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

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.

Boho Horsewoman's Bracelet

This bracelet was inspired by the book Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry and a wonderful set of ceramic beads from Gaea.

 The focal bead has a horse shoe imprint and I wanted to make something to donate to The Center For Adaptive Riding auction. A Boho Horsewoman's bracelet seemed just the thing.


 I ripped up some light weight silk I'd dyed and made a flat kumihimo braid with a copper ring braided into one end, then I strung the Gaea beads with spiral knots in between and made a strand of red creek jasper beads using figure 8 knots. Using copper wire, a first for me, I wrapped the three strands together and attached the clasp. When I tried it on it seemed a little thin, so I purchased some copper chain, another first, and attached it to the rings at each end. All that copper was just too bright, so I hung the whole bracelet over ammonia in a covered jar (thank-you Google) and Voila! 

I'm so happy with how it came out I don't want to give it up. Guess I'll have to make another one, or maybe two.