Abstract Painting Pendant

I don't always name my pieces.. I know, I should! But this one was just so kewl to shape the wire! It is the product of a happy accident.. I had a new texture hammer, but no sheet handy to try it out. the thickest bit of metal I had on me was 14 GA half round wire. So WACK! The new texture hammer by the way is fabulous! But then I had 8 inches of lovely textured 14 GA half round. Just can't have that laying around!!! So I experimented with twisting it this way or that... and realized it made a great do- dad for hanging a pendant from. A quick look through my travel stash, and I found the perfect bead to go with it... a handmade lampwork bead with sterling wire drizzled on it. I think the random pattern of the silver on the bead perfectly compliments the randomness of the bail. Enjoy!

Birthday prezzies given and recieved....

OK, this is my last post on my girl's weekend... but the reason we get together in Oct is it's Cathie's and I's birthday month, and February is - you guessed it - Sue's. So much exchanging of gifts happen, and this year the Ladies from South Dakota outdid themselves!!! I got both birthday and Christmas gifts!!! I got these kewl kitty-cat stacking trays, 4 great musicals ( one of them is "On the Town" which I was raving about in my blog awhile back... again I endorse it as a great movie!! ) and they found the cutest tiniest fridge I've ever seen in my life, and then they made it cuter! Sue and Mathew (Sue's hubby, hi Matt!) decorated it with my company name, artistic swirls and tiny black cats! It's a work of art in and of itself! WOW! Once again, thanks so much for my prezzies gals! As you can see it's all decked out in Diet Coke (evil artist drink of choice) and yes, that's a bag of butterfingers lurking in the cold depth of the fridge. Bonus, little girl hasn't thought to look in my fridge for treats, so I might get to eat a few this time.

Now you are wondering what I gave Cathie for her birthday.... well I'm very proud of myself. Last time we got together, she saw these great vintage crystal cabs of mine, and said make her something with them. They are 12x18mm maybe?I've never wrapped anything that small before, it's quite challenging! But very rewarding, she loved them!! I tried to wrap them as open as possible, to allow the light to really filter through and make them glitter.. and boy do they ever! I love my vintage stock, especially when I can use them to make someone so happy!

I've gotten some questions on the challenge beads....

so here are the answers. Every year my friends Cathie, Sue and I get together and do a challenge. We take turns buying the beads for the challenge, and it was my turn so when I saw these new beads by one of my favorite lampwork artists ( and friend!) Jodie Marshall, I knew I had found the perfect beads for this year! (you can see more of her famous beads at her website: http://marshalljodie.blogspot.com/ )The faces are different on each side...


one is definitely happy, the other.. sad or grimacing. They remind me of the Mayor from Nightmare Before Christmas. I just cannot believe the concentration it takes to make beads like this! I also bought a handful of matching spacers for each face. It was great fun, Cathie did the honors of picking the first set... I had them wrapped up so everyone would get a face randomly. The only bad part is the challenge isn't due until Feb, when the three of us get together again!
Just to have something that's actually finished, here is a recent pin I made. It's called "Cloud Nine" as it has 9 spirals.

My Halloween Piece!

I asked last blog what is orange, yellow and white? Candy Corn!! I love candy corn, not just to eat.. there is just something so wonderfully happy about candy corn. I don't get people who don't like it, and that includes my husband. (It's one of his few faults) I see candy corn and I instantly think Halloween, and I bet I'm not the only one! The Iowa Bead Society's challenge this month is Halloween, so I thought it would be very challenging to make a candy corn pendant! Since I've been fusing glass this month, I thought a fused glass piece that I could wirewrap would be perfect!

I wasn't sure which colors of bullseye glass would work the best, but I think I guessed pretty well. I'm getting better at figuring out how to cut the glass and position the peices so they fuse properly. I use clear on top to give the cab a nice rounded shape.

Here are a couple of photos of the wrap in progress. I used 21Ga sterling square as the frame, 20GA and 18GA half round as the binding wires.
We had a bead show this weekend and I found these cute candy corn beads that I am making matching earrings with. This pendant is for me, but if anyone wants to special order one, just let me know. I bought 3 square inches of each color, and since the cab is only 1-1/2 inches tall, I've got lots left!

I'm in the mood for melting glass......

Here is a completed fused glass pendant. It's currently at the gallery that opened this week... http://www.facebook.com/pages/Des-Moines-IA/Central-IA-Artist-Coop-Gallery/135304149086 . I'm so pleased to be one of the artist featured at this great new Gallery in Des Moines! If you are in the Des Moines Area, be sure to stop by.. Tell them Kat sent you!!
I received a shipment of new glass on Sat, so today I'm happily melting glass gobs into hopefully wonderful cabs to wirewrap!!! I bought very specific colors this time, as I wanted to make something very specific. Up to now I've just been experimenting with colors and dichroic effects. Great fun, and I'll keep doing that.. I love the abstract colors and sparkle that creates. But Halloween is almost upon us, and I wanted to make something on theme! I will give you a hint: what's yellow, orange and white? See the next post for the answer and hopefully pictures!

Bead Con Wrap up

In this our final report, we will explore some of the early results of the BeadCon weekend attended by our subject Kat. Was it a success, was there Fun and will it happen again. In our estimation, the answer to all three is yes. Most definitely yes.

In our 3-part series, we reported that Kat and her entourage of Sue and Cathie, took over a hotel room in Omaha, went beady-mad and laughed.

In pictures below, you will see a small sampling of the results of that weekend frenzy of beading. In this reporter's estimation, after the 14th BeadCon these beady-eyed women have arranged and attended, this is quite definitely a success and most certainly occur again.

Three challenge pieces

Laborodite pendant with a border wrap

This was a gift for Cathie

This just in

Our news hounds have managed to get their hands on pictures of our jet-setting Kat at BeadCon in Omaha. See for yourself.

Sue, your intrepid reporter.

The exclusive gourmet kitchen.

Kat and one of her entourage, Cathie

Our papparazzi caught Kat in the act...of creating!

Stay tuned for more pictures tomorrow!

****Bead Con in Omaha NE Update****

This is your reporter, Sue reporting. Kat is currently on assignment.

This just in, the twice annual BeadCon has been launched successfully at the DoubleTree Inn. The 'bead ladies'; Kat, BaronMiller, Cathie Littles and Sue Wilcott were spotted entering the hotel on Thursday evening with 6 luggage carts of beads, findings, supplies, food, drink, and music from their respective work shops in Sioux Falls and Des Moines.



Without their usual roadies, the ladies paired down to only the 6 luggage carts of bare essentials. This, of course, prompted trips to several local bead stores in the area to help boost the local economy.

A reliable source has reported that their courtyard-side room was the scene of great laughter, fast-flying jokes and beady inspiration. The staff even spotted the beaders traipsing back and forth to the bar in search of ice and umbrellas for their cocktails.

Hotel guests were treated to invitations to enter the impromptu workshop for idle chat and one woman was even lucky enough to have Cathie repair a necklace for her daughter's wedding the following day.



It is clear there is more fun and mischief to come from these three great friends before they must pack up, somehow squeeze everything back into their vehicles and return home on Sunday.

Our news crew should have pictures from location tomorrow, stay tuned.


Back to you, Kat.

Gallery Meeting went very very well.....

woooo hooo! The gallery meeting went very very well, I'm pleased to say! I took in 30 pieces and they accepted all 30... so all the hard work this weekend paid off! I really wanted to take some of my best, but they also requested a few more affordable pieces... so paring down my inventory to just the 30 took some effort on my part. worth every minute!! Here is a crappy group shot I took before I packed everything away. "Fall" is in the middle! The gallery will be opening soon, I'll write about it just as soon as I know the actual date! You can follow the gallery's blog at http://artistcoop.blogspot.com .

This is going to be a great week! I get into the gallery, I have my 41st birthday, and I get to visit my
South Dakota Friends this weekend! You can see some of our past adventures here: http://mkpbeadart.blogspot.com/2009/04/pmc-class-from-march.html#links , http://mkpbeadart.blogspot.com/2009/04/mage-con-spring-2009.html#links , http://mkpbeadart.blogspot.com/2009/03/weekend-part-1.html#links , among others. We get together 3-4 times a year, often meeting in Omaha, NE as it's dead middle between our homes... we always have a great time and learn from each other!! I live for these girl weekends! So Happy Birthday to me!

"FALL" and it's going to the Gallery!

The challenge from the Iowa Bead society for September was "fall" . I had this lovely, copper crystal pendant that was vaguely leaf shaped, so I started to think about it, the leaves falling off of the trees this time of year. I dug trough my pearl stash, and I was in business! There are 5 strands total twisted together, using 8 different pearls, and 3 different crystals. The real challenge to this piece was attaching the crystal. Originally I wanted to make a bail that have a tree on it, but I couldn't get it to look right at that small scale, and it faded too much into the pearls going through it. It was a good idea, and it's tucked away in a sketch pad, maybe it will come out at some later date. I ended up just doing netting, and I did the same technique in the earrings, which turned out great!
I'm really pleased to announced that I will now be in a gallery, which is opening soon in Merle Hay Mall here in Des Moines. I've decided this is one of the pieces that will be in the gallery... I've only had it out for 2 show and it attracted a great deal of attention.. so I think it's a good choice for a gallery. I'm very excited about being in a gallery again, I tried one years ago but it wasn't a good fit.. this one however is being run by a artist co-op, so I'm thinking, hey, this is home! You can check out the gallery on their blog: http://artistcoop.blogspot.com . They put up an artist profile for me: http://coopartistprofile.blogspot.com/2009/10/artist-profile-kat-barronmiller.html . Kewl huh?

The fusing process.......

The red thingie is a glass cutter, but it really doesn't cut anything, it scores the surface of the glass, and then you apply pressure to break the glass. If you have done a good job of scoring, and the glass gawds like you, you get a nice even break more or less where you wanted it. If you couldn't tell from my tone, this doesn't always happen. I've gotten better at it but sometimes the glass won't break where you want it to save your life! I know there are glass cutting systems out there, but for now, the red thingie is all I've got.



This photo shows 3 layers of glass... a lovely bottom color, dichroic and a clear topper. You want to have enough glass to "ball up" on the edges. Dichroic seems to work better with clear on top also. Below I tried to show the dichroic glass better.. so it's a darker photo.
After it's fused it looks like this.. again I took a darker picture to try to show you the dichroic better. This cab came out pretty good, the glass sort of drifted down, but it's such a pretty color, and I can hide that "flaw" if it is a flaw when I wrap it!.

I got some new glass in yesterday, so in a few days I'll have the 3rd generation of fusing to show!

More Fused Glass.....

OK I keep playing with fused glass, I'm having a great deal of fun figuring out all the trick to making a nice, solid colorful pretty glass glob, which I can then wrap. This group shot is generation II of my experiments. I upgraded my glass from what came in the kit to Bullseye and I'm much much happier with the quality of this glass. Almost every one of this group is Bullseye and CBS type dichroic glass. Yummy stuff let me tell you!


I'm really fascinated by making a donut in glass. this is my 2ND attempt, I think it came out pretty good, and it's something I'll keep exploring. I do think that I like the look of the dichroic under a layer of clear better than "naked". This cab is a mix of styles of dichroic, and had a black glass base and a clear top.
Last is a lovey aqua base with some of the fancy patterned CBS dichroic, which is hard to see in the photo. One of the interesting things with making glass cabs is how the glass flows. It's soooo different than lampworking! In this cab the dichroic sort of flowed and separated more than I wanted it to, but I think I know now how to make it more compact next them.. it's still very pretty, and very hard to photograph. Also the dichroic glass slumped downwards alittle, leaving alittle bit of a gap that you can see at the top. That's actually ok, it makes it more of a challenge to wrap, because I'll want to "hide" that alittle, but that is what makes this new medium soooo much fun! My next blog I'll show you some before and after shots of making this glass cab, I guess I was in a camera mood that day!

MIA................

I am so proud of this pendant! I made the glass cab, then carefully wrapped it, trying to really capture the flavor of the wonderful blend of dichric glass in the cab.

I got it finished last weekend, tumbled and polished and ready to put in yesterday's show. Someone has very good taste.. but very bad morals, because that someone stole it from my booth.



I realize there is really nothing I can say that makes that person feel bad or mend his or her ways... all I can say is someday it will catch up to you. Someday Karma will be waiting to bite you in your butt.

You might think taking something like this is "nothing". After all the pendant is "only" sterling silver and glass, all handmade by the artist. I was only asking $34.00 for it. What you don't realize is the pile of "bad" glass cabs I have, I was soooo happy at this one, I felt it was worthy to be wrapped. All the time and experimentation with making glass cabs to finally get this one. The actual wrapping took over 2 hours.. because I really wanted this to come out perfect.. and there is a slight flaw caused by me.. when I dremeled off the sharp glass edges the tool "skipped" and made a very small mark on the top of the cab. The sterling spirals hide it. I was so very proud of how the wrapped turned out, I haven't done as much embellishment with framing wires before, it was so much fun!

Not that you care, but you have taken a small slice of my soul by stealing my work. As an artist, sometimes it's hard to let go, you put so much of yourself into your pieces. At least when you sell them you get money to make other pieces... when you steal from me I'm out the money, my time, my materials and my piece of mind.

I know that shoplifting is a part of being in business, and while I know over the years I've had a piece stolen here and there, sometimes the rotten little thieves nick something I really care about. Then it really hurts, and it's hard to be philosophical about just another fact of life for a small business woman.

I sometimes have fantasies about "seeing" this artwork on the person who stole it, and.... doing something about it. In real life I'd probably just call the cops, and try to write down your licence plate. I know the cops probably won't do anything, so don't quake in your boots, your punishment won't be legal unfortunately. I can only hope that Karma will get you in the end.. maybe something you treasured will be stolen from you. Serves you right.

My Heart is in the right place.....

2 different sterling heart designs... 1st one is 16 GA wire hammered and wrapped, with a crystal square as a dangle. 2ND heart is made out of sterling sheet ( 28 or 26 GA) and then wrapped with sterling wire (24GA) and crystals.

more odds and ends......

My pajama day went smashingly!! I didn't get as much done as I wanted,but then I never do. My hubby says I have poor time sense. The only real bum is I no longer have a viable copy of On the Town. I know something that's going on my Christmas list!

Today's activities are mostly cleaning house and decorating for my daughter's birthday party tomorrow. I will officially have a teenager tomorrow! WOW!

To celebrate her 13Th party we are having a diner mystery party... so while I clean and decorate I have to hide the clues also. This is almost as fun as making jewelry! I'm listening over and over to Weezer's newest hit, "If I want you to" it's got a great back beat, and makes it easy to clean to. I really like this song! Today's pendants: top is a glass bead I actually made! This sold at the very first show it was at, so I'll have to try this style again sometime.

2ND pendant is MOP with sterling silver.
I took pictures of making glass cabs at different steps of the process yesterday -- I'm hoping to get those pictures up quickly!

And for those who will be in the Des Moines Area tomorrow, I will be at Down Town Farmer's Market in Des Moines IA. Stop by and say hi!

Day in the studio........

I'm on vacation this week, and so far I'm mostly done errands and doctor appointments. Fri I need to finish getting the house ready for my daughter's (GASP!) 13th birthday party. So tomorrow is my chance to have fun, and make things. I reallllly want to make things!! So I've declared Tomorrow is "pajama day". I'm gonna wear jammies all day, order in Chinese or pizza, and work in the studio all day watching musicals!!!!!! I know for sure I'll be watching Mama Mia and Hairspray, then I'll probably shift to the classics, like Sound of Music and Fiddler... if I have enough time I'll watch On the Town. Love love love On the Town... it is a classic and definitely one of the best musicals EVER made... rent it, own it, whatever you have to do to see it.. see it!!! It stars Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra,and the incomparable Vera-Ellen. And Ann Miller, who is so darn talented and fabulous, and never really got top billing... and funny! Maybe I'll start with it, now that I review the list I want to watch...

Just to have a picture this is fire opal agate with sterling silver wire. I hope everyone has as fun and productive day as I have!

Odds and Ends....

OK I'm on vacation this week.. I wish it meant I could play with beads and wire and metals and GLASS all day- and all week-- long. Regretfully a week of vacation from my paycheck job means hitting all the doctor appointments I'm behind on, cleaning the house for my daughter's upcoming birthday party, catching up on errands and really generally unfun, boring but necessary parts of life. RATS.


I'm hoping tomorrow I can get all these odds and ends of life caught up, and then I can play Thursday and Fri.. at least alittle. I do plan to post pictures everyday this week... a few minutes on the blog I can do.

Here are artistic odds and ends... I love the earrings, they are the latest earrings in the earth doodle series. Made with fancy jasper irregular rectangles in a rich, dark green, I made these with my own, homemade headpins that I melted the ends in a ball, then I hammered it flat and added a loose spiral to hold the bead. Yummy!
Next is a painted jasper with gold filled wire on it, and last another pendant in sterling wire and crystals, using netting and binding techniques. The bail on this one is actually the circle to a toggle.. the jump ring soldered on wasn't soldered very well and broke... so I finished cutting it off and sanding it down. It makes a great bail don't you think? I love when I can reuse something broken like this!

Fused Glass Art Cabs!! oh me oh my!

I've always been interested in fusing glass, but it's impossible without a kiln... and kilns costs 500.00 and up, at least a good one that would work with glass, PMC and enamelling, all 3 things I have on my wish list. If you are going to spend that kind of money, you need to get it for all your needs, current and eventual. Since I didn't have a burning desire to spend that kind of money on something I wasn't quite ready to use, I'd tabled the desire, at least for now. Then I saw this crazy sounding item: a kiln that works in the microwave oven. And it's pretty affordable, you can buy one retail for under $100.00, kits that include a supply of glass and kiln paper run under $150.00!! I bought a kit, and a couple of weeks ago started to play. I admit I was skeptical about how well this would work. I am pleasantly surprised!!

It works pretty darn good... the first shot is the first group of cabs I made. It's slow going, the kiln is understandably small and you can only make 1 piece at a time. How long you nuke it and at what power level takes some playing, as each kiln cooks slightly differently, and of course microwaves vary tremendously. I've found longer times at lower power works better for mine, I had a few cracking issues and that's from uneven heat or heating 2 fast. I have a very old microwave, it's older than my soon to be 13 year old!

Because you can only make 1 piece at a time, I can only get 1-2 cabs done each night. After firing, the piece has to cool down slowly to anneal, I usually give it at least an hour, but the longer the better... glass that cools too quickly will crack or even shatter. It's better to make something, and walk away for a few hours.

I can't say I like the glass that came with fuseworks much either. I've had some experience with glass doing lampwork, so I'm going to play around with other types of glass, see if I can find some glass I like better. More experiments will be posted soon.... I found a great website that not only sells the kiln but has all kinds of helpful tips and information: http://www.microwavekiln.com/microwavekilnjewelrytips.htm. They have a great selection of glass, and the owner has been very helpful and QUICK answering my email questions.... don't know her personally, just a happy customer!