Playing with Patinas

Today's post is from Beverly Herman, she has been experimenting with patinas and has generously shared her process.

I used Sophisticated Finishes to create the verdigris finish on the dragonfly. This product contains special salts and oxidation agents to speed up the process. Highlights of the dragonfly body were achieved with Silver-black.

Supplies:

Brass Dragonfly

Sophisticated Finishes Patina Green Antiquing solution

Silver-Black solution

Fine steel wool

Johnson & Johnson paste wax

Rubber gloves

Q-tips

Step 1: Use fine steel wool to clean and prepare the surface for patina.

Step 2: Paint a coat of Sophisticated Finishes on the dragonfly. Let it air dry and repeat for a second coat. I waited over night for the oxidation process to take place.

Step 3: Use a Q-tip to darken the body of the dragonfly with Silver-Black. Repeat for the outside edges of the wings. Take the steel wool and run it across the body to bring out the brass highlights.

Step Four: Paint a third coat of the patina over the entire dragonfly. Wait over night for the oxidation to take place.

Step Five: A final time use the steel wool to bring out the brass highlights on the wings and body. When you are happy with the results rub a small amount of paste wax over the dragonfly and polish with a soft cloth.

Notes: Sophisticated Finishes is water-based for easy clean-up. Wear rubber gloves to protect your hands. Additional information about this product can be found at http://www.modernoptions.com/

Pictured here is a copper etched pendant that has been treated with the Sophisticated Finishes solution.

Patina solution: Michael's.  Silver/Black Solution: local lapidary/jewelry supply shop.  Dragonfly: Vintaj.  Paste Wax: Ace Hardware.

Beverly blogs at noeasybeads.blogspot.com and sells her jewelry and patterns in her Etsy shop.

Featured Designer of the Week

Each Monday we feature the Designer of the Week. One of our editors pick their favorite from the Monthly Challenge entries.

This week I picked "The Jangle Bangle" by Abney_m from the Art Bead Scene flickr group.

"Marcie's bracelet uses the wonderful bright colors of Piano Playing Cow. I love the beautiful twist in the bracelet and of course Jennifer's/Jangle focal bead."

To see more of Marcie's work you can visit her blog La Bella Joya and Etsy Shop.

Want to see your work here next week? Enter our monthly challenge today!

Sunday with Cindy

Good morning, Beady Readers! Wondering what's going on in the bead and jewelry world? Take a peek at our links and see.....


A Bead A Day
Have a favorite piece of day-to-day jewelry? Lisa shares hers and reasons for leaning toward practicality.

About.com Jewelrymaking
Tammy offers you two simple ways to become part of the on-line jewelry making community.

Art Bead Scene
Take a tour with the Art Bead Scene. We've got places to go and beads to see!

Barbe Saint John - New Jewelry from Forgotten Artifacts
Simply Gemstones book review

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi creates a new necklace with heart shaped resin pendants she made.

Cindy Gimbrone aka Lampwork Diva
Take a walk on the dark side and see what kind of jewelry Cindy comes up with.

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie begins her celebration of a week of crystal pendants with an autumn inspired fairy butterfly necklace

Jean Campbell
How do you use beads to decorate your house? Check out these photos of Jean's beady household decor.

Jewelry & Beading
Have you ever thought about trying glass fusing? The talented Wendy Talaro shares a fused glass primer this week!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Lorelei is hosting a Necklace Round Robin, come check out the necklaces as they transform!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean recalls and reposts a recipe for some cool October earrings, now that there is a chill in the air!

Strands of Beads
Melissa blogs about an intriguing new blog by lampwork artist Sarah Moran

Studio Saturday with Creative Impressions In Clay

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.
Last weeks winner is OO Congratulations! You have won one of Jangles Christmas Tree Beads from the studio of Jennifer Heynen. Send Jennifer an e-mail with your address and she will get it right out to you.

This week we visit the studio of Tari Sasser at Creative Impressions In Clay.

New Fall like colors for my Toggle Button Collection. When I originally did my glaze test colors they were made in the two tone turquoise colors. They then transitioned into one color. I really like how the Wine, Gold and Brown colors came out. This collection of buttons is really versatile. They look great on everything and make fantastic clasps.

I have to be short this Saturday, OK I'm short everyday, my post has to be short. It's soccer season and I'm racing to get to a game on time.


My Question this week is:

What do you like most about fall?

It's my favorite time of the year. I love the cooler crisp weather and the beautiful colors. Oh, and fresh fall apples.


Leave a comment and you could win one of the toggle buttons pictured above.

October Monthly Prizes

We have 2 prizes this month from 2 fantastic ceramic artists!

Diane Hawkey works in many different mediums. Clay is the medium of choice for this months prize. Diane will be giving one lucky winner the colorful Pendants and Beads shown above. The fabulous things you could make with these!

Visit Diane's website or Etsy store to see all her lovely talents.

Jennifer Heynen of Jangles created these wonderful embellishments and striped tube beads for her prize this month. A lucky contributor will win all these handmade items made from white clay and hand painted colorful underglazes.

You can see all of Jennifer's creations on her website, etsy bead shop and her new etsy gift shop.

Get your Art Beads, Buttons, Charms or Pendants out, start creating and enter this months challenge!

Piano Playing Cow by Ruby C. Williams is a bright childlike inspiration for your creations this month!

September Monthly Challenge Winner

Kandinsky inspired necklace
Originally uploaded by isinglass design

Congratulations to ISingGlass Designs! You are the winner for this month's challenge. This entry was randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries this month. ISingGlass has won a $30 gift certificate from Ornamentea and an awesome one-of--a-kind Kandinsky inspired button from Creative Impressions in Clay.

Thanks to everyone for playing along this month. I can't wait to see what kind of crazy and funky designs are inspired by our new challenge painting!

October Monthly Challenge

This month's inspiration painting was chosen by ABS editor Jennifer Heynen/Jangles who has been taking folk art classes.

Piano Playing Cow by Ruby C. Williams

"Along the highways of central Florida, there are plenty of produce stands offering just-picked local crops. But the stand run by Ruby C. Williams is definitely unique. Ruby and her family farm the same land that has been in their family since slavery. Some years back while waiting for the next car to stop, Ruby began painting signs on scrap wood advertising the

butterbeans, strawberries and other seasonal goodies that she had on hand. The painted signs soon became as popular as the produce. Ruby’s bright paintings are rich with folk wisdom and observations of human behavior. Over the years she has developed many recurring characters and phrases. Her little produce stand/artist studio has become a colorful environment where the local community holds an annual celebration in her honor. Check out Ruby’s website on folkvine."

Have fun with this color palette of bright red, blue and orange along with the boldness of black and white. Pull out the striped art beads, layout some fall colored charms and let's see what you can come up with for this challenge!

Your entry this month can be influenced by the colors, pattern or whatever you choose to focus on for your creation. Just remember to include at least one art bead in your design. The Prizes:

A winner will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on July 1st.

Our sponsors this month are 2 special clay artists Diane Hawkey and Jangles, please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes! Featured Designer of the Week!

From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:

1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.

***Beads by themselves and beads simply strung on a chain or cord will not be accepted.***

2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a
tutorial for sending your picture to the group. If you can't upload to Flickr, send your entry and information to Heather.

Please add the tag or title
OCTABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is September 30th. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn't followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.

*** A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.