I've been a bad, bad blogger, I know really truly awful. :(
It has been such a busy month....and a half.... or more since I last posted and I apologize greatly. But I have had a revelation that I had yet to seem to grasp, and have now started to create my own pieces Just by looking and beads and letting my hands do the work. Don't get me wrong the colors have always been mine but with out following some rough outline or at least a picture in a passing magazine and go from there, but now I find myself drawing little inspiration from pictures of other peoples stuff. Then magically on vacation in Arkansas, in the SNOW (which doesn't happen in Arkansas.....ever.... unless you leave your cold home state of Oregon and go to said Arkansas) I found some inspiration and it started with bracelets and then went to earrings and even a necklace, not all of the same kind mind you. But the point is that it started to flow and all of a sudden all of these weird stitches that I have used mostly just with themselves started to fit together to make pieces. Not that any of these are so elaborate, but BABY STEPS and I am on my way!
So to follow are some of the photos of the things I did while I was snowed into my hotel for five days..... FIVE DAYS of a seven day vacation, not because we couldn't drive in the snow, but because ever Arkansas native apparently thinks that you can break on ice and in fact it is the preferred method of driving in the snow.... LOTS of accidents.
So I made this piece and I love it, but red is not my color so it will shortly be up in my etsy store. It is made with Size 11O/T seed beads and a 12 MM Glass pearl, along with glass, plastic and I think ceramic beads, It has a beaded toggle clasp as the closure.
This little Gem of a bracelet was my first attempt at a the larger beads with smaller beads. It has purple lined blue seed bead size 8 o/t and a clear with AB finish size 11 o/t this bracelet took about six hours of working plus making and attaching the clasp. But I couldn't be happier with the results, it was a gift for my boyfriends mother. By the way, I feel like this needs mention, I have given up my alliance to never use anything but nymo. I had a bad experience with a spool of black that I bought, Although I don't really think that it was nymo I think it was miss marked, but it just frayed and unraveled about the sixth line in on peyote and broke my heart. So that sent me on the quest for the next best thing, and I happened to pick up a spool of the most expesive beading thread i have ever bought, but 40% off thanks to a Joann's coupon. And what I bought was WildFire beading thread. I have a thing against monofiliment because it's to slick for me, But this is a heat treated and coated thread, and is like a super Nymo. I just made my first ring with it for a regular wearer when her favorite ring broke, and since rings are the most abused things I make, I figured it would give me a good gauge on what it can take, but I have a feeling it will take a lot being that I can't even seem to break it no matte how hard I hold tension ( I tried, and cut myself in the process, my wrap finger aka my index finger is a bit sore right now from five days of continuous beading, the top knuckle crease is missing a wee bit of skin.... worse then a paper cut.) So when you do use this thread, and if you are a puller like me, remember that it is very sharp. I think a 50 yard spool was around 16 dollars ( Oregon doesn't have sales tax so that's just cost) But Joanns regularly has 40% off a single item coupon, so that's when I buy all of my expensive beading things I can actually by from them, like mounts and thread, and sometimes if I want it right that second accent beads. But I don't think I could be any more pleased with the Wildfire frost 10lb test thread.
now then moving on finally. The Earring is actually where the pendent design came from, I was wanting something chunky and fun. I have always loved the coral fringe but tend to use it in all the wrong places and I just happened to have a think about some earrings using it, and I had some new shinny glass pearls that I really liked and was itching to use. Thus these earrings were born. Although I have this itch where I can't leave things alone and I don't like doing things unless its complicated, obviously, that's why I am a seed beader. Noting worth doing takes less than a hour or 36...
Anywho....
So the hotel had this really awesome HUGE bent corner desk, and I used it all, every bead that I packed in my suitcase designated for beads (Southwest lets you check 2 and I don't own that many cloths, obsessive? Horder? Hobby!) was spread out on that table and it was wonderful! as you can see by that picture I really don't keep a tidy tray, in fact if it's a day of beading I have to myself I usually just leave whatever falls out of my velcroed triangles on the tray until I am done beading and then I scoop them up and add them to my bead soup that I may one day use.. or at least look at because I think its pretty. Speaking of pretty, here is another photo because they are pretty.. yes this is the back of my laptop, don't judge, I didn't have a set up in the hotel.
Last but not least, the second bracelet I made, which I also really like Its got a metallic 8 O/t bead and black matte 11 O/T. Now I only had frost colored thread with me, so after I took this picture I went through and with a sharpie and colored all of that white black.
Well that's almost last, because I do have one more bracelet that I made while on vacation, but it doesn't have a clasp yet and I haven't taken pictures of it yet. however it is a blue and black one.
Ok
I am done.
As always take a look at my etsy store which I am just as bad at updating with new merch as I am with posting on this blog.
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