MaryLou's time2cre8

Good (and Tiny) Things Come in Small Packages

2012-01-30T14:37:00.000-08:00

VERY good things come in small packages. Especially when the packages contain beads. And most especially when they come from my Etsy friend Shannon.

I hadn't really begun this year with the intent to purchase beads. After all, I have millions of them. Seriously. Beads of just about every size imaginable, in every color imaginable. POUNDS of Delicas. And even more seed beads, all recently sorted into bins by color.

But that all changed when I was contacted by someone who asked me if I could create a very special bead crochet rope using size 15/0 beads (eegads!). Initially the request was for silver and black, but with the notoriously unstable finishes on most silver beads (even the real silver ones are susceptible to tarnish), I went on a quest to find some uncommon beads. Something beautiful. Something rich. Something awesome. And my very first place to look was in Shannon's shop, beadsandbabble. That's where I saw these drop-dead gorgeous 24k brushed gold size 15/0 charlottes (beads with a single facet). Don't they look delicious???

Well, I promptly sent the link to the potential customer to see what she thought, and apparently she also fell in love with them because she changed her mind about the silver and black rope and opted to have a rope made just from these. One loooooooooooong rope. Did I mention that these are size 15/0? That's small. Very small.

Since I don't like starting a custom order without having at least an inkling of what I'm about to tackle, I decided to take out some of the size 15/0 beads I have (remember that massive collection I mentioned?) and make a rope. You can see here how the size of this rope, which is made with hematite and metallic red, compares with ropes made from size 11/0 beads and size 8/0 beads (both of these ropes happen to also be made from beads I bought from Shannon's shop). These ropes are all crocheted with five beads around. What a difference! The rope made from the size 15/0 beads is only slightly more than 1/8" in diameter. Whew!

The next big dilemma was availability of the chosen beads. I contacted Shannon to see how many of the size 15/0 24k brushed gold beads she had on hand and also to see if she knew how many beads there are in a 5-gram package, and it turned out that I would need almost 50 grams of these little beauties for the rope length requested. Holy moly.

Now the awesome thing (well, one of them) about Shannon is that rather than just tell me she didn't have enough of the beads, she contacted her supplier and put in a special order so she could meet my needs. And in today's mail, I received a BIG package with a bunch of SMALL packages inside. Lots and lots of beady goodness, including the 50 grams of beads I need for the 24k gold rope. :-)

But first... I need to finish another project, a set of bead crochet ropes using [relatively huge] size 11/0 beads in a design I developed to coordinate with the pattern in a picture sent to me by the customer.

Off to a Pretty Good Start

2012-01-10T05:36:00.000-08:00

How's your year going so far? Good, I hope. :-)

It's the 10th of the month (!), and although I'm not getting all the things done that I wanted to (I always overestimate just how much I can do in a 24-hour period), I'm pretty happy with progress in general.

We've made some progress on the house (no matter how much I may want to play with my beads, the house takes priority over everything else!). The insulation contractor finished work yesterday, so it's ready for inspection tomorrow. The drywall contractor tracked down the best price he could for us for the drywall we need, so that'll be ordered today. The carpenters (have I mentioned how much we love these guys?) finished the siding on the front gable, finished the back deck, finished the soffit over the carport, and did the trimming around the deck posts. It looks AWESOME! We just have to wait for some more deck lumber to finish the front deck, since the supply place sent the wrong material.

One thing we're both really excited about is finding the wood flooring we're going to use. We thought we had that picked out months ago, but after seeing the space and thinking about it more we decided the #2 hickory would be too busy - all those knots and variations in color would be a little over the top. So we went on a quest to find something more sedate and possibly something a little less expensive than the original $5.95 per square foot price. Off we went last week to begin the new search...

On Thursday, we found an engineered flooring made of maple that we both liked, at $4.65/square foot. Not bad. But we weren't thrilled with the engineered flooring, since it's only 1/2" thick and Pat built the stairs based on using 3/4" flooring. Not a huge deal, but we really wanted the 3/4" stuff to help stiffen the floor overall, since it's such a big space.

On Saturday, we continued the search at Lumber Liquidators and found some select maple flooring, 4" wide and 3/4" thick, that we liked. At $4.09/square foot, it beat out Thursday's find; but we decided to try one last place.

So on Monday we went to visit one last place. The last place we visited was the Asheville Hardwood Center, which was actually the first place we had visited months ago, but we were going in with something different in mind - prefinished flooring vs. unfinished (part of the $5.95 cost was having the floor sanded, stained, and finished with three coats of polyurethane). We walked in the door of the Asheville Hardwood Center and started looking at the prefinished flooring. Right off the bat we were disappointed to see that the prices were all higher than the $4.09, but then we started talking to the sales guy... after he heard what we were looking for, he pointed us in the direction of some 5" x 3/4" select hickory that was marked down to a special price because they had limited inventory. The price $3.25/square foot!!!! Woo hoo!!!! They don't have quite enough for us to do the whole floor, but they have some 3-1/4" stock that's also on sale, the same wood and finish in a narrower width, so we'll have a room that where we alternate the sizes. We're so excited about being able to save all that money and still get what we want that we can hardly believe it. (The picture here is from the flooring manufacturer's website.)

Now on the beady side of things, even with all the house stuff going on I've been beading away and also working on getting some more patterns published. The pattern for Diametric is available here on my blog and also in my Etsy shop.

If you purchase patterns here on my blog, you'll find that the prices are lower (yay!) and that they're available for immediate download - no waiting for me to email them to you. Payment is via PayPal, so you're safe and secure. :-)

I'm working on getting at least one or two more patterns published by the end of the week, so stay tuned.

I've also been beading. Surprise surprise. I actually began the year by recreating two of my popular pieces, both bead crochet ropes.

Ondine is a 70" long bead crochet rope made from size 10/0 and 11/0 Czech glass beads with a picasso finish. I love love love these beads! They have such gorgeous colors, and the finish on them makes them look like semiprecious stones.

This is the third version of this particular colorway, and as I do with many of my ropes, I alternated between patterned sections and sections made from just a blend of the four colors of beads.

One of the other new pieces I've made is a recreation of Mulberries and Heavy Cream. The beads in this rope are soooo pretty! They're size 8/0 Czech glass seed beads in a creamy offwhite that resembles the finish on a pearl and a slightly metallic looking deep burgundy with a single facet. There's such sparkle and shine!

This rope, like its predecessor, is crocheted in sections of pattern. There are five different designs , from spiraling stripes to tiny diamonds, speckles, and a couple of others I'm not sure how to describe.

At 58" long it can be worn in a whole bunch of different ways, and with all the patterns it can look different just by moving a different section to the front.

There are some more finished pieces sitting here waiting to be photographed so they can make their debut... Since we're still living in the "dark" house until the new house is finished, it's still a challenge to find just the right light for photographing finished work.

Time to head out for some shopping. On today's list? We need a 12' ladder. Because apparently, we just can't do what we need to do with the 4', 6', 8', 10', 16', 28', and 32' ladders we already own! Sheesh.

Ch Ch Ch Changes

2011-12-29T13:54:00.000-08:00

The impending new year has made me start thinking about changes. Change is inevitable. Just ask anyone in corporate America, and they'll tell you that change is one of the most talked-about subjects in the workplace. We're told to embrace it, even when it doesn't seem like it's the best thing for us.

Personally, I have a year of big changes ahead of me. Well, that's the plan anyway. Our new house should be finished within the next few months, so we'll get to move from this dark, cramped, non air conditioned, 60+ year old house we've been renting. And I can finally unpack boxes that have been packed for more than two years. It'll be like opening a bunch of Christmas and birthday presents, as I honestly can't remember all the things that are packed away (oh, I know what's in the boxes, thanks to my spreadsheet, but that doesn't mean I'm not anxious to see them in person again). I can hardly wait for that change to happen.

On the business side of things, I think it's also time for some changes. My approach to selling my handmade items, whether they be my beaded creations or the art supplies and paper goods in my other Etsy shop is, admittedly, somewhat chaotic...

My main focus has been on my Etsy shops, but there's an Artfire shop out there that's just costing me money every month. Sadly, Artfire doesn't pull in enough traffic to make it a worthwhile selling venue, even though their fees are so much less expensive than Etsy's. Time to close up the Artfire shop.
I don't focus enough on taking pictures and getting new pieces listed. I can never seem to make/take the time to photograph the pieces I've made. I need to change that practice (moving into the new house will help, because I'll actually have windows with natural light coming in instead of having to search for just the right light in this dark house).
I make waaaaaay too many UFOs (UnFinishedObjects). Piles of them. I need to pull them out of the UFO box and finish them. Yep, gonna work on that.
My poor, neglected website, another venue for which I pay a monthly fee, needs to be finished. I think I finally have a plan for it. Now I just have to execute the plan, which involves actually sitting down and working on it for predetermined amounts of time every week until it's done.
I have a collection of patterns for beadwoven designs that need to be finished and published. I am somewhat organized in my computer file structure, so I'm happy to report that I have a list of the designs that need to be worked on. I'm not so happy to report that the list is more than 40 items long...
Did you know I have a newsletter? Probably not, even though you may have signed up to receive it. That's one of the things I never got around to doing in 2011. No newsletters, even when I was running special sales or was really excited about some new thing. I'm planning to change that and publish a newsletter at least three or four times next year.
Facebook. Ah, the joys and frustrations of Facebook. My posting on my biz page there could be referred to as "scattergun." That needs to change, too, as Facebook seems to be a really good way to connect with both customers and fellow beadweavers.
I need to continue making progress (just started last week) in sorting and organizing all my beads and other supplies. I had come up with a system for my delicas, and although the concept is good, I need to redo some things to make the system more efficient and usable. My other beads and findings were a nightmare! Some still are, but I've begun making progress, sorting the bead by color into containers that are large enough to actually hold my somewhat massive collection. Naively, I had chosen those plastic shoebox sized containers for my seed beads, not realizing until it was too late that there was no possible way for me to fit all my red beads into just one shoebox. I'm in the process of moving and sorting them into larger containers.
And those other supplies? Cardstock, paper, envelopes, scrapbooking paper, glue sticks, tape... piles and piles of all kinds of things that need to be sorted, cut, taped, glued, photographed, and listed. I've also begun working on that, but it's a tough undertaking in this tiny space with no designated location for all of it.
Blogging. That would be this blog that you're reading. I don't spend nearly enough time on it, and that's another thing that needs to change. Why?
Well, even with my sporadic posting habits, this blog still directs quite a number of people to my Etsy shop. So updating it is a worthwhile endeavor. My plan is to change from my infrequent, unscheduled posting to a weekly blog post. At least.

I'm sure there are more things I could add to this list, but I don't want to overwhelm myself before I even get started. Maybe I'll continue the list somewhere else, so I can cross things off as I accomplish them. Don't you feel nice when you can cross something off your to-do list?

Now I can cross off updating my blog for this week. :-)

Holiday Progressive Sale

2011-12-12T05:28:00.001-08:00

It's time for a holiday sale!

Other than the discounts I've offered through the Bead Art Originals blog and discounts offered to repeat customers, I really haven't had any sales in quite a while. So it's time. :-)

I thought I'd try something a little different... a Progressive Sale. This is the best sale I've ever offered, so if you've been ogling something in my shop, this is your chance to save some money!

Here's how it works:

Purchase one item from my Etsy shop and receive a 10% discount.
Purchase two items from my Etsy shop and receive a 20% discount.
Purchase three or more items from my Etsy shop and receive a 30% discount on your entire order!

*** PLEASE NOTE the following important information ***

Patterns are excluded from this special sale.

In order to receive the discount, you MUST include "Progressive Sale" in the Message to Seller when you check out.

The applicable discount will be refunded to you via PayPal.

May not be combined with any other sale or coupon code.

This sale will run from now (Monday, December 12) through the end of the year!

*** Merry Christmas! ***

Millions of Delicas...

2011-11-23T09:46:00.000-08:00

So what do you do when you've amassed millions of Japanese Delica cylinder beads and you don't have a lot of time to do peyote? String them and crochet them into bead crochet ropes, of course!

At least that's what I've decided to do. It's not because I've given up on peyote. Nope. Not at all. But peyote requires that I spent hours sitting in a chair picking up beads one, two, or three at a time with a needle and following a pattern. Since we're in the midst of building our house right now, I'm having a hard time finding the time to dedicate to peyote. But that doesn't mean I can't gather up some delicas and string them to be crocheted!

And now, apparently, I'm on a roll.

I've made a couple of other bead crochet pieces with delicas (Sand and Stone, which is made with beautiful satin pale gold delicas and tiny 2mm jasper rounds, was one of the first).

I came across the jasper rounds last year when my husband and I were on vacation, and when I saw them next to these delicas, I knew they were meant to be together.

Then when I made Zuri using a blend I had made of opaque delicas, I immediately fell in love with what could be done with these tiny bits of glass.

This blend is made from 15 different colors - every color in the rainbow and then some! The rope has sections of blended color and other sections where I did little bits of pattern. Nothing was mapped out ahead of time - just strung on the fly - so I had no idea how some of the patterns would turn out when I did the crocheting.

That's half the fun.

Soon after I made Zuri, I used a blend of metallics to create Nuru. I lost track of how many colors and finishes are in this piece, but my guess is that there are at least 50 or 60 different beads (did I mention that I have MILLIONS of delicas? that's no exaggeration).

And now there are more of these pieces, as I've started stringing and crocheting even more blends. Since my favorite color combination is black and white, I just had to make one of those!

I haven't listed this piece yet, but I've given it the name Rufaro, which means "happiness" in the African language of Shona. At some point, I decided that these pieces should have African names - names with meanings that go with the individual pieces.

And then there's Masamba, which means "leaves and vegetables." A beautiful blend of six shades and finishes of olive green.

There are more... Right now I have a mix of white, crystal, and silver beads on my crochet hook (we're traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday, and bead crochet is great for road trips!). And there's a blend of beautiful blues just waiting to be started. At some point, I think there will be a red one. Maybe a purple. The possibilities are endless!

And during all of this bead crochet, my measuring spoons are finally getting some action. I'm not much of a cook (I can, but I really don't like to), and even when I do I rarely measure anything. So my spoons have been relegated to the back of the utensil drawer. When I started putting together these mixes, I thought I'd use my measuring spoons so I could have similar amounts of the different colors/shades.

And just in case you're wondering, a 54" long bead crochet rope, using 7 beads around, requires approximately 8 heaping teaspoons of delicas. :-)

Artisan Clay Fall Fashion Show Blog Hop

2011-10-28T06:35:00.000-07:00

I didn't make it onto the Artisan Clay Design Team, but I've been a big fan of Kristie's work for a long time. The Design Team has the privilege of creating something new each month with components Kristie creates and sends to them, but this month they're doing something different that lets me play along - the Artisan Clay Fall Fashion Show Blog Hop!

Make sure to visit all the blogs, and then stop back at Kristie's blog and let her know what your favorite design or component was. You're then entered for a surprise giveaway, an Artisan Clay component for one lucky winner (giveaway ends at the end of the day). :-)

Here are a few of the pieces I've made using Kristie's components:

Terra - An Earthy Beadwoven Necklace

Nina - Tubular Herringbone Necklace with Smoke Fired Clay Focal

Arianrhod - Beadwoven Necklace with Smoke Fired Clay Donut Focals

Lalita - Tubular Herringbone Lariat with Smoke Fired Clay Donut Focal and Pearly Fringe

Heart Suspended - Romantically Earthy Necklace with Smoke Fired Clay Heart

Lilavati - Brilliant Plum and Lime Beadwoven Necklace
featuring one of Kristie's beautiful clay and glass components

and one of my all-time favorite pieces, which now resides in Sweden
Atalanta - One of a Kind Beadwoven Necklace with Smoke Fired Clay Donut Focal and Driftwood

I have a whole collection of Kristie focals, just waiting for me to create something... I just need more hours in the day! (Isn't that always the case?) :-)

Building a House Takes a Lot of Time

2011-10-27T05:22:00.000-07:00

Don't let anyone fool you. It takes a TON of time, especially when you're doing a lot of it yourself. It's lots of fun, at least for us, but it's also a mad scramble at times to ensure that we're getting everything done when it needs to be done.

My husband's back has held up quite well during the process (he has major back issues), and even though we'd have liked to do some of the siding ourselves we hired some awesome carpenters who are working so well and so quickly that we're just going to have them do it all. I must say I'm relieved that we came to that decision. It would take us four times as long to do what they're doing, and we'd both be worn out. My job has been to paint all of the siding before it goes onto the house (we're putting a second coat of paint on after it's up), and it was all I could do sometimes to stay ahead of them. The problem wasn't so much with my getting tired of painting, but because the siding is so large and awkward I was limited in where I could put the pieces to dry. At this point I think I have enough for them to finish.

We've also picked out almost all the plumbing fixtures (the plumber has been doing all the rough-in work) and most of the lighting fixtures. It seems weird to be picking out tile for the bathrooms at this point, when we don't have any real walls (just framing) yet; but we have to have the shower figured out for the master bathroom so the plumber can do his thing. That means a trip to the tile store. We settled on cypress for the decking material, thanks to the boring bees we have around here. Boring bees are called that not because they're uninteresting but because they bore into wood. Apparently they don't like cypress, so we're going with that to ward them off.

Even with all this activity going on at the house, I've been beading whenever I can. I try to have beads strung all the time so I can crochet in the vehicle when we're driving around, and when we're at home I'm usually camped out in my chair with beads in front of me.

I managed to finish off another set of bracelets for The Laughing Dog Gallery in Vero Beach, Florida. It was fun to pull out some of my designs and bead them up in new colorways, and I'm anxious to see how well they do in the gallery.

Just as exciting as having all these cuffs in a gallery is that two projects I created are included in the newest Interweave Press eMag, Fabulous Peyote Stitch Jewelry with Crystal Accents!

The projects I created for the eMag were this crystal-edged peyote bracelet:

and these little peyote bails made to hold a crystal square:

And now I'm off! It's time to head to the tile store to try to make a decision about the tile for the master bathroom shower. There are soooooooo many choices that it's going to take awhile to finally settle on something we both like. Maybe I'll do a little browsing in magazines before we go so I have some ideas...

:-)

Lest You Think I've Been Slacking...

2011-09-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

Building a house takes lots of time. Don't let anyone tell you differently. In addition to all the time required to research, locate, and purchase materials, there's the time involved in painting hundreds of pieces of trim and hundreds of pieces of siding. We're making good progress so far and finally have some carpenters we love - they've finished shingling the roof (54 squares), installed all the windows and doors (41 of them!), installed soffit around the entire house, and they're now starting to work on the trim. In the meantime, we've had the local fireplace shop order and install the fireplace that will provide most of the heat for the house. And now we're busy figuring out the quantities of deck materials we'll need so we can get those ordered. Whew!

Even with all of that going on, I've managed to fit in some beadweaving. I'm not going to post all the new pieces here, but I thought you might like to see some of them.

I finished a bead crochet necklace that was begun in May, using thousands of opaque delicas. This piece is named Zuri, which means "beautiful" in Swahili.

I also finished another bead crochet piece named Kaimana, which means "the power of the ocean" in Hawaiian. Kaimana is made from some of my all-time favorite beads, Czech glass seed beads with a picasso finish (which I purchased from an awesome Etsy seller named Shannon, aka beadsandbabble). Aren't these colors beautiful?

Those two pieces are by no means all I've been working on. There have been a few custom orders in the mix lately, including a pretty massive custom order for several pieces that will be going to a gallery in Florida. Here are the pieces I've made for the gallery so far, and I'm busy working on more! :-)

Oh, and that house I mentioned? Here's a fairly recent photo of that (before the windows were put in and the roof was finished). I can hardly wait until it's finished and we can move in!

What's everyone else been up to?

By the Numbers

2011-08-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

As I was looking on the internet a couple of days ago for nails to use for the decks on the new house, I started to think about all the counting, adding, multiplying, and dividing I do during the course of a day. I know it's a long time ago, but I actually remember my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Wilson (one of my favorite teachers) telling us that we really needed to pay attention to math because we would use it in so many different ways. He was so right!

Math is quite prevalent in beading:

Doing peyote stitch requires measuring quantities of beads for a design, counting the beads to use in each stitch (particularly if you're doing two or three drop peyote), and measuring the length and width of the bracelet or necklace you're making to ensure a proper fit.

Bead crochet, if creating some kind of design (i.e., not just random stringing), also requires lots of counting so the beads are strung in the correct order. You also have to do some counting as you crochet to make sure you don't drop a stitch and inadvertently switch from an 8-around rope to a 7-around rope.

Right angle weave. More counting, as you're picking up a specific number of beads with each stitch. Start with four beads, then add groups of three beads to create the weave. Of course, that's just basic RAW - there are variations that use different numbers and give completely different looks to the finished work.

Herringbone, tubular herringbone. Yep. You guessed it. Counting. With herringbone, you're counting in twos most of the time, but there are variations that require you to pick up more beads. And you have to count them.

So now it's back to counting nails... because we need to determine just how many hot dipped galvanized ring shank 3-1/4" long nails to order for our nail gun. More math: number of deck boards, number of joists, number of nails at each nailing point, plus some extras for attaching the boards we'll put around the perimeter of the deck. Oh, and we can't forget the hand rails.

Would you guess that we're going to need somewhere in the range of 7500 nails? Sheesh!

Silencing the Muse

2011-08-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

At what point do I admit that I cannot possibly create all the things that I envision? I guess I should consider myself lucky that I rarely run out of ideas. I rarely have anything even resembling creative block. In fact, it's usually just the opposite. My Muse is constantly talking to me, showering me with ideas for everything imaginable. And, believe it or not, there are times I just want to tell my Muse to "HUSH!"

It's even worse right now. You see, we're building a house (that's the very house you see in the photo). Now you'd think my Muse would be content to just send along ideas for the house itself -- flooring, siding, how to build the fireplace, cabinets, door styles, window styles, bathroom layouts, kitchen counters, backsplashes, tile, built-in bookshelves, deck plans, etc., etc., etc. But nooooooooooo. He/she/it somehow manages to distract me from those larger decisions and whispers in my ear about how I could use some of the discarded building materials.

Bent nails. Jewelry of some kind? Perhaps a votive holder? Maybe a wall hanging. Bird houses.

Bits of wood. Picture frames? Tiny furniture? Little creatures?

I'm not sure how to tell my Muse that I just flat out don't have the time to consider all those suggestions. I already have all these beautiful beads that are calling out to me all the time. All day. Every day. And polymer clay. A big bin of polymer clay which, thankfully, is still workable even after a couple of years of having been stored in the bin. Yarn. Lots and lots of yarn. Art supplies - pens, paper, cardstock, paint. You name it. The Muse never shuts up, so I've amassed a big collection of "stuff" to try to stop the whispering in my ear.

The sad thing is that, despite my knowing that I'll never have time to make all the things I've thought of, I'm still collecting stuff. There's a whole box of discarded, damaged, and downright cool construction materials sitting in the basement now. Just waiting to be turned into something cool.

I sure do love making stuff... like this. Serpentine Shimmer, a 6' long ndebele rope made with silver-lined metallic delicas.

More Bead Crochet

2011-07-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

It's fun to try new things with bead crochet, and I've been doing just that. I have so many beautiful beads in my massive stash that I have no end of inspiration - just not so much time, particularly now that we're in the midst of building a house.

Today I thought I'd show you some of my most recent bead crochet pieces and tell you about the new adventure I'm taking with one of my bead crochet heroines, Judith Bertoglio-Giffin.

One recent piece is Sawtooth Salsa, crocheted from some of my all-time favorite beads - Czech glass seed bead with a picasso finish. These are so gorgeous in person, and the size 11/0 beads make a wonderful rope (in this case, the ends are joined to create a continuous loop that can be worn as a necklace or a bracelet).

In case you're wondering where you can find these beautiful beads, check out my friend Shannon's Etsy shop: beadsandbabble
Tell her I sent you (I don't get anything for that, but it's always nice to know how people found you online, don't you think?).

Although I don't use a lot of them in my work, for some reason I have a big container filled with faux pearls (just can't resist adding to my stash, I suppose). I guess I've always figured I'd find a place for them, and I have used some; but then the idea came to me to try crocheting a graduated necklace using an assortment of different sizes.

And so was born Luscious, made from a few hundred of those faux pearls in creamy off white, very pale peach, and a lovely shade of blue. This piece had a few challenges, as working with the different size beads and the sheer heft of the faux pearls kept causing the piece to unravel. I'm not one to give up easily, though, so I figured out a solution to the unraveling.

The beads in this piece range from relatively tiny, about 1/8", to some pretty substantial pearls that are more than 1/2" in diameter.

I'm quite happy with the way it turned out, and I don't think anyone would ever guess it's bead crochet. It sure doesn't look like the lariats and necklaces I've made before.

Having crocheted with my favorite Czech seed beads and then with pearls, I thought it was time to play around with some of my other favorite beads: Japanese delicas. These little cylinder beads are absolutely wonderful for peyote work, and they give a completely different look to a bead crochet piece.

I'll admit I was being a bit lazy when I strung these... rather than designing a pattern and using a bunch of different colors/finishes of the delicas, I decided to just add some 2mm jasper rounds, spaced about 3/8" apart along the entire length of the piece. And although I was a bit lazy, there was still some counting involved in stringing the more than 5600 beads this required!

This is called Sand and Stone, for the sandy color of the satiny pale gold delicas and the natural jasper stones that spiral around the rope's entire length.

And now it's time for another bead crochet adventure. When I saw Judith Bertoglio-Giffin's Urban Stripes String Along post on Facebook, I just had to join in the fun. Judith is providing the patterns for seven 6" long sections of bead crochet, so at the end of the adventure all the participants will wind up with a 42" long rope (presuming everyone's using the same size 8/0 beads Judith is using).

You can still sign up to play along, but you have to hurry. The deadline to sign up is tomorrow. Details are on the Bead Line Studios blog.

She's already posted the first part of the pattern, and I've done what may be the most difficult task: choosing the beads! Luckily I had just ordered some size 8/0 beads, and they're perfect for this project.

Now it's time to get started stringing the first part of the pattern... and I'm thinking of doing a variation on the design using some size 10/0 delicas, because I think they have kind of an urban feel.

Bead Crochet on the Road

2011-07-03T07:28:00.000-07:00

I've often posted about taking bead crochet projects on the road. They're the perfect type of project for a road trip because all the beads are contained (presuming the beads have been strung on the spool of thread ahead of time). It makes it really easy to just pull out some of the thread and the crochet hook and do a little work while someone else is doing the driving.

Well, I've actually managed to finish the second iteration of Color at Play while doing REALLY short road trips -- it's only about 4 miles from our rental house to the house we're building, so the trip takes only about 10 minutes. But in numerous 10-minute trips, and with a bit of crocheting during the evenings when I'm too exhausted to do much of anything else, I have a colorful new bead crochet rope. :-)

Now if only I could figure out how to do peyote on the road...

Ready, Set, Crochet!

2011-06-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

I don't post very many pictures of work in progress. It's not because I don't want to share. It's because I'm usually so anxious to actually get started creating that it doesn't even occur to me to pick up the camera and take in-progress shots.

Well, this time I thought of it. And I thought I'd share the next bead crochet rope that will come off my crochet hook... Color at Play II. It's called "II" because I already made one of these; and it was so much fun that I decided to make another one!

This is how bead crochet begins - String lots and lots of beads. In this case, there are about 25' of size 8/0 Czech glass beads strung onto the spool of thread. Then start crocheting. Crochet for a few hours, and you'll wind up with a rope. Easy peasy. And fun. :-)

** A note to those who've tried and given up on bead crochet. DON'T GIVE UP! It can be challenging to start, but it's great fun once you get the hang of it.

Paul Gauguin Inspiration

2011-06-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I created anything for the Bead Art Originals color challenge, but since I wound up with a little bit of free time this week (thanks to the rain and waiting for building materials suppliers and contractors), I managed to create a necklace whose colors were inspired by the Paul Gauguin Tahitian Landscape (1891).

My colors are a little muted compared to the vibrant shades in the landscape, but I was happy to find these little glass leaves whose shades almost perfectly match those in the painting.

The necklace, named Cascading Leaves, is an ndebele rope (aka tubular herringbone) made from Czech glass seed beads with a picasso finish. The seed beads are honey colored and coordinate beautifully with the leaves.

I'm not sure how much free time I'll have over the next few months, but you can bet that a LOT of it will be spent with my beads! :-)

Long Time, No Post - Back with Boots and Beads

2011-06-12T06:47:00.000-07:00

May 18 was the date of my last post. Sheesh. I have an excuse, though... we're building a house, and since we're doing a significant amount of the work ourselves, it's been a very busy month. That, coupled with a trip to Kentucky to visit with family, hasn't left me a whole lot of time for beady endeavors. I've managed to finish some custom orders (which I love doing, because it's always fun for me to see how other peoples' colors work), made some pieces for a magazine (yay!), and have even worked on some new goodies that haven't been photographed yet.

But mostly it's been the house. Painting waterproofing compound on the foundation walls. Carrying loads of gravel to cover the foundation drain. Moving tools and supplies from here to there and back again. Shopping for building supplies. Some of it has been fun, but it's also exhausting because the temps have been in the 80s and 90s for most of the time we've been working. It makes for some very long days.

My work boots are doing their job, too. These have been with me through three other houses, so they've already done more than their share of protecting my feet and ankles (I'm a klutz and often trip over things). I did have to give them a new set of shoestrings, but I'd say they're doing pretty good for 15-year-old boots!

The rest of these pictures are some of the recent beady endeavors. Because I just have to share pictures of beady things, right? :-)

Silver Stripe in Zircon Blue Band
A shimmery, stylish bracelet made with gorgeous zircon blue triangle beads and galvanized silver delicas, topped off with a funky vintage button.

Color Burst
Made from opaque delicas in more than 15 different colors, this looks pretty random; but I made sure that no two beads of the same color wound up next to each other! :-)

Color at Play
A bead crochet rope that's fun all the way around. It's 66" long, joined with an invisible join, and crocheted from some of the brightest Czech glass beads you'll ever see!

Ashley
A fringe bracelet made with lots and lots of crystals and faux pearls. This piece was made for the Bead Mavens' Bead Soup Double Up swap, using beads I received from my swap partner.

Trevelyan
Another bead crochet rope, this one made with GORGEOUS Czech glass seed beads with a picasso finish. The name "Trevelyan" is Cornish for Homestead on the Hill, a name I chose because I crocheted a good portion of this piece on the trip to Kentucky to visit my Dad's homestead. I only wish I could have spent more time with my Dad after reuniting with him last summer.

Looks like that's going to be it for this morning... It's time to get back to work on the house. If you'd like to see pictures of the progress on the house project, check out my Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/marylou.holvenstot

What's New, Pussycat?

2011-05-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

Nope, I'm not channeling Tom Jones. That is who sang that song, right?

Here's what's new. Besides the design you see there on the left, I have a new blog design, just a little snazzier than the simple one I had before.

And see that new tab at the top of the page? The one that says Beading Patterns (Personal Use)? I've just set up that page to make it easier to purchase my patterns.

I know everyone loves Etsy (at least I do), but one of its shortcomings is that there's no way to automatically download a PDF file. Some of those pattern orders come in to me during the middle of [my] night, so you have to wait for me to wake up, have my latte, check my email, and then send the patterns. And sometimes the email providers are less than cooperative and cause the emails to wander out into cyberspace.

Now you don't have to wait. Just add the pattern(s) you want to your cart, then go back to the top of the page to view your cart and check out. Payment is via PayPal (you can use a credit card to pay even if you don't have a PayPal account), and after the payment is completed you'll receive an email with the link to download your pattern.

Cool, eh?
:-)

** As an added incentive, purchase your patterns via this blog between now and June 30, and receive a 30% refund (I'll send your refund to you via PayPal). That means most of the patterns will wind up being only $4.20!

It. Is. Time. Woo.

2011-05-01T19:02:00.000-07:00

It. Is. Time. Woo. In case you don't recognize that line, it's from one of my favorite movies, Heart and Souls.

So anyway, I've FINALLY started the process of making my peyote patterns available for Commercial Use! So many people have asked, and I decided awhile back that I was going to do it; and then my gnat-like attention span comes into play and I'm off on some other tangent.

As of this writing, I've published 54 of my peyote patterns for Personal Use; and there are about 20 more patterns that need to be written and published (that's not counting the ones I've made and never beaded). Slowly but surely, I'll get them all listed.

For anyone who's purchased one of the Personal Use Only versions and wants to upgrade, you'll only need to pay the difference in cost between the Personal Use and Commercial Use versions. And from now through May 8, I'm offering a special discounted price for anyone who wants to upgrade - $14 per pattern, a 22% discount! (So if you paid $7.50 for a Personal Use pattern, you'll be able to upgrade to the Commercial Use pattern for only $6.50.)

Don't see the listing for the pattern(s) you want? Let me know, and I'll move them up in the queue...

There are also a couple of new Personal Use patterns available... Stony Path

and Playing with Blocks.

See? I told you I was working on them! :-)

Pass the Catch Up, Please

2011-04-28T07:07:00.000-07:00

Good grief. It's been almost a month since I posted on here... and I got so carried away with a bazillion other things that I even forgot about my giveaway! I'm disappointed to say that the giveaway only received seven comments. Nevertheless, I've used the trusty random number generator from random.org to determine the winners...

I'll be contacting the winners (moonlitfantaseas, lisa, and TheBeadedBead) later today - promise!

So what, you ask, have I been doing that's been taking all my time?

First on the list was preparing all the paperwork to apply for our building permit. We're FINALLY going to start building our house! Having never applied for a permit in this area, we weren't sure how detailed the drawings would have to be or just how much information about trusses, etc., we'd need to submit for approval. So we spent quite a lot of time working on refining the drawings, making sure all the windows and doors were labeled, figuring out where light fixtures and switches will go, and checking and rechecking the plumbing fixture locations.

Several days of working on drawings, filling out paperwork, and talking to contractors; and now we have our permit! Woo hoo!

Second on the list of time-consuming activities was a task that everyone hates: INCOME TAXES. Blech. We had an awesome accountant for many many years, but the accountant we used last year (sadly, recommended by a local business owner) made a giant mess of things. So this year I decided to attack this task with Turbo Tax. I spent a bunch of time making sure I had all the information gathered and accounted for in my spreadsheet, so it went relatively smoothly. Now that I know how Turbo Tax works, I can track things a little differently and be all ready when next year rolls around.

Now while the tasks of applying for a building permit and filing income taxes may not seem all that daunting, everything was made more difficult because my desktop computer chose early April to die.

And it was a slow death. First, the fan started making a lot of noise. And then it quit. I called the local Best Buy to see about having the fan replaced, and they assured me that it would be no big deal. However, after I hauled the desktop to the store they determined that they didn't have the right fan. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of jury rigging a different one, so I just hauled it back home and went to find the right fan on Dell's website.

After ordering and replacing the fan myself, I quickly came to realize that the desktop had more issues than just the fan. It hadn't been behaving itself for awhile, but I was willing to let it limp along. I finally decided it was time for it to be retired, so I spent HOURS making sure I had all the software media to load onto a new one and, more importantly, making sure I had all my files backed up. 35GB of data, reviewed (you wouldn't believe how much JUNK I had kept) and copied over to the laptop to await the arrival of the new computer.

The new computer arrived, and I'm happy to say that it was relatively easy to get it all set up. Even some of the antiquated software I needed to install worked, despite the newer operating system. And it's nice not to have to listen to that fan any more!

The third time-consuming activity, which I'm sure is going to continue to be time consuming, was shopping for house stuff. There are SO many choices to make, so we've been prowling through stores and design centers as well as prowling the internet to find things we love. It seems strange that we haven't even broken ground yet (the excavation is due to start next week), but we already have ceiling fans, some light fixtures, and some plumbing fixtures. Next week we have to make the final choices for siding, roofing, gutters, flooring, and tile. Argh.

Last, but not least in the time-consuming activities, were some custom orders and some special projects for a publication (yay!).

I love working on custom orders, and this bracelet is now one of my favorite pieces. It's bead crocheted using 2mm gemstones, and I absolutely LOVE the way they look!

I can't share any details yet about the pieces for the publication, but I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!

So you can see that it's been a busy month. It's good to be busy, right? :-)

Button, button - Who's got the button?

2011-03-30T10:37:00.000-07:00

Now where's that from? Button, button - who's got the button? I can't remember. It's something I've heard for years and years, but I'm not sure where it originated.

Anyway, about buttons.

I have them. Thousands of them. I haven't counted, but I'm sure there are thousands of them. They're in a big box, and within that big box are numerous containers with "sorted" buttons. Even though I have thousands of them, I still can't resist looking at new ones when I visit stores that sell buttons. I try to resist buying, but sometimes I swear they just jump into my cart.

Several months ago, as I was going through all my vintage buttons, I came up with an idea for a simple bracelet. It's an ndebele rope (aka tubular herringbone) with a loop at one end (the herringbone is carried right into the loop) and a button at the other. So I made a BUNCH of them and left them at the Art on Depot Studio and Gallery, in Waynesville, NC. They were pretty popular, so I've been working on some new ones.

Aren't these fun?

I'm going to make some more and list them in my Etsy shop. For now, the black and white Checkerboard one you see in the photo is the only one I have listed; but I'm planning to remedy that soon.

Ready for a GIVEAWAY???

It's been awhile since I've done any kind of giveaway on my blog, so I thought this might be a good time for one.

What do you win? A button bracelet in your choice of bead colors (I'll choose a suitable button from my collection). THREE people will win. Because I have LOTS of buttons. :-)

How do you enter? To enter the drawing for a Button It bracelet, you can do one ore more of the following. Please note that all comments must be left on my blog (not on my Facebook page(s), even though you'll see this post appear there). And you must leave a separate comment for each in order to receive more than one entry into the drawing. If you do all of these, you'll leave FOUR separate comments and have four chances to win!

1 - Leave a comment here telling me your favorite button project. Or, if you're not a "button" person, tell me about your favorite supply and how you've used it.
2 - Blog about this giveaway and post a comment here with a link to your blog post.
3 - Link to this post on Facebook and leave a comment here to let me know you posted.
4 - Tweet (Twitter) about this giveaway and leave a comment here. Make sure you include @time2cre8 in your tweet.

Don't forget to leave a way for me to contact you (email, or a link to your Etsy or Artfire shop name). If I don't see a way to contact you, your comment will be deleted and you won't be entered into the drawing. :-(

When will the winners be chosen? All entries/comments must be made by midnight on Friday, April 8. I'll use a random number generator to select the winners on Saturday morning and will announce the winner on this blog later in the day.

Sources of Inspiration

2011-03-26T17:18:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones... I really have no problem finding inspiration for the things I create. In fact, I have an overload of inspiration -- there's nature all around me, I have books and magazines galore, and I have oodles and oodles of beads at hand.

Among some of those oodles and oodles of beads is a MASSIVE collection of polymer clay goodness from my friend and fellow member of Bead Art Originals, Ddee Wilder (aka Malodora). Last year Dee released some of her creations into the wild (okay, she filled big boxes full of them and sold them on eBay), and I captured some of them.

It was while I was sorting through some of those beads, looking for something completely different, that I happened upon a collection of beads that share the same colors; and because they were all different shapes and sizes, I thought they'd make for a neat addition to a rather plain bead crochet rope. The rope is mostly white, but I added a sprinkling of transparent purple beads. And then the fun began as I added Ddee's beads to either end of the lariat.

This piece is called Sugarplum Fairy Dance, and even though sugarplums are typically thought of as a Christmas sort of thing, I just couldn't come up with a better name to describe this lariat. It truly does look like a dance, don't you think?

Another source of inspiration is the Bead Art Originals color mosaic challenge. Every two weeks the members of this team are challenged to create bead art using a photo as inspiration. The photos range from works of art, to photos of nature, to photos of fabrics; and our challenge is to create something using two or three of the colors from the photo.

The newest challenge was to create something using the colors from a painting called Let Me Tell You a Story, by an talented artist named Jeannie L. Paske.

The painting is from a series called Obsolete World, and I can say without reservation that I would love to own each and every painting in the collection.

I don't know what it is about them - the colors, the subject matter, or just the incredibly poignant imagery. But I think they're wonderful. (And I'm pretty sure I'm going to own several of these after we get our house built!)

My creation for the color mosaic challenge uses Czech glass beads in turquoise green with a picasso finish paired with some dark copper colored beads with a silky semi-matte finish. The bracelet is part of my Knot, Ready for Prime Time collection. Because the colors mimic the patina of aged copper, I've named this bracelet Weathered.

So, I'm curious. Where do you find inspiration?

7200 Beads Later...

2011-03-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, you read that correctly. Seven thousand two hundred beads later.

The design I created (see my previous post) is a 600-bead repeat. And for some reason I decided that the rope needed to be longer. I could have quit at three or four repeats. Or five. Or ten. But noooooooooo. I did TWELVE repeats.

I'm quite pleased with the rope, though. I've named it Copper Mine, since it has so many of those gorgeous silk finish dark copper beads.

Now it's time to do something else. My thumb is a little sore from all that bead crocheting. Maybe I need to make some kind of thumb guard for when I do this...

Designing Bead Crochet Patterns

2011-03-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

If you read this blog very much, I'm sure you've noticed that I like to do bead crochet. I also like to design my own patterns, a task which till now I did using Microsoft Powerpoint and lots of copying and pasting. Talk about tedium!

While Powerpoint works for me, I wanted some other method for creating patterns for bead crochet ropes. It's just too much of a pain to develop a design when it means hundreds of clicks to place bead-like shapes over and over again in a software not designed to do that (although I've used Powerpoint for all sorts of projects over the years - it's very versatile!).

A friend of mine awhile back sent me a link to a site called Brunold Software. Damian Brunold is the mind behind the site and the mind behind the software (called DB-BEAD), which provides a pretty nifty way to create bead crochet patterns! It doesn't really come with any instructions, but I found it to be pretty intuitive.

You can see here the tools used to create a design. The design is actually "drawn" by filling in the squares in the second graph (the one with the uneven edges). On the right, you can see the finished rope as you add to the design. There are little arrows in the tool bar at the top that let you spin the rope to see how the design will look.

The only thing I did wrong when I was playing with my first design was to start at the top and design downward. I should have known better, as bead crochet stringing is actually done from the BOTTOM of a chart. I shifted everything around and played for awhile longer, and now I'm busy crocheting the rope I designed.

You'd think that my first attempt at using this software would have made me create a simple design, just to test it out. I got a little carried away, though, and wound up creating this design of graduated diamond shapes that has a 600-bead repeating pattern. Eegads. I only strung three of the repeats, but now that I know the pattern is turning out the way I wanted it to, I'll be busy stringing some more later tonight.

I've been asked quite a lot of late if I'll ever publish any of my bead crochet patterns, and I think I might now that I have a better way of creating them. Thanks to Damian Brunold for his DB-BEAD software! :-)

Best. Stick. Ever.

2011-03-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

Seriously. Who comes back from a vacation on Hilton Head Island with a picture of a STICK?!?!

Me. That's who. Because this is the best stick ever.

This stick is so great it makes me wish I was going to Chicago to take NanC Meinhartd's Art Sticks workshop. I'm not sure what kind of wood this is, but I found this near the beach on Hilton Head Island. There's a serious lack of driftwood there (at least on the beaches we visited), but this is just cool.

Best. Stick. Ever.

Let's see... What else did we do on vacation? (Yes, Bev, it IS a vacation even if we're retired!) We ate lots of really really good seafood. Filet Oscar (filet mignon topped with crabmeat stuffing), roast oysters, clam chowder, seafood chowder, shrimp, crab cakes, mahi mahi, lobster. Yum.

We went driving around the island a bit. Saw lots of birds. A few turtles. Even an alligator and a dolphin (not at the same time).

What we didn't do a lot of was shopping. There's no shortage of places to shop, but we didn't want to spend all our time (or money) in the stores and shops.

We did find a place that had BEADS.

:-)

I picked up a few semi-precious rounds for a custom order, and I also bought a BUNCH of four-ply silk thread that I can use for bead crochet.

Isn't this gorgeous?

Yards and yards and yards of silk. I can crochet for years without fear of running out of thread.

Having never crocheted with silk thread before (I've used some heavy weight stuff whose name I don't know and nylon upholstery thread), I wasn't really sure how I'd like using silk. Turns out I like it. A lot.

I had a request to create a bead crochet rope using some vintage beads (sent to me by a very special customer), and I decided to try out the silk thread. It worked great! And now I have a brand new bracelet, created from a long length of bead crochet rope and then knotted in a very special way before doing an invisible join.

So now I know what I'm going to be doing with all that silk thread. I just have to figure out what to do with the stick. :-)

March On!

2011-03-02T15:41:00.000-08:00

I'm not usually early when it comes to beady deadlines. In fact, I'm notorious for waiting until the last possible minute and then scrambling to think of a name for something I just created, take pictures, edit pictures, write Etsy listings, upload to flickr. Argh!

Oddly enough, though, I finished my March freeform peyote cuff for the Bead Journal Project 2011. And I finished it early! And it's photographed and listed.

Am I turning over a new leaf now that I'm a year older? Probably not. I'll probably fall right back into my procrastinating ways when it comes to April through December...

I was actually a bit surprised when it came time to work on the March freeform. For these cuffs to turn out the way I want, I like to have at least twenty different types of beads. It's important, to me at least, to have a variety of sizes and shapes; and since I'm doing these freeforms to coordinate with each month's birthstone, I need lots of beads of a certain color.

When I started going through my beads, I wasn't sure I had enough that fell into the aquamarine colorway to be able to create a cuff! I have loads and loads of delicas, but only wound up with two or three shades/finishes of those in the right color. I had a few Czech glass seed beads of the right hue, but not as many as I would have liked. I wound up having to cheat a bit and use some white and clear beads to make up the difference for the smaller beads. But I hit the jackpot when I started going through my "random" beads -- faux pearls, some funky glass beads of different shapes and sizes, and even some cats' eye beads in the perfect shade of aquamarine.

The result of my not having as many seed beads to work with meant that I wound up using a little more netting than usual, just because it covers more area than straight peyote would cover. Having more of the larger beads gives this cuff way more texture than usual.

...

Speaking of texture, next month's bracelet will be all about texture... the birthstone for April (at least according to the chart I found) is diamond. So I've already started gathering lots and lots of clear beads.

Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeeeeee

2011-02-28T05:22:00.000-08:00

Yep, today's my birthday. I'm enjoying the first latte of the day, watching Maverick (the original one, with James Garner) on TV (not my choice, but it's okay), and preparing to head to Asheville for a free birthday lunch at my favorite restaurant. Yay!

So this is just a quick blog post to tell you all that I'm giving YOU a present today... a coupon for my Etsy shop, good for TODAY ONLY, for a whopping 28% off anything in the shop!!! The coupon code is Birthday2011. Remember, this is good for today only. It's the largest discount I've ever offered, and you probably won't see this again.

I'm not sure I'll get any new pieces made today, but I did finish a new bangle of sorts yesterday. Melon Twist was made for the Bead Art Originals color mosaic, which you can see if you visit the BAO blog.

Melon Twist is a bead crochet rope made from a mixture of beautiful Czech glass size 11/0 beads. It's crocheted with eight beads around, which makes it more structural than a rope made with fewer beads around, and I added a wire and some extra stitching to help it hold its shape while it's being worn.

Okay, off to celebrate my birthday!! :-)

Bead Journal Project 2011 - February Freeform

2011-02-23T10:08:00.000-08:00

It's February. Actually, it's technically LATE February. And although I finished my February free form cuff for the Bead Journal Project 2011 a few weeks ago, I'm only now getting around to writing the post about it.

I have to say that if my birthday didn't fall in this month, I might have had to lie about my age or have my birth certificate altered so I could have amethyst as my birthstone. Next to black and white, purple is my favorite color. It was no surprise to me at all, when I went to my bead storage to choose the beads for February's cuff, that I had a multitude of purple beads from which to choose.

Freeform cuffs are such fun to create - not knowing how they're going to turn out when they're finished is part of the excitement. Watching them grow, inch by inch by inch, is an adventure in itself; and the process of creating them involves adding a bunch of beads and then holding the piece out at arm's length to see which beads want to be added next. Because the beads always tell you... :-)

This February cuff (which is available in my Etsy shop) has beads of all sorts in it: mother of pearl (which I used as a focal and also as the closure), glass beads, amethyst beads, Czech glass seed beads, tiny glass flowers (which are added at one edge, along with some coin beads, to make a funky little bit of fringe near the focal), Japanese delicas, drops, and all sorts of other goodies.

I mentioned before that this was created for the Bead Journal Project 2011. If you want to see more of the BJP projects, be sure to visit the blog.

March is coming up next, so stay tuned for a freeform cuff in aquamarine! :-)

Nifty Way to Show Off Etsy Treasuries

2011-02-21T10:53:00.000-08:00

Isn't this cool? One of my friends on the Full Time Etsy Crafters team passed on the link to this website that allows you to publish an Etsy treasury to a blog or website. Rather than using a screen shot to show the items, all the links are actually live!

'Euclidean Delights' by windyriver

Some serious geometry!

A Nestled Three, in Tri... bluebicicletta $20.00	FREE SHIPPING - Green a... Mazizmuse $55.00	Swirls Hand Embroidered... Waterrose $78.00	Eclipse Vinyl Record Ne... arohasilhouett... $45.00
Dots flowers porcelain ... NiuTaller $26.00	Silky 1972 Black and Wh... dreamingofsewi... $13.00	Le Tissu textile earrin... Lindecise $30.00	Unicursal Hexagram geom... toybreaker $30.00
Winter Geometry, fine a... MaryAnnGlassPh... $20.00	ROMAN HOLIDAY - set of ... photopia $15.00	Tribal Triangles Neckla... BooandBooFacto... $42.00	A Perfect Spiral - Fi... petuniaz $4.00
Geometry 5x7 Darkroom P... PictureBook $40.00	Crossword Puzzle - Wide... time2cre8 $75.00	love hurts - vintage bl... sadiedeluxe $20.00	GEOMETRY - hand-drawn t... louloudo $9.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

I thought it kind of cool, although I don't know that I'll post every treasury here to my blog. I'm not particularly diligent about updating this blog, as you may already know...

By the way, that's my Crossword Puzzle cuff there on the bottom row. :-)

If you want to use the tool, click here to be taken to the site. And just FYI, the options I chose to post this one were with 4 columns and using the "small" image size.

Whatcha Been Doin'?

2011-02-20T06:58:00.000-08:00

If this blog is any indication, I haven't been doing anything at all. But that's just not true. I've been busy busy busy!!

Mostly I've been looking at kitchen cabinets, siding, doors, windows, bathroom cabinets, tile, flooring, roofing, and all the other things that are going to go into building our house. There are so many decisions that go into building a house that it's almost overwhelming. I'm glad we've done this before, because that definitely makes it easier. It's also made easier by the fact that my husband is a carpenter and knows how buildings are constructed; and I'm really good at visualization, so I can figure out what I want without being able to see it on paper. Even with those advantages, there are still LOTS of decisions to be made. Next week we start trekking to local building supply places to get bids.

In between figuring out all the house stuff, I've been beading. Of course. I even managed to publish a couple more peyote patterns last week.

Here are some of the beady things I've done, starting with two new peyote cuffs and two new designs:

Spring Leaves - Shimmery Chartreuse and Crystal Peyote Bracelet / Cuff

Diametric - Dark Bronze and Bright Yellow Gold Peyote Bracelet / Cuff

Then there's this piece, called Root Beer and Cotton Candy, which I made as a gift. I used bead crochet to make this rope, which is long enough to be worn as a necklace or as a bracelet. The beads are vintage cola-colored transparent beads with pale mauve lined beads to create the diamond shapes that are scattered the entire length of the piece. I thought it needed a little something else, so I added a long peyote tube made from the pink beads.

I didn't just make these pieces, but I finally managed to take some pictures and get them listed in my Etsy shop:

Sunshine - Bright Yellow and Pearly White Ruffled Bracelet

And this piece is called Nina (which means "fire" in Quechua, a Native American language). I thought it was a fitting name for this smoke fired pendant created by Kristie Roeder (aka artisanclay). Her square donut pendant is perfectly paired with the dark rust colored Czech glass beads that have a picasso finish (from Shannon, at beadsandbabble).

I also managed, in between answering questions about cabinets (how high, how wide, what will you put in that one, what's that called, should they be staggered or flat, what door style, what color - ARGH!), to publish patterns for two of my older peyote cuff designs.

Crazy Quilt

Desert Camo

And while all those things are actually FINISHED, I was also busy working on a bunch of new things... Some Totally Tubular pendants for a local gallery, a bead crochet necklace that will feature a GIANT bead by the uber-talented Lisa Peters (aka LisaPetersArt), and some other beady goodies of all sorts. Here's a sneak preview of the big bead piece. I love this giant bead, which is almost 2" long with a delicious deep royal blue glaze!

Now it's time to get back to playing with beads. I just know I'm going to have to answer more house questions this afternoon... :-)

Where Are My Glasses?

2011-02-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

Where are they? Have you seen them? Help me look.

Even in the short amount of time I've spent with my little sister (long story, which you can read here), I heard these words several times. She has glasses, and she's notorious for putting them down somewhere and then forgetting where they are.

Well, now she has no excuse.

After I told her I couldn't locate those little rubber thingies for the ends, she gave me an old lariat she had so I could cut them off of it.

Since this will be used a LOT, I decided that bead crochet would be the way to go. It's sturdy and very flexible and comfortable to wear, and this one is pretty slim since I used only five beads around. The beads are the Czech glass picasso finish ones I like so much, this time a mixture of five or six different blends I had in my stash. Even though they're from different colorways, they blend beautifully.

And the best thing of all? She likes it! She really really likes it!

The funniest part? When she was talking to me about her new glasses holder, she needed her glasses to look at it more closely so she could check out the finishes on the beads. And she couldn't find her glasses! Where were they this time? HANGING ON HER SHIRT.

She cracks me up. (love ya, Bev!)

Bead Crochet for Any Climate

2011-02-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

I didn't intend to do it, but over the course of about a week I wound up creating two bead crochet ropes that are climate based.

Not really. I just happened to give these pieces names that would indicate they're from different climates.

The first one is called Bonaire Blues, and I gave this piece its name because of the name of the beads - Caribbean Blues. The beads are Czech glass with a picasso finish, and they're beautiful shades of blue with a hint of green, just like an ocean reef. I've actually been lucky enough to visit Bonaire (an island in the Netherlands Antilles, which is where Aruba is) and scuba dive there. Because it's close to the equator, it's very warm there, but it's cooled by ocean breezes. The reefs are beautiful, too, with all sorts of corals and fish; and I even got to hold a seahorse in my hand on one of my dives.

Although it's shown here as a bracelet, this piece is long enough (48") to be worn as a necklace looped once or twice around.

And aren't those beads GORGEOUS?!

Just in case you're shopping for beads, these came from my friend Shannon, of beadsandbabble. She has a HUGE selection of Czech beads, lots of them with the picasso finish you see here.

The next climate-based piece was actually inspired by the recent snowstorms that hit the midwest and northeast of the United States. We used to live in Illinois, and I was following the weather updates by some of my Facebook friends. If we still lived in our house up there, I'd have been shoveling more than two feet of snow. BLECH.

It was while I was seeing all that white on the TV that I decided to make a bead crochet rope using all white beads. This piece is called Snowstorm, and it's made from three different types of white beads: opaque matte, opaque, and translucent. The pattern in the rope is very simple, with the three whites just spiraling around the rope from end to end.

I have lots of other white beads, too, so I decided to add fringe to the ends of this rope using a whole variety of glass beads. There are frosted glass, faux pearls, opaque, translucent, and cats eye in the mix, resulting in a lush fringe that's more than 3-1/2" long.

Now it's time to go outside and enjoy some of the 45-degree weather. I hope all my Illinois and Wisconsin friends are warm and safe and finished with their shoveling duties. :-)

January - Bead Journal Project 2011

2011-01-31T08:49:00.000-08:00

I know I said before that I wasn't going to have any New Year's Resolutions, and I'm sticking by that. I did decide at the end of last year, though, that I needed something to challenge myself to be more creative; and I decided that the Bead Journal Project 2011 was just the thing.

I've just been going through some of the blogs of other participants, and I'm amazed by the variety of works I see there -- everything from bead embroidered journal pages, to pieces of jewelry, to spirit dolls, to ... well, visit the blog and check them out for yourself.

Since much of my time is spent beadweaving, it was only natural for me to choose to do something beadwoven for my journal project. And since I spent several hours last year sorting my beads (well, everything except my delicas, which require their own system) into bins by color, I've been inspired to create more freeform bracelets. I dug through my "red" container to locate all sorts of different beads in shades of garnet, maroon, burgundy, and RED to create this freeform cuff which is named January.

They are great fun to create. Freeing, really, because there's no design and no concept of how they're going to look when they're finished. I never have any idea of where they're going to go, and sometimes I don't even know how big they're going to be when they're finished. It's just a matter of adding some beads, holding the piece up to look at it, and then "listening" to the piece tell me which beads need to be added next.

This piece varies in width from just over an inch near the closure to two inches at the center. There are beads of all kinds in here - garnet rounds, delicas, metallic lined glass beads, painted glass beads, freshwater pearls, Czech glass beads in sizes ranging from tiny 15/0 to 5/0 triangle shaped beads. And it's all finished off with a peyote loop and a gorgeous garnet colored button with an intricate design that's visible when you hold the button in the light.

I'm quite happy with the way January turned out, but I have to tell you that I'm already dreading February... It's going to be lots of shades of purple, and I just HATE photographing purple!! Wish me luck. :-) And don't forget to check out the Bead Journal 2011 blog.

Ropes!

2011-01-24T11:16:00.000-08:00

I've had ropes on my mind lately. Bead crochet ropes, that is. Or one REALLY long bead crochet rope that you've seen glimpses of before.

And now it's finished. All 95" of it. More than 10,000 beads strung and crocheted. It really is gorgeous, even if I do say so myself.

The beads were supplied to me by the customer who requested this fantabulous bit of bead crochet: vintage beads with a gorgeous matte metallic finish in a color that looks sage green in some light and gray in some. There are also some vintage dark cola colored transparent beads that complement the matte metallic ones nicely.

She asked for some different patterns, so this one has five patterns: tiny dots, a spiraling stripe, little diamonds, little dashes, and some zigzag stripes.

I suppose it was because I had ropes on my mind for so long (it really does take a long time to string and crochet all those beads!) that I came up with the idea for a rope design for a peyote cuff.

Here's the first version of my newest design, Rope. I resisted the urge to call this one "Murder," even though the beads I chose (purely by chance) are dark brick RED and light buttered RUM. Red Rum, Red Rum, Red Rum... anyone for a Stephen King movie? :-)

It's a nice day outside today, with a storm predicted for tomorrow and the day after... so I think it's time for a walk. Who knows? Maybe I'll find some inspiration nearby...

Time to Share

2011-01-18T09:12:00.000-08:00

I grew up as an only child (yeah, yeah, yeah, Bev, I'm not any more!!), so I didn't have any concept of sharing. My toys were my toys. My food was my food. My room was my room. Hmmm. Not much has really changed, I guess. :-)

Actually, I do like to share some things. Not too long ago I shared a free peyote pattern for an ichthus fish design. I still haven't made one of these for myself - it's on my to-do list. My friend and fellow beadweaver Carol Dean (aka SandFibers) also shared a free peyote design on her blog (and be sure to follow the link to read her interview).

And now I have another goody to share, for any of you aspiring polymer clay artists out there.

This is from a newsletter I received from one of my favorite polymer clay artists, Christi Friesen. Christi has a very distinctive style to her work, and I was lucky enough to be able to take one of her classes at the Bead and Button show in 2009 (and I'm sooooooo tempted to sign up for one of her steampunk classes this year!). The class was a load of fun, and I learned a lot; and although I still haven't gotten around to using the POUNDS of polymer clay I have stashed away, I now have some ideas churning.

The thing I wanted to share is that Christi is offering a free online class to learn how to make this Frost Faerie. She has some special deals on purchasing the materials you'll need, although I'm sure you could supply your own to make your own version.

There are some other online classes on her website, for those of you who can't travel to shows to take a class from her in person.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have anything of your own you'd like to share!

A New(er) Design and a New Pattern

2011-01-17T15:49:00.000-08:00

It's January, and although I didn't make any New Year's resolutions, I am making an effort this year to catch up on some things... namely, getting patterns ready, photographing and listing completed pieces that are sitting in a box, and finishing the giant pile of UFOs I have.

I created the Swirly design last October, and created the first version of it shortly after I finished the design.

The Bead Art Originals color challenge inspired me to create a new version of this design, one using three colors instead of two. (Be sure to click that link so you can see all the submissions for the color challenge from our members.)

See what a difference a change in colors makes?

And just yesterday, WAY ahead of my typical schedule, I listed the Swirly pattern in my Etsy shop. There are a couple of other newly published patterns, too: To and Fro, and Dahlias.

Now it's time to get back to crocheting that custom rope I've posted about before... it'll be 95" long when I'm finished, and that's a LOT of stringing and crocheting.

Bead Crochet Fun

2011-01-12T10:37:00.000-08:00

Bead crochet was one of the first techniques I learned when I started playing with beads a few years ago. It seemed like an easy thing to learn, since I already knew the basics of crochet. And while it's not as easy as it looks (there's definitely a learning curve), it's still one of my favorite types of beadweaving.

I'm in the midst of stringing a bunch of beads right now for a custom bead crochet rope. The beads were actually sent to me by the customer, and they're beautiful. The only challenge I have with them is that they're vintage beads, which means that the holes are irregular and sometimes too small for my needle. It slows down the stringing process pretty drastically, but the results are definitely worth it.

You can see the challenge here in this picture. That's as far onto the needle as this bead will travel. I have a whole pile now of the beads whose holes are too small for the needle. They can probably be used for something else - just not bead crochet. And not with the size needle I'm using (a 10, maybe?).

I did quite a bit of bead crochet back in November and December, but I'm only just now getting around to taking pictures.

Yesterday I listed one of the ropes I made in November, which I named Amaryllis (I looked the name up on a site called BehindTheName and found that Amaryllis means "to sparkle" - a very fitting name for this piece which is made with matte gold and shiny bronze beads.

The smaller beads in this piece all came from one of my favorite sources for Czech beads, Shannon of beadsandbabble. She has such a great selection!!

And just today I listed a lariat that I named Chloris, after a Greek goddess.

Again, these beads came from beadsandbabble, and while I purchased them thinking I'd use them as accent beads, the mix was so beautiful that I decided to just string them and crochet them. I used the entire hank for this lariat, and then added some random glass beads and silver toned bead caps to the ends for some extra pizzazz.

The beads in this piece are size 8/0, crocheted with five beads around on dark green nylon upholstery thread (my thread of choice for most of my bead crochet).

As much fun as I have making these, I consider myself a novice when I compare my work to some bead crochet I've seen. A friend of mine just sent me a link to the website for an Italian gallery, where I saw the INCREDIBLE work of Jacqueline Lillie, a French artist with amazing talent.

I am just blown away by her designs and by the fact that the ropes in this bracelet appear to be crocheted with 20 or more beads around and - my guess - size 15/0 or even smaller beads.

Amazing.

It's work like this that inspires me to play more and explore more.

Right now, it's time for me to get back to stringing... I still have about 30" of rope to be crocheted, which means I have a few thousand beads left to string. Darn those tiny holes!

:-)

I Hereby Resolve...

2011-01-05T11:44:00.000-08:00

NOT to have a New Year's Resolution! So there.

Oh, there are lots of things I could resolve to do this year: get in shape, spend more time with friends and family, work on more beadweaving designs, publish more patterns, clean the house more often, organize the mountains of paperwork that surround me, finish some of the UFOs that are sitting in boxes, yada yada yada.

But this year I'm not going to make a resolution to do anything. I think it's too much like the GOALS I used to have to write when I was working. I hated those things. Hated writing them. Hated having to scramble to get them done. Even hated having to review the progress my employees made on achieving their goals.

This year I'm just going to follow Yoda's advice. "Do or do not. There is no try."

So far, I'm doing. Photographing and listing jewelry that's been finished (can you believe some of these have been sitting around for a YEAR?! eegads). Cutting cardstock to list in my other Etsy shop (which has ACEO blanks and an assortment of kitschy and vintage stuff). Making a point to call my sister and stepmother with some regularity. Filling up the recycle bin with some of the paper that's accumulated.

Here are the new pieces I've listed so far this week. Happy New Year!

Shimmer, Sparkle, and Shine in a Slim Peyote Bracelet

Empress - Dark Red and Pale Matte Silver Bracelet (Knot, Ready for Primetime)

Stripey Triangle - Peyote Pendant on Satin Choker

Industrial Neopolitan - Metallic Striped Peyote Bracelet / Cuff

Romanesque - Matte Steel and Black Peyote Bracelet / Cuff

How about you? Any New Year's Resolutions for you this year?

Farewell to 2010

2010-12-31T19:11:00.000-08:00

This has been a year of mixed blessings. Happiness and sorrow, plans made and changed... things never quite turn out the way we think they might when we begin a new year, do they? There are parts of 2010 that I'd love to be able to go back and change, but I know that's not possible. So onward into 2011 with hope that it'll be a good year.

I do have some things to look forward to in 2011... I have a whole new bunch of family members to get to know; with any luck at all, we'll start building a new house in the spring; and we may even work in a vacation or two this year (I'm planning to attend the Bead and Button show this year in Milwaukee, so that's a major vacation).

Since I spend so much of my time beading, I thought I'd put together a little mosaic that shows a piece of my beadwork done in each month of 2010 (I keep track of my creations in a spreadsheet, of course - doesn't everyone?).

Even though I keep a spreadsheet to track my creations, beads used, prices, etc., I'm not always diligent about recording everything I make. There are a bunch of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) which haven't been recorded. And there are a few pieces that ARE finished that haven't been photographed yet and haven't been recorded. But by my estimation, I've created more than 200 new pieces this year. Not bad, I think.

This year ends with me working on a custom bead crochet rope. At this point it's about halfway finished, which means I have almost 30" of it done. The beads in this one are some gorgeous metallic sage green/gray size 11s and some transparent cola colored 11s. They're all vintage, so they're irregular in size and shape, resulting in a rope that has a really organic look to it. The rope will have a few different patterns in it, and I'm stringing each section separately so I don't wind up with yards and yards of strung beads to keep untangled.

And with that, I say farewell to 2010. And Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful year.

Don't Take My Kodachrome Away

2010-12-29T12:22:00.000-08:00

It's official. Or it will be official tomorrow. No more Kodachrome film. The end of an era. The last lab in the world that processes the film is discontinuing the processing tomorrow. Kind of makes me wonder just how many people scrambled to get a last batch of pictures taken and that last roll of film sent off to the lab.

Years ago, I used rolls and rolls of Kodachrome film to take pictures underwater. The colors of the corals, sponges, and fish were so vibrant when processed on Kodachrome that it was my film of choice, even if it cost more than other films. I have hundreds of slides with that little Kodachrome label on them. Truth be told, since I'm such a packrat, there's probably a stray roll of film or two sitting in a camera bag.

It's kind of a funny coincidence, but I recently created a peyote cuff for the Etsy BeadWeavers' monthly challenge. The challenge was to create something inspired by a Simon and Garfunkel song, and even though it's not really my favorite of their tunes I thought it would be fun to create a Kodachrome design because of my affinity for the film!

So I guess this Kodachrome cuff is my tribute to my favorite Kodak film. Good bye, Kodachrome. I'll miss you.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T08:28:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it's Christmas Eve!?!? We were supposed to go visit relatives for Christmas, but we've both managed to come down with colds and have decided not to share them. So we're sitting around the house, drinking lattes and yogurt (not together!), burning scented candles, and watching TV. The excitement is almost more than I can stand. :-)

As my Christmas present to you, to illustrate the reason for the season, I thought I'd give all my beadweaving friends a pattern. I created this design a couple of months ago, but I haven't had a chance to bead one yet. The pattern is for the Ichthus (or Ichthys), the ancient Greek symbol meaning "fish" and the once secret symbol used by Christians. According to tradition, ancient Christians used the fish symbol to mark meeting places and tombs, or to distinguish friends from foes.

The design as shown measures 1.27" (32.4mm) wide and 3.54" (90.12mm) long, so you'll need to add beads to either end to center the design on your bracelet. I'm providing the indexed chart here for you to use.

By printing this pattern, you agree to the following:
- to credit either time2cre8 or MaryLou Holvenstot with this design in any listing, photograph, or posting. Likewise, if you make slight modifications to the design or use this as your inspiration, you must also give credit.
- to sell any work made and sold from the pattern ONLY if you created the piece yourself.
- to NOT resell or distribute this pattern in any way.

The gift of this pattern to you in no way implies purchase or transfer of copyright, which shall remain with time2cre8 / MaryLou Holvenstot. Thank you for supporting your pattern designer's rights!

You may share this with your friends by providing them with a link to this blog post.

Before I go, I also want to mention that I listed a brand new bracelet in my Etsy shop, Jeweltone Stripes -- the perfect accessory for a party!

Visit the Bead Art Originals blog to see how you can receive a 20% discount on anything in my Etsy shop from now through December 30!

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!

Never Enough Time

2010-12-21T12:56:00.000-08:00

I wrote earlier this summer about how excited I was to have reunited with my Dad, after a 37-year separation (a long story).

Now I've spent the past week mourning his passing.

My best estimate is that I spent fewer than 21 days with him during my life. I met him when I was a teenager and spent about a week with him and with my siblings and stepmother. Then I reunited with him this July. It took me a long time to make the decision to meet him again, but I'm so happy that I did. I can never get back those 37 years, but so many people close to my Dad have told me how happy he was that I was back in his life. And I'm happy I was back in his life.

Even in those paltry 21 days he made an impression. I already know I'm going to miss the phone calls, which almost always started with his shouting, "Whaddya know, Kiddo?" It didn't seem to matter what we talked about - he was just happy we were talking.

If only there was a giant rewind button that would allow me to go back in time and change things. I didn't think 19 years was enough time to have with my Mom, and 21 DAYS certainly wasn't enough time to have with my Dad. My stepmom had 51 years with him, and it wasn't enough. My Dad's sisters and brother had 75+ years with him, and it wasn't enough. It's never enough.

I am thankful, though, that I at least had some time with him. And I'm thankful for all the new family I have. A sister, a brother, a stepmom, aunts and uncles, nieces and a nephew, and a whole bunch of cousins - all of whom welcomed me into the family with open arms.

I'll miss you, Dad.

All Kinds of New Stuff

2010-12-09T12:13:00.000-08:00

New patterns, a new cuff, and new bead crochet lariat! Of course, they weren't all created overnight, but once again I'm trying to focus on getting some patterns ready to publish and getting some pictures taken of the growing pile of finished pieces I have sitting on the table.

Here's a quick look at the new goodies:

Salt and Pepper Bead crochet lariat made with opaque black and white beads, crocheted six around and with four different patterns (five, if you count the little stripey sections I used to separate the other patterns).

I went to Cincinnati over Thanksgiving week to visit with my newfound family, and I took a whole bunch of beads with me so I'd have something to do when we were just sitting around relaxing. (What? Doesn't everyone bead to relax??)

This design wasn't even really planned. I just started stringing beads on the fly, not even keeping very good track of how many I was stringing. Sometimes that's more fun than planning something.

Swoosh

For some reason I just decided I wanted to make another version of this cuff. It's quite an undertaking, since it's more than 2.25" wide and is done in two drop peyote stitch.

When I was a kid, I remember my Mom telling me that blue and green didn't go together. I think she might have been wrong, because I really like the combination of lime green with cobalt blue and white.

She was right about everything else though.

:-)

I've also been working on getting some more patterns published and listed, and I managed to finish two so far this week! I received requests to publish both PAINT and SWOOSH, so those are both done. Now I'm working on the next one on the request list, DAHLIAS. Just in case you haven't seen it yet, all my patterns are on sale (already marked down) PLUS if you buy three or more on a single invoice you'll receive an additional $1 off per pattern (refunded through PayPal). Yay!

Of course there are always things to distract me... working on more new pieces, going out to eat, and one of Etsy's new thingies, the Activity Feed and Circles. I wasn't sure how the Circles thing was any different than "hearting" a shop, but it's kind of cool because it lets me see what my favorite shop owners like. And they like some COOL stuff! The Activity Feed is just fun because it lets me know when my stuff has been hearted or included in a treasury.

And now it's time to get ready to go out to eat at a new restaurant (well, new for us) and then watch the Waynesville Christmas parade. :-)

The Perfect Group

2010-12-03T19:32:00.000-08:00

It's nice to know I'm not alone. So far, I'm in the company of 39 people who apparently share my affliction -- I'm a messy beader.

I had no hesitation whatsoever in accepting Jennifer VanBenschoten's invitation to join The Messy Beaders' Club. (You may know Jennifer from her beady posts on about.com.) Especially when I saw the picture Jen posted of her workspace. The ONLY thing that saves me from having a workspace that looks like hers is that I do most of my beadweaving on an old cutting board with one of those mats on top of it. The board is 12" x 18", so that's the size of my "Current Project Beady Mess." That doesn't mean I don't have a mess. It's just in another place, namely the shelves in the living room and dining room (at least that's where it is in this house).

Here's a relatively recent shot (ignore that date in the lower left corner, the result of my not changing the date on the camera)... That's my husband there pretending to be Macaulay Culkin. And that's me in my normal beading attire - cartoon pants and a sweatshirt - with my legs scrunched up underneath me (yes, I sometimes get up and feel like a pretzel). My little Ikea light is a great task light. Laptop is poised and ready for action at any given moment. And there you can see my cutting board piled with projects. And for those with inquiring minds, that IS a witch's broom leaned against the wall next to me, just in case I have to dash out on an errand. haha. :-)

I try to organize. I really do. But beads are cantankerous little critters. They don't want to STAY organized.

My Delicas are all sorted. I think I spent two days making labels and punching holes in the tops of zip-top bags to hold them. I was sick of trying to dig through all the little plastic tubes and plastic bags the beads came in, and I'm much happier with this system. I just have to make myself put the little bags back on their metal rings after I've finished with them.

Not too long ago I sorted the bulk of my other seed beads into some of those plastic shoe box containers. They're divided by color. They just need to STAY divided by color. I always wind up with a pile of tubes, hanks, and bags that need to go back into their assigned containers. And then there are the beads I don't want to sort by color, the special ones that I like to keep together, like the ones with a picasso finish.

That bit of organization is just the little beads, sizes 15/0 through 6/0. There are also containers of art beads. Lots and lots and lots of art beads. And pearls. Crystals. Assorted glass beads. Wood beads. Findings. Needles and tools. A container of wire, even though I don't do much with wire. I want to be ready. And another container of thread for bead crochet.

Some day we'll get our house built, and I intend to come up with some sort of method of organizing all this beady goodness that will allow me to (1) find what I want when I want it, and (2) not require vast amounts of effort to maintain. I'm not sure such a method can be found, though. You see, I also suffer from the "I Must Have More Beads" affliction; and that means the collection is always growing...

If you're a beader, particularly if you're a MESSY beader, check out the blog Jen created: The Messy Beaders' Club. It's sure to be fun. :-)

The Best Laid Plans

2010-11-16T12:49:00.000-08:00

The Plan: String a bunch of beads onto spools of upholstery thread so I have projects to take with me on road trips. Bead crochet is a great thing to take along on trips because the beads are all captured ahead of time, and I don't have to keep track of any kind of pattern (other than making sure I didn't goof up in the stringing).

The Reality: I just couldn't wait to crochet the beads I strung on Saturday.

Can you blame me? These beads, which I purchased from a lovely Etsy seller named Shannon (aka beadsandbabble), were just too tempting sitting there on my shelf. You may remember prior gushing about Shannon's beads, as I've posted pictures before of some of the picasso finish beads I bought from her. She has a great selection (over 900 listings, I think) and first rate service.

So off I went to the gallery on Saturday, taking with me some projects to keep me occupied. I grabbed the beads, a spool of thread, a needle, and (this is what did me in) my crochet hook. I suppose I shouldn't have taken the crochet hook with me if I really intended for this to be a "future" project. But there it is.

And here it is. Mulberries in Heavy Cream. A luscious, gorgeous (if I do say so myself), wonderful necklace.

And now guess what? I need to string some beads to take on our impending road trip. At least two or three lariats' worth, I think. I just hope I can refrain from crocheting them until we're actually ON the road.

:-)

Monday Monday

2010-11-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

Do you ever have times when you forget what day of the week it is? I do. It never used to happen. When I was working, I always knew what day it was and even the date. Now? Nope. Sometimes I forget. Today, for some reason, feels like Saturday. As I typed the "when I was working" phrase, I realize that it's now been FIVE years since I had a real job. Do I miss working? NOT FOR A MINUTE!!!

I know today's Monday, but I had to think about it for a minute. I actually spent my Saturday filling in at the Art On Depot in Waynesville. The ceramic artist (Cathey Bolton-Moore) who owns the studio/gallery just had a baby girl, so I volunteered to work there on Saturdays for a few weeks.

For someone like me, who has no discernible schedule (because getting up and having two lattes every morning does NOT constitute a schedule), it was really strange to go somewhere to "work." I didn't want to be bored, so I took some projects with me. Knowing that the studio has pretty good lighting, I grabbed the box of jewelry I'd finished and never photographed so I could take some long-overdue pictures.

And look! I took pictures of this brand new bracelet, which I named Black and Old Brass. This is a simple design, but I love making these bracelets so I can play with my massive collection of old buttons. This one uses a cool looking antiqued brass four-hole button, so I used brassy-colored delicas and shiny black delicas for the bracelet.

I actually managed to take a few pictures at home, too! This bracelet, an olive and silver version of my Fabric design, was created for the Bead Art Originals color mosaic. You can visit the BAO blog to see past color mosaics, and the one that features dark and light olive will be posted later this week.

Time for my second latte of the day. What a schedule, eh? :-)

I'm Ready for My Closeup, Mr. DeMille

2010-11-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

That famous line has been quoted for years as Norma Desmond's line (and, not being old enough to remember Gloria Swanson, I remember it being said by Carol Burnett).

Well, sometimes I think that's what my jewelry would say if it could talk. You see, I'm really good about MAKING things but not so good about PHOTOGRAPHING them. I blame it on two things. Number one -- I don't really have good lighting in this house, or a good place to set up my light box, so it's always a challenge to find a spot for pictures. And number two -- I'd much rather be making things than taking pictures of the things I make.

Some day I'm going to have a dedicated spot for pictures. In the meantime, I'm still happily beading away and waiting for just the right time of day and just the right window to use for photographs.

Here you see a PILE of pieces that have been recently finished... all waiting for their closeups. Where's Mr. DeMille when you need him?

In case you're curious, there are six bracelets and one bead crochet lariat in that pile. Eegads.

Celebrating Every Day

2010-11-04T07:03:00.000-07:00

If you're reading this post, there's a good chance that means you spend what could be termed a significant amount of time on the internet. Right? I admit I spend a lot of time with my laptop in my lap, usually with umpteen tabs open to satisfy my gnat-like attention span.

So what does that have to do with celebrating? Well, as I was trying to figure out what I could write that related to celebrations (the current theme of the Art Bead Scene Carnival of Bloggers), I realized that many of the sites I visit have celebrations going on...

For example:

Judith Bertoglio-Giffin just celebrated the completion of a five-year project, a new e-book called Triangular Bead Crochet Ropes.

I'm a big fan of bead crochet, and I already own several of Judith's previous publications (in hard copy form); so I was doing my own bit of celebrating to see that this e-book is now complete.

Anyone who's ever tried to design a bead crochet pattern knows just how tricky that can be -- getting the right number of repeats in the stringing pattern and getting the pattern to repeat properly without being able to actually see it until you start crocheting. Well, Judith has apparently come up with a new method of patterning that solves those problems.

Hooray!

A friend and fellow beadweaver, Triz, celebrates the completion of a gorgeous beaded leather bag on her blog, Beading Mania. The bag was a long time in the making, and Triz gets to celebrate a little every day as she carries this bag with her.

She's another blogger and artisan who regularly celebrates her new creations. And with good reason!

I am in complete awe of her talent, and I've spent the past couple of weeks drooling over her latest venture into leather and beaded cuffs. They are incredible, as you can see by visiting either her blog or her Etsy shop.

Another friend and fellow beadweaver Carol Dean Sharpe writes lots of celebratory posts in her SandFibers blog.

On Saturdays she goes "window shopping" on Etsy to celebrate the artistry she finds there. Her finds are always drool-worthy.

On Thursdays she posts pictures to the treasuries which have featured her work during the past week, something always worth celebrating.

And being a prolific beadweaver, she often writes happy posts about her newest creations, as in this one entitled: A Brand New Cuff for a Brand New Week!

I know there are lots of occasions to be celebrated: Birthdays, holidays, new jobs, graduations... It's a pretty endless list.

But how many of you celebrate something every day? Even celebrating a small thing will give you a momentary mood lift that might carry you into the next moment with a different outlook. I notice lots of celebrations on Facebook (where I spend an inordinate amount of time). New puppies. New projects just finished. A new recipe. From the biggest, best occasions to the mundane, celebrating something just makes it better.

As I began writing this post, I started thinking of random things relating to celebrations.

Kristen Wiig, as the Target Lady on Saturday Night Live, celebrates every time a credit card is approved. It cracks me up every time.

It's November. And that means pomegranates are in season. I did my own little celebration in the grocery aisle the other day, seeing that big bin of delicious fruity goodness.

My husband celebrates every time he goes to the refrigerator and sees a fresh bowl of Jello I've made for him.

Have you ever played on a sports team? Or participated on any kind of team, for that matter? Doesn't it make you feel great when your team gives you a big "WOO HOO!" for something you did?

It may sound silly, but I think you should find SOMETHING to celebrate every day. It'll make your whole life better. And that's worth celebrating.

WOO HOO!

Poor Poor Neglected Blog

2010-10-26T19:42:00.000-07:00

Being able to type fast doesn't help. My poor blog is feeling neglected. For good reason. The last post I made was to introduce my new series of bracelets... Knot, Ready for Prime Time.

Since that last post, I've actually managed to finish and list quite a few of the series in my Etsy shop. I also finished another version of one of my new designs, Morning Glory Vine. And published a couple of new peyote patterns (Camouflage and Queen Anne's Lace). I have two long bead crochet ropes finished, except for the ends. And I have a brand new peyote cuff design, Paisley.

So what happens? Where does the time go? Why don't I pay attention to my poor little blog?

As much as I hate to say it, I almost feel like I need to force myself to follow a schedule. ACK! The mere thought of a schedule for someone who left the corporate world behind (almost five years ago) makes me cringe. EVERYTHING had to be done by a schedule. Meetings, phone calls, goals, more meetings... everything. I've spent the past five years rebelling against schedules of any kind.

I'm going to blame the recent neglect on the extra activity here... my husband has an injured shoulder, so my workload around the house has increased a bit. We had company last weekend, and that meant rearranging lots and lots of boxes so they'd have a place to sleep (we're still living in a rental house, and the bulk of our stuff remains in boxes). Long overdue doctor appointments. Dentist appointments. A few custom orders (those are always nice). Still. I type more than 100 words a minute. There's just no reason for my not being able to update this blog.

For those of you who DO update your blogs with regularity...
HOW DO YOU DO IT???
Do you write a bunch of posts and schedule them to publish?
Do you have a daily/weekly schedule for blogging?
I'd love to know how you keep your blog up to date and still keep up with everything else.

Just so I don't finish this post without giving you something to look at, here's a sneak peak of my newest peyote cuff design, Paisley. It'll be in my Etsy shop tomorrow, and I'm working on getting the pattern ready to publish too. :-)

Knot, Ready for Prime Time

2010-10-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes you get a song stuck in your head? Well, that's been happening to me a lot lately. Not sure why, as we don't really listen to much music in the house (Pat and I have different tastes in music). Maybe they're coming from the TV shows we watch, as I know is the case with yesterday's stuck-in-my-head melody:

I hear tell you're doing well.
Good things have come to you.
I wish I had your happiness
and you had a do-wacka-do,
wacka-do wacka-do wacka-do.

Catchy, right? An old song by Roger Miller, who made some of the funniest and happiest songs there were back in the 50s. At least I think it was the 50s. I know my Mom had one of his albums and we used to listen to it a LOT and then sing his songs at the tops of our lungs when we were in the car. What fun.

So how does that song relate to the title of this blog post? Follow me here... I've been having these songs stuck in my head... and I've been beading away making some fun new little bracelets using ndebele ropes and magnetic clasps... and as I was making the bracelets I was trying to think of a name that would describe the series... and I wanted to have the word "knot" in the name... and "Not ready for prime time" was stuck in my head. I couldn't get past it. So there you go. Stuck in my head, and now "Knot, Ready for Prime Time" is the name of my new series of bracelets.

I have three of them listed in my Etsy shop so far (with a couple more waiting in the wings). They're such fun to make that I know there are going to be more of them. Anyone have any color suggestions for me? :-)

Also new in my Etsy shop is this bead crochet lariat called Madison Ave.

Matte black and matte silver beads (the silver ones are from one of my favorite Etsy sellers: Shannon, of beadsandbabble) in a diamond pattern (actually diamonds within diamonds). As I was trying to figure out treatment to give to the ends I had a sudden inspiration to use some of my friend Dee's lathe turned polymer clay beads. They're PERFECT!!! I've had these for months, and I even had them sitting on a shelf for awhile because each one is like a tiny sculpture. (By the way, if you want to see more of Dee's wonderful polymer clay creations, visit her Etsy shop, Malodora).

And now it's time for me to get back to work. Currently in progress (because I can never seem to focus on just ONE thing):
- a new version of my Morning Glory Vine cuff
- a new peyote pattern (just needs a bit more tweaking before I bead it)
- getting patterns ready to publish (Queen Anne's Lace, Royal Flourish, Camouflage, and Swoosh are top on the list because I've had requests for them all)
- figuring out how to finish that Lisa Peters bead and ndebele rope that I posted about a few weeks ago (!)

Sometimes multi-tasking gets the best of me. But then I can just sing a verse or two of Do Wacka-Do and everything seems okay. :-)

Fabulous Friday Finds for October 8

2010-10-08T18:35:00.000-07:00

It's about time for another installment of Fabulous Friday Finds, don't you think? Once again, I've been less than diligent about posting my finds, but I've still been finding and keeping track of them so I can share. It's been a hectic couple of weeks - doctor appointments (checkups mostly), physical therapy appointments (husband's torn shoulder ligaments), and some custom orders have been taking up lots of time.

My first Fabulous Friday Find is one for any Etsy sellers who haven't already discovered it: Etsy On Sale. I think the fact that there are currently about 35,000 listings on the site means that it's been pretty well advertised and promoted, but it bears mentioning nonetheless.

If you're an Etsy seller, I'm sure you've been frustrated that there's never been an automated way to put items on sale. Any special deal, whether for a day or a month, required editing each individual listing. What a pain in the neck. My shop has more than 300 items, so the editing process is pretty painful.

Well, Etsy On Sale allows you to put everything in your shop on sale or everything in a particular section (so you could create a Sale section and move items into it). You can apply the sale for a given amount of time, select whether your sale is for a certain dollar amount off the price or a percentage off the price, and select the duration of the sale. It's sooooooo easy! And if you're looking for things to buy, you can even shop there using the same categories you'll find on Etsy.

I'm currently using it to put all my peyote patterns on sale. It works so seamlessly with Etsy that all you have to do is go to the Patterns section of my Etsy shop, and you'll see the sale prices (20% off the regular price).

The next Fabulous Friday Find is the work of an amazingly talented clay artist named Dan Friedlander.

The photo you see to the right is one of his Tower works, this one called Tower Power. He also creates tiles and other sculptures, but I just love the towers.

He uses lots and lots of white clay, and each and every tiny piece you see is created using just his fingers. Can you imagine all that rolling, squishing, squeezing, flattening, and placing?

Make sure you check out his macro photographs so you can see how much detail there is in the pieces.

I'd love to have a whole wall full of his tiles. Of course, the fact that I'm not a big fan of dusting means that's probably not the best idea for me... :-)

Next up is another clay artist. Of a completely different sort. And I'll tell you now that I pretty much want everything she has listed in her Etsy shop, blamethemoon!!!

I really haven't understood the whole cupcake craze that's been going on for the past few months... cupcakes on stationery, cupcake rings, cupcake necklaces, cupcake art.

But now I get it. I am completely in love with this guy. His name is Sprinklez. And he has some major attitude. Just you try to take a bite out of this pink cupcake - I don't think so. :-)

Sprinklez was created by a professional cake decorator named Karly. Talk about bringing your work home with you. If you want to see more of Karly's work, including some "real" cakes, check out her blog. What fun!!!

I don't carry a purse. I think I gave up the whole purse thing when I was still in junior high school, never quite understanding why some people need to carry all kinds of things around with them.

While I don't think I'm going to take up purse carrying again, this Big Fish Handbag just makes me smile. Of course, if I had a purse like this I doubt I'd ever let it leave the house. I think it would become wall art.

The Big Fish Handbag was created by a sculptural artist named Debra Gavant, and her Etsy shop is called RandomIntent. It's filled with all sorts of strange and wonderful creatures and creations.

She claims to be an alien.

I think I believe her.

She may be here to take over our planet.

We could do worse.

:-)

Sticking with the weird and wonderful, my next Fabulous Friday Find is a weird and wonderful ring.

Not a practical ring. Not a ring you could wear for everyday. Not a ring you could wear when you're typing. But what a FUN ring!!

This incredible piece, which is made from oxidized silver, was created by a jewelry designer and gemologist named Maria Goti. I came across this ring on Etsy, but you can find more of her work on flickr and in her blog.

At only 24 years old (according to her Etsy profile), it's obvious that Maria is going to be creating art for many years to come. Her work is varied - everything from the elaborate ring you see here to some very simple, modern designs - and it's all gorgeous.

I am in awe.

I'm also in awe of the clocks created by James Borden. His clocks are called Timeshapes, and they are absolutely totally amazing.

The picture here is a closeup of one of his clocks, a cherry wall clock that's 5 feet high and 3 feet wide!!

From James' biographical statement: Timeshapes are essentially mechanical weight-driven or spring-driven clocks, every part of which has been designed and built by James Borden. The pendulums and escapements are also of the artist’s own design. Timeshapes exhibit a wide, graceful motion and soft, woody, clicking sounds which are mesmerizing and relaxing to watch and hear.

I just know they're incredible, and I wish I had the money to buy one. Of course, I'd probably never get anything done because I'd be sitting and staring at it all the time.

Okay, that's it for this week. It's after 11:00, and I'm determined to get this post published before midnight! Hope you enjoyed this week's finds. :-)

Still a UFO

2010-09-26T17:52:00.000-07:00

I really do hate creating UFOs (UnFinished Objects). But sometimes they happen. Unlike a lot of jewelry designers, my process rarely involves much planning. For someone who plans almost every other aspect of my life, I suppose it's strange that I don't plan my jewelry designs. I just find it somehow freeing to create jewelry that evolves as I make it.

The bad part of that method of jewelry design is that I wind up with way more UFOs than I might if I charted out the path for each new piece. I know I'm not the only one, but I cringe at the prospect of even counting how many UFOs I have stashed away. And now there's another one. Well, it's not stashed yet because I still have hope that I can come up with a solution to my design dilemma.

This particular piece began with a drop-dead gorgeous bead by my friend Lisa Peters. Lisa makes the most incredible clay pieces - beads, cabochons, buttons, pendants, and all sorts of other goodies - and I have quite a collection of them. I was going through my stash of Lisa goodies (it's quite a large stash, and it always seems to be growing) and found this bead. I realized that I had the perfect beads to complement the colors in it in my stash of Czech glass picasso beads. And I was right.

So I made an ndebele rope using four different types of beads. The rope is PERFECT for the bead, which has a kind of organic look to it. There's a slight twist in the rope, and I think the curves in the rope look so nice with the little craters in the bead.

Ah, but here's the problem. I don't know how I want to hang the bead from the rope. I thought of making a bail using some of the same beads from the rope, but the hole is too small for a strand of ndebele. I tried using just a single strand of the larger beads, but I didn't like the way it looked. I keep thinking I might try my hand at making a big swirly bail with a piece of heavy copper wire... but I don't do much wire work.

I had a few suggestions from fans of my Facebook page, and although some of them were promising, I still have this UFO sitting on the table next to me.

So what do you think? Any ideas? I could use some help here! :-)

Fabulous Friday Finds for September 10

2010-09-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another episode of Fabulous Friday Finds! I had a whole batch of sites and goodies bookmarked to post about this week, things I collected during this past week, but I've changed my mind and decided to do a "themed" set of finds. Change is good, right?

I'll start off by saying that the reason for the theme is that I am so pleased with the way my newest peyote design turned out! Sometimes a design that looks great on paper (or on the computer screen) just doesn't look the same when it's beaded, but I was so happy with this one. I've actually been working on this design for awhile, since back when Queen Anne's Lace was in bloom, but it took some tweaking to keep it from looking to "regular." I had to fiddle with it to get the blooms to be random enough to suit me, and then I had to figure out how I wanted the design to be on the cuff so I wouldn't wind up with a 4" wide cuff (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Anyway, this week's Fabulous Friday Finds are all around one thing: Queen Anne's Lace. It's considered to be a weed, but it's such a pretty weed... :-)

As soon as I decided on this theme, I knew right where to go for the first Fabulous Friday Find that shows off Queen Anne's Lace.

The embroidered cuff you see here is the creation of an Etsy artist called Waterrose.

Rose has a particular affinity to Queen Anne's Lace, so when you visit her shop you'll see several variations. The French knots she uses in her embroidery versions of this flower are the perfect way to illustrate all the tiny blooms on the flower.

You can read more about Rose and her artistic journey on her blog or her website.

And if you like to embroider, be sure to read her latest blog post about her Queen Anne's Lace challenge!

I've only known of one name for this plant, so I was quite surprised when I came across this listing for a Cow Parsley Lamp!

This lovely lamp is the creation of an English artist named Hannah Nunn. It's a free standing table lamp made from paper which has been laser cut with the Queen Anne's Lace design and then laminated.

It has such a lovely glow. I can just see this sitting on a hall table or in a guest bathroom. (I'm going to have to remember to visit Hannah's shop again when we finally get our new house built and are ready to decorate.)

It's quickly becoming obvious to me that I could have an entire room dedicated to this flower! Just look at these lovely resin coasters that have pressed Queen Anne's Lace flowers in them. Even though they're coasters, I could see these mounted onto a dark cloth, framed, and hung as a piece of art.

These pretty coasters, as well as lots of other goodies, can be found in the Etsy shop called Zipper8Design. The shop is curated by a recent architectural school graduate, Allison, and she has way more goodies than just these resin coasters.

Be sure to check out her unique Drinking Straws Wall Sconce. What fun!

The fourth Fabulous Friday Find is by another English artist, whose Etsy shop I've had in my favorites since the very first time I spotted one of her creations.

The shop name is seaurchin, and Lisa Stevens is an amazing porcelain and ceramic artist.

I'd love to be able to watch her work, as she creates the most incredibly intricate designs in her jewelry and home decor pieces. As if that weren't enough of a reason to watch her work, she's a model maker for Aardman Animations - the creators of Wallace and Gromit! I loooooove Wallace and Gromit!!! Lisa's so lucky to be part of the creative genius behind that.

The little bowl you see here was one Lisa created for a Dish-a-Day project (one of those ventures which excites and frightens at the same time). You can see more of her creations in her flickr photostream. Definitely worth an ogle. :-)

Hillary Burkett, the curator of CameraSHYphotography, has captured a wonderful picture of a couple of Queen Anne's Lace blooms, mounted it onto a polymer clay base, and then covered the image with resin - wearable art!

Of course that picture would look just as great hanging on a wall... don't you think so? Hmmm. Maybe a themed room.

You can see more great photographic pendants, earrings, rings, and other goodies in her Etsy shop. Her style is simple and elegant and wonderful.

Having watched episodes of Beads, Baubles, and Jewels and That's Clever on TV, and having seen how tedious it is to work with a jeweler's saw to cut a design out of a piece of silver, I have a lot of admiration for the people who practice that art form.

Jane E. Roberti creates simple and modern designs featuring metal and wood. This pendant features two Queen Anne's Lace blooms that look as if they're floating away on a breeze.

You can find this pendant and more of her designs in her Etsy shop, janeeroberti; and check her flickr photostream to see some pictures of her studio (don't you love having a peek into someone's workspace?).

It's getting late here, and I've managed to find quite a few Queen Anne's Lace pieces to show you. Before you go, though, check out my newest peyote cuff design!

Happy Friday! :-)

Fabulous Friday Finds for September 3

2010-09-03T17:10:00.000-07:00

Holy cow. September! The year's gone by really quickly, and I honestly think it's speeding up. Despite the fact that most of this week was spent looking for kitchen cabinets, lights, bathroom vanities, sinks, faucets, flooring, counter tops, and all the other things we'll need to build our house, I did manage to find a few Fabulous Friday Finds that AREN'T building materials.

My first Fabulous Friday Find is a great sale, from now through September 6, being offered by my friend and fellow Bead Art Originals teammate, Darcy Horn (aka TheJadeDog).

I was cruising around on Facebook earlier today and saw Darcy's post advertising the sale: 50% off all supplies on her website! Woo hoo! And there are LOTS of supplies from which to choose, including handmade cabs and toggles, vintage beads, vintage brass, sequins, and all sorts of other goodies. (Even though the sale is for supplies, I thought you should see one of Darcy's incredible embroidered pieces - you can see more of her artisan jewelry on her website and in her Etsy shop.)

Darcy's original post: In observance of the long weekend, making some big decisions, hitting my 9 year work anniversary at International Bead Market, 4 year anniversary on Etsy (art-to-wear), 3 year anniversary on Etsy (supplies), the big 4-0 birthday, etcetcetc....From right NOW until midnight Monday September 6th, all supplies at thejadedog.com are 50% off. If you are in RO, you will get the same discount, just make an appointment.

Fill up your shopping cart, check out, and Darcy will email you the revised amount plus shipping charge.

My next Fabulous Friday Find also came about as the result of my cruising around on Facebook. One of my friends posted a link to an incredible polymer clay creation by Jon Anderson.

I've actually seen some of his pieces in person, and they're amazing. Intricately patterned creatures covered with hundreds and hundreds of polymer clay cane slices. The slices are laid out in such wonderful detail that the animals almost come to life.

There are loads of them to look at on the FimoCreations website, but these horses are my favorites.

I mentioned earlier that we're shopping for materials to build a new house, so we've been looking at lots of wood. My husband and I both like the look of wood, so we'll have cabinets, doors, trim, flooring, and even a ceiling all made from wood.

When I go poking around on Etsy, I'm always on the lookout for unique wooden pieces; and this little table, called Fufluns, is great. It's one of those things you just like but have no idea where it would be used.

Maybe a plant stand? But that would hide the top of it. Maybe it should just sit there in the room and be art. Yep. That's it. It doesn't need to "do" anything other than reside. :-)

The table is the creation of an artist from Hungary, and you can find this and more in her Etsy shop, designlipe.

Without intending to do so, I guess my mind is on building materials this week... the next Fabulous Friday Find is made from concrete!

Can you believe that such a gorgeous red heart is made from one of the staples of the building industry? It also has some recycled glass in it to add some shine, and the whole piece is framed in stainless steel.

This piece, as well as lots of other unique pieces -- all sorts of shapes and colors -- can be found in the Etsy shop called DrCraze.

The artist's name is Jeramiah Clark, and other than his having a sense of humor (evidenced by his avatar, which is of an adult male wearing flip flops and riding a tricycle), I don't know anything about him. I just love these concrete pieces. And I might have to have one some day. :-)

My final Fabulous Friday Find for this week is in another language...

I took two years of French when I was in high school. Despite the fact that I received straight As in the classes, I barely remember anything about the language (of course, that was MANY years ago). Now I have to rely on online translators.

Even without being able to read or translate French, though, this tutorial on turning polymer clay into artisan pieces that resemble leather is great. You can follow along with the pictures to see how this artist (Martine) takes polymer clay and transforms it into a gorgeous necklace that looks nothing like polymer clay in the end!

The piece you see to the left is another creation by Martine -- be sure to look through her gallery when you visit her blog.

That's it for this week's finds! More shopping next week, as we haven't made final decisions on hardly anything for the house. I may have to do a Fabulous Friday Find post that features lights, sinks, counter tops, cabinets... :-)

Beadweaving Inspired by Bones' Temperance Brennan

2010-08-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

I watch a LOT of TV. My justification for all the TV is that I use my TV time to do my beadweaving. I do a lot of beadweaving; hence, I watch a lot of TV. It's a vicious cycle. :-)

Unlike a lot of people, I don't have a studio or even a dedicated workspace for my beady work. I just camp out in my big comfy chair with my task light next to me, legs scrunched up underneath me in pretzel-like formation, and an old cutting board which acts as my work surface propped on my knees and the arm of the chair. Whatever works, right?

A couple of years ago I saw some catchy ads on TV about a website called hulu. And almost immediately, hulu became my friend. On it I could watch shows my husband doesn't like - science fiction, medical dramas, etc. And it was on hulu that I was first able to watch what is now one of my favorite shows, Bones.

Even though I'm a big fan of the show, I hadn't really paid all that much attention to the fashions on the show until one of my beadweaving friends pointed out to me all the striking necklaces sported by one of the show's main characters, Temperance "Bones" Brennan. She does have some style! There's even a flickr photostream dedicated to Bones' Necklaces.

So why am I babbling on about Bones? Well, because the Bead Art Originals team decided that we wanted to start doing challenges -- creating something for a particular theme to get our creative juices flowing. And the theme that was chosen by the last challenge winner (Darcy Horn, aka thejadedog) is a Bones-worthy necklace. The official name of the challenge (which I'm proud to say I thought of!) is No Bones About It. :-)

It was serendipitous for me that the details for this challenge were being talked about shortly after I received one of those ginormous boxes of polymer clay goodies from my friend and fellow BAO member DDee Wilder (aka Malodora). Mixed in with all the other goodies was a polymer clay cabochon that I determined would be PERFECT for the challenge.

What do you think? Would Temperance Brennan wear this? I think so. I even decided to name this piece Temperance.

Now it's time to go back to watching TV. And playing with my beads, of course.

Fabulous Friday Finds for August 27

2010-08-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to another Fabulous Friday Finds! I have lots more goodies this week -- seems there's never a shortage of fabulous things to show off here.

My first Fabulous Friday Find is an art doll by an incredibly talented polymer clay artist named Amanda Klish. I almost hesitate to call her creations "dolls" because they are so amazing. They're like nothing I've ever seen!

I came across her work on Facebook, and I spent a looong time poring over the photos she has on her Facebook page.

I was particularly happy to find pictures of the process she uses to create the armatures for her figures. I've been wanting to try my hand at turning some of my drawings into art dolls, and now with Amanda's help I think I know where to start! (Suffice it to say that my idea of using chopsticks and tape has been tossed out the window.)

You can also find Amanda's creations on eBay occasionally. And I'm quite happy to report that they're demanding the prices they deserve!

Do you ever look at your contacts' contacts on Flickr? I do. All the time. Because I find really cool stuff that I'd probably never see otherwise.

Case in point - one of the cutest lampwork beads I've ever seen. I think it's the eyes that get me...

This adorable focal (called Lucy in the Sky) was created by a lampwork artist named Melanie Moertel. It's just one of a whole bunch of amazing beads and focals.

Loads of color and lots of whimsy. :-)

I almost hesitate to post this next Fabulous Friday Find... because I'm just asking for you to be my competition in a giveaway I want to WIN!!!

If you've ever seen any of the Lark books, you'll know just why this is so exciting. They're wonderful books, with great photographs of pieces created by incredibly talented artists. I own a few of them, but this giveaway would add a bunch more to my collection!

The giveaway is on the Lark Crafts website, and you could win NINE BOOKS (!) in their jewelry collection.

Talk about inspiration!

Hurry, though. The giveaway ends on August 30. I already entered. :-)

Do you ever see something you want, even though you have no thought whatsoever as to WHY you want it or HOW you would use it? Or is that just me?

This next Fabulous Friday Find is one of those things. It's something called Coarse Random Mesh, and it's from papermart.

It's just cool stuff, made from polypropylene plastic fibers molded together into a mat.

Of course I want every color. It's supposed to be for packaging material, but I just think it would be fun to play with... maybe I could make beads from it.

Oh, wait. I have millions of beads already and WAY too many projects going to think of taking on a new one.

Still. I want some.

Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh.

That's what keeps going through my head as I look at the pencil sculptures created by Dalton Ghetti.

That little shoe you see there is carved from the graphite in a pencil!!!!!

And when you click on his name (above), it'll take you to the Telegraph.co.uk site, where you can see more of his work (the gallery is to the right, with 17 pictures).

I am amazed.

Totally amazed.

Here's another link, this time from buzzfeed, where you can see Dalton and some more of his work.

Holy cow.

I think that's it for this edition of Fabulous Friday Finds... Hope you saw something you liked! :-)

Well-Traveled Beads

2010-08-21T09:57:00.000-07:00

Do you ever think about where your beads have been? I hadn't given it much thought until recently, when I took a bead crochet project to work on while we drove from North Carolina to Kentucky.

I like coming up with names for my pieces that have some kind of meaning, and I was trying to think of a name for this bead crochet lariat as we crossed over the mountains separating North Carolina and Tennessee. And then I began thinking about the journey these beads had taken...

This is just the part of the journey I know:
- The beads are Czech glass (picasso beads), so they began their lives somewhere in Czechoslovakia.
- I purchased them from a wonderful Etsy seller named Shannon Ferguson (aka beadsandbabble), and she lives in California.
- Shannon shipped them to me, so they wound up in North Carolina (not sure how many states they traversed as they made their way here).
- And then they traveled with me on my trip to London, Kentucky... out of North Carolina, across Tennessee, and into Kentucky.

And that's just the seed beads! I have no idea where the little ceramic cubes I used for the fringes originated.

But this piece, which I have named "Over the Mountains," is well traveled. :-)

Where have your beads been?

Fabulous Friday Finds for August 20

2010-08-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm back with another installment of Fabulous Friday Finds! At some point I came to realize that the best way for me to ensure that I get a Friday post done with goodies I encounter during the week is to write the post and add the goodies as I find them and then schedule the post. Duh. :-)

My first Fabulous Friday Find for today is an amazing art doll (you know how much I love those!) by an artist named Cindee Moyer.

Obviously, this is Rapunzel.

Don't you just love the creativity Cindee employed in her version of this fairy tale figure? The detail of the bluebirds flying around that long blonde braid, the pensive expression on Rapunzel's face, and even the addition of moss around the bottom of the tower.

Gorgeous!

There are some other beautiful art dolls in Cindee's Etsy shop, but you'll be blown away if you visit her website.

WOW.

In addition to art dolls, I frequently look around for unusual lampwork beads. I don't even want to think about how many lampwork beads I've got stashed away for some future project; but I just can't resist these little beauties. (Someday, I may have to take up the torch myself!)

I came across these beautiful hollow lampwork beads when I was poking around on Etsy.

These are made by a lampwork artist named Nadin Gershon. She makes all KINDS of lampwork beads in addition to these hollow ones, but I just love the look of these. Irregular, sparkly, and you know they're lightweight because they're hollow.

Nadin has several Etsy shops (click here for the shop where she sells her beads, and you can find the remainder of her shops in her shop announcement), where she sells not only her beads but also her own jewelry creations. She also has a website. Yummy beads! :-)

So... Do you like geese?

I have to admit I've never really given them much thought, but when I saw the polymer clay geese made by a French artist named Estelle Marchal, I laughed out loud.

The unfortunate little guy here looks as if he needs some flying lessons. He seems quite puzzled about why he's hung up in those branches.

Lest you think there are only geese, you need to check out Estelle's website to look at the other creatures she creates: hermit crabs, octopus, squid, flamingos, whales, pelicans, and fish. They're all equally cute and hilarious. You can find them all hanging out in the gallery on her site.

You can also see pictures on her Facebook page.

Just be careful that you haven't just taken a drink of something, or it will be sprayed all over your computer screen.

I will never claim to be a knitter, although I've made quite a number of knitted scarves, hats, and blankets over the years. Let's put it this way -- I can knit really well and really fast as long as I'm knitting in a straight line. When it comes to increasing or reducing, I wind up with a knotty mess.

That doesn't stop me from drooling over handspun yarns. Not for a minute. For a non-knitter, I've amassed quite a collection of yarns that I just couldn't live without; and someday I may even get around to using them for something.

One of my favorite yarn makers on Etsy (and a fellow member of the Full Time Etsy Crafters team) is Bobbi of kittygrrlz. She produces yummy delicious looking yarns that just call out to me with their colors and textures.

Best of all, until Friday night (that's tonight!) she's accepting comments on her Facebook fan page to win $25 worth of yarn! I didn't even know that until I went poking around to see what else I could tell you about Bobbi and her goodies. :-)

Don't know how to choose handmade yarns? Check out the Full Time Etsy Crafters blog for tips.

Whether or not you're a cook (I'm not), you just have to appreciate this last Fabulous Friday Find. It's a set of measuring spoons made from a mesquite log. Aren't they great!?

And there's absolutely nothing that says these have to be stored away in your kitchen drawer waiting to dole out the correct amounts of salt, baking powder, allspice, etc. They'd be great just sitting in a jar or a bowl and doing nothing at all. Or maybe I could use these to update my plastic bead scoop...

These spoons can be found in the Etsy shop called OutNumberedNovelties, a shop that's overflowing with wooden creations of all sorts. I also love the odd shaped little boxes they have. And there are pendants, cutting boards, hair sticks, and a bunch of other goodies in the shop.

That's it for this week's installment of Fabulous Friday Finds. Hope you found something you liked! :-)

UFO Spotting - Have You Seen Any?

2010-08-18T11:26:00.000-07:00

UFOs are the bane of my existence. No, I don't see flying saucers or little green men. UFO, in this case, stands for UnFinished Objects. UnFinished BEADED objects, to be exact.

My mind is always swirling with new ideas. Some of them are committed to paper, some float around in the vast recesses of my brain for hours, days, months, years. And some of them make their way out of my head and onto my beading board.

The problem is that once on my beading board, there's absolutely no guarantee that these beady bits of inspiration will turn into finished pieces. I have every intent of finishing them when I start them. And I'm happy to say that most of the time what I envisioned in my head translates pretty well for me once I pick up the beads and start to work. But I have a frighteningly large number of pieces that have been relegated to bins to live with other UFOs because I just haven't managed to do the finishing touches -- in most cases, closures, the addition of a "special" focal, or something along those lines.

Pathetic, right?

But I think every beader out there probably practices this bad habit, although maybe not to the extent I do.

Within arm's reach of me right now are at least a dozen UFOs. Yep. A dozen. Maybe more. I'm afraid to count them.

There's the piece you see in the first picture... a bead crochet rope using hematite rondelles with bright gold colored delicas. It was kind of an experiment to see how the rondelles would look if crocheted so they all lined up single file. The experiment was a success, and a happy customer is wearing her own custom version of a delica/rondelle bracelet. But alas, this one sits next to me without a clasp of any kind.

The second picture is another bead crochet rope I made using some gorgeous Czech glass beads with a picasso finish. I love the beads, love the colors, love the pattern (which was also an experiment). But it's also missing its closure.

Then there's a long bead crochet lariat that needs something for the ends... and a shorter bead crochet piece which is going to have a Lisa Peters giant bead focal (that goes with the rope wonderfully) but needs a closure. A freeform peyote heart. A short length of bead crochet rope (bracelet size) using some beautiful raku colored beads that coordinate perfectly with a MakuStudio raku button, but I need to figure out how to put everything together for that one. A whole bag of peyote tubes. Wonder what I was thinking when I made those? Hmmm. Another bead crochet rope with a diamond pattern, using bright coppery beads and silver beads. A necklace using one of Lisa Peters' gorgeous cabochons and some vintage watch parts, exploring my steampunk side - that one could be considered finished, as it's wearable in its current condition, but I just need something else to make it "right".

See what I mean? And those are all pieces I can see and reach without even leaving the chair in which I'm sitting. I shudder to think of all the pieces that are stashed away out of sight...

Ah well. I have discovered that I'm in good company.

Perhaps because I didn't want to feel alone in this plight, I posted a message on my Facebook page while back asking for others to 'fess up about their UFOs. Only two of my beady friends were brave enough to step forward.

Melody Murray (salamanderhouse on Etsy) sent me the picture above, with these comments:

This was going to be a cuff bracelet, with an art deco flavor. It wouldn't cooperate, it wouldn't be what I saw in my head, it tormented me and then it turned into this:

and continued to taunt me until I rolled both of 'em up together and shoved them in the back of a drawer. They still mutter imprecations in my direction every now and then. I don't think either one of them is finished with me...

And my beading buddy and Cosmic Sister, Carol Dean Sharpe (SandFibers) sent me this picture of one of her UFOs, along with this comment:

Okay...this has been waiting for me to do something with it for years. I couldn't decide on what kind of rope to finish it up with and then I got sidetracked. Once I get sidetracked, I sadly seldom return to a project :( It's an LPA [Lisa Peters Art] cab, of course.

I know there's no logic to this reasoning whatsoever, but I feel a little better about my own UFOs knowing that others share in my plight.

Any UFOs hanging around your house? Come on. 'Fess up.

Happiness Comes from Mississippi

2010-08-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

I knew I'd love it. And I was right.

As soon as my friend DDee Wilder (aka Malodora) posted details about an eBay auction for a BIG box of her polymer clay creations on her Facebook page, I knew I wanted that box. Seven plus pounds of polymer clay goodness.

See these pictures? Aren't they beautiful? Well, they're NOTHING compared to seeing the real thing. The bracelets you see in this image are DDee's nudibangles. I already own one of those, and now I have a whole collection of them.

And beads?!?!? HUGE beads, beads of every size and shape imaginable. And cabochons. And more beads. And flowers. And butterfly wings. And. And. And.

It's incredible. I feel like a pirate with an overflowing treasure chest. I might even have to take over the table my husband is using for his stuff just so I can spread all these goodies out to look at them. My head is already spinning with ideas for what to do with some of them.

Lest you feel left out, there's another big box of DDee's polymer clay goodies on eBay right now. Here's just one of the pictures of what's in that box. Be forewarned... you might be bidding against me.

Now I'm going to play with MY beads. Mine. All mine. :-)

Fabulous Find - and not what you think

2010-08-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

It's not Friday, and this is not my normal installment of Fabulous Friday Finds. But I found something priceless last weekend -- FAMILY.

First, a little history. My parents split up when I was an infant, and I didn't meet my father until I was 17 years old. At that time I also met my half sister (Bev) and half brother (Doug), who were five and four years younger than I. I won't go into the details here, but that was the last contact I had with any of them until last December when my half sister tracked me down and sent me a friend request on Facebook. It was strange for me to think that someone who only met me when I was 17 still remembered me and wanted to reconnect.

Over the course of the next six months, Bev and I emailed back and forth quite a few times, talking about our respective childhoods, our current lives, and about our Dad. While I wanted to meet Bev in person, I still wasn't sure I was ready to see my Dad again. There was just a lot of baggage, bad things I'd been told by my Mom and my grandmother, and it was a big step for me. Since he had never made any effort to contact me in the 37 years since our first meeting, I wasn't sure he even wanted to see me, but Bev kept telling me that I was always on his mind and that he was a different person than he had been when I was a baby and when I met him.

And so came last weekend. It was time for the family reunion of my Dad's family -- aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, etc., that I had never seen. Bev kept trying to talk me into attending, but I didn't make the decision until Friday. My husband, the understanding sort, didn't bat an eye when I told him I'd like to make the six-hour drive to Cincinnati to meet this family I'd never known.

Anxious, emotional, nervous, excited, curious... I can't begin to describe everything going through my mind during the drive. I still hadn't told anyone we were making the trip, so we checked into a hotel near the park where the reunion would be held, and then I called Bev and asked if she had a sister she wanted to meet.

The meeting took place in the parking lot of a nearby Skyline Chili (when you go to Cincinnati, for any reason, you have to have Skyline!). This sister I'd never known made me feel like family the instant we saw each other. I've spent most of my life with a very small "family unit" -- just my Mom and grandparents, all of whom are gone now (way too early), and my husband. Now I have a little sister (she likes it when I refer to her as the younger one).

I had decided that I wanted to meet my Dad before the reunion. It just didn't seem right to have our first meeting in 37 years be in front of a crowd of family, so after our Skyline dinner we followed Bev to his house.

She had already told me enough history that I knew he hadn't ever forgotten about me, as I'd presumed for years, but had always wanted to see me. My high school picture, the latest one he had, was always on display somewhere in their house (sporting a wonderful 70s hairstyle, I might add). And he'd been asking Bev about me ever since he found out she and I had started to converse via email.

More nervousness, curiosity, anxiousness... and then we followed Bev into the kitchen as she announced, "Hey, Pops, I got a present for you!" And there was my Dad, standing at the sink, helping my stepmom prepare food for the reunion. Not the man I remember, but still my Dad. And so happy to see me that he immediately started to cry. Any thoughts I might have had of a "reserved" greeting promptly went out the window, and I gave my Dad a big hug.

I spent a lot of time with my Dad, sister, brother, and stepmom (as well as some aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and a nephew) over the next few days. What I initially thought would be a two-day trip turned into a four-day trip, but that's okay. It was a great weekend.

I'm not sure I could have approached this meeting in the same frame of mind if it had happened twenty, or even ten, years ago. I thought about my Dad during that time, but most of what I thought I knew about him wasn't good. Looking back, taking everything I know now in context, I think the reality might have been different than what I thought. I also know from Bev that he's different now than he was when he was younger. Aren't we all? Life goes on, and everything we experience changes us. So he's not the same person now as he was when he was 21 (his age when I was born), and neither am I.

I'm not the same person I was a week ago. The big difference for me? Well, Bev keeps telling me that I can no longer claim to be an only child...
:-)

I've Come Unstrung...

2010-07-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

aka... MaryLou's Misadventures in Bead Crochet. And it's not so much me that came unstrung as my latest bead crochet project.

It began with a request from a very special customer who wanted to have a bead crochet lariat with a row of pearls in it. The request was for the row of pearls to be in a straight line - if you know anything about bead crochet, you know that it naturally spirals as you crochet, so putting something in a straight line requires a special kind of pattern.

The rope was also to use two shades of 22k gold delicas, beautiful matte finish beads that are very similar in color but have just enough difference to be interesting.

So off we go. I didn't have any bead crochet software, so I used my old standby for making quick graphics - Microsoft Powerpoint. (I've used it for years to do all sorts of things for which it was never intended.) I began laying out the design, and as I played around with some different concepts I thought a pattern of diamonds made from the gold delicas would look nice. I eventually wound up with this:

Looks like a viable pattern, doesn't it? The two shades of gold (which don't have that much contrast), with the dark blue showing where the pearls will go.

The next step in the process, because I know that the spiraling effect of bead crochet can result in some surprises, was to print that out on paper and wrap the pieces around a pencil, lining up the edges of the beads to make sure the pattern didn't go wonky. I was very careful to match up the beads when I made my paper model, and I was so excited to see that everything lined up perfectly!

Having completed those steps and received a big thumbs up from the customer, I proceeded to write out the stringing order for the rope. Bead crochet, you see, requires that you string all the beads for your project before you begin crocheting. And when you string the beads, you don't string them from left to right / top to bottom like you would typically work in other techniques. You string from left to right and from bottom to top. The last bead you string is the first one you crochet, and with a repeating pattern you have to make sure you start at one point in the pattern and end at the same point so you have a continuous design (well, in this case I have to do that because the ends of the rope will be joined in an invisible join).

So I wrote out the stringing pattern (B for bright gold, A for dull gold, X for pearls): B 2A 2B 2A B X 2A 3B 2A 2B 2A 2B 2A B A B 2A B 2A B 2A B 4A B A X A B 3A B 4A B 2A B 2A B 2A B A B 2A 2B 2A B B 2A B X B 2A 2B 2A 2B 2A B A B 2A B 2A B 2A B 4A B 3A B A X A B 4A B 2A B 2A B 2A B A

Fun, right? All of that stuff before the first bead is strung.

But now I have the pattern written out, so I pour out the little piles of delicas onto my beading mat and separate the pearls (the customer purchased them and had them sent to me, but I can't use all of the ones in the strands because some are too large for this project). Thread the needle with my Coats and Clark heavy duty nylon upholstery thread, and I'm off!

See anything wrong with the process so far?

I didn't.

It wasn't until I had completed the 12th repeat of the pattern, having strung 1536 beads, that I happened to notice that the spacing between the pearls in one section of the pattern was UNEVEN. That can't be. There should be the same number of beads between the pearls every time, or they won't wind up in a straight row.

Aaaaaaaaaaaargh.

That was Sunday night. I looked back at the pattern, looked at the beads, looked at the pattern, counted, recounted, and decided I needed a night's sleep and a fresh mind to figure it out. Monday morning dawned with pouring rain, the perfect weather for sitting down and focusing on a problem. I came to realize that I was off by a row -- instead of 33 beads between each of the pearls, I had one instance of 25 beads between the pearls in each repeat of the design. It's an 8-around pattern, so I had to figure out how to alter it to add those 8 beads back into the design so the pearls would line up like little soldiers.

Back to my Microsoft Powerpoint, back to fiddling around with the design, and I finally have it! The pattern is still symmetrical, but it's slightly different now; and this time I know it's going to work.

The unstrung part? Yes, you can take that literally. I had to UNSTRING those 1536 beads I had strung before and sort the two shades of delicas back into their little piles. I'm lucky to have good eyesight, a good task light, and just a touch of OCD. Really. Just a touch.

Now it's time to get back to stringing. One last picture, though. This is a little bracelet I made for that same wonderful customer... this one using rondelles in the pattern (no design in the delicas though). This one presented its own set of challenges, as the holes in these tiny little rondelles (which are only 3mm in diameter) were so small that I had to thread each one like a needle. I couldn't fit any of my beading needles through the holes, and the thread I normally use wouldn't even fit, so I strung these onto 10# Fireline. I have to say that crocheting with the Fireline wasn't too bad, although I still prefer the nylon upholstery thread.

Time for more stringing now. I've done 10 repeats of the pattern so far, with about 140 repeats to go... or as many repeats as I can do before I run out of pearls. :-)