Pink Blend Fishnet Bangle and Earrings

When I finished the first "fishnet" bangle (the "Stained Glass" look one) I felt like it wasn't what I was going for. So I decided to create one with just the pink blend of seed beads.  I like this one a lot better thus I made earrings to match.  

The earring ideas took all different shapes but as I tried different layouts nothing was working.  On the day before Capital City Film Fest's Red Carpet event I created a larger diamond to be the bottom drop for the earrings I ended up finishing and liking. 

I also made a pair of small diamond earrings in the red blend, just so the original bangle design had another color option to go with it. 

As I was getting ready to go to the event I liked both bangles with my outfit so I said screw it, I'm wearing both. Too much? There are never too many beads or bangles for me. Of course, they didn't end up in any photos, but that's how it goes.  :)

Valeta and I back at it at CCFF Red Carpet

Earring detail after I got home

Fishnet Stained Glass Bangle Bracelet

I'm always inspired by fashion; it flows so easily into my process of creating new designs for my jewelry. I have so many clothes and should be buying more but every once in a while a fresh dress for an event is nice to get.  Lately I've been picking up some great pieces on Poshmark that are really inexpensive. (Like 2 dresses for our wedding for under $100 for the two of them...seriously).  I was so excited that the Capital City Film Fest is back on this year that I purchased a dress I've been eyeing in a color I rarely wear; red. It still has purple in it (my go-to color), but it feels like it's mainly red.

I have been leaning into styling more punk rock looks and decided that this dress would be fun with a pair of fishnets and my new tall purple John Fluevog boots. Planning this outfit led to what jewelry I might make to go with it. Fishnet. I have been integrating fishnet tights into my regular non-work wardrobe a bit more lately.  I decided it's time to try to work fishnet patterns into beads. 

I decided that the fishnet should be the feature and I haven't done a fun bead mix in a while. So once the dress came in the mail, I took it into the studio and matched some colors to mix together. 

This is the first bangle I made with this base idea. It didn't turn out quite how I wanted it to.  It's not very fishnet-looking. Bryan suggested that it looks more like stained glass and I agree.  So I'm working on another one and I'll decide next week which one to wear. I'm simplifying the idea on the second version of this bangle, but I may ultimately need to dumb it down to just 2 colors. Boring to bead but can often looks very sharp. Like my Classic Cuff Bangle bracelet, all the white got so boring to bead but I absolutely love how the piece turned out at the end of the day.

Long thin Wrap Necklace/Bracelet for CCFF 2019

I always have a jewelry piece that I'm working on.  Sometimes I get them done quickly because I can't put them down, sometimes I slog through a little bit at a time between other projects.  this one I slogged through because when I wasn't at work, I was focused on the River Terrace Church Installation.  This piece wraps to be a long, medium or short necklace, or wraps multiple times to be a bracelet.

This inspiration for this piece was a new dress I picked up at Grace Boutique in Old Town.  I decided it was perfect for one of the weddings I have to go to this summer, but also I wanted to wear it to the Capital City Film Festival Red Carpet event.  When I started this piece, I pulled all the different colors of beads that would match the dress is 15's, 13's and 11's.  My initial thought was to create this necklace in the St. Petersburg Chain Stitch (see below), but that was quickly scrapped.  It had too much going on, the stitch needed to be smaller and simpler.

Simple stitching is not my forte, but with all the color options I could still give this piece a complex feel.  5 feet, 9 inches later with a vintage clasp from my grandma's old costume jewelry I came up with a smooth multicolored blend of seed beads with little leaf and pearl accents.  This piece is very lightweight with a nice hang, almost like a very light rope.

You can barely see it in the above photo, but you can see the dress and how it didn't need a lot of extra pizazz with it's jewelry.  Honestly, the cut of the dress on my is just ok, but I absolutely fell in love with the fabric and print of it, it's very pretty and comfortable.

I chose this length so that I could wrap it 2, 3 or 4 times and wear it from a choker to all different lengths.  When it gets bothersome at work and I'm worried I'm going to snag it on something, I wrap it up to a choker or around my wrist.

Little Leaf Detail

Bracelet Pile

I'm just posting this now as a breather from finishing the huge River Terrace Installation and getting ready to lecture and teach at the Needlework and Textile Guild of Michigan next week to a sold-out workshop.  I can't believe I got everything done the week of Film Fest between floorset at work (rearranging the entire clothing sales floor for the new month and new clothes), volunteering at the Film Fest and finishing and hanging the River Terrace piece. What a whirlwind!  

Group Photo from CCFF. Film fest is always one of my favorite Lansing events,

this photo honors the pre-digital camera age where, due to Bryan's height, 

his head always got cut off in photos.

#CCFF Bangle and Earrings

I'm finally in a place where I can start doing a bit of volunteering here and there.  For the past few years the Capital City Film Festival has been one of my favorite local events.  This year I kept seeing the pattern logo for it and I needed to put it into a bangle.

This bangle can be purchased HERE. 

When I started drafting this piece it, it wasn't looking great and I realized I needed to put it on an angle.  The peyote stitch (which I use in much of my work) lends itself better to angles.

And so, I got the bangle and a matching pair of earrings done for the Red Carpet event last night!

Earrings can be purchased HERE.

A few CCFF High lites:

And it's finally spring so the kittens can enjoy the front porch!

Sometimes you need a new dress for Capital City Film Festival

After finishing my weaving ("She was Lost in the Woods and Followed the Sound of Your Waves") I needed a creative detox.  I popped into East Lansing to Grove Gallery, Saper Gallery and the Broad Art Museum.  Then over the Beggars Banquet, one of my old haunts from when I lived over that way.

I started doodling, thinking about the red carpet event for the Capital City Film Festival and how to show off my new tattoo (a large pair of sewing scissors).  I know I had been looking at a lot of red carpet fashion online from Hollywood and there's always some level of pushing the line of classy/decency.  I decided to try it.

I went home, found fabric that I already had from who knows where...I know the sheer black is from a 1920's themed dress I made in college for Art School Prom, back in 2003. I draped half the dress with this heavy bright salmon stuff that I have a ton of (again, from who-knows-where) and went for it.

I decided if the dress wasn't pretty much done by Tuesday night it wasn't going to be finished. For something like this I like to have a time limit.  I need to make something for myself every once in a while, but I remind myself that I have many other obligations.  Other rules for myself was that I had to use fabric from my current stash, so outside of my time this dress only cost me $5 for the gold zipper I put in the back.

The zipper was in on Tuesday night, which meant I just needed to put in a bottom hem and trim loose threads.  I'm really happy how it turned out.Thanks so much to Facebook and two of the photographers posting for Capital City Film Festival (I pulled photos from their facebook page).

Lansing is full of awesome people! (Photo by Matthew Dae Smith for CCFF) 

(Photo by Matthew Dae Smith for CCFF)    (Photo by Khalid Ibrahim for CCFF)

(Photos by Khalid Ibrahim for CCFF)

(Photo by Matthew Dae Smith for CCFF) 

And, it goes to show that a dress that fits your body correctly (I have a long waist, my dress form doesn't account for), well-placed darts keep things in place.  I did have fabric tape as backup in case I got nervous.