Practice & Play with Polymer, Paper, Pop, Peyote, Pink & Peachy

        Let me start by letting you know I'm not talking about smoke but the Peyote stitch in bead work. As I looked back on the work of the past few weeks since I last wrote, I noticed a trend. I chose to work on several pieces that had polymer clay beads that Brad and I had made some time ago. This one is a bit "shabby chic".

      The first necklace came about because of the scrap of thread I showed how to weave into the cord in my last post. I have a hard time throwing things away that are still useful.  I finished the weaving until I got to the end of the string and then wondered how I could use it. I made another tube with beads added and joined them together with a polymer clay piece I had on hand, and also I used blue and white tube shaped beads Brad had made. I did macrame and bead work to attach them together.
            Next I beaded around another polymer clay pendant. It was an odd shape so I backed it with black leather and sewed a foundation of beads for the first row and then added more from there until I had it secure,using a peyote stitch. Then I went about making a necklace to attach it too,but as it progressed I didn't think it would look right together. I made that necklace into a separate project. Here are the two finished projects.

The project I worked on next was using a polymer piece that I thought looked like it needed to be a turtle. I beaded around that also with some seed beads, adding more beads for legs and a head. After I did that, I had a problem I couldn't see how I could keep the beads on the legs and so I added some metal rings. One thing led to another, and I was reminded that I had some feather-like polymer clay beads I had made at the same time. I only had two of them, but for this project it was just what was needed. I also used two large turquoise nugget beads along with some tube beads I had bought some time ago. I like the result.  

As I was working with this project, looking for things to add I found two pieces of heavy chain and formulated a plan for a bracelet using jasper and a large glass focal bead. 
     The next project to take shape was a tree of life necklace made with rose quartz and pink wire tree with a rose quartz tire swing and some tiny crystal butterflies. On the necklace part I added large rose quartz beads and some vintage glass pearls that I removed the flaking paint from, leaving  nice soft white beads. I used enameled flower beads as an accent. This is the result of that effort. 

 Then I found a piece I didn't feel was finished and spruced it up a bit.

 
 Brad and I had a bit of a milestone this last two weeks. I sold two items on my Etsy site.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RenaissanceHeart Brad's milestone is he got his first check from selling his book on amazon as an ebook.  Fun! Fun! Fun!


     I finished two more projects. The one I will tell you about next is another polymer clay piece. I used more beadwork in this one too. It was a fun project. I also incorporated some vintage buttons into this project. 

 Last one for this adventure is one made with a vintage poker chip that I had attached an old picture of my dad to. I put black leather on the back of the poker chip and did more  beadwork around the poker chip to attach it. Then I made a bail sort to thing with some beads and then did a beaded necklace to attach it to.
 

So that is it for this time. Hope you enjoyed your visit. Thank you for looking.

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!