Beading Away and a Few Favorites

Hello again! Here I am, sitting at my kitchen table, watching the rain fall from the gutters onto my deck. I am surrounded by beads, and had to make a place for the laptop. Pearls, gemstone chips and beads, seed beads in all sizes, bugles, crystals, flip tops and strands and baggies and a huge pile of bead soup in glorious hues of green, bronze, gold, browns and topaz, with a tiny hint of Montana Blue here and there. Coffee sits at my elbow. Doesn't it sound fantastic?! But instead of beading, I am blogging...at the moment!

I am working on a long project now, something that I expect to take me about a month to finish, as long as my muse doesn't desert me. It will be a collar, eventually, but right now it sits in separate components. I have one component almost finished and have started the second. There are at least five more to go, before assembly will begin. Whew!! The photo at left is the one that I have posted on my Facebook page, as a teaser - it shows part of one component in the middle of its creation. (At least that is the largest one, and the one that is almost all done!!)

This particular design came to my mind about eight months ago and has been percolating ever since. It all started with a pendant made by the wonderful Chris Kapono at MandarinMoon on Etsy. I was browsing her amazing shop, which is chock full of her polymer clay art, and there, low and behold, was a leaf pendant! I HAD to have it, but wanted to know if she could remove the bail, as I desperately wanted to use it as a cabochon. And off it went!! Pretty soon I was begging Chris to make me cabochons of all kinds, and asking her (nagging her, I think) if she would make me some more leaves. Fabulous being that she is, she some really wonderful ones for me...I hope you will be able to see the results soon - in about a month!

I am also in the middle of a different choker, more on the lines of Honeybutter, but in different colors and with a quite different feel to it. That one hasn't got any teaser photos, yet, but as soon as I can get my beautiful cabochon (it's on its way now!) attached to it, I will do some.

For anyone who checks this out and isn't familiar with her, I wanted to include Carol Dean Sharpe in my blog today. Carol Dean has been creating art her whole life, and started beadweaving in 2004. An amazingly talented artist, she is consistently prolific and turns out peyote stitched cuffs and patterns at an astounding rate, given the amount of work involved in just one of her pieces. She creates all of her own original patterns, and has a crisp, yet flowing style. I have added two of my absolute favorites here, with Carol Dean's gracious permission:



Her Red Bargello Hearts Cuff, and:



Her Golden Scrolls Cuff, which includes a gorgeous hand made button. Carol has been an incredible friend for me since I have been on Facebook, and she is so supportive and generous. Please visit her shop at www.sandfibers.etsy.com. She is having a 3 for 2 pattern sale right now in both her Etsy and Artfire stores, and for anyone who wants to weave themselves a stunning cuff, this is an excellent opportunity to grab some really beautiful patterns!!!



I also wanted to include here two cabochons that I just purchased (and they came in the mail yesterday!!). I LOVE them, and HAVE to show them off:






These were handmade by Cindy at ccvalenzo, also on Etsy. (Can you tell that I am a huge fan of the artists on Etsy??!) She produces gorgeous pendants, earrings, cufflinks, barrettes and more with her dichroic glass, and graciously agreed to remove the bails and make these two into cabochons for me! I got onto Cindy from Sandy Spivey, who made this stunning necklace with her cabochon:



And, I just barely realized that I bought the same cabochon as Sandy did!!! So that one will have to be for me or for a gift, and I will just have to make something for sale with the other one!! (POOOOOOOR me!!)