The Soup That Stayed Home

In putting together bead soup mixes this year, I came up with five possibilities.  Yes, five. I was having a grand time, sitting in my bead room, cackling like a bit of a mad beady scientist.

I eventually settled on the one (okay, ones) to send to my partner Rita. But the third runner up, or the Miss Congeniality of the bunch, kept calling to me.

So I made something with it myself.

Ceramic, agate, jade, freshwater pearls, Czech glass, ZNet Shows
 crystals, copper, hand fabricated clasp

The pendant is two ceramic beads, an agate donut, and some
copper discs, all on waxed cotton

I wore this soup out to lunch yesterday, which in a strange way seemed an appropriate place for it to make its debut. The soft greens felt especially spring-like to me, which was a welcome reminder that the weather will, eventually, warm up.

Long Weekend In The Workroom

Happy Labor Day, everyone!  I hope you've had a chance to relax a bit, doing whatever makes you happy for a while.

My workroom looks a bit like a bead bin exploded, but that's just a sign that I've been having some fun.  I'd show you a picture of the room, but seriously, I don't know how strong your stomach may be, and I don't want to cause anyone unanticipated visual trauma.

So here's something that I hope will be a little less visually jarring:

The agate donut had been sitting in my UFO pile forever, attached to a piece of backing in prep for a bead embroidery class I was going to teach, um, over eight years ago.  Class didn't happen, and so little donut sat there, forgotten and unloved and unembroidered, for a long time.

She's strung simply, on lustrous mother of pearl rounds, with some rich aventurine fan slices as dangles.

What else is working on the table?  I'll be posting those in the next couple of days!

February Art Bead Challenge

To celebrate the three day weekend (thanks, George and Abe, for having birthdays close enough to warrant a Federal holiday for you and the other presidents!), I've been spending lots of time today at the bead table, working hard on my first entry for the Art Bead Challenge.


These challenges have been so intriguing and inspiring, but this month I finally had enough time and an appropriate art bead, so yippee skippy, I'm finally giving it a shot.


The inspiration this month is The Conference of the Birds by Habiballah, from a manuscript of the Mantiq al-Tayr (The Language of the Birds) of Farid al-Din 'Attar, c. 1600.  Isn't it spectacular?  You can read more about the artwork, and the challenge, here.


My eye was immediately drawn to the peacock and to the lovely lavender shades in the stream.


I started with this porcelain focal by Forever Young, which I topped with a carved cinnabar bead with a phoenix (sadly, you can't see the phoenix in this photo, nor can I get the photo to display upright.  Crap.)

Then I added a couple of carved bone beads, lavender jade, a carved agate barrel, a dyed agate lentil, copper wire, and fiber.  I don't often use fiber in this way in my work, so this was a little added degree of personal difficulty for me.

The reveal date for all the challenge entries is February 29 (Leap Day).  With such gorgeous art for inspiration, I can't wait to see what everyone has created!

If Wilma Went Glam

 

Remember Wilma Flintstone?

Wilma is the property of Hanna-Barbera Productions

but her heart belongs to Fred

If anyone ever rocked (pardon the pun) a chunky necklace, it was Mrs. F.

So imagine, if you will, what Wilma might choose if she were to go shopping at a modern bead show, looking for something to wear for a fancy evening out (or to spice up the daily chore of walking Dino).

I think, perhaps, that she would fall in love with these purple dyed agate chunks.  I did!  And as a change from working with seed beads, this was big fun (again with the pun -- sorry!)

Paired with hollow filigree pewters, this necklace is much lighter to wear than you might imagine.

Yabba dabba doooo!  (Yes, yes, I did say it.  You had to know I would.)

While waiting for the snow

The weatherman told us to expect 4" of snow. Nothing epic, especially when friends east of us were expecting, and getting, 2+ feet of winter joy.The snow here amounted to a whole lotta nothing, but I completed the "what if" project I posted about last night, with some really cool black faux coral multi-holed beads, using agate with a nice chatoyance and some red coral. It's different than many of the pieces I usually do, but that's the point of pursuing the answer to "what if?", isn't it?

So I've added another goal for this year (I'll post about all of the others later. Not that it's of interest to anyone else, but if I make those goals public, maybe I'll feel a little more pressure to follow through on them!) The newest goal is to, on a regular basis, push myself into that area of discomfort, of unfamiliarity, of "what if". I want to explore the new, to expand those boundaries and limitations we all sometimes impose on ourselves, to give voice to the creativity lurking in my brain somewhere. Some things may stay in the Drawer of Ugly Projects when they're done, but each will help me explore, learn and grow.

And in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy wearing my new necklace!

It all started with "what if?"

So many things start with "what if".



What if I take that jewelry making class? What if I take that technique and do this to it? What if I mix this with that (admittedly a lot safer when working at a beading table than, say, a chemistry lab)? What if I take a deep breath and try to sell this stuff?



What if I reach out to the wider beading community I know is out there and share some of my ramblings?



Thus, this blog.



And tonight's installment of "what if"... last time I went bead shopping (seriously, the only reason Benjamin Franklin said that beer was proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy is because Ben didn't have a bead store nearby) I found these quirky little black ceramic-ish beads that look like small branches of coral, with two horizontal holes and a hole through the length of the bead. They don't look like much from this scan, but trust me, they're pretty cool. Wasn't really sure what I'd do with them, but I got a handful of them anyway.



So tonight, I sat down to design something with them. My first idea was going pretty well until I saw some fabulous grey agate, just waiting to be invited to the dance. "What if I put those together? What if I put them on an angle? Hmmmmm....."



Picture of the results tomorrow!