Changes, Opportunities, Beginnings

This past week has been a challenge for each role I perform daily; I grew as a mother, wife, and artist. I am glad to take a moment to reflect on that, and acknowledge the stress life can sometimes bring. This week brought a new school schedule for my oldest daughter, a change in work schedule for my husband, and I found out I have three classes booked for the month, which is a VERY good thing, particularly in the artist budget arena.

My family needs me so much, but they inspire me every minute. For example, the Mermaid necklace is inspired by my little water babies, who swam this whole long weekend! We had a blast swimming in the beautiful Gulf, at the Treasure Island Public Beach. We saw so many fish! I'll have to do a necklace with all of those magic fish as inspiration.




This necklace was made with Glass seed beads and little bits of Labradorite and moonstone. The center piece is a magical mermaid from Green Girl Studios, a favorite of mine for many years. The back has an inscription that reads "even lovers drown".




I've also included pictures of a necklace I call "Montana Blue Bird", with a more modern birdie motif and lots of freshwater pearls, Swarovski crystals, and Iolite beads woven throughout the seed bead base.





I wanted to include both of these necklaces in one post because they were made with the same basic technique, which is a (very) modified Zulu stitch. Zulu is fun and easy. It is also great for those times when you need to just go with the flow and design as you go along, making the beadwork more or less full, as desired.

The Ice Empress

I finished the Ice Empress Bracelet this afternoon, marking the first afternoon that my two girls let me get some beading done with them nearby, without any accidents. I am so relieved that I was able to have a few beads around the kids and no grabbing or messing around.

Anyway, I am proud of this piece, I felt confident during the entire creative process.




I used lots of little faceted Labradorite buttons, grey peacock freshwater pearl flat irregular chips, white freshwater pearls, and lots of different seed beads including 15/o, 11/0, and 8/o hex cuts. Woven with c-lon thread with a size 12 needle, the thread shredded many times and I had to add and end threads constantly, despite applying and reapplying Thread Heaven frequently. This was tricky as it filled up those beads holes so that I could barely get the needle to go through for the last pass.




I started the base for this bracelet with a chevron chain, then weaved a row of right angle on each side of the strip. I added the clasp and the outside row of Pearls on the next pass. Then I added the diagonal embellishments to the right angle weave boxes. Lastly, I added the Labradorite and more Pearls to the center row.




It measures 1.25 in wide by 7.5 in long. I think it would look lovely on a bride. I would wear it if I could marry my fantastic husband again.