Thank You & Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

Like most people I am trying to figure out where 2011 went!! It was a whirlwind. A fun and exciting one though! Thank you to everyone who reads my blog, buys my creations, supports me at my shows, and encourages me along the way.

You have been with me through my new vegan journey and at my first vegan Christmas dinner last year!  This year was the second!

You cheered me on to finish UFO's, and there are some that still aren't done and some new ones for 2012!

I shared recipes with you from my vegan journey and I hope they were helpful to you. You encouraged me when I came up with new ideas and had art shows to attend.

You read my posts in February as I did a Creative Everyday Challenge. That was a great challenge and one I need to do again!

You have listened to my dog stories and looked at my agility trial pictures.

Watched me struggle and enjoy swaps. The last part of 2011 I didn't do any swaps but will be getting involved again in 2012....i missed some of those gals (and guys!)

In May I thought my life was slowing down, but that wasn't so, things got really busy around the house, and I really slacked off from my blogging. But during that time my husband and I have been working on a classroom for me to start teaching quilting again, we built a guest cottage and a storage shed and dealt with Hurricane Irene.

You also cheered me on with my Paint Party Fridays, which I also miss and want to start doing again. Bead Table Wednesdays were fun and kept me motivated.

You listened to my stories about my online classes and encouraged me with my new lampworking skills.

So thank you, thank you, thank you!  Thank you for your ear (or your eyes since you are reading!), and I hope you will continue to follow my creative journey into 2012.

In 2012 I want to keep creating and get all these new ideas out of my head!

Of course finish some more UFO's; do more pottery {i have a potter's wheel again ~ woohoo!}, continue to improve my lampworking skills, make more jewelry components from ceramic clay and do lots more work with Precious Metal Clay. I just love that stuff and when I work with it I always ask myself why I don't work with it more!

Here are a few new pieces that I finished today.....

The textured circles on these earrings were made from Precious Metal Clay, and have my glass headpins hanging from them.


Potcake Necklace.......

Potcakes are our local mixed breed and there are many strays.  When I make these pendants I give $20 to help the animals of Abaco.


Have a happy, healthy, exciting and creative 2012!

The Journey of an Owl

Today has flown by! Probably because I have been on the torch most of the day.  It has been the perfect day for it.....it is 71 here with a brisk breeze, so having the toasty kiln on & sitting by a torch feels good for a change!
(Yes in the Bahamas we consider 71 cool!)

I told you in my last post that I had the pleasure of having Cassie, from Glass Beadle, here to help me with my bead making.

When she came I had a list of beads I wanted to learn how to make. An owl was on that list, but the three days went by so quickly that we never got to it.

I wasn't worried, since she had taught me some great skills with sculpting so I figured I could figure it out on my own.

That little owl took several tries.....four to be exact....

Just for fun I thought I would share the photos with you.
The very first one broke - after the annealing, while I was cleaning him!! I was devastated!

It took me a few weeks to try again.....so here are Mr Two & Mr Three....
They were better, but still needed some work to get rid of the wonkiness!

And then success today!!! WOOHOO!!
I am pretty proud of this little guy!

Sorry for the terrible photo, but I couldn't wait to share him with you!
Tomorrow he will become a pendant.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Busy, Busy Christmas

I am not sure where the first two weeks of December went, in fact, I am trying to figure out where 2011 went! I sure have stayed busy!

Wanted to do a quick post to show you some new things I have been working on.

I also, finally, created a Facebook for Bahama Dawn. If you scroll down this page you will see the button on the right. Click on it & *like* it please. Right after Christmas I am going to be running a discount special specifically through that page.

Back in November the awesome Cassie Donlen, from Glass Beadle came to Abaco and spent three days helping me with my glass bead making. I can't thank her enough! She was awesome and I learned TONS of great tips and tricks. It was my first real class in lampworking! Before that I had fumbled along, taught myself, and made a lot of mistakes.

Thanks again Cassie!!!

So here are some of my new creations......
These are just a few of the beads Cassie and I made together.  Some are hers and some are mine in this photo.

I learned how to make these hearts which have been very popular and I LOVE making them!

I am also having a blast stamping on metal, especially creating little scenes.  Will have lots more pieces with these stamped pieces as I get a chance to put together and finish pieces.

Also having fun making these puppy pendants!! Need to work on a kitty pendant also!  I am selling these for $20, and all the money goes to help the animals of Abaco.

Tree of Life Pendants are another new creation which have been popular also.

My final little show and tell are these sea glassy beads.  I make the bead, then etch it and it looks like sea glass!

Thanks for stopping by to see my new goodies!!
Have a great week!

Coming Soon........

Hello!!

First of all, today I am supposed to be a part of a group of bloggers taking part in a challenge with beautiful oak leaf copper jewelry components from Jo at Daisy Chain Designs.

Unfortunately, I am stilling waiting to receive my package, with the oak leaf, that seems to be delayed in the mail.
These are the beautiful copper pieces I am waiting on.....

In the meantime, please check out the Daisy Chain blog & website, as well as all the bloggers participating in the challenge:

Jo Tinley of Daisy Chain Designs

Melissa Meman of Art, Life, Love

Niki Sayers of SilverNikNaks

Amber Boorman of Larksong Studio

Rebecca Anderson of Songbeads

As soon as my oak leaf arrives I will post my design. I have had a design idea in my head since I saw the oak leaves on Jo's blog, so I cant wait to get started!

Experimenting......

Over the last few months I have been experimenting with some new materials, trying out new ideas, taking some online classes.

I am not doing any Fall shows like I normally do.  Instead I thought I would have an open house in December with lots of new items.

Here are some sneak peeks from classes I have taken and some new products I have tried out.

This heart charm was from an online class I took at Beaducation, in PMC. 

I had worked with PMC (Precious Metal Clay) before but hadn't really pushed myself to make anything like this.  It is 2 hearts joined with copper spacers and brass hex nuts, then riveted.

The class gave me a lot of confidence with the PMC and some great ideas for new pieces.

I put the piece in Liver of Sulphur to age it, and then was sorry I did since before that the metals were bright and there was a lot more contrast.

I am still happy with it!

I have also been playing around with some enameling.

Those are some of the first beads I made.  I am using Barbara Lewis' kit and book, "Painting with Fire"  and it has been very helpful.

Yesterday I got into a bit of an earring making spell.

Here are two pairs....I cant show you everything....need to save some for the open house!

I love the enamel earrings, below.  They remind me of the ocean.

I'll pop back in soon to show you some more experiments and some new things!

Have a great week!

Bead Soup Blog Party: Soup is Ready

Good Morning! Good Afternoon!!! Hello....FINALLY!!!

Today is the day for the reveal of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Remember to go here to see all of the participants and their posts.

I am a little late posting today, and I apologize, but our internet is off more than it is on now-a-days! I have been trying to get this post done since yesterday! The internet will literally be on for 10-20 minutes, then it goes off for a few hours....very frustrating! And while it is on it is as slow as molasses!

My partner, Karen, was very generous, and sent me 5 focals and tons of wonderful natural stone beads. With all the natural stones I got on an earring making kick. A few years ago customers would ask me to make earrings and I would say, "no, I dont like making two of the same thing".

Then I came up with earrings that were the same, but different. They are very 80's probably, but hey, that's when I grew up so I am influenced still by that era.
Here are all three pairs that I made.....

Here are some close ups.....this first pair are my favorite :)

These run a close second....

The stones that my partner Karen sent were so cool that I love these just as much!

I then had to choose one of the wonderful focals sent by my partner. It was difficult because they were all so beautiful, but I finally chose the one with the sand dollar.

The focal can slide on the chain because of the hanger I made for it.

Karen makes all of these focals herself and she uses a lot of seed beads, so I thought I would challenge myself and use some even though I had asked her not to send me any. I am sure Karen would have done something more exciting with the seed beads, but I did what I could.

I am calling this piece "Earth and Water". The the black around the sand dollar reminds me of lava or the dark sand at a river's edge, and the leaf toggle represents land. The shell, the color of the raku beads and the seed beads represent the water.

Make sure you check out all the other wonderful Bead Soup Blog Party posts....there are over 300 of them this time around!
Also, be sure to go to Karen's blog to see what she made from the pieces that I sent to her.

Bead Soup Party Coming Up Soon!

It's been like a month since I posted last.....that's embarassing!

Between lack of internet and Hurricane Irene passing over us I got behind on blogging!

I am taking part in the Bead Soup Blog Party again this year. We are assigned a partner, by Lori at Pretty Things, partners swap bead packages and make something with what was sent to them.

My partner is Karen, from Seattle, and you can check out her blog here.

Karen sent quite an amazing package.

Here are the Focals and the toggle. Karen made these focals!!! The one on the bottom right has a sand dollar embedded in it!! They are all so beautiful and my imagination is whirling thinking about all the things I can do with these.

And then there were all the other extras.....

Look at all these beautiful stones!!!! Karen told me the round disks are fossilized coral....very cool!! These pieces are all new to me since I have never worked with stones like these. So it will be an exciting journey.

The turquoise cube beads above are some of my favorites!

Be sure and come back September 17th, do the Bead Soup Party Blog hop and check out what all the amazing jewelry artists have created.

Well, I've got to go get to work, and I promise you I will be back before September 17th!

Bead Table Wednesday ~ sea glass bracelet

Happy Bead Table Wednesday!!!

Been busy, busy, busy with orders and fun stuff going on around the house so I havent been posting a whole lot lately.  Actually the *stuff going on around the house* has taken over my life!

Right now, in between everything else, I am trying to finish up the bracelet that I started a few weeks ago.

I still need to add a clasp, secure the sea glass in the bezels and then do a final polishing.

I love all these sea glass colors so much and can't wait for it to be finished.

Soon!!!

Check out all the other Bead Table Wednesday posts this week and be inspired!

Bead Table Wednesday ~ work in progress from the classroom

Happy Bead Table Wednesday!

This week I am in the middle of taking a local jewelry class. It is named Sea Glass Class, but it is so much more than that!

Here I am polishing away at my work station....

I have been making jewelry for several years now, and after doing more metal and wire work I wanted to learn how to cut more of my own original pieces from sheet silver and copper. So, about a year ago, I bought a jeweler's saw which is a hand saw with a very fine blade that breaks very easily. I tried and tried to get that saw to work and just couldn't! In my frustration I put (threw) the saw aside and out of sight!

Well, the first day of this class we had to use one! After a brief description and demo we were all sitting at our workstations, saw in hand, and I got it to work!! I was over the moon!!! If I didn't learn another thing this week I would have still been happy!

I had to go home, find my saw and apologize to it!

Here are some bails that I made from sheet silver using the saw....

On one bail I soldered on a small turtle pendant that the instructor of the class made.

These two pieces still need polishing up which I will do tomorrow.

I have also had a chance in this class to use a dual fuel torch for soldering which has made things so much easier.....once you get use to the heat!

I have been using a butane torch and having problems with it lately and it was all because there was not enough heat.

Here are a few more pieces I am working on in class.

I love these pastel colors together. Still trying to decide what to make out of these....a bracelet....a pendant.....a necklace.....any ideas?

I would love to hear your opinions!

Be sure and check out what others have on their bead tables this Wednesday over at the Flickr group, Bead Table Wednesday.

Watch out world.....here I come with my jeweler's saw!

BTW ~ Boho Bliss Class

I went missing in action for a while there because of having no internet at home.  It was off for 2 weeks!!!  So glad it is back on, but now I am playing catch-up!

One of the many things I am catching up on are the online classes I am enrolled in.

Boho Bliss is a jewelry class I am taking and loving learning different techniques with metals.

Deryn is the creator and teacher of this class and I love her jewelry style.  She offers a few other classes as well which I am looking forward to taking.

Boho Bliss is all about earrings, and these are my hoops from the first week ~

Made from a plain piece of copper (or silver) wire!

They are meant to be plain hoops, but I am in a frenzy of making those glass headpins so I have also been adorning everything with them!

Here are some plain silver ones that I did some decorative stamping on for texture ~

Over the next few weeks we will be adding more to these hoops as Deryn teaches us more techniques.  I can't wait to learn more about metal and come back and share my pieces with you!

What is on your bead table this Wednesday?

Paint Party Friday ~ Recipe Pages

Happy Paint Party Friday to all!!!

{First of all I want to send a BIG apology out to everyone at the Paint Party for not getting to read all the blog posts last week and comment.  My internet at home has been down since last week and I have to come to my husbands business to get online until the cable company decides to come and fix the problem.  This makes my online time very, very limited.}

I have had this idea in my head for sometime.

Some of you may or may not know that I am a big foodie and last August I went vegan, after being a vegetarian on and off for 20 years prior.

I love to take a recipe and veganize it, and also love to find amazing recipes that satisfy my carnivore husband!

So my idea was to do a journal/recipe pages for my recipes.  A lot of my recipes are scribbled on pieces of paper or if they are in a cookbook there are a million notes and changes made to them.

This is the first one....

I am so excited about how this turned out and cannot wait to do some more which I will be sharing with you.

Sorry for the quick post but time is limited online when I am not at home, and we have people working around the house so I have to get back.
Be sure and check out all the awesome Paint Party Friday posts HERE!

Have a wonderful and creative weekend!

What's Old is New Again

Happy Wednesday!

I am finally getting to the posting of my “What’s Old is New Again” blog challenge from Artbeads.

This set of elements gave me some challenges, which led to a bit of a creative block.

I am finally happy to show you my pieces.

The first piece I made was a necklace using the antique silver plated pewter heart pendant, rolo gunmetal chain, a sterling silver key charm, and resin azalea flowers.

I really love working with rolo chain, it is actually one of my favorite chains. In the past I have used the sterling silver, but this gunmetal one is great also and looks awesome mixed with the sterling silver.

In this piece I also included some white beads from a necklace that was once my grandmothers, some of my pink glass headpins and some silver chain.

The pink flower beads that are attached to the silver chain I doubled on a silver headpins along with the white vintage beads and glass headpins that I made.

The photo in the bezel is of my grandfather with a silver key charm and a Bahamian coat of arms from an old stamp set in resin.

I finished the back of the necklace with some soft pink, silk ribbon.

This necklace needed a pair of earrings to go with it, and this is what I came up with.

They are very light and fun.

I added single pink resin flowers on the rolo chain. There are three strands in different lengths and at the top one of my handmade glass headpins.

Also from Artbeads I got the cutest metal bicycle pendant and made this casual necklace from this piece, also complimented with some of my grandmother’s beads.

I love the mixture of metals in this piece. It is going to be great with jeans and a casual shirt.

Artbeads has a variety of these metal pendants with other themes and they make a quick, cute pendant on a necklace.

So here is where my real challenge came in……

I got some large transparent resin roses from Artbeads as well, and when they arrived there was no hole to string them or attach them. (if I would have read the description properly I would have known this before hand)

I tried to attach them to silver rings with epoxy and they didn’t hold.

Then it hit me …… add it to a mixed media piece!!

What took me so long to come up with that?!?!?!

I love how this turned out and I was sorry I didn't have anymore resin flowers to add to more mixed media pieces.

Here is a close up of the flowers. The rabbits look like they are feeding amongst the flowers.

After making this piece I thought the flowers would make great additions to an art quilt. So I guess I will have to order some more!

Hope you are all having a wonderful week!

The Artbeads.com products in this post were provided as a promotional gift by Artbeads.com, as part of their Design Partner & Blogging program. I have been asked to review these products and give my honest opinion - good or bad. My comments and opinions about these products are my honest, personal opinion and I have not been paid for any endorsement.

Paint Party Friday ~ Morning Pages

Just a quick post today for Paint Party Friday.

I told you in my last post about the morning pages I was doing, but instead of writing, it was an artful journal page in a sketchbook.

Here are a few from this week:

These are pretty quick to do and a relaxing way to start the day.

I don't think about what I am going to paint before....i just paint!

I am using a portable watercolor set which makes it really quick.  The brush has the water in it and the watercolors dry within minutes.

Don't forget to go check out all the other Paint Party Friday posts!

Have a great weekend!