Finally...

I've finally finished my Artbead Blog Partner project for the Spring!   Yes, you read that correctly, the Spring!  The last few months have been so busy for my family.  We've had a wonderful time, and the memories we have created will be always with us.  But, I didn't have a lot of time to bead, or do much of anything else.  Well, it seems that now those lazy, crazy days of summer have set in and I'm finding myself with time to bead, sew and garden.  So, now I can present my interpretation of the theme for this go-round of the Blogger Program, "What's Old is New Again". 

Yep, two projects.  After all, it took me so long to get the time to work on the project that I thought I should have something to show for it!  Actually, my original design changed after I ordered my beads and I found I had a lot left over, so I thought I would make a bracelet and a necklace! 

As I said, the theme this time was "What's Old is New Again". We were asked to use something vintage, or vintage looking, with new beads and crystals.  I had been wanting to use a vintage lucite belt buckle my friend Kathy had given me and also some vintage German buttons I'd had in my stash for a while.  I was planning to use the buckle as the focal and, originally, going to have fringe coming off of it, but when I started working the design became very Art Deco in feel.  The peyote stitched bands attached to each other with Delicas gave a very geometric look to the buckle. A large amount of fringe, my original idea, didn't seem to fit the look I was getting.  That was fine with me because I love Art Deco and the buckle's design had elements of the geometric details often found in Art Deco pieces.  But, that meant that I wanted an end product that had the clean lines of Art Deco fashion.  I had chosen some of the newer Swarovski pendants to play off the idea of old versus new.  So, I decided to hang the larger one, the 28mm Aquiline Pendant, from the bottom of the buckle and use the 20mm Avant-Garde pendant as a togggle closure.  I liked that idea a lot, so I proceeded to design the strap to hold it all together.  As I said, I ordered some newer beads to play up the theme.  The new Tila beads are fun to work with, and they are some of the newest beads available.  So, I use them with seed beads and some fire polished 4mm beads to create a strap.  I loved the finished necklace.  But, I had lots of beads left over and I didn't want to not use them.  So, I decided to make a freeform bracelet with the leftovers and the German buttons I ended up not using in the necklace.  I used my last Swarovski pendant, an 18mm Aquiline Pendant, for a closure and just let the beads and buttons go where they wanted.  I had the added thematic result of freeform, a relatively new beadweaving technique, with vintage buttons incorporated. 

I'm really pleased with the results, even though it took me so long to get here.  I thank Duchess from Artbeads for being so understanding.  

Here are some details:



We're supposed to name our pieces and so I named the bracelet "...and all that jazz"  because freeform reminds me of jazz!  And, the necklace ended up seeming rather stately to me, so I named it "Manderly" because as I put the finishing touches on it, the novel "Rebecca" came into my mind. 

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.  My statements about these products are an honest assesment and I receive no compensation from Artbeads for my endorsement. 



Another seasonal wardrobe adjustment



This post is sort of a follow-up to the last.  In that post, prompted by Michelle Ward's crusade on seasonal color changes in our art, I mentioned that turquoise/aqua are often my palette of choice.  I use different values and hues depending on the season, but they are colors that often show up.  I usually use lime green, lavendar, or black, sometimes bright blue, as "go with" colors.  But, this season I find myself using a lot of beachy colors with the turquoise. 

It started at our monthly Friday beading session at Bead Soup.  Every month some of us get together and pick a project from a bead magazine that we all want to try, and we work on it, helping each other decide on colors and, when someone gets stuck, on the directions.  It's really fun and it's a great way to try some of the magazine patterns.  In May we decided to work on the components of the "Starlight" bracelet in the June 2010 issue of Bead and Button magazine.  When I chose my colors for crystals and seed beads I ended up with turquoise and aqua crystals with sandy colored seeds.  As I worked, I, along with those sitting next to me noticed, how "beachy" it looked.  I really liked the change.  Looking at the little star component when I got home I decided to dig out all differnt beachy colors of crystals and seeds and use all of them in the bracelet, a different combination for each "star".  This is the result.

I used water colors, sand colors, shell colors, and I love them all!  I even used a pure blue, which doesn't appear much in my palette.  It was such a fun bracelet to make and it's fun to wear.  I have another design that is still in progress that uses these same beachy colors, and once again I chose them instinctively.  So, I guess this is the summer of beach colors for me.  I'm having a great time with it! 

Seasonal colors, or how I love all colors!

I'm a person who is greatly influenced by the seasons.  My clothes, my jewelry, my cooking, my home decor, my creative life, and the colors that all those things entail are dictated by the seasons.    So, when I read about Michelle Ward's newest crusade I had to join in. It's all about changing colors with the season. Well, I couldn't let this one pass by without being a part of the fun!

I love all colors and I always have. I certainly have my favorites.  Lime green and aqua/tuquoise are always popping up in my knitting and beading.  But I also love bright colors like red and orange, bright pink and yellow.  I noticed several years ago that I tend to change color palettes with the seasons.  In Spring and Summer I love to wear light, bright colors.  I can't wait for the day it's warm enough to paint my toenails and put on my sandals.  In Spring I tend to work with beautiful spring greens and lavendars, I call it my lavendar fields period. 

As summer comes on I move to the brighter colors.  Salmon, coral, yellows and brighter greens start showing up, along with a healthy dose of lime and turquoise!



and these...



But, by mid-August I can sense myself moving to the wonderful, warm colors of Fall.  The pumpkins, burgundies, olive greens, and golds of nature start to show up in my projects. 

I have an antique dough bowl that I fill with silk leaves, flowers, pumpkins and gourds come October 1st.  I start to work in these colors and I love making decorations and jewelry for Halloween.  I love the orange and black, but I'm beginning to use purple and lime green too. 

These are witch's hat earrings I made for my daughter and I, and two dear friends.  Because I like great presentations I made tags to go with them, just for fun!!  And, then there is this detail from a jacket I made which really epitomizes my idea of Fall colors.

With the coming of winter I start thinking in terms of icy, cool palettes.  Lately, a lot of gray and pewter has been showing up, often combined with my green and turquoise/aqua palette. 





I think we tend to gravitate toward the same colors, but the seasons cause us to lighten, brighten, darken, or mute the values of those colors.  At least, I think that's how I tend to use color.  Once in a while I'll use a palette of colors that aren't usually ones that I use.  That's fun and stretches me a little.  Blue is a color that I rarely use, but when I do I find I'm really happy with the results.

 
Whew!  What a long post, but this is one of my favorite topics.  Which is why I couldn't let this crusade go by without joining in.  Go on over to Michelle's blog and see all the entries.  The people who participate are all fantastic paper artists or mixed media artists.  Even though my chosen medium is fiber and beads, a love of color and changing palettes with the season transends the materials you use to  create with.  Enjoy the art and maybe you'll be inspired to join in one of Michelle's crusades.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great day.

Another closure idea

I've always been a detail person and so I've always looked for interesting ways to finish a project.  When I did a lot of needlepoint I would always look for interesting styles of framing for a hanging or a new way of making a pillow.  Same with my vests and jackets, whether they were fabric or knitted.  I love interesting closures and sleeve/cuff treatments.  Well, now that beads and jewelry making consumes most of my time I'm always thinking of new ideas for closures.  I love to have the closure in the front or on the side of a necklace. This is one idea that I really like.

This is a beaded wire knitted necklace I made a few months ago. The chips are three different strands I found at Michael's and mixed together to make a bead soup.  I used copper wire to knit the necklace and chose filigree rosettes I had gotten from Kabela Designs.  I wired a few of the chips to the center of each rosette and then attached them to the ends of the necklace.  I used jump rings to attach a lobster claw clasp to the rosettes.  I wear the necklace with the closure in the front. 

I start thinking about how I'm going to finish a necklace or bracelet when I begin the project.  Sometimes an idea comes quickly at the start and sometimes I finish the piece and still have no idea what to do.  That's when I go looking through the stash to see if anything presents itself as a good idea.  It's all part of the fun and the challenge of creating.  It really doesn't matter what medium you work in, the challenge of making something unique to you is always the same thrilling adventure. 

Here's the entire necklace, in a not so great picture!

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





The Bride's Necklace

This is the necklace I made for my daughter to wear for her wedding.  She likes her clothing and jewelry to be simple and not overly embellished.  Early on in the planning process for the wedding we both adopted the mantra "Simple but elegant".  I think we achieved that with every thing that we did for the day.  This necklace was what she wanted me to make for her.  It's not original, but she really liked the clean lines of it.  We decided to add the branch link to the side because her flowers were garden flowers, peonies, roses, muscari, herbs, lamb's ears, things she could have gone and picked in the garden.  So, we thought the branch recalled that idea.  The beads are moonstones.  She loves moonstones and has one in her engagement ring.  The effect was simple but elegant.  I also made a pair of earrings to match with the extra moonstones.  I used silver headpins that had little hearts for the head.  The set looked like this...

As I was making the necklace and earrings I realized I wanted to find, or make, a special box for her to keep them in.  I happened to be in our local Paper Source store and found the perfect silk covered box in a sale bin!!  Much that happened in the planning of this special day was serendipitious, finding this box was just one thing that seemed perfect!  Her colors were sage green and a soft French blue, so the blue fabric was perfect.  The box was plain, but since I'm not like the bride, and I like embellishment, I decided to add some ribbon embroidery to the top.  Time became a big issue because I was determined that I wasn't going to working on any projects the week of the wedding.  Family was arriving and there were things that couldn't be done until that week.  So, I gave up on the idea of ribbon embroidery.  I realized I had a corsage of ivory and white ribbon flowers that I had made several years ago and never used.  I have a board of ribbon flowers hanging in my studio and it seemed as though the corsage had been hanging there waiting for this project.  Serendipity again? I don't know,maybe!  When I took the flowers off the board I found that I hadn't finished it.  Everything was pinned together.  So, I sewed it all together and used fabric glue to attach it to the box lid.  I think it looks wonderful!

Not too froufrou, but embellished.  I have to say that she was very pleased!  And, you may have noticed that there was a tag in the box.  I made tags instead of cards for her shower gifts, and so I decided to make a small tag to enclose in the jewelry box.  It fits nicely and has a little note on the back from Mom for remembrance. 

I loved making this for my daughter.  She loves the necklace and the box, and it can become an heirloom for her to keep and wear whenever she wants to remember her special day.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing some of the preparations for the wedding.  I didn't overdo it, but I enjoyed all I did, and it lent a personal touch to what was really a very personal and wonderful wedding day. 

I hope you have a wonderful day.





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!