Backstory Beads

7/20/13

Bead Hoarders Blog Hop

We in the beading community are all hoarders to some extent. Our relationship with our treasures of glass, metal, pearls and gems is (on most days) magical, and we want more of that magic!

Lori Anderson of Pretty Things conjured up a fun way to lighten our secret (and not-so-secret) stashes in the form of today's Bead Hoarders Blog Hop. Simply take hold of some of those pretties we've been saving for a special occasion and design away.

I've been holding on to this gorgeous butterfly wing, bezeled in silver, for a couple of years. Originally purchased to create a necklace as a birthday gift for my oldest daughter, I simply couldn't come up with anything that worked. Believe me. I've woven several neckstraps, long and short, simple and over-the-top, but nothing appealed. Flipping through my copy of Jewelry Designs from Nature by Heather Powers proved to be the inspiration I needed.

Besides the focal, this necklace uses some absolute favorites from my stash: Saki silver hammered link, a hand-cast, braided brass bead, and two shades of beautiful apatite - roundels in pale green and rounds in dark blue-green. And the design is reversible!

My daughter's birthday is several months away, but I'm sending this off to her now. She recently left her career as a Special Ed teacher to start her own cottage school, opening next month. The butterfly is the perfect symbol of change and hope … and enjoying the beauty of the journey.

Thanks to Lori for inspiring me to finally give wing to this focal. I'm currently visiting my youngest daughter in Pittsburgh, and will have to wait until I get back to hop around to all the participants' blogs. But you'll want to click this link right now and get started!

7/10/13

A Challenge in Black and White

When Sally Russick of The Studio Sublime announced her Black and White Challenge, I jumped at the opportunity to step away from color, usually my primary design consideration, and focus simply on form and texture.

I splurged on a black dress for a recent trip to New England. This black dress:

I wore it to a dinner, a corporate affair, at a winery, on a cool Connecticut June evening, where a ruffle-edged white jacket, my favorite Laura Gibson dangles and statement bracelet were the only accessories needed. I'm now back home in Georgia. Gone are the ocean breezes, the cool morning mists. Gone, also, is the need for that elegant jacket. Sally's challenge was to design a piece of jewelry that uses only black and white. The challenge I gave myself was to design a necklace that would take my new black dress from Summer Staple to Something Spectacular.

I knew I wanted this project to be component based, so I began with some beaded beads.

Barrel Beads and an Octahedral Cluster from tutorials by beAd Infinitum, Discos from a tutorial by Sharri Moroshok of The Beaded Bead, and Ringlets, found in Marcia DeCoster's Beaded Opulence.

With their large holes and elegant texture, Gwen Fisher and Florence Turnour's Barrel Beads were the perfect choice to anchor the longest strand. I combined them with a collection of glass rings by Heather Trimlett that I've been saving for a special project. Completing this strand are embellished Ringlets and large Disco beads from Sharri Moroshok's easily adapted pattern. The Octahedral Cluster serves as the focal of the shorter strand, accented by Disco beads, short barrels, and perfectly named Black Tie Affair lampwork beads by April Larson of Bo's Beads.

The velvet ribbon is left long for times when I want to wear this strand long and casual with black linen and a tee.

The more-traditional short strand is 16 ½-18 inches and lays just above the neckline of my black dress. I think it would be divine on its own with a collared shirt.

Much thanks to Sally Russick for challenging us with this iconic duo. You'll want to check out all the black-and-white inspiration from today's participants.

Karin Slaton

7/6/13

Seasons Challenge

Today is the reveal for the Season Blog Hop, hosted by Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures. Each participant was sent a selection of beads, which we could combine with beads and findings from our own stash, to create a piece of jewelry reflecting either a season of the year, or a season in our lives.

Here are the beads I received from Lisa:

When I tipped them out into a dish, the beads initially said "Fall" to me, but their colors also reminded me of the cockle shells my sister and I loved to collect during summer vacations at the beach.

I combined Lisa's fun shapes with a few playful shapes from my own stash, and in no time, the mix was singing Summer.

Freeform spiral stitch is becoming one of my beading staples and its lush texture was perfect for this project. I noticed how the rich, warm browns in Lisa's soup brought out the striking details in the dark blue spikes, so I mixed in a strand of 3mm lapis that matched the tones in the spikes, then tossed in some additional wood beads and abalone discs to keep the necklace looking organic -- and feeling as light as, well, a walk on the beach!

Much thanks to Lisa for inspiring us with this challenge. You'll want to follow the links below to Lisa's and all the Season participants' blogs!

Your Hostess: Lisa Lodge, Grateful Artist

Kathy Zeigler Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Cassi Paslick, Beads: Rolling Downhill

Stephanie Sanner Haussler, PixyBug Designs

Leah Mifflin Tees, My Beady Little Eyes

Karin Slaton, BackStory Beads

Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution

Lori Jean Poppe, Lorillijean Creative Corner

Karla Morgan, Texas Pepper Jams

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life

Alicia Marinache, All the Pretty Things

Veralynne Malone, Designed by Vera

Kay Thomerson, Kayz Kreationz

Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Toltec Jewels, Toltec Jewels for Jewel School Friends

Lennis Carrier, Windbent

Erin Kenny, Beadifultherapy

Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress

Cilla Watkins, Tell Your Girlfriends

Renetha Williams Stanziano, Lamplight Crafts

Christie Searle Murrow, Charis Designs Jewelry

Sierra Barrett, Giraffe Can Has

Melissa Trudinger, Bead Recipes

Shirley Jones Moore, Beads and Bread

Dawn Horner, Northern Adornments

Charlene Bausinger Jacka, Clay Space

Tara Plote, The Newbie Beader's Blog

Candida Elkins Castleberry, Spun Sugar Beadworks

Miranda Ackerley, Daze and Days

6/27/13

Home Again

June has been a month of constant travel, with not a moment to spare for my bead table. I was about to say that I haven't touched a bead in the past 30 days, but that would not be entirely correct. One of my trips took me through Nashville, where I spent a fun hour browsing the shelves of Be Dazzled Beads. I packed my Pantone Fall Color samples for the occasion, and stocked up on some of my favorite hues!

Clockwise from top left: Emerald, Samba, Turbulence and Mykonos Blue

Don't you love the raku focal that combines the cool elegance of Emerald and the rich spiciness of Samba? But fall colors will have to wait a bit longer. I have three (3!) challenge pieces to create for July, all celebrating the current season, beginning with this selection of beads from Lisa of Pine Ridge Treasures.

Be sure to come back on July 6th for the reveal of the Seasons blog hop!

5/26/13

Celebrating!

Yesterday, my husband and I spent the afternoon strolling the Artists Market at the Decatur Arts Festival, and met Dan’s friend, Jessica, and her husband, John, at an outdoor café overlooking the festival for lunch. Perched atop high stools, we had a front row view of the festival goers and the artisan works on display. As we were getting to know each other over pulled-pork sandwiches and bottles of ale, Jessica asked me how I got started in beading. I recalled a trip to the beach nearly four years ago with several of my sisters-in-law. Each night, Dan’s sister, Kathy, spread her bead stash across the condo’s dining table and everyone dug in to create colorful masterpieces in glass and stone. Jewelry was not something I gave much thought to, and although I did manage to string a simple bracelet, I spent most of those hours organizing Kathy’s stash by size and color. There was something about the feel of those beads in my hands!

Once home, I ventured into a local bead store to find a clasp and some crimps for my beach creation, and as I approached the cash register, I noticed a magazine cover and realized you could SEW with beads, too! I left with my first tube of seed beads and a package of needles. That magazine was Bead and Button, so you can imagine how excited I was when I learned last night that my necklace created for this year’s Bead Soup Blog Party was chosen by Kalmbach Publishing as a winner in the Best Use of Seed Beads category!

I am so honored that my necklace received the same award from Beaducation. As I’ve branched out from beadwork into wire the last few months, I discovered the work of Lisa Niven Kelly, who is such an inspiring wire artist. The online classes at Beaducation are the first place I turn to master a technique and explore the possibilities of metalworking.

And, of course, showers of thanks go to the extraordinary Lori Anderson, for her tireless work in bringing all this about, and a huge personal thank you from me for being my Bead Soup blog partner this year. Lori gifted me with the sensational Thai silver elephant pendant and I had the fun of dreaming up a design worthy of it!

Who knows, maybe next Memorial Day week-end I’ll be experiencing the Decatur Arts Festival from inside one of those artisan booths. It's fun to dream!

You can see all 46 Bead Soup Blog Party winning designs by clicking here.

5/25/13

May Art Bead Scene Challenge

The inspiration for this month’s Art Bead Scene challenge is Vase with Flowers in a Window by Dutch artist, Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder.

Every time I look at Bosschaert’s still life, I’m reminded of my grandmother’s house, with its dark-paneled vestibule that smelled of aged wood and fragrant roses. A small table in the entry hall always held a vase like the one in Bosschaert’s painting, overflowing with flowers from her garden. Each August, we set out from Kentucky to her house in Scranton for a week that included mouth-watering pies made from the cherries we picked from her trees, glasses of sarsaparilla from dark bottles kept ice cold in her cellar, and cozy talks on her front porch glider. Great memories!

My focal for this month’s challenge piece is by California artist, Erin McAlister, and features the mustard yellows, warm browns and red-oranges of the painting. Erin handcrafts each glass bead with sand and donates a portion of all her sales to the Surfrider Foundation to protect oceans and beaches.

The central section of the neckstrap combines peach-toned seed beads with carnelian teardrops in brown, maroon, deep oranges, peach and cream. Firepolish beads and Czech glass give additional texture. This was my first attempt at freeform spiral stitch, which can be found in Carol Cypher's Mastering Beadwork. It was great fun to experiment with, and the perfect stitch to convey the lush, opulent feel of Bosschaert’s flowers! The neckstrap is finished with calcite chunks and carnelian agate roundels.

Many thanks to Art Bead Scene's editors for choosing such a fabulous work of art to inspire us this month. You'll want to click over to the ABS Flickr group to see all the entries!

5/15/13

A Time to Stitch - Spiral Challenge

Learning spiral stitch has been on my to-do list for the last year, but it took a challenge from Christine Altmiller and Therese Frank to spur me to actually check out some tutorials. Their challenge, A Time To Stitch 3, let us choose among 3 very popular spirals; Cellini, Russian or African Helix. After stitching up samples of each in a myriad of bead shapes and sizes, I settled on Russian spiral, using gold 3-cut size 8 seed beads and brick-red and gold marbleized size 11’s. To learn the stitch, I followed a tutorial by Mortira Vanpelt of Inspirational Beading. I liked Mortira’s approach to this spiral, which results in a snug stitch, but a very fluid and soft rope.

The challenge also included a trio of flat stitches – brick, ladder and square – and I chose one of my favorites, square stitch. Tila beads and the same size 11’s from the spiral rope sections were used to create a square stitched “chain” which I made double-sided for extra heft.

My focal is a carved ebony button layered with a handmade bronze disc bead from Tamara Scott Designs, capped with a Swarovski crystal. Interspersed between the chain and the spirals are some carved ebony tubes and a charming collection of ceramic beads by Mary Hubbard of White Clover Kiln. The bottom photo shows a close up of her bird bead with its enormous and curious eyes! I like the touch of whimsy it brings to this piece.

Thanks to Therese and Christine for hosting our challenge, and helping me check off another item on my to-do-list! You’ll want to click over to their blogs and the blogs of all the participants to see how versatile these stitches can be!