Bohemian Leather :: 5 x 5 Test Group

I think Boho has got to be one of my favorite styles. It's comfortable to wear, and from a design standpoint there are very few rules. Leaving the artist to play. And boy did I have a lot of fun playing with the goodies Melinda Orr sent me! The leather is soft and easy to work with, and I used every last bit and piece of it! 

This first piece was a stamped pattern flat leather. I punched holes in it and then beaded on top of the pattern. I also learned how to create a button hole closure with a rivet that Melinda sent me. You can see the tutorial in this month's Bead Chat Magazine glossi (page 81-82) ... I can't even believe how big our little magazine is getting! I'm like a proud moma.

The next piece I decided to leave the beautiful pattern alone and add a beaded band. I recently saw something like this in one of the beading magazines, completely escaping me which one. But a simple enough concept!

I moved on to the thin leather cord which Melinda sent in 3 colors: blue, off white and natural. Might sound a little strange, but it is beautiful stuff! I tell you that this first one with the cross pendant, the second I finished my teenage daughter (also my model here) put it on and never took it off! 

She did the same with the next one I created with various wood beads. I had only just finished gluing all the cords into the end when she slipped it on! Popped out one side of the closure, so I had to reset everything. Guess who claimed this one as well?

Now this next one I tried a little something new. I'm calling it freeform chainmaille. I was pretty sure that there wasn't such a thing as chainmaille is a pretty organized sort of thing. But I decided to try. I used it to create a focal and pull the two leather bands together in the middle. Later I googled 'freeform chainmaille' and found that it is indeed a technique, who knew? There is even a book on it by Kalmbach. 

Ok, so at this point I have only a couple of scraps left on my bead table. And not wanting any of this gorgeous leather to go to waste ... I decide to create little leather loop earrings. The final two pieces include a Native American inspired beaded pair, and then a wood disc pair that I added a little flair to. If you haven't already clicked over to August Bead Chat Magazine issue ... then click here and check out what everyone else did with their leather from Orrtec.

Fish are Friends :: Blog Hop

Isn't that the best name for a hop? Bobbie of Beadsong Jewelry came up with that one. Although in my house fish is food! We eat a lot of fish, so this one made me giggle. 

Our host, Karen Williams of Skunk Hill Studio, has written a wonderful tutorial (you can find it on Etsy) to create these little Fancy Fish, as she calls them. I saw them over on her blog and commented on just how cute these little guys are, and next thing you know I’m on her design team! 

She sent just a couple of us the pattern to give it a try as ‘testers’ of her tutorial. She also sent a few of us a bead package in colors she wanted us to use with the fish. I made one in green and one in blue. And if you look closely at the blue fish you’ll see that I alternated between a sparkling blue and a matte blue. I really like the stripe effect on this guy. I used dark colors on the tips of the fins to accentuate them, and I think that it really brings out the pattern of the fins.

Overall, these two little guys beaded up quickly. I did each one in an afternoon start to finish. It took me a couple of tries to understand RAW (right angle weave) in a circle, but if you know this stitch the tutorial is very straight forward and easy to follow. Karen also offers lots of alternatives to the pattern, the number of fins, just how fancy you want to make them or even adding side fins. I kind of liked mine just like they are ... cute and playful. I’ve decided to send my fish off to two little girls who are just about to become big sisters. It is always nice to receive a big sister gift when a new arrival comes into the family. Just to remember how special each and every one of our children are to us. So these two fish are heading off to Singapore.

Black & White :: Challenge

Sally Russick over at The Studio Sublime has yet another challenge for us. She asked us to create jewelry using only black and white. I love a good challenge, who doesn't? But I also really love black and white together. A very classic look. These will likely be staples in my jewelry box.

We've been 'off the grid' quite literally for a few weeks now. We like to get up to our lake cabin in the Adirondacks when the weather heats up in July. No connection whatsoever, so please understand my slight delay in getting around to all the other hoppers. I did bring my beadwork with me so I could work on some of the challenges I signed up for weeks ago. 

So for Sally's, I started with some ribbon I picked up at Mokuba quite a while back. I loved it and knew I'd eventually find just the right piece for it. It is a thin black embroidered ribbon with small glass pearls running down the middle. I used it as the center of a bracelet and added twin beads to the sides to create a pretty picot edging to it. It doesn't usually happen this way for me, but this piece turned out exactly as I had envisioned it in my head! Normally I just let my patterns flow with a mind of their own, but this one seemed to let me be in charge for once.

Speaking of, this second one did not turn out at all as I thought it might. But that's ok because I like the end result so much better than what I started with! This one has a simple peyote down the center and then I did a stringing weave that has a braided effect. I finished with double fabric buttons. It has such a nice feel around the wrist. 

Check out all the other designs either back over at Sally's blog, or the links below:

ZnetShows Summer Challenge :: Partner Pick

ZnetShows has a new twist on a bead soup swap. We were sent a catalog to peruse and pick out 5 items for our partner. Then ZnetShows sent our items off to our partner. My partner, Sandi James, sent me a gorgeous soup to play with, and it was full of green - my favorite color! I tried to include the links to all the beads I used below just in case you want to do a little shopping on your own.

In my soup was some small pebble sea glass in a sea foam green color. I absolutely love these! I paired it up with some light green fabric. Now here is a great idea. Christine over at One Kiss Creations happened upon a furniture store getting rid of the sample books from last season (aka, free). And those books are full of great fabric swatches to use for beading. She let me sift through and pull out some samples to try. This is my first piece using one of them. I did a little bead embroidery along the edges, and then ran large chain along the sides so I could add sea glass dangles to a very Beach Boho piece. 

As a second piece I did a necklace I call Spring Equinox with it's yin-yang colors of light and dark ... dormant and rebirth. I used one of the beautiful green sardonyx stones and did a freeform peyote around it using that same light-dark theme. The green and white beads are a pretty candy jade faceted bead. I finished it with one of the leaf connectors from the soup. This one could be worn all sorts of ways!

The next piece is a simple double helix pattern using various tones of greens and some lovely opaque green Chinese crystals from the soup. The smaller green rounds are a light jade. 

I love the flower petal pattern in this next bracelet. I picked it up years ago and haven't had a chance to try it out. It actually beads up very quickly as a RAW (right angle weave) with large beads. The pearls have a faint green tinge to them, which is just gorgeous. I wanted to bring that out a bit and added a button closure in a soft green. This one feels very luxurious on!

Ok, one last pair of earrings. I LOVE these crystal twist beads that I paired with more Chinese crystal. It is a simple pair, but would be lovely for a summer night out. I have more, but ran out of time to keep beading. So, I'm sure I'll be back with more ideas using these pretty lemony yellow crystals.

For the final surprise, ZnetShows is doing a giveaway .... so head over to their blog and get your name in! They've got some amazing beads, and rumor has it that they pulled out a little of all our soups for the give away!

Artisan Whimsy :: 5 x 5 Test Team

Artisan Whimsy, a community of jewelry artisans, has started a monthly group for testing products by using a grouping of components to design with. This month the component provider is ZnetShows and the packet I received is to your left. 

My task was to use these elements to create designs and post them by the end of the month. Well, alrighty then. Let's get started!

I'm not one to use all the components in one piece, or even two. So I'm going to show you several different designs. 

I thought I'd start with the ones on the top. ZnetShows calls them "fish bones." I did two pieces with these beads, starting with the pairing I did with New Zealand paua shells. These are shells that are collected along the shores of New Zealand that have been somewhat bashed about. So they end up as bits and pieces. But I just loved them. I bought them from a local bead store in Auckland where they drill holes for beaders. I created a fringe with the shells along the edges of a pretty ribbon. Then I bead embroidered the fish bones along the band. I finished the bracelet with adjustable buttons for alternating sizes. I really love how this one turned out. And as an added bonus, it makes the best sound when you're wearing it! The jingling sound of shells.

I used most of the smaller pieces for the bracelet, but with the larger ones I did beaded caps and nestled them into a netting to create a choker. I included a few of the Chinese crystals I had left from an earlier Znetshows stash, and then finished off the necklace with blue leather and a silver hammered closure. 

With the individual pieces of sea glass in the middle, I made a series of earrings. I was again creating my own earwires. I'm kind of liking making my own these days! First up are the larger rectangular glass that I paired with a silver wave charm. This pair light weight and has a nice swing to them.

Next are the smaller rectangular glass in a fainter sea foam green. Boy I love this color of glass! I did a slightly 'mismated' pair with a hammered charm on just one of the earrings, and then a silver etched flower bead I picked up at a bead show. 

Next are another pair of conch shell earrings. I've been loving these baby conch shell beads; they are so fun to create with! I did a few last week that you can see here. This pair I kept somewhat simple adding only a few Chinese crystals to them. They match up nicely to the netted choker above.

The last pair I made use a pretty little pair of antique silver connectors. These were part of the last set of sea glass along the bottom. I added a little MOP (mother of pearl) charm to the bottom to keep that beachy feel to them.

Ok, you all still with me? I know this is a long post. Longer than I normally do, but the rules are to post all my projects together in just one link so I can connect to the linky on the Artisan Whimsy site. Don't forget to check out everyone else's designs. 

I've got just one last piece. It is a green velvet choker with a zig zag beaded trim to it. My friend Christine showed me this stitch the last time we met up. I think it just might be my 'summer fling' stitch! I asked my daughter to model it for you all in a dress I picked up at a Renaissance Faire many moons ago. I love how the choker looks with this dress.

Focusing on Life :: You Are

This week Sally's prompt for Focusing on Life is to finish the sentence 'You are ...." She asked us to think about what kind of a person we are. If you could only pick one word, what would your's be? 

I've been thinking about that all week, and it just isn't that easy. But I've finally decided on the word unconventional. When I think about the things that define my life, that is the theme. I wouldn't confuse that with more traditional things. I did take my husband's name because I wanted all of us (my kids, my husband and I) to have a family name. 

But some of the choices my husband and I have made are unconventional. I work full time, and he stays home with the kids. We didn't mean for that to happen, but when my oldest was born I had the boring, steady job with good insurance. He had the better paying, interesting job in high tech, but his work was on a contract basis. So he quit and we made do on my salary. Don't get me wrong, there are many, many days when I wish we could trade places. But we're just too far down this path to make that change. We both felt strongly about one of us staying home with the kids. It is just how it played out for us.

Last week I told you about my two rings, and mentioned that there was another story behind the diamond ring. So when we got married, we exchanged simple wedding bands. That is because we wanted a simple wedding. We got married by the justice of the peace up in wine country. It was the dead of winter (December) and pouring rain. I wore green velvet (that first pic is us on our wedding day). As many of you know, my favorite color is green. We planned everything over the course of 3 months .... so there was no running off in the night. It was just how we wanted to do it. But perhaps I should back up one more step. Late Summer, I was planning a trip down to see my sister who lives in New Zealand. As I was completing my plans I said to my then boyfriend, "so am I going by myself? or are you coming? because either way I'm going." He decided that he did want to come with me. And then as we started to plan out all the places to visit we realized that for a mere extra $100 we could stop off in Fiji. Sign me up! The more we talked about it, the more we realized that we were planning a very romantic trip, and commented on what a great honeymoon Fiji would be. We looked at each other and said, 'let's do it."  So we planned our honeymoon before the wedding. But that is our life. We love to travel, so we tend to plan around places we'd like to visit. (Picture of our island in Fiji and a picture of my sister and me in NZ)

Ok, the diamond ring. We had been married 5 years at this point. I was roughly 38 weeks pregnant on our 5th anniversary. We decided to celebrate by going out to dinner. We were at a 'cozy' little restaurant in San Francisco (where we lived at the time). You know the kind of place where the tables are all right next to each other with a bench that lines the back wall across all the tables. A couple with their kids sat next to us. The woman was a serious Nosey Parker telling everyone what to do, what to order, reaching across the table to cut someone's meat. She saw my husband pull out a little velvet box and slide it toward me. She audibly gasped. She nearly yelled "he's going to ask her to marry him!" The look on her face was sympathy that he was going to make me an 'honest woman.' We both shot her a glare and my husband said, "we've been married for 5 years and this is our anniversary, as if it is any of your business."  You could see the relief on her face that I was not having this child out of wedlock. Now it makes me giggle when I slide on my ring and think of that bossy stranger interrupting my moment. It is par for the course of my unconventional life. 

Artisan Whimsy :: 5 x 5 Test Team

Well I have apparently jump the gun! I posted too early to reveal some of my projects. So those of you who were here early and saw my reveal of the first 2 pieces ... you got the sneak peak! The rest of you will have to come back to see these and the others!

This is part of a new effort by Artisan Whimsy, a community of jewelry artisans. It was started as monthly group for testing products by using a grouping of components to design with. This month the component provider is ZnetShows and I got my packet about 2 weeks ago (you can see them off to the left). I will re-post at a later date ... when I'm supposed to (doh!)

Beach Glass :: Shades of Blues

I'm a little backed up on posting some of my projects, but I wanted to show you a series of earrings that I've been working on this week with sea glass in the shape of baby conch shells. Aren't they so cute! ZnetShows sent out a new batch of glass to play with, and I was having fun with wire all week.

This first pair clusters apatite chips in the same sky blue color. And I think the silver gives it a touch of richness. Earwires are shaped and hammered by me. I am starting to create my own earwires more often then not these days. 

Speaking of earwires, I wanted to do a nice long drop pair. More earwires created by me, and with a small hammered charm added to this pair on long dangles. What a pretty deep blue color in this glass.

This next pair uses some blown glass beads that remind me of the Japanese floats we used to find washed up along the coast when I was a kid. I grew up along the Oregon coast and we would go beach combing for floats washing ashore from the Asian cargo ships. 

I created a double hoop loop on top (that's fun to say!) and then I added one more loop beneath to hold a series of wrapped Chinese crystals also from ZnetShows. These earrings are shades of blue hues, matte and fire polished. A lot going on, but would look lovely with a simple white summer dress and strappy sandals. 

Ok, one more pair to show you. These are my favorite because of the color. I simply love this sea foam color. So often I remember the water and foam that would form along the Oregon shore had this soft hue. I painted many a surf with this color. This last pair I matched up with a beautiful marcasite connector to give them a touch of antique. I love the curves in the marcasite and how it mirrors the shells, the sea and the surf.

Focusing on Life :: Green

This week's prompt for Focusing on Life is to find the green in your life. As Sally says, it is the color of balance, learning, growth and harmony. It symbolizes calm, self-respect and well being.

Green has always been my favorite color. For as long as I can remember. And when my husband and I got engaged, I knew that I didn't want to do anything in a traditional way. We ended up eloping, which means no one knew we were engaged. And when we did get married (about 3 months later) we exchanged simple wedding bands. 

Afterwards, my new husband surprised me with my engagement ring which was an emerald. Our marriage has been about building a life together, about finding balance in life and a harmony in our relationship. I can say we really have grown together over the 20 years we've been married. And I cannot image any other path in my life.

The second ring is a beautiful diamond that my husband gave me five years after we were married. Certainly not traditional! He surprised me on the eve of giving birth to our first child. Funny story, but perhaps for another post.

Tone on Tone :: with Lesley Watt's Design

I have been wanting to try my hand at Lesley's tutorial that she calls Double Strand Seed Bead and Jump Ring Bracelet. I saw this posted months ago back on her blog and thought what a fantastically simple, and elegant design. 

So many other projects got in the way, but I finally gave it a go. I've been wanting to use these beautiful shank buttons with a 4 leaf pattern, which I think have sort of a Celtic feel to them. The background in the button is coppery brown, so I pulled out copper jump rings. And just to accentuate the pattern I played the copper off alternating white crystals to really show them off.

I've been experimenting lately with tone on tone pieces that let the pattern really be the star. And I have to say that I am quite happy with the elegant, subtle color of this one. Anyone else playing with tone on tone lately?

Featured :: ZnetShows Sea Glass

I really have had so much fun creating with the beach glass sent to me from ZnetShows. I love that Beach-Boho look, and these pieces just fit right in on my beading table.

My latest piece is a fun little beaded summer cuff with an orange starfish that is actually a shank button. So it made the perfect button closure on this simple ladder patterned bracelet. 

I added a little orange sparkle throughout with some accent beads in Chinese crystal that was sent along with my beach glass. It does look so pretty together! And, it looks great on my daughter with a whimsical, beachy top. Perfect for summer.

Focusing on Life :: Typography

This week's Focusing on Life challenge was to look for typography and blog about whether it drew you in, inspired you or perhaps spoke to you. Hmm, this one really had me thinking.

Each day as I commute to my job, I walk through Grand Central Station. Recently I've noticed the sign for the Graybar Building. Ornate and interesting. I must have walked by it hundreds of times. Always in a rush, never paying any attention. But in the last few weeks I kept thinking, I need to look up what 'Graybar' means. So this week, I did. In fact, I took a lunch hour to walk over to the building and snap some pictures. Both inside the lobby, and from across the street.

The Graybar Building sits next to Grand Central Station. I mean literally, right next to it. There are entrances in the station to the building lobby. Across the street is the Chrysler building. I think with all these other iconic locations, the Graybar Building gets lost. I had never heard of it, yet I walk by it every day. The Building was the first office building in the immediate Grand Central Terminal area of the city. Wow. There are so many today, but then this building dates back to early 1900s. 

It was named after its original tenants Elisha Gray and Enos Barton. It has that same classic Art Deco style that I love in the old buildings of New York, complete with an old mail slot. It isn't in use (note the "closed" on the box). I love all the details in the lobby. They have a Moorish feel to them. The floor has tiles like the edges of a rug, look up and you see beautiful rich reds in the ceiling with lantern-like light fixtures. Lots of circles adorn the lobby. No detail seemingly forgotten.

The most interesting part of the building is just outside the front door. The canopy, above the entrance, is held up by 3 large metal rods resembling the ropes (or mooring lines) off a ship. You'll notice cones on the rods which are 'rat guards' that keep rats from climbing on ship when in port. Just below the cones you see that there are 3 cast metal rats. Some say that this is the first nod to New York City being called the 'rat race.' If you look closely, where the cable (or 'hawser') reaches the building there are eight rat heads. (You might need to click on the link as I couldn't quite capture them with my little iphone). So the question is ... are we the people, represented by rats, trying to get in? Or are we already inside trying to get out? The conundrum of New York City.

The most common explanation for the 'rat' architecture is that it represents the shipping business that defined the historical roots of the Graybar company.

Also, at the time of the building's construction the city was much more of a waterfront, or port city. I can honestly say I never noticed the rats. But standing there and looking up; sure enough ... they are metal rats! 

There are figures on the building facade. They are bas-relief panels and have an Assyrian look to them. I could't find any explanation or background on what these panels had to do with the building, but I like them. 

The Graybar Building is certainly one of the lesser known skyscrapers in the city. I had no idea about it's background, or that it is registered as a Landmark. But I quickly found out as I drifted through the lobby taking pictures on my paisley covered iphone. As I was snapping away one of the security guards shouted at me to stop. I didn't realize that it was threatening to take pictures of clocks. But apparently anything deemed a Landmark is off limits. Good thing I got my snaps in before he chased me out!

Featured :: ZnetShows Sea Glass

Sea glass from ZnetShows is still on my bead table! But I am coming to the end of the amazing stash Bill sent my way.

I love these diamond shaped ones. They have such a softness to the edges of the glass, and really do look like they were tumbled by the sea. 

I love the simplicity of how the orange hue from the glass comes through the etched leaves. I wanted to lock the pattern in place by wire wrapping both the charm and the glass together. A simple double wire wrap. 

If you want to give a double wrap a try, you can find my tutorial on this technique in one of my posts from last Fall, along with a few examples.

Upcycling :: Spanish Galleon

This was a fun project for so many reasons. First, as you all know I'm nuts about history and the origins of artifacts. But I was thrilled when a friend handed me a bubble wrapped mystery and asked if I might be able to do something with it. As I unwrapped it, I got very excited. Yah, I know I'm a geek that way. But I saw these shards and realized that they had to be from a recent trip to Thailand. 

Our friend was explaining that he'd been snorkeling off a small island in the Philippines called Isla Verde, a popular dive site where a Spanish Galleon ship went down in 1620 after returning from a trip to China. It was full of items; including Chinese pottery, when it went down. Those pottery shards are now washing up on the shore of the small island. 

The island is located right in the center of a strait in the Philippines and known for it's pristine clear waters with a great view of the wreck. Not much is left to salvage from the wreckage except for shards of porcelain and a few larger pieces of terracotta jars. It is a pretty unique place where you can enjoy amazing scuba diving, and above the water you can walk the beach to discover pieces of porcelain from the shipwreck centuries before. 

Our friend asked if I might be able to take the shards and create a pair of earrings for his girlfriend. I tried to be as minimalistic as possible (or in other words, I did not not want to bezel these). I wanted to leave as much of the edges as I could so you could still see the wear on the porcelain from the sea. I decided that I would cold forged some 16 gauge silver to create a partial bezel and glue it to the porcelain. Because the porcelain is porous it worked quite well for this technique. These are a secret gift, but no worries as I don't believe she reads my blog. I hope she likes them!

Anklet Hop

Kashmira is hosting a hop today featuring anklet designs. She gave us a few tips prior to us getting to work on our pieces. She tells us that we really need to first think about the construction of the ankle itself. It is cylindrical, and therefore the pattern really needs to flow well. And don't use anything too large which will prevent it from draping well.

The other thing about the ankle is that it is bony and anything sharp can cut into the skin and make for a seriously uncomfortable situation. So avoid bicone crystals or anything else that can feel sharp.

As we all know, we tend to show off our ankles when it gets warm, but hot weather can also cause swelling, especially if you're walking a lot. So make sure you've left enough room to your pattern; definitely it should not be tight. All great advice! 

I decided on a beaded anklet with turquoise (I love this color in the summer especially with whites). I also could just not help myself ... I've always wanted to add a little chime to an anklet, so I did add small bells. It took quite a hunt around Manhattan to find a place that carried these! The second the bells were added, my daughter was asking if she could try it on. My model for these pictures would be my daughter, and the anklet has found it's new home as I haven't been able to get this one off her since.