The working box and what came out of it this time

Let me tell you about my working boxes. At the moment, I have more than one unfortunately.
There are times when I'm terrible about organizing my beads. Not in general. I have storage boxes and drawers for my bead and sort by type.
The problem is that beads that make it out of those for a project don't always make it back in there when I'm done. Instead they move to working boxes. For example, there's one box with a headless Barbie in it that I have started beading an outfit for in spring. I was struggling with one part, so I had to take a break from it. As outfits are beaded directly onto the dolls, I have to hold the whole doll - that's why the head has to come off to avoid neck splits from handling - and that can be very awkward. So far I haven't mustered the motivation for a new attempt.

Storage box turned into a working box for now.
Bead tubes tend to fall over one one another if you move
the box. And there's always thread in it and sometimes
little test pieces, but they are hidden under the lid here.

A working box can be around for a while. Maybe I pick beads for another project and afterwards they end up in the box. Eventually, I make it a challenge to make something just using what's in the box now which can be big fun. More often than not a piece starts out as a vague idea and then changes completely.
My current box is actually the storage tin for the cube beads. It also holds a few other bead types that came with the same surprise order and didn't get put away. Among them are large bugles.
I don't use bugles often. There are some in Christmas ornaments and I used up a big batch on my first bead embroidered sneakers, but those were shorter ones.

These twisted bugles are 12 mm, though, and I hadn't even intended to use them because I had no idea how.
What I wanted to make were some simple bead triangles and add a charm in the center. I have never beaded a triangle before, not a flat one, not a 3D one, so I went to YouTube to get an idea ... and once again walked off the path when I saw a tutorial using Delicas, but also 6 mm bugles that looked like fun.
It's one of those graphic 3D tutorials, and as I'm terrible with tuts in general, I had to get used to that format first and therefore went through a few mistakes and ripping.

These are some big triangles, over 2 1/2 inch on each side.
The way the twisted bugles catch the light is really beautiful and once again I like the contrast of matte and shiny in the cube beads. Nothing inconspicuous about these babies!

3D peyote triangles of two layers that are connected in the last row. What that second layer taught me was that I'm terrible at working clockwise. Note - don't do that next time.

Maybe I should try the same design with smaller bugles and Delicas? Say goodbye to the cubes for now and start a new working box? Spoiler alert - smaller design yes, new box no.

Fall feelings

Last week, Erin from "Still Live, With Cracker Crumbs" announced that she and Lisa from "Boondock Ramblings" will not have a "Comfy Cozy Cinema" event on their blogs this year. Instead they'll be doing "Sweater Weather Cinema" with fall movies ... and I found myself thinking that I didn't really know any except for Halloween movies and therefore probably wouldn't be able to participate.

Of course I know movies with fall scenes, but I never thought of them specifically as fall movies. To be honest, I had never thought about that topic at all until now.
Here Erin explains what a fall movie is for her. Check it out and if you have your own favorites, let her know and maybe tag along for the "Sweater Weather Cinema" with her and Lisa?

Now I let people know a lot - whether they want to hear it or not - that fall is my favorite season. I love the colors, the rain, the air, and of course saying goodbye to summer (and the fan).
However, I was surprised myself to find that many fall inspired items I made over the years, this is not even everything!

And of course I can't forget my Autumn Dawn and my Fairy Queen Jessica!

I guess I express my feelings in beads and wire?

Heat

I don't function in the heat and I complained and whined more than once about it here on the blog. I always start early, too. If temperatures in my place go higher than 20 °C/ 68 °F, I'm beginning to fall apart, can't help it.
Luckily, I don't live in a really hot region!

A sunset sky from 2011.
That's how heat feels to me.

As my brain is in a puddle on the floor somewhere at the moment, I haven't been able to finish any of the blog posts I started.
So I'll be taking the easy way out instead today and share some "hot" items with you that I made over the years.

Now excuse me while I'm going to look if I can find and mop up my brain anywhere. Do you think it'll come together again if I put it in the freezer?

Chain of hearts

The beads have been calling to me quite loudly for a while, but with my thumb being stupid, the big projects on my list were still out, so I thought it needed something simple for them to be satisfied for now.
Simple usually means something familiar that I don't have to think much about - experimenting often means ripping out and several attempts - and which I can easily take a break from without risking it turning into a case for the infamous WIP drawer.

This chain of hearts was a perfect little project for that.
Earrings are not my strong suit because I often don't remember what exactly I did with the first one (experiments!) to repeat it for the second one or I'm just getting bored after the first one.
For these earrings I only made one heart at a time over the last few weeks, quick enough to not get bored or stress out my hand. 

I used pearly white seed beads in the sizes 8, 11, and 15 seed beads.
Originally, I had planned to use tiny ceramic hearts made by my friend for the bottom. I had put them in a safe place specifically for this ... Erm, does anyone know where that safe place is? I found the tiny stars, the owls, the foxes, the blueberries ... I found everything but the hearts. So I decided to try size 15 hearts for the first time and although it was a bit fiddly, I think they turned out very cute.

I have no doubt that the hearts are going to turn up in the next few days now that they are not needed immediately.
As that touch of color from the ceramic hearts was missing now, I added a silver bead embellishment instead.
Do you think I should have added tiny hearts in a completely different color?

The magic cat potion

Have you ever been offered a magic potion by a black cat on a Friday the 13th? No? Me neither.
I have no doubt, however, that this would be the perfect bottle for one if my little witch should ever need it.

In fact, this is one of two little gin bottles I got from a pal a few years ago.
Of course I couldn't throw them away when they were empty because I knew I'd want to bead around them eventually.
This time I felt I needed to pay homage to cats and I did so with silhouettes of some typical cat positions.

As you may remember, I hardly ever use someone else's pattern. I'm not a peyote expert, so I always struggle a little with patterns there, but the sitting ones came to me quite quickly, especially because the sitting up position is one I have also used with other techniques, like bead looming and bead embroidery.

The ones in motion were a bit more difficult. I knew I wanted four positions and two rows (the second row are mirrored images of the first one) and being restricted to a small bottle and about 2 inch of height of beading space didn't make it easier. In the end it worked out quite nicely, though, I think.

Another small problem was that this particular bottle isn't as straight as the ones I have used before. It gets narrower at the bottom which is fine, but it also gets a little wider at the top of the neck, so the rows are not as straight as I would have liked them.
I also struggled with the decreasing towards the neck this time because the size didn't give me a number of columns that I could divide easily. So to hide a few spots that didn't come out perfect, I added size 15 silver beads and then thought that would be a nice extra for the whole bottle to give it a bit of sparkle.

I'm really happy how it turned out - especially after it took me quite long, again, I'm not a peyote expert, also not at reading my own patterns - and if Gundel comes up with a potion, I'll be ready!

P.S. If you want to see all of my beaded bottles, you can find them here.

Santa Tabby

I have to start this with a confession. When I go online shopping for something particular, I can never resist to check out the sale category. That doesn't mean (anymore) that I also can't resist buying something from it that looks just slightly as if I could use it in the future, however distant that may be.
When I found the infinity links for the Big Hug necklace, though, and had a look, I absolutely couldn't say no to a pair of glass cabochons with a tabby cat face that reminded me of my little brat.

At that moment, I had no plan whatsoever except knowing I would be making earrings for myself. Eventually. Probably. Bead embroidery, obviously, and whimsical to match the inspiration.
When we came closer to Christmas, an idea started growing in my head. But how could I ...? Maybe if ...? And then ... hm.

I started with the easy part, the beaded bezels. When they were finished, I proceeded in my usual manner meaning they went in my current "working box". Then I took them out and stared at them for a long time. I put them back in the box. I took them out again and ... you get it.
Sometimes that helps and an idea pops into my head after a while, sometimes it doesn't quickly and sometimes not at all which then leads to a ripping up session.
I'm happy to say that this time the idea showed up rather quickly - yay! - although I knew I would have to experiment a bit to realize it.

Et voilà!
Santa Tabby, at your service!

It's just a pity that they only had tabbies, but no black cats. Gundel would have made an adorable elf, don't you think?

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!

Bleeding Heart, the sequel

I had another look at the picture of the pink Bleeding Heart in my springtime post and that's where it hit me - the white peeking out from under the pink.

Why hadn't I thought of that right away? I had some white beads and also small amounts of pink and purple lined clear beads, so maybe that would be enough for the prototype of a big heart?
Surprise!

There was one purple bead left over at the end!
I'm quite happy with this bigger attempt because I learned a few things from it.
Using the bigger beads I can't curve the petals as well as in the small heart and I would try to prolong the heart at the bottom in some way - the bigger beads don't make such a nice tip - and make the drop a bit smaller. There should also be less white in the heart, but I had to do that because I was so low on pink and purple.

Here's a comparison between the big and the small heart.
The small one is really growing on me and after all there are usually different sizes on a plant as well.

And so it's clear that the journey will continue ...

Bleeding Heart, a prototype

I don't often make prototypes. I play. I experiment. I make forever WIPs (not on purpose!) to look at so I can wonder what the heck I actually did there and how I'm supposed to repeat or refine it.
I never write anything down. I don't make sketches. Not smart, I know, but that's not going to change now (wait, I once did, for my wire crochet Christmas balls, but I don't know where that note went which doesn't matter as I haven't made any of them in years).
I don't sit down and actively try to work something out. Measure and count. I don't have an analytical mind. Things come to me or they don't.

This time, I made one, a prototype, kind of.
I didn't want to show it to you yet because I wanted to get it right first, but that may take a while.

The 3D heart wasn't the difficult part, but the blood or tear drop (depending on your language) and the ends of the outer petals which curve up.
Here I used just size 11 and 15 seed beads to make the petals curve, but I didn't like them smaller and like this the heart was too small for my taste.
Right, therefore the size 8 that inspired the stash tackler post.

I didn't have enough white beads in the size 8 to try out if that would look more like what I was thinking of, though.
Postage has definitely become too high for ordering just one tube of beads. Now minimum for postage free shipping has gone up quite a bit as well. As if it wasn't difficult enough for me to put a bead order together!
Not that I wouldn't understand the bead stores, mind you, they have to deal with business realities and their finances just as we all do more and more, as I do as a matter of fact.
I have enough stash, so I can't really justify another bead order just yet.

I don't have any other bead colors in all three sizes, either. Similar maybe, but not the same.
There will be a bead order sometime, though, and the design is absolutely staying on my list, but as I said, it may take a while, so all you get to see for now is this rather tiny protoype, sorry.

And another picture in my hand to give you a better idea of its size.

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?

Tackle that stash - Mookaite "teeth" earrings

Maybe you remember my mookaite "teeth" necklace that I made a few years ago inspired by a favorite YA novel of my childhood (with regular re-reads) - Rulaman from 1878 about a tribe of cave people set in an area not far from me at all which of course made this an even more fascinating read.
This is an illustration of the fest held after they hunted down the dangerous cave lion to whom they lost so many family members.
The idea that there were cave lions and bears in my area was so exciting to me!

I said then that I might make more using a different Delica color and of course promptly forgot about that until I shared the necklace elsewhere last week.

Last time I used copper and berry for the bead strips holding the stones and even if it doesn't seem this way, I chose the stones by size. The one in the center is the longest and then I chose similarly sized pairs to build the sides.
This time I went for different browns for the strips and as my left over stones were all over the place in regards to size, I thought earrings from teeth would have been something even for Neanderthals - not in combination with metal of course, but after all the plan was not to make authentic Neanderthal jewelry, but to be inspired by it.
Yes, it is indeed believed that they did wear jewelry and makeup.
Of course those earrings would be asymmetrical and probably random in the choice of stones, just the way mine are.

At first I had put three stones on each earring, but I couldn't get the third stone and chain to fall the way I wanted it to, due to the size of the dangles. I think two worked much better.

Here's a longer variation.

Not all of my stash tacklers have to become something big.
My mookaite stash is not even close to being used up with these earrings. I have a little box with different sizes, shapes, and colors.
There are also these beautiful big beads, not many matching pairs among them, but these two cream colored make a really nice one.

Since I got that box in a destash, the beads call to me every, now and then. It will be interesting to see even for myself what the next ones will want to be!

Ombré flower

This pendant got started "backwards" because I had forgotten to sew on one of the leaves for Nadine's palm in my last embroidery piece. Then I found I just had about enough of those green beads left for one more leaf, so I beaded that, and only then I started thinking about a main design to go with those leaves.
I had a small flower in mind, but as you can see once again my mind and Mabel (my imaginary muse) didn't agree and as usual Mabel won.

I pulled three colors from my drawer for an ombré design. The red is one of my regular stock-ups because I love the color, the other two were in one of my surprise orders.
Sometimes the bead tubes in those orders are full, sometimes they are leftovers, so I didn't have much of the salmon color and therefore didn't know how many petals I would be able to make. I honestly didn't think it would be enough for the fifth one and had already made plans how to deal with that. It was pretty close in the end, I had about ten beads left when I finished!

After the petals were attached to each other, the hole in the center was next.
The last time I made a flower with brick stitch petals, I had filled the center with beads in the round, but this time I went for loads of stamina in yellow and gold on a bead foundation instead.
Then I sewed on the leaves and beaded a golden bail and voilà!
Some time ago I got some black satin ropes and spontaneously added a few pink ones although I didn't know if I would ever use those, but isn't it perfect for my flower?

Tackle that stash - Snow into water

In the last ten years, I managed almost 100 Friday posts called "Tackle that stash" about making deliberate attempts at using mostly old stash of mine. I'm talking stash that has been around for years and years.
Maybe I even tried to use some of it before, but didn't have quite the idea or I wasn't happy with what I made and ripped it up again.
The last one was a year ago when I actually used up a ten year old bead soup and was very proud of it and a bit relieved.

I thought it was time to try that again, go through my drawers - although I'm still pretty harmless in regards to the size of my stash - and use some of the stuff that deserves to finally see the light of day.
One time it may be something quite small and not very spectacular, other pieces may take more time, effort or playing.

I started making jewelry a little over 15 years ago. Back then we did a Secret Santa among some friends and my Santa sent me a surprise mix of findings and beads that I still have leftovers from.
The white agate beads were part of that mix. There were not many and stringing has never been one of my techniques, so I never really knew what to do with them and only used a few.

The clear Delicas are from a bead order more than nine years ago. That sounds incredible, but I mostly use clear AB, so I still had one unopened tube out of the three I had ordered back then.
The clear drop beads with a beautiful AB finish are from one of the surprises bead mixes I like to add to my orders because they often challenge me to try out different designs. They always make me think of water drops.
It looked like the perfect combination to me.

Only when I had finished the dangles, I went through the storage box with my single beads. One thought was to use clear crystals for a look of ice and water, but seeing the agate beads made me think of snow melting into water instead.

I hardly have any drop beads left, but there are enough dagger beads, so I might be getting back to the ice and water idea, maybe for the next stash tackler?

Getting ready for Christmas - Part 3

I'll make this short.
In part 2 I showed you my decorations in the house hallway. Then I noticed that one of the Steiff mice was missing. A few days later I noticed that one of the teddies had been hiding in the same cabinet.
If someone has seen my brain, please tell it to come back. I'm not doing that well without it, it seems ...

Also I still wasn't happy with my improvised hooks, so I got some garlands which would hide them.
Basically that works well, but now I have the problem that the railings are quite smooth and the ornaments quite heavy which means the garlands keep sliding. I could stop one of them with the hooks on the railing which don't run that smoothly and therefore keep the ends in place, but the other railing doesn't have those hooks, so I will have to come up with an idea. Not this year, though. Maybe my brain will be back again next year ;-)

Getting ready for Christmas - Part 2

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I couldn't get myself to decorate the house hallway in time which meant I was very behind on my advent calendar tree.
There was really no excuse anymore now, so I gave myself a good kick yesterday and went to it.

This year I had to make a few hard decisions. Thanks to my crafty advent calender last year and thanks to not being able to put any of those new ornaments up inside my flat *stern look at somecat who's not interested in stern looks at all*, some of the regulars couldn't find a spot in my hallway decoration this time. Not one spiky bauble! I only have a window sill to hold my Discworld advent calenders and a wardrobe with a small surface, some hooks, and rails which weirdly was not made for decorations originally.
I'll have to think of something next year, maybe some kind of garland for my beaded ornaments to hang on the wardrobe, so I can put the baubles on the rails.
I'll also have to come up with some better hooks. Ordinary Christmas hooks are too small for the rails and I had forgotten to get a better wire to make bigger ones of my own. It really comes out worse in the picture because of the flash, though (it was already darkish when I decorated, so I needed the flash, as if it isn't hard enough to get a good angle for a picture, anyway). I picked stainless steel, thin so it wouldn't show too much, but strong enough to hold even the heavier ornaments, but those makeshift hooks are by no means uniform. Will someone please remind me in time next year?

To give you a better idea if you haven't followed last year's advent calendar, I made a collage of the ornaments I put up (in the picture above the felt ball is missing because I had forgotten it).

Of course, a Christmas decoration without my beloved Steiff is absolutely unthinkable. This year, there is not one but two Christmas trees one of which I topped with my Christ Child Dawn, and an adorable Christmas bunny joined Santa Claus and his teddy and mouse crew (plus one missing in the picture because I had left him behind in the cabinet, what's wrong with me?), also a sweet mouse who's not in festive garb, but fits in so perfectly.

Also I can't do without my advent tree and today I got to open several of the little parcels! What a reward for being so late.

I know it's not much compared to the decorating some people do, but it makes me happy and that's what counts.