Vintage Italian Bead stash

The stash of vintage Italian beads can be viewed at my web site. Should you like any more information about the little German doll pieces please feel free to ask.

The above photos show some of the new things I am currently working on. The first piece is my experiment with crazy quilt beading. I used one of the patterns from the book "Allison Aller's Crazy Quilting" as the base. In order to keep the piece from getting too busy I decided to go with some of my white opaque vintage Italian seed beads. The little porcelain doll figures are pieces that I made from molds taken from old porcelain doll parts from Germany. I modified the mold so that the dolls are flat on the back and have sew holes to attach them firmly to the background without glue. after I finished the seams and and attached my porcelain pieces I made strands of beaded flowers and leaves on a length of wire and couched the strands into place so the dolls seem to be lying in a bed of flowers. The lovely teal beads are also vintage Italian and you can find out more about them on my web site.
The following photos show how I am trying to use the images from vintage postcards that I had printed onto fabric. My plan is to use some mixed media along with embroidery and beads.

Fabric-Beads-Jewelry

I recently purchased some wonderful silk neckties. The fabric is wonderful. I like fabric and beads and jewelry so decided to do a piece of jewelry combine everything. I made made a fabric sandwich with the silk, lightweight batting and a backing fabric. The fun part was embellishing the piece with some of my old stock Italian seed beads. I selected one of the several mixtures that I have and did a floral motif then followed some of the design and finished the beaded fabric part. I mounted the fabric onto a metal cuff bracelet and I am quite pleased with the results.
You can view the various mixtures of the old stock Italian beads on my website www.mountainshadowstudio.net
I am anxious to do more with the fabric beads and quilting in interesting ways.

Porcelain German Doll faces and flowers

Yesterday Allison Aller e-mailed and told me about the article she wrote for the crazy quilt on line magazine and that she had used some of my porcelain flowers. I made lots of them and they are still a bit of an experiment. However I will get some more photos to post here on the blog. Should anyone need more information or have any questions please feel free to contact me either through the blog or e-mail smrouleau@rap.midco.net .
I have also been working with some German doll heads and bits and pieces that I got from a German source. Some of the pieces are wonderful and I am adapting them for crazy quilting and jewelry. I made molds of the front half of the piece then cast with porcelain clay and added a flat rim and sew holes. Some of them are posted on the blog just scroll down and keep scrolling a bit and you will see them. I really like the flapper.
I will look through my photo files and see what I have there and then take some more photos. One of these days I hope I will become more adept at blog posting.

B'sue's Sari Ribbon Blog Hop

Somehow I did not push the right keys and did not get close ups of tue of my pieces onto the blog earlier.

Bsue's Sari Ribbon Blog hop

Lady With hat

B'sue's Sari Ribbon Blog Hop

I had many ideas written down in my sketch book but when I sat down at my workspace to make a piece for the blog the materials that we laid out from a previous session just seemed to speak to me. I started with a piece of metal screening ( the acutioneer at tne auction said it was copper screening and there was a roll of several fairly large pieces so I bought the stuff, cheap!!!) After cutting a rectangle from the screen I crimped back the raw edges, bent the screen to resemble a ruffle . The sari ribbon was ironed and cut to size to cover the top of the screen. I used Fabri-Tac to adhere the fabric to the screen. The fun part was using beading thread and embroidering the piece with the beads. I have not completed the piece and hope you can see where I am going with this. I plan to continue the fringe along the bottom edge, fold back the two ends, attach a finding them a neck chain that will join the focal piece to the chain or such. I think this piece will be lovely worn just at the top of say a tee shirt type of top.
This is my first time doind this sort of blog hop and I will spare you the horrible details of my limited computer skills. Enjoy the blogs and I hope to continue posting things that i have made using B'sue's lovely goodies.

B'sue's Sari Ribbon Blog Hop

A few months ago B'sue sent me a few pieces with interesting finishes and the colors in this piece perfectly matched. I ironed the ribbon then added fabric stiffner to form a sort of rosette around the flat metal piece. I think this would look great on a blazer this fall as the colors in the piece echo some of the lovely colors on the leaves this time of year.

B'sue's Sari Ribbon Blog Hop

I love dolls and dressing dolls so sari ribbon and my porcelain face made from antique dolls was a great jumping off point for me. I ironed the ribbon then glued the ribbon to the face to resemble a hat. The hat is finished with embroideded seed beads. I am not sure about the neck details and I am also not sure it . I want to color the face or not. Color would make it easier to photograph. I will think about it as there so many creative options.

B'sue's Sari Ribbon Blog Hop

to close this is a photo of the group of pieces I mad for the hop. I think you can see where I am going with them and I look forward to posting the completed pieces and others with the list of ideas I have for using sari Ribbon in jewelry.

B'sue's Sari Ribbon Blog Hop

The list is in the following post. Doing this sort of backwards is still a bit awkward for me. At least I got up early at 5:30am to get this done and will post the photos.

B'sue's Sari Ribbon Blog Hop

The following is the Blog Hop List
Vickie Wells
http://www.Jewelrybyvee.blogspot.com

Susan Kennedy
http://.suebeadsblogspot.com

Michelle Mach
http://www.michellemach.com/blog/

Michelle Lee Houdy
htt.://fireflyvisions.blogspot.com/

Ruth Crawford
http://www.home-with-ruth.blogspot.com

Hilary Frye, Frye Style
http://fryestyle.blogspot.com/

Diana P.
http://www.sugurbangirlstudio.com

Brenda Sue Landsdowne
http://www.bsueboutiques.typepad.com/

Elizabeth Owens Day
http://www.clarityofpurplesage.blogspot.com

Connie Rios-Relyea
http://www.JewelsDesignsCreativeCorner.wordpress.com/

Jennifer Justman
http://soulsfiredesigns.blogspot.com/

Deb Davis
http://www.naturaltreasuresbydeb.blogspot.com/

Beanzie
http://www.thevintageheartcharmbracelets.com/the-vintage-heart-charm-b/

Cathie Carroll
http://www.cathiecarroll.com/

Rosemary Cowit
http://www.gemrosedesigns.blogspot.com

Georgine Lockwood
http://sylvanvintagedesigns.wordpress.com/

Cathy Buckley
http://cathybuckleycatsmeow.blogspot.com

Harry /wood
http://www.oscarcrow.blogsp0t.com

Sonya Stille

http://dreaminofbeads.blogspot.com

Mary Deis
http://mdeis.blogspot.com/

Heather Goldsmith
http://asibeadit.blogspot.com/

Susan Rouleau
http://mountainshadowstudio.blogspot.com

Terry Matusyk
http://pinkchapeau.wordpress.com

Pam Chesboro
http://afortunatesoul.blogspot.com/

Mary Sahnnon Hicks
http://uptwnsh-fallingtothesky.blogspot.com

Janice Everett
http://JLynnJewels.blogspot.com

Davinia
http://www.daviniadesign.com

Kristina Johansson, Maneki
http://wildrosesandblackberries.blogspot.com

Kirs Binsfeld
http://www.cherishdesigns.wordpress.com

Mandy
http://www.beadsborbrains.blogspot.com

Charlene
http://thebeaddreamer.com/blog//

Catherine Jeltes
http://www.galleryzooart.com

Jackie
http://kydojewellery.blogspot.com

Sharon Palac
http://www.sharonsjewelrygarden.blogspot.com

Deb Beechy
http://beetique56.blogspot.com/

Jean Yates
http://prettykittydogmoonjewelry.blogspot.com/

Patrice Pfeiffer
http://treesatreasure.blogspot.com/

Doris Midkiff
http://wondrousstrangedesigns.blogspot.com/

Lynn Perry Bennett
http://designsbylynnea.blogspot.com

Linzi Alford
http://www.magpieintheskyspoilheaptales.blogspot.com

Deb
http://greenshoot.blogspot.com/

Cynthia Wainscott
http://www.exoticjewelry.blogspot.com

Marie- Noel Voyer-Cramp
http://skyjewels.blogspot.com

Alice Craddick
http://alicesbeadsandbaubles.blogspot.com

B'sue Boutiques Creative Group
http://www.flickr.com/groups/bsueboutiques/

New Jewelry/ porcelain focal

This week I made a new piece of jewelry using one of my porcelain "pouches " that B"Sue's Boutiques carries.. This charming little piece is a bit over 1" square and the little pocket neede to be filled with flowers or other little goodies. I decided to do this one with flowers and vines meandering up the chain and training down over the front. The lovely tiny pink trumpet shaped flowers are also from B"Sue's The small dragon fly at he bottom right is a final touch of whimsey.

Jewelry porcelain and beading

I just finished this necklace. A while back I mad one using different colors. B'Sue's Boutiques carries the porcelain pieces with the pocket on the front. Honeysuckle pink is sort of "the" color of the day so I decided to really go with that. The bottom of the porcelain piece did not have any holes and I wanted to embellish that area so I glued on a plated finding with E-6000. I had a few other bits and pieces on my bench from a previous bit of work so I incorporated them too. The flowers are very simple to make and one does not have to be and experienced beader to get great results.
The middle photo shows a work in progress. When I took this china painted piece out of the kiln I was not sure I liked how it turned out but finally I came up with a plan and I think I will be able to make a nice finished piece.
The last photo is a piece that I made a few years ago and I have included it to show the variety of things I have done with this porcelain piece. Please e-mail me with any questions.

Porcelain German doll pieces

I love dolls, I love jewelry, I love porcelain, and also art quilting and crazy quilting. The result is that I made some molds from a few of the German doll bits and pieces. These are from the first batch and a few need new molds. I am going to use no-fired finishes on many of them. I wil use some for jewelry using a sorts of collaged technique where the doll piece will be surrounded by beads flowers etc. This idea will probably work well as a neck piece or brooch. I can see some of the pieces on a bit of crazy quiting surrounded by delicate embroidery and lush ribbon embroidery. Many of the pieces have holes for attaching to a background. The area of porcelain on which the doll lies could be painted to blend into the background.

Porceain and non-fired finishes

The fired , glazed and china painted finishes on porcelain are lovely. Sometimes need a piece right away and do not have enough pieces to justify a firing in the kiln. The options for non-fired finishes are endless and the results are excellent. There are lots and lots of acrylic paints, pearl powders, glitters, micro-beads and varnishes that it is hard to choose what to use. The photo shows tryee of my porcelain heads with a sort of copper metallic anf a bit of green accent. I used a product similar to the Guilders Paste carried by B'Sue's Boutiques. It is really nifty stuff. The metal finish was sealed with an acrylic gloss varnish. In the future I think I will try a satin of semigloss to give a more aged effect.

Jewelry-Porcelain Flower

I want to use porcelain flowers in some of my work so I am experimenting with using molds and hand sculpting. This is one of the molded flowers. I am going to finish it with non fired finishes.

Jewelry- porcelain pieces

I have been trying to get the correct size of porcelain piece to fit into a particular size bezel.. The challenge was to compensate for the shrinkage of the porcelain when fired. After a trial run of making blanks of several sizes I have the cutter that will work very well. I am trying to make the pieces with tiny doll heads from my collection of German doll bits and pieces. The photo shows the wet pieces before drying, cleaning and firing.

Jewelry embellishment of metal findings

I have a rather large stash of metal stampings and I finally found a way to embellish the rather plain flat pieces. I wanted to get a sort of enameled look. Using only thick acrylic gloss varnish paint and glitter I got these results. Not bad for the first try.

Jewelry technique

I have been experimenting wit some of my filagree findings and trying tofind a way to do a sort of faux plique a jour. This heart turned out rather well and the glitter and varnish fills the one open areas .

Art Doll

A few years ago I made this fully dressed and embellished gypsy doll. Each item of clothing is a piece of art to wear. Of course she has lots of jewelry. I raided my stash of buttons and bits and pieces of costume jewelry to find just the right accessory. The topmost pin on her blouse is a single Miriam Haskell earring. She is a bit over 20" tall and was great fun to make.

Art Quilt

The Brush Gallery in Lowell,MA accepted this art quilt to hang in their gallery during Art Quilt Lowell 2011. This year's theme is the sea. The image in the center of the quilt was taken from a glass plate negative done by Nettie Clark, a New England photographer in the 1890's. I purchased some of her glass plate negatives some years ago. I scanned the black and white negative into my computer and with the scanner the negative was then turned into a positive. I did some adjusting of the negative using Adobe Photoshop. The image was completed using delicate digital painting techniques. The finished image was sent to Spoonflower for printing. Now what was a 4x5 image is now aprox 16"x20".
I added a four inch irregularly appliqued border using mostly hand dyes and batiks to bring the image forward and to combine the past and the present. The there is a 1/2" border of metallic Fairy Frost fabric then the dark final border. I thought this really ties the past to the present and I am further pleased that the original photograph was a female.

Welcome to my studio

My studio is what used to be a small horse barn. Needless to say I love it. It is indeed a place where I work and I have the materials I might be using close at hand

Jewelry Design for B'Sue's five and dime challenge

Now that B'Sue Boutiques is carrying some of my porcelain focal pieces I decided to make some samples using the pieces in the five and dime challenge. I knew that I wanted to use one of the glazed face pieces as the focal point and it was to be a neck piece. I found a nifty vintage brass stamping all ready to use chain and all. I am sure that any stamping or base with lots of holes would work equally well. I used just a small amount of glue to hold the face in place as I wired it into place. This piece did not have holes to use for attaching but I was still able to wire it into palace easily. The faces B'Sue has already have several holes to use for attaching or adding embellishments. The base stamping is sort of triangular so I wired some slightly cup shaped Russian finish filigree stampings into place. The three stampings were perfect places to attach the three flat backed dusty pink roses. I went into my stash of bits and pieces of vintage scrap and found a couple of lovely pieces to put around the face and wired each piece onto the base. Now the fun part. I got out my seed beads and used the fine wire to "sew" the lacy beading around the face and pull the whole piece together so it would not look like a hodgepodge of bits and pieces. I really enjoyed making this piece.
I have other pieces further down on this blog so you can just continue to scroll beyond the recent entries and see some of my earlier pieces. Some of the focal pieces are for sale via www.bsuebotiques.com and some are available from my website www.mountainshadowstudio.net

Above is the second piece is a brooch I made for B'Sue's Boutiques five and dime challenge. I started with a vintage metal stamping that was half of a belt buckle. I used one of my porcelain face pieces. Then I uses wire and seed beads to embellish around the edge. It still needed a bit more so I wired some of B'Sue's delicate pink flowers and finished the piece off with a few more goodies from my stash.