Making progress

Hello everyone, and welcome this snowy day!  I'm so happy you could join me.  It is snowing again, but they are assuring us it's not going to amount to much.  For those of us in the Mid-Atlantic this winter is going on forever!!  The weekend was beautiful and I was able to get out into my garden and prune the roses and clean up some of the flower beds.  My hellebores and crocuses are starting to bloom and that makes me very happy.  Now if we could just warm up and stay that way!  But, enough of the complaining about the weather (which gets you nowhere!) and on to the title of this post.

I don't make resolutions at the New Year but I do try to set some realistic goals for myself.  This year it was to finish projects that have been sitting around in various states of completion.  Of course, I had to weed out the ones that made me say "What was I thinking?" and keep the ones I still really liked and wanted to finish!  After that exercise was done I decided to do one a month to keep to my realistic timeline and not try to finish everything in two weeks as I'm inclined to do once I decide to do something!  In January I finished a little paper art project that was from a technique class I took over a year ago with Wendy Vecchi.  This month it was to finish a lariat I had started about two years ago.  This is the finished necklace.

 

 

While I like to design as I go, this was a compilation of patterns from other bead artists.  It started out as a way to use a beaded ring that was a Cynthia Rutledge design.  I decided to use it as the ring end of a lariat.  Of course, then I needed a lariat!  I was just going to bead a spiral rope using some beads from the ring but then I saw this lariat pattern in  Kelly Wiese's book,  Beaded Allure.  I liked the seed beaded stitch pattern and the fringe that used silver as well as beads.  So, using the colors that I had used in the ring, an unusual color combination for me, I stitched the lariat and then the fringe. 

 

 

 

 

 

While the green is a color I use a lot, the blue pearls and golden accent beads are not go to colors for me.  But, I guess I was in a mood to change things up the day I stitched the ring!! It was fun to stitch and I found blue seed beads with a green iris finish to stitch the lariat.   Of course, the fringe was my favorite part of the necklace.  Here's a picture of it.

 

 









 

I love stitching fringe and I use lots of different beads to create pattern and interest in it.  The original fringe from the pattern used silver beads, bead caps and spacers and I kept that part of the design.  From there I added crystals bicones and shaped beads, fire polished beads, seed beads, Hill Tribe bead caps and a few vintage beads.  Its a nice long fringe which adds to the drape of the necklace.  

 

 I feel so pleased to have been able to finish a lariat that I really like and to have been able to put those beads away after a long time sitting on my work table!!  On to project 3!!!

 

Thank you so much for visiting with me today!  I love all your comments and appreciate your visits so much.  I hope you have a wonderful day.

 

 

Cherry Wine

That's what I thought of as I worked this variation on Heather Collins' Triangles pattern. I have to tell you that you should visit Heather's store.  Her patterns are great, both the designs and the directions. They are clear and easy to follow. Back to this variation. The colors, and I suppose the time of year, just seemed to say Cherry Wine.  I had the idea to try this variation while I was bezeling the rivoli for the pendant from her pattern.  For this variation I followed the directions for the base triangle and the bezel, adding an extra row to the bezel.  Then, instead of putting a rivoli  in the opening, I left it open and added fringe, using beads that coordinated with the delicas.  I love the idea that the fringe is spilling out of the opening.  It doesn't fill the entire opening, which is a little difficult to see in the photo.  I attached it to the base triangle and used daggers and drop beads along with the Delicas.  Once the beading was finished, I added jump  rings to the corner beads and added a fine gold chain.  It's a soft looking necklace that has gotten several positive comments when I've worn it.  I'm really pleased with this variation and I want to play around with it to see where I can go with it.  For now, I'm finishing up the project which is going to be the culmination of all this triangle play!  I like what have so far.  It should be finished this coming week.  So, stay tuned for the next installment in my triangle series.
Thank you for stopping by today.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend and that you're able to find time to do something creative.



Tila Beads

I don't know why, but those of us who find our bliss creating are always excited by, and have to have, the newest products on the market.  When you love, and create, in several different mediums, that could add considerably to the stash!  Whether it's the latest fabric for fabric art, or the newest, most wonderful yarn for knitting, or the greatest new ink for paper arts, there's always something that I just have to try.  Well, beads aren't any different!  The newest thing in the beading world are the Tila beads.  They are manufactured by Miyuki, who makes the Delica beads.  Tila beads are flat beads with two holes instead on one.  That makes them different, but it's the colors and finishes that really attracted me.  I'm a sucker for colors and finishes.  And, Tila beads  come in gorgeous colors.  I really had a hard time deciding which ones I wanted to take home with me when I found that Leslie of http://www.twistedsistahbeads.com/ had them.  So, I fell back on my old stand by, green.  Actually, they were Mettalic Malachite Green Iris!  That sounds so much better than saying I got the green ones! 

I let my beautiful beads sit on my table for a while, trying to decide what I wanted to do with them.  One day I was checking out Whimbeads.com and discovered that they have a  pattern in the classroom section of their website that uses the Tila beads.  There are some great patterns that are free and available for download on the site.  The newest pattern is for a RAW bracelet with fringe using the Tila beads.  I downloaded it and started trying to decide what colors to use with my wonderful beads.  I've been using a lot of gray lately, so I finally chose pewter 11's and 15's, black diamond crystal bicones,and for an accent color I chose peacock 15's and Pacific opal bicones.  I'm so very pleased with the results.

I've fallen in love with fringe made using the new beads!  I know I'll be using them for fringe again.  If you want to try something different these are the beads to try.  They aren't inexpensive, but I think they're worth the cost. 

Thank you for spending some time reading the blog today.  I hope you have a wonderful, and creative day.