I must be a magpie

Another day in blogland, another confession. If you've read here awhile or know me personally what I am about to say isn't news. I like jewelry. I like fine jewelry. I like costume jewelry. I'd probably wear a necklace made of gum wrappers if I chewed gum. Does gum still come in those foldable wrappers?

In addition to liking shiny objects, it is said that magpies like to talk. I looked that up in a reference book and sure enough, my picture was there right by the definition.

Last night I had my jewelry pliers out to fix something. As long as they were out, I decided to go for some instant gratification and make a few bracelets. Many of the crafts I enjoy take days or weeks to complete. Once in a while it is nice to finish a project or two in one sitting.

First I made a sedate bracelet with Hematite rings with glass pearl-like beads inside and between them. Sometimes I don't want over the top sparkle. This bracelet will fit those times.

I haven't worn much purple in the past but I found that deep purple (the color, not the band) looks ok on me. I've been wanting a bracelet with green and blue in it, along with some purple. A simple linear bracelet isn't much of a design challenge, but I like this because I can stack it with a few others if that is the mood I'm in.

And lastly, we have full blown Magpie. This is the kind that will make Bill raise his eyebrows ever so slightly. After all these years I know he is thinking "you honestly like that???" but he is gracious enough to just smile and say "that's nice dear" while trying not to bite his tongue too hard.

With sewing waiting, two knitting projects barely begun and an ABC scrapbook in the planning stages with only a few images printed so far, making these bracelets scratched a creative itch. And they'll definitely up my bling factor.

Thinking over this magpie business, my sons are very lucky they were named for their father and grandfathers. They could have been Heckle and Jeckle!

Where would I be if not in a rush?

'Tis the season for hurrying and scurrying. I have a delusional feeling that I am somewhat on top of things, but only if things go smoothly. Any hiccup in a day's activities could set the dreaded domino effect in motion, but for the moment, things are going well. (I just jinxed myself, didn't I?)

I doubt I will around to blog until sometime next week. I feel a twinge of guilt because reading blogs and writing here does bring me joy, but a little time away isn't a life sentence. Many of you are caught up in frantic activities too and we'll all be able to kick back a bit and enjoy reading and posting more next month.

Before I disappear for a few days, I would like to share my recent jewelry creations. This bracelet is for a very good friend. If I said old friend, I would mean that the friendship is old, not that she and I are aging. Not one bit!
The earrings are for her daughter and daughter-in-law. The snowman pendant on the right is for me. It matches earrings I made last year.
There is a story behind the bracelet. It was sold as a kit at Mary Maxim's, a wonderful craft store in Port Huron, MI. They also have a store in Canada and have thriving catalog and internet sales (Mary Maxim online). I saw the bracelet, liked it, didn't examine it closely, and bought it all the while yakking away to my sister-in-law. When I pulled the kit out a few nights ago to assemble, I thought I had a simple bracelet of beads to strand on wire, a quick project.

Wrongo!

See this bead? There are three of them on the bracelet.
That is a pearl with six strands of tiny seed beads wrapped around it east-west, and then a strand a green seed beads circling the pearl north to south. This really isn't hard, but it is time consuming and round seed beads on a round pearl are slippery little suckers!

Seed beads are tiny which means the beading needle has a very small eye. Threading the needle can be the worst part of the project. This shows you how small the beads are, and the needle I find easiest to use. The eye is very long, the needle flexes to open, and it saves me a lot of grief.

It starts with 4 gold seed beads, one red, and 4 more gold on beading thread wrapping around the pearl. The spring-like device is holding the loose end of the thread.
One wrap made, another loaded on the needle.
The red and green beads are larger than the gold. It is partly a design function, and partly to make it easier to pass the needle through again when adding the green beads.
Six wraps made, now to wrap around the middle of the pearl.
The beading thread went back down through 4 of the gold and one red bead, then through a green one. The path through the remaining red beads alternated direction (up and down) and when finished, the thread worked back through 4 gold seed beads to meet the thread's other tail at one end.
Ready to knot. A tiny drop of glue or Fray Check seals the knot. After it is dry, the tails ends are cut. They should be cut carefully. Don't go through the thread actually holding the beads together as I did. For three beads, I strung these things four times.
I finished one bead at night. Tiredness was a factor in calling it quits after just one bead. The other two were completed much more quickly the next morning, even with clipping the wrong thread and rebeading one all over again.

I enjoy making these, but only when I am in the mood to do so. If I had to make them, it would make me twitchy.

As we close in on the last 10 days before Christmas, I hope none of you are getting twitchy. I hope your plans go smoothly and we all have wonderful holiday memories in the making. We may have to blog about them after the fact, but we'll have them nonetheless.

Peace to all...

Sparkle and Shine

My middle name should be Jewel. I love jewelry. It doesn't have to be made of precious gemstones to appeal to me, but if you feel like getting me a present, I've never met a precious gem that I didn't like.

Last night I repaired a bracelet for a friend and strung two bracelets for myself. I played around with more complicated designs, but came back to these simple strands. The bead assortments were bought at a local bead store. The first color assortment is called Peacock, the second is Salt and Pepper.



This one reminds me of Spring...that season that can't get here soon enough... and will go well with many of my clothes.




















As much as I like happy colors, I like black too, especially black and white or black and crystal, so the second bracelet works well for me too.













I hope none of you thought 'Sparkle and Shine' was going to be a post dedicated to housecleaning. I did that yesterday and you know what? Vacuuming sucks!

Be-witch-ing Jewels

I enjoy Halloween. I like jewelry. If this were a logic problem, you could now correctly assume that I like Halloween jewelry. These are the pieces I've been wearing this year. Yes, there are more. I have skeleton heads with eyes that glow and flash, thanks to a watch size battery, large orange spider web earrings that are scary/cute but catch in everything, and pumpkins on hair combs that are cute but too heavy to stay in anyone's hair.

These earrings are new this year. They are from Avon. This picture is from the Avon webpage as my own photo didn't turn out well.
This is Avon also, a tiny pumpkin with olive colored crystal stud earrings inside. I forgot to include the earrings in the photo. Can you tell it was the pumpkin that I fell for?

Moving on to items that I've made, here is a bracelet that was sold as a kit in a quilt store. This led me to other beading projects....as if I needed another hobby!

I really like working with beads. Other than a sample project in a bead class, this was my first project in Peyote stitch. This was done before I learned the importance of buying beads from the same manufacturer so that they are all the same size. The pink beads in their cheeks and the orange beads are supposedly the same size as all the rest, but they are larger and protrude from the piece. Live and learn. Not knowing any different, I ad-libbed how to attach this to a pin. I now know that I should have used beads at the top with a larger bore that would slide onto the pin, and that the pin head unscrews for this purpose. I didn't have to spring the opposite end to feed this onto the shaft of the pin. Nothing like making things harder than they necessary!

These were just easy and cute
I don't wear much orange normally, but I could wear this beyond the Halloween season. It is subdued, it doesn't scream Halloween. Notice I used Scream and Halloween in the same sentence?
I don't care for the taste of candy corn, but it sure symbolizes the season, doesn't it? I made the earrings last year and put the bracelet together yesterday with one stray glass candy corn hanging as a charm. The black beads almost resemble charcoal briquettes and the orange beads are tear drop shaped beads.

Now if only there was a holiday symbolized by diamonds.......

Colors come and colors go

Isn't it frustrating to shop for an item that is not in a current "hot" color? Last winter it was a yellow turtleneck that I sought and had to resign myself to doing without. Brown was everywhere, having come out of hiding from previous years when that was the unavailable color.

I've been going through old photographs and reminiscing colors as well as fashions. Those of us who lived through the avocado/harvest gold/burnt orange 70's never thought we'd see those colors return and *gasp* they're back! Some shades or color combinations take our minds back to a specific memory (prom dress? our date's blue tux with a white ruffled shirt with the ruffles edged in blue?) or to an era (coppertone appliances as a newlywed) or something that reaches back even further.

I was birthday shopping for the little princess (6 year old great niece) and found pink and brown coordinated pants and tops for her. Instant flashback! When I was elementary school aged, the Catholic school near me had pink and brown uniforms. Boys from 1st to 8th grade wore brown pants, pink shirts and brown ties. I wonder if any of them have trouble wearing pink shirts as adults?

Pink and brown is a nice combination, but I like pink and black even better which is why a pink blouse with black piping on the collar and along both sides of the button placket ended up on my charge card a few days ago. (Little princesses aren't the only one who need new clothes!) Playing with my beading supplies with that blouse in mind resulted in this necklace, bracelet and earrings.I'll never have just one favorite color, and will probably always seek a color that isn't available in the store but is vivid in my mind or memory. Does that make me out of date or a trend setter?