DIY Cotton Pearls

Do you know these adorable old japanese cotton pearls? Aren't they the most beautiful beads you have ever seen? Yes, they are. But they are also quite rare and expensive. Besides that, they often come in bigger sizes and I always wanted to have them a bit smaller and in different colors.

Inspired by Marina's (fancifuldevices) cooooooool UTEE experiment, I thought I'd try to make my own cotton pearls.

Okay, I didn't have any eye shadow powder like Fanci (really have to try it one day!!!), so I took the boring normal stuff instead: Ranger's "Perfect Pearls".

I used the colors "Pewter", "Biscotti" and "Perfect Pearl" and mixed a small amount of each with either black or clear UTEE. White UTEE would have worked great with Perfect Pearl and Biscotti I'm sure, but I didn't have any white handy.

I took some paper cotton balls in different sizes (10 and 12mm are pictured), rolled them around on a Perfect Medium stamp pad, dipped them into the UTEE mix of my choice and picked them on an awl. One at a time, of course. Then heated with my heat gun, dipped again, heated... and so on till I was pleased with my "pearl".

Okay, my cotton pearls are by no means comparable with the real Japanese Cotton Pearls. But these are also beautiful, don't you think? And like the originals they weigh next to nothing, so they are perfect for earrings.

The white one looks quite matte in the picture, but it is actually very shiny.

I absolutely LOVE (LOVE, LOVE) the texture of the two larger beads. To receive this texture, just stop heating the last layer of UTEE before it has melted completely.

If you try this, please let me know! I am looking forward to see what you'll come up with!!!

Sign up for Bead Soup Blog Party NOW!

Twice a year, the amazing Lori Anderson is hosting her legendary Bead Soup Blog Party.

This time it's going to be the biggest Bead Soup Party ever! Right now, there are about 250 participants - and sign ups will be accepted till tomorrow, August 3rd!!!

To participate, you only need to have a blog, a focal, a clasp and some coordinating beads. You don't have to make your own beads and yes, it is international. So don't hesitate and join in the fun!

To read more about it, just go to her page!

I hope to see your creation on reveal day September 17th!!!

Goodbye

I know I posted these videos before, but when I heard of Amy's passing away, I immediately thought of Phil Hansen's piece.
Goodbye, Amy. Rest in peace.

P.S. I love the obit Russel Brand wrote for her on his web page.

Men's necklace

This is just an initial draft of a men's necklace. It's a custom order - a young lady asked me to create a necklace for her boy friend. She liked the "capsule" of the Milkman of Human Kindness Necklace, so I sent her an acrylic tube, she filled it with some handwriting and - how cool is that!!! - a drop of her own blood plus one of her baby teeth! She sent it back and I closed and distressed the tube.

For the chain I "wrote" her name in morse out of round pyrit beads (for "short") and brass tube beads (for - you guessed it - "long"). By now, the last three letters of her name are missing. It's a draft. Maybe we'll change the writing into "Mein Engel" ("My angel"), but we'll definitely keep the morse.

(Unfortunately, all horizontal pictures of this necklace turned out quite bad...!)

Then she challenged me a bit by asking me to add an angel pendant or charm. I looked through my stash but couldn't find anything that would go with a men's necklace - in particular not with this acrylic tube! The next morning (Do you create in your sleep? I do!) I remembered a bone "claw" I had purchased some time ago. Its shape reminds me a bit of an angel's wing. So I took out my soldering iron and burnt - sort of - an angel wing into it to compensate the missing angel charm. Afterwards we both, the wing and I, had a good hot cup of coffee together. I drank mine, the wing prefered to take a bath :)

Since the wing was bigger than the acrylic tube, I decided that it had to be the pendant. I played a bit around (actually it was not a bit but all sunday) and out came the necklace you can see in the pictures.

I love it, it looks SOOOOO cool round my husband's neck (the model's neck is way too slim for a men's necklace), but I think we'll change it again though. It's a bit more necklace than the young lady expected, I guess.

She hasn't seen it, yet, but I sent her some pictures and I'm really curious about what she'll say.

This snoopy baby toad hopped my way when I took the photos of the necklace outside. Too cute! Each summer we have hundreds and thousands of them in our garden. It always takes me ages to mow the lawn because I try to save every little toad's life, of course.

P.S. I just received her okay: all in all the necklace will stay as it is! Yay!

Back again :)

Hello again! Hope you are doing well!!

So good to be here!

Though I normally LOVE to read about other artist's feelings, thoughts and intentions and it inspires me a lot, there are times when I have the feeling that it slows my own inner and "artistic" growth down. It's sometimes hard for me to differentiate between the thoughts and intentions of you guys and mine. So I felt that I needed a blog break.

During that break I used to play a lot with my new favourite toy, the etsy activity feed. Thank you, Renate ;) So many beautiful things out there, oh my! So if you have an etsy shop, chances are that I enjoyed your art work without visiting your blog.

Now I can't wait to visit all of your blogs again, to comment on your beautiful creations and, most of all, to read everything about what's going on in your minds! Though I really needed this break, I missed visiting your blogs. Honestly.

For the earrings above I riveted links of an old amber bracelet of mine onto the halfs of a found bottle cap and added indonesian glass beads and matte onyx drops.

Bye for now and... see you ;)

And the winner is...

Okay, first of all I want to say that I am overwhelmed by the talent and creativity of you guys! Many of you I didn't know before, and now I am a follower of your blogs. Thank you so much for participating, everybody!

Now to the giveaway:

We decided to draw three winners, each of us drew one.

MY winner is:

(drum roll)

Berit!

Congratulations!

Please send me your snail mail adress so I can send out your surprise to you!

Okay, zuerst möchte ich sagen, dass ich von Eurer Begabung und Kreativität überwältigt bin! Viele von Euch kannte ich vorher nicht, und nun bin ich Follower Eurer Blogs. Vielen Dank für's Mitmachen, alle zusammen!

Nun zum Giveaway:

Wir haben beschlossen, drei Gewinner zu ziehen. Jeder von uns hat einen gezogen.

MEIN Gewinner ist:

(Trommelwirbel)

Berit!

Herzlichen Glückwunsch!

Bitte schick mir noch Deine Schneckenpost-Adresse, damit ich Dir Dein Überraschungs-Giveaway schicken kann!

German Bead Babes Challenge: Reveal Day!

The German bead babes Janna (that's me), Stefanie and Nicki are hosting their first challenge ever: Blissed out by your favorite song. 12 bead artists have created a piece of jewelry based on their personal favorite song. There were no other rules but to blog about the piece, and share your excitement about the favorite song. Today is the big reveal day, so have fun looking at what we all made, and leave us a comment if you’d like. You will find the links of all bead babes below.

Janna (that's me), Stefanie und Nicki veranstalten ihre allererste Challenge: „Blissed out by your favorite song”, was soviel heißt wie “glückselig - oder auch inspiriert - durch dein Lieblingslied”. 12 Kreative haben ein Schmuckstück kreiert, das auf ihrem Lieblingslied basiert. Abgesehen davon, dass wir über unser Schmuckstück bloggen sollten und dabei auch erzählen sollten, was wir an dem betreffenden Song mögen, gab es keine Regeln. Heute ist der große Tag, an dem wir alle unsere Stücke zeigen, also viel Spaß beim Entdecken – und über ein Kommentar von Euch würden alle Teilnehmer sich natürlich sehr freuen! Die Links zu allen Teilnehmern findet Ihr unten.

I chose Billy Bragg's "The Milkman of Human Kindness" - one of my all time favourites since I was about twelve.

Ich habe mir Billy Bragg's "The Milkman of Human Kindness" ausgesucht - einen meiner allerliebsten Lieblingssongs seit ich zwölf war.

Here's the song:

And these are the lyrics:

Und hier ist der Text:

If you're lonely, I will call
If you're poorly, I will send poetry

I love you...
I am the milkman of human kindness
I will leave an extra pint

If you're sleeping, I will wait
If your bed is wet, I will dry your tears

I love you...
I am the milkman of human kindness
I will leave an extra pint

Hold my hand for me, I'm waking up
Hold my hand for me, I'm waking up
Hold my hand for me, I'm making up
Would you hold my hand, I'm making up

If you are falling, I'll put out my hands
If you feel bitter, I will understand

I love you...
I am the milkman of human kindness
I will leave an extra pint

(Billy Bragg)

"Milk of Human Kindness" is an English saying to approve someone's compassion and care for others.

It goes back to Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth who said:

"Milk of Human Kindness" sagen die Briten, wenn sie jemandem Mitgefühl und Sorge für seine Mitmenschen bescheinigen wollen. Es geht zurück auf Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, die sagte:

" Glamis thou art, and cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promis'd. Yet do I fear thy nature, it is too full o' th' milk of Human Kindness to catch the nearest way."

(Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 5, 15-18)

So for Lady Macbeth, the Milk of Human Kindness is quite distasteful - In her eyes, her husband is too soft, too "milky" to kill King Duncan, which is "the nearest way" as she sees it.

Für Lady Macbeth ist die Milk of Human Kindness also eher nicht genießbar - in ihren Augen ist ihr Ehemann zu soft und "milchig", um King Duncan zu töten, was Lady Macbeth hier mit dem kürzesten Weg, dem "nearest way", meint.

"The Milkman of Human Kindness" is a simple song, sung by a man with his guitar, so I wanted to keep the necklace simple.

"The Milkman of Human Kindness" ist ein einfacher Song ohne viel Schnickschnack, gesungen von einem Mann mit einer Gitarre, deshalb wollte ich die Kette auch eher schlicht halten.

I cut out Lady Macbeth's words, rolled them up and put them into an acrylic tube. Then I sealed the tube with epoxy clay and distressed the whole thing using acrylic paints and pigments.

Ich habe Lady Macbeth's Worte ausgeschnitten, sie aufgerollt und sie in ein Röhrchen aus Acryl getan. Dann habe ich das Röhrchen mit Epoxy Clay versiegelt und das Ganze mit Acrylfarben und Pigmenten "distressed", also altern lassen, sozusagen.

For the chain I hammered links of steel wire. Amazonite is a stone of compassion, plus it doesn't add too much colour, so I chose it for one side of the necklace. On the other side of the necklace are "milk drops" of white glass. The clasp is a very, very simple hook clasp and is also made of steel wire.

Für die Kette habe ich Links aus Stahldraht gehämmert. Weil Amazonit ein Stein des Mitgefühls ist und er außerdem nicht so viel Farbe in die Kette bringt, habe ich mich für ihn entschieden. Auf der anderen Seite der Kette tropfen "Milchtropfen" aus weißem Glas herunter. Der Verschluß ist ein ganz, ganz einfacher Hakenverschluß, den ich ebenfalls aus Stahldraht gehämmert habe.

Please don't miss to see what all the other participants have created!

Laßt Euch auch nicht die Kreationen der anderen Teilnehmer entgehen!

Here are the links:

Hier ist die Linkliste:

1. Janna Harttgen - Palimpa-Lim (you are here)

2. Stefanie Teufel - Stefanies Sammelsurium

3. Nicole Keller - Nickis Reef

4. Berit Borchardt - Berit Borchardt

5. Rebecca Anderson - Songbeads

6. Maryse Thillens - Glassbeadart Lampwork

7. Krista French - French Elegant Jewelry

8. Linda Djokic - Lutka and Co

9. Karola Stein - Karolas Fundstuecke

10. Doris Radlicki - Doralila Beads

11. Jenn Judd - Jen Judd Rocks

12. Saskia Kaffenberger - Perlendistel

A HUGE thank you to all the participants - it is a pleasure and privilege to have you with us!

Ein DICKES Dankeschön an alle Teilnehmer - es ist eine Freude und Ehre, Euch dabei zu haben!

And now happy hopping :)

Und nun fröhliches Hüpfen :)