Mhoti Studio

well , doesn't life and death get in the way of life ?  due to a death in the family last week and the funeral being today I didn't get around to making anything for the bead hoarders blog hop till this afternoon. it's not really a good use of a LOT of beads but i did use up some of my stash. I was looking through some very outdated bead magazines and found this idea for wire and beads. Originally designed to be a bracelet I decided to create a focal for a necklace instead. and then after I made the sample with craft wire I made another with artistic wire. add some chain and voila , two necklaces from the same idea.  the first one is made with craft wire and though I don't care for the colour of the silver it does work well with the glass pearls and the black cat's eyes beads.   the second one uses artistic wire with silver plated beads , instead of chain I used silver lined glass beads to create the "chain"  Now I am wondering if m...

Today is the reveal for the third annual Octoberfest Blog Hop hosted by our fearless leader Rita of Toltec Jewels.  Our mission, should we choose to accept it - and I did - is to create something that reflects this time of year , AUTUMN, in all it's glorious splendour. Here in eastern Ontario  in Canada  our leaves turn the most beautiful colours, sadly this year most of our leaves have already fallen. But the memory of their hues remains. I have been playing around with reclaimed/recycled copper sheet (think roofing materials).  As a scrapbooker I have a ton of embossing folders and thin copper sheet gets the most wonderful designs or textures when it is run through my machine with these folders.  I have been prepping for an art tour next week and so have a few thing to show off. One of my fave techniques is wire work, this time in copper as it's less expensive than silver and really relates to the colours of Autumn.  I hope you enjoy my picture sho...

I'm so excited to be participating in the AJE July component of the month hop as a guest designer. The hostess this month is Francesca Watson  www.francescawatson.com . She sent us each one of her handmade glass cabochons. I received the loveliest blue iridescent (dichroic) cab. Here is a photo of that cabochon. You can see the beautiful blues in the background with the hint of pinks , sea foam, gold and silver, in the dichroic mix of this bead. The colour shifts as one rotates the cab and it has flashes of iridescence . The second photo shows the depth of metallic colour within this cab. I knew that I had some other special glass beads in my stash, so I went hunting. I had a slew of Unicorn beads with similar character so I decided now was the time to stop hoarding  saving them. I chose  3 yo-yo beads in clear glass with gold flashes of fire on the surface. Now yo-yo beads are interesting designs, they have no holes. The trick was HOW to combine them ...

Oh Canada, my home and native land...... There is so much to love about Canada and being Canadian. I am a native of Canada's Capital city, Ottawa, Ontario.  Ontario is a vast province; from east to west it takes about two days to travel by car.  Part of Ontario is comprised of the Canadian Shield , a HUGE rocky landmass. We are a mineral rich province as one could expect with all those rocks around. We also have the most gorgeous Maple Trees that give us the best Maple Syrup in the world. In Spring these trees warm up, the sap runs, and we have tree growers who tap the sap and make syrup. Sugar shacks abound and one can visit them, watch maple syrup being made (by boiling the sap for hours and hours and hours in huge metal tanks). Some fresh snow packed into a plate , pour on some warm sap and we enjoy the most delicious treat, maple syrup taffy on a stick. YUM. In fall these same Maple trees turn the most amazing shades of red and orange, turning our fo...

I had some very happy mail today.  Last month I made a comment in reply to an Inside the Studio Post on the Art Bead Scene Blog , featuring Mary Harding . I wish I knew what date that was as I can't seem to find it now. To encourage visitors to leave comments they choose one winner from each days comments and I WON.  Today I received my prize from Mary Harding ,  a lovely handcrafted Leaf pendant made from Copper Clay. Not only did Mary send me this lovely piece of art BUT she packaged it ever so beautifully in a hand stamped box wrapped with the most colourful ribbon and as a special treat it was tied to a gorgeous ceramic heart bead that was also made by Mary. I am so delighted with these miniature works of art. I love the warm earthiness of the copper and it's almost duplicated in the glazes used in the ceramic piece.  I think Mary uses real leaves to create her moulds and then can replicate nature in metal or ceramic. The ribbon is a mix of purples and olive g...

It's here;  it's  BEAD SOUP showtime. This is going to be one GIGANTIC PARTY  Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to lately.  Lori Anderson , our fearless leader (there are over 500 of us) assigned us partners in March; we then sent our bead soup mixes to each other and once received, we then spent the interim weeks planning, designing, creating and assembling.  The requirement was to use the focal bead, the clasp , and as many beads as we desired; adding if necessary supplies and beads from our stash (and we all have one), to create a piece of jewellery or art or whatever took our fancy.  (or wherever our muse led us). If this is your first time to my blog , WELCOME!   To save you from having to search through past posts here is a photo of what my partner   Heather d'Entremont sent me and then  photos of the finished piece.  Lots of polymer clay goodies; lava rock beads in three sizes; some crystals; t...

now that I've finished my earrings for the earrings everyday we're all ears challenge (see previous post) this is what i have to work on next. This is my bead soup mix from my partner Heather in Nova Scotia . so this is now sitting on my work table egging me on. this is the tidiest it will ever be .   I have two weeks to git 'er done.    show-time is May 3rd. and it's coming up FAST. Lots of loverly polymer clay goodies

I missed last months challenge *sob* but I got this one in at the last minute. This months inspiration photo is from the Pottery Barn. While this is SO NOT my personal style,  it really is a lovely tablescape. The spring greens,  the lovely china patterns, the wood of the table , the woven round place mat , the oil for dipping, the olives in hummus, the minty beverages, gosh I'm getting hungry. I digress.... Here is a photo of the earrings I made that are a result of that inspiration. (forgive the bad lighting and fuzziness, I need to practice my photo shoots or get my eyes tested -lol)  I used MOP drilled rings for the main dangles, with brown crackle ceramic large hole beads (with centring caps to cover the holes); caramel coloured cats eye (faceted rondelles and small round beads); faceted green glass rondelles and green glass leaves. Ball headpins, jump rings and ear wires are all gold toned . The jump ring connections I used allow these to swing freel...

I got my soup from Heather yesterday. It's full of polymer clay goodies that she made by hand , some really cool mirror image beads (think Rorschach images) in wonderful sherbet colours; lava beads -love the texture of them; yellow-goldy crystals ; and gorgeous hand made polymer pendan t with black accents , some wonderful shell strands ; purple polymer sea urchins , and two clay- filled clasps ( with jump rings as well) in two different metals so I have a choice.; a black glass heart and two glass disc beads ; a pretty pair of earrings  (should I or should I NOT take them apart?); and some various sized giraffe print polymer beads. I am so pumped and can't wait to start sketching ideas. thanks Heather, what a wonderful treasure chest of beads , and for the vintage  tin container, with a picture of an RCMP mountie on his horse. ya gotta love a man in uniform . time to play.

got my bead soup made and packaged, now it's off to the post office to mail it. Hope Heather likes it, it sure looks tasty to me.

I got my partner for this years BEAD SOUP BLOG PARTY.  I've been partnered with Heather d'Entremont from Nova Scotia . She's a polymer clay artist, dog rescuer, and has a large doggie family. I wonder if she knows that dog hair and polymer clay don't mix. LOL Can't wait to get to know her better and to see some of her work. If you'd like to meet her pop on over to her blog at     http://frugalmacdougall.wordpress.com I can't wait to see what soup mixes we exchange. I'm still working on mine. need to get cracking'.

On the blog Earrings Every day they have issued a challenge. To create a pair of earrings inspired by the photo below. Damselflies in love.  Don't those colours just scream SPRING. Well they do to me as I am heartily sick of winter this year.  I was so enamoured with the colours in this photo that I dug into my stash and chose some beads that seemed to visually represent this photo.  I decided to not focus on the heart shape and instead re-created the linear connection. I used Howlite spears/daggers (top drilled,) to represent the wings; some blue-green glass teardrops, the body; and green dyed howlite for the head /grass colours and pink shell round beads. It turns out to  be a split-complementary colour scheme. Isn't mother nature clever? Using 20 and 26 ga silver artistic wire I created these 3-1/2 " long dangles.  I think I may keep these for myself. pop on over to the blog as they are having a bloghop showcasing the cr...

Last fall I participated in a wonderful event with 80+ other jewellery designers. We were each given a bronze finish watch bezel to fill with our own inclusions that were then covered with ETI resin. The theme, materials, and composition were to be our own design. We then sent the finished piece back to Carmi Cimicata at  Resin Crafts . She took them to the CHA (craft and hobby association) show in Anaheim CA , this January 2014, to demonstrate the versatility and design potential of ETI resin and resin clay. It was a great display booth; check out her blog  Resin Crafts   to see what every one made and how she set up her display at CHA. Carmi has also set up a special Pinterest board showcasing all the entries submitted. It's a truly wonderful and inspiring group of design pieces. I am so delighted and proud that I got to participate, the only sad part is not being able to keep the finished piece for myself. oh well I'll just have to purchase one of the wa...

Well what the heck happened to 2013?  Obviously my blog has been sadly neglected. I sure hope to do better this year, that's my intent. We'll see how it goes. Happy new year to you all. 2013 seemed to be a difficult year for a lot of folks -must have been that pesky #13 . I was a busy lady this past season making lots of trees of life family pendants. Will check to see if I remembered to take photos. If I did I'll share some here with you.