Saturday, June 27, 2009

Have had this idea for embellishing crystals for many months, so in my last order from FM I got these and several more. I am not happy with the way they look in the scan so will try something else.



Two of them are sharp enough for closeups. Strange the middle one is out of focus. Anyhow this way you can see the embellishment and how it relates to the crystal better. I admit I am excited about these. They are very easy to do - I made six yesterday. I feel the beads really add to the custom of hanging a crystal in the window. I loved watching the rainbows move across the room as the sun went in the opposite direction.




I also tried hanging the crystal from a chain, but found it did not spin as easily as the ones on fishing line. It however seems to scan better. I had the idea of sending a scan to Fire Mountain to see if they liked the idea. I think I need to look at this longer and see if I can make any more improvements. It is hard to see, but this is the largest crystal ball FM has - almost 2 inches across.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

I thought I was done for the day with this when I walked through the studio and found that yesterday I had also finished these pieces. It was searching for the crystals for these that got me started on the stringing path. The drops here below are a deeper shade of yellow than the photo is showing.
The reason for the slide on the necklace below is because I ran out of the hex cut in #8s and thought I had more but they were #6s. The strand was not long enough to knot so I made the slide out of the #6s.



This necklace got two colors because I ran out of the light-green Delicas. So I switched to gold. The hex cuts are the same color but I was delighted with how they too changed color. Had a hard time finding a dangle. None of the drops as in the first necklace matched or even came close. I found these two old ivory (imitation) with some other old beads someone gave me long ago. Again the green is much softer than here. I think I need to slow down and do some color correcting in Photoshop.




I am hoping this is the end of my stringing fit. I am always surprised when the desire comes over me to string together beads of weird colors and shapes, and then am very eager to get back to bead-weaving or sewing. It looks like the scanner is also eager to cut short this series!





This one started out without the wooden beads and was just too much of the same color so I undid it and added the wood and the cats. I added them because I have seen people buy necklaces just because they love their cats but it gives good color, too.





I am not happy with this set at all. I feel the chips are too small and I am hoping I will redo these with several strands going in and out the Botswana agates. I loved the little squares, but. . . Hmm. Here it doesn't look as bad as it does in real life.

Harmony, the famous organic fabric designer, gave me a little box of funky beads and I liked the silver one. Somehow the red jasper seems to want to go with the turquoise in my mind - perhaps because of the red rock canyons in Navajo land.

Monday, June 22, 2009


We took a tiny holiday today in celebration of the first day of summer and Father's Day. That however did not mean that I did not bead! Between opening gifts at the breakfast table, making calls with kids, going out to visit a sick friend with no children and watching the last rosy glow in the sky at 10 o'clock, I did get some simple stringing done.


I did not mean to start stringing but was searching through the bags for the big carnelian beads from Africa to add to one of the lariats done in the peyote spiral stitch and found so many beads that just seemed to want to be together. Having the new order from Fire Mountain and all those new beads surely helped unleash this stringing bout. I have several more combinations laid out in the tray to try today.
Just found out that the announcements of finalists for the Fire Mountain Bead Contest went out long ago and I never got mine. Last year there was the same problem because we don't get our mail here at home. Somehow their computer will not allow letters to go to the post office. So at least, now, there is still some hope that my tree piece will be picked for a finalist. I only have a week to get it to Oregon if that miracle happens.

Saturday, June 20, 2009


Okay, I think this is the last of these I will post. However I am still on a roll with the glass chips. I think the shorter connector sections makes a much better looking necklace.
I did open the box from Fire Mountain and I was was Glass to see that I was finally able to get the glass chips I had wanted from them. New colors which I am very eager to get started with, but will refrain from posting each one here!
I had ordered extra trays to take all my "show n' tell" things to today's bead meeting and then found out I had order the correct sized inserts but the trays were the half-size. So much for my ego trip there today!

Thursday, June 18, 2009


Too weird! Another matching set! It just happens that a 36 inch strand of chips has enough for all the pieces. Otherwise I would have left-overs. So I use up the chips and can bead longer without having to design a new color combination.
Anyhow I did switch to a warmer color. And I made the made the outside chains two beads shorter so the space between the chips is smaller and one has to look at fewer #11 beads.
Still have not opened the Fire Mountain box, but my curiosity is growing. Whatever did I order? Also Saturday is bead meeting day and I will need those new trays with velvet inserts for the many things I have for show n' tell.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009



Here is yesterday's attempt to "use up" those loops that came with the hooks. Truly not a stunning piece but. . . I still have enough for more experiments. I see this as one of those challenge projects as in the magazines.


Opened two bags of green glass chips and stayed with the spiral chain idea for one more day. A big box from Fire Mountain arrived yesterday and I am teasing myself by not opening it and trying to use up beads I already have before I dip into the new things. This year, when the news was full of "financial crisis" fears I had the vision of me using up all the beads I currently had on hand and not ordering anything new until I had sewed the last two beads together.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009



I never make matched sets of anything. In fact I rarely can make matching earrings. However once I found this color combination, I felt I wanted to use up the whole strand of glass chips with the seed beads on the tray. This too is rare. Usually when I make something I immediately want to try it in another color combination. Somehow these pieces felt like a new beginning. . .

Something else. Many months ago I got some really neat plain hooks that came with the ugliest loops. I avoided using the hooks because the loops were so cheezy-looking. Then last night I made a beaded loop (duh!) and it was perfect.

Monday, June 15, 2009




As usual, after the excitement of a show opening, there is the let-down and the "what was I doing before this?" feeling as I try to reconnect with my previous lifetime.
Back in January I had tried to learn a new stitch from the book Mastering Beadwork by Carol Huber Cypher which Bambi had given me for Christmas. Cypher calls it "Gemstone Zigzag Bracelet" on page 113. I remember making at least five attempts then and all of them were failures.
However yesterday I gave the instructions one last try and as you can see above, it worked. This is so easy to do! It is basically a two-needle stringing that goes, as you see, very fast.
Later in the evening I tried to use chips instead of round "gemstones" and things got very ugly.


However I have a lot of chips, both glass and stones so I switched to making the old spiral chain. It was so comforting to just settle back into a well-known stitch - like putting on old slippers at the end of the day. I am really not one who enjoys "stringing." I like projects that take a long time. Perhaps because I hate adding findings so much!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Still trying to get this caught up with all my lost days. This is another panel I did, trying to overcome the darkness of the previous one. I feel the sections got too big here so I quit working on it. I cannot believe the weird little flares of lights this scan gives. These marks are not on the piece. Also the pinks are much to gaudy. Seeing this I realize it is time to leave the piece in rest and to start up a new one.

I have been making jewelry the past few weeks with the idea that if I am up to it, I will enter the Point Arena CityArt Show for the 4th of July. Stay tuned. Will try to get scans of some of the pieces up here next week.




Saturday, June 13, 2009


This week I finally got the "Haiku Book RIVER" hung and wanted to show it to you. It is 14 ft. high and 12 ft. wide. There are nine pounds of silver-lined beads in those letters.

The show "POLYGLOT" opens tonight at Gualala Arts. It is an invitational art book show curated by Penny Nii and Sue Friedland.
I hope to be more regular blogging here now. I have been beading.