New Dr. Who This Sunday!

I have to admit our whole family loves Dr. Who and have been waiting since Christmas, with anticipation for the newest episode, to be released this Sunday evening.  So to celebrate, here is is the 11th Doctor.

Just finished beading this pendant

I just wanted to share a quick pic of this pendant (pattern here) I just finished.  The pattern is from Vezsuzi, and if you haven't checked out her blog you really should.  Don't let the Hungarian put you off - the blog is full of beautiful beady eye candy.  Her work is exciting and gorgeous.

I also more patterns coming up to share with everyone.  Happy Easter and Blessed Ostara!

Leafy Pendant

This free form leafy pendant would look lovely suspended from a length of delicate chain.  I would either attach a jump ring to a couple of beads on each end (Make sure you reinforce those beads big time with Fireline!)  or perhaps start a delicate beaded strand from each side.

I think this piece has a bit of a nouveau feel to it, and would compliment a revealing neckline!

I'm Baaack!

Spring is back and so am I!

I know it's been a long hiatus, but some times real life just takes over.  I now have a Mac version of Beadtool and have started back to designing patterns.

I also have some other pieces I have made during my downtime.  I plan on photographing them in the next few days and sharing.

Candys work

I have just been really tickled at what wonderful responses I have been getting from readers lately.  I wanted to share another picture that came in this week from Candys.  She has created an awesome pendant from the tree pattern I did based on a work by Gustav Klimpt.

I especially like the beaded texture on the bezel and the beaded jump rings used as dangles.

If you would like to look at some of her work, Candys has a series of albums.  Just be sure to set aside an entire afternoon!  Lots of treasures to be found.

Cute Foxes!

These cute little foxes would also be adorable worked in free form, without the back ground.

Angel ornament and bracelet

Since it's not too early to get started on ornaments and gifts for Christmas, here is an angel ornament to work in free form brick stitch.

I would recommend stiffening this piece and attaching a piece of mono filament to each wing tip.  Knot the two pieces of filament to a hook to hang it by.  Trim the ends and cover them with a tiny red ribbon bow.

There are lots of ways to stiffen a piece of beadwork. Since I have heard both pros and cons for each of them I will give you a list to read up on them and decide what is best for you.

Future® floor finish (wax) method
Restitch the piece until it is stiffened (This is not always an option on brick or peyote pieces.).

Fingernail polish

AIleene's Stiffener products.

Apply the work to a piece of fabric with plastic, wire, or pellon sandwiched inside.

Personally, I usually try to work a bit snugger on work I know needs to be firm, and use as large a weight of Fireline as I can to give the worked piece body and firmness.  Often this is enough.
Here is the same design  in a chart for a bracelet.  It would make a nice piece to wear around the holidays.  There is space underneath the angel to add the year.

small, free form beetle scarab

I've been doing a lot of looking at Egyptian jewelry lately for inspiration.  This is based on a large pendant of gold, lapis lazuli, and enamels.  The colours are every bit as rich today as they were 1000's of years ago. 

This is a small piece that would make a very nice pendant or pen.  It would also look very pretty in your hair, attached to a small hair clip or bobby pin.

Fairy Silhouette

This pattern is based on a paper cut image.  I used the colouring book technique to roughly sketch her out in black and white.

Ronit's beautiful version of the clown fish bracelet pattern

Once again Ronit Florence has taken a pattern and made it into more than just a basic bracelet.  She definitely knows how to tweak a design to get the most from it. Most readers will recognize the Clown Fish Bracelet I posted in July.

Bead work and photo by Ronit

 Here's what she had to share about the beautiful set she made:

    " As usual, your clown fish pattern wrecked havoc with my todo list - I just had to drop everything and bead it up :) I saw real clown fish in their "natural" habitat in a museum recently and learned about the symbiotic relationship they have with sea anemones, so I added the anemones to the pattern - that happened to have made beading a bit more interesting  because it meant that there wasn't a large area of solid color to bead up :)

     Of course, I had to make a set, so I rearranged the fish slightly so the pendant didn't turn out too wide and I made matching earrings. I used clear beads with AB finish (Delica #51) to do the bubbles and, while in retrospect I think it would have been better to use white, it allowed me to use the clear "water" drops or bubbles in the fringe and strap. For the strap I used this free pattern: http://storage.canalblog.com/26/09/392679/26506221.jpg from this site: http://centperles.canalblog.com/archives/schemas_a_a_d_/index.html

     Hope you like it and thanks again for all your wonderful and very inspiring patterns!!!

Hugs, Ronit"

Bead work and photo by Ronit

Truly gorgeous!! I am always amazed at how awesome (and fast! - she had this done early last week!) Ronit's work is.

Purple and red cranesbill

This is based on a flower I have in the garden called a cranesbill.  It is in the geranium family, and perennial.  I love how they are very hardy and spread over time.

quilted inchie pendant

Here is the finished piece on my computer desk, being admired by a small desk gnome my youngest daughter made for me. The pendant is 1 1/16 inches x 1 3/8 inches. The fabric square (minus embroidery stitches) is one square inch.

Recently I discovered A.T.C.'s, and along the way came across a reference to "inchies," on the blog "Small World of Inchies and Twinchies." This is a fun blog with open challenges on a regular basis. I had to learn more, and came across an article about art quilt inchies.

Art and quilting and inchies? All at once? I had to try it! And it is fun!

front view, close up

This piece came together so quickly and was spontaneous every step of the way. And colour! I got to work with some of my favorite colours.

Back view, close up

I started with a one inch square piece of fabric for the top and for the bottom, as well as a piece of batting, some scraps of fabric, thread, and a glue stick.

The wire frame was a piece I had made ages ago, then decided it didn't work for what I had in mind. I had set it aside on my work table where it had languished. Suddenly, I knew the frame was the perfect thing for my first inchie. I added the embroidery at the bottom in yellow to give the piece a better fit, and button holed the piece to the wire.

I dug through my stash and came up with this nice coppery chain and a clasp to finish the piece up.

I hope others give this a try.

Just an aside - a great reference for getting started in A.T.C.'s is "Art in your Pocket"

modish tree

I love bright colours and I have always liked tree imagery. And here I have both! This is meant to be a pendant, but would make a lovely bracelet as well.

Silly Sunshine

The days are too short and I'm wanting some serious sunshine!

Vintage Image of Mars Pendant

Pattern without colour numbers

Pattern with colour numbers

The two patterns above are identical, except the bottom one has numbers included to help differentiate between all the shades of blue.

For some reason, the idea of having The Red Planet depicted in monotone blues just appealed to me. Plus, Blue is one of my favorite clolours.

I based this pendant on a vintage image of Mars from Vintage Printables.

The series of pendants I have been working on lately can also be modified to be a bracelet, just extend the ends to make it long enough.

Pendant based on Gustav Klimpt's Tree of Life

I really like Klimpt's Tree of Life painting. I love all the swirls, and the way it is laid out almost like a triptych.

I included three color ways, because I thought it was very illustrative of just a few minor changes of colour can affect positive and negative space, as well as change the feel of a pattern. I think it's very important to be willing to play colours - especially in areas of the pattern you normally would leave solid and think of as background.

I especially like the colour version below:

I think the best way to wear this would be to extend the top just enough to create a self-bail.

A long absence and lots of good stuff to follow

Here's Miss Mess looking mean, but she's a real sweetie.

So what has been going on my life? It seems as though I have been so busy and yet never get anything done.

I'm sure many can identify with that feeling.

I also have to confess that I sometimes feel so guilty about missing a posting, I put it off even more. Which leads to more guilt!

And to be quite honest, I've been in a bit of a beading funk. For a while I felt as if there were no new patterns for me to try, and no new creative vibes were coming my way.

I have several ways I deal with the creative doldrums (I'll share them below.), but sometimes - you just have to trust in time. And ultimately, that's what I needed: time. Lately, I have been feeling "like a busy beady bee" and have some patterns to share.

But what was I doing during all that time, if I wasn't beading???

I find that it helps to do something else creative, to keep my mind working. It also will often inspire me to try something new with my beading. I have been doing some felting, quilting, embroidery, and artist trading cards. I definitely want to do some beaded ATC's. I will be sharing some pics of everything, even though they are not beady.

(For those who don't know what ATC's are, here's a great link that explains the what and how, with examples.)

In the area where I currently live, there is a strong interest in quilting. In part, this is an area where quilting never died out, and I remember as a child accompanying my Granny to church quilting bees. Some of my best memories as a child were playing with her fabric scraps,(she was always generous with them) needle, and thread, and playing house under the quilt frame. Granny's knees were always nearby, as she worked her needle and thread from top to bottom, thimble flashing.

So going back to sewing and quilting is very much a going back to my crafting roots. For me quilting is a comfort thing, imbued with warm fuzzy memories of Granny.

It amuses me to read folk lore books about "the old ways" and see references to things folks around here have always done and still do. Yes, many things have faded, but there are still folks in "them thar hills" doing things the old timey way.

I have also been spending quite a bit of time working in the flower beds, the veggie garden (which I murdered - the drought was just the mercy stroke), and taking care of the chickens. I never knew how much personality chickens have, until we got ours. My daughter, Becca, says they have individual "chickenalities!" I have gotten a good laugh every day from their antics and love to just watch them peck, flap, and run about the front field. (You should see them go after May-flies!)

Last week we had a strange dog come through and attack one of our hens - Miss Mess -who is a sweet White Rock. The girls (my daughters, although the chicken girls hollered too!) hollered immediately (It happened just feet from the house), and the dog dropped her and ran. When I first exited the house, I saw an enormous pile of feathers and feared the worst. But Miss Mess must be a very lucky girl! She was hiding in the flower bed under some stalks, being very still.

Her poor tail looks a bit like a small powder puff with all of her big tail feathers gone, and she has a small lesion on her back that is healing well. Otherwise she is doing well. I have noticed she is the first one to head for the coop when we put them up or if she gets startled, but that is a good thing.

So in honour of Miss Mess, and her good fortune to survive the dog attack, I'm posting these two patterns based on photos I took of her just before the attack happened. As you can see in the bracelet, she still has her nice shape.

Arrow head pendant

I have always wanted to find an arrow head. I always tend to keep my eyes trained to the ground whenever I'm walking in the woods, looking for wildflowers, cool rocks, and natural plunder as part of my nature. So, I have to confess to having been a bit envious of those who have found arrowheads right in the same places where I have walked hundreds of times.

Saturday, I was finally rewarded with this beautiful example of a quartz arrowhead, in very pristine shape. It's unusual to find quartz arrow heads, just because they were harder to make. Quartz is very brittle and shatters easily - usually in straight, square pieces, due to it's crystalline nature. However, Native Americans in this part of Virginia did use quartz at times, just because it was so plentiful. and it is very hard (6.5 - 7.5 on the MOH scale).

In truthfulness, I had my eyes trained for ferns. I was looking for ferns from my in laws creek to dig up and transplant to my flower bed back home. As I leaned over to check out some fiddle heads, a flash of a gleaming white triangle caught my eye. I stopped, scooped, and to my wonder, held this beauty pictured.

Anyone who knows me by now, knows I would have to do something "beady" with it. Since I didn't want to do anything to the arrowhead to damage it, I chose wire work. Wire work allowed me to create a simple cage that shows off the simplicity of this pendant. The wire work also allows a way to create a pendant, without gluing or drilling the arrowhead.

The web site below gives some information about the Native Americans of Pittslyvania County VA. I found this arrowhead in Halifax County, not far from the Bannister River and the Pittslyvania County line.

http://www.victorianvilla.com/sims-mitchell/local/native/index.htm

I'd also like to add that Bill Hathaway, who is referenced at this web site was a huge influence on me in the 1990's, when I took a class with him and Dr. Fisher at Averett. The class, "Local Flora" was an advanced identification course on the native and introduced plants in Pittslyvania County and nearby areas. Mr. Hathaway was a self taught man, who had a love of learning and enthusiasm. Pretty much everything I know about wild flowers, I learned from him. I know that my photography, bead work patterns, and art in general has been heavily influenced by his infectious love of learning and nature.

I find myself thinking about about how long ago this arrow was last fired (300 years ago?), what was it fired at (deer?), and what sort of person made it or carried it? Did the hunter fire and miss, losing this arrow in the woods, and go home hungry that night? Things to ponder and wonder about as I wear this small piece of history.

Acorn post II

Finished!! I posted ages ago about a cool tutorial on Ressurection Fern's Blog (see link on right) on how to make a sweet pendant with an acorn and some crochet thread. Her tutorial takes you through the steps to make a little basket that allows you to wear the acorn.

I was excited by the notion of making one up as beaded. I ran right out and realized - "duh!" it's SUMMER! No fresh acorns. All the ones laying about had bites taken out of them. But! I endeavored to perservere and this week, finally, found an acorn cap lying on the ground that was perfect as a topper. Painted it with gold paint and "Voila!"

(The jump drive in the back ground is very petite, but should give you a notion of of relative size.)

Bronzeclay first firing

Night before last, I programed the kiln for firing the new Bronzeclay. The instructions call for ramping the temperature at 250 degrees per hour (I had several pieces that were thicker than 3mm). Then the kiln should hold at 1550 degrees F for three hours. It takes nine hours all told to fire the pieces.

I used a "firing container" (stainless steel chafing dish, used in steam tables - you can get them at restaurant supply stores) filled with the basic activated charcoal. I was hoping for a rainbow finish but my stuff mostly came out in oranges and a bit of green. I think this was in part because I did crowd a bit to get everything in the container. Still I did have easily an inch -inch and a half of the carbon packed around each item.

One of the hardest parts was digging everything out afterwards. The carbon is very small particles and dusty. I pulled the container out when everything was still 400 degrees (I really should have waited!) and the container started to spray a fine spray of carbon out one side, through a small gap in lid. (a very small gap!)

I had used a mask through all of the handling of the carbon , thankfully. I also used a mask while burnishing, filing, and sanding the leather hard bronzeclay. One of the things I have discovered about the difference between the bronze clay and silver clay - bronze clay has a distinct metallic odor.

The Bronze clay handles very much the same as silver clay - I think it is a great option for practicing techniques and ideas, before commiting them to the more expensive silver clay. However, my love for silver will still have me using the silver clay for the final pieces.

It's important to note, I have gained more confidence already from using the Bronzclay - I don't have quite the same fear of "messing up all that money!" as I would when using the silver clay. I got several pieces made - 17 good sized pendants from about 150 gm of clay. I have more waiting to do a second batch, but wanted to test the things I had made already.