Another bead soup story

"Bead soup doesn't scare me." I wrote that in the post about the winter comet ornament in my advent calendar.
Not even if it's ten years old, actually probably even older because I mixed it in my early bead looming days, for a project that never happened.
Every, now and then I picked beads from it, for the winter comet and for a pair of white elephant earrings, for example.

It was time to empty that little tin and I did it.
I had already had the plan to try out folded peyote earrings in a bead soup and a smaller size than the last ones, and I managed to use up the whole soup with the addition of a few more of the silver lined crystal beads.
I made four folded peyote components in two different sizes and turned one pair into earrings by hanging them from little beaded hearts.

Then I started playing with the second pair. I thought I could do something new with them (new to me, just because I haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist). After breaking off a few end beads I could join the two components with beads and turn it into a folded peyote diamond.
Now what?
Well, in the same tin there was a little spike thingy with crystals that I improvised a few months ago and had just turned into a dangle with some crystal rondelles a few days before.
I attached it to the diamond and actually like it. It has a kind of archaic fantasy look to me now. What do you see in it?

Erm, Happy New Year?

I know, I know, I'm a bit late. I can only hope you'll forgive me - happy New Year to all of you!
Have you already broken the first of your resolutions for 2024?
I haven't, but that's simply because I have given up on resolutions a long time ago. I don't like setting myself up for failure like that ;-)

It's hard enough for me to start into this year after my time off work. As usual when having more time to myself than just my weekends, I snapped right back into my normal rhythm, meaning staying awake into the wee hours of the morning, sleeping as long as the cats allowed me to, maybe going back to bed after their first, second, and third breakfasts - obviously they are hobbit cats - or having a glorious nap in the middle of the day. I only needed my alarm clock, so I would take out the trash out in time or for one of my rare morning appointments. It was a sad moment when I turned on the alarm clock on Sunday night before I had to start working again, and after more than a week I am still struggling with it.

Somehow that also put a bit of a damper on my creativity. That doesn't mean I haven't done anything this year yet.
A new little chicken, Friedrun, picked a nest for herself and her triplets Huey, Dewey, and Louie (yes, named after ducks).

Two bead embroidered autumn suns made me dig into my old stash once again, this time for the beautiful frosted carnelian beads.

Then, however, I started working again and, creatively seen, took a very easy way out by beading more folded peyote earrings in different color combinations. Actually, I surprised myself by having the patience for so many, but they were the perfect "background beading" (meaning I only had to concentrate on the colors, not so much on the technique which seems to have made its way into my brain at last) while I am contemplating my next big project for which I have an idea, but am still looking for the best way to do it.

There would even have been a blue version that had been suggested, but I didn't have enough blue beads left for a pair of earrings. I do have a lot of grey ...
What do you think, how many more folded peyote earrings will there be before my muse will finally give me that spark that I need to get started on the next biggie? ;-)

Folded peyote star - The twenty-third door

I've said it before and will probably say it again more than once - I hate making the same thing twice.
When I had made my first folded peyote earrings, however, and held them next to each other for a picture, I couldn't help but think of a star.

I knew it would take at least six "rays" to complete this star which is a big number for someone who has a problem with even two identical parts, but there was plenty of time for big breaks between making each one, so it would be fine, right?
Actually, it was a hard one. To be frank, after the first three elements my motivation to make more was close to zero, but sewing them together and seeing it was going to look the way I had imagined helped a little.
For colors I had chosen a transparent emerald with AB finish and a cranberry lined peridot luster. The temptation to use silver lined Christmas green and red instead had been huge, but the sparkle might have been too much. The shiny emerald, however, and the muted cranberry make for a great contrast.
I couldn't resist adding a bit of sparkle by sewing on gold lined crystal beads in the shape of stars on the centers of both sides. To hide the hole in the center, I used black Austrian glass pearls with one of the golden beads.

And here it is, my folded peyote star ornament. Although I really like the result, I don't see myself making another one of those again very soon! ;-)

Chrismukkah - The seventh door

You never stop learning.
I have never seen the TV show The O.C. and had therefore  never heard about Chrismukkah if any of you should wonder.
The first time I actually stumbled upon this word was on a site not TV-related, that of the Jewish Museum Berlin which had a temporary exhibition on the theme from October 2005 to Januar 2006 called "Weihnukka - Geschichten von Weihnachten und Chanukka".
As there still seems to be interest in the topic, they put up a page with the key content which is also available under the English name "Chrismukkah - Stories of Christmas and Hanukkah".
Obviously the concept of combining both holidays - and giving this a name - had been created by assimilated German Jews in the 19th century. Via another article on Hey Alma, I got to a blog post by Jim Wald in The Times of Israel which touches on the question of assimilation and the consequences for the Jewish community in Germany.
As you can imagine, the idea of "Weihnukka" disappeared when the Nazis took over.
And then it was re-introduced it thanks to a TV show? No. I found at least one article about it before the show even started.
Do you have a story to contribute, maybe from experiences of your own?

There you have it. I promised you a crafty advent calendar and sneak in another story, but I had warned you this could happen.
Let's get to the creative part now.
Today's piece had been in the planning and making long before I jumped into the rabbit hole of Chrismukkah. For months, the title of my draft read "Hanukkah!!! - The seventh door (Star of David???)". A Star of David seemed achievable, but my own ideas were boring, YouTube didn't give me anything I liked, and most Google results didn't convince me, either. I kept putting this one off until after my first folded peyote pieces. Then I remembered a tutorial by KrisDesignFSP on Etsy from my first search.
I didn't follow the tutorial exactly. As you can see, I used two different colors for the both sides, but no different "edge" color, and I made the star smaller, both in width as in length, because I wanted to give this to a friend, as a pendant, should she want that, or for use as an ornament. It was also important for me to ask her if she thought this was okay to show here.
The blog post mentioned above also provides links to articles on other Chrismukkah related things, such as the Hanukkah bush, by the way. That I had also never heard of. I doubt my friend has a Hanukkah bush, though.

Of course my first attempt was too small. I couldn't twist the peyote, combine the triangle, AND zip it up.
My second attempt was slightly bigger, but while the zipping up was not a problem anymore, stitching the triangles together wasn't so easy. You may notice that the star is not completely regular, but my friend is a very sweet lady and likes it as it is, phew! I don't think I could have done a third one ... although it was close as der Dekan actually opened up the cardboard box to steal the star. I caught him just in time, the furry little thief! ;-)

My first try didn't go to waste, by the way. I turned it into a pair of earrings.

And now happy Hanukkah, my friends!

The Boho mermaid

Some years ago, I fell in love with the tiny Miyuki cubes. I got a whole bunch of colors and used some in wire crochet, some in bead looming and peyote rings.
When I put some bead tubes back into my stash drawers, I noticed tubes with cubes in a silver lined light blue and a matte green with AB finish which vaguely made me think of ocean (possibly having the Moana movie run for background noise influenced that). The green had been around for a long time and the blue was from one of my surprise bead orders.

At first, I didn't think there would be enough beads for earrings and I tried a pendant that I kind of half liked which was not sufficient to keep it, though. I ripped it up again and thought that if I made the folded peyote one bead slimmer than the last pieces, I would have more beads to get to a length which I could bend comfortably for earrings. That was important because the cubes made the strips a bit less flexible than if I had made them with Delicas.

Next I thought about a pattern - one layer or side green, one blue ... checkered ... striped ... but in the end I opted for a random mix for the "ocean waves", waves because the folded and twisted peyote results in a wave shape if you look at it from the side. Also I had less green than blue, so mixing them would help to get long enough peyote strips. In the end I had three blue beads left!
I actually like the contrast between the very shiny blue and the matte green, the effect in light is so pretty, but I wanted more, so I randomly added metallic silver seed beads.

A mermaid - and I just can't help thinking mermaid when thinking of ocean, probably because Andersen's fairy tale has been a (sad) favorite of mine since childhood - could well wear long earrings in her flowing hair.
If that wasn't an excuse to add pearls, I didn't know what would be, and now I feel the earrings have turned boho.

Therefore my question, can a mermaid have a boho style?

Green, green, green ....

is all of my clothing ... the words don't work perfectly with the melody of the German children's song I grew up with, but that's ok.
It's an old one from the 19th century and each verse is about a different color and profession.

"Green, green, green is all of my clothing, green, green, green is everything I have. Therefore I love everything that is green because my sweetheart is a hunter."
The other colors are red for the rider, blue for the sailor, black for the chimney sweep, white for the miller, and colorful for the painter.

I had to think of this song when a friend said she had so many clothes in green and would I make her some earrings to go with them?
She chose the beads for the folded peyote and I have to say that the shiny green reminding of beetles' wings was a great choice with the matte green for the inside.

So, what next?

Folded peyote

I had seen earrings in the folded peyote technique before, but only now I had a reason to take a closer look, a reason I won't go into yet, though.
For those who want to try themselves, I recommend this YouTube tutorial by Anzu Crafts. She uses big beads which makes it very easy to follow and her explanations are really good even if you should be a beginner at peyote.

Of course I wasn't happy with just making the folded peyote, I also had to add some extras.
The shiny pink and luster purple pendant, for example, is embellished with tiny silver seed beads and for contrast it got a darker Polaris bead dangling in the center.

For the earrings I wanted a gothic look, so I used black with the luster purple and added spikes in the color "crystal vitrail light" for an edgy look.
Depending on the angle of the light, they appear clear or, thanks to the coating on the back, in a soft purple which goes beautifully with the purple Delicas. I am in love with those spikes and have quite a stash, so be prepared to see more of them in the future.