12mm Pearl Acorn Earrings

EDITED TO SAY:  Kits are re-stocked in all four colors!

I am pleased to say that I have a tutorial in the FINAL Bead and Button magazine.  I made up a few kits and re-vamped my 12mm tutorial in honor of the event.  It's on sale half price (normally $5, now $2.50) for the rest of the holiday weekend.  I should have written this post on Friday!!!

The tutorial is very similar to the one I did for the Peach Caramel's Claws necklace, and if you own that version, there is no real need to buy the new one.  Except of course that I believe I improved the illustrations and layout just a bit.  But I am just like that. And it includes all the bead lists for the new colorways.  But I'll just give you that here. Not the best quality image, but the best I can do right now.

They are pretty, simple, and I like the scale with my smaller face and bones.  Here are the glamor shots.

I am also working on re-kitting my Fall Flame leaves.  Some are done and in my shop, and the rest, plus one new colorway should be ready this week.

I have done no beading this summer.  I have spent my time in my garden, community parks, and on our many lakes in my Covid kayak.  I have always wanted one, but have never before had the muscle to move one around on my own.  It's a wonderfully peaceful thing, and good for my soul.

I think about many of my repeat clients often, and hope that you are all weathering this year of challenges well.  I do have a couple new projects in mind, and maybe with the cooler weather, I will stay off the water and put some of them together for you.  Till then, a virtual, socially distanced hug to you all!

Swarovski 2016 Spring/Summer Launch Presentation

Boy was that ever fun, and inspiring!

I was invited to a Swarovski launch presentation this morning at my favorite sparkle wholesaler, Rhinestones Unlimited.  I have purchased most of the flatback crystals I use in my dance wear from them for many years, as well as a some things I have used in my beadwork, and they are great to work with!  They write a blog too, and here is a link to their post about new flat back colors available any day now.

The presentation by the knowledgeable Swarovski Rep Debbi Simon (a fine artist who was a Bead & Button employee for a time... you might know her book about crystals and adhesives called Crystal Chic) included an introduction to a tool that some of you might find very useful.  It is an iPad app that is essentially an interactive catalog of all available Swarovski beads, pearls, fancy stones, sew-on jewels... all of the over 16,000 items in their current inventory.  I downloaded it (free from the app store) and plan to play with it further this evening. It has several functions.  Fair warning, it took about 30 minutes to download it completely.

The app includes tutorials which help you understand how to use the catalog, filter products, find product details, and search a filter.  Then it also teaches you how to use the selections feature to choose products, group them to look at colors and finishes together, and even copy and arrange them as you see fit, maybe into the necklace or garment embellishment of your dreams. A very powerful design tool.  Pretty cool!  And once you have your selections made, it will make you an ordering list. Yikes.  It could be dangerous to the wallet, methinks!

In addition to learning about this cool app, we got to see and touch a wonderful inspiration look book, and receive a print version of the book, as well as the entire print catalog of available Swarovski products, featuring the new shapes, colors and finishes.  We were also given back issues of Sand, a Swarovski magazine of sorts, full of inspiring designs and designer profiles from past releases.

I really liked the pastel powder finished crystal pearls and matching jewels, which reminded me of E.H. Ashley Ultra Color finishes.  Plus of course, samples!  So I can show you what I saw.  Here's the sexy box...

And the cool products inside!  I love the pastel pearls, matching chatons, and Metallic Sunshine!  I have to say Blush Rose is not my favorite, but then it would be fair to say I am not very subtle most of the time. I like color purity and vibrancy, but it's nice there are pretties for every taste.

Rhinestones Unlimited host and owner Angela Peery and her staff provided tasty treats, and we all got a goody bag, which included...

...yummy checkerboard jewels and beads, plus a lovely new crystal pendant called Lotus, (top) which to me is an elegant sand dollar, and gorgeous!  PLUS...

...A bead mat with a measuring calibration of the left side.  Astonishing to me, as I mark all my mats in inches across the bottom with a permanent marker.  Apparently I am not the only one who likes this idea.  AND, the Rhinestones Unlimited version of the crystal katana, but without the blister-producing inset stone, and a narrower profile which suits my small hands better.

The best part of the day for me was the very inspiring imagery I got to feast on.  New ideas are floating happily in my brain.  I almost wanted to skip the Bead Dreams work for today and go try out some of them.  But that will have to wait.  Loved it!  Thanks for the invitation Angela, and for the great presentation, Debbi!

Missing...

I am proud to announce that my piece, "Missing" survived the first cut in the 2012 Battle of the Beadsmith International Invitational Beading Tournament on facebook, and of the 80 original entries, it is one of the 40 that will continue to round 2 of adjudication.

Back View - I like to close my bezels to prevent wear.

When I set out to create my piece, I thought it would be a representation of my home, Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes.   I imagined a work with many bezeled Bermuda Blue rivolis, representing lakes, and lush greenery swirling around those lakes in elegant twists like naturally occuring fibonacci spirals.  I had looked at many examples of fractals in nature and mathematics, and I had a sketch that gave a rough impression of what I was hoping to accomplish.  I hoped to suggest a waterfall, like Minnehaha Falls near my home, as the focal component.

About half way through my project, my mother passed away.  My parents were both very supportive of my artistry, encouraged me to pursure a degree in theater, (when many might have suggested learning to type) and my mother gave me my love of handcrafts, teaching me to knit, crochet, embroider and sew. For Christmas of my Senior year of High School, they gave me a sewing machine.  It was an astonishingly expensive thing, and competely out of line with what Christmas gifts usually were, but it was also a confirmation of their support for my chosen career, and it meant the world to me.
Suddenly, my work was not about Minnesota any more.  It was about my mother, or more important, the absence of my mother.
The lively, curling greenery idea disappeared.  The beautiful blue components rearranged themselves into a soft circle of life, with a smaller supporting outer ring for me, and a larger inner ring for her, which merged into one single line at the base of the focal, as I realized I am now the family matriarch.  The negative space in the center of the focal created a soft heart impression.  Then the waterfall became a curtain of tears, falling from the circle. 

The blue was just the perfect color.  My mom's kitchen was always blue.  And I associate her with that room.  She loved to cook and bake, and so many photos of her were taken in that room.  She owned a set of beautiful, cobalt blue dishes.  Let me show you!  These were in the kitchen, but I moved them to the dining room while I prepared the house for sale over the the last month, because I thought they were so beautiful in the china cabinet she was so very proud of. For Mom, preparing and sharing food was an act of love!

And here's the kitchen. See the blue gingham curtains she made?  The pale aqua figure on the  backsplash tile she chose?  The adjoining wall has paper with a delicate blue figure on it.

And the dining room chandelier?  Gold, of course.  And there have always been golden yellow accents in the kitchen too.  Mom had beautiful blue eyes as well, but she was legally blind when she began to fall, and the third fracture of her pelvis was just too much to recover from at 89.

I think although it began as something quite different, this is the most personal and deeply felt work I have done as a beader.  I always create with wearability in mind, and have worn each piece I have made at least once.  Initially I din't think this particular piece would get a public wearing.  But I did put it on... and asked The Best Man Ever to take a shot for me.  I also thought I would never sell it, but a time comes to move on through life, and it is now listed in my Etsy shop.

So, there you have it.  A very personal piece, about an empty space in my life.  I tried to make the empty spaces, the negative shapes in the work, (the "missing" bits if you will) speak as loudly as what is there.  I wish I could share it with her.  I think she would approve.

Kelp Forest

I needed a distraction, and the Etsy Beadweavers May Challenge provided an excellent one. The theme was "Nautical Inspired."  I didn't plan or draw.  I wanted to fill my mind, and use up all the time alloted. Since the description of the challenge mentioned "lush ocean life" I started by searching Google Images for ocean plants, and the first images were of a kelp forest and I was HOOKED!

Rocks with Barnacles

I searched through my stash for things that looked like they might be part of a kelp forest and found several things to love.  Deep blues and greens found their way into my possibilities pile, and two things really spoke to me.  I had some blue green Swarovski jewels that asked to be the rocks that provide the kelp with an anchor on the ocean floor, and some iridescent beetle wings that looked like kelp leaves to me.  I began bezeling the jewels, and realized I needed one more than I had, but (curses!) my supplier was out of town until the 30th of April.  I imagine this is how drug addicts feel when then need a fix, and their dealers are in Aruba!  So I posted an image of what I needed on Facebook, hoping one of my beady buddies might sell me one of these beauties.

And Cindy Hlavka (awesome ex-president of the Upper Midwest Bead Society, who recognizes bead need when she sees it!) came riding to my rescue!  We met in a parking lot and she opened the trunk of her "MN Twins Mobile" to display her Swarovski jewel stash, in a black velvet lined box no less.  I really felt like I was buying drugs!  THANK YOU CINDY!!! 

After the jewels were bezeled, I decided they needed lots of sparkly ocean floor texture, so created a barnacle embellished look with freshwater pearls and bicones.  And I made a center back closure that would allow me to add kelp fringe and made a net connection, which seemed wildly appropriate to the ocean-going theme.

You can see a couple of the beetle wings in the corner of this photo.  I had begun playing with how they might become kelp, but holy mackerel (pardon the expression) that was a challenge!  They are wings, so they are SUPER LIGHT WEIGHT.  Sadly, lightweight things do not lend themselves to fringe, which requires weight to drape beautifully.  I tried MANY configurations and the best one abandoned all thread and used chain and jump rings, which provided the necessary weight for effective drape.  I loved those wings, but I just didn't love what I was able to make from them.

The Quest for Kelp

Thus began the hunt for a way to communicate the beautiful movement and shapes of the kelp itself.  I made a few samples.   One extraordinary thing about the kelp plant that really appealed to me was its flotation device.  Kelp needs sunlight for photosynthesis.  If it lies on the ocean floor, there is not much sunllight to be had.  So it makes its own little pontoons.  Each leaf has a gas bladder, connecting it to the main stalk of the plant and the plant fills the bladders and thus, keeps itself afloat to wave in the currents.  LOVED that.  And I found some awesome freshwater pearls that seemed perfect.  BUT, I struggled with how literal to be, how sparkly the leaves should be, and how to keep the two portions of the necklace harmonious.  This was lacking cohesiveness for me, but I thought it was close.

So I tried a bluer, less glittery version, without the big pearl bladder.

But then, the little bladder pearls were shocking and the leaves were stripey.

so I tried a simpler fringe, thinking it would still have the persuasiave movement.  Fail.

Then I tried putting the big bladder pearl at the bottom, more negative space a the top of kelp and softer stitching to achieve a more tassle-like result, and finally a tassle that I ripped apart later in my process for parts!  Still nothing right.

Plus I found working on this necklace was like sewing on black at night.  It's dark enough that I can't tell what I have done until the next day's dawn.  Finally, I waited for a dawn and did an assessment.  I like the sparkle, but not too much of it.  The bladder pearls were screaming and I needed them to be more integrated, so I found a different, quieter bead for the task.  And the color really needed to blend with the rocks, since the texture and shape were different. AND, I used the big bladder pearl at the top of the fringe strand.  It had a sprouted seed quality in that position that I really liked.   Finally, I could just make the kelp!!!

Final Results: "Poseidon's Garden"

Poseidon, mythological God of the Ocean was also responsible for horses.  Hence the clasp detail! 

This very glamorous evening-wear necklace is for sale in my Etsy shop and also an entry in the May 2012 Etsy Beadweavers Challenge, "Nautical Imspired."  Please visit our team blog to see all the wonderful entries and vote for your personal favorite between May 9th and 15th at:

www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com

And happy beading to you!

Tweed Bracelet

"When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me."

 We all have things we gravitate towards as designers, and things we avoid.  I am not a silver girl.  I wear a gold wedding ring, and the silver bin in my bead storage is the emptiest of all the bins. 

Beadsmith's wonderful Steven Weiss sent me a clasp he chose for me, as a part of the Elegant Elements project.  It's a lovely thing, a pretty shape, with a subtle and unusual color combination.  But working with it really made me stretch my boundaries.  And for this I am thankful.  Every time we make safe choices, we close our lives off a little from possibilities.  A silver, mauve and siam bracelet was a big reach for me.  But I did it, and I have learned and stretched and grown.  And I have to add this.  These Elegant Elements clasps are made with Swarovski components.  So if you use Swarovski crystals, or their crystal pearls in your work, a beautiful and organic match with your work is guaranteed. 

And that is enough said. Except for one thing.  In the corner of this private group forum, it says,

"A very intimidating group...  you've been warned :o)"

But the support and kindness there is what makes it possible to reach outside your personal comfort zone and try something entirely different with which you do not have experience, technical expertise or the even the ability to be securely successful.  

Now I am aching for emerald and gold.  Off to clean my table, and follow my heart.

If Everyone Else Jumped Off a Bridge...

...would you jump off too?  I have asked my son this question a few times, and the right answer is "Of course not, Mom."  But I just jumped.  When I started work on my second piece for the Beadsmith Elegant Elements Clasp Project, I told myself it would be a bracelet.  Why?  Because it seemed to me that EVERYONE ELSE had made a fabulous bracelet and I really had to just DO IT.

I am really not a bracelet maker.  Part of the reason maybe is, I don't wear bracelets because they get in the way when I work.  And I seem to design jewelry I personally would want to own.
Another part is maybe because my wrist is teensy, and a bracelet that I might be able to enjoy would not proportionately (or size wise) fit anyone else on the planet.  Well, ok, maybe a few people, but we are talking a tiny minority here.

So, in a pressure situation, where I am trying to design to feature a lovely clasp, and trying to keep up with the other amazing designers in this group, (mostly who do this for a living, while I am really a hobbyist) I decide I will do something I have minimal experience with.  But really, what is life without a little challenge and bite, I ask you?

Given the floral aspect of the clasp, I thought there should be a flower quality to the design.  And I really loved the structure of the flower.  I thought it looked very tropical, and hibiscus-like.  So first, I tried a hibiscus flower with peyote and netting.  And while I really liked the first part of the structure and the over and under-lapping petals, I didn't love the netting, or the colors I chose, which were too sweet to be elegant.  I might come back to this idea one day.  But it also seemed kinda literal, and the clasp was stylized and more a flower symbol that an actual flower.

It also seemed flat.  And while the clasp is flat, there is a depth to it and the beautiful use of negative space was compelling.

So, I thought I'd try to make a more 3D symbolic version of the petals, with inside and outside curves that represented the shapes in the clasp, which might be assembled in some interesting way.


These were kinda cool too, but TOO dimensional.  And still not a color I thought was very elegant.  And the clasp is elegant.  For sure.








So then I thought I might try some wacky cut-out bead embroidery, using shapes from the clasp.  After I selected my clasps, they got lost in the mail.  So the sweet and concerned Steven Weiss sent them to me again.  And of course, as soon as the replacements arrived, the original shipment appeared.  I thought I had two of the little flower clasps and that this bracelet would be able to employ both.  But then I opened the box and realized that what I had was not the flower clasp, but a different one in silver and purple, plus, I had filled in and ripped out a swirly motif on my bracelet in three different ways, and I didn't like any of them, so I set that idea aside as well.








I find I often need to simplify when I am stuck, so I tried a simple woven version of the golden flower, and also tried embellishing it, but this was back to too literal.  Sheesh.










Finally I went to my personal favorite stitch, triangle weave, thinking if I had to travel in the foreign land of bracelets, I could at least speak a language I understood.  And triangle weave is happy to organize itself into six petal flower forms, which was just what I wanted.  Plus, I love olivene Swarovski.  It was a reason to choose the clasp I did, so now I had a familiar traveling companion.

I did the bracelet first in just olivene, but wasn't seeing my flowers as powerfully as I wanted to, so I added in more color, light olivene and olivene 2XAB, plus a few Czech olive bicones as well, just a shade darker than the Swarovski, and of course some gold seeds and Aurum rounds, and finally, I had a bracelet I was pleased with.  Then the task was to find a perfect attachment for the little clasp, that made it look like an inherent part of the design.  I think I got it pretty right!

Just as a side note, I rarely weave with crystal, because I worry about durability, but I used doubled  Power Pro (my favorite thread!) coated with microcrystaline wax, and I find the resulting work supple and sturdy, so maybe I'll do more work with crystals.  They are certainly blingy!


This little bracelet looks like a B&B project to me.  It's essentially very simple, but devilishly tricky to weave the second pass and get all the colors in the right places with the correct number of seeds in between.  I wondered if I had failed to produce an appropriately complex and fabulous design.  BUT, really the task here is to create a reason to want to buy the clasp.  And maybe a simple design that integrates well is a good solution to that problem.   Now to take the perfect photo!