Post Halloween Post: Freddie Mercury Accessory

My flash of brilliance for my Halloween Costume this year came while watching old music videos being shown on network TV.  There was a slew of Queen videos and Queen is my all time favorite band.  I decided had to be Freddie for Halloween.  I started a google images search and they make a costume from the Wembley Stadium Concert, but that's not really what comes to mind for me when I think of Freddie.  Something in spandex or white pants and a sweet leather jacket were more what came to mind, with a sash and a wife beater.

He wore a lot of wrist bands, and since I wasn't going to be making much of my outfit, I decided to bead one with him in mind, not just copying one that he had (normally solid or stripes).  I decided to keep it simple but use red antique beads and make a lightening bolt down the center of it.

(Me and Zack at our party)

I finished it off with black leather lacing up the back of it instead of trying to integrate a clasp.  This helped with the theme of the outfit.  All in all, I think it was a success!

(The dancing photo was the only one someone got without my leather jacket on! Thanks Megan!)

eTextiles: Pac Man bangle

This started with Betsy prodding at me to do a Pac-Man designed bangle, but she wants the LED lights in it too.  I needed to try out using conductive thread in solid beads so I went with this design.

Pac-Man, being a simple pixel-based game is not hard to translate onto a bead graph.  I drafted two designs.  The first (which you see here) has Pac-Man and all four ghosts, with 4 LED lights.  The second design has only 2 of the ghosts and 6 LED lights in the design.  We shall see if I get to making the second design.

I wanted this piece to look streamline so I didn't want to mess with putting Sparkle or an on-off switch in it.  During a night of insomnia, I sketched out how to stitch this bracelet to utilize snaps as an on/off switch.  I also created a battery pocket in all black to insert behind the red ghost.

Part of the issue I ran into on the first battery pocket in the original eTextiles beaded bracelet was keeping the pressure from the conductive thread, to the battery.  So on this piece I ordered Wire Glue from ThinkGeek.com and slowly built it up inside the battery pocket.  I also dabbed some onto the LEDs for a sturdier connection. I was fortunate that most of this design is black, as the wire glue is also black.  I'll have to keep this in mind with future projects. I'll talk about my experience with the wire glue in another post. 

Happily, the conductive thread seems to be working well inside of the seed beads, despite all of the thread that I already pack into the beads.  I only had one little incident of a bead breaking (this happens plenty, but it's more difficult to fix when it's with the conductive thread).

This was a fun piece to do.  I think I'll be offering Pac-Man in this design (with the 4 LEDs), and without the LED lights as a snap-on bracelet or a bangle (I made the design easy to adjust to each).  Probably by order-only. Keep an eye out for that on my website and Etsy shop!

Enjoy!

Want more?  Here's the Pac-Man Bangle's YouTube Video!

Make and Take Ring Workshop

"Make and Take" Beaded Ring Workshop

with Jenny Schu.

Learn the very basics of the peyote stitch in this simple, sweet little ring workshop.

Only 2 hours long, $25.00

When: November 15, 2011 from 2:00pm-4:00pm
  November 15, 2011 from 6:00pm-8:00pm
  November 20, 2011 from 2:00pm-4:00pm

Where: Grove Gallery Co-op
    325A Grove St.
    East Lansing, MI 48823

How: Contact Jenny- jenny@jennybehler.com for class availability.  You will then mail or drop off a $25.00 check to Grove Gallery (address above), check made out to Jenny Schu. with day of class writeen in the memo line.

Limit 6 per class.  Must register at least 1 week before the class you want to take or else it may be canceled.
The $25.00 covers everything. 2 hours of instruction (and print-outs), beads, needle and thread to make your ring at Grove Gallery.  You may purchase any of these materials to take with you at the end of the workshop.

Here's for the Wolverines

I've never been much into "sports" per se, but the longer I live in a Big Ten college town and the amount of anti-Michigan stuff that was hanging around two weeks before U of M vs MSU, I had a little Wolverine spirit well up in me.

I painted my toes alternating Maize and Blue, and I started in on my first-ever team-based beaded piece. It doesn't have the block M on it or anything, but it's just a little comment that notes my pride of going to such a wonderful Art School. I'm sure my professor is cringing a little since we were instructed in the very beginning that this was art school, we weren't making team paraphernalia.

So, here's my little bead-mix for one of my basic bangle designs. I also feel ok about it because some of the color forecasting for this fall is putting these exact colors together in pieces. I have to say, I was sad that University of Michigan lost the football game.

(I'm still trying to figure out my tripod...excuse the blur.)

Red Party Blend Mix Bangle Beaded Jewelry

I have been drooling over the delicious colors in the Fall 2011 Express Magazine that came to my home a few weeks ago.  I'm not usually into red at all.  But for some reason it's got me inspired at the moment.
You can see one of the dresses that I was particularly drawn to here.  So I pulled a bunch of oranges, reds, purples and fuchsias and decided to do a little mix to see how I liked it.

I think it looks like a mini party on my wrist, so I tried out making a ring to match (rings have been a project that has been on my to-do list) which adds a very tiny flash of color if you don't want to go too bold. Which I will get a photo of soon.

This mix was so exciting and different as far as my usual use of colors, I rolled with it and made a leaf pendant and bracelet in the same colorway.

All that's left is a sweet pair of the cluster earrings and my display over at Grove Gallery Co-op will be good to go for the fall!