Each month my Esty Blogging team does a challenge, and this month the theme is to look to nature for inspiration and Fall colors. Well that's easy enough, so what took me until the end of the month?!
I decided to create a simple choker using a gorgeous jasper focal, some copper detail, leather and a little black to draw out the veining in the stone.
I love japser; it is one of my favorite stones. Of any of the stones I have built up in my stash, jasper is absolutely top 5. I never get tired of it as there are so many varieties to choose from. Half the fun is trying to figure out exactly which one it is. I thought this one was red poppy jasper, but my friend Therese is guessing leopard skin jasper. Let us know if you have a better guess!
I've been trying to figure out a little history on turn of the century folk art toys, some call them "Prim Dolls."
I just had this picture in my head of homemade, sewn rag dolls. But, there really is very little information on them. Plenty of pictures, but next to no background or history.
This necklace just seemed to have that same touch of handmade, folk art, rag doll flare. A bit of whimsy and a lot of swing when you wear it. The large grey rounds are matte hematite (LOVE this bead) and have a good weight to them, so it adds to the swing of the fringe. Oh yes, there is fringe. Fringe seems to be on my mind lately. And I used the zig zag stitch for the necklace as I wanted a chain with a more rustic feel to add to the folk art look. I am really enjoying playing around with this look lately.
Several of you asked about how to do the zig zag stitch. It really is very simple; using 3 beads to shape a triangle. I like using metal colored beads as it does create a chain look and feel to the stitch. Below is a step-by-step to explain:
I've had a lot going on lately and haven't been able to get out and snap pics for Sally's hop. I am hoping to catch up today since I took the day off to celebrate my youngest daughter's birthday.
Sally asked us 3 weeks ago to focus on an industrial photo. I confess that I had some trouble trying to think about how to capture that in a photo. Yes I work in New York, but a single photo? When I think of industry it makes me think of the turn of the last century when machines made life easier, which made me think of the old sewing machines. I learned how to sew on an old Singer with the crank wheel. And when I bought my first machine I wanted one just like it, so I bought this one. It only goes backwards and forwards. Nothing fancy, but it is what I prefer.
The next thing Sally asked us to think about was to reflect. This time of year I do reflect on all the things to organize as the kids go back to school, the days become shorter, and the rains come --- soon to be snow. I actually enjoy the cooler weather, and don't mind the rain. But that is probably because I grew up in the Pacific Northwest.
Ok, so one more photo to share with you all. Today is my youngest's birthday, and my centerpiece. She is very excited as we are having several of her friends over for pizza, cake and then off to the opening night of the Hunger Games. It just happened to coincide with her exact birthday. She's just a tad giddy today as she awaits the arrival of all her friends showing up to help her celebrate. So I might be a little delayed in getting around to everyone's blog posts tonight!
I know I said I'd be back in a week, but Christine's Rolling Blog Hop is, well... hopp'n! I posted two of my spools 2 weeks ago, and I was waiting for a lull to post my third spool reveal. But looks like I'm going to need to squeeze back in.
The posts are just roll'n in, and we've seen some fantastic designs! I have all the links to everyone's reveals so far at the end of this post so you can check them all out.
For my third design, I was working with this large, more irregular shaped spool. I did struggle just a bit with it trying to figure out what direction I wanted the design of the spool to be until I remembered an image I saw of a young Native American girl. She had beautiful dark hair tied up on either side in what is called a "Squash Blossom" style. The hairstyle is a Hopi custom which represents the sign of a girl's marriageability. The young girl will twist her hair in the shape of squash blossoms, which is the sign of fertility for an unmarried girl in the tribe.
I wanted natural colors and fibers in this piece, so I used a linen colored silk from Darn Good Yarn, a mix of seed beads, Czech beads and howlite. I am loving this howlite stone with native designs. It has subtle tan-cream veining throughout the stone, which gives it a natural look. I also stained the spool so it had a deep color. The focal is long (6 inches!) and has a good weight to it. I envision it being worn waist length.
Ok, I know this is an irreverent move on my part, but once I started putting this blog post together I simply could not get an image out of my head. Is it just me? or do those squash blossom twists remind you of Princess Leia in Star Wars... I always thought of her hair as more of a Danish pastry swirl, but maybe that is just the recollection from the Ross and Rachel scene in Friends. Once I started googling images, both the Native American girl and Princess Leia kept coming up together. It was all over for me; the image stuck. The one I can't get out of my head is Nicolas Cage dressed like Princess Leia ... that is one that cannot be unseen... Gah!
We're almost through the rolling blog hop! Check out all the links and projects already revealed. Our host: Christine (Christine's post), and all the rest of the rolling bloggers:
Janet (Janet's post), Hope (Hope's post), Bobbie (Bobbie's post), Tanya (Tanya's post), Maryanne (Maryanne's post), Cynthia (my first post), Liz (Liz's post), Lisa (Lisa's post), Kim (Kim's post), and the bloggers still to post: Therese (Therese's post), Karin (Karin's post) and Erin (Erin's post)
Last Spring I was working on a series using these wood focals gifted to me by Christine. It was love at first sight when I saw these babies. They are rustic, boho, tribal ... all wrapped up into one.
I had two designs done quickly (right) with plenty of fringe, and I revealed these for the last A Time to Stitch Blog Hop (#3). And just a shout out that we're now all working on our #4 ATTS with reveals coming in January. Check the link if you're interested in a little bead weaving.
This third wood focal was giving me pause. I knew pretty quickly I wanted to pair it up with a ceramic piece gifted to me by Melinda Orr (yes, I am one lucky girl getting all these wonderful beady items gifted to me!). The issue was what in the world was I going to do with necklace? I tried suede (too chunky and hung all wonky), I tried leather (thin and kinda meh?), so I set it aside and my UFO sat there on my bead table a loooooong, long time.
But then I remembered these lovely seed beads with a copper finish to them (also gifted to me from Christine, yep lucky girl I am). And I remembered this great stitch that Christine showed me called a zig-zag. The metal colored beads with this stitch almost resemble chain. Very cool effect. I kinda love how it looks. And so did one of my friends. This one lasted about a day in my shop inventory before my friend took it home.
I'm not exactly sure how this all started, but I seem to be in a fringe state of mind lately. I feel like every time I look at a piece, that could potentially be 'finished' .... I think, so could I add a little fringe to this side here?
A few weeks back my friend Christine met me in NYC and we walked The High Line. If you are ever in New York, check it out. It is an oasis in a noisy city. Christine and I were threatening to come back and bring our beads and lounge for the afternoon on their roller chairs! (Below) they are plank lounges that roll on the old rail tracks. Seriously cool!
Spending time with Christine is like two sisters that haven't seen each other in awhile and stay up ridiculously late talking into the wee hours of the night. The High Line was a bonus as we took in all this amazing scenery, and art, and NY views. A glorious day! We stopped into the Chelsea Market to snoop the shops, and wandered into the Anthropologie there. I do love their eclectic, bohemian style. But I don't like their prices!
I always have to take a peek at the jewelry, and I noticed that they were putting out tassel earrings this Fall. I grabbed a few examples (above right) off their website ... the green tassels are $198 -- yikes! The ones I found in the store were a little more reasonable, more along the lines of $50, but still they are tassels? You know the ones you cut off the ends when you buy semi-precious gems.
The ones I looked at in the store had a bit of chain wrapped around them with a glass bead? I showed Christine, and said "we could do so much better than this!" Ok, was that a challenge? Yeah, you all know where this is heading. Now I had to try it. These bead up quickly, and of course there is beaded fringe on my fringe. Because I'm just in that state of mind lately.
Today we're celebrating Therese's Birthday (of Therese's Treasures), and she does it in such a unique way. She sends out gifts to all of us! How nice is that? This year Therese decided to apprentice with a local glass artist. As her first lesson she learned fusing glass, and she created a series of cabs, which is what she has shared with us! She told us that her birthday present was to see what we make with her cabs.
In this first lesson she learned how to cut glass, score and break it, then the fun begins with fusing shapes and 'sandwiching' pieces of glass. You can see Therese (top left) shaping the glass in the picture I grabbed from her blog, along with her collection of cabs she made! You can read more about her process here.
The cab Therese sent me is on the lower right of the picture. It is really a beautiful piece! I am pretty new to working with cabs, in fact this is now my second bead bezel piece, so I kept it simple to let the cab really take center stage. Then I did some simple stringing for the rest of the bracelet, again because I did want to fight with the dominant colors of the cab. I added just a little bit of gold beading to pull out the gold in the glass. The end result kinda reminds me of a modern piece of art ... almost Kandinsky! Happy Birthday Therese, and thanks for hosting a great birthday blog hop! Here are all the other birthday hoppers: Alicia, Amy, Bobbie, Christine, Cynthia (that's me), Kristen, Lola, Marla, Maryanne, Shirley, Therese and Crystie
It is exciting to see something that you created and put a lot of effort into, get published. I feel that way whether it is in a printed magazine, or in the pages of the eMagazine I work on called Bead Chat Magazine.
This month we did a tribute to Bead Trends Magazine. I think a lot of us were quite sad to see the end of it's publication. The magazine was always beautifully done. And I think a lot of felt it was more accessible to the broader bead community than some publications. That is one thing that the team at Bead Chat Magazine has tried to do; to make a publication that is accessible, and one that celebrates all the wonderful artists in our midst.
I was one of the many people who submitted to Bead Trends, had one of my pieces selected only to find out weeks later that it would not be published. And that they were ceasing the magazine. What! Really? It sent ripples through the bead community. Our team decided to asked Tatia Meyer, the publisher, if she'd be willing to do a tribute issue with us. You'll see a letter that she wrote (Pgs 9-10) to thank all those who contributed through the years.
I was so bummed when I heard my piece wasn't going to be published, as this was a piece that I had been dying to share with people. I made it early last Spring, shipped it off to Bead Trends, and then found out it was back logged as one of the many that needed to be returned.
I was excited about our Bead Trends Tribute, because I was going to be able to show you all my necklace, along with pieces from several other artists. Mine uses an irregular netting pattern. The beads are from my Turkish friend who brought them back from a visit. Their odd shapes contribute to the old world feel of the piece. I added wing oyster shells (I brought back from a trip to New Zealand) as the fringe. I wanted to give some substance to the edging, but also have a little sound from the movement of the piece. The shells were just the thing. It sits up on the collar bone and looks fantastic with a scoop neck top. Be sure to check out all the other unpublished pieces, plus an interview with Jess Italia Lincoln from Vintaj, and Erin Siegel who talks about her thoughts on being published. It's another packed issue!
Last time I was up at our camp in the Adirondacks I asked my mother-in-law about a large string of shells hanging on the wall. They had clearly been there a very long time, but no one seemed to know why or where they came from. She said that they had come back with my husband's older brother from one of his many, many adventures. Exactly which location? Hard to say ... Thailand, India, Mexico ... she couldn't remember.
She said that they had no sentimental value and perhaps I could use the shells in my designs. Oh she knows how to sweet talk me! That took about 3 seconds, as I had to climb the stairs to reach the string of shells. They have a beautiful orange and off white pattern to them. Those were in my bag before she could finish the sentence.
And then a few weeks back I met up with my friend Christine and she gave me a shell her brother found in Florida from a beach combing excursion. She had drilled a hole in the top which made it perfect for a focal. She also gifted me this really cool banana fiber, which adds the best rustic boho feel to the piece. Funny how bits and pieces just fall together like they were always meant to be.
Christine is hosting a 'rolling' blog hop. And she means that in more ways than one! The participants are revealing their spool projects one by one through the month of November. I am the sixth blogger to show you my reveal. We've already seen beautiful pieces from Janet, Hope, Tanya, Maryanne and Bobbie (click the links at the end of the post to see their creations).
I started with sanding off the paper labels of my spools, then staining them with furniture stain. If you're interesting in giving this a try just remember that it will dry somewhat tacky to the feel. Just grab a cloth and buff it as a finishing touch.
I've been wanting to try beadwork that literally 'rolled' around an object; much like the kind of work you'd see in tribal Native American ceremonial pieces. The only problem with that is once I really dug in to explore how you stitch something like this I realized that you really need to sew it into a hide or fabric. The stitch is typically called a gourd stitch, sometimes Comanche brick, or even Native American Church (the origin of peyote stitch). The stitch is typically at a slant and beaded around a solid object like a fan handle, drum stick or gourd rattle.
Ok, well I don't give up that easily. I knew I could still give this a go. I decided peyote was going to work. I have been wanting to do a chevron pattern, and I was so excited when my stitches lined up exactly to the pattern count! Wow! That never happens for me. Serendipity indeed.
Now for a little research on the meaning behind the chevron pattern. I was expecting it to be Egyptian (yeah, I've seen Stargate one too many times). I found that the word itself is French, 'huh, who knew?' It means rafter, or the supporting beam running along the ridge of the roof. The visual signifies a roof-peak on a house, and means protection. It does go back to the Middle Ages where knights would put the symbol on their shields to protect them in battle. I'll have to call this piece "The Protector."
For my second spool I just let the beads flow like a continuing story. I wanted to go for a subtle tone, on tone look. I used irregular, off-white seed beads and a new bead I just discovered (thank you Janet!) from Jimenas Treasures. They are fiber beads around copper coils, and are heavier than they look. They were the perfect add to this necklace with every element in a clean, simple coil pattern. I do actually have one more spool to show you, but this post is long enough for today! Stop back by next week and I'll show you my third piece.
Christine is one of the first people I remember meeting on my bloggy journey. The first blog hop I ever joined was for the 7000 Bracelets for Hope that she was co-hosting. I somehow managed to figure out how to pre-schedule my post while away on vacation. Anyone who knows the two of us knows what a ridiculous conversation it was for Christine and I to have any sort of advance technology discussion! However when it comes to beading we seem to be so in sync that I think it surprises even us. While I've only known her for 2 short years, I feel like we've been friends forever. I doubt seriously that I could summarize our friendship in one paragraph, but that is the beauty of it. I know that there is a long story still unwritten ahead of us. Yes, a continuing story that comes together thread, by thread. Thank you my friend for creating such an adventurous blog hop! I totally enjoyed this one!
Our host: Christine (Christine's post), and all the rest of the rolling bloggers: Janet (Janet's post), Cynthia (that's me), Kim (Kim's post), Therese (Therese's post), Tanya (Tanya's post), Bobbie (Bobbie's post), Liz (Liz's post), Maryanne (Maryanne's post), Karin (Karin's post), Lisa (Lisa's post), Hope (Hope's post) and Erin (Erin's post)
ZnetShows asked a few of us to create for an amazing charity called 7000 Bracelets of Hope. It is an initiative from the Global Genes | RARE project, which is an advocacy organization for individuals with rare and genetic diseases. This organization started the 7000 Bracelets of Hope initiative to provide blue-themed bracelets to families fighting rare and genetic diseases. The idea is that these bracelets give support and a little hope to these families. As well, the unifying blue theme may help spread awareness.
ZnetShows asked us to pick some blue colored beads to create with, and I picked these amazing double hole sea glass beads. I absolutely love them and had so much fun playing with the design in this bracelet. The pale blue really pops with the matte black onyx beads. I've been wanting to practice beading around another bead, and so I did a little blue accent around the onyx to pull the blue color through out the design. This one should look great with a pair of jeans!
The other bracelet I'm sending off to RARE is a bracelet I made this summer with beautiful Chinese crystals I got from ZnetShows. It also features a large clear crystal as the main focal, and a blue sea glass hoop as a toggle (both from ZnetShows). You could wear this one either way!
I have really enjoyed working with all the stones, beads and sea glass that ZnetShows has sent us to try out. Really beautiful stuff. Click on the link to check out their beads!
Christine sent me a very interesting piece to play with a few weeks back. She had a great idea to create her own pottery shards. She found pottery where she liked the pattern, and then had a little fun smashing and sanding the edges! What a great idea! She is always full of surprises.
I absolutely love the green in this piece, but interesting how it uses touches of yellow-gold as well. Somehow it reminded me of nature and even just a bit like tapestry. Ok, now there is an idea. I put together a mood board with some medieval images (as you all knew that I would!). I got lost pulling from two of my favorite boards: antiquities / medieval. I love Pinterest for this reason; it's great to get the creative juices flowing! My mood board may not exactly match my piece, but you can see what was running through my head as I created.
This week Sally's prompt has a seasonal twist to it. She asked us to focus on: saints, souls, skulls or scares. And while sugar skulls are most popular this time of year, I've been playing around with another type of skull: Southwestern style. In my opinion, no one does it quite like Georgia O'Keeffe.
Georgia traveled from NY to northern New Mexico in 1929, and she talked about her love of the area saying “When I got to New Mexico that was mine. As soon as I saw it that was my country. I’d never seen anything like it before, but it fitted to me exactly. It’s something that’s in the air, it’s different. The sky is different, the wind is different. I shouldn’t say too much about it because other people may be interested and I don’t want them interested.”
Georgia was a photographer and a painter and you can see the influence of advanced photography (of the time) in her paintings. Her imagery is both crisp and surreal. She painted the subtle nuances of color, shape and light on her subject, in more than 900 paintings during her lifetime.
I'm showing several images of my necklace to explain some of the things I'm learning as I use my new camera. The main reason I wanted the camera was to be able to get better close ups of my jewelry, and I also wanted to play with the focus so I could blur out the background as you see in this picture (left). I hung the necklace in a tree to create the green background. I have been trying all kinds of surfaces to get a completely white background. This is so that you can take the background out of the picture and have only the image of the jewelry. We typically use a white background for Bead Chat Magazine. I tried a blank white canvas, cotton, cheesecloth, even fresh white sand ... and most of these surfaces produce a bluish hue? You see this in the first picture (top left). For some reason the watercolor paper absorbs the light instead of deflecting it and gives the warm hue you see in the second picture (top right).
As for my necklace, Georgia was my inspiration. I wanted to get that stark Southwestern feel in my focal. I used a custom cut wood focal made by Edi Royer of Memories for Life along with some small wood feathers that I've had her make me before. A bit of simple tone on tone beading (the large rounds are howlite) to create the headdress on my skull. You'll see this featured next week in the November issue of Bead Chat Magazine. I'm just giving you a sneak preview and some learnings on photographing. There is a big announcement next week, so be sure to look for it over at Creative Bead Chat!
Each month my Esty Blogging team does a challenge, and this month the theme is to look to nature for inspiration and Fall colors. Well that's easy enough, so what took me until the end of the month?! 
