Thursday, October 31, 2013



HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I should be working on a black cat for this holiday, but the reality is that I am just finishing the full sized Siamese Beanie Babie kitten. As you can see by the bit of butt and tail not yet beaded, he is brown. I would have had him finished by today but when Mary was here and saw the purses she liked them so much I started one for her. 

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Fire Mountain put my snowman as their ad on the back of Art Doll magazine's current issue. What a lovely way to make a happy day for me. Seeing the dolls made me want to go back to making them. I suppose one could  see my beaded animals as dolls in a strange way. As it usually is, I do not really fit into any niche. I am happy today being in this one. Thanks to Arbel Shemesh the stylist, and photographer Scott Larson, at Fire Mountain for making the snowman (and me) look so good!


Monday, October 28, 2013


I did another purse without really wanting to do it. I see I did get more inventive at the bottom where there were colors I did not like. Still even my colors have a grayness that does not please me. Ling-yen was just here and she liked the purses so maybe I am in a super critical mood.

With the arrival of my Fire Mountain order I was able to finish the Prayer Bear. I had thought that sewing his hands and legs into place would be a problem but actually that job went quite well. I was even able to work on the cat part of the evening while a storm tried to blow down the chimney. Today the sun is back in full force.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

It finally dawned on me that the reason no one on Blogger responded to my pleas for help was because I was using Explorer as my internet connection. So here I am using Google's chrome and I see I can get around better on my blog-edit pages. This necklace above will be in the Holiday Jewels show at CHAC opening on November 9th. I should be writing up the article for the ICO but am, instead, trying to get acquainted with a new program.
Since I have been a bit under the weather recently, sewing beads on these little coin purses made in Guatemala have been undemanding work. All one has to do is make a cross stitch with a bead in it and if one looks closely you can see that I was not even able to do that! I was surprised how many beads such a little project took! You can see where I ran out of the green and substituted 6s instead of 8s. Perhaps I will get more creative as I go along and keep running out of beads. As I was looking closely at some of the other purses (I got 5) I can see where the original maker ran out of thread and substituted a near-matching color. That gives me encouragement to go on with these. I also think that I need to make the pattern bend to my will instead of trying to follow the yarn stitches.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013



The full-sized kitty cat is put on hold while I finish up some bracelets for the Christmas show at CHAC - Holiday Jewels. This is what I have so far.

And already my mind is inventing new sizes (I want to try four beads in a row) and new colors. I goofed with my order from Fire Mountain and have Amber AB 8s enough to bead a rug! But first I will finish up these that are already strung.

This is why I make so much jewelry when I do. I want to try out other ideas and colors and once my needle (or crochet hook in this case) is started with a project, it is so hard to stop it. Even though this small stuff makes my hands ache I cannot stop - yet.
A word above: Those lovely brass ends for the bracelets come from B'Sue's brass stamps on Etsy.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

The rhino in all his glory! I wish I had angled the body so his ears 'read' as ears and not mutant mushrooms. I do love his colors and think this is such an improvement over the original beast. I finished him at 11:30 so had no time to start the next animal but

I have this loverly polar bear! When these arrived, with all that fuzzy coat, I laid them aside thinking I would never bead these as the coat fur was too long to cover with beads. But as I found on the border collie and the cat, it works to just bead the smooth parts. And these go fast!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

This rhino is coming together so fast I thought I had better get a photo up of the original gray before it is all covered. I am really pleased at how the colors are working out on him. I feel the blues - as if he is in the river - are so much more exciting than his gray beginnings. One of the reasons I had not beaded him before was my reluctance to work in grays for a whole animal. Blues I can do! A rough week with the C.diff but the beading did go well!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

I got this far on the Prayer Bear before I ran out of the amber AB 8s. Thank goodness Vicki did an order today so by the end of the week I cand finish. Last order I tried to order these beads and ended up with something else, so I am hoping I did it right this time.

Sunday, October 13, 2013


You are getting a report of the week as it seems I have been too occupied to add daily updates. On Thursday Barbara picked up the poster. As we were chatting I realized that the 9th of November was on a Saturday and not on a Friday as I had on the poster. I had used up all my printer cartridges so Barbara took the maimed posters home for Norman to fix by making labels of the word Saturday or reprinting the whole thing - which ever worked.

All summer Barbara had been asking me to give her more jewelry items and I said I was not making jewelry so had none to give her. Then she reminded me that she had returned a bunch of items last year before the holiday jewelry sale in order to promote the more expensive items. I had forgotten about the box and had never looked in it. Finally journeyed out to the studio and found gobs of things! So I spent two days checking these, refreshing tags and sorting them so she could find what she wanted for this year.

In the meantime I had started a bunch of crocheted bracelets thinking that would sell best at Christmas. So now I have these to finish up. I hate adding findings but here are 8 bracelets to finish. I love the colors of the rainbow ones and am slightly interested in making more of those.

Here is the Prayer Bear I had started on last week. I am now back to finishing him while I wait for bead caps for the bracelets. It was such a joy to have a big item, soft and squishy, back in my hand! That was such a change from the cramps in both hands trying to manage little stuff.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

This pup is from the BABE series. I know I said I would not bead any more of them but this dog had no eyes and looked so forlorn that I beaded the whites and left the fuzzy blacks. Gave him golden crystal eyes. At first I thought he was a husky but as I beaded him "border collie" kept coming to mind.
Barbara was here on Friday and picked up a box of new animals for the CHAC gallery and asked me to make a poster for the holiday jewelry show. So I had the fun of setting up this photo yesterday.
In the afternoon light the shot was less blue. This was taken with the little camera. I used the big Sony for the actual photo I wanted to use.

Saturday, October 5, 2013


This very furry kitten is from the BABE series. At first I thought I would be unable to bead it because it is so furry but the more I looked at it the more I thought it could be improved with some beading. So I did it. Another BABE animal that does not satisfy me.  At least it was quick. I am hoping some one owns a gray Persian cat and so they, and they alone, will find this a comfort.

Friday, October 4, 2013

The worm finished. I am not sure about that necklace. . .

It seems not to be such an item with the book. I am pleased that one can read the title of the book. It takes really sharp eyes to see it in the real. By stuffing the worm, it would stand (sit) alone but I prefer the idea that such a colorful worm is a book worm!

(the first word in this paragraph should be The necklace; again blogspot is unforgivable!)

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Quick look at the worm before it is finished. Actually last night I did get all the beads on the worm, even a red necklace! and then started on the book. Now I know why I don't make jewelry any more. It cramps my hand to hold the little pieces! I thought I would never get the book large enough so I could hold it easily and realized that my left hand is so used to the size of an animal that it cramps to hold just beads!
I did get 10 animals boxed up for the Dolphin in Gualala so that they can see if they can sell animals as well as the folks at CHAC. Werner was going to town to deliver them but is feeling dizzy, as he often does in autumn. Also he is taking an antibiotic for his pimples on his neck. Mary was scheduled to clean today but called in sick. It must be autumn.