Another Micro Macrame Tutorial & A Quick Update

Boy, oh boy, have I been lazy about blogging lately or what!?  I swear I have less time now than when I was working full time and I can't for the life of me figure out how that works!  I haven't been idle, though.  I did manage to get another of my designs previously only offered as an online class converted to a .pdf download.  It's the Woven Diamonds micro macrame bracelet and it's one of my favorites.  I love the contrast of the textured (knotted) diamond sections with the smooth arcs of beads.  

The bracelet can be made using a focal bead or without it - both versions are covered in the tutorial, which you can find here in my Etsy shop.  

Isn't this a fun piece?  I finally got around to making this skeleton bride pendant into a necklace.  I made the pendant last year using ShrinkyDinks plastic and colored pencils and I just love how she turned out.  To make a necklace, I added some knotted macrame straps with a cool spiral pattern, pulling out the green and blue colors with a hint of black.  Then I put just a pop of red where I connected the straps with the pendant.  A couple of jump rings and a clasp and voila!

If you aren't into skulls, I have been working on some other autumn themed pieces like these pretty leaf bracelets:

That's not all I've been doing, either!  I am working on a tutorial that The Beadsmith will be distributing, which should be out soon!  Now if I could just find time to get everything listed, I'd be on a roll! 

Dia De Los Muertos - A Celebration of Life Challenge Reveal

Today is the reveal day for Karen McGovern's Dia De Los Muertos - A Celebration of Life Challenge over at Love My Art Jewelry and I'm so excited!!!  I've been dying (hahaha - see what I did there?) to show you the necklace I've been working on.  

I love the sentiment behind the Day of the Dead traditions as demonstrated in this post and this one.  Heck, I even made Day of the Dead shoes!  So of course I was excited when Karen suggested a Day of the Dead challenge at Love My Art Jewelry.  I started with a sweet little sugar skull bead by Heather Powers of Humblebeads:

How stinkin' cute is that!  I knew I wanted to go crazy over-the-top with color on this piece, so I pulled all the colors from her bead and started knotting a little rainbow micro macrame section:

Then I transitioned into some flowers with colorful glass seed beads (because what's a Day of the Dead sugar skull without flowers?).

Finally, I added some braided square knot sinnets to make a strap and made a tassel to hang underneath for a little swingy movement.

Ta da!  

Links to other people's posts will be here - I can't wait to see what everyone made!!

Skull Skills and Too Little Time!

I swear something has gone wrong with the part of the universe that controls time; days and weeks and months are just whizzing past!  I have been busy making some pieces influenced by the season (and the fact that TierraCast put out some new Skully buttons).  I had been working in an orange and blue color palette, so I messed around with a skull in those colors:

I'm always partial to the khaki colors with copper, too, so that led to this variation (and the rest in that first photo):

In the middle of the micro macrame jewelry making frenzy, I got sidetracked by this:

Because he has Grandma wrapped around his tiny little finger.  Seriously, is there anything better than being a grandparent?  

Other than that, I've been slowly working on setting up a shop at Amazon.  It isn't live yet (thank goodness), but I'm hoping to have it ready to go when Handmade at Amazon goes live.  Too much to do and too little time!

Happy Halloween!

Wishing you a happy and safe Halloween :)

Halloween/Day of the Dead Jewelry Blog Hop

When Diana Ptaszynski of Suburban Girl Studio announced her Halloween/Day of the Dead Jewelry Blog Hop, I knew just the piece I wanted to use.  Diana's rules for this hop are just that you make one piece of Halloween or Day of the Dead themed jewelry and that you use at least one art bead in it.  When I signed up, I had just been to my first bead show and scored the gorgeous pieces above from Star Spirit Studio.  See that sugar skull on in the center, slightly to the left?  That's the piece I knew I had to use.  So I drug out a bunch of beads and cord.  

When I say a bunch, I mean a bunch, huh?  The raku finish on the pendants has a huge range of color in it.  It varies from piece to piece as you can see from the photo above, and some are more colorful than others.  The sugar skull has really clear colors and I decided to play off that.

I went with micro macrame for this piece and used four different colors of cord:  pink, blue, green and khaki.  I let the colors wander where they wanted.  Sometimes they meandered or flowed gently, and sometimes they intertwined so much it almost looks like plaid.  I used quite a few different beads, too, but I let those take a back seat to the knotting.

The pendant really needed to have a place of honor, so I gussied up the front of the necklace a bit and added a bail.

For a bit of fun, I added a bit of wire wrapping in some links echoing the large bead from the center and then added a large floral clasp at the back.  And there you have it.  My sugar skull all dolled up and ready to party.  Let the festivities begin!

I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see what everyone else made!

Diana Ptaszynski

Staci Smith

Kathleen Breeding

Sue Kennedy

Dianne Miller

Lisa Liddy

Toltec Jewels

Linda Landig

Laura Medeiros

Veralynne Malone

Lynn Jobber

Michelle McCarthy

Karen Totten

Jayne Capps

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Joan Miller

Melissa Meman

Melissa Trudinger

Kari Asbury

Inge von Roos

Andrea Glick

Stephanie LaRosa

Lola Surwillo

Jennifer Cameron

Diane Hawkey

Kristi Harrison

Nicole Valentine Rimmer

Tanya Goodwin

Shai Williams

Sandra McGriff

Sarajo Wentling

Marie Covert

Lisa Stukel

Lauri Vyselaar

Sherri Stokey  <--- You are here

Pam Traub

Lori Dorrington

Kristen Stevens

Eleanor Burian-Mohr

Sally Russick

Dawn M. Gallop

Christine Damm

Halloween Bracelet Giveaway

I think we need a little giveaway, don't you? I have this bracelet entered in a Halloween Design contest that ends on October 30th.  Entries for the giveaway will run through midnight on October 31st and I will chose the winner on November 1st.

I designed this quirky charm bracelet around the pretty cameo portrait and added lovely flowers in black Lucite and orange Czech glass.  And a a bat charm, a black cat, a few skulls and skeleton claws... Pretty and creepy at the same time.  Creepily pretty?  Prettily creepy?  You can read more about it and see more photos in this blog post.

Enough said.  I've given you several ways to enter - your choice on how many or few you'd like to do!  PS - I'm getting creamed by little woven bead ghostie earrings AND an eyeball.  Go vote, will ya?  Vote Here!

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