My Summer

I just started beading again after basically taking the summer off. I've noticed, despite my lack of new posts, that this blog continues to get views and new followers, for which I'm very grateful.

One thing that kept me busy this summer was getting married to my longtime boyfriend. It was a simple ceremony on the Oregon coast on one of the rare sunny days last July. I always knew that if I got married again, I wanted to dress like a 20's flapper. I found the perfect dress at the amazing online store LeLuxe Clothing, and a local hat artist, Gwendolyn, made a gorgeous headpiece for me. I feel a bit lame for not even making a piece of jewelry myself to go with the outfit, but with so much beading on the dress, a simple strand of pearls was all that was needed.

Ready for Spring!

Aren't we all? Those of us in the northern hemisphere anyway. What better spring accessory than a colorful little butterfly?

Feeling Inspired

This necklace feels like a culmination of sorts of my previous experiments with textiles. Like it is all starting to come together into something. Often when I finish a project I want to go off on a different tangent, try a different technique or even a different craft altogether, because I get bored easily. But this time I can't wait to continue exploring the same path further.

Materials used: antique obi silk, new chirimen fabric, brown and black soutache, brown obsidian beads, brass filigree, seed beads.

In a Purple Kind of Mood

Lack of employment plus winter equals increased jewelry output. As you can see from these two pieces, I'm feeling the purple lately.

Blue Paua and Black Lace

The inspiration for this necklace was a piece of black lace I picked up on clearance at a local fabric store. I wanted to come up with a lacy collar to go with it. I had some black edge trim in my stash that I found in the "Goodwill bins", to which I attached a black bugle bead chevron chain and added some dangles with capri blue fire polished rounds. Instead of a clasp, I attached black velvet ribbon to make it easier to adjust the size and because it seemed appropriate for such a romantic piece.

Maharani

I'm enjoying some free time around the holidays, so I have two rather major projects completed this past week: the wall hanging in the previous post and this colorful necklace. It was a rather special Christmas for our household, our first with my fiancé's daughter, who moved to the U.S. and came to live with us in September. She is a lovely young woman, and quite creative herself, as you can see from this very chic handbag she made me for Christmas.


Have a very happy and creative new year everyone!

Beaded Wall Piece

After a year of sporadic work, I completed this piece for my friend Debby (see work in progress photos below). I mounted the beadwork to wood embellished with collage and paint.

New Beaded Fabric Button Design

I'm working full time fairly regularly now, so my creative output is ebbing. The last time I had some days off however, I came up with this set. I used some beautiful fabrics I had in my stash for years. They came from a very cool shop in Vancouver, BC called Maiwa that teaches fiber arts in addition to selling beautiful hand dyed fabrics. I don't know if they still do, but back then in their retail shop on Granville island they had a bin of scraps that you could buy by the bagful for really cheap. Their funky, ethnic quality lent itself to a more casual look, so I used matte beads and a leather strap for the necklace. The earrings are reversible, red on one side and green on the other.

New Works

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I have been beading. The Art & Elegance in Beads show went well, better than I could have anticipated, so now I am in restocking mode.



This necklace started with a raku focal piece I picked up at the 2009 A & E show from the vendor Jim Stocker, aka Essence of Fire (it seems his website is "under construction"). By chance I laid a faceted glass cabochon on top of it, and liked the look so I decided to affix it to the raku piece. The rocky, asymmetrical shape begged to be surrounded with some free form beadwork. I used brick stitch and colors that mimicked the gorgeous hues of the raku. I did have one problem with this necklace. After I completed it and tried it on, I found the the beadwork would not lie flat, so I had to create a little support with some copper wire affixed to the back. It wasn't the most elegant solution, but it did the trick. Means I'll have to keep this one for myself though!



Feeling a bit flush after selling some jewelry at the show and my recent return to full time work, I ordered some new chirimen fabrics from Japan. They were so pretty, I just had to make something right away. This necklace and earrings are the result.

Bamboo Garden

Thank you to anyone who saw my post (now deleted) and voted for me in the I Fly Nonstop Haiku contest. Alas, I didn't win. Here now is my latest fabric cabochon piece. For this one I used a beautiful silk with a bamboo design that came from a thrifted Japanese necktie. For the necklace I stitched a chevron chain pattern in black and rust colored seed beads.

Work in Progress

Debby, a painter friend, and I had the idea to trade artworks, since we were both fans of each others work. Because Debby doesn't wear a lot of jewelry, I am making a wall piece for her. I'm so excited about this project, I decided to post some in progress photos, since I'm only about 1/3 done and it will probably be awhile before I finish because I'm trying to work on other pieces at the same time. Debby contributed a green cabochon from a ring that she had, which you can see being applied in the first photo.


I made a small mask out of polymer clay using a purchased mold. As I usually do, I used Lacy's Stiff Stuff for the foundation. Stiff Stuff is white however, so it always shows through any gaps in the beading. It can be dyed or colored in with markers, but as a quicker fix, I laid a piece of Ultrasuede over the top, temporarily fixed with double-sided tape, and then stitched through both layers as I applied the beads. (Note to Lacy: have you considered making this stuff in black, or at least dark gray?)


I have now completed the 'center' part of the design, as shown in the second photo. To give this section some dimension, I cut out a piece of foam core and glued it to the back. Then I planned out the rest of the design onto another sheet of Stiff Stuff. This time, because of the complexity of the design, I won't cover it with Ultrasuede, instead I will color each section in with a Sharpie before I bead.

Enchantment

My newest piece. Started with the fused glass cabochon and grew from there. Was going for an art deco look, but as usual my color choices led me back to to the southwest desert. All glass except for a few synthetic turquoise beads in the necklace.