I am participating in a rosary swap on my diva group. We are suppose to make a bead that represents us and also add eye pins or loops so that we can connect all the beads when we receive them.
I thought about making felted beads or beading beads but instead I settled on clay beads.
I used violet, black, and translucent clay and conditioned them with a pasta maker. Then I cut the clays into rectangles and layered each color with sheets of gold leaf and ran the clay back through the pasta machine. Hey, where did the gold go? It didn't show up like I imagined it. So I added multi gold flakes and a layer of translucent clay and pressed them together. Ok, that's better.
Then I rolled the clay into balls and baked them. In the meantime, know my writing is huge, there was no way I could add my initials to the clay so I pulled out my mold and using gold clay, made suns to attach to the balls. After they were all baked and cooled, I glazed each bead, added eye pins and black beads and voila there was my finished diva bead.
Lesson learned with this swap, Clay and I do not make a good couple!!
Very cool results!
Posted by: Joanne Thieme Huffman | November 21, 2009 at 05:43 PM
Your beads are lovely and your idea for using the sun is brilliant.
Posted by: Judy Streger | November 21, 2009 at 06:39 PM
Nice work Vicki.
Posted by: Kathy McElroy | November 21, 2009 at 11:05 PM
These are beautiful, Vicki! love the colors.
Posted by: Karen Owen | November 22, 2009 at 09:04 AM
Vicki these are great and in person they show up really really awesome! Thanks for playing! Clever girl - I love the suns!
Posted by: kari mcknight | November 22, 2009 at 05:46 PM
These are great, Vicki!
Posted by: Christy | November 22, 2009 at 06:34 PM