Peyote Bracelets

These bracelets are quick and easy to make. I can finish one in an evening while watching TV. I've made several more over the last couple of weeks but I need to find the right clasp or button to finish them. They're very soft and flexible almost like fabric. --- Kay

Leather Bracelets

The last couple of days I've been playing around making leather bracelets. On a whim - I don't know why - but they're fun to do and don't take long to finish after the paint and sealant have dried. I hand stamp and distress the copper word tags and then attach them to the bracelets in various ways. --- Kay

Chips Almost Finished

At last! I'm almost finished with the chips. Just one more to join the two sections and then I can start on the RAW section for the back of the necklace. --- Sandy

I'm Back to Beading

I really missed going to last week's bead group but it was fun getting my grandson settled in his dorm room. I'm back to beading now. I've done a little copper work and made a peyote bracelet tonight. But just now when I wanted to take a photo, I discovered my camera's battery needed charging. So no picture tonight. --- Kay

A Good Day

I stayed busy at bead group today and several potato chips done. Now they need to be connected and added to the long chain. Hope I'm getting close to the length I need so I can get this finished. I'm feeling the urge to move on to something else and the last thing I need is yet another UFO. --- Sandy

Slow Going

I have only two potato chips to show for the last two days. Got to get a move on or this thing will never get finished. I experiemented a bit with stitches for the back part of this necklace. I think tubular RAW will work best to connect to the potato chips and to surface embellish with the drops. Somewhere in my stash I have some lime green rattail that will look good under the purple beads.

Blogger has been really tempermental the last few days. Pictures are really hard to load. Hope it's a temporary problem.

Bead group tomorrow...yay! I'm going to get busy and bead like a mad woman tomorrow. --- Sandy

No Beading Progress for the Week

Just checking in. I've haven't done any beading so far this week. There have been 101 things going on every day all day into the night -- mostly centered around my grandson who's off to college and moves into the dorm tomorrow. --- Kay

Progress at Last!

I finally got some beading done today. I think I'll have to give up on getting any beading done on weekends when Carlos is in town. Just too much to do, especially when he's just come back from a long trip.

I finished several more potato chips today and got them linked to the old ones. I'm going to use the potato chips on the front part of a necklace. It's about half way there to the length I want for these and then I'll make a herringbone or RAW piece to go around the back of my neck. Only have one tube of the purple beads left so I'll have to order some more if I can't find them locally. Oh gee, what a burden that I'll have to shop for beads! --- Sandy

HBS Mini Bazaar

Jonellen and I shared a table at the HBS Mini Bazaar today. She had vintage buttons, trims and fabrics and I had bracelet kits, art doll bodies and faces. Not too many people came out to shop but we had a good time visiting with everyone. Carol and Diane had tables and Penny, Jean and Beth came to shop. And of course, I came home with a few goodies I couldn't pass up.

Tonight I did this 16" piece of Viking knitting with 22 ga. wire. It goes really fast!

Rip It - Rip It

I worked on the blue bracelet again tonight finishing the length. I added a button but I'm not happy at all with it. It's too big, too convex so it doesn't snuggle like it should and I don't like the color. Makes you wonder why I even picked it up. I started the peyote loop at the other end but the more I looked at the button, the more I knew it was coming off. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow at the HBS mini bazaar I'll see just the right bead or button or whatever that will work better on the bracelet.

Bet Ya Can't Eat Just One

These purple potato chips are addictive. I did three more at bead group today and thought I'd finish the fourth one tonight but got sidetracked as usual. --- Sandy

Freeform Peyote

I started this bracelet months ago and have worked on it only occasionally at the Thursday bead group. Today I managed to add about 1" to it so it's almost finished. Just need a little more embellishment and a closure. I never know when to stop beading on one of these -- there's always room for another bead.

Purple Potato Chips

Here's some purple potato chips I got done at Mom's house the last couple of days. There are seven of them so far. I'd originally intended this as a necklace to go with a new shirt. But my color memory is horrible and I pulled the beads without matching it to the shirt. Turns out the shirt is a red-purple so these beads don't look so good with it. But I like the these purple beads with the green drops so I'll keep going. It might be just a bracelet however. Now I've got to figure out something to go with the new shirt.

I also started a strip of RAW for a bangle bracelet but I can't find it right now. I must have stuffed it in the wrong baggie when I packed things up to come home. Guess that means I'll have something to post tomorrow. --- Sandy

Another Day Without Beads

After a hectic day I just ran out of steam tonight. The next few days I'm staying with my mom while she has eye surgery. No internet connection but I'll have beads and a comfortable chair. Who knows, maybe I'll even tackle the dreaded fans again. --- Sandy

Metal Work

I enjoy working with metal especially copper. This metal assembly was made before I went to the retreat but today I added the chain. I made three other assemblages this afternoon but don't have the necklace part on them yet. Tonight while watching TV I did some Viking knitting with 20 ga. wire. It makes a more substantial chain. And sore hands!

No Beading Today

I spent the day shopping with my grandson who's off to college soon and then we stopped for dinner. By the time I got home I was too tired to pick up a needle -- so there's no beading today. My goal was to finish the Victoria necklace in six weeks but like Sandy I think it's time for a break from the fans. Tomorrow I plan to work on a multistrand necklace I have started and do some metal work. Change is good! --- Kay

No More Fans

No more fans for a while. I wasted all day Thursday trying to do one at bead group and finally tore it apart. I'm in a beading slump and Kay is getting ahead of me again.

Carlos is back in town after five weeks in Indonesia and Viet Nam so we've been really busy this weekend. I did manage to pull beads for a couple of new projects tonight so maybe tomorrow evening I can pick up a needle again. ---Sandy

Today's Beading

It seems I can make no more than two of these a day no matter what my intentions are. I did these tonight while watching the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. Needless to say, I had to rip out several times -- these require total focus for me. Sandy? --- Kay

Viking Knitting

I learned Viking Knitting at the retreat this past weekend. After the initial klutziness getting it started, it's fast, easy and mindless -- a nice change from the RAW fans I've been doing. I did most of this at the Thursday Bead Group today. Tomorrow I'll decide just how I'm going to use the pieces in a necklace. --- Kay

More Fans

I didn't get to bead until this evening but I got four more fans done. Two of these are the medium size. Only four more to go. The last four are the large size. I'm getting a little tired of fans so I may switch to the medallions for a while. --- Sandy

Slowly, Oh So Slowly

I finished two more components tonight and I'll work on more tomorrow at our bead group. But these may be like strenuous exercise -- one should skip a day in between. These were all I worked on today but I did set up a spreadsheet to track gallery inventory which I should have done a year ago. I'll have to ask Sandy if this counts as beadwork.

Tuesday Work

Kay is still beating me. I'm going to have to get busy to keep up with her. We're both working on a kit for Marcia DeCoster's Victoria Necklace. It calls for 12 of these fans and 10 medallions. I only got one fan finished today plus the three I did in Shreveport. But I did try out various surface embellishments and finally settled on a green seedbead. I thought for sure that 2mm SWC in olivine or tanzanite would work but they just disappeared into the work.


Also, here's a pix of the goodies I bought at the retreat. The baggies in the center hold nailheads in bright opaque colors. And the other baggies hold vintage cabs. The large cab is a beautiful blue stone with flash and is called aragonite.

--- Sandy

Victoria Necklace

I am determined to finish Marcia's Victoria necklace this year -- it may take me that long. Adding to the one I did at SBR, I finished two and almost the third tonight so I am getting faster. Didn't rip out nearly as much. Progress!

Potato chips are fun to do so I beaded two more playing with color. --- Kay

Under the Wire....sort of

Kay's putting me to shame. She actually got some beading done Monday so I had to hurry and finish a potato chip. This only barely counts because I just finished a few rows but I'll do better Tuesday. It'll be a terrible rainy, windy day so what's better than beading all day! --- Sandy

Great Retreat

I also enjoyed the SBR. It was my first time to attend but I saw lots of familiar faces from the Texas Bead Retreat earlier this year. And I met many other beaders for the first time. The traveling part was fun, too -- lots of laughs. Oh, but I was tired when I got home. I did manage to do a little beading today -- a potato chip which we learned how to do at the retreat and I started a multicolored lariat. Hopefully, our blog will keep me on track to finish some of my many kits and ideas I have for projects. --- Kay

Shreveport Retreat

I had a great time at the Shreveport Bead Retreat. Now to unpack and get busy on all the great projects I saw, not to mention the jillion kits I need to do! --- Sandy