Latest beading fun

Got together with the beading crew again yesterday.

Did wire wrapping to make a pendant for hanukkah. Was working with two soft of wire initially and it could not take the tension of the wrapping wires. As I was bending it up to throw away I realized I liked how it had bent and ended up wiring it in to the stronger frame and used it as the base for the candles.

Then I wire wrapped a new tree of life as that was what I was teaching the others. Love the pink and green in with the browns, looks like the trees on the way to Ithaca a few weeks ago.

Lastly I have includes some shots of the polymer clay beads made with Karen at "Mommy Anxiety Play"

the copper ones are a green, orange and cream clay base. The mermaid beads are brown, blue base with an irridescent blue pearl--I just love this look!

We are already planning the next beading party. We decided we didn't want a cookie exchange so we decided are going to have a crock party-everyone make soup in a crock, bread to match and we will exchange quart sizes. While there we are going to have an earring party. Bring beads to share and make and take earrings. This is set for right before Hanukkah and I have some peruvian menorah and dreidel beads on the way to me from Etsy. Will bring a few sets of those and some orphan pearls as well.

David is in Afghanistan and truly out in harm's way. No matter that I know he is well trained, that he volunteered and is excited for this new stage in his career as a mom I am finding this to be a time of anxiousness. So I am using this time to work on destressing-exercising harder and eating better. Spending more time on the things I love.

fun with friends

I love beading and creating with others. My beading buddy is also into doing jewelry and does mixed media more than I do. She is more playful with polymer clay than I am. Working with her makes me more adventurous. I make pendants and beads to match with the polymer clay embellishing with little sead beads, inks and powders.

I find when I go to my jewelry area that I gravitate to those pieces with beads I have made. I feel a bit more artsy when it has some of my spirit and joy is reflected back to me. They do not have to be perfect match in fact there sudtle differences are fun to me. The mixture of textures and colors make the pieces for me.

Even when working with the metal clay with  my sister I find I like the pieces with more than one type of metal.

Just had a fun evening with Karen doing polymer beading. We both were dealing with stress that as mothers we could not do much to affect rather had to just deal with in support of our boys.

My oldest is in Afghanistan with the USMC doing what he is trained to do and volunteered to do. Yes I know it was a great oppurtunity for him but still as a mother volunteering seems just so wrong. I am handling the stress with swimming harder and working the weights harder. Only that day it was not working well enough. So when my girlfriend said "I need to bead" I was more than ready.

So that night we rolled, shaped and formed works of beauty while offering love and support to each other. The caring was wonderful but to top it....oh yes she made me a home-cooked meal as well. I will have some pretties to wear that are a tangible reminder that something soft like clay under the heat can be made stronger. I just need to be like momma clay soft hearted and toughen up as needed.

fall fun

I love halloween and can not believe how fast it is approaching. We were blessed in September to have David and his girlfriend Liz with us. I met Davin Palm Springs after he finished at 29-Palms spent time with my parents and sister.
Lucy is an accomplished metal clay artist and she was nice enough to fly her clays and tools down to Palm Springs for me to play with. I made several pendants in rose bronxe, yellow bronxe, steel and copper. Lucy trained under Hagar Jacobson so I feel like I am 2nd generation clay artist in the Hadar line. Lucy had to take the piece back to San Ramon to fire and finsih I will b egetting those back for my holiday present this year.

Just finished a batch of Halloween necklaces. I tend to buy beads and horde them for a while. I will match them up with other beads and keep them together for a while. I then will wait a week or two and then reaccess them add more beads and wait again. Then like today I will get them all out and usually make some combination of the first look and the second look.

From etsy  https://www.etsy.com/shop//WackyPup I got a wonderful two pumpkin pendant. I had written her to say I was getting complements on the ones I had bought in 2011, lucky for me Elizaabeth made some new ones.

Also from etsy some hand made lampwork beads an witchy owl and one eyed monster https://www.etsy.com/shop//moonrakerbeads. I added some handmade beads I had gotten at the Wildwood  Boardwalk craft fair Memorial day weekend 2012.
                                 

I had a piece of dichoic glass that I was not wearing enough so I jazzed it up with chains and pearls. I love it but my daughter Sarah loved it more it is going back to college with her.

 

Now for the Day of the Dead celebration I love to use a skull bead this year I was seeing alot of mustaches on Pinterest so here with the help of

https://www.etsy.com/shop//FrancescaDeCaire I found the perfect skull bead on etsy.

So here I am an empty nester and I really thought I would have more time to bead instead I find I am doing less.
Maybe the fact it is just so hot all day that by the time I get home I do not want to do anything but laze around.
The eye problem vitrious detachemnt led to a permanent black floater ring in my left eye. So it is tricky to work with artificial lighting and my reading glasses. So that leaves day time hours as the best-something working M-F hinders.
However the most important reason is I have so many really great summer necklaces already that I do not feel the need to bead any more.
So what will inspire me?
Playing with Karen in polymer clay always produces 2-3 pendants that I will love to show off.
Going on vacation out of New York lets me see the world in a different way. Next off to Palm Springs  
to see family, enjoy the sunshine, see David for the first time in 15 months................

Packing for two separate events.
NewCAJE- Jewish educators conference and then off to USNA Annapolis for the Parents Weekend at the end of plebe summer. So I am packing jewelry first then outfits to go with the necklace. It is a twist on jewelry as accessory rather it is the clothes that become the accessories. So four Jewish pieces made the cut and 3 additional for Annapolis. One Jewish piece will do double duty for Friday Shabbat Service at the Levy Chapel (Navy and Gold Shalom).


I love going to Annapolis we usually shop at a consignment store New to You, and make a quick stop at Goodwill. you never know what you will find in either place.  Last time at the Goodwill was a tarnished pendant/pin (always a chance to be real silver) with a craved green tiki stone. Get it out of the case-Mexican Silver, now the best part on sale that day for 20% off. So for 8 dollars I went home with a piece of 1950's Taxco (?) Silver. Of course I had to google what was being sold that was similar and they ranged from $40-90 dollars. That is the fun of the hunt.


All necklaces to get taken on the trip have to have been beaded by me. That is certainly not a problem as I have a lot, okay really A Lot of handmade jewelry.

Yet one dress that I picked it first needed a necklace the colors turquoise, light blue and two shades of green with some light brown thrown in. Sadly there were a bunch of close but no cigar contenders....then I found 3 that colors were good matches. The color I wanted people to focus on in the dress was two shades of blue. Finally down to two, called in the husband for his opinion. We agreed a winner was chosen.

Kazuri giraffe & lentil beads with handmade by me
textured Polymer beads.

the summer rolls on

Have been having a quiet summer. Enjoying working only two jobs and a few less hours at both.
We have been doing a 1-2 festivals a month. Finger lakes wine festival a few weeks ago in Watkin's Glen and Syracuse art show last weekend.

My necklace that I had just beaded that morning got a lot of complements and one woman even identified Linda Lawrence, Bella Beads as the maker of the Hannah's Heart. Done up with crystals, white pearls and real red coral the colors are so fun and summery. I like the dimension to the finishing coral beads the asymmetry really picks up light as you wear it.

I also finished a hamsa- evil eye pendant this last week. I have had the bead for over 3 years waiting for my inspiration to come. I am just starting to work with wire wrapping (thanks to my sister Lucy of Lucile Ellen Designs) that worked with me on my first wrapped piece a copper tree of life when we were visiting the parents in Palm Springs. I opted to go with a simple copper (well simple for me, I tend to like big and bigger) chain so as to not distract from my wrapped piece. Weaving the bail was fun and a tip picked up from a beading magazine, I especially like the seed beads wrapped around the outside to mimic the red edges of the evil eye bead.

 

With Becca off to college at USNA she was paring down a lot of her clothes and jewelry as she will be basically in uniform for most of the next 9 years. She left behind this very large rustic (steel looking) Jewish star, it was really huge jokingly referred to by me as her "gangsta star". I do like big as noted above and I love all things Jewish. So I wore it with a big multi-strand blue necklace it was okay but nothing special. So now that I have a new skill wire wrapping watch out.......

a new tree of life is born, with two of my favorite colors this summer turquoise and orange together.