Herringbone beading

 

I'm starting to feel like an expert at making herringbone tubes. After the big multi-link necklace I made, I wanted to see how it looked as one long single necklace. This is a choker I made for my friend Lisa for her birthday. It was made with size 15 seed beads. The color was easy to pick because she looks great in it. I struggled a little with the button, but this one is perfect. Hint: yarn stores are a great place to find pretty buttons. This is a glass reproduction of an antique button. I found it at Flying Fingers in Tarrytown, NY.

Herringbone stitch is also called Ndebele. The Ndebele people live in South Africa and are well-known for their elaborately painted houses. They also produce large pieces of beadwork including capes and aprons. Their work is amazing, and the patterns on the painted houses are often duplicated in their beadwork.

I found a pattern and tutorial for a herringbone tube, but it uses six beads around. My tubes are only four beads around. I had the pleasure of learning this stitch in a class with a great instructor. It should be easier to learn with six, so please give it a try. You will love the flexibility of the tube and the feel on your skin. After you master this stitch, you will find all sorts of ways to use it. Feel free to comment and ask any questions.

Another Big Project

This took a while to do and boy, do I feel a sense of accomplishment. This is one of those beading projects I worked on everywhere — at my desk, at Coffee Labs, in Union Square Park, in Bryant Park, on the porch, and at work. The inspiration to do this necklace comes from one of my favorite people on the planet. She just accomplished a big goal and I wanted to join in for the celebration. I'm guesstimating it took me about 50 hours to do, including my trouble with the clasp. I had to do that loop four times to get it right. I'm just not good with physics sometimes.

The necklace is called "What Goes Around" and the kit came from my favorite bead teacher Carole Horn. I loved the design and colors so I had to buy it. It waited until someone inspired me. I never make things for myself. I have this strange philosophy about my craft projects. I feel it is selfish of me keep anything for myself. If I keep it it's usually because I'm not excited about how it came out. Sometimes I'm not even sure where a project is going when I start but I figure it out along the way.

 

Big Dreams to Catch

 

This dreamcatcher is for my newest little friend. She is a big four months old and I just met her face to face this week. For her I made my first "Big Dreams" catcher. Usually I make three-inch-wide dreamcatchers but this one was five inches. The purple skin is actually ultra-suede in my favorite color. The seashells dangling from the bottom are a call back to her island roots, and the spider is a juniper berry, believed by the Navajo (Diné) to ensure tranquility and keep evil spirits away from the owner.

For her mom's birthday (My Knitting Friend)I gave her my first coptic-stitched book.

 

The binding looks like a knit stitch so I thought it would be perfect for her. I was very proud when she told me she would use it for a baby-milestones notebook.

No wonder I never get enough crafting done to actually sell the stuff. I just love giving my work as gifts because people always seem so happy to receive it. Tomorrow I get to do it again with one of my biggest beading projects ever. Can't wait to see the look on her face! I'll keep you posted soon.

Death of Bunny Munro

The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I'm a huge fan of Nick Cave's music and I loved his first book. This was very different from "And The Ass Saw The Angel" in many ways. Hell, I would hope so. The first one came out in 1989. I like my books dark and I don't always need likable characters, this book had both. No review from me, nope. All I can say is I really liked it but I can't think of a single person I could recommend it to. Can't wait for the movie. I hear they are talking to Daniel Craig. That would be a kick in the pants.

View all my reviews >>

Book-Making Again

 

I have big plans to make books to sell for the upcoming holiday season. (No, really. If you work retail, it's right around the corner. The same goes for all you crafters out there. If you're serious about kickin it handmade this Christmas, you better get started soon.) The book pictured above was a gift for a special young woman on a very important day. The technique was taught to me by Kelly Kilmer and I love it. Instead of a board spine, it's layers of book-binding tape. This makes it nice and flexible, and it's easy to sew in the signatures. Most of the time I like to bead the stitching, but that makes some journals hard to write in. I'm going to experiment with different covers and pages. We'll see how arty I can get before people refuse to write in them. The progress will be posted here.

Beaded beads

Here is my first adventure in beaded beads. I have been wanting to learn this for a while, so I picked up a kit from my favorite instructor, Carole Horn. It is called a Pinwheel Bead, but I appreciate its UFO-like qualities. No, I'm not going to tell you how to do it but you can get a kit from Carole. You will need to know herringbone stitch for this pattern. The ones you see here were made for my friend Sarah for her birthday. Without telling her what I was making, I asked her for a color and she said orange. I love oranges, too, so I was able to do this without going bead shopping. The first couple I did took almost three hours each but it got quicker as I worked. The only trouble I found was that if I did a bead all in matte seed beads, it was impossible to keep proper tension and I ended up with a mushy bead.

It was so much fun that I picked up a copy of The Art of Beaded Beads: Exploring Design, Color & Technique from Lark Books. Carole has another bead in this book. I like the books lay-out and designs. I would recommend it to any beader who wants to make beaded beads. Happy Beading!

 

Westchester wine berries

 
I picked a few wine berries this week. They look like raspberries, don't they? They are an Asian relative of raspberries, and they taste great. You can use them in the same recipes as regular raspberries, and they grow wild in the northeastern part of the US. The forest service considers them an invasive species, so do your part and eat as many as you can. If we eat them the seeds won't get spread around.

If you know how to pick raspberries, then you're halfway there. The plant is very easy to identify. If you need some help, I would be happy to go picking with you. I'm thinking of making freezer jam out of them, but it's hard to pick enough in one trip along the trail.

When I get them home I wash them and spread them out on cookie sheets covered in wax paper or parchment. Then they go into the freezer for a couple of hours. When they are frozen solid, just dump them into a freezer bag so you don't end up with a frozen berry chunk. The loose frozen berries can be baked into muffins, sprinkled on ice cream, or anything else you do with berries. Right now is the peak season for picking them in the Westchester area, so don't wait — or the birds and runners will eat them all!