Wire Play ~ Ring Sculpture

Somehow, when I have wet, gooey, or drying colored material . . . it's hard to keep from touching, poking, dipping, or testing if it's dry yet.  I can't walk away and come back in several hours and say, "oh yea, it's dry now."

At least with the resin clasps I have these dribs and drabs of colored resin left in the pouring cup and don't have the temptation of poking at the actual clasps.

When you use wire to poke at it, you get what could be neat colored head pins.  The only problem is that this is way too thick a wire to put any beads on.


After seeing the color tipped wires sitting on my desk for a week or so, this germ of an idea floated by.

Wild, colorful stacking ring.  

I have a metal allergy so I had to seal the black iron with paste wax and can't wear it all day.

What a neat thing to throw on to go grocery shopping or to a gallery opening.  It sure gets commented on & starts lots of conversations.

Just don't let those iron wire rings anywhere near a bracelet with a magnetic clasp.


A desk sculpture that I had not planned on!

Approaching Elder Status - selling out

 I have too many things.  I've collected stuff for way too many years.  Does one really need almost 200 fabric table cloths?  Now 200 bead tubes is another matter - they don't take up as much space as tablecloths .... do they?  OK, it's time to downsize and make two studios fit all into one studio.

I've gone and opened an Etsy Shop to make this easier.

First off is the good stuff  -  Brand New Unique magnetic Clasps

I've just finished listing all of the bead-crochet magnetic clasps

Finally I have some great clasps in a beautiful selection of colors. The best is that I can reproduce all of those colors, so if you want more than one or two, give me a yell and we can talk.

Then there is the "Selling Out" part - The cleaning out process, like.....

 Monograms - I can give you a great deal on C, H, & G monograms... I'll even throw in the napkins free of charge!!

The Shop is still building and I hope to get a few things done every day for a while.

Next up will be some vintage 1920's glass pearls and 1950's Czech Mambo beads.  In the early 80's I stuck my hand up at a rural auction because they said, "beads"  and  "no bids" - well I bought a 50 lb box of vintage beads for $15 and I still have about half of them left. Anyone want to save me the trouble of listing a whole bunch of vintage beads?  

This is going to be very interesting as I have to make everything from 2 houses/studios fit into one 950 sq. ft. space.  

So, help me out.... keep checking Bead Line's Etsy Shop for some good deals.

African Stripes - two necklaces

African Stripes, the String-Along, has finished up.  We are all starting to enjoy the fruits of everyone's labor as photos are posted of the finished necklaces.  Once again... these are all from the same pattern set,  it's hard to believe it at times,  but what people do with my patterns gives me great joy.

 Toni didn't like long blocks of a solid color so she deleted them and made her Love Letter necklace a short version.  The two pieces together are a delightful color composition.

Julie choose a most unusual color set.  Not African (to my way of thinking) but more fairy-land modern looking.

Marcie did the more traditional colors with the added interest of black dyed bone rings.

Marlene adapted the Love Letter necklace with a longer pattern section addition in yellow.  Her solid color blocks are delightful in blue.

Sandy did two Mud Cloth necklaces and added just a touch of a third color to each of them.  What I do like is her Love Letter necklace with the pattern sections in matte transparent beads.  It takes it into the sophisticated range.

Marty added extra pattern sections as she did her necklaces in 11/0 beads.  Just a design note:  With the original 5 pattern sections, they lay across from the solid sections when the rope is doubled.  Note that Marty's six pattern sections line up with another pattern section rather than a solid section.

African Stripes ~ Love Letters Necklace

 Most everyone has finished their Mud Cloth Necklace and now we're working on the companion piece, Love Letters. Above you can see my necklace.  I'm getting ready to crochet the 4th section.  There will be a total of five patterned sections in this necklace.


 Debbie is doing the traditional colors and her necklace is coming along quite nicely.









Amy is doing two different color sets, and how different they look.  She has translated the color bands into dark blue and white in her second necklace.

Peggy is working in #10 Delicas and is also doing two  necklaces.  Here you can see what the same pattern looks like with both a dark and light background.

Mel choose what she calls an archaeological color set.  This is going to look so well with her mud cloth and winter woolens.








 Toni just didn't like the idea of long, single color blocks so she shortened them up to almost nothing.  Now she's trying to decide if this will be a short necklace or will she repeat some of the section patterns for a longer necklace.














Victoria, our delightful speedy crocheter, has three necklaces going at the same time. It's so nice to see what 3 different colorways look like next to each other.  So far, the one on the far left is one of my favorites.











I've saved the most creative for last.... Terri is doing her rope in 11's and has given it a totally contemporary look. She had never crocheted with Miyuki drops before the Mud Cloth Necklace and has added them in to the pattern where ever they seemed to fit. Isn't this a great interpretation?


This just shows you that a pattern is just a pattern and a theme is whatever you want to make of it.  I pick a theme, suggest beads and colors when I set up a string-along, but everyone is encouraged to make it their own.  Once again, these are all exactly the same patterns, but how different they all look when given a personal interpretation.