The Big Cellini Reveal!

I thought this day would never get here! I have a nice, clean workbench for the first time in over 6 weeks, with NO little piles of seed beads anywhere, plus a finished necklace!

This shows more detail of the complicated freeform peyote stitching I designed to connect the 2 Cellini tubes across the middle of the necklace, while suspending the stunning lampwork focal. There are freshwater pearls, mother-of-pearl beads, and Czech fire polish beads woven in there, in addition to the seed beads. A Bali style sterling silver elbow tube supports the focal.

For those of you new to this project, if you want to read the various steps this necklace went through in its design evolution, here they are:

The beginning: let's make a simple Cellini spiral necklace, using a mixture of metallic-colored seed beads.
Oh, crap: The Cellini spiral is too rigid to bend into a necklace. Now what?
The decision: I'll make 2 Cellini tubes, and somehow connect them into a necklace. And look! I found a matching focal bead! But I have to cap the tubes, somehow...
The freeform connection: Will it work?
Beyond the Cellini tubes: How do I finish this necklace in the back?
Holy Cow: this necklace needs a matching clasp!


And finally, it's available in my Etsy shop. And I must say, it truly is stunning!

When amateur just won't do

I'm still working on the Cellini Spiral Project, with the potential for finishing today, if nothing interrupts me. Which means, the big reveal could be tomorrow. If nothing interrupts me.

OK, that was freaky. As I was typing the second "interrupts" in that last paragraph, the phone rang. Telemarketer. Stupid interruptions!

Anyway, I finished the peyote button yesterday evening, and am planning to stitch the second skinny spiral today, and "wallah*!" I might actually finish!

But in my continued efforts to make a blog post everyday, please enjoy this:

I am still busy gathering all the tools and supplies I need to do my own torch-fired enameling. I have almost everything I need, and what I don't yet have, has been ordered and paid for, and I'm just waiting for the FedEx guy, or the UPS lady, to bring. I hate waiting! Plus, we have our first torch-fired enamel studio day set for April 15, so time's a-wastin'!

One of the supplies you need to torch fire enameled beads is vermiculite, and rather than rush to Lowe's and buy some, I hazarded a trip into the depths of my garage, and found this open, half-a-bag of Professional Vermiculite. Complete with spider webs and dead bugs belly-up covering the top layer! But thank goodness it is Professional, because I'll need all the help I can get when I start firing up the torch! Now if I could just find someone to get all those dead bugs out of there....



*Yes, I know it's "voila." But interestingly, "wallah" does not trigger the spell check, so it must be correct, too. As if its prevalent usage on Etsy didn't prove it was correct....

Wednesday Worktable

I feel like I have been working on this Cellini Spiral project forever - I really want to be done, now.

Sometimes I feel like my pieces are the beading equivalent of tsunamis; they start of small and simple, and then, through no fault of my own, they build up steam and intensity and turn into these weeks-long statement pieces. I always love the results, but I still can't quite figure out why this keeps happening!

This Celllini project started as a simple Cellini spiral tube necklace. But it was too stiff to bend, so I had to turn it into something else. This was the beginning of the tsunami.

Then I decided to add a beautiful lampwork focal bead to the mix, and the wave started to build. How to connect the Cellini tubes to the focal? How to cap the ends of the Cellini tubes? How to finish the back of the necklace?

And, as with all my "project" pieces, I solve one problem, and believe I see the light at the end of the tunnel, and am nearly done! That's how I felt last week, when I started to add the skinny spirals to the back of the necklace. I'm almost done, right?

Or not. Because as I was stitching the first skinny spiral, I started thinking about the clasp. What to use as a clasp? No ordinary clasp would do! Plus, I didn't really have anything available that was a good match, metal-wise.

So, I guess I have to stitch a clasp. Feel that tsunami building, again? I knew I could stitch a toggle and bar, using the same seed beads as in the spirals, and obviously it would match. But I developed a bad case of "been there, done that" last Friday, so I decided I needed to do something new. And the wave is getting bigger! Where is the light at the end of my tunnel, now? See how this is through absolutely no fault of my own? The project is "speaking to me." What? You can't hear it? Am I the only one hearing voices coming from the beads....?!?

I decided to see if I could bead around a plain old ordinary button - I started stitching (freeform circular peyote) on Friday, stitched all day Saturday, and only managed to get the top of the button done. Then I took a break Sunday and Monday, and worked on something different. I started in on the button again yesterday, and haven't quite gotten the sides done. (In my defense, I had some repairs and some ordering to do yesterday, too).

So today I hope to finish the button - I am decreasing hard, trying to cinch up the beads and get a good tight cover on this button!

This is the top of the button - it is a little off center, and very loose because I haven't managed to stitch over the sides fully, yet.

Here is the side view:

Still a couple of rows away from getting over the side and around to the back of the button.

And then there is the next issue - do I make a simple seed bead loop to go over this button, or something else? Simple just doesn't seem to be in my vocabulary anymore! LOL!

Wednesday Worktable

It's Cellini Spiral, still.

When last we visited my Cellini spiral, I had just started connecting the 2 Cellini spiral tubes across the center of the necklace, where I was hanging a gorgeous lampwork focal bead that, IMO, goes perfectly with the spiral:

I have continued to work on this piece on-and-off, between the Florida Road Trip for the Torch Fired Enamel Workshop; doing repairs at the shop; and normal shop duties like taxes, housekeeping, blogging, etc.
Sometime last week I finally finished the center connection to my satisfaction, and I am saving it to show you when I finish the entire necklace.

Once I finished the center, I had a new dilemma - how to create a flexible finish for this necklace? The Cellini tubes are quite stiff, and I experimented with chain, bead stringing, and sari ribbon, but nothing was really right. I decided to try a different beadweaving stitch, and then needed to figure out which one was most compatible, and how to integrate whichever stitch I chose into the Cellini tubes, with their gaping holes!

I ultimately settled on a basic spiral rope, with size 11 seed beads as the core, so that the spiral is "skinny." I wanted it to fit inside the Celllini spiral at the end, and I attached my new skinny spiral to a few beads, sank it inside the Cellini spiral, and then decreased the Cellini spiral until it closed over the new spiral, locking it in place. I chose galvanized silver 11 Delicas for the decrease, because they were the predominant bead in the Cellini spiral, and it seemed like the thing to do. At the time.

Unfortunately, I didn't have any bead caps that were the right size and shape to go over the Cellini spiral, to make the change between stitches attractive and functional. I knew that this transition between the Cellini spiral and the basic spiral was not going to be pretty, but the bright shiny silver Delicas really call attention to it. But I don't believe that any bead I had decreased with would have made a seamless transition. 

So my next mission was to figure out a way to cover up the decrease. Since beadcaps had been ruled out, I thought back to the little freeform peyote ruffled skirts that I had created at the other end of the Cellini spirals (see first picture, above) and decided to replicate them at the decrease end, as a way to cover the decrease.

I worked on these skirts all day yesterday, and by the time I had finished stitching, my planned ruffled skirts had turned into big old Elizabethan collars, but I'm OK with them. (Perhaps because I'm itching to move on to a new project?!?)

Here are several pictures of them, from different angles - it was hard to capture the essence of what I am doing here.

That small tube extending to the left is the start of the "skinny" spiral.

So, I am teaching a beadweaving class right now - taking a break here and there to type this entry - and once the class is over, I will start stitching the spiral ropes. Hope (*crossed fingers*) to finish them today, since they go pretty quickly. Then I want to stitch a toggle and bar, connect them, and be done - and when I finally finish, I will reveal the finished necklace here!

Cellini project update

Sorry, this is a horrible picture because of the lighting at my workbench, but this is the progress I made yesterday connecting the 2 Cellini spiral tubes. The lampwork focal will hang from the Bali silver elbow tube, but I disconnected it so I could manipulate the beadwork more easily (and it still isn't really easy to manipulate - I have about 20 different pieces of FireLine worked in there, and they are all serving a purpose, so I keep getting tangled!

I hope I can work on this some today, before I lose momentum, but I have a lot of do-over jewelry to tackle today!

My Beady Dilemma

I recently rediscovered Cellini spiral, a stitch I hadn't done in about 5 years. I started this particular Cellini over a month ago, and (of course) worked on it a little, then put it aside as other projects beckoned.

The last time I worked with Cellini spiral, I used S-lon thread (size D) and smaller beads, and I was a brand new beader (the Cellini spiral was the first time I ever touched beads - even before I learned stringing!).

I returned to my new Cellini spiral last week. I used Fireline this time, and also threw some 4mm Czech firepolish beads into the mix, and my stitching tension tends to be very, very tight, and this combination of variables meshed to make this particular Cellini spiral almost completely inflexible. At first, I thought if I just made it a little longer, it would start to flex. And once it got to be 3 inches longer, it did actually bend a little, with extreme pressure applied to both ends. It will certainly never be a bracelet! And by the way, this idea that continuing to make something longer will eventually make it all better, never works. NEVER! And yet, I'm sure I'll try it again, and again....

So then I had a 3 inch long beautiful tube, but what to do with it?

I decided to use it as a component of a strung necklace, so I stitched up a matching 3-inch long Cellini tube to go on the other side of this theoretical necklace, but now I have to figure out what to do with the ends of the tube, which are (as I see them) huge gaping holes:

None of the many beads or bead caps I have at my disposal will completely cover the ends of this tube.

I absolutely love the colors and patterns I created here, and have several ideas of ways to cap it. I could stitch bead caps, or I could fabricate some bead caps from bronze or copper. But I have the germ of another idea planted in my creative subconscious, and I'm going to try to flesh that out, first.

This project will probably end up on the workbench for tomorrow, because today is set aside for doing the monthly sales tax report and catching up on all the do-over jewelry (repairs) I have let accumulate in my work basket since last Friday. I think folks are spring-cleaning, and bringing in all their broken jewelry for a little sprucing up!

Wednesday Worktable

Today I am working on 2 beadweaving projects I started at home on Monday.

One is a Cellini spiral, with galvanized gold, silver, and bronze beads, and some gorgeous metallic Czech firepolish beads. It is meant to be a necklace when it grows up, but only time will tell.

The second project is a geometric peyote bracelet, which you may recognize as having the same design as this (former) bracelet. This time around there will be no issues with insufficient contrast in the bead colors!

I seem to be having some creative ADD lately - these are just 2 of the projects I am actively working on right now. I want to have my hands in everything, and keep starting projects, then moving on to something else. But as long as I finish a few of them here and there, I'm OK! Right?