Chris's Newest Creations

How adorable is this?!  Chris recently decided to make a sculpture to enter in the Nebraska State Fair.  This is what he came up with!  The flowers and leaves are created on black steel wire and then annealed in the kiln.  The flower pot is also glass created on the end of a large hole mandrel so it has a bottom but is also open to be able to insert the flowers.  Once all of the components are created, Chris uses 2 part epoxy to set the flowers into place and to attach the aluminum disc to the bottom of the pot.  Chris also made the aluminum discs from recycled blanks and used a machine to add the engraved grooves to the disc.  So creative and cute!  We plan to make quite a few to have at Graham Gallery during the Holidays. 

Here are a couple others Chris made that are available for sale:

I love the free-form blue daisy and the stone-look flower pot.

This is probably my favorite flower!  The outside edge is a pretty, soft peach and the inside a darker coral.  The flower pot looks like a well weathered terracotta pot!

As for me, I have been beading, beading, beading to get ready for all of our shows next month.  Lots of new designs being churned out!
Earrings:

Left to right: free-form nugget turquoise with Vintaj brass leaves, abalone, and fire agate with carnelian dangles.

Bracelets:

 Lots of Czech glass, crystal, stone, Clay River focal (top), and FanceeThat focal (bottom).  This batch was focused in the antique brass color for the findings.  My favorites are the second from the top and the second from the bottom.  The matte finish on the agate on the bracelet near the bottom adds a wonderful texture to the piece and the leaf charm adds movement.  On the second from the top, I used pieces of chain as dangling charms to add movement to the piece.  It also has a small chicklet style bead from Clay River designs.

This group of bracelets focuses on antique copper.  There are lots of fun goodies in this batch, recycled glass ring from Trinket Foundry, natural stones, Czech glass, copper filigree butterfly, double hole drilled bone bead from Wild Things Beads, Clay River Designs, and chain.  Chris's favorite is the top one, and I also liked it.  My favorites are probably the bottom two, one of which sold last weekend. 

So that is a bit of an update on the jewelry and glass front!  Sorry for the long silence!  It may be a bit quiet here for a couple weeks while we prepare for the shows!

Focus On : Lucite

I wanted to share with you my love for beading with Lucite flowers and leaves.  When the idea came to me, I sat down at the computer and went through my jewelry design photos to find the ones with Lucite.  I purchase my Lucite from The Hole Bead Shoppe.  This post will likely sound a bit like a commercial for their shop, but that is ok!  Kelli and Michael Burns are the owners and I have been a huge fan since I came across their designs in magazines and fell in love with the Lucite.  Lucite is a lightweight but durable and comes in a vast amount of colors and styles. I can't honestly say I remember what set me off down the "garden" path, but it is wonderful to have a product that incorporates well into so many designs.  I love flowers and nature is a continuing inspiration to my designs.  Here are some of the designs I have made using Lucite flowers and leaves.

Clockwise from largest box:
Garden of Skulls~award winning design in a contest sponsored by The Hole Bead Shoppe
Round Robin Bracelet project
Vineyard Fall bracelet
Autumn Hoot (lampwork owl bead by Keiara Wells)
Ladder stitch rings with Lucite embellishment
Christmas Holly (tiny red Lucite flowers in the fringe work)
Wienie Dog Garden Necklace for my niece, Creighton
Vintage Garden birds (with galvanized leaves and black Lucite flowers)
Autumn Splendor fringe bracelet
Fairy sets (made from Swarovski crystals and Lucite butterflies)

Clockwise from top right:
My first Bead Soup Blog Hop bead mix sent to my partner Shea (has Lucite leaves in the mix)
Tatterpillar Garden necklace (lampwork caterpillars by Chris)
Lucite purchase from Tucson trip (Plus I got to meet Kelli & Michael in person!)
Buzzy's Dream Garden (soldered charms from Brown Dog Studio)

And even with all those designs, I know I didn't find all the pictures or we didn't take pictures of everything.  Plus here is a brand new design using one of Chris's Beaky Birds (a new tropical version) and LOADS of Lucite flowers and leaves.

Isn't it adorable?  I love this bird!  The design actually came to Chris in a dream and we worked together to get the feet and legs right.

Also on the Hole Bead Shoppe, they are  now selling some of their famous design patterns.  I really love these!

English Picket Fence

Lucie's Daisy Patch

I actually bought the kit for the Daisy Patch, but have never had time to finish it!  I also have always wanted to make the Picket Fence, though I am sure the time issue would prevent it from happening too!

Since I have already done a commercial here, I will mention in closing that The Hole Bead Shoppe also sells seed beads, kits, Czech Glass (they have terrific prices on Spikes and Twins), and sequins.  I recently purchase some of their lovely sequins for embellishing all sorts of bead work! 

Stop by and shop for some Lucite and YOU won't be able to stop!
(By the way, I received no compensation for my promotion of The Hole Bead Shoppe, I just love their products and you will too!)

Happy May Day!!

This is going to be a rather random post.  The month of April was so busy and flew by so quickly, I am still rather dizzy from the affair.  So here are some random recent photos to share with you!

These pieces were made by Chris and have been donated to Girl Scouts for the ArtVenture silent auction.  The program is a wonderful one that we have participated in the past couple years.  Girl Scouts are paired up with artists of various media and they spend time learning about that artist's work.  They girls/artists create a project for the girls and one for the auction.  Chris taught two girls how to do chain maille this year.  Chris has been have fun learning and creating with this new media.  He has taught classes twice and has created about a dozen pieces since February. 

Caterpillar Spring.  Chris's little caterpillars were languishing in the bead tray so I designed this lovely piece with the caterpillars crawling through lovely Lucite blossoms.

Penguin Wedding Party.  What spring would be complete without a wedding!  We have big plans for these cuties!  Hope to have the details worked out soon!

New bailed pendants.  Chris has just recently started making these and we have sold a bunch!  Nice way to make a simple, artbead necklace.

New Spring Tweet bird bead Chris made recently.  I am continually amazed at the expressions on the faces of his critters!

Suki and Luna enjoying the spring weather open windows at our house!  They are so funny when the birds are on this platform in the mornings!

Tulips in our flower bed

crab apple tree blooming for all it is worth!

more tulips, these were planted when we moved in 21 years ago!

Flowers in the yard and spring storms in the sky!  These ominous clouds were hovering a couple weeks ago.  My family calls them hail clouds.  Can you see a face in the clouds?  I can see several!

Happy May Day!  Hope you receive a lovely May Basket!

Pinterest

Brooches

I like to make jewelry.  Not a surprise since I talk about it constantly.  I love all sorts of jewelry especially when it combines different media into one piece.  Here are some recent brooches I made for our spring shows.

Sweet Spring

This brooch was a quickie, I started with wide polka dot grosgrain ribbon did a running/tacking stitch to gather it as I went and then embellished with a stacked Lucite/Swarovski crystal flower and a large teardrop shaped Mother of Pearl bead.  Looks like it belongs on an Easter bonnet or large floppy brimmed hat!

Wild and Retro

This is the 80s!  I did a covered base and then a twisted rose with polka dot fabric and then embellished with fun resin and acrylic beads and a bit of colored chain mail that I made with bright blue and green rings.  Fun and funky don't you think?  I actually started this last year, but couldn't figure out what was lacking.  I think if finally spoke loudly enough that I heard it!

Grow

I put this piece together after fighting with the base fabric for some time.  I embellished with felted and button flowers stacked together with a Lucite leaf and funky lime green discs.  I also ventured into the realm of metal stamping (since I couldn't find a stamp to say what I wanted).  It says "Grow" and has ladybugs on it.  Fun and bright!

left - Morning Coffee and right- Vintage Lace

The pin on the left features a group of Czech glass coffee bean beads, a lampwork donut bead made by Palm Tree Queen Lampwork, and a miniature coffee cup (courtesy of the miniature dollhouse furniture at Hobby Lobby).  It was awesome!  I made it Thursday night and sold it Saturday!  The brooch on the right is lacy ribbon accented with a group of brass leaves, a gorgeous Kabela design (Small Beautiful) accented with a vintage Swarovski crystal glued into the center of the flower setting.  It is really lovely and looks vintage, but the photo doesn't do it justice.
Hope you enjoyed the new photos!  Check out the real pieces at our shows this weekend!

Voting Link for The Hole Bead Shoppe Is Now Active!

Kelli Burns and the Hole Bead Shoppe now have our photos on the blog for voting.  I would appreciate if you could stop by and vote.  You need to list my name, photo# or the name of the piece in a comment to place your vote.  The piece is called Garden of Skulls and it is photo #1.

Garden of Skulls by Stephanie Haussler

Thanks so much for your help!

You can now VOTE on our Day of the Dead Challenge by leaving a comment. The comment should be for your favorite piece/designer. Share this link with your FB friends, family, whomever. These votes will be used in conjunction with votes on Kelli Burns page, The Hole Bead Shop fan page.
Our offsite judges PalmtreeQueen Lampworks Glass Beads and Lauren Vasil will help the staff at The Hole Bead Shoppe select the other three prizes. Let the voting begin.
http://www.theholebeadshop.blogspot.com/

Coming Saturday!!

Reveal day for my Day of the Dead Challenge project from The Hole Bead Shoppe is on this Saturday!!!  I will be asking you to vote for my piece on Facebook also as there will be an award for most votes on there as well as the other judging categories!  Please Stay Tuned!!!

New Challenges...

Sorry for the silence, beading has been consuming all of my time!  Friday and Saturday we were in Lincoln for the Lincoln Bead Show which took place on Saturday.  Here are some highlights:

• The meeting room where the show was held was large and fairly well lit (anyway our area was, people in the back section struggled though)
• The room we spent the night in at same hotel, not so great.  Think 70's disco movie, with the pool area rented out for birthday parties and there were 4 going on Friday night until Midnight.
• The "non" smoking room, may have been now, but wasn't for about the previous twenty years.  Yuck, old stale cigarette smell.
• Bathroom, postage stamp size, but had good water pressure and hot water.  Wasn't too scary if you kept the lights off or your eyes shut.
• The arm rails on the chairs looked like werewolves had previously stayed there.  
• The bed was comfortable and clean, though my side sloped to the floor.
• Mina hung out in the room after we headed down to work in the bead show, until it was check out time.  Check out time came sooner than she thought when she saw the mouse running around in the room.

On the plus side, we had a terrific show and spent time visiting with our other bead vendor friends and had fun visiting with new and returning customers.  The dragons were a huge hit!

On the new front, I am one of ten participants taking part in The Hole Bead Shoppe's Day of the Dead Bead kit challenge.  Here is a picture of my kit supplies:

My kit fee was $50 and I got a $120+ value!  Crazy the amount of items that were in the kit, and WOW do I feel the pressure to create an over the top, fabulous piece!  The kit has a wide variety of Lucite flowers and leaves, Vintaj keys and blanks, fresh water pearls, Czech daggers and fire polish, Swarovski crystals, a variety of seed beads and Tila beads, gunmetal plate spacers, Tierracast beads and spacers, and a Palmtree Queen Day of the Dead lampwork focal.  Here is a picture of the skull beads the Hole Bead Shoppe added to our kits:

Mine is in the second row, second from the left!  They are AWESOME!

I received my kit on Monday, and I have worked on my piece about 5 hours so far.  I have a long ways to go, I will keep you in the loop!

Yard Art

April and May showers bring lovely June flowers!  Have a great day!