I really enjoy starting projects. It may be a new design or just a simple change of beads or shapes that gets my juices flowing, but I hardly want to stop once I begin the work. Then, there’s finishing. Yuk! The expression on Grandson Gabriel’s face says it all. 
I DO NOT like to finish the pieces. If I had a factory, someone else would put the clasps, chains and earring findings on my work. Alas, that isn’t going to happen. But there does come a time when you just have to give in and get it done. That has happened twice this week. My client in Maine ordered a number of things several weeks ago and said, “no hurry; I won’t need them for about a month.” I happily began work on the pieces, laying each aside before adding the final touches. Last week, I suddenly realized that the “month” was almost over and I’d better get moving. There they lay . . . all 17 pieces had to be finished. Now, as you can imagine, if one doesn’t enjoy finishing just one piece, finishing 17 is not very invigorating. You’d think I would learn, wouldn’t you? Wrong! Tonight I’ve just finished 9 pair of earrings, five necklaces and a bracelet for tomorrow. All of these were previously designed and made without clasps and earring findings. (The one shown here is my first attempt at wire work with sterling silver. My technique needs help, but I’m pushing ahead. 
) This reminds me of when my children wouldn’t finish their term papers until the night before they were due . . . or was it that they didn’t START their term papers until the night before they were due? At any rate, I must endeavor to correct the error of my ways. I actually think that finishing so many projects all at once is enough punishment that I may remember to do better in the future. Or . . . Not.
Category Archives: Pendants
Medford is Coming
I grew up in Medford, Oklahoma near the border of Kansas. When my family purchased our first home, my Daddy planted a redbud tree just outside my bedroom window. The winter was really cold in Medford, but the first harbinger of Spring was the blooming of my redbud tree. Upon moving into our current ranch house, my husband planted the redbud tree pictured at the left just outside our den window. Although I’ll take the South Texas winters hands down over the Northern Oklahoma winters, I’ll keep the redbud tree as my sign that Spring is coming. When that tree blooms it still says “Medford” to me.
In honor of the beautiful color of the tree, I made two necklaces. While neither can truly capture nature, they were a pleasure to make as I thought about days long past.
Color Success
The picture shows the pendants, mentioned in the last blog entry, for which I was making strands. I regret the picture cannot show the beauty of the pendants and the vivid colors. The strands from left to right are pearls, peridot chips, African opals and smoky quartz. Although you cannot see clearly, each pendant has some peridot in it and each is removable for placing on an alternative strand or silver chain. The extra peridot chip strand can be used with any of the pendants or various strands can be put together for a multistrand look. These pieces will be available at Dovetails of Wimberley.
Bead Embroidery Plus
The plus in the title stands for leather and wire. As you can see in the photos, I’m experimenting with combinations. Initially, I constructed five wire hearts and connected them with finer gauge wire. I used seed embroidery to attach the hearts to leather backed with Lacy’s Stiff Stuff. 
Then I sandwiched a shaped piece of metal between this top layer and a base layer of Ultrasuede before stitching on the edge to hold the pieces together. The pendant on the right is just over 2 inches in diameter with copper wire hearts. The one below is a bit smaller with brown artistic wire hearts.
Can You Fly?
It’s not a secret. I love my Blue Heelers and although the puppies shown in the picture
are gone, I still enjoy walking or playing ball with the older girls each afternoon. Today I was particularly taken by Frosty’s “never give up” attitude. She’s the dog on the far left of the picture. Even as an adult dog, she still believes that she can fly. When a large bird, usually a buzzard, looms over head, Frosty chases across the ground in an effort to reach it. Today, as the bird flew completely across the yard, Frosty ran as fast as she possibly could and I had to move out of the way to keep from being run over. At the end of each of these bird runs, she leaps high in the air in a last supreme effort to grasp the bird. I keep telling her that these efforts are foolish, but she just doesn’t get it. I can easily say that my wire working is a bit like Frosty’s bird chasing. I’ve been struggling with it for months now, working flat out until my hands ache in an effort to improve. Yet, like Frosty, I never can quite catch that perfect technique. 
Often, upon completion of a wirework piece, I sigh and admit that it is terrible, but like Frosty, the next time an idea arrives, I delve into it again. Shall I persevere like Frosty and keep working at this technique? The piece I did last night seems more pleasing than most have been. It does give considerable satisfaction to be moving closer to the mark, but will I ever FLY? If I keep watching my dog, rereading that children’s book, The Little Engine that Could, and continue repeating “I think I can, I think I can,” then I believe there is hope! Perhaps we can all FLY! (Thanks Frosty)
Matching Colors
Isn’t it great when you can get expert help with matching the right beads to purchased or handmade pendants? Yesterday, I took a handful of pendants to Szarka (http://www.magpiegemstones.com/home.html) and she and her family helped me get just the right combinations. They worked diligently as though they were the ones trying to create each piece. Then they charged me a fair price for the stones and off I went. I’ve been happily beading ever since (except for the time spent on ranch work). Dovetails of Wimberley purchased the Zuni bear pendant at market and requested a strand for it. You can find it along with the double strand Nacozari turquoise necklace I made for it at the store where you can also locate many of my other pieces. 
I like the amber in the strand with the cabachon in the right picture and feel it helps bring out the matrix of the stone. Although I used Amber from my stored accumulation of beads, it was Szarka’s suggestion that led me to this color. Hurray for excellent customer service!
Oil
The sewing machine quit! I’ll admit that it has endured quit a workout making baby blankets, bibs, burp rags, etc. for Gabriel, our new grandchild. Yet, how could it fail me when I most need it? Yes, I realize that I haven’t oiled it in a year, but I needed it to work now! Of course, locating the sewing machine oil was another entire adventure in itself, but finally I secured it from the store (in the hundred years since I’ve purchased any, it now comes in a little tube rather than the trusty oil can) Following a thorough cleaning and oiling, that old girl hummed like a professional.
This episode made me wonder what “oil” a creative spirit might need. There certainly are times when I feel a bit “dried up” myself, but what makes me hum? While ideas usually abound, stress can certainly take its toil and there must be something that can be done to improve things. Occasionally, it is an hour of exploration in the magazine or book section at the local book store or library. Other times, the oil has been derived from a trip to Nordstroms to investigate color combinations in the clothing. A fabric store serves the same purpose.
What about using music? When I have pieces waiting for completion, clasps, buttons, etc. I use music by composer Pachebel and other baroque/classic composers which keep me working. It is sequential and repetitious in motif. But what about music for creativity? I’m still working on that one. I think that is less predictable than the aforementioned. At times creative oil comes from sheer silence while at other times, emotional vocals bring it. I’d be interested in knowing what works for other people.
Lastly, we deserve to be oiled from time to time! I used to and sometimes still do feel selfish to take the time to refuel. We’re all busy and since one of my ranch employees just resigned, things are unusually so here at Dreamcatcher. Yet, as I listen to Sugarland who is singing “. . . I promise I’m worth it . . . “, I realize, so am I!
The tree piece below is my symbol for oiling that creative spirit and letting it flourish and grow. 
Hidden Metal Technique
The pendant shown in the last post required the use of hidden metal for stabilization. While this may be a common technique, I’ve not previously read about it; yet it makes sense. I’ve worried about the use of small cabochons in bead embroidery since the surface area for gluing them is so small. Speculating that more stabilization behind them might help this problem, I’ve been adding a piece of sheet copper or brass behind these pendants between the embroidered top and the Ultra suede bottom. This is likened to the way embroidered cuffs on metal blanks come together. The metal piece for each pendant is the same shape, but slightly smaller that the embroidery work. I’ve been experimenting with this since last July and thus far the technique has been successful. It has helped the pendants remain crisply shaped. My thought is that the more a piece bends, the more likely the cabs to come undone. Other posts with pictures of designs using this technique are dated January 14, 2009, December 26, 2008 and December 28, 2008. There are, of course, other ways to stabilize a piece including adding extra layers of Lacy’s Stiff Stuff, but I’ve found the metal approach quite satisfactory without significantly adding extra thickness.
A new challenge is to incorporate this technique in a manner that tastefully exposes part of the sheet metal with the bead embroidery. That potentially yummy recipe sits simmering on a back burner but is rapidly approaching a boil. We’ll see if anything cooks up.
Nature’s Color Challenge
Reading about what inspires an artist often helps us understand the power of nature in its presentation of color, form and texture. Many artists comment that their ideas come from nature. I believe that particularly bead embroidery artists who focus on authentic replication through the medium draw upon nature. The piece shown today reflects the harsh colors of the current Texas drought which has produced our brown landscape. 
The green in the middle is akin to the few sprigs of healthy grass that sprout where the land has been watered through irrigation. (There are a mere few because the deer eat all of the rest!)
Using your imagination, you may be able to see how the lower picture provides further description of the dry land. It also captures an unusual ranch event I want to share. We raise registered Black Angus cows and one of our important donors had a difficult labor requiring that the calf be pulled. While this is not so strange for a first calf heifer, what followed is highly unusual. After delivering the bull calf, it was apparent that something more was eminent. Fearing the worst, a prolapse, the men tried to stop the outward movement of the protrusion. Thankfully, the yet to be delivered little heifer twin wouldn’t be dismayed by this and wiggled her head as if to say “get me out of here!” 
Twins are extremely unusual and we’ve only had one other set in the past 10 years. Following a visit from the vet and stitches for the new mom, we’re hoping for progress. I’m only slightly embarrassed to say that while I held the cow’s tail and watched our skilled vet stitch her, I could only think about how great it would be to use his knotting technique with my beading. (Perhaps, I’ve fallen overboard!) By the way, the twins have been bottle fed and will be again every three hours while the Mom decides which calf she will take.
Ideas and inspiration come from the most unusual circumstances and I believe that nature will speak to us if we’re prepared to listen. I wonder if nature is telling me to design in multiples of two for a bit . . . ?
No Hammer Required
It appears that most of my recent posts have shown products that required some hammering. Not wanting to seem in a rut, I used a needle and fishing line (Fireline) to secure the beads for the pendant I just completed. 
I enjoy doing bead embroidery, but haven’t found that the cuff bracelets commonly made with this technique sell as quickly as I would like; therefore, I’m using the technique to make more pendants than bracelets. A photo of a cross pendant completed with bead embroidery was in an earlier post. I tried to think Spring in choosing the colors for this pendant. Although it’s difficult to tell in this picture, the light colored beads are yellow which is supposed to be the “hot” color for Spring and Summer. I used cobalt blue seed beads around the turquoise cabs and a white pearl for the center. This piece is backed with green ultra suede and I put a piece of copper sheeting between the pendant layers so it wouldn’t bend. I may use dark blue and yellow in the neck strand before marketing this piece.