One Week 100 People Challenge

I've already spent more time sketching this year than I have in the past several years combined.  In December urban-sketcher and instructor extraordinaire, Liz Steel, announced that she was going to host a new run through of her 12-week Foundations Sketching course.  I'd purchased the course several years ago, but only made it through the first four or so weeks, working on my own.   This run through was perfectly timed!  I love that she has both indoor and outdoor suggestions for each week. Her prompts meant that even when I was feeling my worst, I was still sketching. 

My everyday backpack, with Inktense pencils

another everyday item, following Liz's prompts to explore drawing visual texture

exploring different ways to suggest or detail visual texture

an extremely fast, 'while waiting for the bus', sketch

But you'll note there aren't any people in my drawings.  I hate sketching people!  I feel really uncomfortable, I don't do it well, especially faces, and it simply feels awkward. When I do draw people in a scene, they tend to end up looking like this. 

notice something missing?  Yeah, me too.

I've decided to challenge myself by participating in Liz Steel's One Week One Hundred People challenge.  (Yikes!) To make it easier, I'm starting out with a pocket-sized moleskine and a pen.  As I get more comfortable, maybe I'll add watercolors, but for now it's just pen & ink.


I got a little jump start waiting for a concert to begin last night.  Turns out the music wasn't really to our taste, but I like my little sketches (except for the guy I tried to draw in profile - faces are sooo hard!)

quick, quick sketches

One hundred people sketches, here I go!  And to keep myself honest, I think I'll post them on a daily basis to my Instagram feed to help hold myself accountable.  Ready, set, go....

Anyone else joining in?  If you're already participating in the challenge, or thinking about doing so, I'd love to hear from you!

It's Done! Just in time for the UnFinished Object Blog Hop!

I trimmed the last beading thread Sunday afternoon and there was much rejoicing!  Thanks to two back-to-back UnFinished Objects Challenges, one of my oldest UFOs is finally complete.  I started work on this collar back in 2012 - and picked it up now and then through the years.  The collar just kept growing, without ever nearing completion.  It reminded me of an explanation one of my early teachers used about approaching infinity numerically - that you could get closer and closer to infinity, but by it's very nature, you could never actually reach infinity by counting. 

Thank goodness that wasn't truly the case here, as the picture shows!  And thank you to everyone who helped make this possible by agreeing to participate in another blog hop.  This blog hop up was just the push I needed.  Without you, it likely remained an UFO another five years!  I'm hoping those of you who joined int found the challenge useful, too. 

Curious about what everyone else worked on?  I know I am!  Here's the complete list of participants to see their progress:

Karen Williams, Baublicious

Francie Broadie,  FAB

Christine Van Dyke Altmiller, One Kiss Creations

Therese, Therese's Treasures

Kim Dworak, CianciBlue

Liz Hart, Treetop Life

Liz En, Bead Contagion

Amy Severino, Amy Beads

Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers

Hope Smitherman, Crafty Hope

Christi Carter, Sweetpea Path

Bobbie Rafferty, Beadsong Jewelry

Margo Lynn Hablutzel, My World and It's Full of Books

And here are a few additional photos of my Starry Night Collar. 

where I was on Friday as I tested the collar against my template

The shawl-like shape was different from any other necklace or collar I've made, and presented some unique challenges in getting everything to lay properly when worn.  The final connection I needed to make was at the back, just behind my right shoulder.  I couldn't get the shape right working flat, and I didn't have any handy person waiting around to be my model.  (I could have likely talked my husband into doing it, but he's simply not the right size!)  I ended up doing a little beading, then adding a thread guide, and put it on and had him snap a picture, so I could at least see how the connection should look.  It let me see the shape I was working with. 

my thread guides show just how far off I would have been - I thought they'd be straight

Shortly thereafter, I did manage to find a friend willing to stop by and let me do a final fitting on them before doing the last few lines of stitching.

Laid out 'flat' (or flatish) to see the whole collar

Because it's designed to drape over the shoulders, it doesn't lay completely flat when the clasp is fastened.  You can see it buckling over on the right hand side if the photo. 

Several people had asked to see the collar on a human.  Unfortunately, I once again had no one but myself as a model.  This was the best collar selfie I managed to take:

It's really hard when you're both the model and the photographer!

One more photo with a black background.

And there you have it!  Truth is, I don't quite believe it's really done! 

(Un)Finished Objects Blog Hop

Just over a month ago, I invited friends and fellow artists to join me in founding an UnFinished Objects support group, and participate in a Blog Hop Challenge. The time has come to see how everyone has done with finishing some of their UFOs.  Here's the full list of blogging participants:

Karen Williams, Baublicious (you're here)
Francie Broadie, Francie Broadie Custom Jewelry
Christine Van Dyke Altmiller, One Kiss Creations
Amy Severino, Amy Beads
Therese, Therese's Treasures
Kim Dworak, CianciBlue
Liz E, Bead Contagion
Margo Lynn Hablutzel, My World and It's Full of Books
Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers
Cathi Salzarulo Kent, The Cat's Meow
Liz Hart, Treetop Life


Personally, I'd hoped to finish two of my longest-standing UFOs.  I didn't quite hit the mark, but one is complete, and the other is much farther along than it was at the start of the year. 

UFO #1:  My Orange Blossom Tea Cozy definitely held the record for my oldest UFO.  One that I'd always planned to finish.  I started the cozy for an embellishment round robin for a sewing group in my old hometown of Columbia, Missouri back in 2001, right as I prepared to move from Missouri to Seattle.  I crazy-patched the cozy, then started its travels through the group - it spent a month with each friend while I worked on their pieces.  All of the machine embroideries are their work.  I moved before the Round Robin was quite complete, and I finished the last few turns with a little help from the post office.

Before: this is where it sat for the better part of 15 years!

After the cozy returned to me, I did a fair bit of hand embroidery, but at some point I put it away.  I'd say it was out of sight, out of mind, but I'd pull it out every now and then and think 'I really ought to finish this', before putting it back away for another day.  Pulling it out for this challenge, I made sure to photograph the back side because several of my friends signed their contributions. 

I haven't done any embroidery work (except bead embroidery) in years, so this was a fun project to pick back up.  Some of my stitches were a little shaky, but I still love french knots! And here it is finished:

I continued layering the embroidery, and added sequins

And the other side

closeups of more recent stitching

I first added french knots to the feather stitch.  Then, I had a great time 'enhancing' the boquet just above it with both french knots and tiny sequins.  The machine embroidery made a fun background for further embellishments.  One of my favorite early embroideries is the away I 'completed' the orange slice stitching it's outlines into the blue fabric.  It was tempting to keep going and keep adding additional embellishments - but down that path lays a continued UFO.  

Wondering where I left off with UFO #2:  Starry Night Collar?  It's the one that's not quite done.  Truthfully, I figure I need another ten hours or so (don't ask how many hours I've already put in).  For some reason, this piece reminds me of beaded crochet - I think because of the texture.  Although my sister recently reminded me just how different beadweaving and crochet really are. 

comparing the stitching and components to my original mockup 'pattern'

combines snowflakes, random RAW and freeform beadweaving

On the plus side, I've finally figured out how I'm going to manage the clasp.  If you compare the photos above to the one from this post, you'll see just how much further along it is.

So, I didn't meet all of my goals, but I was pleased to make progress.  And it makes it quite easy to decide what to work on for the next month's UFO project! 

ZnetShows New Sea Glass Arrivals Blog Hop & Challenge

Late last month Hope Smitherman sent out invitations for a mini Blog Hop and Challenge using some of ZnetShows newest cultured sea glass styles.  I love sea glass, so saying yes was really easy.  We were invited to chose from three different styles - two were different types of 'nuggets', and the third were two-hole buttons.

I decided I HAD to work with the buttons, then debated my second choice before falling in love with the central drop pendant in this set.

This blue is one of the rarest colors in my collection of 'natural' sea glass

When the beads arrived, I discovered that the thread holes in the pendant set were large enough that a size 11 seed bead could slip right through.  I was  tempted to find some way to use them so that they laid flat in the design the way they do on my beading mat in this photos, but couldn't quite come up with a solution I liked this time around.  Which is kind of funny, because that's how I decided to use the buttons.

The flat, rounded shape of buttons, with their smooth surface, reminded me of skipping stones, so I decided to make a summer beach cuff where they'd act as the main focal.  Using size 8 seed beads to create a chunkier than normal base, I first stitched a Lacework Cuff using random right angle weave. 

Lacework Cuff Base with two sea glass buttons for closures

 Then it was time to add additional buttons for surface texture. 

Starting to decorate the surface

Adding one button at a time, I then worked several layers of sea-frond fringe around that button before moving on to the next.

The finished cuff, Skipping Stones

In the end, I decided I liked the way the cuff looked with only half of its length embellished.  It's designed for the buttons to be worn on the outside edge of the wrist.  This way, the underside of the wrist just has a flat band; less likely to catch on clothing and such.

It's hard to photograph on my own wrist, but here's the idea.

So I finished the cuff, time to do something with the drop pendant.   I wanted to use for a summer necklace of 'beach treasures' that looked nice enough to wear to a evening out.  I ended up doing some simple bead stringing with size 15 seed beads and a couple different styles of two-hole beads. 

Using the freeform nuggets and pendants as well as more buttons

I used the buttons as links as well as for the closure

Isn't the seaglass pendant pretty?  I wanted a very simple necklace that let it shine.

So that's what I came up with.  Now it's time to see what everyone else made!  Here's the full list of designers:

close-up:  adding fringe behind the buttons

ZnetShows Blog
Amy Severino
Andrea Trank
Becky Pancake
Blanca Medina
Christina Miles
Karen Williams
Karla Morgan
Kathy Lindemer
Shaiha Williams
Susan Bowie
Veralynne Malone

Sping Ring Fling May Day Celebration and Blog Hop

A little May Day posy of Spring blooms

Happy May Day! 

I've always loved the idea of hanging little posies on friends and neighbors' doors to celebrate the optimism of the season on the first day of May.  I've never actually run around the neighborhood hanging mini-bouquets off of neighbors doors, but it always seemed like fun.  Instead, this year, I'm hosting a virtual May Day celebration with my first-ever freeform peyote Spring Ring Fling Blog Hop and Challenge.

Many, many thanks to everyone who accepted the challenge to make a ring or rings inspired by the season: 

* Svetlana, Svetlana’s Gallery
* Lori Finney, Using My Beads
* Monika Burzyńska, Sztuka Magiczina
* Teresa Shelton, KeyGirl Designs
* Vanessa Walilko, Kali Butterfly

Trees Budding celebrates the first signs of spring, as buds emerge on the trees

April found me traveling from Boston, to mid-Missouri, and back to Seattle.  I was struck by how much Spring's timing differs from place to place.  The wisteria and cherries had just begun blooming in our yard in early April.  Later that day, I discovered spring was just starting to unfurl in Boston.  It had snowed in Boston earlier that week and the snow had just melted!  So my first ring is for my friends over there on the 'other' coast. 

A view from the back/underside of the ring

Trees Budding (I'm still working on the name) celebrates one of the earliest signs of spring, as the buds swell on the trees.  So many of these early buds have a lovely red-orange cast.

Dyed jasper rounds nestle into a background of soft greens and the coral of dogwood stems. "Magic Apple" Riso seed beads remind me of the texture of the spiky maple 'flowers'.  (I checked on wikipedia, and they do call them flowers!)

This photo of apple blossoms from my yard started the ideas peculating for my second ring.  I snapped the photo as I was heading to the airport on my way to visit family in mid-Missouri, where I discovered my parents' cherry tree covered with snow white blooms.

Combine that with a foray to Itchy's, my father's favorite thrift shop where I picked up a 100yard spool of 3/8" white satin ribbon for a grand total of $5.00, and my second ring was born.

a side view of Karen's Apple Blossom ring

This ring was a little blast from the past - old favorites meets new(er).  I've always loved ribbon worked flowers, and used to teach how to make them back in the early nineties when my focus was more on crazy quilting and embellished embroidery.

I made three little blossoms and an apple bud, then set them aside and worked on my freeform peyote ring base.





 Once I had the base, I stitched each of the flowers in place, using apple green, transparent magatamas and 6mm bugles to add additional textures to the bouquet.

Worn, the blossoms almost complete hide the structure of the ring

The beading is almost a little secret for the wearer

So there are my little spring posies.  Now it's time for me to go see everyone elses' lovely creations in this May Day Celebration! Here's the list again:

Karen Williams, Baublicious (you're here)
Svetlana, Svetlana’s Gallery
Lori Finney, Using My Beads
Monika Burzyńska, Sztuka Magiczina
Teresa Shelton, KeyGirl Designs
Vanessa Walilko, Kali Butterfly

Teresa Shelton's Spring Ring Fling

Spring inspiration, Teresa Shelton

Teresa Shelton jumped into the Spring Ring Fling with both feet, creating not one, not two, not even three, but four separate rings.  Here's Teresa talking about her designs:

It’s been so long since I did freeform peyote work that I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the freedom of it. For the past several years I’ve primarily been doing a lot of geometric beadwork which is rigid in form and structure but still creative in application. Once I got started on the first ring, the joy of freeform expression was familiar and inviting, much like reconnecting with an old friend, and I savored the chance to fall back into those comfortable rhythms.

Spring is my favorite time of year and I can’t wait to see everything wake up again and return to life. The first ring is inspired by the first apple buds and leaves that sprout from dormant branches and yearn for the Spring sun. At our house, the apple tree vibrates and hums as the bees find the bounty in their early blossoms. The ring, Apple Blossoms, was started shank first with a single row of beads followed by several rounds of freeform peyote. The branch, leaves, and blossoms were beaded separately and then attached to the shank through a flat washer looking trade bead which has an added bonus of allowing the branch to rotate on top of the shank.

Teresa Shelton's Apple Blossom Ring

After the first ring was well under way, so many more Spring Fling ring inspirations hit me all at once and I wondered if I’d find the time to create everything I was exploring in my head. Daffodils are my favorite flower and one of the first Spring flowers to bloom in our yard. Several years ago, I purchased a lampworked daffodil bead from Serena Smith at a local bead show and tucked it into my purse. When I got home, I found one daffodil petal had broken from banging around against who-knows-what in my purse.


I kept the broken bead and figured I would find a way to use it in time (The beads tell me what they want when the time is right, I have only to listen and wait for their suggestions). First Bloom gave me the opportunity to use this beautiful but neglected bead. The single missing petal was created with seed beads, then a blend of freeform peyote and 5 sets of geometric herringbone increases was sculpted around the base of the bead. The shank was created and added after the flower, petal, and foliage were assembled.

Teresa Shelton's First Bloom

Teresa's First Bloom, worn

A side view of Teresa's ring (it's easier to see the beading)

Why stop at two rings when there was a whole month to create and rings only use a few hours of stolen time?

Spirals are everywhere in nature and the universe, and I seem to gravitate to this shape so why not explore it in beads. In New Zealand, the spiral-shaped Maori koru is reminiscent of an unfurling fern frond, symbolizing new beginnings – yet another Spring theme. I usually steer clear of pink in my beadwork and never pair pink with orange but a beader friend of mine recently made me some earrings in hot pink, orange, bright green and bronze. Everyone I’ve shown them to loves the color combination so I guess it was time to emerge from my habitually comfortable color cave and see what new paths I could discover. New Beginnings started with the spiral and worked from the center out. The shank was beaded later and has a diagonal transition in two locations between the hot pink and orange colors so they also spiral around the shank.

Teresa Shelton's New Beginnings spiral

a side view of Teresa's ring

starting point for Pacified

The final ring in this series, Pacified, blends my love of the geometric beadwork with the freedom of freeform peyote. I had an older exploded warped square (technique from Contemporary Geometric Beadwork) in pastel colors which reminds me of the soft, muted sunlight emerging in Spring. The shank is a simple square-stitch connection of two of the warped square tips which creates an open ring base to build from. To the base, I added several lacy trusses of netting and introduced peyote in subsequent passes to add structure and support for the heavier beads near the top of the ring. After it was completed, my husband commented that it looked like a pacifier with the center tear-dropped focal extending up so high.

Teresa Shelton's final ring, Pacified

Thanks Karen for organizing and facilitating this challenge as well as hosting me as a guest blogger on your site.

****

Teresa Shelton, who beads under the pseudonym Keygirl, has been creating art with seed beads for over 25 years. You can see more of her work on her Facebook Artist’s page or e-mail her at keygirl designs gmail com. 

Time to Stitch: Bead Embroidery and Happy Fish

I've always admired bead embroidery, but never really taken the time to play with the medium.  Christine and Therese's announcement back in February that their next Time to Stitch Blog Hop would focus on Bead Embroidery seemed like the perfect excuse to give it a whirl.

I even had the start of a little project that had been hanging around for a while - a little bead embroidered oak leaf I'd started some time in the past.  I thought I'd finish it, then move on to something larger.  My goal with the leaf was simply to try out lots of different ideas, stitch combinations, and types of beads.  Some worked better than others, but I think it's quite cheerful, and was a lot of fun to work on in the dead of winter.

Then came a long lull, with not a spurt of creativity in sight.  I was definitely caught in the creative doldrums.  As the days and months sped by, I started to wonder if the leaf would be all I had to show for this blog post.  Then my dear friend Georgia McMillan came to my rescue!

Georgia brought several of her wonderful "Happy People" bead embroideries to the May Seedbeaders' meeting. Better yet, she graciously allowed me to take photos to share with you (I'm including two in this post).   Thank you Georgia!  I spent a couple of days studying the photos and thinking about her work.

Georgia McMillan's Happy Person seems to be dancing

This more abstract design uses size 18 beads in the flowers!

Her Happy People are small - the largest easily fits into the palm of my hand, so I'm guessing maybe 3 1/2" tall, tops.  But the details are incredible.  I loved their size, I love Georgia's sense of whimsy, I love her attention to detail.  I contemplated making my own Happy Person.  But I feared that I'd simply be copying Georgia if I did, and wanted to do something more 'me'.  So I decided to sleep on it.  Can you guess where I decided to go with?

Fish!  Big surprise, huh?  I figured I could surely I do something with fish.  I've made right angle weave fish, and freeform peyote fish, but I'd never made a bead embroidered fish.  So it was about time!  Time to pull out the sketchbook.

playing with design ideas on paper and interfacing

I pulled several ideas from my sketchbook, including these two above.  I love the curves and lines of the top fish, but feared she was too complex.  I wanted something simpler to use as a 'blank canvas' for more exploration.  The bottom fish is about perfect, complete with a lovely, cartoony smile. Transfering the design to interfacing, it was time to start stitching. 

First up? Sequins!

I totally blame the sequins on Sarah of Saturday Sequins. I'd never even considered using sequins in my beading before seeing her work. These days, sequins keep showing up in my designs (they are really sneaky that way!)  In this case I thought they'd make great fish scales.  I ended up using five different colors of sequins - three transparent and two opaque. 

My first Happy Fish - poor thing doesn't even have a name yet!

Like the leaf, I didn't have any specific plans for where I was going, other than the two large blocks of color and wanting to use sequins for fish scales.  I added in some of Georgia's 'flowers' along the bottom of the fish, using 15s.  Because I had just purchased them, I added a line of dragon-scale beads towards the top of the body.  Originally they laid down in a nice, flat, spiky row, but I decided I wanted more dimensionality and added a line of beading under their tips to make them sit up from the background.  Not sure it was the right choice, but hey, it was fun to experiment. 

I finished the little guy on Thursday, and the poor thing doesn't even have a name yet.  Not that it looks like he cares.  :)

So that's where I went with my bead embroidery.  Nothing fancy, but it sure was fun.  Now it's time to check out what everyone else created!  Here's the full roster: 

detail shot of the overlapping sequins-scales

Time To Stitch Blog Hop

1.       Therese (Host) 

2.       Christine  (Host)

3.       Amy

4.       Lola

5.       Lori F

6.       Kim

7.       Becky Pancake

8.       Karin G.

9.       Debbie (Kepi)

10.   LizE

11.   Maryanne

12.   Paula

13.   Wendy

14.   Janet

 Here's the start of my second fish - this one's going to have spikes!

15.   Jasvanti

16.   Ginger

17.   Alicia

18.   Bobbie

19.   Shirley

20.   Sarah

21.   Cynthia

22.   Lizzie

23.   Samantha

24.   Sally

25.   Niki

Oh, and if you have a name suggestion for my little friend, let me know.  If I like it, you just might claim naming rights!