Tuesday, June 17, 2014

A Time to Stitch 5 Blog Hop



 This is my first time participating in the cool blog hop.  I chose a very simple flat peyote stitch bracelet for this project.  I started with a bracelet in size 6 seed beads.




The second bracelet I made in size 8 seed beads.




Bracelet with stitch changed to size 8 seed beads



Both bracelets together

And the last one still to come will be in size 11 seed beads.

One of the things I learned from this exercise is that what looks good in size 6 seed beads does not have quite the fashionable look once it is done in size 8.  And for size 11 quite a bit is lost.  What I liked about the original size 6 bracelet was that the large button and beads made a fun and bold bracelet.  As it got smaller it got planer I think.  Next time I participate in one of these I hope to be quite a bit more adventuresome and bold as well.!!

Now let's see what everyone else made.  The list follows:

Hosts:

Participants

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

Inspired by Reading Book Club An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin




For the month of May, we read An Object of Beauty for our Inspired By Reading Book Club.  It is a fast moving and very entertaining book by one of my favorite actors, Steve Martin.  It takes place in New York City and is about the art world:  galleries, auctions, artists and money.  The setting was nostalgic for me as I lived in New York City for seven years around the time I attended college there.  I was inspired by the main character, Lacey's purchase of Andy Warhol's painting Flowers.  A photo of the work in also in the book as well as quite a few other works of art.

I have always like  Andy Warhol's work and had just the right pieces to make a necklace reflecting on this painting.  I had a number of steel flowers and a necklace form that I had been dying to use.  I had recently discovered that these steel pieces that I had acquired from Objects and Elements going out of business sale could be soldered to brass or copper with soft solder.  So I decided to give it a try.

I love the way they turned out.  A bit offset to one side but the solder just gave the flowers the grungy touch that I was looking for.
Once I had the flowers in place I found a great bulky chain to string them on. And then I found myself in a dilemma:  where would the clasp look best?  In front or back.  I had thought that the clasp in front would give the necklace an asymmetrical look and that would help with the flower placement that was not quite centered.  Not so sure.

So then I tried it with the clasp in the back.  For while I thought I liked that best.


And now I am not so sure once again.  Any suggestions?


I still love the flowers and know that I will have fun wearing this necklace whichever way it ends up.  

Now I hope you will take a look at what the other's created.  They are listed HERE on Andrew Thornton's blog, our wonderful host.  Thanks once again Andrew for making this all happen each month.
Note:  Andrew is traveling to the Bead and Button Show today in Milwaukee so he may not get the blog post on until later today.)

UPDATE
I have updated the link to Andrew Thornton's blog post so that now you can read what he wrote for the blog hop!!

After Reading the comment below from Backstory Beads, I decided to give the clasp another try.  I changed it a bit by adding some silver to it to tie in with the flowers.  Here is how the necklace looks now:
picture taken inside with flash  brings out the true color in the necklace

picture taken outside with natural light

another view with natural light


I think this will be the final version.  Thanks so much for looking.



Raku Bead Video Part III