Teal Therapy: A Reset

Somewhere along the line I discovered a little trick.  Whenever I'm floundering a bit with ideas or feeling uninspired or without focus, I fall back to my favorites.  Shades of teal and turquoise with brown or tan are like a favorite pair of slippers - all warm and welcoming.  I'm not quite sure why, but these colors in most any combination make me feel calm and centered.

I recently ran across these amazing buttons in one of my all-too-frequent shopping frenzies (my mail carrier hates me, I'm sure).  I got the teal tree and the white-washed version as well, but I ended up adding some teal to the leaves of the tree on the white one for that extra special little "something".

 
For dragon fans, I also found a cool dragon button:

I think the teal therapy is working, by the way.  I feel better already :)

Copper and Capri: A Micro Macrame Love Story

Once upon a time, I received a request for a custom item:  a micro macrame bracelet using copper cord and blue beads.  So I made this:

It reminded me how much I like that particular shade of blue (it's called Capri) and then this happened:

But then I remembered that this was supposed to be a love story using copper and blue, so I went back to this:

The two colors fell in love, got married, and lived happily ever after.  The end.

Epilogue:  If you would like to write your own micro macrame story, you can find the tutorial for this design (and several others) here in my Etsy shop.

Wandering Micro Macrame

Ever had one of those days when you feel like you're just wondering aimlessly?  When you just can't seem to make yourself focus?  I've been having one of those days after another after another - since I got back from vacation, in fact!  I'm lost in thought, dreaming of ancient civilizations (okay, and a margarita or two). 

The macrame pieces I've made lately seem to reflect that same meandering mindset.  There are no set patterns, no straight lines, no specific anything.  Just knots that drift here and there like lines in the sand.

I should point out, however, that this style isn't as effortless as it looks.  In fact, careless abandon is pretty difficult for me.  And just to make it a bit more of a challenge, I was trying to make a free form piece for a customer who wanted it to have a straight (or fairly straight) upper edge.  Turns out, I can't be methodically random.  Go figure.  I did, however, end up with a couple of cool necklaces.  

The customer who started this whole thing bought one of them, but the other one (the one in the photo above) is available here in my Etsy shop if you're interested. And if you're looking for me, I'll be over here staring into space, daydreaming of sun and sand.

She's Ba-ack! With a Vacation Recap!

Golly, folks, it sure is hard to get back into the swing of things after a little tropical vacation.  Cancun was wonderful - margaritas delivered to me on a picture-postcard-beautiful beach.  Ahhhhh...

So, here's the short version:  I visited Chichen Itza, which was awesome (is there a word for awesomer than awesome?).

 

And just in case you think I'm fibbing about actually being there, here's the selfie:

We stopped off at a cenote, where I noped right out of jumping off a ledge (high or low ledge, doesn't matter) into deep water that's in a deep hole in the ground.

See those itty bitty figures at the bottom of my photo?  Yeah, those are people.  They haven't even hit the water yet and I'm terrified for them. See the little things that look like bugs in the foliage here:

Those are people wayyyyyy down in the hole.  Nope, nope and nope.  I hung out at the tequila shop.  Much more my speed.

We spent some time goofing around:

I got to pet a sting ray.

Spent a disproportionate amount of time looking for sugar skulls and skull related things (did you miss this post?).

Spent more time at the pool, looking out at the ocean:

And than had to come home, where I found this had happened in my absence:

Dang it.  I just hate it when season sneak up on me.  I wasn't ready (and I'm saying that in my best whiny voice).  And making me transition from beach directly into Autumn, well that's just cruel and unusual punishment.  Over and out.

Knot Just Macrame is at Handmade at Amazon!

It's an exciting time for handmade artists like myself!  Amazon just rolled out their new Handmade at Amazon offerings and my shop is one of them!  Visit me at Amazon.com/Handmade/KnotJustMacrame and take a look around.  Let me know what you think!

Celebrating Life with the Day of the Dead

The season has certainly had a big part in my designs lately, with autumnal palettes, leaves and skulls galore.    

This week I've been big on Sugar Skulls. I'm not sure exactly what it is about the skulls that has me so fascinated, but I do find them incredibly beautiful.  Maybe it is the tradition behind them?  The Day of the Dead, or  Dia de los Muertos, is celebrated throughout Mexico with friends and family gathering to remember loved ones who have died.  It centers around a belief that the gates of heaven open for a short time and allow the spirits of lost children and loved ones to reunited with their families for one day.  How beautiful is that?  Although traditions vary from area to area, the holiday is generally not a sad, sober one; it's filled with love and color, food and flowers!  It is focused not on death but on remembering life.  If you are interested in learning about it, you can find much more information and lots of great photos here.  

Sugar skulls, or Calaveras, are often used as part of the Day of the Dead offerings.  They can be made of sugar or clay, but either way, they're colorful and fun.  

I have been using some skulls in my micro macrame jewelry pieces lately, and something clicked the other day (in the order of the head slap, duh "I could've had a V-8" kind of way) and I decided to Day of the Dead it up a little.

I added a riot of color to a macrame bracelet with a TierraCast skull button in the middle and came up with my own interpretation of a sugar skull.  

I've also been busy furiously trying to get items listed in my new Handmade at Amazon shop to be ready when they decided to go live.  I'm an old dog and this is very much a new trick, so it's been trying.  If you're working on a shop there yourself (or if you just need a good laugh today), pop over to the my post on the Love My Art Jewelry blog and read all about it.  Happy reading!

Beading Back in Time - The Final Chapter

It's that time again!  It's time for the fourth and final chapter of the Beading Back in Time blog hop series hosted by me and my friend, Lindsay Starr (the creative genius behind Phantasm Creations).  We started this project back in January and so far we have visited a time before humans, early humans and early civilization.  We've had a lot of fun with these themes and we've had some very creative folks join us for along the way.  

For our last blog hop in this series, we're focusing on a favorite historical period from 500 AD to present.  That leaves a lot of options open from medieval to hippie and renaissance to deco (and about a billion things in between).  And not only the wide open time frame, but any culture the creator wants to focus on.  Native American or Ming Dynasty?  It will be very interesting to see what everyone chooses.

  So MANY options!  Most of us involved have been jewelry makers, but our hop isn't limited to jewelry.  I have no idea how I'm going to choose.  Stay tuned!