The Beaded Passion

Jewelry from the Bones pilot

2012-01-26T11:30:00.000-08:00

Here's Bones's Angela flashing her lacy bra at an airport agent to get a quick answer. Oh and look, she's wearing a necklace. Looks like a three-strand pink and red bit, with faceted and dyed stone and glass beads knotted onto thick silk cord. A little on the mainstream side but not bad at all.

Brennan is wearing what looks like many strands of coral glass held together by brass rings, with a large brass hamsa pendant.

Here's Angela in a romantic gold chain necklace with stone or crystal beads with a lacy-looking centerpiece with fringe coming off the bottom.

Most of what Bones wears I can't imagine ever wanting to wear, but they sure do work on her, like this chunky necklace. Possibly horn or stone nuggets, and not just one strand, but three, with a carved stone pendant off the lowest strand.

Angela's necklace here is a little blurry but it looks like another multistrand affair with a large green Venetian-style foil-lined glass square focal, with faceted glass bead fringe coming off the bottom.

Brennan's taste in jewelry even extends to her earring choice--here a sort of half-shield medallion thingy with a column-shaped dangle in stone, crystal or colored glass.

Hard to tell exactly what Angela's got on now, but it's definitely a multistrand something, probably a mix of beads on chain, with maybe a carved stone celtic knot of some kind.

Understated neckwear at a military funeral at Arlington Cemetery, Temperance still picks something with character. From what I can see, it's a leather cord with maybe a curved silver tube and a small metal, stone or bone pendant.

Here she is looking stubborn and slightly stupid (it's the eyelid position in this particular shot) wearing a beaded Y necklace with plenty of stones--probably agate and carnelian, and look at that strong drop in the center. More carved stone at the bottom, of course.

Wow, they sure do wear a lot of jewelry on this show. I think it also helps communicate the passage of time.

new direction

2012-01-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

I'm going to take my blog in a new, hopefully more interesting, direction, starting now. I've been noticing for some time that there's more and more interesting jewelry in the media, so I'll comment on them, and if I make something inspired by a piece, I'll post that as well.

The show Bones frequently has Dr. Brennan as well as other characters. sporting bold necklaces like the one above, I've never seen a character in a tv show wear such noticeable beaded jewelry so often before. They're important parts of her character's style. Here she's wearing what looks like an agate or wood slice with brown stained horn beads and possibly pearls.

newish work

2011-12-27T22:07:00.000-08:00

Mint and teal silk ribbon with electro-dyed freshwater pearls knotted onto the length. Closes with ribbon tie.

Citrine faceted chunky earrings with sterling earwires (given as Christmas gift to a new friend).

Loomed rainbow bracelet.

Beaded bead with 2 sizes of iris blue rondelle and transparent purple seed beads, giving it an overall violet appearance.

Herringbone bangle in three sizes/colors of seed bead: clear violet 11s, purple-lined aqua 8s, and frosted aqua 6s.

double happiness

2011-12-25T16:35:00.000-08:00

Last year I bought a book from Borders on sale. It as The Earring Style book by Double Happiness Jewelry's Stephanie Wells. Love it! I made a pair of double spiral hoop earrings straight from the book.

Ribbon necklaces

2011-10-16T17:07:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite new designs is the silk ribbon wrap bracelet/necklace. The ladies at Class Act Designs commisioned this bracelet above, after seeing my Forbidden Love necklace, below.

I embroider 15/o seed beads onto the ribbons (they may need ironing; do this with caution) around a focal bead such as this metal heart from Green Girl Studios.

When I saw this little Shiva Nataraja pendant at Tika Imports, I knew I was going to buy it. Why? Because I've been looking for one ever since reading the book 'Shiva's Fire', about a girl Parvati with the power of dance. I've looked for years for a pendant version of the dancing Shiva in his ring of flames, but only found little statuettes until the B&B show.

I paired the pendant with the hot pink and orange silk ribbon from Class Act Designs as befitting an Indian-inspired piece, and embroidered slanting lines in gold 15/o seed beads.

Beaded bead special post

2011-10-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

Beaded bead extravaganza! These beads are self-supporting beadwoven beads made with glass, crystal, stone, mineral, and seed beads, from about 3/4 to a little over an inch in diameter. Most are round, some are more fat saucer shaped. A couple are totally different as you can see. They range from $16-25 and you can get them through BrightCircle on Artfire. A few of them are already listed but this is a photo of all my full-size beaded beads, so if you want to buy, just pick the one you want, and let me know, and I'll put up a listing just for you, at a 10% discount from the original price if you tell me you heard about it from my blog. :)

matching jewelry

2011-10-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

This pattern was in an issue of Beadwork last year, and though I rarely do projects straight out of magazines, I thought, what a great idea! I want to do that! So I even ordered some beads especially for this project, and made one in blue black and green--Megamind colors (have I already blogged about this?). The center beadwork around the cabochon (a shimmerstone I made) is a little different from in the magazine, as is the method of attaching it to the 'wings' but all in all, it's the same design. I wish I could have met Mikki at the B&B show to show her, but oh well. I emailed her instead.

I had leftover beads, so I took the beading pattern of the ribs on the 'wings' and did it with tubular peyote instead of flat, andit turned out to be the exact right size to hold a 1ml vial of perfume! The little tube on the side of the cap does have to be cut off, but still.

back from outer space

2011-09-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know--and I apologize for being gone so long. Been going through some stuff at home. I promise more posts are forthcoming.

Oil On Canvas color challenge

2011-06-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

Beading along with Marcie's color challenge over on LaBellaJoya blog, the theme was oil paintings. The first one I worked on had a palette of golden orange with hints of beige and muted plum.

I started with a base of right-angle weave using the last of my copper-lined amethyst AB size 6 seed beads, embellished on the edge with loops of frosted silver-lined golden orange 11s, with a pair of light orange opaque Delicas flanking topaz AB Swarovski crystals. I also embellished the base itself with more topaz crystals, frosted orange and tiny bronze seed beads. Hidden at the base of each fringe loop are bronze and metallic dark raspberry seed beads.

I finished the necklace with loops of bronze and a gunmetal chain.

The second challenge palette was for this, the famous Girl with a Pearl Earring. (No, I didn't see the movie.)

I had a bottle with a slight neck that just begged for a beaded collar. I've been doing multiple versions of a modified 'Collier du Soleil' by Anna Elizabeth Draeger, made into a bracelet, which lent itself great to a collar.

I used frosted black 8s, bronze and opaque blue 11s, cream AB Delicas, light colorado topaz Swarovskis and my remaining tiny blue pearl drops from the 2009 Bead & Button show.

I had only two pearls left, so I made my own pair of pearl earrings with a few bronze 11s and black 3mm firepolished beads.

I'm clearing out space in my studio, so for a limited time these pieces are up in my Listia account, a place to get free stuff. Please register through this link http://www.listia.com/signup/341959 as it gives me referral points. :D

The Artfire experience

2011-05-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I opened a shop on Artfire last year. Recently I've been trying out their 30-day free trial of the Pro membership.
Here are the 5 things I like about the Artfire experience:
1. The option of a FREE account. No listing fees, no selling fees, no percentage taken out of any sales.
2. The easy listing process, with everything on a single page, instead of going through five pages to list a single item.
3. It's possible to make sales even with the free (basic) account.
4. Within a few days of switching to a Pro account, I made a sale.
5. Being allowed to share links to my other Internet shops.

Want to sell on Artfire? Follow this link to sign up: http://www.artfire.com/users/BrightCircle/sell-crafts

Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly

2011-05-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

Playing along with La Bella Joya's April's Color Challenge gave me not one but two challenges. The first was to use Andy Warhol's depiction of Marilyn Monroe as my color palette. I chose cyan, scarlet, yellow, peach and hints of black, starting with a nicely-shaped glass bottle that once held tequila. It had a nice cyan shade. Then I embellished the neck of the bottle with beaded rings in the rest of the shades.

The second challenge colors were inspired by an elegant photo of Grace Kelly. The palette of pale blue, cream, pink and burgundy were very appealing to me. I chose to make a variation on one of my signature beaded ball beads, starting with pale blue and gilt-lined opal seed beads (which appear blue next to blue beads). I then trimmed the bead with matte AB cream Delicas, pink-lined 11s and garnet AB Czech 11s, and paired the bead with a custom-dyed burgundy ribbon which exactly matches my new hair color.

Bronze flower peyote link necklace

2011-04-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

A while ago I came up with a simple pattern for a peyote stitched ring using 3mm or 4mm beads and 11/o seed beads. I always thought it would make an interesting beaded chain. Well, I finally got around to doing the chain. Here it is, in iris bronze, green, blue and purple 4mm firepolish beads, and bronze 11/o beads, finished with a gold silk cord and matte gold fleur de lis button.

I'm astonished I ever used the gold silk (I got it at the Bead & Button show two years ago in a variety pack because I couldn't decide on my own), and quite happy. The detail I'm most happy about, however, is the little beaded beads on each end, connecting the links to the cord. You see, one of my greatest difficulties in using silk cord is what to do with the ends. Crimping on some metal finding is ok, but not great, and definitely wouldn't have blended well with this design. But I used one of the beaded beads to conceal a knot at the end of the doubled silk, and the other to connect to the gold button, which goes into a knotted loop of silk cord--the other end of the cord.

Color Challenge Reveal

2011-04-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

March's Color Challenge was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's 'The Sower and the Setting Sun'.

I made an embellished 'plum blossom' pattern beaded bead with some of my newly-acquired 'tanzanite' shade crystals, frosted silver-lined orange, lavender-lined AB, silver-lined topaz, and opaque goldenrod seed beads.

It's still tricky for me to combine anything like purple and orange, but it helped that I used several finishes, picked only one saturated color grouping (the golden/orange one) and these oranges bordered on yellow anyway. Yellow is easier to pair with purple.

The painting has such variety of colors, and it's very gratifying to capture some of that in a single bead.

This and my other handmade beaded beads are available in my supply shop, ParadoxMoxie.

Project: Meridian faux-chainmail bracelet tutorial

2011-03-26T23:50:00.000-07:00

While I love doing some real chainmail, linking each little ring into several others, it can be tricky for the beginner, especially doing the first few rows while keeping all those jumprings in place. Well the other day I saw a chain which appeared to be European 4-1, but on second look was actually much simpler. I went home, recreated the technique and designed my own bracelet, adding large jumprings and an art glass hoop. The result was this bracelet, called Meridian. This super-easy wire bracelet requires only simple wire bending and minimal jumpring opening to achieve the sophisticated look of chainmail without all the fumbling!

You will need: 18 gauge round wire, 28 or so 8mm 18 gauge round jumprings, 5 5.5mm jumprings, 2 16mm 14 gauge jumprings, 1 lobster clasp and 1 small Halo Heaven ring (from Unicorne Beads or Sonoran Beads). Tool list: round nose pliers, 2 pairs flatnose pliers, cutters, ruler.

Step 1: Cut 27 pieces of 18 gauge wire, appr. 1 1/4 inches long. This will make enough figure-8 links to make a bracelet for a 7 inch wrist. Grasp the tip of the wire with roundnose pliers. and make a loop on one end.

Make a loop going the opposite direction on the other end, making a figure 8 shape.

Repeat for all the wire pieces.

Step 2: Open an 8mm jumpring and place two figure-8 links inside. Close the jumpring.

Step 3: Open another 8mm jumpring, insert inside ONE of the pair on the previous jumpring, and place another figure-8 link on the new jumpring. Close.

Step 4: Open another 8mm jumpring, insert into the previous figure-8 link, and place another figure-8 link on the new jumpring. Repeat step 4 for a total of 13 figure-8 links.

Step 5: Open a 16mm jumpring. Insert into the latest figure-8 link, and add the glass hoop. Close the jumpring. Open the second 16mm jumpring, insert a figure-8 link, and close. Repeat step 4 for the remaining figure-8 links, and end with an 8mm jumpring.

Step 6: Open two 5.5mm jumprings and connect the two 16mm jumprings with each. Close.

Step 7: Open a 5.5mm jumpring and connect the lobster clasp to one end of the bracelet. Close.

Step 8: Open two 5.5mm jumprings, and connect the last 8mm jumpring to the other end of the bracelet. Close.

Congratulations, your bracelet is finished!

Some fun variations include using a crystal, resin or metal hoop instead of glass, using more than one, and embellishing the faux-chainmail base edge with more jumprings, perhaps even combining it with real chainmail!

Jackpot!

2011-03-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

There's a local auction where I live that goes on Friday nights, so every Friday afternoon when I come back from running errands, I stop in to see what's up for auction. There's a lot of yard-sale 'stuff', some vintage things, electronics, and usually several pieces of furniture, which is what I go to see. I'm in the market for a good desk with drawers and a shelf unit, and it's possible to get a really good price on decent furniture.

Usually I'm only interested in the furniture (everything else bores me) but yesterday I spied something I never thought I'd see--jewelry supplies, and lots of it. Boxes of tools or glues, zippered cases containing hanks of beads, packets of silver and coils of wire, two whole cases of seed beads (bead store Czech, not craft store Chinese), containers of sterling findings and components, and portable storage boxes containing all manner of faceted glass and Swarovski crystal.

I determined that I was going to buy at LEAST one case, even though I had never bought at a live auction before (and I was apprehensive, as the niggly details are really counterintuitive). But I went, and I bid, and I got a pair of $13 specialty stepped loop-forming pliers for only $5, two cases of sterling findings for $5 apiece (I was stunned that no one bid higher--I guess they didn't look very closely, or didn't know it was sterling) and another containing crystals for $5. Other beader women were there, outbidding me on the cases of seed beads. Every woman for herself, right? I'd say 'all's fair in love and beading' but that's not true, and also, it's a terrible cliche and overly cutesy for me.

The auctioneer moved on to a different table, leaving one case left unsold--the case containing glass, seed beads--and, I remembered, one case full of crystals, the one I wanted the most. Instead of just accepting that this wasn't for sale anymore, I asked when it would be auctioned--and the woman I asked happened to be the owner of the supplies, who worked at the auction and was willing to sell it outright.

Another lady was interested in buying it, and she made an offer. Even though it wasn't officially an auction anymore, I took a chance and made a higher offer (after making sure it was kosher to do so; even though it was in an auction house, I didn't want to step on toes by bidding when it wasn't officially an auction anymore). The first lady countered, and I countered again, winning the auction for $30 (lower than the amount I'd decided beforehand I was willing to pay). I knew that case had at least twelve containers of crystals, each valued at about $4, plus the other case of glass beads in a useful 4mm size (though the crystals were really what I wanted), so overall, I figured I was paying maybe 50% of the retail price (and normally I wouldn't be able to afford that much crystal even at 50% off, but I had some birthday money from relatives I'd been saving).

Well, when I opened up the beads later to look at them again, I found out what I'd forgotten--that each case contained not twelve but twenty-four containers! Twenty-four of glass and seed beads, and twenty-four of crystal! Not only that, but also.... there was a third container I had forgotten, filled with more of the finest crystal beads in the world! That must amount to around an 80% discount.

Yeah. Jackpot.

Now, on to pictures.

Here is all the sterling out of the two boxes. There are fancy beads, smooth beads, big beads, small beads, findings, earring components, earwires with fancy beads on them, leverback and french hook earwires, and two kinds of bead caps. This right here is probably at least a $50 value retail. I left most of the silver in the original bags, which had the store prices written on them. It's always good to know the retail value of one's supplies.

Here is WOULD be a picture of my new collection of 4mm firepolished Czech glass beads--except the goblins that live in my computer evidently ate the photo, because I can't find it anymore. I may put up a photo later.

Here is the first set of crystal, from the $3 box I got earlier in the auction. I transferred my new beads out of their boxes, into little bags where they won't rattle. I also like transferring, as it allows me to handle my beads without having to figure out what to do with them just yet. It's a bit like meditation for my creative process.

Here is the full box of crystal bicones, with some of the firepolished glass on the upper lid. That's a good 4x6 inch box right there.

Here is the second box of crystals.

And here is the entire collection of crystals after I transferred them into bags and consolidated the matching colors from bags in the earlier photo.

Milestone!

2011-03-10T13:28:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, I decided to enter an art gallery's exhibition showcasing young local talent. Most of the entries I knew would be traditional 2- and 3-D art: paintings, drawings, collage, and perhaps a bit of sculpture. My talent lies with beads, but instead of entering an elaborate piece of jewelry, I dove headlong into the biggest bead embroidery piece I'd ever done--and make it as a framed wall art piece.

I used glass beads, resin pendant, gemstone, seed beads, silk ribbon, shells, and my own shimmerstone cabochons. I'm particularly proud of thinking to use the ribbon.

I laid it down on the s tiffened felt base and sewed it on with tiny fuschia beads on top. It sort of reminds me of planty things, perhaps seaweed. You'll also notice that inside is filled in with a mix of yellow, light orange and pale pink beads, and over it is a beaded helix in pink, orange and yellow.

Here is a corner of the piece. My sister persuaded me to buy three large green glass faceted nuggets which you can see here. Inside is a pink chalcedony 'flower' made from several briolettes, and in the foreground you can see an orange shimmerstone and a pink shell diamond.

Here is the upper right corner, before framing. I used a crystal-studded resin go-go component, put green fringe in the hole, and accented it with some green glass teardrops and a magenta glitter shimmerstone.

Here is a detail shot of lines of yellow teardrops and a pale pink shimmerstone cabochon.

and here is a green shimmerstone next to the pink ribbon and yellow drops

Lastly, here is the final piece. It got accepted into the show, and was displayed on the gallery wall!

It's called 'And So You Shall', after a Monty Python sketch about fairies granting wishes to the police force.

SandFibers Giveaway

2011-02-28T13:59:00.001-08:00

Carol Dean of SandFibers is doing a giveaway for her five-year Etsy anniversary! Go to her blog to find out how to win.

Double Color Challenge

2011-02-21T19:22:00.000-08:00

Having neglected to post my color challenge entries for Marcie's 'Margie & Me' color challenge for last month, I shall post last month's with this month's.

This is the first one, inspired by a photo of a green jungle stream. Greens dominate, set off by bits of brown, so I used shades of peridot and bronze in this simple necklace. It looks a bit like a caterpillar.

Second is this rectangular centerpiece, inspired by the photo of a turquoise door in Mexico. The neckchain is embellished with a few jumprings with blue beads, and stamped metal cylinders.

Now it's on to February's challenge.

A photo of a yellow apartment building inspired this bracelet in crystal, dark cobalt blue and hematite silver/black, with a hint of light gray.

Finally is this pair of earrings, inspired by the sense of movement in the modern painting.

Spyder

2011-02-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

My latest project: Spyder! Credit for the design goes to... *checks magazine* Mikki Ferrugiaro, as published in the Dec/Jan issue of Beadwork magazine. Though I love magazine designs, usually I use them as inspiration, a jumping-off point for my own original designs. Rarely do I see a project that makes me want to simply replicate it, much less actually get around to executing it, but this was one such design.

Though it looks complicated and multilayered, the 'pleats' in the wing sections are achieved by strategic use of bead size. Mind you, this IS a more advanced piece--I wasn't sure how exactly to do everything when I started the project. For example, I didn't understand how to gather the pleats at one end, or how to connect the round part to the wing parts. Once I started, I somehow understood how to gather, but never did figure out how the magazine said to connect the wing parts, so I had to make up my own.

I made other slight alterations: using 15s instead of delicas on the straps, substituting a shimmerstone for a rivoli, modifying the bezel around the shimmerstone, and embellishing it further.

My mother remarked upon seeing it that it looked 'a little like a spider', which delighted me to no end, as spiders make me think of one of my new favourite movies: Megamind. There's a part in which Megamind tries to threaten 'the girl' Roxanne with various ridiculous implements, but it ends when she blows a spider onto his face. He also pronounces 'spider' differently, turning the long i sound into more of a y sound.

sneak peek

2011-01-29T11:09:00.000-08:00

I'm working on my biggest piece of bead embroidery yet (I've only done pieces 2 square inches or under before) for an art exhibition at Liberty Town Arts, a local gallery. It's been a real challenge, and a great learning experience. This photo is several days old, and have done so much work since then--I'm almost finished, in fact.

Forbidden love

2011-01-22T20:52:00.000-08:00

The most forbidden of loves is not that of a mortal for an immortal (basically, just a special-needs human, nothing forbidden about that).

It's not that of two people from familes who don't like each other.

It's not the cheerleader and the captain of the chess club or whatever (yes, I read a lot of junior chick lit).

The most forbidden of loves is that which you don't allow yourself to have.

Made for HeartToHearts' 'Forbidden Love' contest, reflecting the theme 'Forbidden Love'. A hand-dyed silk ribbon is hand-embellished with tiny gunmetal glass beads, supporting a pewter bead, artisan-made from Green Girl Studios. It's a heart-shaped bead, looks like it's been covered with riveted steel plates all over. One side reads 'Unbreakable'. The unbeaded portion ties around the neck as a necklace.

Catching up with projects

2011-01-21T11:49:00.000-08:00

I'm currently working on three projects at once.

This is the first one. It's a Crime Scene lariat, but done in loomwork instead of square stitch. I have not done loomwork since doing a few rows on my sister's loom ten years ago. I basically had to teach myself everything, but it was definitely worth it, as looming is FAR faster than square stitch. I worked on it until I ran out of yellow Delicas.

Here's a little preview of my current big project.

It's a panoramic bead embroidery piece. I'm going to put it in a frame and enter it into an art exhibition, if I make the deadline. I'm not that fast at bead embroidery yet, (as it's still new to me) and the deadline is Jan 30th. Wish me luck!

These are the beads for my third project. When I can't work on my bead embroidery project (it's not very portable, as it uses so many different kinds of bead), I work on this.

The above ruffle is how far I've gotten. It's going to be a bracelet.

Etsy Shopping

2011-01-16T11:26:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have a shop on Etsy, and I do love when people buy from me. But I also love to buy from others on Etsy. There are so many wonderful shops with amazing products. Here are but a few on my wishlist.

Perfumes from Loreto. I've actually bought from this seller before, and highly recommend her. Some of my favourite scents are Yellow Rose, Neroli, Liquid Sunshine (which was the first to run out, as I used it so often) and Mojito.

Peppermint sandwich cookies from Tookies. I love chocolate and peppermint, and these look beyond delicious.

Horus eye charm from Hint. This speaks to the mythology and Egyptology lover in me.

Silhouette fused glass necklace by CCValenzo

I can just imagine this pendant incorporated into one of my own creations.

Handmade shoes by SpiroCreations. There is something so basic about these, yet so wild. I want them!

TARDIS wallet/business card holder by CoolBeans. Cutest business card holder ever! Plus, it's the perfect size to hold my 4th gen iPod Nano.

Keys to Secret Cities bracelet. Yes, this is one of my pieces. If I didn't make key jewelry and found something like this in another shop, I'd want to buy it.

Five Flavors of Dumb

2011-01-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

The last book I read was Antony John's 'Five Flavors of Dumb'.
The basic plot is this: High-schooler Piper, through a weird turn of circumstances, becomes the manager of her Seattle school's resident punk band. The twist is, Piper is deaf. I was drawn to this book because I have a passing interest in Deaf culture. I don't recall ever seeing a YA book with a deaf protagonist before, and was so happy when I found it at my library.
I appreciated that some nuance of deafness was portrayed, as opposed to full hearing or total deafness. Piper's deafness is described as 'moderately severe', and she wasn't born deaf, she lost most of her hearing at a young age due to genetics. She has a hearing aid which allows her to hear a certain amount of sound, though it's not very useful sound unless it's close, clear and there's not much other sound going on in the vicinity. She is also good at reading lips. While I was initially disappointed at the book having her lip-read, I later realized that just because you can't assume a deaf person can read lips, doesn't mean no one, hearing or not, can ever read lips. And there's nothing in the book that indicates that it's common. Piper just says that she's really good at it. The most important thing in terms of whether or not the book too 'the easy way out', was whether her hearing aid and lip-reading 'normalized' her in terms of her interaction with others, and functioning in a world that assumes hearing. And it did not. She still had special needs, or at least special preferences. She felt whole, but different.
That leads me to another thing I liked about the book. She busted stereotypes of disabled people in the media. She was neither the patient saint, nor the angry, fiercely-independent 'there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with me' person who gets offended at the slightest hint that there are some things that are harder for her. She has plenty of angst with specific people who treat her like she's something broken that ought to be fixed, but she doesn't seem to have angst with herself and her abilities.

Cobriana Armband and shop news

2011-01-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

Frosted black 11/o triangles, and 15/o glossy black seed beads in herringbone, with glinting silver-lined 11/o garnet seed beads between the stitches. I reinforced the center two lines of beads with more thread, pulling tighter as I went, and it created a slightly undulating effect in the bracelet. I was going for something dark and sexy, with plenty of textural interest to balance the relatively simple design, and I'm very, very happy with the result.

I had stitched a magnetic clasp right into the band, realizing that reinforcing the thread had shortened the bracelet to a bit too short to accomodate my 7" wrist in comfort. Bypassing the pesky process of adding several rows to make it long enough, I thought to simply add another magnetic clasp: I made a simple bead link with a metal barrel bead, wired each end to half a new magnetic clasp, covered the joins with linked jumprings, and matched the new halves of the clasp to the existing magnetic clasp ends on the bracelet. Instant 1-inch extender!

I just love the textural interest of the frosted vs. shiny vs. red beads, plus the pointed/flat sides of the triangle beads. The title and indeed, the whole bracelet, is inspired by the garnet-eyed prince of a kingdom of shapeshifters. His name is Zane Cobriana, and his second form is a royal cobra.
--Zane Cobriana and story material comes from the beautiful novel 'Hawksong' by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. No copyright infringement intended, I just want to talk about what inspired me.

In shop news, I'm thrilled to finally have another Keys to Secret Cities bracelet listed.

After a long time of trying to design my own version of the amazing emerald earrings Angelina Jolie wore at the 2009 Oscars, I came up with a simple shimmerstone version several months ago, listed them--and sold them within a few weeks. A couple days ago, I discovered I had the materials to make a second pair, so I did, listed them yesterday--and sold them this morning! I only have supplies to make a couple more pairs.

Lastly, I've got some stuff up my sleeve, doing some advance designs appropriate for Valentine's Day. Stay tuned...

Not-Art 50-59

2011-01-09T08:38:00.000-08:00

Day 50. Acrylic paint.

Day 51. Crayon, eyeliner and lipliner. I had just gotten a sampler pack of ATC-sized art papers, and couldn't wait till I got home to try them, so I made some quick not-art on the go.

Day 52. Acrylic paint, colored foil I'd received for New Year's. I textured the orange and yellow foils, then painted over the texture and removed some of the paint. I also only used pieces of the foils to cover the ATC-sized board, and put blue and orange paints in the spaces between.

Day 53. Marker, ballpoint pen, pencil.

Day 54. Foil candy wrappers, marker.

Day 55. 'Illogical'. Marker on ATC-sized card. I'm using a lot more ATC-sized cards since I'm almost out of the business-card sized boards I've been using since the beginning, and because I was given a plentiful supply of ATC sized ones for New Years. My family knows how much I love my Not-Art project.

Day 56. Block printing ink, acrylic paint.

Day 57. Tackling yet again the Skyy vodka color scheme.

Day 58. 'Window'. Oil pastel.

Day 59. 'Sodden'. Acrylic paint on ATc-sized paper. I had glopped rather too much paint onto the board, and didn't like how it looked, so I laid the paper face down onto a piece of scrap paper, then peeled it off, effectively removing about half the paint and introducing a neat effect. I repeated this step several times, thus distributing the paint colors, then put a few swipes of bluish-lavender and white paint around the corners. It felt finished then.

Color challenge finals: Winged Lions of the Ishtar Gate

2011-01-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

The final challenge was using the colors of the Ishtar Gate, one of the wonders of ancient Mesopotamia. With its rich blues and golds, this was possibly my favourite color palette to work with, and so I gathered all the true blues from my bead drawer.

Another part of the gate contains lighter, more turquoise blues, and winged figures, so I also took out turquoises, and found an old wing charm. The charm was copper, but I transformed it with the simple application of fine gold paint.

A tube of brick stitch at each end provides the base, connected by many strands of the blue beads, interspersed with glinting gold. A glittering gold chain around the neck finishes the necklace.

Color challenge finals: Lilies Fresco

2011-01-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

This is part of a fresco on some island, probably in Greece or Mesopotamia. I worked on designs for other palettes first, as this color scheme and the art itself was rather unexciting to me. Not to mention I don't have many rusts, mustards, creams or that indeterminate gray-green. But when I stopped thinking about what I thought I saw in the colors, and looked really hard to see what was actually there in the palette, I saw more to work with. Grays and oranges, ideas of natural themes and sedimentary layers began forming, and, as I always do, I remembered some things that 'had been sitting around a while' in the palette. I pulled out some taupe faux suede lacing, copper-lined seed beads, a finely-carved serpentine leaf, a smooth river pebble, banded orange agate drops, dull gold silk... But when I found the champagne-colored, double-drilled mother of pearl stick, I was reminded of Marcie Abney's 'Snowy Peaks' design (featured in the latest issue of Stringing magazine) and knew I had a good start.

Her necklace features a single pendant suspended from a double-drilled bar, connected with wire to multiple strands of seed beads. My design would need more than one pendant to include all the important colours, so I arranged several elements into a harmonious-looking collage, and beaded them together. I bezeled the river rock first with copper 11s, then attached the leaf and the agate teardrop to it. Next, I ran a strand of 11s from the top of the bezeled stone into each of the bar's holes, making a loop of seed beads to capture the pale honey and striped agate marquise drops to either side. Lastly, I made copper loops to suspend the whole assembly from a strap made of the faux suede lacing and gold silk, knotted, intertwined, and finished with a silver toggle studded with tiny green crystals.

A new holiday tradition!

2011-01-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

My family's holiday traditions are somewhat strange. We celebrate Christmas on New Year's, have never done Santa Claus, and eschew 'Miracle on 34th Street' in favor of WWE's Christmas special wrestling programme Tribute to the Troops. Yes, we like entertainment wrestling. It's a guilty pleasure, except I don't feel guilty about it at all.

This year I had an idea--instead of the gingerbread house that hasn't gotten made in years, I wanted to make a wrestling ring covered with candy! Yes, we watch WWE's Monday night RAW program every week. Five years ago, I would never, ever have predicted we'd become wrestling fans, but long story short, here we are.

On New Year's day, work began on the ring. I ahad settled on cinnamon and chocolate graham crackers for the structure, instead of gingerbread--saves so much time on preliminaries. My brothers Isaac and Elijah provided invaluable help with structural engineering, planning a stage layout that would support itself without a bothersome box support. It involved carefully-layered vertical graham cracker supports under the stage, and a lot of caramels. We wanted as much of the ring as possible to be edible. Above is the ring's bare-bones structure. Isaac wrote 'W.com' on the side in royal icing, and wrapped the pink twine around the candy cane ringposts.

Here is the finished ring, all covered in random chocolate candy on the sides, with multicolored gummy candy on the floor of the ring itself, sort of like the rainbow lights in wrestler John Morrison's showy entrance display.

Another view of the ring from the front, with 'RAW' added. Look carefully to the right and you can see graham crackers gluing--it's going to be the announcers' table that gets landed on by wrestlers in particularly good main-event fights..

I took a lot of pictures.

The finished display, complete with candy-covered announcers' table and even a caramel wrestler figure with championship belt. This is a testament to my sculpting skills, or lack of them. ;) I had the foresight to stick him in the fridge to make him stiff enough to stand up, and Isaac put toothpicks in him as armatures, and got him to stand upright in the ring.

Caramel guy can be any wrestler we want. Right now he's 'Randy Candy Orton', after wrestler Randy Orton. His is the only name that we can connect with candy. It ought to be Randy Kandy Orton (because his initials are RKO) but I can't bear to substitute Ks for Cs, so Candy it is.

Announcers' table.

After it was all finished, pictures taken and the ring was suitable admired by all, we did what naturally happens to wrestling equipment--trashed it! Demolished by the fist of justice. Now for the table. In wrestling, wrestlers land on top of the table, sending equipment flying. We couldn't do that level of stuntwork, but we did the next best thing--took the caramel guy, renamed him The Miz, after a hated wrestler, placed him on the announcers' table, and smashed the table with him on top.

Then we ate the wreckage.

Happy holidays and new year, y'all.

Scott Pilgrim vs. Totally Unbelievable Social Interaction

2011-01-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

After missing it in theaters (mostly due to procrastination), I finallly saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. It was a totally cute story with amazing visuals and conceptual stuff. I also liked how it was randomly set in Canada. I do like to be reminded of the world outside the US and Great Britain (or whatever the proper term is for England and all its more or less affiliated countries like Scotland and Wales).
The one thing about it was I had to keep reminding myself to not take it seriously, especially its depiction of social stuff. Knowing the girl at the coffeeshop is one thing, but sharing a one-room apartment, including BED, with one's decidedly non-romantic male roommate, that's just ridiculous. And the part when Scott goes into the party or club or whatever it was, first sees his Emotionally-Distant Pixie Dream Girl Ramona, then goes and asks random people who she is, actually expecting them to know who he's talking about and give him answers, that was absurdly unbelievable. But as long as I remembered that it wasn't supposed to be a remotely realistic portrayal of social interaction, I had a great time watching it.

Color challenge finals: The Pink Tablecloth

2011-01-03T08:51:00.000-08:00

The Pink Tablecloth was tough in terms of colors--I had almost no colors in peach, light teal or gray, but I managed to scrounge up some materials without buying anything especially for the piece.

I started the design process by thinking about the lines of the painting--clean lines, some curved, some straight. I decided to model the piece after an old necklace design featuring a pendant inside a round wire frame, suspended from ribbons.

I dug out some fibers: light yellow chenille and fuzzy gray yarn, plus a strand of sky blue 11s spaced with 3mm amber glass beads, and a gray silk ribbon. Now for the fun part. I had a silver double-sided pendant bezel into which I glued a tiny round section of bead embroidery, done in blue, cream, charcoal and mustard seed beads, with a few milky yellow teardrops for textural interest.

On the other side, I put in a peach shimmerstone! Instead of a round wire frame, I made it rectangular to balance the flowing curves of the fibers. On the bottom I wrapped some pale pink chalcedony beads, and I connected the frame to the fibers with diamond-shaped links, from which hung sky blue crystal rivoli drops.

Finals color challenge: Titian's 'Venus of Urbino'

2011-01-01T17:01:00.000-08:00

The second piece for the Margie & Me finals uses the colors from Titian's 'Venus of Urbino'.

The painting features rich reds, pale flesh and linen tones, set against rich browns and blacks. Though the palette emphanizes the reds, I chose a different route, focusing on the contrast of the pales against the darker hues, resulting in this necklace.

I started with some transparent frosted pale pink glass hoops, linked with handmade ivory glass beads and silverlined brown Delicas. It was tricky making the links--the Delicas kept falling through the large holes of the rondelles as I tried to square-stitch them. I pulled out a chocolate brown beaded bead out of my stash for one side of the glass chain, and stitched a black toggle bar for the other side.

My favourite part of this piece is the woven rope here. It's right angle weave done with long frosted black bugles and size 8s, embellished on both sides with a 4.5mm pearls, silver-lined brown Delicas, frosted dark pink Delicas and copper-lined 11s.

Color Challenge Finals: The Lady & the Unicorn

2010-12-30T07:55:00.000-08:00

As promised, here is the first of the five pieces I created for the Margie & Me Finals.

The first piece from which I decided to take my color cues was the tapestry 'The Lady & the Unicorn', with its rich rust, lapis blue, gold and pine green palette. This was immediately a challenge, as I had few rust reds/oranges in my bead collection, but I solved it by thinking beyond beads, instead selecting a carved red agate flower as the focal, allowing me to need only a few actual beads in similar hues.

Bead embroidery was clearly the way to go. Not only did it afford me a lot of flexibility in bead use, the densely stitched nature visually related to the needleweaving of the tapestry itself.
For the pendant I used a few brown goldstone beads, a small quantity of frosted silverlined rust orange 11s, several intense orange-red faceted carnelian coins, 2mm lapis rounds, gold 11s, and frosted/silverlined and transparent 11s in jade green. I stitched them in more or less a structured pattern, endeavoring to mirror the overall shapes similar on each side without putting too much pressure on myself to make them 'identical'. After all, the tapestry isn't mirror-identical on each side either.
I finished the piece by stitching a gold right-angle-weave tube bail, edged with the last of the frosted orange 11s, and made a simple neck strap of citrine chips and rectangles spaced with gold 11s, interspersed with the remaining goldstone beads. I punched another set of holes in a pair of enamelled-blue copper drops, and used them as 'caps' to the strap, a nod to the blue tent in the tapestry.

Not-Art 46-49

2010-12-30T07:33:00.000-08:00

Day 46. Marker. Some kind of Pac-Man crazy is going on, plus Xs for stitches.

Day 47. Paper, marker. Not my finest hour, I was in a hurry.

Day 48. Rollerball pen. These doodles are always fun to do, and I got into the spirit after a bit--you can see the music motion in the lower left corner, and a feathery, pine-branchy thing.

Day 49. Paper, rollerball ink.

My Marcie, Margie & Me Finals Color Throwdown

2010-12-29T07:44:00.000-08:00

I've been so enjoying participating in Marcie's 'Margie & Me' color challenges, so when the most recent one was announced as a Finals challenge of sorts, with prizes even, I was so excited! The gist of it was, instead of having two weeks to make a piece or two from one palette, those of us who chose to participate had a choice of FIVE palettes, with four weeks to design and make a piece using one of the palettes. You can read the original post here.

Well, I usually make two pieces for the two-week challenges and still can hardly wait for the 'big reveal', so I made it a goal to make FIVE pieces--one per palette, and choose the best one to submit to the contest. (The rules were later amended to allow multiple entries/palettes per person.) I dallied around (er, I mean, tried to design) for the remainder of the week, and got to actually beading when I had about two weeks left.

The rules were to use the palettes prescribed, but I added some guidelines of my own: try to reflect some of the visual ideas of the art providing the palette, and use supplies I already own. Let me tell you, I'm not always that great at designing around a color AND imagery theme on a deadline, and with two weeks to design and finish FIVE pieces, no less. But I finished the last of the pieces with a few days to spare! No late-night beading sessions to make the deadline! I felt almost like I had completed a college assignment.

The Big Reveal is tomorrow. At that time, I shall dedicate a post to each piece. In the meantime, here's a little piece made in the Ishtar Gate challenge palette. It's not one of the entries, just a little ring I made while messing around with Marcie's 'Solstice' pattern published in the current issue of Beadwork.

Not-Art 37-45

2010-12-29T06:47:00.000-08:00

Day 37. Paper, rollerball ink, old stamp from envelope.

Day 38. 'Constellation'. Marker, rollerball ink. I just drew a random pattern of dots, not thinking at all, then randomly connected them and it ended up looking like a constellation. I always liked making up my own better than trying (and failing) to find them.

Day 39. 'Test'. Paper, rollerball ink, marker.
Because I am more than what fits in the box, more than numbers and letters could ever say.

Day 40. Paper, marker.

Day 41. Block printing ink. This stuff isn't meant to be used as paint, but I did anyway. Took several days to dry.

Day 42. Paper, rollerball ink, glitter, white glue, block printing ink.
I think I used some paper from the inside of a bill envelope.

Day 43. Paper, block printing ink, marker.

Day 44. 'You Don't Need TWO Ears!' Marker, acrylic paint.
My near-obssession with Labyrinth continues. I am quite fond of the pyromaniac Chilly Down stoner monkeys with their various removable limbs and innocent yet nightmarish games. My favourite part is when one disembodied head follows Sarah as she climbs up a wall, insisting 'What about your ears? You don't need TWO ears!'. So I painted a chaos of orange, red and pink tones like the monkeys, dotted with pairs of eyes and a stray tail.

Day 45. Paper, oil pastel. I think the curtain is coming up on the sun, with a blue handkerchief in the foreground. Or something. There's a reason I call this stuff not-art.

Not-Art Daily 34-36

2010-12-16T20:15:00.000-08:00

Day 34. Rocket paint, acrylic paint.

Day 35. Paper, rollerball pen, rocket paint, nail polish, India ink.

Day 36. Leather, marker, India ink.

Fun with ball chain

2010-12-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been doing a lot with ball chain. Yes, all the little silver beads you see are actually ball chain, not beads. I used 26 gauge wire to wrap a piece of ball chain is wrapped around a 20 gauge wire frame, adding other wireworking finishing and embellishing, such as wire loop-de-loops, bits of leftover chain, bead dangles (a great way to use those precious briolettes that always seem not right or too special to use), etc. I have two sizes of ball chain; 1mm and 2.5mm.

The 1mm chain was what I used first, on the orange carnelian drop earrings and the purple crescent earrings. It was a bit time-consuming at first, wrapping the chain around the frame, but after I got into the swing of things, it went fast. I had so much fun, I looked around for more chain to use.

Then I remembered some larger ball chain (the 2.5mm size) that Etsy seller ImJewelee had graciously included as a free gift in my order (she does that for repeat customers) and dug it out of my drawer. I made several more pairs of earrings, using up more briolettes (this time, a stunning pair of rose quartz kites), and a sterling silver carnelian earring drop.

Then I made a cuff and a pair of earrings with peacock pearl dangles, wrapping ball chain on BOTH sides of the wire.

The last pair is not made with red chain, but with coral beads strung onto wire and wired onto a frame in the same way. It was a bit more of a challenge, as the coral rounds tended to not want to stay in place, but having had so much practice with wrapping the chain already, it wasn't much of a stretch.

Catching up on Not-Art

2010-12-14T19:59:00.000-08:00

Day 25. Collage, paper, rollerball pen, marker. This is one of my favourites, and somewhat closer to my definition of art. The paper scraps are cut up bits of old lists and things I wrote.

Day 26. Marker. I'd been watching Labyrinth that day (no, nobody give me any funny looks, there's more to the movie than David Bowie as the goblin king) so you can sort of see the spirals and angles as 'walls' complete with openings.

Day 27. Colored pencil and oil pastel.

Day 28. Oil pastel. Vaguely inspired by African mud cloth.

Day 29. Acrylic paint. I meant for this to be mostly blue but other colors insisted on getting involved.

Day 30. I started out angry, thus the base of varied reds. Got happier as I painted, thus the orange, pink and burgundy. Added bits of green for color theory.

Day 31. Marker and rollerball. Made this during Monty Python.

Day 32. Liquid shimmer, eyeshadow, eyeliner and lipstick.

Day 33. Silk, marker. I call it 'Jerusalem' because I made this during yet more Monty Python, and man do those guys have some kind of obsession with the song.

Day 34. Bronze rocket paint, acrylic paint.

Not-Art Daily 20--24

2010-12-05T09:55:00.000-08:00

Day 20. 'Makeup Box'. Acrylics, inspired by a page in a fashion magazine.

Day 21. 'Wormhole'. Acrylics. Inspired by the visuals of going through the Stargate, which sends travelers through a wormhole to other planets.

Day 22. Marker.

Day 23. Marker and ballpoint pen. I wasn't trying much that day.

Day 24. 'Let It Burn'. Marker and rollerball pen.

Islamic Architecture Inspirations

2010-12-04T11:48:00.000-08:00

Marcie Abney's latest 'Margie & Me' color challenge featured Islamic architecture as the inspiration for the participants. The colors were predominantly turquoise blues, accented with cream, cobalt, coral and lavender. For the first piece, I picked up some slightly dusky 6/o seed beads, square stitched them into a three-row strip, then sewed it into a three-sided rope. I gave it a natural curving shape around the wrist by stitching coral-colored size 11s between every other top bead, then accented the sides with a loop of cream and frosted cobalt beads. The bracelet is finished with a magnetic clasp (and safety chain).

The second piece, I decided to go brighter turquoise instead of the dusky blue. Some of the windows and scrollwork in the inspiration photos feature fancy diamond shapes, so it seemed fitting to brick stitch around one of my silver diamond shapes. I stitched a tiny line of black 15s as the 'core' row, then did cobalt, dusky lavender, turquoise 8/o hexes, and finished with my few remaining coral 11s. I ran a textured large jumpring through the space between the two sides of the turquoise hexes, and suspended the pendant from a neck strap made with leftover 6s and 8s, turning into a loop of cream Delicas.

I made another necklace in the last few days before the 'big reveal' date--a simple peyote/herringbone triangle done in turquoise, cobalt and cream seed beads, accented with a single hyacinth AB2X Swarovski bead. I used more of my diamond links at each corner, accenting the bottom one with a lavender crystal, and connecting others with scraps of cable chain for a minimal approach while remaining true to the challenge theme.

Publication is such a thrill!

2010-11-30T13:00:00.000-08:00

Today when I got home from work, I pulled into the driveway as a UPS truck pulled out. I wondered what the package was, but when I saw my name as the addressee, with Kalmbach Publishing as the return address, I got a little excited, albeit puzzled. Was it a free magazine issue from one of the numerous free-trial cards I'd filled out? Was it a sheaf of papers gently admonishing me for signing up for free trials time and again without actually subscribing (not likely)? Then I remembered something, and eagerly tore into the package.

Sure enough, it was an advance copy of the newest issue of BeadStyle--sent to me because it features THREE of my earring designs in the new earring gallery!

Now I am off to relax and read the rest of the magazine!

Not-Art 15-19 and an announcement!

2010-11-29T19:21:00.000-08:00

Announcement first, as I'm too excited to wait--I've opened a second store! Now you can get shimmerstone jewelry from my Etsy shop AND my new shop on Artfire! http://www.artfire.com/users/BrightCircle

In celebration, the first customer at my Artfire will receive a free pair of earrings with their purchase!

Number 15. Conte crayon.Trying my hand at sketching a postcard of a beautiful woman with flowing hair, done by local artist Gabriel Pons. Well, his postcard was of a beautiful Asian woman. This one ended up a lopsided Asian girl (sorry Gabriel! I promise I'm not trying to sell this!). I'm far more comfortable with abstracts than I am with sketching, which is why I occasionally sketch--to get out of my comfort zone. I just tried to sketch what I saw, not what I thought I knew, and as a result, the mouth is fairly good for someone at my level.

Number 16. Acrylic paint. Inspired by a magazine clipping of a city block glowing neon at night, with a golden building as the focal point.

Number 17. Acrylic paint. Inspired by the show Fringe, with its dichotomy and twin realities, one represented by blue, the other by red, each with elements of the other mixed in, and a blurry dividing line. Everybody, tune your TVs/DVRs to Friday nights, and let's keep Fringe on the air!

Number 18. Acrylic paint. Inspired by an ad for, believe it or not, Skyy vodka. The ad was a startling image of glossy red boots, and a cobalt blue bottle against a bright yellow background

Number 19, today's painting. As you may have guessed by now, acrylic paint yet again. I really like the paints, the saturated colors, and how well they cover the drab beige of the original chipboard. Perhaps I will grow to love the other media as much when I have a white canvas to work on. Or, white chipboard. This was inspired by the cover of the album 'Wake Up And Smell The Coffee' by Irish band the Cranberries, most known for 'Dreams', 'Zombie', 'Linger', and 'Ridiculous Thoughts'.

Non-art Daily 12-14

2010-11-25T05:50:00.000-08:00

Acrylic paint, consciously experimenting with color complements--multiple shades of blue paired with a smidge of orange, on a pale yellow background and an edging of lime green.

Acrylic paint. I started with a white background, added a wide stripe of maroon and decided that pink would go nicely, as would golden yellow.

Marker and, experimenting with different materials, a bit of blue eyeshadow. Somebody made fun of some lyrics to a song they knew was special to me, just because they didn't like the band. I think that's very uncool. Hating on a band is one thing, dissing lyrics you KNOW means a lot to someone else--that's different. I don't go around dissing song lyrics special to them, no matter how respected or scorned THEIR favourite band is. The band in question is Hanson, and that's their symbol on the left. I was, for lack of a better word, inspired to write 'NO ONE' on the right. I'm not sure what it means. But it has to do with my feelings of how it's not cool to make fun of people's special songs.

Non-Art and a new piece

2010-11-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

This is yesterday's non-art. Done in acrylic, thinking about Islamic architecture and colors. If I'm going for realism, I think I need something smaller than my fingers to paint with.

Today's non-art, done in colored pencil. Inspired by a FusionBeads ad.

This is the centerpiece of a new necklace. It's bead embroidered center, connected to brick stitch circles with a ribbon strap and peyote button closure.

It's also my latest experiment in using complementary colors. This one was challenging because it's difficult to design with red and green without being drab or Christmasy. I found that softening the red to shades of pink with hints of red, plus a soft green, a touch of neutral, and burgundy ribbon, works much better than, say, using equal parts bright green and bright red.

Non-Art Daily 7-9

2010-11-19T20:48:00.000-08:00

Night before last, I was feeling unhappy so I made some big bold blue marker lines, then scribbled. It actually looks like the seed of a better idea later on.

The night after, I was feeling much happier after seeing Megamind (that movie makes me very happy), so while I still used marker instead of breaking out the paints, I got a little more artistically calculated--I tried harder to turn out something halfway decent (for me).

Today I was feeling extra gratified from the new Harry Potter movie, and had some extra time, so I broke out the paints. A low-saturation yellow background, orange stripe, cobalt, periwinkle and turquoise patches, with a bit of eggplant purple.

Guess I still have blue on the brain from yesterday's adorable little blue alien supervillain.

Non-Art Daily 4-6

2010-11-17T12:03:00.000-08:00

Monday's non-art, inspired by a DIY design book I read on break during my first 8-hour shift for my current job.I used rollerball pen, and black and silver sharpie markers.

I did this one late last night, tired from what felt like a long workday (even though it was a normal shift). I've doodled like this on garden rocks and book covers, but never a non-art before. Plus, it was too late in the night to be pulling out the paints. Done in indigo sharpie. I finished doing the silver embellishment this afternoon.

Non-Art Daily, Nov 14

2010-11-14T20:29:00.000-08:00

Yes, two posts on the same day, having to do with my Non-Art project. It's just that I'm catching up and had to finish today's piece.

Using acrylics again, I took inspiration from another FusionBeads ad, but this time it turned out pretty much nothing like the original ad. I used aubergine, purples, some pink, a bit of cobalt blue, touches of yellow and managed to mix a tan/brown to moderate all the bright colour. Topping it all off are splashes of bright scarlet, which also rims the painting. This painting turned out fairly chaotic, but I tried to keep both a sense of movement with the big aubergine stripe, and balance/unity with the repeated splotches of scarlet along with matching frame.

The inspiration was this ad:

Non-Art Daily projects 1-3

2010-11-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

I've made peace with the contrast in my skills at drawing and painting, and my desire to use art supplies. Who cares about my skill level, I'm going to have fun with paints and conte crayons and pastels and coloured pencils and graphite sticks and what-have-you! This will also be a good opportunity to learn more about how colour works.
I have a set of business-card-sized particle boards, and I have decided to produce one piece of not-art per day, and blog about it.
My first piece was inspired by a visit to a local art exhibition featuring bright colours, childlike shapes and a cheery feel. Here is a postcard of the exhibition:

Here is my first piece of non-art, done in acrylic paint, photographed on a piece of blank particle board. I wasn't sure what to do with paintbrushes (dip them in water to keep them clean?) so I just used my fingers and a makeshift palette instead. I used a lime green background, with dots of white like in the postcard, but went my own way the rest of the way. I put a red blotch in the lower left corner, an orange squiggle above it, and added some dark, low-value aubergine dots.

The second Non-Art piece was inspired by a magazine ad for FusionBeads company, using a lot of black, gray, white and oranges.

Here is what I made. Using what I think are conte crayons, I started with the same graceful lines and circles, but inevitably branched out, using intense blues to complement the orange tones.

Yesterday's Non-Art Daily is representative, or tries to be. :D I had a few hours to spend in Old Town, so I walked about the streets, exploring little shops: some filled with Christmas things, some with art, crafts and accessories from exotic lands, and some with good solid food--just my kind of afternoon. One such shop had a side door opening onto a little alleyway with tables, and yellow lights strung overhead (the yellow didn't show up very well), and it's that alleyway I attempted to draw, again in conte crayon. I sat down at one of the tables (I could only fit one into the drawing) and made notes of the colours I saw, and an even more primitive sketch of the approximate layout.

Nobody try to make me feel better about my abilities; I already feel fine. :) It's very freeing to let go of the pressure to 'be good'. This Non-Art project isn't about being good or even halfway-decent. It's about having fun, and I'm doing just that!

Inspired by 'Adoration of the Magi'

2010-11-13T09:26:00.000-08:00

What was I going to do with Marcie's latest Margie & Me challenge? The artwork she posed to us as a challenge was the 'Adoration of the Magi', at left. Lots of golds and oranges with ultramarine and lighers blues, and optional green. She also said to 'think shiny'. So I dug out my metal-lined seed beads, deep blue pearls, and at last--those gold plated fancy beads i bought a couple years ago, waiting for Project Right.

And what a project it was!
I had just gotten a silverplated 'pendant blank' waiting to be filled with whatever I wanted, so I decided to do a small piece of bead embroidery and set it into the blank. I need the practice, andd working with such a small space (instead of the usual majestic scale of most bead embroidery) frees me AND brings it down into doability at this stage. Setting a small piece of bead embroidery into a metal frame also sets the piece solidly as 'jewelry' rather than a piece of beadwork that the creator has made wearable. I prefer my jewelry to be jewelry first, beadwork second.
I chose to finish the necklace with a simple bead chain, using ornate gold beads and a touch of deep blue glass. The freeform nature (and all the shiny colours) of the bead embroidery conveys the exuberance of the original painting, while the metal setting and gold bead chain reference the time period's preference for fancy adornments. The ultramarine adds another touch of art history--the lapis lazuli stone used to be ground up to make the ultramarine pigments, resulting in the rich blues you see in paintings just like this.

My second challenge piece focused more on the golds. I square-stitched around a shimmerstone glass cabochon with size 6 blue beads, then added gold and frosted burnt orange seed beads, and a line of green just below the orange (you can see a touch of it in the photo). I sewed the cab onto a rubbery hair elastic.

In a state of excitement for color theory

2010-11-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

Lately I've really been focusing on color theory. I've also been using loop fringe. Blue and orange are complementary on the color wheel, so my challenge was to make something based in blue and orange that DIDN'T look terrible (I have difficulties with complementary colors). One trick I learned from reading all those books on color was to use multiple shades of complementaries, plus a neighboring color.
I made a pair of earrings first, then a matching necklace.

I decided that orange was going to be the main point of the earrings, with yellow as the neighboring colour, so I used a 'backbone' of matte, almost-cobalt blue cubes to stitch the fringe through. I used 5 shades of orange and 2 shades of yellow, in 3 finishes. Then I stitched silverlined light-cobalt 15s through the blue cubes, so the backbone had a visual element (the silver lining) in common with the fringe.
For the earrings, I folded up loops of fringe at the top and bottom. On one side, I added a large pearl, and on the other, a jumpring for the ear hoop.

For the necklace, I ran a simple blue satin cord through the top half of the loops, gathering the loops like ruffles. The resulting necklace slightly resembles an ancient collar, perhaps Egyptian or Minoan.

Marcie, Margie & Me colour challenge

2010-10-31T15:01:00.000-07:00

Having discovered Marcie Abney's blog, La Bella Joya and her ongoing Margie and Me color-themed challenge, I've been working with colours I would not have otherwise paired. The latest challenge was to be inspired by a Rococo church ceiling shown above, incorporating pale blues, pinks and golds.
I made two pieces. The first was this crystal pendant in mellow gold, with a royal blue peyote/herringbone bail accented with gold in its 'spine'. The pink came from a pair of faceted glass beads at the point of the bail, and the satin cord on which the pendant hangs.

I've been doing a lot of loop fringe lately, so I decided to make a loop fringe pendant in the challenge colours. Since my bead box has its limits, I used the colours I needed in the shapes I had: cubes, hexes, delicas and Czech size 11s.

I started with sea blue 6s, then added matte medium and sky blue cubes, medium blue AB 6s, pink hexes, a mix of pink Delicas, then gold Delicas and copper AB Czech 11s. I sewed a path of pink Delicas down the center, added a pink octagon Swarovski crystal, and finished the piece with a sky blue satin cord.
Thanks Marcie and Margie--this was a great exercise in creativity!

Going in a new direction.

2010-10-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

Lots of jewelry people do craft shows. I've done craft shows, and finally decided that I like going to them better than doing them. I might do one more small one, but am now concentrating on doing home parties. More intimate, more relaxed, more social, better in most every way.

I'm looking now for people to host parties. It's a great opportunity to earn some money, as you get a percentage of the sales, plus free jewelry and other perks. If you live in Northern VA and are interested in hosting a Bright Circle party, leave a comment or message me on Etsy for more details. I can't wait to get started!

Here we are, a week later

2010-10-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

Rather than bore you with stories of why I haven't posted in about a week, I'll skip straight to what I did this weekend.
Friday night I went to a community theatre production of a medley of Broadway songs with a friend and our respective mothers (who preferred sitting in the car talking, over the actual program. Whatever works, right?). It was a lovely evening.
Saturday I attended the yearly Crafty Bastards show in DC, a gathering full of quirky, offbeat (and occasionally off-colour) crafts and crafters. I had marked my calendar for this show months in advance, and was quite excited. So excited, I was willing to walk the almost-mile from the nearest Metro station to get there!
Many of the crafters there were from Etsy, and some of them I had met from attending last year, or had already 'met' in the Etsy forums, including as Spiderbite, ScenicArtisan and StrawberryLuna. I admired clothing from The Devil Made Me Do It, almost bought a teal silkscreened tee from MaryInk to go with the gray key tee I bought from them last year, and bought an oversize graphic print tee from The Bare Tree.
I was utterly entranced by Robin Delaloye's Bookstruction booth--she makes sculptures out of old unwanted library books!
Other totally cool booths at which I lingered include (but are not limited to):
Lillian Crowe Jewelry
Loyalty and Blood
RotorCaps
The Black Spot Books

Having discovered a great new site, EtsyOnSale, I'm also running a 20% off sale all week on my Shimmerstone Earrings section in my shop. Now's your excuse to buy my stuff. You know you want to!

What did you do with your weekend?

2010-09-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

I've been working on more art-themed jewelry and beaded objects for a gallery show, and just put the finishing touches on a necklace inspired by Julie Taymor's Beatles-music film 'Across The Universe'. A wild strawberry shaped centerpiece done in crazy brick stitch on a black bead chain wasn't quite enough--so I added a 'fan' of black beads behind the green leaf part.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at a craft show that's reputed as one of the best on the East Coast. I haven't been to enough craft shows to comment on that reputation, but it WAS pretty nice. I saw floral wall plaques made of enameled metal nails, artisan soaps/bath products, sampled champagne jelly and stopped by the local bead shop, where I picked up some teal frosted teardrop beads, a yellow calcite donut and a pair of white quartz donuts. I already have an idea percolating for the calcite, and the quartz will probably become a bold pair of earrings.

What are you doing with your weekend?

Whatever Wednesday: Catching Up

2010-09-22T08:04:00.000-07:00

On this Whatever Wednesday, I'm going to do a quick couple of mini-posts of some of the posts that I meant to do earlier this week: Song Sunday, Movie Monday, Teaser Tuesday.

Song Sunday:
Born to Run by (who else, duh) Bruce Springsteen. Yeah, we've all heard this at least once. I recently had occasion to look up the lyrics and I confirmed a lyric I thought I'd heard him sing about 'strap your hands round my engines (no thanks Bruce, not that I don't love the song) and discovered I'd never noticed: the song is addressed to a person named Wendy.

Movie Monday:
The last movie I watched was Danny Boyle's 'The Beach' (from 2000, I think). This was the first time I'd seen any of Boyle's movies, and though there were a couple missteps, I conclude that he's a good filmmaker. The movie had a delicate, ever-present sense of distant but impending doom of some sort, increasing as the film neared its end. It starred a young Leonardo Dicaprio (who I learned from Inception and later, Romeo + Juliet, is actually good), the always-superb Tilda Swinton and featured a haunting turn by Robert Carlyle in an instrumental supporting role.

Teaser Tuesday:

"Do you understand any of that?"
I had to confess I did not. (Also, at the edge of my mind a picture briefly took shape: Uncle Eustace scrambling up the mountains of Samoa to sell Robert Louis Stevenson a tombstone.) --from 'The Gawgon and the Boy' by Lloyd Alexander

Tutorial Thursday: Scooplets

2010-09-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to BeadOrigami's awesome Bubble Beaded Beads tutorial, I've been on a beaded bead roll these past few months! After a few bubble beads and variations thereof, I moved on to a basic embellished 'plum blossom' design, adapting the widely-used pattern with strategic bead placement/substitution, and a lot of experimentation. I now have a heap of them, and call them Scooplets, because they look just like tiny scoops of ice cream! I wear them individually on a simple cord or silk ribbon, or incorporate them into jewelry, as in my black and gold Final Mystery necklace.You can get tutorials on the Bubble Beaded Bead from BeadOrigami, 1BeadWeaveror a number of the sources linked above.

Each of these beads is the exact same basic pattern, varying only in the type of beads selected, and the amount/placement of embellishment. For example, in the gold and black necklace, I stitched the bead in the basic pattern, in 3mm beads, embellishing each hole except on each end.

The second pearl, gold and red necklace, I used pearls and increased the gold bead count to accomodate the longer pearls.

Continuing down clockwise, I used 3mm beads and long teardrops in the orange bead.

The aqua bubbly bead used 4mm beads and fringe seed beads, plus some silver 11/o embellishments.

The next bead uses 6x4mm crystal rondelles in the main body, and 4mm firepolish at each end. A silk ribbon was strung with a teardrop dangle, then both ribbon ends were strung through the scooplet, hanging the scooplet vertically.

The last bead uses 4mm and 3mm beads, the 4mm beads used along the 'equator' of the bead, creating a saucer shape, rather than a round.

Whatever Wednesday

2010-09-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Whatever Wednesday: in which I talk about, well, whatever. Like what's on my library shelf. I've got 'Cook Yourself Thin' and have tried several recipes from it, all delicious. Try the turkey burger and sweet potato fries. I've never liked sweet potatoes but now I may be a convert, at least where seasoned oven fries are concerned. The turkey-bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich is also excellent, and I plan to try the baked peaches soon.

I'm also re-reading Tamora Pierce's 'In The Hand of the Goddess', second in a medieval fantasy series about a girl who becomes a knight. The prose is so-so, but I read this series as a teenager and it's like comfort food,

The last book on my library shelf is 'Whatcha Mean, What's A Zine?' by Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson. It's all about zines (mini self-published magazines); the history, what you can write in one, various ways of making one, publishing it, getting together with other zinesters. I write a zine, called ReWrite and though it's been out of print due to lack of printer, it's about time for another issue now that I have a printer.

I also have a DVD out, of the Twilight movie. Having had so much fun watching New Moon, yelling at the weird dialogue and throwing chips at the screen whenever somebody was shirtless (which seemed to be 80% of the time), I thought maybe I'd try it with this one. Plus, the bad vampire with the dreads is in this, and he doesn't even get chomped by baby werewolves yet. I tried to watch it before, but just couldn't. Maybe I will this time.

I'm oddly of two minds regarding the series (which I freely admit I have never read, I just sort of followed the story from the outside). I like some things (like Jacob, Bella's truck, her father, mother, Alice and most of the Cullens). I don't like other things (looking at Edward, Bella's disregard for her own soul and the wishes of someone she's supposed to love, her idea that being a vampire isn't a state of being but a matter of convenience). Oddly, I want to like her. I credit Kristen Stewart's eyes. I look at them and somehow believe. Believe what, I'm not sure. I do like Bella better after having ducked into Eclipse for a minute and seen part of the quilt scene with her mother.

I have this fantasy that the Twilight series is actually a series of prequel novels to 'the main story' set 20 years later, in which Bella is a powerful vampire queen, deadly enemies with Edward, and separated from the baby, possibly raised by Jacob or at least watched over, Ben Kenobi-style. I think Bella's true potential lies in villainy, and I do mean that as a compliment.

The Final Mystery

2010-09-12T13:31:00.000-07:00

The other day, I sat down to finally make a bracelet that my sister had sketched for me, to use the special Sphinx gold bead from Green Girl Studios (I have a bit of a problem designing with Special Beads, which Green Girl beads always are). I dutifully pulled out the bag she'd put together containing all the beads required (gold bead, black lava coins, topaz crystal rondelles), and began to string theprescribed pattern of gold bead on the end, then alternating lava and crystal rondelles paired with tiny silver spacers.

But I found I didn't want to make a simple bracelet. Then inspiration hit me--I strung a topaz/gold Scooplet beaded bead in between the last two lava coins, and the necklace snowballed from there. I went on up the side of what I realized was fast becoming a necklace, stringing my remaining topaz crystal rondelles between silver spacers and gold seed beads, finishing with a flourish--a long loop of gold seed beads back down the strand. The other side would be a single strand, so to balance the lighter but double strand of the first side, I pulled out some darker topaz/amber pressed and faceted glass, ending again with a loop of seed beads connecting with the first loop. A gold filigree navette clasp near the sphinx bead completed the necklace.

The sphinx bead reads 'the final mystery is oneself'.

A quick thought about 'Inception'

2010-09-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

The idea of the movie 'Inception' is entering someone else's dream, and having some control over what happens there. I wonder if there isn't some subtext about movies themselves. After all, who doesn't feel transported into something else in that movie theater, and who doesn't feel like they've 'come back' when the movie lets out?

The joys of making it yourself!

2010-09-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

Having recently read the book 'Chain Style' from Interweave Press, I have chain on the brain. Having little ready-made chain on hand, I finally hit upon a new idea--using scraps of leftover wire to create handmade chain links, incorporating gem beads right on each link. The first bracelet I made with this chain used turquoise rondelles and silver cable chain, and reminded me a bit of lace.

Then I hit upon the idea of using chips instead of rondelles. I made a chain using polished garnet chips, with a stunning focal labradorite and garnet pendant from MoonBeadsVintage on Etsy.Instead of making a chain long enough to go all the way around the neck, I made the garnet chain long enough to adorn the front of the neck, paired it with a strand of grey labradorite ovals to complement the stone pendant, and finished the necklace with handmade links of earthy leather, clamped together with silver bands and a handmade wire clasp.

Something I love about this chain is how the beads seem to dance and float, complementing without overpowering! I foresee many of these chains in my future. Ah, the joys of doing it yourself.

I've been reading those fashion magazines again, somebody stop me!

2010-09-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

The autumn/winter season is starting, in the fashion world as well as the regular one. With the season come the legendary 'September issues' of the fashion magazines and all the requisite 'update your style' columns. I'm wary of 'fashion' but open to true style, so I'm open to suggestion, and one of my favourite style columns is the 'new spin on old classic'.

The concept of new spin on old classic got me thinking about turquoise. A classic way to wear turquoise is combined with the tried-and-true orange carnelian.

An updated way is in my latest bracelet, featuring alternating chunks of earthy turquoise and upscale 'ruby' moonstone in place of the carnelian. The dyed moonstone beads are about the same intensity and 'color value' as carnelian, but the hot magenta shade provides a shot of freshness.

And I'll stop talking now, before somebody figures out that I'm just making up this fashion stuff as I go. Oops...

P.S. It just occurred to me that were this bracelet in a magazine, it'd be in the jewelry pages with a caption like 'at only $60, this bracelet is a steal!' Fashion editors, consider yourselves notified.

Tardy Teaser Tuesday

2010-09-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:
"Yeah." She grins. "Insanity. Brilliance. Such a touchy call. Look, Cameron, I'm just a messenger. I don't know everything. But I do know this: you're being given a chance. Take it and you might live. Stay here and you will surely die." Dulcie cuddles Mr. Bubbles Kitty, fluffing him with her fingers. "Whaddaya say--you, Gonzo, connecting the dots, finding Dr. X, getting a cure, saving the universe? You down, cowboy?"

from 'Going Bovine' by Libba Bray.

Triple strand pearl bracelet

2010-08-31T09:46:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago, I bought some chocolate-caramel-coloured pearl drops, made a three-strand bracelet with them, a few cream-colored coin pearls and smoky taupe crystals, and submitted it (along with many other jewelry pieces) to BeadStyle magazine in hopes they'd want to print it. Well, they wanted to print it! A few months ago, the special Pearl issue contained this bracelet.

Rarely do I repeat a design, but after seeing my Chocolate Caramel bracelet in print, I made a similar bracelet, substituting purple pearls for the caramel, and pink dyed 'jade' ovals for the coin pearls.

Host a Virtual Party and earn FREE Jewelry!

2010-08-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

Ever thought of hosting a jewelry party in your home? Not sure you have the time to cook, clean and get all your busy friends together at once? Problem solved. Have a Virtual Party with Bright Circle Jewelry. It's simple, fun and has great perks!

As the hostess all you have to do is invite your friends, family and coworkers to shop at their leisure and enjoy a surprise gift and free shipping on their order. I will provide you an email invitation with a 7 day shopping period of your choosing. Simply add a personal message and pass it along to everyone you know. The email will contain a link to my store and directions to redeem the free gift and shipping offer.

When your friends enter the code on the invitation at checkout, I will know that it was you who referred them. At the end of the week, I'll tally up the sales from your party and reward you with 20% of the total retail sales (before shipping) in store credit to use in my store!
There are other great incentives, contact me at bright.circle@yahoo.com for more details.

Fun with collage cuffs!

2010-08-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

I've done a fair bit of teaching beading classes at the local bead shop. One of my favourite classes to teach was the 'Wire Collage Cuff'; a simple wire cuff frame containing a wonderful assortment of any beads of your choosing. Making them was always very freeing.

The first one I made was a light-feeling cuff that looked like scarlet threads crisscrossing the wrist, on a zig-zagged frame.

The second used a straight frame and a big focal bead amongst blue tones mixed with dark steel and a touch of orange.

My most recent cuff I call 'Hard Candy'. Using a mix of bright orange and hot pink glass, it's my favourite version so far.

As promised, the tale of the swiss cheese washer!

2010-08-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, our treasured possessions really DO go through adventures of their own.

Several months ago, I made a bracelet with rock crystal drops, frosted glass, and a single crystal inside a silver washer with swiss-cheese holes in it. I loved that washer, and it had taken me a while to design something good with it, worthy of it but that I also liked to wear. This seemed the perfect design.

And then I lost it. Upon coming back home one day, I discovered the absence of my favourite bracelet. I was vaguely certain that I must have left it at the art gallery, perhaps in secret repose behind the aloe plant under the window, to be carried off by a mystified attendee and I would never see it again. I sighed and accepted the loss.

A few days ago on a rainy afternoon, I was bringing groceries in from the car. I happened to look down as I opened the passenger door, and saw the unmistakable shape of the silver washer gleaming up from the slightly-muddy gravel of the driveway! I bent down and fished it out, reclaiming a few stray quartz beads lying around the washer as well.

Instead of accidentally leaving it somewhere, the bracelet must have fallen out of the car (or my pocket) at some point after coming home from the art gallery, where it stayed for the next few months. The bracelet had evidently been driven over countless times during the months it laid on the driveway--the thread was long since broken, most of the rock crystal beads gone, and the silver centerpiece warped and scratched. But you know what? I hardly even cared, I was just so happy to have it back.

You know what else? The warping was kind of neat, lending the washer a new, organic feel instead of the slick, space-age look it had before. The scratches were less desirable, but the idea of organic inspired me to reclaim my washer by texturing it with a ball peen hammer! The hammered finish removes any evidence of previous scratches, and transforms the washer into an earthy pendant wonderful for layering or combining with other small flat objects.

Below, I combined it with another, smaller hammered washer in copper, and a sterling silver Maltese Iron Cross charm.

I hope to recreate the original bracelet someday, especially now that I know where to get more of these washers. But I'm also glad for having lost and found it, for without that experience, I might not have thought to to hammer it, or brave enough to try.

Inspired by the runway

2010-08-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I like to watch a bit of Project Runway, hoping for some inspiration as well as armchair critiquing of the designs themselves (not to mention Tim Gunn's motherly "make it work, designers"). But today my inspiration came, not from the runway fashions, but from the designers themselves. Mila was preparing for her show at Bryant Park, wearing a long necklace of a rectangle with fringe coming off the bottom. I was immediately struck by a desire to make a necklace similar to hers! I had no idea what her necklace was made of or how it was constructed, but I knew just how I'd make mine--in chainmail, with chain fringe. So here it is, my necklace inspired by Mila's, but designed by me.

Trading with sparklingshamrock

2010-08-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

The Beaducation booth at the Bead & Button show allowed me to play with their metal stamping supplies, and I went home with not only a new (free) component, but a desire to begin stamping metal of my own!
Last week I started making my desire a reality, trading with Etsy seller SparklingShamrock. She got a green crystal ring and a Dragon King shimmerstone from my shop, and I got some metal stamps, copper washers, hole punching pliers, silver charms and a blank copper dog tag from hers. I made my first stamped pendant as soon as I could, inscribing the word 'BOLD' on the tag. I've been a fearful, cautious person in the past, but this word reminds me to be a person who is bold enough to make mistakes, bold enough to take the risks that lead to success.

The pendant layers perfectly with other small or flat jewelry. Here, I combined it with the tiny Maltese Iron Cross charm from sparklingshamrock, and a hammered sterling washer with holes from my personal collection. That washer has a story of its own, but that's for tomorrow's entry. Stay tuned!

The party starts tomorrow!

2010-08-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

Yay! The online Bright Circle Jewelry party starts tomorrow! Seven days of shopping, freebies and perks are about to start!

Remember to RSVP in order to attend by leaving a comment here or on my Facebook fan page with your Etsy account name. If you're not yet registered with Etsy.com, it's free and easy to sign up. On Saturday, August 21, I will send your Etsy account a 'conversation', (sort of like Etsy's internal email system) containing a coupon code . When you make a purchase, enter that code in the 'notes to seller' box during checkout to receive a FREE* pair of earrings and FREE* shipping with every order total. You must RSVP in order to attend, but an RSVP is not a commitment to buy!

I promised you a pair of free earrings with purchase, and here's a preview of the free earrings you could be getting!

Here's to my favourite Etsy team!

2010-08-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm not much of a joiner, but the Tradeholics team is one of the best on Etsy, and I love to trade so you can bet I'm a member!
It's one of the best teams on Etsy, I think. Very easygoing, inclusive, supportive and FUN! They have monthly 'trading parties'--and you don't have to be a team member to participate!
The most recent trading party (called a Trade and Stay, or Trading Frenzy) saw me making three trades with team members!

PeculiarParchment (a seemingly tireless team leader) traded some of her 2x2 notecards in exchange for a pair of my blue shimmerstone earrings, very similar to the ones below.

I've previously traded with TheHappySoul for some wonderful massage/bath oil, so this time she traded one of her custom salt scrubs in amber & sandalwood (to go with my bath oil) for a hand-drawn, one of a kind art journal from my ParadoxMoxie shop.

BragginRightsBath has a cool line of 'whipped body butters' that I've been wanting to try for a while. They feel AMAZING, not at all like lotion and they literally melt right into your skin! The scents are divine too.

So we traded. She traded a set of mini body butters in Sex on the Beach, Coconut Almond and Sweet & Sexy for my Desert Nectar anklet.

If you're interested in trading, hanging out or joining the team, visit these sites to get a feel for the team:
Etsy Traders blog lists the current team members and what each has to trade, the Tradeaholics forum team thread where traders come to chat about their lives, their shops and team news (members and non-members alike are welcome), and the hub of the team is the Tradeaholics Ning site, which is where you get all the news, links to trading threads, party dates and monthly design challenges. You can also run an Etsy search for 'team trade on' to find an ever-changing array of items up for trade.

Even jewelry gets a makeover sometimes!

2010-08-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I make jewelry, I won't be quite satisfied with it, but I'll keep it anyway. My idea of 'not quite there' may be another's idea of 'just right', so I'll put it away. Sometimes I come back to it with a brilliant idea to make over the piece.

This simple bracelet started as just turquoise coin beads connected by the big silver rings, but it seemed too plain. When makeover time came, I put blue pearls into the silver rings, added a ceramic blue bead from Kazuri, and a neck strap of mint-coloured silk, plus a removable bow of silk.

The finished necklace bears little resemblance to the original plain bracelet!

I had a hexagonal rose quartz pendant that I treasured, but couldn't quite place in the right design. I thought I found one with the necklace to the right, mixing bits of byzantine chainmail with the softness of braided silk side straps, but something didn't feel right, so I took the whole necklace apart. And it wasn't very painful to do, so that's partly how I knew I was doing the right thing.

The rose quartz pendant ended up inside a hammered wire circle, suspended by wisps of pale pink ribbon and strands of gleaming silver chain--just light enough to not overwhelm the beauty of the pendant, and just substantial enough to unify the necklace.
The silk braids ended up in the asymmetrical necklace below, the pair of them balancing multiple silver chains on the other side. The pink silk helps to bring together all the different shades and finishes of pink and peach dangling from the handmade links of the larger chain and front toggle clasp. This is a prime example of all the elements coming together perfectly in a necklace!

Months later, I'm still thinking about this one song

2010-08-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

Even though the song was popular several months ago, something about Taylor Swift's 'Fifteen' really hits an emotional nerve in me, and not in a good way.

It's this song that's supposed to resonate with American girls everywhere, and though there are countless songs to which I can't really relate, this one is the ultimate example. It bothers me more than her more stylized 'Love Story' because it rings so true. So true to all the books I read, about girls who felt different, and/or supposedly were 'weird and unpopular' (yet somehow all of them went to some kind of traditional school and had at least two friends who they saw on a near-daily basis). Not true to ANY of the life I've known. I've always lived outside that social construct, never spent enough time with anyone of my own who did, to really believe in it as anything other than mostly fiction.

Taylor Swift's music is supposed to be appealing because it's so relatable, so fresh and honest, yet 'Fifteen' seems to be peddling the Hollywood idea of young adulthood which I've always believed is mostly a myth.
And all the logic, protestations, internet ridicule for 'expecting the world to be all about me' or explanations that I'm really not missing much, are missing the point and don't make me feel any better about the song. This song brings into sharp emotional focus, how I feel about this young adult world: what bothers me is not that I never got to experience these things, but I never had the choice, or the chance to find out if what's written in the song is remotely realistic.

"Fifteen"

You take a deep breath and you walk through the doors
It's the morning of your very first day
You say "Hi" to your friends you ain't seen in a while
Try and stay out of everybody's way
It's your freshman year and you're gonna be here
For the next four years in this town
Hoping one of those senior boys will wink at you and say
"You know I haven't seen you around, before"

(Among many things I don't regret, never having had a 'first day of school' is one of them. Never had 'friends' I saw more than a few times a year. Never had groups of boys to have a nervous hopeful feeling about, either. This last may or may not be a good thing.)

'cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
You're gonna believe them
And when you're fifteen
Feeling like there's nothing to figure out
Well count to ten, take it in
This is life before you know who you're gonna be
Fifteen

(By 'someone' I think she means 'boys' and boy did I never have a boy tell me he loved me at fifteen. Still haven't, and probably never will. I'm not lamenting, it's just how it is.)

You sit in class next to a redhead named Abigail
And soon enough you're best friends
Laughing at the other girls who think they're so cool
We'll be out of here as soon as we can
And then you're on your very first date and he's got a car
And you're feeling like flying
And your momma's waiting up and you think he's the one
And you're dancing round your room when the night ends
When the night ends

(Best friends as opposed to what? No friends? I have never been able to comprehend the idea of having more than one friend; it was the realm of books and movies which we all know, are the prettified version of life. In books, if you're lucky, you have 'only' five friends you see on a regular basis. In what I've understood as real life, you're lucky if you have one friend you see more than three times a year. And the description of the 'first date' sounds like a complete and total fantasy, a myth invented by the media to sell to love-hungry teenagers longing for more than their lonely life. Sincerely, what fifteen-year-old boy actually has a car these days, and since when do girls actually dance around their rooms after going out with one? Classic Hollywood movie material to be sure, but that doesn't mean it happens often.)

'cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
You're gonna believe them
When you're fifteen and your first kiss
Makes your head spin round but
In your life you'll do things greater than dating the boy of the football team
But I didn't know it at fifteen

(Never had a first kiss and never have had dreams of dating football boys. But I bet REAL first kisses are usually highly awkward and vaguely embarrassing affairs, not wonderful ones.)

When all you wanted was to be wanted
Wish you could go back and tell yourself what you know now
Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday
But I realized some bigger dreams of mine
And Abigail gave everything she had to a boy
Who changed his mind and we both cried

(Ok, wanting to feel wanted by people who don't have to love me has been a huge problem for me lately, so I'll give the song that one first line. But the marriage bit really bugs me. Bigger dreams than marriage, huh? It's a prime example of this idiotic culture, which deifies romantic love yet devalues marriage as something a woman does if she has nothing more important to do--like have a career. As for best friend Abigail, one would think that a writer who seems to trivialize marriage, would have a similar attitude about sexual purity instead of describing it as 'everything she had'. Or maybe that's how Abigail saw it, but if that's the case, it's muddled writing.)

'cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
You're gonna believe them
And when you're fifteen, don't forget to look before you fall
Ive found that time can heal most anything
And you just might find who you're supposed to be
I didn't know who I was supposed to be at fifteen

(I can't even begin to comprehend this chorus. I'm sure it's full of great and specific meaning to the person who wrote it, but to me, it's a bunch of emotional gobbledygook. I think I had a better idea of who I was supposed to be at fifteen than I do now, and years of time haven't healed what really needs healing.)

Creative solutions in beading

2010-08-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I get set in my thinking, imprisoned by expectations about how a piece of jewelry 'should' look. I'm working on a necklace or bracelet or something, and I realize that it needs something that I inevitably, don't have, like a big fancy clasp or a certain kind of bead. And since we're all trying to spend less these days, I don't just go out and buy it. But occasionally, my creative process manages to muscle its way past the 'gag reflex' of preconceived notions of what's 'supposed to happen', and that's when magic can happen.

I once made an asymmetrical necklace design using multiple strands of quartz crystal connecting to a single strand of larger crystal beads, by what was a large round clasp as a focal point in the original design. Well, I didn't have a large round clasp, and the clasp I substituted wasn't working as the focal. Then I realized, the necklace doesn't need a large round CLASP, just a large round ELEMENT to be the focal point! So I pulled out a frosted black glass ring to contrast with all that icy quartz.

Another time, I had some leftover beads strung, but it wasn't long enough to be a whole bracelet. Instead of letting it sit in my 'unfinished jewelry' drawer for months or years, waiting for inspiration to strike, I had inspiration just then: I attached a large double spiral in wire to each end, with a matching clasp end hooking to one side!

A few nights ago, I pulled out some beads that had slightly broken tops. I'd been intending to stitch some beaded bead caps to cover the broken bits and make them usable. They'd been sitting in my drawer for a while because I don't LIKE beaded caps; they're much more bother than they should be, and I'm rarely quite happy with the result. Suddenly inspiration hit: instead of gluing a tiresome beaded cap onto the bead, I could glue on bits of chain wrapped around the top! Much more elegant and far simpler than messing around with bead pattern decreases.

Mark your calendars!

2010-08-16T06:26:00.000-07:00

Bright Circle Jewelry is having an online jewelry party that you can attend no matter where in the world you live! Join me for 7 days of shopping fun filled with freebies and perks galore! The party starts Sunday August 22 and ends Saturday night August 28 (11:59 pm, to be exact). You'll have all week to shop at your convenience!

This isn't just any party either; it's an exclusive party to which only my fans (that's you) are invited. There are many ways of becoming a Bright Circle fan: subscribe to my blog The Beaded Passion, 'like' Bright Circle Jewelry on Facebook, watch Bright-Circle on DeviantArt or email bright.circle@yahoo.com to become a member of my mailing list.

To attend, please RSVP before the 22nd by leaving a comment here or on my Facebook fan page with your Etsy account name. If you're not yet registered with Etsy.com, it's free and easy to sign up. On Saturday, August 21, I will send your Etsy account a 'conversation', (sort of like Etsy's internal email system) containing a coupon code . When you make a purchase, enter that code in the 'notes to seller' box during checkout to receive a FREE* pair of earrings and FREE* shipping with every order total. You must RSVP in order to attend, but an RSVP is not a commitment to buy!

There's more! Every item you purchase gives you an entry in a drawing for a $25 gift certificate to Bright Circle Jewelry. The more items you buy, the greater your chances of winning! Additionally, the first customer of each day, Sunday through Saturday, will be sent a code to redeem for up to $15 of free jewelry!

Lastly, if you want to enjoy even MORE freebies, ask me about hosting a party for Bright Circle Jewelry; it's free and easy!
*Free via paypal refund after purchase

Fleeting kisses and permanent ink

2010-08-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wonder if the decision to have a series of dating relationships is kind of like the decision to get a tattoo. Whatever design I might get tattooed on me now, that mark of what once seemed so profound would probably mean little to me five years from now, but it'd be with me for the rest of my life. Like turning a kaleidoscope, you just can't find that bit of red glass among the shards anymore.

And a series of dating relationships wherein neither party has a structured plan where they want the relationship to go (no, 'as far as she'll let me' or even 'as far as it'll go' does not count) seems ultimately meaningless when I think about the likelihood of the permanence of most such relationships. People go out with people who aren't good for them or end in the proverbial 'heartbreak' of song and story, five or ten years later they're shaking their heads and wondering what they were thinking. I mean, how many people actually are still with their high school boyfriends? (Yes, I know some people still are. The exception that proves the rule.) I could never understand why people would ever have that kind of 'whatever comes' relationship with no real end goal in mind.

Some time ago, I read a book on tattoo culture in which several people talked about their countless tattoos. One of the men explained that he has no regrets about any of his tattoos, for he tattoos his body to chronicle his life, not make a mark that means the same thing ten years down the road. It doesn't matter that he's not still with his then-girlfriend 'Ash' or that the compass he once thought such a powerful symbol now might seem trite. It was all a part of his life, part of who he was, and who he was made him who he is today.

While I'm still not rushing out to get that 'bold enough to make mistakes' tattoo, I understand better why some people ink their bodies forever, to commemorate an oft-fleeting mindset. And if that is anything like why people so frequently have a fancy-free dating mindset, then I understand the reasoning a little better.

Long, lean, sleek wraparound jewelry style! What do you think?

2010-08-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

These pictures are some of what I did today, and all represent a new style I'm trying out. The concept is simple: one long, long strand of smallish beads which can be worn wrapped around the wrist, neck or ankle (I'm sure it works with hair too). I made the silver version first. It's 2.5mm rounds spaced with tiny sterling bugle beads, and measures a whopping 71 inches long.

Shorter is the second version to the left, using the same bugles, plus 5mm silver rounds and tiny lapis beads. There's also a detachable silver pendant which slides on and off.

Then I did a sleek modern version in the remaining silver bugles and matte black 11/o's. This version might be my favourite.

Lastly, I dressed up the concept using twisted gold bugle beads and freshwater pearls.

What do you think of the design? I ask for honest feedback, not a pat on the back. Is it cool, new and appealing? A little boring or complicated? Let me know!

Ladykiller Lava

2010-08-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

A while ago I had a dream about a vague design involving black lava spears, ruby red glass and chainmail. (It also involved Iron Man hanging naked from a helicopter doing something heroic, but let's not get distracted, shall we? Besides, it was from really far away so you can't really see anything in terms of nudity.) When I woke up I set to work figuring out the exact design, and this is what turned out. Slinky silver chainmail 'flames' set off by red glass drops and showcasing the inverted teardrop shape of the black lava beads. I love these beads, and have only a few of them left. Got two strands of them at a bead shop a few years ago, and haven't been able to find them since. Someday...

Southwestern Werewolf

2010-08-12T12:03:00.000-07:00

Take your gaze off the alert-eyed bartender, look past the unkempt long-haired man-boy--you needn’t fear the shotgun he so casually carries. See the woman in the back of the bar, lazily drinking Jack Daniels in her charcoal jeans and silk top? Yeah, that’s her. She scans the place for two specific people, absentmindedly fingers the beads in her necklace given to her by friends. Turquoise to signify the land to which she is uniquely tied, pearls for transformation, and a mother-of-pearl disk that quietly proclaim to anyone in the know, that she is a werewolf.
Settling back, she awaits the arrival of the two hunters with whom she will meet…

Background drawing used with permission from Indigo Tallcake of Frackin' Hackeysack blog.

Paradigm shift

2010-08-10T13:22:00.000-07:00

Despite a distaste for tragedy, a distrust of how romance is deified in Western culture, and a very limited understanding of medieval English rendered in iambic pentameter, I've always had a soft spot for Romeo and Juliet. And so last night I saw the last two thirds of the Romeo and Juliet movie they made in what, the mid 90s? The one where they keep the Shakespeare script but set the whole thing in 'Verona Beach', with practically-baby versions of Claire Danes and Leonardo Dicaprio, plus a very young Harold Perrineau (Michael from LOST) with dreads, and random other people.

The movie was excellent! The transplanted setting/time was interesting; how they dealt with keeping the lines the same while making it make sense in the modern setting. But ultimately, to have a good Shakespeare movie you need actors who are up to the job--and, to my surprise, they were! Claire Danes was fresh-faced and radiant; Juliet's lines of an enraptured teenager in love flowed so naturally that I hardly even noticed how convoluted the language was.

As for Dicaprio, well, I was astonished to find he could actually ACT back then. (It's a little strange to acknowledge it, because for years I have avoided his movies with the semi-unreasonable little-girl hatred of 'teen idols', ever since refusing to see Titanic.) Inception was the only of his movies I'd seen before Romeo and Juliet, and you can be sure it wasn't because he was in it. Yes, I was impressed by his ability in Inception, but I would think a man in his early 20s wouldn't be as good as he is in his mid-30s. How wrong I was. Even though I really do not care for his under-30 boy-face, eventually his passionate Romeo-ness won me over and I stopped noticing his face. Not only that, but he carried off all the screaming and crying and general carrying on that the play apparently demands (I guess I sorta thought that the sadness would be more sedate). I like the rare movie occasions upon which older men of the strong-and-usually-quiet type turn their faces to the sky and roar in grief, but never before have I seen such a young man make so much bloody NOISE in emotional duress without making me snarky and uncomfortably aware that it's all an act. I'd go on to say more stuff like how I felt real ravaging emotion emanating from this young man, ringing true right down to the undignified sniffling we all make after an energetic bout of crying... but my inner snobby ten-year-old is yelling at me that I just spent an entire long paragraph going on about Leonardo Dicaprio of all people, and how good he is at crying.

But I gotta speak the truth when I see it, and I saw a lot of truth last night.

Thank You Courtney!

2010-08-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Courtney of Beads By Breul named The Beaded Passion as one of her top blogs! Thank you Courtney!

Here are the rules:
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pass the award along to 15 other bloggers who you recently discovered and think are fabulous
4. Contact the bloggers you chose and let them know about the award!

Ok, seven things about myself.

1. Even though we all love to talk about ourselves and I'm no exception, I have difficulty coming up with lists like this on command--my semi-clever sound bites of self-description scatter like roaches trying to screw in a light bulb.

2. Having become a byword on certain internet forums, I've had a small taste of what it is to be famous.

3. I'm good at conversing with people of different age ranges, but not good at figuring out how old they are. I think it's because I was raised outside the school system that segregates people according to age.

4. For me, working out is a pleasure, not a chore, though I'm still no model of fitness.

5. I want a herkimer 'diamond' engagement ring and a wedding band tattooed onto my finger, but I don't expect to get married.

6. I cannot function without a 3x5 inch notebook/pad of paper with me at all times. This may be a sign I could use a PDA?

7. Despite #1, making lists is one of my favourite things to do.

Blogs: I'll bend the rules on this one a little--one or two of these I've been eyeing for years, and one or two would be not interested in/too busy for a meme like this, but here goes:

Frackin Hackeysack

(of suicidal vacuum cleaners and espresso-scented madness)

SandFibers

(one of the most clever beaders on Etsy)

Jewelry Tales

(where every necklace tells the story of a girl)

Robin McKinley

(the inner workings of the mind behind 'The Blue Sword')

WWdN: In Exile

(He calls himself 'just a geek' but I call him 'the Godfather of Geek')

These others I have most recently discovered, and though I haven't been reading them long enough to come up with clever descriptions, they each held my interest--a rare feat, for I'm super-picky about blogs.

Poppy Brew

The Frog Bag

Another Place

Anything and Everything

When T Rules The World

Peppy and Belle

Create A Thought

Catalog Living

Random Splashes of Thought

A.N. Original Jewelry

Ivory Diamond and Calibrated Cabs

2010-08-08T14:44:00.000-07:00

I've recently made several 30mm premium shimmerstone cabochon. One of them was this ivory-sparkle cabochon. I surrounded it with a copper-lined AB Czech seed bead bezel and finished it with a right-angle weave bail.
I LOVE the premium shimmerstones! They're so easy to bead with, having a more shallow dome than the regular shimmerstones, and being uniform in size and shape I can glue them into findings instead of having to search for just the right size/shape. In fact, I'm seriously considering switching over entirely to the calibrated shimmerstones in my ParadoxMoxie supply shop, eventually phasing out the uncalibrated kind except by special request.

In fact, if I were to switch entirely to premium shimmerstones, that would mean a wider selection of sizes and shapes--ovals, rounds, teardrops, sometimes even fancier shapes such as diamonds, squares and hearts!
Ok, I've convinced myself. I'm going to do it!

Audition day

2010-08-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning, I woke up at 3:30 am to get ready, check out and drive to the Izod center to be there by 5. The TV types who run the show want good crowd shots of all the hopefuls waiting in the gradually lightening morning, practicing their songs to the delight of all, and generally being excited when a camera rolled by. Me, I sat as long as I could, reading a novel until the crowd was let in around 8. If the photo to the left were bigger, you might see me sitting about eight feet higher up the grass, on the cement block base of a street light.

Once we were all seated in the giant stadium, some people came out onto the floor and explained how the audition process would happen, told us to not take it personally if we were rejected and above all, to have fun. They had us do cheesy but fun crowd chanting stuff. My favourite thing was when the guy on the floor told the crowd to 'throw your hands in the air and wave them like you just don't care'. I almost couldn't believe my ears--that was a line from the universally-panned, so-bad-it's-good, what-were-they-thinking American Idol movie 'From Justin To Kelly'. I have seen about half an episode of American Idol, but I HAVE seen From Justin To Kelly so many times that yes, I can quote many lines. Go figure.

After a while of that, who should come out but Constantine Maroulis, a previous AI runner-up. Don't know from which season, but it was the same season as Bo Bice, and I remember this because I was reading a book with characters named Constantine and Bo at the time. He got the crowd to sing 'Living On A Prayer'. From what I could see, way up in my seat, he's a skinny white dude with long dark hair and skinny black pants. I liked him better than who came out next--Ryan Seacrest. Now, I have no problem with whoever he may be personally, but his show personality indicates a biological human grown in a test tube by aliens who don't understand that human is more than the sum of its parts. Thus, I call him Test Tube Man. Cameras did some filming of him saying Ryan Seacresty stuff with some of the auditioners, then show crew set up tables and partitions as temporary booths for the judges to sit in.

He explained how the actual auditions would go: One section of people will be on the auditorium floor at a time, according to the seat number on his/her ticket, and starting with the inner/lower sections first. Each booth has a judge (the famed judges on the show are in the later rounds of auditions, not the open audition we're all at). Four people will take turns singing a few bars of his/her chosen song to that judge, then the judge will give quick feedback to the four, and indicate who leaves and who stays for the next round of judging, possibly asking the more promising singers to sing for longer. None of the auditioners will be miked to the thousands of ears in the auditorium.

I was seated in section 240, a purple section in the upper right-hand corner, so I and most of my fellow upper-sectioners would be waiting for hours. Once we realized this, there was a mass exodus to the lobby. After a moment's hesitation, I followed. In the lobby, I saw people jamming quietly with guitars, talking and practicing their songs in wall cubbies with a friend. Now, I usually keep my singing to myself or those who specifically ask for it, but I wanted to break out of boundaries today, and though I had no friend to practice with, I found a cubby to practice my songs alone. After a couple of songs, a petite bright-eyed girl slipped in and asked if I wanted to practice together. She'd auditioned before and made suggestions, like skipping verses and cutting straight to the chorus, which is usually the strongest point of a song, and I helped her decide which of her potentials to sing.

I went back into the auditorium for a while, nearer the floor where I could hear the auditioners a little. I sat next to someone's mom who was taping her daughter Lexie's audition. She was so excited, shaking a little as Lexie approached the judge's table. She shook more and more as her daughter sang one, two, then three songs for one of the toughest judges present--and pretty much broke down when she saw the judge present Lexie with the golden yellow piece of paper that indicated going to the next round of auditions. I''m not given to touchy-feely with strangers, but she seemed to need it, so I hugged her.

After that, I went back to the lobby, attracted to the sound of a group from which emanated singing and guitar strains. I spent a couple hours there, singing with the growing crowd almost every song. sometimes we'd forget the words, but it was all right and fun. The main guitarist looked like the little brother of a friend, and the leading man, Francesco, was a real entertainer who should go far. I asked him if he was a plant, employed by the show to help the crowd relax, and he joked about being a stripper but denied his plant-ness. I hope he gets on the show--he was GOOD. We sang Don't Stop Believing, Billionaire, Breakaway, Yesterday, My Girl, Kryptonite, Come Together, Hallelujah, Twist and Shout, Home, I'm Yours, Shout (a little bit softer now), Hey Soul Sister, Hey There Delilah, Billie Jean, Play That Funky Music, Sexyback, Put A Ring On It, Lean On Me, One Week, Wake Me Up When September Ends (to which I bravely sang alone when everyone else forgot the words), Dock of the Bay, Brown Eyed Girl, Daughters, Killing Me Softly and many others. And I relaxed.

After a while, the group evolved, losing some members and gaining others, eventually breaking up to get lunch or something. By that time, there were many such groups to choose from, so I went to another group. In this one, a circle formed around a person in the middle singing his/her song. Instead of just watching and wishing I were that person, I made my way to the inner circle, trying to meet the leader's eyes so he'd pick me to go--and he did. I'd picked 'Colors of the Wind' and as I sang 'if you walk the footsteps of a stranger' I opened my eyes, looked into his--and nearly cried, in a good way. Then I realized people were singing with me, just as I'd dreamed.

Later on in another ring, after waiting my turn, I stepped into the ring, tapped my foot and launched into the fast, hilarious and utterly inappropriate-for-a-girl 'What's A Guy Gotta Do (To Get A Girl In This Town)?' Immediately, pleased recognition flared in the eyes of the woman across from me.

Soon after that, I headed back into the auditorium, having heard on good authority that my section would in fact NOT be third to last to audition and therefore would be on sometime soonish. Before I knew it, my section was standing up to get in line down on the auditorium floor. By this time I'd been up for at least 12 hours, many of them standing. My legs wobbled slightly as I picked my way down the stairs and waited in line on the auditorium floor, part nerves and part suppressed exhaustion. Most of my nervousness had been burned away, so when it was my turn to sing, it was actually easier in a way to sing for just the one judge instead of fifty people in a circle around me. I sang my ten seconds, the other three did theirs, the judge kindly told us our voices needed more developing (which was about what I expected) and we left the floor. I was so tired that at that point, I was actually a little relieved that things were going as I'd expected--I'd made no plans for if I'd gotten to the second round of auditions. Besides, though I thought it was worth a try, I didn't go to the audition to get onto American Idol, not really.

I still haven't been able to fully articulate what I really went to the audition for. But it was never about winning, getting on TV or becoming a star, and this much I do know: every time I opened my mouth to sing, every time I stepped into a song ring, found a new guitar circle, when I practiced with a stranger or hugged Lexie's ecstatic mom, I knew I had gotten exactly what I'd come for.

And if you see Francesco next season, vote for him!

NYC

2010-08-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

On Monday I and my brother went to NYC, as Irvington NJ isn't that far. Walked a few blocks to a dingey bus terminal which, even though as it was a ratty part of the city, I expected merely a glorified bus stop, actually did look like a terminal. We waited for about twenty minutes, keeping ourselves entertained by the furniture shop across the street which was inexplicably using President Obama's face to advertise its 50% off sale. It seemed hilariously incongruous to see our President hawking a discount on cheap furniture.

We caught our bus and shortly thereafter were deposited in the heart of Manhattan, land of the $5 hot dog, dizzying skyscrapers twice the height of those in DC, glowing billboards, giant posters for The Expendables on seemingly every corner, and fast food joints decorated with more glittering LEDs than a nightclub on TV. Did I mention I'm a wide-eyed tourist? At least I know what side of the escalator to use.

We wandered down 7th Avenue, gawping at everything, stopped by starbucks for a free drink, went into Ripley's Believe It Or Not lobby and gift shop (I was lured in by the whirlpool and because it was free), I commented on fashionable shoes in a window, fingered an over-the-top dress (it was strapless AND short AND ruched AND made of lace), nearly getting ensnared by an enthusiastic saleslady offering to let me try it on. She was seemingly oblivious to the fact that at an American size 16, not a single item of clothing in that shop would likely fit me. I don't know what she was thinking but hey, she was just doing her job. We stopped at a fancy city two-level Borders with the idea of sitting down, but the place was filled with other tourists with the same idea. There were still books to look at though, so we stayed for a while.

We walked back to Times Square and went into the Hershey store, then I showed my brother the Longacre Theatre where I and my sister had gone to see the revival of Talk Radio twice a few years ago and where I'd seen the play's lead Liev Schreiber on the street. Then we went into the M&Ms store. I've seen the LED display several times but never been inside before. Lots and lots of official merchandise and yes, actual candy too. I hid from a big yellow walking M&M (I'm allergic to giant walking character things in costume). As we walked out, a barker called us 'lovebirds'. I was almost taken aback, but replied simply 'Not lovebirds'.

No trip to NYC is complete without a stop at Roxy's Delicatessen. New York is famous for its cheesecake and I'm sure Roxy's is why. Their cheesecake comes in about 15 flavours plus plain, each decadent slice big enough to easily satisfy two, so we split one, commenting on the caricatures of famed New York City personalities lining the walls as we savoured our dessert (yes, I remembered to tip the waitress).

Having finished our cheesecake, we walked a bit more, sat down beside the fountain by Radio City Music Hall, then made quick trips into L'Occitane across the street to smell half the things in the store, and Brookstone, where a clerk urged us to google our own email addresses.

Our last stop was Bryant Park. We'd actually gotten a bit turned around on our way back to the bus station, probably helped by me gawping at the fancy architecture of the local skyscrapers, and found ourselves near the park. Before, Bryant Park had simply been a collection of syllables that got uttered a lot on the final episodes of Project Runway, along with 'New York Fashion Week'--call me dumb but it never really registered that there was likely an actual PARK, just stark white buildings with runways. That's how my brain works sometimes.

The bus arrived back near our hotel with more than enough time to spare before RAW (our wrestling show) came on. As we both had to get up at 3:30 the next morning, and anticipated not sleeping well, we turned the show off after a few commercial breaks and went to bed. Tomorrow was my audition day!

Sometimes you get MORE than what you paid for

2010-08-04T16:38:00.000-07:00

Instead of blogging, I've spent a few days travelling; taking a day trip to NYC and staying in NJ to audition for American Idol. My brother came with me because he's better able to navigate New Jersey, plus it's always safter to travel with a companion.

We drove up on Sunday, straight to the Izod center where auditions would be held on Tuesday. I expected to stand in line for a few hours to get the wristband that would allow me to audition. To my surprise, I had to wait only a few minutes before claiming my wristband, then we went to the hotel.

I'd gotten a room at the cheapest hotel around, and I expected a dingey room with a hole or two burnt into the carpet, and maybe a few intriguing lines scrawled in Spanish on the headboard (yes, that happened once. It was actually kinda cool). When I got into the hotel lobby to check in, it certainly looked like the cheap place it was--but I did see a small sign advertising free breakfast from 6 to 9--not what I expected. The pleasant surprises continued as I settled into my room.

While I could tell it was a cheap place by the details (the kind of doors used, the cottage-cheese-textured walls and ceiling, and the chipped paint in the corners), the room itself looked respectable, there was a walk-in closet, a small refrigerator and microwave, free wireless internet, a table and small couch by the TV. And the TV had several excellent channels, including USA which airs my favourite entertainment wrestling show on Monday nights--a not-so-guilty pleasure of mine.

We began making plans that night for our Monday trip to NYC. Most of the plans involved figuring out what bus to take. We'd both been to the city before and knew even if all we did was wander up and down Broadway that'd be enough to entertain us for a few hours. (I am definitely, unapologetically a tourist.)

More on the NYC trip tomorrow!

Where do you get your ideas? #1

2010-07-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

Every so often, every designer is asked 'where do you get your ideas?' and the answer is never just one thing. Sometimes my patttern of inspiration goes like this:
Many years ago, I purchased this silver chain necklace. Rarely am I moved to buy ready-made jewelry, but the singularly unique design of this chain held my interest, and years later, I still wear it. All the different textures, sizes and shapes of ring all coming together in a single unified chain makes for a perfect piece of jewelry that's just my style: simple, yet interesting. A few years ago, I felt a design percolating, inspired by the necklace, and in early June at the Bead & Button show, I knew my dream would be realized when I walked into the Blue Buddha Boutique booth. Blue Buddha caters to chainmaillers, so they carry all manner of jumprings, as well as anything that looks like one--like glass, rubber and crystal rings. I bought purple aluminum jumprings and medium blue glass rings (two items I'd been wanting for ages but never had a good project to justify the purchase) and when I got home, I got busy.

I linked the blue glass rings with silver jumprings I already had, connecting the sections with loops of silver chain, over which I slid the purple jumprings, which make a subtle musical sound as they slide over the chains. Then I put in an aqua blue crystal pendant I'd gotten at another booth.

The Blue Door

2010-07-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

She is keenly aware of the slightest sensation as she ascends the staircase--the summer silk dress unworn for years, brushing against her ankle with every movement; the soles of her shoes knocking softly against aged wood, a reminder that her every step is a fresh decision to approach the blue door at the end of the hallway, and whoever lives behind it.
She is almost mesmerized by the memory of his voice. "Did you get the key?"

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm inspired by more cerebral concepts in movies, as well as overt imagery. This is such a necklace, inspired by a scene in the art movie 'Fur'. Freshwater pearls, turquoise chips, some lovely frosted cobalt seed beads, ethereal gray silk ribbon that I (for once) bought for this specific project, and Green Girl pewter keyhole and key from last year's Bead & Button Show, all went into the making of this necklace. It went through a few changes from the original design, and all of them have made it better.

Of espresso-scented madness and suicidal vacuum cleaners

2010-07-25T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends, we are gathered here today to celebrate the existence of the craziest, most entertainingly bewildering blog I've ever seen: Frackin' Hackeysack!
Crazed author Indigo Tallcake describes it as "a blog of relentless and insistent madness, liberally interspersed with unapologetic adjectives, bloody banana tongs, hippies, homicide, lots and lots of anthropomorphization and a healthy dose of disrespect for the world at large."

I'd love to claim I found it only after much fishing about in the internet's bitter dregs, but it just so happens that I know Indigo personally.
You must understand something about me--I am extremely picky when it comes to internet writing. The number of blogs I read can be counted on one hand--and my own blog would not be numbered among those fingers if I didn't, you know, write it. But I eagerly check Frackin' Hackeysack multiple times a day for a new post--you can bet I follow it! That's how good it is.

Mi amigos--you have a new blog to read. (And if my Spanish is totally off, somebody correct me.)

My beading kit, published in Beadwork magazine!

2010-07-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

Several months ago, I submitted my own beading kit for consideration of publication in Beadwork magazine's 'Challenge' department--and they accepted it! The editors told me when it would be published, but I'd thought it would be in the fall end of September. Imagine my elation when as I paged through the August/September issue, I turned the page and saw my very own kit!
The kit includes a strand of 4mm teal glass rounds, a medium Griffin purple shimmerstone, a bag of blue/aqua bead mix (with a bit of purple thrown in), 10 violet pearl drops, 1 strand of bright purple silk, and a silver wire bangle. I had to send in 4 identical kits for the editors to use in the department, and they advised me to have a few extra available upon publication, because readers often request the same kit upon seeing it in the magazine. The kit IS available in my shop, just click the top picture, or the highlighted references to the kit.

In the spirit of the Challenge, here is my first attempt at bead embroidery, using some of the blue and purple seed beads and incorporating a small mirror tile. Turquoise and purple are two colours I didn't used to think of pairing, but one day I saw them next to each other and something in my mind clicked. Here, the colours are set off by shiny black seed beads, embroidered onto stiffened felt and backed with black leather. The two layers are stitched together with black edge beads.

Inspired by Hollywood

2010-07-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

One of the most common remarks people make when they see one of my beaded necklaces is 'Oh my, girl, you have some kind of patience I sure don't!' Well, I have a bit of a secret--it's not patience. In fact, with the bigger seed-beaded pieces, the way I manage to see through to the end is a lot more akin to mindlessness. My secret weapon against bead-induced insanity? The lowly television set!

Most of my jewelry is beaded while watching something or other. It's an odd balancing act, integrating detail-oriented, labor-intensive beadwork with something as visual as television, but I've been somehow managing for years (it started when I realized that I could just look at my beadwork when something embarrassing came onto the screen--like a shirtless man. I was a strange teenager. Actually, I'm still strange). And if I didn't bead while watching, I'd almost never get around to watching anything at all.

Not surprisingly, whatever I'm watching at the time will frequently become inspiration for a piece of jewelry. My most notorious inspired-by-Hollywood piece is the Crime Scene lariat pictured above, which won its category in the Fire Mountain Gems contest last year, and was featured on the front page of well-known art site DeviantArt. Can you guess I watched a lot of a certain famous procedural?

One of my favourite movies is Iron Man. So, inspired by the 'iron' theme and the glowing 'arc-reactor' powering Iron Man's super suit, I beaded a pair of earrings in which bright silver surrounds a 'heart' of sparkling crystal, set into an industrial-looking Maltese cross in matte metallic gray. Cut to two years later, I'm in the theater watching Iron Man II for the first time, and it's at the scene in which the remarkably-ugly and appropriately-menacing villain builds his own twisted version of Iron Man's super suit. Well, what do I see around his neck but a silver necklace in the very same shape as the earrings I made two years ago! I knew right then I had to make that necklace, so here it is. You can see the movie version (and the villain) here.

And then there's all that Stargate I love so much. For those of you who aren't sci-fi geeks or die-hard Stargate fans, one of the defining symbols of Stargate is an inverted V with a small circle at the point. It represents Earth. In one of my very favourite episodes (the 'time loop' episode which every respectable sci-fi show does at some point), my favourite character wears a royal blue shirt while making pottery; something very unlike this military man's normal persona. So I made a beaded dog tag with the symbol for Earth in silver on a field of royal blue.

Sometimes I get inspired by some of the concepts of a movie/show, rather than specific imagery, but that's a tale for another day.

They just keep coming!

2010-07-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

After the darn learning experience which resulted in the gratifying 'Disco Lemonade' necklace, I've gotten very enthusiastic about the dodecahedron beaded bead! It's a LOT easier to make when using beads that have a hole through the center, as opposed to through the top like the teardrops. Far easier to keep track of where you are in the beadwork, how many stitches are left, etc.

Usually when I get all enthusiastic about a beading idea, I make perhaps two more of a similar type, then end up making some other piece in my queue of ideas. But after that first bead, I immediately started the next, this time substituting roundish 4mm orange/pink faceted glass in place of the teardrops, with orange, pink and lavender embellishment beads, stringing the finished bead onto a simpler necklace of lemon-drop glass beads. I still used a core bead. Feeling fantastical, I named it 'Citrus Lips'.

Then I began to stray farther from the pre-designed pattern, fortifying and accenting the many holes in the beaded bead, eliminating the need for a core bead, and strategically using colours to play up the shape of the bead. The first one was in glossy and matte black, accented with hot pink.

The second time I made this type of bead, I used transparent faceted orange glass, accented by clear citron yellow to open up the feel of the bead. I call this my 'Hot Citrus' bead, and it reminds me of all that CSI: Miami I used to watch--the overall quality of the show may be questionable, but it was undeniably one of the top three most beautiful shows on television.

In the third bead, entitled 'Hot Raspberry', I used sparkly black beads and the same hot pink as in the first bead, eliminating the matte black and resulting in a mostly-pink bead with hints of black peeking out.

I left the glass behind for some shiny hematite rounds in the latest iteration of this design. Hematite looks a bit like black silver, or iron cleaned up and decked out for the prom, so I paired it with matte black and shiny silver accenting the holes. It makes me think of supervillains in their ominous but oh-so-cool supersuits which must ALWAYS have something glowing. The finished bead looks like black, but the hematite bridges the gap between the shiny silver and the dark black, giving it a hint of sophistication.

My vacation visit to Beads Amore

2010-07-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

A few months ago at my local bead shop, I saw a necklace made from hazy aqua crystals paired with the most intriguing glass pearls. At first glance, they appear to be the classic ' tahitan black', but upon closer inspection, multiple hues come out to play, depending on the beads with which the pearls are paired. In this necklace, the crystals brought out a faint aqua cast, with hints of green and purple. I was delighted, and determined to myself to get some of those beads. Unfortunately, the beader who made the necklace told me that the shop where she bought the pearls no longer carries them.
But a few weeks later as I vacationed in Indianapolis, I went to the shop Beads Amore there, and what should I find but those very pearls! I immediately bought a pair, and, upon getting home, made simple earrings with my few remaining 'pacific opal' colored crystals and the pearls.

I've seen my share of independent shops, but must say that Beads Amore is the most stylish bead store I've ever visited.

I also bought some hot red oval glass beads, incorporating them into minimalist earrings just as I'd planned, but with the unexpected addition of small black crystals. Black Ice and Red Fire, I call these earrings.

I couldn't resist getting this intriguing focal bead made of hypersthene, a chatoyant stone almost like a sable-brown labradorite, and pairing it with some mother-of-pearl coins I had in my stash at home.

Disco Lemonade: Another Learning Experience

2010-07-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

Etsy's BeadOrigami designs such neat beaded beads, I had to try one of her tutorials for myself. Her descriptions suggest doing the Bubble Jacks bead first, but I thought, this Bubble Beaded Bead is at my beading level, it'll be easy to do once I glance at the graphics (which is how I usually learn), right?

WRONG! It took me three tries, meticulously following the instructions, step by step. But I was determined to finish that bead, and, paying close attention to the super-detailed instructions, I finally understood, and finished my bead! Thank you beadorigami, for all the labour you must have put into that tutorial; without those truly step-by-step instructions and graphics, I would NEVER have been able to do this!

After starting the project, I realized the teardrops I had were one size up from the recommended size; I had 8x5 drops instead of 6x4s. But I was determined to make them work, and they did! I had to bead the thing over a 12mm vintage crystal core bead though. I chose matte scarlet seed beads (blending in with the glossy drops), matte orange beads, clear pink-lined beads, and bright fuschia 15/o's.

I left out the second colour of 15/o's, as I had no suitable colour. You can't reallly see the orange, as it's close to the base, but it gives off just a little glint.

I strung the finished bead on a headpin with a lone pair of hot pink firepolished faceted beads sitting in my glass drawer for ages, then used it as a centerpiece amongst my remaining glass drops, pink-lined seed beads and chalcedony briolettes from the Bead & Button show, finishing off the whole necklace with vibrant pink silk and a hammered wire clasp.

Do you have Mutated Magpie Tendencies?

2010-07-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

Because I do! Ever since I was young, I have been in love with sparkling, brightly colored objects. When I was 8, that love manifested itself as an obsession for those plastic rhinestones at craft stores. I would spend my allowance collecting them, then burying them in my backyard, the flimsy bark box in which I kept my collection doubling as a 'treasure chest'. (Miraculously, I was always able to find the spot where I buried them again.)

Later, around 10, I discovered faceted Czech glass beads, and they became my new love. I didn't know how to make jewelry but that didn't matter; I bought the beads anyway, eventually teaching myself to string them on fabric thread (scavenged from my mother's intermittently-used sewing box) which inevitably broke. I would simply restring my beads and try not to mourn the lost ones.

Beads are good. Beads are easier to do things with than flat-backed rhinestones which must always be glued to something or require a special hard-to-find metal pronged setting, and so I now have a large collection of them, some glass, some gemstone. But I still have that little desire to have a 'gem' to carry around in my pocket, a talisman around which all manner of make-believe can be built--a rich lady, a fairy-tale thief, or young mage having stumbled upon anl object of power.

Well, at the Bead & Button show, I found a table full of faceted cubic zirconia stones in large sizes. Possessing super-sparkle and coming in lots of colors, it's the most popular diamond simulant in the world. I couldn't resist a brilliant yellow trillion-cut stone. Having read a LOT of fairy stories at a young age, I had fancies of making a necklace holding a diamond that had belonged to a maharajah. Upon getting home, I realized I had a gold filigree, the perfect size to wrap around the yellow 'diamond', and a length of classy gold chain to make a simple necklace--a return to the rhinestones of my childhood, but better!