homemade conversation hearts

go ahead, make your own custom candies at:

http://www.acme.com/heartmaker/

crows

what's on my brain?
mmm.







moretti / effetre dark silver plum #275.
the minute it arrived from "Moretti & More" i knew i was going to make crows.

























very unfussy & fast - just glass sketches of crows.

this glass works sort of gummy, and you want to keep as many of the ridges and whorls as possible to show off the irredescence of the glass.

the extra beads are also wound from dark silver plum and nothing else.
they look like they were finger sculpted from blobs of old road tar on a hot summer day.






i don't know what the 'claw' things are, they just happened.






the sketches from the bead book.

skull cap

now, a skull and crossbones hat from Hello Yarn's free online patterns.

a birthday present for Miss Mango16's boyfriend.

his favorite color is safety orange and he fancies himself a bit of a pirate, that makes this hat perfect.

amigurumi of all sorts

how excited was i to find these at an estate sale last week?
each of these old cotton amigurumi is just about 3" tall.








who wouldn't want to make some of these?
i am making them out of glass.





there were more but the teen girlies got 'em before they were photographed.

inspirational doodle scraps of paper - glued into the bead sketch book.

paillettes a go-go

the scarf around the neck of its' intended - the mysterious e.v.e.
photographed at her barista gig at the public market.





this scarf is so yummy and fuzzy and bright that it is impossible to photograph...







the yarn glows and the vintage paillettes reflect the flash... i wish you could see how riotously pretty and fun it is.







knitting the paillettes in was a gas, just fish a knit loop thru the paillette with a crochet hook and knit on.
i think i will make a black hat that uses aluminum popcan tops instead of paillettes as a blingy accent.






this packette of vintage 20mm silver paillettes came from an estate sale.
i have a few hundred more to use up, but if you want some there is a seller on ebay called 'sequins galore' who has a huge selection.

little cock robin

little cock robin
sitting on a pole
niddle noddle went his head
poop went his hole





"she" by francesco clemente









robin beads - first attempt.













also an egg and a nest with an egg in it.





for the nest make a round clear bead, flatten the top and add the egg, then wrap and wrap and wrap with verigated brown stringers.







these are cute, but i want something more naturalistic, so i went to the sketch book.
there will be more later.

flies

yer buggin' me.

"Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day."

-Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "Dreams & Facts"

yucca pods & pearls necklace

yucca pod beads.



these look as tho they were picked up off a forest floor - same as dry and decaying autumn leaves and brown lichens.



the necklace is done with a sterling silver clasp and white fresh water pearls.



here are the pages from my bead sketchbook that i worked from. of course, i also had the real pods with me at the flameworking bench.

happy pink bear skulls

making some happy pink bear skull beads for miss mango.









i had some problems with the line work being lumpy dumpy. after thinking about it i think i need to encase some superfine stringers in clear in order to handle the details.

the usual sketchbook notes.



you know, you really should keep a sketch book.

even if you don't draw - you can clip and glue and make notes.
that way, when you get to the bench you are ready to go.

never mind waiting around for your muse, have her in the car, gassed and ready to go.

these socks & beads are like butter

and the tigers were very, very angry, but still they would not let go of each other's tails.
and they were so angry, that they ran round the tree, trying to eat each other up, and they ran faster and faster, till they were whirling round so fast that you couldn't see their legs at all.
and they still ran faster and faster and faster, till they all just melted away, and there was nothing left but a great big pool of melted butter round the foot of the tree.
- from little black sambo by Helen Bannerman

the finished tiger socks.






they were knit up with "Opal tiger." what can do you do when you finish a pair of socks but immediately make a set of matching tiger beads?

rosehip beads

last fall at a household sale i knicked a branchlet of rosehips from a bush.




i carried the fruit to "More Fire" and worked at flameworking a rose hip.
this first attempt was not at all successful - they looked like wonky cherry tomatoes.

so, i scanned the hips into the computer and thought about forming techniques for a week or two as the hips schriveled up on my desktop. eventually i pasted the printouts into a sketchbook - the first pages of the everfattening bead book.




the second attempt yeilded the beads that were made into this bracelet.




my first piece of jewelery made with my own beads.