New Peyote Cuff Design #7

I don't know about you, but I'm amazed at how fast the time is going this year. Isn't it going faster than normal? Are there really 24 hours in EVERY day?

While I'm marveling at how quickly the time is passing, I'm also marveling at the fact that I'm managing to keep up with my goal to create a new peyote design every week. This is week #7, and I have design #7. Oddly enough, this one began with the beads rather than with a specific design in mind. (I still have a whole sketchbook filled with ideas for other designs.)

I was sorting my collection of Delicas (did you know there are more than 800 colors and finishes of these little beauties?!?!), and I had containers of crystal, white, black, and red that wanted to be put away... until I saw how great they all looked together and decided I wanted to make a simple pattern using those colors. I'd been thinking about a pattern with stripes, but I wanted the stripes to be going from side to side on the cuff rather than from end to end, and I didn't want "regular" stripes. So I just sat down and started doodling, and this is what I created: Curved


As you can see, the stripes go from side to side. And they curve slightly. And overlap in a couple of places. There are seven colors in all, and no matter how many Delica colors are available, I think my favorites will always be black and white. :-)

Speaking of black and white, my other new creation is a caterpillar bracelet: Bennie the Black and White Caterpillar. These are so much FUN to make, even though they take several hours and LOTS of beads. Bennie is really special because of the way I made the fringes. Starting with a base done in single peyote, I added hundreds of fringes to create Bennie's "fur". The fringes alternate between black and white... five white size 11 beads, a black-lined size 5 triangle bead, and one white size 11 bead at the tip... five black size 11 beads, a white-lined size 5 triangle bead, and one black size 11 bead at the tip. A perfect blend of black and white.


Oh, and check out the Etsy listing for this guy. I thought Bennie deserved a poem.

While you're visiting Etsy, I thought you might want to stop by a shop I discovered recently. While I've "discovered" many a shop while browsing on the internet, I came across this one IN PERSON when I was visiting the Frog Level section of Waynesville about a month ago. We went into a pottery shop and studio, and I immediately fell in love with some of the creations made by Cathey Bolton, the owner and artist. The name of the studio is Art on Depot (click that link and visit the Gallery for a little virtual tour) and Cathey's Etsy shop goes by the same name (ArtOnDepot), so it's easy to find.

Cathey has some pottery pieces that feature her "signature" handles. I think these look like seahorses, but she says other people have seen all sorts of things in them. Fiddle ferns maybe? Something kind of industrial? Whatever you see, I think they're cool!

One of my favorite things about Cathey's pottery is her colors. While I can appreciate the earth tones in a lot of pottery, it's really fun to see something in an unexpected color, like... RED!

This set of two mugs is in Cathey's Etsy shop. If you drink coffee or tea in the morning to help wake you up, the color of these will add a little kick.

She has other cool colors, too... bright yellow, a beautiful shade of turquoise blue, lime green.

...

But, as much fun as Cathey's pottery is, I was (not surprisingly) drawn immediately to the pieces she made for jewelry. She has a bunch of her own jewelry creations in the gallery: big, bold pieces in every color and shape imaginable. And she has some big belt buckles that feature oversized oval ceramic pieces with all sorts of colors and textures.

It wasn't until after I'd spent more time in the gallery (I forgot to mention here that right after that first visit I signed up for one of her classes: Four Pounds for Fun, and just last week I went to pick up my creations. I made all jewelry components. Well. That's what I tried to make. Some turned out to be little mutants. But that's a whole other story.)... okay, where was I? Oh yeah. It wasn't until after I'd spent more time in the gallery that I convinced Cathey she should list some of her jewelry components in her Etsy shop.

She has cabochons, buttons, and pendants galore (after all, what ceramic artist has enough time to create jewelry components AND turn them all into jewelry herself?!); and you can see a small selection in her Etsy shop. I'm the lucky one, though... I got to prowl through some boxes and bags and pick out pieces for myself. There are distinct advantages to being able to visit a studio in person, you know. One of my favorite pieces (of course, I grabbed a couple of these for myself) is this red heart pendant.

Doesn't it look like it has dandelion fluff on it? And isn't that neat? :-)

Okay, it's time for me to get out of my chair and get some pictures. Maybe I'll get around to taking pictures of some of my mutant clay pieces today...

Happy Wednesday! Don't forget, all my peyote cuff patterns are still on sale this month: purchase two patterns and receive a third pattern of equal or lesser value FREE (just leave the name of the third pattern in the Notes to Seller when you check out).