Not Yet A Studio

My moved happened 11 days ago and parts of the house are organized and other parts are not. Because my plan is to be here "forever", I'm working hard to have things organized to my own standards, as I unpack. My studio has taken a back seat to this point and I'm not sure when I'll really go to work on it. I keep reminding myself to "eat the elephant, one bite at a time" so that I can feel satisfied with moving forward, little bit by little bit.

I thought it might be fun to post photos of my studio in chaos to compare with how it's going to look further down the line.

This photo is taken from the doorway to the room. Lots of boxes to be unpacked yet. The windows face west and south.



I've started to get some of my shelves up.



There are a lot of boxes here. You can't really see that the closed is stacked full of boxes too.



You can almost see one of my work tables here in the background. Those dark dusty blue walls have got to go! It just makes the room too darn dark!

Settling In

I still have a way to go to be settled into my new home, but I'm getting there. Lots of distractions here, that's for sure. Here is one of them taken from the balcony of my second floor bedroom last night.



At least a few more days, maybe a week till I get back to beading.

Life, the Universe and Everything...

This is the title in the "trilogy" by Douglas Adams known as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe. It's also a good way to describe what's going on with me. I'm moving. From a two bedroom townhouse to a three bedroom house on 1/4 acre lot. Sounds pretty simple but my move entails a 150 mile drive down a two lane highway from the town of 2500 that I'm in (on the ocean - see photos here), to a ferry landing. When I get there, I'll sail across the ocean from Vancouver Island to a somewhat larger community (15,000) on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. The ferry trip takes 1 hour, 35 minutes. Anyway, I'll be scarce online for a few days while I wait for my phone and internet connection to be hooked up.

So these are the last pieces of beadwork I'll be showing for a while. The neck piece on both is Russian Spiral and I made them a while ago. I recently pulled them out of the store they were in, to bring them home and add pendants.

The blue triangle piece below is a version of another two necklaces I'd made previously. Unfortunately I wasn't able to photograph the sparkle of the Swarovski crystal roundells. The piece above is a first try at one way to add a bevel to a stone. I'm pleased with how it turned out and I have more ideas for ways to expand on the design.

Serendipity Necklace

Some time ago, I bought a challenge kit of beads from a store that I shop in, online. From another online store, I'd ordered some short Toho bugles to experiment with. The kit and the bugles have been sitting on my coffee table, AKA bead studio for a while. I'd seen some pictures of Russian Spiral stitch done using long bugles and though it is interesting, I thought I'd like it better with the shorter ones I had. As I worked on the beginning of the necklace, I was thinking about adding some larger beads at the center to create a sort of faux pendant stitched right in. Back to my "bead studio" I went and the kit caught my eye. So began the experiment. The necklace is made up of seed beads in several sizes and colours, bugle beads, Swarovski crystals and fresh water potato pearls. I have to say that I'm really pleased with the result.

It was for sale in my Etsy shop. Now, it's sold.

Commission Finished

When I completed the black and silver commission and delivered it to my friend, she mentioned a "beaded fairy" that her granddaughter had made that she'd like turned into a necklace. When she got the "fairy" to me, I told her I thought it is a mermaid. Anyway, based on that idea, I wanted a neckpiece for it that felt...waterish. I delivered the piece today and she told me that she may give it back to the granddaughter as a graduation gift this year. Sounds like a great idea to me.



I also made this pair of earrings that I thought she might like to have. She decided not to take them so they may end up on Etsy.

3-D Triangles

This necklace is created entirely with Delica beads. When I found the instructions to created these 3-D triangles I just had to try them. I also wanted to try linking two together. It was a bit of a challenge to weave the one into the first, but obviously not impossible. I'd lo it again. I tried them in several different of bead combinations but like the result with the Delicas best.

The photos aren't very good because I've already packed most of my photo equipment. The beads are silver lined gold, opaque chocolate brown and AB cream. The triangles can be worn with the gold side or the cream side showing giving the necklace a bit of variability. I'm also planning on making matching earrings.