A new spiral necklace



There have been many things going on in the family this winter which have cut into the time I spent in my studio.  Winter is usually a very productive time for me.  The cold weather and the inability to work in the garden gives me lots of studio time.  But, this year I haven't accomplished much.  Our lives are settling down now and so I had the time to finish a necklace that I started in January.  My friend Kathy, who owns Bead Soup in Savage Mill, showed me how to do this variation on the Dutch spiral stitch.  It's a fun stitch to work, requiring just enough concentration to keep it interesting!

The colors I chose were frosty, wintery colors reflecting both the weather we were having at the time and, to a certain extent, my mood.  Gray, white, black and cool sage green spoke of what I was seeing out my window.  Many of you know that I'm a lover of bright colors, but sometimes the softness of a winter palette is soothing.  The next time I make one of these necklaces I'll be using my beloved brights! 

I'll leave you with a close up of the necklace.  Enjoy your day, do something creative and thanks for visiting!



Wire Working for a friend

A friend of mine makes beautiful baskets.  I love baskets.  I use them to store things, but I also use them as decorative pieces.  I love the tactile and sculptural appeal they have.  Well, anyway, my friend makes these wonderful yarn baskets.  I asked her if she would make me one.  As all you knitters know, you can never, ever, have too many yarn baskets!  I was planning on paying her for the basket, but she had seen a wire and pearl ring I had made myself in a class I took at Bead Soup and she loved it!  So, we decided I would make her a ring and pendant to match and she would make me a basket!  Perfect!  Well, life, and the holidays intervened, and we're just getting our projects done.  I gave her the ring and pendant on Thursday and she's in the process of finishing up my basket.

The ring is a freeform design, so it really appealed to me.  I love the idea of using a little wire and a few small beads to make a really cool ring.  I used pearls in mine and Judy wanted pearls also. 

It uses 16 gauge wire and 24 gauge for caging the beads.  It's a very easy design and each ring, like in freeform beadwork, looks different. 

This is the pendant, which is made in the same way.  I used a bracelet mandrel to shape 20g wire and made a loop on each end, attaching a jump ring to the top.  I then strung the pearls on 24g which I wrapped around the ring.  You can use as many, or as few, beads as you want, and again, each pendant is different.  I've seen this pendant idea many times, and not always in a circular shape, but the idea of caging the beads randomly is very appealing to this freeform kind of gal!  The next one I make is going to be a rectagular one for myself.  I just have to decide on the beads I want to use. 

Well, it's a cold day here, so I'll spend it in the studio, cozy and warm, finishing up a project that never was finished before the holidays.  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.





Remember this pendant?

It's the pendant I made before Christmas at Bead Soup in Savage Mill.  I really liked the finished pendant.  It was so frosty and wintery looking that I didn't want to let it sit in the studio collecting dust.  So, as soon as things settled down a little after the holidays I stitched a necklace for it. 

Since I really love spiral rope stitch I decided to use that for the necklace.  I just finished it yesterday and I'm very happy with the way it turned out.  As you can see in the picture below I peyote stitched a toggle bar and used a white frosted glass ring that I found at Michael's some time ago for a toggle. 



So, now this is my new favorite winter jewelry!  I say that when I finish all my jewelry!  We're going to be joining friends for dinner tomorrow evening so I can wear it!  It's pretty cold and frosty here, which makes it very appropriate!

Here's a picture of the entire necklace.  Enjoy!



Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy the coming weekend.  Don't forget to do something creative today!



Have to share!

I hope everyone is enjoying the start of the new year! My birthday was yesterday and so while we're cleaning up Christmas, my wonderful family is planning surprises for me so that my day doesn't get lost in the shuffle. This year my daughter, Carrie, found out that the old '60's group The Lovin Spoonful is in concert in town. The show is tonight, so they're taking me to dinner and the show this evening. To present me with the tickets, she created this wonderful envelope using some of Michelle Ward's new stamps. We love these new stamps, and so Carrie decided to use them to decorate the envelope using some of my favorite colors.

It made my whole day bright!  I hope you're having a great day.  I'm looking forward to dinner and a concert of oldies with my lovely family!

Thanks for stopping by.

Merry Christmas

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, enjoying the day, and the season with family and good friends. 

May all good things be yours.

Almost Christmas

I've not been here for a while.  The holidays crept up on me and I found myself behind in many things.  The blog was just one of them.  But, at one week out, I seem to have caught up and feel things are under control, or at least as much as they can be under control at this time of year!

I've not done much creating this year.  I had hoped to make some tags like I did last year.  Tim Holtz did his fabulous 12 Tags of Christmas again this year and that's always inspirational.  But, time wasn't on my side.  On the other hand, my daughter, Carrie, made some beautiful tags that we're using in our decorations!  I did find time in the evenings earlier in the month to make a bracelet that I got as a kit from Fusionbeads.com. 

It's a herringbone stitch design which comes in several colorways.  I loved the yellow green with berry accents for the holidays.  It was fun to stitch and it fit my small wrist with just minor adjustments.  Always a plus! 

This week I finally got to go to the Wednesday beading get together at my favorite bead shop, Bead Soup, at Savage Mill after several weeks of not getting to be there.  Kathy does such a great job and it's a lot of fun to get together on Wednesday to sit, bead and visit with friends.  I made this little pendant under Kathy's direction. 

I'm going to add a beaded necklace, probably using the spiral rope stitch.  But, I think it turned out well.  It looks frosty and wintery, perfect for this time of year.

I'll be back in a few days to show you a couple of new Christmas tree ornaments that I made earlier in the year.  I haven't made new ornaments in several years and I missed it. 

In the meantime, I hope your holiday preparations are going well and that you've found some time for yourself in all the hustle and bustle!





The Ice Queen Challenge

The Bead Mavens are having a challenge this month.  The inspiration for the designs was the Ice Queen.  I love the Ice Queen.  As  you probably have gathered by now, color is my thing!  I love color, but there is something about the icy, frosty appearance of the Ice Queen, and her many incarnations, that is so appealing to me.  The sparkle of all that white dusted with frost is so beautiful.  So, I decided to enter a necklace into the challenge.  The picture above is what I came up with.

I thought a wire knitted piece would be fun because I could make a bead soup of crystal, clear and white beads to knit.  The cascade in the middle is a variation on my wire knitted necklaces.  I've been looking for a way of changing them up a bit and a cascade of snowflakes and beads seemed perfect for the Ice Queen.



I was excited to have a reason to use Swavorski's snowflake and column beads.  I love the column beads and I thought they would work as  icicles in the cascade.  I also used some 8mm round crystals in clear and AB to fill in.  I knitted the necklace in two pieces and joined them together in the middle with the wire ends.  I then used jump rings to attach the snowflakes, columns and rounds to fine silver chain.  The chain was attached with jump rings to the necklace.  I was pleased with the overall effect, and the cascade worked just the way I wanted it to.  Today is the final day for entries, so I was happy to have finished it a few days ago.  I didn't know if it would be completed in time because of the holiday rush.  But, I made it! 

Visit the Bead Mavens site and check out the entries.  There are beautiful pieces of jewelry to be seen! 

I hope you've all  had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Ours was wonderful, spent with good friends and family.  Now on to Christmas and all the preparation for that joyous time!  Thanks for taking time to visit with me.  Enjoy your day!