Gearing Up

I'm planning on making a 5" x 7" piece with the theme "Winter Enchantment" as part of the Artbeads.com blogging for beaders program.  Although I haven't received my order from them yet, I'm starting to collect a flurry of white beads from my stash.  Poking around to see what I can find is always fun - there's always a surprise or two of things I come across that I had completely forgotten about!  For example, I came across a couple packages of button forms that I bought ages ago.  

With the white beads I had already put on my work table, I stitched these up in less than an hour. 



Looks like in insect to me!



So Fun to do!  But also a real lesson in editing -- not too many beads can fit on a 7/8" button top.  I have one more form (they came in a package of 3  ~ Imagine that, my favorite number), so I'll do one more all white  for my Winter Enchantment piece.  I've got another package of 3/4" ones, but I'm going to set those aside for something else - maybe on a BJP piece, not sure.   Gee, or maybe I'll end up forgetting about them again and stumble across them months from now!  Wouldn't surprise me......

  ~  Bead Happy and Often  ~

The Whole "KIT" 'n kaboodle

I'm holding off on any bead embroidery projects until I get my order of Nicole's BeadBacking.  From what I hear, its some pretty fantastic stuff.  So in the meantime, I was scrounging around the studio and came across 2 kits gathering dust.

The first one is a simple bracelet kit from Mzuribeads featuring those awesome handmade paper beads.  I'm not a 'stringer' kind of girl, so I  tried to embelish the beads.

Neither attempt was any good, and I was getting annoyed.   Simple stringing it is then.

Next I came across another one of those fan-tab-u-lous Toho Ring Kits that I got at Artbeads.com.  I have said it before and I will say it again:  I LOVE these kits!  So organized, clear illustrations, gorgeous beads and takes just a bit over an hour to put together. 

Just look at the focal bead!  Just beauty-full.

Sunlight brings out some gorgeous turquoise green hues

You can see how domed the ring is - just loaded with beads!

A Family Portrait....

Psst,  my ring family will soon be expanding.  I just ordered another kit!

Links to the goodies:

  Beadbacking -- Beadwright

Paper beads -- Mzuribeads

Ring Kit -- Artbeads.com

Bead Happy and Often

January BJP

I decided to make my Bead Journal Project pieces 2 3/4" circles.  Ok.  Great. 

Now time to choose a "theme."  Not that choosing a theme is a requirement of the Project, I just thought it might help keep me on track.  I happened to be digging for change one day and pulled out the Montana state quarter.  Hmm,  I wonder how many states I've been to.  Well, looky there--I've been to 12 states.  Sweet.  There's my theme!  Ok. Great.

Now what would I do with 12 circles at the end of the year?  Hang them like a banner?  Sew them together like a quilt ? No I didn't like either of those ideas.  And then it hit me -- I'll make them into magnets and stick them on my fridge.  Functional beadwork.  You know I'm all about that.  Ok. Great.  Let's get started.

I put all the quarters into a little jar and chose one at random.  Florida.  Ah, nice to think about being in Florida when it's winter in Western New York.

Although I've been to Disney World twice and to Sarasota with my parents, that's not what I think about when I think of Florida.  Instead I think about when I 'worked' in Miami for a summer as the adminstrative trainer for the company I worked for at the time.  I find that to be really weird; but for whatever reason, Miami is what came to mind when I looked at that quarter.  Not the family vacations, but work.  Really?  Gosh, that's weird.

It was in the early 1990s right at the time when South Beach was just beginning its rebirth.  So many boarded up huge hotels, with a few reclaimed places scattered about.  It was a neat place to be.  I have great memories of the people I traveled with and those that I got to know who worked in the office.  I remember the week after I finished up down there, Hurricane Andrew came to town and destroyed our office.  It was hard to believe. 

Oh for heaven's sake, girl, show the beads already!  Sorry about all that blabbering on......

I thought I was going to peyote stitch the coin on, but I realized the beads would cover up too much of the coin, so I just glued it down. 

As usual, you will see elements of 3 and 5 throughout the piece (symbolic of my 3 daughters and myself being 1 of 3 sisters and coming from a family of 5 and now being a family of 5).

Most obvious are the 3 leaves and the 3 waves, but let's take a closer look:

a stack of 3 flower sequins



3 little turqouise rounds

a little net of 3 triangles



3 Swarovski Bicones along the base of the coin

  Just a small bit with 5 elements:

5 sequin bugle stacks surrounded by 5 pink and orange bugle paths
and if you look really close, 5 baby stacks in front of the bugle stacks

Here's a side view to get an idea of the texture. 

And here's the back.

I split the edge colors to represent the sunset over the ocean.  I stuffed it with just a bit of polyfill to try and fill out the edges (you can see the impressions of the 2 round magnets).  My biggest concern would be if the magnets would be strong enough to keep it from sliding down the fridge - they are :)

I'm really looking foward to this year long journey of reflecting on where my life has taken me and I want to thank you for coming along for the ride!

Bead Happy and Often.