So Blue and Bronze too!

A little different even for me. I know everything is different. Everything is a first time attempt. With the exception of my Russian Spiral bracelets and the variations on them I guess everything is a one of a kind. Even the bracelets are, too, if you count that there are no two the same colors of beads.

I am not a color blue lover but the last necklace and this necklace are both blue. However this one is very very blue!

It all started with a stone for a cab that I did with the idea of doing another Freeform Peyote bracelet. I did the cab and started the bracelet and both my brother and my husband said that the stone was too large/heavy for a bracelet. I had to agree with them. So the one side was easy to continue and the other side got some extra thread added and it grew to necklace lenth too. I wanted to do Peyote but did not know where I was going with it. I had four rows done and it just seemed wide enough. Now what?

I decided to add a little fringe. I added a length of 11 beads and a tiny stop bead to make each fringe. I did each fringe in the colors that made the necklace. That made 7 of each of the four colors of blue on each side. I really thought I was going to do more.

It said done.

So I added a silver clasp. I am wearing it as I write. I really liked it and it feels good.
I do a bezel for the stones and they are not the easiest thing to do as I do not use a backing. I guess you could wear it backwards and it would not look much different. Back is below
Oh, yes I almost forgot...bronze.

My neice Amy was making an order for beads did I need anything? Ah, well, what do you think? I ordered some great items and two bronze colored beads one 15/0 and one 11/0. Just asking to be a Russian Spiral bracelet. I did the increases much like the first bracelet I learned to make when I took my orginal and only class.

It is a variation on a design by Jenny of Mad Chiwawa Designs. The kit I did first, is on the following page. http://www.madchiwawadesigns.com/kits.htm

Fish Tale Concluded!

Well it is finished. I am happy with it, but the clasp could have been a tiny bit smaller or the loop a little larger. It takes a minute to fasten but it will loosen up right?

The camera did not portray the color really accurately. It is gold, terra cotta, and cornflower blue. It appears more turquoise. It is not.

I combined some neat elements for a change. Just doing a necklace is kind of a change in itself.

Thanks for looking.

Patience in Fishing!

Did I thank Amy for the delightful little Koi? No! Sorry, thank you Amy. It has taken about 25 hours or more and the project is far from done. Admittedly there were starts and stops and restarts and stops adding to the total hours of work. Then, of course, there are the rip outs. So where am I now? Good question.

The ring part is done. I think! Well as done as it can be until I tie it in with the back part and the closure. I am still thinking of the way to make the closure/toggle. I think I can make a toggle in tubular peyote, if I remember how. That way I can use the three bead colors and spiral them (Maybe) to match the African Helix part some.

What did I say? Yes, the back half of the necklace is African Helix and then somehow it is going to have a ring at the one end that will link with the completed front ringed section. The other side of the African Helix will have the toggle that will close the whole thing...I think. I still have about 3 more inches of the African Helix to finish. When I do it in size 15's it is slow. Look at what I have and see what you think?

Gone Fishing!!

No don't get excited. I cannot hurt a fish. I can bead around one though. My niece, Amy, gave me another fish. This one is not glass beads, but is a metal fish pendent. It has been asking for a necklace to hang from for over two weeks.
Since finishing my Freeform bracelet, I have been as busy as a cat covering dodo. We had a huge garage sale with all the dishes, glassware, trash and treasures from our house as well as my Dad's attic.

I had about three false starts on the right necklace and I am not certain how this one will develop. I am happy with the colors now and also the circles. It is done in 15/0 beads so could take a while. When I work with the 15's I tend to get tired eyes and have to take breaks more frequently. Or is it really laziness. Not sure but whatever is the cause I will not be finishing it tomorrow. The picture gives an idea what it is going to look like. I think!
I need to think of making earrings to match??? Maybe the fish is just too big for me to wear as earrings. I could just hang a fish from each of my hoops I always wear and be done with it.

Did I tell you that Jessica sent me a necklace...no not a gift. She did not like the way it was made but liked the beads. I added a few seed beads and a better clasp and well you darn better like it because it had a typical project for Jessica history. I made it three times. This is the final product!
Have a great evening...back to Fishing!

"The Hours Before Dawn"

No I am not writing poetry. That is what I am calling my newest Freeform Peyote bracelet. It is finally finished. I sure did puncture my thumb and fingers many times. I have been wanting to do it for a while and now I am glad to say it is as finished as it will be. I never know exactly when I am done but Harv kept telling me it was done. Think I will do a pictorial of the process. Ready or not! I did the cabs first. The third one is not finished in this pic.
It is started liner. There are about 3 rows of peyote done.
Starting to do the bridges. It is taking on its own personality.

I worked two days on a part that I ripped out and replaced with the three wrapped together strands with the Lava bead within.

Starting to embellish the bracelet. This is the fun part.

Ready to Wear!

Good Night!

Gift Time

Wow How Could I Forget?
This weekend is my oldest grandson's graduation party. Yea I know how could a young lady like me have a grandson age 19??? Well that is a story for another time but nevertheless I do.
We have been in Florida for 9 months and then since arriving back in PA we had the fun of unloading my father's house of its treasures. Yes, I have had a few minutes to bead true. How could I forget that I was planning on making bracelets for my daughter-in-law, Wendy and my two granddaughters, Hannah and Madison?
Fortunately I remembered on Wednesday evening and not this morning.


Quickly I started by picking out the colors I wanted to use. Since they were all to be in Russian Spiral, I needed an 11/0 size bead and a 15/0 size bead of colors that would look well together. The colors in the photo do not do the bracelets credit. IMO. The one that appears blue is really lavender. It has light purple 11 beads in a matt finish and lavender/pink/blue translucent rainbow 15 beads. The pink one is with clear pink centered 11's and AB clear 15's. However the 4 # fireline that I used to make the bracelets showed throw the AB clears and made them appear silver and it is such an attractive look. Pink and silver. Now there is a new lesson. As much as I always tried not to have the thread show, in this instance it enhanced the whole bracelet. The white and brown is really pearl size 11's and cranberry translucents in 15. I love the bracelet but I did not have a toggle in gold and so I put a gold screw closure and it is not real easy to put on. Good thing there are alot of people in their family.
I did not like the clasp on the one for Wendy and so I tore it apart and put a different clasp on and added a shell...now where did that idea come from??
The peyote freeform is still forming! I worked two days on a bridge that went too far. It got too wide and too domineering and looked like another bracelet was growing like a tumor on the original one. Do you get the idea I hated what was happening? You are right. It took me a long time to tear it out and make a gentle bridge with a neat lava bead within. I am feeling much better. I am about to get back to work on it. It has been resting a couple of days after the ugly bridge fiasco as I finished my gifts.

Got to run and make coffee. I really need it today. All day. My brother and I started a new challenge...30 pounds and keep it off. There is big money involved and that is my best motivator!

Slowly But Surely the Bracelet Evolves

Get Ready Get Set---Bead! No, not exactly quick like a race. Seed beading is anything but fast, usually, and when it is a "freeform" it seems to crawl. Maybe it crawls because I do something and it does not look like I expected, so I take it out. It is just alot of stitches ,too.
This is where it is and there is lots of beading before it tells me it is done. Yes, I know. Somehow it seems as if you bead and bead and then all of a sudden it looks done, finally. That is when it is finished. Not alot of planning. However I am certain that there are beaders who make plan on "freeform", but I am not one of them. I pick out the color and sizes of beads I may use and then it just kind of happens.
Now you know my secrets.
Going to rest it for this evening...it was not going where I wanted it to.
Tomorrow.

Freeform Peyote Challange

I have started a Freeform bracelet that has been organizing in my mind for a month or so. It is a part of a Peyote Freeform Challange from a Group called Beaddreamz. I like black, gray, silver, and crystal together and so that is the beginning concept. I gathered the beads I have available in those colors as well as the two cabs I bought in a lovely bead store in Altamonte Springs, Fl and a stone I bought at a stone store in the mountains of West North Carolina. The first thing I did was make bezels for the three loose pieces. It required scads of time. Next I made piles of the beads that are to be part of the bracelet. Not all assembled will actually end up as part of the bracelet. I have begun the bracelet itself now.

It will take weeks before this one will end. The neat thing about Freeform is it begins to take on a life of its own and develops in ways you could never have anticipated at the start of the bracelet. I look forward to this project and will bring you up to date as I continue the work on it.
Spent another 2 hours at my Dad's house taking out treasures and trash. What a garage sale I am going to have.