Mrs. Freddie

Mrs. Freddie is coming along nicely. I'm hoping to finish her by tomorrow night. Then I'm going to cut out and back both of them so I can hang them on my Christmas tree! They look nice and sparkly with light shining on them!

Weekend Update

I worked on my mermaid this weekend and started Mrs. Freddie. The mermaid is looking a bit more glittery - I added quite a few beads. I tried size 11 but they look too large so I had to use 15. My eyes are feeling the strain! Mrs. Freddie is almost completely outlined and then I'll start giving her some character. The outline beads are cranberry. They look sort of purple but in daylight they look cranberry. She's going to be mostly pink, with a little blue maybe. Or maybe some green. We'll see.

I ordered the 2011 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue and it came on Saturday. It's full of ornaments I want to make! I'm going to look through my stash and hopefully I'll find everything I need. I'm feeling very enthusiastic and full of energy to get things done. Not sure how long it'll last!

Next project!

I started this mermaid project so long ago I can't remember! My plan for 2012, and isn't it impressive that I've already started, is to finish most of my WIP. I say most because I think there are some that I'm going to give up on because they just don't appeal to me anymore. My mermaid is 1st in line and she definitely still appeals to me. I'm going to add beads to her and make her very glitzy and gorgeous! I'll post progress updates as I go along!

Meet Freddie

Freddie the Fish! I found Freddie in a book called Beadweaving by Ann Benson. I don't really like fish but something about Freddie appealed to me. I've been working on him for a couple of weeks and I finally finished last night. I think Freddie is quite handsome! I'm planning to hang him on my Christmas tree and I anticipate that a Mrs. Freddie and perhaps some Freddie children may join them if I work fast enough!

Pippin likes Freddy too. He's a little confused as to why I keep saying fish but he doesn't smell anything!

Earrings!

I've made 9-1/2 pairs of earrings so far. I'm having a lot of fun making these and I think I'm getting better with each pair. They are simple ones since I'm just beginning but the fact that I'm actually making them myself is exciting for me! Here are pictures of nine of them. The 1/2 pair I'm still working on. It's a more complicated technique and I got one made but it needs to be redone. They're going to be very pretty once finished though!

These beaded ones were fun to make but the pair with the bugle beads doesn't hang well. I pulled it tighter than I should have I think. 

I found this pattern at Fire Mountain Gems. They look like Christmas candies! I want to make a lot more of these.

I thought these two came out pretty. I like the brown/caramel colored swirls. 

 

I've had the dance charms for a long time. You can't really tell but the dark beads are purple. I was very happy with the way this pair came out.

These are Day of the Dead earrings for my daughter. I'm going to give them to her on Saturday. Hopefully she won't see this post before then! 

Some pretty orange and red beads. I needed some earrings in these two colors to match some of my tops. Now I can be color-coordinated!

August/September BJP

For August/September I have chosen to celebrate the sea deities throughout the world - particularly Iemanja and Aphrodite.  I got this glass shell bead awhile back and was inspired by the idea of a shell washed up onshore filled with seawater, bits of seaweed, pebbles, and other ocean bits.  I used some fibers threaded through the shell bead, tied off at the ends with various small beads.  I used a mix of glass seed beads, amazonite chips, freshwater pearls, and larimar chips.  So there's my oceanic shell on the shore pendant! (posted for Jillian)

June/July BJP

For the months of June and July I decided to create a bracelet inspired by the Aztec goddess Chalchiuhtlicue - "She of the Jade Petticoats"  Quite a few technical difficulties were encountered in crafting this bracelet.  Though it's more-or-less wearable I will probably redo it at some point in the future.  At any rate, I used hemp cord in blue and green, various colors of various beading thread, size 08 glass seed beads, rectangular jade beads, and a couple of turquoise nuggets.  I added the turquoise because "chalchiuh" in Nahuatl refers to any bluish-green stone - jade, turquoise, or serpentine.  In "Bancroft's Works"  her name is defined as meaning "petticoat of water, of a shade between green and blue"  So in my bead and fiber choice I used green, blue, and turquoise shades.  In one picture I posed the bracelet next to a somewhat battered Talavera frog, since Chalchiuhtlicue was associated with frogs! (Posted for Jillian Texeira)

May !

For May I have made the Fairy Queen's Herb Pouch!  This little bag is stitched from batik fabric and adorned with glass beads, Swarovski crystal, prehnite, and peridot.  The fringe on the bottom is meant to be representative of a creek running through a mossy woodland lit by unfolding Spring leaves.  I added browns to the creek beads because I realized most creeks here have brown shades from the stones and soil underneath the water.  The blues and greens are reflections of the leaves and sky, and of course some clear ones as well for the ripples of water.  For this project I was influenced by some of the embellishments in Laura McCabe's "Embellished Beadweaving" book.  I used the branched fringe, and spiral rope with drop beads on the top hanger part.  The rest I sort of made up, but I think the book inspired me in those!  To give an idea of scale the matte seed beads in the moss fringe are size 11s.

March/April BJP

With Spring upon me I was unable to choose just one Springtime deity, so I decided that this project would be for all Spring goddesses and gods! Since it also took longer I made it for both March and April. It's a multistrand necklace with colors inspired by the many green shades of this season, accented by occasional wildflower hues. I used different sizes of glass seed beads, from 11 to 6, small Swarovski crystals, and gemstone beads of jade, peridot, serpentine, green kyanite, seraphinite, prehnite, citrine, and green tourmaline. Included in one of the pictures is the Pestemon heterophyllus that inspired the combination of purple and blue in one part of my necklace!
(posted for Jill)

Bridget's Mantle

For February I chose to represent Bridget's Mantle.  I wasn't going to use this Goddess, since She featured in last year's February project, but here She is anyway!  Since Her mantle is an important part of both Her Christian and Pagan mythology I chose to just render it.  I used some of the batik fabrics left over from last year's projects.  I even left the inner lining fabric out on Imbolc Eve to be blessed by Her!  The beads I used are almost all glass, except for the peridot chips on the front, and the metal knot bead that is used for the clasp.  I used some branched fringe (one of my first attempts!) on the front  and I was happy with the way it looked.  The design on the back depicts a manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.) branch with flowers.  Many manzanitas bloom at this time of year and I associate their honey-scented white to pink blossoms with Bridget.  This one probably won't work as a pendant, but it might work on an altar!

2011 Bookmark Challenge

From March 17 - April 28, you can join in the Needle & Thread: Stitching for Literacy challenge and stitch a bookmark that will be donated to a library or school during Children's Book Week. Read the details here to find out where to submit your bookmarks.

I thought this was pretty cool! I have bunches of patterns for stitched bookmarks. I'm going to dig some out this weekend and stitch a couple. I haven't done any cross stitch for so long I'm afraid I might have forgotten how!

Woden in Winter

This year I've decided to create smallish (probably no more than about 3"x3") little beaded things that can be made into pendants if I so desire.  That's kind of vague, I know, but I think I'll really enjoy this kind of loose format.  The theme of these objects will be to represent a goddess or god from some belief system (probably mostly Celtic and Germanic Pagan, but certainly not limited to such!)  Sometimes the representations will be more literal than others (an actual figure) but sometimes not.  I'll just have to see where the shiny beads inspire me to go!

So, for January I've chosen to represent Woden (called Odin in Scandinavia) I used a small (about 2 1/2" long) piece of an ash tree (Fraxinus latifolia) as a base for my image. I was inspired by the rather rough unhewn types of images the Northern European tribes were supposed to have used to represent their gods. Woden's shamanic aspects are emphasized here with his fringed cloak and ornaments. I also made a sort of hood on the upper part of the figure. The cloak is peyote stitched from size 11 seed beads and the stones I used are black onyx, larvikite, and labradorite.

Caging the Wild Cabochon

That's the title of the class Jill and I took today! It was a fun class and we learned (one of us somewhat faster than the other) how to wire-wrap a cabochon. I'd like to say the copper wrapped one is mine but Jill did that one. I thought we both did pretty good though! The top shows the back and the bottom the front (although it may not matter...).

I Forgot!

I took a class in December on making a beaded wire Christmas tree and meant to post the pictures a few weeks ago but forgot. Anyway here they are finally! The first picture are the three that I made. After the class, I showed Jill how to make them. The second picture is her tree. As you can see we both need to practice making spirals but we'll get there!