Waiting for spring

At first I was completely without a plan when reading that the inspiration for our first challenge at JAC this year were daffodils.
I didn't even think I had yellow seed beads, but found two different tones in my box, much to my surprise, so that excuse was gone.
My beaded pin is just a little something, but it made me think of spring which fit the challenge theme "Yearning for spring".

The Dragonfly

I have always loved dragonflies. They are like small flying jewels.
I know they sew your lips together if you believe Snoopy ;-) but actually this is just an old superstition as the Britannica tells us: "The term devil’s darning needle is derived from a superstition that dragonflies may sew up the eyes, ears, or mouth of a sleeping child, especially one who has misbehaved." I've never heard of this superstition in my area, but I know that some people thought a dragonfly could sting or would drill into your eyes.

At the Jewelry Artisans Community we have a bimonthly challenge and the first one of this year - take a look here - was to try out something new, a new material, technique, or tool.
My first thought had been to finally use my Kumihimo disks, but somehow I just didn't feel like it. I don't have the right weights or spools and on top of that I have been too lazy to check out how exactly it's done.

Then, inspired by a documentary about embroiderers in India that I have watched a while ago, I thought of sequins. As I don't sew, I had never used sequins before except in a very short polymer clay jewelry venture with a friend 30 years ago. In fact I'm not even sure if I used them, but I had some scattered in my old stash boxes at some time.

What to do with sequins, though? Well, I love dragonflies ...
I looked through dragonfly pictures and I looked through my stash to decide on a color combination.
There was this acrylic cab on which I then based my choice of seed beads. Luckily I had everything except the sequins in my stash and could start right away while I was waiting for the sequins to arrive. It was more difficult than I had expected to find what I wanted, 4 mm clear AB sequins.
I had already decided not to make the body from single bigger beads, but to embroider the whole piece. For the wings and body I used seed beads in different sizes and different gold tones plus black and alabaster white, also gold lined bugles, and for the head I used gold coated hematite beads and bronze Twin Bead eyes.

To enhance the overall golden look, I chose to sew the sequins on using the method of adding a bead on top.
This is the end result. Almost.
I took this picture in my hand to show the size. Now what? I didn't trust an ordinary small needle to work. I hate big brooches with small needles. A necklace?

A friend convinced me that my dragonfly would make a good pin and advised me to check out hat needles etc., and that's what I did.
I found some that had larger filigree disks attached to the pin which I could sew to the backing easily and, which is much more important, safely.

Unfortunatley it's a rather grey day today and although I could see a beautiful green shimmer in the sequins at one moment, my camera wasn't able to pick it up. You'll have to believe me when I'm saying that the wings shine in different colors and are more beautiful in the pictures.
Here's a closer look at them, by the way, to show you how the sequins are sewn on.

I have to admit it was much more fun to work with sequins than I had expected, so much actually that I already used them again on a second project that you will get to see soon, I hope!

Catweazle button

Do you know Catweazle? I have a Catweazle button that had been in one of my glass cabinets for years and years. You know those button badges with a message, a favorite singer, a cartoon character or even your own photo (there used to be a stand making those at the beer tent during our annual town fest).
I still remember I had to have Catweazle, I was always a fan. In fact it's the only button like this that I have ever seen, maybe the seller made it himself.
As a teenager I loved those buttons, I always wore one of Snoopy and alternated others on my denim jacket.
Eventually I didn't find a jacket that I liked anymore or I liked them and they didn't fit, and eventually I lost my buttons. Except two, Snoopy and Catweazle (although Snoopy is hiding, in a drawer probably).

I blame my friend and fellow JAC member Carole for what comes next. Why is it Carole's fault that I had to turn our old English sorcerer into a piece of jewelry, though?
She shared a button press which reminded me of Catweazle (and Snoopy). I knew exactly where he was (now that's a new one, a safe place that I remember!), and I thought I'd experiment a little and do some bead embroidering. The experimenting part was that I wanted to use the original pin in the back. So I had to cut a hole in the center of my "Stiff Stuff" which didn't leave much surface for the glueing.

Glue story #1,478,575. I'm running low on glue ... do you know what happens if you you do? You squeeze a little harder and watch the opening at the same time. Nothing comes out, so you squeeze a little harder in case it has dried up a bit. That's the moment when it shoots out and you get it all over the button, your hands, and your t-shirt. So you clean up everything - which sounds much less time consuming than it was - glue the button on and hope for the best.

Except for the firepolished crystals my choice of beads was rather random, I used the colors that I had in a bead cup from when I ripped up a bead scarf recently.
I bet Catweazle never thought he could get that sparkly!

Now came the difficult part, cutting a hole into the center of the Ultrasuede. My plan was to make it a little smaller and then make cuts all around, so I could fold the Ultrasuede into the rim of the button's back ... and glue it. When will I ever learn?
It's by no means perfect, but maybe it will be better the next time. Maybe I'll get myself some scissors that work better for this or maybe I use Ultrasuede in a color that actually let's me see see the line I'm supposed to follow. I would have liked to make the back nicer, but at least it's functional.

Which challenge is next? ;-)