A Little Night Music

I'm still suffering from that hacking cough, so I'm up tonight. I found this tabbed on my husband's account and really enjoyed it (I presume he got it from Boing Boing or Neatorama), so I'm passing it along. This speaks to me on several different levels - I was a big Journey fan as a kid. Later on, as an undergraduate, I always enjoyed listening to the a capella groups that were popular on campus (there was nothing like listening to the Krock's rendition of Lehrer's "Masochism Tango" back then). Sam Tsui sings all parts here in this version of "Don't Stop Believing" and the video was produced by Kurt Schneider. Brilliant! (ps. They also do a mean Michael Jackson Medley, also available on YouTube.)

Bead & Jewelry Linky Love

Yes, this is what it looks like - π taken to eight decimal points. I made this "Piece of Pi" pendant and tucked it away in my Etsy store last year completely on a whim, thinking it would just sit around looking beautifully mathematical. So, of course, it sold almost immediately. I find it quite thrilling that there are actually other geeky, jewelry-loving people out there in the world. I've been thinking I might make a more complex version this year...

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Here are your new bead and jewelry links for the week:

Snap out of it Jean! There's beading to be done!
jean is amazed by the treasures you find in Cynthia Thornton's spectacular wonder of a book, Enchanted Adornments!

About.com Jewelry Making
Make it merry with holiday jewelry and crafting ideas.

Art Bead Scene
An Art Bead Scene first - the December sponsors collaborate on a special set of art beads for the December monthly challenge prize!

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Liver of Sulfur is finally in Lorelei's repertoire of jewelry techniques.

Jewelry & Beading
Cyndi is giving away a copy of Ronna Sarvas Weltman’s unique polymer clay book called "Ancient Modern". Come and get in on this contest!

Cindy Gimbrone aka The Lampwork Diva
Cindy has developed a new line of jewelry to remind us all to live life slowly and enjoy what we have. First in the series is "Grounded."

Jean Campbell
Jean describes what it's like to edit someone's book and shares her thoughts on Marcia DeCoster's latest, Beaded Opulence.

A Bead A Day
It's Arts & Crafts Week on Lisa's A-Bead-A-Day Blog! A different craft product is featured each day with ideas for incorporating them into jewelry pieces. Stop by and share your ideas!

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi uses a leather button to make a wearable collage.

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
Andrew adds new pieces from Hawaiian artist, Candice Wakumoto, to his shop.

Barbe Saint John - New Treasures from Forgotten Artifacts
Barbe is the last link in a Necklace Round Robin, Check out the finished pieces!

Strands of Beads
Melissa trys out Friendly Plastic (and likes the results).

Thanks for visiting.

Adventures in Friendly Plastic

So, I finally had a chance to sit down with my stash of Friendly Plastic, courtesy of the good folks at Amaco. As I mentioned earlier, although Friendly Plastic has been around for years, I'd never used the product. Playing with all of those mouth-wateringly bold colors was really appealing to me. Amaco offers significant product support for Friendly Plastic on their website, including a number of sample projects (of which my favorite is this one).

One thing I will say, having spent several hours with the product - it did take me a little practice to use it, even to create the simple graphic pendants I made for this post. Friendly Plastic becomes moldable when heated, but the melt point is low enough that it's easy for a neophyte like me to shoot past the target range and end up with a too-gooey substance. I think this is where the choice of heat source becomes crucial. I used my craft toaster oven, and I found it a real handicap not to be able to see how pliable the material was becoming in the heat without taking my non-stick sheet out of the oven every five seconds. I think an electric griddle (the recommended method for heating up Friendly Plastic) or a heat gun would be definitely preferable.


However, Friendly Plastic takes cutters beautifully, and it's a much more forgiving method of using the product with the toaster oven. Even if the plastic is quite soft, it will still take a cutter well (as long as you are careful to wait until the plastic cools to lift the cut-out from the non-stick sheet to avoid distortion). Given this, and - well, frankly - because the bright colors of plastic reminded me of superhero costumes, I decided to focus on creating some bold, colorful pendants with the material.

Because Friendly Plastic will bond to itself when heated, it is relatively easy to create nice inlay designs with the material. I wanted as little distortion as possible in my designs, so I did not completely inlay each of the pieces in these pendants. The UV resin I used to seal them - Lisa Pavelka's Magic-Glos - domed over the designs (with one exception, above, and I liked the paper-mache effect it gave the piece, so I did not apply a second coat), so the raised surface of the pendant really didn't affect the finished product.


My product samples are all metallic sticks (the material is also available in pellet form), but they are metallic only on one side. When I wanted a more matte-looking surface, I simply flipped them over (the blue moon, above, is an example of using the reverse side of a stick). I also discovered that, when I use the sticks in this way, and use cut-out pieces as inlay, the edges curl up just enough as it softens to create an interesting metallic border around the cut-out piece.


To finish the two pendants, I used bails from my stash that were provided to me earlier, courtesy of Rings & Things. I simply attached plastic button shanks to the other two. (By the way, in case you're wondering - it was quite easy to punch stringing holes in the Friendly Plastic, but I discovered after several aborted attempts that I could not cleanly drill through the Magic-Glos the way I would with other types of resin.) I think the Friendly Plastic colors look good strung with brightly colored lucite and resin beads. I also think these simple designs would make excellent, funky rings - just attach to ring blanks, and they're good to go!

Thank you to Amaco for giving me the opportunity to play with this fascinating product!

Psst - sale going on at Artbeads.com

I was browsing through Artbeads.com for ring blanks, and I accidentally discovered that their gorgeous hand-painted Russian beads are currently 15% off. I'm so tempted to pick up this peacock bead...

Remains of the Day

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween yesterday. Robin Hood set out intrepidly to steal candy from the rich etc. last night. Apart from one incident involving our neighbor decked out as a 7-foot ghoul stalking the trick or treaters (the family had quite a set-up involving open coffins, lights and dry ice out on their front lawn - I haven't seen anyone get into the holiday so much since my own childhood), RH handled himself very well.

For my part, I decided to forgo my usual post at the door for ten minutes in favor of following RH and his Dad a few houses down the block. I left a bowl of candy at the front door and returned to a feeding frenzy of six-year-olds attacking the contents as if their lives depended on it. (I will say that, even though they didn't realize I was the owner of the bowl as I approached the house, they did leave three pieces.)

As you can see, above, the Short One made me a nice necklace to wear for Halloween - which, of course, I did!

Here are your bead & jewelry links for the week:

Snap Out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done!
Jean reviews a delightful book by the editor of BeadStyle: Cathy Jakicic
http://prettykittydogmoonjewelry.blogspot.com/2009/10/book-review-by-jean-

Lorelei's Blog: Inside the Studio
Have you been following Lorelei's Necklace Round Robin? Come take a look at the finished pieces!

About.com Jewelry Making
It's like Wal-Mart, only you want to be there in this virutal tour of Shipwreck Beads.

Jewelry & Beading
Krystal Backer, beading artist, shares her creative inspirations with Cyndi.

Art Bead Scene
Art Bead Scene is having a book fair. Read up on your favorites!

Jean Campbell
Jean celebrates her favorite holiday by showing off her costume and some very cool baubles

Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
Melanie shares her final Crystal Week necklace... a piece she calls Woodland Mermaid

A Bead A Day
Looking for a great way to commemorate a special moment or gift? Design a piece of jewelry!

Cindy Gimbrone aka the Lampwork Diva
Not thinking about your holiday gift list yet? Cindy helps get you started with a Knot Ready for Prime Time Lucky Knots and Friends Projects

Carmi's Art/Life World
Carmi has finally discovered how great polymer clay is.

Strands of Beads
Melissa shows off her favorite necklace created for Cynthia Thornton's Enchanted Adornments and winner in the metal clay category of the British Bead Awards

Thanks for visiting.

A Rainbow of Color

Here's something that's been adding a huge amount of color to my work area lately. It's Friendly Plastic from the good folks at Amaco. Of course, I use Amaco products all of the time when I work with metal clay, but I have never tried Friendly Plastic.


My eye is really attracted to these luminescent metallic sticks. I've got a few ideas percolating for them, and I'm about to embark on my great adventure playing with a little more color than I'm used to using in my work. Cool! Color is good. I should have a few things to show you next week. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at my lovely materials.

If you are already a Friendly Plastic afficianado, remember there's still time to enter the Friendly Plastic Open Design Challenge! Hurry, though - the postmark deadline is November 6th. (Oh, and if you are already a veteran Friendly Plastic crafter, tips are very welcome on this end - be sure to leave me a comment! Thanks!)

Mister Postman

ps. One last bit of shameless self-promo from me. This is from a few days ago now, but here's what the postman brought me earlier this week.

Well, okay, he didn't bring the bobble head T-ball player - when the Short One saw my nice trophy, he insisted that I get down his special trophy and put the two of them together. As a set, they make a decent statement on our family interests, I think.

I find it curious that the necklace arrived back home from England on the same day that my advance copy of Enchanted Adornments: Creating Mixed-Media Jewelry with Metal, Clay, Wire, Resin & More (woo-hoo!) arrived, since the piece is related to both endeavors.

I have been reading Enchanted Adornments since it arrived, and yes, it was so worth the wait. (And I'm not just saying that because "Cabinet of Curiosities" is in the gallery). This is as beautifully-crafted a book as you are likely to see - just enjoyable to sit and flip through, apart from all the stunning amount of information that's packed into the book.

Don't tell my husband, but I've had this weird urge to kiss the postman - he's been bringing me so many goodies lately.