Things Treasured

I just wanted to show a little of my current WIP. I am making a very special goddess for myself. She's doing a wonderful job at helping me deal with some emotional things. There is a lot of symbolism in her, and I don't intend to explain it. Well, at least not at this time. :grin: But I am very proud of the progress on her so I wanted to show it off. her form is made my me, and her face is poly clay. I can't remember exactly who the face is from. I should really write these things down, but I am a bit like a magpie. I like to see all of my 'shinies' together so I tend not to keep notes on where they came from. But she is embellished (currently) with 11's 14's 6's 8's and some super tiny smaller than 14's in an array of blues, whites and teals in a variety of finishes. She also has a few rose montees in sapphire blue. So there she is. :)

I was in the mood for an instant gratification kind of project this afternoon. I was looking through my beads waiting for something to strike my fancy and inspire me. There it was! I have this string of beads that look like little birds. I found a yellow one that happens to look like a chicken! Now my niece has gotten into raising chickens over the last year. Her uncle and I are very proud! At the state fair she showed four birds. Three of them got first place, and one of them second place. The only reason her bird took second, was because her other bird also had first. :grin: At the youth fair she showed a number of birds. They all took first, and one of them took best in show. So needless to say, proud aunt and uncle over here. So back to the project. I got this little chicken looking bird out and strung it on some yellow ribbon with a couple of yellow wooden beads. I actually had some findings for attaching clasps to ribbon. (amazing I had something I needed) So I stuck a clasp on it and viola! Done! I can't wait to give it to her as soon as I see her. :)

This is a choker I made for my husband. I couldn't get the idea out of my head so this piece came about pretty quickly. It's made with hematite round beads and silver lined blue size 6's I think. The other black beads are plastic with deliberate cracks in the paint showing through. The design it makes looks like lightning strikes. It sits just as the base of his neck and if I do say so myself I think he looks a fair treat in it! Rowr! This second photo is a close up of the blue phoenix necklace. I got a little better shot of it so I thought I would it.
As always you can click the photos for a larger view.

I am working on my photography. I am using the same set up and same camera as when I took the pictures of the chainmaille bad. However, I haven't been able to get the pictures as clear or bright since. So today I was playing with the camera and took some pictures of some older pieces. I edited them for lighting, but it's not too bad. I'll keep playing with the camera until I get it right.

This is a bracelet I made when caterpillar bracelets were all the rage. I have to say it is still on of my FAVORITE kinds of bracelets to make. These bracelets and bead dolls are the best for using up odd leftover beads.
This necklace is called the Blue Phoenix. It's one of my favorite pieces I have ever made. It's all Czech glass and seed beads with the exception of a row of Crystal Rose Montees. One day I would love to find all of these shapes in Swarovski crystals so I could do an entirely crystal version. I'm going to post a better picture of this one as soon as I figure out my camera set up again.

I used to work at Micheal's Arts and Crafts. I had several customers who showed an interest in using the Crystal sliders but didn't have any idea what to do with them. So I made these. Crystal bicones with crystal sliders. I've sold quite a few of these over time. They just sparkle like crazy.


This was just a ton of fun. Little seed bead fishes. They are stuffed with used dryer sheets! Thumbs up for recycling. This project was in one of the beading magazines but I can;t remember which one now. If anyone is interested I'll go look it up. I think it was one of the 'Beadwork' magazines.
This bracelet was from a book that compiled the favorite projects from a particular line of magazine. Again, I think this was 'Beadwork' but I can't for sure remember. It is so soft and slinky to wear. The color pallet was an experiment for me, but I think it turned out rater nice!

This week I have been pretty busy at home. I am also working on a larger project so I needed something rather quick to do for this week. I was looking through my beads waiting for something to speak to me when I picked up this package of blue seed beads. Inside it were two tube beads, purple with flowers on them.

When I was in my freshman year of high school... heck it could have been earlier. I had this friend named Liz. She had one of those chokers on a leather band with two beads and a charm. You know the kind. It broke and she asked me if I wanted the beads. I didn't bead back then so I don't know why I said yes but I took them. I've lost these two beads so many times. I would find one, put it some where and lose it. Rinse and repeat for years. Then they survived being moved from NY to FL and two moves in FL. So these beads have come a long way. And now they have arrived at their next destination. A pair of crystal earrings.

I am not sure what these beads are. They look like porcelain beads I have found, but I think they might actually be painted wood. So here they are. My camera didn't handle the small scale too well but you get the idea.

Well, at least I can when I can find my glasses. I really do need glasses, and in fact I need to go get a new prescription, but that is neither here nor there. I am not one to put my glasses in a pocket, nor do I carry a purse. Needless to say, I rarely have them with me when I need them. (I only need them for distance) So this week I created a glasses chain for myself. It is made from a mix of seed beads that I have had forever, and some frosted glass beads. I have a vase that I keep near my work station. It's purely decorative, but inside I keep beads. These are stray beads that don't have a home, or beads I didn't have any ideas for. Over time I have increased the value of the supplies I work with and these are mostly beads I will probably never use so now they decorate my house. However, sometimes a project comes a long and I dip into the vase for some accent beads. Hence, the lovely frosted glass in this project. Now I can have my specs with me without banging them up in a pocket or wearing them on my head.

I rarely make anything just for me. So this week I decided that my project would be just that. Over a thousand rings woven together using European 4 in 1 make up this small bag. It measures approximately (closed) 2.5 inches high and 1.5 inches wide. The dangling embellishment is a modified shaggy loops with star shaped bead spacers added to it. I created a series of triangle flaps at the top to make the drawstring closure work properly. The closure is a satin cord run through a series of guide rings. A star shaped bead spacer, just too small for the cord, acts as the latch to keep it all closed up. It works fantastically well. The rings are 20g 1/8" ID rings. I am now however, out of rings. So next week's project will likely be beads. I am able to keep a full set of standard size role playing dice inside. I plan to try this design again in a slightly larger ring. It will make the bag a little larger and will also make weaving the bottom easier. This was very labor intensive. When I perfect my design with a larger ring I hope to offer them for sale. Click the images for giant versions.

So a lot has happened and I am sorry to say that my art and this blog got sorely neglected. I also want to apologize to the wonderful wonderful people who left comments for me. I was under the impression that I would get an email alerting me when there was a comment. This never happened and I assumed no one was commenting. it wasn't until months or in the case of one of them, years later that I realized comments had been made. I do apologize and truly thank you for taking the time to comment.

I am trying to get back to making a piece a week. Things are very busy and hectic right now so I don't know that I will make it on time every week but I am going to try. I will be starting next week, so I should have a new piece posted by the 28th. Wish me luck! I am incredibly excited.