A Contest, Artisan Beads and Micro Macrame - What's Not to Love!

Artisan Component Marketplace is a group of very talented artisans who gather on Facebook to buy and sell their handcrafted components.  The range of talent there is amazing and several of my favorite bead makers are there.  The group recently sponsored a contest requiring only the use of components made by one of the members.  I love to work with art beads anyway, so this seemed a convenient excuse to buy more use some.

I started with this Enchanted Woodland Bird set by Karen Totten of Starry Road Studio.  She described it as "A ceramic bird bead set in an palette of mossy woodland colors. These beads made me think of a hike in a forest shaded by tall pine trees, full of mystery and magic!"  If the photo hadn't lured me in, the description just might have. 

Another group to which I belong, Color Combo Challenge, features inspiration color palettes and it has really helped me to expand and think of colors in combinations I normally wouldn't consider.  This palette from Design Seeds really appealed to me and seemed to fit Karen's bead set well.

Photo from http://design-seeds.com/

 

Are you seeing how this could come together beautifully?  I certainly could.  I've really been trying to expand my micro macrame knotting lately with trying out new ideas.  I wanted a fairly simple rope for these beads, and what I came up with looks much like kumihimo, but my version is just done with half knots.  

Matches the palette?  Check.  Matches the beads?  Check.  Then I was digging around looking for a bail to hang the beads from the cord and couldn't find just the right thing.  Everything I had looked to "fussy" for the look I wanted and somewhere in the midst of this it dawned on me that I could probably knot something that would work.  

 

I knotted a piece, then folded it over the rope, threaded the beads on the remaining cords, put a few square knots under the last bead to hold everything in place and left a few cords for a swishy little tail at the end.  Simple and effective, I think.

I wanted the wearer to be able to adjust the length of this necklace, so I added some caps to the ends of the rope and a bit of chain on either end.  This piece can be worn shorter so the beads fall in the hollow of the throat and nestle in a neckline, or longer to fit on the outside of a collar or sweater.  

I think this piece turned out beautifully and what's more, the judges from the Artisan Component Marketplace thought so, too.  I won First Place and a gift certificate to spend in my favorite component maker's store!  And you KNOW how I love to shop for more beads!  There are so many talented artists in that group, I am having a terrible time trying to decide which one to chose.

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!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Creepy With a POP of Orange

 These are the beads and findings I pulled out to use in a fun piece this week.  I had a few spare minutes to play along with the Color Combo Challenge of the week.  Here's the palette we had to work with:

Yes, you may see a fish, but I saw a great Halloween-ish piece.  I decided I just had to use the piece with the lady's portrait set in the pretty pendant frame, but I still wanted a creep factor to the piece.  So I mixed in black Lucite flowers and bright orange Czech glass flowers and a little heart shaped cameo charm with some skulls and skeletons, a bat charm and a black cat.  I added some filler beads and do-dads and a few rattling chains and ta da:

 There's even a little clock charm - Oh, look!  It's almost midnight.  Bwahahahaha...

I do think it's a pretty piece, though.  Fun and funky, slightly weird and a little twisted. 

Welcome Summer Color Combo

The color combo for our challenge this week had sunshine and ocean colors:  a great turquoise green and yellow curry mixture.  Sounds strange - looks gorgeous:

I found several candidates in my bead hoard stash, but I really liked the hank of mixed color Czech seed beads and the new lampwork shell I bought from Laurie Ament.  I spent a couple of days trying to figure out how to use the two together and decided I needed a trio of bracelets to pull it off.  I got the first one with the lampwork focal done easily and a simple macrame companion for it without trouble, but got stuck on the third piece.   Until this morning when I came across Lesley Watt's Seed Bead & Jump Ring Bracelet Tutorial.  It was exactly the piece I needed.

Creating a Piece Based on a Palette

The process of creating a new micro macrame piece is, for me at least, messy.  And it involves dragging out a lot of potential bits and parts before narrowing it down to the finalists.  Last week's color challenge involved black and white - actually more gray and shades of gray with bits of bluish gray, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll call it black and white.  So I went to my handy dandy supply closet stash and came up with this bead and cord palette:

Then I study the applicants for a while and wait for inspiration...  Aha!  There's usually a moment where something from the pile strikes me or reminds me of something I've been meaning to try.  And then I'm off.  This week it was the large rectangular pendant - I think it's Magensite.  I liked the weight of it and my plan was to surround it with a macrame bezel and suspend it from an intricate necklace to make a real statement piece.  

When I reached this point, I was seriously doubting the wisdom of my plan.  I'd spent one entire evening doing the bezel, and I'm still not crazy about it.  I think my technique would work better on a stone without corners, so maybe I'll attempt it again on something round.  Maybe.  Then I spent another afternoon/evening getting started on the straps.  Again, I seriously underestimated the time involved in this undertaking:)  I considered putting it into the UFO (unfinished objects for those of you who don't know craft-speak) pile, but I just couldn't, so I pressed on.

Ta Da!!!  I feel like there should be a chorus singing in the background as I present this.  It's not perfect, but then again, none of my work is.  I'm always finding something - a knot just a bit out of line, I bead that I should have culled, a place where the tension isn't as even as I'd like.  But I've come to the conclusion that imperfection is unavoidable and perfection is unattainable and that's part of the charm of handmade.

Stretching the Limits - Just a Little

I tend to stick with tried and true when it comes to colors and color combinations - or at least I used to.  Then I joined the Color Combo Challenge Group and I've been stretching a bit in my creativity.  Each week we vote on a palette that comes from photos - majority wins.  There are usually around five colors in the mix and the rules say you have to use at least three of them in your design - and your design can be anything.  It can be a piece of jewelry (funny how my mind went right to that, isn't it?) or a photograph or a painting or a piece of clothing, etc.  No limits.  We have one week to create, then we post the pieces we've made for all to see.  I have to tell you, it's amazing how different the things we make are, even using the same palette!  Everyone puts his or her own spin on it.  Very cool.  

The kicker for me is that it presents combinations I wouldn't have otherwise considered.  Some of them are fun for me and others are just downright uncomfortable.  Either way, though, it's a learning experience and stretches my creativity.  Stop by the Color Combo Group and join us if you're up for it.  The more the merrier - just do me a favor and DON'T vote for palettes with orange and/or pink!