A Beader's Blog

A Blossoming Dream

2012-02-10T10:00:00.002-05:00

Magnolia's aren't supposed to bloom in February but obviously no one told my little magnolia tree this small fact. With warm winter weather its nature told it Spring had sprung and so it blossomed.

More importantly than this bit of trivial trivia is the fact that for the past few months I've been deep in contemplation. I've been reevaluating myself, my life, my priorities ... what I want to do, what I want to accomplish. Though I've come up with a few answers many questions still remain.

Perhaps in my heart, I knew all along I had to follow my dream no matter where it led me. Perhaps I will simply find myself faced with a dead end street, but I'll never know unless I try.

For the past several days I've been working on a story ... a wanna be novel. At times the story pours out of me so fast and furious I can scarcely keep up with it. At other times I pause and wonder in what direction it will go next.

My story is far from finish and is yet in stages of rough draft. It will need lots of fine tuning and rewriting.

Below ... for those of you who enjoy reading ... is a very small excerpt from one page of one chapter and admittedly not the most noteworthy. I would love to hear your opinions so your comments are truly welcomed and encouraged :

Peppertree

Lora Leigh stared at the face in the mirror. It hadn't changed much, perhaps more tired with signs of discontent but it was still an attractive face. Youthful enough for a 32 year old, smooth firm skin no visible wrinkles. A pretty face graced with large turquoise blue eyes, a well defined lip and high cheek bones all framed by dark, chocolate brown hair. She ran her fingers through her hair. No signs of gray ... yet. "Two years" she told herself " hard to believe it's been that long". Today was her 32nd birthday and the two year anniversary of her divorce from Matthew Tabor.

It had been an amicable divorce based upon a terminology called incompatibility. Who had initiated the divorce was debatable. Perhaps it was Lora Leigh who had become bored with being home alone most of the time, while her CEO husband jetted off to corporate meetings in faraway lands. Maybe Matthew had grown tired of the silence with little to discuss between them. Dividing their assets seemed as simple as children dividing their haul of Halloween treats ... I'll let you have the Reese's peanut butter cups if I can have the Butterfingers bars. So it was; you can have the BMW, I'll take the Mercedes.

Lora Leigh wondered if they had ever had anything in common. Maybe ... at the start ... at least it seemed that they had. Had they somehow, over the years, changed... one of them ... both of them ... became different ?

She took a last swipe of mascara across her lashes, applied a small amount of lip gloss and looked again at that familiar yet vaguely strange face peering back at her. Today was a new day, a new beginning. It had taken almost 2 years but the large house that she and Matthew owned had been sold, much of the furniture had been auctioned off as neither she nor Matthew had any desire to keep any of it. The furniture had been another matter of contention. Lora Leigh had never liked it, it felt too grand and pretentious for her taste. It was Matthew's style, or so she had thought but then Matthew said there was none of it that he wanted. Perhaps they never truly knew one another after all?

Matthew had collected his personal effects almost 2 years earlier, all that remained now were a few cardboard boxes scattered throughout the house in neat little piles. These belonged to Lora Leigh, the remnants of her life of having been Mrs. Matthew Tabor. Soon these too would be gone, picked up by the movers and taken to her small condo. Only the house, a shell of what used to be their home, would remain behind. Empty rooms filled with broken promises, dashed hopes and dreams unfulfilled.

Thoughtless Thursday

2012-01-19T11:33:00.001-05:00

Little Rylee Jade - photo taken a couple of weeks ago on her first day home.

Have you ever sat down to write a letter to someone; you know you need to doit, you know you should ... must ... do it; but as you sit and look at theblank sheet of paper your mind is a blank? It may be a letter to dear, lovingaunt Matilda who dotes on you, relishes your letters and to whom you've notcorresponded with in far too long ... plus you really need to thank her forthat thing-a-ma-bob that she sent you for your birthday ... have no idea whatyou'll ever do with it but it 's the thought that counts.

You begin to write; "Dearest Aunt Mattie - Hope you're fine. Theweather here has been..." The words seem forced, contrived, so you crumpleup that sheet of paper and start over again. Then you realize that though youadore auntie Mat, your heart and soul just are not in tune with your brain andit is impossible for you to write that much needed letter.

Well guess that has been me for some time now. Not just with blogging butwith a number of other things as well. I've been playing an exasperating gameof catch-up and find myself consistently falling behind. As they say; "Thehurrier I go the behinder I get" !

Scattered across my work-table and desk-top are too many projects to count,all in differing stages of incompletion. Most are in need of an item such as aspecial focal item, a bead or beads, a certain size of jumpring or the rightclasp. Frustrating! Annoying!
About the only thing I've completed in the last couple of weeks was a bird's nest necklace. It was my first attempt at making a bird's nest.

I found that my vast stash of beads was lacking in small oval, egg-shaped beads. The best I could come up with were these 8 mm x 6 mm oval, Dalmatian jasper beads. Some eggs do have spots, don't they ?

Once the nest was complete it needed a necklace, however all the chains in my supplies were either the wrong size or the wrong color. This brass tone wire (called "Jeweler's Bronze")from Fire Mountain Gems is not the easiest to match, especially where chain is concerned. And the color of the Dalmatian jasper was a pain to match with seed beads. I now own at least half-a-dozen more tubes of seed beads, all in tones of beige or tan and not one of them is a dead ringer for the gray-beige background of the jasper. I ended up settling on a
gold-lined cream. Not perfect and in the photos it looks white but is really a soft cream-tone, very neutral.

It took several tries to finally come up with a combination of beads that complimented the bird's nest and that would fit through its bail (I should have used a larger mandrel to form the bail on).
Next problem was to find a clasp and, naturally, nothing that I had on hand matched. A hook and eye clasp would have to be handmade out of 20 gauge wire of the same color; "Jeweler's Bronze".

So it's done; one project, out of far too many, that's finally complete. Funny thing is that my first attempt at making a nest turned out fairly well though not perfect, my second attempt however ... well let's just say it looks more like the wire in my wire scraps jar.

A New Arrival in 2012

2012-01-04T17:14:00.000-05:00

My great-granddaughter, Rylee Jade, came into the world early Tuesday morning. Weighing in at 5 lb 11 oz she is neither too big nor too small ... she is just right and truly beautiful. New mother, Marci, is doing fine and very happy to be able to finally hold her lovely baby girl. Our grandson is beaming with pride just like a typical proud daddy.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

2012-01-01T09:16:00.000-05:00

Wishes to All for a most Happy New Year !

May your new year be blessed with good health and sprinkled generously with happiness. May 2012 be a year abundant with peace and goodwill to all mankind.

To all I wish a joyful and prosperous 2012.

Joy to All and Blogger Headaches

2011-12-23T10:37:00.002-05:00

I made this appliqued and embroidered felt door decoration back in the early 80's. My little "Welcome Bear" had been boxed up for too long and I decided it was time for him to make an appearance.

Old ornament above is very simple but I loved how it looked when placed in front of a Christmas tree light bulb. No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you, the photo below is a little out of focus. :(

The Holiday Season and Blogger Headaches

I thought I had this season figured out, blogwise anyway. I would do a few posts at a time and have them scheduled for publication on certain dates and then if comments came in, I could quickly check my personal email address to moderate and visit their blogs in return. Simple yes ? Well for some unknown reason, after several years of receiving email notifications of comments needing moderation, Blogspot has stopped sending me these notifications. Bummer ... now I must stop whatever I'm doing and check on my Blogspot dashboard frequently to see if there are any wonderful comments to acknowledge.

Today as I prepared this particular posting I notice that I'm having problems with the uploading of my photos. I click on the ones I want to post and then when I return to the photo pop-up window all of my choices have been erased. This is supposed to the Christmas-Hanukkah-Kwanzaa season not April Fools ! :(
If anyone has suggestions on how to get my email notifications back please feel free to give them to me. I've tried clearing out my cache, unchecking the "remember me" option box and then logging out, shutting my PC off and re-booting, I checked over my settings but couldn't find that anything had changed. I also checked the blogger "help" section (but that was a couple of days ago so I might try"help" again to see if anything new has been discussed).

Photo above ... another dated Christmas decoration, this one is from Hallmark. The Bear's beary happy Christmas, with Mama Bear holding a cookie sheet of fresh baked cookies, Papa Bear hanging up the Christmas stocking on the fireplace mantel, little Missy Bear reading her book while little Junior Bear plays on the floor with his little toy boat.

Hope you are all enjoying a marvelous and happy Holiday ... and remember to leave some cookies for Santa. :)

Found Treasure ... Wonderful Blogs and Bloggers

2011-12-22T10:00:00.003-05:00

For awhile now I've been a follower and reader of KJ's marvelous blog; KJs Beadacious Beads at http://kjsbeadaciousbeads.blogspot.com/ . I tend to follow many blogs but I do have my favorites, KJ's blog is among those.

On one of her recent posts KJ explored the problem of small bead storage, those tiny little seed beads that, when spilled, tend to go everywhere and days or even weeks later we tend to find them lodged in nooks or crannies and sometimes just laying out brazenly in plain sight, right smack dab in the middle of the floor. I find KJ's solution a great one as I have tried many different containers myself and have found many inferior, either their lids do not stay on (which ends up in those annoying spills) or they are too hard to open, or it is hard to see just what is inside of them.

Photo above ... Though I have something remotely similar to KJ's solution mine are not individual, they all screw together with only one lid that goes onto the top container, a real pain when I want the beads in the center jar. KJ's containers each have their own lids, a real bonus. Now I need to go out looking for them, they are made by Darice and Sears (in some locations) carry them. I look forward to getting rid of this unit above (which is designed for pill storage) and get some with individual lids.

Fiber Optics - Tiny Tree but Amazing Lights!

2011-12-21T10:00:00.001-05:00

Back when we lived in a small rental house John and I purchased a tabletop tree. The box claimed it to be 4 feet tall but I'm not sure how they managed to get that measurement since the tree with stand is hardly more than 38" in height. As artificial trees go it is okay but I doubt that anyone would mistake it for a real pine, however it is a fiber optic tree and its light display is very pretty, unfortunately it's also almost impossible to capture on camera ... especially with the flash on. Below are a few very dark photos taken without flash in hopes that the colorful array of lights would show up.

Photo above - really dark, can see the lights but not the tree.

Photo below - a bit lighter but the fiber optic lights are a bit blurred. Now I understand why all the photos of fibre optic trees on google search were blurry.

I've been trying to talk my hubby into allowing us to get a more substantial tree for next Christmas ... maybe a 6 or 7 footer. John and I both love the effect of the ever changing colors cascading across the fiber optic filaments that cover our little tree and would like the next, larger tree to also have this feature but tall fiber optic trees seem to be as scarce as hen's teeth. We have close to a year to find one so we I will continue looking.

Hoping you are enjoying this special season. Love and Goodwill to you all !

Happy Holidays ! Merry Christmas !

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas ...

2011-12-19T11:45:00.000-05:00

This year, for the first time in many years, I actually sprinkled some Christmas decorations around my house instead of just slapping up our tiny 38" fiber optic, plastic tree and calling it "done". In so doing I must admit my blog was put on a back burner and left to simmer without much stirring. However I accomplished a number of items on my "Christmas to do List", one of which was to install an address list and labeling program on my PC. Naturally being techno-challenged I had to call on my hubby several dozen times and it took us both about 3 days to install it and figure out how to use it. Then it took me another 3 days to type in my complete address list. I could have addressed the envelopes by hand a lot quicker but it is finally done and next year should be a snap to run off address labels ... I hope !

Many years ago, when my girls where oh so very young and still believed in that wonderful, jolly old elf that rides through the sky on his sleigh driven by magic reindeer, I began making fabulous beaded ornaments. I would purchase the intricate kits from The Cracker Box .
These lovely handmade ornaments were made at least 30 years ago and though they used to bless us with their beauty every Christmas, they have been stashed away for over 6 years now. As I unwrapped them I decided they were going on display this year and even though our tiny (less than 4 foot tall) tree could not support them, I would find some way to showcase them. :)

Among a drape of faux garland they took center stage with my beloved photos of family.

Satin covered balls bedecked in crystals, sequins and silvery dress maker's pins ... lots and lots of pins !

The one that took the longest to make was the Holiday Bell, it is completely covered in pearly white sequins, each held in place by a dress maker's pin ... hundreds of pins ! If you'd like to check out Cracker Box you can click on their links in this post or copy and paste their URL : http://www.crackerboxkits.com/default.aspx?Cat_ID=1

How to win - or not - at Blogging

2011-12-17T13:00:00.004-05:00

Another "draft" from years gone by - never published - think I decided it was too down, too depressing ... perhaps too close to reality !

There are times when I wonder why I keep trying.

Trying to make a go of my etsy shop.

Trying to attract readers to my blog.

Life itself can be trying.

A friend of mine just passed away, our wedding anniversaries were just days apart and we used to go out and celebrate together, but then time and distance separated us. It was different, easier when we lived in the same city. In the past 10 years I've lost touch with a number of people...some relatives...some friends. How and why are varied stories and much too long to go into.
I've learned that most people don't seem to really want to read a blog. They want to be razzle-dazzled with photos, slide shows, YouTube, games etc., etc. But words? No not words ! Words, no matter how long you labor over them, no matter how dear to your heart and soul they are...people don't have time for them. If you can't tweet them in 140 characters or less, forget it.

Guess I need to reassess my blog. Why is it that so many others get so many comments and mine so few ? Must I always be doing something, are all the blog readers out there only interested in giveaways? Has the land of Blog-dom turned totally commercialised ?

After reading through this I came to the conclusion that, if nothing else, I'm not a quitter, I've continued to muddle through even though I've yet to taste the sweetness of success. Maybe someday? The bottom line, the morale of this is to not give up but to hold fast to your dream, even when it seems completely unobtainable. Hope and dreams should never be allowed to die. :)

Give Me Elbow room

2011-12-16T12:10:00.002-05:00

Finding hidden treasures in my old posts that were never posted. Here is another piece I wrote back when my blog was just in its infancy and my followers numbered a big round zero.

This post was originally written 2/13/2009 but never published.

I’ve always longed to live in the country, to have trees and natural vegetation as my neighbors. Living in tight clusters of homes where one’s neighbor is so close it feels as though one shares a common patio or garden. This may be fine for a lot of people however for myself I’ve always enjoyed a bit of freedom, cherished my elbow room.

Little less than ~~two years~~ five years ago we, my husband John and I, lived in a small rental house in a close packed development, it was a temporary arrangement as we were in the process of building a small and unpretentious home. Having earlier purchased a parcel of land, close to 3 acres, in a semi-rural area, we envisioned a simple home, much like a farm house, something that would blend in with the smaller clapboard houses dotting the area. However the people who purchased the property adjacent to us were building a Floridian Mediterranean inspired house with paladin windows and barrel tile roof, very incongruent with the rural neighborhood. Theirs’ was a house you saw in every gated community from Miami to Naples and from Homestead to Tallahassee.

On the other side of this mini mansion sets the original homestead of the farmer who had subdivided this acreage, his was a humble house made of raw wood clapboards. Weathered and gray this homely little house sat low on the land, crouched under the large trees that attempted to protect it and fitted the landscape well. Trucks and tractors littered the farmer’s property...after all he is still a working farmer...had watermelons for sale just last summer...$3 apiece ! So, for myself, no mini mansion. I wanted to feel like I belonged here, a part of the area not apart from the area.

Every day that we lingered in our rental unit, I longed to be able to look outside a window, any window, and not view the wall of a neighboring home. Our patio practically butted up against the property line where a stark white fence divided the two backyards and afforded some privacy but also gave a foreboding sense of confinement. Nothing to look at as we sat out on the patio...only the bland white fence...not a tree, or a garden...hard to have a garden with little less than an 7 foot stripe of land between the patio and that imposing fence ! My only consolation was that it was not our home, it was only a rental and soon we could walk away from it.

When our small house was at last completed and we received our "Certificate of Occupancy" it was cause for celebration. John popped the cork on a bottle of champagne and we toasted our new home, our property, getting out of that claustrophobic neighborhood and most of all toasted having a view and some breathing space. Liberation! Viva la liberation !

Bouncing Beads -

2011-12-15T13:30:00.012-05:00

A tiny drop out of my hoard of beads.

It's the Holiday Season and most of us are in over our heads with cooking, cleaning, shopping, wrapping and wonderful guests. My lovely daughter is home for the Christmas Holidays and I intend to enjoy every second of her visit. I pray that each and every one of you are enjoying this very special season regardless of your beliefs or traditions. And to those of you who have dropped me from your following blog list ... well what can I say except that you were waiting for the perfect opportunity to dump me anyway, so let it be my Christmas gift to you. :D

Going back through the history of this blog I came across an old post that was never posted, not sure why, perhaps I simply forgot about it. As I read it I had to admit it is as relevant now as it was in 2009. So I've added a few photos of a small sampling of my bead inventory to spice it up a bit.

Turquoise goes with everything !

I suppose I could have started this blog with bead history and information regarding beads, either beads in general or specific. But there are so many sites on that already and one can google info on just about anything they wish to know about these wondrous little beauties. Everything from about how they are made to patterns that use them; from sizes and shapes to country of origin its all been researched before...or copied and pasted...have you ever noticed how info on a subject can be almost word for word the same on a number of websites? Its almost as if they all went to the "Master Wikipedia" and copied and pasted the text onto their own site!

Being a beader and jewelry maker I’m an avid fan of those lovely little things...just wish I didn’t have to spend so much time on my hands and knees on the floor looking for them.
They have an uncanny ability for momentum, rolling off my worktable and bouncing a great distance away or catapulting like an acrobat off the end of a beading needle or, heaven forbid, cascading in perfect unison off the end of my beading thread or cable and scattering to far corners of the room.
A few months back I managed to drop a whole storage bin of tiny, 3 mm Czech glass beads. There were 10 strands of loose beads in that container, each strand had contained, approximately, 200 beads...2,000 tiny, translucent, pale blue beads...can you picture it ? I spent hours looking for those little buggers and now, even months later, I’ll come across one hiding in a corner or under my chair or even on top of something. They’ll suddenly appear in places that I’m certain I’ve checked and it’s got me believing in the "black hole theory". You see, there are these little black holes everywhere, even here on earth, and objects are sucked into them, they work their way through the worm hole and days, weeks, months or even years later come out the other side in a totally different location. This explains the phenomena of lost keys, sunglasses, disappearing socks (black holes must love washers and dryers) and of course vanishing tiny, little beads !

Love these baby-pink, Ceylon size 8/0 glass seeds by Miyuki Delica.

Something Good in Everyday

2011-11-17T10:30:00.002-05:00

Today I'm joining Annette of So Many Memories on Thankful Thursday.

As I walked down my street yesterday I saw the most amazing plant, a huge 10 ft tall bush of lovely, bright yellow sunflowers. I am so thankful for nature's incredible beauty.

I also wish to thank Kristen of BeadJourney for her post about Erin's Simple Truths at her etsy shop TesoriTrovati and Erin's Treasures Found . for it was through these two that I discovered a great knowledge, this quote of truism ...

"Every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day." ~ Anonymous

My Circuits Are Fried

2011-11-15T10:30:00.000-05:00

Framed and ready to hang.

I believe my circuits are fried ! Lately I have been suffering from a serious case of "Internet Burn-Out" and it's taken a lot of will power to even turn on my computer. Normally my blog and comments have been overly verbose but for the past few weeks it's been a battle to come up with anything to say or any ideas that appear fresh and remotely interesting. I beg for your patience and hope that you will stick with me as I try to muddle through this. Hopefully it will pass as most things do.

Most of you are familiar with T @ Poppy Place PDX and her wonderful photography. Her online studio PhotosByChipperfield is overflowing with breathtakingly beautiful pictures that she's captured through the lens of her camera. Quite some time ago I purchased a lovely triad of T's photos, they arrived well packaged and in pristine condition, naturally I wished to keep them that way so I carefully harbored them at the very bottom of an almost empty drawer. Out of sight, out of mind ... bad idea.

It was only months later, when I ran across a big ad for a local arts and crafts shop's 50% off frame sale, that my memory was jogged and I retrieved the hidden treasure of T's photos. With photos in hand I went and browsed through an impressive frame and mat section and, after what seemed like hours upon end, decided upon 3 suitable frames. You can have frames custom made but I strongly recommend reserving that option for artwork that is of unusual dimensions as custom matting and framing can become quite expensive.

The frames I chose complimented T's photos without detracting from them and were a subtle color that went well with the tones in the photo and the frames came with their own acid free mats. At 50% off I was able to purchase 3 nice frames (with mats) for around $30, about $10 per frame. Couldn't get much better than that !

It is amazing what frames and mats can do for art work, it's like that little bit of make-up that transforms a pretty woman into a gorgeous one. I think sometimes we tend not to see the complete picture and may not envision how something will look when complete. T's photo's were lovely to begin with but when matted and framed I was beyond impressed, I was actually exuberant and had to show them off to anyone and everyone that came into my home.

T's beautiful photography is now encased in their frames and are in position where I had always planned to place them ... only problem is now I need to repaint the room as the neutral Navajo white walls are far more yellow than I realized and don't work well with the slightly mauve tones of the photos and frames. Well yet another thing to add to my "honey-do list" . :D

Missed The Trend ?

2011-10-31T12:26:00.001-04:00

above ... Swarovski Crystal Aurora Borealis Eternity Circle

There are times when I create something and think it is beautiful and will sell in a heartbeat, it is always a a rude awakening when I find obviously that no one else feels the same way.

I meticulously wove these Swarovski crystal Eternity Circle together and loved the depth and dimension of the piece in general. When I took them out into the sunlight the sparkling effects were beyond amazing ... especially with the Crystal aurora borealis pendant.

above and below ... Sapphire Blue Swarovski Crystal pendant on handcrafted kumihimo braided cord.

However they seem to gather little attention and I don't understand why. I think most of you beaders and jewelry makers are all aware of the price of Swarovski Crystals (these are 6 mm) so making a piece that uses over 80 crystals is not cheap. I priced it about as low as I could but maybe I'm underpricing them and people expect these true Swarovskis to cost more ? Or maybe they're passe, unhip and outdated ... though I thought circles, representing eternal love, was in ... I somehow missed when they went out.

Have any of you jewelry maker - beaders created pieces that you thought would go like hot-fresh baked bread and instead sat around your inventory like old, stale biscuits ?

A New Comer to the Neighborhood

2011-10-21T14:20:00.000-04:00

Our neighbors have a man-made pond in their front yard that tends to attract water loving birds. We've seen lots of ducks and egrets enjoying the water along with an occasional snack of fresh fish. There have also been Canadian geese and tall, gray Sandhill Cranes. Recently we've noticed a pair of gray herons enjoying the pond (and the fish within it). How long the herons will stay is hard to guess as it seems this pond attracts transient water fowl.

Photo below ... The large gray heron is hunkered down so it looks quite short however it has remarkably long legs and when it stands it reachs a rather impressive height.

Photo above ... I had hoped to get up really close since the heron was right beside our fence-line but this was as close as I got before he or she took flight and found the safety of the tiny island at the center of the pond.

Photo above ... One heron is on the island the other is across the water in the back-ground, both are a safe distance away ... now if they could only get rid of the annoying paparazzi !!!

These photos were taken yesterday Oct 20th, 2011. Today has turned a bit chilly in the low 70's at noon, was in the low 60's when I got this morning and was 58 degrees outside when I went to bed last night. However the heron have returned today so perhaps they'll stick around for a bit longer in spite of the cooler weather. They are lovely creatures and John and I enjoy watching them, though I'm sure the herons would prefer that we weren't such snoopy neighbors. lol

I would love to have a camera with a real zoom lens and I keep saying to myself that when my etsy shop starts really selling I'll be able to buy one. I better not hold my breath on that one. :D

Snarkiness is Alive and Well ...

2011-10-12T14:02:00.004-04:00

Change is inevitable, or so they say, and one either learns to accept it, suffer in silence or make a big fuss about it ... the latter of which is ignored by everyone and so basically you're suffering aloud but no one is listening to you.
In my viewpoint the Etsy teams are not working all that well, some of them go hours if not days without any activity.   The Promotions Teams are certainly not as active as other teams nor are they accomplishing the goal that they had been created for. A far cry from the days when promotions was a part of the Etsy forums and postings changed faster than greased lightening.
Yes, without promotions the new, scaled down Etsy forums has lost its spark but not its snarkiness.
At first this move made no sense but now that Etsy has initiated its "Search Ads", it became perfectly clear, at least to me it did.   I doubt that Etsy wanted the promotion threads to compete with their new form of on-site advertisements, what better way of doing this than to relegate promo to teams and then tell everyone that the forums is closed for any and all promo threads.

Certainly Etsy has gone through a lot of changes lately and though I miss some of the old Etsy I realize that, like toothpaste squeezed from a tube, there is no putting it back. Eventually the dust will settle and memories of the old Etsy will become little more than a faded memory. And so we move on.

Recently I opened a second Etsy shop in order to separate my handcrafted jewelry from my beading supplies shop (unfortunately my supply shop has been woefully neglected in this process). The new shop has been fairly quiet with only 1 sale. For the past couple of days I've been beading and photographing and today I listed a couple of new items in my shop DellaMessina ... both items are priced under $10 each and I'm hoping that this will generate some attention and possibly sales.

Photos below ... seed beaded Snowflake earrings in white, crystal and silver.

Photos below ... seed beaded Snowflake earrings in white, crystal and gold.

One thing I have noticed about the new, scaled down Etsy forum is that snarkiness is still alive a well. lol Have any of you visited or participated in the forums recently? If so what is your opinion of it? Also if any of you have tried out the Etsy Search Ads, please give us your review and if you think they will eventually turn into a lucrative source of advertising for Etsians?

CHANCE TO WIN A $100 MARY KAY GIFT PACK ...

2011-10-04T09:51:00.000-04:00

If you're a Mary Kay fan like I am, you'll be excited to hear that there's a contest/giveaway going on at RaisingColorado . The winner will receive a Mary Kay Gift Pack worth $100. For me it's an opportunity too good to pass up as I've been a faithful user of Mary Kay products for ... well let's say a very long time and I wouldn't use anything else.
So hurry on over to see how to enter as the giveaway is only good until the 16th of this month ... 10/16/2011.

No Views - Low Views - Relevancy - What's Up With Etsy ?

2011-10-02T10:05:00.001-04:00

Above ... from the side you can see how thick and substantial the sterling bail and Awareness Ribbon is. It came from a high end jewelers' supply source and is no cheap pendant.

Etsy has been a strange bag of beans lately. Views are way down and it is hard to believe that a big site such as Etsy can't generate a healthy flow of traffic for it's many shops. A few days ago I listed a lovely pendant and after several days it has had only 5 views. I don't know exactly how Etsy defines it's new "relevancy" system but it does not seem to be working, at least not for a vast majority of Etsians myself included.

Since October is breast cancer awareness month I made up a very special necklace using a beautiful, genuine rose quartz and sterling silver pendant.

Above ... pretty in pink.

With so much sterling in the necklace, from the heavy sterling pendant, to sterling silver clasp, crimp beads, crimp bead covers, and even jumprings there was a small fortune invested in supplies.

I decided the heart pendant would look lovely on a jet black necklace but instead of going with a simple cord I strung 3 strands of 11/0 Delica jet black, hex cut seed beads and attached them via sterling crimps (and 49 strand 14 weight AccuFlex beading cable). All in all what I'm saying is I tried so hard to make this a truly special piece for a very special cause and I feel so defeated when I see that it has sat there completely invisible to the public.

Photo below ... the back of necklace with solid sterling silver heart clasp. This clasp is solid, not hollow or concave on one side, it is flanked on both sides by my handcrafted links featuring Czech firepolished faceted beads ... in pale pink of course.

Above ... I forgot about the translucency of the rose quartz and should not have laid the pendant across the jet black seed bead strands as it tends to show through this translucent stone.

I realize that there are a ton of jewelry makers out there and that Etsy has more than it's share of them on their website but still the Internet has a huge audience, millions of people world-wide. So only 5 views in several days ? What's going on with that ?

LAST DAY TO ENTER The Hairy Peach BIG GIVEAWAY !!!

2011-09-30T14:26:00.001-04:00

4 fabulous prizes will be giveaway on The Hairy Peach blogsite. All are amazing and September 30th is the last day and final day to enter. If you haven't entered then please Run, don't walk, over to The Hairy Peach and enter - tomorrow will be too late.

click on any of the highlited links or copy and paste :
http://thehairypeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/birthday-celebration.html
in your browser.

An Extracting Problem

2011-09-28T12:40:00.000-04:00

Today is going to be one of those days when I get very little accomplished. John had to have a molar extracted as it had fractured and there was no way to save it. Having a tooth extracted is not easy at any age but seems to affect us more adversely as we get older. John's been trying to deal with the pain and has been taking a mild pain killer plus antibiotics ... which unfortunately makes him feel dizzy and nauseous. So given the fact that for a couple of days his diet is supposed to be restricted to soft foods this means a constant preparation of small meals ... oatmeal ... scrambled eggs ... cream of chicken soup ... mashed potatoes ... cream of tomato soup ... soup ... soup and more soup ! None of it is very filling and my hubby has always had a hearty appetite that required stick to the rib meals.
So this project that I'm working on and trying to figure out how to bring it all together has been put on the back burner ... for now.

Photos above and below ... I call them Starflowers, they're a beaded flower and it took me a while to figure out how I could use them. I had already fabricated the beaded spiral rope (which is a pattern I love to make) and I wanted to make a second strand to compliment it but wanted something very different. The Starflower came to mind and after some manipulation I figured out how to connect three of them for a focal point

Photo above and below ... The one wonderful thing about these Starflowers is that they are reversible, if you use different beads for the backside. I think it should be a nice contrast and yet still compliment the basic spiral rope.

Now I just need some time to figure out what I wish to do about the necklace sides for the Starflower strand. I think I would like it to be a little smaller (thinner) than the spiral rope. Hopefully I will be able to work on it more tomorrow, if John is feeling better.

Most of us know that when it comes to opinions and suggestions regarding jewelry designs, husbands are NO help at all, at least mine isn't. I show him a piece that I just made and he gets this blank expression on his face like he's thinking; "What am I supposed to do with that?" Then he usually says something like; "That's nice dear."
So if you have any suggestions regarding the sides of the Starflower necklace I would love to hear them as right now I am so undecided that I feel confused.

Just Beading Around

2011-09-27T11:25:00.000-04:00

What have I been up to? Well I must admit it certainly hasn't been blogging. Since opening my 2nd etsy shop I've spent lots of time trying to promote it and also trying to stock it , which means beading and creating. So here are few of the items I've created and I still have more yet to photo (let's not even think about writing up descriptions for etsy's listings ... ugh!)

Above ... Long beaded spiral rope necklace with a side of hand linked chains.

Above ... back of long necklace, showing the vintage Czech glass Ivy leaf button that I used for a button clasp.

Above ... close up of a beaded bead, can you imagine that it takes over 100 beads to create this one beaded bead? Thought the bead caps looked cute on it.

Above ... close up of one of the genuine yellow quartz beads. It is incredibly faceted (impossible to see that in the photo) and is gem quality yellow quartz (my check book can vouch for that as it took a chunk of money to purchase a strand of them!)

Above ... I like the fact that it can be worn multiple ways and even doubled to look like 2 strands.

Above ... another, but different combo of beaded rope with chains. This one is a multi-strand necklace.

Above ... love the colors of the russet red with the topaz aurora borealis

beads, and the combination of gold and brass chains.

Above ... October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and in honor of this I used a very special rose quartz and sterling silver pendant that features the awareness ribbon.

Above ... I fashioned the necklace out of Delica 11/0 Jet Black, hex-cut seed beads. Made it a triple strand using AccuFlex 49 strand cable, sterling silver crimp beads, sterling crimp bead covers, sterling jumprings and sterling silver heart shaped clasp.

Above ... close up of clasp ... it is solid sterling, not hollow, not concave on one side. It is one lovely little clasp. I used tiny 3mm Czech glass faceted beads on both sides of clasp as I didn't have any rose quartz beads that were small enough (I wanted the necklace to be easily removable so that pendant could be worn on different chains, cords, ribbons etc. so the beads had to be small enough to slip through the bail opening).

Above ... this side photo gives you an idea of the how thick the sterling is on the bail and the ribbon decoration that cradles the rose quartz heart. It's substantial and would take a lot of force to bend that chunk of sterling.

Above ... Since I contributed my first pair of beaded cube earrings (lovingly called Monte Carlo) to a giveaway in hopes of attracting some traffic to my new shop, I decided to make another pair. These are in aqua blue and silver. Earring wires are sterling silver and handcrafted by me.

Above ... trying to create two identical wire teardrop hoops was the hardest part of making these earrings.

Above ... And they are nice and long and flirty and swingy, which I adore.

Above ... close up of beaded cube beads.

Plus I have a necklace and 2 pairs of earrings yet to photo ... and then there's that dreaded description to write up on each and every one of them. So that's what I've been up to (in between doing laundry, cooking, cleaning house etc.). How about you? Any new products that you've made? Trips that you've taken? Songs that you've sang ? :)

And The Winner Is ....

2011-09-24T18:11:00.000-04:00

These earrings are an adorable pair of beaded cube beads that swing from golden teardrop shaped hoops (which are handmade by me). They fall from 14 karat gold filled ear wires that I've embellished with peridot green Swarovski Crystals. These really are so much prettier in person.

Sara, of the blog Red Pine Mountain, has graciously hosted a giveaway for my new etsy shop this past week. Today she has drawn a winning name for the Monte Carlo earrings.

A random number generator at random.org was used to choose the winning number and that number belongs to Rick Kratzke ... Congratulations Rick. Rick says these will make a nice Christmas gift for his wife. Indeed they will.

I wish to thank each and everyone that took the time to visit Sara's blog "Red Pine Mountain" and enter the giveaway ... but most of all I wish to thank Sara for giving of her time to do this for me.
I'm not sure where she hides them but she must have a pair of gorgeous wings as she is truly an angel.

Wishing you all a lovely week-end. :)

Red Pine Mountain Blog Giveaway

2011-09-17T21:04:00.000-04:00

A Giveaway is coming up and I had a post all typed out ... spent 2 days on it and then just wiped it out totally. In the blink of an eye it was gone. The whole kit and caboodle completely deleted from my computer due to my new "ergonomic" key board. Every time I go to hit the shift key with my right hand I invariably hit the button below it which deletes everything ... not just a letter or a word or even one paragraph ... it deletes the whole page and every link and every photo and leaves me with a big, empty, white box. Eeeeekkkkkk! Well after I yelled and cried and yelled and cried some more, I wiped my tears and had to start ALL over again.
Sarah of RED PINE MOUNTAIN has graciously offered to help bring attention to my Brand New Etsy Shop, by hosting a GIVEAWAY for me. Since my shop DellMessina is new, I've been lacking in visits and truly needed some way of getting attention and traffic to my shop. So when Sara volunteered to do this giveaway, I jumped for joy. What an angel !

The GIVEAWAY is for this pair of beaded earrings that I call Monte Carlo. To enter you must leave a comment on Sara's blog and check out all the ways you can earn an extra entry.

If you're not familiar with her lovely blog please do take a visit. Please click on any one of the links in this post and take a peek at her sweet blog and also check out the giveaway. She is the hostess with the mostest and a one of the sweetest, dearest people anyone could ever meet.

Sarah I apologize that this isn't as complete as I would have like it to be but all I can say is ... you should have seen the post I had originally ... the one that my keyboard ate !!!

Pigs in a Pen

2011-09-13T09:04:00.000-04:00

Not in a million years did I think my fashionista daughter, Kathi, would become a country bumpkin. Odd how people can and do change. Kathi, her husband and children have sown a garden for a couple of years now; their menagerie of animals have grown from the standard dogs, cats and guinea pigs to include horses, rabbits and chickens. And now their youngest daughter, Haley, has joined the local 4 H club, her project is to raise an animal for next local fair. Her animal is a nice pink, porky pig.

photo above...Haley's pig, trying to burrow under the lush, grassy weeds.

Haley is in a 4 H partnership with two other children, each has a pig, the pigs are being housed at Haley's as she has the space for them. Of course the other two children must do their share of caring for, cleaning, and nurturing these future fair animals.

photo above ... Haley in the shelter of the pig pen shade along with her charge of piggies. At the moment they would be considered young pigs but should grow and actually triple their weight and size before the day of the fair ... in just 3 short months!

photo above ... It's hard to keep the 3 young pigs together. Haley's pink pig wandered off to play in the deep grass and now the brown piggy is thinking about do the same.

photo above ... Ah alone at last. The black and white piggy now enjoys the luxuary of the shade and the cool, moist soil without the other two.

No, never in a million years did I think I'd see the day that my daughter would have pigs in her back yard.

In Respect and Memory

2011-09-11T14:50:00.000-04:00

It's strange how we can share thoughts. For years both John and I "thought" about getting a flag but neither one spoke the thought out loud. It was just before Memorial Day that I mentioned to John how it would be nice to fly the flag on our national holidays and days of special recognition. John had been having those same thoughts. Unfortunately our local home improvement centers were all out of the flag kits which included mounting brackets but they assured us they would be getting more in.

This past week John was able to purchase the flag kit he had wanted and it is now attached to the front of our humble home. Old Glory will wave proudly on this 11th day of Sept. 2011 in honor of all our heroes of 9-11-2001 , their memory will be eternal (which is more than I can say for the terrorist who, filled with such vile hatred, slaughtered so many beautiful and innocent souls).

Long may Freedom Reign ... Long may Justice and Liberty stand.

God bless us all!

Ballerina Girl, You are so Lovely ...

2011-09-10T10:58:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been AWOL and I truly apologize. Once there was a time that I could multi-task without batting an eye, now I can't bat an eye and chew gum at the same time.

As you know I've been a little busy trying to get my new etsy shop DellaMessina in order and up and running. I've decided I could really use a clone to either take the photos and do the descriptions and listings OR clean the house and cook while I take care of business ... guess if I were smart I'd ask for 2 clones to all my grunt work so that I could be free to create my passions, to blog and to visit all my favorite bloggers. :)

Today I listed some little earrings that were inspired by a favorite Lionel Richie song ... "Ballerina Girl"

Ballerina Girl
You are so lovely
With you standing there
I'm so aware
Of how much I care for you

You are more than now
You are for always
I can see in you
My dreams come true
Don't you ever go away

You make me feel like
There's nothing I can't do
And when I hold you
I only want to say
I love you

Ballerina Girl
The joy you bring me
Every day and night
Holding you tight
How I've waited for your love

Sometimes I've wondered
If you'd ever come my way
Now that I've finally found you
This is where my heart will stay

I'm never gonna break your heart
Never will we drift apart
'Cause all I wanna do
Is share my whole life with you

'Cause you make me feel like
There's nothing I can't do
I guess I finally realized
There's nothing else like loving you

Ballerina Girl
You are so lovely
I can see in you
My dreams come true
Don't you ever go away
Ballerina Girl...

Photo above ... I have always wanted to be able to display my jewelry on a model, but some people have objections to earrings being worn before they get them. Since I can not afford (at this time) to purchase a fancy head mannequin with pierced ears I had to be creative. I found a clip art of a nondescript female profile ... the ear is the most important part of the photo. I had to enlarge the clip art to 200% to get it to human size. Once enlarged I printed it and pasted it onto a sheet of card stock and then carefully pierced the paper ear. She was so stoic, didn't even flinch ! I was quite please with how it turned out, in fact it looked so realistic I ended up cropping my photos to show that it was not a real human and even put a disclaimer in my descriptions.

Right or Wrong ... No Second Guessing It Now

2011-09-04T10:37:00.000-04:00

Right or wrong, for better or worse; I did it ! I opened a second etsy shop where I, hopefully, can sell my jewelry creations. It's rather lonely at the moment ... no hearts, very little views. I'm trying to build up some of the connections that my old shop had but it takes time. I'd appreciate any and all of your help to get me going and create a shop that looks visited and loved. :) http://www.etsy.com/shop/DellaMessina

Photo above ... The first piece listed in my shop is this pendant. After designing the color scheme for my sister's necklace I loved it so much I created a replica. The tones of gray and silver and iridescent green give this piece an antique feel. It's called Corsica, after the gorgeous Mediterranean island of Corsica.

Photo above shows the face of the Corsican pendant and

the photo below shows my handcrafted sterling wire hook clasp ... the tiny pewter seashell charm goes well with the Mediterranean theme.

After creating the pendant I felt more adventurous and tackled making it into a bracelet. With its substantial feel and regal appearance I call her Contessa.

Toadstools and Owl Eyes

2011-09-01T10:43:00.000-04:00

Photo above ... We've had a bit of rain and these little toadstools have been popping up all over the yard. I like the arrangement of these 3 as they appear to be in ascending order.

For the past few days I've been preoccupied with setting up a second etsy shop. It still has a few things that need to be finished off before I take it from vacation mode to "open for business" and though I would have loved to have opened it up on the 1st day of Sept., it looks like that isn't going to happen.

If any of you have more than one shop and use Paypal I'd love to hear your advice and or suggestions. I'm wondering if I'll need to toggle back and forth from my two email addresses in order to view orders from a 2nd shop and the Paypay confirmation, that is set up with the email account of my 1st shop ... I know, I said "orders" hopefully this won't just be wishful thinking, I do have my fingers crossed that there will be orders and lots of them. :)

Another view of toadstool steps. These are pretty good size, about 4 to 6 inches across.

I have an ophthalmologist appointment this afternoon so I'm sure I won't be getting a lot done as my eyes will be dilated, I'll look like an owl and most light, even the PC monitor, will be painfully too bright for several hours. So, for now, I wish each one of you, all of my dearest and best wishes.

And then there was this one ... the outsider. With its fringed edges it is about as big as it will get and was close to 6 inches across. At certain times of the year our yard sprouts Fairy Rings, large circles of mushroom/toadstools. Some say that the rings are formed by fairies and these tiny fantasy creatures gather around to socialize, using the toadstools as their chairs, other say the rings are caused by the fairies dancing around in a circle and where they've danced the mushroom magically grow. I haven't seen any Fairy Rings this rainy season so perhaps the fairies are holding their get-togethers elsewhere.

Sicily - Island in the Sun

2011-08-26T09:10:00.001-04:00

Photo above ... Aboard the train ferry, crossing the Strait of Messina (circa 1985).

Once upon a time long, long ago a little girl was born in a land of warm yellow sunshine, Mediterranean breezes, lush groves of citrus trees, olive orchards and grape vines. She was a fair child with dancing blue eyes and blond hair that curled like Shirley Temple's famous locks and, surrounded by her grandparents and the doting attentions of her 4 aunts, she was undoubtedly spoiled. I was that little girl and the place was Messina, popular sea port and capital of Sicily, the large island just off the toe of the Italian mainland. As I grew up my blue eyes turned a gray-green and my hair darken to brown. Oh well we can't all be blue-eyed blonds.

I'm considering using this photo as my new avatar. Even though it's very old and I no longer look like this fresh faced 40 year old, the photo holds a lot of lovely, warm memories of my first and only trip back to the land of my birth. Please let me know if you think it is a bad idea to use an ancient photo or not.

Why my mother, Antonietta, didn't stay on that idyllic island is a long story and I probably don't really know the true reason she left. Perhaps, as she claimed, she wanted to join my father in the United States, even though he had met another woman and he, along with his adulteress, were hounding her to grant him a divorce. Or maybe Antonietta just wanted to get away from her parents, whom she felt had forsaken her, or from her younger sister, Rosa, who had betrayed her. Perhaps she wanted to be someplace where she would never look upon the face of Nino, her ex-fiancee who had broken her heart. Several years earlier she and Nino had been engaged but then he fell in love with and wanted to marry her younger sister Rosa. Perhaps that's the reason Antonietta, jumped into a marriage with a dashing young, foriegn soldier from the United States of America ... unfortunately it would be just another heart breaking relationship. Gives meaning to the explanation; "It's complicated", doesn't it ?

Together my mother and I left Europe and crossed the vast Atlantic Ocean by steamship. I was only 2 at the time. During all the years that passed I've only visited the land of my birth once.

July was not a good time to visit Italy, the summer was gruellingly hot and humid. Air conditioning, back in 1985 , was limited, many did not have it and most cars were not equipped with it. Our Roman hotel promptly turned off the central AC at 10 P.M. It was a cost saving and energy saving gesture. However once the unit was shut off guests abruptly awoke to a stifling hot, and stuffy room. I recalled having to open the window for ventilation. There was a wedding reception going on in the gardens below and the singer began to sing Stevie Wonder's; "I just called to say I love you". Considering the circumstances it was and is still a pleasant memory.

We did the typical tourist jaunts around Rome and then boarded a train to Sicily. Upon reaching the toe of the mainland we disembarked the train while it was put aboard a ferry ... yes passengers, train and all went via ferry to the Port of Messina. There was also a surprise awaiting us as we boarded the ferry, my Sicilian family was there to greet us. Naturally my mother chatted away in fluent Italian while John and I wondered; "Who ARE these people?"
My mother, at times, tended to be oblivious of such small matters such as the fact that she never taught me to speak the language. Matter of fact she made a point that Italian would not be spoken in her home ... unless she was on the phone speaking to her parents or sisters via transatlantic telephone (that was before the days of satellites and man had not gone into space, let alone walked on the surface of the Moon).
Truthfully I am resentful that she deprived me of this heritage but what's done is done.

On the Ferry from Villa San Giovanni, Italy across the Strait of Messina to Messina, Sicily. The 3 boys in front are my cousins. My mother is the lady holding a camera (uses film - not digital), my uncle Franco stands beside her with his hand on her shoulder. I am behind and next to my mother (with the short, dark brown hair) and directly behind me is my uncle Pippo

Porcelain Pendant - PART II Embellishing

2011-08-20T11:30:00.002-04:00

PORCELAIN PENDANT PART II - EMBELLISHING

Click Here For Part I - The Foundation

This is how we left the foundation of our pendant. The working thread is exiting from Bead #11 and if we were to continue bringing the thread up to the top bead we would end up working clockwise, which is difficult for me and most right handed people to do. So at this point I flip my work over so that I'm working counter clockwise.

Bring your needle up through the side beads of the last 6 bead circle finished, and exit through the left side of its very top bead.

Pick up 1 of the 3mm crystals, 1 seed bead and 1 crystal.

Pass needle back through the top 4mm round bead.

Travel down through the next 4mm bead to your left.

Pick up 1 crystal and 1 seed bead.

Now pass needle through the 3 mm crystal bead to your right ... remember to go through just the crystal and NOT the seed bead.

Pass needle back through the same 4 mm bead that you just added the new crystal and seed bead to. Again remember we are traveling in a counterclockwise direction.

Basically we will be adding 1 crystal 3 mm bead and 1 seed bead between each of the 4 mm beads in this circle. Pass needle through the next 4 mm bead.

Again pick up 1 crystal 3 mm bead and 1 seed bead and pass needle down through just the crystal bead added previously.

And then back through the 4 mm bead that is at the base of the newly added crystal.

We will continue with this pattern of going through the 4 mm base bead, picking up 1 crystal 3 mm bead and 1 seed bead all around the 6 bead circle until we have 6 crystals and 5 seed beads in place.

Photo below shows the 6th crystal and its seed bead being set into position by going through the crystal to its left.

Photo below shows the needle going through the base 4 mm bead a second time. I should have designated the tip of needle in this photo but trust me, it is to the right, traveling in the accepted counterclockwise direction.

Photo below ... Notice there is a gap between the first crystal added and the very last one that we've just set into place ? We are going to now fix that gap and add our 6th seed bead.

Bring needle up through that very first crystal (the one to your right) and pick up 1 seed bead.

Bring needle down through the last crystal added, the one to your left

And back through the 4 mm base bead.

And up again through that very 1st crystal added.

Now we are going through each of the top 11/0 seed beads ... all 6 of them

Then back through what would have been the 5th seed bead in this "crown"

Pass needle down through the crystal 3 mm bead right below the seed bead that you've just gone through.

We now journey over to the next medium sized circle of 6 beads over to our left by going through the 4 mm base bead from right to left ...

continue over to the next 4 mm base bead, this will be a bead in the large center circle

Now up through the right side bead of that 6 bead circle

And over through the next 2 beads, needle is going from right to left.

we are now in position to make another crystal and seed bead "crown" around the beads of this circle.

It is made just like the previous one by picking up 1 crystal 3mm bead, 1 seed bead and 1 crystal bead. Going back through the top 4 mm bead and then

passing the needle through the 4 mm base bead to the left of the newly added crystal and once again picking up 1 crystal bead and 1 seed bead going back down the previous crystal and back through the 4 mm base bead.

Once 6 crystals have been added along with 5 seed beads there is that familiar gap between the first and the last crystal that needs to be joined.

Pass through the base bead

and up through the very first crystal that was strung on this circle

Pick up 1 seed bead and pass down through the last crystal that was strung

Back through the base bead , from left to right ...

Again up through that 1st crystal ...

We will again go through all of the top seed beads, joining them into a nice tight circle and forming our "crown". Just like the first crown made we will travel back through the 5th top seed bead (the one to the left of the 6th seed bead bridge that was added last).

And then pass through the 4 mm base bead that is part of the large center circle. Following the same path that we did to reach the 2nd 6 bead circle , we will travel over and up to the 3rd 6 bead circle to the top bead and repeat the same steps as we did to make our first 2 crowns.

Complete the crowns on the 3rd and 4th remaining 6 bead circles in the same way as you did the first two.

When 4th crown is complete, travel down the familiar 6th crystal and through the 4 mm base bead to position the thread for making the crown of the large center circle of beads.

Here you will pick up your contrasting 3mm crystals and seed beads (if this is what you've decided to use) . Like before, pick up 1 crystal, 1 seed bead and 1 crystal and pass needle back through the 4mm base bead.

Pass through the 4 mm base bead to the left of the newly added crystals and, like the other crowns, pick up 1 crystal and 1 seed bead

Travel down through the crystal to your right, again just through the crystal bead and not the seed bead above it.

Pass again through the base 4 mm bead beneath the newly added crystal and then through the 4 mm base bead to the left of it.

Continue with this pattern all around until you have 8 crystals and 7 seed beads in place.

Then just like the smaller crowns, pass through the 4 mm base bead

And up the very first crystal added

Pick up 1 seed bead and go down through the last crystal added

Back through the 4 mm base bead

And up through the first crystal (sorry about the fuzzy photo but I took 3 shots of this and believe me this is the only one that turned out the best ... scary isn't it ?)

Now back through all of the top seed beads, to join the top of the crown together. I sometimes go through them twice to make sure they're secure.

Then back down through one of the crystal beads ( these last few photos were all fuzzy and I haven't figured out if maybe I was getting tired at this point or if my camera was trying to tell me it had had enough and needed to rest)

At this point the pendant is pretty much finished. If the working thread is long enough I normally work it around until I get to a top bead in one of the 6 bead circles and then I use that thread to attach the pendant to my own seed beaded bails. But you could use the thread to attach it to a large closed jumpring or to a metal pendant bail. Once completed all thread tails should be worked securely back into the piece and then cleanly cut so they do not show.

Porcelain Pendant PART I

2011-08-20T10:10:00.002-04:00

While visiting Mandy's blog; Beads for Brains 365 , I ran across her completed Porcelain Pendant. She credited the creater and posted a link back to her blog; Kreatív vagyok .

The tutorial had lots of photos but being in Hungarian it made it difficult to figure out just what the photos were implying.

With perserverance I was able to figure out how to make this pendant, granted it may not be the exact same instructions as Kreatív vagyok but the out come is the same.

My directions are designed for the beginner and I've gone into great detail ... in other words the more experienced and advanced beaders may find these directions redundant in many places. Please bear with me as I can remember all too clearly how frustrated I was as a newbie beader with instructions that assumed I already knew all the basics. :)
The List of Materials :
Your standard medium weight beading threads such as Nymo, Silamide, Fireline, etc. (I like to use 6 lb. Fireline for mine).
Thin beading needle
Sicissors
Thread conditioners or beeswax if you normally use it
BEADS:
32 Round 4mm beads
Size 3mm Firepolished crystal beads, 32 if you want them all in the same color or 24 of one color for the outer sections and 8 of a different color for the inner section, if you want a look similar to the one in my tutorial.
Size 11/0 round seed beads again you may use all one color or divide them like the firepolished beads.
Note - You may use Swarovski crystals for this pattern but it does create a slightly different look to the pendant as the 3 mm Swarovski bicones are not as long as the 3 mm Firepolished beads.
Basically the foundation of this pendant is created with right angle circles. The large center cirlce of 8 beads is surrounded by 4 medium and 4 smaller circles.

PENDANT FOUNDATION :
Cut a length of beading thread aproximately 2 to 3 yards long. Condition thread if you wish.
Pick up and string 8 beads leaving a tail of thread about 8 to 10 inches long.

Pass needle back through all 8 beads to create a circle.

Pass needle through the first bead (#1) again so that the working thread is exiting one side of this bead and the tail thread is exiting the other side of this same bead.

The beads in my photos are numbered in the order they were strung. You will notice that your working thread is coming out of the 1st bead from left to right, I find this akward so at this point I flip my work.

In the next photo we will pick up 3 of the 4 mm round foundation beads and pass our needle back through this 1st bead again.

You have just made the 1st small circle. Now go through the next bead in the circle, bead # 2.

You will now need to pick up 4 of the 4mm beads and position your needle to pass through beads #9 and #2.

photo above ... needle has already pass through bead #9 and is proceeding through bead #2.
As you tighten the thread you'll notice that you've just created another circle, the first of the medium sized circles and that it has used beads in both the smaller and the large circle to make it a complete circle. Pass needle through the next bead in the large circle, bead # 3.

Pick up 2 of the 4mm beads and pass through the side bead, bead #12, in your newly formed circle.

Bring the needle over and through the next bead of the main large foundation circle, Bead # 3, and draw thread up tightly.

Another small circle has been completed.

Travel over to the next bead in the large circle and pass the needle through this bead, Bead # 4.

Pick up 4 of the 4mm round beads.

Bring needle through the side bead of the newly formed small circle, Bead # 16 and then through Bead #4 in the large main circle. Pull thread tautely and another medium sized cirled is now completed.

We repeat this basic proceedure again, going through Bead # 5 in the main large circle.

Pick up 2 of the 4mm beads and pass through Beads # 18 and #5.

The 3rd small circle is now complete and like in previous steps we travel through the next bead of the large main circle, Bead #6.

Pick up 4 more of the 4mm beads and now pass needle through the side bead of small circle, Bead #22 and then through Bead #6 of main circle.

At this stage we are 75% through our foundation piece. The last small cirlce is made like those before, passing needle through Bead #7 of the main circle ...

picking up 2 of the 4mm beads and then going through the side bead, Bead #24, of medium circle and through Bead #7 of large circle.

To me it now resembles a heart shape. The last circle is going to be a little different as 3 beads of the circle of 6 are already in place ... these are beads # 8, 11 and 28.

So now you'll pass the needle through Bead #8 of the main circle and up through Bead #11 of the small circle made earlier.

Since we already have 3 of the beads needed for the last med. sized circle, we only need to pick up 3 of the 4mm beads to complete this circle. Bring needle down through the side bead, Bead #28 ...

Pass needle through the last bead of the main circle, Bead #8

and then back up through Bead #11

The foundation is now complete. After doing this a couple of times the pattern becomes very simple and repetitive.

NEXT COMES THE EMBELLISHMENTS WHICH MAKES THIS PENDANT EXTRA SPECIAL.

I will post that very shortly as this post has already taken a lot of time to put together ... so excuse me while I take a bit of a breather. :)

PART 2 EMBELLISHMENT OF PENDANT IS NOW AVAILABLE - CLICK HERE

ps ... If you click on the photos you'll get a larger picture which may help if you're having trouble reading a bead number or trying to figure out where the thread is exiting from.

Tutorial is on the Drawingboard ...

2011-08-18T09:57:00.000-04:00

Recently I asked if there was an interest in my creating an English version of an Hungarian tutorial on the making the beaded Porcelain Pendant. The requests received may not have been considered a deluge but the enthusiasm that they contained more than made up for the lack of volume. For these lovely and enthusiastic individuals I will be posting a tutorial on how to fabricate this pendant but, like all tutorials, it will take a bit of time. I've discovered that the most time intensive part of the tutorials are the photos. In the time it took to photo each step and then edit the photos I know I could have made up a very nice stash of these pendants.

For those of you who heartily expressed a desire for this tutorial I beg your patience as I put it together.

Today I'll leave you with a little tip that I like and I realize that it is nothing new or Earth shaking but if there is even just one person that reads this and thinks " Hey that's a good idea" ... well then I've accomplish one small miracle called happiness. :)
Almost 10 years ago I discovered some neat picinic plates at my local big box store and I could not help but think how useful they would be for organizing a beading project. All those cute little dividers to keep the baked beans from running into one's potato salad or retain the coleslaw from merging with Aunt Edna's apple cobbler.

Needless to say I purchased 4 of them and now wish I had purchased at least 4 more. I find these are the perfect "lap size" and I can use them to bring a project from my craft mess (er I mean room) into the living room where I can watch TV or just be sociable as I bead. Since the suface of these picnic plates are shiny slick plastic, I use a cloth or a beading mat as a cover so my beads don't roll all over the place.

It's The Thought That Counts ... Right ?

2011-08-16T10:06:00.000-04:00

Sisters are special, they share a certain bond between them and even through the bickering and teasing there is a love that usually grows stronger with time. My sisters and I have long stopped exchanging gifts for those yearly occasions such as Christmas and birthdays, not because we care less about one another but simply because our own families grew and gift giving became rather expensive. As they say; "It's not the gift that counts but the thought" and a simple card, note, phone call was enough to say we cared and that the other was and is always in our thoughts.

August is my baby sister's birthday and though I seldom sent a gift this year I just wanted to. I had made a spiral rope necklace and thought she would love to have one.

Photo above ... The spiral rope necklace in the warm tones that inspired me to try to make a version for my sis in her colors with round hematite beads as a core. It bombed but maybe I'll try again with an hematite oval or seed bead core.

The rope I made was in warm colors of golden topaz, rainbow rootbeer, and silver lined gold, very pretty but not in the cool colors that my sis loves and wears. When I attempted to make the necklace using perfectly round beads as the core of the spiral ... well it just didn't look the same ... not as neat ... too much thread showed. After several attempts I changed my plans and made a beaded pendant that I saw on Mandy's blog BeadsforBrains365 , Mandy found the pattern on Kreatív vagyok . The directions are in Hungarian but after several attempts I discovered the path of the thread and was able to make what I think is a lovely pendant in my sister's color palette.

It's in my sister's colors and I have my fingers crossed that she will love it ... if not ... well it's the thought that counts ... right ?

Photos above and below ... Pendant in hematite with fire polished beads in silver and crystal vitrail, topped with seed beads in luster green tea and pearl shell white.

Photo above and at top of post feature the new "torso" mannequin that I purchased on ebay recently. It's nice but seems to have a pronounced orange peel texture to it ... can mannequins have cellulite ?

If there is enough interest expressed, I might sit down and make another tutorial featuring this pattern. :)

Wired Up

2011-08-05T12:30:00.001-04:00

Artistic Wire has been available for a number of years and though it came in an assortment of rainbow colors it was only recently that I discovered the beautiful finish called Non-Tarnish Brass. Unlike the copper or bronze finish wire, the Non-Tarnish Brass has a lovely gold tone to it that works well with gold fill or gold plated findings.

photo above ... Artistic Wire spools and my recently finished spiral beaded necklace

My first introduction to Artistic Wire was back in 2005 when I purchased a 12 spool assortment in jewel like colors for a beading course that I had signed up for. The course required very fine wire at either 24 to 26 gauge. Not normally a gauge that I would have much cause to use.
In recent years Artistic Wire has introduced several new metal finishes that coordinate with the newer metals of today's chains and findings.

Photo above ... close up of my handmade clasp and extender chain, made from Artistic Wire in non-tarnish brass.

Though I love the color the one downside is its non tarnish coating. Unfortunately since the non-tarnish finish involves a clear coat of some substance (acrylic or vinyl?) it didn't take kindly to my flattening it with a hammer on a bench block. I noticed that some of the clear coating chipped off during this process. In the future I will have to forgo work hardening a piece and also make sure to use Tool Magic on my pliers to help protect this coating.
If anyone makes wire findings or does wire wrapping I'd love to hear how you handle wire that has this protective coating on it. Is there a clear sealant that one can use to "re-seal" this coating if it is scratched or chipped?

Heat Stroke ...

2011-08-01T17:11:00.000-04:00

photo above ... So hot we have to shade the cuttings that we're growing.

At 8:30 this morning the temperature was almost at 90 and with yesterday's heavy rain the humidity was even higher.
John, my hubby, had decided to transplant a shrub, a crepe myrtle, that wasn't doing well in the spot where we had planted it. We thought it might do better in a different location but I was in no big hurry to do the transplanting and really thought it could wait until fall and cooler weather. But John has never been one to procrastinate and he was also one that never liked to just sit back, do nothing and just chill out. I've often teased him saying, "If you sat down for 5 minutes with nothing to do, I think your head would explode."

photo above ... Newly transplanted crepe myrtle bush.

With a heat index of at least 100 degrees outside I wasn't at all surprised to see John busy with a shovel digging a hole in which to transplant our sickly shrub. There really wasn't much I could help him with but I did my best to be of some assistance and once the planting was complete I encouraged him to come into the cooler temperatures within our house.
"Right after I fill in the hole where the shrub used to be" was more or less his response.

Time ticked by and as I was putting clean, fresh sheets on the bed, John appears at the bedroom door, he's looking ghostly pale, his eyes are glazed over and perspiration is dripping from him. His clothes were so saturated that I could have wrung the perspiration from them. "I need to lay down" he mumbled "could you toss a towel on the floor for me?". Since I had just changed the bedding I took the old sheets and quickly spread them on top of the bedroom carpeting. I had seen him do this once before ... heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Right now the important thing was to bring his body temperature down. As John laid down I rushed and got a frozen Popsicle for him and went and soaked a few towels in cold tap water.   Quickly I placed the cold wet towels under his armpits and wiped his face and neck with another. I repeated this procedure several times, praying that I wouldn't have to call 911.
Slowly he began to lose that "almost at death's door" pallor and that distant, glazed look vanished.  Soon he could sit and sip a glass of cold water and a few moments later he was able to stand up and get into a cool shower.

photo above ... Temperature reading as of 4:25 pm 8/1/2011 (taken in the shade of the overhang of our back patio). Sorry that the thermometer is so grungy but it is outside and this is Florida where anything that stands still long enough gets moldy.

As John can attest, heat exhaustion comes on quite suddenly. He had gone to fill in the hole where the crepe myrtle had been ... found he needed more dirt so had to get another shovelful from the dirt pile. Then once the hole was filled he decided to mulch over it as it had been in the flowerbed and then, still feeling fine, he went to cleaned up the gardening tools that had been used in the transplanting. With the tools cleaned, he stepped inside the house and that's when it hit him like a wrecking ball. He felt faint, nauseous and weak in the knees. Fortunately we were able to get his body temperature cooled down and didn't require the assistance of 911 ... twice ... and I hope there will never be a third time !

It's summer, the temperatures are hotter, in most places, than they've ever been. One must use caution when working outdoors, don't over exert yourself, drink lots of liquids and simple pure water is the best of liquids. Even if you're feeling "fine", don't push it. You can either take a break and finish whatever it is a bit later or even finish it the following day.

Cabin+Cub blog GIVEAWAY

2011-07-28T09:45:00.001-04:00

Just spreading the news and the joy. Valerie at Cabin+Cub is back in the swing of things and having a lovely giveaway ... a set of her adorable mini note cards. So cute and cheerful! What a lovely way to send a thoughtful greeting to a friend.

As a lot of us know Val is now a mommy and her little one, cuter than a button and sweet as pie, is now a frolicking one year old who keeps her pretty busy so it takes a lot of time management and juggling to find time to craft, do shows, run an etsy shop, blog and also have a wonderful giveaway ... uh, did I forget to put in "and also have a life?" :D

So please head on over to Cabin+Cub and enter Valerie's giveaway ... drawing will be held Aug. 5th, hurry as we all know how time flies.

Beaded Sultan Bead Tutorial - Part 2

2011-07-25T09:30:00.001-04:00

This is the continuation of the Sultan's Turban beaded bead as promised.

Row 4.) Pick up 1 seed bead, one 4 mm bead, 1 seed bead, one 4mm bead and 1 seed bead (this first group will be the only one that has 3 seed beads and two 4mm beads in it). See photo # 21.

Go back through your 6 mm bead and then through the 6mm bead next to it. See photo #22.

Pick up 1 seed bead, one 4 mm bead and 1 seed bead. Pass needle down through the 4mm bead and the seed bead below it on the previous group made. See photo #23

Now go back through the 6 mm bead that you just exited and continue through the 6mm bead next to it. Again pick up 1 seed bead, one 4 mm bead and 1 seed. Pass needle down through the 4mm bead and the seed bead like you did in photo #23 and then back through the 6 mm bead and on through the next 6 mm bead.

Repeat this pattern around row 4 until you reach the 8th and final 6mm bead, pass needle through this bead. Photo #26 is bottom of bead so it appears that needle is going through bead from right to left but if the bead is flipped over, the needle would really be going from left to right.

At this point you will notice that you have a seed bead followed by a 4mm bead on each side of this last 6mm bead therefore you do not have to add these beads (see photo # 25).

Pass needle through the seed bead and 4 mm bead that are a part of the 1st group made, now pick up 1 seed bead and go down through the 4mm bead and seed bead made in the last group ( this seed bead connects this row and completes this pattern). Photo 27a shows the tip of the needle as gold colored and lets you know the direction of needle through these beads.

Photo # 27 b shows bead from bottom view, note again that needle direction is reversed when viewing from this perspective.

Pass needle once again through the 6mm bead (Photo # 27 above )
Then up through the 4mm bead and the seed bead of that first group (photos # 28 & 29) putting you into position to begin row 5.

NOTE : as you make this round you will notice a web of thread is formed between the larger 6mm beads. Do not be concerned as this will be addressed later.

Row 5.) This row will be work like row two, the only difference is that row 2 forms a flatter snowflake shape while this row will be pulled up into a cone-like shape.

Pick up 3 seed beads, go back through the base seed bead and then through the next base seed bead. (Photo # 31)

Pick up 2 seed beads pass needle down through the side seed bead of the picot just formed and return through your base seed bead and then over through the next base seed bead. (Photo # 32)

Since you're not working this flat it may be hard to keep track of your base seed beads, be sure to keep track making sure that you've created a picot above 7 of the base seed beads. (Photo # 33)

When there is only one seed bead remaining, the 8th one, pass needle through it and notice that this last bead is flanked on both sides by beads and only needs 1 bead to complete the picot. (see X in photo 34)

Bring needle up through the side seed bead of the 1st picot made (photo # 35)

Pick up 1 seed bead and pass needle through the side seed bead of the last picot made (photo # 36). Now go back through the base seed bead.

You have finished the last picot in row 6, to finish this row off bring your needle back up through the side seed bead of the first picot made and then through each of the 8 center seed beads of each picot. This will close up the final row. (photo # 37)

Work your way down through the seed beads to reach the closest 4mm bead, go through the 4mm bead and the seed bead next to it, pick up 3 seed beads and go across and through the seed bead and 4 mm bead directly across from the beads you've just exited (this will cover up the thread webbing between the larger 6mm beads). (photo #38)

Go through a seed bead next to the 4mm bead to cross over to the adjacent 4mm bead, pass needle down through this bead and the seed bead below it. Pick up 3 seed beads go through the seed bead and the 4 mm bead directly across from the bead you just exited and repeat this procedure until all spaces between the large 6mm beads have been filled in, covering the threads between them. Finish off your thread as you would in any work and cut.

NOTE: Sometimes if the seed beads are too small you may need to either pick out larger ones or add one or two in order to fill in this space.

Beaded Sultan Bead Tutorial - Part 1

2011-07-24T09:44:00.003-04:00

Recently I saw an amazing beaded bead on BeadsForBrains365. Mandy gave the web link http://manogyongyei.blogspot.com/2009/01/sultan-bogy.html where she had found the pattern, only the instructions were a little sketchy and also in Hungarian. Did I mention that I don't speak Hungarian, let alone read it ? Searching the web, I took note that there were a number of people that wished to make this same bead but had no luck with the Hungarian instructions ... soooo ... I sat down and tried to walk my way through the sketches. After much trial and error this is what I came up with.
I hope it will help those who, like myself, could not understand the Hungarian instructions or had difficulty trying to decipher exactly where the path of the threads went in the sketches. I've also discovered that drawing diagrams of beads and thread paths is exasperatingly challenging. My hat's off to those intrepid souls who write tutorials.

Due to the length of my instructions I will post in 2 parts.

Materials List :

Beading Needle and scissors
Beading thread (Fireline, Nymo etc.)
Seed Beads size # 11/0 (round seed beads work best)
16 Round Beads size 4 mm
8 Round Beads size 6mm

About thread ... I prefer Nymo but please feel free to use whichever thread you're most comfortable with. Since this bead does require some rigidity I recommend that you use a fairly thick thread . In my version I used Nymo #D and though I used it single strand I did wax it. I cut my thread at 2 yards length and it was more than sufficient.

Row 1.) Pick up 8 seed beads on needle and thread them to within 6 or 8 inches from end of thread. Go back through all 8 beads to form a ring coming back through the first bead strung.

Row 2.) Pick up 3 seed beads and pass needle back through the same bead in your foundation ring This forms a little picot. Picture below.

Pass needle through the next bead in your ring (picture above) and now pick up 2 seed beads (the 2nd bead on your needle will be the center bead of the next picot made). Go through the side bead of the 1st picot made (picture below) and then back through the foundation bead (notice that you now have 2 picots formed). This is basically a Right Angle Weave.

Pass needle through the 3rd bead in the foundation ring, pick up 2 seed beads and repeat the previous step of going down through the newly form picots side bead and back through your foundation bead, then through the 4th bead in your ring. Continue in this fashion until there is only 1 foundation bead remaining.
Now pass needle through this foundation bead and UP through the side bead of that very 1st picot made. Pick up 1 seed bead and go across to the last picot made and pass needle down through the side seed bead and then back through the foundation bead forming the finale picot and joining the second row.

Pass needle back up through the side bead in the 1st picot made in row 2 (See picture above), and then through the center picot bead. (See photo below).

Row 3.) Row three will begin the sides of the beaded bead and will start curving the bead downward. Pick up one 4mm bead, 1 seed bead, one 6mm bead, 1 seed bead and one 4mm bead. Pass back through the seed bead that your thread was exiting from. See picture below.

Bring need through the center seed bead of the next picot and pick up one 4mm bead, 1 seed bead and one 6mm bead. Go down through the seed bead and the 4mm bead in the previous group of side beads formed. See picture below.

Repeat this pattern until you reach the last remaining picot, here you will pass through that picot which I will call La Ultima.

(Photo #17) Bring needle up through the 4mm bead and seed bead of the very first group made.Pick up one 6mm bead and (Photo #18) go down through the seed bead and the 4 mm bead of the last group made.

This newly added 6mm bead joins the row and completes the pattern of row 3.

(Photo #18) Pass needle through La Ultima seed bead and up through the 4mm bead and the seed bead in the first group formed in this row. (Photo # 19)

Now pass needle through each of the 6mm beads to bring them together. (photo oops two #19's, it's been a long day ! See photo below)

AT THIS POINT WE'RE OVER HALF-WAY COMPLETE. I will post the other half of the tutorial tomorrow as this one is getting rather long. Hope you'll check back.

A Special Drawer for Seed Beads

2011-07-16T11:37:00.001-04:00

Photo above - empty seed bead vials and containers

I have a collection of Seed Beads, it may not be the biggest collection but it takes up space and has always proved a challenge not only in how to contain those tiny beads but where to store the containers themselves.

Photos above and Below - A box full of empty seed bead containers.

Fortunately I came up with an idea and, even more fortunately, my dearest hubby was the one that made my idea into reality by creating the storage space that I needed. He strongly believes in the saying; "A happy wife makes for a happy life".

This was just a standard drawer that he replaced the glides on making it a full extension drawer. Then he crafted the wooden shelf insert, which is based upon those spice storage inserts that one can purchase for their kitchen drawers.

Photos above and below - Every inch is utilized and I can see at a glance just what I have.

All those empty containers in that box at the top of my blog are from the beads in these photos. I've discovered a lovely plastic jar that has a screw on lid, so the past few days I've been emptying old vials, boxes and other containers (even little baggies) of seed beads and putting them into these wonderful jars. No more spilled beads caused from trying to pull off those annoying snap-on vial tops. Must admit creating all those labels is what took FOREVER !

Now there's only problem, I need another drawer just like this one!

ON RED PINE MOUNTAIN

2011-07-11T09:50:00.000-04:00

On a mountain in the state of Vermont rests the farm lands of the blog "Red Pine Mountain". Containing far more acreage than most of us could ever imagine and making my almost 3 acre parcel of land look minuscule in comparison, this bucolic paradise is surrounded by lush forests and dotted with pristine meadows. Red Pine Mountain is home and sanctuary to blogger Sara and her loving mate in life, whom she affectionately calls "Mountain Man". It is also home to Sara’s treasure, a collection of gentle, adorable animals. Sara is an unrequited dreamer and a lover of animals large and small, her menagerie includes horses, dogs and a barnyard of assorted fowl. Each of her gentle creatures displays a unique personality, in much the same way that we humans do, they will both surprise you and make you smile if not laugh.

In this mountain home Sara’s the dreamer but it’s Mountain Man who is her rock, the solidity that allows her to keep her head in the clouds and her feet firmly on the ground, it’s truly a match made in heaven. Together they attempt to salvage an old farm, restore it to its’ past glory and to preserve a way of life that is quickly disappearing.

If you visit Red Pine Mountain, you may witness the miniature horses as they graze in their pasture, leisurely nibbling on the sweet succulent grasses. Perhaps you’ll spy the antics of Sara’s clever turkeys, guinea hens and assorted chickens, or discover the farm’s latest acquisition such as their new fluffy yellow goslings.

Red Pine Mountain is a blog I love to visit because, for a moment in time, I’m transported to a tranquil oasis, a beautifully verdant retreat where the sky is too blue to believe and the air fresh and fragrant with the perfume of trees, fresh hay and green meadows.

You’re graciously invited to visit as their gate is always open wide and they welcome all who enter there.

If you care to visit there and have not noticed all my highlighted links in my post that would take you to this blog ... or if you would prefer to check it out on your own terms the URL is : http://redpinemountain.com/

I'm confident that you'll enjoy the trip.

Where Have The Lilies Gone ???

2011-07-09T10:09:00.000-04:00

I have returned and you will find that lilies have nothing what-so-ever to do with this post other than they are pretty and cheerful and at the moment there are none to be found in my flowerbeds or my life.
Were I to say that my blog absence was due to some exotic trip or bold new adventure would be, well it would be an outright lie! What I've truly been doing for the past several weeks is wallowing in a pit of depression.   Depression self-inflicted in part by self-pity, of bemoaning my lackluster etsy shop and beating myself up over things that I've little or no control over.

My daughter called me a few weeks ago. She was in tears and bawling as though her heart would break. Reason ? She just found out her oldest son's girlfriend is pregnant. Bad news? Yes. Heartbreaking news? Yes. End of the World news?   Not quite.

My oldest grandson is 21, his girlfriend is slightly younger. Both have minimal educations and minimal paying jobs. Yes the pregnancy was an accident, unplanned. She was taking birth control pills and then was put on antibiotics for a sinus infection. Guess she didn't read the precautions that came with her meds.  When on a course of antibiotics and taking birth control pills, one should take extra precautions and use an alternative method of birth control. A fact that obviously slipped under their radar.

It took my daughter a couple of days to get over the disappointment and of course she now understands just how I felt when I found out she, my then 19 year old daughter, was going to be a Mommy. She was too young to be a mother ... I wanted her to go to college, get a degree ... she had such promise, such potential. Hell I was too young to be a grandmother !!!! And now it's come around full circle. Such is life.  Funny life ! Uncontrollable life !

Now what am I going to do ? What's my daughter,who insists she's going to be a nana and not a granny, going to do ? Well first of all, if she's going to be a nana then I'm going to be a grana. Next we'll go shopping for baby items together and then we'll sit down and start planning a baby shower for our future grandchild and great-grandchild.

We all sit at life's poker table and try to make the most with the cards we're dealt. Sometimes the cards contain a few queens or kings, other times we're lucky to just get a pair of deuces.
Life's too short to fret over things beyond one's power and I've heard it said that if you concentrate on the big things the important matters in life, then all the small things, all that not so important stuff takes care of itself. True perhaps, but even truer is the fact that no amount of worry is going to make things better.   And so THAT'S MY 2 CENTS FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH.

A Record Breaking High Wire Walk

2011-06-24T08:50:00.002-04:00

Wednesday night I watched Nik Wallenda make a record breaking tight rope walk on the Discovery Channel's "Life on a Wire". I wish I could embed a video for you but for some reason I can't get the blogger video to work ... maybe it's just me or maybe its blogger... again!

I must admit that the information I had gleaned from the June 22nd edition of the Sarasota - Manatee Herald Tribune was not completely correct. It was stated that the premiere episode of this new reality series would be in San Juan Puerto Rico where Nik and his mother, Delilah, would walk across a 300 foot high wire. In truth the episode was filmed in the Bahamas where Nik, his family and crew set up his high wire rigging between two high rise luxury hotels ... spanning a distance of 2,000 feet and over 200 feet in the air.

I held my breath as he went across the wire and can only imagine how suspenseful and terrifying it must have been to watch live from the audience far, far below. Nik first went across the cable on a bike and then later ventured across this huge expanse on foot and holding a balance pole. Afternoon tropical winds had picked up, the warning of an approaching storm. Nik's shirt flapped and fluttered about him but he was on the wire and now committed, there was no turning back.
Meanwhile, on the ground below, his wife and mother rushed about frantically giving commands to the men holding the stabilizing cables that kept the high wire from swaying. "Pull back tighter ! See the the way that cable sags? Lean that way, take that slack out to the cable." The two women had a lot at stake here, Nik was a husband to one and the father of her children and to the other he was a beloved son. Both women knew that a fall from such heights meant certain death and the Wallenda family was no stranger to death. In the past, through 7 generations of Wallendas, there had been several injuries and a number of lives lost in fatal falls ... one of which was a fall that involved a multi person high wire pyramid. The fear factor was extreme and very real. Breaths held, hearts stopped until Nik finally reached the safety of the building at other end of the cable.

As I said, I wish I could have embedded a video for you, however I did receive this from Delilah this morning on facebook :

Delilah Wallenda, a circus high-wire acrobat and the seventh generation of the Flying Wallendas circus family, walks across a 300-foot-long wire suspended 100 feet in the air between two towers of the Conrad Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Saturday June 4, 2011. Delilah's grandfather, the German-born Karl Wallenda, tried to perform the same feat in 1978 but fell to his death at age 73. Delilah and her son Nik Wallenda commemorated the famous family patriarch by successfully completing the same stunt simultaneously Saturday. (AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)http://my.news.yahoo.com/photos/delilah-wallenda-circus-high-wire-acrobat-seventh-generation-photo-193152661.html

FOR SOME REASON THE ABOVE LINK ISN'T WORKING IN BLOGGER I'LL TRY THIS AND KEEP MY FINGERS CROSSED :
DELILAH WALLENDA

THE FLYING WALLENDAS !!!

2011-06-22T09:56:00.001-04:00

The Flying Wallendas ... they fly through the air with the greatest of ease those daring young men on the Flying Trapeze.

Delilah, beautiful, vibrant, light, breezy and clever. It was hard to believe that this lovely woman could actually be a grandmother but the fact was she’s not only a grandmother but a high wire artist as well. A member of the famous "Flying Wallendas" that performed world wide and astounded audiences with their tempts of fate. Perched high above the ground the Wallenda family do their amazing acts of showmanship, flying from trapeze to trapeze, twirling, turning and somersaulting through thin air. But this is not their only fame, the Wallendas are especially famous for their performances on the high wire, far above the ground and without a safety net. Risky? Definitely ! However these are professionals, the Wallenda are artists that never take their skills lightly, theirs is a life of constant practice, practice and more practice. Performing high in the air is in their blood and the gene, if one wishes to call it that, is passed on from generation to generation.

In 1978 Karl Wallenda, the patriarch of the Wallenda family, performed in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It would be a performance that no one would forget, one that would make news world wide. Karl would plummet to his death ! 73 years old at the time, Karl was sharp, stable and knew what he was doing, his death was not caused by diminished abilities but by improper rigging. Rigging is the link between life and death for a high wire artist, just one cable not in the proper position or not tighten enough could spell tragedy.

I first met Delilah in the early 90’s at the Palm Aire Country Club and Restaurant where she worked as their charming hostess. She was one of those rare dark haired beauties that turned heads when she walked by and whenever her name Wallenda was mentioned people would quip; "Oh are you one of the Flying Wallenda’s ?". To which she’d respond; "Yes I am". You could only imagine the jaws that dropped. "Are you serious?" Delilah would smile ever so sweetly and explained that she is the granddaughter of the famous Karl Wallenda and that , yes, she performs on both trapeze and on the high wire.

Tonight, June 22nd, the Discovery Channel will be airing a new series about "Life on the Wire", a true reality series featuring Karl’s descendants his great-grandson, Nik Wallenda and Nik’s mother, Delilah Wallenda. The first episode airs at 10 PM tonight and will take the audience back to San Juan where the grandson Nik will walk across a 300 foot long cable, stretched across a span between two tall buildings, 100 feet above ground ... Delilah will accompany him.

I intend to watch this show as I’ve never seen Delilah perform before. Though it was well known that at the Wallenda house their backyard was home to a full rig of trapeze and high wire equipment and that at certain times the public could witness them during practice sessions. I was never so fortunate to witness this, each time we drove by their home I’d glance into the tree tops to see the high wire rigging empty but filled with promises of an amazing family with incredible abilities.

If you can I suggest you tune in the program, I have a feeling Nik Wallenda will be making his great grandfather very proud.

How to Show Your Ankle ?

2011-06-15T11:39:00.001-04:00

Show a little leg ... show a lot of leg! It’s summer and the season is perfect for shorts, Capri pants and short skirts ... and ankles! Nothing looks quite so nice as a cute pair of sandals and a pretty ankle sporting an attractive ankle bracelet.

Recently I beaded two anklets and I’m pounding my head against the wall wondering what I should do. It’s summer in South Florida so local galleries and boutiques have seen a drastic drop in business and, as far as my etsy shop goes, well I could list sterling silver beads and findings all day long and they’d sell like hot cakes ... as long as I list them for almost what I purchased them for ! If I list my jewelry it sits there ignored and no one even gives it a heart. So what to do ?

Photo above ... I beaded this from #11 Delica seed beads in Cobalt blue and Gold adding a picot trim in #15 cobalt blue Charlotte beads. Wire heart and extender chain are also handcrafted by me and links are embellished with light cobalt blue firepolished Czech glass 3 mm beads. Measures 9.5 to 10 inches depending upon which link is used for the 14k gold filled spring clasp. Price $16 (includes shipping and handling.)

Photo below ... Sunflowers. I love sunny, summer sunflowers and I had some pretty matte green Toho glass seed beads that were in the perfect shade of those big, green sunflower leaves. So using bright yellow seed beads and a glass seed bead color called Rainbow Rootbeer, I beaded a row of happy sunflowers against a lush green background. It reminds me of the fields of sunflower we drove past as we crossed the state of Kansas. My handcrafted clasp is made from a perky yellow glass disc bead and has 3 beaded rings that measures from 9 to 10 inches. The last ring is embellished with a pale yellow glass teardrop bead. Price $14 (includes shipping and handling)

MORE PHOTOS BELOW

If anyone is interested you can contact me either through my blog profile or my etsy shop AlmostPrecious and I'd be happy to list it specially for you.

Look Ma ... No Thumbnails ....

2011-06-01T10:43:00.001-04:00

I've done some dumb things in my life, matter-of-fact I've done a LOT of dumb things in my life. I'm sure I've done enough stupid things that I could dedicate a whole blog to them; "All the stupid, dumb things I've done in my Lifetime Blog".
So what's one more thing to add to the ever growing list ?

I have thin, fragile fingernails and when I do wire work my nails take a beating. I tend to use them as a fulcrum to bend the wire into the "neck" of a loop. After making several wrapped loops using my thumbnail as a bending point I usually end up with a chip or a notch in the middle of the outer edge of my thumbnails. That's not normally a problem until I try to do seed bead work and then the tough nylon beading thread always finds its way into that notch and most of the time it causes the nail edge to split down towards my thumb. Recently, like a couple of days ago, I had this happen and I thought I'd take care of it before it got worse or before it got painful. I've tried bandaides before but they're awkward and it's hard to do bead work with a bandaide wrapped around the tips of ones thumbs. I recalled hearing that some ladies used super glue to help hold a cracked or split nail into place until it grew out but this was a little different since it was right down the middle of my nail. Anyway I devised a plan, I found some gauze and carefully cut it to fit the top part of my thumbnail and then I glued it down with a healthy dowsing of instant glue (Loctite 454) . When it was dry I coated both nails with clear nail polish and thought I was all set. It was the next day as I was washing some dishes that I realized that one of the make shift nail splints had come off in the wash. No problem, I'll just reattach a new one.

The first thing I did was take nail polish remover to remove the clear nail polish and any traces of the old 454 ... OMG ... the upper part of my thumbnails have dissolved. No joke, the glue had etched half way through the nail and I could see and feel a very distinct line where the healthy nail is and where the nail USED to be. Insert very strong curse words here and a whole lot of them !!!

Now instead of a week or two to wait for the split to grow out I will have to wait 2 or 3 months for half of my nail to grow out. Yeah this HAS to rank right up there with some of the dumbest things I've ever done.

A Glutton for Punishment Part II

2011-05-27T06:51:00.002-04:00

In truth I had placed my last blog posting into drafts until I had completed this complicated necklace as there were many days between where I left this project and its ultimate completion.

As was mentioned in my last post, I'm either a glutton for punishment or crazy as I put a small fortune and way more time than I should have into creating this piece. In the previous installment of "A Glutton for Punishment" we left my black and white project at about this point in its progress towards completion (see Photo below).

Photo below...Since then much has been added.

I decided to use the sweet little, jet black glass hearts as single dangles instead of coupling them with the silver glass leaves. If you look closely you might be able to see the jet hearts topped with tiny 3 mm firepolished crystals and micro 2mm beads of hematite. Instead of the black glass hearts the silver leaf dangles received small swirled wire charms that I made myself (see photo below for close-up). It worked out well, or at least I'm satisfied with the results.

You probably don't remember (I certainly didn't expect you to that's for sure) that I mentioned my project had to be put on hold yet another time as I required some type of link to add the side of the necklace. Not just any old link, I needed something special and found it in this hammered textured rhodium finished oval link. Perfection !!!

Personally I like the way this link helps tie the elaborate center section to the sides of the necklace but I realize this is a matter of taste.

The other side is attached by way of a link that I made using a large black glass bead and a couple of pretty bead caps, making sure that the wire loops were sufficiently large. A sand dollar charm was added as a counter weight to the large link and as an element of interest.

This side of the necklace also sports some whimsical hand coiled spirals and an assortment of stacked or capped black and white beads.

The side with the spirals, ends with a hook style clasp that I made using 20 gauge wire (doubled) and embellished with a complimentary black (slightly wire wrapped) bead.

The other side of the necklace features a fair sized cable chain to accommodate the clasp. A cute teardrop white bead is used as an end to the extension chain and is adorned with contrasting black beads and that really cute bead cap (love these caps!).

Photos below show the completed necklace. Perhaps I fell into Alice's rabbit burrow and went a little too far with the whimsy but to be honest this piece never truly followed my carefully drawn plans, instead it seemed to tell me what to do and, even though it was a long time in the making and created a lot more work than I ever imagined, I'm grateful that I listened to it.

Unfortunately the stacks of black beads look like one continuous bead in my photos, I tried making them (the photos, not the beads) lighter and though that made the individual beads recognizable it also washed out everything else ... so I settled for what appears to look like big long black beads which are in reality really either 3 to 5 beads stacked together. Ah the joys of photography.

A Glutton for Punishment Part I

2011-05-26T10:49:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure if I'm just a glutton for punishment or just plain crazy ! I tend to underestimate my future projects and start out thinking they will be small and manageable however they always end up becoming big, complicated and time consuming.
Several posts back ( Trouble Getting From Dream to Reality )I gave you a glimpse of a vision that I had of a black and white piece. It was a vision that danced in my head like those proverbial sugar plums in the poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas". But what a challenge it has been, seems I never had just the right things that I needed such as strong enough jumprings, ones that wouldn't come open as soon as the necklace was picked up. So I'd order parts, wait for them to arrive, then sit down and with anticipation of completing the project dive back into putting it together. Part way through it would dawn on me that something was wrong and guess what ? ... I needed something else that wasn't in my vast supplies of beads, findings, wires and parts. SHOOT !!! DRAT !!! And Double Dang-it !!!
So have to go look around, find what I think will do the trick, place an order and wait some more.

Photo above..Lovely black and white Venetian glass oval bead will be the center focal point. Only as the more I worked on it I realized that 1 - the center focal point was being buried beneath the disc bead dangle and 2 - my handmade jumprings, made from 20 gauge silver plated copper wire, kept coming apart.

Finally I did manage to put together the center area of the necklace and it has turned out far more complex than I had ever imagined. The heavy weight 18 gauge jumprings from Jewelry Supply that I ended up purchasing are performing well and I haven't had any open up on me yet. Yay! Unfortunately I've just about used them all in this project and decided to order some more from a different vendor ... the new jumprings are not nearly as nice nor as strong so it's true that sometimes you get what you pay for.

Photo above ... Been busy as a bee wire wrapping black and white disc beads to use as dangles. I decided to add a larger solid back bead for the Venetian bead to hang from as the black and white oval bead needed to be longer. Yes, it's filling in nicely but still needs something.

Photo below... How about some of these Czech pressed glass leaf beads with a silver finish ? Might add the tiny black hearts as dangles just below the leaves ?

Photo below ... As you can see I added a large black bead at the focal center to make the Venetican oval bead hang lower, it was being hidden by all the black and white disc bead dangles. Hmm and those lovely little jet black glass hearts that have one side with an aurora borealis finish ? Well they didn't look so hot as dangles hanging WITH the leaves so I may add them as dangles on their own ... not sure at this stage. Besides I now need some type of large, fancy link to attach at the side of the necklace.

Photo below ... As you can see I've attached a few of the silver leaves but it still has a lot of fill work left to be done and there's still the problem of what to add to the loops that I created beneath the silver leaves ... the loops I made to hang the sweet little black glass hearts from.

Stay tuned for Part II as things may change ... oh undoubtedly they will change!

Staying South for the Summer

2011-05-20T08:55:00.001-04:00

We have some new neighbors next door to us, a couple of snowbirds who've decided to stay south for the summer. Perhaps they don't mind the Florida heat and humidity ?

This pair of Canadian Geese have taken up residence in our neighbor's pond. It's not a very large pond but these lovely birds don't seem to mind.

To them it's Home Sweet Home, or at least during the daylight hours, at dusk they seem to disappear and I'm not sure where they nest at night. However they are very protective of their "home" and this "outsider" has not been allow to come into the pond. Perhaps with time it will be welcomed but until then it can only watch from the banks of the pond.

A few days ago a flock of these large water birds flew over, there were about 6 of them in all. The flock honked and made quite a racket as, on several occasions, they attempted to land. However the residing Geese couple would not hear of it, they protested loudly and told the flock, in no uncertain terms, to "Get Lost!" I'm sure they realized that their little pond could only accommodate a limited number of water birds and they weren't and aren't willing to share their domain.

Photo below... a pair of duck paddle around the circular pond and are quickly confronted by the possessive Geese.

Hey ! Who invited you ?

No! This is OUR pond, you two will just have to leave. Here allow us to escort you to the exit.

Of course the water level in this little pond is starting to drop as we've not had much precipitation in a few weeks. Hope we get some good rains this summer or these two very possessive geese will be waddling in a mud hole rather than wading in a pond.

Hallelujah ... Another Project Completed !

2011-05-07T08:18:00.000-04:00

Not long ago I lamented that I had purchased some foil glass pendants which did not meet my standard of perfection and was trying to figure out what could be done with them.

I received a number of good suggestions one of which came from Moonlitfantaseas who recommended that I make a seed beaded bezel to go around it and conceal the flaw. So I beaded a bezel AND a bail for the pendant (yes I could have just used the hole that was a part of the glass pendant but I tend to make more work for myself than is necessary. LOL). All this was done with tiny little 11/0 Delica beads and minuet 15/0's ( I was cross-eyed for 2 days afterwards).
Since I can't seem to leave well enough alone I then embellished the bezel with firepolished Czech glass beads and an assortment of lovely freshwater pearls.

The swirls of copper and silver foils embedded within the glass pendant reminded me of galaxies or a cosmic nebula so I named it "Pearl Nebula". If you think of a better title please feel free to leave it in a comment and I will certainly consider changing the name.

Next I beaded a rope necklace using crystal seed beads with a copper lining to match the tiny beads that were used to construct the bezel with.

The Herringbone beading pattern consists of over 550 size 8/0 seed beads in copper lined crystal and Straw Gold with an aurora borealis finish. Naturally I didn't have any end caps or cones that would fit this rope and when I tried making my own seed beaded end caps it made the rope so thick at the end that it would not fit through the beaded bail of the pendant. OH BOTHER ! Fortunately I found these pretty antique brass flower end caps at Ornementea, they fit perfectly and look so feminine.

The end flower end caps are topped with solid copper beads that match the copper in the seed beads nicely, to this I've added my handcrafted extender chain constructed with Swarovski adorned wire links and 10 mm jumprings. At the ends I've added my own handmade hook and eye clasp.

I think it came together well. In this photo I had to pull most of the rope necklace back in order for the pendant to rest on the flocked display bust.

May? Already?? ....Where did April go ?

2011-05-02T07:07:00.000-04:00

I can't believe how much time has passed since my last post. Wish I had a valid excuse but none comes to mind ... other than busy or forgetful! Oh! and then there was the Royal Wedding that kept me totally preoccupied, couldn't pry myself away from the TV. Kate was absolutely an angelic beauty, loved her gown. The couple seems to be deeply in love and, as everyone else, I wish them a long and happy life together.

As far as anything new, well the kitchen tile work is done and I could not be happier with the results.

Photo above...Gives me something to look at while slaving over a hot stove. :)

Photo below...The damaged drywall was repaired and now, with the new tile, this corner looks so much nicer.

Photo above...All my new space for the old coffee pot and ....

Photo below...and the single serve coffee brewer (the culprit that started this whole remodeling).

Sorry about the angle on this photo I was trying to avoid my shadow but it is still in the photo. A good photographer I am NOT. LOL Oh well I'll just enjoy the wonderful photos of others such as Aly at AlyGator's Everywhere, Annette of So Many Memories , Tash of Palos Verde Daily Photo and dear, wonderful T at Poppy Place PDX.