Privacy Fence Passion Project

    I started this post last year but I guess I never got around to finishing it.  The privacy fence has added and changed a lot since I started it 4 or so years ago. Even between last summer and this summer.

Our door fence is what you might call a "living" project which means it changes, has maintenance, I swap out doors because some don't hold up outside as well as I'd hoped. Some doors clearly need to be sanded and repainted or addresses in some way.  When I moved in to my house the privacy fence was dilapidated and I knew I'd have to do something about it so I looked to Pinterest.  I found a number of ideas using old doors as a wall or fence.  So then the question is...where do you find a ton of old doors?  

I started seeing doors everywhere.  I drive around with the back seats down in my Explorer so I can stop on the side of the road at a moment's notice to grab a door sitting by the garbage. On my way to work one day I saw a couple of guys filling a pickup truck with garbage bags while clearly gutting a house.  I pulled over and asked if I could have the doors if they were just pitching them and they were happy to give them to me.  I had already started this project long before COVID and fate let me to my Millwork specialist position at Home Depot.  Now I can really talk about doors and I love it. 

In between working I've been continuing with my privacy fence passion project. I nearly have one whole section of fence in my back yard done.  I'm learning a lot about what works and what doesn't, I have a few doors to touch up eventually but I'm just happy to have them up with color.  I'm finding that our resident birds also enjoy them, so much so, I'm hosing bird poop off every once in a while.

Another little nugget of a home project I started in on was replacing the rotting boards on the ramp leading up to the back door of my house.  I don't want to be dealing with it if they go during the winter so I'm starting to address the bad ones.  Here's what I said about it when I posted the board photo on my social media: 

Our ramp is starting to have some rotting boards, so I decided to brighten it up as I put in new ones.  This turquoise stained board looks like a gem and it brings me such joy seeing the new against the old.  

I recently realized that having everything looking perfect and "in its place" is not my style. I feel comfort around buildings that need work or are falling apart. Probably from playing in piles of old barn wood and hunting for "the good boards" to recycle as kids building forts on the farm I grew up on. 

#onedayatatime #OneBoardAtATime #BehrStain #DIY

Daphne Leaf Necklace Variation Necklace in Dark Blue

My friend Liz asked me to create a necklace for her based on an older version of a Daphne Necklace I posted for a #TBT (Throwback Thursday) on social media.  It made me realize that I did not have any of this style in my personal stock. To be honest, I cannot remember the last time that I made one! 

So while I was waiting for Liz's clasp to come in from Fire Mountain Gems I decided to make an extra necklace for my personal stock. I can use some new items for Art Feast 2021 in Old Town Lansing this Saturday. Since Liz was torn between bead color options I actually made a necklace similar to one of the color combinations she was leaning towards. Navy/Blue and Tan are a nice classic combo and it came out really lovely.

Bryan and I also went to a friend's wedding on Friday. There was a day when I had my outfit planned out way ahead of time and would be busy making jewelry to match. I have SO many clothes and I usually have plenty of my go-to colors at this point in my life. So with an Ignatius Hat (my favorite milliners ) a pair of leaf cluster earrings and my deco cat bangle we had a lovely time catching up and eating all the sugar.  

Beaded Blob Earrings in Southwest Colors

I don't make this beaded blob earring style often enough. I just love them, and when I do make a pair the next thing I know it's been sold or they're off to a gallery.  I put together a really fun color pallet with the Wide Southwest St. Petersburg Chain Bracelet and decided to apply it to my beaded "blobs."  

These are heavier than my earrings usually are but they have a nice swing and a lot of personality.

I was thinking of beaded blobs from the past, here are a pair from 2016.

A blue pair from 2017.

And a purple pair are in this post from 2010 (before I started mixing colors and bead sizes).

Do you want to see these new earrings in person?  I'll be at Art Feast 2021 in Old Town Lansing on August 21st, 10am-5pm!  Come visit, check out local artists and food trucks!

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: