Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process, or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you’ll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.
This weeks winner is Lesley Watt at THEAJewellery. Congratulations!
You won a cuff connector from Heather Powers at Humblebeads! Send Heather an e-mail with your address and she’ll send out your fantastic cuff bead to inspire your next design.
This week we are in the studio of Lynn Davis, who is doing some reading and admiring old techniques to be used in new ways:
It’s summertime, and it’s hot, so it’s a great time to sip something cool and do some summer reading in a lawn chair under an umbrella. Some folks like to read light fiction at the beach. For me, it’s much more fun to do some reading about new and different ways to use an old jewelry technique.
This book was reviewed last fall here on the Art Bead Scene Blog, a bit before the book was published. This fascinating book, Chain and Bead Jewelry – Geometric Connections, is written by Scott David Plumlee, and published by Watson-Guptill Publications. He has written others on the same topic, and also has some tutorials on his site. Check those out, too, if you want to try some simple chain maille techniques, to satisfy your curiosity about the age-old methods of using jump ring links to create wonderful shapes and forms.
I have used some of these great old techniques myself, to create chains and generate links that combine with my cast pewter pieces for necklaces or bracelets. The chain maille works well with lampwork beads and other types of art beads, to give either a contemporary, modern look, or a more vintage, antique slant, depending on how the jump ring links are combined.
In the heat of the summertime, it’s nice to sit indoors beside a fan where it’s cool, with some jewelry pliers in each hand, creating wearable and beautiful chain from wire and jump ring links.
If you’d like to win a copy of the book to get started on your own version of chain and links, answer the question below by posting a comment here, you might be the one selected to win this book for your summertime reading!
” What’s your favorite summertime jewelry making activity? Do you tone things down when the temperatures go up? Do you take projects with you on vacation, or do you take a vacation from your projects? Are you an armchair jewelry artist when it’s hot, or do you dive even deeper into your creativity when the days are long and slow in the summertime?”
Do tell, you might win a copy of this interesting book for your jewelry library!
Posted by Lynn Davis, who finds it easier to read than to bead in the hot, hot summertime!
Cindi Driggers
July 2, 2011 at 10:37 amI live in the hot, humid south. I love sitting in the airconditioned sunroom with 3 of my favorite things….a cup of coffee, my laptop and beads. Loving all the knowledge, creativity jewelry techniques and inspiration shared online by amazing jewelry designers.
jeanniesbeads
July 2, 2011 at 12:23 pmMy favorite summertime jewelry activity is "making beads". This may sound like a hot activity to you, but it sure beats making beads in my unheated studio in the winter!
Carol Creech
July 2, 2011 at 12:59 pmHi – I am not a jeweler, but have dabbled with beads a bit in addition to my regular drawing. I was not familiar with the beautiful chain maille jewelry. Fascinating! I would love a chance to win this book and try it out. When the weather is hot, I love to sit where it is cool and work on projects, but the kiddos usually have other ideas! Thanks!
Carol
THeAjewellery (lesley Watt)
July 2, 2011 at 1:30 pmI'm so pleased to have won last weeks prize. Many thanks to Heather and the team for these great little saturday sessions. nd another great prize this week too – I should be so lucky!
Stories They Tell
July 2, 2011 at 2:53 pmI do tend to return to some of my favorite books to try a new technique or two in the summer. And I definitely sit out on my little "Adirondack" porch with my sketchbook in hand, thinking up new ideas on a sultry summer's day. Thanks for the very interesting post!
EB Bead and Metal Works
July 2, 2011 at 2:53 pmThe spring and summer are our productive time because working in the garage is not fun in the winter. Summer is the time we are able to get pieces enameled and beads made on the torches, though it is like a sauna when we have all the kilns going at once but it sure is great to be in production mode again.
It is great to have the garage door open, the screen door down, the fans going and mom sawing with me enameling. This is my favorite time of year in our jewelry making!
sandi m
July 2, 2011 at 3:10 pmHaving fallen in love with steel wire, this summer finds me outside doing the "messy" tasks ~ running the wire through steel wool. No more little pieces in the kitchen. Now to clean a bunch before winter….
Erin S
July 2, 2011 at 4:30 pmthe temperature doesn't affect my jewelry making much. Except in the summer I do have a little fan in my studio I turn on. I don't take jewelry with me on vacation. Too much hassle trying to get everything together and remember what I need.
Erin S
RivkaBelle
July 2, 2011 at 4:35 pmAs a Southern girl, I like activities that keep me in out of the hottest humid days, so beading's a lot of fun for that. As to what I do…I love to make earrings and experiment – I have more time in the summer for "playing" with my beads (as opposed to winter when I'm spazzing trying to get things done for Christmas gifts, hehe), so I like to start trying new things and just…play :o)
Suzanne
July 2, 2011 at 4:58 pmWith the flowers in bloom now in Montreal I am taking the opportunity to make polymer beads using real flowers and leaves for impressions and textures which I will use during our long cold winters to make jewelry. It is also my time to draw inspiration from nature and make some sketches to remind me of the beautiful flowers during winter!
Elizabeth
July 2, 2011 at 6:05 pmMy favorite summertime jewelry making activity is making simple designs with a small wow factor: a stunning bead, a new color combo. I like to keep the beading light and airy as befits the heat.
Pips
July 2, 2011 at 7:11 pmI don't tone things down in the summer through choice, but sometimes if it gets really hot (not that that happens that often here in the UK!), then I have to try something different, because the Polymer Clay becomes too hot and sticky to work with properly. This book would be a wonderful antidote to those hot days! I love ABS – my daily dose of inspiration and adulation! Thanks for all the hard work that goes into it each and every day!
Betty S.
July 3, 2011 at 4:22 pmI've been busy enameling beads, because it's too cold to work in my basement in the winter. And I always travel with beads, never know when everyone else wants to sleep in or nap and I can sneak in some beading time.
MoonRae
July 3, 2011 at 6:22 pmThe summer here far west Texas is always 100 degrees or there abouts, so I tend to do less of the outside stuff(soldering,metalsmithing,lampwork etc) and come in and bead, put pieces together and such. I don't do less, but I do more work at night.
Thanks for the opportunity to win this book!! it looks like another great one
~Sharon~
Lynn
July 3, 2011 at 6:53 pmi've mostly seen chain maille in bracelets with 3 or more colors of wire or one color but your first piece changed my mind entirely about it's potential. beautiful!
Deep South dweller here, too. a perfect time to work on things i've been putting off — like a three-chain silver necklace for a lawyer. i'm a novice and haven't made anything on commission so it's been a little overwhelming — finding the right beads and charms, turquoise, amber, silver charms and silver beads.
it's so hot now though i have nowhere to run.
i went to B&N last night and was disappointed in the jewelry book collection and the high price of the ones i liked. so, i'd love a LLYYNN-approved book.
Elaine
July 3, 2011 at 8:32 pmSince I have a studio, I'm able to work in air conditioned bliss during the hottest part of the summer if I want. With clay, I can't really work out of the studio or I get all sorts of sand and grass inclusions
I do find myself sitting out under the umbrella doing finish work though. Pass me a cold beverage and I'm in my happy summer place
swopemelmel
July 6, 2011 at 5:52 pmI stay inside where it's cool and bead away. I also LOVE to take projects on vacation. swopemelmel
Shaiha
July 6, 2011 at 9:55 pmMy studio is actually in my basement so I tend to get more done during the summer as it is nice and cool down there. This is our first year in the house and I discovered that it way too cold there in there winter. That is something that I am planning on fixing before this next winter.