Wedding Projects

Or, at least some of the things I made for my daughter's wedding.  I tried not to get too carried away with making things.  I wanted to enjoy the journey to the big day, so I limited myself to small projects that were easily done and finished well in advance. Carrie also limited herself to making the guest book.  Yes, she is a fantastic bookbinder!  You can see the process of making the book and the pictures of the finished book if you follow the link above. 

I thought you might like to see some of my handiwork, so without further ado, I'll share some pictures of my contribution to what was a beautiful day!

The bridesmaids' and flower girls' necklaces along with the tags holding the necklaces.

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Packaging for the flower girls.

Packaging for the bridesmaids.

The table favors.  A collaborative effort between the father of the bride (the labels) and the mother of the bride (the bows).  By the way, the favors were jars of strawberry jam!  Yum!!

Well, these are some of the little things I made.  I have some tags and the necklace that the bride wore along with the box to keep it in.  But, they're for another time. 













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!







Button Swap Day!



Today is the day that we get to see what everyone who participated in Michelle Mach's button swap.  I've been really excited about this, since it's always so inspiring to see what everyone comes up with in a swap.  The pieces are all so different, but so inspiring! 


Anyway, the idea behind the button swap was the usual formula, Michelle took all the names of the people who signed up and paired them with other people.  You had to send your partner 3 buttons from your stash, so much the better if one or more were vintage or handmade.  Well, I was paired up with Hope of  Craftyhope.blogspot.com.  Well, I was overwhelmed when Hope's package arrived!  It was amazing!  She not only sent the 3 required buttons, which were fabulous, but she sent a whole stash of other buttons!  And, to make it better she made adorable tins and a card to go along with the buttons!!! 

Isn't that fantastic?!!  Well, I love the 3 buttons, especially the carved ivory flowers.  And the were all so vintage looking, that I decided I had to do something that played on the vintage feel of the buttons. So, I went back to my idea of using knitted wire in a mixed media design.  At a bead show I had gotten a new color of art wire, Rose Gold.  It's a lovely old-timey pink with a golden glow.  So, I thought this would be the perfect project to use it.  I knitted a cuff and decided a linen base would keep to the vintage look.  I was going to sew the wire to the linen and then the buttons on top of the wire, fringe the edges of the linen and sew snaps on as a closure.  That was the original plan.  But, as you can see below, that's not exactly how it ended up.

When I laid it all out, I thought the piece looked very flat and uninteresting.  Just layered, linen, wire, buttons, was terribly boring.  So, I took the wire and scrunched it up.  In doing so I creating a ridge which I then maniputlated some more to create little 'cups' to nestle the buttons into.  I loved the dimensional feel of the piece, and an added benefit was the wavy edge that resulted from scrunching the wire.  I knew I had something I liked a lot.  So, I proceeded as I had planned and sewed the wire to the linen and the buttons nestled in the wire.  Of course, my favorite button, the carved flowers, figured prominently, and another of the original 3, a fantastically shabby chic glass button.  But, I also used one from the extra stash Hope sent, the little pink with the flower and rhinestone center.  A pearl button that I had in my stash finished off the set.

I'm really pleased with the cuff.  I wore it yesterday and received compliments on it.   That was nice!  

This was a fun swap.  I love buttons and it allowed me to try another idea for knitted wire.  This cuff has generated another idea for a cuff with a summery seaside theme.   The swap also introduced me to Hope and her great work.  So, a win, win all around! 

Michelle is sponsoring a contest to coordinate with the Button Swap Reveal.  If you comment on all the participants blogs you'll be entered to win a button collection.  So, below you'll find the list of participants in the button swap.   Go check out what everyone did with their buttons and you may win some buttons, and everyone can use more buttons, can't they?  I don't think you can ever have too many!

1. Cat-  http://boobeads.blogspot.com/

2. Cindy- http://www.sweetbeadstudio.com/

3. Cory-  http://art-with-moxie.blogspot.com/

4. Cyndi- http://www.beading-arts.com/

5. Dita- http://www.alankarshilpa.blogspot.com/

6. Donna, Marti, and Michelle- http://www.michellemach.com/blog/

7. Erin- http://treasures-found.blogspot.com/

8. Hope- http://craftyhope.blogspot.com/

9. Inca- http://zerenitydesign.blogspot.com/

10.Katrina- http://armyofsockmonsters.blogspot.com/

11. Krista- http://frenchelegantjewelry.blogspot.com/

12.Kristie- http://www.artisanclay.blogspot.com/

13. Linda D.- http://lutkaandco.com/

14. Linda L.-http://www.lindasbeadblog.com/

15.Lody- http://www.lodysbeadworks.blogspot.com/

16.Lori- http://www.lorianderson.blogspot.com/

17. Loretta- http://www.designsbyloretta.blogspot.com/

18.Malin- http://beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.com/

19. Mary- http://mkaymac.blogspot.com/

20. Maryanne- http://zingalasworkshop.com/

21. Melinda- http://orrtec.blogspot.com/

22. Saskia- http://perlendistel.blogspot.com/

23. Shannon-http://www.formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

24. Shirley- http://beadsandbread.blogspot.com/

25. Stephanie- http://www.stringaholic.blogspot.com/

Hope you have fun checking out all the participants.  



Bartering

I mentioned a few posts ago that a friend of mine makes beautiful baskets and she and I decided to barter jewelry for a Scottish yarn basket.  Well, she delivered my basket last week.  And, it's gorgeous!!! 

The color looks a little lighter than it actually is, but isn't it gorgeous?!  Judy is meticulous in her workmanship and it shows in the finished basket.  She dyes her own reed and treats the finished basket with linseed oil to prevent it from drying out.  I'm so  thrilled with my basket.  I will have it filled with lovely yarn soon.  After all it is a Scottish yarn basket!!  The funny thing is that Judy has recently become an avid knitter, but she made these baskets before she started knitting.  Now, she'll have some yarn to put in her basket! 


Here's a close up of the God's Eye with which she starts these baskets.  Amazingly beautiful, isn't it?

I'll let you decide who got the best deal out this barter.  I made her a wire and pearl ring and pendant which you can check out in a previous post, which for some reason I can't link to right now!  But, look for Wire Working for a Friend if you want to see what my end of the deal was. 

Enjoy your day.  We're having lovely early spring weather today, so I'll be in the garden.

Thanks for stopping by.













































































A New Twist on Wire Knitted Jewelry

I've been making wire knitted jewelry for a while and I've been jotting down ideas for different designs.  At the end of last year when I entered the Bead  Mavens Ice Queen Challenge I decided to knit a necklace with a cascade of Swarovski crystal snowflakes, columns and rounds.  I blogged about it at the time.   Since then I've had other ideas for changing the basic necklace/bracelet.  One of the ideas was to combine my love of freeform beadwork with the knitted base.  This is the first bracelet I've made using this combination of ideas.

Except for the MOP rings, all the beads were part of a kit I bought last year from Ellen at Eathfaire.  Ellen has wonderful bead knitted jewelry kits with great combinations of beads.  This one was intriguing because of the shells that she incorporated, along with those rather new peanut beads, and some wonderful colors of seed beads.  But, those shells, while being really unique shapes, some look like little roses, had sharp looking holes and the thread Ellen uses is a metallic embroidery thread.  The color was great but I was concerned that eventually the shells would fray the thread.  So, the beautiful bead soup sat in a bowl on my work table for a year while I decided what I wanted to do with it.  I had decided right away to use wire to knit the bracelet.  I strung the beads and shells they way I normally do, but I didn't like the way the finished bracelet looked.  So, I took  it apart and let it sit for another several months!  In the meantime, I found the MOP rings at Michael's and the color and the MOP went with the bead soup and shells so well that I knew I  had to use them in the bracelet.  Finally, I thought of doing freeform beading over a wire knitted base.  It has opened up a new path for my wire knitting!  I love creating this piece. 

I began by wiring the rings to the base and then using Fireline to begin the stitching.  I attached the Fireline to the one of the rings so that I wouldn't have the tails or starting knot showing on the reverse side of the bracelet.  From there I just let the beads and shells tell me where to go, which is the best way to do freeform beadweaving in my opinion. 

I'm very excited about this pairing of two of  my favorite techniques.  I had a great time making this bracelet, and I have enough bead soup and shells left over that I'm thinking of making a necklace to match. 

Here's another view of the bracelet. 





I hope you have a wonderful day.  Thanks for stopping by.

Button Swap



I've never participated in an online swap before but I've always thought it would be fun.  When I found out that Michelle Mach was hosting a button swap on her blog I decided I would join in the fun.  I was paired up with Hope Smitherman who is a very talented artist from Alabama.  Hope and I discovered that we have a love of vintage, buttons and otherwise, in common. 

Well, the rules for the swap were simple, send your partner 3 buttons of any kind.  If one or more was special in any way, or vintage, all the better. Once the buttons were received the participants are to come up with a project using the buttons. It can be anything, from jewelry to home decor.  Of course this meant I had to spend an afternoon going through my extensive button collection!!  I know, it's a tough job, but what could I do!  After a great deal of dithering over which buttons I should send Hope, I finally was able to chose three that I thought she might like.  I was so preoccupied with choosing the buttons and deciding on a presentation that I forgot to take a picture of them!  But, I chose a  green dichroic glass button made by my friend Terrie Voigt, and two that I've had for a long time.  I don't know if they were both vintage, but one was a dark teal and the other was a gray MOP.  It was difficult to chose which buttons to send because I wanted them to be something Hope could, and would want, to use.  Well, I'm happy to say that she loved the buttons, which was such good news for me! 

Naturally, I wanted to create a fun presentation, so I used my favorite, a tag.  I attached the buttons to a small tag and attached that to a larger tag that I had distressed and embellished with sewing motif fabric and a paper flower with a button center!!!  Seriously, what else could I have used for a center.  I'm really sorry I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture of all this.  The finished presentation was pretty cool.  Of course, wait until you see what Hope sent me!!!

What I sent Hope pales in comparison to what she sent me!!!  I was just overwhelmed when I opened my package.  Not only by the presentation, but by the amount of buttons! 

Look at all that!  The three buttons in the middle front are the three for the swap.  But, all the rest are just Hope being incredibly generous.  She too spent a long time looking through her button stash and decided to share some of what she has with me.  I was amazed at the wonderfulness of it all!  And, if the amount isn't amazing enough, the presentation is incredible.  She created two tins to put the buttons in and a beautiful card, plus the tag for the original 3 buttons.



Here's a better picture of the tin the 3 buttons came in.  The other loose buttons came in a smaller tin embellished in the same way!  Then she sent two cards of buttons!

 



 I was so touched by her generosity.  And, the buttons she chose are all fabulous!  I just love them all.  Deciding what to make with them is now my problem!  I want to make some thing really cool so I can show off the buttons to best advantage.  I have a few ideas and I need to take some time to decide which one will work best.  But, I just love what I have to work with and it will be fun creating something special with these vintage beauties.

Well, thank you for stopping by.  Enjoy the day.  We're having some beautiful spring weather here, so I'll be in the garden today.  I hope you do something fun with your day, too.



Blog Partner

I'm so pleased to say that I've become a member of Artbeads.com Design Partner Program.  I know a lot of bloggers are members of the team and it's an honor to be included with these bead artists.  I was just accepted into the program, but I was still able to participate in the current "Winter Enchantment".  The idea behind the theme is what you find inspirational about winter.  I have to say that winter isn't my favorite time of year.  Once the glitter of Christmas is stored away for another year, I tend to huddle in the house as much as I can.  But, since I was a young girl the bright spot of winter was Valentine's Day.  It's not because I'm  an extreme romantic, although I do like soft pretty things, but because it was a touch of bright red and cheeriness in the midst of the gray of February, when everyone had enough of gray skies and gloomy, snowy weather.  It was a chance to make things with the color red, to enjoy pretty things like hearts and flowers and to eat fun things like heart shaped cakes iced with pink icing.  Yes, my mother always made me and my cousin a chocolate heart shaped cake with pink icing.  I still have her heart shaped pans!  So, when I found out that the theme of this installment was Winter Enchantment I knew immediately what I was going to chose.

These were the items I ordered for my project.  I love the Crystal Red Magma heart and I love that color with copper. So, copper chain was an obvious choice. I, also chose the copper heart leaf pendant because I've been wanting to use one of those copper leaves in some project. This one was so pretty and perfect for my idea that I was thrilled to find it.  So, as I ordered my pieces I designed my project.  I don't ever do that, but this idea presented itself almost as a whole as I began chosing components!  Wish that would happen more often!

This is the finished necklace.  It came together almost as I had envisioned it.  Again, very unusual for me since most of the time I don't start with a clear idea of what I'm going to end up with!



And, here's a close up.

 

I used the copper pendant as a closure, making the hook out of 16 gauge copper wire.  A nice feature of the design is that I can use the hook in one of the links of chain and have the copper heart hang free.  That was something I hadn't anticipated but I like the option of having a long necklace, or a shorter one depending on what I'm wearing it with or my mood!

Well, I hope you all have a restful Sunday.  The weather in my part of the world is gloomy and rainy, a perfect studio day!

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