White Leaf Beaded Jewelry Set

Last year I ended up selling my white lariat leaf and cluster earrings to a lovely lady at an airport bar in Florida.  I learned from her that it's cheaper to drink on the airplane by ordering double shots of vodka at the bar and pouring them into a water bottle (I did not follow suit). Also that I should look into galleries in Florida but stick to white and pastels.  Which I do tend towards for spring. Maybe if I ever get my stock built up enough I will look into Florida galleries.

Now that I'm back to retail and working at White House Black Market, I was missing my white jewelry staples so I just finished this set.  1 Lariat Necklace, 1 pair of cluster earrings, a leaf bracelet and 2 smaller pairs of earrings. 

You'll be able to see them and try them on at Fiber Feast in April (unless you see me beforehand). I'm up for doing pop-ups around my oddball retail schedule.

Lois's tail was too photogenic to not post this one....

Wedding Dress Bead Embroidery Details

Doing the beadwork on Katie's wedding dress has been my beading focus over the past 2 and a half months. You've probably noticed photos of it in progress on my Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.  I'm really really happy about how the embroidered pieces turned out. Above is the focal pieces on the empire waist. (3 pieces all together).

The front of one shoulder.

The front of the other shoulder.

The back piece.

The back and should strands made me the most nervous, bead stringing isn't my forte.  Luckily Katie and her mom came over one afternoon and strung beads for 4 hours or so, which helped a lot.  Above isn't the greatest photo of the back, however, when the photos started coming through on Facebook yesterday evening, I was SO happy with how lovely the back and should strands turned out.

There was a lot of pinning and re-pinning.

At first I only made the shoulder pieces 4 inches long, 

I had to add another 2 inches to each side.

Should piece in progress.

Katie said she'd share some of the real photos of her in the dress with me, so more to come on the final look of the piece.  I wanted to get the details up before I forgot!

Home, Friends and Family abound...

Knitting circle with the bridal bead embroidery.

I've been picking up more hours at work and I feel a bit lost as far as getting any artwork done.  Luckily I have a bridal commission that I'm working on, which is keeping me beading.  Otherwise I might just stay in the bath tub with a book on nights I don't have anything going.  Which I'm trying to cut back some and stay in more, my house is starting to settle and feel more and more like home.

Measuring the beads for the dress.

I am getting at least one box unpacked per day, sometimes more. I just haven't the slightest clue where some stuff should go.  The interior house projects can be too overwhelming, so I have 2 focuses: 1) Fix the railing on my balcony and 2) trim all trees/bushes away from my house and garage so my homeowners insurance doesn't drop me.

(those cedars behind me are being cut back...)

Roof on the garage is not safe,  it's a good thing 

I was excellent at balance beam back in my gymnastics days...

I have a cool grill in my back yard...it needs cleaning out...

The pile of drywall, plaster and lathe and linoleum in my garage that I'm 

topping my garbage can with every Sunday evening.

As I keep reminding myself, my house is livable as-is, so house projects will be picked at.  I can. not. wait. to get back to my loom.  It's still wrapped up, but Amy coming over will give me the kick in the pants to have an unwrapping party and get a sample weaving on for my Porkies donation. 

So to keep myself in line, current art-pieces are:

1) Bridal Commission

2) Porkies Weaving (it might not be just a sample, I may end up just putting the piece on!)

3) Holiday Jewelry for galleries and the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild Show

I am always up for taking on beading classes too.  I now have space in my dining room to teach and would love to do small private groups.  My base-rate is, per person, $20 for the first hour, $10 for every hour thereafter. Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends are my most-flexible days.  I'd prefer 2-weeks advanced notice so I can plan around work. You'll just have to ignore the boxes still floating around.

In the meantime, I have been having lots of fun and had friends in town more than I can remember.  I love having my own place. We celebrated Megan's Birthday then the next weekend Em came to visit from Colorado and I got to show her around Old Town and downtown Lansing.

Happy Birthday Megan!

Me and Em

Meat BBQ with Em on our Old Town day.

Because I want both my sides to be creamed corn with my brisket.

Abigail has invited me for the past 4 years to go charter fishing with her family on the weekend of the 4th.  I didn't have anyone to tell me they didn't want to do that, so I did, and I caught my first HUGE lake trout!

Me and Abigail

I couldn't stop staring at how beautiful the lures are. 

Definite inspiration for future jewelry.

And this past weekend, July 18th my second niece was born, Luna Lin.  My mom, dad and cousin Ky went to the hospital to visit. (After I played catchup with my dear friend Erin while I was in Fenton).

(No photos of the baby, that's the parents prerogative, 

I know some people are touchy about that)

Past Beadwork: Bead Embroidered Hair Combs

Sometimes I do bead embroidery, not very often, but lately while talking to some brides I've brought up the hair combs that I have made in the past.  They were made so far in my past that I don't have any images of them to reference on the internet.  So here's a little run down of some hair combs that I made and I still really like.

Layne's Hair Comb

Layne is a hairdresser that I have known since elementary school.  She initially thought she wanted beaded shoes, but she decided that she'd rather have hair combs for her and her bridesmaids (sisters).  I think it was an excellent choice, shoes get trashed at weddings (particularly outdoor ones) and that's a lot of beadwork to get dirty.

Smaller bridesmaid hair combs

Heidi wanted 2 hair combs with a long silk veil attached.  I made the veil with snaps so that she could wear the combs individually also.  the below comb had a match so that it fit on either side of her hairdo.  I'm particularly fond of gold, so I was excited to do a white and gold design for this commission.

In the same lines of hair pieces I also made Heidi's daughter's hair clip for her baptism.  The baby hair clip was much tinier with the smallest beads I can peyote stitch with, I blogged about it this winter HERE.