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UFOs . . . and other unfinished objects.
No, not flying saucers. Also known as Unfinished Objects. You know the ones; those projects that sit lurking in the shadows of your creative space, mocking you every time you reach for new materials to begin new projects, “Please finish me,” or “Just hack me up and use my parts for something else!”
They collect dust and sit in canasters and baskets with other UFOs. Maybe you’re like me when you catch a glimpse of a UFO. You shiver and make a mental note to rid of it soon. But then you’re humming away happily as you weave or string or wire your next project. Oh, how quickly we put those nasty creatures out of our minds.
Well, I couldn’t take it anymore. It was time to face these creatures head on! One by one I scissored and clipped and reorganized the materials. I even accomplished completing a UFO. I now feel a sense of serenity and peace.
One of my UFOs, a thin bangle I worked up in brick stitch using czech fire polished beads:
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I love late summer.
Lately I’ve been inspired to take nature pics. I’ve mostly been taking pictures of my Mom’s garden. I’ve been really noticing the bumble bees out lately. I love bumble bees. I think of them as the bear of bees. I use my boyfriend’s old Kodak Easy Share camera, the same I’ve been using for a few years now to take pics of my jewelry. It’s not the latest or the best, but I’m impressed with the quality I get from it. I mostly depend on natural lighting when I use it. Below are some pics of my Mom’s flowers and a grumpy bee that let me snap a few of him before he protested and hovered off.
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Bird on stone
I had this stone in a stash of other stones for a few years now. I wasn’t sure what to do with it. It’s not semi-precious, so, at first glance it didn’t have a lot going for it. No sparkle, no shine. I decided to do some wire work but wanted to embellish it to give it a little more life. I saw a tip in one of my magazines about using Staz-on ink to jazz up stones. The ink is permanent and won’t come off, even with soap and water. So, I got myself some black Staz-on ink and stamped a bird image on the stone. This made all the difference without adding too much flare. It kind of has a Zen appeal to it. The final result is shown below!
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Dimensional Beadwork – Who knew it could be so functional?
I watch a lot of how-to’s on youtube but never work along with the tutorials. Bored last weekend, I decided to change that in an effort to learn a little more about right-angle weave. As always, I like to credit works that aren’t mine, or didn’t come from my brain; the link to the video is below.
The tutorial shows how to make a ring, but I thought the rectangle would look nice as a pendant. The only problem was, the beadwork was a little squishy because it was done in layers, the layers only connected at the outer edges. As a ring, this worked out fine because it allowed the rectangle focal to form to the finger. So, I had to learn cubic right-angle weave which I have wanted to learn for a while now. You see, always new opportunities to learn!
I figured out how to do the rectangle in cubic right-angle weave which made a solid bead structure that, in turn, made a really great pendant. Cubic right-angle weave involves weaving a bunch of little squares in layers to create dimension, but all the units are attached. Some beaders use this weave to make tubes for bracelets.
Yesterday, I was given another great opportunity to donate one of these pendants to a fundraise for a family who lost their loved one to cancer recently. The fundraiser is to raise money to cover medical costs for the family. I donated the first pendant shown below. It has silver glass crystal and rose quartz beads. The second pendant was the one I initially worked on along with the video tutorial, but redid in cubic right-angle weave.
See pics and links below!
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Right Angle Weave Rectangle Ring Part 1 of 2
Angel Inspired
Back in May I was able to get two bracelets into the Loretto Chapel gift shop. I was really excited. This little gift shop is located in the premier Loretto Hotel, in the heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico. It’s always good to know there are angels helping us see the light in ourselves. If your ever in the area . . .
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Whispering Iris 