MEANDERING PATH LEARNING

 “Let your thoughts meander towards a sea of Ideas"

                                         Leo D. Minnigh quotes

Well, here I am again. This time was full of practice and learning. I worked the longest on a little bag.  The picture to the left is the front of the bag. Here is how I did it: I made it with some grey & brown cotton thread. I added  stone and glass beads and  bone and wire to make the wings of the dragonfly on the front.   I started with the colors evenly divided, so it made vertical stripes. I worked the first inch or so in a half hitch in stripes and put alternating beads cream and blue-grey .

After the beads addition, I tied a few square knots.
Next, I tied more half hitches in a sort of leaf form.  I added the triangle stone and then tied alternating square knots. 

Next I migrated the colors inside of the half hitches, moving all of the blue cords to the outside. 

I also formulated the dragonfly. 

It took awhile to figure out how to reinforce the wings; I ended up putting  more wire in the center of the wings. They started out just outlines.

Then after moving all the grey threads to the sides, I tied  square knot pillars, and did some alternating half square knots into a twirling pattern. Last I tied some more square knots and a small bead center. I tied these knots into a point. 

This is where I tried to turn corners and go around to the back of the bag. It worked pretty well. 

Last of all I put on the fringe. Then, I made a handle  Also, I made a lining with a piece of my husbands old shirt. To cover the raw edges, I beaded it with  small seed beads. I also covered a buckle with some more of the shirt to match and attached it to the two ends of the strap so it could be shortened or lengthened. This started out to be a miser purse but it sort of morphed into something else. 

This necklace is made with needle tatting and a dark green jute-like cord. I added  chalk turquoise,
glass beads and  green crystals. I also added square ceramic beads.  The pendant is made with a  green and brown sea sediment jasper. 








Then I made another miser bag.With daisy drop beads on the bottom fringe.  I put glass beads with a small flower motif on the flap.

  I'm going to try to post a short video of how to open a miser bag. 
 I uploaded my video to YouTube; So I need to wait until they process it.  

Next I made a necklace with  Chinese knots. I beaded the necklace part with some adventurine beads in the center of the two cords. To hold them in place, I beaded  seed beads in an alternating pattern. 
I made a button and loop closure. The pendant part is made with a large dragon vein stone and a carved stone of unknown origin that looks like agate.  I attached a teardrop stone in the center.  I added some other glass and stone beads. The nylon cord I used in this project was really nice to work with because it held the knots.  It was a fun project. 

This next necklace gave me some grief. The Chinese knot will not lay the way I would like. The cord I used was hard to work with. This one is called Beads, Bones and Buttons. The two rose beads are of unknown age. I bought them in a little antique store on Center Street downtown. The bottom diamond shaped bead came from some vintage beads I bought on ebay. The stain I used on the bone came out more red than I envisioned.




One more necklace: this one is blue and white with an oriental touch, made with some ceramic and glass beads. I think the round bulls eye beads are eye beads to ward off evil.This one was tricky to make. The cord was really slippery.

Hope you had an enjoyable time meandering with me. Hope to see you here again. Thanks!