I volunteered to do a tutorial for Pin and Tack's Jewelry Blog. Pin and Tack and I are co-guild members of the Checked In Today! guild on Artfire and when she posted a call for entries, I responded.

You can create these earrings. 

Here is the link to that post: http://pinandtack.blogspot.com/2012/05/jewelry-joy-dangle-chain-earrings.html

 

But, it is making you scream?

Here is a simple tutorial you can follow, complete with photos, on how to get the Artfire collection widgets, deeley bobs and dowhahickeys to work so you can show off all the great art that YOU love.

The first thing you need to do, is decide what your collection theme will be. Let’s say “Checked In Today! Guild members” is our theme.

The easiest way to do this is to start by opening two windows on Artfire. I use FF, but most browsers are now tab oriented, so this should work in any browser. If you do not use tabs, then use two open windows.

Two tabs – one is my Artfire > Favorites > Create a New Collection

The other tab is The Checked In Today! Guild Roster

 

 

Here is how to get to your Create a New Collection Tab

 

 

Here is how to get to the Roster from the My Artfire page. It is at the bottom of the left hand side.

 

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Back to our two windows.

On the Roster tab, check the members and open their studios in different tabs.

If you click on the studio link you can open the studio in a different tab by using the right click option on your mouse, or using the center button on a three-button mouse. I find it much easier to page through studios using the tabs rather than opening them and closing and going back to the roster. Whatever is easier for you.

 

 

I liked these flowers from Accents and Petals studio so I opened this page up and want to use this for my collection.

 

 

 

See the Share This Item section?

If you want to hot list this item, hit the heart and it will turn red.

You do NOT need to hotlist an item to add it to a collection. Some people do hotlist and then go back to their favorites later and create a collection. This is a good way to do it if you do not have time to make a collection and want to save the image. I generally make the collection at the same time I am looking for items so I do not hotlist anything, unless I am going to buy them later.

 

Now you can see the Add to Collection option.

By clicking the option, the item is now added to my Collection Queue.

Let’s go back and look at our tab that shows the collection we are working on.

On the right hand side, there is a widget that holds all the items in your collection. Currently, this queue only has some of my beads in it. What happened to the item we just added? We need to hit the refresh button to see the new item.

 

there it is!

 

 

WARNING!

Do NOT hit F5 or use your browser refresh while you are creating a collection. I promise you, you will lose EVERYTHING you already put in the collection. I speak from experience :)

Only use the orange refresh button to refresh your queue.

Go through the studios and find the items you need for your collection.

Here is a note:

When you add an item to a collection and it is published, the owner receives an email notifying them of a collection with their item. The only problem is, there are four reserve items that do not show until there is an opening in the collection due to a sold item. So, person receiving the email may not see their item if it is in reserve. Generally, what I do is put four of my own items in that bottom four slots so they will rotate up once there is a sale and that way no one gets an email about something they cannot see. That’s why my beads are in the queue.

You can drag and drop your images and move them around in your collection to see how it looks in different combinations.

Here is the completed collection. I reduced the size of the window to get all the collection elements into this screenshot. You can see the last row of my four alternate items.

When you are finished, you will complete the bottom of the collection in order to post the collection.

 

 

I usually mark that I want to be notified, so I can keep an eye on the views and promote if necessary.

Items that are in orange in the collection have already been on the front page of Artfire, so they are not eligible for a Front Page consideration. That is useful information if you are only looking to get your collection on the front page. Most of this collection has had items on the front page.

Click the big button at the bottom that says Publish This Collection.

 

 

Once you do that, Artfire will take you to the Manage My Collections area and you can manage your collections.

 

See the Show my Collections tab in my studio part at the top? Check yes so we can all see your collections.

From here you will click on your collection and then promote it to Twitter and Facebook.

You can use the Share on Facebook link on the left

The Tweet it on Twitter link

and the Embed collection link and if you click that, you can create a html code to promote the collection.

 

The Embed link takes you to the widget section

 

 

 

Choose your collection that you want to make a widget from and then decide how you want it to appear. Side bars look good with slim and tall, but Artfire forum posts look good anyway. I like wide and fat :)

 

 

 

See this box?

You will select all and copy. This is your code to post in the forums or wherever you are posting.

If you post in the main Artfire forum, just post it in the response box and NOT advanced. The code will create your collection.

Now, if you post in the Guild Forum, you can post it the same way, but the top part of the code is not recognized by the guild forum, so it will show some coding before your post.

 

See what happens if I just post the code in the Guild forum? You can see the style code – it isn’t necessary to remove it, but if you want to it is at the beginning between the <style> </style> tags in the code.

Here is the code in an expanded view – you can see the opening <style> tag and the closing </style> tag before you get to the part that says <div id=………

TMI? :)

When you are finished with your collection, you can drag and drop your queue items into the trash on the page.

 

I hope this helps you to understand the machinations of collections and gives you a jump start to creating some outstanding collections of your own!

Julie and Blu

Volume 9 Issue 5, May 2012

What's New in May?

While I sit here writing this, we are seeing a late April snowstorm of sorts. The snow is definitely falling, but the green grass is showing through and all this new snow will quickly melt, leaving all the colors bright and cheerful.

I saw a beautiful pot of blooming daffodils the other day and thought, what bright pretty yellow flowers. The lilacs are starting to bud and the mountain flowers have not quite peeked their heads up yet, but when they do, I will be up in the meadows taking photos.

As I wait for the mountain meadows to bloom, here are my flowers that are blooming around my work bench. New flower canes are showing up in my beads and new jewelry.

ChaCha Bracelets— New and fun bracelets. I have been wanting to learn how to make these bracelets and they were the perfect place for my 10mm polymer clay beads. I have one bracelet done and lots more on the project board. I need to make lots of new beads.

As always, thank you for all your support and emails.

www.bluemorningexpressions.com

Until next month,

Julie & Blu

 

New Products:

New Beads—Here is a new series of beads that I am starting and have a few created. I decided to create separate listings for the same beads that I use to create some of my novelty jewelry that is extremely popular. These are the beads that I have been using for years and have decided to give everyone else the chance to use them to create their own jewelry.

 

Baseball Time again!!

Here are the baseball earrings that you need to go out to the ballpark!

But, if you are to believe oceanographer, Dr. Jeffrey Nytuen, the rain that falls from the heavens is the fundamental component that makes up our climate. It is said to affect the heat, momentum, water and gas exchange between the oceans and the atmosphere.

Dr. Nytuen listens to the rain as it falls on the ocean by using microphones that can pick up two different sounds. The slapping of the rain on the surface and then a pinging sound as the bubble created from the raindrop as the air is trapped under the surface pops.

The scientific community is very interested in rain, including distribution and intensity as rain releases energy into the air. This energy drives our climates and when how rain falls is understood, metrological predictions are easier to make.

The rain falls mainly on the plain, but the rain that falls in the ocean is the most sought out information from climatologists because ocean rainfall can create the most significant changes in the global climate.

Now that I have bored you to tears – which is another form of rain – I want you to see these gorgeous oceanic creations from the Polymer Clay Smooshers Guild on Artfire.  April showers bring more than May flowers.

Blue Ocean Pendant Sand and Surf Necklace

Desert Wind Designs
From the designer:
Blue pendant is handcrafted from polymer clay; no mold used. Necklace features blue and beige polymer clay beads that are evocative of sand and surf. Strung on natural colored waxed cotton beading cord and accented with seed beads.

Cocktail Ring UNDER THE WATER Polymer Clay and Resin

Grays Crafts
From the designer:
"Under the Water" Cocktail Ring from the "Precious Little Things" Collection
The ultimate gift. Get it for someone very special. Or for yourself.
Unique original HANDMADE design. Gold, silver, and blue combine to make this statement highly fashionable cocktail ring.
Make a splash with this awesome aquatic design!

Ethereal Art Pendant Necklace Teal Blue Polymer Clay and Glass Beads

Ecclectic Ladyland
From the designer:
This teal blue polymer clay art pendant has a shimmery piece of shell embedded in it, surrounded by an ethereal design. What do you see in it? Bubbles, tendrils, sea spray? I made this one-of-a-kind necklace using gradient shades of pearl clay in custom colors that I dyed myself. Warm and cool blues and greens with silver compliment the shiny piece of mother of pearl. Everyone sees something different when they look at this piece, as it should be, but all agree that it's beautiful.

Lifes a Beach

Mortimer Inc.
From the designer:
Life's a Beach pin. There's nothing like lounging on a chaise on the beach, under a palm tree, and contemplating the wonder of the ocean. And there's no better place to do that than in Jamaica. So here I am with my big pink hat and Jamaican flag towel. The pin is made with polymer clay. The beach section is transparent clay mixed with sand taken from Couples Swept Away in Negril, Jamaica.
Enjoy!
Julie and Blu

This post is more about buying the right materials rather than the demise of one of my necklaces that I so painstakingly beaded.

It all started with a handful of newly minted polymer clay beads in caramels and winter blues and whites. Each bead was given an eyepin that I cut and created by hand using a headpin. This in itself is a time consuming task, especially when there are so many beads and I am trying to execute a move that I am not that familiar with. By the time I cut and created eyepins for all the polymer clay beads, Czech druk beads and the Swarovski bicone crystals, I was rather proficient in eyepin creation. If nothing else, I learned a new skill.
Here is where it went wrong.

I did not give that much thought to the chain that I wanted to use in my necklace and I wanted to create a bib style beaded necklace using all these beads. The chain was large enough to accommodate all the beads I wanted to put on it, it just was not strong enough.





I really liked the necklace and was pleased with the fact that I did get it all wrapped up and managed to learn how to create an eyepin that I could attach to a chain. The problems started as I was attaching all the beads. In order to get the look I wanted, I needed to fill up the links with all the different beads.I also needed to bead around the links to get a fullness for the necklace.

The links were too weak and began to break apart under the stress of the weight of the beads. These are not heavy beads, but they were too heavy and I was stressing the links too much by trying to add more beads to each one. Even by adding them one by one and carefully, it was too much. I tried to reinforce the links that had the beads on them by wiring them with additional wires throughout the beaded area. It must have worked, because as the links began to seriously fail, the wires held the piece in place.

This was never going to be a piece that I was going to put in my store. It was going to need to be completely redone before I could add it to my studio.

So, it sat on my bead board for the last three months.

The first thing I did was look for SOLDERED curb chain and Holly of Royal Metals got me set up with a 100 foot spool of soldered silver chain.

The new chain is perfect for some bracelets, but I did not get large enough links for my necklace. I could either see if Holly could get me another piece of chain for the necklace and I start over, or I could stare at it awhile.

I stared at it for awhile.

Everyday, it sat here and looked at me while I worked on so many other things and completely rebuilt a website. It just sat here staring back at me.

I have a list of things I would like to try and on that list was chacha bracelets. I think they are cool and I love the idea of packing them full of my beads and anything else I can think of to make them move. I am part of an Artfire Guild that makes bulk purchases at a supply store and since the prices were right and I had the need to spend money but did not really need anything, I bought three chacha bracelets.

Guess where the beads all went.

While one project failed, another one was born and this new project was the right project for all those wonderful and fun beads that I had worked hard to add eyepins.


I really like this bracelet and I am even more pleased that I was able to put the beads in the right piece of jewelry and they are no longer staring at me every day. Unless, I am wearing them, because this is a fun, lightweight and comfortable bracelet to wear.

Moral of the story is, buy the right materials to start with and you will not need to spend all your time trying to fix a bad design. Happy beads make a happy beader.

I learned to make eyepins, I got to do two designs that I really wanted to try and I was able to purchase chain for future bracelets. Never mind, that I got my share of opening and closing eyepin experience. :)

Julie and Blu

Volume 9 Issue 4, April, 2012

What's New in April?

The flowers are beginning to struggle their way to the surface as the snows are melting across many of the northern states, while the southern states begin to see bright colored blooms explode in gardens.

The flowers are in bloom at Blue Morning Expressions as well. We are looking at using a lot of new and different canes in our beads and revisiting a lot of the older canes that we have had in storage. This revisit is giving new life to our beads.

We have been working on bangle bracelets and shank buttons with these new flowers and hummingbirds. Butterflies are flitting across beads and buttons.

Bangle Bracelets— I have a dozen of these really cool brass bangle bracelets that are just waiting for me to add lots of clay flowers and hummingbirds to them. I managed to get a couple done, but I have SO many more ideas, flower canes and other goodies that I am overwhelmed with the project. It is a good kind of overwhelmed.

As always, thank you for all your support and emails.

www.bluemorningexpressions.com

Until next month,

Julie & Blu

New Products:

New Beads—Here is a new series of beads that I am starting and have a few created. I decided to create separate listings for the same beads that I use to create some of my novelty jewelry that is extremely popular. These are the beads that I have been using for years and have decided to give everyone else the chance to use them to create their own jewelry.

“I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and... I believe in miracles”, - Audrey Hepburn.

Like Ms. Hepburn, I, too, believe in pink. It is not as bold as red, not as royal as purple, but a subtle color that indicates something is feminine, yet strong.
Pink ballet slippers and tutus, pink heart shaped candy at Valentine’s Day, pink lemonade and ice cubes, the pink ribbon of the Susan G. Komen Foundation and of course, Victoria’s little secret. Pink says a lot about our how we are feeling on the day we wear pink or create something in pink.
When I create in pink, I am feeling like a girly girl, which is the farthest thing from who I am in my jeans and sweatshirt. But, inside I am feeling “pretty, oh, so, pretty”, as the song goes. And silly as it seems, pink is a soothing color.
The following clay artists are expressing their pink sides with these creations and each artist has interpreted pink in a visually different and exciting way.
I love the drama of this visually interesting and entertaining flower pendant titled “Fairy Flower” by KaelMijoy. She captures us with the movement of the spirals and as we are drawn in, the checks and squares stop us in our tracks. Once our vision has cleared, we continue on into the satisfying conclusion that is a spiral center and our eyes end at the finishing dot.

After the pleasant and sweet pinks of the Fairy Flower, we are taken to the dramatic side of pink in this magnificent dragonfly pendant by Kathryn Designs. The addition of gold and copper lend this pendant a deep red-pink color, which adds royalty and drama to this piece. The entire necklace is stunning and regal.


Again, metal leaf was a key part of a design when SecondSisteratMoArkJewelry combined her metal leaf with inks that resulted in a coral pink Monet inspired pendant. This color is appealing and for the adult woman. It reminds me of some of the hats that Jackie Kennedy used to wear. She was able to pull off a coral color with her dark good looks.

A very classic look for Jackie.This photo looks like the color palette used for that Monet pendant.

EcclecticLadyland is my final choice for my pink expressions today. This particular polymer clay piece reaches up into our cosmos for inspiration and brings back some of the colors that you may see in a nebula. My favorite images are those the Hubble telescope has brought us and I love to look at the big sky and try and see the end.
Stars and Asteroids must have been inspired by the star cluster Pismis 24 that Hubble captured.

Like a cosmic chandelier, the dazzling lights of the star cluster Pismis 24 hang over the dusty clouds of NGC 6357, a nebula about 8,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius.
I believe in pink.
Julie and Blu