Studio Saturday with Jangles

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

This week's very lucky winner is Arline(abeadlady)! Congratulations! Please send your postal address to the ABS Suggestion Box to receive a fused glass charm by Lynn Davis.

This week we take a peak into the Jangles studio, literally!

Hey, Hey It's studio Saturday and here we are almost two weeks from Christmas. Things are starting to wind down here at the Jangles studio. It's been a busy holiday season here. It also seems to have flown by. I thought this week I would show you my studio in it's crazy holiday state. The whole sha-bang, mess and all. I can guarantee there will be a big clean up at the first of the year. The photo above is what it looked like a few months ago when it was just finished. You'll notice things have changed a bit.

You may have seen my book, Ceramic Bead Jewelry, 30 Fired and Inspired Projects, if you have you might be familiar with the process of ceramic bead making. If not...well you'll get to learn about the process today too. I will show you the stations of my studio in the order that I use them to make a bead.

Here we go...

First is my making table. This is where I form all of my beads.Here on my table you can see all of my cutter's. I make most of them myself.


After the beads are dry they go to the kiln. My kilns are out in the garage. The fumes that the clay lets off when it is heated aren't great to breathe, so that's why they aren't in my house. I have three kilns. We call them mama bear, papa bear, and baby bear.After the beads come out of the kiln, they are glazed. Here is my glaze table. Messy. I know. This room is separate and out of the main house, for the reason of mess. Glazes when dry and loose can make dust that isn't good to breathe. I keep it out of the house as much as I can.

Here are beads waiting to be glazed.

Now the beads go back into the kiln. This time they go on stilts and wires. Since you have already seen a picture of my kilns, here is a picture of all of my kiln furniture. It takes a lot of these bars and wires to get all my beads in the kiln.

Now, if I were making jewelry, the beads would come back inside to my jewelry table and this is where I would assemble it. This might be the messiest part of my studio right now. Yikes, that looks bad!

If I am getting ready for a show or making stock my beads they would go here to my bead table.

If my beads are going in an order then they go back out to the glaze studio. I have my packing table out there.There it is the official Jangles studio tour. I hope you enjoyed it. There's not really an appropriate question to go with my tour today. I have to ask something so you will be able to answer to win a Jangles Pendant. Here we go....

Have your beads taken over your house like mine have? Leave a comment, I would love to hear about your studio.

Happy Holidays,
Jennifer