Bead Hoarder's Blog Hop and a New Tutorial

Goooooood morning!!  I am taking part in Lori Anderson's Bead Hoarders Blog Hop today, and I also have a brandy new tutorial out in my shop, so I thought I would combine the posts.  :)  Thank you so much, Lori, for hostessing this hop.  For those of you who don't know Lori (where have you been??), she has been ill this year, and it amazes me that she still does the things she does.  It takes a lot of effort and energy to put together hops and to organize all of the blogs, and I know that these mean a great deal to the participants.  You rock, Lori - and I hope today is a good day for you.

Do I have beads I hoard??  Oh my goodness yes!!  I can't get out of Etsy window shopping without grabbing up amazing goodies, even if I'm just pricing things out.  Something ALWAYS falls into my cart that I just can't live without...  and lots of them stay with me for years, as I never had a plan in mind for them, I just couldn't pass them by.  Of course, they aren't ALL art beads, some of them are just incredible Thai silver, or findings that I must have that have a special bead or design inlaid on them.

In doing some playing around lately to come up with a design I had in mind, I made myself a wrap bracelet in sterling silver.  I wasn't sure if it would be a bracelet, or a necklace... it could have turned into anything; at one point I thought it was an anklet, lol.  It does look nice as an asymmetric necklace, but for me, it would have to be longer to make me really happy.  It fits perfectly wound around my wrist three times. The two major beads I had hoarded in this were the gorgeous (heavy!) Thai silver round, and one beautiful blue lamp work bead by Clare Scott, and one silver glass spacer bead by Judith Billing.  I have a LOT of Clare's beads, and have been working on get more and more of Judith's work as well.  They seem to have little galaxies in them, and I find them mesmerizing.  I also had the cute little butterfly charm for years now, but since I wasn't sure if it was base metal, I hadn't used it in any jewelry for sale.  Since this one is for me, it didn't matter and I threw it on as a last minute touch.

I can't wait to hop around and see what everyone else made with their hoarded beads, but it will have to wait until tonight because I have a visit to my Dad to see about today, first.  Please visit Lori's blog to see the complete list of participants and hop the hop!  :)

The new tutorial is for a necklace I named In Bloom, which features delicate little flowers made from a 8mm chaton base with layers of petals surrounding.  I love how my St Petersburg variation looks like feathery greenery as a background!  I had a hard time deciding how to finish the piece off, and a few friends of mine suggested this chain as a solution - huge thanks to those friends, as I had a complete blank out until they kick started my brain.   I have had a difficult time with my tension on the second half of a double St Pete's chain, and so I came up with this modified version which lays nice and neat and doesn't have the "thread-showing" issue I had with the traditional stitch.

The clasp on my peaches and cream version is one of my favorite Elegant Elements clasps, thank you to Beadsmith!! 

The tutorial is up for sale in my Etsy shop if you'd like to make your own! :)

Encouragement ~ We All Need Some

Do you have times when you just really doubt your art, or your ability to create it?  I do.  I have times when I look at things I've made in a space of time (say, three weeks or so) and each and every piece has at least one thing that makes me say "Huh.  That sucks."  Which of course, leads to me wondering if *I* suck as an artist.   When I go through one of these times, it generally depresses me and leads me to a kind of creative desperation, wherein I MUST  MAKE SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T SUCK.  And that puts enough pressure on my poor tired brain to make sure that whatever I may come up with, will inevitably...suck.

 UFOs

Another UFO

 Awhile back, during a non-sucky time, I noticed a lot of beaders out there having their own doubts and desperations.  These folks were all different skill levels and on different artistic paths, some beginners, some quite advanced and successful, although they all had beads in common as their media of choice.  A lot of what I heard made me sad, because it boiled down to wonderful people who didn't feel they could move onward and upward with their art because they were afraid to TRY.   They were afraid to start working on a creative idea of their own because there would be no clear path, and they might fail.  Or they 'could NEVER be as good as' so-and-so.  Or bead soup and/or freeform was intimidating and just too random (which I completely understand because me and orange? um no).  Or they were afraid of having too many UFO projects, and a box full of random bits, which would make them feel like they had put in tons of effort with no result, as well as having a now full box of usable beads that would have to be ripped apart in order to be recycled.  I am perhaps odd here, as all of my UFOs go in the same box as the RipIts; I never know if I'm actually going to go back and finish it, or just salvage parts from it.

UFO/RipIt/Salvage Box

After hearing about all of the doubts that were floating around in Beadland, I decided I really wanted to see how other artists dealt with these issues and ask some questions, with the hope that I would be able to put not only my own doubts in perspective, but perhaps share with others who might feel the same way.  It's taken me a long while to get this written, as I have been going through some family stuff that has kept me really off balance, but this morning (taking into consideration that I am now going through yet another *I suck* time) I was finally able to concentrate enough to sit and write.  I looked to a few of my favorite artists for their thoughts last month and they were all stunningly generous with me, allowing me to write my blog post and include both their words and some of their amazing art.  Sherry Hutchinson Serafini, Marcia DeCoster, Heidi Kummli, and Diane Hyde all spent some of their very valuable time on this and sent me thoughtful responses.

This is what I asked each of the artists:  I am wondering if you feel like you had more false starts and/or self doubts in the beginning when you started out, vs now, or if it feels like it has been consistent throughout?  Have you had any recent cases where you just scrapped an idea after you started, or did you push through to finish the piece and decide you didn’t really care for it?  Do you still have some of the self doubt issues while working or before starting?  How do you handle them, and what would you say to someone else who was having them?  And, as far as false starts/RipIts go, did you feel that you learned something from each, or that they were pretty much wasted time? Is there something you say to yourself when you get to a certain point of dislike in a project that helps you to keep pushing ahead?  And... if you have a UFO or RipIt Box, how big is it?  


Diane said,  "Every piece you create is an opportunity to learn, but even so, I always have to remind myself of that. I have an ongoing love hate relationship with everything I make. It almost becomes a formula; I have a brainstorm, I sketch it out in specific detail with side notes, arrows, and little diagrams, gather all the beads and components, and finally start it. Somewhere along the way my thoughts take over in a never ending dialogue with my inner creative, happy muse. I become indecisive about individual beads, color positioning, fringe placement…..it goes on and on. The piece starts to morph in a direction I never saw coming, and all of a sudden I’m a little disappointed in the whole piece and wonder what the heck went wrong here? In my early years of beading I would abandon these false starts, stuff them in a drawer or baggie, and move on, but over the years I’ve learned to keep plodding on with these projects. Somehow if I give them more time they sometimes get better towards the end, and occasionally I actually like the final results. But on the darker side I usually see the parts that could have been done differently, or a little better, a different pearl here, etc. As an artist it’s just part of the process to look at your own work with an overly critical eye. You just can’t listen to all of it all of the time. The funny part is the few times I have created a major piece for a competition I am totally ok with (no total loathing) it either doesn’t make the cut, or doesn’t place in the final judging. It’s like a divine comedy - you throw yourself into a creation for weeks, months, a year….and it’s rejected by the very people you wanted to impress. On the other end of the spectrum the pieces I am not completely happy with or am ambivalent about seem to get chosen. From that I have learned when I am at odds with a piece it’s a good sign. Go figure. All I can say is just keep going no matter what! Love it. Hate it...it’s all going to make you a better beader. Perhaps I'll even go visit my graveyard of unfinished projects and see what's there."

The Gatekeeper, by Diane Hyde

 Heidi said, "As far as false starts more now than when I began 30 years ago I think it's about the same. I don't ever scrap a false start I push through.  When designing my jewelry line I often come up with a better way to make something thus the first piece isn't as good as it could be but I finish it and sell it anyway.  By playing with different approaches on designing my line I can make it more efficient to make and better quality.  If I am designing a larger piece I have an idea in my head of what I want but as I get into making it things usually change as I work on the piece, something doesn't look as good as I thought or fit just right.  I have made a few larger pieces that don't quite come out as nicely as I though but I always finish them.  It always surprises me that these are usually the ones that sell first, lol, maybe I should screw up more often.  If you're going to put so much time into something you should a least finish it.  I don't have much self doubt when starting apiece but rather excitement and the challenge of how to make it happen.  Always follow your heart and lay the components out a head of time so you can see how they will look together, by doing this you can exchange things where needed.  My mistakes are my biggest teachers, I always learn from them; I never think of them as wasted time.  As I said I never give up on a project especially if I have a lot of time in it just push though because someone else will love it.  I don't really have any ditch projects I suppose I do have a few things that I didn't put too much time in and for those I trim them and set them aside and will incorporate them into something else."

Free Bird by Heidi Kummli

Marcia said, "Actually I think I may have had less false starts [in the beginning], but less good work. I wasn’t as discerning about color, or the engineering of a design and would often plow ahead and then be disappointed in the result. I think because I teach beadwork for a living, the teachability of a piece needs to be a significant factor in most of my current design work. Sometimes a piece feels too simple to have enough of what I like to call ‘teachable moments’. If I can teach you in fifteen minutes and then just say ‘Now do that for the next ten hours’ I don’t think it serves the student very well. So sometimes I will start out a design and realize it is not going to serve it’s teachable purpose and I’ll move on. Pushing through to completion is the harder answer though because there is always (or almost always) that point of doubt, or that consideration for multiple directions of how a design might evolve and we hope to choose wisely. However sometimes the outcome of the design decision doesn’t become evident in its failure or brilliance until we’ve invested many hours.  I think it’s a common theme. Certainly with the building of fundamental skills over time it is easier to realize your vision in beads, but there are still times I don’t know the best way to approach the design and then the self doubt can take over. I’m quite sure a more competent beader, or a more artistic beader would have the answer. Through the community of beaders that are now connected on the internet, I’ve come to realize there is a certain fallacy to this. I think no matter where we are in our design journey we can be dwarfed by those we perceive to be better then us, although I think the majority share the same struggle. We look at someone else’s finished piece and think that they somehow got there effortlessly, when they likely went through many of our same issues along the way. To another artist experiencing design insecurity I would say we each have our own path to follow. When you are in the mode of self doubt try to stay present in your own work and not be influenced by what you perceive someone else’s process to be. 

"Rip apart? Surely you jest? You do know that I am the girl who doesn’t even put beads away at the end of a project, I add them to a vase, so ripping apart, that never happens. But I do have a bowl of false starts that I save. I don’t think I always take away the lesson immediately, but I do often revisit the bowl to see if some snippet of beadwork might serve me now by taking it in a different direction, so in that way the false starts do continue to add value. Pushing ahead is often driven by a deadline, although having said that, I try to make sure that what I end up with is a project that I am going to feel really good about teaching or sharing. I want there to be teachable moments, I want the engineering to work so that it is comfortable to wear and functions well and I want colors that work beautifully together. As a piece develops if any of those things is out of synch I will start again."

Bollywood Cuff by Marcia DeCoster

Sherry said, "No, because I didn’t have any expectations. I was just doing what I like to do and people were encouraging me to exhibit.  I was asked to teach, and yes was terrified at the prospect because I wasn’t quite sure how to convey exactly what I was doing.  I push thru in most cases.  I do feel it’s the journey not the destination.  Not every journey is a rewarding experience, although almost always a learning one.  If a piece really isn’t fun for me though, I just don’t do it.  I don’t like wasting time or being bored.  I pretty much just nose dive in without serious thought.  I just enjoy the process.  To someone else I would tell them to just follow their inner voice and create what pleases them.  If they find the piece is irritating and not working out, walk away from it.  Put it away.  I’ve put away pieces for up to a year and came back to find that I was ready to work once again.  Usually it is something learned if I think about it.  Seriously....I don’t dwell on my art.  It is what it is, some pieces are not as good as others, but they each tell me something.  Whether it be a color combo or a construction issue.  If I really don’t like a project, I simply don’t finish it. Why waste a second of time on something that makes you nuts.  UFO’s are usually beaded or painted pieces that I’ve worked on when playing with different techniques.  Not a large project.  So my box is a big one as there are days where I just want to mess around with different approaches.  We have all had moments of self doubt, but dwelling and fretting over it isn’t a good thing.  I believe in ‘just doing it.'  If I had to pinpoint a moment when the boredom sets in it would be towards the end of a project.  Not out of dislike, but being anxious to start a new one.  Bead embroidery takes foreeeever......so by the time I get to the closure, I’m all ready thinking of the second, third and fourth piece!"

Sedona Sunrise by Sherry Serafini

And since all of the lovely ladies above took the time to answer my questions, I thought it only fair to sit and write down my own answers, too...  

I think I've been consistently off balance, with doubts all the way through to where I am now, although I get them much more heavily when I am stressed in other areas of my life.  Yes, recently I've had a really hard time with several projects and ideas, and although I pushed myself to finish one project (my triangle necklace pictured below) I have several more staring morosely at me from my Pile O Things.  The triangle necklace is done itself, but the planned tutorial is on hold until I can figure out how to reproduce my bezel, and there are several things about it I still don't care for, design-wise.  I have self doubts continuously while I start and work on my pieces.  If I were talking to someone else who was doubting, I would probably tell them to sit quietly for a moment and try to think of what it is they really want to convey with their piece.  A season?  A feeling?  A piece of architecture?  A living thing, human, animal or vegetable?  And then to just set to work with the beads, and see where it went.  In other words, to let your heart and talent guide you, even when your brain isn't agreeing with you.  If someone is afraid of starting, I always say the same thing - don't ever be afraid to play.  Just PLAY with those beads, and let go of the caring of what happens - it's ok if it's ugly, it's ok if it doesn't turn out perfect, it's ok if you missed stitches or broke a bead.  Do little exercises if you think it will help; make a swatch of work all in one stitch, and then make another swatch in a different stitch.  (I make rope swatches, which I can finish later or not, or make one long rope while switching stitches and beads and so on; many of them look like deranged snakes...)  Make something ugly ON PURPOSE.  Then look at it and decide what you would do to make it beautiful, and make a second one, using your 'beautiful' ideas.  Or, ask some of the beady people around you to help you brainstorm; the other day I did just that on Facebook, asking my friends what they would do if they had some of my flower components to work with, and one of the ideas that came up is something I am now exploring as a possibility for finishing that project.  I feel that each and every stitch has taught me something, whether I liked my result or hated it, and that each one was worth it if only for the lessons learned.  

I would like to thank each of you wonderful ladies so much for sharing your thoughts, feelings, and process with me, and allowing me to further share it with all of Beadland.  Each of you touched on something that rang very true for me; Diane's 'divine comedy' remarks, because yes it DOES feel that way; Heidi's 'mistakes are my biggest teachers' comment, because I feel just the same way (even when I'm frustrated); Marcia's 'we look at someone else’s finished piece and think that they somehow got there effortlessly' because I have done this time and again, even though I should know better; and Sherry's 'just doing it' because I think I need to do that much more, rather than the fretting and fussing I indulge in.  And in asking these questions, and reading through the answers, and writing this post, I feel so much LESS alone and doubtful.  It happens - but not JUST to me.  It happens and the incredibly talented, awesome artists who answered these questions went through some of the same feelings and LOOK what they are creating!!  The doubts and false starts may keep prodding and showing up, but I won't give up - and I hope you won't, either, if you're having any of your own doubts right now.  Now, off to see if there's anything I can do with this....

Flower Component by Me...

A Little Something New...

I have a new tutorial out!  It's a little-ish one, and fairly simple, but I have been having a lot of fun with it.  Do you remember this necklace I made?

This tutorial shows how to make a bangle bracelet using the same technique I used to make the rope for that necklace.  The rope for the necklace uses a bead soup mix of mostly size 15s and Delicas in varying sizes with bugles and accent beads, while the bangle uses size 11 seeds and size 15s, and I've added in larger rondelles to show how to put single beads along the rope.  This is a modified version of CRAW,  using a 'cube' with six faces, so you can change it much the way you could change up a CRAW rope (I showed examples of this in my Color Play Ropes blog post HERE).   Endless variations!  I hope that this brings some inspiration and fun for those of you who are already comfortable with CRAW, and for those of you who haven't tried it yet, there is a mini tutorial on 'normal' CRAW at the beginning, too!  :)

As you can see, I went a little bangle crazy...  and I show how to make some of the variations as well, so that you can make a funky rope as well as a classic looking bangle.  :)

If you'd like to make some Hexagon Bangles too, my tutorial can be found in my Etsy shop.

I have another special blog post in the works which has some really special guest 'speakers' in it.  I'm really looking forward to sharing it!  

New NEDbeads Policy Updates

Hey there, beady land!  I know I am a terribly inconsistant blogger... I had hoped to do better with it this year, but so far life has jumped in front of me too many times to really pay enough attention to the blog.  Today's post is one that I hope lots of people will find, however, as I am changing up the policies regarding my tutorials.

I don't know about you, but I have been hearing so many things about copyright everywhere that the thought of one more discussion really makes me want to run the other way, but I was recently gently convinced to read two more discussions on others' blogs, and am really glad I did. I found out that there are many designers out there who feel as I do, and aren't afraid to market their designs in a way that feels much more comfortable for me, personally.  There has been so much angst and anger everywhere in the beady world over this particular issue, and many horror stories as well of how many designers have had their work disrespected, copied, stolen, etc etc.  And when someone has a policy of selling their tutorials or patterns without giving the purchaser permission to sell the finished work, or ask that a higher price be paid for using the design commercially, I respect that and support it.  It's a personal choice that I think each designer needs to make for themselves.  Above all else, I believe that we need to respect each others' work, and practice good ethics.

I have realized that the policies I have in place on my own tutorials (no selling finished work from my tutorials without a commercial license) aren't making me happy.  I don't feel good about them.  I don't feel good about them because they don't reflect my beliefs about art and creativity, and they don't make me feel good about sending designs out into the world.  I know there are unethical people out there that will do what they wish, and that outright copies will be made and sold, and that there are times when I won't be credited with my work.  But I want to share, especially with those who have inspired me, or taught me something, or showed me a new way of looking at my beads.

I want to learn, and never ever stop learning.  I want to create pieces that make others want that same thing.  And I want to share what I learn about how I go about creating, and my process.  If there is anything I can offer to the community that has taught me so much and helped me to learn how to take my own path, I want to offer it.  My hope is always that people will enjoy my tutorials, and to take whatever parts of them inspire them most, and create something later on that is theirs completely with whatever they have learned in the process.  I've had some lovely ladies who created marvelous things based on my tutorials, but changed in such a way that their own creativity took them in a completely different direction in the end (one special friend in particular created a beaded bead from my Runway bracelet base!) and they ask if I mind if they sell the pieces.  Do I mind??  I am ecstatic!!!  I love to see them, I love that they took them places.  I am truly and honestly honored, any time that I can show someone something that sparks their own creative voice.  To me, this means that I am passing it on, paying it forward - and that means a great deal to me.

So my decision has been that I want to change my policies and allow any work made from my tutorials to be used in any way the purchaser sees fit OTHER than mass production.  The tutorials themselves - all written material and images - will retain my copyright and can't be shared, taught, or reproduced without written permission.  Don't share the tutorial - but by all means, share what you learn about your own process if you can, you WILL inspire someone else along the way.

My prices will remain the same, and won't go up.  I realize that people who have purchased commercial versions of these tutorials will be feeling rather miffed right now, since they paid a higher price.  If you have purchased a commercial version from me, please send me an email at nedale67@gmail.com  and I will give you a half price discount on another pattern of your choice.  Please do NOT purchase your pattern and then email me - I will set up a listing for you when you contact me.

I will be working over the next few weeks to amend the wording on all of the pdfs and listings in my shop, as well as the policy statement, but given some of the things that I am dealing with personally right now, it may take awhile.  So please disregard the 'For Personal Use Only' portion of them, as this public post gives permission to sell your finished work.

I have a new tutorial in the works as I write this, I can't wait to show you!!

Bead happy, bead ethically, respect your designers' policies and hard work and have a fabulous week.

Super Soup!! BSBP Reveal #2!

I am sooooooo excited!!  I can't wait to hop around and see what everyone has made for their Bead Soup Blog Party reveals!  Lori Anderson has done it again, and set a gorgeous table for everyone to feast at.  If you aren't familiar with the BSBP, please check out Lori's blog Pretty Things and read allllll about it.  I want to extend a huge thank you to Lori, who has done such an incredible job with this, and who has given us all such a fantastic opportunity, both to work outside of our own personal 'boxes' and to meet friends all around the world.  And now... get ready, set... go!!

My wonderful beady twin Bobbie Rafferty, of Beadsong Jewelry sent me this lovely soup to work with, and I am really hoping she likes what I came up with from it.  :)  (I also stole her lovely picture of the soup here, because her picture was only like 40000 times better than my poor attempt - Sherwood wasn't around to take one when I ripped into my soup ingredients, lol.)

Luscious soup from Bobbi

I couldn't find a way to include everything I wanted to in one piece, so I have created two necklaces to use as many beads as I could.  I apologize to Bobbie that I wasn't able to use all of them... but the ones that got left out are just simmering in my stash, waiting for the perfect time.  

The first necklace was created around the beautiful Elizabeth Girod lampwork focal flower.  I wanted the necklace to be reminiscent of multi media pieces, and so I made the neck straps in various stitches and even STRUNG one of them!  (For those of you who know me well, you know I haven't strung anything in ages - and I needed to re-learn those skills, but I love how it came out.)  I really wanted to include the beautiful sari silk ribbon that Bobbi used to wrap my soup package with, but no matter how hard I tried, it just wouldn't fit.  I used my focal, some of Bobbi's lovely dagger beads, several of the lentils, and some of the Chinese crystals.  :) 

The focal was embroidered onto a small piece of stiff stuff, then backed with ultra suede and brick stitched on the edging.  I added two more rows of brick stitch, and then some picots and fringing.  The lentil bead and crystal are a second layer of fringe right below the flower, to match the 3D effect of the lampworked flower.  

On the right side of the necklace, I made a simple spiral rope with crystal inclusions, and a strung rope with the lentil beads, seed beads, and more crystals.  I think it balances with the other side fairly well, and I like the mix of textures, with a small spiral, larger beads and spaces on this side, and a continuous large rope on the other side.

On the left side, I used a Dutch spiral stitched rope (something I hadn't done in years, again!) and then embellished along the completely gold rope with tiny red seed beads to highlight the spirals.  

I finished this one with a clasp I had in my stash, because I felt like it really needed something flowery to balance the front.  I wanted to be able to put this piece up for sale in my shop, but unfortunately discovered three quarters of the way through beading that the size 11 beads I was using were apparently galvanized, as the gold finish was flaking off.  Oooooooooo, grrrrrrr!!!  I thought I had rid myself of all of the galvanized finish beads in my stash, but apparently I missed some.  :(  So, it will have to be a 'for show' piece, but that's ok too, as it's pretty to look at and gave me some new ideas for other designs, as well.  Between the colors themselves and the stitches I chose, this one really stretched my creativity in many ways!! 

For my second piece, I just HAD to use those incredible freshwater pearls, and the gorgeous clasp Bobbie made for me (by hand!! She made it by hand!!  I am totally envious, I can't do wirework to save my own life).  So, of course, the amethyst and the pewter had to jump in too... and I decided to use a little of my bali silver, some cubic zirconia rondelles, two large silver grey freshwater pearls, and two large faceted amethyst beads at the center.   I enjoyed my stringing so much (rusty as I was!) that I decided to string this piece, too.  This one was a creation for just me, made with some of my very favorite things.

Below is a closer up photo of the pendants I added.  The longest hangs from a gunmetal chain rather than a silver one because I felt like it highlighted the tarnished silver of the pendant, and is a black onyx point that I've had for ages.  It's a special pendant to me, as it was a gift from my mom.  The smaller point is amethyst, and it is accompanied by two more 'fringes', one of which is a piece of the pewter Bobbie sent me, and the other of which is a handmade charm by Andrew Thornton.   I adore Andrew's charms, little medieval 'cities' that just make me happy.  I hung it from an eyepin (yes, I did that horrible wrapping job myself) with sterling and amethyst.

And, of course, I had to include a beautiful close up shot of Bobbi's wire work sterling clasp.  Isn't it perfect??  I hope I did it justice.  I really love this necklace, I've worn it several times already, and it swings and sways and makes a lovely little chinking noise when I move.  Thank you sooooooo much, Bobbie!!!!

Now, you MUST visit Bobbie's blog and see what she has been cooking up with the bead soup I sent her.  Her work is fabulous and she is MUCH better at blogging than I am - she actually posts often, rather than my regrettable once every month or two, lol.  Here are the two soups I sent off - photographed by Bobbie again because she made them look much yummier than I did... I can't WAIT to see how she chose to use them!!

Please take the time, and a cup of your favorite beverage, to go to Lori's blog and hop around to all of the other reveals - I know I will!!  Click HERE for the list!

Winner!!

A huge thank you to everyone who stopped by and commented on my Runestones necklace, you are all way beyond kind to me!!  I wish I could give something to each of you, for following along with my beady adventures and encouraging me.  :)

Teddy picked a name this afternoon - although he's gone off to nap again now and I wasn't able to snap a pic this time...  Congratulations to Jeanne Evans (whose comment oddly showed up as an Anonymous due to Blogger's peculiarities)!!  Send me your mailing address via email or Facebook, Jeanne, and I'll get that in the mail stream for you!

Freeform Again - Runestones and a Giveaway

Finally!!  The third piece in my trio of freeform is done!  I started this while I was working on my Choose Your Own Adventure pieces (which are in my previous post; a blog hop hosted by my lovely friends Mandi Ainsworth and Karen Williams), when I intended to have a trio of bracelets to reveal on the day, but I only managed to finish two of them - and this one decided it had to be a necklace instead.  I have to listen to the beads when they yell at me that loudly.  So more soup was mixed, and off I went. Here is Runestones.

I am so happy with this necklace.  It was a wonderful piece to work on, and looking at it now still makes me feel happy.  I love the colors.  I love the feel of it.  Not just the feeling I get looking at it, but actually touching it - it's very textural and fun to stroke.  The fringe on this one also lays just how I wanted it to; I used OneG to string the fringe and do the small bits of peyote, and it's very swingy and drapey.  The center-most fringe is a peyote strip, which has a bezeled Amethyst claw at the end.  Hanging from the focal stone is another center fringe which is tipped with a gorgeous copper freshwater pearl, also bezeled.

During the process, I thought of a beautiful, fictional woman whom I can't even rightly describe... long hair, with beads and braids and dreads and plain, brushed wavy locks mixed in, a flowing dress with medieval three quarter length sleeves,  charms dangling from many bracelets, three large stoned rings on her slender, well kept hands, bending over a wooden table laden with scrolls and candles and jewels and leather journals, smooth polished bones, chunks of raw amethyst and rusted keys.  In my mind's eye, this necklace was the result of a prophecy of some kind, the stones frozen in their tumble as they revealed their secrets...

The main body of the necklace is made with freeform peyote stitch, which connects to each of the embroidered focal stones.  The amethyst 'claws' are on top of the base, and woven to it with more strands of peyote.  The clasp is hand fabricated copper from one of my favorite metal workers and was custom made for me.  I tried it on (OF COURSE I tried it on!!!!) and it's magnificently comfy and wearable and feels yummy on the neck, with nothing poking in or sticking out (which I always worry about when I make fringe or 'spiky' edges).

My Runestones necklace is made of a huge bead soup mix which includes the faceted Sugilite focals, the oval Sunstone beads (which have a glorious sparkly glitter-like matrix up close), amethyst 'claws', freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystals, copper metal beads, vintage and modern glass and every kind of seed bead I own.  There are dagger beads, drops, Czech cathedral crystals, Swarovski and cubic zirconia drops, faceted AAAgrade Amethyst beads, bugles, cubes... on and on.  I hunted and pecked and used anything that looked like it might be talismanic, or that looked like it belonged.

I still have some soup left over, in fact!!  Most of the bigger stones and such were used in this, but there are still some gorgeous things left in the soup, including two of the faceted Sugilite, some of the awesome Sunstone, and a carved Amethyst bead.  I would really like to celebrate the completion of this project by giving away the remaining soup.  I intend to add in a few more seed beads, and a few more crystal drops to round it out a bit, but below is the picture of the soup I'll  be gifting.   Leave me a comment, Teddy will pick a name.  :) :) :)

And, just because - - - a pic of what the back looks like.  :) 

UPDATE - Giveaway is closed now, 3/3/13 - Teddy will pick a winner in a  few hours!  :) :) :) Thank you, everyone who commented!!!!!!!