Begun, Undone, Redone et finis!!!!

Finally finished!!!

Once I got things reorganized and started again, this piece took on it's own wave action and led me thru the creation process. I left the large focal bead aside as it was making the entire piece fall to the inside of the wrist. A large focal bead looks nice when the bracelet is lying flat or on display , but for parctical wearing purposes , that same bead caused major design problems.

To take the place of a strong focal element I sprinkled many lustrous pearls throughout the waves of seed beads. Other very special elements include hand made recycled glass beads from Tanzania and several hand cut vintage crystals.

At the top of this picture you can see the pale purple seaglass cube that serves as one end of the toggle clasp. When closed it isnot obvious where one unhooks the bracelet. I like to integrate the closures into the design as much as possible as the clasp does not interrupt the flow of the waves.

(As always, you may click on any picture to see a larger image!)
This piece will now be combined with a set of earrings and a pendant necklace as a donation package for Liberty Town Patron's Show. The show opens in May and tickets will be on sale till one ticket per item donated has been sold. The raffle aspect, where ticket holders names are drawn to discover selection order , will take place at the end of May. This will be a very exciting event for patrons and artists alike as we watch the order of selection of our pieces!! No one wants to be chosen last!!!!
I am fairly sure that the Brier/Woodford Donation will be amoung the top tier of selections!!! (Keep your fingers crossed!!)

Begun and Undone........

Sometimes things don't go as planned.

It does not feel right, things don't flow.

Is it the color choices, the bead shapes or the developing form???

One thing that has been ingrained in me since I was very young, is to rip it out, rewind the yarn, start again , if mistakes were made or if the seam was not sewn correctly. This is a practice that has stood by me well. From this practice has grown an attention to detail and finishing, that in my opinion, can make any piece of creative expression either soar or fall flat.

This is the issue that I was struggling with over the weekend. The subject is a piece that will be donated and auctioned at the Liberty Town Patron's Show in May. I am working in partnership with my good friend Leslie Brier to put together a jewlery ensemble that will be a single unit for the sale. I am creating a free form Peyote stitched bracelet and leslie is putting together a pair of earrings and anecklace. We are coordinating our pieces so theyc an be worn as seperates or all together. WE have swapped beads from our various collections in a serious effort to cross pollinate our color choices and beads.

So after combing thru my collection and pulling all of the potential beads, adding in the ones that Leslie and I had chosen together, I set to work. When creating a free form piece, the first step involves creating the foundation band. The key is to vary colors and bead sizes within your color palete to add interest and movement. Once that part is done the fun begins. Except it very quickly became too regular and static. The focal bead that I thought that I would use looked heavy and clunky. This was meant to be an ocean inspired piece but the flow would not go!! How can one creat a piece aobut he frothy foaming flowing ocean that doea not reflect movement?? It was NOT WORKING and it felt forced.

Soooooooo, out came the scissors and the sorting tray. Snip, Snip, Sort, Reselect and start again!!!!

I am so glad that I did take it all apart and start again. It took me only a few hours to get back on track and come up with a much more organic and free flowing form.

I am sure that you can see the difference in the design and the general flow of the piece. I am not going to use the large focal bead but have opted instead for several smaller sea glass type beads (hand made from recycled glass in Africa). I will also be adding quite a few pearls in various colors- cream, violet and olive .
This photo is a bit bright and washes out many of the white crystals. I am planning on getting this piece completed by the end of the week, so I will post a complete set of detailed shots later.

Last year, in a magazine, I think, I saw a tip for storage of beads during the construction process. The tip suggested using deviled egg plates. I am not a big fan of deviled Eggs, but I was very sure that I could see the utility of the plates for beading. Above you will see that I have used a plastic version, and I must say it works great! I came upon two of these plates at our local Goodwill store, so with Easter soon upon us, keep your eyes open at thrift stores and yard sales.

It's A Love-Hate Thing !!

Hi Everyone!! I am finally Back in Blogland!!! Hurray!!

We have just begun to determine all that we have lost in our Hard Drive MELTDOWN!! The whiring and clicking sound that I was hearing was NOT the power supply but the Hard Drive leaving this world. It has taken with it all of my email data including all of my addresses- bear with me!! I have also lost many many photos as we had not done a full back up since mid July.. We had a busy summer and the back up kept sliding........... Down a very slippery slope!!!

I have learned some things the hard way, that is for sure. One thing that I will be doing is undertakling seperate photo backups regardless of what else is going on!!

I can't tell you how grateful I am to have my blog. Firstly because I have met all of you, but in this case the blog has become a wonderful repository of photos..!! It will take me awhile to retrieve them and start new folders but at least those photos have not been lost!!

I also came to realize just how much time I was giving over to the computer!!! I found so much time in my day without it, but I surely did miss it and all of my wonderful interactions with you !!! So I plan to try to limit my daily time a bit more rigorously- we'll see how that works!!

I did keep quite busy during my computer down time and with Tom overseas for almost two weeks I found myself slipping back into old night owl habits of staying up late watching tv and creating away!!!

Would you like to see what I accomplished??

I am feeling quite grown up and professional- an illusion I know!! But it is surprizing what a difference it makes to have real display pieces!!
You have seen the Sea Foam Treasure Bracelet on the far left and the Faces piece on the far right , in previous posts.

The middle two Bracelets are my new creations!

This piece I have called Forest Floor. The inspiration for this piece was the wonderful Toad Lampwork bead. I just love this little guy!! This bracelet is for sale in my Etsy shop, here. Along with Mr. Toad one can find a butterfly , several bees and a snail all nestled in amoungst the leaves and sticks of the underbrush. Here are some other views.

Next, I was inspired by some purple blossoms from the garden!

The focal bead in this piece is a Czech glass disk with a moon and stars. this piece went together very quickly, mostly because I ahve such a large stash of purple beads to chooose from!!!! I have jsut listed this piece in my Etsy Shop and you can find details here.

It is amazing what one can accomplish when there are not multiple technological devices caliing your name!!!

So now I must proceed to try to recover what I can and move on from there. I must work to limit my computer play time and aim to refocus my efforts to produce artwork that speaks to me and to other's!! We will see how I do!!!

Thank you all for your encouragment and support!!
And may the evil computer gremlins not come visiting at your house!!!!!!!

A last word of advice for those of you who take and treasure your pictures. Set up a schedule for back ups- like once a month or even after a particularly important life event. You won't be sorry!!!!