Under the blue moon

I really have to blame den Dekan for this or thank him. Probably both because it was definitely him who had hidden the blue dichroic glass cab, but because he also made me find it again when he hid something else in the same place before my eyes.
It was a nice surprise, and as I was still in "moon mode" from the moon hare that I made for the JAC challenge "Moon and Stars", I started humming Blue Moon. That's a lot of moon ;-)
We had the old single by Elvis Presley, so that's always the version that comes to my mind first. Those were the times, me trying to convince my mother that I HAD to do my homework to background music aka all my father's old singles from the 50s and 60s.
Luckily we had the old "Musiktruhe" that I have shown here years ago, a TV/radio/record player combination. One of its very useful features was that you could put on several singles at a time (the family doesn't agree exactly on how many) which would then drop down and play one after another. I doubt my Mom would have approved of my getting up after each song and changing the single while doing homework.

And here is Elvis' voice in all its 1954 glory.



My mind began wandering.
Sitting near a lake listening to the sounds of crickets and frogs ... spotting some dragonflies having settled for the night ... under a blue moon ...

With the blue moon, the nightly background, and the dark green blade of grass, I wanted a contrasting color for the dragonflies, so I chose a mix of red beads to embroider them, with clear AB sequins for the wings.
It reminded me of the time a red dragonfly visited me in our little garden once. We don't have a pond, so I guess it had come over from another garden to say hello and then headed back.

Quite some time and a bead order later because I ran out of background beads, I thought this would have made a fun bracelet instead of a pendant, but with the backing already sewn on, I finally decided against that and added a hex bead rope instead.
I tried to take a video to show how sparkly this necklace is, but that didn't work, so it will have to be a late night picture for now.

Vampire Bat Angie

I have to admit it to myself, I am not very good with jewelry at the moment. There's a pair of earrings in my drawer that is only waiting for me to decide on earwires. There are also a few small beaded hearts in a baggie waiting to be used in something. I keep picking things up and putting them down again.

Feeling so little motivation right now has a lot to do with what's going on, in the big world and in my small world.
Luckily that doesn't seem to mean that I can't get creative at all. My muse obviously thought that it was about time for me to work on a doll design that - together with two others - has been on my table for months now. This time I actually doodled a sketch of three outfits (during a meeting when I wasn't needed) that had already been in my head even months before that, more to remind me than to follow them in detail.
My doll outfits develop during the process, and not even I can tell what they are going to look like in the end.

For this one, I used an Angie doll for the very first time, a lovely Topper brunette with the head mold P10.
Her hair color doomed her to become the bat lady. You may remember that I have become quite fascinated with bead embroidery wings (ooh, just had an idea for another design), and I definitely saw Angie mostly in black with bat wings. If I still rerooted heads, I might even have been tempted to give her black hair. And call her Angelina for a more romantic vampire name.

The first decision was about the dress being tight or an opulent ball gown style, the flowing nightgown style was out right from the start. One thought that popped into my head, probably because I had been watching old Addams Family episodes on YouTube, had been a dress like that of Morticia, but first, Morticia is not a vampire, and second, I want to make my own designs.
So the dress finally became tight, but there is no plunging neckline, no long sleeves - not only because they are difficult to make with beads as the arms are so close to the body, but because I wanted the contrast of the arms against the wings - and instead of the "tentacles" at the bottom the skirt flares out at a higher point and is a little longer at the back.

To sew crystals to part of the skirt, was a spontaneous decision. Black and siam red is a combo that is irresistible to me. Only when it got dark and I turned the light on, I noticed that I had used both dark and regular siam crystals. It's hard to believe as in these pictures the dark siam seems almost black, but in daylight you have to look very close to tell them apart if you use black thread. Luckily, I liked the effect of different "blood drops" and therefore just added a few more of the light siam crystals instead of ripping everything out.

As usual, I beaded and beaded on the dress until then it was almost too late to make the shoes. Will I ever learn?
Then I realized that I have never thought about vampires' shoes before. Ballerinas, high heels, slippers? I took the easy way out with some simple sandals because they aren't seen underneath the long dress, anyway. They have slim ankle straps, soles and two straps across the toes.

Much more interesting are the wings, at least to me.
I haven't succeeded in getting a good video (yet, I will keep trying) that shows the sparkle of the silver lined red bugle beads against the AB shimmer of the shiny black sequins.
I could have used matte black sequins or shiny ones without the AB finish, but I love the effect of black exploding into color with a small movement.

You know I love making accessories, but they wouldn't have worked in this case.
Angelina just got a small choker with a "vampire bite".

I am still contemplating either trying my hand on some red lips and vampire teeth for her myself or outsourcing the task to someone who's quite probably better at it.
Even that doesn't happen, however, I am really happy with my dark beauty!

Update April 2024:
I finally tried my hand at a vampire smile, but after many attempts, I gave up on the teeth because they didn't go together with the eyes, and I really didn't want to mess up the eyes. A wide smile didn't fit and just two white dots looked ridiculous, at least to me, as if she had crumbs on her mouth or something.
The red lips, however, work much better with her overall look than the pink ones did!

Angie and Dawn were registered trademarks of the Topper Company. I am not affiliated with Topper in any way.

On top of the hill

Agate Hill is in the middle of nowhere, so nowhere that no one even really knows where that is.
It's not a big hill and there's not much to see, just some stones and a few trees over which the moon and stars shine in the night sky. Of course there also the three houses.
No one knows who is living in the three houses, either. No one noticed how they got built and who built them. They were suddenly there with their icy looking walls and bright red roofs. Sometimes you can hear sounds that make you wonder what's going on there. Gnome workshops? Some of Santa's elves exploring new territory?
Not one has been brave enough yet to knock and say hello ... would you?

Actually that's pretty much how it happened.
The houses were suddenly there. Everything was suddenly there. All I had done was glue the agate "hill" to the backing and bead a bezel for it. The rest was magic. Or my muse. My magic muse?

Every, now and then I wonder if it's a good thing to work like that or if I should challenge myself to plan something, with sketches or a list of what colors I want to use, for example.
On the other hand, those are the pieces that are the most fun to make. Sometimes I'm sorry if I have limited myself by using a piece of backing that isn't big enough for the thoughts in my head. Then again, however, it can be really exciting to take on the challenge if the right idea suddenly pops into your mind.

When the focal was finished (with black faux leather on the back, by the way), I went through my beads for inspiration. The dagger beads had just the right color and luckily I had just ordered the blue crystals that I used in the rope.

Now I only need to find out who lives in those houses.

SilhouetteCat and the mermaid

No, they are not a couple even if the title makes it sound like that ;-) Although you never know if they have met under a full moon, SilhouetteCat sitting at the pier maybe, looking down on his friend who has come from the depth of the ocean to say hello? I wonder what kind of conversation they would have.

Let's start with SilhouetteCat.
If you have followed me for a while, you may know that he is one of my favorite HeatherCats and I have made several versions of him.
This one is my second bead embroidered version and the first one in color, all because I couldn't resist turning a shimmering checkerboard cab into a moon.
I hadn't planned a HeatherCat. My first thought had been a tree "holding" the full moon, but luckily I used a big piece of backing as if Mabel, my muse, had been whispering in my ear that a moon needs a cat ...
Once I had beaded the bezel for the moon and added some rows around it, I knew that it reminded me of Heather's SilhouetteCat.

So I added the black cat -  with the body changed a little because I didn't want him to reach up to the moon.
Now some stars. In bead looming, my night skies often have dots for the stars, but this moon was so big that I felt they needed to be bigger, too. I didn't have any cabs that would have worked, though, so I went with more circles (that's probably why people are reminded of Van Gogh's "Starry Night", but if you have a closer look, you see it's not really that similar and it was not my inspiration).
It was also fun to add the fringe. I still have tons of those dagger beads from when an old project fell through, and the color was perfect.

Then I was at the usual point, what kind of rope to use. Of course I thought of my beloved Herringbone, but neither the 4 bead nor the 6 bead rope appealed to me this time because the different blue tones had different sizes.
I remembered, though, that I had just got some faux suede ribbon and there were still a bunch of crimps from my early bead looming days, and indeed the braids looked much better.
Now I'm really happy how the whole piece turned out!

And the braids actually brought me to a WIP that has spent nine months in my infamous WIP drawer - my mermaid.
I hadn't even posted about her here because I thought she would be done much earlier, but I had had the same problem with the rope. Bead loomed strips didn't sit right, the Herringbone ropes didn't look right.

Luckily the other spools of faux suede that I got were a dark teal and a light blue which went perfectly with the colors I used in the mermaid's tail.
Actually, the first idea had been to make just a fish tail with all those sequins, but a tail by itself always looks so cut off, so instead this large mermaid started evolving, getting more and more hair and this big fish tail. It was fun ;-)

It's amazing how satisfying it is to finish a long time WIP because the right idea has finally come along and I'm very glad she made it out of that drawer that has proved to be the end of the line for some other pieces over the years.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I know, I know ... Sunday is supposed to be reserved for quotes (which I have sadly neglected), but let's make an exception for the Fusion Beads 30 Day Challenge this month.

You might remember that I like to play from time to time, and today's piece for the topic "Make a wire wrapped ring" is one of the results.
When I first started with the Twin Beads, I tried a few things, and I ripped up a few things. I kept this one around however because it looked fun, and I like fun. It's not what I was trying to do, but the little beehive in bee colors started to grow on me, and so I finally put it on a wire wrapped ring. Bingo!

Beehive ring

When have you been a bit crazy the last time?

I'll be watching you

My inner playchild came out and, well, played. Nuff said.

I'll be watching you - Wire crochet eye pendant

Universe

I'm not really good at making free form pieces. I have to push myself hard to make something slightly asymmetrical and free form ... well, that takes me back to school when I argued with my art teacher about being too much in love with details and too stuck to symmetry. I can still see him taking my tool from me when we had to do an etching of a forest, scratching some wild branches into my carefully designed wood, telling me that nature was wild. So he was right, but still .... let's say we loved to provoke each other and being almost grown up now I see he did have some points and am able to admit it, too :-P

This piece started out with an attempt of using thicker gauge wire for needle lace. I'm not sure anymore what exactly I wanted to do with it then, but when I found it today and then stumbled upon some more gorgeous bubble lampwork beads by Deronda O'Neill, it was like a sign - possibly from my art teacher *grin*

The beads look like the planet Earth to me with their lovely color and this gave me the idea to turn the silver into the atmosphere surrounding it, keeping it organic and "wild".

"Universe" is available in my studio now.

Challenges

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

Chaos spirit

First of all I want to complain. What problem does Google Base have with the word "muse", so it has to block it?? Yes, it bugs me. Mabel has become a dear friend to me and I won't let Google Base treat her like that *lol*

I don't know if any of you remember the crochet ring I made quite a while ago. I was never really happy with it, with the edges, with the way it felt on and I kept squishing it and looking what else it could be good for.
My muse (ha, take that, Google Base!) finally showed me the way.
You know how sometimes you feel you are drowning in chaos? Too much work maybe, too much stress, things happening that you have a hard time dealing with, family, health, your car won't start, you keep dropping things - often those small things add up and one day you'll start crying because a glass falls over and breaks. No, the last thing didn't happen to me, but to a friend and her talking about it made me feel I knew exactly what she was going through. You can handle so much and then an ordinary glass breaks and you feel you can't handle this.

My life is been somewhat chaotic lately, I'll spare you the details.
And suddenly I took this poor squished ring and started weaving silver wire through it, randomly, chaotic. I took my pliers and distressed the silver and added a freeform bail. So that was what the ring was good for. And I was finally really happy with it.
You can find this one of a kind pendant in my ArtFire studio.