February 20, 2011

What's on Your Hook?

This is what’s on my desk to crochet a row, or two, while I wait for a very slow Internet to catch up. I’ve got a lot that needs to be done, but some of the parts I need are stuck in the Post Office until Tuesday.

It's a gray, overcast day here in Tombstone AZ. It feels like rain, however rain in the desert is iffy. It can rain a mile away, but never reach where you are. I'm in waiting mode: waiting for beads to arrive, waiting to see if it will rain, waiting to see if I feel like sweeping the sand off of the floors .... just contemplating having a lazy Sunday in general.


I’m playing with beads that are not seed beads and liking the results very much. The brownish beads are sandstone heshi. They crochet up into nice, neat tiles in a tube. I have a cross drilled sandstone center piece that these go with. No crayon bright colors, just the muted rock colors of the desert floor. If you've not tried crocheted ropes with different shaped bead, you should do so. You can get some very pleasing results.


The other piece is done with matte black long Magatamas. I bought some last fall and have strung several test pieces to see how they worked. It took several trials to get them to lay right as these beads are quite directional.

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This orange toothed triangular rope is one of the pattern ideas in my last book. Here, the random orientation of the Magatamas worked great as a Halloween bracelet.

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If you want a more ordered look, you need to pay strict attention to stringing the Magatamas all in the same direction. The black one was done with nickel 8/0's and gives a nice curve to the rope. I have some ideas for a Medieval-looking bracelet with this iteration.
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This is what Bev, No Easy Beads, did with this stringing pattern. Now I just need to finish up my bracelet and publish the stringing table for it. Be aware that the Magatamas are not the easiest thing to crochet. They want to fold themselves into the center of the rope if you're not careful.

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So..... what's on your hook?

Have you tried any beads other than seed beads? If you have, send me a photo and I'll post some ideas of working with unusual beads in bead crochet.

February 15, 2011

Bead Society of San Diego

I have an opportunity to return to San Diego on March 19th & 20th. I was in San Diego last year for a photography workshop. However, I didn't get a chance to explore as it was just a month after coming down with a nasty case of the shingles. Sure didn't want to go and look at things as it was all I could do to extract something useful out of the workshop itself.

So, here's what I'll be doing........


Presentation:A Short History of Bead-Crochet, and the work of Judith Bertoglio-Giffin
The fashioning of beaded articles today is not a fad but a continuation of the process of bead artistry begun long ago. Judith will present slides and talk about the historical context of bead crochet ropes. She will then delve into her personal journey of learning, publishing and teaching the time honored woman’s craft of bead crocheted ropes. The presentation will be heavily illustrated with photo examples of the technique.
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Books, DVD and a limited number of kits will be available for sale 
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Workshop: Textural Elements for Bead-Crochet Ropes
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An intermediate workshop that shows you how to add texture, shape and style to bead crocheted ropes. You will be presented with at least 4 texture patterns and learn how to add in thread. You will string and crochet a sampler that may then be used as a key ring, bracelet or one end of a lariat. Kits will be available at the workshop.

February 11, 2011

Tucson 2011 - Day 5 - last day

I always treat myself for the last day trip to the shows. I plain like rocks; big ones, small ones, fancy minerals, and faceted gemstones. The shows that line the frontage road along I10 are a bit seedier than the big tented wholesale shows. That plus the conglomeration of cultures, languages and rock specimens makes them fascinating.




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The copper specimens have always been some of my favorites. Just imagine that the color from one copper penny could paint the whole world blue-green.
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Then there are the beautifully cut stones. I love the big ones. It's a good thing I live in small houses or I'd have at least one huge ball.... that is if I could figure out how to afford one.

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And there are the characters on the sidewalk and in the parking lots. This was a California juice bar, tenanted with long haired, tie dyed, beaded, old refugees from the 60's. Sorta like me.


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No matter what your interest might be, if it was a rock, you could find it here.
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Big dirty pieces just out of the ground
Slices and rough on the tables and in bins of water
Beautiful specimens nestled in cotton or paper
Carved objects in boxes or on pedestals
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I got a huge kick out of several tables full of animal carvings all line up in their boxes - looking at me as if to say, "take me home with you."



I did lots of dusty walking and poking around with the sun warm on my shoulders. It was a great end to my Gem Show wanderings. Now the last of the vendors are packing up and Tucson will go back to it's quiet drowsing in the sun.

February 8, 2011

Tucson 2011 - Day 4

The older I get, the longer it seems to take me to recover from a whole day of Tucson Gem show. It's noon and I am still in my robe, drinking coffee and taking it easy.

Yesterday I hit the Grant Inn (old Rodeway) show. I've always enjoyed it as there is a range of the $1.30 booth (cheap beadwork) to clothing designers and a great source of bulk findings in different metals. Rumor has it that there will not be a show at that location next year.

I had not been to the JOGS show before and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was in a large building, not a tent. Walking in reminded me of an old downtown department store. The displays were nicely done and a lot of them were a cut above the messy table of things for sale. There was a whole wing of Russian amber and it was like being in a different country. There was Guatemalan bead work from a cooperative, Native American silver & turquoise and lots of just plain interesting things.



I found these agate beads that they were calling Wood Agate. What great rusty colors that made the beads look like they came out of an old iron factory. I was right to think they would make a good combination with the black steel wire work that I have been playing with. Wrought iron looking wire and rusty beads- great pairing. What do you think?



One of the most interesting thing I found was this old ivory. Mr. Doak found a lot of ivory scrap in England 35 years ago tucked away in a warehouse. It was decades of the cutoffs from making brushes and piano keys. He bought it and brought it to the States. It's legal, old ivory. He, and his family do this as sort of a hobby and take a booth at Tucson about every 4 years. As it's a hobby material they don't sell at any other time. I bought a baggie of piano key trimmings. Don't know what I'm going to do with it, but the thin strips fascinated me. I could have totally ruined my remaining budget buying other bits & pieces, including pound bags of interesting scrap. I enjoy manufacturing scrap of any sort. Finding jewelery in such castoffs fascinates me. Update: they do have a website, it's
William V. Doak.
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I realized that I had not shown you what I had to purchase as I was leaving the Best Bead Show the other day. I guess you could say that Beverly Herman, from New Orleans, made me do this. She tried the Dragon Bracelet in the latest BeadWork and we've been going back & forth about bead crocheting with these long Magatamas. So far no success as they are difficult to crochet and they are directional. They have to be strung in all the same direction. However, we've not given up just yet - there has to be a way to make them work correctly.

February 5, 2011

Tucson 2011 - Day 3

I was back at the Best Bead Show today for my second day of book signing. Being the weekend it was much more crowded. I enjoyed talking to a lot of bead crocheters and helping a few others decide to take up the craft. All they had to do was play with my pile of rope lariats and big bunch of bracelet samples. They are going to get hooked!


It was warmer and the beads were sparkling in the sun - lots of beads.


I did run into an oddity of measure though . . . I've always known that a hank of Czech beads was 12 strands of beads. Longer strands for 11/s, 8's, etc. and short strands for Charlotte's or gold beads. In 2 days I've run into 6 and 8 strand hanks as well as 12 strands labeled as a hank & a half. I looked at very similar 8/0 beads and was amazed to find that the prices on these 3 different quantity hanks were within 20 cents of each other. These were all found at retail bead shows. If you're buying beads these days I think it's prudent to count the strands if you're price comparing.



I didn't get to wander around much today as I was busy talking to people and showing them how bead crochet is done.

I did get to visit with Nikia (Buy the Kit), Betcy (Beyond Beadery) and Jill (Tapestry Beads). Dang, I knew it was a mistake to spend any time at all in Beyond Beadery . . . . I couldn't resist getting a good selection of the long Magatamas from her. She had some very nice colors and mixes. I guess I'm going to have to try the Dragon Bangle from the latest issue of Bead work. Then I will have to try and translate the idea into bead crochet. The problem is that the beads are directional and will have to be strung in a strict sequence to get them to angle in the same direction.

I guess 18 tubes of long Magatama drops is a small bead purchase at a bead show.

February 4, 2011

Tucson 2011 - Day 2

In the rush to find a hat, gloves, heavy socks and my winter coat, I forgot my camera. Low temperature records were broken all over southern Arizona. Wednesday night posted 5 degrees here in Tombstone and I lost most of my huge Nopal cactus. The poor thing looks very sad today. Water pipes were frozen & burst all over the place. Add to this interrupted natural gas supplies and daytime temps that hardly got out of the 20's. The Mayor of Tucson declared a sever weather emergency and closed all non-essential services & schools. Outside Gem Show vendors were either closed or wrapped in blankets or anything warm they could scare up.

I spent an hour at To Bead True Blue and it was a frustrating show as their vendor list didn't match the map and they couldn't tell me where people I wanted to see were. The layout was not good either as you couldn't flow from one place to another. Booths were tucked behind large plants, in odd corners and other out of the way places. I saw who I needed to see and left.

I was after some more 8/0 Toho nickel seed beads. Funny thing happened as a whole 4.5 lbs of seed beads got into my basket. They just jumped right in and said, "I'm going with you!" I picked up a couple of the newer Hybrid colors - luscious little things. Crystal AB - what the heck was I thinking? I don't do much with whites, but oh the sparkle. Must have been that AB sparkle.



I spent the afternoon at The Best Bead Show, meeting people and signing the new book, Triangular Bead Crochet Ropes". Which is now available in paper format from Amazon.

I've now restocked my stash of daggers and lentils. The Czech's are doing a glass that looks like a cross between moss agate and opal. So I now have daggers to go with some other shapes I bought Monday.

I saw slices everywhere at both shows. Sliced and tumbled glass bottle rings; slices of geodes, slices of other rocks and glass with large center holes. Large lamp worked glass rings as well as the same in resin. I'm wondering if some of those might work along with my black wire work experiments. I may have to get a few when I go back to Best Bead on Saturday and see what works. Or I need to figure out how to slice a bottle up and throw the rounds in my tumbler.

The weatherman promises that it will warm up now. I sure hope so as this area is ill equipped to handle sub-freezing temps. I guess I shouldn't complain as it happens about once in a hundred years. It could have held off in my lifetime.