Voices for Justice Necklace

Can you spot the result of 1:00 am stress-beading from two nights before my big work event?

Correct!  An incredibly fussy bezeled rivoli crystal!  The thread broke, I dunno, 1,000 times.  Probably because it was the middle of the night and my reflexes were completely gone.  But I was determined that it was exactly the necklace I wanted to wear that night.

This picture is from after the event, with the lovely Renee, my Voices for Justice partner in crime.

Tubular Netted Rope a la Jessica

My friend Jessica (the co-owner and bright light of the magnificent Studio Beads) showed me a lovely tubular netted rope with size 13 beads, just a 3-bead net, that she was working on earlier this fall.  I was so taken with it that I ignored my internal warnings about losing my vision early to those tiny beads over such a long rope, and I dove in.  Finished today.  The result:

My camera is not doing so well getting this, but it is about 17 inches and very shimmery, and nicely lacy and see through.    I may end up hanging something from it to spice it up a bit, something I could remove and then wear the rope solo.   There are two colors in my 3 bead net, I still can't keep track of net without color changes to mark the connector beads.  Jessica's was a pure taupe, and it was sooooooo lovely.  I am getting there, but not there yet.

Owly

I've been working in the rope for my Bead Show owly forever.  Just inching along.  I think I started it in June!

Here is the Cubic Right Angle Weave rope, embellished with the accent colors from the bead:


Once I made the rope, the next challenge was to do a beaded bail that looked nice and was also removable so I could wear the rope without the owly for more grown up occasions.  Here is the result:

The bottom of the bail is a circular peyote disc that is a little lumpy, and a little lopsided.  It is attached via the owly bead hole to a herringbone loop that is large enough to slide on and off.  I think it is very sturdy if not perfect in terms of symmetry, as this design (the peyote) allowed me to take multiple passes through the owly with every consecutive round of the disc.

I am really pleased with the way the colors worked out.  

First Project with New Beads from the Show!

The colors I loved best at bead show this year were the jonquil/mint green beads, paired with the cranberry/blue beads (all Toho I think), that I selected to go with the simple lampworked flower I got from one of the fabulous glassworkers at the show - from afar they look like raspberry and lime!  DE-licious.I could not figure out how to hang the flower since the hole goes front to back rather than up and down. 
 
I started thinking of a breezy net, something like a stem network.  It was pretty neat, but it did not go with the focal bead in the end, when I tried to hang it on there.

I also made a think odd-count peyote rope to that has a nice twist to see if that would look good, but I missed the lime.

In the end Fiona suggested I kill two birds with one stone and make the bail into a lime-colored leafy thingy, that would solve both the need for green contrast and the need for an interesting bail.  So here it is!


I was especially happy when I put the finished net right on top of the other - not bad for an accident!

For anyone who is interested in the mechanics, the bail is a loop with leaves stitched on like loose nets, and then the cup in the back is a 6-bead circular herringbone cup with increases every row and picots on the ends.

Detail on the finished Tolkien LOTR piece...

Here is the finished "40th birthday challenge" piece.  My friend Fiona and I made this challenge to one another last year, and since our birthdays are both in the coming 6 days, and since this week was Bead Show, we unveiled our work. It took about 6 months start to finish, with lots of other projects interceding.  It also went through many re-designs, mostly which gave me excuses to buy more beads.

The challenge was to create a concept piece using all of our bead-weaving (tiny beads stitched together with needle and thread) skills, designed (with help from books and mags for elements) by ourselves, that would pay "homage" to an author or film director.  I chose Tolkien, specifically LOTR. 

We got loads of attention walking around Bead Show wearing our creations, which was super gratifying. People loved the spiderweb and the Great Eye.  It did make shopping harder, as people kept stopping to chat and take our picture. A few vendors even guessed (with some hints) the inspiration for the piece, and many people asked us what class we took to make them!  I was proud to say that this one, there is no class for this sort of tomfoolery, at least not yet.

  

From the East. you can see the Elanor flower really well, but I am afraid my leaf of Lothlorien got a little hidden in the end.  The Evenstar hangs down from Samwise's favored flower.

 From the West, you get a good look at Shelob and her web, and hanging down from that the Elassar, which was needed when Aragorn had to heal so many wounded after battle!  You can also get a good look at the Eye of Sauron, which owes a great deal to Diane Fitzgerald's Shaped Beadwork, but which has a free-netted black pupil holding in a black rivoli in a peyote bezel.

Detail of the leaf... my own design, mostly herringbone stitch with some embellishment.

Detail of Shelob, whose legs were a bit wonky.  I did not want to use wire, but if I had, they would have stood a tad more, well, standy.  He is made from two adjacent "plum blossoms" (30 bead spheres) with one fat red bead in her belly to make her look more angry and less cute.  She has 8 red eyes and two little tusks made from size 15 crystal charlottes, so they are almost invisible here.

The One Ring.  Just some embellished cubic right angle weave.  I wanted something that looked old, and heavy, and with enough gaps that one could imagine a message there that only flame could tell...

The Elassar, also owes a lot to Diane.  In Tolkien's description it is set in silver with an eagle behind it, but it was also described as being set in Aragorn's helm.

 

The base of the piece is a 4-unit lattice, which I learned from a Cynthia Rutledge pattern.  

 

Making the eye.

While this might be the bit of the piece that to the naked eye is least easily associated with LOTR, this Elanor flower was based on a flower I have always had in my imagination from reading the books.  I based it on Tolkien's own words describing it, and some fan art. 

Well, on to next year's challenge!!!  I learned a lot with this one, it is the first I have ever designed really thoughtfully from start to finished, all by myself.  Also, I pushed myself to pick up new skills in the making. 

Assembly took almost 8 hours, all this Thursday. (Assembly means stitching all the bits and pieces I've spent 6 months making onto the base.)  It was a huge challenge to put it all together with some balance and not be as literal as I had originally intended (moving, map-wise, from West to East with all the items being in their real locale.  Can you say "geek"?

Raku bead from 2010 show, experiment a qualified success?

I can't decide if this worked or not.  Does raku bead get a little lost in the bezel?

Gifts for the ladies

This is a terrible pic but I it is all I have of these sweet little gifties for sweeter ladies - the team who planned our DC advocacy trip this year.   I am hoping to do more of these woven earrings, they work up fast and use very little in the way of beads....  and they fit neatly into plastic eggs.