I'm back, maybe!

Hello on this dreary Sunday morning on the East Coast of the US!  I may finally be back to creating and blogging!  I say "maybe" because there is a lot going  on in my world.  We are doing some upgrades in our kitchen and family room.  You know how they always say that once you start something like this you find that the job grows bigger!  Well, this has lived up to that saying and it's gotten a little more involved than we thought it would.  And, being the kitchen and family room it's been rather disruptive.  But, I'm excited about the changes we're making and it all should be done by the beginning of December, just in time for me to turn into the Christmas elf and decorate to my heart's content!  Since I can't really do much in the rest of the house I'm hoping that now that the major decisions have been made I can get down to my studio and finish projects that have been around in various states of completion all summer.   We expanded our garden this year and the weather wasn't too hot so I was able to spend more time out there which is why not many projects were finished, or even started.  Hopefully that will start to change now.  I really miss the creative process even though I consider gardening creative. 

Having said all that, I did manage to finish one beading project.  It wasn't terribly involved and didn't take long to do!  But, I love it and I wanted to share it with you.  It's another geometric beadwork project inspired by Kate McKinnon.  I kind of teased it in my last post on who inspires me.  You can read that here.   Here is the completed pendant. 

 

 

It starts with a warped square which I love stitching.  I made an  entire bracelet in warped squares last Fall.  You can see that one here.   The directions for stitching a warped square are in Kate's first book on geometric beadwork, Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.  Early in August Kate sent out an email with the idea for a new project, create a warped square and then work and exploding round and keep going until you had the number of rounds you desired.  The exploding round is one of the innovative concepts that Kate came up with while working on the book.  It's difficult for me to explain it so that it makes sense but Kate has a wonderful YouTube video that makes it all clear and you can also find the instructions in her book.  I admit that I wasn't sure how it worked when I read the printed instructions but once I watched the video it was easy to do. 

 

I started with the warped square that I turned into the bail for this pendant and from there stitched the largest square. On the final round I added drops for the corner beads.   I did 2 more squares, the medium and small, and then stitched the smaller squares.  Then I played with how I wanted them to be arranged and the pendant you see is what I came up with.  I love it and it's light weight and fun to wear. 

 

Here are a few details.  

 

 

 







 

 

 

 

 

 

As I said, it was fun to do and didn't take very long at all.  Which is probably why I finished it!!!   I chose the colors for a vineyard feel.  I'm in love with geometric beadwork and I'm working on a cuff bracelet that is coming along slowly. 

 

 

I want to thank all of you for visiting me especially after such a long break from blogging.  I really appreciate your visits and all your wonderfully kind comments.  Have a wonderful day!