Running under the stars

 Are you still waiting for part 2 of the dress saga or the big hug? Yeah, so am I. If you have been around for a while, you know the reason, so don't be afraid, no whining today.
Let me just say that there is hope because actually one of them "only" needs a chain - "only" because that's something I have always struggled with. I even had necklaces, bracelets or earrings around for years which were missing a clasp or earwires, nothing more. That's really not something I want in this case, but I'm still caught in a sea of indecisiveness at the moment.
Would you like to see the already finished focal or would you rather wait for the completed piece?

The dresses are a different story, that's more because I need a good kick in the butt. Any volunteers?

The problem is that my creative motivation is at a low point. The ideas are piling up in my head, but the execution ... sigh.
My last experiment failed. It was not terrible, but it definitely wasn't good enough.
That's not unusual for my experiments at all. Making mistakes is how I teach myself to do it better (or sometimes give up on an idea). It used to be easier for me to deal with that when I felt I had endless creative time, but these days it feels like wasted time.
So I decided to do what I have always done when running out of motivation, turn to a trusted design. Usually that would be my miniature wire crochet baskets, but my hands wouldn't tolerate those right now, so I went back to the beaded 3D stars instead.

Some of the stars I made as Christmas
decorations in 2022

The ex was an early bird. An early, early bird. And although I'm very much a night owl I got up at hours when I would usually just fall asleep to take advantage of the ride he'd give me to work. A five minute detour for him, but saving me forty minutes every day compared to the train ride.
Anyhow, I got used to it - not saying I was ever really awake when I arrived at work, though - and in fact I loved the campus at that time. Okay, so it could be a bit spooky being very empty so early, even more so if there was fog - it always made me think of Jack the Ripper - and it's not my favorite kind of architecture, but it gave me the feeling I belonged there.
The best, however, were the little visitors. There's a forest next to the campus, and in the early morning some of the critters come out sitting in the grass between all those big concrete buildings ... mostly rabbits, hares, hedgehogs. There have been fox sightings, but I had never been that lucky.

Picture via pxhere

That memory inspired a pair of earrings.
Let me introduce Nitta who's a ceramic and jewelry artist from Finland.
She first tried ceramics in the 80s in her teens, then forgot it, but started again about eight years ago. A few years later, it became her passion and job and her happy place.
Nature and forest animals are close to Nitta's heart and she thinks that the Finnish forests are probably her biggest inspiration.
Although she doesn't just make adorable critters, with molds or handshaped, they are my favorites, foxes, birds, moths, cat heads (you may remember my cat moth with the little fangs), and more. 
I'm really trying to hold back buying supplies now that I'm thinking of giving up selling completely, but I couldn't resist Nitta's little hares - or maybe two pairs of them in different colors 😇 They make me think of Watership Down, too (even if those weren't hares, but bunnies).

First, I thought about using more than one color, but then I saw just two hares running along in the shine of golden stars.
The next decision was to use either the hares on the brown or on the greyish-blue background. That was more difficult, but as you see I went for the natural tone in tone look with just a bit of contrast in the loops from beads with one of my favorite coatings (Czech).
I think the hares don't need any more to shine and I'm really happy with them!

Tackle that stash - Hearts, hearts, hearts

There's something I never bought on purpose, seed beads bigger than size 11. I don't usually feel the need for bigger ones in my bead embroidery, I never tried a Cellini spiral, and I don't string seed beads for chains.
So when my first size 6 and 8 seed beads arrived in one of the surprise mixes I order every, now and then, I had absolutely no idea what to do with them at first.
I finally used some of them in bead embroidery, but still had a bunch left over.

When I started fiddling around with a Bleeding Heart design, I thought size 8 beads would probably work better than size 11. I will still need different bead sizes in matching colors, though, which I don't have (yet).
Seeing, however, how many colors I had of the big seed beads, I decided to take a little break from fiddling, just play around with some hearts instead and maybe use up one or the other color.

Picasso finishes often remind me of natural stones.
Therefore, these hearts made me think of the phrase "getting blood from a stone", so I added just a little drop of "blood".
This is not the kind of bleeding heart design I'm fiddling with, by the way.

You may remember that there can also be leftovers in the surprise mixes, so I didn't always have enough of one color to make a pair of earrings or even a pendant.
Multicolor hearts were the solution, like these ombré ones for which I used a tiny drop of "water" instead of "blood".

This metallic mint is a fun color, but I had only enough beads for a pendant.
Which color is your favorite?

Fluttering into spring

Ever since my friend Michelle opened her Spoonflower shop, I have been thinking about using one of her fabric designs in one of my jewelry designs.
If you don't know Spoonflower, the platform offers "premium fabric, wallpaper and home decor that's printed on demand with unique designs from independent artists worldwide".
This was my first personal experience with Spoonflower although I first heard of it years ago.
All I knew was that I wanted to use my favorite of Michelle's designs, the "Whimsical Watercolor Wildflowers on Turquoise", but obviously only a very small part of it as it is not a miniature pattern. Not knowing what to expect, I ordered just a swatch to see what I could be doing with it and chose a sturdy cotton which would make a solid backing for embroidering on it. At that point, it was just a vague plan, I hadn't worked out any details at all.

By the time the swatch arrived, I had thought about it some more. For a wire wrapped octopus piece (that I haven't shown here, it's a component for a friend's basket weaving project) I had got a number of large flat copper rings (how is it I can never order just one thing?) ... ah, you remember my last post with the curtain ring? Yes, this time I would be using a different kind of "frame".
The rings are large enough to pick a nice part of the pattern and to add something of my own - I still hadn't determined what -  and they are lighter in weight if someone doesn't like heavier pendants.

Step 1 - prepare the "canvas".
I didn't cover the copper ring completely with the beaded bezel to achieve the look of a passepartout.

Step 2 - embroider small dew drops on the plants. That was easy.

Step 3 ... step 3 ... step 3 ... something to sit in the empty space above the plant. A dragonfly. A fairy. A butterfly!
That was the right choice for more than one reason (but that will be a different story).
For a second I thought about embroidering it directly on the fabric, but then I knew I wanted it to be 3D (which also has to do with that other story).

So I bead embroidered a pair of wings in colors that would complement the background using silver lined beads for some sparkle and added them to a small beaded body.
Lastly, I gave my butterfly two little winged buddies.

A simple bail and my pendant was finished :-)