Tiny Sculptures That You Wear
Welcome to the Kiln Goddess' Clay Pit of Clay Beads. Clay beads are like mini sculptures that you can wear. How more personal an art form as something someone chooses to wear next to their skin. Choosing an adornment can be so telling, a little piece of worn art to express to the world who they are or would like to be. Here you will find links to bead artists, bead making tips and tutorials, and other resources that will be of interest to all you clay bead makers out there. Happy beading...
Bead Art and Artists
Here are a few clay artists from around the web.
- Earthenwood Studio
- Website of bead artist Melanie Brooks Lukacs.
- MysticSpiral Studio
- A website devoted to the work of ceramic bead artist Andi Fasimpaur.
Basic Tools Available from Dick Blick
This is your basic kit that you will need to start making beads in clay. Add to this a soft steel fettling knife and you are ready to start creating in clay.
Kemper Pottery Tool Kit
Quality tools of finest stainless steel and select, smooth hardwood. Includes a potter's rib, steel scraper, wood modeling tool, needle tool, ribbon tool, loop tool, sponge, and wire clay cutter.
Kemper Fettling Knives
Use these knives to trim, carve, remove mold marks and sculpt ceramics, greenware, styrofoam, and more. The softer steel blade is flexible enough to bend while the harder is a tempered steel blade with the same feel as other conventional blades. Blades are 4" (102 mm) long, total length 8" (203 mm).
Kemper Pottery Tool Kit
Kemper Fettling Knives
Making Clay Beads: Tips and Tutorials
- Making and Firing Ceramic Beads
- A treasure trove of excellent bead creation tips.
- How to Make Common Bead Shapes
- A bead making tutorial covering some methods for making some common bead shapes.
- Ceramic Bead Artists Tutorials
- A variety of tutorials for the bead artist covering techniques of mold making, slip trailing, stamping and more.
- Creating Porcelain Beads: An Insider's View
- Bead artist Melanie Brooks Lukacs describes some of her process in this interview.
- Textured Beads Demo
- A simple tutorial on adding texture to beads.
- Nuggets Demo
- A simple tutorial on making nugget shaped beads. Some kiln loading tips are included at the end of this tutorial.
- Stamped Leaf Demo
- A simple tutorial on how to use rubber stamps in bead making.
- Sunflower Pendant Demo
- A tutorial on using a 2 part press mold to make beads.
- Decals Demo
- An informative tutorial on applying ceramic decals to beads.
- Slip Cast Beads
- Bead artist Evelyn Peckham Arvey shows a brief photo overview of how she makes her clay beads.
Clay Bead Books on Amazon
How to Make Wonderful Porcelain Beads And Jewelry (Schiffer Book)
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Amazon Price: $15.56 (as of 12/08/2009) 
List Price: $19.95
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Beading Kilns from Dick Blick
Paragon Quikfire 6 Kiln
The QuikFire 6 Kiln brings instant gratification to ceramics, glass fusing, enameling, and china painting. No more waiting to fill your larger kiln to test-fire a new technique. This kiln is a learning tool you will use over and over. Small glass pieces can be fired and cooled to room temperature in only 30 to 40 minutes, small ceramics may take up to 50 minutes. The QuikFire 6 Kiln is made from a ceramic fiber shell with an embedded element. It measures 6" × 6" × 6" inside and rests on a ceramic fiber base with a steel stand. Rated to 2000°F (1093°C), it fires on 120 volts and needs no other heating source. It has a three prong plug. At only 1560 watts, it uses less power than some hair dryers. It includes a built-in pyrometer.
More Bead Artists
- Beads of Clay Artist List
- A collection of clay bead artist that are members of Beads of Clay.
- Silverhawk Bead Collection
- A directory of ceramic beads and beadmakers.
Great Stuff on eBay
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Bead Kilns and Kiln Firing
While beads can be fired in any pottery kiln it is often desirable to have a small kiln to fire your small creations in. In the following links you will find kiln info and firing help.
- Kiln Comparison plus Tips
- A comparison of 5 different kiln set ups. Also has tips on choosing a kiln for bead firing.
- How to Stilt a Donut Bead
- Simple instructions on firing Donut Beads.
- Kiln Demo
- Instructions on how to load a kiln load of beads.
Beading Kiln Furniture from Dick Blick
Here are a couple kiln furniture especially made for firing beads in your kiln. They make loading beads in your kiln faster and easier.
Star Bead Tree
Fire macramé beads and other hanging objects with this versatile, space-saving tool that has two durable stoneware supports with 6" long wires. Seven heavy-gauge wires can be staggered as needed to accommodate any size object. Wires are 9 gauge (.114"). Note - Do not use for Raku firing.
Amaco Short Wire Bead Tree
Fire many beads at one time with this tree. It has 12 shorter wires to prevent sagging, which are removable for firing long objects. Cone 6 Maximum. Replacement wires are available in sets of 12. Tree is 5" wide × 4-3/4" tall. Wires are 1-7/8" long.
Star Bead Tree
Amaco Short Wire Bead Tree
Fire many beads at one time with this tree. It has 12 shorter wires to prevent sagging, which are removable for firing long objects. Cone 6 Maximum. Replacement wires are available in sets of 12. Tree is 5" wide × 4-3/4" tall. Wires are 1-7/8" long.
Clay Bead Forums and Discussion Groups
Places to talk beads and clay.
- Beads of Clay Discussion Group
- A place to talk with other clay bead artist.
Bead Blogs
Its always great to see whats going on in the studio of other artists. Here be blogs.
- Art Bead Scene Blog
- A blog for bead makers of all types.
- Mary Harding Jewelry Bead Blog
- The Blog of Ceramic bead artist Mary Harding featuring her work and the work of others.
- NKP Designs
- Blog of ceramic bead artist Natalie Pappas featuring a variety of beads that she makes.
Other Clay Bead Resources
- JustBeads
- A auction site for buying and selling just beads.
- The Center for Bead Research
- A ton of info about all kinds of beads from different cultures and different eras.
- Beading Daily
- An online publication for beaders and bead maker.
- Beads of Clay
- A organization for clay bead artists to gather and share. A great resource for clay bead artists.
More Clay Lenses
Want to know more about working with clay please visit:-
May the Kiln Goddess Smile Upon You
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Welcome to the Kiln Goddess' Clay Pit. Here you will find a great collection of clay, clay art, and pottery related links, books, and other resources. What ever your clay interest, I am sure you will find some great discoveries. Have fun exploring. H...
Suggestions and Feedback
The Kiln Goddess would love to hear from you. Was the info helpful? Have a link you think would be perfect to include? See a typo? Just want to say hi? Type me a few lines.
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- ShifflettStudios ShifflettStudios May 5, 2008 @ 7:20 am
- Hi, Kiln Goddess. Love your lenses! Thank you for also shining a spotlight on clay beads, an often under-appreciated art. I did notice on your lens that you have the older link to the BOC (Beads of Clay) member site. The updated page is http://www.beads-of-clay.org/html/members.html It includes more members & also contains updated links & photos. In addition to Ebay, I know recently many more artists have moved to www.Etsy.com. The fees are much cheaper. There you can search by tags such as "ceramic, bead, handmade" and find a wide variety of ceramic clay artists' shops from all over the world, including many BOC artists. Here is a link to that search http://www.etsy.com/search_results_category.php?search_query=ceramic%20bead%20handmade&search_type=category_tags_jewelry&order=&page=5 The results will default sort by most currently listed items. I hope this has been helpful. Keep up the great work!
Lisa Shifflett
Shifflett Pottery & Glass Works
www.ShifflettStudios.etsy.com
Great Stuff on CafePress
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by KilnGoddess
The Kiln Goddess is an artist/potter. She loves working in clay as well as metals, mosaics, and nearly all mediums she tries. She especially loves whe... (more)
