Summer of Color3: The Last Week!

It's really hard to believe that we've come to the last week of the Summer of Color3!  It's been such a fun challenge.  I know I've said that before, but since color is my favorite thing, it was a great way to spend creative time this year!

This week's colors were sage and sepia.  A beautiful combination with many possibilities.  I've used it in paper and also in beading. A few years ago I made a bead crocheted rope necklace that I really love.  I thought I'd share it since the colors are sepia and sage.



I stitched a peyote stitched slide to cover a magnetic clasp and also to be a focal for the necklace.

Since that wasn't made specifically for this challenge I also did some paper art.  I had been wanting to use the Graphic45 collection "A Ladies Diary" since it came out.  The colors in the papers worked for this week's challenge so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make a small inspiration board, another thing I'd been wanting to do. 



I cut small tags from an older Sizzix's die and attached things that a lady might see at her dressmaker's to help her make her choice for her next outfit.  You can see her  peeking out from the left edge of the board, surveying the offerings!!  A few embellishments and some pictures of ladies in beautiful hats that might interest her and the board is ready to be put on display! 

I've started embellishing the back of my dimensional projects just for fun.  I've always loved adding some thing to areas that aren't readily seen by anyone but me.  I use that area and the embellishments to sign and date the project.  Here's the back of this one.

 

 

This was fun to make.  And, a fun way to end this challenge.  I want to thank Kristin for organizing this.  I'm so looking forward to next year!

 

 

Thank you for visiting today.  I hope you all have a wonderful day.

 





It's been a while...

...but, our lovely daughter got married Saturday and I've been a little busy!  I've been documenting the projects I took on for the big day with photos, so you may see some of them soon.  I didn't handcraft much for the wedding because I didn't want to be overwhelmed with projects, but I did do a few things.  Just enough, actually, to enjoy the making without overwhelming myself with things that needed to be made. 

But, that being said, all the planning left me little time to blog.  And, I do have a bead crochet necklace I made a few months ago that I wanted to share. 

I found the ceramic rings at a bead show in February and I immediately knew what I wanted to do with them.  I have to apologize to the artist who makes these rings because I had her card so that I could give her a nod when I posted this necklace, but like many things the last few months, the card has been misplaced!  I hope to have my life revert to what is considered normal for me now that the bride and groom are off starting their new life!  But, I digress!  When I found these rings I thought they would look great on a bead crochet rope made from black beads.  I have a large amount of black size 8 beads left over from some project from long ago and I had been looking for the perfect compliment for using them.  Another bonus to making this necklace was that I got to use my bead spinner for the first time.  I've always made ropes with at least three colors of beads, so that requires counting and the bead spinner doesn't work.  Well, this same color rope gave me the opportunity to try my hand at the bead spinner.  It was fun to use, and my husband and I had some laughs as the beads flew out and all over the kitchen floor!  The hazards of being a new bead spinner!  But, the beads do collect on the thread much more quickly than stringing them individually. 



As I worked on this I was trying to decide how to finish the ends.  I really didn't want to use a metal bead cap.  Shortly after I started working on the necklace I ordered Linda Lehman's book on making bead crochet ropes, Bead Crochet Ropes: Tool, Tips and 15 Projects.  It's a great book for anyone interested in learning how to do bead crochet ropes.   In the book are directions for creating a bead cap using herringbone stitched caps.  That was the perfect solution to my problem of how to finish the rope. 

I ended up with a perfect little bead cap without having to use a metal cap.  I know it's unusual for me not to want to make something with different materials incorporated into it, but I really wanted this to have a clean look to it.  Which then brought me to the clasp!  I didn't have a black, or even a gunmetal, clasp that would hold the weight of the necklace, so I made my own out of black art wire.  I was pleased with the results.

This picture isn't the best, but I made a hook and loop out of 18 gauge black art wire.  I used the method described in Linda's book for attaching a clasp, which made finishing the whole thing very easy. 

I've worn this necklace a lot because it's so basic.  Not really flashy, but bold, which the new bride would say was soooo me!!!

Thanks for stopping by to visit.  I'll try to do better with my posting, but for now I hope you have a good day while I go put my feet up and enjoy the lack of things to be done!







Bead Crochet Necklace

I've finished my first bead crochet necklace.  I wanted it to be a choker, so it's about 16.5 inches in length.  I'm really pleased with the results.  I used size 8 hex beads in colors I love.  I have a lot of size 8 hex beads that I buy from my friend

Leslie.  I make reversible knitted bead cuffs with them, and I use them in my freeform beadweaving also.  I love the way the light reflects off of those angles!  This combination happened to be sitting on my work table and I thought it would make a wonderful fall necklace.  I call it Burnished Olives.  I had been trying to decide what I was going to do next for a bead crochet project.  I wanted to make a necklace and these colors spoke to me.  Of course, this means that I'm finally moving out of my summer color mode and into fall colors, which is a sure sign that the seasons are getting ready to change.  I'm very affected by the changing seasons, both with the colors I wear, and the colors I work with.  But, more on that at another time. 

I always try to think about what the closure will look like when I begin a piece of jewelry, and I try to use different techniques.  I'd been wanting to use a magnetic clasp covered with a peyote tube and this was my chance to do that.  I like the ease of a magnetic clasp, but I don't think they're very attractive all by themselves. 

I used copper size 8 seed beads and made a peyote tube.  I did a picot edge with size 11's in colors that coordinated with the hex beads.  I then did a picot stitch down the middle of the the tube using the same 11's.  I wrapped it around the necklace and zipped it  closed.  It moves out of the way when  I want to put the necklace on.  I'm really pleased with the results and I think it's going to become one of my favorite fall necklaces.  Of course, I say that all the time about the newest necklace, bracelet or pair of earrings I've made!

Here are some close ups of the closure. 

 

I hope you have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by and sharing your time with me.

The summer of bead crochet ropes

I've declared this the summer of bead crochet ropes.  Or rather the summer I learned how to do bead crochet ropes!  I've loved bead crochet ropes for a long time, but I never learned how to make them.  I've seen beautiful necklaces and bracelets created by bead artists and I really wanted to make my own.  I'd always heard that it was difficult to master and it took patience.  Patience isn't my strong suit, but I could do a lot of other things with needles and hooks, why not this?  And, I could do flat bead crochet.  That didn't interest me.  It had to be the ropes. 

I never set aside time to learn until this winter.  With 70 inches of snow on the ground what  else was there to do?!?  Well, I got out the books and some size 6 beads and crochet cotton.  I was starting in kindergarten with the fat crayons and pencils.  But, no matter how many times I started and ripped out I never seemed to be able to get the beads to look the way they were supposed to.  I would walk away and then go back to it a few days later.  But, nothing seemed to work.  I tried using a knitting needle as a support for the first few rounds, because as with most things, the first few rounds are the most challenging.  Didn't help!  Well, the snow melted and the weather improved and the garden beckoned.  Bead crochet ropes were put aside for the time being.  If winter brought us snow, summer has brought us heat!  Like 104 degrees for two or three days at a time! More time inside and less time in the garden.  Time to revisit bead crochet ropes.  And, I decided to make a real commitment to learning it.  So, one day I sat down with all my books, beads and a hook.  I followed the suggestion to use at least three colors of beads, and I had my trusty knitting needle with me should I need the support.  I was ready.  And, once again I had problems.  I walked away for a couple of hours, but this time I went back to it  that afternoon rather then days later.  I  began by rereading all the directions from the beginning.  And, finally I realized my biggest problem.  I didn't position the working thread in the correct place.  It needs to come over the bead that your working into!  I started again, and wonder of wonders, it worked!!  I decided to work on it everyday until I felt comfortable with it and could graduate from kindergarten to first grade.  After a few days, I realized I needed to work on a bracelet because I could only crochet and rip out and crochet again the same  short piece for so long before I would go stark raving mad!  So, I gathered  three colors of beads I love and started a bracelet.  This is the result.

I was very, very pleased!  It took a while to complete but the finished product was wearable and looked like it was supposed to look!  I decided to start another one so I wouldn't lose the momentum, or forget what I was doing.  This time I decided to be brave and I used size 8 beads with a size 6 thrown in for comfort!  And, this is the result of that effort.

Once again I was pleased with the bracelet.  And the best part is that as I worked on it I could feel myself becoming more relaxed and comfortable with the technique.  It didn't take as long and I did less ripping back! 

After these efforts I think I can safely say that I know how to make bead crochet ropes.  I'm certainly not a whiz at it, but I'm going to continue my travels through elementary school, and as the summer progresses I hope to graduate from 8th grade with a project done with size 11's and top stitching thread.  You know, like the big kids!

Hope you have a wonderful day.  Thanks for stopping by.