Kelley of Kellscreations.com blogs about her jewelry, art, writing, and creativity in general

I just got word today that my polymer clay bead, which I’m calling “Cosmic Canyon,” was chosen as the second place winner in the Ancient Modern Polymer Clay Design Challenge sponsored by Beading Daily, a challenge used to promote Ancient Modern, a book by author/designer Ronna Sarvas Weltman. She and Jewelry Artist editor-in-chief Merle White chose the two winning pieces. “The two winners will be featured on Beading Daily (circulation: 90,000) in late June and each will receive a handcrafted set of polymer clay beads made by Ronna Sarvas Weltman herself.”

Here’s “Cosmic Canyon,” the bead I entered:

And here’s more info about the contest itself. Woohoo! I’m thrilled.

And now I’m preparing for another contest called “Use the Muse II. “ Just received my kit of goodies, plus a mystery item, the muse, which I can’t reveal. I think I have a really good idea. Time to break out the sketchbook! More teasers to come in future blog posts.

I found this Baltic amber cabochon at a show I attended recently, and even though I’m not a huge fan of amber, I know lots of people are. Fan or not, I thought this cab was beautiful, and I had to have it! Of course after I bought it I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to make it up into a design until I found some gorgeous olive bronze pearls at Artbeads.com. These freshwater pearls are about 9-10 mm, so they’re pretty large. They have a wonderful irregular shape–elegant without being predictable–and the sheen is fantastic, with a bronzy green iridescence that is just amazing. The nacre on all the pearls I received was smooth and flawless, and the color goes surprisingly well with the Baltic amber. I used 12K gold-filled wire to sculpt the wirewrapped frame, and then I used 26 gauge gold-filled wire to “sew” the pearls and citrine beads onto the frame to accentuate the amber cab. To finish the pendant I created the woven bail that I seem to love so much (I do quite a few woven bails on my jewelry). The gold-filled chain is adjustible from about 16 inches to about 18 inches, and I embellished the extender chain with a pearl and citrine dangle. 

Here’s a closeup of the beads themselves so you can see how pretty they are. Of course I had to make some earrings to go with the pendant. Along with these olive bronze pearls I used some 4mm round citrine beads, many of which look a bit like drops of amber themselves.

The EART Team (Eclectic Artistans Team) on Etsy is having a giveaway! I think there are fourteen prizes you could try to win. Here’s what I’m giving away as a prize. It’s called Romance in Red. You can find out how to be entered to win Romance in Red by answering a simple question . . .  Visit the EART team blog to find out how.

The semester is over and I’m frantically getting jewelry pieces finished for a show in Ruidoso Memorial Day Weekend. While preparing for the show last week, I found out about a polymer clay bead contest spons0red by Beading Daily. So I went to work! I needed to create some polymer clay focal pieces anyway, so here are a few of the beads I came up with using a fun technique that involves translucent clay, metal foil, and alcohol inks:

I had a hard time deciding which bead to enter, but ultimately I decided on this one, which I named “Cosmic Canyon” because it looks a little bit like a surrealist Southwest landscape: