Collaboration Unveiling (Sort of)

Do you remember this post from last month telling you about a collaborative project my friend Lindsay Starr and I were doing?  She sent me these:

And I sent her these:

Our challenge was to make something using the other person's pieces and our own techniques.  Lindsay had hers finished in no time at all:

I'm just going to show you this little teaser here.  If you want to see the whole piece she made, you'll want to pop over to her blog.  It's worth the trip, let me tell you.  After she set the bar so high, I was really sweating my piece using her beaded components.  For some reason I was set on trying to make a sugar skull and since I've never tried knotting one before, it was a lot of trial and error. 

My pieces are usually fairly simple, but I wanted something much more complex for Lindsay.  I struggled.

I struggled a LOT.

I put the skull in and I took the skull out (I did the Hokey Pokey....).  Nothing "felt" right.  I finally ended up with this:

I'm still not quite happy with it.  I think now that I have to remove the top coral colored circle with the seed bead flower in it.  Or maybe move it more to the left - I'm not sure.  At this rate, Lindsay might get this necklace in time for next year's Day of the Dead.  It's a good thing she's patient. 

A Collaborative Experiment with Bead Weaving and Micro Macrame

Do you remember my friend, Lindsay Starr?  She's the creative genius behind Phantasm Creations and does some of the most amazing bead work I have ever seen.  I did a trade with her last year (you can read about it in this post) and we decided it was time to do another one, this time with a twist.  We would each start a piece and then send it to the other person to finish.  

I had been hoarding a face cab she made and decided it would be fun to do something with that.  Me being me (with a micro macrame obsession) it stood to reason that I would have to do something with macrame, so I knotted two pieces the size of the cab.  As you can see from the photo, the front piece is a bezel with a hole for the face to peek through and the back is a solid circle of knotting.  I sandwiched them together and did some more knotting to get this:

I didn't exactly know what I was doing, since this was my first attempt at something like this.  I learned some things I will definitely do better next time, but I like the way she turned out.  The way the knotting snugs up around her face makes me think of a woman in the cold with her hood drawn up close to keep her warm.  

I wanted to give Lindsay a little more knotting to work with in case she needed to bring it back into her design, so I knotted a couple more circles keeping with the theme.  It will be most interesting to see what she makes with these.  And meanwhile, she send me these beautiful pieces:

Gorgeous, right?!  The flower and leaf (and maybe the time of year) made me think of Day of the Dead (okay, that's probably one of those thought transitions that only I would follow, but it makes perfect sense to me).  I decided to try something really different and attempt to knot a skull.  I know!  Ridiculous, right!?

No, it's not a white strawberry and yes, it is going to be more skull-like before I'm finished.  You will just have to come back and see.  

While she was waiting for my packaged parts to arrive in the mail, Lindsay was without a project and asked me for an assignment.  Me being me (my latest catch-all un-apology excuse), I suggested she do something with a sugar skull and a Day of the Dead theme.  

She nailed it, didn't she!  I told you she was awesome.  While you're waiting to see our finished pieces, you should head over to her blog and check out her other pieces.  Prepared to be amazed.  And don't forget to come back and see what we do with our collaboration experiment!

7th Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal

Yay!  Today is the day I can show you what I made from the fantastic bead soup my partner Juli Cannon sent me!  Do you remember what everything looked like?  You can go here and read more about everything she sent if you'd like, but I'll give you a hint:

I have been wanting to try a different fringe technique for a while and Juli's lampwork focal was the perfect piece.  I used several colors of seed beads and made billions of loops (okay, you got me... I didn't count and there might not be quite a billion, but there are lots).

And after all that work, the clasp didn't look right.  Well, shoot.  So I stewed around on it for a week or so and decided the only solution was to make my own using some of the matching lampwork beads.

It's simple, but it works and it doesn't distract from the rest of the piece.  That's a win in my book.  

Of course, that meant I had to make another piece to use the clasp, since the rules say you must use at least the focal and the clasp.  I sketched out a sort of funky necklace and it actually came together just like I'd hoped.  That never happens. 

And what's even better?  This piece can double as a wrap bracelet.  In fact, I think I like it better as a bracelet!

Many thanks to my partner, Juli, for the great beads I used in these pieces AND the second set she sent just for me:

And heaps more thanks to our gracious hostess, Lori Anderson, the mastermind behind the whole Bead Soup phenomenon.  She does an amazing job at bringing together a talented group of jewelry designers - 541 designers from 28 countries!  With so many folks eager to participate, she had to split us up into three reveal dates to keep things manageable. Hop on over to Lori's blog where she has a list of ALL of the other participants:  here.  Oh, and don't forget to check out Juli's page to see what she did with the soup I sent to her.  Happy hopping!!

Year of Jewelry Week 14 - It's Egg-citing Beadweaving Bracelet

OK, OK.  If you've been following my Year of Jewelry exploits, you might realize that I skipped a week.  Week 13 was to make a personal talisman and I just haven't found the perfect piece yet.  Meanwhile, the weeks were starting to pass me by, so I skipped ahead to Week 14 - It's Egg-citing.  And yes, I should have had this piece done last week and I should be working on the piece for this week, but that theme is The Fibonacci Sequence which has me totally baffled, so I floundered a bit.  

All that aside, let me tell you about this bracelet.  The theme was eggs, as in decorated Easter eggs.  I went with circular patterns and used spring colors that would be right at home on an Easter egg.

Let me tell you, this was slow going.  And by that, I mean it took FOREVER.  Eons, at least.

It's a fun piece, though, and I like the outcome.

Now I just have to figure out how to use the Fibonacci Sequence in jewelry.  Uh huh.

A Palette Swap Challenge

image from Design Seeds

I belong to a fun group, Bead Swap - USA, (don't let then name fool you, though - there are members from other countries there, too).  I joined at first just to trade a few beads.  I tend to go "overboard" now and again (massive understatement there) and overbuy.  Or think I'm going to start making something in a certain style, so I buy the beads for it (in ever conceivable color) only to discover I don't really like that style?  Bead Swap USA is a group of bead nuts who all sort of have the same problem.  Don't get me wrong, it's a good problem to have.  I'd rather have too many beads than not enough beads...

But anyway, I've met some amazingly talented folks there, and Lindsay Starr is one of them.  I've long admired Lindsay's style and flair.  She does a lot of bead weaving - free style pieces that I couldn't do in a million years.  When she suggested we do a swap, I jumped at the chance.  We decided to make it a challenge by choosing a color palette that we would both use and after much debating, we chose the picture of boats shown above with blues and a gray with a pop of mustard and one other color.  It's sort of a yellowish black color which led to an interesting conversation between the two of us:

Me: what is it exactly? dark mustard? baby poo brown?
Lindsay: I was thinking that khaki olive drab...it's what happens when you add black paint to yellow - it turns greeny brown
Me: you call it khaki olive drab, I call it baby poo... One of us obviously has some real training..
Lindsay: puce?
Me: gah - that even sounds bad. waaaaaayyyy too close to a vomit word
Lindsay: Nope! No training! Plus somebody told me puce was some sort of pink color...Oh I know, we can call it bile...that's a great color name!

 And so we called it "bile".  Let me tell you, shopping for bile colored beads is a challenge all its own.  I rounded up some beads and cord:

Since macrame is my comfort zone, I decided to do a beaded macrame bracelet.   I ended up making one and then because I wanted it to be JUST right for Lindsay, I did just a bit of tweaking and made another.  This was my first attempt.

Then I decided to change the cord color just a little bit and add a variation with alternating mustard and gray beads in one row.  Oh, and notice my bile colored beads (lower right hand corner)?

I mailed off my piece and then was on pins and needles until Lindsay got it.  Then I staked out my mailbox, waiting.  And boy was it worth the wait:

Holy cow.  My jaw is still a bit slack.  I am astounded at the detail in her piece.  It flows and catches your eye with well placed color and and plays on size and shape and movement.  She's used her signature free form style and about every other bead weaving stitch known to man.  Even the back of the cab is beautifully beaded.

This swap was great fun and I couldn't be happier with my new necklace.  Want to do a swap of your own?  Ms. Nicole over at Bead Swap - USA  is always coming up with some new and fun swap.  Right now we're signing up for a handmade charm swap.  There are fifteen of us and we will each make at least one charm for each person and include a little note with each that tells something about ourselves and why we chose to make that charm.  We should end up with an amazing charm bracelet full of meaningful and beautiful pieces.  How cool is that!?

Want to see more of Lindsay's work?  You can find her over on Facebook at Phantasm Creations.

Or maybe you just want to look at some lovely color combinations?  You might want to hop over to Design Seeds and take a gander at some of her color palettes.  LOADS of inspiration there, let me tell you.  Or if you're just plumb happy hanging out here, you can see some other fun palettes I used here and here (this one's a lizard!).

Ombre Beadweaving Bracelet - Year of Jewelry Week 4

I've had this design dancing around in my head for a few weeks now, which is darned inconvenient when there are other things to be done, but I guess that's the way of it.  I wanted to do an ombre shading piece going from pitch black on one end to stark white on the other.  I thought about how I would do it while I was trying to fall asleep at night:  black to white fading through multiple shades of gray.  And I wanted the transition to take place naturally with no harsh lines or obvious changes.  So I dug through my stash and found these:

I made a square stitch base with a mix of the colors and forgot to take a photo of that step, but you can see it here:

Then I started making loops of seed beads over each of those base beads.  I started using only black in the first rows and then sprinkled in just a few of the dark charcoal color, letting the colors blend. As those ran lower, I added in a few of the next lighter shade of gray and continued all the way across the base until my last rows were pure white.

I added a few interesting beads on the tops of the loops, just to add some interest.  There are hematite stars, some Czech firepolish and a shiny Swarovski crystal butterfly.  I couldn't decide what to use for a closure, so I auditioned a few different buttons:

My first instinct was the button on the left, but I really liked the idea of a pop of red.  The only red button I had on hand was the flower above and I just didn't like it with the piece.  I really liked the look of the stone cab (the last piece in this photo) but in the end I decided it was just too large and the loop it would take would make the bracelet fit "sloppy".  As you can see, I ended up using my first choice:

In the end, I couldn't be more pleased with this bracelet.  I love the weight of it, both visually and the weight of it on the wrist is lovely.  The loops add lots of subtle movement and the color gradient is exactly what I wanted.  I think I may have to attempt another one of these - maybe next time in teal!

If you enjoyed this week's Year Of Jewelry piece, I hope you will take time to check out the previous ones:  Week 1 Renewal, Week 2 Grace, and Week 3 Music.

A New Twist on the Dragon Bracelet

If you've hung around my sites very long, you're probably familiar with "the" dragon bracelet.  If not, here's a quick refresher:

I came across this gorgeous copper button with a swirly dragon design a long time back and started using it as a focal piece for a macrame bracelet.  It is by far the most popular (and requested) item in my shop.  The colors are just right.  It's just perfect (the button, I mean).  So of course, it is no longer being manufactured!  I have a small stash of them on hand, so I guess I should be a bit more judicious with their use.  But I had this idea for a fringy beaded cuff bracelet with the button as the clasp/focal.  

I put together a great bead mix with berry and copper and green and purple with touches of teal:

It's a totally different style from my usual macrame piece, but I think I like the way it turned out.  It brings to mind a dragon guarding the mouth of a cave full of treasure.

Even the "back" of the bracelet is pretty.