New Photos

Today was a photo day. After receiving a couple of emails from people wanting to buy some of my beading I decided to take some new photos before listing the items in my Artfire store.

It was a fun search for items to pair with the jewelry and hopefully enhance them. Inspired by the tile work of a Persian fountain this is one of my faves.

This one was a winner in Beading Daily's "Pattern Play Challenge", apparently it's "off the wall".

Classics. A staple in any jewelry closet!

Always a favorite these wave bracelets are just fun to wear.



I couldn't resist making this one look like a caterpillar.
Anyway...I finally got some pieces into my store and I'm offering free Priority Mail shipping in the US and free First class shipping everywhere else.

Organization

Yesterday I made a huge push to organize my studio and am happy to say it's 90% there.
I actually have a photography station, a computor station and a designated work area! And a beading corner with all my beads easily accessible as I usually bead in a comfortable chair watching some TV. I'll take some shots in a few days when it's finally complete.

I started working with polymer clay again this weekend. I used to make jewelry with clay years ago....in fact, my Mom dug out a brooch I made her 25 years ago. I didn't know she still had it, I'd forgotten about it, and I was quite surprised to see how it still looked great after 25 years. Of course, my style has changed in those years and today I'm more interested in making beads than brooches.

I got a Sculpey conditioning machine on sale at Joann's and some clay and started experimenting. I had seen a tutorial on making bicone and lentil beads so I thought I would give it a try. I was quite pleased with my first attempts and I don't think it will take too much practice to get back up to speed. I do need to get one of those bead rollers as I really want to make some oval beads, I just designed a bead using some vintage oval beads and want to recreate that bead in clay. All these great tools weren't available 25 years ago, I think the only tool I had was a Kemper(?) clay extractor which I gave away with my beads stash to a single mom who was making jewelry to help pay her bills. I'll have to replace that and I do need to invest in a little toaster oven though so I can bake the clay in my studio, maybe I'll pick that up today.

I got a little off track with the studio overhaul but hopefully I'll catch up this week. It was a pretty good week, my classes were slow but I may have a couple of new students, I got a check from the gallery for a piece that sold, was asked to put my jewelry in another gallery in a great location and the scales say I lost a couple of pounds. Positive things to keep me positive!

On Track

No pictures to show for the last few days of work as I've been glued to my computer writing instructions. One of my goals for the new year was to get three months ahead with projects for my classes and I'm on track to do that....so far, so good.

Now, if I could do so well with my personal health goals I'd be a very happy camper. I hit 150 on the scale after the holidays and that means I've gained 15lbs in the last twenty months. I know that doesn't seem much to a lot of people but my weight had been constant for about 15 years so it horrifies me. A couple of years ago someone bought me a skipping rope as a joke (he said my personality reminded him of skipping)....now I'm thinking about using it.

A Busy Month

It's actually a crazy month for what I'm trying to accomplish.

This month has eight new classes and, of course, I didn't even start writing instructions until after New Years. Now I just have three sets of instructions to go.

One of my New Year goals was to get three months ahead with my classes so by the end of the month I plan to be in that position. I have classes planned into April and already have all but one sample done for next month. I'm also going back to just four new projects a month, new classes on Tuesday and then repeated the following month in the Thursday class. Any other classes I book will be from past projects. Much more doable.

So....the month is full of illustrations and writing with a bit of beading thrown in. This little heart earrings and bracelet are one of my latest class projects. I'm not really a heart girl but even I would wear either of these. Created in brick stitch, with no thread showing (I hate that about brick stitch) these earrings are made with four colors of Delicas and Padparadscha Swarovski crystals, all from Artbeads. The bracelet is galvanized silver Delicas with Erinite Swarovskis.

Artbeads has a great sweepstakes going for the new year and the prize is a $1000 shopping spree, who wouldn't want that?

And on that note I better get my butt in gear and start on my day's work....two new sets of instruction.

The beads from Artbeads.com in this post were provided to me as a promotional gift by Artbeads.com in relation to their blogging program. My comments on these items are my honest personal opinion, no compensation has been received.

Smarter in My Dreams

That's my conclusion after rewriting the instructions for the truncated octahedron bead for a third time. The second instructions worked but weren't as simple as the ones I saw in my dreams. I wasn't sure if my dream was Escheresque and beyond understanding until I sat down and made the bead in that manner....and it was a breeze. Simple and straightforward and pretty easy to illustrate. So that was how I spent my Saturday evening.

It always amazes me how my brain works out problems when I'm asleep. And then I wonder what kind of sleep I'm getting if my brain is working all night. And, of course, there are times like now when I wonder where sleep has gone. Insomnia strikes!

At 11:30pm I was getting tired and thought I'd hit the sack, read a few pages of the Dan Brown I picked up today and get a great night of rest. HA! I read a chapter, turned off the lights and waited for sleep to take me away. So, three hours later sleep no where in sight, I got a quarter of the way through the book and I finally gave in. I'm hoping the hot milk helps put me out and debating on taking a sleeping pill.

I've has a super productive week and that's probably the problem....trouble turning it off.

MIT Beads

Yes, I'm back on the math bead kick. This is my truncated cube bead I'm teaching in a couple of weeks. I've been playing with different versions while writing the pattern. I've started to refer to these beads as "MIT beads" because it's been mentioned one has to be a math genius to figure them out. Just for the record, I didn't go to MIT and as far as I know I'm NOT a math genius though I confess I always was extremely good at math and was Mr Howden, my high school math teacher's pet.

I'm sure my dear friend, student and pattern tester Suzanne would have loved to do this bead before she attempted my truncated octahedron which had her tearing her hair out and me rewriting the instructions with step-by-step photos, as the cube is a much easier bead....only six faces to worry about. The thing is these beads are complicated until the construction base 'clicks', then there's a "duh" moment and they get easy but I think that's true with most bead weaving....the first few rows are always the hardest.

I did come up with a new way of constructing the octahedron in my sleep last night....and it will be interesting to see if it works and if it is simpler to follow. It's much harder to illustrate the construction of these three dimensional beads than it is to actually make them, I crank these babies out in about 30 minutes. If you really want to learn how to make them I suggest taking a class as a little instruction goes a LONG way! I'm trying to figure out if I can put together a video tutorial on my own....or if I'll need help. Once all the pattern glitches are worked out the patterns and kits will be available at my Artfire store. If you're one of my students reading this.....I do have a few kits for the colorways you see here.

Surfacing & Happy New Year!

Gee, I'm really doing well with blogging this year!

I'm finally getting back into my stride, I think, famous last words and all that!

I have been busy though. I created these hexagonal lozenge bracelets and submitted them as a project at Beadwork magazine...so cross your fingers for me. The theme for one of their issues is monotone and contrast and these bracelets fit quite well as not only are they monotone but they are reversible and the reverse side is a play on contrast.

My reorganization is being done in stages and I made good headway last week but still a long way to go. My Delicas are now inventoried mostly so I don't buy something I already have, which I did last month. I used the Delica list I downloaded from FoxDenDesigns.com, if you don't know about that, check it out....a great list telling you every size and shape a color comes in.

Yesterday I did something new. I photographed every stage of making my truncated octahedron bead. The math beads can be quite confusing until the process clicks so I'm being extremely thorough in putting the new instructions together...these will be downloadable or available on disc as printing costs would make the patterns unaffordable IMHO.

I'm even thinking about doing some video tutorials if I can work out how to do that.

I also went shopping again with my Beadstar prize from Beadaholique. I think what I like about this store is the large selection of strand reducers they have, I don't know if I've seen so many before. I like to use slide lock clasps on my bracelets but this limits who the bracelet will fit so a strand reducer allows takes care of this problem by allowing an extender chain. They have also got me turned on to Delica #15 cylinders, I've used a #15 seed bead that were presented to me as Delicas but now I'm not so sure. I like the storage trays I got for my tubes but this time I ordered a Beadsmith bead tower.....made of canvas and plastic this is a folding triangular tower that holds 168 3inch tubes but also accomodates tubes up to 6inches. This has to be fantastic if you're going to a bead retreat or off to a class at a show, not bad as a sales display case either.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great holiday season and has an even better 2010. I'll say watch this space as I've got some interesting pieces waiting to be photographed and introduced to the world.