I love Jesse Maed's designs, they're really fun to knit. I was hooked with the first one that I knit thanks to Sarah's suggestion of "My Secret Little Crop" (which I have knit 3 of) and then I got into Jesse's other designs. This Totally Tank Top took me forever (see it's tag), for a crop top anyway...longer than I'm used to...ok, I was learning. I ripped this out and restarted at least once (twice?) and then it took me 3 tries to get the neck edging right (for me).
I knit the Medium size. I extended the arm opening (at least 2 inches, it was 70 rows total) which also created more of a scoop neck that I like better. The first time I had enough of this knit up to try it on I was following the suggested strap length and the arms holes were tight and the neck much too high for me.
I love Jesse's designs because they're super easy to make adjustments on. I chose the "ribbed" arm and neck finish which I seemed to be picking up the stitches weird and this yarn blend wasn't "ribbing" it just wanted to lay flat on this needle size so it decided to be a "design choice" a pattern at the end of the day. I ended up knitting a lot less stitches (58 ish on the sides) than called for in the pattern (75 on the sides) for the neck.
I put my first tag in a hand knit piece :)
I've worn this a few times and I'm finding it really versatile and summery, which is what I was going for.
A few weeks ago, I dropped a fresh color pallet of jewelry off to the Lansing Art Gallery for their Michigan Made Holiday Show. I've been working on pieces for our wedding so much that I didn't realize how badly I needed a color change. As much as I will always default back to purple and green, I was really excited to pack up a whole bunch of new bead colors. I gathered and had to thin down beads for the train ride to Chicago for our honeymoon. I didn't get as much beading done in those 6 days that I thought I would. Which is good, because it means I was not stressed about producing and I was enjoying our honeymoon moments.
I started with this wide St. Petersburg Chain bracelet, just to get my colors lined up and see how I liked them together. It has some fall colors but still includes plenty of pops of brights that I've been enjoying working with.
Leaf Clasp Bracelet
5-Leaf Daphne Necklace Variation
This necklace can be worn off-center or with the leaves in the middle.
Tiny pod earrings
Hints of muted turquoise are running rampant through my beading right now. I'm sure I'll get tired of it soon. The weather has started to change and I'm feeling like crawling into yarns with my weaving and knitting. If you'd like to shop this collection, they will be at the Opening Reception for the 2022 Michigan Made Holiday Art Market; Thursday November 10, 5-8pm. I'll be by that night too!
Since High School I've been following ska music. My love of it started with Reel Big Fish which was my first concert at Clutch Cargos back in 1997. I have gone to ska shows whenever I can for an upbeat live concert fix for the past 24 years. Last year it felt like there was a huge resurgence of ska music. Maybe it was just that I had the time to really explore more as musicians took to social media during lock-down. With the ska documentary "Pick It Up" coming out it just feels like the internet and Instagram has blown up with a 4th wave of ska. Two-tone checkers pattern represents the music, there's a whole background on it, watch "Pick It Up!" Clothing, record covers, you name it, it's the visual key that this is ska, especially wandering around a town before a ska show, you can point people out and say "I'll bet they're going to the show." Now checkers are back! I just saw a customer at work wearing a checkered dress...I don't think there's a concert going on near here this week.
Checkers are popping up everywhere, there's a bit of checker in Interior Design in THIS article.
I'm excited to see checkers back, it's how I pattern my larger weavings and they are my go-to when I don't know quite what to do with an idea. I just start to move it into checkers.
Video: Adding a tiny bangle to a more normal-sized one.
Speaking of not knowing what to do with things; I've been staring at these tiny bangles in my studio. I was making them for something "less expensive" to sell, but they're not fun to make, they don't keep their shape in the same way that my larger bangles do and I'm just not that happy with them as a product. Not selling or making much jewelry in the past year has really reminded me that I need to make what I love, not just "stuff" to sell. I have a day-job so that I don't have to do that!
The bright colors of this year's Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2021 collection has checker built into it and the images may have helped me realize what I needed to do with these bangles. The Tim Walker photographs in particular are really fun, (check those out HERE), so I started with the turquoise tiny bangle and just started to bead checks.
I wanted to keep going so the warmer colors were what I picked up next.
And of course some fun earrings:
So I'm taking those little bangles and putting in checkers between them until I think of something else to do with them. I love how they're turning out. I knew eventually something would come to me with what I needed to do! You'll be able to find the first bangles at The BLOCK: AID in downtown Lansing on June 10th, I'm doing a pop-up booth for this event. My first show in a long time.
Interested in new ska music? I've been putting together a playlist on YouTube HERE.
When I was designing with Evil Eyes in mind, I found so many variations that I couldn't stick to just one, so I drafted 2 different bangles to work with. I started with the simpler design to see how I felt about this style jewelry. I also was dragging my feet on picking out colors for this set, I decided to go with one of my defaults, purple. This particular turquoise was calling to me, so I combined it with one of my favorite neutrals for a base and silver in the middle of the eye.
I'm very happy with how the bangle turned out. It has the spiraling movement that I felt in a lot of the designs I was looking up. Positivity, Hope and Serenity flowing through my stitching.
The earring set(s) were inspired by all of the mismatched sets I've been seeing lately in the fashion world. I really like the mismatched looks, but I feel like they don't sell well.
I'm still considering selling this set as 3 different earrings together (above). It just feels like that's where I wanted this set to go in the first place.
After spending nearly 6 months of looking at the images of River Terrace Church's stained glass windows and the drafts, fabrics and working on the Hope Flows installation, I needed to do something in beads. I took my original tiny drafts of one of the panels and dropped it into peyote stitch graph paper.
I didn't have the bangle done by the reception for Hope Flows, but I did stay up late the night before making a pair of of earrings to match. I'm really happy to get it done (I thought I could finish it for the MLH Conference but I just can't bead as fast as I'd like), and am extra pleased to have made a large statement bangle.
This pattern doesn't repeat (hence one of the reasons it takes so long to make), so I ended up taking a ton of photos this morning from all sides of it.
This bangle ended up being 2 1/2 inches in length. I hope you enjoy all the photos!
Spring has been poking around here and there and some brighter colors seemed to perk up my beading productivity. I recently finished this double hive bangle with 4 filler colors and matching earrings.
Due to how the pattern falls with the hive bangles, this one ran a few beads wider than my usual bangle designs.
With shows coming up, I've been wanting a good fill for my tiny bangle stands, so any beads that are sitting in my travel trays are game to be stitched into my layering pieces. I've finished a number of them recently.
And last, but not least, the original dream earrings that provide a nice mix of color and design. This pattern is taken from my very first large graphed bangle design.
I'm excited to say that I've put myself on the artist vendor list for Bridgefest in Lansing on June 21, 2018. I haven't done any sort of outdoor tent/art fair sort of thing in years so I figured I'd dip my toes back into it to see how it feels. That being said, I'm trying to put together more stock that's $100 and under, which means smaller, more geometric bangles and lots of earrings.
I think I pulled this black/white and teal mix due to the current color at the women's clothing store I work at. The bangle above turned out very retro looking to me. Like when MTV came out (back when it still played only music videos). I didn't have cable growing up but it was still part of the pop-culture that surrounded me.
Tiny layering bangles are becoming a big focus for color play.
(This is the MTV that I remember!)
Moving on.... I also got out my larger bead kit/case to start in on a bangle that I finished drafting last night. I'm trying out ginkgo leaves, inspired by Rhea who owns Old Town General Store. Another pop-up I'm doing is My Arts Night Out in Old Town Lansing on May 4, 2018. We are a regular customer at OTGS and she's getting her artist line-up in early! I know she's an amazing gardener and I asked what some of her favorite plants were, ginkgo was the first thing that came to mind, so I'm going to see about doing a few of "Reah's Favorites" for this show.
