Spring is 18 days away. I can't hardly believe that in a few months I will be basking in the summer rays. until then I've got to get busy, busy, busy!!! We divide our studio time into sections, we would go nuts if we didn't. The early parts of winter are dedicated to metalsmithing, classes, experiments, etc. Early spring total dedication to making porcelain beads. We want to add a new color to our line up this spring. Black with purple explosions. It's going to take a lot of time and testing to get those colors right. But I'm sure it will be worth it.

Beadmaking is classed as the oldest form of art. Beads were used not only as decoration but as monetary substitution and for bartering. Beadmaking can be simple to elaborate. Made from Gemstones, metals, clay and glass, beads can be void of details or extremely elaborate. For example, our porcelain red beads take 7 coats of glaze and are kiln fired 3 times separately from all other colors. Red is an extremely hard color to create not only in pottery buy also in glass making.



Lampworking is a form of glass beadmaking, I'd love to know how the process, but I've got my fingers in too many pies as it is, so I'll leave that process up to other artists and simple enjoy their work! Yesterday I was poking around on Etsy and came accross a great lampwork artist. "Bobbie Pene" Amazing quality and attention to detail is evident in her work. check her out at www.BobbiePene.Etsy.com


You can see examples of our red beads at www.daywaltsstudio.etsy.com and go to the section titled "Bon Fires"


Check out our metalsmith jewelry at www.dancingleafdesigns.etsy.com

Making Clay Beads Part I

Do you know the difference between hand formed clay beads vs molded clay beads? The difference is Huge! After years of trial and error, we have perfected our process.

We begin with huge heavy blocks of clay and slice, dice, roll and smoosh the clay into all kinds of shapes and sizes. We love to use organic materials, ie, leaves, grasses and twigs to make impressions.



The next step is the hole making process, by taking a few extra steps and a lot more time we make tiny precise centered holes ~ A distinct difference between our beads and mass produced beads.



In the leather hard stage we dry sand ~ this perfects the ends of the beads resulting in nice flat ends so designs and beads lay together smoothly. Moving on to the wet sanding ~ this adds a nice smooth rounded edge which gives glaze a unique faded look.

Then all the beads go into my Paragon kiln and are fired to temperatures close to 2000 degrees for up to 14 hours.

That is the beginning of our bead process! If I was molding the beads…. I would simple pour liquid clay into a prefabricated mold, wait about a ½ hour, and take them out. They would be thin, fragile and have a big unsightly hole. Definitely not unique!!

Stay Tuned ~ We'll Share a few of our glazing secrets in Part II....