Jade Roses, Spiral Scrubbies & Miser Purse

Hi! This time I want to show and tell a bit. 

1. Necklace and Bracelet
2. Miser Purse
3. Spiral  Scrubbie's

 
First I made a some jewelry: the first one is made of  sea sediment jasper, rose quartz, and other assorted glass beads.  
     
    
     Then I made a bracelet with rose jade. It is not quite finished. I have to weave in some more of the threads.

 Have you ever seen a Miser Purse? This is one version I found on the internet. The idea is that it is hard to get the contents out, so you are less likely to spend when you shouldn't. When you open the flap of the purse it looks like there is no way into it. You just open the flap and pull the front part of the bag and it comes open, but the strings from the strap are all across the opening so it is difficult to remove the contents.  I plan on decorating this one up a bit and using it as the gift bag for the necklace and bracelet . I learned about these at the Lacer's Group I belong to. We are going to learn how to make one next month. I didn't want to wait that long.  I did a Google search and found this pattern.  This is my first attempt. They are also called finger purses. There are many styles. Some have two pouches with two rings in the middle of the two pouches. I plan on doing more. It's a fun novelty with many possibilities.   I found that people are also a bit miserly with sharing the patterns for the sweet little things.

 Then I made some scrubbies, also something I found online. Is'nt the internet a great place to learn new things. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J84jxmGMV5Y


http://crochetpatternsonly.blogspot.com/

 I made mine with some scratchy thread I got in a grab bag from D.I. (Deseret Indrustries) my favorite thrift store. I thought it came out a little small so I made another one ten stiches bigger and it did a funny thing and turned out sort of like a double decker.

Re-creation of My Winged Back Glider Rocker

Old Chair

This past few weeks I have been on  an adventure to find and recover a new chair for myself. My chair was giving me a backache, so I went to my favorite thrift store, Deseret Industries (D.I.),to find a chair. Anne (my husband's sister), took my husband and me.  We took our old one downstairs and I knocked on a few doors to see if anyone wanted my old chair. It still had some good life in it. At the third door I found a neighbor who was very happy to take the chair and give it a new home, so we had a bonus not to have to load it into the van for a trip to D.I. The seat part of the chair from back to front was too long, so it forced me to sit slouched.    As a result I had a backache. I stayed away from the chair for a few days, and sure enough, that was the cause.  So that is what brought about the search for a new chair. 

           I thought it would be nice to have a winged back chair. To my surprise I found a winged back glider rocker; two things I have  always wanted combined into one. Yahoo! To top that off, it was the most comfortable one I sat on.  So the search was over.  The one drawback was that the cover was really ratty looking. I didn't like the color either. We took it home, cover and all. 
      I went to a fabric store and Wa La! (translation: Viola!) where they were having a 50% off sale.  I found fabric I liked.  I also bought some striped fabric to make a tablecloth

and some new covers for our dining chairs, and dress material for a couple of dresses. 
      






     

       Well, off to the makeover. I measured the parts and took the bottom cover off, cut it out laid the top back on the fabric and cut around it because I was not  sure if I could get the thing back together straight. I also cut out a cover for a pillow for Estel's chair; it needed a new cover too. Then on Saturday I just sewed, sewed, sewed. My machine is an old straight-stitch Kenmore. It did a great job.

 I did the hand sewing today.   That was the tricky part. It came out not too bad for a first try of reupholstering. I'm also planning to make a foot rest. I also made a cover for a small head pillow I already had.  So here are the "after" pictures. 
Here it is. What do you think?

A Funny Thing Happened

A funny thing happened. I redid a necklace  because the thread was wearing out, and when I finished, I realized that there was someone looking back at me.The face that emerged is like some sort of ethnic mask.  He seems surprised or just whistling a tune.  This necklace has one of my favorite stone donuts in it. I was told it is Zebra Jasper. 

 The two large buttons are vintage, from a large gallon jar of buttons my sister bought. I had fun going through it on one of my visits with her.

This is the before picture

This is the After Picture

     Repairing this necklace has tried my patience. I would string some more beads and weave them in and something else would break.  I would get one done and another strand would lose it's beads. So I gave in and took the whole thing apart and used heavy thread and realized that this would just get cut by the sharp edges on the beads. 

So I undid it again and restrung it onto some coated beading 

wire. I braided it and found I did not have enough strands, so I made  more. I re-braided it and found it was really stiff because of the wire. I also found that when I set all the ends together they were too big to fit under the findings,( the metal bits that hold the ends together) so I found some old  silver earrings, cut the posts off and glued them over the ends and backed it with dark felt. I got glue on the earrings and could not get it all off. This is why I do not want to go into the repair business. It all made me cry and feel crazy.   It took 3 to 4 days. So  finally, I called it quits and gave it to the friend that had asked me to repair it and said it was not my best work, but it was the best I could do.        

My next attempt was a necklace and  earring set I made for my sister-in-law's birthday. It was more fun. Made with amethyst chips, pale lavender teardrop shape glass beads, green cut glass beads,vintage crystals, and some purple cathedral beads.  Purple and green are her favorite colors.  Amethyst is the birthstone of her mom and Estel, her brother.
 



      In the picture to the left, is a magnetic bracelet I made for my husband's arthritis, to see if what they say is true. He has noticed some improvement in the joints in his hands since he has been wearing it.  The turtle is kind of a symbol for him. His homeroom teacher in High School called him "light'n' " because he moved so slowly. He also had a t-shirt that his mom gave him that had a picture of the tortoise and the hare. It said "I may be slow but I sure am good." 
             

     

      Next is a little bracelet and necklace for my great niece who is eight years old. This set is made with macrame' and sweet yellow flower beads which I talked about in my windfall post. Bright and cheerful, they are like Spring, which I hope is here.

      Last but not least, I learned how to do these sweet little flowers at the lacer's group I belong to . It was designed by Ramona, a member of our group. I added some needle tatting and cross stitched on the gingham check and  some new and vintage beads with a pin in back. I think I will add a Barrette too.  



                                                                     We had snow here last Friday. I hope this bright spot will brighten things up a bit.

    I also bought and planted in a couple of pots of Peruvian Daffodils. They look beautiful in the picture, but we shall see. I have not been able to get my orchids or amaryllis to bloom yet. Third time is the charm, right? 

Windfall Blessing

Windfall Blessing

Since I last wrote I've had a bit of an adventure. When I went to be the guest artist at the Women's Council of Provo, Artist Section. I brought some of the things I have made and sold several of them. So I earned a bit. Then after my last post, a friend of mine bought two of the necklaces I posted, so it added to my windfall. Then, as we were out shopping with a neighbor of ours when leaving the store we saw a sign “Bead sale closeout”.

   A few days later I decided to take a chance and go see what they had. I was really surprised at the quality and discount so I spent some and thought that was good enough. As I thought about it I went and spent some more another day and I got 20% off on top of the already discounted prices. The day after that the lady from the shop called to let me know they were having their blowout sale the last two days. Friday they would give 40% off, and Saturday 50%. My Husband and I went on Friday. I felt there would be a better selection on that day and I already had some things planned for Saturday. So we had some more fun! As we were shopping my husband's sister showed up. I had told her about the sale. She was stopping by on her way to work. So we hitched a ride home because she was going that way.

These new supplies have sent my mind reeling with ideas. One night it was so bad I got little sleep. So In the next while I will share as I bring them to life. Here are some of my finds: This first picture is chalk turquoise. I had never heard of that.

Next Picture same kind of stone.

The next three pictures are mostly Jasper and some agate. I'm not sure of the one on the left that looks a bit like a cloud.

I think God has done some amazing work here. I have loved rocks as long as I can remember. I did a little research and Jasper is made of petrified mud. Nice mud I wouldn't mind wearing some of that mud. 

This next one I 'm not sure what it is I found online a similar looking one and they said it was some sort of quartz.These make me think of spring.

Hope I'm not boring you with my little rock fest.

        

This picture has some Czech glass, baby blue glass pearls, and one container of  clear flat round beads are quartz.

These are so sweet. Did you know there was such a thing as pink jade? The other beads pictured look a bit like ordinary white beans but they are subtle pale colors. Some sort of stone.

 

These are double holed button pearls,

colored a rich golden color. And the large red faceted stone is red Jade I've already made plans for this one. I attached some forest green satin cord and a ceramic bead I already had. It has a Chinese knot in it's future.

                                                

The picture on the left in the bowl has a jasper focal bead. Also, some sweet glass disk beads with small yellow and white flowers. More Spring.

This small picture is a bit disappointing because these have a beautiful, iridescent glow They are labradorite, or as I found out same as feldspar.

               

Picasso Jasper: this stone has baffled me for a long time trying to find out what it was. I had the donut stone I found at a thrift store and could not find any more of it so now I can complete this long awaited pairing. The others are red orange glass, green and gold swarovski crystals and last but not least bright tiny butterflies also swaroviski crystals.


Whew did you make it through that ?