Ancient Roman Blue Glass Bangles...

...can lead to so many things...

Accents on earrings made from hammered copper ovals

and vintage blue and white plate shards, for example!

The blue Roman glass didn't make it into this pair

 but the Karen Sacks tiny pottery shards

make a lasting impression on their own.

These plate shards were from a European collectible dish

and sent to me by Emily Cohen, all ready to go -

The ancient Roman Blue glass bangles

 make the perfect companion here,

As well as with these reversible scroddled ceramic discs

in their own subtle blue hues...

These discs make a statement of their own

as they dangle from simple brushed copper rings!

 

Currier & Ives Plate Shard Pendants Celebrating the Garden!

It's amazing how many interesting shards 

can come from a single broken plate!

In 1923 the early works of Currier and Ives

passed into public domain, making them available

for reprint or duplication.

Many companies took advantage

of the charming lithographic images to enhance

their products but none more successfully than

The Homer Laughlin Company.

From the late 1940s to the mid-1950s,

The Homer Laughlin China Company produced

a line known as Americana.

Although their line of Currier & Ives was short lived,

it is recognized as the first ware of its kind

to successfully translate the transfer patterns

found on expensive English china

onto quality everyday dinnerware.

However, it's a fact of life, that things break. 

The countless shards from one Currier & Ives 

Americana plate still contain the creative energy 

which brought about it's inception, 

so to transform the clay shards into clay-to-wear 

simply means that someone gets to experience

 the artistic visions of the original makers.

Plate Shard pendants are also wonderful carriers of

essential aromatherapy oils!

 

Stoneware Shard Neck Wrap

I have been hoarding these paperthin shards from some

of my favorite pieces which met disastrous ends and

now they have become a piece of wearable art! 

 

Thinking Outside the Box...

It's so easy to take the CERAMIC CLAY beads & pendants 

you make to yet another level of Art to Wear...

For instance, the above slip-stitch/crochet necklace

was made with ceramic blob beads, disc beads and 

Spirit Hole beads accented with drilled shell shards

and hand cut cultured sea glass hearts...

This reversible dragon fly pendant was suspended from 

waxed linen cord on which Bon Picasso seed beads, glass 

and semi-precious beads were also strung. The found

stick accent was from the tree where I spotted

the dragon fly initially...

The half round pendants we made work well by 

themselves but they also look great woven to a branch

with waxed linen cord. The copper end caps will

hold the jump rings necessary to attach this to a cord.

All of these ceramic clay beads/pendants were made

in our Perkins Beads in Clay Class, Winter 2020.

The Wearing of the Clay

MAROONED

Stoneware Shards as necklaces and earrings...

Shards, leather and Copper...

Earthenware clay pods, Trade beads

and Mykonos Components on one necklace;

Tatanka Wicasa pendant, handmade and reversible...

Combed eathenware fun...

A stick found while walking in the woods,

Wasser glass and hand painted stoneware leaf pendant

plus a necklace of clay discs...

Pentaphilia scilptural necklace & earrings...

Have a Heart and Heart of Stone Necklaces...

Chips Ahoy Gas fired clay chips...

Scroddled and colored clay discs connected by

delicate copper chain...

A rattle bead focal pendant on a two-part necklace

and an Intaglio pendant necklace...

A Manges shard necklace and

another found wood and gas fired pendant necklace...

The RA Sun God necklace and two strands of

spiral clay tubes with red garnet accents

on a single necklace...

CLAY - I LOVE where it takes me!

Wasser Glass Meets Copper & Clay E A R R I N G S

These waffle Wasser slabs told me exactly what they 

wanted to be as they dropped to my work table from

 their Emily Cohen Florida Ziploc...

Even the interesting shapes of the waffle Wasser have a

unique appeal when layered atop a neutral rectangle 

of plain Wasser glass complemented by a 

clay Spirit Hole disc...

The combination of lightweight Wasser glass shapes 

& paper thin ceramic Spirit Hole discs 

makes these statement earrings such an easy wear...

I'm loving the asymmetrical cuts of Wasser...

...almost as much as this "Put-a-Cork-in-It!" wine bottle 

earring display by Floridian jewelry artist,

Emily Cohen!

CLAY Meets Found Objects

Ever find a really cool stick when out for a walk;

 a stick that called to you and demanded that you take it

along for the rest of your walk.

A stick that wanted to go home with you...

Here are some of those sticks immortalized 

in Clay-to-Wear pieces.

 I have to admit that not all of them called to me; 

some called to friends of mine who were kind enough 

to share them with me after their discovery...

This Evergreen branch looks totally different 

with the other side of my pendant 

and yet it complements both!

The stick below came all the way from Martha's Vineyard,

stumpy and oh, so smoothed by the sea and the sand...

It seems to not only enjoy hanging with clay, it likes copper

and leather as well...

And beautifully tops off the reverse side of this Intaglio

impressed design!

This is another Martha's Vineyard find brought back to me

by Maxine Manges; it appears to be made for the

Intaglio design and coloration of this clay pendant...

And then, surprize!.. The other side is full of whimsy -

dots, lines, leaves in blues - all ready to carry essential

oils on it's open matte surface.

Here's a close-up...

CLAY...I LOVE where it takes me!

Ceramic Pierced Leaf Plaquette Jewelry Pendant

A framed ceramic plaquette 

is accented with a found wood stick.

Initially, I used a copper chain 

and some wired beads as the support 

but after wearing it, found it not to be the right thing...

So now the Plaquette has a totally beaded necklace

 showing it off; hand formed clay blob beads, 

authentic African Trade Beads 

and these great little faux trade beads

discovered and sent to me by Emily Cohen.