Spyder

 

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

 

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.

Non-Art and a new piece

 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.

My beading kit, published in Beadwork magazine!

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

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.

Disco Lemonade: Another Learning Experience

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.

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 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!

Teaching and troubleshooting

I've always been good at beadwork. Oh, I didn't make a perfect peyote stitch tube the first time I picked up a needle and thread (in fact, I accidentally kept making increases and so ended up with a flower-like shape) but that and my fear of brick and herringbone stitch is really the only time I remember having trouble with stitching. I had trouble making round loops to point up instead of to the side, and couldn't figure out how to manipulate wire into a proper wrapped loop for the longest time--but once I got over those initial hurdles, I don't remember having a lot of trouble perfecting them. And that was years ago; it's been years and years since I've had trouble looking at a graphic and right away having a good understanding of how a stitch works.

I do not say this to boast or brag. It has been a boon to me, but I'm not just an artisan, I'm a teacher. And having things come easily is a hindrance in my teaching. Even though I know things don't come easily to many people, it's still sometimes a little hard to understand why sometimes people don't know what bead to put their needle through in the next stitch. I always try to keep that sort of thought in check, unformed in the back of my head, telling myself I was a beginner too, once, even though I don't remember much of it.

But the other day, I tried bead crochet. I'd never been able to fathom graphed directions of fiber techniques beyond the first slip-stitch row, but I'd watched a tutorial video and thought I understood. Things were gonna be great! I'd learn bead crochet in a flash, and soon I'd be crocheting beaded ropes far faster than I could ever do with other stitches where I had to hunt for every bead and pull a long thread through every stitch.

Well, I did the first row ok, connected it into a ring (something I'd never been able to do before). Then it was time for the next row. Hmm. What exactly do I do? It involved sticking the hook through the 'next stitch'. Where exactly did I stick the hook? I couldn't quite remember, only some stuff about always sliding the new bead behind the hook. I didn't really know what my beadwork was supposed to look like--a sensation I didn't remember ever having had before. I decided to 'just do it', never mind doing it right, and finally stuck my hook through a stitch, continuing to crochet as best I could. I think I laboriously made it all the way around the ring, but could not figure out how to connect the first and last stitches, if I even needed to. My beadwork looked terrible, all loose and weird, not the nice tight ropes I'd seen others do. I couldn't tell if I'd done it right at all, as I still didn't know what it was supposed to look like.

After that, I'm filled with new admiration for my students. If they feel anywhere near that kind of bewilderment when trying something new, I'm so glad I had that experience, because now I can truly understand and sympathize--and understanding, I can teach better.

They never give up on peyote stitch or wrapped loops no matter how many times they have to ask a question. So I'm not giving up on bead crochet. But I'll need a few good and patient teachers to help me on my way!

Judging is over, voting is closed and the WINNERS ARE IN!

So many beautiful entries to the Beaded Passion contest! It was tough to choose between the entries, but here we are. May I present the winners!

Best Entry: 'Lacy' by JewelryTales' Cynthia Newcomer showcases the artist's talent with manipulating beadwork's form into intricate filigree-like designs, far surpassing my own ability with the technique. One never runs out of new things to learn. Take a bow, Cynthia!

Most Unusual Entry: Fingal Frolics by Karyn. This is definitely a different kind of design! She says "I made all of the glass fused cabochons myself in my microwave kiln and the piece was stitched using a variety of seed beads and Swarovski crystals."

And the People's Choice by a landslide majority vote: Out of Africa by Debger! The patience it requires just to do a pendant with bead embroidery is impressive, and she's done an entire cuff! The variety of finishes give the safari colour scheme nice depth.

The eleventh entry is...

'Out of Africa' beaded cuff by Etsy artist Debger. The patience it requires just to do a pendant with bead embroidery is impressive, and she's done an entire cuff! The variety of finishes give the safari colour scheme nice depth.