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Yesterday I came across some old beaded rings I had done for some project long ago. I think they were from a magazine project--6 rings of size 11 Delicas 5 rows wide with size 15 picots and size 8 center embellishment. Amazingly enough, the size and color work with the kumihimo rope I've been working on all week, not with what I imagined with the project so now I have to make a decision...or another rope!

Nothing beady of note today.

Went to the library today. Picked up the current book club book, some movies, and flipped through the beading books--most were either not my style or things I already own. Sad to see most of the felting books I was looking for were already checked out!

Beaded out in Monroeville today. Made a copy of what I'm calling "ship's wheel" that was made by Cicily. I think it's going to need some more jiggering as I can tell now that my thread pass was not like hers!

The Lakota chain necklace came out very well...pics will follow. I also worked out a viable double-Lakota version. I really like this chain much better than daisy!

Working on ideas for a strap right now. Considering Lakota chain with drop center.

What I've done with my freed beads

Over on the All About Beads forum at Delphi I was lucky enough to participate in a different kind of "swap."  It was called Bead Freeing, and fabulous bead artist Laurie B. Smith sent everyone who signed up a selection of her beads, just for the price of a priority mail stamp!  I got right around a dozen beads of different shapes, sizes, and colors of which I've already used five.

First up is a red jellybean button bead and a red and white swirling pendant that I've paired with a fun yarn kumihimo rope to make a vampire necklace.  I plan on wearing it for my store's Breaking Dawn party on Friday night.

Next up is a pair of black beads with turquoise spots that I had figured would become part of a pair of southwestern-inspired earrings, and a lovely yellow and orange-spot bead that didn't speak when I first looked at it.  However, last week the yellow bead spoke, quite clearly, saying "I want to go to Capri!"  This inspired the black and turquoise beads to say "me too" and a bunch of other beads from my stash jumped on the bandwagon, and became my Capri set.  With all the bead weaving I normally do it was fun to do a quick strung piece with a bit of wire work.

I have been really happy with my freed beads so far and am looking forward to working with the rest of them.  Thank you Laurie!

sick and earrings

I have contracted the dreaded spring cold.  My throat aches and my nose runs and all I want to do is lie about in misery.  Tragically, it can't be done that way.  So I muddle through and do my best.

On the beading front, I took some time on Monday to make my mother's birthday present.  It's a pair of earrings from a design in the October 99 Bead & Button.  The picture is funny because I just wanted a quick snap.  The earrings themselves were easy enough to do as well, about 90 minutes for both.  And the color scheme, which is silver and green AB, was a nice change from all the wedding work!

Moms earrings

So, it's been a while, eh?

I have kinda let this blog die, which is a shame.  However, I'm just not into blogging the whole wedding experience anymore.  So I'm going to make this a jewelry/beadwork blog.  Right now I'm working on (surprise, surprise) wedding stuff, and have two projects going.  The first is a necklace inspired by a Vavara design in an old issue of Beadwork.  It's called ears of wheat, and while Vavara did just a few short ears as fringe on a basic peyote necklace, I'm doing the whole necklace as ears with varying bead sizes.  My intention is to finish it as a lariat with a beaded bead holding the two ends together. 

Ears of wheat necklace

The second project is a handbag made of netting some of the 500 grams of golden bugle beads I have--and yes you read that quantity right.  When I was new to beading, I bought these bugles in a factory pack because they were a great deal, but I didn't really understand what I was buying.  So they've been sitting patiently in my stash, waiting for my wedding, apparently.  Lucky for me I have a champagne/cream/gray color scheme that just aches for golden accents! 

Handbag

 

All you need is...

...the patience of a saint.  Acutally, who decided that saints were paitent?  I bet that Francis of Assissi could be a real pill if the animals wouldn't come to him on command.

Anyway, the past week or so have had their ups and downs on the wedding planning front.  We have our locations secured which is a huge load off our backs.  And we have ideas on transportation and most of the guest list nailed down.  These are good things

On the bad side, I'm still looking for someone to make my dress.  We have to figure out a favor, and what we want for a honeymoon.  Sometimes it seems like every solved problem leads to two new ones, which makes me feel like I'm planning a wedding on LOST island :)

But I'm still happy, and I still want to get married, so it's okay.