Catching Up...

We have some catching up to do! In the two months I’ve been away from this space, I have been beading…

Finished this summer, and now my favorite Fall necklace. Herringbone strands in
22K gold, palladium and metallic bronze. Sliding focal is adapted from Mikki Ferrugiaro's
Chrysanthemid 2 tutorial.

and applying to fall shows…and learning new things like riveting and sawing and twining.

Last month, I spent five magical days at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, in the Tennessee mountains, diving into the art of enameling on metal with Mary Hettmansperger. (I know! Can you imagine getting to spend a week with Mary?) 

Mary Hettmansberger, demonstrating a technique to our class. Studio hours were 8am-1am, and
rarely did we hike back up the hill toward our lodges before midnight!

I brought home a ton of techniques and am just beginning to explore ways to incorporate them into my beadwork.

And now, it’s time to catch up with what you’ve been doing. I’m using the rest of this week to check up on everyone’s blog. I want to find out what you’ve fallen in love with over the summer!

Three Worlds

This month’s Art Bead Scene challenge featured one of my favorite artists, M.C. Escher, and his 1955 lithograph, Three Worlds.



From the Art Bead Scene: Three Worlds depicts a large pool or lake during the autumn or winter months, the title referring to the three visible perspectives in the picture: the surface of the water on which leaves float, the world above the surface, observable by the water's reflection of the forest, and the world below the surface, observable in the large fish swimming just below the water's surface.

My design began to take shape when I spotted a large (2 ½”) sterling silver fish pendant from Luanne Keen’s Eton Street shop on Etsy. Perfect to portray the world below the surface!

I created a large teardrop shape in matte black and steel delicas to frame Luanne’s focal. A second teardrop, inset with a peyote pattern of fish scales in the lithograph’s many shades of gray, nests inside the first and shimmers through the cutouts in the fish.

A single silver leaf floats in a peyote and herringbone frame, depicting the surface, and a Taina Hartman white bronze woodland pendant represents the forest. Adding luster and contrast to the matte elements, a handmade pearl chain brings in the picture's pure black and white.

I had so much fun with this challenge! Take a minute to click over to the Art Bead Scene Flickr group to see the amazing range of designs based on Escher’s work.

Vintage brooch as front and center focal

I love this brooch, which was a birthday present (and the first gift of jewelry my husband ever gave me) 25 years ago.  According to this recent post by Andrew Thornton, that makes it vintage! I wore it all the time in the late-‘80’s, at the center of a buttoned-up collar, but must admit that it has languished in my jewelry box for the last 20 years. Until this week, when I was looking for a focal for an Alchemy of Objects class challenge.

My first thought was to remove the clasp and drill holes in the side petals to attach the neckstrap. I was debating the best place to drill to achieve just the right balance, when it occurred to me that I could keep the pin back attached. The brooch is concave, and the clasp would not interfere with it lying flat as a focal. I particularly liked this option because it allowed me to create some fringe to echo and accent the gray stamen in the brooch.

Faceted quartz, bali silver, chyrsocolla rondelles, and herringbone sections adapted from a Carol Wilcox Wells design in  Beadwork (April/May2011)

Pin back detail: Square-stitched loops connect the neckstrap to the brooch; fringe cascades from removable peyote-stitched tube.

The upside of retaining the pin back: the integrity of my brooch wasn’t compromised (I’m an absolute novice with a drill!) and my necklace is now convertible. It can be worn without the fringe, which can easily be slipped off its pin. Also, the brooch itself is completely detachable – it will be jacket season soon, and, when it's not enjoying its second life as a necklace,  it can still be used as a pretty, single accessory to punch up a black blazer.

Fall-worthy Herringbone and Free Patterns from Lark

As I was adding the final embellishments to this Sinusoidal Necklace design by Melissa Grakowsky (won’t it just make a Fall wardrobe pop!), I was thinking that I’d like to take Melissa’s sine-wave shaping and use it in a more casual necklace.

And then I was reading Jean Yates’ blog, and saw that Melissa has already done that for me! Her new book, I Can Herringbone, is due out in early-November, but Lark has given us two preview projects now, including the Athena necklace.

Athena Necklace by Melissa Grakowsky

Can’t you just see this with a druzy quartz focal? (There’s a braided bracelet, too.) Click over to Lark and check out the free herringbone designs from Melissa Grakowsky and Mabeline Gidez’s sparkling right-angle-weave .

Same Stitch, New Slant

I love cool variations of herringbone, and Tina Koyama offers a great one in her design, Beautiful Bargello, also from the pages of Beadwork's Favorite Stitches. (I’m definitely getting my money’s worth from this magazine.)

I had just finished this first version when I downloaded Margie Deeb’s Instant Holiday Glam: Color Palettes of Splendor, the first line of which reads, “Kiss bright red and green good-bye.” Oh well, I wasn’t really going for glamour with this sterling silver seed bead and flame red bugle bracelet. It’s a grab your bag and head to the mall to start Christmas shopping kind of accessory.

My second version does have some hallmarks of glamour with its gunmetal and starshine seed beads and jet crystal button. I’ll pair it with the short rivoli earrings when I want an elegant, sophisticated look, and with the aptly named paradise earrings when the occasion calls for true sparkle and glitz!

Birthday, Beads, and Bracelets

There’s something about having your sisters around you (and daughters, too) that manages to take the sting out of turning sixty. A couple of years ago, six of us (sisters and sisters-in-law) decided that we would drop everything and gather together for a Sisters Week-end to celebrate the day each of us reached sixty, a threshold that seemed to command special attention. (If you’re a baby boomer and you’re reading this, that number is looming in your near-future, too!)



Sisters-in-law Kathy, Jenny, Beth, and Judy; sister Janet; me; daughters Dani and Heather at Callaway, October 2, 2010



They came from Indiana, Kentucky and South Carolina and we all took up residence in a mountain villa at Callaway Gardens, an hour south of Atlanta, where we were treated to the first colors of Fall.

Four days of feasting, toasting and laughing till we cried.

Of course I brought my beads and everyone tried their hand at brick stitch (which gave us all fits!) and herringbone (which was mastered handily.) 

All returned home sporting a bit of sparkle on their wrists.

From organic greens to patriotic school colors and sophisticated black and gold, there was plenty of oohing and aahing over each beader's color choice.

A week-end that will be remembered as my best birthday ever! If one must turn 60, this is the way to do it! Special thanks to sister-in-law Marcia (seen toasting with Jenny above) for documenting our week-end so magnificiently!

Adventure in Herringbone

My daughter Dani happened to be with me when I stopped into my local bead shop last week. While I looked for a few finishing touches for my kumihimo designs, Dani noticed a bracelet on the counter that went perfectly with her outfit. The colors were intriguing and the project was a simple design that could easily be finished in a single class, perfect for a beginner. When Amy, the shop owner, mentioned she was teaching that piece this week, we told her to sign us up.

Dani chose the same colors as the sample, and I pulled some blue and raspberry beads from the shelf. Soon Dani was breezing along on hers, the herringbone design working up quickly in the size 8 seed beads. Customers coming in and out of the store invariably pegged us as a mother-daughter team, some questioning the wisdom of my exposing Dani to the lure and sparkle of molten, polished glass. Could a single household actually support more than one beadaholic?

We spent a fun afternoon, and picked up the perfect buttons to finish off our bracelets at Jo-Ann’s on our way home. Dani reworked her design today, preferring a more delicate mix of Swarovski crystals to the all-turquoise strip in the original. I think it was a good design call - but is a bead obsession developing? Not too worried - when I invited her to come along to the Down the Street Bead Show this afternoon, she politely declined.

Carnelian and Silver

A Labor Day slip on a small puddle of water left me with a mild back sprain, and in a horizontal position for an entire week. My doctor allowed me to sit or stand for 15 minutes each morning and evening! Of course, I dedicated those precious vertical moments each day to literally inch along on my silver and golden raspberry herringbone rope.

Finally on my feet again, I finished embellishing the necklace this afternoon.  The accent strips are done in right angle weave and filled with pearls, crystals, amethyst and carnelian rounds, and matte metallic fire polished beads. Beautiful fall colors to complement the carnelian and sterling silver focal. The herringbone rope design is Maggie Roschyk’s cover piece from June’s Bead and Button magazine.