Old Design, New Stitch

I came up with a crisscross necklace design earlier in the year for an Art Bead Challenge, using herringbone stitch. While I really liked the resulting piece, it didn't turn out quite as I envisioned it.

I decided to try again using similarly shaped stones from my stash and cubic right angle weave. Worked in CRAW, which results in a rope with supple drape but more structure than herringbone, this necklace is exactly what I had in mind!

Wish I knew what these stones are - the string is  marked simply "freeform flat nuggets," but they are slightly iridescent and change from gray to green to silver to blue with the shifting light of day. And the stripes in the Czech glass accent beads really are that magnificent blue!

The length is 16”, and it’s perfect as a choker, but for those occasions when I’d like it a bit longer, I finished it with one of my favorite adjustable closures, a design I picked up from Melinda Barta’s excellent Custom Clasps video.

March BJP - Mad Men Edition

A kitchen remodel begun in February has expanded to a complete first-floor renovation, leaving precious little time for anything else. I did safeguard two things on my calendar - watching the Season 5 premiere of Mad Men and making my March Bead Journal deadline. Happily, I was able to combine the two!

This month's project takes its colors from a wonderful image of Mad Men's Betty Draper in her "sad clown" party dress, which she wore for days after a particularly dreadful row with husband, Don. (The image is from illustrator, Dyna Moe. You can see her set of Mad Men illustrations here.) I turned the colors into a fun, just-a-hint-of-psychedelia, mid-sixties swatch. I could see Betty wearing this pattern as a fitted blouse with some city shorts and a mod clutch, martini in hand, this season.

And finally, last Sunday, the Season 5 premiere! Was it worth the year-and-a-half wait to ogle the enthralling costumes of the men and women of Mad Men? Absolutely!

Crazy for CRAW

I am totally hooked on cubic right angle weave! It’s a mesmerizing stitch that results in beadwork that has great structure and at the same time is amazingly soft and fluid.

When I was asked by an area bead store if I had an interest in teaching a beadweaving course,  I immediately thought of CRAW because it can be a difficult stitch to learn from written instructions.  Here are a few pieces I stitched up as class samples.

These lampwork beads with their bold expression of color were meant for a rope woven in size 8 seed beads and finished with a Vintaj clasp and chain. The rope is embellished with size 11's, with 2.5mm crystals surrounding the lampwork beads.

 This lighter, softer version in size 11’s features a dichroic glass focal framed with vintage Czech glass and drop beads. I  finished this necklace with a toggle of tubular RAW, which is a first cousin of CRAW.

This fun and fabulous finishing touch is from Rachel Nelson-Smith’s Bead Riffs.

The lampwork beads and dichroic glass were a recent find on a trip to South Carolina to meet up with my sisters-in-law for a yoga retreat. I stopped in to visit Lesley at YaYa Beads in Augusta. I love Lesley’s blog, Sweet Freedom Designs, where her posts always inspire, entertain or educate (oftentimes all three in a single post!) Her store is home to an amazing collection of artfully purveyed beads, findings and pendants. Oh, and her fabulous finished pieces, which I could have ogled for hours! And a store dog! I spent such a fun hour at YaYa, and brought home a small bag chock full of inspiration. Now, if I can just finish up this kitchen remodel so I can dig into the rest of those beads!

Harlequin Romance-February BJP

The idea for this month’s Bead Journal Project came to me on a visit to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta to catch the Modern Art: Picasso to Warhol exhibition. I turned a corner in an exhibit space and was stopped short by a Picasso painting, rather dreary at first glance, until my eye caught a tall figure on the right edge wearing diamond patterned multi-colored tights, and my February idea was born: a focal heart (this one by Susan Barnes of Fire Goddess Beads) against a harlequin background.

We’re in the middle of a kitchen remodel and have been evicted from our house for a couple of days while our floors are being refinished. So my piece was finished today in a hotel room, photographed on the window sill with the air conditioner going full blast to minimize the fumes from the drying E-6000. The things we beaders will do to keep from missing a deadline!

Choosing Hope

Watching a child suffer through the challenges of an illness is so difficult! Thanks go out to Erin Flickert-Rowland and Christine Altmiller who are hosting this blog hop and spreading the word about 7000 Bracelets for Hope. An opportunity from the Global Genes Project, jewelry designers are asked to donate a denim-themed bracelet to inspire hope and offer support to the families and caregivers of children affected by rare diseases.

I am sending this macramé bangle that sports 12mm druzy stones in denim shades from classic indigo to light stonewashed and a larger wooden focal bead inset with abalone. The slide closure makes it adjustable to any size wrist. I hope it will bring comfort to a family to know there are so many of us praying and pulling for them.

Please take a moment to click on the links below to see the designs that other jewelry artists are donating to show their support for these children and their families.

Once you choose hope, anything's possible. -Christopher Reeve

Elysian Studios  and  One Kiss Creations

  

The Studio Sublime

Crafty Hope

The Gossiping Goddess

SilverRose Designs

Firefly Visions

Pink Chapeau Vintage Jewelry

Michelle Mach

Pine Ridge Treasures

Backstory Beads

Adventures in Creativity with Lorillijean

Carefree Jewelry by Lisa

Sue Beads

MiShel Designs

Created Treasures

Taralinda Muses

My Life Under The Bus

Elizabeth Creates

SilverNikNats

Erin Siegel Jewelry

Carolyn’s Creations

My Life…one bead at a time

Fresh Baked Designs

Songbeads

Sunshine Bliss

Lori Anderson

Rainy Days Designs

Pat Barden Jewelry

Tell Your Girlfriends

Therese's Treasures

Windrock Studio

Bead Lola Bead

Spice Box Designs

Antiquity Travelers

Vitamin C...A Daily Dose of Creativity

Beads and Bread

Sharyl's Jewelry and Reflections

Ahtee's Blog

Thoughtful-Notions

Beads for Brains:365

Wild Sally Road

All The Pretty Things

Skye's Creative Chaos

My Addictions...Handcrafted Jewelry by Patti

Lindy's Designs

Falling Into The Sky

Star Hitched Wagon

Mama's Got to Doodle

10KDgroup

February Art Bead Challenge – Conference of the Birds

My favorite thing about Art Bead Scene’s current challenge was not the lush painting, a page of magical elegance from the manuscript of poet Farid al-Din Attar. My favorite thing is that it led me to discover Peter Sis’ adaptation of the 12^th century Persian poem, in which all the birds of the world get together for a conference and set off in search of the world’s true king. A great read, it’s a book written for adults, but one I can’t wait to share with my grandchildren.

With the poem’s many life lessons in mind, I wanted to design a piece that would capture Attar's idyllic riverbed at the moment the birds are beginning their adventure.

I immediately thought of a string of triangle-shaped druzies I’d been saving, in shades of warm khaki and freckled with the metallic golds and deep browns of the illustration. They reminded me of the painting’s many rocks that emerge from the water’s surface, providing landing places and a moment of respite. They would also give my piece the repetition of geometric shapes common to Islamic art at the time Attar was writing his parable. I paired them with SueBeads’ Southwest Raku lampwork beads that echo the freckles in the druzies while adding the blues, purples, creams and oranges of the landscape around the riverbed.

The elements are linked with herringbone chains of seed beads, capped with large fresh water pearls. This challenge piece will serve as a reminder that each stage on the road to self-discovery can find us at times battered and beleaguered – the beauty of the journey is to enjoy the sanctuaries along the way.

Ups, Downs, and Beautiful Spaces

A new year. The chance to start fresh. Start over. Keep up. A burst of hope, and then we find ourselves in the thick of things, living a life and here come those ups and downs!

For my first Bead Journal project (first ever!), I chose a small section of Georgia O’Keefe’s Evening Star IV because I saw it as a colorful representation of the peaks and valleys that await all of us in the 366 days of 2012. Quiet stretches of calm purpose, surges of renewed energy, periods when new ideas are born and puzzling times when our creative process seems fallow.

Georgia O'Keefe's Evening Star IV

Georgia O’Keefe had not painted in several years when her sister persuaded her to visit an old friend and teacher, Alon Bement. Georgia considered him a very poor painter, but a brilliant teacher, and was much influenced with an idea he gave her: “The idea of filling a space in a beautiful way - where you have the windows and door in a house, how you address a letter and put on the stamp, what shoes you choose and how you comb your hair.” Her examples are very much of her generation, but still a valuable idea for us today. It sparked Georgia to say things with colors and shapes that she couldn’t say in any other way.

My first pendant, based on her painting, will remain on my bead table - a reminder to stay in balance with the rhythms of life – and to create beauty in the spaces.