Redo

I made this pendant over a year ago and really love the beetle look to it. At the time, I didn't know what to do for a chain, so I strung some large black fire-polished beads with turquoise 8/o seed beads and called it a day. The problem was, with all of those fire-polished beads (6mm-10mm in size) the necklace was just so heavy and I didn't like it. This fall, I decided a re-do was in order, so I made a spiral necklace with two-hole triangles and I like it much better. This re-do is now up in my etsy shop if you want to take a look. (Oh, and I think, if you flip the pendant upside down, it kind of looks like a muppet.) :)

Book Fan Art

So, I read a lot. A lot. Last year I read The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo and fell in love with the world she created in the story. One night I saw a basic charm bracelet someone had made on Etsy that was fan jewelry for the book. That was all the inspiration I needed. I bought myself some similar charms and designed this necklace. The shape of the pendant pays homage to the onion top buildings on the cover of the book and within the story, and each of the charms represents a mythical creature the main character seeks to amplify her power. The main character is a Sun Summoner, represented by the yellow and the antagonist is called the Darkling, a man who summons darkness, hence all the black.

Teacher gifts

I think my kids' teachers may be spoiled. Why buy them an end of the year gift when you can make one yourself?

Reveal

Here we are finally...it's reveal day!! Yay! Way back in, gosh, January I signed up for another round of the Bead Peeps Swap 'n' Hop. For one of these hops, participants are partnered up and send each other a bead soup. Then, before a certain date the participant is to make something with what is sent and reveal it in a post on their blog on reveal day. This is my 4th swap of this sort and each time I have found a way to push myself and make something that I didn't expect.

 This time I was paired up with Deborah Adpodaca and she sent me a soup inspired by the ocean near her in sunny Florida. Here is a link to her blog. Let me tell you, those beachy tones made me feel warm when I received them in the middle of winter! As it turned out, I was in the middle of a few projects when I received what she sent, so I had to hold off and finish those up before I could move on. I try not to stop in the middle of something and don't have many UFOs hanging around because of it. Even if I don't love what I'm making, usually by the end either I do, I've learned something from finishing it, or someone else loves it. ANYWAY, here is a reminder picture of what I sent her, followed by a picture of what she sent me.

What I sent to Deborah: Shibori Ribbon, Lampwork beads and a yummy clasp 

What Deborah sent me.

As I was designing, I found that the focal that Deborah sent to me,was going to be a challenge simply due to its size. Actually, as soon as I saw it, I knew I was going to be making a larger necklace. Since I'm obsessed with Shibori ribbon (Seriously, I have more colors than I could probably use in all of the projects I could make in a year and just ordered more at my son's T-ball practice this morning! I can't help myself!!) I knew that needed to come into play as well. I typically order my ribbon through Glennis Dolce, the maker of this wonderful ribbon, or Aria Design Studio who also sells it (and by the 1/2 yard too, which means I can buy even MORE!) I just fell in love with the "Oil on Water" colorway and once it arrived I knew that it was meant to be with this big focal. As it turned out though, many of the seed beads were just a little "off" with this ribbon, but I was able to use some of the awesome twisted brown bugle beads she sent. I was hoping to use some of the big white beads because they reminded me of the bubbles in the focal, but the contrast against the blue silk was just too great. 

As I worked, I planned on it to be much more wavy and not as symmetrical as it ended up. The beaded rope was a challenge for me only in that I had a hard time figuring out what to do for that piece of the necklace. I used the "Briar Rose" spiral stitch pattern with two hole triangles that I picked up from my LBS (the pattern and the triangles). The two hole triangles really complement the triangle shape of the focal. End result: I love the whole thing! Even still, I'll be posting it to my Etsy site soon. 

The mess to clean up before my next project can begin!!

Swap n hop partner reveal & what she sent

  

This is the second year of the Bead Peeps group Swap n Hop and the second year that I have participated. This year I was partnered with Deborah Apodaca who is a jack of all trades in the design and craft world. You can check out her blog here. Here is a sample of some of her previous work. 

 

I had trouble knowing what to send because she does so many different things, but in the end I just pulled together a soup that I would love to keep for myself and sent her that. As I may have said before, I usually know when a soup is ready to send because I'm jealous of the recipient and want to keep it for myself. Keeping it, though, and making up a new soup is not the point, so off the soup went. You can see a picture of what I sent her below. I'm really looking forward to what she comes up with! This is a picture she took that I'm borrowing from her post about me (here) because mine is sideways and I'm having picture rotating issues. 

Once we both had our packages, we opened them at the same time. I immediately fell in love with the amazing focal that she sent. It's polymer clay and reminds me of warm weather and the beach. See the picture below. Of course, here is NH the water never gets that color and today was cold and raw, but still, a reminder is nice. It's also nice to know that the design and creation of this beachy colors piece will carry me though, until it actually is warm here. Check back May 15th to see what Deborah and I made. 

Finished collar and next up

Here is the collar I previously posted about all finished. It is now up on my etsy site.

Next up is a vision I have had for quite awhile. I'm not feeling too confident in my  idea at this particular moment, but that often happens at this stage. We will see how it goes!!!

Here we go!

Next up... A shibori collar with a dichroic glass cab from FrogHollow glass on etsy. 

New for 2016

Sometimes I buy a focal and hold on to it for a long time waiting for inspiration or for the right complements to bring it to life. I recently bought a scrap bag of ribbon and inside was this beautiful teal and purple piece. I was sorting through my stash one afternoon over vacation last week when cabochon and ribbon met. I knew right away that it was meant to be. I realize that sounds super cheesy and lame, but I do believe in its truth. Sometimes this art thing is about collecting the pieces and realizing what's in front of you so they can all come together as they were meant to be. 

The ribbon is from ShiboriGirl and the cab is from FrogHollowGlass, both on Etsy. :) 

Favorites of 2015

 I make a lot of things and tend to fall in love with everything that I make by the time it's done. Here are a few of my favorite things that I made in 2015. My goal last year was to work on my shibori embroidery technique with an ultimate goal of someday being a juried artist. I never had enough stuff at once to photograph and send out and one of the places I was thinking of takes a 40% commission to have your stuff in their shop. I think that's kind of ridiculous, so now I'm at a standstill as I'm not terribly brave and don't have the guts to actually send my work out. Anyway, I did have the opportunity to do a reader's challenge for Beadwork magazine which is the neck piece below with the watch face on it. Stay tuned for what I'm working on now. It should be done in a few days. Happy new year!!