UFOs :: The Everyday

I showed you my first grouping of UFOs in my last post. There are more. Many, many more. But let's work on this pile first.

Next up is the dark purple glass cab to the right of the green one I just finished. This purple one almost looks black and has a faint pattern in it. It is so hard to photograph to bring out the pattern, but this picture off to the upper left was the best I could do.

I was wearing this one around the house to check how it hangs and if it needed any adjusting. My husband actually noticed saying "oh that's a pretty one." He so rarely comments on any of my pieces that it threw me. I do like the simplicity of this one, and that it would be good to wear for everyday. I wear a lot of black and this one might just be ok to wear to the office. I might need to take it out for a test drive for a meeting I have tomorrow.

UFOs :: Completing Unfinished Objects

Hello, my name is Cynthia, and I am a bead-aholic. I get distracted like a child in a candy store when I'm standing in front of a table of beads. My mind races with possibilities, but many times fails to complete the thought.

We all like to joke about UFOs (UnFinished Objects) lying around our bead tables. I have a hopeless, and chronic issue with them. I start many projects, but get distracted somewhere along the way.

I'm not sure what causes it. Perhaps it comes from the rush I get when a pattern appears in my head and I hurry to get it worked out through the beads. And once I see the beads come together I get distracted by yet another shinny objects on the bead table.

Sometimes it is a technique I'm practicing and I work it over and over in my hands. It is like when I was a child and was learning the piano. I would work the same couple of bars in the music over and over again until my family would beg me to move on because they just couldn't listen to it any more. It could also be because the piano sat in the middle of the living room not far from the television. Yea, on second thought it could have been that. 

Lately I've been obsessed with cabochons. Tiny ones, misshaped ones, shields .... anything that can be glued and beaded around seems to be in progress and lying on my bead table. My kids like to joke with me that I think almost anything can be beaded. Perhaps. I do love a challenge. So when Karen put out a call to start a support group for UFOs, my beady friends assembled like moths to a flame. First up for me is this green glass cab that I have had sitting around for roughly 3 years. Not as old as some UFOs, but certainly time to finish. Part of my mission with completing these UFOs is to also try to use beads within my existing stash (aka no buying of new beads .... OMG did I just say that?). This necklace uses green aventurine that I've had much, much longer than 3 years.

Soothing the Soul

This piece speaks to me on so many levels. It combines a Native American look and feel with a traveler's compass. That embodies so many of the things I love. 

The first magnetic compass was invented around 200 BC during the Chinese Han Dynasty, but not really used in its traditional navigational sense until the 11th century by the Song Dynasty. Amazing just how long ago this was invented and how advanced the civilizations that used it must have been.

The last time I took some time away to bead for the weekend with Christine, she asked if we could practice fringe. Ah fringe, how I love it. I had with me two of these leather compass focals that Melinda Orr had made. I punched several holes in both of them and we got to work. One of the many things I love about beading with Christine is that we can sit, and bead, and just be. We can talk non-stop for hours, and then we can sit quietly and bead. Both are important, and both soothe the soul.

This piece actually hangs long, not quite at waist level. And when I wear it it swings and gives a bit of a musical sound with all those brass feathers. I don't keep many of the items that I make, but this one just might make the cut.