Finish up another kit

This one is another class by Met Innmon.  Can I say that she's one of my favorite designers up to date.  Her instructions are just amazing, and if you are ever lucky enough to attend one of her classes you'll find that she is very open and free with ideas.  This is how she cages Rivolis into a pinwheel.

Finishing projects

Last month I finished up several projects from the classes I took in Detroit area.  This is from Met Innmon's bracelet class called Kudu Spiral. I loved this class and though the bracelet is beautiful, I just had to expand it and make it into a big necklace.  The clasp is one I found at 1 Stop Bead Shop in Dublin.  I really love wearing this.

Met is going to be teaching this along with several other amazing classes this year in Milwaukee at Bead and Button.  I would LUV to take Bali Breeze in Milwaukee this year but two things...money and time.   She'll be teaching that June 3rd & 4th.  The Kudu Spiral she'll be teaching on June 8th.  I've seen the Cascade necklace & it is stunning.   Maybe next year. 

Here is Met's website to see some of her other work & to order kits.  Met Innmon

Getting a few things done.

Yeah! Post office chore was accomplished & everything is out the door including my entry for the Illustrative Beader for Land of Odds. Sorry, but can't show any of that until I find out if my piece gets into the challenge. Also send out my beads to Gaea. We decided to take a tiny ride out of town & found a place with CORN! Fresh picked Ohio corn! I can't wait until dinner tonight.

This week, I was able to finish up some of the kits that I bought at B&B. One was Melanie Potter's Petalicious. It took me forever to get it done. One thing I'd like to say about Melanie's kits is that they have plenty of beads, and the instructions are just awesome. I had no problem following the thread paths or how things fit together...it just took forever to complete. Here is also a picture of Marcia DeCoster's Rising Sun from the class I took at B&B. I have it mostly done. I have to sew a couple more snaps onto it, and though Marcia has a step to connect the bumps together, I think I like it better without the connections, but maybe I'll change my mind once I once try to wear it.


I've also been playing with sculpting heads out of paper clay. The two classes I've had, we actually have used foil as the base of the head, but I was going through the basement trying to find something & I came across some styrofoam eggs that were suppose to be ornaments. I looked at them & thought what great heads they would be. So out came the tools, the paper clay, and paints. Now, I know it is going to take me a very long time before I can do sculpting that actually looks like a real or pretty head, but I just had a ball making these troll heads. I'd get the noses right & the next day I would work on the ears. It was fun. Then....paint! I tried to remember what I've learned about painting and thought to myself to just paint and see what happens. So here are two troll heads I've made. One keeps telling me he is H'dor and the other is S'leas. I'm working on the bodies right now. Now that is even more investigation. I had many members of Doll Street Dreamers giving me suggestions about how to proportion a pattern for the cloth body, and let me tell you that it is not easy! I have pencils, rulers, and you name it out along with fabric and Hal (my sewing machine). It is going to be a struggle, but I'm beginning to see how this pieces to that, and that goes with this, and all go on that...on and on...and on...



Also, while taking pictures, Chris grabbed this picture of me & Fiona outside after she got "lost". Since being diagnosed with Diabetes last Summer, I've seen her slowly slide into a canine dementia. I know her age & being blind has something to do with it, but I truly think she is getting a little senile too. She gets turned around and stuck by the door or gate & doesn't realize that she only needs to turn around. The relief of her face when we call to her to for guidance or actually go & pick her up & swing her into our loving arms is just something only another person with an old ill dog can understand. So here I am with my sweet old girl.

kits, kits, and more kits

First off, I just wanted to say that I usually am not the kind of person who buys kits from other bead artist, or at least I thought I wasn't. Being there in on Met the Artist night at the Bead and Button conference changed my ideas. I bought so many kits! I think I came home with a dozen different kits from 6 different artist. I've been working my way through them and have only completed 3 of them. I wish I didn't work full time so I can devote more hours each day to learning new bead weaving techniques.

This first picture is not of a kit purchase on Met the Artist night, but from the kit from Carol Wilcox Well's Master class. This is the third necklace in the series and by far the most time consuming one. I have completed the first two partially in class and finishing in my hotel room in the evenings. But this third necklace was a bit more exact with right angle weave techniques I had to stop and take my time to master. I love the look of this necklace and have worn it many times, but now the ring has stretched out so that it will not properly fasten. I'm going to have to either go back and tighten up the ring or figure out a way to secure a hidden snap into this lovely design.



Speaking of lovely, I just adore the kit I bought from Beki called Julz Spiral Cuff. All the crystals and pearls just add to the beauty of this design. Here is a LINK to some of Beki's kits. Aren't they lovely??? I've been lucky enough to have taken two previous classes with Beki so while I'm reading her instructions, I can actually hear her voice.



The other two kits that I completed were Nikia Angel from BuyTheKit. Here is the LINK to see all of marvelous kits Nikia has to offer. I had so much fun doing the Kaleidoscope bracelet with all those crystals that are my favorite colors. I've never had the opportunity to take a class with Nikia, but I'm sure it would just be so much fun.



Right now I'm working on another kit that I bought from Melanie Potter. Here is the LINK to her kits. I have taken this one bracelet apart so many times, that I don't even have to look at her fantastic instructions to repeat it over and over again until I get it to look just right. Hopefully, I can get that one figured out soon so I can dig into the bag and pull out another kit to work on.

Belated wishes

A very belated Christmas wish to all. I think all this stress from Chris being hospitalized again really ran me down, or I sat next to someone infectious that last time we were in the waiting room as Christmas Eve, I came down with Influenza A which lead to an Acute case of Bronchitis. I haven't been this sick in YEARS! I don't even remember driving home from the family Christmas party on Christmas Eve. I kinda remember getting up a couple of times on the 25th & 26th to let the dogs out and to feed them, but it all just blends into one feverish dream. I called Chris a couple of times to tell him I was too ill to come in to see him. I so wanted to spend Christmas with him, but I haven't been able to go to the hospital because I'm so afraid to give him a case of the flu on top of everything else he has going wrong. Finally on the 27th, I was able to get to the Urgent Care to get some medication (thank you the wonder of Pharmaceuticals) and a nebulizer. I actually feel almost normal and am looking forward to getting out of this house later this afternoon to see Chris. I'm also looking forward to going back to work tonight...really! I am.

Still unknown why Chris is so ill. He's on IV feeding, but he can't come home like that so they are going to try to do tube feeding so he can come home soon. It has been almost two months since his surgery, and I think he's probably only been home 14 days. This time, he's been in the hospital for 10 days. I called to him last night & he's so desperate for this to be over & to come home to me & the pupcakes. I think he also misses his big comfy chair & television too, but he won't admit that. I don't care...I just want him home and for our lives to go back to being somewhat normal again. I miss him so much! It isn't fun to watch corny television shows without someone to understand my snarky remarks. The dogs just look up at me thinking I'm going to give them some of my popcorn...not on your life...then go back to sleep.

I've had many wonderful people send me good thoughts, call me, send me cards, gifts and food. I want to thank them all. Without them and my family, I would have been lost. My sister Cheryl has been the rock for me because she listens to my whining and crying day after day.

Couple of beading things to share. I did get my letter from Bead & Button letting me know that I'll be informed if I got into the Carol's Master class on January 5th. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I do because I think I'm ready for the next level of beading. I want to learn to develop my own patterns and learn about arrangement and pleasing designs. Plus, I've never been to Bead & Button before & am looking forward to that. I also decided to spend 2011 focusing more on my beading skills. I'm still going to Artistic Figures in Cloth and will make a few dolls, but I want to get more into beading learning new techniques and networking among the bead world. I am sending in my application for the Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild today too hoping to get to met other fantastic beaders in my area. I don't know if I can make it up to Michigan too many times for meetings & am going to have to miss the winter classes with Marcia DeCoster in February, but hopefully as my life gets less complicated I can make it up to the Detroit area at least once this coming year.



And I want to share with you this necklace that I finished from one of Beki Haley's kits that I bought two years ago when at Lake Tahoe. It is so sparkly! I've worn it a couple times & it gets comments all the time. I have other things finished too, but have to wait for my photographer to get well & back home.

Happy new year to all

I'm a lucky girl!

I just downloaded my e-mail & saw that I was the lucky winner from Beverly Ash Gilbert blog's give away. Waahooo! I'm doing the lucky girl dance. If you ever get the itch to see some lovely eye candy and photographs that will just blow your mind, check out Beverly's blog. I bought her color wheel book & can't wait for her new book to come out as it is about "Colorways" and do I ever need help on learning color theory. I was talking to Roxie over at Byzanitum one day commenting on how I need to work on this goal & she told me that she'd been to Art school & it still was a goal she was working on. She said that it was one of the hardest things to wrap your head around. Oh no, but I'm going to try & can't wait for Beverly's book.

On BAD we are doing the stuffed animal challenge. I've had so many things to do that the beanies that take me a week to complete are on the back burner. I only have this much done after a month, but I've been busy with other things. I was hoping to do a tutorial on how to bead the faces on stuffed animals, but every single blasted picture I took was out of focus. Do you think I need to study my camera a little more? Probably not as I was downstairs in the studio where it was dark. I was too lazy to bring out the lamps & see...I really need the lamps. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow or I could always whine & Chris might do it for me...hint, hint.

And I finished all the projects from the Bead Unique Retreat classes. I finished Sherry's pendent kit while in class & even though everyone told me I cheated (I used three beads instead of two while doing embroidery), I still had it done & wore it out of class. I got Marcia's bracelet done while at the airport waiting for my plane to take me from Denver to Columbus (very very long delay), but it was Beki's necklace that had me slowed down. You see, I have this mental thing about peyote...and it does take a while to make a 27 inch twisted herribone chain. BUT I'M DONE!!!!!!

What did I learn from the classes at the Retreat. Well, first...I love Sherry! Wish she lived closer, but you know Pittsburgh is only 3 1/2 hours away! I also bought two more of her kits & have one 1/2 done. Between Marcia's instructions & her wonderful book (Beaded Opulance) I was able to conquer RAW (right angle weave), and have to fight people off when I wear the bracelet as they want to buy it off my arm. Usually I sell things, but NOT THIS ONE! Marcia's ease with teaching got me to buy more kits to try my hand at more RAW projects. Beki really challenged me in Twinkle Twinkle, but Beki lovely...I won the peyote challenge! Now for some reason I ran out of some of the beads, so I improvised a bit. It isn't perfect & when I do it again (notice I said I'd do it again) I'd try to get the twinkle stars in a nicer pattern. I love the twisted herribone...can't believe I've never done that before, but it was fun & I can see that as a base for some new projects. Oh...and I just adore Beki. She was one of the most hardest working women at the Retreat. She made sure we all had lots of lovelies to eat even though she herself was in pain from a back injury. Oh and Shawn taught me that I can spend enough on bead to help out with people's car payments!