Bracelet

I call this one "Eat Your Greens". It has faceted jade, faceted jaspers, tubular jade, Czech seed beads, toggle clasp, crystals. The length is 7 1/2". $45.00.

[SOLD]

 



The Perfect Bracelet

This is what I call "The Perfect Bracelet" because the colors are perfect together, the size is perfect, the textures are perfect, it hangs on the wrist perfectly, it feels great as you wear it. Carnelian stones, seed beads. 7 1/2 inches accommodates the wrist without being too large. $45.00. SOLD

Bowl, made from my own handmade papers, cast into 7 1/2" x 5" form. Gold embroidery thread decorations, with gold painted rim. $40.00.

Beads, close-up, after glazing. After this, I will arrange them into groups and post to my Etsy shop - just do a search for tmkrowan after you go to the Etsy web.

Beads, another view of the glazed beads.  This shows all the beads. There are 25 in this batch.

Another view, a more "overhead" view, of the beads after they've been glazed.

This is the latest bead garden that I've made. Soon, I will be posting these and others to an Etsy account. Large one sell for $3.00; medium ones sell for $2.00, and small ones sell for $1.00 if bought individually. The sets, however, usually consisting of 5 - 6 assorted beads, will sell for less as a group.

Turquoise-colors.

I must say that most of these have sold already, but there are still some left in this leopard-looking group.

Pinks. These are now glazed. This photo was pre-glaze.

 

Stage Three: mounted on blue matte board, then matted with purple matte board. After this, I just need to get the gold frame and clear acrylic to protect it. Finished size: 18" x 14". Framed: $200. Unframed: $175.00.

Handmade papers formed into a bowl. I make the paper, then I make things out of the paper. These bowls are some of the things I make. Most of the bowls are between 5 - 6 inches in diameter, and between 2 - 4 inches deep. Most of them are surprisingly sturdy. They're varnished after formed.

Side view of the bowl that's above.

Delicate bowl, with purchased dried flowers added.

This bowl has several layers. I've taken a couple of photos of the outside of the bowl, to show the "strata".

Another view of the same bowl, outside layers.

This is one side of the above bowl, with its stratas of thick paper.

A second view from the side of the bowl, showing a little more of the inside.

This bowl has a random edge, edged in gold paint. Most of my bowls are edged with gold paint.

Another rather delicate bowl - when you hold it up to the light, you can see through this one, and the other delicate one that's above. Again, purchased dried flowers have been added to the inside of this bowl.

Side view of the delicate bowl that's shown above.

Using my handmade papers, I am in the process of creating a collage. I've used 140-lb watercolor paper as the base on which I'm doing the collage work. It holds up well, and doesn't warp. Stage one. 12" x 9".

Stage two: I've edged the different pieces of the collage with gold paint, and will mount this on the blue matte board. Then I will matte it with the purple matte board. I'm going to use a thin gold metal frame on this. The finished size will be 18" x 14".

A little paper rose, worked into handmade paper background. 8" x 6". No gold paint - I left this as a soft presentation.

 

 

Copper bowl, gold top edge. This bowl is hard as a rock.

 

This bowl, and others that I've made like it, have been formed from handmade paper that I created out of left-over art papers. The papers were formed inside a plastic bowl. The pieces of handmade paper were joined using acrylic gloss gel. Afterward, the entire bowl was glazed with acrylic gloss glaze, and I edged the bowl with "Emperor's Gold" acrylic paint. The bowl is about 7" across, and 4" high. The dried flowers were added after the bowl was formed.

 

Messing around with oil paints, I came up with this little guy who reminds me of van Gogh...SOLD

Bead garden: red, black, white and gold polymer clay beads.

Long beads are $3.00 each. Round beads are $1.00 each.

Bead garden: red, white and blue variations. Long beads are $3.00 each.

 Round beads are $1.00 each.

Example of a bead with wire: "Nu-gold" wire, 18gauge; long bead.

All beads prepared like this (either Nu-gold or sterling wire) are $3.50 each.

This looks like a box of assorted candies...All long beads are $3.00 each.

This includes "leaf-style" and other pendant shapes. Medium length tubes are $2.00 each.

All round beads are $1.00 each. I'm going to photograph them in "sets" and post them on Etsy.



This is my set-up for rolling tiles of the same thickness. I sacrificed my yardstick...

These are some beads that I made from the remnants of the tiles, left over after trimming the tiles.

This is one of the photos of the tiles just after I baked them. I'm using them to edge two shelves in my wet bar area. The glass shelves crashed, taking some glasses with them, last week.

 

 

I made this for a friend of mine. The sea glass pendant is sterling wire wrapped, from sea glass that I found by diving for it into the waves on the Jersey Shore. The other beads are: turquoise, aquamarine, and seed beads. The toggle clasp is silver-plate. This necklace is 24 inches in length. If you wish to have one like this, it will be a little different but with the same theme. Each one is individually made, according to what I have in sea glass, and how the wire wrap goes together. The cost for a pendant necklace like this is between $75.00 - $85.00, depending on the length and the amount of silver that I use for the wrap.

 

I call these "Leopard Beads" because that's what they look like. The long ones are $3.00; the medium ones are $2.00; the small round ones are $1.00 per item. (plus shipping, of course) SOLD

Fresh out of the oven - now it's time to glaze them, then build a necklace and bracelet around them.

These are polymer clay beads that I've made, set up in my corks with toothpicks. That's how I glaze them without them sticking to anything while they dry. I always wash them first, to get rid of any excess oils from my fingers.

This photo shows a close-up view of the necklace and earrings. The necklace has polymer clay beads, which I've made, along with citrine chips, seed beads, fuchsia pearls, and antiqued gold-plated bead caps and spacer beads. The earrings have citrine chips, two fucshia pearls separated by gold-plated spacer beads, and gold-filled earwires. The last section of the necklace isn't showing - there is about 7-8" of necklace hidden in the back of the stand. The necklace is $100.00, and the earrings are $29.00.

 This is a more "close-up" view.

 

This is the entire necklace, but the photo is a little washed-out. The colors above are more accurate.

This is a necklace I made from the polymer clay beads in a previous photo. In addition to the polymer clay beads I made, I added Swarovski bicone beads, Czech rondelle beads, sterling bead caps. There is no clasp - this is 26" long, and fits over the head. $60.00.

Polymer clay beads

Bracelet of polymer clay beads, pumpkin theme, stretchy cord.

Copper-wrapped ceramic clay pendant, rosewood beads, Czech glass beads, copper connections, copper toggle clasp. 20" length. $49.00.

Close-up of beads

Batik/Weaving Process

The first step: splatter melted wax over a sheet of Arches watercolor paper, and cover that with a wash of acrylic paint.

The second step: Melting the splattered wax with the hair dryer I use for art purposes.

Here's a photo of the melted wax mixing with the paint. Interestingly enough, some orange appeared at this point.

The next step: Adding more wax dribbles, then adding a wash of olive green. After I added the green, I wiped off the excess color with a soft cotton cloth.

 

Here, I've added more wax, then added a wash of red.

 

Now, I've wiped off the excess red, and I've added more splatters of wax.

I added a wash of blue-violet here.

I've wiped off the excess paint, and I'm ready to iron out the wax.

 

To iron out the wax, I placed the sheet of Arches onto a soft layer of cotton cloth, placed another sheet of Arches onto the first sheet of paper that is covered with color and wax. I then covered all with another clean cotton cloth, and began ironing out the wax. The colors lightly transferred to the top sheet, which you see on the right. The ironing process took about 1/2 hour. 

 



I drew lines, spaced 1/2 inch apart, onto the back, and began cutting with an X-Acto knife. I decided to not use a straight-edge rule, but went for a more natural cut. There is a margin of three inches on the top and sides, and 3 1/2 inches along the bottom.

 



I cut strips out of the first sheet - there is a 1 /12" strip on the bottom row, here. I also cut three strips that are 1" wide, three that are 3/4" wide, and the rest are 1/2" wide. Again, I measured them before cutting but cut "freehand" as opposed to using a straight-edge.

This photo shows the weaving as it progresses.

This is me, with my really serious face that I get when I work on my stuff.

I'm measuring the strips to make sure that they're even on both sides.

The last two strips are more difficult to put in, since the weaving is tight at this point. They don't just slide in, like the others did. So I bring the strip straight up, then stab it straight down, gently pulling it to get it to go through.

Another view of working in the last strip. I'm working at my kitchen table. I did all of this in the kitchen, but covered the table with plastic while I was doing the  pouring and painting.

The last loop/strip.

I'm pushing the strip here.

Another view of the last couple of inches.

Now the weaving is done, and I need to batten down the edges that are creeping up.

Inspecting the woven piece to see where I still need to get those edges to lie flat.

Trimming the back - and I have left-over strips set aside for another free-form weave.

Here you can see my numbers on the back of the strips. I number them after drawing the guide/cutting lines because I like to keep them in the order in which they were cut. It's just a "thing" with me.

The back is now trimmed and the edges of the strips are glued down tightly.

Here's the first photo of the finished weaving - it's a little darker looking than it is "in person".

These are my mat choices - the lighter one will have the artwork mounted on it. The darker one will be the cut mat. The finished size will be 36" x 28", and I'll use a gold metal frame on it.