I Hate You, Seed Beads

A friend of mine asked for a custom order.

No problem, I said.

She wanted a multi-strand seed bead necklace with some lampwork bead accents.

Because she was such a good friend, I agreed.

But here's the thing.

I hate seed beads.

They are a giant pain in my ass. I don't have the patience to work with them, you see.

But, I decided to soldier on.

I dumped the seed beads in the spinner, but the spinner needle was either too thick for them, or too flimsy.

So I settled in to string them one. at. a. time.

Or should I say, I settled in to string them one. two. three. drop one on the floor. swear. get the side-eye from the husband .. one. two. three. drop one on the floor. swear. get the side-eye from the husband. lather. rinse. repeat.

After a few hours, I had these.

I called her and told her I'm going to finish this necklace, and if she likes it, great. If she doesn't like it, I'm not doing it over. We will move on to the next project.

Damn seed beads.

Challenge of Literature Blog Hop

For Erin's Challenge of Literature Blog Hop, we were to chose a piece of literature, and make a piece of jewelry inspired by it.

I was an English major in college, and I've been a life-long compulsive reader - books, magazines, backs of cereal boxes, anything and everything. In college, I found I gravitated toward poetry, especially poetry from about 1900 to present. I love the way an idea, image or emotion can be distilled into something so concentrated.

So, for my literature, I chose one of my very favorite poems:

This Is Just To Say - William Carlos Williams

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

I love how this seems like a note taped to a refrigerator. It takes the ordinary nature of everyday life - swiping someone's snack - and makes it into something beautiful.

Here are some further analysis

Here is the piece I made -

Bracelet with plummy purple beads with a frosted shimmer...

beads by Sue Beads

Hop along

 

Good Beads do Good Deeds

Remember this post, where I talked about closing my Etsy shop and spending more time doing jewelry donations?

Well, check out my new fundraising thermometer over there on the right. I've set a goal of $1,200 in jewelry donations for 2012, and I'm almost halfway there! Below the thermometer is a list of where I've donated so far.

I just sent these necklaces and bracelets off to the Casa Pacifica Wine & Food Festival to be included in their silent auction baskets. My sister told me about this organization, which does great things for kids in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

I encourage you to let your Good Beads do Good Deeds - find local organizations that could use donations. Lots of silent auctions are thrilled to have jewelry to include!

Cocktail Hour Blog Hop!

It's cocktail hour in blog land!

I gave each of the cocktail hour guests a cocktail to use as an inspiration, be it the drink itself, color, occasion, location, whatever floated their boat! Check out their amazing creations...

My cocktail was one of my favorites -- Long Island Iced Tea.

source

To make one, you take

1 part vodka

1 part tequila

1 part rum

1 part gin

1 part triple sec

1 1/2 parts sweet and sour mix

1 splash Coca-Cola®

Mix ingredients together over ice in a glass and garnish with lemon.

Yum!

I used the color of the drink as my inspiration, and make a bracelet with brown and a touch of yellow. I love how it turned out.

Bottoms Up!

Hostess:  Copper Diem  **you are here**

Stefanies Sammelsurium
My Bead Journey
Adventures with Kelly
Mama's Got To Doodle
Sadafulee
Wait Just One More Bead
Cynth's Blog
Palm Coast Art
Green Shoot Jewellery Designs
Cianci Blue
Dreamin Of Beads / SAS Jewelry Designs
Beads for Busy Gals
Oregon Made Jewelry
My Addictions...Handcrafted Jewelry by Patti
Moods by Mari
Soul of Mine Embodiment
Uniquely Yunikua
Fabric of My Life
Firefly Visions
Indigo Heart
The Peaceful Bead
Casa de Everly
Heaven Lane Creations
Sue Beads
Durga Jewelry
Honey Bijou
A Bird in the Hand Art
SilverNikNats
Rainy Day Designs
Tell Your Girlfriends

Seattle Bead shopping!

Seattle has to be one of my absolute favorite places for bead shopping, and my bead Visa took quite a hit. I'm so excited to show you all the goodies I bought!

From Alexanders

The top two are coral. Middle is a cool stripe-y stone and the bottom is a teal stone that is heat treated (I'm a terrible note taker in the midst of a shopping flurry, apparently. )

From Bead World

This shop was fantastic. I got metal charms with a cool patina and glass beads to match.

Bone and wood beads galore. Such cool rustic looking selection.

Patterned metal sheet with patinas, dyed wood beads and rustic looking glass beads

From Fusion Beads - yes, THAT Fusion Beads. Not surprisingly, this shop was so awesome.

Yellow-green jade, carnelian, three-sided wood beads, vintage green rounds, flat glass green beads, Swarovski pearls in cool colors, and recycled glass rings

Heat treated and patina metal sheet

Charms!

New York Shopping - The Best For Last

Here are the goodies from my two favorite shops in New York City.

Metalliferous

cool oval components, brass drops, and brass bangles

(I'm thinking of wrapping these bangles with ribbon or something)

patterned brass strips. Love the one with the stars...and the one with the

blank middle - perfect for ribbon!

More patterned metal in brass and copper.

And more! I'm so excited to play with these - charms, bead caps, etc!

And from Tinsel Trading

I am so in love with all these ribbons, especially the striped ones. Love me some stripes.

Most of the floral ones are vintage French ribbon, oooh la la.

Sister & Seattle Beads

My sister has invited me to be her +1 this weekend at her friend's wedding in Seattle. Gee, one of my favorite cities, with my awesome sister, a wedding (I love weddings - dancing! champagne!), and fun? Twist my arm!



I think, however, that when my sister told me, "whatever bead stores you want to go to is cool by me" she didn't know quite what she was getting in to.



So far I have our trip planned with military precisions

I have it narrowed down to three bead stores on Saturday (including Fusion beads, holla!). And Pike's Place Market + bead store on Sunday. She's a foodie and an AWESOME cook & baker, so I'm excited to show her Pike's.

I guess this May's theme is beady excusions, isn't it!

More New York City Beads...

Here are some more beady goodies I got in NYC!

Dyed wood seed beads in deep red, turquoise and sage green from Beads World

Super cool beads from City Beads. It's hard to tell, but the top two are BIG - about 14-16mm. I hadn't seen beads that size with that type of finish (the name of which escapes me right now.) The pink-orange ones are all a kind of salmon/coral color. Very cool.

These were from one of the 9.2 zillion bead shops we walked past in the bead district,

Exquisite Beads (i.e. not one of the pre-planned, interactive google-mapped stores that I would tell Chris, "we are .23 miles from a bead store! Squeal!").

The top ones are a dyed blue agate with drusy. The middle ones are dyed wood beads,

and the bottom are some kind of dyed stone.

Random Photos from New York City

Grand Central Station

Guggenheim

Guess who?

Skyline from the ferry to Ellis Island

Best pizza I ever ate. Ever.

On the way to the play

View from the Empire State building. No monkeys around.

Subway seats

Dinner

View from Central Park

New York Beads, part one

New York was crazy amazing you guys. The "Fashion District" aka bead district had bead stores Every. Other. Shop. Seriously.

Here are some goodies I got from two of the SEVEN bead/trim stores I got to check out. I'm still in a state of excited shock.

I got these cool copper and brass beads from Bead Center

OMG, button HEAVEN. I did not even look at all the stuff in this store because I wanted EVERYTHING. These are from M&J Trimming

Changing gears...

After all that I need a sammich.

This avocado-spinach-sun dried tomato panini I made for dinner tonight was delish

I'm Baaack!

Hello!

I'm back from New York City (whenever I read that, it sounds like the Pace Picante Sauce commercial - remember that one? New York City!?!?! with a cowboy accent)



I have beads to photograph and show you

and photos to edit

and laundry to do

but despite my best attempts and slight OCD with the hand sanitizer and public transportation, I have caught a fantabulous head cold.

So I'm gonna lay here and whine instead.

However, if you are participating in the Cocktail Hour blog hop, you should have received an email today with the hop list. I'm having technical difficulties with this hop for some reason, so if you didn't get the email, let me know.

Dyed Pumpkin Seed Necklace Tutorial

I found this tutorial online - what a cool way to use pumpkin seeds (okay, I'm a little out of season - so shoot me). I love they way they look after they've been dyed.

Check out the tutorial HERE.