Category Archives: Color

Studio Wednesday

Today was devoted to finishing my beaded mokume gane cabochon necklace.

This necklace evolved one step at a time without any sketches or set plan. First, I created the polymer clay cabochon with slices from a mokume gane stack. Then I glued the cabochon to a piece of heavyweight Pellon Peltex 70 and beaded around it. I sat with the pendant for awhile meditating on what kind of necklace would feature it best. I decided on a multi-strand seed bead necklace.

After creating the 6-strand seed bead necklace, I added a beaded bail at the top of the cabochon. The open cones at the end of the strands are made from polymer clay with a copper mica powder rubbed in before baking. I also textured the cone with a piece of coral before rubbing in the powder. My intent with the cones is to make it look like the beads are spilling out of them. A cascade of beads. 16-gauge sterling silver was used to form the hook clasp with jumpring chain extender. I dipped the silver wire in a liver of sulfur solution until the wire was coppery brown.

I spent most of the day in my studio. I was so intent on my work that I never got a chance to go outside and enjoy the beautiful day. Now it’s time for a nice long walk!

12 months of beading

I am happy to present a year’s worth of beaded journal pages!

The first row (at the top, l to r) is June – September 2007, the second row October 2007- January 2008 and the third row February – May 2008.

When I finished my last page, I was so excited. When I look at this group shot, I am beyond excited and into jumping up and down ecstatic and really amazed that I actually did this.

I want to send a huge thank you and hug to my beady hero and mentor, the creator of the Beaded Journal Project, Robin Atkins. Her vision and inspiration has changed the lives of many artists through this amazing and wonderful project. I feel like my life has changed in an enormous way as I have learned much about myself through my beadwork and also to my commitment to stick with this project.

To all of my fellow BJP participants, bravo to one and all!

The Birth of a Freeform Peyote Bracelet – Part 3

I’ve done some more work on my freeform bracelet and it’s slowly but surely getting wider. Because of the different size beads I’m using, it’s starting to lean to one side on the left end. This will work to my advantage, however, because I want to add a coin shaped freshwater pearl and was looking for the perfect place to put it.

It fits perfectly in this little spot right here. Once I add it, I’ll just bead around it with a loop of beads. This loop will eventually be incorporated into the rest of the bracelet as will the large pearl. In this way, you may add anything you’d like to your piece.

I’ve been adding pearls here and there. I also love to add “bridges”, a loop of beads that cross over from one side to the other. This gives the surface of the piece wonderful texture. You can choose to leave the loop as is or add some more beads to it on your next pass around.

At this stage, I will add the larger beads/objects and then assess which parts of the bracelet need to be built up more. You can leave the edges wavy and uneven or try and even them up before you finish the piece. Also keep in mind that if you add to the ends, it will increase the length of your bracelet, of course. I usually start with a 6 inch length so I can add to the ends without worrying about it getting too big. Another thing to keep in mind is what type of clasp you’d like to add. This will add length to the bracelet as well.

If anyone is being inspired to create their own piece, please let me know. I’d love to see photos!

Studio Wednesday

In my studio today, I worked on my last 2007 beaded journal page, my November page. Well, truth be told, it was such a gorgeous day weather-wise that I brought my beadwork out on my deck in the sunshine and enjoyed the fresh air. This is a photo of my greyhound, Buddy, who passed away in August 2001. We adopted him from Greyhound Friends in Hopkinton, MA, a non-profit organization whose sole purpose is to rescue greyhounds, take care of them and find forever homes for them. Also, to spread the word about them and their plight.

Greyhounds are such amazing dogs, enduring the hard and challenging life of racing at the track. They are usually “retired” after a couple of years of racing because it is so strenuous on their body. Very sadly, most of them are destroyed after they can’t race anymore. In ancient times, greyhounds were the revered pets and hunting dogs in Greece, Italy and Egypt, not used for how much money they could make for their owner.

Buddy, whose racing name was “Paris Boy”, was retired at age 2 1/2 and soon after came to live with my family. The first week he lived with us, we discovered that he had absolutely no idea what stairs were. We lived in a ranch house and it wasn’t until we visited my in-laws down the street and he got excited and walked up their deck stairs to greet them that we discovered he didn’t know how to get back down. My SIL got his front and I got his back and together we lifted him gently down the stairs. Poor guy was petrified. He also was afraid of rubber balls which we found out when we tried to play catch with him and he ran away in the opposite direction of the ball. One thing that he greatly enjoyed was to go into my daughter’s room and methodically take all of the stuffed animals off her bed back to his “nest” of blankets in the living room. We discovered this upon returning to the house one day to find him in a pile of stuffed animals. He was very happy that day.

I’m not really planning my beadwork ahead of time with this page. I was just going with the flow of the beads in the moment and found myself creating a pair of wings for Buddy’s heart. Well, they’re supposed to be wings. There’s some white space at the top and bottom of the photo so I’ll fill that in with some beads. I’m hoping to be finished with this page in the next day or two as the 2008-2009 BJP starts on September 1st.

For this new BJP year, I’ve decided to create journal bracelets, probably 1-1 1/2 inches wide x 6 inches long. With an ultrasuede backing, I’ll secure each one over a metal bracelet blank. I haven’t chosen a theme other than to make each one into a bracelet. My intention is to create a piece based on whatever I’m feeling at the moment. I’ll sew on one bead at a time and see where it takes me.

The Birth of a Freeform Peyote Bracelet – Part 2

Here is what I’ve accomplished today. You can see how I am starting to place the beads in such a way so that the colors are drifting into each other. This will soften that striped look. Because I’m using various size beads, the bracelet starts to get a bit wavy but I can adjust that as I go along by where I place the beads and how many I place.

Sometime I place 2 same size beads at once to fill in a space.

To add a larger size 6 bead, I sandwich it between smaller size 11 beads and make a little bridge by skipping more than the usual one bead.

Or, instead of staying on one side of the bracelet, I can move to the other side by placing size 15 beads (the lighter ones) across the top.

I love to add pearls because they give a lustrous, organic look. Another little bridge. Play with the placement and see which beads work best. Follow your inner voice.

Sometimes bridges can go across to the other side. Those green chips are peridot. I found them at a bead show I went to last spring. The clarity is amazing.

A closeup of one side.

And the other side.

If you want a thinner bracelet, all that’s left to do is to add beads in such a way to even it out and then add a bead/button and loop clasp. The clasp is beaded in a freeform way so that it fits right in with the rest of the bracelet. Because I’m having such a wonderful time with this, I’ve decided to continue beading and make this bracelet wider. Stay tuned for more progress…