Precedent

I don't know if I'm setting a huge precedent for myself, but I made this for Riley's kindergarten teacher as an end of the year gift. 

1st Shibori embroidery attempt

So, I've been in love with the colors of Shibori silk ribbon embroidery and have wanted to give it a try. By the yard it's just so expensive for me and it's a big commitment to a color to buy a yard, I felt. I was happy to find it on etsy by the half yard, so I could buy two colors! I wanted to make a cuff originally but didn't have any blanks for the base and was worried he silk would get wrecked from wear. So, I made this brooch instead and think it may be a retirement present for my mother in law.

Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal!

Yay! Finally! The bead soup reveal date is here! Last year I participated in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party for the first time. It was such a challenge and so much fun; I absolutely LOVED it. (You can see my post about last year's hop here.) This year, I knew I had to do it again. So I signed up and started looking at the calendar only to realize that the reveal date (original date of May 3) was the same day that all of the final work for my Masters degree was due by. Always one to work better under a really long to-do list, I managed to complete everything with time to spare. Then, the reveal date was pushed back one week, so I even had time to procrastinate writing about my piece and taking pictures.

This year I was paired up with Liz E. of Bead Contagion blog and the color palette she sent me was quite a challenge. Because of my mounds of schoolwork, I didn't want to create anything too complicated. BUT that didn't really happen. During this same time period I also started to Zentangle. I think my end piece for the blog hop reflects this new skill, but in bead embroidery form. (Which happens to be really similar to bead embroidery in a lot of ways.) I have really been into the neon colors out recently, and the winter was REALLY long. I also tried to mimic the shape of the round focal throughout.

In the end, I love/hate it - which is exactly the same way I felt initially about what I created for last year's party. I have created something I totally love, but it is SO not me and big for me, I think. I ended up wearing it to work last week for my Masters research presentation. The perfect day to wear the other thing I had spent all spring working on. Also, everyone else loved it and thought it looked just fine on me - not too big at all! :)

Enjoy my pictures below. Visit Liz's blog here to see what she made from what I sent her. Have fun hopping other blogs by heading to Lori's blog to see the big list of all the bloggers. Enjoy!

Bead Soup!

Loving neon!

The focal can spin.

New necklace

I love the enameled beads and clasps from beadswede on etsy. I literally want every single one. I sent one to my bead soup partner, Liz, and paired this one with a cabochon from another of my favorite shops, cabslabsrough also on etsy. I love how it turned out.

Bead Soup Blog Party 8

I'm taking part in Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party again this year. For the party, almost 500 people with blogs sign up to swap a bead soup and send it to their partner. The partner then makes something with what they have received. Then everyone posts a reveal picture of what they made on the same date in May. This year I was paired up with Liz whose blog is Bead Contagion. She does fabulous bead embroidery work. Last week I received the soup she sent. We both actually received what the other sent super fast to the credit of the USPS. We live on opposite sides of the country but received our stuff within a two days. She definitely sent me some great colors, but colors I never work with. It will be fun to design something to use with these beads! (Unfortunately both pictures below are sideways/upside down and I can't figure out how to fix them. Oh well!)

I have never used so much orange in one piece, but will love the challenge of it!

This is what I sent her.

 

Now it's done

Ready to move on?

I'm looking at this and wondering...is it ready to move to the next phase? I'm planning more embellishment this time - something I don't typically do well. I don't really have anything to add, so maybe this is it! Of course, the pic is sideways...

Time

Lack of time is killing my creativity. I did make the bracelet from a design in a recent beading mag though. Well, this is the start of it anyway. It's cool, but I love the colors together more than I love the bracelet. It's a little big for me.

All I made for Christmas

I've been playing around with alcohol inks   in 2013. Ultimately I ended up making lots of earrings to sell at Riley's school craft fair. Polymer clay with silver leaf colored with alcohol inks is the base. I love them and how different each set turns out.