Adjustable Leather Knot Necklace Tutorial

I shared this project on my blog recently and thought the ABS readers would love it too. I've been wearing the ones I made almost every day.  They are perfect for those hot days when you don't want to wear anything heavy or have metal sticking to you!

Materials:

Blooms & Birds set from Humblebeads

Ceramic round bead from Firefly Designs

Pewter nest from Green Girl Studios

36" 1mm leather cord from Primitive Earth Beads

Use any round beads for the project, just make sure the holes are at least 1mm.

Directions:

1. Find the center of the cord. 2.5" from the center tie a knot, add the bird bead, tie a knot, add a bead, tie knot. Repeat adding a bead and tying a knot for the remaining 6 beads.

2. Adjustable knots: overlap the two ends of the cord with about 6" of cord on each side of the necklace. Create a loop with one end of the cord, leaving a 2-3" tail. Wrap the end of the cord around both strands of leather and around the loop, keep wrapping the cord around all three cords two more times. Slide the end of the cord into the loop and pull tightly. 

This is a budget friendly version with a raven and round art bead from Humblebeads and wood, ceramic, bone and metal beads from the arts & crafts store. 

Here is a video tutorial so you can see how to make the adjustable knots on this necklace.

Amuse Your Muse - Studio Tip of the Month! - with Rebecca of Songbead

Hello everyone! Welcome to another week....of July.....the second week in fact. How did that happen? I'm really not sure. It feels like just yesterday that I was wrapped up in blankets with an electric heater on, typing away in January whilst we waited on deliveries of heating oil.....now the sun is out, and we have begun the latter half of the year. 

And the summer for many of us means craft fair season! Either as a vendor, a customer or as both. I know I'll be doing a bit of both this year.....It's a time when often the best laid plans of mice and (wo)men get thrown to the wind, beads get flung around, and any studio or workspace's disorganisation can reach epic proportions - or is that just me?! Thank GOODNESS that the beads that I stock over at The Curious Bead Shop are organised in an entirely different manner than everything else, otherwise my studio really would be 100% chaos and I would have to give up and pour myself a stiff drink. Maybe one of those would help anyway! 

So what better time to begin the new monthly segment, looking at bead storage and peeking into artists' studio spaces. Ok, I know I won't be giving you a peek into ALL of my studio, as really, it is quite a mess (understatement)....But I will be sharing tips and tricks from others, and maybe an organised and/or inspirational studio will pop up here too. Perhaps even a small corner of my studio....

Are you more organised than me? Would you like to share your studio or a brilliant storage tip? Leave a comment or email me at songbead {at} me {dot} com! 

The first storage tip comes from our very own Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori-Trovati Jewelry. And it's a good one. Chain - isn't it a pain to store? Doesn't yours get completely tangled, however many times you separate it out? Erin has come up with a great and creative solution.

"My favourite storage solution is the paper towel holder that I display and sort all of my chain by metal type! It used to actually be in a box, and this way I can see it all on the wall!"

"Not the best shot but I think you get the idea! It is a metal paper towel holder from Hobby Lobby. I used shower curtain hooks that look sort of like carabiner clips to separate all the different chains that I have into types and metal. Makes it SOOOO much easier to find the chain I want instead of digging through baggies and bins! "

Wouldn't this make life so much easier? What I love most about this, perhaps even more than the 'tangle-free' aspect, is that Erin can actually see what she has. Am I the only one who sometimes comes across a baggy of detangled chain that was sorted into a dark corner somewhere and forgotten about for quite some time? And as a bonus, they all look very pretty together too, hanging down like that!

What's your favourite bead storage tip, or corner of your studio? We'd love to know! 

Next week, we'll be back to Amuse Your Muse - and this month's theme? Ceramic beads. Share links to your favourite ceramic art beads and ceramic art bead artists in the comments below! Do you make ceramic beads? Share a link! We'd love to see them too.

And now for the BeadBlogger Links. Have a great week everyone!

Carmi'a Art/Life World
I have now sewn my fourth crazy cuff and even I am stunned at how great this one turned out! So happy I gave up reading patterns and just started sewing!

Resin Crafts Blog
I love to turn packaging into wearable art. This year's tea box artwork made it even easier to design a necklace.

Art Bead Scene
Has your mojo decided to go on holiday without you? Check out Rebecca's post on how to get stuck back in to your jewellery making when you've lost your mojo!

The Inspired by Reading Book Club reads about botany and booze!
"The Drunken Botanist" by Amy Stewart is an intoxicating exploration of the botanical histories of some of our favorite beverages. See how this book inspired a group of artists and jewelry-makers!

Would it be Pretentious to call this my Studio?
I ask because it's really starting to feel like one. And I remodeled it on less than $15!

Beading Arts
Cyndi managed to finish her June piece for the Bead Journal Project with a little time to spare...but only a little!

Cuteness Alert
What is cuter than a matching bunny and baby afghan?

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer, currently living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. You can read more about her and her work at her blog, songbeads.blogspot.com and see more of her jewellery at songbead.etsy.com. She also has a supplies shop at thecuriousbeadshop.etsy.com.

July Monthly Challenge Color Palette

Whenever summer rolls around, I just want to be at the beach. That's how I spent my summers growing up (total water baby over here), so this month's challenge art work is right up my alley!

So, too, are the colors. Pretty much every color is represented in some form here, with the biggest amounts being shades of blue and green (my favorite), and the next being the purples.

The trick with this painting is to make sure not to go too bright or saturated here. Overall, this is a fairly muted painting and color palette, with dozens of subtle shades that blend into each other, versus boldly standing out. Keep everything toned down and cool - like choosing cooler yellow browns instead of warmer orange browns, and blue-purples over red-purples - and you'll be just fine.

You also want to watch the amount of colors you use. The red at the top, which is the brightest, most saturated of all the colors, is only used sparingly in small amounts; same goes for the yellow-y tan. But you can use as much blue, green, and purple as you like. Start with light to medium blues, medium to dark olive greens, and dark blue-purples, and go from there.

Your turn: what colors are you loving from this month's palette?

Inside the Studio with Mary Harding

Inside the Studio :: Mary Harding of Mary Harding Jewelry

                           Welcome to Inside the Studio!

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.

Congratulations, Colleen  You have won a Q Marks the Spot Necklace from Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati Jewelry that Erin will create just for you.   Please send Erin an email with your information.

________________________________

         This week we visit the studio of Mary Harding of Mary Harding Jewelry

                              Some porcelain beads I made recently by Mary Harding

Beads, beads, beads. That is what I have been up to.  Shaping them.  Coloring them. Glazing them. Experimenting with them and yes, taking a class about a special way of making them.  More about that in another post later this summer.

  Beads in the bisque stage that I made a couple of days ago  by Mary Harding

What do I like about making beads?  It is working with my hands, the process of moving and shaping the clay, the feel of the soft velvety clay on my hands, and most of all the exciting journey to that special place in my consciousness where the Now takes over, the endorphins are flowing and and the inner critic is mute. I like to think of the process of making beads as a non verbal stream of consciousness.  As a place where the mind is freed up and the hands and eyes are in charge, not my thoughts and rational thinking.

                          Notice how short my finger nails are and how the clay is neither too sticky or too dry:  all prerequisites to                                                                   working with clay for bead making

And how do I get there since it takes a bit of warm up before it all comes together and the journey and exploration begins?  For me it takes quiet, assurance that I will not be interrupted, warmth, and a comfortable chair and table arrangement and a reasonable plan for how many I will make.  I usually like to make beads in small amounts so as not to feel overwhelmed or like it is a chore.  I usually decide ahead of time which tools I will use and set them out.  I like to have a bit of structure regarding how I will work which could involve size, and only a few tools for marking the clay.

                        Tools I used in this most recent bead making session

Yesterday when I was glazing my beads I set up a structure of 4 colors and piles of 5 beads in each pile that I would use one color with for the base coat.  By the end of the session, when my hands took over I was using 6 colors and even painting at times by dipping my fingers into the colors.  I had a wonderful time and I just love how the beads came out.

the beads with colored glazes before they were fired drying in my dehydrator   Mary Harding

For me it is the process that I love for bead making, but for other activities, like stringing or bead work, I often like the product better.  What about you?

All this brings me to my question today.  For which one of your creative activities do you enjoy the process of making the most and why?   Comment below and you will automatically be entered into a draw  to win a 3 bead string of my newest beads.  The winner will be announced next Friday in the Inside the Studio post on that day.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I look forward to reading your comments.

I leave you with this validating quotation from D.W. Winicott

 “It is creative apperception more than anything else that makes the individual feel that life is worth living.”

July Monthly Challenge Sponsors + Prizes

Our Wonderful sponsors for the June Challenge.
We will have 2 Lucky Winners this Month!

Gaea Handmade

Gaea Cannaday of Gaea Handmade makes fabulous beads, pendants, jewelry components and Jewelry. She uses different clay bodies that makes glazes look different on each clay. All items are made by hand which makes each unique!

Gaea is donating a $50 in beads.

Visit Gaea at her Indiemade Shop, Website, Blog, and Facebook.

: : :

Diane Hawkey

Diane Hawkey creates wonderful beads, pendants and components. She also makes larger sculptures and art. Her work has been described as both mysterious and whimsical. She draws her inspiration from dreams and nature and ordinary life.
Go check out Diane's wonderful art!

Diane is donating the Bead Assortment shown above worth over $50.

Visit Diane on Facebook, Blog, Etsy and Website.

: : :

Submit photos of your wonderful creations using one or more Art Beads.

The Little Mermaid by Edmund Dulac has with many different elements that can be used for inspiration: Mermaids, fish, water, treasure, seaweed, shells, sea creatures and beautiful shades of blue.

We can't wait to see where your creativity takes you with the art for this months challenge! 

Please remember to put JUL ABS in the title or tag of your submission(s).  

Provide us with the artist of the Art Beads used and we always love to know all the materials you used. 
***Art Beads MUST be used in your entry.***

July Monthly Challenge

The Little Mermaid, 1911 by Edmund Dulac 

Pencil, pen, black ink and watercolour with scratching out on paper

12¼ x 9 7/8 in. (30.8 x 25.2 cm.)

About the Art

The Little Mermaid (At the mere sight of the bright liquid they drew back in terror) signed and dated 'Edmund Dulac 11' (lower right) and with inscription 'At the mere sight of the bright liquid...they drew back in terror The Mermaid' (on reverse of the backboard)
This illustration was one of at least 28 prepared by Dulac for the 1911 Edition of Stories from Hans Andersen and, in this case, it was one of those accompanying the tale of "The Mermaid". It is associated with the following text:
'If the polyps should seize you, when you go back through my wood,' said the witch, 'just drop a single drop of this liquid on them, and their arms and fingers will burst into a thousand pieces.' But the little mermaid had no need to do this, for at the mere sight of the bright liquid, which sparkled in her hand like a shining star, they drew back in terror. So she soon got past the wood, the bog, and the eddying whirlpools.

About the Artist

Born in Toulouse, France, on 22 October 1882, Edmund Dulac was the only child of Pierre Henri Aristide Dulac and Marie Catherine Pauline Rieu. The boy grew up in a comfortable petit bourgeois home. Educated at the Lycée de Toulouse, Dulac showed an early introversion and talent for drawing. By age sixteen he was able to render professional art nouveau work. After studying law at the University of Toulouse for two years, Dulac enrolled full time at the École des Beaux Arts in 1900. There he roomed with close friend and fellow student Émile Rixens. In 1903 Dulac won a scholarship to the Académie Julien in Paris. His December 1903 marriage to Alice May de Marini, an American thirteen years his senior, quickly dissolved and by 1904 he had left for England to start his artistic career. Enamored of British culture, he changed the spelling of his first name to "Edmund." Dulac was an immediate success in England. He joined the London Sketch Club soon after his arrival and later St. John's Art Club. His first commission was the illustration of Jane Eyre, a quintessentially British project with which he was entrusted at the age of twenty-two. In April 1911 he married Elsa Arnalice Bignardi, a shy, graceful girl of Italian and German descent. Dulac is best known as an illustrator of gift books and children's books. His favorite medium was watercolor. From 1890 to 1920, British book illustration was preeminent and Dulac's career flourished. He also collaborated with his friends W. B. Yeats and Sir Thomas Beecham on various theater projects. In 1920 he composed music for a production of Yeats's At the Hawk's Well. Yeats, Dulac, and Ezra Pound staged Japanese Nō plays, with Dulac designing costumes, sets, and makeup and composing music. At the close of his career, Dulac returned to illustrating children's books with the same perfectionism that had characterized the rest of his work. He was in the middle of one such project when he had his third heart attack and died 25 May 1953, at the age of seventy.

Our Sponsors

Our Sponsors this month are Gaea Handmade and Diane Hawkey.

Please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Monthly Challenge Recap

• Please post at least one single shot of your creation in the Flickr pool. This will be used to make a collage for the Monthly Challenge Gallery. Every creation will be added to the collage, regardless of a blog post. So everyone gets included!
• Be sure to share with us the name of the art bead artist in the description of your photo so that if you are selected for the weekly Perfect Pairings on Wednesdays, both you as the designer and the art bead artist can get the credit you both deserve!
• An InLinkz button will be added to the bottom of the Monthly Challenge Recap post. Here you will be able to link up your blog post if you have one. It is no longer necessary to add your blog post URL to the description unless you want to. Be sure to hop around and see all the great inspiration and leave some comment love!
• The Monthly Challenge Recap with Blog Tour will be posted on July 31st.

Monthly Challenge Winners
• One prize winner will be selected at random from all pictures posted on the Flickr pool.
• One prize winner will be selected at random from all blog posts added to the hop for the Monthly Challenge Recap post. So if you want to be in the pool for the second prize, be sure to use the InLinkz code at the bottom of the post to share your process and inspirations!
• Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on August 1st.

Perfect Pairings :: Designer + Art Bead Artist
• Formerly the Featured Designer of the Week, our new Perfect Pairings will now focus on both the jewelry designer and the art bead artist. Be sure to point out all the art bead artists in your work in the description of the photo in the Flickr pool. Links to their website or shop are appreciated. That way we can all find new art beads to love!
• From all the entries during the month, an editor will pick their favorite design to be featured every Wednesday here on ABS, 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. We post the art to be used as your inspiration to create. 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. 

An Art Bead must be used in your piece to qualify for the monthly challenge.

***Beads strung on a chain, by themselves and beads simply added to wire 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.

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

Deadline is July 31st. 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.

Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***

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

June Monthly Challenge Winner

Congratulations to this Month's winners! 

1 winner was chosen randomly from all the challenge entrants.
1 winner was chosen randomly from the InLinkz blog entries.

Our first lucky winner is Barb/Sunny Designs.

She has won $50 gift certificate from Ema K Designs.

Our second lucky winner is Ditzy Blue.

She has won $50 gift certificate from Stinky Dog Beads.

   Ema K Designs                   Stinky Dog Beads  

               

Thank you Ema K Designs and Stinky Dog Beads for being our June Monthly Challenge sponsors!

Winners, please E-Mail Tari, tari@claybuttons.com with your information (Name and address) so your prizes may be sent to you.

A Big THANK YOU to everyone who entered this month using "Trees Laden with Parasites and Epiphytes in a Brazilian Garden" by Marianne North, as your inspiration. 

We were so fortunate to have so many beautiful entries and experience such creativity from our wonderful readers.

Visit us tomorrow to see what July's challenge brings.