Tangle Tuesday, and a bead show

We almost didn't have a Tangle Tuesday this week .... stay tuned for details (below). But I knew how you guys LIVE for seeing my weekly tangles, so I just had to come through for you :)

To begin with, I used something I call an "amoeboid string." It meanders around with lots of enfolding loops, similar to the pseudopodia on an amoeba. I really like the way it turned out!

Some of the tangles I used here include:

• static
• corn rows
• zewm
• waves
• warped eggs
• Hollibaugh
• aura

Last week was crazy - I was out sick Tuesday and Wednesday (sorry beaders - bead shop closed) with a killer 3-day migraine - I had it Monday, too - on my day off :(

It was one of those bad, bad headaches where it hurts too bad to sleep, and you can't concentrate. Can't watch TV, can't read, can't work on the computer. And SO much nausea. You just kinda want to die after a day or so ... much less, 3 days.

Then a crazy busy day Thursday at the bead shop, and then the bead shop was closed (again) so we could road trip to the big Franklin Gem and Mineral (BEAD!!!) show - where more craziness ensued.

It was interesting to see all the new beads, and what beads are trendy: the big thing was gemstone rounds with a "belt" of pave rhinestones set around the widest part of their circumference. These were absolutely everywhere, in every color imaginable. I finally asked one of the vendors what they were called, since I haven't even seen these in the beading magazines. He said "agate." (In my head, I said, "thanks, Sherlock") - I'm sure these trendy paved beads have a name, but you won't learn it from me! (I just searched Google, and can't even find a pic of them.) I actually thought they were the next closest thing to tacky, and didn't buy any of them. Not a single strand (which means they'll be on the front page of Bead & Button next month, and 250 people will be asking for them before the month is over.) But I got hundreds, and hundreds, and thousands, of other cool beads, focals, and findings! I'll have to take some pics and post them here!

I spent all day Saturday and Sunday restringing and pricing them, and will now be spending however long it takes to get representative samples of ALL of them put out in the shop.

So that is why we almost didn't have a tangle today - I seriously did not think I would finish on Sunday, and would be at it all day yesterday (Monday, which is my tangling day). But I was on a streak, and my DVR was storing Once Upon a Time, Revenge (2 hours!), Mad Men, and some other stuff WHILE I was watching Celebrity Apprentice (Go, Penn!) - so I just kept watching recorded stuff while stringing and pricing, and before I new it, I was on the last show (Mad Men), I priced the last strand, with 15 minutes of Mad Men left to watch - and it was 4:30AM.

Finished Mad Men (wherein Don Draper is more of a shit than EVER before), went to bed, slept very late, and finally got up. And tangled!

Have a great week - enjoy the tangle, as there most definitely won't be one NEXT Tuesday, because I am teaching a 3-day Cold Connections workshop this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Crazy!

Wednesday Worktable

It's Bead Soup Wednesday today; I'm making progress towards my Bead Soup reveal at the end of the month - yay! These are some of the beads I'm working with today:

You'll have to come back on August 25 to see what I do with these lovelies!

The matching earrings...

I also made some matching earrings for my BSBP ensemble, to go with my new bracelet.

These earrings are made with faceted aventurine and Vintaj Natural Brass findings.

Sometimes it takes me awhile to get a project completed, since something always seems to be interfering with my jewelry designing - but I eventually get there!

Something new

One of my William Holland teachers showed me how to bead crochet (rope crochet) last summer when I was up there taking a totally different class. This particular teacher is a good friend (she is nice enough to put up (and put up with) Bailey and me whenever I go up there for school, and she teaches Beadweaving, Wire Wrapping, and Cold Connections. I was up there that week taking something else entirely, but she met with me one evening in the dining room and taught me how to bead crochet.




And after that night, I didn't pick it up again until about a week ago, and it is now my new current addiction.

This is the first bead crochet project that I actually did myself from start to finish, and I think it is pretty cool.'

When I get a little more adept at it, I may start teaching it in my bead shop.

How NOT to make Bead Soup

Bead Soup - it's a great thing - there's a lot of fun things you can do with bead soup.

You know what bead soup is, right? - It's all those leftover beads, different sizes, shapes, colors; leftover from previous projects, waiting to make themselves useful in some way.

Beadweavers, especially, have a unique type of bead soup, because it tends to be chock full of those teeny-tiny little beads - you know, the 11s, the 15's, the delicas, the Charlottes.

And people manage their bead soup in different ways - some just dump it all into a big tub, or bag, and use it randomly.

I, with my advanced OCD (that's AOCD, to you lay folk), have to organize my bead soup - both by color, and by size.

So I had (HAD) about 10 little tubs, each separated compulsively by color, made up of the beads generally smaller than 4 mm.

And about 10 large tubs, again separated by color, containing all those extra beads over 4-6 mm.

This was working SO well for me, until about 11:45 this morning.


When the shelf, in my BRAND NEW cabinet, where I had carefully,. compulsively stowed these tubs, decided to collapse while I had the cabinet open -

And this is the result.

Thousands, and thousands, and thousands, and thousands of beads, spilled all over my back room.

And quite a few naughty words shrieked when those beads dumped on my feet.

It took about an hour to scoop all these up - we used a dustpan, and just dumped them into a big box, and I'll undoubtedly be bringing that box home with me tomorrow night to sort, because it is driving me insane that they are now comingling.

I WOULD have brought them home tonight, except that tonight I have to do the monthly sales tax report AND price out all the new beads I bought yesterday from the traveling bead vendor.

What a fantastic way to spend Valentine's Day!



This is a nice shot of the gorgeous sun-catcher/ornaments that are displayed on the door to my shop - they are all made by the extremely talented Mike, of GimmeBeads.

Here's a set they have displayed in their Etsy shop.

Nice, nice work -

Happy Valentine's Day - I hope you are having more fun than I am!

Before and After

In my shop, there was a mannequin, who very helpfully displayed various necklaces. We would change her shirt with the seasons, and match her jewels accordingly.

But I got tired of looking at her, and decided to make a change last week.

Hobby Lobby, one of my favorite places, put all their floral stems and other flower-arranging stuff on sale @ 50% off last week, and I decided to put together this flower arrangement. It turned out to be much bigger than I had anticipated when I was buying all the stems, and when I looked for a place to display it in the store, the perfect spot was where Ms. Mannequin had been, so I decided she just had to go. I put my flowers there on a cute little table. I put a beautiful art glass fountain below it, and now I have the peaceful sound of trickling water all day.

And if you look closely, you can see my gold spiral necklace on the black wicker bust display.

I love the new look!

Yesterday's Wire-Wrap Class

So, we had a great, great wire-wrapping class at my bead shop yesterday.

The class was supposed to be an earring class, and this was the

first pair we made:

This is my pair - it's a mixture of sterling silver and gold fill - the circle is silver, the curved dangles are gold, and the beaded dangle has a mixture of gold and silver beads.

This is the pair made by another student - she also mixed sterling and gold-fill, but she twisted the sterling for her circle, which looks great!

This is a really versatile pattern, and a lot of fun, and pretty easy, so I look forward to having some free time (HA!) and making a few more pairs.

This is a bracelet I made in one of our wire-wrapping classes last fall. I love this bracelet - it is also a mixture of sterling and gold-fill. I love it's simplicity, and it is so comfortable, and I wear it almost everyday.

So, we (I) decided that the second pair of earrings we would feature in yesterday's class would be a pair to match this bracelet.

This is how they looked early on in the process.

And this is my finished pair.

Perfect match for my bracelet!

And because I have such a fabulous wire-wrapping teacher (thanks, Daniel!) I had convinced and cajoled him into also teaching the matching ring yesterday, so this is my finished ring:

None of my projects from yesterday have been tumbled yet, so they will look even better once I tumble them tomorrow.

I don't know why I continue to be amazed that all these things look so great and match so well - that's the whole point of the classes, after all... but I'm still so thrilled and surprised when my new projects turn out.

And I am grateful that I have found such a talented and patient wire-wrapping teacher for the shop - everyone always learns a lot, and has a great time, and is so thrilled with their projects!

It is actually supposed to, maybe, snow here tonight.

60% chance.

That's about a 61% more chance than usual - the last time it snowed here was about 10 years ago. We actually got 3 inches that time, and it stayed around for a few hours. It just warms up so quickly here in the afternoon, that any snow we ever get, never lasts.

I think it has snowed here twice since I moved here in 1989.

Of course, dogs love the snow, and I wish/hope that there will be some snow when I get up in the morning, so I can go out with Bailey and enjoy it. Instead of getting up at my usual

8:45, I am going to set the alarm for earlier, just in case. Because I have to leave the house by 9:20 to get to the shop in time to open by 10AM.

Why can't it almost maybe snow on my day off - which is today???

I moved away from Indiana because I hated the snow and the cold (and a bunch of other Hoosier-related stuff), but I wouldn't mind one snow day every year or so!

And I have blogged 3 days in a row now, which I think is one of the signs of the Apocalypse, though I could be wrong.

Just a Quickie Tonight

Made you look! Ha!

Here are some shots from the wire-wrapping class we had at my bead shop today.

That's my seat at the far end of the table, with my ab-fab Lindstrom tools, and my coffee cup.

This pic is taken from my end, and that's the teacher down there at the other end - he is just the best! He is so patient with all of us, and so skilled and knowledgeable.

And FYI - he cut his finger last weekend while pruning the shrubbery at his house - NOT while wire-wrapping!

So, we made 3 projects today - 2 different pairs of earrings, and then a ring.

And those will be the subject of my next post.