Well it was my turn to end up in the hospital. I had a lung
collapse. Talk about taking your breath away! It was not a fun experience.  However, the lung is repaired, I have recuperated
sufficiently that I think I am ready for the first of two art fairs
I have scheduled. I missed the deadlines on several for which I intended to apply. I was flat on my back in the hospital.

 You may have noticed the metal and chain components in many of my Rose of the Heart sets. These are Tori Spelling components, which I have used and modified to my own design specifications.




This bouquet is hematite gray and Montana pale blue rhinestones.  I removed all the findings from the back, then used jump rings to suspend the pearls, rhinestones and chains
beneath the bouquet.

I loved the gold chains but not their ends. I ended up modifying the back of the flower component. I removed all the finding fittings on the back, attached a tube clasp in the middle, so the flower covers both ends of the chains.

Happy New Year!

I am more than happy to say good-bye to 2012!
I spent Christmas day in the hospital while my wife had surgery. She has been on intravenous antibiotics since then and until the results of her CAT scan, scheduled for January 18, are in.

Since I last posted a lot has happened. Life, mostly, but it impacts everything else. My wife had more problems with her gut and had surgery Christmas Day. They found a surgical staple in the middle of an abscess, my official retirement from public education, taxes. You get the idea. I had a lot of pent up energy which burst forth in the creation of seven necklace sets, all Rose of the Heart variations. Apparently I am not done with that theme yet. I keep getting more ideas.
Next on the agenda is art fair applications. Having taken a year off, I have to start from scratch, except for a couple of art fairs who said I would still be considered a returning artist,
which streamlines the process.

Above is a Hematite and bicone crystal set; necklace , earrings, bracelet.


To the left is a silver chains set; necklace and earrings.

To the right is a mixed hematite and bronze set;
necklace and earrings.

To the left is a bronze tri-strand set; necklace and earrings.

To the right is a brass seven strand bead and chain mix set; necklace and earrings.

 Below, left is a bronze seven strand chain and bead mix set; necklace, earrings and bracelet.

Finally, bottom right, is a brass tri-strand, chain, bead and feather set; necklace, earrings and bracelet.

These will be added to my Articents.com store shortly.

Well, the holiday season is upon us. I have been teaching classes and doing trunk shows, as well as keeping my two online shops up to date. It is a busy time of year.
Here are some samples of class products.

Have a Healthy, Happy Holiday Season.

Well the Synergy competition is over,
the winners selected.
My entry wasn't one of them,
but congratulations to the winners.
 Now I can show you pictures of my
 Synergy and Great Lakes Beadworkers
Guild Challenge creations.
 My Guild Challenge did win a prize,
I am just not sure which one. I missed the
October Guild meeting visiting my daughter
in Maine where she is doing graduate work
in Marine Sciences and is a Graduate

Teaching Assistant. I will find out the rest at
 the November meeting.


These pictures show the steps in
creating the Synergy piece- Detroit, Paris of the West.

This is the completed piece. The Fist Bead was created by Carol Shepard of the Southeastern Michigan Glass Beadmakers Guild.

This is the official photograph -Photograph by Sylvus Tarn ~ Rejiquar Works.

This is the second interpretation
I did for the Guild Challenge-


















Update- This won third place for finished jewelry in the Guild Challenge.

This necklace presented several interesting challenges. Not the challenges you might expect, however. It started out as a simple three strand transition necklace; jet black to gunmetal gray crystals. Then, I spotted the flower in Jo Ann's or more accurately, my wife pointed it out to me. If you are married you know what that means. It has an antique copper finish with black crystals, I spotted a silver one at another Jo Ann's but liked this one better.
 My first challenge, I had no antique copper findings or crimps, thus the need for a special trip to one of my local supply shops. Challenge number two, how to attach the strands to the rose. The bails designed into the rose were too close to the edge for what I wanted to do and there were only two of them, on opposite sides of the rose. I wanted to attach the strands further under the edges, luckily there were two cross braces underneath with two small holes and enough space for a third strand in between.
Challenge number three, each strand is custom strung to conform to neck and shoulder curvature.
I strung from the outside in and it can only be worn with the rose on the wearers left. Each strand is a different length and because they are in fixed positions on the rose it cannot be reversed. As I was stringing the last strand I came up three inches of crystals short. I tried four shops with no success, so I returned to the shop where I had purchased the original strands of crystals, all the strands they had out. Luckily, they had more.
Challenge number four, it was BORING.  Beautiful, but boring. There was nothing that said, this rose belongs here. I went to my beads and found some lovely bronze bi cones that were a near perfect match to the rose. Now I had to figure out what to do with them. After some experimenting, I eliminated uniform patterns throughout the necklace, then I scattered some beads randomly on each of the strands and then solid, as though the color was dripping off the rose and pooling at the bottom of the front  necklace curvature.
My final challenge was getting an acceptable photo of the necklace. I gave up using my digital camera because it always bleached out the color because of the sparkle of the crystals. So, I used my trusty film camera, stopped down the camera for color saturation and then took bracketed shots at various shutter speeds and f stops. I used natural sunlight. I took the film to my trusty camera shop to develop the film and save it to a CD. Then all I had to do was crop the picture and  I had an acceptable picture. I am still working on the best picture, but I need a couple more studio lights and diffusers. The necklace form is supposed to be black velvet, not charcoal gray. It is almost, but not quite right.

I'm preparing for a couple of upcoming classes. The first group,a garden club, is a big unknown for sewing ability, so I will use a kit that is excellent for introducing bead weaving; a square stitch bracelet with five flower shank buttons for decoration.

The button shank takes the place of a bead and is sewn into the bracelet. It is a great introduction to bead weaving, is appropriate for beginners and can be completed in a couple of hours.

The second group are accomplished sewers, but I will use the same project because they will be able to complete it by the end of the class and have a completed project. It is infinitely customizable, so they can hit their button stashes for a wide variety of looks.

The top sample is for a friend who likes pirate stuff, the middle bracelet is a sample using pretty buttons, the bottom sample is for my daughter who loves candy corn. These are all the same square stitch bracelet, just different buttons.