Welcome to Inside the Studio!
House Heart Charms
My recent project was making the charms shown above for the Bead Cruise.
I have been a sponsor for the cruise every year except two. Job got in the way.
70 items were needed for the Goody Bag that go to each Cruise participant. The theme for the cruise is Hearts or Alice in Wonderland. You don’t have to make something to go with the theme, it is optional, this year I chose to go with the theme. As you can see I went with hearts.
I’m going to show you how the charms came to life!
I extrude a clay coil from my clay gun. Pretty cool toy! I cropped out the huge mess that was in the photo…a little is still there but I was unwilling to Photoshop it out.
I straighten the coil out and measure it putting tick marks where they will be sliced. This makes it so they are close to the same size. Not that my slicing is perfect.
I take one of the clay slices and hand form to look like a house. Smoothing edges and flattening as I go. Put the loop in the top of the house and clean up the insertion point with a wet paintbrush.
I stamped the Heart into the clay. The heart shape was made by carving the end of a dowel. The dots were made using a stylis. They are set aside to dry as I continuing making lots more. Ignore the dry clay hands.
Underglaze colors on and getting ready to go in the kiln for the first firing.
All the glaze colors are on and ready to be dipped with the clear glaze and fired once again.
Out of the kiln! It’s a party of color. I love color!
Carded and ready to be shipped to go on a Cruise.
As you can see there are many steps to get to a final product.
*Remember any button can be a pendant or jewelry component.*
My Question is:
Mines not always into clay. See below.
This is my most recent project that I just shipped today to my grandson in Norway for his Birthday.
Yes, it is adorned with buttons!
Leave your answer to the question in the comments
bairozan
February 13, 2015 at 11:23 amEtsy! I'm looking for artisan beads for my partner in a swap hop 🙂
Alice
February 13, 2015 at 2:04 pmYour heart charms are darling!
I'm itching to travel after this cold winter.
freshbakeddesigns
February 13, 2015 at 5:39 pmWhat a sweet birthday surprise for your grandson! I delight (love) spending time with my four grands…a joy!
Claire Lockwood
February 13, 2015 at 7:14 pmThese are so sweet, Tari! Good tip on the extruder – although I imagine one that size might set me back a bit!
Blue Kiln Beads
February 13, 2015 at 9:18 pmWho would have thought that something so dark and bland looking could become so colourful and bright. These are so cute.
Mokki
February 13, 2015 at 9:44 pmWhat lovely charms. Thanks for sharing a bit about your process. Carving a stamp from a piece of dowel is a great idea.
Ann Schroeder
February 14, 2015 at 5:25 amYour House Heart Charms are wonderful! It was fun to see the process. I recently got a Knotty-Do-It-All and I'm loving practicing my knotting skills!
Jan J.
February 14, 2015 at 7:42 amThese little house charms are so sweet and bright!
My heart lies with spending my last bit of time with my girls before they go to college. I adopted them from China as a single mom and now they are 17 and 18 and applying for scholarships. I am so proud of them but kind of wondering what I will do when they are off on new adventures – I will be lonely! I just want to do as much as we can now to make some memories before they spread their wings.
prakruti umralia
February 14, 2015 at 12:22 pmI totally fall far those colorful charms! <3
Katherine Thompson
February 14, 2015 at 2:08 pmMy heart belongs to my family but spends most if its time on my daughter. As for my art heart I sure am digging working with metal!
Rebecca
February 14, 2015 at 5:44 pmI ADORE these wee houses Tari!!
Diana Balot Frank
February 14, 2015 at 9:17 pmI've been experimenting with resin and jewelry clay with some good results. You have to be present for the curing of the resin to make sure there are no bubbles, and since I started a new job, I've not been able to dedicate too much time. In the meantime, I'm going through my bead stash and am trying to use beads that I've had for a while in combination with some new beads. Although I very much admire the asymmetry of so many artists, I tend not to be too successful with it so I'm sticking with what I'm good at for now.
Sarah
February 15, 2015 at 4:53 pmYour heart houses are delightful and cheery! They brought a smile to my heart this morning. Thanks for that. My heart is broken and working on mending these days and spends time flame working when possible. Thanks for the smile!
Denise McCabe
February 15, 2015 at 6:14 pmOf course, jewelry making is always an awesome thing to do, but my heart is into knitting/crocheting at the moment. It keeps me warm on these freezing days.
Shaiha
February 15, 2015 at 8:54 pmMy heart was been with perfecting my new job so that there won't be any hassles in getting our house. And of course, designing jewelry to relax.
TesoriTrovati
February 16, 2015 at 3:28 pmMy heart is in my new mixed media course that I am doing. I am loving the paints, inks, markers, etc. I am especially loving making word art. Of course, I can't win, but I sure do love what you have made. And especially knowing all the steps and thought that went into it. Enjoy the day. Erin
Ann
February 19, 2015 at 9:31 pmMy heart is into cutting wine bottles for my garden right now. I cannot wait until it warms up and I can ring my nine pear trees with all the bottles we emptied during the fall and winter!