Beading Back in Time, Early Civilization Reveal

It's time for the big reveal!  Earlier this month I posted about the third installment of the Beading Back in Time Blog Hop Challenge hosted by Lindsay Starr and I (it's here if you missed it).  Our first installment in January focused on the time before humans and the second installment, on early humans.  For this round, we drew inspiration from early civilizations.  I really meant to explore something other than ancient Egypt, but I've been an Egyptophile since I was a kid and the temptation was just too strong.

 I have a seed bead mix called Egyptian Lapis Stripe.  I dug it out and put it with some bright blue cord to start channeling some Egyptian vibes.  It's pretty enough, but it really wasn't screaming "Egypt" to me, so I figured I'd better try a little harder.  The first thing that comes to mind when I think of ancient Egyptian jewelry is a collar.  And gold.  I don't use a lot of gold, but I knew I wanted to add it in my piece somehow.  I was also pretty set on the bright blue cord.

When I was digging through my stash looking for stuff with Egyptian flair, I came across some end pieces by Scorched Earth.  They're not exactly Egyptian, but I liked the feel of them.  I also had an Eye of Horus pendant from Scorched Earth and a bunch of scarabs.

The bead mix I had didn't quite match the end pieces (not enough green, too much orange), so I mixed my own.  I also unearthed these gold pendants from a swap I did a while back with my friend, Lennis (she put together an awesome Egyptian inspired package for me you can see here). 

By this time, even though I'd had a whole month to make a piece for this hop, I'd wasted 91% of the allotted time.  Typical.  Apparently I work best under pressure.  I hadn't counted on breaking a crown and having to have a tooth pulled, however.  Note to self:  start earlier!  I did manage to pull off a piece just in the nick of time, though.

My Egyptian inspired collar, featuring Egyptian blue cord and a custom bead mix, several small scarabs and one larger focal scarab.  It's a super cool scarab, too.  I have no idea what the back says, but it's fun.  My original plan was to use the Eye of Horus focal and my backup plan was to use one of the rectangular gold pieces.  The shape of those just didn't work in the piece as well as the rounded shape of the scarab.

I can picture this piece being worn by some Egyptian back in the day, can't you?

I hope you'll join me in visiting the sites of the other artists who decided to play along this round:

Sherri Stokey  <--- You are here 
Lindsay Starr  Co-Host
Susan Kennedy
Jean Wells
Michelle McCarthy
Niky Sayers
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Stephanie Haussler

Rocky Mountain Bead Bazaar: My Loot

The Rocky Mountain Bead Bazaar held this past weekend in Denver was fantastic!  Rack after rack of every size, color and shape of seed bead imaginable, followed by table after table of gemstones and glass, on top of booth after booth of artist pieces.  What's not to love?  Here are some of my favorite buys:

The brass pieces of Judie Mountain and her partner Wayne Robbins' glass make Mountain Robbins a must see.  I couldn't resist these pieces with a primitive cave art vibe.

 Sue Laupp of Star Spirit Studio has long been a favorite of mine.  She had some new pieces - little hand carved birds and a house that I could not pass up.  And the new teal-ish color she's working with (like the leaf at the top) had me at "teal" :)

I found a few seed beads I thought would go with the raku I favor and some metal end pieces (for earrings, I think?) that I want to use for bracelet ends.  Oh, and some snapping jump rings I want to try in place of jump rings in my micro macrame:

I found some other great raku pieces including these from Urban Raku I think will be perfect - the bars on the sides should be just right for anchoring macrame cords.

These larger necklace focal pieces are from Beady Eyed Women.  She had some great beading kits, too, but these jumped into my "cart":

Last but certainly not least, I picked up a couple of finished bracelets from The Bead Parlor because even if I thought I had the patience to do something like this, I don't think that I would ever get around to it.  So much better to let a professional do it for me!

They also had some classes I thought looked like fun.  Next year, I'm going to have to sign up for one!  Who's going to meet me there?

Matubo Beads and Micro Macrame

Have you tried out the new Matubo seed beads yet?  They are 7/0 beads, falling in between the 6/0 and 8/0 seed bead sizes.  In the photo, the first beads (on the left) are 6/0 beads from Miyuki (146FR if you love the color).  The beads in the middle are Matubo beads in Blue Picasso and on the right are 8/0 beads in metallic bronze.  Even though the overall size (outer dimensions) falls squarely between the others, the hole size is closer to that in the larger 6/0 beads.

The secret to these little wonders is the manufacturing method.  Matubo beads are made by pressing rather than then traditional method of cutting glass tubes into pieces.  The pressing method has several advantages:  it produces much more uniformly sized and shaped beads, the holes can be larger in comparison to the bead (thinner walls) and the holes have smoother edges.  Those things may not seem like a big deal, but they're really great for micro macrame.  The larger hole size is really nice, especially if you are knotting with the thicker Tex 400 cord.  I've found I can get two cords through the Matubos.

I started out putting them in a pattern I've made quite a lot.  I really love the finish on these beads.

Then I thought I'd experiment a little.

In this pattern, I used them in the center of each little shape as well as in between the rows and along both edges.  The shiny little beads in the lacy loops are 11/0, just to give you another size comparison.

All in all, I like these new beads.  I always like choices, and having a new size and new colors and finishes is great!