My Favorite Christmas Gift!

  For Christmas, my mom gives each of her children $50 to spend on something we would not otherwise buy for ourselves.  When my check arrived, I carefully vowed to use it for it's intended purpose, and started thinking about what I might like.

When my Etsy Beadweavers teammate Arlene of Artful Ar on Esty listed this little gem, I loved it immediately, and it flashed into my mind as the perfect "gift-to-self."  It's not really a January piece, and I knew it would be a while before I would wear it.  Also, I had to ask Arlene to make me a small version, as my wrist is teensy, (measuring only 5 5/8" around) which she did beautifully.  Finally yesterday, with pansies popping up around my neighborhood, I wore it out to lunch with my girlfriends.  They ooh-ed and aah-ed appropriately and I was SO pleased.  Thank you Arlene.  Your bracelets are wonderful.   She makes this one both in my warm and bright colorway, and in the cool colorway in her favorites.  Check out her work today!

Disaster

This is a long and tragic story.  Not the sort of thing that makes a good blog post.  Although this story took place over a month ago, I find I am still in mourning for what I lost.  It will be a hard story to tell, but I feel the need to do so.  So here goes.  If you can hang in there, I will tell you, there is something to celebrate at the end.

The story begins with Hannah Rosner (beadweaver and glass maker extraordinaire), who was very kind to me when I joined Etsy Beadweavers. She talked to me at length about her work, and what she did to generate the constant flow of sales in her shop which I found astonishing.  She was really encouraging about my work.  We have similar educational backgrounds (both in theatrical design), and over time, we have become friends.  After I won a competition "Carpe Beadum" which featured her lampwork beads, she asked me if I would consider partnering with her for the International Society of Glass Beadmakers event called Convergence II.  This is a juried show that will feature functional, wearable jewelry, showcasing the use of handmade glass beads, and designed for a real or imaginary or historic figure.  Hannah wanted me to create a hat, similar to my "Chapeau De Peche" for a character of my choice.  I thought about it long and hard, because I had other plans for that hat idea.  In the end, I really wanted to work with Hannah, so I said YES!  We decided to use Daisy from the F. Scott Fitzgerald book, The Great Gatsby as our character, and I moved ahead with preliminary design work.   Hannah would make a glass flower, or flowers to decorate the finished cloche.

I did not remember what a tragic, complex and depressing story Gatsby is until I began trying to read it.  Poor Daisy is a total mess!  She's married to an abusive, philandering alcoholic, and as the story progresses she discovers the first love of her life, Jay Gatsby, is still very much in love with her and wants her to leave her marriage for him.  She is ultimately unable to do this, and Gastby is murdered by her husband (through a circuitous path), after she kills her husband's mistress in a hit and run accident.  She finds herself trapped hopelessly in the decadent and irresponsible life she is living, without much consideration for the lives she has ended.  As my thinking developed, I decided the hat needed to represent Daisy's youthful innocence in decay.  The book includes lots of color references, with yellow symbolically representing decay, so I decided the hat would be innocent, pearly white, with golden decay, growing on it like mold and decorating its edges.  For me, it was a powerful image to work with.

I laid out the hat in a large diamond pattern, hoping to evolke both daisy petals and Art Deco shapes, and did a couple samples.  I wanted my hat to fit lower (more cloche and less mob cap) on the head than my original, so I added to the netting on both the top and bottom of the crown as I charted, and was pleased with my new length.  I was concerned about the cost of the 24k dark gold and light matte gold delicas I wanted to use and finally ordered them in quantity at a discount from Fire Mountain Gems.  The time that had seemed so ample was rapidly growing shorter, but FINALLY the beads arrived.  I beaded the crown I had designed and stitched it together to find that the addition I had done to the top of the crown meant too many beads to fit neatly and allow the hat to drape easily on a head.  I could tap and pat them all into place, but it was not what I thought it should be.  Plus, I felt pretty strongly that this was a glass beadmakers event, and the glass bead should be the FOCAL point of the piece, and my big diamond pattern looked pretty busy to me.  I stewed about this for days, trying to move ahead with the hat band, which alone takes 22+ hours.  But my heart and soul knew I needed to rip apart the crown and redesign, regraph and reweave it.  Somehow, I kept hurting my fingers so I could not bead.  I burned them on the stove, I cut them with a knife in the dishwater, I cut the base of my thumb opening a box, something new every day, until I gave up, cut the crown apart and started again.

Now you might think that all those little injuries were the disaster, or maybe how long it took for the FMG beads to arrive, or my poor decisions about how to lengthen my pattern, but you would be wrong. 

When Hannah asked what kind of flower I wanted, I said, without giving it much thought, "A daisy, of course."  And I imagined a big shasta daisy, or group of same, like the ones in my garden.  But Hannah's idea was much smaller, and on a very thick glass bead which provided stability for the delicate petals.  When her beads arrived I looked at them and thought,"Uh oh."  I didn't think they were a good representation of the fantastic work that Hannah does, and I was afraid that the scale was wrong.  When I made the first hat, I did a grouping of small fabric passimentary flowers and they never looked right  As I researched period cloche hats, It became clear to me that there was almost always just one large embellishment, if any.  So now I had flowers on the wrong scale, with a thick back for stability which I thought was going to be unpleasantly visible if I was going to stick to the kind of simplicity of design that characterized hats from the 1920's.  And worse yet, now I had read and thought about the book, the daisy seemed wrong itself; too cute, to young, and too sweetly carefree to represent such a complicated life.

I decided I would have to fess up.  I would have to tell Hannah, "I didn't think this through and your pretty little daisy is not the right thing.   Not only is it not the right size and too thick at the back, I think it's maybe the wrong kind of flower."  I decided I would beg for an orchid.  There is lots of orchid imagery in the book.  And I knew for a fact Hannah creates orchids so beautiful they make my heart ache.  But, how would she take this.  Would I hurt her feelings?  Would she resent having to re-do this project she had already put time and energy and thought into?  Would I lose my friend?  I decided to say what I thought.  If she thought I had made the wrong hat, I would want to know.  And I didn't think her pretty little flowers were the right thing for the purpose at hand.

She was amazingly good about it, and she made me an orchid TO DIE FOR!  I finished the new crown, printed out an image of her orchid, stuck it on with a pin and I was ECSTATIC.  This was good.  It was worth the risk and the redoing.  But the band and brim still needed to be done and the due date was racing up.  I told her, "I'll do my best but I am doubting my ability to finish."  I work full time, so my beading hours are limited.  She told me how to do "Fast Peyote"  She should sell this as a tutorial, I think.  Using normal peyote, I can do just under an inch of my hat band in an hour.  Using fast peyote technique, I can do almost an inch and a half, so when added to a lengthened entry deadline, I was again hopeful.  Hannah then told me serious entries needed to have more than one glass bead.  Again, DRAT, because I was pretty convinced  the hat should just have just the one orchid, but I said, "Maybe a necklace?"  The hat display form has a neck and shoulders.  And Hannah said, "Yes," and sent me a picture of some cute little flowers she was making and I said, "Sure, make me those in those 'rotting from the inside out' colors please," and she said "I'm on it." 

So I finished the hat.  And the entry was due in a few days, and I was going to a bead camp for the weekend, but Hannah's little flowers did not arrive before I left.  Tons of beading time, and no parts.  Same song, verse two.   So I thought, "OK, at least there will be a pretty good hat."  I took a few sample photos, but white beadwork on black velvet?  Oh momma.  It looked great in person, but my camera was freaking out.  I tried one shot in natural light, and it was a little better.  So I planned to do my photography at sunset in my studio, when the light is really lovely. 

OK.  We have still not arrived at the disaster, all that was just process.  Here it comes.  Sit down.

I lay a piece of black velvet on my high cutting table.  I get the hat perfectly situated on the form.  I use a black folding display board as a backdrop.  I juggle all these things and my camera on its tripod until the light looks amazing, and then, for no knowable reason, in what seems like slow motion, the display board drifts toward the hat form, knocking it off the edge of the table onto the concrete floor.

I am screaming.  Most excellent teenager runs into my studio to see if I am dying.  The fantastic glass orchid  has shattered.

Disaster.  Real, full-blown, meaningful, inescapable disaster.  I e-mail Hannah the news, as I remember it, and then we text.  I am SO sorry and SO sad, but I can do nothing to change this.  Hannah is kind and understanding, but I am sure equally sorry and sad, if not more so, and I'd have been angry as well in her shoes. But once again, she is really big about it.  I manage to pull off a necklace in the next two days when Hannah's beads arrive and then...

Here's the GOOD NEWS.  The silver lining.  The jury process is done, and tonight the announcement is posted.  "Daisy Buchanan : Innocence in Decay" has been accepted!  Hannah has to make a new orchid, but I am so pleased that her beautiful work will be there with my humble beaded hat.  Partnership is challenging (probably Hannah would second this resoundingly!), but it pays off really well.  I'll post a couple sneak peeks in the next few days!

May 11, 2010 - And here it is, in it's final glory!  Please note the anti-tip base I applied (with the help of  The Best Man Ever) to the bottom of the display form to avert further disaster and breakage.  Doesn't Hannah's new orchid look fantastic?   The first judges comment was "gorgeous orchid" and I concur!

Eighty Seventh Birthday Necklace

My mother will be 87 on April 4th, Easter Sunday. She's in good shape. No serious illness, very few medications, lives in her own home, (although my sister lives in the basement) and is generally cheerful when I talk to her. I live over 1000 miles away from her, so don't see her more than once a year, and I never know what to get her on gift giving occasions. She claims there is nothing she needs, which I can understand. But she does seem to like the beadweavings I have done for her in the past. And my sister gave me a couple cabochons for Christmas, and mentioned that Mom was especially partial to one of them. So, I spent this week making her an eighty seventh birthday necklace.

I have no idea what this stone might be. It's not something I would have chosen, but I was happy to know she liked it, and bezeled it in cylinders, and then added a second layer of seed beads. Then I fringed it, modeling it after a piece in my Etsy shop called "Marigold Glade." She is not one to go out much anymore, except to church on Sunday morning, Church Circle and Bible Study groups, and to visit her 90 year old sister, but I hope she will find at least a few opportunities to wear it. She is not technologically savvy, so I am quite sure she will not see this post, but if you do, Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY. You are a wonderful parent, and beautiful of soul and spirit. I love you.  And a huge thank you to my brother Jeff, who provided this photo of my mom in her 87th Birthday Necklace!

Four Webbings and a Focal for Calypso

I was feeling pretty smug as I finished the focal for my Etsy Beadweavers February Challenge piece at the beginning of January. I was nearly done a month early! I would not be the last one to post my work. I would not be struggling to finish on the last day as I sometimes am. And in light of my day job schedule thus far for 2010, this is a wonderful thing, as I am ridiculously, wonderfully busy! But I digress.

My son and husband are fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and watched all three on consecutive nights over the holidays, while I was working on my challenge piece focal, made from a beautiful split ammonite. Although I don't watch movies while I bead, I do listen, and I became enamored of the Calypso legend woven through the trilogy. Calypso is the Goddess of the Sea, captured in human form as Tia Dalma by the pirates. She is an exotic and amazing character, and I found her very inspiring. I decided that my piece would be "Calypso's Valentine" to honor both the ocean challenge theme and Valentine's Day, which falls during the voting. I wanted my ammonites to represent Davy Jones' heart, which he "carves out" in sorrow because he cannot have his love, Calypso. Tia Dalma also touches a necklace in one scene, which has a face, which led me to wanting the focal to very subtly echo the bearded face of Davy Jones. So the pearl fringe I added to my ammonite pair creates both a heart shape, and subtle nose, mouth, and beard, with the swirls of the ammonites representing eyes and brows.
I also added a barnacle texture to the edges of the piece. I wanted it to look ancient, and as though it might have been in the ocean for hundreds or thousands of years. With the focal finished, it was time to think about the neckstrap.

And this is where my trouble began. I initially thought the strap should be netting, as though the heart were captured in a fisherman's net, another oceanic image. So I made a little net sample. But it was stripey, and I although I love the 24k matte gold cylinders I used in the bezel, they felt wrong to me in the strap. A little too light in color, and lacking in substance, but the net idea was still promising.

So, I tried again, with darker beads and made a big effort to get it to look more like fisherman's netting, while still belonging visually to the focal. And I liked this one better, but I thought maybe it ought to have pearls, to tie it more effectively to pearl fringe.
I made a third sample, using pearls at the junction points in the net, but I didn't like it at all, ripped it apart, and did it again with large beads on both sides of the pearls, to separate the netting after it left the pearls. But somehow, it got busy. Maybe the big beads next to the pearls were too much texture. By this time, netting was beginning to annoy me.

I still liked the pearls, but maybe not in netting, so I tried a quick sample of simple pearl spiral stitch, and that was pleasing, but I missed the darn netting. So here I am, nearly two weeks later, sweating the small stuff. It's what obsessive-compulsives like me do. We are passionate about details, but sometimes we can get a little crazy, and I think that's where I am just now. I didn't bead at all last night, which is pretty rare for me. It's usually my evening's entertainment. But I think after having taken pictures, and written all this down, I might just be able to get back to the bench and make some decisions about how to finish. If you have ideas, feel free to make me a sample or two!!!

Now, nearly 14 years later, I realize that I never created a post to illustrate how I finished this piece!  I ended up with a set of jewelry!  

I created a very simple strap, to let the focal be the important thing, and made a netted bracelet, since I still loved the idea of netting. Mother of Pearl buttins seemed like the perfect closure.   

And then I also did a pair of earrings.  Because, I had some time, lol!

I thought the tops looked a bit like a dock, lol.  And then, being me. I made the set a pretty satin lined box.

Which brings me to the clasp, which I was so pleased to find at the local bead shop!

The lock and key seems very "pirate treasure" !  

I WON!

Yippee! Not only did I really enjoy the process of creating this necklace, for the "Carpe Beadum" contest, I won $100 worth of semi-precious beads, a $25 gift certificate to the 1 Stop Bead Shop in Ohio, and a $50 gift certificate at Good River Gallery. I can't wait to play with my goodies!

I loved the focal bead (lampwork by Hannah Rosner) when I saw its photo, and even more in person when the kit arrived. The supporting beads were top quality (1 Stop Bead Shop) and a great color selection. I decided the shiny finish on the focal bead demanded other shiny beads, so set aside the Toho Copper Gold Iris Metallic Matte for future use. I think I used everything else in the kit as I worked.

I thought the shape of the focal bead and its depth would require weight and dimension in the necklace, so imagined a group of netted ropes. The color in the focal transitioned from a deep indigo, through lavender, gold and hints of green, to ivory, and reminded me on ink spilled on parchment. I decided to make three ropes to re-create the ombre color shift.

To organize the ropes, and create an accent place for the Swarovski crystal and the remaining lampwork spacers, I stitched peyote spacer bars with three thru-holes to organize the ropes, and then began the ropes themselves, making many samples before finding the perfect blends of color to emulate the focal bead ombre. I also realized I wanted a more delicate rope at the center of the piece and a more substantial one at the sides and back, so changed the sizes of beads from 11 and 8 to 15 and 11, hence MORE samples were needed.

When I finished the 24k rose gold spacer bars, I fringed them, and thought the result looked like squid in movement. This reinforced the name I had in mind for the piece, "INK."

The weaving of each rope was done from back to center front with a Russian spiral weave, and the fewest changes of thread possible. The accent section has seven thread passes, from the step down to three beads at the end of the rope, through the bar and accent beads to three loose beads that were the basis of the smaller central rope, and back. This required much sampling and planning to place the "squid" with the spacing and angles I had in mind.

The center tassel was created by fringing circular flat peyote, and the vermiel bead caps added a final elegance. Simple earrings finished the project.

And those matte metallic beads? They have found homes in two other pieces, this one in my etsy shop, Purple Majesty:

and also here on one of my work-in-progress trays, with these gorgeous Swarovski Arctic Ice rectangles, waiting for a bit more time and idea maturation to be completed:

Maybe those lovely beady winnings will work their way into the finished product!

Sewing Club Revisited

When I was a young child, my mother belonged to a Sewing Club. The group met one evening a month, in each others homes, to spend time sewing and talking and having dessert. Mom always brought home some edible tidbit for me for the morning after. I thought it must be SO wonderful to be a grownup and participate in such delights!

Now, I am a mother, and instead of a Sewing Club I find my self part of several delightful groups of beaders. I belong to the Upper Midwest Bead Society , Etsy Beadweavers , and am occasionally invited to bead with a group of friends who all worked (at various times) at my favorite bead store, The Bead Monkey in Minneapolis. And my impression as a child of the wonder of comraderie and friendship that grows around shared interest was correct. It is indeed wonderful to have people who share your joys and concerns to talk to, and from whom to seek advice.

Kerrie Slade wrote a lovely blog post about the joys of being part of a "big crafty circle" of online artisans. As a part of that post, she passed on to my humble blog the "Superior Scribbler" award. I am so pleased! :o) Membership does have its privileges, although I am not in the same class, scribbler skill wise! I had to learn a whole new link skill to create this post. Thank you for the gentle shove Kerrie. Part of the recipient's duty is to pass on the award to five worthy recipients, so these are my choices:

Inspirational Beading by Mortira

Good River Gallery by Hannah

All Things Bead and Beautiful by Linda

Dax Designs by Glenda

Mamma Foxan by Olga

If you want to play along, the rules are as follows;

* Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 bloggy friends.

* Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & name of the blog from whom he/she has received the award.

* Each Superior Scribbler must display the award on his/her blog and link to this post which explains the award.

*Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List - that way, we'll be able to keep up to date on everyone who receives the award.

* Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

OK. I have done my part. Now if you want to play along, it's your turn!

When Worlds Collide

This is a beadweaver's blog, but my day job requires the making of jewelry too. It's an entirely different process and product. Beadweaving for me is about detail and delicacy. About things that are deeply complex and require tremendous time, patience and intense observation to design, create, and even to fully appreciate as an observer.

But in my day job, I am a costume designer, creating competition clothing for ballroom dancers. Their jewelry must have an exceptionally "blingy" first impression, as the primary purpose of ballroom dance wear is to get the wearer seen, and to emphasize and and extend the dancer's movement. I have just finished a gown for a client that relies entirely on its jewelry for visual impact, which is unusual, and most often, the gown istself has a minimum of 30 - 50 gross of rhinestones on its surface. I thought it would be fun to share it with you, and compare the two worlds. This is my lovely client Randee, in her new Latin gown, with necklace, bracelet, earrings and a small brooch at the hip.

Here's a closeup of the necklace, taken on my dressform. I find that the crystals I use for ballroom purposes must be mirror backed in the interest of maximum dazzle for dollar. I've done a couple necklaces for my dancewear clients with huge Swarovski rounds and bicones, but even with AB finishes, they simply do not compare to the mirror backed pieces from even a short distance. You'd think rivolis would be a perfect solution, and I do use rivolis, but the flat backed, sew-on version. And yet I rarely actually sew them on. The sew holes provide great additional grab for my adhesive, which seeps into the hole and makes the application very secure.

Another reason not to sew is time and cost. When a dancer spends a few thousand dollars on a gown, the jewelry cannot also cost a few thousand dollars, so I am always working to keep time to a minimum and result at a maximum. The money needs to go into the materials, and labor needs to be efficient.

Part of the labor cost is in the design and fitting of the ultrasuede base to which the jewels are glued. It must fit perfectly, allow the dancer to move without moving much itself, maintain it's shape through intense exercise, and be immune to perspirtaion. It must be supple, and protect the dancer from the sharp edges of the crystals, but must not stretch out or change shape in use. Sometimes, the necklaces, armbands, and earrings are glued to the body with eyelash adhesive or toupee tape, so the back of the jewelry must provide for that option as well. I start the process in craft paper, cutting in ultrasuede after I am sure I have a perfect fit, and then I check it for movement, before permanently applying the crystals.

I love what I do, and especially the realtionships with my wonderful clients. A huge thank you to Randee, dancing here in another of the Latin gowns I have created for her, for letting me use her photos in my blog.