wrap. I then added lengths of brass chain both bright and antiqued in between each successive bead I picked. There was no rhyme or reason to my process. I trusted it would all work out. And work out it did! I was so pleased with the result. It's unlike anything I've made before and I loved the mix of colours. I couldn't use all the beads for the necklace, what's left is reserved for another piece. One of the Bead Soup rules is you must use the pendant piece and the clasp. Obviously I broke that rule with this design but I couldn't bring myself to make any changes. So I tried for another piece and I was almost happy with the result but not quite enough to reveal it just yet. That will have to wait for my next post.

Now for the big reveal. The necklace measures 275 cm which is approximately 108 inches. There are a few options for the number of strands it can be.

 

Please visit Marjolein's blog, Room for Change, to see what she has created with the bead soup I've sent her. Thank you Marjolein for your incredible bead soup! It was a pleasure to get to know you through our emails and I hope we stay in touch. I promise to keep designing with beads left in the bowl and to share those reveals with you.

Next take a trip around the world following the links on Lori's site, Pretty Things, to the other blogs also revealing their Bead Soup. It's going to be quite the party! Take the time to leave a comment if see something you really like.

Thank you to Lori McDaniel Anderson for all the hard work she has put into this. She inspires me with not only all the work hours it takes to pull and keep this all together but the fact that she did it while dealing with a serious illness. I know that there were also many on her team who stepped up to the plate to help when it was needed. Thank you to them as well.

Looking forward to the next Bead Soup Blog Party!

Silver Bee and Mea culpa

First, thank you to those wonderful people who kept encouraging me to continue writing posts for this blog. I have been on a bit of a hiatus but I think that I can safely say that it is over.

It's all about balance. And trying to balance working, teaching, creating and writing proved to be a bit overwhelming. That's because of the expectations I had of myself. So I've re-calibrated my thinking on it. In particular the expectations of writing for this blog. I love to share what I've learned about working with silver, and new tools I've discovered or made. Sometimes it's just a quick tip and other times, well it can be epic. 

Mea culpa: my problem is I'm not a writer, well not in the grammatically correct sense. I mix up my tenses, add commas and quotes where they are not necessary and I can write run on sentences and overstate the obvious. For the most part before you see my posts they have been proof read and cleaned up. I'm learning bit-by-bit but my heart is not in it. I would rather whip up a post about something new and exciting I've learned at my bench and then go back to learning more. So from now on that is what you the reader will get. I trust that you'll let me know if I've gone too far over the line. 

Wow that feels so much better! 

Okay now I can show you a couple of new pieces I've worked on. Both are made with silver that I cast into garbanzo beans and the ring has a piece of the water cast. I need to remember that taking a photo of each of my pieces is important. My pattern is to get it ready to go out the door and then realize with panic I've forgotten to take a photo. But that's another post!

A close up of the garbanzo bean cast pendant.  The Viking Knit  chain that inspired it is approximately 50 cm (20") long and a little more than 1 cm (1/2") thick.

This ring water cast silver with a piece garbanzo bean cast on top and flush set with a beautiful garnet (photo does it no justice).

Moral of the story: Sometimes being good enough is well...good enough!

But cuttlefish are so cute!

A few weeks ago in my Wednesday evening class I tried cuttlefish bone casting for the first time. I was eager to try it again but my classmates understandably asked me to wait to the end of the class (it smells very bad). But I got distracted by another project, forgot about cuttlefish, and then ran out of time.

 I looked up cuttlefish on Google to see what they looked like before they're 'de-boned'. I wasn't sure what to expect but it wasn't this. Cute little thing, isn't it? Like squid, they eject dark ink when confronted by predators. As hunters they are ambush predators with the ability to camouflage themselves until they are ready to strike. Surprise!

The bone part is called the mantle. It's located behind the head which on the outside features eight arms plus two tentacles which are used to snatch prey. Mmm...not so cute anymore. The bone itself is gas-filled which helps cuttlefish remain buoyant. 

My first attempt didn't yield a masterpiece but the experience had its moments. I was trying to make a textured ring shank, but when I poured the molten silver I kind of missed the sprue which is the channel to the mold. This meant that the amount of silver left didn't quite meet the quantity requirements. But I will have an opportunity to try it again, perhaps doing things a little differently. Better aim maybe??

So this is what the cuttlefish bone looks like when you first purchase it. The cuttlefish bones I had were small which meant I would need two to make a complete mold. I took some photos after the fact trying to recreate the steps. They will give you an idea of what it looks like after the molten silver has been poured. 

The bone ends required removal and I was quite surprised by the hardness of the outside casing. It was tough to cut with a jeweller's saw. Now I understand why the instructions recommend cutting it with a hacksaw (which I now own). I used course sandpaper for sanding one side of each cuttlefish bone flat so they would lay flat against the other.  When I had a good fit it was time to carve a design. The idea was to make a ring with a texture created by the cuttlefish bone. Using a wax carver I created a shallow trough for the ring. I should have used a lighter touch because after I cooled it I found the piece was almost 2.3 mm thick. A bit heavier than I intended would be a an understatement. It occurred to me to file it away but too much silver would be lost. Instead I'm going to melt it and use it for the next pour.  

I'm always looking to learn something new. What I learned from this was to take my time and think it through to the end.

Below are the photos I took. I had thrown the mold out when I was through with it  but had second thoughts and retrieved it from the garbage. Even wrapped in paper towel it still was not a pleasant passenger on the drive home...it really stunk!

Notice in the second photo the 'v' shape above the burnt area...it's the channel called a sprue where the molten silver is poured into the mold. You can click on the photos to enlarge them for detail. 

I'm looking forward to trying this again in my class. Any attempts to try it at home will have to wait until summer when I can work outdoors!