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.
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.
...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.
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.
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.
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.
