From Our Home to Yours

SEASON'S GREETINGS

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

MERRY CHRISTMAS

and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

with love from Nancy,

Sherwood,

Teddy, Nikki, and Sydney

May your days be filled with light.

(photo credit unknown)

My Sugarplum Purse

A while back, my Facebook friend Steven of The Beadsmith, contacted me and asked if I would like to use two of The Beadsmith's new Elegant Elements clasps in my designs. Of COURSE I said yes, these clasps are astoundingly gorgeous - and ever more so in person, with a heft and feel that only a fine clasp can give you. They are 23kt gold and rhodium plated, with Swarovski crystals and pearls, YUM. The designers who were chosen were able to choose the two clasps they would like, and then have free reign over what to create with them.

The Swarovski motif on the antiqued gold clasp inspired the design for the focal bits, and then from there, it seemed that a plainer background would make the focal panels stand out more. I bezeled around the clasp itself, and around a large Swarovski jet nut rectangle on the reverse, using right angle weave with tiny little 2mm round crystals and 15s as embellishments. Then came the sorting of the panel sections and the framing. The panels are entirely beaded in 4-6 backstitch in 15s, and the frames are bronze 11s and 4mm crystals for the reverse focal, and 3mm crystals for the clasp focal.

The background is a combination of size 11s, size 15s and size 8s, all in metallic plum iris and bronze accenting throughout. I've only used two bead colors/finishes for the entire thing, but the direction of the rows of beading and the variation of the bead sizes can make the illusion of color differences. One of my goals in this project was to see how well I could imitate a fabric's feel/look using beads. In person, the background beading reminds you of corduroy, due to the changing bead sizes, while the flat panels of 15s seem more like velvet. In order to get such a different texture, the thread had to be different as well as the bead sizes - the focal panels were beaded with Fireline, which leaves a perfectly smooth, even finish, tight to the backing. The background was beaded using purple One G thread, so the beads have more movement and do not sit as tightly to the backing, despite identical stitches.

So, the corduroy-like bits are softer and more flexible in the end, while the focal panels are quite stiff and unyielding. I felt that this also helped to protect the focals themselves from coming loose or moving around while the purse is manipulated, moved, opened or closed. (Side note; I always always always use Fireline in my embroidering and HATED using the thread instead. But I did like the resulting 'fabric' so it was worth it. If you embroider only with thread yourself, I recommend trying out the Fireline yourself on something to see if you like it. It is extraordinarily useful for making straight or curved lines that will not move around on you while you bead!)

The sides are closed using a variation of right angle weave/netting, but are so densely beaded that nothing short of bobby pins will escape (and those might not). Weaving it closed results in a small gap between the two edges, so that more items will fit inside the purse - if I had beaded side panels, it would be too wide, and if I had sewn it shut with no beading, it would be too thin. The clasp design dictated all of it, especially width and depth, so that it would flow. At the tops of the sides, there are two loops, which are used to attach the strap. The loops fold into the inside of the purse invisibly, so that it may be used as a clutch rather than a shoulder bag if desired.

I struggled a lot over the strap, as I could NOT decide if it should have one, or exist just as a clutch. I finally resolved that having a removable strap would make me the happiest - so then the challenge was to come up with one that matched the overall design, and wouldn't be too noticeable - it needed to flow with the rest of it. The 32" strap is modified right angle weave/ladder stitch, made with Fireline, reinforced over and over, so that despite its delicate look, it's very strong and sturdy. It acts like chain links when moved about because I stitched it so tightly; I had considered edging along the length, to give the strap a more solid appearance, but I liked the drape of the 'chain' so well that I had to leave it alone. At the ends of the chain, it switches to peyote stitch for the last two and a half inches, to provide a stable setting for two sets of snaps per side; these are used to close the strap around the loops on either side, so that it can be used as a shoulder bag.

I really really really loved working with this clasp. I can't wait to start on the next project - but I have to, as I have two Christmas gifts that I have to make this week. :) If you'd like to drool a bit, head over HERE to check out all the gorgeous varieties of Elegant Elements clasps. Also, make sure to stop by The Beadsmith on Facebook and like their page and look through the new photo album that holds the glorious work of international bead artists designing with more of these fantastic clasps.

I'll leave you with some of my newer creations (as I haven't blogged in quite awhile!) and wishes for a wonderful holiday season, and a fruitful and fulfilling new year.

Maze

Triple Twist

Garnet Garden (sold)

Slaying Dragons (design by Cynthia Newcomer Daniel) and Pink Filigree Necklace

A Reminder - Thank you to Patty L for reminding ME

Be Thankful For...
by Author Unknown

Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don't know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary
Because it means you've made a difference.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.

GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.

* * *

(Original Post at LoveMyArtJewelry Blog.)

Silver

Mishka

Sunny

My best friends. I miss them. I'm hugely grateful that I had them for awhile, they taught me love and patience and all the good things.

ColorPlay Ropes - Cubic Right Angle Weave

I've had a few people ask me about my ColorPlay necklaces, and I thought I would just write up a quick how-to for those who might be interested in trying it.

First off, if you aren't familiar with cubic right angle weave, or haven't tried it before, I HIGHLY recommend watching the free tutorial by fellow Bead Maven Heather Collin. Click HERE for the link, you won't regret it at all, I think this is the best tutorial I've seen on this stitch. Practice a bit to get comfortable with the stitch, so you're familiar with how the beads sit. The 'top' and 'bottom' of your cube consist of horizontal beads (holes side to side), and all of the 'side' beads are vertical beads (holes up and down).

One of the reasons I call these ColorPlay is because I just sit down and play with a bunch of bead soup. Mix up a pile of your favorite colored beads in all shapes and sizes. You will need to have, at minimum, size 11s (doesn't matter if they're cylinders or rounds), size 15s, size 8s, and some accent beads. I have included in mine; large (16mm+) gemstone beads, freshwater pearls, crystals, cube beads, triangle beads (from size 11 all the way up to 6s), bugle beads, hex beads, just about anything in my stash. (It's harder to work with crystals because of the sharp edges, but you can include them as well, just reinforce your stitch.)

Once you have the colors and beads you're happy with, begin a cubic right angle weave rope; start with a few cubes of 11s. I use 11s for almost all of my horizontal beads, as I feel they make a nice sturdy base for the accent beads. Once I have a few units of 11s down, I start mixing up the vertical beads.

Units: For my ropes, I use 2 size 15 beads as one for my vertical beads; so I will pick up two 15s, an 11 and two more 15s to start my unit. Then I add two 15s and an 11, two 15s and an 11, and finally one 11 in the last stitch. You will end up with a unit that has size 11 beads across the 'top' and 'bottom' and two size 11 beads as each 'side' bead. Do several units this way, and then switch to another kind of bead for the vertical beads. Use 1 size 8, one 11, one size 8 and make a unit that way, or a bugle bead, an 11, and a bugle bead. I use ANY of the beads for the vertical beads and just play with it. (You may want to reinforce your stitches with the bugle beads, and I wouldn't use really long ones as they tend to twist inside the units and are more likely to break your thread; stick with the shorter, little ones, they match the 15s units better.)

You can also start a unit on your base of 11s, and gradually increase the size of your beads to make your rope wider; use an 8, a 6 (or a 4mm bead), and an 8 and complete your unit using those beads. Make the next unit with all 6s. To taper it back down, make one unit with a 6, an 8 and a 6 as your beads, the next unit with an 8, an 11 and an 8, and finally back to just 11s.

Here and there, I add single larger beads as accents. To do this, I will pick up my large bead, and one 11. Go back through the larger bead, skipping the 11 and leaving that on top of your large bead. Bring your needle back through opposite side of the base bead as though you have made a stitch, and through into the next base bead. Go back up through the large bead and add a size 11, and back down through the large bead. Bring your needle through the base bead you exited from, and through the next base bead. Repeat this two more times, so that you have four 11s on the top of your large bead. Finally, come back through the large bead and exit one of the 11s (it doesn't matter which one). Go through each of your 11s to turn them into a circle - and now you have the base to begin a new unit of cubic RAW and continue your rope.

To make your ends look neater by the larger beads, you can add some 15s or 11s around the connection points, if you'd like. Coming out of one of the 11s that you used to connect the larger stone, string one 15, and pass through the next 11 - repeat around the circle and then go up through the large bead and do the same to the beads you used to connect there. In the photo of my Sand and Sea bracelet below, I actually connected the lamp work bead with 8s; I added 3mm crystals in between each of the 8s at the connection points.

Some freshwater pearls will not have holes large enough to make this number of passes. To connect them firmly, I exit a base bead, string the pearl and two 11s, and come back down through the pearl, and then through the base bead again. Go through two more base beads, until you are at the bead opposite the one you strung the pearl from, then go back up through the pearl and add two more 11s. Back down through the pearl and the base bead you started from. Go through the pearl and circle the 11s. Line up the 11s on the top of the pearl with the ones on the rope; pick one of the beads you DIDN'T use to string the pearl, and string enough 15s on your thread to reach the size 11 bead that corresponds to your top 11; go through the bottom 11, back up through the 15s, and weave through the top 11 you started from. Weave through to the opposite bead on top of the pearl, and repeat this by adding another strand of 15s down this side of the pearl. This way, each of the 11s is connected top and bottom, and your pearl won't wobble on your rope.

To add strands of beads, like I did with my olive and gold necklace, string the number of beads you would like, and end it with an 11; skip the 11, and go back down through the strand of beads, and through the 11 you started from from the opposite side, as if you had completed one stitch. (Don't pull these stitches super tight, or it will kink up on you as an end result; just snug it up.) Go through the next base bead and repeat; do this a total of four times, so that you have four strands of beads, each ending in an 11. Go back up through the last strand you've made, so that you are exiting the end 11. Gather your strands in your non dominant hand, and needle through the 11s on the ends of the strands to turn the 11s into a circle; that is now your base to begin the next cubic RAW unit and continue your rope.

All of my ropes have been 24" or longer, so I haven't added any clasps to them. To connect your ends together, use one end of your rope as the 'bottom' of your unit, and the other end as the 'top' of your unit. All you do with this is add the side beads; add a bead, go through the corresponding bead on the bottom, and add a bead before going through the top again. You will only need to add one bead for the second stitch, and one for the third. You don't have to add any at all in the fourth stitch, just circle stitch through the four beads that are already there and knot and end your thread.

That's it! Just play with it and have fun, no rules. :)

(I hope this was clear, or at least vaguely clear... if you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I will do my best to answer them.)

Things I Have Discovered (or Rediscovered) This Month

There's actually quite a list. In no particular order at all...

• There is colored Fireline out there. Yes, that's what I said; COLORED FIRELINE!!!!!!! You can find it here: SparkleSpot. I want one of every single one, preferably in lifetime supply.
• I can, in a pinch, use One G thread. Yes, I can. It is better than Nymo, at least for me. But I don't have to like it.
• It's ok to have time when I can't design, and it's ok to really enjoy beading a project designed by someone else. Especially when that someone else has immense talent. (Thank you, Helena Tang, Rachel Nelson Smith, Cynthia Newcomer Daniel, Heather Collin and Sabine Lippert.)
• I will never, ever, ever stop learning things, and it's a fabulous and magical part of being who I am.
• I empathize so much with people I care about that I can make myself physically ill with it.
• I don't like getting older and slower.
• I am a lurker. I read a TON of blogs, but don't always comment. Mostly don't comment, actually... I'm NOT a stalker, I swear! :)
• I can be a lot like Kreacher; won't won't won't WON'T!
• I'm rather fond of toast.
• Fall is my favorite time of year, even if my skin doesn't agree with me. (My skin hates fall, and gets dry to the point of cracking open... and just gets worse with winter.)
• There are a lot of things about myself that I don't want to face.
• I think my favorite stitch is RAW, closely followed (so closely it's tripping over the other)by bead embroidery.
• I can make it through an entire visit to the dentist. I could NOT have done that even two months ago - thanks to my friends for some awesome support.
• Things matter too much to me. (Not just physical things... but things. You know.)
• Purple and bronze/silver/copper make a color rut for me... but I'd love to stay there forever. With occasional forays into green/blue and green/purple/blue. And garnet. And topaz, too - or maybe mocha hues... Maybe I'm not in a rut after all, lol.
• I like my feet and I like my hair and I intensely dislike everything in between.
• I need to find a way for it to be ok when I am stuck; because then, I most likely won't be stuck anymore.
• I have wonderful, amazing, compassionate and generous friends. Most of you are online and I haven't met you - and it doesn't matter a bit.
• I love everyone's work - from the beginner's 'failure' to the most advanced design, every single one was a labor of love and comes from something sacred in each person. Even the pieces that I find to be visually unappealing, appeal to me on another level. The only exception to the rule is a piece that is cruel or mean with intent. And that's damn hard to find in the beading world (but not impossible, unfortunately). I get frustrated with myself and others when I/they compare their work to another's - we're all supremely different!
• Maybe there is hope for me....

Flooding

Vermont got hit pretty well with Irene. Not as badly as some states, obviously, but bad enough. I feel terrible for those in other states and towns who had it even worse than we did here, those who completely lost their homes, businesses and loved ones. Here, we lost roads and bridges and some buildings... but we didn't have very many fatalities, and for that I am so thankful. Sherwood and I are among the very, very lucky people whose homes were not affected in the least. We were stuck here for a day, as the road washed out completely to our south, and a bridge and the secondary road were both destroyed to our north. But we were able to maneuver the very next day, when some roads were repaired enough to travel on, and others were found to make a maze around the ones that were closed. We live above a dam, and our home was built very high above the meadow which becomes a lake when they back the dam up. No chance of floods. But our 'main' town to the south got hit very badly.

Today we had to go and remove everything that could be saved from my father's apartment, which was flooded. Not only did it flood and get covered in mud, but 70% of the mud and flood were contaminated by sewage. Every single thing that had been on the floor, or touched by mud or water would have to be thrown out. Dad would lose almost all of his furniture (we were able to save the dining room table and chairs) and a lot of his possessions. Sherwood and I were expecting that we would be doing most everything, because although the woman who called from the complex said that there would be some volunteers, we figured they would be stretched pretty thin. The complex and the state and fed were providing the pods, the boxes, the tape, the paper to wrap things in, the dumpsters, etc. So, we donned some old clothes and drove down, wondering how we were going to get it all done in the allotted time, as there are only so many things I can clean quickly enough (everything has to be out by Monday at 5PM) and only so much you can pack in a day.

What an incredible experience it was. When we got there, a volunteer had already brought my Dad to his apartment, and there were no less than fifteen people helping him to pack things up. Such a whirlwind! Someone taping up the bottoms of boxes and setting them out, someone else taping up full ones, someone else bringing the boxes outside, several someones packing things, everyone pitching in to throw away what needed to go, someone tagging all the boxes with Dad's name and apartment number, and people carrying things everywhere. There were FEMA trucks, Red Cross trucks, ServePro trucks, storage pods, dumpsters... and everywhere, mud mud mud. Some of the volunteers took the time to introduce themselves by their first names, or were wearing name tags, but others were just helping and too busy. A few of the people told me that they had come from neighboring states, and I swear to you that the entire synagogue up the road from the complex had come out to help; every. single. person.

What had taken us two or three days to move in, everyone had moved out in THREE AND A HALF HOURS.

Sometimes, I get cynical. I get to thinking, in my depression, that there isn't a lot of good left in people, sometimes not in the whole world. Today was one of the days (and I've had a few in my life) when I am proved so wrong, and am so happy to be taught again that there IS GOOD out there. In a scene of devastation, there were people who were carefully wrapping figurines and curios for people they never met before, people who were carrying boxes and boxes of someone else's prized possessions, and they were doing it with respect and love. There were people who spent their own money - not state or federal money - to buy drinks and food and hand them out to others who were working and tired and thirsty. There were people circulating just to see if each tenant was ok, or if they needed anything at all, more help, more boxes, a place to sit, some shade, someone to talk to. There were people making sure that the medications were set aside to go with the elderly or ill, to make sure that toiletries and food were packed to go with them rather than into the pods. Everyone was addressing my Dad by his first name, and being respectful and caring, and asking me gently when it was during Vietnam that he had served. Someone went and got my father water, a soda and a piece of pizza before he even had time to think of being hungry. One of the local volunteers from Dad's town offered to bring all of his laundry to her home and wash it for him and bring it to him when it was done. She also offered to take care of his houseplants, and place them outside the Jewish community center, where they would be fed and watered until he finds a new place. She's going to give him a bed that she has, a chest of drawers that was her brother's, and has a desk she would like him to have as well, because hers looks just like his did. She got my contact information; I don't think I ever knew her name. I was stopped as we were leaving and offered an ice cold soda from a woman I've never met before, who was helping one of my Dad's neighbors clear out her apartment. I was hugged. I was blessed by more than one person.

My Dad is staying in a motel, at least until the 9th, but he now has some of his personal things with him, and knows that his other things are safe and secure and waiting for him.

In truth, my father, Sherwood and I were blessed by every single person there. I came home tonight tired, muddy, dirty and famished... but my soul is singing. I don't think that there will be many people who read this blog who would have been there today, but if you were one, or if you have ever selflessly given of yourself to someone who needed your help but didn't know you, THANK YOU SO VERY VERY MUCH.

Nikki's Giveaway Winner!

Teddy just couldn't decide. So Nikki decided to step in, and she picked the winner this time, which is fitting, since the sale was all for her!

Congratulations to Sally Anderson, who made a purchase from my shop. Sally, let me know your favorite color combination, and I will make you a customized ColorPlay necklace!!

Thank you to EVERY SINGLE one of you who helped us! Nikki is happy as heck and playing like mad, and she has a clean bill of health from the vet, who says she is healing perfectly.

I'll post a picture of Sally's necklace once it's done. Have a great weekend, all!