Saturday night ramblings

Oh look, a bird! Oh look, a sparkly stone! Oh look!

Yes, I do tend to get distracted. Sometimes I wonder about my brain. With my brain. Wow, that's weird somehow. Oops, digressing. It's not that I can't be focused at all, it just depends a lot on what it is that I focus on. My brain is rattling, ticking, my thoughts are jumping back and forth.

The nice thing about beads is that it's allowed to do that around them. Unless I am working on a custom order I allow my brain to roam at free will when I create. As long as it just roams inside my head.

It can happen that things get lost in the overwhelming mass of ideas (not saying they are all good ones) which is why many people carry a notebook or have one on their various tables. I don't. I do have notebooks, but I can't remember when I put down a design idea the last time.

Remember Mabel, my muse? She has been working overtime for quite a while now. She takes me from the loom back to the hook and lately she has hidden the word "clay" in a cough a few times. There are several ideas for incorporating clay in pieces. Maybe I should put them in a notebook ...

Let me show you a few of my latest pieces to help you understand. I know I haven't shown much in a long time, but don't worry, I won't picture spam you now, I'll just try to illustrate the leaps and jumps my brain cells take. Obviously they are much better at sports than I am, they should have been at the Olympics ;-)

Wire knit is still a big subject. Since it's still a rather new technique for me, compared with wire crochet at least, I enjoy playing and trying what I can do. Tubes, flat pieces, layers, with beads, without beads, bezels for cabs, I doubt I found the end of the road yet.

Today I had warped the loom when I found this odd-shaped stone on my nightstand. It had been there for months because I kept hoping for a great idea. Suddenly it hit me what it reminded me of. A wire knit bezel and five crocheted toes later I had this - a foot.

This necklace featured one of Deronda O'Neill's gorgeous lampwork beads. I swear I have been sitting on them - metaphorically spoken - forever, caressing them and finally a design happened for one. The pendant wasn't planned like this which is why I say "happened". I was trying something with a wire knit tube ring, so-to-speak, and that's what I ended up with. A bead filled "chain" was obligatory. The beads can move inside the tube.

Another wire knit piece with an implosion bead by Deronda is this one in fine silver. Isn't it amazing how different it looks from the other pieces?

While not one of my favorite X-Files episodes, "Teso dos Bichos" spontaneously made me throw another project aside from literally one second to the other because I felt the urge to make a black cat. It's not finished yet, I want to add a chain, but hey ... there are so many things to do. Oh look, a bunny! Nah, not really which is a good thing because that would have meant that Buster broke out of his room.

If you think I have forgotten about wire crochet, you are wrong. Here's a sneak peek picture of a wire crochet and knit mix bracelet, the "Turquoise Turtle". You can't easily see it here, but it really does look like a turtle shell. As it happens to so many of my bracelets or necklaces, it's still missing the clasp, not because I'm too lazy, but because I haven't decided yet which kind to use.

And then there's the looming of course. I still haven't finished the lot for the local zoo's tombola in October, but I am at six now. You'll get to see a picture of them all together once I'm done.

Have a look at my rain cloud instead. I'm afraid if I want to control the rain with it, I'll have to sacrifice it somewhere in a cave or a wood, but it took too long to do that. Now that's a piece that is actually already available in my Zibbet shop - here.

The following is a cuff that I had lots of fun with and I really love the look of the galvanized seed beads (I'm a sucker for galvanized beads) against the dark blue AB beads. Just the base is loomed, the loops are done in brick stitch.

Is it a cuff at all? Who knows ... I thought I was being silly when I spontaneously took these pictures, but oh look, a new idea! "Unfortunately" a friend - thank you, Toni - gave me another idea for free. I'll need more time or more hands or a miracle.

Guess what. There's already a new project on my loom.

Well, I do have more news and I have more pieces, but I'll save that for another time, I don't want to wear you out now!