" Ballsy"

Was chosen as one of the finalist in the Fire Mountain Seed Bead Contest.

"And the Stockings were Hung"
got the Gold Metal award for Holiday in the Fire Mountain seed beed contest .

You can go to the Fire Mountain page to see their photos. Off to celebrate!

Got a call from Vicki to tell me that she and Marianne are having a booth at the Art in the Redwoods Festival on August 20 -22 at Gualala Arts. Somehow they were able to wrangle a tent from Walt Rush so all systems are 'go' for that weekend.

She was kind enough to invite me to take 1/2 table and better still, to excuse me from all booth sitting duties. I think she knows how terrible I am with numbers and sales slips and figured it would be easier to do the job herself than to have to straighten out my goofs.

So I stopped doing the puffy bracelets. I did send one done in maroon and gold to Bambi so she could wear it to work. She said when she wears beaded work she get so many more comments and compliments than when she wears higher quality items made by jewelers.

Anyhow, Vicki's offer made me think that I need to make more lizards because they do sell. So it is lizards on my bead trays for a while. If you look closely you can see that two of these are bracelets. I like this idea and am doing one in reds and golds. You may have to look at more of these.

In the latest issue of BeadWork, August/September, Nancy Cain has instructions for a necklace she called "crystal twilight" which has rings like these as part of it. Making just these rings has set me off in new directions (bangles?) and has me experiementing with various sizes and ways of making them. She used only two sizes of silver beads, but I like the way two colors, one inside and one outside, give the ring a radiance (as in the small white one).
Basically she uses 5 rows of 8s or 11s in a flat peyote ring, with 5 rows of a smaller bead, 11s with 8s, or Delicas or 15s with 11s divided up so 2 rows are one side and three rows are on the opposite side. Then one zip stitches the sides together to make a closed circle. The only other way I knew to make such a form was to crochet a tube. These rings, being hollow are lighter weight and more pliable. I still have not gotten the right amount for a bangle. One pink circle is too small and the other one is too large. All because I refuse to count beads for my base and think I can eye the size of the circle.

Our well has gone dry, I broke a tooth and both area dentists are on vacation, but these necklaces as still happening for me. Lots to be thankful for! Actually these are keeping me sane and giving me great pleasure. They are, however, forcing me to think more about finding an another outlet or taking a load to The Dolphin in Gualala - both things I really hate to do. I can procrastinate if I get back to beading where all my troubles slide down a string into oblivion.

On Tuesday Rhoda came by and we went together to Debbe's to "shop" her fabulous bead collection and I came home with a handful of these shell fans that have set me on fire! I thought I was done with stringing for a while but the many ideas for beads combined with the shells have take over my life. Everything else has gotten shoved aside. There are three more necklaces that I didn't even scan.

In the close up you can see that I used crystal rondelles, then some lovely shaded glass leaves from Debbe, and some ecru pearls also from Debbe, as well as some tiny white ones. These are all rather ordinary but I am hoping that by doing them it will form the basis for some new idea.

Hopefully one about clasps.

Rhoda and I are always grateful for the opportunity to shop at Debbe's and shocked at how long we stay. I hope our checks make it worth the effort!

Mike, remember the big flower I had totally messed up? I tried it again and this time (thanks to the good advice about how to gently roll the cane) got the flower to show up right. Today I am thinking of cutting away the white before I cut my slice. If I did this again I would use blue to fill between the petals. It might look more like a morning glory!

And I also tried the rose again. Mine is not quite as good as yours because I did not have the transparent so I tried to define the petals with two shades of pink. But I felt I was able to remember and follow your instructions and my flowers are rose-like enough to keep me happy. You cannot see the 'vines' but I tried that also, again lacking the transparent, got my own results. But I found a way to make them really tiny by using one finger against the plate with small pieces.

I was going for leaves with 'veins' with the lines but that ended up looking more like grass so I accepted what I got.

I found it worked to put the flowers on the wooden beads without covering them up completely. I liked the warm color of the wood (here it looks as if they are golden). The polyclay seems to stick well and I have had no trouble with any chipping or the design falling off - so far. Thanks again Mike for a great demonstration!

Mike Hanson teaching Lorenzo, our newest member! Lorenzo makes earrings which he sells in Point Arena at Roots. He got acquainted at the car show last weekend. So even though the event was not what we wanted according to sales, it did get Lorenzo hooked into the group. Debbe is his closest neighbor so she has also introduced him to lampworking. The shoulder belongs to Vicki who handles our orders with Fire Mountain.

Here is Mike with his daughter Christina. She has benefited from Mike's 'lessons' at home. She told me how better to roll my cane - with the palms instead of fingers to get even pressure. How quickly she saw what was being a problem for me. Her 'rose' (IMHO) was the very best one of the day!

What a great class Mike gave us on polyclays! He is a very good glass artist, but he took things he knows from making glass canes to show us how to make polyclay canes. Super teacher Mike is, and the hints and helps he gave us were so much more than one gets from reading books!

Mike lead us in making a tiny, tiny rose. Only when he was done did I realize that he had showed us how he and Debbe make those tiny roses on their lampworked beads.
I got to the class late because I started out so early. Thus I took the ridge road which is safer for me to drive than Highway One. As I flew by Bower Park I saw Judy with her stand at the flea market. So I turned around to see her. Yes, she knew of the class, but because we had changed the date, had forgotten it was today. Naturally we started to talk about the class and she came to the car to see the canes I had made. I had left them at home!
So I turned around, went back home to get them and ended up being 1/2 hour late to the class. The others were already into blending their colors and I, breathless and jagged from all the driving, simply could not get started. At some point I joined in with one of my error canes, but when I finally saw what the others made, I was sorry I had not made the effort to catch up with them and follow instructions.
I will see what I can remember and really try to do a proper rose cane today.