Earth Bound Lace

Earth Bound Lace

       For as long as I can remember I have had a love for rocks. I have collected them and thought of them as treasures. To me it is quite remarkable how beautiful they can be. I love the shape, look, texture, weight, and age. Some other loves have been with me for, not quite as long as rocks, but important to me just the same. They are thread, string, knots and lace, also, beads and glass. All of them have an elemental nature to me. Rocks have age, a permanence and stability. Lace, thread, and knots also have an age and story. Knots and fiber . They have a connection to generations past, the skill has passed down through generations. Different from the rocks, they have a light and an open texture. It is from these elements that these projects evolved. 

 

      I started with a carved pink jade rose and I tatted around it, incorporating the stone as I went along and also, picked up tear -dropped shaped beads, which included tiny white pearl-looking glass drops, I got to the very bottom, I added two vintage pink trumpet-like flower beads held on with some more tiny tear drop beads. In between , I added a vintage Chrystal-cut bead, and below , a wonderful softly swirled pink and clear glass teardrop.

I made a chain of Josephine knots and pink crystal bi-cone beads, finished off with two tiny pink seed beads. I Closed it with s loops and a vintage crystal closure. 

 

      This next piece has an Asian feel to me. With it's Chinese knots, Chinese chess piece, and handmade Asian glass bead, I have used an oval stone bead with three beads in the center. The one in the middle looks like a carved red bead but is made of something lighter. The necklace portion is what took the longest . I used tiny nylon thread, and, several kinds of assorted glass seed beads. I finished this one off with a lobster claw clasp and a few loops to make it adjustable.

This one gave me some grief . I had to set it down in between working and had the bright idea to put it all in a bag, and it got knotted together in a mass of nightmare knots. It took a long time to untangle and unknot. I hope I never get in that kind of mess again. After untangling, I put each thread in separate little baggies to keep them apart. It worked a lot better and kept me out of trouble. 

      The next necklace I call lost and found treasures. First, I did tatting and knotted lace around the stone, In the center, I added a vintage eye-shaped rhinestone given to me by a friend from The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. After she died, her niece, (I think also a member of the group)who knew that I liked that sort of thing and gave me this along with some other beads that must be older than me. She was almost 100 years old. On the bottom, I put two teardrop shape old beads from a necklace I found at my favorite thrift store. I think these are a bit rare. They appear to be amber with some interesting inclusions. In the middle I added an acrylic bead sent to me as a bonus with some other beads I bought recently on Ebay. Above that is a tiny silver heart with some tiny diamonds and a sweet opal. On the topside I attached a link from a belt and added a nice old chain with and old metal flower bead and a round intricate clasp from an old broken clasp. It has a nice mirrored back that shows through the open-work front. There are lots of tiny treasures . I think I will keep this one because it has a bits of sentimental pieces that remind me of friends and finds.

        This next piece was a fun learning experience. I and finds. started with a larger rock in mind, but as I knotted the cover,it was too small to cover. I started with tatted picots to make feathers for the front of the little bird. Then the back and sides are made of knotted needle lace. To represent the eyes, I used some delightful eye like agates. That I think are from Africa, if I remember correctly. For the beak I used a tiny conch shell. As the top of the plume I used some metal leaves that look like feathers, reminiscent of some birds I have seen. 

 

I should call him fun and whimsical, because most of the time male birds are a bit more flashy than their female counterpart. The necklace part is made up of a heavy nylon cord, dotted with polymer swirl beads and rock looking beads with a few wooden spacer beads. This brings a smile to my face. I hope it does for you too. I had to use a drill to enlarge the holes on the beads to fit them on the heavy cord. I wanted to add a nice clay bead. I tried to drill the center of it, and to my surprise6, it got red hot and stared to shoot sparks, So I took it to the kitchen sink to finish drilling to be close to the water if needed. I thought the clay was becoming molten inside, but it turns out that the drill bit was actually melting . I'm not sure how I will attach it to a project,but it is a metal reinforced center now. I've never had that happen before. I think that clay is some sort of fire clay. Really hard. I made do with the ones I could drill and finished up. 
 

         The next project is made with lots of odds and ends, silver metal beads of assorted kinds,a glass cube, cylinder and triangle shaped beads, A few gunmetal -looking tube beads, and some nice decorative carved looking beads. I added last of all a dragonfly made of an acrylic body and needle laced wings with a top

Chinese knot for a head. This one took some reworking. I started it but didn't like the result ,so I took it apart and started over. Now I like it better. 

 

       Last I made one with an Onyx donut bead and a few vintage pieces from other necklaces. In the center of the donut ,I put a faceted black bead that has a hole in the back, making me think it must have been on an earring at some point. Dangling from the bottom is a silver encased black stone which could be onyx, but I'm not sure. On either side of that are two glass leaf-looking beads. On the back of the donut I added a vintage metal button. I had to do something I don't like to do if I can avoid it I had to glue the faceted glass piece and the button. I could not figure out how else to keep them in place. The tatted lace was not going to be enough to hold them in. I found in my stash a nice black chain and added that to finish this one. 

 

So we are at the end of this journey for now. See you next time.

Thanks for checking this out.