Fuel.

Taking a break from beading to indulge in my guilty pleasure: yakisoba noodles, cabbage, carrots, snow peas, mushrooms, onions and garlic!  So easy to make and fun to eat with chop sticks. Mmmmmm.

I have awakened the beast...

I found this beautiful pendant in a bead shop in Morro Bay years ago, I think. I'd like to give credit to the artist. Maybe someone will recognize it. Anyway, I started by beading around the pendant with a delicate, pretty stitch I learned from Lisa Kan's book Bead Romantique. Oh and the little flower with the pearl in the center is another one of her designs. Then I made basic spiral ropes. Instead of having the spirals on both sides going in the same direction, I corrected this old habit and pushed the spiral loops to the opposite side on the 2nd rope. It worked. Trial and error. So, I like where this is going. It needs more fringe. I am using my notes from Kandra's class with the Face. And it needs a clasp & I have the perfect button. Can't wait to wear it. It's going to be another late night! The beast is hungry!

my laptop is kaput. really kaput. but my tomatoes and mini roses are growing gangbusters.

It's Summer 2015 & it has been a very interesting year, full of challenges and I miss writing in my blog. I got the big idea to finally update my laptop's ancient software and it didn't go well. 8 years of stuff...gone. Should have left it to the professionals but the optical lens is also history and since it was so old so there's the parts issue... anyway I hope I saved something. So I have this little Kindle reader I really enjoy and if I can figure out a way to take a decent picture with it, then figure out how to retrieve it maybe I can update my blog. And just in time to start a new B.E. piece! Time to try...

success! Yeah Kindle!😆

In reference to an older post...

Once I think I saw a book? in one of my beady magazines or maybe a a class? that was called something like: You Don't Have To Be Afraid of Right Angle Weave. Huh! Or maybe I had a bad dream about it.  I was perusing some of my older posts and I realized I never posted a picture of a necklace I had referenced. This necklace is one I made back a couple of years ago at one of the annual CCBS Bead Retreat which Marcia DeCoster taught. It's called Descending Nights and I actually finished it right after the Retreat! The original pattern had two more "flowers" on the straps but we were given the option to shorten it.  I apologize, it's not the clearest picture, so do look it up on her site for a better view - very elegant. The straps are made of Czech fire polished beads in a simple RAW pattern. Why didn't I think of that?!  And I got to use one of those pretty brass filigree pendants I always wanted to play with.
I had so much fun learning a lot about RAW, although I just couldn't get a grasp on Cubic Right Angle Weave for the other project that weekend. Not that Marcia didn't try her best to teach it to me! So it's one to keep working on.
I see she has a few really good books out right now on the subject. One is :Beads In Motion,  and the other one I need to study. Alot.: Beadwork's Designer of the Year Series Right Angle Weave Fundamentals with Marcia DeCoster.  Check out her website and blog if you haven't yet.  They're a visual candy store and interesting.  There's a new kit with RAW leaves, a lariat type, I believe, where one end goes through two of the leaves on the other end.  Just gorgeous.  I aspire to make that "turn" in CRAW.   Speaking of CRAW....try her "free" Easy Elegant Earring pattern on her website.  Directions are in the sidebar.  Pretty cool!  And that's that.

Aren't wrap bracelets fun? They seem to be all the rage these days.  I see a lot of leather strap bracelets embellished with semi-precious gemstones or rhinestones. They are great projects for those craving a little instant gratification.  There's a little of the 70's look going on.  For similar looks check out an artist named Ali on Lima Beads. You'll see what I mean. She's beading/stringing a blue-streak and I love her work.  It's so relaxed and earthy. And she utilizes simple, relatively inexpensive components to make really cool jewelry for every occasion. Enough of tooting Ali's horn...I made my own wrap bracelet and it was fun as promised.  I used 4 mm round jasper gemstones which I had purchased at BellaBead in Fresno some time ago as well as S-Lon Beading Cord. It's durable and comes in lots of pretty colors. I picked up a few spools at the 41 Trading Post in Oakhurst.  You can do a lot with it...like Kumihimo, stringing larger hole beads, knotting, etc. The base strands are 2mm leather cord and the clasp is a button out of my stash. So here it sits atop my praying hands incense burner which I got at Artifacts also in Oakhurst some time ago.
Wrap bracelets are quick and easy to make. Try one! Fusion Beads is where I learned how to make it.  Just click on "Techniques" and search for wrap bracelet.  The diagrams are very clear. Have Fun!

A fun and funky bangle I made using some recycled clothe wrapped around a plain wooden bangle- sold at craft stores- and of course some beads, coiled up wire, crystals and a little imagination.

And here's a picture of the late, great Keesha, the sweetest dog ever. I think this must have been an Andy Warhol special edition!!! lol !       Check it out:

Made this fun necklace using a focal bead from Klewexpressions.com and kept forgetting I had it loaded on my camera.  It was fun braiding the leather strap and incorporating a little wire work and of course fringe.