Beader's Block: Holiday Procrastination

Yesterday was a lazy day. I was suppose to be starting on a massive turquoise project, and I do mean massive. Someone has asked for the mother-load. Complete with multi-layered necklace, multi-strand bracelet and of course earrings. My only advice is, for god's sake please don't wear it all at once.


So while I pushed my beads around the table, and pulled out a focal or two to consider, I set it all aside and went off for some mommy-daughter time. All those beads were giving me a serious headache.


I let my 9-year-old pick the nail color, and pick she did! It seems to be the color of the season ... somewhere between Dior's waterlily and Essie's mojito. Just for fun, I checked out toes on my way in to the office this morning, and sure enough this minty sea green seems to be the color of choice. At least at this point for the summer.  


My youngest is a veteran nail salon patron. She wasn't shy about asking to add a few flowers to her nails. She has likely been to the salon as many times as I have in my life (almost). Frankly, I never went before I had girls. But I admit it, as much as I'm not girly ... my girls are. And so we go and get our nails done. Flanked with a daughter on either side of me, I confess, I do love my 'girl time' with them. 


I'll get back to the turquoise tomorrow. 

Do Overs: Upcycling Old Projects

Just finished reading a fun post from Crafty Hope on digging up some of those old projects. Got me thinking. 

Its been about 5 years now since I took a wire wrap class on a whim. I had never done anything other then simple bead strings. But my sister-in-law was visiting (along with my Brother) for Christmas and I decided it would be fun to take a class while she was here. She is a classically trained artist who specializes in encaustic painting, an ancient Egyptian technique, and so I knew I had to up the game a bit and pick a class that might challenge her.

Funny thing is, that class jump-started my beading after many, many years. I used to bead when I was a kid. Could not get enough of it, but I wouldn't go as far as to say I was any good. Just your simple bead strings. I lost interest when I hit my teen years and tucked the box of beads away in the attic. I did keep a few of the necklaces, and gave them to my girls without much of a thought. Only one survived all the dress up outfits and tea parties. A tad worse for wear, but I managed to save the beads. I keep it in a bead tube as the last artifact of my early work. This one I think I'll leave just as it is.

There is something soothing to me to just sit and string beads. I have a lot of people ask me why I make jewelry, and so much of it. I always answer "because I don't knit."

Anniversaries: Silver and Pearls

I remember my sister returning from her semester abroad like it was yesterday. That's us right after she came home. She was giddy when recounting the stories of her travels, the people she met, the countries she'd seen .... and the shopping. Man I wanted to have been there with her while she was drifting through the streets of Spain or Paris. I still have the Damascene bracelet she gave me; it's what piqued my interested in antique jewelry.  

After college, and I mean the week she graduated, she packed up and moved to New Zealand ... lock, stock and barrel. She had met a great guy from NZ while she was abroad and that was it. 25 years later, she's still there. Married, two beautiful, grown boys, and some 8,800+ miles away. Sigh. I miss my sister.

I was lucky enough to spend a couple of weeks with her this past February. It was heaven. Lots of chit-chatting, shopping and just general 'sister stuff.' On one of those shopping excursions she pointed out a string of fresh water pearls she liked. I brought the pearls home with me to make something special for her. 
I later realized that what she wanted was similar to a necklace I had restrung last summer with my mom's pearls (above center). I added a sweet little marcasite and pearl charm that I pulled off another necklace from mom. I decided she should have them both. One from mom, and a new one just for her.  


The new one is a double strand necklace set with a large pearl clasp, and pearl coins. I used small onyx rounds to space the pearls in the necklaces. It's a classic Cartier style that I love with pearls. Sometimes just a simple, elegant stringing style is best. I hope she likes these and wears them often. Happy 25th Anniversary Sis!

BTW: My Turkish Designer

I've talked a lot about My Turkish friend that I ride the train with every day into Manhattan. She loves to take me shopping at the bead stores in the Garment District. We meet up for lunch and shop away! And well, what beader doesn't LOVE that? 


She has an eye for design, and pushes me to think differently about mine.  This project is not a combo I would have come up with, but well that is the fun of it all. She originally wanted lapis, but when I pointed out these pretty little midnight blue sandstone rounds she said YES! that's it.  But then she wanted a large charm attached. 


I was just asking her yesterday what it was about something large hanging off her bracelets that she likes so much? She says it adds just that little bit of (insert Turkish word). And our fellow Turkish friend is shaking her head violently in agreement. I'm still a bit in the dark on this topic, but I play along.


She has managed to grab my entire stash of left over tassels that come with my semi-precious stones. You know the ones you clip and throw aside?  She loves them, and begs me to attach them to her jewelry. But in this case she went for an ambulance cross in powder blue that she picked up on our bead shopping. She also asked for matching earrings. I have to say when she was showing off her new ensemble yesterday on the train she did look great in her design!

Button Swap-Blog Hop: Dreaming of the Aegean

Cindy over at sweet bead studio is hosting a button swap extravaganza this weekend with over 90 people participating. When I saw her post I knew that this was just the hop for me! I have a large jar full of buttons (left) that people have tossed my way through the years. I have one or two of each button, and while that isn't enough for sewing it is perfect for a beader.  
    I have to thank Cindy for paring me with Julia at beautifully whimsical who sent me jewel tone buttons, which I love. But ooooh, then I saw the gorgeous blue one. Julia had stacked the deck with this amazing button. I knew that I could not do my usual 'button clasp bracelet' with this baby. Oh no, this screamed ... put me up front. And so I did. Right up front in yet one more ribbon choker. 
   For those of you who saw my piece from last weekend (blog post below), you might think this is my thing. But these are the only two ribbon chokers I've ever made - I swear! Thing is; once I finished the piece I felt like it would be better hanging all the beads vertically and giving a little room to the necklace. But, I'll let you guys be the judge. Let me know what your vote is .... choker or vertical? 
   Recently I signed up for Pinterest just to check it out. My first couple of times on the site I was thinking ... really, so people 'pin' pictures sort of like on a bulletin board? How, um, boring. Yeah, well 4 months in and I'm addicted. 4,600+ pins later, completely addicted. I create mood boards for my beading inspiration. This piece was inspired from my Mediterranean board. I also decided to throw in a couple of quick wire-wrap earrings in that same gorgeous color. I couldn't help it with pictures of all that blue water around Santorini; it's just so very dreamy.

BTW: Aegean Blue

This is my first Bead Table Wednesday. I love to see what everyone is working on, and so I thought I'd join in. 

My table has been a disaster lately with back-to-back blog hops! Each hop I've wanted to create more than one item, but I ran out of time and needed to move on to the next hop! And so, I have half finished projects pretty much everywhere, which is driving me nuts.

This week's project is a focus on buttons for the upcoming button swap hosted by Cindy from sweet bead studio. I can't wait to see how everyone incorporated buttons into their projects. Not always an easy element! It can be tricky to get it to lay flat and show off its pattern or style. 

I was lucky enough for my partner, Julia over at beautifully whimsical, to send me 5 buttons work with. I zeroed in pretty quickly on this over-sized, gorgeous sea blue one.  

I pulled out all my various canisters of beads to see what color combinations were going to draw out the colors in the button.  I do (generally) organize the bead canisters by color, although I tend to mix them by tones, or colors that I like grouped together. It sometimes makes for a bit of hunt and peck, but it is always a jump start on pulling in color groupings for my projects. I'm still working on it, and I'll reveal the final piece this weekend, but expect a splash of blue ... the color of the Aegean Sea!

One Crayon Color Blog Hop: Green

Sally at the studio sublime is hosting a blog hop this weekend encouraging a group of us to create with monochromatic colors by choosing one color and designing in shades & tones within that single color.

I chose green.  Green has been my favorite color for as long as I can remember. Yes, that is me (right) in the 1970s. I've never wavered.  It's always been green.  And as I've gotten older it has spilled into my jewelry choices using stones like emeralds, jade, peridot, green amethyst and green chalcedony.


For this challenge, I focused on jade variations (rounds, diamonds and a jade pendant) with mutli-green seed beads. I used grosgrain sage-colored ribbon to tie the multi-length choker. The central seed bead pattern is a Russian spiral.  What fun! Crazy and eclectic, but came together in the end.

THE MEANING OF THE STONE: JADE  the stone of serenity, longevity and warmth

Energy: soothing color helps with healing
Amulet: worn to promote wisdom and long life
Egypt: ancient tailsman used to attract friendship
China: promotes 5 virtues of humanity (wisdom, compassion, justice, modesty & courage)
Zodiac: Pisces (open to new ideas and a lover of freedom: many artists, musicians are Pisces)
Chakra: heart (love, kindness & affection) compassionate and harmonious in relationships