2022 Spring/Summer Beaded Jewelry

I've had this bag of beads pulled since the beginning of April but I wasn't feeling like making jewelry for quite a while.  Then I had a baby shower to go to that I got to dress up for and made a new earring design for it. From there someone posted a cute photo of herself wearing a pair of earrings that she had purchased from me and it seemed to have lit the spark to get back to making some jewelry. 

I pulled out the bag of bead colors that have been sitting in my studio and went to work. First making some earrings...

Then I really wanted to play with stripes like I have been on the garage, so the above bracelet happened...

And I got carried away with leaves for a necklace:

The corals and greens are reminding me of past sets from Spring 2015. There were a lot of pinks used back with that grouping which I've apparently replaced with bright purple and lavender. I actually cannot get enough of this matte lavender tiny seed bead.  

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the above lavender crystal earrings but experimentation can easily move into other ideas so who knows where these could go.

I've been beading more than I guess I thought I had been. 

Second Knit Crop Top: Black and White Stripes

I am so behind on blog updates, I swear, I'm still creating! As we plan for our dressy punk wedding I keep thinking of things I can make to wear to concerts coming up like Rammstein, ska shows and Riot Fest (our honeymoon) so I decided to try a black and white stripe crop-top.  I got it done just in time for the Kill Lincoln, JER, Dissidente concert in Grand Rapids at the beginning of this month.  

Bryan and I both happened to have Friday off before his birthday and it just happened that there was a ska concert in Grand Rapids.  It's almost like it was my birthday, I promise that I gave him other options of things we could do and left it wide open, he picked the ska show. <3  We switched up our usual dinner spot and I introduced him to The Electric Cheetah which I had apparently forgot existed as it's not as close to the music venue as our usual spot, Luna. Bryan rolled a Yahtzee on the second roll and got his Yahtzee dinner for free, plus a birthday cookie. Ultimately things kept turning up Bryan around his birthday so it was a good week for us.

Back to the newly knit crop top; it held up great through skanking, jumping, dancing, sweating. I knit up My Secret Little Crop last year in a more vintage look and wore it all last summer. Being a crop top it still has air flow so it doesn't feel too heavy even though it kind-of is for warm-weather application. I usually don't think of wearing knits like this in the summer, but I'm learning it's all about the shape and styling at the end of the day. I've thrown a lot of "do's" and "don't" of fashion out the window over the years but nowadays I think I'm just dumping all the rules out and setting them on fire.

I really love this crop top pattern by Jessie Maed Designs.  She has a ton of cute patterns and you should check them out if you're a knitter. I kind-of want to start another summer top but I have way too many projects going right now. Also, thank you to Sally for passing along her late mother's stash to me, I'm finding ways to use it while I practice and improve my knitting.  This stripe top is 100% her mother's stash yarn.

Currently most of my free time has been outside working on our gardens (weeding lots!) and picking away at the very time-consuming paint-job that I'm doing on the garage. I'm just realizing that the garden along the door-privacy-fence is filling in in the way I always dreamed of being able to have a decorative garden. So I guess I'm pretty ok at gardening. The garage paint job is satisfying my need to play with colors in the same way that the door fence and my beadwork does. At the end of the day it's really neat to see how the way I design translates into each other. 

MLH 21st Biennial Exhibit at LowellArt Gallery

It's starting to feel like I'm getting back into my old pre-pandemic-groove. Art-wise at least. Everything else in my life seems to be changing but submitting work to exhibits, going to receptions, seeing my weaver-friends feels a bit more like what normal was.  

On Thursday Bryan and I went to The LowellArts Gallery for the opening reception of the Michigan League of Handweavers 21st Biennial  Exhibition. What a beautiful space they have over there!  This show is always great sampling of what the Michigan fiber arts community has to offer.  I didn't get many photos. I'm really working on being more present with less having my phone out. 

I was pleasantly surprised when the awards were announced that I had received an honorable mention for my Evil Eye Bangle. Thank you Barbra Bushey for the award!

Also thank you Helen for purchasing the necklace that I entered. She already has a number of my pieces so I know the Copper Daphne Necklace will be going to a good home when this show is over. 

I'm reminded and humbled that even though I'm not currently producing a ton of my usual artwork, I still have just enough in rotation to feel like I'm staying relevant and keeping my art career going despite my full-time day job, my big personal yard projects and getting ready for our wedding. Life is busy but very very good. 

Spike Stripe Earrings

Lately I feel like I've been knitting more than beading, but when I was between 2 dresses for a baby shower I decided to come up with a new earring design that would work for them. Both dresses have stripes. I have been searching the internet for spike and punk designs a LOT while getting wedding ideas so I figured it was time to try my hand at a large spike drop.  

Black and White Spike Stripe Drop

This isn't a great photo put it shows the rainbow 

sheen in the white beads a bit better.

The black and white dress is the one I ended up wearing, it's been a while since I've worn it and it was fun to have these as a new matching piece of jewelry.

Navy and Silver Spike Stripe Drop

I've never really had a good piece of jewelry to match the other dress which is navy with white and orange-red stripes.  It's been really hard to find a real navy seed bead in the past and Miyuki seed beads has this wonderful deep navy color now.

Between these earrings and someone posting a selfie on social media wearing an older earring design I've been inspired to get into my jewelry pieces again. I have some fun new bead colors that are calling to me now that the weather is turning warm and bright with our gardens.

My First Toe-up Socks, Maybe My Last

Sock knitting. I've recently decided to make the switch to smaller needles (1's) which made my tight cast-on even more problematic.  I spent a lot of time talking to my friends Jenn and Sarah about different ways to get my cast-on looser, I've watched "stretchy" cast-on YouTube videos....nothing seems to be helping. Everything I stitch is so darn tight. 

I noticed that when I cast-off it tends to be a little looser or at least a little stretchier, so, I decided at 20 pairs of socks it was time to learn how to knit socks from the toe-up rather than from the top down. I found knitting from the toe-up to be very different, maybe even awkward. I completely understand the  reasons why some prefer it... but... it didn't help my problem. Moving down to size 1 needles is really the issue here (beyond my tight knitting). I also, finally, have the hang of knitting socks from the top-down, 20 pairs of practice will do that.  I can change, but this is a relaxation-thing so I don't really want to change how I'm knitting socks.  I keep socks as small, portable projects to keep my hands busy during meetings, to find some calm on my lunch break and while I find a little down-time while waiting in a line. I dream of one day having a sock drawer full of hand-knit socks for myself and Bryan. 

Now I can at least say that I've tried it and compared top-down to toe-up sock knitting. I will also mention that the difference between the slipped stitch heel vs picking up the stitch heel is very noticeable to me and I prefer the look of the heel shaping on my top-downs.  

As for my too-tight-cast-on issue, I decided to cast-on with my #2 needles and knit 1 round, then switch to the #1's.  I think this is going to work for me, I'm well into my 22nd pair of socks (to go with a pair of leather platform Converse for this summer). 

I keep saying no more projects but I may have started sampling for another crop-top. Apparently I'm thinking ahead to summer concerts and honeymoon/RiotFest outfits.

#MyBeadingYear How it's Going

At the beginning of this year I made sure to talk about how I try to make very loose plans and goals because I'm so hard on myself when I don't finish things "in time" or "fast enough" so I only hoped to get my current weaving off the loom this year, maybe finished. 

How's that going? 

I stitch a little on the beaded netting which will be the weaving's edge (this portion of the project sits in a 9mm case by the couch for evenings in front of the TV). I haven't been weaving a whole lot since it's been getting nice enough to work outside but I did notice that I'm just past half-way on "Is There a Thing to Which Brings Us Less Joy Yet We Devote More Time."  I've been feeling like I may be playing "yarn chicken" but at the end I'm sure I'll have enough rayon in the colors I had dyed.  Trying to match a dye years later never really works and I designed this so that the "Wi-Fi" pick-up design is repeated on the beginning and ending of the piece.

I'm also beading some ideas for wedding stuff. Lets face it, wedding planning if going to be the big part of my summer which will force me to finish the garage, reroof the shed, cleanup and add-to the door fence and get our gardens under control. My beading has turned to jewelry with spikes and leopard print for bridesmaid ideas; fishnet is also becoming more prominent in my styling process.

I am falling madly in love with the spikes that Swarovski offers. The bangles and dress details are really giving me that dressy-punk look that we're looking for.

So wish me luck on playing yarn chicken this year and getting all the beading done for our upcoming nuptials!

Pink Blend Fishnet Bangle and Earrings

When I finished the first "fishnet" bangle (the "Stained Glass" look one) I felt like it wasn't what I was going for. So I decided to create one with just the pink blend of seed beads.  I like this one a lot better thus I made earrings to match.  

The earring ideas took all different shapes but as I tried different layouts nothing was working.  On the day before Capital City Film Fest's Red Carpet event I created a larger diamond to be the bottom drop for the earrings I ended up finishing and liking. 

I also made a pair of small diamond earrings in the red blend, just so the original bangle design had another color option to go with it. 

As I was getting ready to go to the event I liked both bangles with my outfit so I said screw it, I'm wearing both. Too much? There are never too many beads or bangles for me. Of course, they didn't end up in any photos, but that's how it goes.  :)

Valeta and I back at it at CCFF Red Carpet

Earring detail after I got home