March 25, 2011

Bead Room Clean Out

Bead Crochet Kit Sale at $33.50



I have a dozen kits left from workshops that I'm putting up for special sale. The original kits were $38 and I'm offering the leftovers for $33.50 with free shipping. Each kit has instructions, beads, 10 yds. polyester thread, big-eye needle & safety pin. They will easily make an 8" bracelet.


That said, each one is a different colorway and there is only one of each.

#1 - SOLD #457 dk bronze Magatama with dk bronze 8/0


#2 - SOLD #457 dk bronze Magatama with matte black 8/0


#3 - SOLD dk bronze Magatama with blue iris 8/0


#4 - SOLD #2001 matte gunmetal Magatama with nickle 8/0


#5 - SOLD #2001 matte gunmetal Magatama with gunmetal 8/0


#6 - SOLD #2001 matte gunmetal Magatama with tawny gray 8/0


#7 - SOLD#142F matte smoky Trs Amethyst Magatama with G/L dk lavender 8/0


#8 - SOLD #142F matte smoky Trs Amethyst Magatama with Toho trs pink/gold hybrid 8/0


#9 - SOLD #470 permanent silver Galavanized Magatama with matte black 8/0


#10 - SOLD #401F matte black Magatama with nickel 8/0


#11 - SOLD #401F matte black Magatama with matte light cream 8/0


#12 - SOLD #401F matte white Magatama with matte black 8/0


As an added incentive, each order will also contain a raised spiral bead crochet kit, color of my choice. I've got to clean out bits and pieces that have been accumulating over the past couple of years.


I will only take PayPal as payment.


email me with your wants - First come, first served.... .... I'll let you know if it's still available with a total.

March 23, 2011

To the Center of the World

Balkan bead crocheted village snake.
Last week I had an opportunity to return to San Diego. This time I was giving a presentation to the Bead Society of San Diego about the history and my journey into Bead Crochet. The last time I did a talk I used an overhead projector with acetate slides so I had to do a lot of learning in a big hurry here. New software and digital projectors were new frontiers for me.
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It's always interesting to watch and listen to people who have never handled bead crochet ropes before. The feel of them quickly grabs their attention. Several people said that they had no idea beadwork could be that supple and that they'd have to give it a try. It was a delightful weekend with a very hospitable group of people.
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Coming into San Diego, we passed windmills; lots and lots of wind power being generated. I had never see so many, of varying sizes, in one place before. It was a mind boggling sight.
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Nothing says Southern California to me more than seeing Palm trees everywhere you looked. Everything from the small fan palms to the towering, skinny King Palms. I counted over 15 of these light wrapped palms at our motel. It must have taken ages to get these all neatly wrapped with little lights.
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On the way back to Arizona, we detoured to visit Slab City, near the Salton Sea. It's an abandoned World War II Marine barracks (Camp Dunlap) that is now used by RV'ers and squatters. I'd be hard pressed to explain just what is out there. I guess I can only say that it was interesting!
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Jesus Mountain is hard to miss; sand, hay bales, heavy layers of paint and some rather fantastic outsider art.






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Unusual and creative campsites are tucked into the desert here and there. Generators and solar power are the only way to survive in this place.... or a huge parachute sun shade.









After living in the North East, it was rather startling to come around a corner in The Dunes and see these snow plows.... plowing sand! The wind was really blowing and we could see sand dunes slowly being moved from one side of the road to the other.
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Niland, Calif. is practically a ghost town in the desert. We ran across what I'm thinking is a desert rat. Man, 3 dogs, horse and pack animal. What a disparity of culture with the satellite dish over his head.


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I had a good laugh as we were heading back to the freeway. The GPS said we were passing the Center of the World Rd.
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You could say
we had been to the center of the world
and back!


March 13, 2011

Time to Finish - Time to Create

A Bead Cave is a time out of the real world to get things done, enjoy the companionship of good friends, giggle, teach and share. I spent two days in Phoenix with old beading friends and recharged my batteries. One, whom I hadn't seen in 12 years. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Notice up to the left... Crystal's cat kept a close eye on what was going on the whole time. She had the best seat in the house.


I finished things that had been sitting around waiting for that perfect time to give them my whole concentration.
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I wanted to do a variation of this bracelet to show that making an invisible join is not the be-all, end-all of finishing them. A well thought out use of an Art Bead or peyote embellishment can add so much to a piece.
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This is a piece that has been on my worktable for close to a year now. With other pressures and deadlines, it kept getting pushed to the bottom of the lists. I took NanC Meinhardt's Rapunzel workshop last Summer and made the spiral pendant. In the Fall I had time to play with variation's of Nikia Angel's Sparkly Wheel and made a series of graduated rings to top the pendant. On the trip from NH to my AZ Winter Studio I crocheted the top rope. I'm very pleased with the result as it's one of the few pieces that came out just like what I envisioned in my mind when I started it.

Just before I left, Rings 'n Things posted a tutorial for a wrapped leather bracelet. It was an "Aha" moment as I'd been racking my brain for something to make for two Grandsons. Perfect! I made this prototype as a learning piece and it has some wonky threads here and there. Two of us flipped the papers back and forth, talked about what they meant, tried things and generally worked through the instructions until we understood what was happening. Two beading minds always seem to make sense of printed instructions better than one. Makes perfect sense to me ..... Stymied - then bead with a friend.

Sigh.... Bead Caves always end too soon. Now it's back to the daily grind, leaving just a whisper of giggling good times in the mind.

March 1, 2011

Tesoros

I was looking for something and came across these necklaces I did quite sometime ago. They are all made with recycled thrift store broken jewelry. I called them "Tesoros", Spanish for treasures.







With all of the re-purposed items showing up today I thought they might be interesting to some of you. Old costume jewelery or broken bits of things from your past can become alive once again.





Lightweight lucite or plastics, dyed wood and metalized plastic beads make the perfect Summer wear. Lord, knows I'm more than ready for Summer to usher itself in.


Start with a ready made second-hand store necklace; string through the beads, creating branch fringe that ends with odd beads, charms or other interesting pieces.



It's not what you use, but what you do with it that makes wearable art pieces.