Kalaya Steede

Bonjour beautiful people! I usually start off the year with big plans of making many pieces for the holidays.  Meaning for winter solstice!  I know...it is at least 11 months away but before you know it, it will be the end of summer and then panic will ensue!  Hahaha!!! My most recent piece I made was for that special lady who travels in a caravan with her ' Sisters on the Fly ' group.  I only had a week to finish this project but the idea had been simmering in my brain for at least a week prior to the deadline.   First the rough draft... I decided how big it was going to be and made a sketch with notes on what I was "planning" on doing.  So far so good.  You can see the cut out tin, a button for the wheel, and a glimmer of what will be the door.  That small window was cut out prior to cutting the shape of the trailer because it makes it easier than cutting it out later.  Trust me...I know!!!   The back pl...

Bonjour! Today is a special day...because two of my favorite people were born on this day.  So...Happy Birthday Nicole and Jesse!  Wishing you two the very best...ALWAYS!!! Now back to creativity!!! I picked up some labadorite and peridot stones a while back for a bracelet.  A particular design had been in my brain for quite some time.  I had all the materials...so get on with it, yes!? But...one thing that paralyzes me is if the stones are high quality, and if I am using large amounts of silver, I become fearful of messing up, and so the stones just sit, and sit, and sit.  Anyway I decided that it did not matter if I mess up and jumped right on in! First I had to make some silver end beads as a clasp. I liked how they came out.  They were about 1/2" in diameter, textured, domed, and patinated. Then I wire wrapped a thousand beads with silver wire!  Ha...not really...only 100! Just a little peek of the silver clasp. N...

Bonjour!  Lately I have been thinking about making a belt buckle for myself.   I do not know why.  It is not like I wear my shirts tucked in or anything!  But it would be nice to have a REALLY cool buckle! So when I saw this fantastic piece by artist Jesse Bert I just HAD to share!   Photo by Jesse Bert   Come on...take a close look!  Check out those pointy ends.  Have you ever seen anything like it?  I mean the boots that is.  I hear it is the trend in northern Mexico and started in Dallas of all places!  The boots are known as botas vaqueras  exóticas .  Apparently these are worn at night clubs and anywhere one wants to make a statement. Oops...I digress...anyway the botas vaqueras exóticas was the inspiration behind the piece shown above.  Also included was this iron grate, as Jesse describes "...wonderful iron grate I found on the ground in a village of the mountains of Oaxaca.  I crea...

Ohhhh...the luck of the Irish!  Would this bracelet count as green? I was inspired to make a bracelet with a gypsy flare.  What a perfect opportunity to use the Om end beads I made earlier.  At first I designed it with the coral mixed in with the turquoise but it looked too southwestern.  So I started channeling the gypsy spirit and came up with this. I decided to place the coral and brass on the leather to give it a sense of flow. The bracelet was a birthday gift for a friend of mine.  The gypsy feeling came to her mind immediately.  Yay!  Gypsy love. Happy Birthday Friend! And this was a gift to me. It is so much fun to receive a gift from someone who is having a birthday.  It is a piece of antique German glass.  My mission is to make a bezel for it.  Wow!  I have so much to do!  So I better go. Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! Namaste Kalaya

This weekend I set up my etching station.   I guess I am doing this old school because there is a lot of chatter about using copper sulfate instead of ferric chloride, which is what I used.  What I did not do was change out my etching solution (an attempt to not waste) and it has been there FOREVER!   I used two different types of pens, fine Sharpie black paint pen (oil based) and black Sharpie (regular old black Sharpie) as a resist (the part that etching solution will not eat away) on brass.   I got great results with the paint pen Sharpie but not the regular old Sharpie.  The regular Sharpie washed off in the enchant solution.  However, the paint pen was too thick for me to draw with so I ran out and got an EXTRA FINE paint Sharpie. I decided that the enchant solution was too old so I neutralized with baking soda and replaced with fresh enchant before proceeding. Here we go: 1.  Stamp an image...

Creating... Oh what a fun evening!  My friend Ty wanted to make a necklace to go with a particular slinky sexy dress.  She thought about buying one but I say why?  Especially if one can make it.  After all, she has me, right?  So off to the Bead Shop on Magazine.  We buy some bronze chain, coral, turquoise, Swarovski crystal, and a flower by Vintage.   1.  Making the components.  I had no idea what I was doing!  I just wrapped wire around this bead turquoise to secure it to the flower.  Some sort of bird's nest action going on.  2.  We measured the length of each chain and made many adjustments. 3.  Placing the components in the proper place.  What are the proper places?  We don't know.  We just played with it. 4.  Final Piece!  Yay!  Ty danced around the room and pretended to pick things up.  You know...going through the motions.  We had to test the integrity...

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE... Last Thursday I got to spend some time with my friend Amber.  I wonder what could be in these bags?  They are so lovely I didn't even want to open them... Inside... These are the goodies that my friend Amber made for me.  Don't know if you can tell but I totally LOVE Frida.  That brass necklace is made by using resin. It's such a cool technique. And what am I going to do with those tags?  They are just too nice to put on packages.  I guess I have to meditate on letting go.  One day I am going to get there.  Amber is so talented.  Go check out the rest of her pieces either on Etsy or her blog Yellow Flower .   Gracias Amber! I made another one! This is a three wrap bracelet made with faceted carnelian stones. It is a talisman and brings good luck to the wearer. It also gets rid of anger, envy, and hatred.  I favor carnelian for it's reddish color. A good stone all around.     Finally a nec...

You better wear green today or you're going to get pinched! Especially if I see you.   I haven't been able to work at the bench since last weekend but there are all sorts of ideas in my head.  But sometimes they just aren't able to make there way out and it's so frustrating.  Argh!  Thank goodness for other people's blogs.  What would I do with out them?   Here's something green for you...   I made this baby last semester.  I sawed the top layer and then enameled with a beautiful green.  This was riveted to a textured piece of copper underneath which was patinated to bring out the wee little fleur de lis.  The solid brass escutcheon pins were difficult to rivet until I decided to anneal them.  Who would of thought?  You can see more pictures on my ETSY shoppe . Don't forget to wear green.   and Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day, ♥ Kalaya

Here are a couple of bracelets that I made.  I enjoy making the leather wrap bracelets.  It is good meditation for me and different from working with metal.  So far I've only made bracelets that wrap around two times.  I'm currently designing one that will wrap three times around the wrist. Jasper Leather Bracelet Jasper is said to have mental healing properties. Santa fe inspired turquoise bracelet with brass clasp.  I made this bracelet while in Santa Fe.  I should call it Santa Fe Blue .  Okay maybe not.  A stone of protection indeed.  Santa Fe has the ability to induce creativity.