You Never Know….

We've all heard or experienced those stories about tiny insignificant events or decisions that lead in new and incredible directions. Like turning left or right when exploring your new city, which can lead to a neighborhood that determines so much about your future life, and that of your children.

One of these unforeseeable chains happened to me last year. Remember last January when I wrote about going to Boston for our nephew's Bar Mitzvah?  I wrote this:

Jan 19, 2013    Lexington, MA       Tonight was one of those unplanned delights. Three of us went down to hang out in the hotel lobby. As other guests who attended today's Bar Mitzvah came and went, they saw us and joined. Then Gershon's sister brought over some leftover food from the party, and someone ordered out pizza. The group got bigger and louder, several of us broke out the beads, while others played chess, and we all played Jewish Geography. We stayed till after midnight - talking, laughing, eating, drinking, sharing FB pages... what a blast!

Well, I met a fellow beader that night who led me to a beading group on Facebook. I never dreamed that going to a Bar Mitzvah in Boston would revive my beading life, but it did!  The beading group is a large, diverse group of beaders who live all over the world. They are a very active group, with several beading challenges going at all times. Everyone posts pictures of things they're working on, learning, teaching, or have completed. There is an incredible wealth of information there, encouraging each other to learn new techniques, discover new materials, and expand the limits of our creative comfort zones. It has also led to several other groups, and even got me to learn a totally new (to me) beading genre.

I've done more beading this past year than I have in a long time. Or at least it feels like it, because a lot of what I've done is new and inspired, rather than just aiming for sales.  The most recent piece I completed was for a challenge to create something based on a famous painting. I chose Monet's Water Lilies series  This bracelet was my opportunity to try the Shibori ribbon which is such a hot-happening trend right now, and also the first time I've ever used sequins!  Without this challenge, I never would have thought of doing this.

I've been posting some of the other challenges as the year progressed. Here are more projects this online world has inspired me to do.

"My Heart of Hearts" necklace.

I made the two beaded hearts from Nancy Dale's Sweetheart Solitaire pattern. The resin heart on the left I purchased from an online charity fundraiser, and was made by artist Shai Williams. The little bronze heart has been in my stash forever, and finally found a home.  

 I've been learning Kumihimo, an ancient Japanese braiding art form. It's fascinating to be a newbie again. But I had some success with this 4-color braid and bead-bezeled stone pendant.

Kumihimo rope with two kinds of cord on each strand. Fused glass pendant is by Portland glass artist Eddy Shuldman.

This was my first attempt to add beads to Kumihimo. They have very big holes, so I could fit the thicker satin cord through them. I only had 16 beads on hand, so that's all I used!

"Jungle Love" freeform peyote necklace.  

This is what I was starting to work on during our trip to Boston. It's the most ambitious freeform piece I've done to-date.

I've been doing Spiral Rope for many years, but this year I learned how to do Double Spiral
and Triple Spiral.

Experimentations with Herringbone stitch, inspired by the "I Can Herringbone" challenge.

After learning Cubic Right-Angle-Weave (CRAW), this idea popped into my head:

Tutorials from Nancy Dale: "Runway" bracelet and
"Sweetheart Solitaire" pendants.

"Verticals" bracelet pattern by Sabine Lippert is an incredible creation of Right Angle Weave. Her color scheme (below) is perfect, and someone suggested that I try another palette using silver (left). I love them both.

 Two color palettes for the "Catherine Bangle" from Jane Lock's book "The Art of Beadweaving." Instead of a closed bangle, I added a hidden magnet clasp. Also I modified the structure of the CRAW so it wouldn't stand up so high. Size 8/o and 11/o seed beads, with 3mm crystals. I love this bracelet, and have already chosen colors for my next one.

Hitting The Books

I have a LOT of cookbooks. I love them!  But although I leaf through them in awe, I often fail to actually make a single dish from many of them. Still, the collection looks really impressive in my kitchen !

And then there are my beading books... a very similar story. I buy a beautiful book, try to decide which projects I will attempt, and end up making none of them. But they look great in my studio!  Well, after awhile I felt guilty, so I decided not to buy any more cookbooks OR beading books. Until this year.

This year I got more involved in the beading world on Facebook, and saw things that people were creating from recently published beading books. Also, Jill Wiseman published an awesome book of beading projects, and I allowed myself to buy it.  The day that "Beautiful Beaded Ropes" arrived, we were leaving for a weekend at the beach. So I grabbed it and took it with us. All weekend, I browsed the book lovingly, careful not to let the drool fall on the pages!  I thought about which project(s) I would try first, and committed to actually MAKING some of them.

And guess what?  I actually did!  So far, I've made two things, and both are beautiful.  The first one is the "Forever Tango" bracelet, which is a clever herringbone project.  It seemed to take FOREVER (hence the name?), but in the end it was worth it.  Just look at this!

Next, I decided to take on Jill's "Dew Drop Spiral Necklace."  This one went a little bit faster.  It's very hard to photograph well, but in real life, it looks VERY cool!


 


Recently, I also bought Sabine Lippert's "Beaded Fantasies."  I haven't created any of her projects yet, but I promise I will soon!

I'm also thinking of challenging myself to make at least one project from each beading book that I own. Maybe one day I'll do that with my cookbooks too.  Okay, it's not really likely, but it could happen....