Frosted Plums

As you know from previous posts,  I like to create knitted jewelry.  I find it challenging to use knitting fiber to make a necklace or bracelet.  Last year I started making bead knitted bracelets and necklaces.  My friend Leslie from Twisted Sistah had knitted a reversible bracelet using #8 Hex beads and micro C-lon thread.  She gave me the pattern and I was soon hooked on making these bracelets.  I'll post some pictures of some of the ones I made in another post.  I had also been making some of the bracelets Ellen from Earthfaire creates.  She uses a mix of beads and Kreinik metallic braid to knit bracelets and necklaces. 

A few months ago I started doing bead knitting with wire instead of thread.  I made a few necklaces and bracelets using sterling silver clasps.  After the holidays I was going through my stash of Artistic Wire and came across a matte plum wire in 30 gauge that my daughter, Carrie, had given me.  I really liked the fact that it was matte.  I pulled together a bead stew to use for a necklace.  One of my favorite parts of making these necklaces is putting together the bead stew.  I've learned that any bead smaller than a 6 doesn't have the presence I like.   They tend to get lost among the larger beads.  I've used stick pearls with success, but anything too large distorts the knitting.  So, putting the beads together is really fun for me.  I get to go through all my beads and find what I think will work in color and size.  It's great fun, and I discover things I forgot I had. 

As I worked on this necklace I decided it looked like frosted plums, hence the name.  I also thought it would be fun to do something different with the clasp.  I'm a big fan of Beverly Ash Gilbert.   In her new book, Beaded Colorways, she shows how she bezels a cabochon and makes a clasp out of it.  I had wanted to use fabric as to create a cabochon for a long while.  So, I decided to put that idea, and Beverly's clasp idea together.  My stash of cotton batiks is quite large because I've never seen a batik I didn't fall in love with!  And, surprise!  I found one that was a perfect match for this necklace.  I cut a 2" circle of Lacy's Stiff Stuff and a 1 3/4" circle of fabric, which I  placed over a layer of thin quilt batting.  I sewed the batik to the Lacy's around the outer edge and began beading a bezel around the fabric circle. 

I love freeform beading, and I took a class from my friend Christen Brown.  She teaches a great freeform peyote bracelet class for Joggles.  Check it out if your interested in freeform!  Anyway, I decided to use some freeform across the fabric, and I used Beverly's idea (her book is  a study of freeform beadwork and color) to use a variety of beads in the embroidery around the cab. 

Once the knitting was finished and the cab was well on it's way to being finished, I started thinking about how to attach it to the necklace and create a closure.  In Beverly's book she makes a hook out of wire and attaches it to the back side of the cab.  She then attaches a jump ring to the opposite side of the necklace.  Since my necklace was knitted out of wire I just reenforced the bound off end of the necklace to use in place of a jump ring.  But, I still needed to attach the cab to the necklace and decide on a hook.  After much thought I used my flat-nose pliers to flatten the cast on edge of the necklace and I stitched the back  of the cab to the wire edge.  I then used three small hooks from a set of hooks and eyes and stitched them to the opposite side of the cab so they corresponded to the reenforced bind off edge.  I positioned them so that just the tips of the ends were visible along the edge of the cab.  I then glued ultra-suede to the back of the cabochon and stitched a beaded picot edge around the entire cab.  The picot covered the tips of the hooks so they were no longer visible. 

I was very pleased with the finished necklace.  It can be worn with the clasp in the back, front, or to the side.  I like to wear it to the side.  The knitted wire necklaces and bracelets are very light in weight even though they have a lot of beads in them.  So, they're fun to wear. 

Something I learned from trying to photograph this necklace I also learned from Beverly.  She has a wonderful newsletter that she has recently started.  The February edition had information about taking good photographs.  In it she talked about backgrounds and their colors.  She used as an example a necklace she made using purple beads.  She needed to put it on a green background in order for the color to look good.  She used beautiful green leaves from her garden.  Green being the compliment of purple on the color wheel.   Well, I had been having the same problem with this necklace.  I tried putting it on a green plate, since we don't have a lot of green in the garden yet, and it worked.  Now my photographs are definitely not in the same league as Beverly's, but I could not get good color no matter what background I tried until I used the green plate.  Thank you,  Beverly! 

I love to find alternative closures for my creations.  Whether it's a closure for a jacket or a clasp for a necklace or bracelet, I think it adds to the fun of making and wearing the piece.  Thinking outside the box can lead to some interesting results.  Try it!

Have a fun and creative day! 

I'm excited!

I'm so excited!!  I mentioned in one of my first posts that one of my jackets was being featured in an upcoming issue of the Stampington publication Belle Armoire.  Well, yesterday I received my copy of the March/April issue and the article was in it!   I was really, really excited!  Oh, yeah, I said that already! 

The jacket is one I made for my husband's 35th Naval Academy class reunion.  I wanted a new jacket for the dinner dance and I agonized all summer over what I wanted to do.  I couldn't come up with any ideas for a new design.  In August of that year we went out to Boise, Idaho for my in-laws' 80th birthday celebration.  As we were walking down the hall to our hotel room I noticed the pattern of the rug and I registered that I really liked it.  But, it was late and I was tired from the trip.  The next morning I really looked at the pattern and decided I needed a picture of it.  So, we took a picture of the rug.  Fortunately, no one was in the hall to see my husband taking this picture!

This is the rug and what became the inspiration for the jacket.  Really, it's just a typical hotel rug, but I liked the layered squares and the curving lines.  When we got home from the trip I decided to see what I could do to use the rug design to create a jacket.  I always begin with the fabric, and actually, sometimes the fabric becomes the inspiration.   I decided to use some Burmese silk that was in my stash for a main fabric.  I loved the copper color, and since the dinner was in October I thought it would be a great color to use.  I had some smaller pieces of the silk in burgundy and orange, so they went into the mix.  I found some gold cotton fabric from India that is woven with metallic threads.  I really like this fabric because it's got the metallic sheen without being an in-your-face lame.  And, it's easier to work with than lame.  I had already decided that the curving lines would be bias tape made from the fabrics I'd chosen. I had a knitting ribbon that would coordinate with the fabrics.  So, I dug that out of the knitting stash.  From there I just started putting the pieces together.   I needed a lining fabric, and, again, found what I wanted in my stash.  It was a quilting cotton that had colors coordinating with the outer fabrics and I stamped it with some leaf stamps and gold ink.  I like to put details into the lining.  It's a fun to know there's some little detail inside the jacket.

My jackets usually come together as I work on them.  I have a general idea of what I want to end up with, but things evolve as I go.  In this case, the surface design was easy because I using the rug design as inspiration.  As I was working on the jacket I decided to make bound button holes instead of stitched ones.  That led me to the buttons.  I had the beautiful dichroic glass buttons that were perfect for the jacket!   They were the first buttons I had from my friend Terrie Voigt, and they were perfect!  They were square, same copper color, and they had orange squares layered over the copper!  I couldn't believe how great they matched the rest of the materials.  I knew then this was going to be a successful design.  Sometimes I'm not sure about that, and I have lots of leftovers to prove that my ideas don't always work out.  I suppose that's a risk of not really planning everything out a head of time.  But, I have a hard time doing that.  Ideas keep coming as I work on a project.  Like the beads you can see in this picture.  I decided it would add some texture, and satisfy my love of adding beads to things!  So, I scattered different sizes and shapes of beads over the appliqued squares. 

I liked the jacket so much that I decided to enter it in the 2007 Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival.  It was accepted and actually won a blue ribbon!  From there the jacket made the journey to Belle Armoire and the article!  It's been such a great journey.  I love this jacket.  I've enjoyed wearing it and I hope you have enjoyed it's story.  Thank you for visiting today.

Happy Hearts' Day!

I've  loved Valentine's Day since I was a child.  I love the prettiness of the hearts and lace.  I love the bright red in the middle of a dreary month.   Hope you have a wonderful day. 

What I did in the Blizzard!

Living in the mid-Atlantic means we only get large snow storms about every 8-10  years.  But, when the storms do hit they really knock us out.  Snow removal equipment isn't the best, nor is there a lot of it. People don't know how to drive and don't understand what "stay inside and off the roads" means.  Well, this winter has really been unusual.  Not only did we have a major snow storm in December, but we've had two major storms within 5 days! 

This is our back yard after the second blizzard.  The fence is 6 feet tall!  So, you have some indication of what our world looks like.  But, even though we had no way of getting out for a few days, and no where to go because mostly everything was closed, I managed to keep busy.  Besides cooking and baking, which I always want to do when it snows, I also was busy in the studio. 

I had been working on a bead embroidered pendant before the storm, and I had plenty of time to finish it and it's necklace once the first storm hit.   I love doing bead embroidery, mostly because I like doing embroidery!  I try to let the beads tell me what to do.  I used a photograph from a catalog as the color inspiration for this piece.  The cabochon is one I had in my stash and it was the perfect color for what I wanted to do. 

Once I finished the embroidery I had to decide on a necklace for it.  I was going to stitch a spiral rope and make a bail for the pendant, but that seemed too busy.  What I decided to do was just string some of the seed beads and attach the necklace to the top  of the pendant.

  

The necklace I ended up making is fun to stitch.  You begin by stringing a given number of beads, in this case 34, and then stringing 4 more.  You pick up 4 beads in a contrasting color and go through the last 4 beads again.  You repeat that sequence 5 more times to create the barrel, then string another 34 beads.  By repeating that pattern, you can create a necklace any length you desire.  Once again, living by my motto of "life's too short not to embellish", I went back and put some fringe on the bottom of each barrel, using seed beads and drop beads.  I attached it to the pendant by stringing into two of the pendants edging beads on each side. 

I like the finished product.  The barrels add some weight to the necklace so that it supports the pendant, without competing with it. 

One project finished.  But, there was still almost 30 inches of snow on the ground and this was only the first blizzard!  After snow blowing and shoveling ourselves out of that one, the second one arrived 5 days later!  Well, no problem, because I always have more projects than time!  I was knitting a pair of fingerless gloves for a friend of mine.   They were a combination of two patterns and I liked them so much I knit myself a pair in a different color!  But, I needed a neat way to present them to her.  I love to come up with fun, interesting presentations, and  since I wasn't going to see her for a while I took the time to play.  I made a pillow box out of cardstock covered with fabric which I ultimately tied with a bow.  Notice the snow flake fabric!Then I decided to make a tag (more on tags  at a later time).   I wanted a way of reminding her to hand wash the gloves and making a tag seemed like a good idea since I love making them, and any excuse works!

 So, I created a tag that coordinates with the box.  The reverse side tells her to "Hand Wash Only".  The front uses some of Tim Holtz' techniques and some of his products.   My daughter, Carrie, and I are big fans of Tim Holtz.  His ideas and techniques for paper art are really cool.  A new one I tried for this tag is the "frosted" snowflake charm in the center of the tag. 

It's a fun and  easy way of modifing an acrylic charm.  The technique can be found on his website.  I learned it from his  "12 Tags of Christmas" tutorials.

I've enjoyed the time that these storms have given me.  I won't say I'm not fantasizing about spring and being out in my garden again, because I am.  But, it's been wonderful to be able to spend time in my studio without worrying about having somewhere else I needed to be. 

I hope those of you who have been snowed in have enjoyed the gift of creative time also.

Fusion

I've always loved fiber, fabric and beads,  and the more color the better!  I started this adventure in creating doing needlepoint.  Gradually I moved on to crocheting, knitting, quilting, counted cross stitch and beading.  It didn't take long for the desire to combine all these wonderful things began to take hold.  The first thing I thought of was needlepointing the front of a vest.  I never have done that, although I still might some day.  I think I'd use even count fabric rather than needlepoint canvas so it wouldn't be so stiff.  Eventually, I began making jackets knitting the back and sleeves and using fabric for the fronts.  The black one is the first one I did and it's still my favorite.  I also made one with linen yarn and fabric (the second picture), which was published in the Salon section of Stampington's Belle Armoire.   

When I began making knitted jewelry I used beads and buttons as I told you in my last post.  But, soon I decided I had to use some fabric and possibly needlepoint canvas.  The first idea I came up with was to knit I-cords and make a pendant and bail out of fabric.  I decided to make folded fabric flowers and attach them to a base that I made from Timtex.  I fused silk fabric to  the Timtex  and stitched the flowers down with beaded centers. I also added leaf beads in between the flowers.  I fused the same fabric to Timtex for the bail.  Then I was left with unfinished edges!  Well, I decided to bind the edges with narrow bias binding.   I used the sewing machine to stitch the binding to the Timtex first and then turned it to the back and stitched it down by hand.  For a closure I picked up the ends of the I-cords on knitting needles and began a single I-cord,  knitting for about 3 inches.  I did this on each side.  I then cut triangles from the same purple silk that I used for the flowers and stitched them into a bell shape.  The bottom photo shows the closure.

  

Shortly after I finished this necklace I saw a posting about a wearable art show in California called Creative Expressions 2008.  I had never heard of the show, but I decided to send in photos of the necklace just for fun.  To my great surprise it was accepted!!  There was an opportunity to sell the piece, and so, once again, just for fun, I agreed to put it in that category.  Shortly before the show closed I recieved an email from the curator saying a collector of art jewelry had purchased the necklace!!  To say I was both humbled and thrilled at the same time is an understatement!  It was a wonderful experience!

Having used fabric, knitting and beads in that first necklace, I decided to make another piece and use some needlepoint canvas as well as knitting, fabric and beads!  I had this wonderful knitting ribbon which had gold leafing on the ribbon.  It's an interesting ribbon to knit with, but so cool I couldn't resist.  I knitted the i-cord and a flower which I  attached to the colored canvas with a dichroic button made by my friend TerrieVoigt (see my last post for a link to her website).  Once again I used Timtex as a base.  I covered it with a piece of gold lame fabric,  which is something I often did when I made needlepoint Christmas ornaments. When you aren't covering the canvas with solid stitching it looks nice to have a color or some glitz showing through the canvas.  I then covered the lame with the blue needlepoint canvas which I had stitched with a needle lace pattern and scattered beads.  The flower was stitched in the middle of the the circle.  For a backing I covered Timtex with a piece of the lame and hand stitched the two circles together.  I then stitched blue and green lentil beads to the edge.  I made the bail the same way I had made the other necklace, except that I used needlepoint canvas, and stitched an interlocking web pattern and scattered some beads on it. Once again, I lined Timtex with lame and covered it with the canvas.  I finished the edges with narrow bias binding made with a hand marbled fabric I had gotten at a quilt show.  I didn't want to leave the ends of the I-cord plain (life is too short not to embellish is my motto!) so I made stuffed tubes and attached them to the ends of the knitting.  I then used the lentil beads to create a collar around the top of the tubes where they attach to the I-cords. 

Both of the necklaces were really fun to create.  The ideas evolved as I worked on them.  I don't often have a completed design in mind when I start a project.  I just have a general idea of what I want to do and the materials I want to work with, and I go from there.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But that's all part of the fun!

Hope you enjoy seeing these pieces and thanks for visiting!

Pattern Writing

I really dislike writing patterns.  I've done it for wearable art jacket classes that I taught some years ago and I've written patterns for knitted accessories I've designed.   It's always the worst part of designing for me.  I've come to realize that my dislike of writing a pattern is what keeps me from designing. 

I enjoyed teaching the wearable art jacket classes at my local quilt shop.   It was fun getting to know the women and sharing a love of sewing fun garments that were wearable, but not run of the mill.  I had some students who became regulars in my classes.  Writing the patterns wasn't the entire reason I stopped teaching.  In fact I found producing the jacket patterns wasn't that difficult because I was there to explain each step.  But, I still liked to make the instructions as detailed as possible so, once at home, the student could continue working on the jacket without trouble understanding the next steps. 

This jacket was one of my first classes and one of the most popular.  I taught it several times over the course of two years.  I designed it so that each section was a unit that was then sewn together to create the back of the jacket and then the front.  The sleeves also had options for different embellishments or techniques.  That was basically what the class was about, taking the model and making it your own.  Once you had completed a section, having learned a fabric manipulation technique or embellishment technique, you could place it where you wanted it.  You could also use the technique on other garments or quilts or pillows.  It was popular because it gave the students options to personalize their work, while teaching them some new things.

Unfortunately, these photos aren't the best because, as I said, I was there to answer questions, and the model was in front of the students, so they really didn't need a spectacular photograph.  The written pattern came along with the class fee.

Well, after doing a lot of sewing and designing I began knitting again.  Since I had some success with my jackets I thought writing and selling some of my ideas for knitted jewelry would be fun.  Well, the first problem comes with my reticence to market myself.  I have a terrible time putting myself out there.  I've always been shy and marketing and shyness aren't really that compatible!  But, I also found that writing patterns that were going to be sold for people to work on on their own was another challenge altogether.  I wouldn't be there to explain how I did what they were trying to reproduce.  Well, with the encouragement of my family and a dear friend,  Terrie Voigt, I decided to go ahead with knitting patterns. They are fun, different accessories that are quick to make. But, writing, formatting, and photographing the patterns was not something I enjoyed.  My computer skills are not good, and my dear husband helped me tremendously, making a template for the patterns and photographing the pieces.  Without his help the patterns wouldn't have happened.  As it turned out we produced some nice looking patterns,  given that we were amateurs at the whole procedure.  I have to say that Terrie helped a great deal with the first pattern which was a scarf using her beautiful dichroic glass buttons in the center of the roses. 

This pattern led to five others, one of which was featured in the second issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry.  I posted a picture of that piece in my first blog post.  I was emailing Ellen Sandin,  one day about a kit on her website, Earthfaire, and decided to ask if she'd be interested in the patterns.  I was delighted when she saw them and emailed back to say she would like to carry them.  All of the patterns she has have done quite well.

The Falling Leaves necklace was the first of the knitted necklace patterns.  What can't be seen in the photo is the peyote stitched tubes that are around the I-cord.  Also, I used my history as a sewer to create a closure for the necklace.  I ended the I-cord with a leaf.  I sewed a snap to the under side of the leaf and the opposite I-cord and that's how I solved the problem of a clasp for the necklace. 

The Belle Flower Lariat pattern, on the left, is the most popular one on the site.  It's a beaded I-cord that is fun to knit.  There are many variations possible with this pattern. Color, yarn, beads, and the way it's worn are all up to the knitter.  The last pattern that Ellen carries it the one to the right.  Once again I used the leaf pattern (I love leaves!) knitted into an I-cord and closed it with a snap.  Instead of knitting the beads into the I-cord, I embroidered them on in clusters around the necklace. 

I have one other pattern, a belt, written up and a few in mind.  I don't know if I'll write them out or not.  I'm considering it.  It's gratifing to have people like your work enough to want to recreate it.  I love the act of designing the knitting or sewing and then making what I've designed.  Its the writing and producing that makes it work!

I hope you enjoy your day and have time to create something you love.

Settling in for winter

Well, the holidays are well and truly over at our house.  My birthday is shortly after New Year's and it seems that we no sooner finish celebrating Christmas and New Year's then it's my birtday!  Now, I don't have a problem with that, but I never really feel that I can take a deep breath and settle in for a winter of creating until the big day is over.  This year, because it was a "milestone" birthday the festivities took a little longer to complete.  My wonderful husband, with help from our daughter and suggestions from our son, gave me a surprise party over the weekend!  It was a wonderful time, with family (our son and daughter-in-law came down  from Boston after just being here for Christmas!) and good friends to share the evening.  But, now, I can say it's winter and I can stay in and work in the studio!  I'm also hoping to post more to the blog.  So, this is just "note to say Hello" and I'm still here and you'll be hearing more from me now that life has calmed down, decorations are put away and the house is back in order. 

Hope you all are enjoying the calm after the holiday rush.  I'll say good bye for now with this picture of the birdfeeder out my kitchen window the day after our December blizzard.  It looks like a cherry tart to me!