Memories and Thanks Blog Hop

This is a project I started before Lori Anderson announced this blog hop.  I love Gaea beads and when I saw her "Fearless Heart" bead sets I immediately wanted to make something for my Cowgirl Sisters - Ellen, Billie and Patti.  To reflect our shared passion for horses, Gaea made a a custom horse hoof print bead.

What these three amazing women have in common is incredible heart and courage.  They keep finding a way forward when it would be easier to just give in or give up, or to become bitter and hard.  And they don't think they are any thing special.  Well to me they are incredible, and I wanted to make sure they know it.

Braiding - rawhide, leather, horsehair is a traditional method for making all kinds of tack, so I wanted to hand made braids to be the basis for the necklaces.  I went thru some trial and error figuring out how to combine kumi braided cord with the beads.  I settled on making two cords for each necklace.  The first cord, used to string the beads, is made of 8 strands of pearl cotton.  The second cord is 12 strands, it is tied in larks head knots in between the beads.  (Note to self: never, ever attempt this again!  It takes a ridiculous amount of cord to tie all those knots and when you are braiding it out of pearl cotton .....)

So here are the finished necklaces.

To check out the other participants please go to Lori's most excellent blog for links:

Memories and Thanks Blog Hop

History Blog Hop

I was given Indus Valley for my historical period.   The Indus Valley produced beads for trade from shell, stone, clay, and metal -- they have even found beads of wrapped copper wire with silk fiber inside!   Their jewelry was very simple bead strung pieces and "bangri",  from which our word bangle descends.  So here are a few simple bangles:

Sorry this is late and so few bangles, I'm claiming it as a "senior moment" and sticking to it.  Thank you, and apologies, to Leah at The Beady Eyed Bunny

Bead Table Blog Hop

Sorry I am a little late with this post.

First thank you to Lisa Lodge of Pine Ridge Treasures  for setting up this blog hop and providing such great beads to work with.  Here is what she sent me.  Special thanks for the darling cat head bead.







The beads seem to sort themselves into two groups, the amethyst chips forming the basis of one and the candy came stripe beads anchoring the second.





I chose to work with the amethyst group and in the spirit of the hop worked only with left overs from previous projects and repurposed materials.

Recently I've being playing around with kumihimo so I started by making a spiral braid of embroidery floss and C-Lon cord with the amethyst chips on the raised cords of the spiral.




















 I added fringe to the braid using the 4 purple and white flower beads in the center.

The larger beads are strung on C-Lon to form the back.  The clasp is a repurposed brooch, I removed the original center of the flower and replaced it with a pink pearl, the same pearls used in the fringe.











To see what everyone else made:

My Bead Table Blog Hop

Your Host: Lisa Lodge

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution

Ginger Bishop, lilmummy likes...

Tanya Boden, Fusion Muse

Lisa Boucher, Lisa’s Clay Happenings

Michelle Buettner, Mishel Designs

Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life

Mikala Coates, Maybe Just Perhaps

Marlene Cupo, Amazing Designs

Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's

Mary Anne Klinglesmith Flesch, Hand Crafted Serenity

Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures
Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress

Mary Hicks, Falling Into the Sky

Tina Holden, Polymer Clay Bytes!

Shelly Joyce, Au jour le jour

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Susan Lloyd, Designs by Susan

Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers

Kashmira Patel, Sadafule .. always in bloom!

Inge von Roos, Inge's Blog

Kristen Stevens, My Bead Journey

Sonya Stille, Dreamin' of Beads

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas

Sandra Wollberg, City of Brass Stories

Tidying Up the Blog . . .

Blog clean up day -- it's so much easier than cleaning up the house or (shudder) my work space.   So please excuse the odd missing photo or blog update message.

Photo above is the focal for necklace made with torn silk, this time the flat braid is accented by size 8 seed beads.  The "bail" is macramé  C-lon cord and torn silk with seed beads crochet creating the fringed edge.

More Experiments in Kumihimo

I'm having way too much fun with my Kumihimo disk,  I've been making braids out of all kinds of materials and beads, here are a couple pieces that ended up as finished jewelry.

The first piece uses fabric from my stash and some metallic round cord in a flat braid.  This flat braid is fast becoming a favorite, the channel down the center created by varying the cord sizes is a great place for beads or other shiny stuff.   I like the rustic look of torn fabric strips, I think it goes well with the clay focal.

Finished Necklace

Braid Detail

This is C-Lon cord and beads.  The large wooden beads are worked into the "rungs" of a ladder braid, the excess cord is braided into a long fringed tail that can be worn in front or behind.  Two strands, lavender and apricot, of size 6 seed beads and spiral knotted cord are woven thru the braid.  The bail is folded micro macrame, another technique I've been playing with.

Bail Detail

Pay It Forward - Handmade

Thank-you Katherine at Terra Beads for letting me play.

So by now you probably know how this works, but here it is again:

I’ll send a surprise gift to the first three people who comment on this blog post and then pay it forward.  The gift will be handmade by me and will be sent to you some time in the next 365 days (yep, mystery gift at a mystery time).

All you need to do is leave me a comment and make sure you include your email address (if your profile doesn’t include it). I’ll then contact you for your snail mail address and ask a few questions (likes/dislikes, favourite colours, sizes general stuff like that).

To complete signing up you MUST play along too. To do this you must blog a similar post and pledge to make a surprise gift for the first three people who comment on your post.

Come on, join in the fun!  You don't have to be a beader, the items just need to be handmade by you.

Kumihimo & Red Creek Jasper Necklace

This was my first kumihimo braid I made for a piece of jewelry, I love getting into my fabric and embellishment stash and pulling out things to braid.  This braid has a bit of everything in it, I love the textures using different fibers produce.  I've had this necklace finished for a month or so, except for the end caps for the braid.  Everything I looked just didn't have the "heft"I felt this braid and the stones required.  As soon as I saw Krisit Bowman's  spiral copper end caps I knew they would be just right.  I also ordered several other pieces from Kristi and am really enjoying working with them.