Bragging Rights - Sandy Sherman

I've always told people who purchase my patterns and books that the designs are there for you to personalize. My bead and color choices are generally not to everyone's taste. Take the pattern, pick your own beads and run with it. Make it your own.

New Hampshire Bead Society member, Sandy Sherman did just that. This is her version of the Inca Lava Rope found on page 16 of Triangular Bead Crochet Ropes. Isn't it a stunning rendition?

This is my version of the pattern so that you can see how one stringing table can produce pieces that come out looking so different. They each fit the personalities of the individual bead crocheter.




You can find both e-copies and print copies of the book on my website, Bead Line Studios. If, by chance, you want a personalized copy of this book to try your own variations of some different designs - by all means, email me. I have a few printed copies on hand that I'll make a limited time, web special price of $20, postage paid (USA only), signed. You deserve to have a crocheted piece that reflects your own personality. With today's bead choices, there is no limit to what you can do.

Bead Room Cleanout Sale

It's in the air.... I know of several other beaders who are de-stashing or organizing their beads and/or studios.

The more I dig, the more I come up with things that I wonder why I bought them or why I bought so many of them. Because I snowbird, I have limited space and I've now vastly exceeded that space. Something has to be done. Help me simplify my life and give some of my treasures a new home.

This is the second round of my beadroom clean out. There will be one or two more after this one. I'm going to see if this format works - so bear with me please. These items are all marked for individual sale. Once the interest has waned, I'll re-combine the leftovers into groups and you would then purchase everything in that group. Sort of like a box lot at an auction.... the good with the uninteresting.

First come, first served ..... email me with the group name and what you want. I'll let you know if it's still available. Payment will only be by PayPal. Anything under $25 will ship First Class Mail for $2, otherwise it will go in a $5 Priority Mail envelope.

email me here

Closet Cleaning

It's drip, drip, dripping outside. The 60 degrees of damp seems to have settled into my joints. It's a good day to play with beads. Sorting beads is playing, yes?Why does a couple of days of rain put me in the mood to clean closets? Well, not exactly closets, but my bead inventory. I guess it's similar because when I get done and close the lids you really won't be able to see that I've done anything at all.

I cleaned out my 40 year fabric stash as I hadn't done any sewing in maybe 15 years. I needed the room and it's time to try and simplify things somewhat. One of my sisters has gone minimalist to the point that my Brother-in-Law mentioned to me that he and the cats were afraid they weren't going to have anything to sit on. I'm not thinking to clean down to quite that point, but years of uncontrolled collecting of neat things has finally gotten to me.

See this pile of beads? That is the second round of beading things that I have purged and really just don't need or want any more. Like I told one of my friends after the first round of bead clean out, it's just the tip of the beadburg.

About 5 years ago I sort of went a bit batty at the Tucson Gem Show and bought freshwater pearls. Not just a strand or two, but hanks of them. I haven't used pearls in my beadwork for 2 years now, so I think it's time to find new homes for some of them. I've had the enjoyment of fondling all the different ones in the pearl box as I sorted them out. Sometime next week I'll be doing a beadroom clean-out sale again. I have to think about it and maybe I'll do it by individual item and maybe I'll do it in groups. There is everything from 11/0 seed beads, hand carved large beads, gemstones. oddities and pearls.... lots of pearls. Stay tuned - one more round after I take care of this batch.

Now back to watching the water drip off of the eaves and the ferns getting bigger and lusher by the hour.

The Creative Eye

I had to run errands today and took some time to run into one of my favorite Antique stores. I love looking at the large salvaged industrial things they have. Then I have to take a peek into the medical corner... lenses, skulls, strange things in jars, eye charts, large cast teeth, dentist chair, etc. The 3 new balls came home to join my collection. One is a hollow black wooden ball used for some old game, somewhere. The two whitish ones are crude ceramic balls, probably from an old water filtration plant here in the East. See all the little balls? I got them last year and they are "end-of-shift" marbles. The bits of leftover clay were rolled up (some with glaze bits) and thrown into the kiln at the end of a shift - not round and beautifully discolored. It's fun being creative with what many would call cast offs. How about it ceramicists - can we have some "end-of-shift" oddities for Steampunk work?

Update: this store is in Jaffery NH, "Seaver & McLellan Antiques" - they have an Etsy store

I had to look twice at this guy climbing into (or out of) a second story window. It's a printed cover up for a blanked out window. I love it when building owners have a sense of humor and then share it with the whole world.

The next time you take a walk, look around. What do you see? Is it something that strikes your funny bone or is it something that might translate into a beaded work of art. Talking to a young child often brings out things that we (as adults) no longer see. When I lived in California I realized that my daughter's education was sadly lacking one winter. She came running in, telling me, "Mommy, Mommy, there's feathers falling out of the sky!" At 5 she had never seen a snow fall before.

Mother Nature's Colors

A pink-striped oakworm moth (Anisota virginiensis ) is what came to visit my desk the other night. What a beautiful Moth and such stunning design colors.

The overall shapes of the individual parts also have merit as beadwork possibilities. I'm not sure just how I'd do it, but a layered bead embroidered piece comes to mind.

I used an on-line color picker to extract the color palettes. Do a Google search as there are a lot of them out there. If you want some beading colors for this Fall, you wouldn't go wrong with a combination of these.

Slide Talk in New Hampshire

Bead Society of New Hampshire

Presentation

June 12, 2011 - A Short History of Bead-Crochet, and the work of Judith Bertoglio-Giffin The fashioning of beaded articles today is not a fad but a continuation of the process of bead artistry begun long ago. Judith will present slides and talk about the history of bead crochet ropes. She will then delve into her personal journey of learning, publishing and teaching the time honored woman’s craft of bead crocheted ropes. The presentation will be heavily illustrated with photo examples of the technique.

I'll be doing a slide talk in Concord NH at the Society meeting. It's the same one I did in March in San Diego. If anyone is going to be in the area and would like to attend, contact me by email.

I will have an eclectic assortment of items for sale: Books, Software, DVD, Kits, and "beadroom cleanout" beads.