Perfectly Coordinated

I love a challenge, especially when it's presented to me by someone looking for something ultra special. That's why I was so excited when I was contacted last month with a request to create a set of three bead crochet ropes to coordinate with this lovely dress that had been purchased from Anthropologie.

The dress has a simple, classic style, with a bold plaid design in navy, olive, and cream. I was given lots of leeway in the design of the necklaces, as the only criteria was the length (37") and the number of ropes (3).

I immediately envisioned a set of ropes made from beads in these same colors, and I set about to design a bead crochet pattern that would mimic the bold plaid in the dress. My plan? One rope in olive and cream, one rope in navy and cream, and a third rope using all three colors. That would allow the person wearing the dress to wear the two 2-color ropes as necklaces and wrap the third rope around her wrist for a perfectly coordinated bracelet. I love versatility!





So off I went to work on the pattern, as I anxiously awaited the arrival of the beads I would need. I planned to use Czech glass picasso finish size 11/0 beads for the olive portion, but I needed to order some opaque pale cream and some matte metallic dark navy. Although I have some picasso finish beads in navy blue, I didn't think they were quite dark enough to go with the dress, and I thought it would be nice to have some matte beads in the ropes for extra contrast and texture.

Finally the beads arrived, and I strung and crocheted as fast as I could in order to finish the ropes by the deadline -- the dress and ropes were to be worn to a Baptism, and I didn't want to disappoint!

And here are the ropes, just as I planned (luckily, I didn't make any mistakes in stringing the 200+ bead repeat in the pattern, so I didn't have to do any unraveling!). I'm so happy with them (and I've since received word that the recipient loves them). :-)


I was also asked to make earrings to coordinate with the dress and the ropes, so I made a couple of prototypes so the requester would have a choice. Ultimately I used tubular herringbone to make these loops from the same beads in the ropes, again mimicking the plaid pattern in the dress.


It was great fun creating something so special! And now I must get back to crocheting those size 15/0 24k brushed gold charlottes I mentioned in earlier posts.

Bead Crochet Insanity

Don't let anyone tell you any differently. Size matters, particularly when you're talking about beads.

My last post showed off some of the beautiful beads I just received, purchased for a custom order. The request I received is for a 90-100" long bead crochet rope made from these gorgeous 24k brushed gold size 15/0 beads. And I thought I was all set for the challenge, having pulled out some of the size 15/0 beads I had on hand so I could see just how much of a challenge the rope was going to be.

Surprise #1? The 24k gold beads have smaller holes than the other size 15/0 beads I had. No problem. I just switched to a super skinny needle (yes, I know some of you would know what size needle, but I don't know - I just know it's really skinny and bendy, and smaller than a size 10). A little more tedium in picking up the beads because the needle's so thin, but no biggie. Right?

Surprise #2? The 24k beads themselves are smaller. They're labeled as size 15/0, as are the others I used, but there's a significant difference in their size. See what I mean?


There they are next to each other. I just used my size 12 needle to pick up some of the red size 15/0 beads I used before. There are 19 of the red beads on there, and it takes 27 of the gold beads to span the same distance. The gold ones are 30% smaller. Sheesh!

I'm still not willing to back down from a challenge, though, so here's where the "Bead Crochet Insanity" comes in. I'm busy working on the custom bead crochet rope using these teeny tiny 24k brushed gold size 15/0 beads. I've strung 10 grams of them onto my thread and, with the help of my cheapo magnifying glasses, am crocheting away. The rope itself is only slightly more than 1/8" in diameter (it's crocheted with 5 beads around). I feel like I'm crocheting with grains of sand. But I will persevere. The rope is going to use 500 grams of these little beads.

Yep.

Insane.

Good (and Tiny) Things Come in Small Packages

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

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

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

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...

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. :-)