In order to create my art, I first cut the stone that will go in the piece, then design around that.  Here are two stones cut in the lapidary in the past week.  The first is a piece of Lapis Lazuli about 2.5 inches long and it is very heavy.  Will probably use it in a horizontal position in a necklace.  Way too large for a ring.

The second is a free form cabochon made with “Pudding” jasper.  Feel free to change the adjective ‘dding’ to anything that you think describes the stone.

I will wait, but am currently working on a mixed metal pendant (gold and silver) with a highly included rutilated quartz *16 mm round faceted stone.  Another project is a ring to ask Debbie to marry me “again” next October on our anniversary. A friend is cutting this as I certainly can not do it in my shop.  Any way, that is the news so far for the day after Thanksgiving.

John

How do you do Vintage? The beauty in Vintage lies within the actual pieces’ ability to speak with you. Brooches are my favorite pieces to “Remix!” As I received these fascinating pieces Broochaliscious ideas took flight! Fabulous brooch finds placed together, offering total accessorization…just scrumpscious! Jewelry transformed with fantastic necklaces with the thinking “your neck is just too hungry to pass these up”! The brooches long lasting appeal doesn’t stop there…Broochaliscious designs from the Queen highlights Vintage-Inspired Handbags adorned with charming gloves, sparkling brooches, & handmade bib flower necklaces that can double as belts! One-of-a-kind pieces to reflect timeless style & design! Lovely accessory & keepsake!

So when the QuEeN wonders, “How do you do Vintage?” please reflect on the history, gift, and legacy behind such pieces as they reach our hands. The journey is what captivates me and sending these pieces on even further is the real gift! Beauty is truly within the eye of the beholder…so kindly BEHOLD THIS and share the love on your neck!

Charmed -ZiLLA’s QuEeN 
As always, The Queen reminds you…”Never leave home without your charm!”

www.ZillasQuEeN.Etsy.com

Funky Felt Flowers and More…

You can also just search Halloween on the HAFshop and you’ll see a whole bunch of other creations as well.

Maybe some Halloween Earrings will be the touch you need!

Regardless of what your looking for the Handmade Artists’ Shop has what you need! Handmade from the Artist, everyday.

By Beverley Start, Polymer Clay Artist

October 5 2011

Sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a project and look up to see that my usable clay pile has been gobbled up by my scrap clay pile. With a little creativity and a lot of nece$$ity I found a few solutions. Here are a few of my ideas on how to turn scrap back into usable clay.

1. Roll it out and use it! – Scrap from any project can be turned into a brand new masterpiece just by putting it through the pasta machine a few times making sure to keep the lines of color in the same direction every time. What this will give you is a beautifully colored striped sheet of clay that can then be cookie cutter-ed, sliced, rolled, or molded in to new pieces. Check out some examples here.

2. Make grey. – Hunks of all-colored clay can be run through the pasta maker or food processor until it becomes a uniform shade of grey. Use it to make a sculpture which can then be cured and painted. Click here for an example.

3. Make black. – Old or leftover clay can be blended using powered black pigment (purchased from any craft store) and clay softener in a food processor. I just put little bits of each in until it’s the consistency and shade I need.

4. Use it as filler. – When making something that requires strength try using some old clay as filler. For example if I were making a picture frame I might make it from filler clay and then cover it with decorative clay. No one will see the inside.

5. Make tags or gift cards. – Sometimes when I roll a piece of scrap through the pasta maker I notice patches of beautifully swirled color and I’ll cookie cutter it out to use as a tag for a special gift. Click here for examples

I’m sure there are tons more ways to use up left over clay but these five are my staples.

“Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder” showcases 247 images chosen
from entries from over 55 artists representing North America, South
America, Europe, Australia, Central America, Africa and Eurasia.

The drive to adorn the human body is surely as old as human kind.
From pre-historic times this drive has led humans to use the
materials at hand, combined with the technologies and tools
available, to create objects to adorn the human body. The oldest
jewelry found to date goes back to at least 75,000 years ago in
Africa.

Early jewelry was made of bones, shells, sticks, and whatever other
materials the people could find and shape. Over time the ability to
mine and shape metal developed, and jewelry was made from bronze,
silver, gold, platinum and other metals. Gold has long been thought
of as a “precious” metal, and today it is joined by silver and
platinum as the three main materials modern jewelry is made from.

While much jewelry today is made from these three main metals, a
large body of jewelry world-wide is still made from a much wider
range of materials. This exhibition, “Beauty is in the Eye of the
Beholder”, focuses on jewelry made primarily of materials other than
gold, platinum and silver.

Jewelers today are still using found objects such as shell and bone;
they are using “green” materials – upcycled and recycled objects and
materials; they are using cutting edge plastics and newly developed
technology; and they are using older metals such as copper, brass
and bronze.

Some of the more unusual materials include vinyl LP’s, velvet, VCR
components, rattlesnake vertebrae, corian, canvas, paper, crab
claws, magnets, synthetic rubber electrical insulation tubing, and
aluminum grounding wire.

More traditional materials used include copper, bronze, brass,
glass, various types of wood, gemstones, pearls and seeds.

Techniques range from traditional metalsmithing, through a range of
beading techniques, textile techniques, photography techniques and
cutting edge industrial fabrication.

Participants range from professional jewelers with international
reputations to students just learning their craft.

Hosted on the Ganoksin website, the world’s largest internet site
devoted to jewelry- related topics, the exhibition is a snapshot of
what jewelers around the world are exploring, and an inspiration to
all. The exhibition was conceived Beth Wicker, an artist from South
Carolina, in the USA, and curated by Beth and Hanuman Aspler, founder
of the Ganoksin Project.

Beauty Is In the Eye of the Beholder
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/beb

For more information about the Exhibition please contact: Beth Wicker
onlineexhibition@earthlink.net or Dr. E. Aspler (Hanuman)
service@ganoksin.com

Dr. E. Aspler (Hanuman)
Owner and founder

We have recently relaunched the HAFshop almost 2 months ago and are growing in leaps and bounds. Traffic has been steadily increasing and new vendors are joining everyday. We are approaching the 200 vendor mark as we currently have 178 vendors online. The exposure you receive from having a shop with us is incredible for the price. We also are offering an annual plan of $50.00 a year which is less than 14 cents a day. The other day I was checking out another handmade marketplace who was running an annual plan, they said only xxx amount of annual spots open before we raise the price. This isn’t the first venue I’ve seen do this, it is sort of very disturbing to know that these venues really just want your money. I’ve been approached by several people asking, when are you raising the price? Our answer is never. Please note that this was put in writing!

The Handmade Artists’ Shop is keeping it’s fees down so that artists can actually make a couple of bucks for their efforts. Some fees are so high the artist has no chance. I had someone say they pay %50 commission fee on a well known tutorial site. So they sell a tutorial for $10 and get $5.00, I personally think that sticks. That is one reason why we do not charge commissions or listing fees, your items only expire when they sell or run out of quantity. Plus we offer automatic downloads for our tutorials as well.

I believe the Handmade Artists’ Shop will become the new standard for selling handmade online, for a few specific reasons. One, it is affordable. Two, we are only allowing handmade, no resellers, no unaltered vintage, and no non-handmade supplies. Three, we are planning on cutting off open registration between 10-20 thousand vendors. May sound like a lot of vendors, but honestly this does not even make a dent on the number of vendors some of the larger online marketplaces have, not even close. Our thought is that if we limit the number of vendors and move the site to a juried site we will be able to only allow high quality vendors in categories that have a little room for growth.