¿Qué Onda Q'town?

Think Spring Earrings

2012-02-08T05:00:00.000-05:00

cinnabar beads, beaded Russian leaves, sterling silver, copper, sari silk

Russian leaves with 11/0 & 15/0 both in gold lustered green tea
cinnabar beads from Michael's

Project of the month - Thanks Diane Fitzgerald!

2012-02-06T17:59:00.000-05:00

¡six of the eight leaves x almost three hours each!

It took me almost a month...well, about 48 beading hours that I fit into the past month. I finished Diane Fitzgerald's Gingko Leaf Necklace. This came after one of my husband's epiphanies this holiday season - bead kits make great presents. It really is perfect because it is a splurge that I would probably not buy for myself, but which I love. Before I started I read somewhere that each leaf took about three hours. I didn't really believe this until I got going. I think I got that time down a little, but it was hard to tell because I don't think I actually sat for that amount of time in a row. I love the piece! I can't wait to put some of the things I learned from it to use in some more work.

No longer am I afraid to make long necklaces - this one has a 15/0 peyote spiral around a satin cord that goes on for miles. Diane's directions for the spiral are super easy. I thought I might have some trouble using such tiny beads, but I had not trouble going round and round. Any errors were easy to spot right away. I also thought for sure I would see all the new threads, but I got pretty good at weaving everything in a seamless manner (my method differs a little from Diane's method). A cone of Nymo B, some beeswax, and a thread burner got me through the long piece. At one point I had to stop and work on leaves because I was pretty certain I was giving myself a repetitive stress injury, but a few days off and I was good as new. I think the spiral part ended up being about 34 inches, which is a bit longer than the direction.

I spy a strand of corgi hair in that necklace

Working on the leaves in brick stitch and blending the colors has given me a new appreciation for transparent Delicas. I've been thinking about making some leaves in spring/summer colors so when winter ends I won't have to leave my new favorite necklace in the drawer until next fall.

a sweet little leaf...

...the ruffles really disguise the actual size of each leaf...

What fun!

Who wrote about glucosamine for dogs?

2012-01-22T10:11:00.000-05:00

Perhaps one of you remembers a beader who recently wrote about glucosamine and another powdered dog suppliment which she has been giving her dog with great results. Just after I saw that post, I noticed my little one, Coltrane, starting to show signs of arthritis. For the life of me I can't locate that blog post. Maybe you can point me in the right direction.

We want him to keep hopping around like a circus dog

the master of cuteness with his hedgie

Super Cole with his big brother Mingus in the background

a little bird told me

2012-01-19T04:36:00.000-05:00

From a Mary Tafoya pattern I made this cutie. I played around with the colors a bit, made my own brass cuff, and used a pale leather for the backing. This was my first try at attaching a peyote strip to a backing.

and the stitching really is not visible to the non-bionic naked eye

I stitched the peyote strip to Lacy's Stiff Stuff, glued the leather to the metal cuff I made, then stitched the Lacy's to the leather. I want to thank the Bobbie from Beadsong Jewelry for her suggestions.

Dragon scales

2012-01-18T05:57:00.000-05:00

bobs and bits

2012-01-08T09:35:00.000-05:00

During vacation I played with shapes. I've still got to string some of these into a necklace.

little blossoms

stealth squares

Next up, I'm working on stitching a band of peyote to a metal cuff lined with leather. I've never done this before and am a little worried about the execution. Last night I glued the leather to the cuff (which I also made from a piece of brass) and stitched the peyote band to a piece of Lacey's Stiff Stuff. Today I'm hoping to join the two pieces in a fashion that looks moderately professional. I checked the web for directions and was horrified to find many said to glue the beadwork directly to the metal band. Using glue (I used that E-6000 stuff and hate the smell) for the leather or ultrasuede backing is bad enough, but I could not bring myself to smear glue all over my sweet little Delica band.

source

Do you know a great way to attach a peyote (I know the above is loom woven) strip to a metal cuff? I read that there should be something in between the beads and the metal. Give me a little advice if you have some experience with this.

Sleeping Babies

2012-01-04T05:08:00.000-05:00

Coltrane and Mingus sleeping back to back

Mingus napping alone on the couch

and little later he curls into a strange ball

...while Coltrane stretches out on the floor.

Galaxy Beads

2012-01-03T05:54:00.000-05:00

I guess February 2010 was a good month for beading magazines because the Bead & Button Feb 2010 also has at least three designs I stitched. This issue was just about the time I started bead weaving and two of the very first pieces I made came from its pages.

my second piece - a cute Beth Stone herringbone bracelet

a Smadar Grossman design

But all the time I was going through the pages of this issue, I had my eye on the Galaxy Bead by Gill Slone. It seemed impossibly complicated and so far past what I might ever be able to do. This fall I thumbed through all my beading magazines and saw the pattern again. And it didn't seem that complicated! It appeared to be something I could do. So I rolled out a couple of Galaxy Beads.

in sapphire and silver

in heliotrope, bronze, and pearly white

My continuing love affair with Beadwork Feb/March 2010

2012-01-02T08:16:00.001-05:00

During the fall I made three bracelets from the Beadwork Feb/March 2010 issue. My first was this piece by Lynn Davy , the next was this Carole Ohl Kaleidescope Quilt Cuff, and the third is a yet to be photographed brick stitch cuff by Rachel Nelson-Smith.

little peyote triangles

From these triangles I went on to the peyote squares in another Carole Ohl design, Camelot Cross.

the first colorway...

...and the second

I've got to give this a try using some stones instead of crystals. I love making the super sparklies, but I really don't wear them as much as pieces made with more down to Earth materials.

Adiós 2011; Bienvenido 2012

2012-01-01T09:15:00.000-05:00

I am ready to welcome in 2012 and bid farewell to a difficult year. Below is one of the pieces I have finished, or almost finished, but never got around to writing about. Many more are in need of photos, and I have developed quite a UFO box with bits of beadwork and twisted wire. I have an array of peyote tubes wired with loops waiting to become a long necklace. There is an entire garden of miniature flowers of every shape and size with any number of Russian leaves sprinkled among the blossoms.

Straight out of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding is one of my UFO's. I've only beaded one earring so far. I made both hoops from 20 gauge sterling wire. I formed them on the largest part of a ring mandrel, then hammered with a rawhide mallet to harden. I found a link through Mandy at Beads for Brains to a free Russian site which had the design on which I based this brick stitch monster. Of course I can't find it at the moment.

a little scale: the blue bicones are 4mm

I love the golden 15/0 beads along the edge. They are actually crystal lined dichro. They photograph a bit darker than they appear in person - to the eye they seem to be a softer golden tone.

I did learn one very important detail: work both earrings at the same time - go row by row on each so they will actually match. Right now I figure I have at least nine months to finish the second earring I probably won't need it until Twin Day during Spirit Week at school when the Spanish department is planning to all dress as Frida Kahlo. Six Fridas (seven if the ASL teacher plays along, or eight if the guy who teaches Latin will also, but he is more of a Diego - LOL) roaming the halls.

Maybe it is my view of all the camellias in the yard flowering in every shade of pink, but I usually don't go all pastely as I have with these earrings.

I have tried to think of resolutions for this new year, but what it comes down to is being free from pressure. I need to allow myself to create whatever I want. I tend to worry so much that I kill a piece or project before I've even begun. Who cares if I make huge gypsy glam earrings and only ever wear them around the house! What fun I will have vacuuming and washing the dishes all decked out in my jewels. I made these because I had worked on a few brick stitch bracelet patterns and I wanted to try out the stitch in a different form and with larger beads mixed into the rows. Mission accomplished. Maybe I'm resolving to have fun free from editing. Now that sounds like a worthy resolution.

Cold Connections: copper cuff

2011-12-01T05:00:00.000-05:00

A cuff I made a few weeks ago in the Florida Society of Goldsmiths' beginning metals class - cold connections. We learned to rivet and tube rivet. The first class was an introduction to metals and we sawed, textured, and soldered. The third class in the series is coming up in a few weeks and we will learn to basic bezel making. The 1 1/2 drive to Tallahassee is always worth the trip.

Las estrellas

2011-11-30T05:21:00.001-05:00

Another Jean Power pattern I had some fun with...

these stars are so much fun to make

Little Triangles

2011-11-29T04:29:00.000-05:00

from Jean Power's design in a recent beading magazine

Flower Power

2011-11-28T04:31:00.002-05:00

my finished piece -below is the story (& more pictures) of how I got here

The problem with designing for Lorelei's Jade Scott Enameled Flower Challenge is that my flower is so gorgeous I didn't want to do anything with it except look at it. I put it in a tiny glass vial on the window sill above my kitchen sink and admired it every chance I got. Now this doesn't mean that I didn't have a thousand ideas floating around in my head. This precious little bloom really inspired me. Thanks, Lorelei, for making my love affair with a tiny piece of enameled copper possible!

look at that cute number six

I decided I wanted to do something with a bunch of beads, some chain, and some bead woven components, but still keep the focus on #6.

At first I wove some tiny Russian leaves. These were dainty and didn't detract from #6. For a few days I played with Russian leaves and made these earrings with matte golden copper Delicas, some dicro lined 15/0s, bronze wire (from Cool Tools), some dyed stones, and sterling silver wire. I think I wore these everyday this week.

After I got over how much I liked making Russian leaves, I started to think that perhaps trying to go too stark and simple in my planning. I had ideas about drilling a single pebble to make a necklace version of an ikebana vase.

source

I thought about tussy mussies and how I could make the bouquet holder from art clay or copper sheet.

source

Finally it hit me that I was thinking too small. I whipped up a giant Russian leaf from green Picasso 11/0 seed beads and got rolling...some ceramic beads, some wooden discs (I didn't like the original finish so I sanded them and restained), some copper chain, some waxed linen cord. I made a beaded toggle closure, but then I started channeling Fairysteps and decided to make a copper toggle with a leather leaf "ring."

tiny Russian leaves - about the size of my index finger nail

some large red white hearts set off the red enamel

the leather and copper toggle closure - I punched each side of the slit so the leather will not split. I got this idea from my Muse belt. Check them out; they are great.

Click the links below to see all the other flowers:

1. Lorelei Eurto

2. Serena Trent

3. Susan Raber

4. Shawna Tobias

5. Lucid Moon Studio

6. K Hutchinson

7. Gigi - check out Gigi on Lorelei's Blog

8. Lois Moon** you are here

Drop dead beautiful earring giveaway from Kristi Bowman

2011-11-25T19:45:00.000-05:00

Kristi Bowman Design is giving away a pair of amazing copper and pink jade earrings as part of her promotion for the Virtual Craft Show.

Leave a comment at Kristi's site for a chance to win.

I am number six

2011-11-10T17:56:00.000-05:00

The fabulous Lorelei Eurto is sponsering a Jade Scott Enameled Flower Challenge and Guess Who was selected in the random drawing. I am pretty excited. Today my flower came (#6 above), and it is a beauty. The light color surrounded by red is actually a very pale celadon green. I thought Sakura, then Wasabi, as soon as I saw it. Right now there aren't more flowers at Jade Scott on Etsy, but she announces shop updates in her blog. Stay tuned for what I create.

We got us a panther

2011-11-06T21:21:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday I wrote, at the end of a I Heart Macro post, about my neighbor seeing a panther. This neighbor did put up an infrared camera, but so far she has only seen some fox, birds, and house cats. But today I spoke to two other neighbors who have definitely seen the panther. The kids who live on the other side were playing in the woods behind their house and saw it and their uncle saw it also while sitting on the deck behind the house. Perhaps their will be something on film soon.

The neighbor across the street recently saw a fairly large bobcat on some property he owns on the other side of town, but he estimates it was only 45 lbs. A Florida panther like the one on the photo below might weigh 130 lbs. and be seven feet long. The picture shows a Georgia Wildlife Resources Division biologist with the panther shot by a deer hunter three years ago. Here is a story in which DNA testing positively linked this panther killed and the Georgia-Alabama border to the South Florida population.

source

This is a great story about Florida Panthers in South Georgia. And here is a fact sheet with video and pictures about the Florida panther (aka, mountain lion, cougar, puma). According to the fact sheet, we have all the panther's favorite foods in our yard, and the neighbors have two piglets - Peaches and Milkshake - for dessert. Let's hope he doesn't like corgis.

Penny candy - Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T03:53:00.000-04:00

up close

on the move

I made this over the summer with a couple of strands of Michael's glass beads, vitrail lentils, some orphans, and some very inexpensive chain and findings. It makes a great sound when I wear it.

¡Boo!

Happy Halloween

Why did the whachamacallit cross the road?

2011-10-30T03:24:00.001-04:00

finally a good use for dog hair - a corgi hair provides scale to the right of the whachamacallit

I saw this creature in the middle of the road while walking the dogs on Saturday morning. It was about two inches long and sporting some pretty cool racing stripes. You can click on any of the photo to view them larger.

coming or going?

whachamacallit was on the northbound (right) side of the road

I live on this beautiful divided boulevard which is planted with live oaks, camellias, azaleas, and a vast dying array of dogwoods. These live oaks are enormous. That is a fairly tall street light in front of it and the bushes behind the tree are about 12 ft. tall. The photo above shows the low spot in the road. An animal path runs from the woods behind the houses on the left (unseen) into the swampy woods on the right. Crossing the road in this spot during the early morning and night, we see fox, coyote, and armadillo (who don't really cross, but just bumble about near the edges of the grass eating bugs). My neighbor swears she has seen a Florida panther cross. We do have bobcat, but she believes it was a panther. Yesterday she told me she bought an infrared camera. I'm looking forward to getting a glimpse of what is lurking at night!

Take a look at what everyone else is viewing up-close.

A very late Camelot Cross

2011-10-29T07:14:00.000-04:00

my Camelot Cross

The fabulous Karyn of Releases by Rufydoof put together the Beading Babes group and the first project was Carol Ohl's Camelot Cross bracelet from the Feb/March 2011 Beadwork. Although I has this piece done within a week of the pattern selection, too much work and more work got in the middle and I didn't manage to get out my camera until last weekend. ¡Así es la vida! Finally I am sharing.

For more Babe beadweaving, check out the picures on Karyn's Facebook page.

Couvige de Marie Noel

2011-10-24T04:19:00.000-04:00

Here is a RAW cuff that I just can't get right. I made all but the final rounds within the individual openings. I wasn't happy with the form I was getting - not curvy enough along the edges. So I will try again with a different set of 11/0's and 15/0s. I found the pattern here - it is from Marie Noel/MarieCyber, but it is no longer available. You would need to search for Couvige in the Histoire de perles.

gorgeous curves in imitation of lace

I think it is better in one color and I need to nudge some of those beads into place...

and I'm going to try inserting some of the final embellishments to see if that puts more curve into my piece. I remember another version I saw at Perlicoti:

And above here is another Couvige by Pascale G-M. She has filled every opening with the embellishment. I love the color of these beads. Does anyone know what they might be?

A little productivity

2011-10-23T09:18:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I drove down to Tallahassee to take a beginning metals class at the Florida Society of Goldsmiths Northwest chapter. They are currently offering a series of three metals workshops and will repeat these again in the spring. Of course I didn't even bring my camera - what was I thinking? But even if I had, I was a little too busy from 10 AM until 7 PM when I left to actually stop and take a photo. Suzi Kamin was the instructor and I'm looking forward to the next two classes in the series when I will bring my camera.

squashed dimes, copper, argentium silver, and Czech glass

I made a textured copper bracelet, a pair of brass earrings, a pair of squashed dime earrings, and a silver band. The focus of the class was learning about the studio equipment, basic sawing, soldering, texturing, dapping, and forming. I left the fire scale on the copper above because I torched balls at both ends of the wire and wrapped them in about two minutes before the end of the class. Next month is riveting and I have been collecting items that I might use.

there I am in my gold wedding band, above which is the textured silver band I made

I had to do some superduper obscuring via Picnik because I didn't want to scare any reader with how frightening my hands appear on super macro. I can see that my gold band is showing its years of wear. I actually made the band to wear on another finger, but really liked how it looked with my wedding band and a tiny titanium band. I'm hopping that I will keep learning and look back at this photo and be amazed at how rough and crude the ring appears!

Kate McKinnon's Groovy Cuff

2011-10-08T09:22:00.000-04:00

Kate McKinnon's Groovy cuff

I picked up the beads for this cuff over the summer at The Isle of Beads. Normally I'm not drawn to grey, but when I saw these I instantly grabbed a hank of the gold and knew what I wanted to make - The Groovy Cuff. None of the photos really show off the how pretty the grey-blue seeds beads are. The color combination really reminded me of something my great-grandmother Mildred would have appreciated. The top layer is made with pale blue-gray lined clear 11/0's and black diamond 15/0's. The wider bottom layer is matte metallic antique gold 11/0's and the same black diamond 15/0's. I really learned right angle weave working on this. Once I got into the rhythm it was pretty easy to keep stitching and stitching.

This is the piece that was in the December 2009 Beadwork as The Modern Art Cuff (also on the cover of the Favorite Stitches edition). I think I like the brighter, more whimsical colors of the magazine pieces a little better, but these colors are sort of the opposite and are definitely understated and easy to wear. As soon as I finished stitching I wanted to put it on and I found this sari silk ribbon shimmering all pink and gold so I never got around to making a proper clasp. I love the big bow which does not actually sit on top, but flops over the middle just as a regular clap would.

I have also been searching for some glass sequins with which to embellish this piece, but haven't found any I liked. All that I've run across are just too plasticy. Of course that doesn't mean much because I have very few places to look. At some point this weekend I'm headed to Havana, Florida (just north west of Tallahassee) to a little bead show. Maybe luck will be with me. Do you have any good sources for glass or other good quality sequins or metal discs?

click on collage to enlarge

Ode to Puca

2011-10-04T18:34:00.000-04:00

stack o'bangles

If you follow just about any European bead stitching blog, then you have seen these bangles derived from a pattern by Puca at Les Perles de Puca. Actually, I found details about how they are assembled at the French bead forum Histoire de Perles. They are also very similar to Sabine Lippert's A Square and His Friends pattern. [Her English language book will be realeased in May 2012 by Lark!]. These bangles and Cynthia Rutledge's Honeycomb Bangles seem to be in every French or Italian blog. I'm not usually into so many crystals, but I was drawn to these bangles particulary since I could stitch each with just Delicas, 11/0 seed beads, and some 4mm bicones.

three different colors of Delicas

Lynn Davy's Cuff & My Earrings

2011-10-01T10:55:00.001-04:00

Click Here for Bead Soup Party

It isn't that I haven't been creating, it is that I wasn't taking pictures and blogging about it. A few days ago I put a load of finished pieces in front of the camera in order to get ready for some serious posting.

This summer when I was in Cleveland I picked up the February/March 2010 Beadwork. I had somehow missed this edition between buying from the newstand and subscribing and of course every time I saw a piece I really wanted to make it was from that issue! Between getting a pedicure with my BFF of 29 years (that final F really is forever!) and my goddaughter, who is now the same age that her mom and I were when we met, and having lunch at a Turkish restaurant with my mom and auntie, I stopped by The Isle of Beads. This was the bead store where I first bought beads and stared at the containers of seed beads and wondered who was crazy enough to spend time trying to use those tiny things. I spent quite a long time chatting with Denise Newman, the owner, about the difficulty of owning a bricks and mortar store today. What I didn't realize was that she had just opened her store about the time I stepped into the world of stringing. Twenty years later there I was drooling over drawers of gorgeous hanks of Czech 11/0's. She also had one copy of that elusive issue of Beadwork.

the cuff - my first brick stitch work - a few tension issues

I took awhile for me to find all the different beads I needed and still I had to make two color substitutions, but I finally amassed the sizes I wanted. I love Lynn Davy's Pendragon Cuff. This was my first brick stitch project and it includes six different sizes and shapes of beads. The triangles were fun to work with, but I wish they had turned out to be as light as they were pictured on the website when I bought them (big problem for me - no bricks and mortar stores within a two hour drive!). Next I wanted some earrings to go with the cuff. I mixed peyote and herringbone, Delicas, 15/0's, and silver wire and came up with the pair pictured. I've worn them a few times and gotten raves, as well as, "you are going to have to teach me how to do that."

little tribal shields to compliment the Pendragon cuff

They are a double layer of beading which is connected at the tip by a drop bead. I need to explore this shape a bit more so that I can devise a way of attaching the earwire without stitching it to the beading directly. Do you have any suggestions for this?

a hint of things to come

Around the World with 362 Jewelry Artists - Bead Soup September 2011

2011-09-17T10:08:00.002-04:00

This is the third time I have participated in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Party. The first time BSP was held, I saw the list of participants who had already signed up and was too intimidated. The next time I just held my breath when I clicked the send button and hoped for the best. Here I am a couple of years later and I couldn't be happier that I decided to take up Lori's challenge and work outside my comfort zone. The BSP has morphed into a worldwide event - 362 jewelry artists from 21 countries on 5 continents! Check out the map. You can click HERE to go see what Melissa made with the soup I sent her which included a flower pendant from Tracee Dock of Classic Bead.

a little teaser from my partner Melissa Muir

soup arrives and is full of bright silver and copper beads

The gorgeous pendant with a sparkling cz set in silver

I loved my soup when I got it because playing with metal offers so many opportunities. Even though I thought it might make Melissa gasp and maybe even sputter - I couldn't wait to patina the copper and silver beads. Then I set off to design a piece of bead embroidery to hang behind the pendant and set it off.

lots of ideas I didn't end up using

I was inspired by some votive cups with Moorish designs against bright orange, green, and fushia glass. I found some sari silk and attached it to a backing and began embroidering berry hued beads. But something wasn't clicking with me. I tried a couple bead woven designs, but these were also not a fit. Then I went to wrapping beads. Some silver, some bright stones, and a couple lampwork beauties by Julianna Cannon of Juls Beads. These lovelies are going to become a bracelet with the addition of some suede and a couple of juicy copper love knots.

Finally I decided I needed to go with wirework. This was more in keeping with the swirls on the votives which were my original inspiration. The pendent started reading as the negative space in a keyhole. I drew up a few patterns. The first one above is a little too holly leaf. It actually only took two tries with a spool of steel wire and I was satisfied.

I formed my keyhole and added some tiny beads to the sides for a little weight. I didn't want to distract from Melissa's pendant - just frame it with something. I made some dangles - from a stick of dyed howlite, a tiny sterling silver key, a Swarovski 4mm, and one of the star shaped pearls from the bead soup. Then I got to wrapping and making loops. I dug out an large vintage clear crystal with a beautiful color filled sparkle, an aquamarine piece of cut glass, and a strand of something dyed to look like impression jasper.

To see what the other 362 participants (¡WOW!) made, click on the link below to go to the Official Bead Soup Party page at Lori Anderson's Pretty Things blog.

Golden Dragonfly

2011-08-27T10:07:00.000-04:00

I made this dragonfly with 24K gold wings from a Good Quill Hunting pattern. Christina has amazing patterns and kits for a variety of stitches. If you don't weave but bead embroider, go to her site to get inspired. The mix of beads, stones, colors, and stitches takes my breath away. She has some free patterns and tutorials as well as an amazing list of links and resources. Click here for Christina's blog, also full of gorgeousness and info. My dragonfly cuff is coveted by my friends, co-workers, and students. And you can see why:


look at all those shades of gold in the wings!

add a little sunshine and it glows

a little closer

the beads on the wings shift colors in the light - she really appears to fly on your wrist

I love the bright blue eyes

Finished with vintage glass buttons and peyote loops

I messed around with each end of the pattern a little bit so that the bands of color would meet up at the closure. The idea didn't dawn on me until I was finishing so I didn't get it quite even, but I like the result. I also tapered the corners to avoid them getting dog-earred with wearing. The sweet little clover buttons are vintage pressed black glass with facets and heavy brass shanks. I found them at an antique shop here in Q'town which specializes in vintage clothing. They measure about 8mm across. This cuff is about 2 1/8" wide.

On Christina's web site she recommends Joan Painter of Painter's Art Beads as a source for small quantities of Delica beads. I followed this advice and managed to get the quantities I needed down to 1 gram of this and 1 gram of that. Joan carries just about every Delica number under the sun. I saved a bunch of money on beads for this bracelet, but went a little crazy ordering beads that I had not been able to find elsewhere! Joan takes her orders via email. Send her a message with your order and she charges you for the actual shipping cost. She is great!

Introducing Melissa Muir

2011-08-14T08:16:00.000-04:00

It is Bead Soup Party time again! This BSP my partner is the talented artist Melissa Muir of Kelsi's Closet Jewelbox. Melissa lives just 45 minutes from where I lived in Cleveland, Ohio. In fact, when I was visiting my parents this summer, I drove past the freeway exit I could take to her house a couple of times. If we had met then I would have been there in a flash because she teaches metal and wire work classes. She really does it all - riviting, sawing, wrapping, etching, forming, forging, stone setting...you name it and she does it and teaches it! If you want to know anything about tools, check out the Tool Time Tuesday feature on her blog. She also features jewelry and bead artists on Fridays. Here is a tiny sampling of her jewelry.

(all photos from Melissa's blog).

Melissa has an on-line shop Kelsi's Closet Jewelbox. This link will take you to the shop and class schedule.

For all things Bead Soup, follow this link to find our hostess Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Party page. You will find a list of participants, dates, and answers to any BSP questions you might have.

Aqua Jelly

2011-08-08T04:49:00.001-04:00

Birds, birds, birds

2011-08-07T08:44:00.001-04:00

Just last night my husband and I were talking about crows. If you are new to the blog or if you missed it, my husband is a native Spanish speaker and I am a high school Spanish teacher. We live 18 miles from the middle of nowhere. This is a place crows love. Between the crops in the fields and the roadkill on the country highways, it is a crow buffet.

One thing we discovered was that in English we use the term scarecrow, but in Spanish the broader term espantapájaros translates to scare birds. We do seem to be fixated on the crows. This morning my mom sent me a link to a TED Talk video about the Smart Bird. In searching for more info about that, I found this video about crows and our relationship to them. Some of you may have seen a video of Betty the crow making her own tools, but that is actually not what this is all about. Watch to the end to see the crow vending machine.

Festo has produced all sorts of robotic creatures using biomimicry . Click to check out their Bionic Learning Network. I know you want to see the robotic jelly fish, ray, and penguin!

Meet Me in St Louis

2011-08-03T06:07:00.001-04:00

If you are in St. Louis on Friday night, you can go hang out with Kate McKinnon at The Bead Place. She is bringing her beads and her black velvet lined bead tray to The Bead Place for some fun in the evening. Check out her blog for details. This is not a workshop, just beaders hanging out and having fun. If it weren't for the 825 mile drive to get to St. Louis, I'd be there in a heartbeat. Go to Kate's blog and take a look at the details. She welcomes email if you have any questions about it.

Next, go view some groovy beadwork Kate and Dustin Wedekind have been doing for their upcoming book Geometrics (on facebbok) Geometrics (the website), go take a look. These pieces are awesome.

source

Also check out Kate's posts during the Seed Bead Summit back in May and you will see how the idea for this book came about. You'll also get to see Marcia DeCoster, Teresa Sullivan, and Jean Power at work with Kate and Dustin. It was pretty amazing to read these posts as they came out and get a peek at the birth of the book.

Humblebeads Blog is having a gigantic giveaway!

2011-07-30T08:59:00.000-04:00

Go on over to Heather's blog for the Humblebeads Blog: Big Huge Giveaway

Look at all those great colors and shapes. She has included some of my favorites in this giveaway - from the Branches series, from Monet's Garden, and from the Garden series. Click on the link above for all the details.

Souvenirs From Life Giveaway

2011-07-14T08:25:00.000-04:00

Laura at Souvenirs From Life must have read my mind when she decided on this giveaway. I was just searching the web for double flush cutters last night and here she is giving away a pair by Swanstrom.

double flush cutter - a wireworker's dream

If you are not familiar with what these babies can do, you will tear up with joy upon reading the description. Here from the Rio Grande catalog is music to my ears:

Swanstrom Double-Flush Shear Cutter
Item Number: 111063
Designed for cutting jump rings and reducing metal waste. Get flush edges on both sides of the cut so you don't need to file jump rings before soldering! A knurled set-screw allows you to set the jaws for the precise—and repeatable pressure you need.

Laura is celebrating Souvenirs From Life turning one. I'd say this is a fine way to commemorate the occasion.

I Heart Macro 6/18

2011-06-18T21:44:00.000-04:00

These little ones would be perfect for Thumbelina. Each one is only about 8 mm. They are actually weeds in my garden, but aren't they magical in macro.

Check out the other blogs at Studio Waterstone - just click on the link above!

Fresh from the oven

2011-06-18T13:04:00.003-04:00

Stone Harvie Moon

I'm an auntie! Here is my little nephew all of a couple minutes old or fresh from the oven, as my mom said. Congrats to my brother Dan and his wife Katy. Happy Baby Day. And what a Father's Day gift Dan got this year!

The name is a tribute to relatives on both sides - Harvie is a family name, the first name of the baby's maternal great grandfather and middle name of his maternal grandfather and uncle. His initials are the same as his paternal grandfather's initials. Now we can all stop calling the him Moonunit.

Tumbling blocks & trefoils

2011-06-17T11:08:00.000-04:00

trefoils and...

tumbling blocks [from a recent Beadwork]

little triangles form circles

I can't get away from the herringbone/peyote combination. I guess they are my two favorite stitches so using them in combo couldn't be better. The golden khaki delicas don't really look so pukey green in person.

more trefoils

This is the largest trefoil I've made. This time I tried to graduate the color using the limited selection of pinks I had on hand.

this is a large terfoil - the smalls are tiny

Pretty Things and Sweet Bead Studio are having mind-blowing giveaways!

2011-06-14T20:19:00.000-04:00

from Lori's site

Run to Pretty Things and check out what Lori Anderson brought back from Bead & Button to giveaway. You will absolutely not believe it! While you are there, click on the link to Cindy Wimmer's Sweet Bead Studio. Lori and Cindy teamed up at B&B and are both holding giveaways and sharing a video they made while at the show.

from Lori's site

from Cindy's site

Amazaing Giveaway at Something Unique by Lana

2011-06-14T07:10:00.000-04:00

Among her many fabulous Etsy finds, Lana is giving away these Gaea beads. Check out the link to see all the wonderfulness. Blog Love & Fav Etsy Shops Giveaway

I Heart Macro 6/12

2011-06-12T08:45:00.002-04:00

water meter covers from my street - my subject from last week

click to see all the macro

Giveaway alerts!

2011-06-12T08:20:00.002-04:00

Copper Diem: Pay it Forward Giveaway!

Check out the fabulous assortment of goodies in this great giveaway.

Bead Dreams and Moonlit Fantasies Giveaway
Get your copy of this great book.

I Heart Macro

2011-06-05T08:46:00.002-04:00

Check out the other macro shots of the week

The Trouble with Trefoils

2011-06-03T08:51:00.001-04:00

Actually the only trouble with trefoils is that I can't stop making them. It is fun to start beading flat and see something 3-D grow from the beads. I made this necklace for a friend who just retired. We taught next door to each other for all of the time I have been teaching Spanish and I'm going to miss her daily comradery terribly. She is also one of my biggest fans and has been encouraging me since I started beadweaving.

from Diane Fitzgerald's Shaped Beadwork

Golem Giveaway

2011-06-03T08:08:00.000-04:00

The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton: Thursday Giveaway...

I just gave away a few of these yummy beads in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box. Here is your chance to win some.

...and the next Sister is...

2011-06-01T18:07:00.000-04:00

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box will be headed to....[drumroll]...

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 29 Powered by RANDOM

Congratulations! FireFly Myst , you are the next Sister!

A big thanks to all those who entered and blogged, Tweeted, and posted to FB to get the message out.
This means the STBB will be headed to Michigan.

I Heart Macro

2011-05-29T10:59:00.001-04:00

Click here to enter the Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box Giveaway


from a deer jaw I found in the woods behind my house

Art Bead Scene Blog: Giveaway with a Little Help from our Friends in Beads 2011

2011-05-28T16:58:00.000-04:00

Click here for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box

Art Bead Scene Blog: Giveaway with a Little Help from our Friends in Beads 2011

Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box Sneak Peek

2011-05-27T20:33:00.000-04:00

a few of the goodies I've added to the box

If you are looking to throw your name in the hat for the giveaway, click here to read all the specifics of the giveaway and add your name and email to the comment list of that post.

Among the items I've added to the box are yards and yards of sari silk, a chunk of cute origami squares perfect for bezels, a couple of Golem Studio beads, a handful of skull beads, a few enamel charms from Gardanne Beads, two signed and numbered dichroic glass pendants by Larry Gruda, two dozen copper washers, some beaded beads, chunky tumbled glass beads, a spool of purple artistic wire, some stone cabs, and many other juicy pieces.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box Giveaway

2011-05-26T17:05:00.002-04:00

photo from a Beadiful Mess

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box is ready to fly off to another city. A perfect storm of calamity and obligation slowed its progress, but now it is ready to go. This week I will post pictures of some of the items I have added to the box [click here to see a sneak peek]. I will select a winner on June 1st at 6 PM EST. Here is a list of the 15 previous winners which starts with the wonderful Heather Powers who started the STBB. I tried to link each person to the blog in which they announced the giveaway.

1.Heather Powers of Humble Beads- San Antonio, Texas

2.Mikki Ferrugiaro of MFD Beadwork Originals- Utah

3.Nancy Dale of NED Beads- Vermont

4.Hannah Rosner of Good River Gallery- New Mexico

5.Chris Neit of Good Quill Hunting- Maine

6.Sandy Spivey of Sandy's Treasure- California

7.Katie Nelson of Katie's Creations- Texas

8.Kristie Roeder of Artisan Clay- Pennsylvania

9.Lorelei Eurto of Lorelei Eurto Jewelry- New York State

10.Becky Caldwell of The Gritty Bird- North carolina

11.Cindy Wimmer of Sweet Bead Studio- Virginia

12.Cindy Gambrone of Lampwork Diva- New York State

13.Paige Maxim of Paige Maxim Designs- Maine

14.Cristi Baxter Clothier of 2 if by Sea- Florida

15.Tracey Nanstad of A Beadiful Mess- Wisconsin

16.Marianna Boylan of Star Girl Jewelry & Lampwork - Michigan

17. Lois Moon of Qué Onda Q'town - Georgia

The box is ready to go to the next lucky winner! Here's what you need to know:

The giveaway: The entire box of goodies - bead, findings, tools, supplies.

The stipulations: Must have an online forum to host the next giveaway. Must be living within the United States to enter and be willing to pay for shipping: $15.00 for flat rate priority mail billed via Paypal.

The rules: You'll take what you want from the box, add in items from your own bead stash to replace the items you took and do the same giveaway on your blog. We'll keep the beads traveling for as long as we can.

To enter: Leave a comment, be sure to include your email. [If you are on Blogger, think about linking your profile to your email]

Bonus: Blog, facebook or twitter about it to enter more than once. Leave another comment letting me know how you helped spread the word.

International bloggers: I'm sorry, but due to shipping only those in the U.S. can play along.

Deadline To Enter: Comments will be accepted until Wednesday, June 1st, at 6pm (eastern standard time).

Check out the pictures in your garden

2011-04-29T16:49:00.000-04:00

My husband was gone when I got home from work today, but he left me a note on top of the camera...

"Check out the pictures in your garden."

These are the pictures taken just outside the back door. Yikes! Please tell me that is a white oak snake and not a rattler. I won't know until he gets home and tells me what he heard when he took the pics, but that looks like a fairly shield-shaped help to me!

Springtime Earring Blog Hop

2011-04-25T05:39:00.000-04:00

I made these beauties for the Springtime Earrings Blog Hop being hosted by Moira McEvoy of The Musings of Mystic Pesto. While bright pink and fuschia may not be the colors of spring in many part of the country, here in the southernmost part of Georgia they are the colors of the last camellias, the azaleas, and the strawberries. With the temperatures reaching over 90F at the end of the week, and plenty of standing water from all the downpours we have had, these are also the colors of my mosquito bites. I was attacked as soon as I stepped out the door with my camera..

Last week I wrote about my strawberries and cream necklace and here are earrings in the same colorway. I learned a bit about thread tension and decided to use Fireline for the earring shown in full above. I got a much snugger fit with my beads and far less stretch. I think I'm going to need to skip the Thread Heaven and use microcrystaline wax when I work with thread. I read about some stiffening properties it has and this might also help.

Check out the other participant in the blog hop:

BooBeads

Handcrafted Baubles

My Life Under the Bus

For My Sweet Daughter

Silver Rose Designs

Lois Moon **you are here**

If you have tuned in to find out when to enter to win the Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box, the box has yet to arrive in Georgia. I expect it early next week. I will post details as soon as it arrives.

daily dog shot - Mingus the corgi

Woodland glade

2011-04-20T19:17:00.000-04:00

I've had this pendant sitting around since last year. It is actually made from translucent polymer clay which I colored with a variety of inks after I fired it. I didn't make a mold, instead I took an impression from a carved wooden box. Last weekend I got around to wiring beads and made this necklace with crystals, gemstones, Czech beads, and anything else which appealed to me. I set out to make it very long, but after wearing it once this way I shortened it to about 17in. Now I have enough left over to make a bracelet.

no, that's not silver - I used Beadalon German style wire

Handpicked and freshly churned

2011-04-18T17:58:00.000-04:00

The strawberry season is going to be winding down here. I've got to get out to one of the farms and get some homemade strawberry ice cream. Next month we will be in peach season and that ice cream is great if you head to the right orchard to get a cone. I like the Burton Brooks Orchard with their giant hand-lettered sign reading "Old Fashion Ice Cream." Maybe it is all the fruit coming into season that lead me to this rather uncharacteristic colorway when I put together this necklace from directions in La Bella Joya's newsletter (if you aren't signed up click over to Marcie's site and do yourself the favor).


strawberries & cream


I know it has a few tension problems, but I ignored very clear directions. You cannot see thread unless you view the world through a macro lens at all times.

a little lotus

Above is my happy accident. I followed the wrong thread path and instead of a starflower, I got what looks like a lotus. I'm going to play with this shape a little more.

11/0's & 15/0's

time for ice cream!

the ice cream shack at the orchard

Macro Roses

2011-04-17T12:45:00.002-04:00

I found the I Heart Macro Blog Hop this morning and was inspired to post. Studio Waterstone is hosting.I was out taking pictures of recently completed work this morning and I noticed my climbing roses were beginning to bloom.

rosebud

I have some other roses which are called something like Nearly Native. They bloom and bloom and bloom.

this one is starting to fade

click here to go to Studio Waterstone

Copper Diem: Give it away, give it away, give it away, now

2011-04-17T09:30:00.001-04:00

Copper Diem: Give it away, give it away, give it away, now:

Check out the giveaway at Copper Diem...

It is coming...

2011-04-11T18:27:00.000-04:00

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box is coming to Georgia!

from Cristi's blog 2 if by Sea

Stay tuned for details!

La Bella Joya Celebration Giveaway

2011-04-02T08:37:00.000-04:00

Run to Marcie's blog and enter her nesting bracelet giveaway. This piece is such a stunning and feminine combination of the matte seed beads and beautiful stones that she uses. She is drawing a winner on Sunday.


Little Lavender Nests

Take the time to check out her Etsy store and tutorials. She is offering a discount to celebrate her 300th sale!

Odds and ends

2011-03-23T20:45:00.001-04:00

Recently a beadweaver out there in bloglandia wrote about copper lined light amethyst beads. They are also one of my favorites. I thought that the Czech hank I bought was just copper lined crystal AB and I have not been able to track them down again, but this tidbit of info has given me hope. Here is a little sample of a corset stitch (from Kate McKinnon - you can find a link to directions for a cuff made with this stitch on her blog.) using my favs with silver 15/0 one-cuts.

The pollen is so thick you can taste it. I'm desperately waiting for rain to clear the air. If you have never been in a pine forest in the spring, it is a messy place. I can stand outside and watch the pollen spewing from the pine trees. It is as if they have a misting attachment. One of the trees near the front of the house is home to a huge and very active beehive. Every year they go crazy at this time; the bees go into hyperdrive and it really is amazing how loud they are as they fly about. I wonder what pine honey tastes like.


We back up to acres and acres of woods and swamp

After I took this picture I painted the front door. To the right of the house you can see they entrance to the courtyard - brick pillars topped by balls. This is where I have taken many necklace pictures. Bead Soup blog hoppers frequently commented that they liked the antique bust I used. Well, it wasn't a bust, it was the top to the column.

Mérida

2011-03-20T10:38:00.000-04:00

I have not actually fallen off of the face of the earth. Just working and sleeping. This week I finished yet another cuff. I spotted this loom pattern at a blog from Spain - Ruxandrabolorios - and followed it to Rux's pattern site.
Since I don't loom, I used square stitch. I used Toho Treasures for the cream and turquoise and Delicas for the copper and bronze. Toho cylinder beads are just a little bigger than Delicas so I had a neat surface texture contrast that I decided to exploit. Because there are an odd number of beads in each row, I ended every row with a group of three beads instead of a group of two. Stitching back and forth means that there is a bit of unevenness in the way the beads sit. I guess the best way to describe what I was after is a bit of a cobblestone texture. I also used smoke Fireline which took away the yellowy quality to my cream beads and gave them a rather antique look.

Mérida

closes with two snaps

15/0 picot to match the DB-oo22L scrolls

Add caption

What is that on the cream beads?

At first I thought it was pollen. We are covered in a fine yellow dust. Seriously, it looks like South Georgia has been sprinkled with mica powder. But no. I made chili last night. I toasted my dried chili peppers and ground them in a dedicated coffee mill. I threw tomatoes in the blender with chipotles and adobo (I believe that is where I picked up the gunk in the photo). I roasted my spices to bring out the flavors. It was delicious, but the leftovers on the cuff - Yuck! Gotta give these a scrub.

bead corral

2011-03-08T17:45:00.002-05:00

I've been making beaded beads the past few nights. Right now I'm waiting for an order of Delicas to make a stunning dragonfly cuff I spotted at Good Quill Hunting. I keep telling myself I won't make another one-drop peyote cuff, but I found this one and fell in love. This is the photo from Christina's pattern site:

you cannot tell how shimmery this is in the photos

These are the beads I've been playing with since the weekend. The little ones are woven on an 8mm core of 15/0 seed beads. The larger ones are made from 11/0's and are on a 10mm core.

these are about 9.5mm across

these are the little guys; the big ones are rolling around in the background

I use circular peyote to make my beaded beads. I make two halves and join them together. This came about because I find it very difficult to decrease on a 3-D surface in the round. Also because I originally followed a tutorial in French and the part about the increases was about all I could understand. The details for the decrease were not accompanied by the best diagrams, so this was the solution I invented. I like getting all my rows to line up and not having any bulky areas sticking out as I had with some other methods. I'm pretty certain this is fairly similar to the TQB beaded bead. But if you check out her beads you will not believe how tight they are. I guess mine will get better after 15 years of practice.

My mom commented that I needed another light source for my photos. I've got three lights now, but they are not fancy photo lights. I think I need to change the bulbs and see if this helps. Above is my do-over pic of the celtic trefoil. I think it is a little better photo, but I'm going to continue working on the lighting.

Third times the charm

2011-03-06T16:40:00.000-05:00

To go to Bead Soup Blog entry click here

I tried twice before to finish the Celtic Trefoil from Diane Fitzgerald's book Shaped Beadwork. Each time I broke one or more beads when I was zipping up the piece. After speaking to another beadworker, I switched to KO thread, and had success. I love this thread. It is so silky and didn't need any wax or thread conditioner. I'm hooked on this for projects that need a softer feel than Fireline.

I'm not in love with the color choices I made, but I wasn't really certain this piece would come together

I'm still working on my indoor camera skills. I tried a set-up I read about - cut off the bottom of a plastic milk jug and shoot through the top. I got my lights set-up and tried it and it worked better than anything I've tried before. I've got to keep experimenting to get better color and sharpness, but shooting a silver beady thing probably isn't the best place to start figuring it all out. I need to get out some matte pieces and see what I can do.

Soup's On: the Big Reveal

2011-02-26T00:01:00.002-05:00

Last month 210 tiny packages of beads crisscrossed the country and hopped the pond. In the midst of snow storms in the North and rain in the South beads were winging their way to new homes while beaders on multiple continents waited for the mail carrier to deliver their soup.

My bead soup arrived from snowy Wisconsin and I was delighted.

All of this furious activity is the brain child of the phenomenal Lori Anderson of Pretty Things. This is the third Bead Soup Party she has hosted during the past 12 months. I sat on the sidelines last year at this time, but joined the fun in June.

This time around I must have redesigned my piece three times, including wire wrapping nearly every bead in the soup and making four beaded beads (for non-bead weavers this means hundreds of teensy seed beads and a number of hours time), before I decided to go simple.

This beautiful collage pendant made by my talented Bead Soup partner Kim Hutchinson of Running on Ink (number 184 on the partier list below) inspired my final creation. Kim sent me three focal possibilities: an antique skeleton key, a ceramic round, and this pendant. She told me she threw in this fabulous butterfly just for fun, but not as part of the bead soup. And I did have fun with it. I put it on a piece of leather, I added it to a turquoise necklace, I strung it on sari silk, and I just kept wearing it. Finally I decided to toss some dyed blue howlite into my bead soup and go with this pendant.

We hit just above 80F (that is about 26.6C to all you metric system Bead Soup partiers) this week in South Georgia and I'm going to slip into a tank top and show off my Butterfly #4 necklace.

A great big thanks to Lori Anderson for hosting and to Kim Hutchinson for her fabulous soup. Check out the reveals in the rest of the blogs:

1. Lori Anderson, Pretty Things
2. Kitty Durmaj, Perles and Life
3. Michelle Heim, Life In the Bead Lane
4. Lisa Petrillo, Lucid Moon Studio
5. Anitra Gordy, Leelu Creations
6. Paige Maxim, Paige Maxim Designs
7. Marianna Boylan, Pretty Shiny Things
8. Cheryl Roe, BeadRoe
9. Heidi Post, Ex Post Facto
10. Cindy Wimmer, Sweet Bead Studio

11. Terri Gauthier, Blooming Ideas
12. Rachel Walsh, Balanced Crafts
13. Marian Hertzog, M's Place
14. Mary McGraw, MK's Musings
15. Sarabeth Burke, Chronicles of Sarita
16. Deci Worland, Gem Trails
17. Erin Prais-Hintz, Treasures Found
18. Laura Zeiner, Stick Lizard Designs
19. Kristin Latimer, MJM Jewelry Designs
20. Cathryn Brooks-Williams, Chile Cats

21. Holly Westfall, Silver Rose Designs
22. Janna Harttgen, Palima-Lim
23. Libby Leuchtman, Libby Leu
24. Rebecca Anderson, Songbeads
25. Deb Hunter, Living On Air
26. Diana Ptaszynski, Suburban Girl Studio
27. Jennifer VanBenschoten, VanBeads
28. Margot Potter, The Impatient Crafter
29. Cyndi Lavin, Beading Arts
30. Courtney Breul, Beads by Breul

31. Stefanie Teufel, Stefanie's Sammelsurium
32. Patricia Gasparino, My Life Under the Bus
33. Tari Khars, Pearl and Pebble
34. Kristi Bowman-Gruel, Kristi Bowman Design
35. Jayne Capps, Mama's Got to Doodle
36. Becky Fairclough, Chameleons Designs
37. Evie and Beth McCord, EB Bead & Metal Works
38. Lynne Bowland, Islandgirl's Insights
39. Barbara Lewis, Painting With Fire
40. Lorelei Eurto, Inside the Studio

41. Stacy Hartis, Sissy & Jack's
42. Jennifer Cameron, Glass Addictions
43. Marcie Abney, La Bella Joya
44. Johanna Rhodes, Fire Phoenix Creations
45. Nan Emmett, Spirit Rattles
46. Melissa Mesara, One Eared Pig
47. Amanda Davie, Articulations
48. Cherin Poovey, Lanyard Lady
49. Virginia Joste, ViviBijoux

50. Andrew Thornton, The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton
51. Lori Dorrington, Lori's Glassworks
52. Melanie Brooks, Earthenwood Studio Chronicles
53. Kate Gardenghi, Tropical Blonde
54. Serena Trent, PinkIce Jewel's Blog
55. Malin de Koning, Beading by Malin de Koning
56. Shai Williams, Shaiha's Ramblings
57. Francy Inman, 8 Second Studio
58. Amy Freeland, Copper Diem
59. Lisa Liddy, Joolz By Lisa

60. Sandi Lee James, Do Be Do Bead Do
61. Mary Harding, Mary Harding Bead Blog
62. Stacey Curry, Star Hitched Wagon
63. Leslie Gidden, Mad Maggie Designs
64. Elisabeth Auld, Beads For Busy Gals
65. Niky Sayers, Silver Nik Nats
66. Linda Djokic, Lutka and Co.
67. Tracy Bell, Copper, Glass, and Recycled Trash
68. Laurel Steven, Rue's Daftique
69. Ingrid McCue, Wrapped In Silver

70. Birgitta Lejonklou, Create With Spirit
71. Diana Hawkey, Diana Hawkey
72. Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas
73. Jeanette Ryan, Jeanette Blix
74. Jackie Ryan, Silver Lodge Gems
75. Jean Yates, Snap Out of it Jean, There's Beading to Be Done!
76. Debbie Goering, Prairie Emporium
77. Valerie Norton, Hot Art
78. Jana Trupovniece, Stories of the Secret Garden
79. Amy Severino, Amy Beads

80. Emma Thomas, Fred Beans Nook
81. Karen Zanco, Everyday Gypsy
82. Suzann Sladcik Wilson, Beadphoria
83. Janet McDonald, Singing Woods
84. Dana James, Dana's Jewelry Designs
85. Kristina Johansson, Wild Roses and Blackberries
86. CJ Bauschka, CJ Bauschka
87. Angela Barribea, Re: Angela Rae
88. Marcy Lamberson, Studio Marcy
89. Tanya Floyd, Glass Migrations

90. Lisa Kavanaugh, Beading Bliss
91. Sue Hodgkinson, Hello Gorgeous
92. Jenni Connolly, Jenni's Bead
93. Nally Parfyonova, Nally's Creations
94. Karyn White, Releases By Rufydoof
95. Emanda Johnson, Artemisia Studio
96. Sandy Richardson, Sandy's Coloring Box
97. Cindy Dolezal, Cindy Dolezal Designs
98. Stacie Stamper, Park Avenue
99. Mallory Hoffman, For the Love of Beads

100. Linda Landig, Linda's Bead Blog and Meanderings
101. Nicole Valentine-Rimmer, N. Valentine Studio
102. Jacinta Meyers, Jamberrysong's Creations
103. Charlene Gary, Gray Girl Studios
104. Rubiee Hayes, Glitter and Keys Galore
105. Marge Beebe, Rock Creek Creations
106. Elizabeth Freeman, Turquoise Sky
107. Shelby Foxwell, Sundown Bead Designs Rhetoric
108. Lynda Moseley, Diva Designs
109. Grace Danel, Grace Beading
110. Lois Moon, Que Onda Quitman YOU ARE HERE

111. Agnes Shapiro, Beader Bubbe
112. Terry Carter, Tapping Flamingo
113. Judy Glende, Judith B. Designs
114. Mary Ellen Parker, Bee Tree By Me
115. Barbara Bechtel, Second Surf
116. Charlene Sevier, The Bead Dreamer
117. Alice Craddick, Alice's Beads and Baubles
118. Cory Celaya, Art With Moxie
119. Ronda Adams, The Ravished Heart
120. Sandi Volpe, Sandi Volpe Designs

121. Anna Lear, The Laughing Raven
122. Susie Hibdon, Vintagesusie & Wings
123. Amanda Austin, Sea Shore Glass
124. Jennifer Velasquez, Jen Judd Rocks
125. Hazel Ward, All Those Things
126. Brenda Salzano, Salzanos
127. Dee Gordon, Runako Designs by Dee
128. Anna Denisova, Anita-M
129. Margaret Saari, Mags-Jewelry

130. Genea Crivello-Knable, Genea Beads
131. Penny Neville, Copper Penny
132. Angela Blasingame, Hopemore
133. Helena Fritz, Beadwork by H's Blog
134. Stephanie LaRose, Confessions of a Bead Hoarder
135. Stephanie Haussler, PixyBug Designs
136. Diane Cook, Rosa & Josies
137. Maryse Thillens, Glass Bead Art
138. Jennifer Pride, Jewelry by J.P.
139. Shannon Chomanczuk, For My Sweet Daughter

140. Lisa Godfrey, Bead Happy
141. Heather Pyle, Welcome to My Muse
142. Regina Santerre, Regina's Writings
143. Liz DeLuca, Creative Arty Facts
144. Sig Wynne-Evans, Beaded Bear's Nonsense
145. Loretta Carstensen, Loretta's Boutique
146. Raida Disbrow, Havana Beads
147. Amber Dawn, Inventive Soul
148. Shelly Graves, Stars Dance With Me
149. Jess Italia Lincoln, Vintaj Blog

150. JJ Jacobs, Coming Abstractions
151. Carrie Tahquechi, Carrie T
152. Staci Smith, Staci Louise Originals
153. Katarzyna Kwiatkowska, Quiet Area
154. Ema Kilroy, Ema K Designs
155. Magdalena Sikora, Poranna Gazeta
156. Nicole Keller, Nicki's Reef
157. Ann Rishell, My Critical Eye
158. Noemi Baena, Fire, Metal, and Color
159. Christa Murphy, Adventures of One Beady Woman

160. Barbara Blaszczyk, Labotorium Flory
161. Collette Collins, Firefly Myst
162. Carola Greiser, Polymer Clay Shed
163. Joanna Kopijczuk, Bizuteria z Filcu
164. LeAnn Weih, Summers Studio
165. Cassandra Watsham, Design by Cassandra
166. Anna Motz, Stunning
167. Shea Zukowski, Gr8findings
168. Susan Kennedy, Sue Beads
169. Lisa Boucher, Lisa's Clay Happenings

170. Hope Smitherman, Crafty Hope
171. Alison Crenshaw, Beads by Earth Tones
172. Dorcas Midkiff, Wondrous Strange Designs
173. Melissa Rediger, Sea of Glass
174. Marina Dobrynina, Savon Feutre
175. Julie Nordine, Julie Nordine | Credit River Art Glass
176. Menka Gupta, Menka's Blog
177. Patsy Evins, Patsy Evins Studio
178. Cherrie Fick, En La Lumie're
179. Suzette Bentley, Ellie's Bijoux

180. Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me
181. Lyn Foley, Lyn Foley Wearable Art
182. Tara Plote, The Newbie Beader's Blog
183. Natalie Schuetz, Natalie S Perlen
184. Kim Hutchinson, Running on Ink
185. Haley Frank, Wide Eyed Smilin
186. Grace Caputo, Suddenly Last Summer
187. Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp, Skye Jewels
188. Erin Siegel, Erin Siegel Jewelry
189. Janea McDonald, Organized Chaos

190. Kristi Evenson, Colie Bug & Co.
191. Linda Inhelder, Must Haves Jewelry
192. Hilary Frye, FryeStyle
193. Whitney Lassini, Whitney Lassini
194. Nancy Schindler, The Rabbit Muse
195. Pam Brisse, The Blue Between
196. Beth Bricker, Vintage Sweets
197. Ruthie Stickney, Rose Works Jewelry and Gifts
198. Rose Noble, Lady Noble Designs
199. Karen Williams, Baublicious

200. Claire Maunsell, The Next Bend
201. Christine Damm, Stories They Tell
202. Kerry Bogert, Kab's Creative Concepts
203. Wendy Blum, Sand & Sea Designs
204. Juli Cannon, Julsbeads
205. Jenny Robledo, La Dona Boutique
206. Krista French, French Elegant Jewelry
207. Pam Krinski, Ewa Beads
208. Melissa Meman, Melissa Meman, Art, Life, Love
209. Dana Jones, Dana's Jewelry
210. Shirley Moore, Homeschooling Life

in the library

2011-02-12T11:18:00.001-05:00

Two books caught my eye in the school library yesterday:


by Chloë Sayer

The colors on the cover are not quite as garish as they appear here, but they are bright, or I should say, Son colores vivos, because my classes are working on describing clothing they buy when shopping. The embroidery got me thinking about making a peyote cuff pattern based on Mexican indigenous embroidery. I bought a few pieces of Otomi embroidery while I was in Mexico this winter and I started thinking I needed to work up a design, but have not jumped on it yet.

I love the bright colors and mythical creatures. Even though I usually don't go for solid brights, to me, there is something so cheerful about these pieces. And as for designing, I have so much trouble with blending and pairing colors that using bold, saturated swathes seems to be what I need to remove a mental roadblock and make a pattern.

not mine, but I have a very similar runner
[from www.mexicanartdealing.com]

A few nights before Christmas, my husband and I went into a nearby town to visit his cousin who was selling his jewelry at a craft fair. David, who studies graphic design at school, gave up a job in marketing and joined a collective of artists from the state of Hidalgo who travel the craft fair circuit together. For some reason I did not take my camera, either because it was night or because it was too cold to take my gloved hands out of my pockets, but I have no pictures of a man working on embroidery like the piece above. He had drawn out the design on muslin, stitched around the edge of each shape, and was stitching across to fill in the shape. I could hardly move my fingers, let alone contemplate holding a needle. Below is a huge spray painted sign for an auto repair shop that David painted.

all over Mexico business advertise by painting on the walls outside of their shops - this is by David

David and his wife are Rastas. My husband, who is rather straight-laced, told me that his cousin was a hippie. We had to explain to him what being a Rasta was about. While we were looking at David's booth, my hubby kept picking up pieces and showing them to me and saying, "this one has another pretty flower/butterfly on it, maybe you would like to get it." Finally I had to laugh and explain that all those pretty flowers and butterflies he was seeing were marijuana leaves. The poor guy did have eye surgery a few weeks later so maybe it was just his poor vision, not his misunderstanding of his cousin's lifestyle that confused him.

David and his beautiful wife

The second book I grabbed is Sherri Haab's Beaded Macramé Jewelry:

She has a great technique in here for using a chain of lark's head knots to create a loop for a toggle or button. I have made a couple macramé bracelets recently and was looking for a better was to for a loop (better than just doubling the cord and tying a knot). The book is filled with gorgeous pictures which make me want to run and pull out some C-Lon or Griffin silk cord right now and get to work.

Frozen

2011-02-08T17:34:00.000-05:00

I finished a peyote cuff last week. I've had this pattern and the beads for it since last spring, but just got around to putting it together.


this one fits right into my current craze for pale purples

the 15/0's on the picot edging look a bit off color in the photos, but they really pick up the golden highlights in the petals

This design is by Viki at Fairy's Dream Jewellrey. I added the edging and changed one of the colors from her design (the amethyst swirl and all that is that color was a dark metallic blueberry which got a little lost against the charcoal grey)

Corgi Tetherball Game

2011-02-04T18:23:00.000-05:00

Got my soup

2011-01-31T17:25:00.001-05:00

My bead soup arrived from the snowy north at the end of last week. My partner K Hutchinson did a great job picking beads and I'm pretty excited about getting started. K's blog Running on Ink is full of bright colors and family fun. I was inspired just by the colors she uses in her collages, and am super happy to have a little pendant included in the soup pack with a butterfly collage. Even though she tucked this in, along with a skeleton key, just for fun, I think I'm going to try to use them my piece. Check out the photos below.


my partner sent some hot soup!

I think this butterfly will look great in the piece accented with some other blue


Here is my selection before I went wild and played.

a little work

2011-01-30T19:35:00.000-05:00

polymer and silver art clay from the same mold

silver art clay from my mold below

the mold

I made these pieces last week when I made the peacock pendant. I have been carrying around the silver floral in my pocket all week as if it were a lucky charm. I still haven't bedazzled it, but I think I know what I will do. My mold and the polymer pieces are coated in some mineral powder. Mostly this is for release purposes, but I also like the way it looks, which is not like these photos. With super-macro they appear to be covered in powdered sugar, but in reality it is a bit more subtle. I still want to get out the alcohol inks and play around. They also need to be buffed a bit. I have found that denim works the best for me. Unfortunately, usually this means that I rub the polymer pieces against the leg of whatever jeans I am wearing at the moment.

the peacock in good light

Clay peacocks

2011-01-25T19:24:00.000-05:00

I've been playing with polymer clay for the past few days. I got out some clay straight from the package and made some molds. This entailed walking around the house and looking for things I thought might make interesting impressions. Two little dogs were very excited that we were on a treasure hunt. I didn't realize that simply roaming from room to room delighted them quite so much.

I baked quite a lot of polymer clay, but when I decided to finally pull out some silver art clay, I just made two impressions from my new molds. I thought I would see how it worked out, then try some more after seeing what adjustments I needed to make.

I'm still shooting indoors without a photo station.

This is a small pendant with a couple of random peacock feathers. Yes, I noticed that the upside down one in the upper left rather looked like an ear, but I was so excited about my peacock feather mold I really didn't notice that I'd found Van Gogh's severed ear. I made the mold (below - in positive and negative) from a plate I bought at a thrift store this summer.

I made my pendant into a necklace with a blue quartz coin, moonstone roundel, and tiny crystal.

I oxidized the sterling chain and the pendant, but didn't give the dangles any patina. This wasn't a design strategy, I just didn't feel like going into the cold laundry room to mix up the patina gel when I finally sat down and decided to make the piece into a necklace.

my mold

here is a polyclay impression


side by side- negative and positive

I made another silver pendant, but I didn't like these pics well enough to subject that one to the camera. My second piece is a floral which I made from the decorative part of a barrette that I think has been floating around my stash of hair-do bobs since I was in college. I'm hoping it will stop raining long enough during the daylight hours for me to take a picture.

A few stitches

2011-01-18T18:46:00.000-05:00

A tubular herringbone bangle from Ruby


My pink trefoil attempt

sterling, copper, silk, and vintage Czech glass earrings

tiny stars to test colorways

seven stars sewn together from Marcy Abney's Dec.2010 Beadwork piece

Dreadful photos that I just took inside, but I've been missing the daylight. I haven't been quite certain of my name for the past three days due to the creeping crud that is oozing around. I coughed, sniffled, sweated, and almost begged for mercy, but started to feel better until I faced 5 AM this morning. I thought I wouldn't make it through the workday. I drove 40 min. through thick fog hoping that no one would say anything that would upset me and cause me to burst into tears. Of course when I got in and had computer malfunctions on a day most of my lesson was dependent on technology, and had to switch gears while going down hill, I pulled it together. It may not have been pretty, but I didn't crash. So, I've got bad photos, oh well. I just wanted to share that I have been doing something during the last month.

The trefoil is the darned thing full of ceylon Delicas that broke. It looks a little squwishy because the beads decided to break as I was finishing. It was intended to go to a mother-in-law, but I need to make another. The earrings I made for the other MIL, and liked them so I made another pair for myself. I still need to finish another two dozen or so tiny stars to put together my bracelet from Marcy's pattern. And, yes, I wimped out on color and went with silver and gunmetal. Finally is my fever dream herringbone bangle. I have been wanting to try the pattern from Ruby's Beadwork. I even took beads to Mexico, but never got going. Saturday I made the bracelet. Instead of finishing it with a magnet, I ran beading stringing wire through the tube and added a toggle.

Around Tulancingo

2011-01-09T12:02:00.000-05:00


In and around Tulancingo, México

These pictures are from around town. I stayed in the tiny town of San Lorenzo Sayala (actually it is larger than Q'town were I live) and made frequent trips down the mountain to or through Tulancingo. Tulancingo was originally intended to be the capital of Hidalgo, but in the end Pachuca won out. I took many, many photos from the car as we drove around the states of Hidalgo, México, and Puebla. Most of these were taken on December 30th, the last day I was visiting. Inside cities all was concrete walls, usually brightly painted or sprayed with ads and announcements, outside the cities all was stone from fields. Everywhere it appeared as if the entire country was simultaneously being torn down and built up before my eyes.

View from the front of the house looking toward San Lorenzo Sayula

I really want to see the above view when the sunflowers are in bloom. All those brown dots in the foreground are dried sunflowers. Every where we went in this central area of México I saw sunflower seed heads. It must be glorious when they are in flower. Somewhere between the foreground and the houses in the background is a dry river bed. In fact there is also one that runs in a gorge some distance from the back of the house. One this particular bit of land is undeveloped so my mother-in-law has a nice view and doesn't look onto houses directly across the street.


Looking toward the church in San Lorenzo

We went to Mass on Noche Buena (Christmas Eve). My husband didn't want to go, but his mother is quite devoted so I decided we had to take her. Remi wanted to sit in the back row and his mother wanted to sit in the front row. We ended up in the middle. When Mass was over we spotted my father-in-law with his mother a few rows up. Remi's parents split up nearly 25 years ago, but his is a one-church town and they all get along.

Remi in the kitchen with his grandfather and grandmother

Remi's paternal grandparents have 12 children, 11 of whom lived. Despite the stern looks (and they are tough cookies!), their house was full of music during the holidays. I caught his grandmother dancing around the kitchen with about four of her daughters. She hid as soon as she saw me trying to take her picture.

What I've been beading and a little Mexico

2011-01-06T17:55:00.001-05:00

...not much. Not too much beading, and none that has been in front of the camera. Before the holidays I finished a commission piece (Hi Jordan - that was your piece) that I really love, I made earrings that I took to Mexico for some of the ladies in my husband's family, and I made Diane Fitzgerald's celtic trefoil for my mother-in-law, but had problems with beads breaking (I think I officially hate Delica's ceylon bead).

None of this was photographed. I'm not certain what I was thinking other than it was might cold in mid-December just before I left and I do not have an indoor photo booth set-up. Maybe this is one of my resolutions/goals for the first part of this year.

When I returned home, I started playing around with Marcie Abney's pattern in the latest Beadwork.

Working with her contribution to the Simply Seeds column has gotten me thinking more about how I can combine small patterns into larger pieces. Repetition.


What is out back behind the house in Mexico

The cacti don't look giant until you get someone in front of them.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Beads

2011-01-05T05:49:00.000-05:00

The traveling bead box has cris-crossed the country. I'm hoping it will stop in Georgia next, but you can through your hat in the ring at Cindy Gimbrone's Lampwork Diva site.

1. Heather Powers of Humble Beads- San Antonio, TX.
2. Mikki Ferrugiaro of MFD Beadwork Originals- UT.
3. Nancy Dale of NED Bead -Vermont.
4. Hannah Rosner of Good River Gallery- NM
5. Chris Neit of Good Quill Hunting-Maine
6. Sandy Spivey of Sandy’s Treasure- California
7. Katie Nelson of Katie’s Creations- TX
8. Kristie Roeder of Artisan Clay- PA
9. Lorelei Eurto of Lorelei Eurto Jewelry- New York State
10. Becky Caldwell of The Gritty Bird- North Carolina
11.Cindy Wimmer of Sweet Bead Studio - Virginia
12. Cindy Gimbrone of Lampwork Diva - NY

All rules are posted at Cindy's site. You have until 6 PM today to get on over and enter.

1 1/2 miles high

2011-01-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

The view from the front porch of my father-in-law's house at about 7875 feet above sea level.


My father-in-law built this house, but is now building another in town because he is afraid the cliffs above will begin to fall on his house. The sheep like to knock on the front door in the morning to be fed.


Sheep coming to greet/beg for food. Check out the brick work on the window sill and at the roof line; he did that himself. All the timbers extend to the interior and across the ceilings inside.

eggcellent

2011-01-03T16:27:00.000-05:00

at the house of my husband's aunt, a chicken

Back from Mexico, part 1

2011-01-02T09:32:00.000-05:00

I just got back from Hidalgo, México where I visited with my in-laws for two weeks. We did a bunch of touristy stuff like visiting Teotihuacan, Real del Monte, and a former hacienda in Santa Maria Regla and we visited and were visited by every living relative in Remi's family. I have a mountain of mail and laundry to deal with, dogs to walk, and work tomorrow so this just a little glimpse at the trip.


At Teotihuacan at the top of the Pyramid of the Sun with the Pyramid of the Moon behind.


Adding a rock


Feeling the power of the pyramid at the center of the top


We stayed until the end of the day


We ate and ate with the family. Some nieces and a nephew, and in-laws.


church and ruins at the former hacienda in Santa Maria Regla


Father-in-law Roberto and Remi inspecting the stone work. Roberto is a mason.

looking down on those barrel vaults with basalt prisms in the hills behind


looking up in Pahuatlan, Puebla

...and looking down

And now Blogger and I are having some communication problems so I will rename this Back from Mexico, Part I.

Corgi v kitty - Greco-Roman style

2010-12-27T03:39:00.003-05:00

Corgi v kitty

2010-12-26T03:37:00.002-05:00

CAT ATTACKS WIENER DOG

2010-12-24T03:50:00.000-05:00

Kitten vs. Watermelon

2010-12-22T03:46:00.001-05:00

Weirdest Animal Pictures

2010-12-20T03:44:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays Light-O-Rama

2010-12-19T03:33:00.001-05:00

It's a marshmallow world

2010-12-11T19:52:00.001-05:00

We don't have any snow here, but I like to imagine what my little corgi boys would do in the snow.

Necklace Giveaway

2010-12-07T18:12:00.000-05:00

Lori Anderson of Pretty Things is giving away a necklace she made for a swap from reworking a piece by Johanna Rhodes of Fire Phoenix Creations.

Take a look at this beauty. You have until a bit before 2 PM on Friday, December 10th to enter.

What do you do with the ends of your thread?

2010-12-05T11:25:00.000-05:00

3-link pointed oval chain

I have been working on a custom order piece this week, but took some time out to play with the pointed oval from Diane Fitzgerald's book Shaped Beadwork. I made this little chain as well as an embellished link. I used Fireline and Toho Treasures. A thread burner is on my wish list, but in the meantime I've been playing around with various methods of achieving the same result. I've heated a metal skewer, a toothpick, and tried using an old heated eyelash curler. Nothing really worked. I did not, however, melt my cord ends with a lighter as suggested in Shaped Beadwork. Just thinking about this gave me anxiety. What do you do with the ends of your threads after you cut them? Should I shell out the $25 for a thread burner? Do you have a better way?

Margie and Me Mosaic of Color Challenge

2010-12-01T05:03:00.002-05:00

I worked on a beaded bead tutorial for my Mosaic of Color challenge piece. For loads of details hop over to La Bella Joya. This week's challenge was to use either the color palette or the feel of the theme inspiration:

I tried to get a little of each in my beads. I wanted to include the cobalt and a hint of green, but everything started to get a little crazy with too many colors. I do a bit better when I work with a limited palette. Maybe I just like playing with shape and texture? I really love to wear many colors, but like to work with as few as possible.

These beaded beads started on 10mm stone rounds. The pattern tutorial is by Quimeras de Náyades and can be found at her Etsy. If you look at the bead she shows you will wonder why my beaded beads look different. No, it rally is the pattern I used, but I added an extra layer of beads to each vertices in the dodecahedron. Quimeras shows this in the tutorial, but not in the pictures.

2010-11-28T05:44:00.000-05:00

flat netting

I have been beading, but not taking pictures as often as I need to do. The time change poses a problem for catching the light at the right time. I'm getting too many shadows now at the usual time I wander out to take pictures. I ran out and realized that I was about 20 minutes past the last good light. But, oh well, I grabbed some shots anyhow.

I tried out flat netting a few weeks ago. I made a very simple bright red cuff with large toggles. One of the young ladies who has been in my class since last year (Spanish 1 [which I no longer teach] and Spanish 2) caught sight of it, grabbed my wrist, and declared that she liked this one the best of all she had seen. I'm not sure I agree, but it was fun to flat net.

two colors of 11/o Czech's and some vintage pressed glass flowers

I love the texture of the fabric and the way the pearl finish beads play against the matte finish beads.

netting works up quickly - next to try some netting layered over another base to give it a bit of substance

I also tried a RAW pattern from the French designer Mu whose site I cannot find to add the link. This one uses 6/o's and 15/o's. I added a giant vintage button and a handmade steel hook for a closure.

bracelets mingling

the button is quite a bit more blue in person

Finally, a little bit of flower power and corgi cuteness...

The neighbors's cat

I don't remember her name. I just call her Sombracita - little shadow - because she chases after us when we walk.

Mingus and the neighbors' cat.

The black kitty runs from her house when she sees us in the morning. Coltrane and Mingus are always excited to see her and won't move until she crosses the street to greet them. Then they promptly ignore her. When we are on the walk back home she hides behind a shrub or in the shadows (we walk before 6AM), and jumps out at them. Usually I see her hide while the boys are busy sniffing everything, but sometimes she manages to scare me too. This was a rare weekend morning when she laid herself out on the sidewalk in Mingus's path and demanded attention.

fountains

2010-11-27T10:46:00.000-05:00

little fountain on my street in Georgia

plaza fountain in Santiago near Monterrey, Mexico

When the ladies of the Garden Club put up the fountain on my street I could not believe my eyes. It was a mini-me for the fountain I had seen in Mexico a few years ago. There is another larger fountain in my tiny town right in front of the courthouse. I think it has been dry for quite some time. The little fountain which I walk past every day on my dog walk has just been restocked with fish.

Goodbye to the Normals

2010-11-21T08:55:00.000-05:00

kumi's got me

2010-11-20T08:52:00.002-05:00

I've been kumi crazy all week. Actually I'm working on just one thing, but because I've been super sleepy this week, I only proceed about 45 min. at a time. I have had this gorgeous lampwork focal by Juls Cannon for a few months and I finally figured out what I wanted to do with it. I decided that some little seed beads I had would really bring out the greens and blues in the lampwork, and I set out to make a kumihimo strand on which to feature the bead.

the Aurora Borealis focal bead from Juls

I strung 13 ounces of copper lined aqua 11/o beads onto 8 lb. Fireline and set up my kumi disc. This sounds like something that can happen lickety split, but in actuality, it took two days (aka 1 1/2 hours when your working day is only 45 min.). Having no bobbins around which to wind the 64 feet of Fireline I pulled off of the roll, I folded index cards and cut notches to keep all the line in check, but also allow for easy unrolling to extend length as I went. I thought about running to the drug store and searching for some pink foam hair rollers, but I decided I'd better invest my $ in real bobbins.

My beads are actually a bit lighter in color.

At first I thought that the index cards would grab each other and not work, but they didn't pose any problem. So finally I had eight 8 foot long strands of Fireline laden with 11/o beads. I started braiding and when I began to add beads I thought perhaps the endeavor was turning out to be a disaster. I got about 3 inches into it (this is slow going - but to me who is used to working wide peyote bands, it seems pretty quick) and put it down for the evening feeling deflated. My fingers were having a hard time grabbing the line and it was difficult to see if the the 11/o beads were really under the line in each pass. I was feeling as if the fun had gone out of it.

Kumi mobile

The next evening I put on my big girl skirt and picked up the disc again. This time I actually put on my glasses and thought about the dilemma. I adjusted the weight at the end of the braid and whipped out another few inches. Huh!? I actually liked what I was getting. Although I know next to nothing about that I'm doing, I do know that the weight on the braid and the counterweight on each of the lines will change to look of the braid. So on I went. I've gotten to the point where I will run out of beads. Today I have to do that most dangerous thing - go on-line and place a bead order. I need all the self control I can muster!

...so far...

This is 29 cm (11 1/2 inches) of braid.

Non-dog lovers should look away now - here is your dose of dog cuteness:

I was reading blogs and turned around to find my husband napping with the dog.