Close Encounters of the 6th Purple Kind

I know.  I know.  Long time, no post.  But in my defense I have been beading, beading, beading away.

Just a few days into Fusion Beads 30 day challenge my beading muse began bombarding me with ideas for jewelry that I'll be submitting for publication. I've had to say goodbye to the challenge in favor of developing ideas, writing tutorials, and taking pictures.  It's been a long time since I had anything published, and I'm looking forward to getting myself back into it.  

In the meantime I thought I would share with you a deliciously purple necklace I made using a Caldera triangle from Kate McKinnon's book Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.  It's the first in a series of necklaces that represents each of the 7 basic chakras. 

In other non-bead related news I just finished a 30 Day Belly Dance Challenge and I'm currently participating in a 21 day meditation challenge.  The harder of the two has definitely been the meditating.  I can commit to dancing anytime, but sitting still and training my mind to be quiet for as little as 10 minutes is taking some monumental effort, and in some ways is more exhausting and rewarding then dancing.

Also, starting in April I'll be doing a 28 day yoga challenge with fellow beadiac Jennifer Chaslow VanBenschoten.  Please join us if you can!   

National Craft (and Bead) Month

To celebrate National Craft Month the folks over at Fusion Beads are hosting a 30 Day Bead Challenge, and to get things started the first challenge is to make a pair of earrings. 

I was feeling a bit ambitious so I made two pairs using my new favorite Swarovski crystal color, Astral Pink.  Sorry the photos don't do this rich, exotic color the justice is deserves.  Trust me;  these earrings are amazing.

This pair is based on Fusion Beads "Maple Sugar Earrings:"

And this second pair is accented with Fuchsia crystals:

Tomorrow's challenge is to string up something simple, and for that I made a bracelet to match, as well as a quick and easy necklace to complete the set:

It's going to be an exciting month!

The Adventurous Egg

YAY!  Today is the day of the "Freeform Peyote Choose Your Own Adventure Reveal!"

The wooden eggs I found stashed away in my bead closet are 1 1/4" to 3 1/2" in size.  Seeing as how I was facing a time crunch I decided to start with the smallest ones and I plan to eventually to cover them all with beads.

 Egg #1:  Two different views:

 

Egg #2:  Experimenting with changing the beading path from horizontal to vertical:

 Egg #3:  Green! 

Adventurer Roster:  Visit these other blogs to see what my fellow adventurers have created:

Mandi Ainsworth - Adventure Guide
Karen Williams - Adventure Guide

Bobbie Rafferty
Sarah Meadows
Katherine Gale
Mandy Duffy
Leanne Kirsch
Jean Hutter

Nancy Dale
Judy Riley
Natasha Wiegelman
Pam Chesbro
Stephanie Woods
Romana Tschunko

Bette Greenfield
Mary Harding 
Melody Marie Murray
Shirley Moore
Marj

Sally Russick
Therese Frank
Tanya Goodwin
Christine Altmiller
Lea Paličková
Ivona Šuchmannová

Jennifer Chasalow VanBenschoten
Kay Haynes
Tammy Bowman  
Alisa Lehman
Lori Callahan
Tami Norris

Jane Kettley
SaraBeth Cullinan
Tami Norris
Julie Schmidt Bowen
Tammi Clapper
Cynthia Machata

                                                                                                                   

A Creative Confession

I have a confession to make, but before I do I would like to say a big "Thank you!" to Karen Williams at Baublicious and Mandi Ainsworth at Bead Circle for creating the "Choose Your Own Adventure Freeform Peyote Challenge and Blog Hop."

This isn't the first bead challenge that I've entered, but it the first one that I have actually completed.  I know that sounds strange, especially since I've been beading for so long and have had my work published in books and magazines since 1998.  But there it is:  something I've been secretly embarrassed about for a long time.

Every time I've ever signed up for a beading challenge my brain, my muse, my creativity, all of it, just shut down, and after an number of false starts I would drop out, drown my sorrow in chocolate and ice cream, and secretly be depressed about my failure.

The problem has always been with a spiteful creature I call "The Anti-Muse," the inner critic that takes over and starts hurtling all sort of abuse and insults at me until I give up and the little jerk wins.

There is an unfortunately predictable pattern here:  first comes the excitement and the brainstorming as I mentally bead up several projects that I think I want to try; then, after selecting the one fabulous project that is going to astonish and amaze everyone, and pulling all my materials together I sit down to start making my masterpiece, and...

...nothing.  Nothing except The Anti-Muse and a brain that has been wiped clean.

But this time something was just a tiny bit different.  

One of the questions the ill-natured Anti-Muse asked me was just exactly why I needed another over the top piece of beaded jewelry that I would never have the opportunity to wear.  "You are, after all," she sneered "only a schlub, a stay-at-home mom and chauffeur." At that point I was ready to quit.  But before I did I rummaged around in my bead closet until I came upon a box of wooden eggs...

And for now, this is where my confession ends.

Tomorrow is when myself and the other 32 participants are allowed to reveal our challenge pieces so you'll have to wait until then to see some pictures of what I've been working on in all shades of greens, golds, purples, and violets.  I get up and leave the house fairly early on Saturday mornings so it will be late afternoon before I have chance to post them. 


   

The 100 Day Challenge

A fellow belly dancer, Gina, recently issued an interesting 100 day challenge.  Why wait until the New Year to start on the list of goals and resolutions lurking around in the shadows of your mind?  Why not do it now, during the last one hundred days of the year?  The challenge doesn't start until September 23rd so there is still plenty of time to get that list together and it doesn't have to be anything even remotely related to belly dance.  If you don't want to share your list on Gina's page, then post it on your own blog, FB page, on the refrigerator, or anywhere that works for you, just as long as you make yourself accountable for it.

Here's my list, in no particular order:
1.  Clean out closet and revitalize stale, boring wardrobe.
2.  Lose weight.
3.  Finish up a few crochet projects.
4.  Yoga.  Everyday.
     -I just bought Rodney Yee's "Yoga:  The Poetry of the Body" and downloaded "Yoga
       With Weights" on the e-reader to keep things fresh and interesting.
5.  Start a vegetable garden.
6.  Reduce the "To Read" pile of 20+ books down to zero.
     -This is mainly so that I can justify buying more books.
7.  Transplant rose bushes.
8.  Organize notes from Flamenco class.
     -Right now they're in 3 different places:  a notebook, on the sticky note app of my
       phone, and on the e-reader.     
9.  Take "Teaching Yoga to Kids" class.
10.  Write.  Everyday.
       -It doesn't have to be good, it just has to be done.
11.  Organize yarn stash into just one room. 
      -Only the bathrooms and kitchen are currently yarn free.
12.  Treat myself to a super awesome spa day.

I deliberately kept my list simple.  My summer hibernation is barely at an end and my calender is already overflowing with bead related deadlines, workshops, classes, recitals, rehearsals, and volunteering, along with the usual never ending Mommy-Do list.

Some really exciting things are happening in my life and I'll be blogging about a few of them over the next few days.

I Love Lucy and Her Jewelry!

Lucille Ball is one of my favorite actresses.  I've always admired her for being strong, outspoken, gracious, and just down right drop-dead gorgeous.  When the male dominated industry of Hollywood moviedom didn't know what to do with this fabulously funny and intelligent woman she made her own way in the fledgling field of television.  And she wore fabulous jewelry along the way.

In this photo for a publicity still for the movie "Look Who's Laughing" she's wearing a uniquely beautiful necklace and bracelet set designed for her by Joseff.  I haven't seen this movie so I have no idea if she actually wore it in the film or not.

And here's my version of her Joseff necklace; a seed beaded herringbone rope adorned with Kashmiri beads, Chinese crystals, and Czech glass daggers. 

This second piece, a sparkling herringbone and crystal bracelet, was inspired by the wide diamond bracelets that were so popular in the 1930's.  Everyone from high ranking studio star to hopeful starlet was wearing them.

 
P.S.  This apple picture is a cryptic nod to a favorite movie of mine starring Barbara Stanwyck as a fortune hunting con artist who gets her man by conking him on the head with a half-eaten apple.  Any guesses as to what that movie might be?

I Make My Own Crazy

Week 2 of The Artist's Way for Beaders (TAWFB) has been about recovering a sense of identity and one of the topics has been about identifying and dealing with "poisonous playmates" and "crazy makers."  The first 2 times I worked through TAW I successfully dealt with all those nasty Negative Nellies, or so I thought.  Now, here I am doing this a third time and I find that I am, as the saying goes, my own worst enemy.

I make myself crazy with all my self doubts and self defeating attitudes.  I thought I had laid all those horrible beasts to rest, but that's not the case.  Just like a bunch of zombies in a Z-grade horror movie they have crawled up from the depths, but instead of calling out for "Brains!  Brains!" they're sucking away at my self-esteem.

At this point I have no idea as to how to effectively deal with this.  How does one go about eliminating one's own army of Self Defeatist Zombies?  Baby steps of taking out one useless walking corpse of self doubt at a time, or just shred the whole bunch in one big explosion?  Is it ever possible to eliminate them all?

Either way, it's something I need to work on and I'm open for suggestions.

Two other tasks for this week were to make a list of 20 things I enjoy doing and a list of 10 things I would like to;  I'll give you 5 of each:

I enjoy:
1.  Word puzzles
2.  Jigsaw puzzles
3.  Hiking
4.  Biking
5.  Rock climbing

I would like to:
1.  Repaint my yoga/beading/dance room
2.  Collect antique tea cups
3.  Visit France
4.  Dye my hair purple and get a new hair cut
5.  Go on a retreat:  yoga, belly dancing, beading, writing;  any of these would do nicely