More Traveling Bracelet news

Well not really....just an update to a promised feature.

Over there on the sidebar is a link, it will take you to the page that tracks my quest to visit with each of the twelve bracelets of the Amazing Adventures of the Traveling Bracelets.

It will keep you up to date with which ones I've had, should you choose to help me in my quest.  It also has all of the links so you can follow the travels of all of the bracelets and add you name to the list should you too want to have one in your care.



I happen to love the Paisley one pictured here but there isn't one that I don't want to visit.  They all will have their own stories, and I'll have fun reading through their travels when I do have one.  Each has a book that accompanies it, and in that book is a list of the people and places it's been.

And in case you come across a bracelet in the right time frame....well it's a big birthday this year on ten ten I'll be sixty.  I'd love a bracelet to be visiting, and two days later I will leave for the Southern Bead Retreat which I think could be an excellent outing for a bracelet, don't you?

Beading by the Bay - Registration is upon us

Well almost.  For those who joined us last year, registration will open on September 1st.  You must have a look at your email for the special link that will allow you early sign up, and you'll want to do it before September 14th to make sure you have a spot.

This years artists are Sabine Lippert, Huib Petersen and myself!

Should we have spots left we'll open registration for the remaining spaces on September 15th at twelve noon pacific standard time.

I still sometimes marvel at how wonderful my world is.  Susan Kazarian and I brainstormed this event on a road trip to Tucson in February 2009.  We held our first Beading by the Bay retreat in 2010 and 2013 will be the fourth year.  Each year it is like greeting excellent friends as we welcome back last years students.

We've purposely decided to keep it intimate, although we'd love to extend a welcome to all who are interested, we wrestle instead with practical limitations.  Yet each year a few slots open up, so if you're wanting to come, www.beadingbythebay.com will have all the information you need, and on September 15th at noon, there will also be a buy button!

The Amazing Adventures of the Traveling Bracelets

Yes!  The call went out, I had so much fun having the first one, and I am so enamored of the idea of these bracelets, twelve of them!  Twelve! Wandering around the world.  I desperately wanted to spend time with all of them.  Sig is recording the travel of each bracelet on the traveling bracelets blog.

Well I wrote to Sig, getting her blessing on my quest and as we continued our dialog I might have suggested (which I thought the minute I hit send was kind of nervy of me) that maybe the the number ten could be expanded to twelve and the symmetry of the image would be improved....you know, 3 columns of 3 with 1 column of 1 didn't seem quite right.  Of course 2 columns of 5 would have worked perfectly, but I didn't think of that until after my suggestion.

Well as it turns out Sig had been thinking that very thing, the twelve thing I mean, and decided to put the already done Ganesha into the mix.   The twelfth is Machu Picchu and will accompany Sig to Machu Picchu in November, after which it will continue it's travels.

Now Sig didn't share with me that she had picked me to be first, but yesterday the doorbell rang and I found a package on the doorstep, and I recognized it, and I opened it and I am delighted to be entrusted with the care of another bracelet.

Isn't the tissue paper fun?

Maya has it down pat now....the perfect model

 This one is Ganesha.  I love the brilliant metallic orange as a backdrop to the image.

According to Wikipedia

Although he is known by many other attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him particularly easy to identify.^[9]Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles^[10] and more generally as Lord of Beginnings and Lord of Obstacles (Vighnesha (Sanskrit: विघ्नेश; IAST: Vighneśa), Vighneshvara (Sanskrit: विघ्नेश्वर; IAST: Vighneśvara),^[11]patron of arts and sciences, and the deva of intellect and wisdom.^[12] He is honoured at the beginning of rituals and ceremonies and invoked as Patron of Letters during writing sessions.^[13] Several texts relate mythological anecdotesassociated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.

Rumor has it that I will receive another one next week, which is perfect as I have a big celebration of sorts planned, it's a surprise, involves family and I'll  share next week, but there will be a bracelet joining us and I'm darn excited about that.

Should you have one and care to entrust me with it's care and help with my quest, I'd be happy to be the recipient.  If you have someone in mind to give it to, I'll gladly pass it on to that person for you.  If you don't I will select from the list of those who signed up on Sig's Traveling Bracelet Blog, unless I'm traveling during the week I have one, in which case I will pass it on to someone in my travels.   Sound fair?

The Beaded Home

Well it would be the beaded home if I took the time to realize all of my visions....in my mind I would like to bead around all of the shade pulls in my studio, that would be 8 big beaded beads, so I haven't done it, and then the fan pulls for all of the ceiling fans, that would be 6, and then a sculpture or two.  I have a salt and pepper set waiting for bead embellishment.  It would be fun to apply beadwork to functional things in my home, but for now that dream is saved for retirement, but I did do this

This is the back of the new chair, the cozy studio chair, which you might be sick of by now, but I'm still settling into how wonderful it is.  My guess is these were installed on the chair as bumpers, so when reclined you wouldn't be marring the wall, but really, white plastic?  I couldn't bear it, so now

They are covered with these, a pretty little Terracita medallion, which almost makes me want to bead another Terracita.  I loved it in it's day, and sometimes when I go back to a design with a few more years of beading under my belt, I have different ideas for it, and new color ways.  Terracita was published in Marcia DeCoster's Beaded Opulence so you can make a bracelet of your own, or button covers for your chair!

I was asked earlier this year if I wanted to bead for a high end interior designer and it looked like a hugely fun offer, but after some examination I realized that was an entirely different career path and so I declined the opportunity, but it was fun to contemplate.

Do you bead for your home?  Have you come up with some interesting design solutions?

Beading Cozy

My studio is very functional, table and chairs, beads, desk, storage, a bit of art, but somehow it was missing the cozy and the comfortable.

It's a great place to kit, host a class, illustrate etc, but I found that when I beaded I would take my beads and hit my comfy chair in the family room, or in nice weather the veranda.  But this resulted in many a trip back to the studio to retrieve whatever tool, bead, book that I was missing.

I decided I needed to create some cozy comfort in the studio.  It's furnished in my modern contemporary IKEA style, but I pictured a big overstuffed chair with side tables for the cup of tea, the iPad and beads of course.

A trip to the local consignment provided the chair I blogged a couple of weeks back (yes it reclines and is super comfortable), but I needed tables.  I don't like to make a career of the search, but a trip to IKEA just didn't present the perfect option (although it was a hot date, we wandered the aisles and had dinner followed by a frozen yogurt, yes we live an exciting life), so next I visited cost plus world market, where I found a great table with a shelf and casters....sort of rustic industrial, but I deemed it not the right look.  I will sometimes get enamored with a 'look' and forget the environment it needs to fit into. While electic can be done well, it's not really my strong suit to pull off.

So onto Pier One where I found glass mosaic nesting tables!  Perfect coloration, size and the right amount of real estate for holding all my tools and beads nearby.  And now I can bead for hours, listening to a book, or watching TED talks or listening to Pandora, and all my needs are just steps away.  Now I just need some hours!

Next up is a floor lamp to provide evening light without the glare of the fluorescent overheads, and I think my cozy space will be complete.  Perhaps a trip to Lamps Plus?

Have you perfected a comfortable place to bead?  Please share.

Ohio, one stop bead shop and friends

I arrived Thursday night and owner Lisa picked me up and we had dinner together, where we both talked non stop and became fast friends. We'd only ever met for ten minutes at Bead and Button, so it was excellent getting to spend some solid time together.

On Friday I taught Aelia and many beautiful versions showed up. The classroom was large and full of enthusiastic people. Liz came down from Detroit and helped me both days in the classroom which was a rare treat and very welcome.

Also in class was Speedy Beader Dot, who I've met at different venues over the years. Dot is an amazing beader but also a famed doll maker. I got to visit her home and be amazed by the fanciful dolls she has made. Oggi is coming home with me!




Gotta love the spandex and that snaggel tooth.

The lovely Nancy showed up in class wearing a beautiful Etruscan Treasure!




And the gang all hung out together




The bunny another of Dot's creations, along with Little Hoot, Liitle Brach and Oggi.

A fun filled weekend and home early to enjoy Sunday night with my honey, and a first class upgrade, always my favorite way to fly!

Memories of Istanbul, the final report

Along with the privilege of being the one week steward of one of Sig's traveling bracelets, is the responsibility to tell the story of it's time with you and perhaps a bit about yourself, and a photo or two to be included in the 'Amazing Adventures of the Traveling Bracelets' blog.  It's a small price to pay for being part of this story, and last night after preparing for this mornings travel, I forwarded my 'report' to Sig.

I think Sig deserves a big round of applause for keeping up with the weeklong travels of ten different bracelets and maintaining the blog so we can all share in the fun.  You can read my story here.  And if you'd like to get involved there is a sign up for the bracelets here.  And if you fall in love with the patterns, you can purchase them here.

My first bracelet will be passed on tomorrow evening after a day of teaching in Ohio.  I say first, since I hope it will be the first of many.