September 19, 2004
Beaded Jewelry
After retiring from a career as a metalsmith/jeweler I've started a new hobby - you guessed it - making beadwork jewelry! The process is entirely different, though, and offers opportunities not found in metalsmithing. The work is clean, there is no noise, the projects are portable, and the colors are magnificent. It all started with the bead crochet bracelets I wrote about in my breast cancer section. You can see them there, and the other beady things I've been working on here.
PEYOTE WAVE BRACELETS
Using two different sizes and shapes of beads in this Peyote Stitch bracelet creates the wave pattern. These bracelets feel really nice, smooth and slinky! I had to touch it every time I saw it on display at "Glass Cat Beads" in Windham, NH, and finally asked where I could get the pattern for it. Cathy Lielausis, owner of the store, very graciously gave me a copy of the pattern, which is featured in one of the many beadwork classes offered at her shop.
ROPE CROCHET NECKLACE
A mix of red-family beads creates interest and texture in this rope necklace. The red faceted glass beads and silver findings make a center piece that doubles as a clasp.
CHOKER WITH A SECRET
This necklace hides its own clasp. The pattern, designed by Leslie Frazier, is from The Art and Elegance of Beadweaving by Carol Wilcox. It was my first project using tubular Ndebele, or herringbone, stitch. The central bead is woven in flat peyote stitch and forms a tube that fits snugly around the necklace. The beads are size 11 deep gray matte round seed beads and red glossy transparent delicas.
The central bead can be moved aside to reach the clasp, then repositioned to hide it.
Because it's a snug fit it doesn't shift during wear.
Here is an iridescent blue one, longer than choker length.
BEAD CROCHET ROPES
These are bead crochet rope necklaces, one with a dichroic glass accent. The glass piece is removable so the ends of that rope can be connected with a decorative clasp instead.
CRISS-CROSS BRACELETS
Czech fire-polished glass beads give these bracelets lots of sparkle.
DNA BRACELETS
The helix of beads around a core gives this bracelet its name. I found the pattern on a web site.
Posted by jacquie at 05:09 PM | Comments (0)
Life as a Serial Crafter
Did it start in the cellar with wood scraps, a hammer, nails and some string? Or was it at the kitchen table with scissors, scraps of fabric and paper, glue, crayons and paint? Either way, it was before my memory could capture it that I became absorbed in making things, and I am still making things more than half a century later. The crafting of objects has been my pleasure, my therapy, my career, and a means of expressing myself.
There is always another craft waiting to be explored, but first I have to test the possibilities of the one I'm working on at any given time - and one thing leads to another, of course. Paper marbling led to bookbinding, covered box construction and handmade cards. Reed basketmaking led to weaving baskets from vines and leaves and other natural materials from my yard, and then to making splint baskets from ash logs. A trip to the scrap metal junkyard with Steve led to learning to weld in order to construct metal sculpture. Sometimes things go full circle; fifty years ago I was sewing doll clothes for my own dolls and now I sew them for my grandchildren's dolls.
My creations are often easily parted with - sold or given away. But sometimes the fruits of my labor seem like a part of me, almost like children, and can't be given up. It isn't so much the expense or the amount of time put into them, but the emotional connection.
Posted by jacquie at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)