Wide Southwest Stripe Bracelet and Earrings

 

In my effort to focus on larger statement jewelry I decided to make an extra wide St. Petersburg Chain Stitch bracelet. I started with the idea of the structure and then went to Pinterest for color inspiration.  I like to pin fashion/color-trend-based images by the year and these Southwest-feeling colors were very dominant on my 2021 Pinterest board. 

I pulled all the beads from my stash that had that color feel to it (and were the correct sizes and styles I needed for the design) and started stitching my stripes.  I really wanted to have this bracelet started in order to be able to have something other than the sample bracelet to show to my St. Petersburg Chain Stitch Zoom class.  I had a good chunk of it going already so when everyone seemed to have the stitch down I switched to working on this bracelet to show how I work it for the class. 

When I got to the end of this bracelet I noticed that it fit my wrist perfect, which isn't necessarily great for everyone, or if it's hot out. I decided to add on another row of netting loops to clasp the pearls through.  Not only does this extension work really well, but I love how the additional detail looks on the piece as a whole.

And of course I mad some tiny earrings to match which have come in hand when I need something quck cute and light for work:

All of these will be at my next outdoor booth show in Old Town Lansing, August 21, 2021 for Art Feast. (Unless someone contacts me to purchase them before that).

Teaching Beadweaving on Zoom for the First Time

On June 18th (2021) I taught my first beadweaving workshop over the internet via Zoom. I had  a lot of reservations about teaching over Zoom but through much encouragement from the Kalamazoo guild I decided to go for it.  We don't learn new ways of doing things until we move forward and just do them, which is where I finally was at with teaching online. It's a really cool opportunity and I know weavers like Rebecca Mezoff have been teaching online for years.

Pros: 

Everyone can see on their screens what my hands are doing with the stitch.  St. Petersburg Chain moves in a lot of different directions so being able to sit in one spot and keep doing the stitch for the students repetitively, or slowing it down when there were questions was awesome. In a live class I have to go to each person and show them, or gather everyone in and huddle and/or draw it on a white board. I usually do all of the above.

When everyone has the stitch/rhythm down I can move to showing them a piece I'm working on that has a variation of the stitch we're learning.  I've never had the time or opportunity to do this in a class before. Everyone moves at different speeds so those who are moving fast can learn how I manipulate the stitch further while I can always jump back to the original sample piece to show the stitch again. This is pretty difficult to do in person.

On a personal level, I actually got a piece worked on and was able to finish the sample bracelet I made  with the class all the way to the end where I could show how them how to add the loop and pearl closure.  I usually am just doing this with each individual at the end of the class, sometimes running over time.

6 hours was perfect for this bracelet. We did 3 hours, an hour break and then another 3 hours. 

My set up, laptop logged in, smartphone logged in

Cons:

Not being able to see each student's work in person can be a problem when I need to figure out where the stitch is going awry. Holding beadwork up to the camera wasn't as bad as I thought it might be but I'm pretty hands-on when figuring out where someone is making a literal wrong turn in a stitch. 

Advance preparation was very time-consuming. I really like to have a bunch of colors available to students to pick out in the class. Getting photos of bead options out to students to pick out with correct colors, the time I needed to place a bead order in the event everyone wanted more of a color than I had, prepping kits and mailing them is a lot more time than I suspected it would be. Everything worked out fine though so that was a relief.  

I may need a new phone. This is just a personal con, but the camera on my phone has been weird about capturing photos and video with a choppy zoom function.  We got through and maybe I was the only person who noticed but it's something I need to keep in mind for next time.

My finished bracelet, which will actually be perfect for the 

Mustard Plug show we're going to in August!

All in all this was a much easier way to teach (I never thought I'd be admitting that a year ago) and I look forward to doing this again.  I have a few things to get done around the house before I commit to more online workshops (today is replace the back storm door day) but keep an eye out for more workshops via my newsletter and social media! Or feel free to reach out to me in advance and I'll make sure I let you know when I'm getting students together for a class.

Gray Checker Bangle and Earring Set

I was really struggling trying to get good photos of this set. I've had one of those weeks where my motivation is non-existent and then when I did get to taking photos I struggled getting the color correct and the lighting kept being off. I do love how this set turned out though. It's not as aggressive as black and white checkers cane be, it's a nice, more subtle piece. 

I created this bangle after finishing my first checker sets which people seemed to like at the Block: Aid event. I was using the tiny bangles that I'm working towards removing from my stock on both ends of this piece also. For the earrings I pulled similar colors from my delica bead stash to match up but still be slighty different.

The photos don't really show it, but the grey beads have a little bit of a rainbow tinted into the matte glass.  They're really lovely.

I think the colors for this set were spurred a little by the Pantone colors for this year: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating. 

 

The Block: Aid Recap & Art Feast in August

3 Years ago today was the last time that I had a tent with an artist's booth set up. It was at Bridgefest also put on by Lansing 5:01.  The Block: Aid 2 weeks ago was a great opportunity to get my tent out, give it a good wash and see just how much stock I have at home right now.  It was enough jewelry to fill a little more than a 6 foot table, which is what I usually have to work with.

Bridegfest 2018, Photo by McShane Photography

(thank you Jena, I love this photo of us)

The turnout in Downtown Lansing was really nice and refreshing. You can tell people are ready to be out mingling, eating and dancing again. I always think that once I get set up I'll have some time to get beading done but I was mostly talking to a lot of people and it was good to see a bunch of friends. Part of me wished I was a little closer to the music, but on the other hand I had about lost my voice by the end of the night.  It encouraged me to apply to Art Feast in Old Town this year. Which is practially my back yard:

Art Feast 2021 is August 21, 10:00am-5:00pm
I've always wanted to go to or do this event but I didn't feel I had the time or flexibility in the past. (Have I mentioned how much I love the job that the COVID shut down led me to?)  Getting another show of my jewelry on the books has made my want to play with new bead colors and get some new jewelry made again. It helps that we're slowing starting to get comfortable being out again so I'm actually wearing jewelry other than earrings.  

I started this bracelet last week and it's a fun color grouping along with a much wider St. Petersburg Chain Bracelet than I've made before.  Of course I'll have a more detailed post when it's finished but here's a sneak peek: 

Return of Checkers and the 4th Wave of Ska Music

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.

Ballet Turtle Drawing

(Final image for card)

My niece's first ballet recital was last weekend and I really felt that the ballet cards I did find were lacking...  So I decided to make one myself.  My turtle, Crush, was the inspiration.  He gets up on his rock under the sun or the light and stretches out into what look like ballet moves to me. 

He was sitting up on his rock last week and I snapped a photo then just sketched the below drawing from the photo.  My drawing background from college is a lot of scientific illustration classes so I tend to draw realistic. I decided he needed ballet shoes to finish it off.

I often miss drawing, my hands are usually busy making something instead of using a pen or pencil.  This was a nice opportunity to to just unplug into a little bit of drawing while I grab on to my very random inspiration. 

Between the sketch and the colored-in Photoshop version I'm not sure which I like better.  I tried to put pink or purple in the background on the final version but blue just seemed to fit the best, maybe becasue it feels a bit like water. I post about the cats most of the time, but Crush's tank is in my office and we hang out in the mornings while I have my coffee and journal or get my computer-work done. It's hot out today so I'll probably take him outside to play in the yard while it's nice so he can get some full sun. 

Video: Hand Stitching Leaves Together

I am in the middle of working on a leaf panel for my large Leaf Me Alone installation piece. My larger works take one to three years to finish so in this time there are a lot of posts about the process and progress rather than finished works. I wound the warp was wound years ago along with the smaller warps for Leaf Me Alone 1, 2 and 3.  The weaving came off the loom last year but is still not completely finished, I'm picking away at its leaf panel, making leaves as I play in the studio or bead on the couch and on-the-go. I collect them and choose what needs to go where as the piece forms. In this video I talk about choosing what leaf goes on next and how I stitch it to the leaves that are already forming the larger panel. 

I've made another process video. I'm not a fan of making videos or hearing myself talk in them for that matter.  However, it's the way that social and marketing is going. I find that when I'm scrolling around on the internet or social media I often will stop on videos of things being made, even if I have no interest in the thing. They're mesmerizing, especially the sped up time-lapsed ones.  I'm working on posting more video of my processes to capture where I'm at now in this moment with my work and how I create. My moments change and I've found that my artwork will mean one thing to me when I'm making it, but give it 5 or 10 years and it has a new meaning for me. When I give presentations about my work, they are never the same. I am constantly changing; my feelings towards different works can change. 

I enjoy looking back on past posts now that I've been blogging for as long as I have.  I'm hoping I'll appreciate these videos more as time moves forward.