The Little Mermaid in Micro Macrame

You're probably saying to yourself, "Hey, wait a minute!  I don't see any mermaid!"  Well, this is not one of those literal pieces, this is one of those artsy pieces where you have to squint and stand back a ways to truly appreciate it (kidding, just kidding - you won't find a mermaid even if you do that, although I would find it amusing). 

The folks over at the Art Bead Scene Blog sponsor a challenge every month wherein they chooose an image for inspiraiton and challenge you to use an art bead in some way in the creation of a piece.  They define art beads as "a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist.  Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist."  I love art beads of all kinds and I have lots of favorite artisans.  If you've been following my blog for long, you've probably seen some pieces sure to inspire envy.

  The inspiration piece for July is The Little Mermaid by Edmund Dulac:

I'm always drawn to sea themes and I love this piece because it isn't the stereotypical sea theme.  It has a dark twist to it (not the skull and skeleton).  Everything is broken and twisted and jumbled.  It's chaotic and it has lots of muted color.  I had a bead by lamp work artist Laurie Ament of Isinglass Design that I thought would work perfectly for this project.  Laurie actually made this bead and asked me to make a free form micro macrame piece with it for her.  I got some of her beautiful beads in exchange for doing this, so it was win-win!  She makes all kinds of great pieces like fish and turtles and shells and seahorses... and I could go on and on, but it might be best if you just pop over to her shop and take a peek for yourself and I'll get on with the story.  This is the bead Laurie sent:

It's different on the other side:

See what I mean about this piece fitting the inspiration piece?  It just has that feel to it and has lots of the colors from the illustration.  I tried setting the bead in black first and it wasn't right so I cut it apart.  Then I tried big patches of the colors pulled from the bead and it wasn't right either.  It was way too busy and completely overshadowed the bead, so I cut that apart, too.  I finally resorted to a very neutral gold color.  It's not a color I work with very often and it feels slightly uncomfortable, which I think works when you're aiming for chaotic.  I just started randomly knotting and got this far before I felt like giving up:

 

My friend, Lindsay (she's brilliant, by the way - check her work out here) convinced me to keep going.  She suggested I add little bits of color, so I went  back to the drawing macrame board.

Well, now it's starting to feel like something.  Of course, I'm not sure what it is starting to feel like, but something!  So I plugged on and ended up with this:

and this:

And this:

And this:

I just love it when a plan comes together.  This one was a challenge for me in many ways.  The colors were not my old standby, comfortable colors and I'm very much a straight line, symmetrical kind of person.  Free form is hard for me.  I have to work hard to make it look like I didn't work hard!  I do free form once in a while (you can see some examples here and here if you're interested), but it doesn't come easily.  

Anyway, with Laurie's bead and Mr. Dulac's illustration for inspiration, it all gelled.  I swear I even see a swirl of tentacles, the sweeping fan of a shell and little bits of the tangled sail and mast in the knotting.  Maybe even some of the stringy seaweed floating in the deep currents.  Are you with me?

Micro Macrame Without Rules

An experiment in free form micro macrame knotting or a pattern gone horribly awry?  You decided.  I think I like it.  I played around with some free form a while back (remember this post?) and then sort of went away from it for a while.  Here lately I haven't been wanting to conform to the rules of normalcy (go ahead - have your fun with that one).  I've just been sitting down with some string and letting the knotting go where it may.  No plan, no sketch, no preconceived notion of where it might end up.

It feels right.  I love the texture on this turquoise piece and how it somehow feels like beachy waves.  I decided to play up that angle when I added the pop of bright orange with the howlite starfish bead.

This purple number reminded me of a butterfly somehow.  A deformed, modern art butterfly, maybe...  Or a bat.  But it seemed like it needed a little "something", too, so I added a Czech glass flower.  Just one.

I really like how just that one little bead seems like the perfect accent.  The perfect shoes to go with the perfect outfit kind of thing.

If you're looking for me, I'll be over there outside of the box.  Coloring outside the lines.

Year of Jewelry Project, Week 31 - At The Beach

The theme for this week in the Year of Jewelry Project was right up my alley - At The Beach!  That has Sherri written all over it.  And as if that weren't motivation enough, a customer sent me this sea star palette (by Design Seeds) and asked if I could make her a bracelet in those colors.  Boy howdy!  I started by pulling cord and beads from my stash.  I had a pretty good matching selection of cord, a ton of seed beads and several fun things.  Those pale green beads are vintage (pre-WWII) Japanese.  The glass flower headpin is by Amy Sutton, the owl and the round pendant next to it is by my friend Shelley Graham of Tori Sophia, and the fabulous seahorse and fish ceramics are by Sheri Mallery of Slingin' Mud.  I told you this palette played right into my hand.

I started out using the colors in a pattern of deep waves.  I do love the way the orange color makes everything else pop.  But the waves got me thinking... and I decided to try something different.  I used a wave pattern, but in cord colors graduating from the deepest teal up through the soft greenish color and then into the sandy tan.  When I added beads, I kept them random, again mimicking the colors of deeper water with highlights up through the foamy green and into the sand.  

And for the finishing touch, I added a little orange howlite sea star bead on the chain.

I had such fun with this palette.  I'm keeping this bead and cord out and I hope to make more pieces in these colors and hopefully incorporate one of the artist's beads.  I'll keep you posted.  But for now, I'm putting a done stamp on Year of Jewelry Week 31 - nailed it!

Summer Elements Blog Hop - Freeform Micro Macrame Necklace

My friend, Rita of Toltec Jewels and Jewel School Friends is hosting a blog hop celebrating summer, and anyone who knows me, knows summer is my thing.  I love the long days and the green trees and I love the warmth.  I'd have summer all year long if somebody would give me the option.  Rita challenged us to consider the elements of summer; Air, Water, Fire, Earth and Spirit; and then create something and share.  Create anything and share anything that celebrates summer.  My kind of hop!  

We bought a pool years ago when the children were still pretty young and we've spent endless hours there as a family.  I treasure the memories of every one of those hours, and this is one of my favorite photos of my husband and kids.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I took this picture, but my daughter is seventeen now and my son is a father himself!  I had my grandson out in the back yard the other day and he was fascinated by the movement of the water.  I started studying it and found I was pretty entertained by the endless kaleidoscope of patterns, too.   I took my inspiration from the that and made my first piece of free-form macrame.

I just started knotting and putting in some random beads, letting the piece wander wherever it wanted.  No planning, no tidying up.  Just the cord and the knots going under and around and over like water in a river.  I played off the macrame technique called Margaretenspitze which was developed by Margarete Neumann in the beginning of the 1900s.  She developed the system of adding and dropping threads which allows you to make almost any design - hand tied lace.  Fascinating stuff. 

This necklace took me most of the week to complete.  It sounds odd, but it much more difficult for me to go with the flow.  I'm more comfortable staying within the lines with my macrame.  Oh, sure, I venture out a bit and play with color, but my pieces are usually symmetrical and even and tidy.  This piece is none of those things.  I do have to admit that this exercise was liberating.  My ode to summer.  My study of water.

 

I hope you'll take a few minutes to check out the rest of the Summer Elements Blog Hop participants:

Toltec Jewels (Hostess)     http://www.jewelschoolfriends.com/

Marlene Cupo                   http://amazingdesigns-marlene.blogspot.com/

Cheri Reed                        http://creativedesignsbycheri.blogspot.com/

Ailsa Cordner                    http://www.bramalfiebeadsetc.co.uk/

Robin Reed                       http://willowdragon.blogspot.com/

Nan Smith                         http://www.wirednan.blogspot.com/

Sherri Stokey                     http://www.knotjustmacrame.com/

Christie (Charis Designs)    http://charisdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com/

Carolyn Lawson                 http://carolynscreationswa.blogspot.com/

Melissa Trudinger               http://beadrecipes.wordpress.com/

Dini Bruinsma                     http://angazabychanges.blogspot.com/

Kathy Lindemer                 http://bay-moon-design.blogspot.com/

Cory Tompkins                  http://tealwaterdesigns.blogspot.com/

Robin Reed                       http://willowdragon.blogspot.com/

Gina Hockett                     http://freestyleelements.blogspot.com/

Karen Martinez                 http://www.fairiesmarket.blogspot.com/

Liz                                    http://beadcontagion.blogspot.com/

Jasvanti Patel                     http://jewelrybyjasvanti.blogspot.com/

Solange Collin                    http://www.blog.ahowinjewelry.com/

Gerda                                http://gerdascraftsblog.blogspot.com/

Karla Morgan                    http://texaspepperjams.blogspot.com/

Dyanne Everett-Cantrell     http://deelitefuljewelrycreations.blogspot.com/

Mischelle Fanucchi             http://micheladasmusings.blogspot.com/

Tanty Sri Hartanti               http://tjewellicious.blogspot.com/

Shaiha Williams                  http://shaihasramblings.blogspot.com/

Mary Govaars                    http://mlhjewelrydesigns.com/

Becca Sirevaag                  http://godsartistinresidence.blogspot.com/

Lennis Carrier                    http://windbent.wordpress.com/

Regina Wood                     http://www.gina-design.blogspot.com/

Sue Kennedy                     http://suebeads.blogspot.com/