Gifts for Christmas don't always have to be a big thing. Little things, sometimes even a special card, a flower, can do the trick as well and bring just as much joy.
From Scandinavia comes the tradition of Julklapp which is supposed to be the origin of other traditions like Secret Santa or as we call it in Germany "Wichteln". It means exchanging little gifts without knowing who your gift is from.
And then of course there are the swaps in the creative community. It's fun to exchange handmade gifts (not always that little as you will see in a moment).
We did a Christmas swap on Plurk recently and this week my parcel arrived. So exciting, especially when I saw who it was from!
Let me introduce Robyn from Jewelled Trellis. Robyn - World. World - Robyn.
And now let me make you jealous with my new pieces of jewelry. Yes, I asked before opening them if I should wait until Christmas.
These earrings are perfect for winter, don't you think? I'll have to watch out, so no Snow Queen will steal them from me.
The next pair feels like a promise of spring to me. It will be back and so will be the swallows who are carrying these pretty hearts.
Drum roll for my very first own piece of chainmaille!! I love how flexible it is!
If you are duly jealous now, you might want to take a look at Robyn's studio, there's much more, believe me ...
And Robyn, thank you so, so much!
I'm still not done with the "ugly" beads from our SJA challenge.
There's no idea for the matrioshkas yet, at least none that I really like, but I finished piece #2 for the vase beads today.
The fact that these beads are so heavy made me think they would work well on a lariat or something like it, so this is what I finally came up with.
I crocheted a very slim tube from brown copper wire to keep the all over earthy look. On each end I attached one vase bead. Just like that it looked a little boring, so I added some riverstone beads and for the "drop of water" some clear glass AB (aurora borealis) rounded cube beads.
There is no clasp, you just tie the necklace once or twice or make a knot with both strands. You can keep ends at the same height or wear one end a little higher than the other one.
This is a long necklace. Just the tube is 29 inch long, not counting the vase beads.
I like challenges. Creative challenges, that is. The other kind, hm, that depends on my mood and how I feel at the moment. I'm thinking new system at work soon or organizing my household, these challenges I really struggle with.
But creative challenges are good for me. Often enough I amaze myself, not necessarily because I crocheted the Holy Grail out of copper wire (hmm, now that would be something ....) or because I copied Michelangelo's David in polymer clay, but because of the detours my creativity likes to take.
I once saw a report about Picasso on TV. He was painting live, on glass. I am not a fan of Picasso, but I loved watching the process. Where there just had been a rooster, there was something totally different suddenly. I don't remember what it was, but I still see that rooster. Unfortunately there was never a re-run or if there was, I missed it. I would have liked to watch it again, being more prepared to pay attention.
Don't think that I try to compare myself to Picasso now, what I'm trying to say is that this is probably the same for many of us. We start something and suddenly our muse tells us to go right instead left.
Last weekend I started working on another piece for the ugly bead challenge. I'm determined to use up all those beads and I saw it before me, but then I broke the wire. That wouldn't have been a real problem, I could have fixed it easily, but all of a sudden there was this other idea which was perfect for the challenge "Harvest" of Handmade in Europe. Of course I could have finished the other piece first, but sometimes that's just not the way it works.
I present "Candy Apple", a one of a kind piece with the brown "branch" necklace and the apple pendant, including a cute little worm that was the tall guy's idea by the way :-D
I didn't think I'd be back so soon. Seems that Mabel did some overtime and she came up with a few ugly bead designs.
I have to warn you, two of them are not really me. As I said, this challenge is pushing me over my personal limits. Yes, it's true, I did NOT use a crochet hook for them. Don't worry, it didn't take me long to go back to my beloved hooks as you will see on piece #3.
1. The green beads with the black spirals on them
Actually I like these beads although I'm not much of a green lover. Had they been a little smaller, I might have tried to combine them with crochet beads, but somehow I felt I had to pick up the spiral pattern. And maybe the 70s worked their way up in my brain again ... or in Mabel's ...
I did a little test and although it doesn't "flow" on your neck, due to the slightly springy nature, it's amazingly comfortable.
2. The "painter palette" beads
One problem with these beads is the "filling". While the powder in the green beads cleaned out pretty nicely in vinegar, the palettes have something inside that almost looks like concrete. I tried to clean it out as much as I could, but I was a little afraid to break them (in fact when I dropped one, not even from very high, it broke), so I looked for a way to cover the holes. My Bali silver beads were too small, the Bali cubes were not at hand which is always a problem if you have a sleeping feline on your feet and are too scared for your life to move, so I settled for seed beads instead which turned out quite pretty, I think. Probably the silver even would have been a little dull in the combination. Strung on silver and finished off with a black double suede cord it didn't look ugly to me.
3. The vase
Everyone saw vases in these beads. But what to put into the vase? Flowers, yes, but how? This is what I came up with. Crocheted blossoms with seed beads, green leaves and everything held together by sterling silver wire through the hole of the bead. It's a pity that the beads are so heavy, they would make nice earrings otherwise!
Now all that is left are the matryoshka beads and four more vase beads. I have another idea for the vases, but that will take a little longer, as for the matryoshkas I'm still pretty much at a loss. Some wire, some earwires, I know, but that would be so unoriginal, don't you think?
Again - I'll keep you updated ;-)
P.S. And while I struggled and worked and thought and designed today (I haven't even shown you my beach pebble pendants yet!), someone else took the chance to occupy my computer chair and to look adorable. Esme, my half vampirette (she lost one of her fangs recently, therefore half).
I'm still playing with lampwork beads and pearls.
There is this one cab that looks like liquid honey and flowers that remind me of Art Deco, absolutely beautiful.
I picked the wire (warm gold) and started. I guess I got a little carried away because when I checked, the disk had become too large already and it started wrinkling at the edges which reminded me of a flower.
This called for a quick change of plans. Instead of caging the cab I added a bail to the flower and a white pearl. A simple design, but an effective one, I found.
Therefore I made two more in different colors, dark blue with a white pearl and dark purple with a pink pearl. When I list them, I'll offer the buyer to choose from the many wire colors and the two colors of pearls that I have.
So now I had three pendants, but that wasn't what I wanted to make, right? So I started again and finally had my bezel around the lampwork cab. That is usually the moment when Mabel, my muse, has to take over. Will it become a ring? A pendant? It took her a while, she was probably already exhausted from whipping up the pendants, but suddenly the idea was there. A cuff it would be, looking like a wristwatch.
Said - or rather thought - and done. Here it is, the "Honey Flower Cuff".
Not bad for one day ;-)
.... and it was one of Deronda Designs meltie cabs I had in my hands. I had been wanting to do something with it forever.
Just look at it, isn't it gorgeous? It makes me think of hot chocolate that has been topped with whipped cream and now the cream is slowly melting into the chocolate. I can almost taste it on my tongue.
Being a cab it needed a bezel of course, but for quite a while I hadn't been sure if I wanted to use wire in a matching color tone or silver. I finally decided today and I think it's was the right decision.
To tie it in with my comparison to chocolate, I'll just say the bezel could be a silver cup.
I then added three sterling silver chains on each side.
You should check out Deronda's studio on ArtFire, either bring very strong nerves or your purse, it's pure temptation. I have never been disappointed so far and will be back again and again!
I'm determined this time. I won't buy supplies - which means I have to avoid supply sites because they make that strange urge well up in me that I can' resist and then without even wanting to I find I bought another cab or ... oops, digressing, sorry. Again. I won't buy supplies AND I will list the pieces I still have scattered around, either because I haven't gotten around to take pictures yet or because that little something is not right yet.
I started on Saturday evening. Two pieces that have patiently been waiting on my table finally made it into my shops.
One of them changed a little bit since when I first made it. I decided to put the crochet disks and the lampwork beads on a suede cord instead of the silver-plated copper wire I had put them on first. Somehow it felt better around the neck. I left the cord long enough to choose if one wants to wear the necklace in the long or in the short version. I prefer short.
The other piece is a tumbled carnelian in an orange wire crochet bezel. I wasn't sure if it was too bright, but when it landed beside my phoenix (that you might remember), the thought of it being a firebird's egg sprang to mind.
I have no idea myself what will be next, but there are still a few items not listed. I just hope my determination will stay .....
The idea was born when I started sorting a small plastic bag of bead soup. I can't call myself a seed beader although I have used beads more than once, and little did I know when I decided to separate the bead soup into his ingredients. I didn't do it all in one day, it took a few days, but finally I had all those neat little plastic bags with one bead color each.
So now what?
I held the bags next to each other, thinking about possible color combinations and the next thing I knew was me throwing together seed beads. I guess I should have thought about that earlier, it would have saved me some time.
The first necklace was the blue and green of the ocean and there it was, the crazy idea of making many in different color combinations - the necklaces for the Rainbow Fairies.
The Rainbow Fairies have their club in a treehouse on the highest tree you can find. When joining each of them got their own special necklace in their own special colors as you can see in this picture. I'm sure they'll attract new members over the time.
And there are those last leftover seed beads in the bag that didn't match any of the other colors. How about a Fairy of Color? ;-)
They are already listed in my Zibbet shop by the way, but are supposed to move into my other shops as well soon.
No, it's not that I'm in a romantic mood, but I felt like making polymer clay roses again.
Probably Mabel was a Mucha lady again today.
One of them (rose, not lady) turned out much larger than I had planned at first, you know how it goes sometimes.
At first I thought about making a pendant out of it, but after I had crocheted the setting, I felt it might make a fun ring.
The wire goes through the rose bead, so that it doesn't move, and it's a very comfortable ring.
Yes, I think I am quite happy with this one! Not all my experiments work so well at the first attempt!
Which reminds me that I need to hurry to get the rest on today's list done ... wish me luck!
I can hear you sigh now - ANOTHER muse post? "Lady, you are getting boring!"
Drop the overripe tomatoes, people, and calm down! Don't worry, it's about my latest piece and I'll make it short because I feel the need to search the kitchen for some cookies and chai.
The start - a leftover piece of 12 gauge silver plated copper wire.
Next step - hands that can't keep still while a movie is on. Bending back and forth.
Step 3 - Hey, look! That's like a drop! Maybe if I make bead soup from different blues and clear and just a few brownish ones to pep it up (the only soup I'm better at making is pumpkin and potato soup) and put them on that dark blue wire and then ...
Silence with the odd mumbling thrown in.
Less silence, slight cussing. On many stitches I need to go through with my smallest hook to make them wide enough for the larger hooks.
Yawning. Ok, this is taking longer than I thought, I'll continue tomorrow.
Tomorrow:
Silence. Getting into the routine. Small hook, big hook, small hook, big hook.
Done! Here you go. Mabel's gift, in my Zibbet shop now :-)
And was that soooo bad now? ;-)
From time to time I go through my stash of beads together with my muse. She points out beads that I had forgotten or some that I don't have many left of. Sometimes she will even find a half-forgotten WIP.
Perfect projects for those occasions are rings. They are fun to make because you can always choose a new combination of wire and beads.
This is what she came up with this weekend.
First of all she found a WIP I had made quite a while ago, then "lost" underneath something else. I hadn't decided yet if I wanted it to be a pendant, a collier or a ring. My first attempt at a ring had failed on a day when I was very impatient, so off into the box it went.
What I had so far, was a crocheted dome of sterling silver wire with faceted little moonstones. Too pretty to hang out in a WIP box with their blue flashes and sparkle.
I got stubborn and finally did it. One down, only one million to go. Yesss!
Then my muse (I wonder if she needs a name, time for another poll? Let me know what you think!) gave me some lovely frosted 4 mm amethyst beads that had been left after making the Winter Berries necklace.
Perfect for this ring in fine silver wire, don't you think?
I have only tried to spool knit brass wire once. It was not a success because it doesn't bend the way copper does. So I still had this ugly necklace lying around. It's always hard for me to throw something away, but there was no chance I could have saved it. Snip, snip, snip - welcome back, little jasper cubes.
I find they look much better on this ring (what you can't see in this picture that on this ring the wire is crocheted in a different direction than the others, I can be soooo innovative at times :-P).
When I wanted to take the pictures to list the rings, I found ... or rather, I didn't find (it was a very negative feeling) no charged batteries. Ten batteries and all of them dead? That delayed the listing a little, but I hope they'll be in one of my shops soon. The rings, not the batteries ;-)
In German the sentence rhymes by the way.
We used it often when we were children and sitting here feeling chilly which doesn't happen often it came to my mind.
We have all been talking a lot about the weather. The long winter still not over in some places, spring, catastrophes, spring, April weather, spring - yes, we all long for it. And can I please have a consistent one?
April doesn't think so. Yesterday we had rain and the neighbor's kitty had to hide underneath my car (just when I wanted to drive off, of course, when else?). Today we have grey sky and no rain, but it's cold.
Thomas Tusser, an English farmer and writer (what a nice combination) in the 16th century said "Sweet April showers do spring May flowers".
And April showers were one of the ideas for the Polymer Clay Smooshers Guild that I am a member of.
Here is my interpretation. Take your own little rain cloud with you. It's not as wet as the ones above ... A polymer clay cloud focal hanging on four strands of sterling silver chain with three small dangling raindrops.
I like it.
The tree of life is a symbol in many cultures. It can have different meanings depending on if it is shown with or without leaves, with or without roots.
But you know what? It doesn't really matter. A tree is beautiful, one way or the other.
For some it's just a piece of wood that you can burn, for some it's inspiration, for many it is a friend. It's a place you can sit underneath, enjoying the shade, reading, chatting, dozing or sleeping. It's something that can accompany you your whole life through and many people are sad when they see an old friend like that being cut down.
There have been songs written about it (a favorite of mine being from 1968 sung by Alexandra) and there are countless poems and stories.
Of course I have my own tree stories to tell
- about the walnut tree in my godmother's garden that had to be cut down because it got to tall for its spot so close to the house
- about the cherry tree that my friend and I climbed in her garden picking the gorgeous deep red sweet cherries
- the sour cherry tree in our garden (when there were no garages there yet) I was sitting underneath with my grandmother telling her that my doll needed clothes
- the chestnut trees in the school yard and the park nearby where we collected tons of chestnuts to later make little horses and other animals out of
- the apple trees in our pastor's garden that were raided by the boys from our confirmation course until the pastor put a big bowl of apples on the table with a wink in his eye (he was the coolest pastor ever!)
- the lemon tree in the back of my friend's house in California where I sat for four hours with White Dude, the later foreign exchange kitty we took home after that vacation, in my arms
.... oh, I could go and on, but I'm sure you have your own stories.
My muse made me create two tree pieces lately. She can be a mean kicker if she wants me to do something!
One of them is a polymer clay piece. By making it I expressed how tired I was of seeing snow. I can't wait for the green to come back.
The other one is a piece of ocean jasper looking like a winter landscape (thanks, Ness, for pointing that out!). At first there was no tree, but when I felt I wanted to make the bezel even safer to avoid the rock jumping out of it, suddenly a tree began to shape and I followed the direction willingly.
I also love bare trees, maybe because they seem to be a promise life will come back?
These two pieces couldn't be more different. Just like my memories of trees.
I would love for you to share one of your memories with me.
.... how difficult it is to stay concentrated and not lose patience when a very loud cat is sitting in front of a closed door?
When I started to work with polymer clay, the upstairs kitchen became off-limits for the furry inhabitants of this house. As the fur tends to creep in under the door, it's hard enough to fight it off without having a wild chase around the table with hair flying in all directions.
The fact that there is a closed door is particularly hard for Ponder and Esme. It starts with a soft sound that changes into a yodel (Pon) or wild squeaking (Es) pretty quickly. Ponder takes it even harder than his sister. Even when he hasn't been around me for an hour or longer, he seems to feel that I'm behind "The Door" suddenly and he just won't have that.
So imagine me trying to roll clay with my hands while nerve-wrecking yodelling comes through the door, so loud that I'm afraid the neighbors will get me for torturing my cat. Imagine me trying to poke holes into about 40 beads while the yodelling starts to be accompanied by scratching on the door, not to mention the attempt to climb the door. Yes, Ponder walks up doors and it's a very distinctive sound.
I'm weak and can't stand that for very long which is the reason why it took me a few days to make all the beads.
I had started with the big focal one. The smaller ones are not as clear in their pattern, but that is why a focal is, well, a focal.
The necklace is not finished yet. I still need to string the beads and add a clasp, but I was curious to see what it might look like.
And now I have a purring black cat in my lap, happy that I came back out of the mysterious room, back to him, to serve him, in good days and in bad days. Doh.
Do you remember the wire teardrop with the lampwork beads from the last post? I think it started this.
I asked myself "Why not using beads with this?" At first I thought about an icycle, inspired by the weather outside, but suddenly blue wire and tiny beads turned into a sparkly cocoon.
Ice led to fire and here comes a sneak preview at a set of two pairs of cocoon earrings that will hopefully be listed in my shop soon!
I haven't posted for a while.
My beloved computer has a virus. Nothing I did helped. I told him (yes, he's male and he even has a name, but I have forgotten it) to drink a lot, take two aspirin and see me again in the morning, I checked out special virus forums, conferred with my personal IT gurus and finally gave up wanting to try anything on my own. I lost all motivation and now I am waiting for IT guru #1 to come by and put him to sleep before he'll raise him out of the ashes again. That phoenix motif is really following me ...
Now I have to use the tall guy's computer. It's old and slow and is driving me nuts. To upload a picture takes forever because it's so hard to reach the USB slot where the card reader goes.
I had to install all kinds of new versions of programs that I use, but the tall guy never does.
I also never knew I actually use most of the bookmarks on my computer.
Nevertheless I'm here today to show you what I have been up to jewelry-wise in the last days.
It started with me rolling up small change. It's not like I need to collect "pfennige" to buy my bridal shoes from that anymore, it would be a little too late for it and thinking about it now I don't even know if that is also still done with the Euro cents. So it was rolling up and taking to the bank eventually.
Somewhere in this glass full of coins I found a rupee. What to do with a single coin like that? Crochet a bezel for it, of course!
Now didn't I have a "pfennig" somewhere? And a coin from the Scotland vacation? And good old Lincoln.
Here is the backside of the rupee, the others are made the same way. I had thought about leaving it open in the back, but it didn't feel safe to me. Which side to use for the front is an easy decision, I just throw a coin! So the only problem left is what wire color to use for the best contrast.
I use four to five different sizes of hooks on these, by the way!
I love lampwork beads, but I never quite knew how to incorporate them into my designs. Now I got a few to play with, focals and spacers and this is my first finished attempt. Another one is still on the wire for me to have a second look at.
I took a quick picture, please excuse my hand looking slightly dirty. I pushed some of my new prop stoness away and part of the "dust" came off. I only saw it when cropping the picture and as it was already uploaded (you remember the USB slot?), I didn't want to take another one.
Healing thoughts for my computer are appreciated! ;-)
One of my favorite musicals is "Hair".
It was my sister's record - record as in vinyl for the younger people among us. Black, big and it was not a good thing to scratch them. My sister generously allowed me to record my favorite songs to tape.
I didn't listen to the tape today. By now I have the CDs and I have my favorite songs on my PC and my MP3 player.
I wish I could dance.
Instead I let it inspire me. There was nothing much else to do after the title song had glued itself to my brain.
Do you remember the cool tie-dye t-shirts? I had more than one and I might even still have one in my wardrobe ...
Wouldn't this pendant go great with one of them and jeans and a jeans jacket?
"Hippie circles" is made from scratch. I handformed the sterling silver wire and I filled the ring with colorful copper wire (crocheted of course!).
Peace, brothers and sisters! ;-)
Oh, and by the way, you find this pendant in my Zibbet shop.
Today is the first time I really feel Christmas is near.
First I delivered a commissioned necklace, another snake in bright violet with pearly eyes, but unfortunately the color doesn't come out perfectly in this picture because I took it in a hurry before wrapping the necklace up. Then it was off to the vet's.
Since yesterday evening it had been snowing, not as heavy as elsewhere, but enough for me. Now that I'm not out in the streets (I'm really good at slipping in snow and I managed to do so five times today), I can enjoy the snow outside.
When I signed in at Etsy, T-West was just about to open, so I had to improvise and of course the first snow fall inspired me.
Have a look at The first fall of snow ..., there is still plenty of time to comment!
Now I am sitting at my desk, looking at the sugared roofs in the dusk, having my second cup of chai, I am listening to Christmas carols in different styles (just now it's a soul version), I had my snuggle time with Greebo (don't ask how I took this photo, it was tough) and I wouldn't be surprised if I turned around and saw Santa standing there.
If I didn't already have a date for tomorrow, I might just stay at home, watch Christmas movies, work on the earrings for my forum swap and soak in the atmosphere.
Over all it has been a good year so far. Most important is that I got to know a lot of people who are mostly far away, but whom I wouldn't want to miss in my life. They make me laugh, they make me mushy, they teach me things, they lift me up when I'm down (even if they often don't know they do).
Have a very "messy Kweznuz", all of you out there!
And for those that don't know the Blackadder Christmas episode - a merry Christmas!
