Santa Lucia

The second of three….Santa Lucia, named after my daughter Lucia.  This vintage gold and blackberry with Lilac Shadow crystals and fancy stone,  Swarovski Elements.

I can't wait to make a pair of earrings to compliment the necklace.  That and the classic little black dress and holiday dressing will be complete.

Beading is my full time job at the moment.  Next up is another La Navette, followed by the third Santa Lucia.  The plan is for silver pearls with tanzanite crystals.

Then I will be doing a third sundial pendant and a third Touch of Whimsy.  Fortunately for me beading never feels like work.

I have finished a second Touch of Whimsy which is a class at Bead and Button Bead Camp this year, along with a new Pacific Morning Glory, also a bead camp class.  You can register for Bead Camp as early as December 10th, so if the concept sounds like fun, class in the day, bead/design/play time with me in the evening then bead camp may just be a concept that you will like.  Classes run from Wednesday May 28 through Saturday May 31st and you can take any combination that you'd like.

Touch of whimsy includes ladder stitch, ndebele, right angle weave and peyote, all in a demure pendant.

Also on the schedule are the sundial pendant and Cassandra.  All of these projects use my component approach to design and as part of our evenings we can explore variations.   Here is a ring using the center of Pacific Morning Glory.

You may see a color trend here…..I'm having a love affair with the soft matte lavender paired with pacific opal and vintage silver.  I also changed up the bands of Pacific Morning Glory to include pearls instead of crystals.  A clever clasp allows the bracelet to be reversed so you can wear the matte lavender or the pacific opal side.

Photos of a beading trip through Japan

I had full in tensions of keeping you up to date while I was in Japan, and Google had other ideas……Deciding my iPad in Japan was a suspicious attempt to login to my google account I was locked out.  I could have course dealt with it…..however I didn't put the two together, as the error was 'your network is not ready to send'  Sigh….

The trip was lovely, landing on a Thursday evening at Narita airport, we were met my  Sonoko who guided us to our Yokohama hotel where we were thankful for beds after a long flight.

Friday morning we walked to the modern cruise terminal building where the Bead Art show was set up.

Kyoko who took my first class, Quattro Cupole, wore this impeccably beaded Leaf Slide necklace from Beads in Motion.  She also gave me a wonderful neck massage as the travel was catching up with me.

This was a BiBimBop at a Korean restaurant.

 In our last night in Nagoya Sonoko took us to a traditional sushi restaurant.  No need for plates here….fish and tamago were laid out on the counter.

Enjoying a glass of wine and salmon roe

Teaching was over and we took the fast train out to Fukiyama, near  Hiroshima for a visit to the Miyuki store, gallery and factory, followed by a stay at a traditional Japanese hotel. 

Kenji was the perfect host and factory tour guide!

 This ferry off our balcony took guests across to one of the islands you see here.  We however rested, beading with Sonoko and preparing for dinner.

After enjoying a Japanese bath (think small stone hot tub) with a beautiful view of our balcony, I changed into my Yukata in the room and prepared for our incredibly presented Japanese dinner.

 Here is just one of the many highlights from the Miyuki gallery.  Most of the work there was loomed and very impressive.

I have many more photos and will share with you over the next few days.  One of the highlights for me was the factory tour.  My background in Manufacturing systems had me tour many a factory over the years, but never one who made beads!  It was fascinating.

Bead Travels

I was able to get some crisp fall air in my travels to Beads by Blanche this weekend.  Three days of classes, dunkin donuts, hot pastrami and a walk through the fall foliage.  Below a beautiful yellow ginkgo tree.

One of the weekend's projects was Quattro Cupole.   This was the class debut and there were many excellent versions.  This one, I believe belonged to Joan and used a crystal blue metallic fancy stone.  Blanche had a nice supply of this stone, some of them like this one no longer available.

Of course if you have only one pretty stone, then a ring is a great option!  I set this one on the diagonal which I quite like.

 One of the things travel affords is some uninterrupted time beading on planes.  I put together this palette to create a second Santa Lucia for Beading by the Bay.  I did manage a little more then half the necklace before running out of crystals.  They are on order, so I will sorting out a third palette to take with me to Japan.

Off in the morning, landing Thursday evening in Japan.  My friend Pat, who you may know as my long time Meet the Teachers helper at Bead and Button is joining me.  First up is the Japanese Bead Show in Yokohama, followed by four days of teaching, two in Nagoya.  We'll meet up with Sonoko and on Thursday we'll visit one of the Japanese seed bead factories in Hiroshima.  

Fall time!

It's fall In New Jersey and I couldn't be happier about that! there is a chill in the air...55 ish, but with a pretty stiff breeze that makes one feel alive.
We had luck of the draw on today's flight with an empty middle seat. I crocheted 2/3 of the flower I need for my new shawl.
Our afternoon walk yielded a few fall foliage photos. This is a ginkgo leaf tree in wonderful yellows.




The reds in this maple were very vibrant, not entirely captured here.




tomorrow I see many friends at Beads by Blanche and if I'm lucky Wendy might take me to Dunkin Donuts, a childhood memory!

New Scissors!

I have a love for nice tools and if they are pretty too, that is even better.  I've been collecting Gingher 4 inch designer series scissors for some time.

Sadly I was lax for a few years and do not have the full collection.  I do however share this love with a fellow collector and we are always on the lookout for the newest pair.  She's also kindly gifted me some pairs that she had duplicates of.

The local JoAnn's always has the Gingher's under the counter.  I seems like this well kept secret as no one seems to look there.  So not only did I spy a new series called Sharon yesterday, but I was able to use a 50% off coupon.

I love this fresh simple green pattern.  I have a suspicion that it may be that JoAnns has an exclusive on these.  I don't really know, but a search for them does not turn up results anywhere but at JoAnns.  The folks at my JoAnns could not confirm this and it may or may not be true.  I'm just happy that I have a pair!

In other non bead related news, I fell in love with a crocheted shawl with a big fancy flower.  If you love it to, the pattern can be found here.  I'm doing mine in ivory and lavender.  I've finished and blocked the chain stitch and will take the yarn along to work on the flower during tomorrows plane ride.

It's certainly more fashion then warmth but it's a fun accessory.  The netting took a little more than an hour to complete.  I"m sure the flower will take a bit longer, but still a pretty achievable little project to fill in a few spare minutes.  I may even want to do one in a deep hand painted red, we'll see.

Off to Beads by Blanche in the early early morning.  It will be nice to see all my New Jersey gals!

Images from the European Bead tour

In Shaftesbury we first stayed in a quaint and very English B&B.  The owners vacation plans impacted our last day and we moved over to the Grovesnor, a recently renovated hotel.  It was fresh and modern with an excellent restaurant.  I hope I will visit it again next year!

Petra's classroom at Das Perlament, beautiful.  I love everything about Petra's store, it is very Petra, colorful, electric, peaceful, creative, all at the same time.

The wonderfully artistic wall was at Tres Vinos Italian restaurant in Bad Godesberg.   The gold was all shimmery and beautiful.  I'd love to do this in my dining room.  I have not come close to capturing the beauty of it.

Marcia DeCoster Presents

Book covers can be so compelling.  I really love the colors, and the layout of this one.  Also that each cover piece is someone who I hold very dear in the bead world.

Since the theme of my book is the connections that we make in the bead world, let me tell you about some of them.

There is Petra Tismer who I first met in a Bead and Button Class five years ago!  Petra owns Das Perlament in Germany.  She wrote a book on beads and friendship and asked me to participate.

Here is her beautiful shop classroom and a smiling Elke, also showcased in the book.

Sian Nolan who Petra first reached out to when looking for the Disco Squares pattern that I had designed. Sian had beaded one and they soon became fast friends and bead sisters.  Sian came to Germany two years ago while I was teaching at Das Perlament.  It was a treat to see all her colorful beadwork in person.  This year I saw her both at Bead and Button and at Stitchncraft.

There is long time friend Beki Haley who is the purveyor of colorful seed beads and crystals.  Beki has been such a strong influence in the bead community for as long as I can remember.

I had the pleasure of meeting Melissa Ingram at a workshop in Melbourne Australia many years ago.  During that same trip Patrick Duggan joined me for Romantica North of Sydney.

Cynthia Newcomer Daniel invited me to visit her home during a trip to Northern California. I got to fondle her beadwork as we excitedly talked about our passion for the beads.

Nancy Dale drove 2 hours with husband sherwood to meet with me when I was in New Hampshire last year.  It was a rare treat to spend a full day looking at her beautiful work.

This year I arranged to meet Kerrie Slade whose work captured me with it's soft romanticism.  She was as delightful as her work.

I've met Elke and Martina at Bead and Button and in Germany, enough times that it always seems like a reunion when I get to see them again.

This year I also met Heather Kingsley Heath whose work flows from whimsical to sophisticated to clever, a very broad range of design sense.

I have on line relationships with all of these artists, some I have had not yet had the chance to meet in person, but I hope for the day that I do!

I am very pleased with this book at it highlights the beautiful work of many excellent bead artists.  I think you will enjoy the diversity of their work as well as learning a little bit about each of them and their creative process.

Creativity

Where does creativity come from?  I still often ponder this question.  I only know that I have always had a strong sense to create, to make something where nothing existed before.  PlayDoh was probably my first medium.  In my young childhood I built forts with branches and leaves and I decorated the insides.  I was more of a tomboy then and woods were more plentiful.

At ten a neighbor showed me how to knit and from then on my hands have never stopped.  I've done ceramics, candle making, macrame, embroidery, quilting, sewing, crochet, felting and beads.

I came home from Europe on Monday thinking I would take a couple of days off, but my hands it seems had other ideas.  I have been beading everyday.  Taking in the way it soothes me.  

After finishing La Navette in Petra's new color way I realized that I did not have the appropriate earrings.  I wanted something large and dramatic and a vintage silver, with sparkle of course.

I have this same pair in gold and I wear them a lot so I decided rather then create a new design I would bead up a pair in dark silver.  I used 2 mm light metallic gold between the spines so the sparkle factor is definitely there.  I'd say they met the dramatic criteria as well.

Earring like this compete too much to wear a necklace, but a bracelet is perfect.  

I'm off to visit some friends today and then I must begin preparations for my next set of travels.

First to Blanche's in New Jersey, followed by the arrival of my friend Pat who will accompany me to Japan.  Pssstt......if you live near Bergenfield New Jersey I will be there next weekend, November 7, 8 and 9.  And if you're signed up for Pacific Morning Glory I have so many variations to share with you. The original bracelet is reversible and a beautiful project, but you can also make it into a necklace, a ring or these earrings!

Martina, who assisted me in class in Germany designed a necklace which I unfortunately cannot come across a photo of.  Claudia who took the class beaded this with Martina's design inspiration.

And Pat who will assist me in Japan did it this way.

Or you might do it this way

So many possibilities and I will be sharing them all!

Oh and La Navette and Quattro Cupole.  Since this is the first time for Quattro Cupole and the second for La Navette it is always fun to see what colors show up.  Hint, Martina did a black and rose gold Pacific Morning Glory that was stunning.  My only defense in not having photos is that I was at the end of a long teaching trip and my reflexes were a little compromised.  

Another La Navette finished

Every once in awhile in my design career a piece comes along that just begs to be beaded again and again because each new palette brings something different to the table.  This is my fifth La Navette and I still have one more I am considering......

I'll be teaching this twice in the near future, once at Beads by Blanche next weekend, November 10th and again at City Beads in Chicago January 11th.

The top one is the newest, colorway compliments of Petra Tismer at Das Perlament.  Petra being Petra and a full service bead store, beads up a sample for any class that she will assist in so that she is fully versed in the project.  When I saw her breathtaking color choices of luminous green and bronze shade with a pewtery silver I immediately had to bead one too.  Petra, again being Petra, graciously made me up a kit so that I could bead on the plane and I did.  It took a few more hours of beading at home to complete the band.

I am really partial to the clasps designed by Sunyoung of Ezel findings.  The are so beautifully constructed and really add a level of perfection to the complete design.

Here are the colors so far, do you have a favorite?  I do, but I'm not telling.  Well actually it depends on what day and what I am wearing.  I like them all, but there is one I tend to pick a little more often then the others.