I am a terrible blogger, but I brought you something cool. Friends??
She is loud, sweet, strong and caring. I love her energy. While I was in the bead store a few days later it became clear that I was going to have to make her something. I had no idea what her colors were, so I just started grabbing things. I ended up with a strand of weird crackle quartz coin type things for focals, some sky blue rivolis and bicones in 2 different sizes, some turquoise colored 6mm rounds (super shiney) and these amazing gold buttons that look like they are made of fine gold dust, but also had
this really hard to capture greenish
cast to them.
The bicones also have this tan-green hue from certain angles, and I thought it brought the whole thing together really nicely. The seed beads I got were all matte, except for the silver. The aqua and grey both had this soft AB haze, and there are bronzes and yellows that pick up those subtle shifts in colors.
The realization that the focals I bought were all wrong dawned on me later when I sat down to play with what I had assembled and kept picking up pieces of moonstone I was using for another project and wishing I had just one more. I kept trying to mentally reconfigure the other project so I could just use one of the stones, but this was proving difficult since I had (and still have) no idea what the other project wants to be. That is when Dee, being the amazing friend she always is, pulls out the matching moonstone that she had bought. I now owe Dee another moonstone, but I was now happy with my materials.
When I started working on the cab I actually glued down the cab. Then I started working out that my intentions were to actually do a bead embroidery piece. I know I love the look of
bead embroidery, but I had never done it before, aside from a little attempt with a scrap of fabric and some throwaway beads I did not care about, and even that experiment did not get that far.
The whole point of this one is the sparkle. I wanted to pack as much as I could into this one piece without overdoing it. I started with a netted bezel, so I could seat some of the smaller bicones
into the netting gaps. That worked brilliantly. Next I really wanted to incorporate the gold buttons. The layer surrounding the cabochon, surprisingly, took the longest out of any part of this piece. I don't know if it was the inexperience, or the waffling on placements or a combo of both, but it seemed like I spent days finishing off that star. That is when I started making the dumb mistakes. I cut out the star, and did a finishing edge thinking that was all I wanted to do to it.
Nope. Not long enough for my barrette, and to be perfectly honest, there was not near enough shine yet, and I hadn't gotten to use a single rivoli at all. Not acceptable. I decided the star looked more like a sun anyways and it needed clouds. If I am going to do bead embroidery, I am going to do some bead embroidery, dang it. Getting the design drawn out was a lot of trial and error since I wanted both sides mirrored. I ended up drawing out the clouds on paper,
downloading a lightbox app on my tablet, and used that to trace the design onto the bead backing. It was a bit sketchy at first but I think it worked out ok.
Working through the first side was interesting. Lots of trial and error. I think I tried to pack too many beads into that side, there was a lot of coercion that went on to get things to lay flat when I was getting to the end. The second side went smoother.
Over all, I am happy with how it turned out. I can tell by looking at the piece which was the first side, and there are a few spots where I just could not get the bead backing covered, so there are small white spots left over. You can totally see them in the picture below around the edges., Attaching the barretts was a bit of a brain teaser, but the dual barrettes worked out fine.
I gave her the barrette last week, it was well received. We did have a bit of a hard time working out how to get it into her hair because the barrette bars were a little on the flimsy side, and her hair is gloriously thick. We did get it worked out though. I could not get a good picture of it in her hair, the light is really weird in the room we were in, but the colors looked amazing against her dark hair.
I named this piece "Silver Linings" because those silver linings make everything worth the wait. Lonely? borard? Sure, that sucks, but here are two new special people. Think things aren't working out and get frustrated with what you are working on? Oh look, it spurs a new design idea that makes the whole thing better. Silver Linings are always there, you just have to find them.
Happy beading!
:D
Hokay, So.
Have you ever hit a point in your life where you think you have met every friend that is going to be in your life in any capacity from this point forwards? I do, like once a year. I will admit, I may be pessimistic about certain things. Anywho, I got a job, a real big girl pants job. The kind of job I never thought I would have. Along with fancy new job, I met not one, but two fancy new friends. One of them had a habit of wearing a sparkly barrette to work every day, so I made a habit of sitting behind her so I could look at the sparkles and think about beads. On the 3rd day of training, I sat down behind my new friend and was dismayed to find her bereft of sparkly barrette. It spurred some interesting conversation and we quickly realized that she and I are a pair of 12 year old boys at heart.
She is loud, sweet, strong and caring. I love her energy. While I was in the bead store a few days later it became clear that I was going to have to make her something. I had no idea what her colors were, so I just started grabbing things. I ended up with a strand of weird crackle quartz coin type things for focals, some sky blue rivolis and bicones in 2 different sizes, some turquoise colored 6mm rounds (super shiney) and these amazing gold buttons that look like they are made of fine gold dust, but also hadthis really hard to capture greenish
cast to them.
The bicones also have this tan-green hue from certain angles, and I thought it brought the whole thing together really nicely. The seed beads I got were all matte, except for the silver. The aqua and grey both had this soft AB haze, and there are bronzes and yellows that pick up those subtle shifts in colors.
The realization that the focals I bought were all wrong dawned on me later when I sat down to play with what I had assembled and kept picking up pieces of moonstone I was using for another project and wishing I had just one more. I kept trying to mentally reconfigure the other project so I could just use one of the stones, but this was proving difficult since I had (and still have) no idea what the other project wants to be. That is when Dee, being the amazing friend she always is, pulls out the matching moonstone that she had bought. I now owe Dee another moonstone, but I was now happy with my materials.
When I started working on the cab I actually glued down the cab. Then I started working out that my intentions were to actually do a bead embroidery piece. I know I love the look of
bead embroidery, but I had never done it before, aside from a little attempt with a scrap of fabric and some throwaway beads I did not care about, and even that experiment did not get that far.
The whole point of this one is the sparkle. I wanted to pack as much as I could into this one piece without overdoing it. I started with a netted bezel, so I could seat some of the smaller bicones
into the netting gaps. That worked brilliantly. Next I really wanted to incorporate the gold buttons. The layer surrounding the cabochon, surprisingly, took the longest out of any part of this piece. I don't know if it was the inexperience, or the waffling on placements or a combo of both, but it seemed like I spent days finishing off that star. That is when I started making the dumb mistakes. I cut out the star, and did a finishing edge thinking that was all I wanted to do to it.
Nope. Not long enough for my barrette, and to be perfectly honest, there was not near enough shine yet, and I hadn't gotten to use a single rivoli at all. Not acceptable. I decided the star looked more like a sun anyways and it needed clouds. If I am going to do bead embroidery, I am going to do some bead embroidery, dang it. Getting the design drawn out was a lot of trial and error since I wanted both sides mirrored. I ended up drawing out the clouds on paper,
downloading a lightbox app on my tablet, and used that to trace the design onto the bead backing. It was a bit sketchy at first but I think it worked out ok.
Working through the first side was interesting. Lots of trial and error. I think I tried to pack too many beads into that side, there was a lot of coercion that went on to get things to lay flat when I was getting to the end. The second side went smoother.
Over all, I am happy with how it turned out. I can tell by looking at the piece which was the first side, and there are a few spots where I just could not get the bead backing covered, so there are small white spots left over. You can totally see them in the picture below around the edges., Attaching the barretts was a bit of a brain teaser, but the dual barrettes worked out fine.
I gave her the barrette last week, it was well received. We did have a bit of a hard time working out how to get it into her hair because the barrette bars were a little on the flimsy side, and her hair is gloriously thick. We did get it worked out though. I could not get a good picture of it in her hair, the light is really weird in the room we were in, but the colors looked amazing against her dark hair.
I named this piece "Silver Linings" because those silver linings make everything worth the wait. Lonely? borard? Sure, that sucks, but here are two new special people. Think things aren't working out and get frustrated with what you are working on? Oh look, it spurs a new design idea that makes the whole thing better. Silver Linings are always there, you just have to find them.
Happy beading!
