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.
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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.
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! :-)
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.
