Thursday, November 10, 2011

Beads Glorious Beads!

Oh, I am the luckiest beader ever.

We spent the past week in Anaheim and Los Angeles with our daughters, granddaughters and SIL. It was a great week (and I'm still totally exhausted).

Here is the soon-to-be 5 year old modelling the bracelet I made for her and the necklace we made together (got to get them started young).





















 
And here's the 2 year old as a pirate for Halloween with her BFF, the ladybug.

















These girls are amazing and beautiful and funny and charming and smart as can be! So much fun!!  They alone would make me the luckiest person ever but something really wonderful happened while we were there.

My daughter gave me her bead stash!!!  YES!  She was a beader in high school and on into early adulthood but later years have been too busy (and child-filled and cat-filled) to leave her any time to bead. Or maybe she just got tired of it. I'm not sure which but I'm so excited to show you my new stash additions.

I made some suggestions about taping the individual boxes of beads but was assured they were packed in tightly and off they went into the mail. They arrived yesterday with beads all over the place. Lots of them landed on the kitchen floor. Bead soup, thy name is MESS!!


But I will have a good time sorting through this mountain of beads -- 15 boxes and one plastic bag FULL of stuff!!  This is like Christmas only better!!!

















Here's a look at what's completely disorganized inside these boxes.





And here are two boxes that actually managed to contain the beads in their rightful places:
I'm very grateful to Brooke for all this goodness. Someday she may want to bead again and I'll repay her in kind! 

Now back to bead sorting...

Monday, October 31, 2011

Wish List Monday & An Update



Following in Amy at Copper Diem's footsteps, I have a wish for today's wish list -- but only one!







I'm not too greedy this week. Probably because I ate too much candy and am not thinking straight.

And besides, this is the coolest thing ever and how could I even want anything else?  Lenses for my new iPhone 4s. Yes, that's it.  They're available at Photojojo, a website I love all the time but never more than when they sent me the email about these lenses. Here they are in all their tiny goodness. Love them all but especially want the macro one!!















An Update

The failed bracelet that I wrote about before now works. I took apart one edge and inserted a cheap-o store bought bangle and re-did the edging. It works perfectly now.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Flowers -- Nature's Inspiring Creations

Here's what I have for you today. This is such an awesome video, it stands on its own. You'll love it -- I promise!


If that link doesn't work, cut & paste this URL:
http://player.vimeo.com/video/27920977?title=0&%3bbyline=0&%3bportrait=0href=

Enjoy. You're welcome.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Back to the Drawing Board

I'm still on a bangle kick. All I want to make are bangles. Here's one that was a failure. I knew before it was finished that it was probably not going to work so I should have stopped but no...
Here's what it's supposed to be like:











Cute idea. Quick to do (except for those picot edges which took the most time but I liked doing it). But here's what really happened:










I stuck a bit of memory wire in there to make it hold it's shape, and it didn't want to stay. I could have (should have) made a loop on the end of the wire so it couldn't stick out but was advised that it would still stick out (and break beads in the process) even if I did that. That's because the memory wire's circumference is smaller than the bangle so it won't stretch out like it needs to.

What to do?  I searched the internets for bracelet blanks and only found one place that had what I need. It's here at Metalliferous.com. And wouldn't you know the size I need is out of stock. So this red & white failure will be taken apart (at least one picot edge will come off) and will await further research. I'm thinking of buying cheap bangles and using one of those inside. What do you think? Any reason not to do that?

And here's something wonderful! Carol Dean Sharp (one of the nicest people in the beading world) is having a giveaway at Sand Fibers blog.  Go here but don't win, ok? 

Monday, October 10, 2011

Wish List Monday

Some lovely beads are calling to me this week.

Aren't these cool:














I love the rough texture and general funkiness of these:













And from this Artfire shop, four fabulous beads:




















































And last but so not least!  This very clever & smart person has taken Fireline & colored it. I want them all!  I know there's a lot of controversy over Fireline vs. Nymo or other nylon threads but I like the body of the work better when it's done on Fireline. It makes my bead weaving seem somehow sturdier and more substantial.   And I love that Sparkle Spot has taken a product I really like and made it better.  I really want every color. They say there will be more coming (I do notice that green is missing).  I can't wait to see what else they come up with!











And a very happy birthday to my sweet, funny, loving husband. I'm so lucky I got you!

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Paying Homage to the Bangle, ad nauseum

Take away the beads. I'm so done with these tila bangles. But as you can see, I didn't get done soon enough. I've done way too many of them and have no idea what to do with them. Yesterday I wore all of them on one arm and they felt great. But I didn't leave my house fearing they would make me look like a crazy lunatic. Maybe I am a crazy lunatic. Certainly, I got stuck in the tila bangle thing there for a while.

I'm done! I've moved on. I'm herringboning and CRAWing my way through a new piece. Not done yet. Photos will come later and be the proof that I'm no longer tila beading. Here's what I did before I found my way clear of these things.

First another metallic-y one:
The bicones made the tilas stand up straight on their own so it's a slightly different look.

But then there are these:
Some have the tile layout, others the stacked one. And one is just inside out because it was different (that's the turquoise one). Crazy, right?

And to see all the craziness in one place, here they all are:



The end. Fade to black. Please.
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