Designing necklaces

It was hard, but I got out of my studio for a day and took a workshop on designing necklaces.  This month I have been working overtime making beads and jewelry for the http://www.kutztownfestival.com, but the workshop came up, and I couldn't pass it up.  Penny Diamanti, from Beadazzled, was the instructor, and the class was so inspiring!  I have so many new ideas, which is exactly why I took the class.  I had hoped it would push me out of my comfort zone, and it worked!  The first photo was layer 1 of necklaces, and there were 3 or 4 more layers to inspire us. 

I took some of my animal print beads and a bag of assorted stone beads, and we picked through them and chose a color scheme that worked.  That night I couldn't sleep with all the ideas running through my head!

Panic time

June 1st!  Well, actually it is June 2, but close enough.  This starts my yearly panic, making beads and jewelry for the Kutztown Folk Festival.  It is a 9 day festival so I need to have lots and lots of beads and jewelry!  My work table is a mess, which means I have been working.   I really do need to finish some of those projects so I can see what I have done, and what I need to work on.

I worked hard in May to cross items off my to-do list so I could concentrate on studio work this month, but fate is playing with me.  Among lots of other things that keep popping up, I have jury duty on June 25.  I will try to get excused from that.  I am all for civic duty, but not 3 days before I set up for my biggest show of the year. 

My pile of beads is growing and the boxes of my jewelry is filling.  While I am torching, I am listening to Water for Elephants and really enjoying it.  Now if I can just keep going until the end of the month!

Zentangle

I can now officially zentangle!  On Sat I took a class with Katy Abbott (great teacher!) and loved it, as I knew I would.  I love lines!  These are the first tiles from everyone in the class, and I think it is fascinating how different they are.  This is very similar to some doodling I often draw, but more organized.  I will have to restrain myself- I must make beads and jewelry for my 9 day show in early July.  Once that is over, I am looking forward to exploring this more!

Black blown boro beads

Tonight I finally put together a necklace that has been in my mind for a while.  I made these black blown boro beads (say that fast!) months ago and didn't know what to do with them.  They are so plain!  When I saw a strand of the rough crystal quartz, I suddenly knew!  I may tweak it a little yet (the photo definitely needs tweaked!) but essentially, this is it.  I love it when something speaks to me!

eglassplace's photostream

eglassplace's photostream on Flickr.

Stained glass

Today I started organizing all my slides of my stained glass designs.  Those of you who applied to shows years ago will remember all the hassle with slides- this was before digital photography.  Because I applied to many shows, I have many slides of the same piece, and that is totally unnecessary now since I haven't made any stained glass for years.  I have all my slides out because I am working on a book of my stained glass patterns, so it seemed like a good time to throw out duplicates and bad shots.  But what was I thinking, starting such a big project when I am so busy!

Serendipity, or kumihimo & beads

 Serendipity!  I love it when things come together!  Several years ago I got hooked on kumihimo, a type of braiding, and I made a lot of necklaces.  Most were done with eyelash yarns (I love the texture!) and finished into necklaces, and there were 4 of them still hanging around.  Several weeks ago I made some blown hollow boro beads and accidentally used the wrong mandrels so their holes were much larger than normal.  Last night, lightening struck!  The holes slid over the cones on the ends of the necklaces, and some of the colors matched!  I now have 2 new eye catching necklaces!