Bronze flower peyote link necklace

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.

Where do you get your ideas? #1

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.

A leap forward in colour theory and execution!

These earrings represent a leap forward in both color theory AND designing on the fly. Usually I wouldn't think to pair hot red-orange, aqua, lavender, and orange (never mind how much of each to use), but I noticed how well my hyacinth AB2X bicones harminized with a tube of lavender-lined 15s that happend to be lying next to each other, and that's what got me started. Peering closely at the surface effect of the AB finish, I noticed that in addition to lavender, it had a bit of aqua in the color play. So, rejecting a stronger shade which might compete with the crystal, I dug out my single pair of dyed light aqua quartz rondelles, which had been waiting for months for the right project. Then I pulled a juicy pink-lined seed bead shade as a supporting player, and at the last minute, frosted silver-lined orange seed beads. At that point I had little idea what I'd do with them--usually a bad sign that I'll spend an hour or two rearranging my bead selection, and after attempting a prototype with a few stitches, decide it's 'not right' and put the beads away. But this time, the elements came together! I started with two units of right-angle weave, modified in places to fit the aqua rondelle in the center. Maybe effects of that last Jimi Hendrix cd were lingering, because I knew what to do then--I pulled out my orange seeds and added them to the top corners for just a glint of brightness. I put a single pink-lined seed in the center of each long side, then remembered a design element I'd never done before--the cross-RAW-unit line of seed beads. It was time for more lavender! Exiting a top bicone, I strung a line of tiny lavender beads, and went through the hole of the aqua rondelle, on the side facing away from the bicone hole I'd exited. Then I repeated the process in reverse for the bottom half of the beadwork, exiting the rondelle and entering the opposite hole of the bottom bicone. To finish the beadwork, I put small jumprings into the top orange seed beads and attached a short length of chain. They're attached to small silver clip-on hoops.

Bead & Button Show Day 3

Friday was my last day and the big day during which the show floor was open 10-6! That morning I dropped by the mall on the way to the show and ran into Suzanne Golden again. Then it was on to the show floor!
The previous two times I'd attended the show, I had always started at the last row, working my way up to the first row. Last night, I changed that, starting at the first row! This morning, I went back to the last row, where one of my perennial favourites always is--the Green Girl Studios booth! I always spend a while there, fingering each bead or pendant, making my selections while listening to the always-interesting conversations around me or making my own conversation with Green Girl people Andrew, Cynthia or Greg, narrowing down my selections and waiting my turn to check out.
This time, I had brought a special necklace I had made, which incorporated a few Green Girl components into it. I call it 'The Blue Door'.

I think that if you wear one of their beads, they give you a free bead when you buy something. They gave me a free bead. :D Here is all of what I got at the booth, including the free bead:

Later that day, I stopped by Jessica Herrell's booth. I remembered her well from last year, her clever bar code beads, as well as amazing sense of style and colour in her rainbowed series. She remembered me too; I did do lot of enthusiastic yet strangely articulate raving at her booth last year, and suppose it's the sort of thing that tends to stand out from other kinds of raving.
I stopped by Lisa Peters' booth. She makes ceramic cabochons, and like last year, had a couple necklaces displayed that incorporated a few of her ceramic pieces, beaded by one of my online beady friends, the talented Carol Dean Sharpe of SandFibers. Lisa's so friendly, and becomes even more so if you tell her you're a friend of Carol's. I found this out last year. :) Back to the story, I overheard her telling her assistant that Carol was there, so I was able to arrange a meeting with Carol! She was just as delightful in person as she is online; I was so glad to have met her.
I managed to stop a couple times and eat, go back to the booths I'd marked to buy things.
After the show floor closed, I finished up my purchases with NinaDesigns (I bought several key charms, one keyhole and cute compass charms), and, remembering I had a ticket to the Lampwork Madness Flame On that night and that I did not know exactly where this event was taking place, tagged along (with permission, of course, plus I'd just bought one of Andrea's feather beads) behind Andrea Guarino Slemmons and Bronwen Heilman, because there's no way that at least one of them wasn't taking part in the flame on.
I followed them to the big space previously set up for classes, right next to the show floor, where several tables and many torches were set up for the participating lampworkers to work their magic with hot glass. Here's Andrea at her torch, making her signature heart pendant:

By this time I was almost dead on my feet. My body was screaming for rest, but my mind was still ready to go. We found a happy medium in the chairs scattered around--for a while, anyway. I had to get up to take these pictures, after all.
Later on, after Andrea's heart was all made, renowned floral lampworker Leah Fairbanks took over, adding her inimitable floral surface decorations for a TRULY one-of-a-kind art bead collaboration! They had only collaborated like that once before, and each of the beads were, I believe, donated to charity, probably the same breast cancer charity that Bead & Button supports. Here's Leah working on the bead:

Sharon Peters of SmartAssGlass makes all sorts of silly and off-the-wall glass beads--last year she had a bead that looked like a genie head coming out of a toilet at her booth! Here she is (in green) making what I think might be a chicken:

 Earlier at the show, I had picked up one of Bronwen Heilman's black disc beads, and wondered aloud when I would see a disc bead that was coloured like a record, with a red inner circle and black outer circle. So many people are surprised to hear I know what a record is. I'm always a little surprised at their surprise--records are iconic, man! And a lot more historical than, say, 8-tracks. I understand approximately how a record works (and a sight better than how MP3 players work, even if I do own the latter and not the former) but no matter how many times it's explained, I still don't quite understand what an 8-track is, aside from a short-lived precursor to the cassette, with which I am thoroughly familiar. Here's Bronwen at her torch:

I think it's awesome how she's casually sporting a tutu along with her sensible t-shirt and pants.
After an hour or so, I decided I must cut my night short and get back to my hotel at a half-decent hour, as I had a 7:30 flight to catch and sense had already told me I should have gone to bed EARLY--like when the show closed. But this only happens once a year and I was determined to pack as much into it as I could. Maybe I should have skipped the flame on, but I don't regret going! Gotta live hard once in a while. 
As it happened, Bronwen and Andrea left around the same time as I did, headed in the same direction, so we walked a few blocks together. Seemingly still full of energy, they were discussing dinner/nightclub plans with each other, which at that point I could barely comprehend, as my body was now DEMANDING stillness and sleep! We parted ways at my hotel--a fitting end to an amazing weekend!

Bead & Button Show Day 2 Part B

When it got near 4 pm, I got into the neverending line which mercifully moved quickly. Then I was in the show floor!
Trying hard to manage my bubbling excitement (I'm here, I'm finally here, look at all the BEADS EVERYWHERE!!!) I followed my plan to start at the FIRST of the show's 12 rows, instead of the last like I've always done before. Distracted by the line of booths along the facing wall, I stopped at Christi Anderson's Elemental Adornments booth to admire her staggeringly detailed silver clay birdhouses (her impossibly blue-eyed son seemed to remember me from last year--maybe he loved my necklace too) and at Andrea Guarino-Slemmons' booth, where I always want to buy several of her signature beads, each one costing as much as my plane ticket. But a simple black feather bead on her table caught my eye.

At only $15, it was well within my price range, and it felt special, as if I had an important design that needed this feather to be complete. Being a good girl, I didn't buy it right away, but following my plan for the show, wrote it down on my list of possible things to buy (I bought it the next night) while chatting with her a bit. She's very personable.
Barbara Becker Simon of the glass-fish fame, remembered me as well, asked where my necklace had gone and when I told her it had sold, exclaimed ruefully "You didn't tell me it was for sale!" Maybe I should think up some graceful way of letting more people know upfront that my pieces are for sale.
Despite rarely using cabochons, I succumbed to the temptation of some magical-looking 'dewdrop' clear dichroic cabs from Karen Nan. I'd purchased a dreamy large piece several weeks prior at Beads on Parade, the shop where I teach, and used that as a justification for buying these. "I'll put them together in a bead embroidery piece" I told myself.

Being dichroic of course, the photo doesn't nearly capture their beauty.
And at last, after loving chalcedony from afar, I bought my very own half-strand of irresistibly hot pink briolettes! Even though strands of chalcedony can be found on many a bead show table, historically, the price has always been too high for my cheapskate side, and I could never make a colour selection, but these bright fuschia ones hit a high note in my designer's brain somewhere--I just knew this was the right thing to buy.

One of the things that made me do a double-take in the Bead Dreams exhibition was Robert Jennik's clever new design--glass nails! He had done a set of what looked exactly like metallic dark silver nails, bent in various contortions, but in glass! At the Knot Just Beads booth, he explained the thrill of making little things generally perceived as worthless (nails), and elevating their desireability simply by changing the material from which they were made, from metal to glass. I could not resist picking up a clear one.

After the show floor closed, I took a few photos of my newest acquisitions back in the comfort of my hotel room.

More to come later!

Bead & Button Show Day 2 part A

On the second day, I had all day to myself until 4 pm, when the Show Preview floor opened for registered attendees. This year I was registered, so I got to go!
Not thinking clearly, I decided it was a good idea to spend the morning/early afternoon walking around the local mall before spending the rest of the afternoon/night walking the show floor! It was still fun though--I met a few attendees from the night before on lunch break from their classes! I bought a new music album by my favourite band, released just a few days before: Hanson's 'Shout It Out'.

They get better with every album. Sadly, I had neglected to pack a cd player, and there were none at the Borders location (what respectable Borders sells music but not a single music player??) but it was still exciting just to have it in my bag!
After buying my music, I went back to the hotel to pick up the box of food I'd shipped to my hotel room before my flight out. Just in time too--I'd about run out of food, and I didn't want to spend bead money on consumables! So I had a quick snack and shoved a sandwich and a can of orange juice in my small rolling bag for some good dinnertime energy--and set my alarm to remind me to EAT! Because If I don't, I won't, not when every shopping minute counts! That's how I roll.

I went to the Airlines Center early, to look at the world-renowned Bead Dreams exhibit. While there, I became aware of a soft-spoken woman with amazingly long hair (at least three feet of it) nearby. It was Tatiana van Iten, beadworker extraordinaire, responsible for countless breathtaking Bead Dreams and Fire Mountain Gems contest entries! One of them was in this exhibition, an amazing bead-embroidered, life-size one-shoulder top with matching bracelet. She showed me its story of a sea dragon who fell in love with a mermaid who repudiated him.

 She showed me pictures of other beadworks, with accompanying stories, like of the beaded dragon that a little girl made and sent her upon reading that Tatiana's favourite creature was a dragon. Tatiana took that dragon and incorporated it into a beaded scene of a dragon's treasure box, symbolizing her meeting with her future husband (symbolized by the dragon). Tatiana, if you're reading this and shaking your head because I got it wrong, I'm sorry! :D

Later after Tatiana had moved on, I spotted Suzanne Golden and several of her staggering beaded bangles. Arriving at her table, I kept quiet as I saw how animatedly she was talking to some editors of a German beading magazine (one of them toting an alarmingly large camera). They nodded permission for me to look at the beadiness, and I tried to stay out of the way. But man, those beads. Suzanne Golden is the exact kind of little old lady I want to be. From the moment you take in her maraschino-cherry-red hair, outlandish red sequinned jacket and 7-inch circumference bracelets in bold black and white, you know she is without fear, and, as I found out after her time with the editors ended, speaking with her only confirms that impression.

I wonder, is she without fear because she's a New Yorker, or is she a New Yorker because she is without fear? Maybe I've got it wrong and New York City has nothing to do with any of it, and I'm still just a tourist gawping at anything that reminds me of the electric billboards in Times Square.

More to come tomorrow!

Bead & Button show, day 1, part B

Tickets to the reception cost $13, and probably more at the door, but I had gotten the lower price by ordering mine online. Well, when I got to the door, I saw the ticket-takers handing each attendee a small organza bag. I opened mine and saw the sparkle of Swarovski crystal; a small handful of crystal beads, pearls and pendants in many shapes and sizes, all mine! I usually have such difficulty selecting what to buy, it was wonderful having it already picked out for me! Now, I am not such a bead geek that I have specific prices for various Swarovski elements memorized, but from my general knowledge of the prices I estimated that the value of the bag's contents were at least twice what I paid for my ticket--sort of like being paid in crystals to attend! (Later when I had computer access, I researched crystal prices and determined that the retail value of my bag was a whopping $58!) Here's what I got:

I was finally into the reception room! Almost at once, Tammy Honaman from Fire Mountain Gems (one of my favourite bead companies) recognized me from last year's show, and gave me a hug. Love those people.
I got to see and touch beautiful works by many of my favourite influential artists like Jeanette Cook, Gail Crosman Moore, Joan Babcock, Leah Fairbanks, Anna Elizabeth Draeger, Christi Friesen and more. Sue Jackson had a beaded necklace with a red focal bead which had a Chinese character on it. The thing is, that focal bead was STITCHED!

When I first made my necklace, I thought it was cool and clever, but, seeing as it was merely simple square stitch done in only two colours in a simple pattern, I had NO IDEA how much it would resonate with people! But as I walked around, people stop and stare, gasp and come up to me, wanting to talk about it and touch it. People even remembered it and me from last year, including the lovely ladies Virginia Blakelock and Carol Perrenoud ( whom I privately think of as the 'founding mothers of modern beadwork'). When I walked up to Adrienne Gaskell's booth, I could hear a gasp of amazement run through the all women around the table at the sight of my necklace, and soon they were clustered around me! Later in the evening, recycled-bead artist Steven James begged to take a photo of it, and, undeterred by the missing last work, renowned chainmailler Spider bought it off my neck!

Bead & Button Show Day 1, part A

Every year, the city of Milwaukee plays host to the largest consumer bead show in the world--the legendary Bead & Button show. Thousands of beaders from literally all over the world congregate like geeks to Comic Con, each attendee more enthusiastic than the last. Some attend to buy, some to sell, some to teach and some to learn--and some to do a bit of all four!

While Stateside attendees are the majority, people fly in from England, Mexico, Spain, Africa, Australia, Japan and other countries too numerous to mention. Living on the mainland, I only had to fly over a few states to get there, and so it was I took my flight Wednesday morning, spending half the plane trip craning my head to see the clouds like a little kid. Lucky for my seatmate I had the window seat!

When I got to Milwaukee, I had several hours before the Meet the Teachers reception began (an event to which I had a ticket). I also had an unfinished beaded necklace I wanted to wear to the reception, so I sat down in the lobby for a few hours' beading. As beaders tend to notice other beaders, a few other show attendees noticed what I was doing as they passed through the lobby, so we chatted a bit before they moved up to their rooms or out to their classes.

I was working on my signature 'Crime Scene Tape' necklace, as pictured below:

Well, I ran out of yellow beads with a single word left unstitched in my necklace! Ah well, it looked almost done, and certainly finished enough to wear to the reception. So, ticket in hand (yes, I'd actually remembered something so important) I went off to the Frontier Airlines Center where the reception was held.

As soon as I stepped into the building, I saw a seemingly neverending line of women (and a few men) reaching across the entire building! There were a few oohs, ahhs and gasps of delight from other attendees as we waited the 15 minutes or so, chatting about our classes and our projects. Then it came my turn to enter the reception hall....

Stay tuned!