Art for art's sake?

For Week 4 of the Focus on Life blog hop, Sally's prompt to us was to "Create Art."  Oddly enough, this one has been the most difficult for me so far, not because I don't feel I'm artistic and creative (in fact, I sometimes think I have TOO MUCH creativity, and it can get very scattery!) but because I'm currently suffering from a severe lack of time and, oddly, space...

You see, I've just started classes again (I teach College English) and in true Crazy-Rana form, I'm teaching 7 classes across 2 colleges.  oi....  We're three weeks into the semester, which essentially means all my fun time is getting ready to go down the drain in deference to essay reading, grading, and emails.  For the most part, this is okay, as I really do like my job.  I would just like to like a little LESS of my job.  If that makes any sense.  So there's the time aspect...

I am also in the middle of a very, VERY slow move.  Eventually, I'll be all settled in back in my parents' house (it's okay--they've retired and are traveling a bit, so I mostly have it to myself) but at the moment, I'm actually living in 2 places.  So, half of my things are in one house, half are in the other.  I have the art supplies in one house, but the good places to DO the art are in the other house.  It's very odd...  

So, I decided, that instead of DOING art this week, I would work on preparing to do art.  Since my art takes the form of so many different things--jewelry, painting, card-making, crocheting, cross-stitch, maybe (one day) knitting--I decided I would take care of the things you need to do to get to the actual art.  For me, right now, that means earwires... 

See, I'm also participating in Art Jewelry Elements Earring challenge--trying to make at least one pair of earrings every week.  And yes, sometimes I use premade earwires, but ever since I discovered the fun of pounding on wire with a hammer, I actually prefer to make my own earwires.  It's a bit of an involved process for me, since I don't have a tumbler (yet), so I have to file and hammer every single one, after all the shaping. 

Brass, Sterling, and copper wire, coiled and ready for cutting! 

The brass, cut and shaped.  Working on filing the ends here...

my bench block!  Top five fave purchases of 2012.  lol!  This is when the wire gets "work hardened" so it holds its shape...

Copper earwires all ready to go! :) 

RanaLea :)

AJE Earring Challenge, 1st Reveal

Hi there!  As part of my effort to blog more (and because it sounded like fun... lol!) I'm participating in Art Jewelry Elements Earring Challenge.

So here goes!

First up, the earrings I made with beads I bought from my favorite local bead shop, Sparkle Spot, which were hand delivered to Kelley from Hungary!  And now, they're in my earrings!  Beads by Reka, of CheekyBeads. The pic doesn't really do these beads justice--they are such a beautiful buttery-tan shade, and the dots are FABULOUSly fun! :)  I've got the beads dangling on lengths of chain, for a fun fidget earring. 

These might possibly be my favorites of all time.  The components were made especially for me in an Artist swap on the Bead Swap-USA page.  Diana Keever, of Diana Keever Jewelry, made the happy cat charm (I have two kitties...) and wire wrapped the key and pen nib for me ("writing is the key!").  I just added the earwire to the key and nib charm, and added some coordinating danglies to the happy cat to tie it all together in some fabulous "self-portrait" mis-matched earrings. 

And these are double-art bead earrings!  lol!  The lampwork rounds were made by Lampwork Beads by Linda, and I made the netted pearl beads.  These go with my Goddess set that you can see here. 

So there you have it!  I had fun creating these, and hope to have lots more to share with you soon!

You can check out the other participants here, and there's a Pinterest page here.

Thanks!

RanaLea

You say your earrings don't match?

Neither do mine! :) 

Awhile back, I signed up to participate in the Mismatched Art Bead Earrings Swap over on the Art Jewelry Elements blog. We were all matched up with a partner, made a pair of mismatched earrings, and sent them off to our partner.  

My partner is the wonderful Kay Hand, of the Creative Tangent blog (and you can find her here and here--she has the coolest shawl pins here!!!--on Etsy). I'll show you the GORGEOUSNESS that Kay made for me in a few minutes. :) 

One of my stumbling points as a jewelry designer is that I'm very concerned with things matching. Both sides of a necklace must be even... a bracelet MUST be symmetrical... and earrings HAVE TO MATCH!  In fact, I get downright annoyed with myself when things don't match up.  

I've tried before to break the habit, and I've even bought lampwork beads SPECIFICALLY for the purpose of making mismatched things. Those beads?  Yeah, they're still in the box...

Don't they look so sad?  Non-made dino earrings...  :(  Soon! 

Now, for the awesome!

From Kay, I received the niftiest pair of shoulder-sweep earrings.  These babies are LOOOONG.  I love them.  She used gorgeous lampwork beads, fun charms, chains, bead caps, and quite possbily the prettiest earwires I've ever seen! They're bright, and colorful, and will go with so many different things! 
Here, look! 

Pretty!  Lookit how pretty!  I love them!

And, they're fidgety! I love fidget earrings.  

Kay also sent me the matching bead to the red lampwork in the earrings.  And it has an eyeball!!!

Creepily awesome. :)  I'm sensing mismatched Halloween earrings! 

Now, just before I began making the earrings to send to Kay, I received a bead swap package from one of my bead groups. My partner in that swap, Kelli, sent me the coolest polymer clay skull beads (she made them herself!!  They are AWESOME!!!)  And it had been awhile since I wrapped any wire, so I thought it might be fun to play with that, too.  Plus, Halloween is coming, and it IS my 2nd favorite holiday ever! So, I ended up creating a rather over-the-top (and kinda largish) pair of wrapped hoop earrings for Kay.  

For an idea on size, my form was a pill bottle...   Yes, they are BIG.

And now, the blog list!  Go check out the awesome earrings created in this hop! :) 

• Diana Ptaszynski  http://www.suburbangirlstudio.com
• Lisa Liddy http://www.lisaliddy.wordpress.com
• Kari Asbury  http://www.hippiechickdesign.blogspot.com
• Jayne Capps  http://mamasgottodoodle.blogspot.com/
• Rebecca Anderson  http://www.songbeads.blogspot.com
• Lesley Watt  http://www.thegossipinggoddess.blogspot.com
• Lori Bowring Michaud  http://www.artfullyornamental.blogspot.com
• Renetha Stanziano  http://www.lamplightcrafts.blogspot.com
• Holly Westfall   http://www.silverrosedesigns.blogspot.com/
• Theresa Fosdick  http://www.thoughtful-notions.blogspot.com/
• Ali McCarthy  http://www.northwoodscreativestudio.blogspot.com
• Shai Williams  http://shaihasramblings.blogspot.com/
• Iveth Caruso  http://www.creativeatelier.net/blog.html
• Carolyn Collins  http://www.sparklingwaterstudio.com
• Elaine Ray  http://www.elaineray.blogspot.com
• Kristen Stevens  http://kristen-beadjourney.blogspot.com/
• Charlene Jacka  http://clay-space.com/blog
• Jan Onipenco  http://www.MoltenMayhem.typepad.com
• Stephanie Woods  http://www.rainydaysdesigns.com
• Eleanor Burian-Mohr  http://www.cornerstoregoddessjewelry.blogspot.com
• Shelby Foxwell  http://www.sundownbeaddesigns.blogspot.com
• Pam Sears  http://www.crazycreativecorner.blogspot.com
• Mary Harding  http://www.maryhardingjewelrybeadblog.blogspot.com
• Lisa Johnson  http://www.Whimsyswonders.blogspot.com
• Kashmira Patel  http://www.sadafulee.blogspot.com
• Penny Neville  http://www.copperpennydesigns.blogspot.com
• Dee Elgie  http://www.cherryobsidia.blogspot.co.uk
• Sarah Small  http://www.bysalla.blogspot.com
• Carolyn Lawson  http://www.Carolynscreationswa.blogspot.com
• Karin Slaton  http://www.backstorybeads.blogspot.com
• Ashleigh Becker  http://www.seladesignsjewelry.blogspot.com
• Kay Hand  http://www.creativetangent.blogspot.com <--My partner!!!  :)
• Rana L. Wilson  http://ranaleadesigns.blogspot.com <--Me! :)
• Sandra McGriff  http://www.skyescreativechaos.blogspot.com
• Dawn Pierro  http://www.turtlemoondesigns.me
• Shelley Graham Turner  http://www.shelleygrahamturner.blogspot.com
• Karen Mitchell  http://www.overthemoon-design.com
• Melissa Trudinger  http://www.beadrecipes.wordpress.com

Art Jewelry Elements: July Component of the Month

Woot!  I finished it! :)  And I had so much fun with it!

Okay, so earlier this month, on the Art Jewelry Elements blog, I saw the fabulous July Design component, Jennifer Cameron's Nightmare Insomnia beads.  This bead is so many levels of fabulousness, I just cannot tell you.  :)  I could not wait to play with this one, so I hopped right on the opportunity to get one and participate in the hop!

Okay, so this is the bead Jennifer sent me:

You can't see it terribly well here, but in addition to the gorgeous swirly colors in here,  there's an awesome zebra stripe. 

I pondered this bead for a few weeks, until I finally decided that I wanted to play with seed beads.  I finally settled on a cellini spiral (my first ever!) using instructions from the fabulous Inspirational Beading blog. Here's some pics of the cellini in progress:

seed beads all over! 

So, I had originally thought to do a cellini spiral bangle, with the nightmare bead in the center focal.  But really, I gotta tell you, I wasn't real sure how to do that, as I've never woven a bangle before (I'm pondering that next) and I wasn't sure if the entire thing might not be too chunky.  After all, the cellini certainly has some oomph to it, and the bead is a lovely size, as well. 

Eventually, I settled on a necklace, and decided to weave a basic spiral rope for either side of the cellini.   I attached those ropes to the cellini section with a very haphazard and organic series of beaded "strings." Not sure if it was "proper," but it worked:

You can sort see the stringies here... 

Then, I had to figure out a way to attach the bead to the necklace.  I really want it to be over-the-top (well, more than it was already...) and I thought it'd be fun to give it a bit of fringe.  So, I wove a seed-bead-bail-system-thingy through the bead to secure an actual woven bail to one end and some danglies to the other.  Then, I decided a woven bail would too much, so I just used 3 strands of seed beads to go around the cellini.  So, here's the finished "thingie":

:)

And here's the Whole Shebang! 

Pretty! 

I love collages, don't you? 

You can find the rest of the Nightmare bead designs here: 

Beti Horvath: Stringing Fool

Gretchen Nation: Art Food Lodging

Karen Totten: Starry Road Studio

Kathleen Douglas: Washoe Kat's

Keirsten Giles: The Cerebral Dilettante

Kristen Stevens: My Bead Journey

Lola: Bead Lola Bead

Lori Anderson: Pretty Things

Nancy Pederson: Something Heartfelt by Nancy

Pam DeBoer: Purple Notes from the Studio

Rana Wilson: Rana Lea Designs

Shannon Chomanczuk: For My Sweet Daughter

Just a quick note! :)

Just wanted to "hop" in real quick to say hi!  And to let you all know that the 6th Bead Soup Blog Party began yesterday!  The first reveal started yesterday, and you can find a complete list of Reveal 1 Participants here.  So many pretty things! (You won't find my piece yet--I'm in the last reveal. lol!)

Also, wanted to let you know to stay tuned for more "Beads for Blogging" goodies from me (I am having so much FUN!) and the Art Jewelry Elements Component of the Month Design reveal in a few days (omg!!!!  Wait till you see what I made!!)  :)

RanaLea