Bottle Cap Beads

I started making some of these beads out of old bottle caps a few years ago.  I quickly stopped and lost interest when I realized how much work they were.  Recently, I ran into the few I had made and decided that I really loved them.  Now, I was determined to make enough for a necklace.

I made roundish ones that I drilled holes in to so I could string them for a necklace ... 12 ruined drill bits later, I achieved this.  I also made some that are somewhat oval in shape. I decided that soldering rings to these instead of drilling holes made more sense .... mostly because I was now out of small drill bits. Not quite sure what I'll do with these yet.

Now that I have that out of my system for the time being, I am on to other things ....

"The Twirly Swirly Journals" A sneak peek at a new Workshop

Here is a little sneak peek of what I am working on, "The Twirly Swirly Journals" and the Workshop to make them.

As the name implies, these journals are full of just about anything you can imagine that swirls and twirls. Elegant, a little bit girly, but above all, unusual and slightly quirky, this series of Journals will get your head spinning with more and more ideas of how you can add a new dimension to your journaling. We’ll start with a basic pre-made hard bound book construction, collage the cover, sew in the pages with a simple binding method, work with lots of fun twirls and swirls by adding fold out pages, quotes, text and other fun oddities using provided collage sheets. I’ll be bringing lots of swirly rubber stamps, templates and stencils to work with and to top it all off we’ll add a plethora of beads, trinkets and baubles that dangle from the spine to finish off this delightful journal. Already scheduled ... teaching this workshop in May 2011 at Whispering Woodlands in beautiful Verona, Wisconsin! Hope you’ll join us!

"Jewelry Affaire" Premier issue!

A brand new magazine "Jewelry Affaire" just arrived in my mail box today. I am honored to have a few of my SteamPunk influenced pieces in this issue. I am also very pleased with the photos of my work in this magazine. There is so much unique jewelry in this issue, not to mention all the beautiful photography. I like that most of the photos are rather large so that you can clearly see a lot of the detail in the pieces. I look forward to sitting down and savouring each and every page of this publication!

"Secret Journal" Revisited

An on-line group that I belong to has a weekly T.O.D. (topic of discussion) and this week it is Hinges. I thought that sounded interesting however, I wondered how they could be incorporated into a book one way or another. I then remembered that several years ago my sister and I did a collaboration between the two of us that had a hinged cover and hinged lock closure.

I decided to dig out the book and have another look. Now that I look at it again, I realise this was a wonderful project. We had always corresponded via snail mail and both of us loved the anticipation of receiving something in the mail. We decided to start keeping our correspondence in journal format and actually have filled several journals to date. I still think this is my all time favorite one though.
The cover is constructed out of old wooden yard sticks and wooden orange crates (Oranje Boven!). The size of this journal is 8" X 11 1/2". It's 3" thick ... bursting full with all sorts of secrets. In fact many of the cryptic messages are only visible with an ultraviolet light ... it's deliciously secret indeed.

Playing with dolls continued...

Geez! How could I forget?!? The earrings are my favorite part of making any doll and I forgot to include of photo of that! Each of these figures has long pointy ears and most all of them have 2 piercings in one of their ears. This one has a brass bell and a flying bug of some sort dangling from the smallest pearls I have ever seen.

Charm swap

1 - Portable Time Machine
2 - Portion of doll face
3 - Zentangle soldered charm
4 - Robin egg Vessel
5 - Bird nest encased in glass

Charms

Today I'm catching up on a few commitments I have made. These are for a charm swap. The one pictured above is a portable time machine with tiny golden glass spheres in the copper wrapped glass tube. It also has a working spinner and is just under 1 1/2" long. The one below is shown from the front and the back. Both sides of the charm are glass and it's 1 3/8" in diameter. Photos enlarge.

A new journal page

This is an 8" X8" journal page, which includes a large soldered "charm" wired into place. On the front of this page the border is outlined with locomotion dancing figures alternated with the same images in negative. The edge is also sewn over, somewhat obscuring the figures. The smaller picture shows the back of the page with additional visible wiring. The image on the soldered charm is the same on both sides.

Skull necklace

I just finished up some new Reliquary necklaces. This is the first skull Vessel I have made available. The quote inside is taken from a 16th century epitaph that reads "What you are now, I once was. And you will be what I am now". Inside are tiny clear and gold glass spheres, metallic stars, a bone and a key metal charm. The skull measures 1 1/8" X 1 3/4" and is approximately 3/4" deep.

Exquisite Corpse Charm Bracelet

This a bracelet made with the charms made by 5 members of our Exquisite Corpse group. The charms are based on the concept we used to create a collaborative book with 11 participants several months ago. The book is now on exhibit at the the Impact Artists' Gallery (3rd picture down on the left) in Buffalo, New York. The last 2 images shown are of a book of mine "Star Hunger" that is also on display at the Gallery.

A successful firing of doll parts

About 2 months ago I fired several doll parts in my small kiln which just never came up to the proper temperature, so the parts were unusable. Finally I have gotten around to pouring more parts and have filled up the big kiln for a successful firing. This is the first piece I have made using the doll parts and I am pretty excited about it. There are several different types of little dolls and 2 different styles of mermaids. I just can't wait to start on those. My sister has sent me wonderful sea glass from the

Australian coast to work in with the mermaids and today I went out and bought fresh water pearls to match the sea glass. Just can't wait to get started on those! I am hoping I can have a few ready to bring out to the opening weekend of Festival ... which is this coming weekend. The doll only (not including "Wings") is 1/2" X 1 3/4".

A few finished Elfins

These are the first Elfins I have made with birdcages. Have to admit I really like the birdcages. Unfortunately, I was only able to make 4 of them as that is all of the shallow metal tins I had. I will try to find something else that works but for now it looks like this is it for the birdcages. I have included a few close up shots of these figures so that you can see more of the detailing on them. These figures really have to be one of my favorite items to make for The Michigan Renaissance Festival. Not only are they so very appropriate they are just too much fun to make. So much goes into them and they are each so personal. I just love working with all the tiny accessories and building a story around each one of them. I am planning on phasing out the majority of my other dolls so that I can concentrate on the Elfins and the Vessels. My interest just isn't in all the other figures I have been making for so many years now, it's time to move on. Between the books and the Vessels I have been kept very busy and I have to start eliminating some of the other items I have been making in the past. There are only so many hours in the day. The Elfins stand about 14" tall. They are made of fired clay and the hair is Marabou feathers. The pants are made of leather and as seen the accessories vary widely. All the pictures enlarge when clicked so that you can get a better look at all the detailing. Opps, Just realized I didn't give them anklets! Elfins with bare feet get anklets with tiny dimes hanging on them. It wards off the evil eye ... that's very important, you know.

New "Secret Keepers"

I have been working very hard on my "Secret Keepers". I have made them with a colored glass on one side and clear on the other. It adds a very subtle but nice effect to the piece. Very intriguing actually. So far I have made them with the Amber and the Rose colored glass. I will see how people react to them and hopefully there will be enough interest that I will make them in other colors as well. These are the smaller size of 1 1/2" in diameter. I like this size better than the larger ones. They are actually more difficult to make, but I believe they make for a nicer finished piece. They all contain a different somewhat cryptic message inside, it is of course a secret. I will make them available on my ETSY site and hopefully on the website soon.

Secret Keepers

Welp... I'm on to another idea for my vessels. This morning I was messing around a bit and came up with this. Usually an item is first made and then a title is made according to. Instead this time, I have a title that really appeals to me and I made a piece to work with that. I think I am on to an interesting concept here. I will most definitely expand upon this idea. The inside of this piece holds tiny glass spheres, golden glass balls, stars, golden metal thread and charms including a lock and key. I might add some beading or additional embellishment where the chain and the piece meet, I'm still working on it. It's glass and wire wrapped on both sides, giving a rather interesting glimpse into your inner most secrets. SOOOO many possibilities!

Picture enlarges for more detail. This particular piece is 1 3/4" in diameter by 1/2 "thick, with a gunmetal finish. I think I'd like to try some smaller sizes as well.

A few Charms

I haven't done a charm swap in ages, so I thought this would be fun. The heart is made of clay and is smaller than those candy conversation hearts. Probably the smallest thing I have ever made in clay. They were fired and given a stone finish, all a little different. The other charm is a glass car fuse that I took apart and put in a bit of vintage old German bible text. I then gave it a gunmetal finish so that it wasn't so new and shiny looking. I actually had more fun making up the little cards to mount them on than the charms themselves! That was a nice brief break, but now back to "The Exquisite Corpse Project" and designing new Vessel collages. I have so many new designs in the works... can't wait to share them.

A million parts

I fired the kiln yesterday with at least a million pieces ... at least it seemed so. it took me forever to pour and finish all the pieces. There are 5 1/2 shelves full of (mostly double stacked) parts for vessels. Toward the end I ended up pouring a few fairies and woodsprites to help fill up the kiln.

I finished off one of the house shaped vessels. This is just a prototype. Have to experiment a bit till I find something I am really satisfied with, but I think this is a very nice start. Have to admit I am rather pleased with my faux heart shaped rocks. Now I am wishing that I had made more of them. I really don't plan of firing for awhile now. I believe I have enough fired pieces to carry me through for the Renaissance Festival this season. I did some serious making and firing of figures awhile back, including Elfins, fairies and wood sprites. And now with all these new vessels I am sure I have enough to keep me busy for a very long time. I am looking forward to working with all the new parts. I have many new shaped to experiment with that will really be a lot of fun. The quote inside the house shaped vessel reads "A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and then returns home to find it. -George Moore- ". The house shape is 5/8" X 1 1/2".

Altered Book Exhibition

I entered my book "Star Hunger" in "UN-SHELVED:An Altered Book Project". It went through the jury process and has been selected to be shown at The Cranbrook Academy of Art's Forum Gallery in Birmingham, Michigan. The opening is this Friday the 8th and the show will run through February 24th, 2008. The original book has been taken apart, reassembled and has been turned into a visual journal. It was then heavily embellished with beading and soldered charms on the spine. On the back is a dried rose taken from the flowers on my Fathers coffin and is now encased in glass. The main focus of the book is on the recent death of my Father.

"Teach me to fly"

Just finished up several of these infant faces. they are a bit smaller than the adult faces I made awhile back. Seems to me I made some larger ones of this face also, but I can't find them. So, either I am losing my mind or it's time to do a bit of cleanup and organizing... or a bit of both. I have also put it on the web site and listed in my ETSY shop. A far cry from an impressive selection right now, but it is a start. I am

thinking I would like to make some with a bit of an asymmetrical design to have more or a collage than jewelry effect. Still not claiming to be a jeweler. These are wearable collages. 2 1/2" X 1 3/8" size of face including wings. Overall size is 2 1/2" X 3"

http://www.ingriddijkers.com/Vessels.html

Finally getting somewhere

I am finally getting to the point that I can put some of the Vessels on the Web Site and offer them for purchase within the next few days. I have figured out a pricing system that is fair and reasonable for these pieces. Turned out to be a difficult process as they will end up varying quite dramatically from each other as I plan to eventually come out with a pretty vast selection. This has taken months and months to get them to this stage and I am very excited about sharing them. This image shown is the back of a moon vessel. The quote inside reads "On gossamer nights when the moon is low and stars in the mist are hiding, you may see the fairies riding".

The shell must break ...

The quote inside this egg reads "The shell must break before the bird can fly". Unfortunately, the scans don't show the contents of the egg very clearly. A photo would be so much better, but I can't take a photograph to save my life. I have to rely on scans for virtually everything. I just loathe taking photos. Why is it that what you see is NEVER what you get? I have no patience for trying to adjust camera settings to trick the camera into taking a photo of what I am actually seeing or adjust the lighting so that the camera picks it up correctly. As I said I have no patience for it at all. If I could afford it I would most definitely hire a professional photographer, so until that time I will continue to cram everything in the scanner. But, enough of my venting my frustrations .... The egg is 1 3/4" X 1 1/4", depth is a little more than 1/2 an inch. The overall size (not including the chain) is 2 1/2" X 4". Inside the egg are very small clear glass balls, the tiniest gold glass balls ever and a white dove. I am just in love with the bird nest and eggs charm hanging at the bottom. I am working feverishly to get these on the website and make them available for purchase. I was hoping to get to that point by Thanksgiving, but I don't know if I can do it.