Sammy gets snow

First off I have to say that it IS SNOWING here in Central Ohio. This is our second big snow storm of the Fall.  I look out the windows watching the big flakes coming down and thinking to myself how pretty it is. That is until I leave for work at 10:30 PM and drive south on the Interstate 71 towards downtown Columbus with all the trucks zipping past me on ice covered pavement.  Thank goodness I have 4WD or else I would be a nervous wreck.  So I got to thinking to myself why are we getting so much snow so early this year.  Then I realized after looking at pictures of Sammy Doodle that it is his fault.

He has been dreaming of snow since the leaves began to fall.

And to make the Snow Fairies bring his wish, he sacrificed one of his stuffed toys scattering woobie guts all over the floor to appease the Fairies. 

He survived his first professional haircut over at Worthington Woods and was so pleased to prance around the neighborhood with his Da in tow.

But still, he dreams of Snow.  And who could resist this adorable face? 

He got his wish.

Old Friends

Long ago when I first started to get into beading, I found a newly started Yahoo Group called Ohio Beaders.  I joined and was just amazed at all the talented jewelry artist from all over the Great State of Ohio.  Now don't quote me on the date as I'm losing my ability to remember how long ago that was, but I'm thinking this all was somewhere in the 2002-2003 timeline.  They had get together all over the State where I got to met in person the people I exchange communications online with.  We realized that we all had something in common even though some of us like me fell under the thrall of seed beads, while others were drawn to metal.  Through this group, I met artist who encouraged me to develop my limited at the time skills and push the envelope.  Cassandra Graham was the first person who taught me how to do bead embroidery at a meeting somewhere in Eastern Ohio.  And then I met my very good friend Sharon Hessoun through a mishap with crystals and gravel in Waldo Ohio.  Each person made me laugh and ponder the meaning of taking the artist walk. 

Then around 2005-2006 when I changed jobs and was stuck working almost every weekend, I wasn't able to go to any get together. About this same time, I became enmeshed is doll making and all my time was absorbed in that too.  Little by little, I stopped reading digest from Ohio Beaders Yahoo Groups, then stopped beading anything in general as my life became more complicated due to my unhappiness with my job and other life's stones thrown on my road.  Imagine my surprise, when I found the Ohio Beader's Group on Yahoo.  I was intrigued to see if anyone I still might remember were there...and yes they were.  Mary & Kim & Diva Kim & Tanya & Helen & Cheryl and others I'd met at retreats and gatherings.  Kim was in charge of the Christamas Gathering which was to be in Columbus.  Now that I have every weekend off courtesy of my new employer, I decided to attend.  I hadn't attended anything since 2008-2009, but it was like coming home.  Instantly there was the warmth and friendship of long lost friends who welcome you back without a mention that you'd strayed.  It was a magical day filled with beads, mishaps, and just plain ole fun.  I'm so happy I stumbled back into the fold.  Hello old friends...nice to met you...again.

Time for more Sammy

It has been seven months since we brought Sammy home to live with us.  I still say this, but it feels like it has been years that our little boy stepped into our lives.  He is such a joy and comfort to both of us.  I think if it wasn't for his happy little self, we still couldn't cope with the grief of losing Frodo, Arwen, and Fiona.  He makes us smile.  He makes us laugh.  He makes us "walk the dog".  I bought a seat belt for him as most of what we had before is way too big for his 18 pound body.  He was so patient has I tried to figure out how to put the harness on him.  Then he sat perfectly still all the time in the car even when we were in the restaurant.

We got a new furnace this week, and we both were concerned that he would bark all the time the service people were here, but he gave a few woofs then settled down next to the bedroom door protecting me while I slept.  Oh yes, that is one of his jobs and he takes it very very seriously.  On my nights off, I sometimes hear him patrolling downstairs and then comes back up the stairs falling asleep (but still vigilant) on the stairs so he can be aware of everything.  He loves to jump and there is no toy he doesn't fall in love with. 

His bedroom is in the studio where he loves to go to bed 15 minutes before I leave for work.  In that room every morning are about 6 little stuffed dog toys surrounding his bed.  I have to chuckle as it reminds me of my sister Cheryl who while a little girl had to sleep with every single doll in her bed.  I bought a package of three little stuff toys from PetSmart for him and upon opening he decided that he wanted all three NOW!

He loves popcorn.  What dog doesn't?  He loves late night walking in the neighborhood making sure Mr. Skunk stays in his area.  He loves sitting at the back fence watching the elementary school children playing in the field.  He loves barking at the squirrels who like to hide their prizes under the grill cover.  He just loves everything. And we love him too. 

Dot's Bookcase: Metal Clay 101 for Beaders

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Metal Clay 101 for Beaders

Create Custom Findings, Beads, Embellishments & Charms

Kristal Wick

When you were young, did your parents have you write out a Christmas wish list?  As soon as the Christmas catalogs started showing up in our mailbox, we’d start the scurry of looking them through each page trying to find THE THING that would make us so excited on Christmas morning.  My Mom would cut out different colored construction paper markers for each of us to use in the catalogs as place markers.  We were each allowed ten markers to choose ten possible things we wanted for Christmas.  Then we wrote down a wish list using the colorful place markers as reminders in our childish scrawl.  I would sometimes help my siblings that couldn’t write to compose their wish list getting just as excited as they were.  My Mom then would SEND our wish list to Santa with the confirmation that we’d be guaranteed at least one thing from our list from Santa.  You never knew which one it was but the anticipation and the hours of exploration kept six active kids busy from Thanksgiving on to the big day.  Now days, I don’t do wish lists as I pretty much buy what I need when I need it, but I actually have a semi-formal wish list for Santa to check out.  And what is it that I put on that wish list?

Well, after looking over Kristal Wick’s newest book published in October 2013, about creating ‘custom findings, beads, embellishments & charms’, I think I might want a kiln.  Metal Clay 101 for Beaders is another amazing book by Kristal Wick teaming full of temptations and ideas for the average Beaders to take their art work one step above by experimenting with Metal clay.  Not only does Kristal show fantastic closing to finish up your beadwork, but also she demonstrates techniques in sculpting and embellishing the Metal Clay.  I really enjoyed the how applied patinas give the whole piece a completely different look.  Who knew that hard-boiled eggs or Miracle Grow plant food could be used to create a unique appearance.

Sculpting, texturing, hammering and creating unique patterns and patinas will take Metal Clay from a lump to a startling piece of art jewelry with insights from Kristal’s book.  Throw in page after page of stunning projects with detailed instructions, experimentation, and a sprinkling of fun to cause you to hold your breath to see what comes out of the kiln.  

Puzzle Bracelet on page 55 uses texture plates to produce this amazing design.  Add semi precious chips to resin to make a stunning addition.

Wire Lace Crystal Netting bracelet has the most amazing toggle and clasp system.  If I could make unique pieces like this then this book definitely is a winner.  Santa, can I have that kiln?

 Lark has a wonderful interview with Kristal here.

Disclosure...As a reviewer of products from Lark Books, I receive the book above free of charge. I have been asked to review these products and give my honest opinion of the products...positive or negative. I am not being compensated by Lark Books for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed. 

Dot's Bookcase: Jamie Cloud Eakin Bead Embroidery Jewelry Projects

Bead Embroidery Jewelry Projects: Design and Construction, Ideas and Inspiration

Jamie Cloud Eakin

Imagine a Baseball field with the green grass freshly mowed, blue skies blushing in the late hours, and the Sun throwing down sparkling kisses to caress the faces of those watching from the stands.  Up to the bat comes Jamie with a Bead Embroidered bat slung over her shoulder.  The pitch comes almost blinding her with the twinkling of thousands of crystals.  She swings and makes it to first base with her 2005 Beading with Cabochons.  Looking up the ball is rising higher and higher to touch the Sun so she takes off and reaches second base with her 2010 Bugle Bead Bonanza.  Still the ball is hurtling toward the upper reaches of the stands, so she takes third bases with 2011 Dimensional Bead Embroidery.  Still the ball grabs the sky refusing to let gravity take it, and Jamie hits home base with 2013 Bead Embroidery Jewelry Projects.  The crowd is standing as Jamie stands with at coveted Home Run under her belt.  She finds herself showered with a bucket of energy drink colored crystals as her fans cheer her new endeavor with great enthusiasm.  This is all playing in a big screen in the back of my mine as I greedily work my way through Jamie Cloud Eakin’s fourth marvelous book.  

With each of her four books that evolve around the bead weaving technique of Bead Embroidery, Jamie takes her followers step by step into the world of color, form and texture.  Bead Embroidery Projects is the next logical step by combining design and construction beginning with a tip on how to make your own personal collar to manipulating components using the tips and ideas she has given the designer to advance and compliment their skills in jewelry making to create unique individual pieces of art.  

In the project Loop de Loop Necklace (pg. 29), she explores a simple design made stunning by adding dimensional techniques.  With English Garden (pg. 47), she shows how working with multiple focal cabochons can change the appearance of the piece.  I was excited to see that she suggest recording the experiments with pictures for future references.  I do this, and it is something that I’ll go back to again and again to decide if I really did make the correct adjustments to the design element.

With the project My Fair Lady Necklace (pg 62), the object of the lesson is to using multiple focal components assembled by experimenting with how the draping strands of seed beads and stone at stress connection points can change the design and visual appearance of the piece.

The project Circulating Round Necklace concentrates on design and construction using connections of components and additional connections for a stabilizing effect of the assembled pieces.  Jamie here recommends two connections with each component construction that is a great idea as I myself have struggled with twisting and turning components in past constructed necklaces.

Then Jamie shows how using Asymmetrical designs with the project Waterfall Necklace (pg 97) can change the visual appearance have a piece while taking the assemblage of the individual components to new heights of completion.

The remainder of the book is filled with earring and bracelet projects that though smaller have just as much thought into construction and design as a larger necklace project.  She shows multiple variations for each project to stimulate creative experimentation.  One of my favorite bracelet projects is Marquis Magic Bracelet (pg 133) that pulls a positive visual response with color and the use of multiple components.  And then who doesn’t enjoy a big doses of eye candy in the gallery pages which I was thrilled as I saw a friend of mine (Arline Lewis), whose work I love and several pieces she’s gifted me with, showcased in the gallery.

If you love Bead Embroidery as much as I do, then do not hesitate to add Jamie’s fourth book to your permanent collection.  And if you don’t have the other three books, then definitely go out and purchase them as I can guarantee you will not be disappointed with the thought and work Jamie has put into each and every project. 

 As always, LarkJewelry and Beading has given the reader a fantastic layout with Bead Embroidery Jewelry Projects.  All I’m saying is that Jamie has hit that “ball” so high knocking it outside of the ball park that it just might find itself up in the heavens twinkling down on each of us every night reminding us to create, experiment and enjoy.

Disclosure...As a reviewer of  products from Lark Books, I receive the book above free of charge. I have been asked to review these products and give my honest opinion of the products...positive or negative. I am not being compensated by Lark Books for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed. 

Trip to Porstmouth Ohio

Since I now have weekends off, we thought that it might be a good weekend to head down to our hometown of Portsmouth Ohio to see if any of the Fall colors have appeared.  We decided to take Sammy with us using his new seat belt.  Sammy is use to traveling with his previous owner, so he pretty much settled into the back seat and sat alert watching the scenery whiz past as we headed down Rt. 23.  It was a cool Autumn morning with bright blue skies, but as soon as we got with miles of Chilicothe Ohio, the fog rolled in along with dark gray ominous clouds.  Not a good omen.

We made it down and decided to head to the Mighty Ohio River.  Sammy fought his first battle of the day on the banks of the Ohio after a barge slowly cruised causing waves that just could not be tolerated by any terrier.  We walked him along the bank, then went back on the other side of the flood wall to view the Flood Wall Murals of Portsmouth Ohio.  Many people were also strolling along taking pictures and looking at the Murals of the wonders of Portsmouth's past.  Both Chris' and my paternal family were founders of Portsmouth.  Each of our families have chapters in the History of Scioto County.  My Father's family came to this area settling in Alexandria which was on the other side of the Scioto River, but due to flooding and the Indian Wars had to leave, but returned after the area was safe for settlement and were one of the few families making the banks of the Ohio and Scioto River their homes.  My Father's Mother's family were also founders, but they were here long before the white settlers crossed the mountains into the fertile Ohio River valley.  So I do have deep deep roots here. 

Here is a You Tube of the about the Flood Wall Murals of Portsmouth Ohio and the Ancient mounds that were found in this area.  Most of the Ancient Indian Mounds are gone, but there are a few left to showcase how important and rich this area was.

Unfortunately, this is what you see when you turn 180 degrees from the beautiful murals.  Most of the glorious buildings from Portsmouth's past have either been torn down, burnt down, or look abandoned like this.  It is such a shame to see the decay of a once proud and remarkable River city.

Bees' Knees

While I was sewing away on my machine (Hal) just having the best time (it could be that an old Barbara Stanwyck movie was on TCM instead of the actual act of using a sewing machine), that the phrase Bees Knees kept playing over and over in my head.  Of course this could have been because I was in the process of making actual bee dolls for a custom order from an old acquaintance.  So I began to wonder what in the word did BEES KNEES mean.  So off to the internet to look. 

I found references to a dancer who won the Charleston championship in the 1920s which might explain a connection with an old movie from the 1930s and bee fabric :

 One tenuous connection between the bee's knees and an actual bee relates to Bee Jackson. Ms. Jackson was a dancer in 1920s New York and popularised the Charleston, being credited by some as introducing the dance to Broadway in 1924. She went on to become the World Champion Charleston dancer and was quite celebrated at the time. 

Another was a nonsense phrase to innocents :

Bee's knees' began to be used in early 20th century America. Initially, it was just a nonsense expression that denoted something that didn't have any meaningful existence - the kind of thing that a naive apprentice would be sent to the stores to ask for, like a 'sky-hook' or 'striped paint'. That meaning is apparent in a spoof report in the New Zealand newspaper The West Coast Times in August 1906, which listed the cargo carried by the SS Zealandia as 'a quantity of post holes, 3 bags of treacle and 7 cases of bees' knees'. The teasing wasn't restricted to the southern hemisphere. The US author Zane Grey's 1909 story, The Shortstop, has a city slicker teasing a yokel by questioning him about make-believe farm products.

But I like to believe that it is this explanation why I kept citing this phrase over and over and over again:
Bees carry pollen back to the hive in sacs on their legs. It is tempting to explain this phrase as alluding to the concentrated goodness to be found around a bee's knee, but there's no evidence to support this explanation.

Concentrated sweetness!  Doesn't that sound just delicious to think about that there is a hidden place where we can just reach (unless the bees are awake and then they are more likely to sting the crap out of your hand) something wonderful.  Just think of finding your Creative Muse behind a Bee's Knee.  Wouldn't that be wonderful if you just collected all that CM, swallowed it whole, and let all that delicious golden power direct your hands to make wondrous things?  Yes, please.  I'll have two portions.

So as I'm getting back into sewing and learning construction and Hal's little imperfections, I'm just taking a few nibbles of that CM that I've found behind the knees of these cute little bees.

A little thanks to Judi Decker who believed in me to create a couple little bees to wing their way to her house.