eTextiles: Beaded Battery Holder

I finished my beaded battery holder this morning and of course needed to test it out.  I started with conductive thread, the holder, my 3Volt battery sparkle and a size 10 beading needle.

I made large knots in the conductive thread and threaded them into the inside and the tail of the thread out of the holder as seen below:

My first try there was no light, so I took it apart and tried it with just the thread, battery and sparkle,

that worked, so I ended up making my knots that needed to be hitting the battery much larger.  It seems to be working well!

Next step is to work on the frame of the bangle design and mull over how the lights will be intergrated into it. 

Comission in Red.

Well, I have been so busy I haven't been blogging or taking pictures really.  I have been beading a lot, traveling a bit and finishing up some comissions as more comissions walk in the door.  My most recent comission that was sent out was a special request in red, black and silver.  For my own comfort I had to integrate some greys into this set since I have a hard time using red in my work.

I am however pleased with the outcome.  I think that the laboradite beads and silver pearls I picked up at Beads Beads Beads in Boulder, CO helped me out.



The set will end up being a Leaves Between bangle, a pair of cluster earrings, and an extra long lariat which is still in the works. Iwill do an extra-long lariat necklace psot since this is the second one that has been ordered!

March Update

Ack!  I didn't even blog in February!!!

The beginning of February was crazy-busy-awesome for me.  February 1st brought a nice jewelry sale over at the Soup Spoon Cafe right as snow-pocolypse began to come down.  Thank you to everyone for coming out and enjoying food and drinks over at the Spoon!  Then we cleaned the house (pushing all bead-messes into the guest bedroom) for a bridal shower at my place for an old high school friend on the 5th.  February 6th held my first beadweaving workshop over at Nonpareil in Ann Arbor with four great students and I wound down with a delicious dinner at Arbor Brewing Company.  My end of February held some unpleasant surprises but I managed to get my vacation in to Colorado to visit friends and do some skiing. I also met the fabulous Lynne Bruning for an hour or two, there will be more to come on that connection!

I have been managing to bead weekly and throughout my trip, but it seems that things are selling pretty quickly too!  I want to get a blue-green themed case together for the Grove Gallery Co-op this week.  I always am thinking of green popping through the snow and brightening the dreary days of winter this time of year.  Last night at the Greater Lansing Weaver's Guild meeting I won a philodendron as a door prize which I am pretty excited to add to my house plant collection.  Just a little more inspiration to add to my life!

Coming up I am planning on giving a beading workshop in the Lansing area as I have had some requests as of late.  Please feel free to contact me if you are interested and I can keep you updated.  I am also working on a follow-up to my Beadweaving Peyote Stitch class on how to design your own bracelets which I will get together to teach in both Ann Arbor and Lansing.  Events on the table are:

Fiberfeast with the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild, April 16, 2010 (I believe tickets are $28.00 and they go fast)

East Lansing Art Festival is May 21st & 22nd, I will be hanging out at the Grove Gallery Co-op during the downtown festivities.

Soup Spoon Cafe Jewelry Party! February 1, 2011

This week my husband asked me if I was moving out and into the Soup Spoon.
I will be for Tuesday evening!

February 2, 2011

6:00pm-10:00pm

Jenny Schu Jewelry Party

(Also a Valentine's reminder!)
Soup Spoon Cafe
1419 East Michigan Ave.
Lansing MI 48912
(517) 316-2377

I'll be offering new necklaces, earrings, bangles and bracelets also with a side of Soup Spoon's delicious appetizers.  This month I have been on a serious bead-binge and have created 16 pairs of new earrings, 2  necklaces, 1 pendant, 2 bracelets and 5 bangles.  And I still have 4 more days to create! Here's a sampling of what's coming up:

New color sets: grey, brown and black



2011 has hit and I realized that if I do get into the Ann Arbor Art Fair, I better hop-to now!  Since the ball has dropped I have finished 2 necklaces, a dozen earrings and 3 bangles plus some starts on other pieces.  Not bad for the first week. 
One of my goals as I prepare for upcoming sales is to work in color-sets.  I enjoy using color forecasting to get an idea of what is coming up so that my pieces will match things that we'll be seeing in display windows.  I did this in preparation for our trip to Europe last year and it seemed like my choice of bead colors matched everything I was seeing in clothing windows.
It also helps with cleanliness in my house.  When I get on a roll working in all sorts of different colors things get chaotic and I often get confused or frustrated.  So the goal is 2-3 bangles per color set, 2 different style necklaces, 4+ earrings.  We'll see how that goes.



I'm currently in love with an iridescent grey seed bead which you will be seeing a lot of in my upcoming work.  With these pieces I have mixed it with iridescent browns, blacks and grey/silver.  I'm in love with breaking the old rule that you can't wear black and brown together.  So that's my first set of 2011!



My first sale this year will be at the Soup Spoon Cafe on Michigan Ave. in Lansing.  It's the evening of Tuesday February 1, 2011, 6:00pm-10:00pm (Nick said he won't kick anyone out if it's past 10:00 and we're having a good time.)  I'll have appetizers out for those that come by to visit me, we'll be in the back on the bar side (coffee, micro brews, dark and stormy's), or come in for dinner and say hi! Here's the Facebook Event.

The second sale I will be in this year is the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild Fiber Feast.  It's April 16, 2011 and you have to get advance tickets for the luncheon/fashion show as it sells out well before the event. Keep an eye on the Ann Arbor Fiberarts Guild website.

Beginner's Peyote Stitch Workshop at Nonpareil Studio, Ann Arbor

I'll be teaching a beginner's peyote stitch workshop coming up the first weekend in February at Michelle Moenssen's shop/studio, Nonpareil Studio.

Sunday, February 6, 2010.  1:30pm-4:30pm
Sign up now, I know there's only 4 spots left!


We will be learning peyote stitch while beading 2 beads at a time to make a bracelet with a button-and-loop closure.  Materials provided will be needle, thread, 11/0 seed beads, glass pearl for closure.  We will be beading on velvet mats and/or trays which I will have available for purchase if you would like to take one home for use.

This class is to jump-start you into beadweaving while still being able to make and finish a bracelet with less-tediousness than single-count peyote.  Beyond this class I would like students to be able to go home and experiment with one-bead at a time so that you may design more detailed patterns.  Depending on interest I will offer a follow-up class where we learn odd-count peyote and how to design using bead graph paper.

Vintage Button Bracelet

I blogged a while back about wandering around Old Town Lansing and the great places that are there, one of them being Lamb's Gate Antiques.  I picked through and bought a ton of their vintage glass buttons in all shapes and sizes. They were so interesting and I figured one day I would think "where did I see those vintage glass buttons? I could really use them for ::blank:: project."  I have done this many times over the years of creating and coming up with new projects so I try not to pass on things that I may not be able to track down on the Internet later.

Originally this bracelet was supposed to be a necklace to go with a dress that I purchased at Grace (also in Old Town) for Holiday 2010.  I couldn't get it to lay well around the neck but I was really married to the idea of using the button on it.  On top of that, it started to look really busy with the dress so I decided no-harm no-foul, I'll shorten it some and wear it as a bracelet.  I really like how it turned out, and of course, I made the earrings to match.  Both pieces have purple swarovski crystal accents.  The earrings are 3 inches long from the top of the earwire and the bracelet is 15 inches long and is made to wrap around twice.