I missed a few Fridays, but now I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things, so I've gathered up a big new batch of Fabulous Friday Finds for you this week. Even though I wasn't keeping up with blog posts, I was still keeping track of goodies I came across as I prowled the internet.
First up is something I came across on Facebook. I don't remember how I came across it, but this is one of the coolest things I've seen.
The beautiful pendant you see here is the creation of an artist named Matt Cole. Pretty, isn't it?
Guess what it's made from.
Go ahead. Guess.
Natural stone? Polymer clay?
Nope! It's made from a bowling ball!!! Can you believe it??? I used to bowl (not very well), and I never would have imagined my ball could have been turned into something like this. Wow.
Be sure to click on his name up there and look at the rest of his art. You'll be amazed.
I don't know about you, but I really like ravens. I have no idea why, other than that I was enthralled by Edgar Allen Poe's poem when I was in junior high school and have had a fascination for those big black birds ever since. In fact, back when I was making stationery, my Quoth the Raven captioned critters cards were some of my first paper creations (and some of my best sellers).
They're popular subject matter for a lot of artists, and you've probably seen lots of them even if you weren't looking for them.
I came across Lauren Gray's raven when I went to browse through her shop when I saw one of her unusual trees. Lauren's Etsy shop is called TheHauntedHollowTree, and in it is a variety of works including this raven, her very stylized trees, and a lot of other pieces which live up to the shop's name. The interesting part for me is that she uses pyrography to create some of her amazing art.
If you've read any of my previous Fabulous Friday Finds, you know I also like little tiny houses... and Lauren has another Etsy shop, saysthetree, that has tiny miniature wooden houses!
Woot!
My third Fabulous Friday Find is a spoon rest. For those of you who like cooking, it's a spoon rest. For me, it's a cool little ceramic saucer. I'd really prefer never having to cook, but that's a whole other story. I can still like the saucer.
Anyway, this spoon rest is just NEAT! It's in an Etsy shop called LennyMud. When I first came across the shop, I figured it was curated by an artist named Lenny... but it turns out that Lenny is the name of the artist's studio cat.
I like this. And lots of other stuff from LennyMud. I think I'm going to have to do some shopping here after we get our house built... And not necessarily just for my kitchen (despite my aversion to cooking, I realize that most people expect there to be a kitchen in a house - hmph).
This next piece is something for steampunk lovers. Lovers of the weird and the wonderful. Cuz it's weird, and it's wonderful.
This Unzipped Heart is the creation of Marie Segal, and you can find it in her Etsy shop.
Marie's polymer clay creations are diverse and amazing. I didn't even know she had these steampunk pieces until I went back to visit her shop earlier today to do this post. I was originally attracted to a completely different creation, one which has found a new home, her Laughing Woodland Creature pendant. I just love that face!
My next Fabulous Friday Find is another polymer clay creation, this one by Janice Abarbanel. Janice is a fellow member of Bead Art Originals, and I've long admired her work, frequently visiting her Etsy shop (Naftali).
Janice created a turquoise and brown urchin for one of the recent BAO color mosaics, and I really liked the texture of it. As much as I like turquoise and brown together, I forgot all about that one when I spotted this charcoal gray and silver urchin sitting in Janice's shop.
And then it was mine.
It arrived in today's mail, and it's GORGEOUS. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with it, but I love it. The colors. The texture. Gorgeous.
And mine. :-)
Never fear. She has more. In other colors, too.
Lest you think I spend all my time prowling around the halls of Etsy and Facebook, I also spend time prowling around Flickr. I honestly have no idea what I was searching for when I came across the work of photographer Kelsey B.
Kelsey is a photographer, and although the picture you see here is really cool, the ones I want you to check out are the ones in the set called My Face is a Canvas. Once you're there, you'll understand why. (I chose to link to the For the Love of Cherries photo in order to respect Kelsey's copyright - she has disabled downloading of her face pictures.)
Okay, I know I said I hang out in other places besides Etsy and Facebook, but I really do find fabulous things there! Jt look at this piece!!
My last Fabulous Friday Find for this week is a site one of my beady friends shared on Facebook. This amazing necklace/pendant was created by Joan Babcock in a technique called micro-macrame.
Remember macrame? Did you EVER think it could look this incredible?!?!
Seeing Joans creations makes me want to sign up for one of her classes (my friend Linda took one at Bead and Button, and I am envious). I'm planning to attend B&B next year, so I might just have to see if her classes are offered again...
Well, that's it for the Fabulous Friday Finds for this week. Thanks to those of you who commented that you missed my finds. Thanks to everyone who reads these and follows the links -- I'm sure the artists I show off here (most of whom I've never met) appreciate it. Enjoy!
Good grief. And I was doing a decent job of keeping up with my blog for awhile there.
Now I'm way behind on peyote cuff designs, both new ones and getting patterns finished for some of the newer designs I did this year (not to mention patterns for all my older designs!). And I missed a few Fabulous Friday Finds posts, so I have to try to catch up on that this week. I have lots of goodies to show off.
So why has my blog been neglected?
Well, we've been working like crazy on house plans. Finalizing, changing, finalizing again (yes, I know that's silly), calling contractors, sending plans out for bids, meeting contractors at our property to show them the lay of the land, calling more contractors, sending emails, looking for building materials. There's a LOT involved in building a house, and since I'd reaaaaaaaaaaaly like to get started on the house soon I have to help Pat out with all the preparations. I can hardly wait till we start building, although I should probably NOT be looking forward to painting thousands of square feet worth of siding...
And I've been busy doing some custom bead crochet pieces. They're such fun, and I haven't done that much crocheting in the past couple of years. It's a time-consuming process, involving creating a pattern, stringing hundreds or thousands of beads, and then crocheting for hours.
I'll just show you some pictures of my most recent creations here, and then I have more crocheting to do! :-)
This is a bracelet I created as a gift for the customer who ordered There and Back (a bead crochet rope I showed in a previous blog post).
I had some of the picasso finish beads left over from the rope, so I thought I'd make a bracelet; and as I was digging through my stash I came across the PERFECT beads to use as focals. I could hardly believe how well they matched the picasso beads!
The recipient of the bracelet LOVED it. Yay! :-)
Then it was off to string beads for the next project, Caribbean Blues, a bead crochet rope using more of the picasso beads (have I mentioned how much I love these beads? the customer loves them too!).
I was asked this time to make a 60" long rope with a random striped pattern, so as I strung the 7200 beads required for the rope I picked out like color beads to make the stripes and left some of the beads mixed so there are stripes of the mix also.
What you see here is about 5600 beads... I had to string more to finish the rope.
And here's the finished rope. The random stripes make it really interesting, don't you think?
This took two and a half hanks of beads, size 11/0 crocheted six around.
I'm not very good at keeping track of the time I spend crocheting (or doing any beadwork, for that matter), but I know I crocheted through a couple of episodes of Warehouse 13, three of Desperate Housewives, one of Lie to Me, one of Justified, and a few others I can't remember.
It's a lot of hours. But it's worth it.
The customer already has it in her hands, and she told me she loves it and will be wearing it with her jeans. How perfect is that?
I thought you might like to see a closeup of the beads.
'Cuz they are GORGEOUS!
The best source I found for the picasso beads is my new Etsy friend, Shannon Ferguson. Her shop name is beadsandbabble, and she has a wonderful selection of beads. Not just the picassos, but all kinds of other Czech glass goodies.
:-)
Somewhere between making Caribbean Blues and the next project (which is in progress), I made a rope using some Miyuki hex beads. I wanted to see how these would work, since most of the ropes I've done have been made with Czech glass beads.
This piece is called Puttin' on the Glitz, and it's listed in my Etsy shop.
At 45", this continuous rope works well as a necklace (a single loop or doubled) or as a bracelet. It's sooooooo sparkly!
I also carved out some time to create this rather over-the-top necklace called Dagny Taggart.
This was created for the first ever Bead Art Originals challenge theme, A Novel Idea. It was based on my all-time favorite book -- Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. More specifically, it was based on the protagonist in the novel, Dagny Taggart, a strong woman who basically runs the railroad owned by her family.
It didn't win the challenge, but I'm still happy with the way it turned out. The focal section of this was woven with peyote stitch using Czech glass beads in a mixture of grays and blacks with "rails" made from steel colored size 8/0 delicas. There are long rectangular wooden beads making up the rest of the railroad. That's the "work" side of Dagny's life.
At one point in the book, Dagny is described as wearing a simple black dress with a diamond bracelet as the only adornment, so the necklace portion of my piece was made using Miyuki black hex beads woven in herringbone stitch, with a small band of silver-lined crystal hex beads and a large faceted crystal button as the closure.
And now it's time for me to get back to work on crocheting... I'm working on a bead crochet rope made from size 11/0 DELICAS!! I had never thought of using delicas for bead crochet, but they're beautiful. I'll save pictures of that piece for later. Or you can visit my Facebook fan page to see them, if you're really curious. :-)
Friday again. Another week that went by in a flash. As you can tell from my other posts this week, I was busy working on some bead crochet pieces. I'm not sure it's completely out of my system yet, so you may see more pieces over the next week or so.
I did find a few goodies for today's Fabulous Friday Finds post.
The first Fabulous Friday Find is the creation of a ceramist named Madeleine Hall-Arber.
This adorable jester pot is in Madeleine's Etsy shop, madmud. I have a particular affinity for jesters and mimes. I'm not sure why, but I seem to be drawn to them; and this guy has such a wonderful personality. Can't you just see it in his little face? I think what cracks me up most about this piece is the way he's perched on the edge of the pot.
The jester almost didn't make it here because there's another of Madeleine's creations that really wanted to be shown here... Ready for the plunge is a piece that made me laugh out loud.
The second Fabulous Friday Find is another bit of whimsy. This folk art painting by Regan Tausch is just adorable!
My grandfather was a horse trainer, and I inherited a love of horses from him. I think he would have enjoyed this folk art painting of a dappled gray mare and her foal.
You can find more of Regan's art in her Etsy shop, artbyregant. Lots more horses, all of them adorable. The appaloosa is wonderful. And there are houses, boats, angels, and all sorts of other whimsical paintings to be found.
Neigh!
Fabulous Friday Find #3 is another painting, but of a completely different sort.
Spice is the creation of an artist named Anna Olszowka Khosravi (don't ask me how to pronounce that!), and her work can be found on her website, WoodenPottery.
I chose to show Spice here because I really like the combination of oranges and purples together. Although the pieces are made up of horizontal lines, they're not so regular as to be completely geometric, and that makes them fun.
Make sure to check out her watercolor paintings, too. The one called Butterfly is my favorite.
Since I spend a significant amount of my time playing with beads, it should come as no surprise that I spend a significant amount of time LOOKING at beads.
I had gone on one of my fairly regular searches for lampwork beads and found this Sinister bead by Janel Dudley.
I've had Janel's shop, JanelDudleyBeads, in my favorites on Etsy for a long time, but I think this might be my favorite of her beads. I have no idea what I'd do with it. Maybe just put it on a shelf and look at it. It's like a tiny sculpture, don't you think?
The last Fabulous Friday Find for this week is something a little out of the ordinary.
Brooms.
Specifically, a turkey wing broom, made by Samantha Pritchard. Her Etsy shop is aptly named BROOMCHICK.
Now, I'm no fan of cleaning (yuck), but if you have to clean your house anyway, you should have a fun broom to use.
I have a few handmade brooms I've purchased over the years at the Renaissance Faire in Bristol, Wisconsin. But now that I don't live close to Bristol, I'm happy to see that I can add to my broom collection. We're building a new house, and I know I'm going to need more brooms!
That's it for this week's Fabulous Friday Finds. Once again, I hope you enjoy them. Happy Friday, and have a wonderful holiday weekend! Remember our soldiers!!
I can hardly believe it, but I finished the bead crochet rope I started yesterday! From there to here in lots and lots and lots of easy steps. :-)
It was simple, really.
Or maybe not.
I guess it all comes down to your point of view.
After numerous conversations with the customer to determine what she wanted, the process began with the sorting of beads. Since the size 8/0 picasso beads I was using were a mix, I had to remove three of the colors from the mix, leaving me with six colors for the rope: black, royal, teal, dark red, olive, and honey. The length of the rope was determined (45"), and the request was to use all the colors throughout the rope, but to have the dark colors "fade" to light and then back again to dark. That meant coming up with custom blends of the two sets of colors. Lots of counting. And then lots of stringing, as you can see from yesterday's post with the picture of the strung beads.
And so begins the process of crocheting. One initial row of six slip stitch with a bead in each stitch, join the ends, and then...
1 - Insert hook under the thread to the left of the first bead.
2 - Slide down a bead from the strand of strung beads.
3 - Yarn over (or in this case, thread over).
4 - Pull hook through, making another slip stitch with the newly added bead in place.
Repeat THREE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED SEVENTEEN TIMES.
Voila!
The last step to be completed is the join, seamlessly attaching the ends of the rope to make a loop.
And now I think it's time to do some peyote stitch!
:-)
I'm still behind on my peyote cuff designs, but that doesn't mean I haven't been playing with beads!
My beading needle has been temporarily set aside so I could play with another piece of hardware: my crochet hook. Using more of the picasso beads from Beads and Babble, I created this piece with a diamond pattern that looks so much like a snake that people were "eeking" when I posted the picture on Facebook.
You can see the beads I used for this in the background. Although I know a rope without a pattern would have been equally gorgeous, I just couldn't resist this.
There are two sets of diamonds that travel the length of the rope, and it really does look like a snake. I'm not sure what kind though.
The project I'm just starting is a custom bead crochet rope that also uses the picasso finish beads (they're gorgeous!!!), this time the size 8/0 ones. The request was for a 45" long rope that has different color sections that blend into each other. That required that I first sort the beads, so I spent awhile picking up the different colored beads from the mixed hanks I had and dropping them into little paper cups. It's a good thing I have OCD.
And now they're all strung. Three thousand four hundred twenty four beads. 3424. All carefully blended and strung so the rope will go from dark to light and back again.
Time to start crocheting. :-)
I still haven't given up hope on catching up on my peyote cuff designs. There are patterns to be done and bracelets to be beaded, so stay tuned.
I'm going to be playing catch-up this week. I was so busy that I didn't get my new peyote designs for weeks #18 or #19 beaded. I created the designs, though, so I'm working this week on getting them ready to show off.
So what was keeping me so busy? Well. House plans, for one thing. We're getting ready to build a house, and there's a lot to be done to prepare. My husband and I have been working on the plans for so long, but there are always things we want to change (and as much as I hate making changes to the plans, it's much less expensive for us to change drawings than it is to move wood and windows around later). The drawing here was last week's version of the front elevation (it's a one-story house with a walk-out basement). It's different now. We just decided today that we wanted to have a French door at the front, with windows flanking it, instead of the row of windows in this version. It'll be nice to be able to walk out the front of the house onto the deck (which wraps around two sides).
We also had to start getting bids on materials and labor, for the things we're not going to do ourselves. The windows and doors have been chosen, the siding, the woodburning stove, and the stone for the hearth and the posts outside the house. We'll have the foundation and framing done, as well as the plumbing, electrical, drywall, and HVAC; and we'll do the siding, the stonework, cabinets, trim, interior doors, and all the finishing touches. It's a LOT of work, but it's fun. And when we're finished we'll have the house we want.
In addition to working on the house plans, I was working on some custom orders for beadwoven pieces. I finished two ndebele ropes (one of which was a Mother's Day gift and the other wound up in my Etsy shop):
This is Neptune's Twist, created from transparent teal, transparent turquoise, and transparent amethyst colored beads with an accent row of transparent clear beads with an AB finish.
When I finished it, I thought it looked like ocean waves, with the colors and the flowing curves.
It was a Mother's Day present for one of my husband's aunts.
And this one is called (simply) Turquoise, Lemon and Lime Twist. It's made from opaque beads in bright sunny yellow, turquoise, and lime green, with an accent row of a mixture of yellows, blues, and greens. Very summery.
This one is in my Etsy shop. It started out to be a custom order, but I didn't have enough of the same beads to make it as long as was requested. That happens sometimes.
And the most recent custom order is this piece, called Salsa. I was asked to make a bead crochet rope, and the customer sent me pictures of a rope she had seen that she really liked. That rope, which was made by Claire Kahn, used gemstones in beautiful shades of deep coral red, turquoise, and sand.
So off I went on a hunt. Although gemstones are readily available, I wound up finding these gorgeous picasso seed beads in an Etsy shop called Beads and Babble, operated by Shannon Ferguson.
Shannon had several listings for picasso beads, and even before I heard back from the customer about whether she liked these, I had ordered them (as well as a bunch of others).
The beads arrived, and they are just as gorgeous in person as they were in the pictures.
For the rope, I used eight beads around and alternated sections of the Salsa mix with sections of the dark red and the turquoise beads (which I also ordered from Shannon). These beads are TINY, even smaller than some other size 11/0 beads I have, so it took me awhile to finish this piece. It was worth the wait, though. I love the way it turned out; and it will soon be in the customer's hands.
And I've already ordered more beads from Beads and Babble. I mean, come on! How can you resist beads that look this delicious?!?! :-)
** If you visit Shannon, tell her you found her through my blog. She's really really nice, her shipping is free, and her beads are wonderful. I'm sure I'll be shopping there again.
Welcome to another Fabulous Friday Finds! I'm having great fun putting these together, and I really appreciate all the nice comments that are left on these posts.
My first Fabulous Friday Find for this week comes from Facebook, the creations of Rich and Cat Audette Hope: ClayMonsters
I have to tell you that I hard the hardest time choosing a single picture to post here because I am in love with just about every one of the Clay Monsters I've seen! Be sure to look at all the photos on their Facebook page, and you'll understand what I mean.
According to their Facebook page, you can send them a message if you want to purchase a monster. Or if you're lucky enough to be in their area (Baltimore, MD), you might catch them at a show.
I think if I ever encountered these little guys at a show, I'd have to find someone selling a large trunk so I could haul a bunch of them away with me.
I love them! I might just have to have one. Or four. :-)
The next Fabulous Friday Find is the work of a polymer clay artist named Helen Breil, whose work I came across while browsing for goodies.
She has some really unusual shapes and colors in her clay, and I particularly liked this piece with the polymer set inside a pewter focal. Her website has gorgeous pieces of jewelry featuring her work, and if you're so inspired you can go shopping on her site.
The piece pictured here is called a Focal Frame, and she also has a whole page full of Focal Art Beads. Gorgeous!
And for those of you who play with polymer clay, there are textured stamps and tutorials available. (I still haven't gotten around to playing with my clay stash.)
Speaking of polymer clay, this next Fabulous Friday Find just amazes me. I've posted before about how much I love teeny tiny things. Well, this is teeny tiny.
What? You thought I suddenly took up cooking?!?!
Nope.
This Beef Stew and Vegetables Preparation Board is just one of the food items available on the World in Miniature by Diane website.
Tiny little bits of food that look good enough to eat. Created at 1/12 scale, that means those carrots are just over 1/2" long.
Not in the mood to make beef stew? You can also find breads, cakes, fruits and vegetables, meats and poultry, and even a section called gourmet gruesome! There are also accessories for kitchen and bedroom. All tiny stuff. Makes me wish I had a dollhouse. :-)
Keeping with the "tiny" vein, I came across Lisa Snellings' little creations the other day and was immediately entranced.
I first spotted some of her Poppets, but when I went to explore more in her Etsy shop, Strangestudios, I found these Harlequin candlesticks.
I'm in love.
From the tilt of their heads to their tall skinny bodies, these whimsical characters just call to me. They want to be in my house, holding up MY candles. And they're in my favorite colors, too -- black and white.
Aren't they wonderful?
You can see some of the Poppets hanging around at their feet. Probably looking up at them like they're their idols or something.
You can see more of Lisa's work (and play) at her website, Poppet Planet. I got a chuckle when I read the tagline in the banner on her blog. This girl has a sense of humor. :-)
I guess since I just posted a picture of those harlequins, it's only natural that clowns would follow. Well, not a whole clown, but an adorable watercolor (mixed media, actually) painting called Directionally Challenged.
The painting is by CindysCardsandArt. I just love how the shoes carry over onto the mat. And that the jeans are really jeans. And that the shoes are on the wrong feet.
She has several paintings in her shop that I really like, including one of the Statue of Liberty from an odd perspective. I think I just like the whimsy she projects in her work.
And I'm not afraid of clowns. Or mimes.
Time to watch a little TV... there was a Dead Like Me marathon showing a couple of days ago, and now they're on our DVR. Yay! :-)
