First Snow of the Season

Visiting my sister Kristin in northern Iowa this past weekend, we woke up to 4 inches of soft, wet snow.

It was perfect snowman-snow, covering trees, cars and building with fluffy beauty -and disturbing people's plans. My sister was concerned about the patio cement pour scheduled for today......likely not going to happen til Spring now.

We left early enough on Saturday to drive south to my mom's house before dark, and drove out of the snow about 40 miles south.....bringing fatigue and a cold home with me. But it was magical to see the world turn blue-white!

Ahead of the Curve Bead Kits

My pattern for an even-count peyote bracelet was published in the March/April 2009 issue of Step by Step Beads.

Although that mag has been combined into Interweave Press's other beading mag, Beadwork, the patterns are still available and Interweave keeps promoting them! Hurrah! I keep making bracelets using this pattern, varying the colors and beads sizes to make unique bracelets.

However, some people really want to replicate my Olivine Green color combo. I can tell you the beads were gathered from hither and yon and some are hard to find. Now when I find them, I buy lots, so kits containing JUST BEADS for this pattern are available at my Etsy site.

Don't have that issue or the pattern? Not a problem - it's available purchase and instant download for $4 from the Interweave online store. You'll need a beading needle #12 or #15 and beading thread. (Fireline is my preference)

Remember, published patterns are for personal use, not to make commercially.....but these bracelets make great "I made it myself" gifts! Don't be afraid to try other colors!!

Concordia Reunion

Apple Core Beads

My little apple core beads got noticed in my long-neglected ArtFire.com listing! Tis the season for fall fruits, so I guess the collection curator searched me. See my tutorial for making these beads, published in the October 2009 issue of Polymer Cafe.

This year I'm making other things - covered egg ornaments and mummies and broomsticks.

I  think Baghead is my favorite, but  this mummy is cute, too.

He inspired my smaller Mummy Face Brooches.....

Each one slightly different, with varying amounts of graveyard aging  -  they have been buried for many years, some of them. You think it's clean in those old tombs???

I was also curious about making broomsticks. I used raffia with both copper wire and twigs, using wire, wrapping and stitching for different types of brooms. Not exactly Harry Potter's Firebolt or even an older Nimbus 2000, but perhaps useful for someone. These are about 4" long. The earrings were shorter...

View ALL my new eggs and seasonal stuff on my Picasa web album here.

My Studio

Classes - people are always asking me to teach them. But my studio space - though big - is cluttered and the table that should be available for students to sit at is covered in storage things. Alright, covered with stacks of papers, books, a storage hutch snagged from my son's office, and generally just junky. I clean it off when I need to use it.

No longer! Once I get things sorted out, there is now lots more storage space to organize plus an 8' workbench height counter - with a vise!

Gotta love Craigs List. And Dewey - he's a Tennessee boy from my little country church who hauls scrap. He not only provided a truck, a trailer and 2 burly guys to move this behemoth (actually an old nuts and bolts cabinet from an hold hardware store) from a guy's basement, but they installed it into my walk-in basement and he had a formica countertop that just fit - off by only 1". He also added the vise.

Those boxes in the back are the 65 drawers . . .

which will soon hold my stuff.  I have plans to label maybe paint the drawer fronts so I know where things are, but NOT today.

I know some of you are jealous, admit it. But you should have seen what I didn't buy - a 10' long shoemaker's polishing/grinding/stitching machine, with ventilation system. I do not think it will ever leave that poor guy's basement. It was his father's who had shoe-repair hobby and who obviously collected a lot of stuff.

So, I'll post the finished results someday soon.