I am teaching this Art Deco Pendant class on Saturday February 11 at Bead Angels in Broad Ripple. These new Tila beads are fun to play with. Class goes from 2-4:30. Give them a call on Thursday if you would like to sign up. 317-259-7677.
I am also teaching Pearl Knotting at Bead Angels this Thursday from 12:30-3.
On Thursday February 16th I will be teaching my Swirling Pearls Necklace from 6-8pm at Bead Angels.
And on Saturday February 25th I will be teaching my Champagne Sparkler Necklace from 10:30-1 at Bead Angels. All of these projects are great intermediate projects and they all look more complicated than they actually are. I hope that you can join me for one of them. All of the classes are $35. You can bring your own supplies or purchase them at the store. There is a discount on supplies for the class when you sign up.
I am also leading the February Bead Society meeting on the 15th at 7pm. Details on the project and kit fees can be found here. Please e-mail me or let Kim know that you are coming so that I have enough kits for everyone.
It is so much fun beading these little birdy squares, I can’t seem to stop. But I am running out of patterns to try and time to make new ones. Apologies for the slightly dodgy photos. It’s winter here and the sunlight is hard to come by. And my photo booth is in disarray due to the basement disaster going on at the moment. Here’s what I have done so far…
This cardinal is a graph my friend Carol worked up based on a Charley Harper painting. I love it. I wish I had picked beads with a little more contrast for the wings. I was considering trying to tweak it to make a blue jay…
This parrot is one of the free graphs available at the Bead and Button website.
The flamingo is another freebie from Bead and Button. This one was super easy. I started at the top to do the fun part first. Once you get to the leg and the background, it’s speedy beading.
I found this one online somewhere. It was an odd count graph, so I just shortened it by a row, both widthwise and lengthwise. I was not feeling like doing all those pesky odd count turns.
This pattern came from the same place as the other owl graph. I made the same adjustments to it.
Here is the woodpecker I designed. I tweaked the graph a bit after completing this square. I didn’t like the dot above his eye. It looked sort of like he had two eyes on the same side of his head. I’m not sure if I’ll have time to make up another one or not.
Here is the horned owl square I designed. I really like how it turned out. I had a bit of trouble with this graph. It’s amazing how quickly one little tweak can turn an owl into a cat.
And here they all are together. I think I might need to make some for myself after this is all over. They are all so cute.
Carol left me another graph to try on Friday. Hopefully I can knock out at least one more square. I also still have to sew them all onto their pellon backings. That part isn’t nearly as much fun as making squares…
Every January the Indiana Bead Society works on squares for the Bead It Forward project. This year Bead and Button Magazine has taken over this project. Essentially beaders donate beaded squares of a specified size with images relating to the theme of the year. The squares are then assembled into quilts and auctioned off to raise money for breast cancer research. This year the theme is Birds. I happen to love birds so I have gone a bit crazy. I volunteered to come up with a graph for our group, and I came up with two. The owl graph is a bit rough, but I promise it works up well. I had intended to clean it up a bit, but we are having some house issues that are eating into my time a bit more than I would like.
Both of my graphs are designed to work with size 11 Delicas. (You can use size 11 seed beads, but the squares will be too big for this specific project.) For the woodpecker I would start at the top left-hand corner. For the owl, the top left or the bottom right and work towards the left. Both graphs are even-count peyote. Feel free to use them for the project or your personal use. If you wish to use them for commercial purposes, please contact me.
So far I have made 6 squares and am working on my 7th. There are multiple free patterns out there. Bead and Button has several available. There are also 2 cute Oriole patterns available at Bead Soup. But beware, the graphs are tiny.
Once finished, the squares must be sewn onto a backing. Squares are due by March 1, 2012. There is plenty of time to bead up a few squares. They really are quite addictive. I’ll try to post pictures of my finished squares soon.
I thought I would show you one of my favorite projects from this past holiday. I found the pattern via a link on One Pearl Button. The minute I saw those wookies, I knew that I had to make them for at least two people in my life.
Wookies!
Could you resist those faces? I made them out of two different fabrics. For my friend Cathy I used corduroy. For my 4 year old friend I used inside out sweatshirt material, he’s all about the soft. The pattern was pretty easy to follow. The face was a bit fiddly, and if I made another one, I would either cut the face insert piece bigger or make the face hole smaller. I had to do a bit of hand stitching to make sure that the stuffing didn’t come out of his face. I used safety eyes which I find pretty funny. And I didn’t follow the directions for assembly since I have made lots of other dolls which followed another method. Since his legs were so long, stuffing them first then sewing them in may not have been the best choice, but no one has complained about losing a limb yet.
Both gifts were well received. The 4 year old hugged his Chewie, said he loved him then threw him on the floor repeatedly. After that he asked where Chewie’s gun was. I said I didn’t make a gun, but perhaps he could borrow a light saber from someone. I know wookies don’t use lightsabers, but I had to think fast. A light saber was quickly procured and attached to Chewie’s hand with a rubber band. I think he will be well loved.
As soon as I figure out how to use my scanner, I will be back with a few free patterns that I designed for this past week’s Bead Society meeting.
A little update from the road… So fear all of my classes have been awesome. First up was Parasol Earrings with Jeanette Cook. They are little silk cones encrusted with Swarovski crystals. I finished one in class, hopefully I will have some time to finish the other one tomorrow.
Wednesday I took the Georgian Jewels Necklace with Laura McCabe. I learned a lot in this class. I am amazed at how her brain works. I finished 1 component. Lots of bedding left to do on that one.
Wednesday evening I helped my friend Susan with her table at the Meet the Teachers event.
Today I took Sherry Serafini’s Runway Earrings. Bead embroidery is something that I haven’t done a lot of, but it’s fun.
Tonight was preview night shopping. I tried to restrain myself since I have the whole day free tomorrow. I managed to do OK. But there are lots of booths I have to return to tomorrow…
I will be teaching this fabulous herringbone necklace at the Frankfort Library on June 18th. The class starts at 9 AM and goes until 4ish. There will be a break for lunch. I have kits made up for both of these color combos. There are more gray’s left than topaz. The class fee is $30 and the kit fee is $27 for the gray or $22 for the topaz. For details contact Flo Cadell at the library. They can take reservations over the phone or the internet.
I’ll even show you how to modify the bead cap to fit a rectangle. The class should be lots of fun. It’s a wonderful facility and a good group of people up there.
Here are the pins that we made in class at Siever’s School last year. Diane Fitzgerald was teaching Miriam Haskell style collage pins. Bet you can’t guess which ones are mine…
I am off to the Bead and Button Show for the week. This will be my 9th year attending this awesome show. I had a little glitch when signing up for classes in January. (My fault, not the show registration’s.) It’s been so long since I signed up for the classes, I didn’t remember what I was registered for. It looks like I have signed up for 3 earring classes and two necklaces. Hopefully this will mean that the UFO drawer will not grow by much as earrings are usually fairly quick to create. This time around I went for well known teachers that I haven’t taken a class from yet, one that I haven’t taken a class from in a while, and one that I had last year that was just great.
I will return next week with a full report, including pictures of the loot.
Well, UFO month was a bust. Life and special orders took precedence over F-ing the O’s. But I thought I would give you a look in my drawers just for fun.
I have one more drawer just like this one. Oohhh the excitement!
I did manage to finish one bracelet that has been knocking around for a few years. I don’t have a picture yet, but I have worn it once. I made a bit of progress on a macrame necklace from a workshop with Kris Buchanan a few years ago. I hope to finish that before the month is over. Kris has some really awesome macrame pieces. Her website is www.kristinebuchanan.com.
Hi Blog
By francie | May 11, 2011
Vintage Resin Flower Pendant Blue
Apologies for my absence. I haven’t quite figured out how to work the blog into my daily schedule, but I’m working on it. I managed to accomplish my Thing-a-Day challenge, even while on vacation! I finished the month with over 31 finished pieces. It was a little more challenging than expected, and I will definitely try it again, but not for a while. I will post some of the pictures here.
Turquoise Tear Drop Necklace
Day 2 Thing a Day
In the mean time I participated in the annual Stutz Artists’ Open House. I believe that this was my 10th year. It went quite well. It’s always fun to get feedback on your art. And it is nice to see my jewelry go to good homes.
Day 12 Thing a Day
Next on the horizon is the Bead and Button Show in June. I will be taking classes and cramming my brain full of as much beady goodness as possible. This year the budget is pretty tight, so I am going to have to reign in the shopping. That is going to be extremely hard. I am powerless in the face of sparkly things.
May is traditionally my UFO month. That’s UnFinished Objects to the uninitiated. I have at least 3 drawers full, some more complex than others. The origin of UFO month for me was to make sure I cleared some space in the drawers before I headed off to Bead and Button, and came home with 3-4 more UFOs. After the Thing-A-Day project, I have cleared out most of the quickie finishes. Mostly I have the bad boys left to tackle. I think it’s going to be a few days of UFO’s and not a whole month, as it’s already week 2 of May and I haven’t even opened a drawer yet. Today I will open a drawer and take a photo for you. Yikes!
I have set myself a challenge to either make or finish something each day for the month of March. So far, so good. Yesterday I managed to finish one necklace and knock out a second one with some of my Tucson beads.
This one I started during a knotting class I was teaching. It just needed a clasp.
I love these jasper beads. Each bead looks like it’s own little world. I mixed them with some bronze glass spacers and some fun copper chain. I need to remember where I got that chain, so I can get more. They are much prettier in real life. I just waited too long to take my pictures today. Tomorrow I will try to get my pictures done a bit earlier.
I also got a start on the necklace I am working on finishing for today. I still have a bit of work to do, so I will post that picture tomorrow.
I have also decided that I should no longer go to Michael’s unsupervised. I had to go there to replace my heat gun, which I needed for my project today. I thought I would be relatively safe since I had a gift certificate and no other immediate need, besides a little green ribbon and some more copper chain. Ha! You can’t look at ribbon and only buy one spool. Then, the beads were all 40% off, and they are carrying a new line of super cute fabric that I could not resist. Next time I need someone to carry my wallet for me and tell me to back away from the shiny ribbon and sparkly beads.
