Florence Turnour's Blog

I'll make a mathematician out of you yet

2011-12-15T02:13:00.000-08:00

I have been surfing around in the polymer clay folks flikr pages, and I came across an old blog, called "Dora's Explorations." Dora made a terrific shaded polymer cane showing the Bhaskara's Behold! proof of Pythagoras' Theorem. (She also made a tutorial; the link is below the image.)

http://dorasexplorations.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/cane-of-the-week-7509-behold-part-ii/

Making the clay blend so that the shading in this cane went the way she wanted it to lead her to experience mathematics in the very way that mathematicians experience it in the course of research. She wrote:

"I had to make a Skinner block that would shade diagonally from the corner. Another 2 or 3 frustrating hours were spent in trying to figure out how to do this. If I had better mathematical or mechanical skills, I would have been able to mentally ’track back’ from the finished shaded triangles to the initial Skinner blend. But instead I had to cut out little shaded paper triangles and attempt to recreate the steps. Anyway, I did finally come up with a solution (and a headache!), although I am sure there is a better, easier way to do it. No doubt there are many people out there who could figure out in a few minutes what took me several hours."

That is a wonderful description of what mathematics feels like to the mathematician and non-mathematician alike. Every time we work on a problem, we feel like if we just had one more inkling of an idea, or a tiny bit more experience, or if we only remembered how those ideas ever came together last time we worked with these tools, if only... then the problem would be easily solved.

Then we give up on our wistful thoughts of greater insight, and chop up paper triangles until we can make some sense of it. Sometimes it takes a long time. And sometimes we get headaches. And then sometimes, if we are very lucky, we figure it out, and behold! There is that elation, woo hoo! I figured it out! Followed by that sinking suspicion that someone somewhere could have figured it out instantly. (Maybe the German mathematician Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss already did it in the 1800's?)

We feel that the part of math we understand is easy, and as we add to that body of understanding, we transition how we think about the newly understood ideas from hard to easy. As an idea makes that transition, we feel frustrated, as Dona suggests, because it now seems like the idea should always have been easy. Hindsight in mathematics is 20/20 with a pair of binoculars and a magnifying glass at the ready.

I think what distinguishes the mathematicians is that we revel in the necessity to cut out paper triangles, and are more willing to tolerate the feelings of inadequacy during exploration in exchange for the elation brought about by the (very) occasional Eureka! You bead-y folks who have 16 preliminary versions of a piece of beadwork, each representing several hours of sew-it-rip-it labor, which you made in search of the perfectly engineered and aesthetic design, have much in common with the mathematicians, with paper triangles littering our tables and floors.

P.S. Thanks, Dora, for your insights.

Diamond Net Beads and Kia's Green Lampwork

2011-10-30T17:07:00.000-07:00

My friend Kia Dallons and I were friends in high school, but we've only just reconnected through facebook. As it turns out, we are both making jewelry. Kia describes herself as seamstress, costumer, illustrator, sculpter, mold-maker and glass artist. She sent me some of her lampwork beads (which surreptitiously arrived on my birthday; nice present!). Here is the necklace that I made with them. Thank you Kia!

It is nice to return to the old favorite patterns from time to time. The beaded beads in this necklace are mini Diamond Net Beads. The Diamond Net Bead has the nice distinction of being the first beaded bead that Gwen and I designed together. Gwen and I met at a math conference, and about a month later, she visited my department to give a presentation. She stayed at my house, and brought with her what I now understand was a small box of beads, though at the time, it seemed like quite a collection. She introduced me to beaded beads at that time. I'll skip the part about my first beaded bead (with no hole) and the tennis ball sized beaded pompom that was my second attempt, after which I bought reading glasses and downsized. Before we met again, we both had designed beaded beads of our own.

My husband and I went to San Luis Obispo to visit Gwen and for vacation in 2004, and we had a grand show and tell. Gwen showed her first original beaded bead, the Barrel Bead, and I showed my first original design, the Blueberry Bead. We discussed the techniques that we used to make these beads, and in the discussion uncovered that in both cases, our first uses of the techniques were not the easiest possible versions. Out of these discussions arose the Diamond Net Bead (from the Barrel Bead), and the Spinning Top Bead (from the Blueberry). Our first Spinning Tops turned out very well, but the first Diamond Net was sort of lumpy; what we now call the Diamond Net Bead was almost dubbed the Stunted Torpedo!

Leaving white space is tricky

2011-07-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

I was planning to leave some parts of the fabric unpainted (except for bleed), but it is just so much fun to splash color on there, that I forgot. I did a pretty good job keeping the colors from going muddy on the first dying, but on the second I was not as careful. I think if that white space had been there, I'd have managed it. Maybe. I also got some dark smudges in my first dying, I think by having a big blob of pigment on my brush when I first started to paint. I'm not sure that's what did it, but I was more careful on the second go, and I think I didn't add any new smudges. So, I'm getting better at it, but still working.

I'm still happy with my diatoms. Nice little beasties.

If at first it seems to work, dye dye again

2011-07-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

I added another layer of purple paint to my diatoms and stuck the stencils down on top for another go. I think layering that dotty diatom on top of itself (bottom image on the left) might have been a bit much, but the process was definitely a success.

Now I can make a veritable sludge pool of microbiological beasties, though I'm still shooting for cleaner colors. On that note, I made another layer on my yellow and pink test run, as well.

You can see in the top right where the yellow is on top of a blue/pink mix. It makes a bright but muddy color, if such a think makes sense. Even the yellow on top of the pink loses some of its lushness. I'm not sure I don't like it that way, though I would like to be able to control when I get muck and when I get clarity. Yellow on yellow worked nicely.

For my next trick, I will paint the fabric, without stencils, leaving some white. Then I will paint over with the same colors and add diatoms.

Sun dying results

2011-07-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

Here are my first diatoms on fabric.

I'm so excited about the stencils! Now I'm ready to learn to put some texture and depth into the background. I did make one discovery: the colors do better if they blend by them selves on the edges. When I paint one color over another, I get a blend, but it is muddier. (Though I admit that might be because the blue I'm using has some black in it). For example, on the test patch below, I did not overlap the yellow and the pink. They bled into each other at the edges, but I tried not to brush one over the other. These are the brightest colors I've managed so far. On the diatoms, I used only purple paint, not mixed with other colors.

I think I need to buy more colors!

I'm dying!

2011-07-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

I'm sun dying again. Here is a blog showing the process: LuAnn Kessi's Blog

In my last dying experiment, I laser printed an image onto an overhead projector, acetate slide, and pinned it to my fabric. I was hoping the printed image would mask the sun, but the slide itself would let the sunlight through. In fact the slide masked the sun, and created a very crisp rectangle, as the paint pooled a little around the edges. The vinyl also gave a very crisp image, but it is hard to reuse the vinly, since it rolls up and sticks to itself when you peel it off. So I thought I'd try making some stencils out of acetate, which I can rinse off and reuse.

I drew some diatoms (What's a diatom? Artist Ernst Haeckel) using Adobe Illustrator, and cut them out of acetate using my plotter cutter. They are now sitting in the sun, and I'm writing this entry partly to keep myself from watching the paint dry. Here's an image of my stencils.

I hope it works! One great thing about the plotter cutter is that I can always cut the images out of vinyl, which I know will work for sun dying, so there will certainly be some diatom fabric in my future.

Fabric! Do I need a new hobby?

2011-07-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I spent some time playing with stencils.

My blog post about using
stencils and stamps to make this fish

I loved the effects and sharpness of the images I got, but I didn't love working on paper that much. I didn't really have any finished product that I wanted to make out of paper. Somewhere along the line, Gwen suggested I use fabric instead. I didn't know much about fabric paint (which remains true), and I ignored her.

Recently, though, I came across a blog post (or 20) about using Setacolor transparent fabric dye to sun print. The paints were not too expensive, so I ordered a few (from http://www.dharmatrading.com/ ) to give it a try. I ordered the transparent paints for sun dying, and a set of metalic paints with hopes of using them in the stencils that I make like I did with the stamping ink.

This morning, I gave it a shot. Some of my experiments worked not at all, and some of them were OK. This fish came out well enough to prompt me to share. I had already drawn the image from the paper projects you see above. I cut the stencil from self adhesive vinyl. Then I painted on wet fabric with the paints. The vinyl did not stick to the wet fabric, but stuck itself down once the fabric dried. Even without the adhesive working, it sat pretty well on the wet fabric. I painted on the fabric through the stencil to add shadows in the right places, which I could not effectively do on the paper stencils.

The vinyl worked fabulously to screen the sun. Too well, really, as none of the background color took at all, except that drip that might have happened before I even started working on that piece. After the fabric was dry, I brought it in and used my stamps and some make-up cotton swabs to apply the gold and metallic purple paint through the still stuck stencil. I was able to get some of the shading effects that I got with the inks on paper, and I think with a little practice, I could do much with it. I might be able to do some shading on dry fabric with the transparent paint as well.

Here he is! Fabric Fish, take 1.

Handmade Brass Pendant

2011-06-07T10:37:00.000-07:00

Also at Ruby Tuesday Bead Company, I bought a brass pendant that the shop owner embossed and embellished. I used Cynthia Rutledge's pattern from the February/March 2011 issue of Beadwork Magazine to make this pendant.

Sakura Charm!

2011-06-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

I visited my local beadstore, Ruby Tuesdays in Long Beach, and bought (among other things [grin]) a strand of purple petals. They are not the shape required by Cindy Holsclaw's Sakura Charm pattern, but I thought I'd give it a try. It took me a few attempts to decide that the petals were not going to fit with the pattern as written, and then I got lucky, and tried just changing all of the size 15/0's to 11/0's. It worked like a charm!

I love my little pendant. Thanks, Cindy!

Another Peyote Tube

2011-05-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

This peyote tube uses the same pattern as the first one except that I used different sizes of crystals.

These top drilled bicones have always looked interesting to me, but I've not found a good use for them. Here, they make the tube quite stiff, so there was no need for extra reinforcement.

Gwen used these beads in her version of Cindy's Sakura Charm. They look fantastic.

For sale in Gwen's Etsy shop:
http://www.gwenbeads.etsy.com

I'm definitely going to have to give that a try. Time to order bicones; Fire Mountain Gems seems to have them on sale!

Hitching a ride on the peyote band wagon

2011-05-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

Here is my fourth or maybe my fifth attempt to make something using peyote stitch. It is stable, not to squishy and easy to make. I made fairly fancy ends (you can't see them from this angle) in an attempt to make it sturdy, and in the process figured out a better way to make it stable without the end structure. So on my next go, I'm going to forgo the end structure, and hope for a fuss-free non-squishy tube. In the meantime, I get to wear this one!

Doceri.com Movie!

2011-03-01T02:16:00.000-08:00

I made this movie by drawing on my iPad using a software called Doceri (Visit Doceri.com). Doceri lets you play back your drawings one stroke at a time, or a few at a time, so it is easy to make animation like this. My kids like to watch their drawings draw themselves.

Benjamin beads!

2010-12-10T00:29:00.000-08:00

Benjamin has been asking me if he could sew with beads for a long time now, so one day, when he was home sick from school, I let him have a go. He did great. He seems to be a natural, actually. He picked up the small beads with his needle, and counted them twice to double check. I held the thing down while he stitched back through, but otherwise he did the whole thing by himself.

Ta da! Here it is, the pretty little flower.

My first beads

2010-11-18T13:13:00.000-08:00

This is me, beading, back in 1973.

And I'm still beading!

Turquoise and Brown Star

2010-10-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

I'm beading again (la la la). I thought I'd share this pendant in turquoise and brown. The lighter roundels are probably chrisocola.

I'm wearing it today!

Pink Flower! (New idea realized)

2010-10-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

Here's another picture of my new design. In the process of making this, I had a few (dozen) other ideas that I'd like to try, and I'm moving on.

The start of a new idea (6)

2010-10-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

Have you been following along as I log my progress toward a new design using herringbone with two different sizes of seed beads? I just finished my sixth piece in this effort.

Here are the first four:
http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/09/start-of-new-idea.html
http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/10/start-of-new-idea-2.html
http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/10/start-of-new-idea-3.html
http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/10/start-of-new-idea-4.html
http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/10/start-of-new-idea-5.html

And (drumroll...) here's number 6.

I'm liking how this one came out! Hey, Gwen?!

Design Team Call

2010-10-11T01:00:00.000-07:00

Announcing beAd Infinitum's first Design Team! Show your beAd Infinitum creations with links to our site in exchange for FREE PATTERNS!

Call for Applications to Join beAd Infinitum's first Design Team

beAd Infinitum is looking for a design team of 3 or 4 talented beaders to make and publicly display jewelry on the internet using our patterns.
Term: We are looking for a 4- or 6-month commitment, beginning November 2010.
During a design team member’s term, beAd Infinitum provides the team members with

two patterns of his or her choice the first month, and a pattern of his or her choice each subsequent month of the term.
credit and a link to the design team member’s blog, web site, and/or Etsy site on each gallery page featuring the team member’s work.
a 50% discount on additional beAd Infinitum products during the term.
this nifty design team banner to display on his or her blog.

The design team members each commit to

creating at least two beautiful pieces of jewelry per month prominently featuring beAd Infinitum designs. These items should either be new or not previously featured on the internet.
sending (each month) beAd Infinitum high quality and artfully rendered photographs of his or her work that incorporate beAd Infinitum designs for display at www.beAdInfinitum.com and/or on associated blogs or Facebook pages with credit to the design team member.
displaying pictures of their work on their personal blogs and in the public forums in which they participate, crediting beAd Infinitum and providing a link to www.beAdInfinitum.com as appropriate.

To be considered for the beAd Infinitum design team, please send the following to florence@beAdInfinitum.com or gwen@beAdInfinitum.com by the deadline: Sunday, October 24th.

Images of three pieces of beadwork that you have made, which need not incorporate beAd Infinitum designs. You may send links to photos posted on line rather than emailing files of images.
The url for your blog, public gallery, Etsy shop or any other on-line vending venue.
A list of the forums and groups in which you participate.

Questions? Email florence@beAdInfinitum.com and gwen@beAdInfinitum.com.

The start of a new idea (5)

2010-10-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

Back on track, I decided to repeat my attempt at try number 3, except with more beads, so the circle is larger. It came out nicely, and I like the effect of the herringbone decoration. I also like the color in this one.

It wants a rivoli in the center! To go with that idea, I need to start with the rivoli and work outwards. So I didn't finish embellishing this one, or figuring out how to give it some structure (it is quite floppy).

Shortly after Laura McCabe published that beautiful rivoli necklace pattern in Beadwork Magazine, we started seeing rivolis everywhere. We wondered if our Fringe Method technique would be a good way to capture a rivoli. In one of the rare occasions that Gwen and I were together in the same room, we quickly came up with the Rivoli Sunflower design, in which we modify the Fringe Method technique to accommodate the acute angles of the rivoli.

Rivoli Sunflowers

In my next attempt at a new design, I'm going to start with a rivoli captured by the Fringe Method, and add herringbone, and I hope to enclose it in the structure I made in version number 5.

Here they all are together, again:

The start of a new idea (4)

2010-10-10T13:48:00.000-07:00

OK, I don't know what happened on this one. I was planning to try to make a flower shape and it started looking like it could be a cube. I couldn't keep myself on task, and ended up following through with that thought, and all of a sudden, I had this small symmetric boulder.

I'm not sure it deserved its own post, but to make an honest log of my efforts toward a new design, I guess it has to be here. Here are my tries so far:

The start of a new idea (3)

2010-10-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

In this incarnation, I planned to doodle around a decorative right angle weave square. I planned to keep the herringbone decorations from getting too ruffled or twisted. I switched to smaller herringbone embellishments because I was trying not to cover up all the larger beads in the array.

As I started embellishing, I saw a petal shape emerging. I'd love to design a flower, so I squished the thing together to make the petals poke up. I started to make a leaf, but then decided to turn it into a bail instead. I'll work on leaves after I have the flower under control.

For a flower, I'd not need all the beads in the RAW array, however, and I think in the resulting design, all of these larger beads clutter the edges. I need more petals; I'd really like another row of petals behind the first staggered so they stick out between the front ones. We'll see if I can figure out how to do that in the next go round.

I just looked at my first design, and I'm not sure they are getting better! Well, that's the way these things go, I think. I have to go a few steps backwards before I can go forwards again.

The start of a new idea (2)

2010-10-07T02:23:00.000-07:00

So I had a good stare at the herringbone weave project that I shared in this post:
http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/09/start-of-new-idea.html

I decided that I didn't like the contrast between the color of the large and small beads in the herringbone weave, and that I didn't like that the outer edge ruffled. So on my second attempt, I changed the colors, and I eliminated the outer edge.

In an attempt to be lazy, I also used only four core beads this time. This had an effect that I should have predicted: the seed bead path, which was one long path in the five sided version, is two separate paths in the four sided version. The two paths each encircle a pair core beads that lie across the center from one another.

The look is interesting. Without the outer edge, this piece does not hold its form as well as the five sided version. It would need more structural stability to make a good pendant, but with all those 8/0's hanging around, there are plenty of places to add some reinforcement.

I think the idea that I started with, in which I start out with right angel weave, and then embellish with herringbone weave that uses two sizes of bead, has more potential than I have uncovered so far. In my next attempt, I am going to change the path of the seed beads so that they do not have to pass through the middle of the design, where they bunch up. Too bad I need to sleep, or I'd work on it more, right now.

New and Old Kit Colors

2010-10-03T00:25:00.000-07:00

We now have kits for the Kepler's Star weave in Periwinkle and Silver.

We have also restocked the Blue Velvet Rosebud and matching Four of Spades beaded bead kits. That Blue Velvet might be my favorite color scheme ever.


Rosebud	Four of Spade

Happy Beading!

The start of a new idea

2010-09-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

I love the idea of documenting the progress toward a new design, so I thought I'd share my experiment log here on my blog. It's hard to tell at the beginning if the idea will ever pan out, but this one is interesting enough for me to think it might go somewhere. It is also not spectacularly beautiful, so definitely needs some work.
As you see, Gwen and I have been systematically finding uses for Herringbone Stitch in our beadwork.

We've been enjoying the curve that you get from the Herringbone weave afforded by using two different bead sizes, as on the columns on the Ionic Cube (right) and in the Herringbone trim on the Hour Glassy Bead (center). I begin my search for a new design with the two-sized, curved Herringbone Stitch in mind. My plan is to create a web of the smaller of my seed beads (11/0 this time), and then decorate it with Herringbone Stitch using the larger size seed bead (8/0 this time).

Here's what I stayed up late doing yesterday. ( I gave exams to 145 students yesterday; please don't ask me how my grading is going. Having a task to procrastinate does give me a burst of energy though.)

While I do think it is interesting, I don't say "Wow, that's pretty" when I look at it. Once I figure out why, I'll give it another go. I'm thinking the 8/0 beads are too crowded. Maybe I'll try to taper the sizes to highlight the shape a little.

My last Twinchie

2010-09-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a "Twinchie," which is a 2in x 2in card that I made for a swap on Splitcoaststampers.com. This seahorse is the one I used for my stencil in this post:
http://florenceturnour.blogspot.com/2010/09/seahorse.html

I drew the seahorse and all of the other components of this pull out in Adobe Illustrator, and cut them out on my Silhouette cutter. It says "The oldest seahorse fossils date back thirteen million years." Wow, that's a long time.

Seahorse Twinchie closed (left) and open (right)

The evolution of a design

2010-09-23T00:36:00.000-07:00

Finding an artist that I can collaborate with at so many levels is just amazing. The Ionic Polyhedra beaded bead collection, a new pattern that we are releasing today at beAd Infinitum, is a testament to how ideas can really take off when Gwen Fisher and I work together.

Gwen wrote the (free) Strappy Strip herringbone weave pattern to give our visitors a beaded chain on which to hang the Rivoli Sunflower and other beaded pendants. With it I finally learned the Herringbone Weave, which I had long ignored. I really took to that stitch and made, with it, many pretty and many ugly designs. These include an early version of the Hour Glassy Beaded Bead and the Ionic Cube shown below.

Early versions of designs using Herringbone Stitch

I really liked the look of the Herringbone trim, but both were a real pain to make. There were spots in which the thread peeked through (no! not thread!) and there were parts of the stitching in which I had to work really hard to get the needle into the appropriate beads. I showed pictures to Gwen, but did not tell her how I had put them together.

Gwen made versions of her own and what an improvement! Here's Gwen's version of the Hour Glassy Bead, in the colors we sell in our kits. See the smaller gray crystals near the equator of the bead, and the three little seed beads decorating them? These additions make the inner structure fit together beautifully, and eliminate the needle-breaking corners I was dealing with.

And here is Gwen's much more compact and cleaned up version of the Ionic Cube, which is one of the beads described in detail in the new pattern.

Ionic Cube by Gwen Fisher

Wow, that's pretty. She solve the tight corners problem in my version using shorter (less unruly) pillars of herringbone weave, and by adding the fringe drops at the vertices. She took that idea and ran with it! Check this out:

Ionic Pentacluster by Gwen fisher

This is an Ionic Pentacluster, which is a five fold bicone. I didn't realize unitl I read her Ionic Polyhedra Pattern that Gwen has also improved the threefold Herringbone Weave, reducing the stitching from a true Herringbone stitch to a much quicker and easier variation which still maintains the integrity of the cable. It takes half as long to do; I'm never going back!

The pattern for the Ionic Polyhedra beaded beads that we are releasing today is amazing. It includes 14 different beaded beads, with very detailed instructions for the Ionic Cube and Ionic Octahedron. Here's Gwen's description:

"I wrote and illustrated detailed instructions for the cube and octahedron (see above photo) with advanced-beginning bead weavers in mind. This part of the pattern includes every relevant detail I could think of, including some of the underlying mathematics. For more advanced weavers, I include lengthy descriptions of how to create other shapes using this technique (including those shown here) and a three page spread showing the steps for an Ionic Icosahedron. A handy table includes seven different geometric objects that I use to design beaded beads, and I include detailed photographs and written explanations describing them all, including bead counts and sizes so you can make them all yourself."

Read more about her experiences writing this lengthy and detailed pattern on Gwen's blog.
See more example of Ionic Polyhedra in Gwen's beAd Infinitum Gallery.
Buy the Ionic Polyhedron Beaded Bead Pattern from beAd Infinitum. Writing this post makes me want to go make another one!

beAd Infinitum: new patterns

2010-09-22T00:09:00.000-07:00

Did you see that Cindy's Balloon Box beaded bead pattern is now up for sale? Isn't it pretty!

Beads beads beads beads beads....

Colored pencils

2010-09-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

I dug my colored pencils out of the art supplies box in the garage. It has been fun to look at all the ways that the stamping community uses them. I've been testing the techniques for myself; here's what I've tried:

Blending with an odorless paint thinner (I used Mona Lisa brand), following this tutorial SplitcoastStampers Tutorial: Copics with Pencils though I put so much colored pencil, my copic coloring shows through not at all.
Blending with a colorless blender (which is a colorless colored pencil that adds the waxy medium to your drawing and helps burnish and blend; mine came in a pack of two from prismacolor)
Adding ink outlines, following this tutorial SplitcoastStampers Tutorial: Blended Pencils.

Hats: Image by Aunty Amy (I Brake for Stamps!)

In the project above, I stamped two copies of the image. I colored the hats on one, and the wooden racks on the other, and cut them out to assemble them on a new sheet of white paper. When coloring the images, I used Prismacolor colored pencils and blending pencil, Mona Lisa odorless mineral spirits and a fine line black pen. Here are some things that I learned.

Cut it out
I like not having to stay in the lines when I color, and especially when I blend, but I like having stayed within the lines when the project is done. Paper piecing is the perfect solution to this. If you plan to cut the image out, you can color right over those edges without worry.

When you are planning to cut out an image, add what printers call bleed to the edges of the image. Systematically extend the color along the edges onto the white part of the paper, so that you don't need to cut so precisely to get a clean finish. The sharpness in the hats in this project comes largely from the dark inked edge, which I widened with my pen, and then trimmed off when I cut it out.

After cutting out the image, apply color to the white edges of the image. I used ink, since I had dark edges to my image to start with, but I can see using the pencils for this as well. When I did this, I put the cut-out on a scrap of dark card stock, so I could see the white edges.

I also learned that paper pieced images look better when they are layered in the order that the objects are in the image. For example, I colored the green hat as if the rack were not there, and then I glued the hat rack on top. The rack actually goes into the hat through a small slit at the top.

Black and white
I came to this from watercolor painting years hence, and I tend to be reluctant to use either white or black. White in watercolor is just plain cheating (you are supposed to leave the paint off the white parts), and black makes the otherwise translucent colors muddy. Not so with pencils. Colored pencils do not mix like watercolors. Blending the bright colors with the colorless blender or by applying mineral spirits smooths the color together, but eliminates much of the contrast. With the black and white pencils in addition to the colors, I changed the tones, darkened the edges and added shine.

Smudge the ink
Following Lydia's Blended Pencil tutorial I listed above, I did not despair when all of my blending and smudging pretty much obscured the detail in the original stamped image. Once I figured out I should use the black (and indigo) and white pencils, I could get contrast, but not definition. So I watched Lydia add the ink to her drawing, effortlessly saying that you really didn't have to be careful. Well, you have to be a little bit careful. I put on too much ink not always in the right places.

It turned out to be a happy accident, however. With nothing else to do but start over, I went at the inked image again with the pencils. Wow, that turned out to be a great idea. The waxy finish of the pencils allows the ink to move around even when it is dry. I was able to change my scribbles into blocks of shading.


Smudging ink with colored pencils: Image by Impression Obsession

Hold onto Your Hat: Images by Impression Obsession (hat)
and Rubber Monger (wind)

Step 1: Stamp, color and blend
Step 2: Ink
Step 3: Blend with pencils and colorless blender (not mineral spirits)
Step 4: Cut and paste

Thank you Lydia, for the inspiration. That was fun. What I need now is a good pencil sharpener. Any suggestions?

Water

2010-09-12T11:14:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling to add stamps to decorate the backgrounds of my fish and seahorses. In this image, I used one of Inkadinkado's anamal hide stamps to make water.

Here's where I first explained about my stencils and stamps:
Butterfly Dresses

A seahorse!

2010-09-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

I drew this seahorse for the twinchie swap as well. Here is the kinetic card I first made with this design. Once again, I used an animal hide stamp from Inkadinkado to give the stencil texture.

I'm still trying to get the hang of the koi as well.

Here's where I first explained about my stencils and stamps:
Butterfly Dresses

My 7th fish

2010-09-07T00:39:00.000-07:00

Inkadinkado has a couple of sets of animal hide stamps. I bought the scaly one (rather than the stripy and spotty one) with my Michael's 40% coupon (which was burning a hole in my pocket) to use with this fish stencil. I enlarged the Koi image that I drew for the Twinchie Swap to make the stencils for this fish. I used three stencils this time: the whole shape, the eyes, and the side pectoral fins. It took 7 tries to get this image; while the technique worked well, it took me a while to get the layering of the stencils to look reasonable.

There are a few different scaly stamps in this set; you can expect to see more fish coming soon.
Here's where I first explained about my stencils and stamps:
Butterfly Dresses

Another Apron

2010-09-06T09:43:00.001-07:00

I like pink and brown.

Acetate Stencils: Apron!

2010-09-05T16:34:00.000-07:00

I'm continuing my experiments with stencils, and planning a tutorial that I hope will entertain people with cutters and stamps. My first project was a dress, decorated with butterflies. The textures I get with this combination of tools and techniques remind me of fabric, so I decided another article of clothing was in order. Although 'tisn't the season yet, it will be before we know it, and I pulled out my red and green.

As with the dress, I drew the apron in Adobe Illustrator, and cut it out on my Silhouette cutter. This one uses two stencils, one with the apron and the other with the pockets, belt and bow. I kept the cut-out pieces for the red parts, and used them as a mask to get the two-colored apron. I'm so excited how easy and fun this is; I love finding new things to do with my cutter and my stamps.

What I've learned about resin so far

2010-09-05T02:15:00.000-07:00

I posted some buttons I made using resin a while back. In this post I share some of the things I learned about using resin in the process.

Resources:
I got interested in using resin by reading this article in Bead Style magazine:
Stir Up Some Sweet Delights, by Steven James

I tried it after reading this tutorial:
Beading Daily Tutorial
Be sure to watch the video at the bottom.

There is a book that looks quite good by Sherri Haab; I have not yet purchased it, but when I get stuck into my Christmas ornament projects, I probably will.

There's a nice video on You-tube here: Making Resin Rings by John Golden

Easy Cast Clear Casting Resin
I used Easy Cast Clear Casting Resin, which I bought from a seller on ebay once and at Michael's once.

With this product, you measure equal parts of the hardener and the resin.
After combining the resin and the hardener, the mixture must be stirred for 2 minutes, moved to a clean container, and stirred for another minute.
This product cures in 24 hours.

Both the quantities you must measure and the length of time you must wait vary from resin to resin. This is the only variety I've tried, but once I read the directions, I had no problem with it, and didn't see the need to try another kind. There are actually resins that cure in 15 minutes, aided by the ultraviolet rays of the sun.

About having to wait: Although it is hard to wait that long to see if my latest experiment worked, I was not always neat and tidy when I did my projects, and with this slow curing resin, after about 12 hours, the resin was hard enough to, for example, scrape off the drips and drops. After 24 hours, the resin was so hard, the only way to remove unwanted spills is with sand paper.

About bubbles: This product "self degasses" which means the bubbles all pop themselves a few minutes after finishing all that stirring.

Castin' Craft Easy Mold
I made the molds for these gears using Castin' Craft Easy Mold and some Legos. I colored them after they were cured by putting them in a small zip lock bag with some metallic Ranger alcohol ink. You can scratch the color with your fingernail, but if you don't do that, that method of adding color on resin works well.

Resin Gears

You can make a mold of just about anything from this fascinating stuff. You kneed equal parts (imprecisely) of two clays, press in your object, and three minutes later, you have a perfect detailed mold. You either leave it over night, or bake it for 30 minutes and it is ready to use. I once used the bottom of a round flat battery to get a disk mold and found that the little tiny itty bitty numbers on the battery showed up on the resin disk that I made from the mold. The detail was impressive (and inconvenient). The resulting mold is flexible, so you can always easily remove your cast object. Apparently the stuff is food-safe, and also used for candy. I didn't try it.

Other materials
Look at the Beading Daily article above if you have not already. They contain the resin with a bezel frame and some sticky tape.

The frame
I wanted to make buttons, so instead of a bezel, like Jean used in the tutorial, I used plain round rings. In the beading world, these are either rings (as for your fingers) or links (as from a chain, which you can buy unlinked). I do not want to make my resin projects with sterling sliver, for a variety of reasons, but mostly because it tarnishes, and I'd bet the resin would not fair well with the silver polish.
I had luck with the following:

Agate rings (I like the black ones)


Butterfly Buttons

The Butterfly Buttons are framed with black agate rings. They were very easy to make. I out circles from black and white patterned card stock. Then I mixed the resin and poured about 1/8 of an inch in each ring (stuck firmly on sticky tape). I put in the card stock circles, covered them with a little more resin and let them cure. I added the butterfly beads (Tibetan Silver) and another layer of resin the next day. I am not sure I needed to wait to put in the butterfly beads, but since they were quite heavy, I was worried that they would push the cardstock onto the sticky tape, and I decided that I wanted a thicker layer of resin on the back than that. I have yet to add the shank to these buttons.

Stainless steal rings

Spice Button

I used a men's stainless steal ring (1 mm width) to frame my spice buttons. I colored the resin in this Spice Button with sage; I also used cinnamon, curry, cayenne pepper and turmeric. The Beading Daily video in the link above has a lot of ideas for coloring resin; this was one of them. The embellishment is Tibetan Silver.

Tibetan Silver links

Tibetan silver is an inexpensive zinc alloy that does not tarnish. It is a good option for crafters, not making fine jewelry. Do an ebay search for Tibetan Silver to see tens of thousands of examples. Beaders call anything that can be hooked into a chain, "a link," including a plain circle or oval, and including the Tibetan Silver embellishment in the Spice button.

Searching for any of the above on ebay will yield an enormity of inexpensive options.While I did not have luck with it as of yet, I am optimistic about this last frame option:

A plain bangle

Christmas Ornament

I up-sized the same technique to make this Christmas ornament, using a bangle as a frame. I had several problems along the way, and need to experiment more with this. One successful idea is to use a bead to make a hole in the final piece. I stuck the very topmost bead in the tree down to the tape before I poured the resin. So the hole in that bead goes through the piece. This technique would work well to leave a hole in a smaller disk as well, to make, for example, a pendant. This ornament is not that pretty in person; the idea is good, but the execution needs work.

I found a pack of girl's aluminum bangles at Walmart that are a very nice size. The key thing is that your frame must sit flat on the tape, so that the resin does not leak out. Whatever frame you choose, make sure it is flat on one side. I am going to cut some Christmas shapes out of paper using my Silhouette cutter and plop them into those to make some easy ornaments.

The sticky tape
Things that don't work well:

Avoid contact paper.
Avoid overlapping stirps of tape.
Avoid duct tape.

In the Christmas tree above, I used a piece of shelf contact paper instead of sticky tape, since I wanted a bigger piece. Something in the adhesive reacted with the resin, and the result was cloudy. I also found that two overlapping pieces of tape does not work well, since the line where the pieces of tape meet will show up in the resin. Lastly, duct tape does not work well because it is so sticky, the adhesive sticks to the cured resin and is difficult to remove.

My best results were from

Scotch clear packaging tape.

I bought some of those clear cold-laminating sheets (clear stickers that you stick on something to make it look laminated) to try my bangles again, but I haven't used it yet.

What to put into the resin
You can stick virtually anything into resin. Here are some coloring ideas I tried. The Beading Daily link above has more.

Acrylic paint, which sells at Joann's for $0.59 per bottle. I dipped a skewer into the paint, wiped it off a bit and used it to stir up the resin for some very bright translucent colors.

Spices (the results still smell very slightly)
Microbeads (from Matrtha Stewart)

My first buttons (See my post here)

Flocking to make bright opaque colors
Powders (chalk, eyeshadow) also to make opaque colors
Objects of all sorts
Pictures of things
Shrinky dinks


Fish Button

I love the idea of using shrinky dinks, but I used Sharpy pens to color the shrinky dink fish here. As you can see, they bled into the resin. I have not tried other permanent markers yet. Probably a fixative of some sort would do the trick as well.

Tip about including paper into resin
In the video listed above John Golden suggests coating the paper in Mod Podge before adding it to the resin. If you haven't discovered Mod Podge, get some. It's amazing stuff.

Enjoy!

That's me!

2010-09-04T23:17:00.001-07:00

I let my son Benjamin use my stencil with his washable stamp pads this afternoon. He drew me!

Butterfly Dresses

2010-09-04T03:13:00.000-07:00

I just have to stay up a little later to tell you what I stayed up all night doing. Don't you sometimes wish you had clothes with fabric made using some of the great techniques we use to decorate paper? I find myself slightly tempted by the fabric dyes and paints, but how I do not need another medium to work in. This project was motivated by that thought, however.

I drew a dress in Adobe Illustrator, and cut it out of acetate (laser printer transparencies) on my Silhouette cutter. I used removable adhesive to attach the acetate stencil to cardstock and with a make-up dauber, I pushed ink from various stamp pads from the stencil onto the paper, to shade the dress. The butterfly background is unmounted. I lay it face up on the table and inked a large enough portion to cover the dress. Then I put the card with the stencil face down on the background stamp and rubbed it with my fingers. Here are the results:

I photoshopped these only enough to make it look like they are all on one page, which they are not. It took about 40 dresses before I got the hang of it, but these last three were positively easy.

More Twinchies

2010-09-01T08:07:00.000-07:00

Here are two more of the four 2x2 inch cards I've made for my swap. The crab card says Collinectes sapidus, which is the scientific name of this type of crab. The Koi card says, "In the blue sky, The koi are swimming. Wonderful weather.-Basho."

She made me a hat!

2010-08-27T18:14:00.000-07:00

Gwen made me a hat, complete with ears and fuzzy baubles. It's soft and warm and cozy.

I love it!
Check out what else she's made!
http://www.gwenbeads.blogspot.com

Celebrate the Journey

2010-08-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

I applied to be a "design team member" for a stamp company called Victorine Originals. I'm not sure how likely it is that I will be selected, since I do not have a paper trail (literally) of rubber stamped work to show off, but it looked like fun, and it can't hurt to ask. While I was surfing on the Victorine Originals site, I found a tutorial for a waterfall card. It is a simple pop-up design that was easy to make. Here's mine:

You can find the template and tutorial here:
Victorine Originals waterfall card template.
I noticed when planning this card that the flaps do not need to be rectangles. I decided to cut out my hot air balloons so that they would appear layered in the sky (though why they are flipping up-side-down, I can't tell you). I also put the images on the back of the flaps, to add color, and cover up the ugly-Copics-soaked-through-to-the-back look.

I thought I'd take the opportunity to learn how to upload video. It was fairly trivial, at low quality. Here's how my waterfall card looks in action.

The card says "Celebrate the Journey," which was a rubber stamp included in the set of hot air balloons from A Stamp in the Hand. The other stamps in the card include a puff of wind from Rubber Monger, and trees from Hero Arts.

Golden Lotus Necklace

2010-08-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

I've had these leaf beads on my tray for a while, because I'd hoped to make a flower embellishment for an Artist's Trading Card with them. When I started stitching, I didn't really have a plan, and I ended up reverting to the familiar. The result was another example of our Lotus Flower pattern. I decided it was too heavy for a card, though.

Now that my younger son Stuart is two, I find I can wear jewelry without anyone trying to pull it off me (or chew on it for that matter). So I made myself a necklace with the new flower.

Thanks for looking.

Fish Twinchie

2010-07-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

I joined another swap, this time for Twinchies, which are (did you guess it?) 2x2 inches. I'm in an ocean group. This one is for a gal who simply chose "fishes." It is a pull out card with a similar design to my gift tags.

I love my cutter.

For the hostess

2010-07-18T20:38:00.000-07:00

I like smudging the stamping ink onto the paper, but it takes some practice to get the smudges where you want them. I practiced a little (and made a real mess on my desk and hands). I made a few nice backgrounds. I thought I'd use this one to make an ATC for the hostess of the PAT swap (who does all the mailing hither and thither). Here is the card:

It says, "In summer, the song sings itself- William Carlos Williams." I used the Majestic tree stamp from Penny Black, and the Orchard Tree stamp from Memory Box. The beads are stitched on, of course.

ATC Swap: Birds

2010-07-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

I joined an Artist's Trading Card swap on www.splitcoaststampers.com. It is called PAT (Pick-A-Topic) am in a group of 5 people. Each person selects a topic; in my group, they were birds, cardinals, owls, blue footed boobies, and emus (that was mine). The other people will make Emu cards for me. I made one of each of the other four topics for the other participants. Here are my finished cards:

The gal who selected the blue footed booby originally selected the topic "parkour," but on realizing that the rest of the group selected birds, she changed it to the blue footed booby. I couldn't resist combining the two, so this booby can really move. I found the many photographs of boobies kicking up their legs to display their beautiful blue feet very convenient. I was also excited to use the flat bed train car from the original set of freight train themed rubber stamps, which I had made some years back. I'm still enjoying those trains, and considering making other designs.

I stylized photographs of birds, and changed them to black and white in Adobe Photoshop. I found Image->Adjust->Black and White very useful, but to make it really only black and white, rather than grayscale (I wanted a rubber stamp look), I converted the image to indexed color, and specified that I only wanted black and white. I adjusted the dithering until I could see the right amount of dotted detailing. I printed and cut out the images (using my Silhouette cutter for some of them), and then colored the results with Copic markers.

The beads of course are stitched on. I really enjoyed working with the glass rings in the peacock. You'll be seeing those again. For the backs of the cards, I printed an image on acetate, and glued it over printed cardstock.

Beaded gift tag attachment

2010-07-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

In this card, I suspended the focal design on acetate, making it appear to float. I added a beaded string to attach the card to a gift. Once again, this card features the Quilt Notes cutter file set from Just Laury (http://www.paperthreads.com/store/in...ducts_id=6213).

I really love those little glass roundels (right before the large round bead in the button). I'm thinking these paper crafts may just give me a use for them!

Kinetic Cards

2010-07-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

Is a kinetic card is one that requires you to move something? Well, I found other references to kinetic cards, and this one seems to fall into that category.

I made this kinetic card for a challenge on paperthreads.com. I enjoy doing the challenges and swaps, since it makes me focus on a project, rather than mess around with my supplies all day (or stare into space), but for the paperthreads challenges, one must use a cutter file purchased from one of the paperthreads designers. I'm not even enthusiastic about using patterned paper that someone else designed, so it is very hard for me to use someone else's cut files. I like to do-it-myself, and Illustrator makes it pretty easy to create cut files. Anyway, I decided to do it this time, but I don't think I'll do any more. I think it's just that I would like to retain ownership over the work I produce.

The file I picked was very nice. It is Quilt Notes from Just Laury. I it included the quilt squares like light yellow one on top. It also had an envelope with a nicely curved opening and a quilt motif. I incorporated the curved opening with its motif in the top of my slider, and used Laury's squares in my design.

I liked this tutorial on Splitcoaststampers: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/acetate_card/ and wanted to design a kenetic card in which removing one acetate page would reveal a message. I didn't end up using acetate in the first one, but I did in the second (which I will finish and post tomorrow). I do have holes in my slider, through which you can see background.

Here it is, open and closed. Yes, you cannot slide the slider all the way out.

The cardstock is solid colored, but I colored on it with my Copic markers to add texture. I think I'll fish a quilt block out of the wiki of such things, and make one of these with a design of my own.

Catching up

2010-07-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

I've decided to add a bunch of my paper work to my blog. I am just catching up, so I wont elaborate on all the things I learned doing these. I've joined an ATC swap at splitcoaststampers, so I've got a project I want to work on, instead of blog.

This is an Artist's Trading Card that I entered in a contest at the Original Rubber Stamp Convention. I won an honorable mention and they gave me $10 to spend at the show. :)

This is part of a bigger project that I've taken a break from. It is the front of a 5 paneled popup card. The unfolded card will sport the whole alphabet!

I enjoyed the architecture in this one very much. I'm thinking about making a hillside full of houses for the next one.

Climatis Vine

2010-07-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

I drew the frame and vine in Adobe Illustrator and cut it out using my Silhouette digital cutter. It took me a few tries to draw flowers that I like for this climatis vine. The climatis flowers have such wonderfully detailed centers, but I really wanted to draw them small. I'm happy with the look of the result, but I could do without the 2 micron dot in the centers that for some reason I couldn't leave off.

Paper cutter

2010-06-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

I made a beaded card with the aid of my new paper cutter.

I need to figure out a better way to take photographs straight down. This is a 5x5 inch square.

Buttons!

2010-05-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my first set of buttons. I have many things that I am going to change about the design, but the execution came out very well. I'm still learning to take pictures. Sorry about the bricks.

Here is a great design idea (I like it), but the execution was not so good.

I didn't put a shank on this one, since I want to redo it. When I get the hang of it, I will make a set. (Honestly, I think the picture looks better than the real thing). This is the first cast I made from one of my molds. The mold worked great. I have some ideas about applying color, and a whole bunch of nifty molds ready, but I have not used them yet. I'll keep you posted!