Nothing like a good book

My husband is gone for the week at a conference in Toronto. Then the next week he and the boys are going to Glacier National Park. I am used to being alone, but not without a good book! I've been to the library, the bookstores, and everything I pick up I put back down. So this morning I was heartened to see that the new Tana French book is in transit to my local library branch. I will not be so alone after all. And if you haven't read Tana French, she has 2 previous novels out, they are fantastic, and you will be happy to be curled up with a good companion.

Gallery Pieces

Four pieces of my jewelry have been sold at the gallery in New York! Wow!

Another kit project

Another kit completed - I hope I previously mentioned that this is my summer project, working on kits. Above is a kit from Fusion Beads, called a Queen's Ransom. I have actually changed a few of the colors, to keep them bright and in my palette.

I have a few pair of earrings to show, but all the photos I take of them are fuzzy, even with the tripod. Any suggestions for getting a clear photo?


I am currently working on a kit that is making me nuts! It's another one I've had for years and I always thought it would be fairly easy to make, although requiring some time. Not so...the directions are terrible, terrible. There are no counts given, so you have to figure out where the decreases in the pattern are from a diagram. You have to make a lot of little leaves, but there is no clue how to do this - do you make them and then attach them? do you make them as you are beading? The leaves are made from delicas and two colors of 15's, but they are all so close in tone that you can hardly separate them. Same goes for the beads around the cabochon, two shades of pink that you can't distinguish between. So I have taken apart sections of the beading and started over several times. It's only because I've been beading so long that I can get a sense of what's supposed to happen, but it only gets clearer after I've made mistakes. Yikes!

Some More Beading Projects

Above is a double Jitterbug bracelet. You can see a single row of the bracelet below. This bracelet was originally a kit from Glass Garden Beads. The bracelet that is diagonally draped over the two bracelets below is the actual kit. I made a couple more bracelets using bright, summery, and colorful beads. I love color!





The heat wave has ended, although it is sticky and humid out. But at least you don't feel like you're swimming through the humidity anymore, and you can breathe easier.

New Beading Photos

It's been a long time, but I do have some new bead projects to show. Above and below are my entry for next year's Beading for a Cure. This is a project that raises money for colorectal cancer. Every participant buys the same kit and we have to use at least one of every bead in the kit, plus we can add one bead. My added bead is the beige pearl. I also added two rivolis for the earrings, but they are not considered a bead, since they do not have a hole in them.




Next is a very fun bracelet, originally based on a kit by Glass Garden Beads. I made a double strand and this bracelet is sparkly!


Another variation of the bracelet, a firepolish and pearl double strand bracelet. I love the subtle colors of this one. You may recognize it as one I made for the gallery.


The lariat, below, is design by Gail Frederickson, one of my favorite local teachers. She taught this at our Guild's local teacher classes. I love the beaded beads!


Finally, a right angle weave bracelet with 3 different colors of firepolish. Turquoise and lime green are among my favorite colors, toned down a bit with the brown seed beads. You saw this bracelet as a work in progress on my beading tray a few entries ago.


I am currently going through kits that I have and making the project in them. So far I have made or completed 3 last week and 2 this week, including the 2-strand bracelets above. Photos to come on the rest of the projects when they are done.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. We are in the midst of a heat wave, hot and humid.

Good weather to stay inside and bead! Stay cool!

Jason's graduation continued....

I always like to have my picture taken with the boys - I suppose no matter how old they are I'll still refer to them that way.
My mother came from Arizona with her husband. They were great sports about the weather, but I think they were very happy to be on the airplane going home this morning. My mother has been to every graduation of her grandsons', including my sister's two boys. Next year she'll have Sam's law school graduation from Michigan State as well. We'll put in an advance order for better weather, mom!

Jason's Graduation

Jason graduated from Michigan State University this past weekend, with a degree in mathematics. Most of the photos we took came out blurred, but here are a few of the happy graduate. Go Green!
Magic Johnson graduated from MSU, and it seems a lot of students like their pictures taken with this statute of him, Jason included. You can see that it was a cloudy day. It was freezing out, rainy, windy, bbbrrrrr. It even hailed at one point! That's May in Michigan for you.

Gallery Pieces

The pieces on top are the ones I have sent to the gallery. I had to balance out the
time/money/value aspect of the pieces with ones I felt I could sell. I know you've seen most of these pieces before, but I added a few different ones to the mix. To see the gallery go to
theartloft.org. You can click on Artists to see some of the other exhibitioners and their work.

The Big Reveal

The Big Reveal winners were announced today in Scarlett Lanson's 4th Use the Muse contest. This is a wonderful contest in which everyone purchases the same kit and then designs an entry based on a special item, the "Big Reveal." Beaders from all over the world participate and it is so much fun to see what wonderful and inspiring pieces are made.

I have participated in the last two contests, but didn't play in this one. I don't know how long Scarlett will keep doing this contest, but I encourage everyone to join if you can. Enjoy!

University of Michigan Commencement

We had the privilege of President Obama giving the commencement address at the University of Michigan today. He gave a wonderful speech in which he encouraged people to be "nicer" to each other, to listen to other points of view, to appreciate the fact that we can have different opinions in a democracy. He said that change doesn't come easily or quickly, but that historically the people of our country have always responded to change that safeguards and protects our well-being.

And then...I look at the blurb on the Internet about his speech, and almost every single one of the 11,000 comments were negative, ugly, anti-Obama, anti-government. People don't want to listen to what other people have to say, the just want to hear themselves talk, and talk ugly.

How disappointing. How sad. I fear for the future of our democracy when people are so disrespectful, so filled with hate, and so fueled by their self-righteousness and selfishness.

To all the graduates of 2010, including my son Jason, you are our future, please keep your hearts and minds open, please build on the friendships and understanding of other cultures, races, religions, and sexuality that you have grown up with and nurtured in college, so that our world can learn from what you can teach us.

Jewelry for the Gallery

Here is an intial picture of the jewelry I have made for the gallery in New York. However, I'm not going to send most of it, because I realize that the owner wants to sell the work at a lower price than I suggested to her for most pieces. Actually, I came up with a price based on a formula she shared, but the prices came out shockingly high. That's beadwork for you. It's so time-consuming that you just can't make money selling it. So I have reorganized what I am going to send and taken the more expensive pieces out. I don't have good pictures yet of what I'm substituting, so that will be another day.

If anyone has any thoughts on what you would pay for these pieces, or as a beader, what you would price them at, I'd be happy for you to share them!!!

End of the School Year

Our boys have been sharing an apt. this past academic year, but the lease is up soon, Jason is graduating, Sam is moving to another apt., and we decided to make a trip to start bringing stuff home.

I love getting pictures of my three men together - left to right is Jason, the graduate (math, with honors), Dennis, the aerospace engineer professor, and Sam, the law student.

Beading Areas

When I read Marcia DeCoster's blog this morning, she referred to Bev Herman's blog about what her beading tray looks like. I believe several readers then took pictures of their beading trays, including me! The top photo is the coffee table next to where I sit, and the bottom photo is my beading tray. I'm working on several projects at once and kind of push things into the corner when I'm done or going to work on it soon. I am making a right angle weave/square stitch bracelet with fire polish beads in a quilt-like design. I made one, and then decided there was too much thread showing. This is definitely an influence of my friend Deb, who can't bear the idea of thread showing. She won't even do certain stitches because you can see the thread. It never used to bother me, but now that I have found a thread I like, One-G, I'm getting to like the thread to match the beads more.

What I have been doing all winter

I feel like my blog has gone through a period of drought. But in fact I have been beading more than ever all winter long. I have been making pieces for a gallery that is open for the summer months. I will take pictures the next day we have sun here, hopefully tomorrow!

This is what I have learned. Making jewelry that I think other people will like is very hard. Making jewelry that doesn't have thread showing, or looped over a bead, or cut down to the edge is very hard. For every one piece that I am satisfied with, I have usually made 4 or 5 other pieces. I have worked every day since January and feel I have very little to show for the hours I have devoted to making the jewelry. I don't feel it represents the best work I can do, and I am sure I am overly critical of myself.

In terms of the time and effort I have put into the projects, I will not earn a cent. But I hope the gallery will! In order to do this work, I stopped reading, am behind on my Bead Journal Project, and was unable to complete the most recent round of Use the Muse contest.

However, I really wanted to do this. I wanted to see if I could meet the challenge, really a personal challenge, of committing to something and following through on it. When I post the pictures, I will be curious to see what the feedback is. Until then....

Meeting BJP members

I've had the privilege of meeting two Carol's recently. Above is Carol from Of Beads and Birds, whom I'm sure many of you know because she posts such nice thoughts on our blogs. She lives in Indiana and I was there the other night visiting family. So we arranged to meet, and we had a great visit! Carol is on the left and I am on the right.



A few days earlier I met another Carol, but we didn't take any photos :). I noticed from her blog that she lives in the same community that I do, so I contacted her and we were able to meet. I went to her house and met her two adorable children plus her husband. Carol is incredibly artistic and I was in awe of her talent.



Two Carol's, two great bead journal artist's, and two wonderful people, what more could one ask for?