Inside the Studio with Mary Harding

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard and tell us what you think. The following week a winner is chosen at random from all eligible entries.

Congratulations to Amara Honeck!!! 

You have won a $25.00 gift certificate to Humblebeads.com

Please email Heather to claim your prize.

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Welcome to the studio of Mary Harding Jewelry.  I am delighted to host this week's Inside the Studio post.  July has been a busy month and I have been in and out of my studio teaching classes, and participating in a craft show for the first time in several years.  Last week I posted some of the raku beads that I  made as color samples for a collaborative Raku Bead firing one of my classes participated in. You can read all about it  here.  

Now that the classes are over and no shows are on my  horizon, I have been busy making some new toggle clasps with soft solder and copper sheet.  I really enjoy soft soldering because it is such an intuitive and impromptu medium.  I have been working on some clasps that are similar in feel to one that will be published next month when Stringing magazine releases its Best Beads of 2015 issue.  I called that one Poetic Grunge.  The series I have been working on is inspired by that clasp and by the book I have been reading for Andrew Thornton's Inspired by Reading Book Club---Swamplandia.  I wanted to capture my interpretation of what the author, Karen Russell, refers to as the Sawtooth Age.

So I used a saw type motif through out this series of clasps.  For the ones pictured above I flooded the clasps with soft solder and then added the copper saw tooth wire bits by placing them on the solder and then reheating it.  

For a more lyrical effect, I wrapped copper wire around the clasp after completing the basic soldering.  I think it almost looks like some kind of exotic tropical flower, as well.

I floated bits of copper in the solder to create the texture of the  alligator hide in the two clasps pictured above.

This clasp is more 3 dimensional and has two layers of saws.  The bottom layer juts out from the surface of the clasp but the saws are soft and smooth due to filing and tumbling.

I have also been experimenting with toggle clasps made from steel rebar wire.  I was inspired by Keith Lo Bue's online class Steeling Beauty and his lessons on playing with the wire.
I have tried out a few clasps by bending and forging the 16 gauge steel wire and plan  to continue on seeing what I can come up with.  Here are a couple of examples of what I have been trying out.

There is no solder on this clasp.  All the shapes are made by bending the wire with strong linesman pliers.

 A  square toggle clasp wrought from 16 gauge rebar wire.


Now for my question: Is making work in a series something you  like to do?  Leave a comment below related to this idea and you will be automatically entered to win a $20.00 gift certificate to my Etsy shop.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
Mary

Hello Art Bead Scene!

Hello Art Bead Scene!  My name is Michelle McCarthy and I am one of the newest contributors.  I have been playing with ceramic clay for 10 years now. I started out with hand building and wheel lessons at my local art center in Englewood, Florida.  I had a wonderful instructor who encouraged

and supported my growth in making functional and decorative pottery.   

I started selling my pottery at out door tent shows through out Florida.  Well, wind can be brutal and a few shows I had more pottery break than I sold.  Not fun.  But....I soon discovered beads and jewelry design and said, "Hey...I should make beads!"  So now I make beads 90% of the time and sneak in a bowl, plate or decorative piece 10% of the time.

Here is the start to the ceramic pieces I made for a fun ruffled heart bracelet.

This is white earthenware clay that I rolled out to 1/4" thick.  I smoothed the pattern out that the slab roller cloth leaves behind and used the cookie cutter to get my shape. I then make the hole vertically through the heart with this skewer.

This picture shows the various stages of the heart and round beads.  The green ware heart at the top is still wet.  After it dries, I clean any rough edges and put it in the kiln for the first firing, which turns it into bisque.  The white round bead is in the bisque stage.  It is now ready to be glazed.  The cone or temperature for this clay is 04 for bisque and 06 for glaze firing, which is just under 2000 degrees. This teal and copper glaze is one of my favorites.  It has glass crystals in it that burst from the heat of the kiln.

I am going to make a fun bracelet with the ceramic beads I just created, along with some waxed linen, 1mm leather, aventurine gem stone beads, 2 antique copper spacer beads and a closed antique copper ring.

Waxed linen is my favorite stringing material....it is so easy to use.  

Thank you for reading about my ceramic bead making process and following along with a finished bracelet design using my beads.  If you'd like to learn more about me and my beads, please visit my website at www.potterybeads.com 

July Monthly Recap

Let's go to the sea, shall we?!
We will sit with our toes in the sand, soaking up the warmth of the hot summer sun, searching for shells and investigating the tide pools. We will leave footprints and gaze on sunsets and imbibe in drinks with little umbrellas floating in coconuts. May you see all of eternity in the spirals of a shell and feel the infinite wonder of being a speck against the clear blue sea meeting the cloudless sky.
And may you wonder at the majesty of it all!

July ABS Monthly Recap by Slidely Photo Gallery

Want to see it large? And listen to the soothing sounds of the ocean? Click the Slidely to launch the gallery.

 Now it is your turn! Show us what you made so we can celebrate you!

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