Woo-hoo ! I'm in the COCO MoCA

Conan Necklace, originally uploaded by ambrosianbeads.

My beaded Conan pendant got selected for the online gallery of artwork depicting Conan O'Brien and his various images and logos. Last summer I made a peyote stitched pendant (started off as a bracelet, but I procrastinated) and I wore it to the Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television tour that Conan did while he was off the air. Team Coco started a Flickr group for people's artwork (they totally stole that idea from me, I started my group first !) and selected different works in all media. There is a Facebook LIKE this page button for my piece, but the link is wrong. If you click it, you end up LIKING somebody else's piece ! Grrrr !

EBW Spring Swap-Tale of Procrastination and Regret !

A couple months ago, an idea for a swap of beadwoven creations among members of the Etsy Beadweavers started to be tossed around. 12 members signed on and then the beading began. I received Laura Zeiner's name. I didn't know Laura, but she listed her preferences and said her favorite colors were earth tones...wouldn't you know, most of the bead colors in my stash are bright "jewel" tones like magenta, purple, royal blue...alot of black, gold and silver beads too. I had to search the stash for a few muted colors and thought about trying out a new beadweaving technique. I was curious about the spiral peyote stitch I had recently seen in Bead and Button and thought about creating a bracelet for her. I poured out the beads, got settled and time after time, got lost in the pattern and found myself ripping and restarting. For some reason, I couldn't wrap my brain around the directions, or the pattern just didn't present itself in the beadwork as I went. Oh, well, back to the drawing board.

After having procrastinated long enough on even starting the project, I found myself up against the deadline and feeling guilty. I tried a couple more designs, but they weren't interesting enough or shaping up properly. I had some round agate slices and one of them was in muted brown shades. I started beading around it in peyote stitch, switching bead sizes, but the edges were too wavy...more ripping ensued. Finally, the piece began to shape up, but I needed to finish and get it in the mail. I slipped it on a silver neck cable and packed it up to send, regretting that it was just a mere shadow of the project I had in mind initially. Fortunately, Laura wrote that it was beautiful and she loved it. Whew ! I hope she's not just being nice ! Please visit Laura's blog: Stick Lizard Designs and make sure to follow the link to her Etsy shop.

Today I received the swap item that was made for me by Hadass and was thrilled that she used my favorite color, magenta and that it fit perfectly. She added pearls which I never use, so I'm pleased to have some to wear. Please visit her blog: Spring Colors and make sure to check out her Etsy shop.

Thanks to Christine of Christine's Beadworks for keeping us all in the loop ! Please stop by her blog and see the beautiful mosaic of all the beadwoven creations made for the swap.

Blue agate necklace

Blue agate necklace (PixUp), originally uploaded by ambrosianbeads.

Better photos will be coming shortly. This is a necklace that I did a couple years ago. I originally used a purchased glass leaf pendant, but everyone who saw it in my art gallery said "oooohh !!! did you make the pendant ?" After saying "no" one too many times, I vowed never to make another artist's or commercially made pendant the focal point of a piece of beadwork. It took me two years to come up with an idea that I like for another pendant.

I purchased the agate slab while on vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine the summer before, and at the last minute before gallery jury day, I decided it would work perfectly with the unadorned necklace. Feverishly working all day yesterday, going out for a few hours with a friend then staying up until 1:30 am, it was ready to visit the gallery this morning. I haven't checked yet, but I hope it was accepted and will find a new home shortly !

Brick Stitch Violin

Years ago when I first started beadweaving, my brother encouraged me to make some violin themed jewelry to sell at our family's violin shop. At the time, I was learning peyote stitch and didn't yet know how to do odd-count peyote (still haven't tried it, but I found some good tutorials recently). Plus, I hadn't learned brick stitch yet. The violin shape eluded me. Well, my brother got me started thinking about it again, and I decided to try it in brick stitch, and "viola" (ha, ha, I mean, "voila"-so funny when people write "viola" instead, that's the instrument I play !), and it looks halfway decent ! The size is an inch and a half, a little large (and obnoxious) for earrings, but made a nice, tiny pendant. I won't be wearing it however...every year, I get enough violin themed jewelry, ornaments and mugs to line a thrift store (where it ends up after the student quits !) BTW, I made the pattern with BeadTool 2.0 (need to upgrade, but it works pretty well).