Fresh from the desk: New chain stitch

I'm tired of only using daisy chain and seed-bugle-seed-bugle all in a row.  Those stitches are fine when appropriate, but I'm bored with only having those two options if I'm trying to keep production time down.  I know there are much nicer/fancier stitches out there, but they're so time-consuming that I'd need to raise my prices and I'm not willing to go there just yet.

However, I did come across this one that takes more time than a daisy chain but not near as much as a spiral rope.  It's a little hard to tell with this resolution, but it's a flat chain of small squares with a contrasting color in each corner.  I had redone necklaces with the butterfly pendant a couple of times already.  It's so large that nothing else I tried laid right, but I think the contrast of the frilly butterfly and the square chain with hematite balances the whole piece nicely.  A daisy chain was too much fluff for the pendant and a plain bugle strand was too bland, but this works nicely.

This one is choker-length with navy blue delicas beads and mint green seed beads for contrast.  The squares in the chain echo the geometrics on the ceramic pendant and the green shell discs tie it all together.  I love this little choker and I'll definitely make some more to sell in various places so I can keep one for myself!

All in all, this stitch takes a bit longer than the others but it's useful in ways they lack.  I'm looking at trends for the Fall so I'm sure I'll be able to work this one in more.  I'm also working on some crochet jewelry, so once I have something to show there I'll definitely blog it.  I have an idea for a lace choker with an amethyst nugget front and center... maybe I'll work on that one tonight!

Fresh from the desk: Push to Pageant Weekend!

Hot Springs is a small town, but for some reason or another, the Miss South Dakota Pageant has been held here for decades (if not since the beginning... having some trouble finding the dates for that, but it's not terribly relevant for my purposes).  Having grown up here, left, and moved back, I can't quite figure out why something so big would stay here, but it's a huge deal for this little town.  There's a whole weekend's worth of events structured around the pageant.

The event that's of most interest to me at this point is the annual Arts & Crafts Festival held in Centennial Park.  It's a wonderful display of art, handicrafts, local businesses, local musicians, all of that.  Someday I hope to be able to afford a table there (as well as the 3 days the event runs... I'd have to miss a day of work for that now), but this year it isn't in the cards.  I'd need to sell everything I have to break even, so it's not an option.  What I will do, however, is set up my table on Saturday morning on my usual corner at the White Elephant and hope to catch some of the parade traffic there.  It may or may not work, we'll see.

Partly because of this and partly because of my decision to build my inventory and post more listings online, I'm beading like mad this week.  Tonight I made two memory wire necklaces, a pair of earrings to match a necklace I made yesterday, and reworked the green necklace I made a couple of weeks ago.

This one has a yellow carved bone pendant and two similarly yellow carved soapstone beads.   I employed my trusty color wheel to come up with the purple glass beads, and luckily I had a large amount of varying shades and finishes that were the first package of beads I ever bought.  I thought it was time to try to use them up.  That's a bit of a theme for me lately... I have lots of partially-used packages of beads that really just need to be worked with.  I'm not a huge fan of using straight-across complementary colors on the color wheel... they tend to be a little too jarring for me, but after I worked with this combination a little it started to grow on me.  I may try it more, if I have the right beads for it.  We'll see what the public thinks this weekend.  This is also the first memory wire necklace that I've beaded the whole way around.  It really is a bit of an experimental piece, but what else to do with such a stunning pendant?

This one is more typical of my style.  I have a package of dainty large leaf pendants, so I chose one of the smaller ones and added a symmetrical arrangement of shell and wood beads in greens, browns, and white, natural greenery tones to complement the leaf itself and lend their different textures.  I love this piece, and it went together in about 10 minutes flat, so we'll see what the public thinks of this one also.  Personally, it's one of my new favorites.

After making the green necklace a few weeks ago, I immediately started second-guessing myself.  I took it to the Saturday show right after and I wore it for a little while, and my suspicions were confirmed.  It was too long, it didn't lay right, and the daisy chain stitch just didn't work with the heavy soapstone centerpiece.  Tonight I cut it apart and put the soapstone where it belongs, on a piece of hemp surrounded by shiny glass beads, unfinished wood beads, jade-green pony beads, and pale green soapstone.  It's long enough to be about 18", but I prefer to tie it tighter.  The center bead just lays better when it's closer to a choker length.  This is a much better use of it.

Yesterday I made this necklace.  One of these weeks I'll take the time to get some good photos.  Maybe after Saturday.

It's simple, purple and white, 16" daisy chain with a faceted purple glass pendant and two small white shell beads on each side.  It's sparkly, just sparkly enough to be a little dressy but not overly formal.  Purple may be my new favorite color... it keeps showing up in my new clothes, new beads, new designs... I'm okay with that.

Luckily for me, there were smaller matching purple beads available, so I got them at the same time with the goal of making matching earrings.   It's still a daisy chain, still the same white shells around the purple pendant, but in earring form they almost look like a helix, don't they?  I like it.  Lots.  Again, we'll see how this set does this weekend.

Tomorrow I need to make more bracelets and anklets like this one just because they're fun (and to use up leftover beads).  No two will be exactly the same of course, but I should try to do matching bracelets and anklets just in case.  Hooray for progress!  It was a good night!

Fresh from the desk: Abstract in green

Spring is very slow to get started here.  We've only broken 75 degrees a couple of days so far, the vast majority hovering around 60 with rain and wind.  Let me tell you how un-thrilled I am about this.  It's abnormal for this area for it to be so wet and chilly coming up on June, though I guess last year was about like this too.  Not for this long, maybe... it took us until the middle of May last year to get 3 dry days in a row so that my mobile home could be moved up the hill, since it got stuck in the mud the first day we moved it.  We haven't had many more dry days in a row than that so far this spring.  It's wearing on my nerves and patience, being the solar-powered girl I am and considering the number of projects I need to work on outside that I'd like to get done before the heat of the summer hits. 

I didn't start this post to whine!  I'm sorry!  What I meant to say was I have green on the brain.  In more ways than one really, I'm ready for the lush leafy summer we're destined to have after all this moisture and I'm looking for more ways to be self-sufficient and reduce my carbon footprint.  So far, that includes yogurt, which I'm still experimenting with, but that's for another day. 

I found the soapstone centerpiece for this and have been wondering what to do with it.  It's rather thick, mostly a pale green with some flecks of orange/coral, with a symmetrical shape and an asymmetrical carving on both the front and back.  Considering the shape and size of it, I figured the necklace should be around choker length so it would lay the best.  A comfortable slightly long choker length for me is 16", so that's what I went with here.  It lays comfortably just below the hollow of my throat.  Since the hole is drilled lengthways, it's not a pendant really on its own, but it's simple enough that I didn't want to overload it with anything too flashy.  I beaded a simple daisy chain for it, alternating between green foil-lined bugle beads and matte bone white large seed beads, all surrounded by forest green seed beads.  It's a simple piece, but I think the soapstone is showcased the way it should be.

It's time to build up my inventory for my next Saturday show.  This one I'll be doing alone, but that's alright.  More to come!

Fresh from the Desk: New pieces listed on Etsy!

My Etsy Shop now has double the listings it had before!  Go check it out and see if there's anything that needs to go home with you! :)

Among the new pieces is this one, a slightly tribal carved bone pendant on Sterling Silver memory wire.  I had a little trouble with what to do with this pendant.  It's quite a statement piece, isn't it?  My boyfriend looooooooooooooooves it.  I love the nautilus spiral, but when I got it home I was at a loss for what to do with it.  It sits slightly off-center just because of the shape and the placement of the drilled hole and I didn't have anything that would really complement it on a beaded or hemp necklace like I've been working with previously.  I figured it was time to get the memory wire out again and I'm glad I did.  This slightly tribal pendant needed a stronger treatment than hemp or a beaded chain, but I didn't want to go wild with colors either because it is such a strong piece on its own.  I started looking through my black beads to see what I could come up with and came across my black iridescent Czech glass dagger drop beads that I haven't used in far too long.  The fire polishing gives them a distinct green-blue iridescent shine on one side so it's been a little difficult for me to find an effective use for them as well.  But, once I paired them with the pendant, it all started to come together.  I got out the green shell spacers I used for the custom turtle necklace a while back, some black resin beads, and some silvery shell beads and strung it all on some memory wire so that it sits just at my collarbones.  It could be stretched out to sit a bit lower, but I won't worry about that.

It's now available for $15 on my Etsy shop so go take a look if you'd like!  Again, Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely Mamas out there!

Fresh from the desk: Custom turtle necklace

My cousin is wonderful. She immediately ordered earrings from my Etsy shop to match the necklaces I had already sent her. She officially rocks my socks. Then, she proposed a challenge to me: she loves turtle jewelry but has had trouble finding any. I'm on it.

Honestly, the hard part was finding the turtle pendant. I didn't have all day to look and I don't get up to Rapid City very often, so my shopping choices were Michael's and Hobby Lobby, and to get it done quickly enough that Mom and I weren't late for our respective rehearsals. There was one turtle pendant at Michael's. One. And it was bright shiny orange glass. Not exactly what I had in mind for my cousin, who is a character but with class. I suspect there may have been more that would usually be in stock, but there were a fair number of empty pegs in the charms/pendants section. Instead of making that one work, we tried Hobby Lobby next. It took forever, and the first 3 that we found were very childish-looking, but we finally found this little tortoise.

I wanted to keep the design simple and small but unique. I couldn't use any overly large or bright beads with the little guy or he'd be hidden (I've decided the bead is male. Yes. Why? Who knows. Does it matter? Not really.). I decided to stick with a green/silvery palette to avoid overdoing it, but instead focused on using several different textures within the color scheme. I prefer to use earthy materials rather than metals, partly because of my goal to keep my designs hypoallergenic and partly because i like to use different textures like woods, glass, gemstone chips, shells, and pearls to keep things different and interesting. We found Heishi river shell beads in the same green as the "belly" of the tortoise and iridescent labradorite chips to complement both the silver and dark green.

In this design, I see the rocky journey the desert tortoise must make across the shimmering desert sands and rocky iridescent hills to find the green sustenance he needs, to remind us that even if the journey is difficult it is necessary but can also be beautiful. Maybe that's corny. Maybe I've been staring at it too long. Maybe I need to go to bed. :)