I'm Still Here!

It's not that I've forgotten you, I promise.  It's been quiet around here because I've been busy clearing up a few projects and orders.  I finished the little free form macrame doodle above for a customer who likes to hang her glasses on her necklace (isn't that a clever idea?).

I also finished up an order for a customer who is going to surprise each of her sisters with a micro macrame bracelet at their upcoming family reunion and made one more bracelet in the daisy color palette (you can find the color palette and other pieces in this post).

I finally put together a few kits for my Etsy shop and I'm "auditioning" some new backgrounds for my photographs.  All good stuff, just not really all that exciting for a blog post.  I'm still here, though.  I haven't forgotten you, I promise!  I'll be back soon with the finalists for the new backgrounds - you can help me choose :)

 

Daisies in Micro Macrame: A Color Challenge Reveal

 

Dry Gulch Beads sponsors a monthly color challenge to inspire creativity.  As long as it is newly made specifically for the challenge, anything goes:  jewelry, clothing, paintings - even cupcakes!  This month's color palette (from Design Seeds) speaks to me.  I'm not sure if it is the daisies (love them) or the color palette (notice the teal and turquoise), but I adore it.

These are the beads and focal pieces from my stash that I thought might work.  (Can you name any of the artists?)  I just finished up a new micro macrame (microme!!) bracelet tutorial last week (Peacock) and I haven't had time to try out every color combination under the sun yet.  Heck, I haven't even tried all of the color combinations rattling around in my head for it yet.  So this color challenge seemed like as good a place as any to start.

 

The first bracelet I made used all of colors from the palette - four colors of cord and coordinating glass seed beads.  I really wasn't sure what look I would get with the different colors and the contrast between them, so I just sort of put the colors in an order I liked and took off from there.  Color placement in macrame is a little different than stringing or bead weaving, etc.  The cord colors meander through the design in a pattern determined by the knots.  I have had enough practice now that I can make the colors do what I want a little bit, but it's still not an exact science.  The cords will go where the cords want to go (that's my story, anyway).  

 

When creating a piece like this, it's always an adventure for me (yes, I'm really that weird).  Once I had the knotting underway, I noticed an actual daisy shape emerging.  I hadn't really intended to do a literal daisy pattern; I'd just planned on using the color palette.  But heck, since I was this close, might as well push it.  I went back to the drawing board and took another run at it.

In this piece, the round daisy shape is more complete, but this time my petal to daisy center ratio is off.  I told you it was a bit of trial and error!  Third time's a charm, though.  Right?  I figured I needed to fix the ratio and then I had a brilliant thought about "petals".  I replaced the outer row of beads with Magatamas and got this:

Huh.  Interesting!  So there you have it:  my three daisy palette bracelets.  I think I'm still partial to the first one - something about the color placement in that one appeals to me.  The third one probably most closely captures the photo and the color palette.  It's hard to choose.  They're all my babies :)  And they're all perfect for summer!

Dry Gulch Beads has a page set up for all of the challenge pieces here.  I'm off to see how this palette inspired others!

Peacock Bracelet - A New Micro Macrame Tutorial

A brand new micro macrame tutorial hit my Etsy shop today - a bracelet I'm calling Peacock.  I don't know if I'm always making "eye" motifs or if I just see eyes everywhere, but that's what I see in this bracelet.  Between that and the colors, Peacock seemed a good fit.  Skipping Stones was also in the running.  Doesn't it sort of look like this?

No matter what you want to call it, I'm calling it "finished"!  I always want to put out the best tutorial I can.  I want a person who isn't familiar with micro macrame to be able to be successful following on of my tuts, so I include lots of detail.  This one is 23 pages and includes over 60 photos.  I set the bar pretty high for myself, so when I get one to the point where I feel like it's ready for you guys to see, it's a big deal!  

This pattern is fun and has loads of potential for color manipulation.  I used four different colors of cord and three colors of seed beads (and all the details are included in the tutorial - even the bead color numbers for this version).  I'm too lazy to do the math, but I do know that leaves you LOTS of color combinations to explore.

I've got a couple of color ideas in mind, so I'm off to experiment.  If you decide to do the same, this link will take you to my Peacock Bracelet tutorial.  And be sure to stop by my Facebook page and show me what you made!

My Dirty Little Secret

At first glance, our "family room" looks like any other family room.  Not perfect, but not a huge mess.  I could have straightened out the pillows and folded up my blanket before I snapped the photo and it would be fine.  But underneath this calm exterior... I'm hiding a dirty little secret.  I have beading supplies stashed everywhere!  They're here under the TV:

And here:

And here:

This is my craft storage.  It's really the furnace closet, but I needed somewhere to stash my stuff and the space wasn't being used for anything else.  It started off with just a big tub in there with my bags of beads all in together.  As my stash grew, it became a couple containers with little bags of beads sorted into bigger bags by color.  After I outgrew that system, my darling husband (who is a clean freak who probably wishes I shared even a little of that philosophy) built some shelves there on the left hand wall for me.

I sorted all the beads by color and I keep them in containers on my shelves.  As you can see, I've been switching over from the cheap and abundant ice cream buckets (dear husband is also an ice cream lover) to a slightly more sophisticated system of clear boxes.  My cord is on the top there, also sorted by color and size.  Sort of.  And this is all fine and dandy until I drag some things out for a challenge and a few more things for a custom order and then a few more things for another project.  Pretty soon, every horizontal surface is covered with beads and cord and partially finished projects.

Every once in a while we are expecting company (or dear husband just can't handle the mess any more) and I have to clean off the surfaces.  That mostly means sweeping everything off into the nearest box - usually the one in which my newest acquisitions arrived.  Then the box gets shoved into the closet on the floor.  Eventually there are several layers of boxes.  Interspersed with photography props, macrame boards and random lengths of cord I've saved from other projects (I'm going to use those up for earrings.  Probably.  Some day.).

Before I know it, I have a great big mess.  I was looking back through some photos the other day and came across this one from three years ago.

Just look how much neater everything was!  (We won't mention how much less stuff I had.)  I always have good intentions.  Really, I do.  Every once in a while I get really motivated and sort through all the boxes (usually when I can't find something I want) and put everything back in its place.  And I start all over.  Until then... it's a closet and I can shut the door and pretend it's not a pile just waiting to come tumbling out in a gloriously shiny, stringy mess.

So there you have it.  My dirty little secret:  I am a closet slob.  Literally.

A New Dragon

A customer asked me if I could make a dragon bracelet in the colors of sand and beach and surf and this is what I concocted.  I mixed a sandy tan in with some turquoise and deep marine blue (the sparkling crests of waves and the deep troughs of color), added some sky blue and a little touch of the white of a couple fluffy clouds.  Stirred them all together into a kaleidoscope of color and pattern, and came up with this:

I am so drawn to these colors, I think I will take it a bit further and see what else pops.  Speaking of popping, which do you think works better in the photo:  a patterned background like the photo above or a plain one like below?

The general consensus in some of the groups I belong to has been a plain, neutral background.  My eye is more drawn to the patterned photo, though.  Opinions?

Busy, Busy, Busy

So many ideas and so little time!  I swear the busier I am and the less time I have to knot, the more ideas I have.  I keep telling myself I need to write them down or sketch them out, because they will surely evaporate when I do find myself at loose ends.  

It's been busy times at my house lately with my son graduating from college (yeah, Nick!!!). 

I even managed to snap a photo of my children getting along with one another.  Or appearing to in order to make their mother feel all warm and fuzzy.  Either way, I'll take it.

 

We've been helping Nick get furniture and get settled into a little rental house in town and I'm SO excited to have him closer.  I will have to take some pictures and show you the crafty projects we've been working on like painting and distressing a coffee table, overhauling some old lamps and making wall art with scrapbook paper.

I have finished up a couple of macrame projects that were in the works, including these dragon bracelets in raku colors.

Then I made a matte metallic khaki iris version that's like my reset button.  The perfect combination of color and neutral.  My little spot of calm.  Ahhhhh.....

Beading Back in Time Reveal: Early Human Edition

It's that time, folks!  Today's the day we get to show you the pieces we've been working on for the second installment of the Beading Back in Time Blog Hop Challenge - the Early Human Edition.  I went into this planning to do something with a rustic, primitive feel to it.  I really wanted to make something inspired by the hand print paintings found in caves, like this:

Something about them really speaks to me.  I think it's the connection with a real live, breathing human who placed his or her hand against the cool stone and blew pigment over it to leave these stencil prints so very long ago.

I wanted to knot hand outlines and then surround them with random free form macrame in a wide cuff, but when my first experiment with knotting a hand print turned out looking like an alien hand, I decided to rethink that strategy.

I still think there's potential for this concept, but it is going to take a lot more tweaking and I ran out of time.  (Making a mental note to come back to this at a later date.)  Then I thought I could adapt the idea a bit and make a sort of freeform necklace with handprint charms. I spent days researching until I found the perfect charms.  I liked these because they would hang right-side-up in my design and I thought the spiral had a sort of cave painting vibe.

And then that project didn't happen, either.  By this time I'm a week away from the reveal and I have nothing to show.  Luckily I had done some other shopping.  I had some components on the back burner and this piece from Star Spirit Studio really appealed to me.  It has the handprint and a horse drawing that would look good on any cave wall, and absolutely gorgeous colors, too.

So my piece is not really primitive and rustic.  It's for the refined cave woman with more discriminating tastes.  This cave woman isn't living in some nasty dark and dirty cave. Her cave is located on some nice lakefront property with a sweet view (and a cleaning lady who comes in twice a week).  While the others are out hunting and gathering, she's having a nice soak at the natural hot springs.  She might even find time between the hot stone massage and picking up her fur dresses at the cleaners for a mud facial.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:  Caveman Chic

That's it for me!  I hope you will take a minute and see what everyone else dreamed up:

Lindsay Starr, Phantasm Creations
Sherri Stokey, Knot Just Macrame <--You are here
Jenny Davies-Reazor
Jean A. Wells
 Stephanie Haussler, Pixybug Designs
Susan Kennedy, Sue Beads
Michelle McCarthy, Firefly Design Studio