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.

waiting for call 2 from plebe summer

I am enjoying the summer when I do not have to get up to teach Religious school. I love working with the high school students and especially last year when we worked on the Civil Rights Movement but I love sleeping in too. Sunday mornings are my time to read or bead.

I have set up a separate area in the house to do beading. A sturdy table covered with a plastic mat so no worry of metal tools denting wood. All my tools are in bowls in easy reach. An area for the coffee cup-liquid inspiration. Next to this is a metal shelving unit to hold beading paraphernalia. Lots of bins to sort by type of bead, color of bead, type of metal for chains, wire and findings.

So today it was all about USNA and being Jewish. Two shalom sterling silver pendants but done very differently. One done with bright blue ceramic lentils and yellow pearls, and the other a more traditional gold and dark blue beads.
                        

Then I went wild with some new saying pendants from Michael's and sets of graduated teardrops in multicolor so cute! The charms are by art-i-cake very very cute.http://www.articake.com/index.html
                         

Becca our youngest just started at USNA and we are empty nesters. While waiting for the first phone call home from plebe summer I beaded a necklace with the school colors. I went bigger than I normally would it made me feel better to be beading rather than just watching the clock. I got a lot of compliments on it the next day which was fun.

The time has gotten away from me.
I have been out of the country to Peurto Rico where I beach combed for beach glass, have a small dixie cup ready to play with. Also found a really cute bead shop in Old San Juan and bought some colorful beads. Somehow in the tropics they did not look so bright, now home wow are they vivid.
Unfortunately while on the trip I developed a problem with my eyesight. I had a vitreous tear and for the next one month had double vision in my left eye and huge floaters. Needless to say no beading got done. I was having terrible headaches even working on the computer at my job.
Eye sight is better the double vision improved but I have a permanent ring a stationary floater that is making it a bit difficult to work for long.
So in the meantime I am squirreling away beads and stones, to work on this next winter.

Some of the photographs my husband took in Puerto Rico, he is a fabulous artist with a camera.

New Orleans

What a fun and vibrant town. History and new all mixed in together. Lots and lots of artists with individual styles.
I picked up some new beads natural stones,4 pendants- fluorite, amber, green amethyst and topaz cabachon, pink coral. Best of all strands of old mardi gra glass beads. One of my two looks just like this, the other has some vibrant orange beads.

beading Sunday

I got together with a girlfriend today for hours of beading.
We made polymer clay pendants, beads.
1. We made  3 color canes, and used themto make both a flower and a paisley shaped pendants.
2. Free form colors. I used mainly purple clay with a bit of blue and pink to form a Japanese themed flower, dragon and leave pendant.
3. Orange and blue striped koi pendant set on a branch, and two coral twigs.
4.A multi-layererd pink and orange main pendant with kidney and round shaped beads.
Before baking we added embossing powders to bring out the shine. They came out beautiful!!

While they were baking I strung an Allison Strine Jewish themed soldered pendant. I used the minor colors two shades of green and rose colored beads.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/allisonstrine?ref=seller_info

Annapolis weekend

I do so love this town. We are having a great visit.......actually an awesome visit the youngest had a great time and has decided to complete her acceptance to USNA Class of 2016. I am so proud of her and can not wait for her to start her amazing career. If it is anything like her  big brothers time on the yard she will make memories and friendships that will last her a lifetime.

I had a fun time packing jewelry for the trip. For the month of February, the love month, I tend to wear jewelry with hearts or anything in pink or reds. I have some wonderful glass heart beads made by Bella Bead, Linda is an art teacher in New York and her work is detailed, fun and quirky.  http://lindasbellabeads.com/ I wore one with the evil eye and the other focal bead was a heart with wings and a peace sign.


My other necklace featured a magenta carved bead with a stick pearl and a dangly crystal on the bottom.

Annapolis

We are in Annapolis for our youngest daughter to do a candidate visit. I love this town. Everytime we visited while our oldest attended the USNA I found something new to love about it.
Mikes for crabs
Nano's for all their Asain food
New to You to find the best consignment store anywhere, we shopped so often we became friends with one of the owners and rented her house several times.
The greek restaurant on west for gyros
Carlsons Donut by morning and thai food by day: weird pairing yes but each is delicious
Famous Dave's for the garbage lid
city dock for coffee
The new mexican restaurant  Sin Fronteros on Forest: best margarietas, great cooks and the owner is present and caring, and soccer is usually playing on the tv

yes we did do others things in annapolis besides eat----shopping, shopping, people watching.
Chico's downtown, annapolis pottery, anything USNA, Peppers!!!

I never get tired of visiting!!

super bead sunday

It may be super bowl Sunday but I am not that into football.  So instead I had a "super bead sunday" I finished three necklaces.
These are polymer clay pendants made by me that I had finished last Thursday I wire wrapped them at a beading party. Nothing like friends, beads and some new skills to learn to make a good time.

The first pendant is green gold dove with very tiny accent beads, wire wrapped and strung with green jade, yellow and gold pearls and seed beads.
Second pendant was a copper clock with purple and blue accenting. I strung it with purple pearls, amethyst chips and seed beads.
The third is a turquoise and purple owl wrapped with a darker metal frame. It is on wrapped onto a copper chain. The chain has light blue pearls wire wrapped into the chain circle links.

Now the only question is which one I will donate to the silent art auction?
This is being done to raise money for Project Graduation for Horseheads High School I am honored to be asked to participate. Becca graduates this year the last of our three children to graduate from there.

Life is getting a bit busy

I love that I have a variety of necklaces to pick from every day.
I love that many of my pieces are from an amazing artist Allison Strine she does these fun paintings adds quirky sayings but best of all makes miniature soldered pendants. I love getting the one that best fits my mood at the time. http://allisonstrine.com/gallery/index.php?x=browse

This one I word with a khaki shirt and a purple sweater. The back saying is "Her favorite color is Sparkle"

deer are the Devil's tool

So a couple of weeks ago on the way to work I ran over a deer, yep it was already dead but I had no where to maneuver on the freeway and was forced to go over it. All I had was some blood and guts on the front bumper or so I thought. Fast forward two weeks and I am getting an oil change that turned into two tires and an alignment. As i pick up the car the mechanic says "when did you hit the deer/". I looked at him and was like "I didn't hit a deer". His answer was there was a lot of deer guts and hairy hide all under my car. Then I was like nope "I did not hit it I rolled over it". Well the upstart is that my car is now one state away at the official car insurance repair shop to find out if it is a bent frame or rear suspension. Hoping and praying for a fix I want my Hyundai back!

Today I wore the angel pendant hoping that prayers to the hyundais good health would be heard. The pendant is from a trip to New Orleans bought at Earth Odyssey in the French quarter. It is a titanium druzy with yellows and pinks, the head is a large pearl and the side stones are citrine. I added pearls and metal pagoda shaped beads.

Yesterday I was having fun with a Allison Strine pendant with greens, purples and blues. I love her whimsical pieces. I keep buying more and more of her pendants. She has the cutest pendants. Each one speaks to my own sense of humor. I use them to mark times of celebration in my life.

• allisonstrine.com

Jewish bling

Today is Sunday so it means Hebrew school to teach 8th & 10th grade. We are using the Jewish Women's Archive series Living the Legacy. I first learned about it at CAJE this last summer in Greensboro, North Carolina. It is terrific teaching this program. It uses a huge amount of actual data on the Jewish involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. Photo's, letters, documents all things pertinent to my kids who will be for the most part taking AP level classes in High School.

So what is a beader to wear Judaica of course! The necklace features a filigree sterling sliver mezuzzah with a fine chain with dangling mother or pearl, three different type pearls, crystals, metal beads and to finish it off a sterling silver toggle shaped like a jewish star. Bling colors are olive green, blues, pinks, corals and    aqua blues. Honestly the color are bright and fun just what a dreary gray winter day needs to bring some lightness out. It is fun to let my love for art and Judiasm combine in fun wearable ways.

Okay feeling a bit victorious my header comes from a wonderful website Shabby Blogs and I just figured out how to add them as a button on my site. click on it and you can also get some of their fabulous give-a-ways. Happy hunting!

Wine Country

We spent today on the East side of Seneca Lake wine tasting. We did the Polar Pass again this year.

I love doing this I am surprised each year how some of my favoirtes stay the same- Red Cat, Cabin Fever, Tickle Hill's SusieQ. Then other wineries we found some new ones as well. We had lunch at Red Newt it was wonderful Mediterrian Chicken soup with a Corned Beef/beer sauted collard greens, swiss cheese on wheat bread. For dinner we were in Geneva at Beef & Brew for dinner- having Beer & Cheddar soup, and their speciality the Beef & Brew Stew.

To compliment my wine touring I had a wonderful grape colored sweater and paired it with a grape necklace. The metal grape cluster with a dark metal finish and gold, green and lavendar pearls. The bottom of the piece has purple and gold crystals. For fun I put on a pair of small purple and pearl buddha earrings, only to lose one during the day. Hopefully no karma was lost with the buddha.

trying to fix this

computer whiz is trying to help me
I had it all set up, colors my personalized header.
Hit preview and it shows up perfectly then I publish post  and I am back to a plain gray screen............argh

okay now I am seeing it not sure how I did this, that will be a problem tomorrow

This is painful

My New Year's resolution was to start blogging about my life, my passions. Two of my top passion are my faith and my artistic expressions. As a Jew I have a faith that sustains me every day every minute. I believe in a creator that  brings good to me and others. When I am beading it is as if a small part of the creator is with me. Thus I have done beading under my  company Jewbeadilation- a Jewish twist on jubilation what creating art does for me.

However my kids will tell you I am not that computer savvy. This will be a painful experience as I figure my way here. So far I made my header that alone was ridiciously complicated for me. Photoshop was too confusing, did the tutorial at the website okay then it got easy-peasy, got it only to have my computer need Internet explorer upgrade......so that stopped me in my tracks.