Bead stash takes over for the moment

I played with the new seed bead stash for a while this morning as a change from the bigger work (and bigger beads) I've been involved in, and the general carrying and ferrying of artworks ready to deliver tomorrow, and finally picked out a nice gold bead and a nice mixture of reds in glass, and went on to warp up a new bracelet, to test them out.  

After the weaving is complete, I plan to dye the cord red, to blend in with the beads.  I invested in some magnetic fasteners as well as toggle clasps, so I need to decide how to make the fastening after I've finished weaving. 

Right now the beadweaving is the main focus. This piece is about half an inch wide, will be approximately eight inches long when complete.

 
I have to sort some bead thread -- this is a natural color beading hemp -- and dye up some lots to work with various colors ahead of time. This bracelet was a mad rush of wanting to beadweave and not wanting to wait for dyeing to be complete.

I like something left brained going on while I work at art, and today it's CD of short stories read by various very good actors.  It keeps a steady stream of sound that occupies the analytical monkey brain and  enables me to get on with art without being distracted.  Can't do music with art, though, too much interference with the same brain bits I need to work with.

AIR getting more evident now

I got in to work at the loom today for a couple of unscheduled extra hours, and managed to get a couple of sections completed before I faded.

It's starting to come together as a design now, and I've made a few changes from the original cartoon.  As I got under way with the colors, I decided the original shapes were too many and a bit busy, so I simplified them so as to let the yarns have breathing room. 

I finished the multicolored part of a robe on the right, then figured it was time for a bit of quiet color, and put in the white you see on the leftish.  It's actually offwhite, very soft yarn, with here and there dark threads, really nice to see in person.  Next I'll have to move over further left and make decisions about that area, too, to keep the balance of the design going.  

The multi part I pushed about a bit on the loom, to create different shapes, and make it an interesting flow, not just a solid wall of weaving.  This is one reason I love tapestry so much more than regular weaving, that you can make these changes as you go, and the work suggests them to you, you're not locked into your original plans. 

I'm leaning toward more dark grey and black mixture up past that multi colored robe, to meet with the dark areas on the small figure up above temporarily in place.  But first I have to work on the left so that the whole thing stays in physical balance, aside from design functions.


I noticed the leashes are getting a bit slack from the pressure, so I tightened them a bit, to keep the tapestry sides parallel. All in all, a nice afternoon's work.

Just a silly note:  I have all my pix on a thumbdrive, which I open to access them for uploading, using the first part of the pix name: AIR, to be exact.  And every time the first image that comes up is a dear old Airedale in the park, a great feller years gone now, who used to be mad about getting his picture taken!  every time I met him out walking and he saw my camera, he'd stop dead and pose!! I have one great pic of him with the leash totally taut, the owner being dragged to a swift halt as Mr. A. got his closeup on.

Next week, the exhibit will be up and we'll be moving the loom into the gallery area, on the scheduled working days,  which will be fun -- that way anyone who comes will see all the versions of Four Sisters at one time, as well as 28 count them, other artworks.

They are now standing around the living room, in leaning stacks,  labeled and wrapped and being as heavy as they can, after an interesting morning tracking them all down and labeling them and putting like with like so as to make hanging the exhibit a bit less hectic, and many trips up and down stairs.  Art is an aerobic activity.

Once they're hung, I'll post an exhibit blogpost so you can have a virtual tour, along with the catalog of sizes, titles, description, price, etc.  As usual, all pieces are for sale.  I usually ship pieces matted and  with a stiff backing and a clear plastic wrap, so you can arrange for framing.  Prices, except for the small stitched items, which are best left in their frame for shipping, don't include frames.

The stitched items are glassed, and I don't ship glass, so I'll remove it but keep the frame in place.  You can opt to replace the glass at your end, or not, acc. to your own taste.  I personally like stitching not under glass, because I think you can experience it better that way, and they're in shadowbox frames, so there's some protection.  I only glassed them because they need to be protected that way in a public exhibit.  This is the bean counting aspect of artmaking!

AIR afternoon at the loom and a massage thrown in

This afternoon was a great experience with the different and interesting people who came in, one of whom now plans to teach her Guides and her daughters weaving, and will bring them in to visit the earthloom at work, others who were just very excited about the work and wanting to discuss weaving, art, therapy, all kinds of subjects.  with and without the weaving!

Artistically, I was really pleased with the purplish section I completed, and managed to create the illusion of swirling fabric.  This is really nice and that technique is going to serve me well on this piece.  That is a solid piece, but the direction of the weft threads gives the impression of a space in there with fabric behind it. Good old Cloisters, I knew I'd be able to apply something I'd learned there sooner or later.

 I spun up most of the newly dyed roving, and have a little ball of yarn to show for it, which will take its place in the tapestry when I get to a good place for it.

 Today's total output here

And one visitor  instantly decided to give me a shoulder massage! she explained she did this for her grandmother who brought her up, and I certainly appreciated it, once I got over the surprise.  She's on the right of the women posed at the loom, after taking many pix of me with and without the weaving!

Some library staff stopped in to get a tranquillity break, and all in all I was happy with the traffic.


Tomorrow I'm planning on working on the earthloom again, since I'm on a roll now with the design and can't wait to get on with it.

I also have to attach labels to all the artworks for the exhibit over the weekend, and wrap them ready to transport for hanging early next week.  Busy weekend.

AIR, Dyeing, roving, antique drink mixes

Friend Annie sent me three ancient packets of drink mix, found in the back of a kitchen cabinet somewhere, since I'd indicated this is a good dye material.  I wouldn't ever drink it, but for dyeing it's fine. Like white bread -- great for making playdough for little kids, and great bead material, but not actual food.

Anyway, I took a hank of Spanish merino roving, and proceeded to use all three packets at once, hoping for a variegated effect, since in order to have a complete saturation you'd need about ten packets.  It takes a lot.  

Proceeded to put the drink crystals into a ziploc bag, add water, and roving, squashed them up and down a bit to move the color around, then microwaved for 10 minutes.  At the end of that time, when you (proceeding with caution, boiling steam hisses out) open the package with tongs, only clear water remains, so all the color has been transferred.

Then you wash it, largely to get rid of the high sugar content in this case, then rinse 

and squeeze it out, and drain it 

enamel is good at this stage, to avoid any metal rusting, then put it to dry.  I use a metal lid set on a heat register upstairs, for gentle continuous warmth, kitties permitting.

 
this is great fun.When this is dry, couple of days, I'll spin it up and it will find a home in the big tapestry.

The only downside I can see, or rather smell, is that the house smells like a drinkmix factory for a while.  But since it's nontoxic, it's safe in the microwave, and there are no noxious fumes coming off it.

Did I mention that I'm keeping track of the donors to the tapestry project?  so far it's Judy T. beads, Ash upcoming fibers, Annie dye material, Paula fleece, and everyone encouragement!

AIR tapestry progress

I went in today and spent three hours weaving steadily, oh, that tires your back, even if you do remember to stretch and flex and all that, where was I, oh yes.  

This was a no-public-allowed session unless anyone really insisted, because though it's great to meet and chat, it really isn't possible to design and talk at the same time, so I needed some catch up time to get under way with some new ideas.

I made three pix to show you the advance of the ideas and design today.  I love to do those parts where I'm weaving two colors together, where one is already in place and you insert the second thread through the last warped bit, very happy work, that is.  Well, it all is,really, but I wish I had a spare back I could swap out after a while.  Then I could work longer.  

You see here the purply spun yarn I showed you after I dyed it.  All spun up now, and will be part of a robe I think.  Ash, that's the section that your yarn will probably be woven into, if you have something that will work there.  Don't sweat it, though, since there are other colors you could decide to blend with. 

The black section, which is actually a grey and black mix, lovely wool from a harvested sweater,  with the white segment above it, near the bottom of the tapestry, is probably going to suggest a flowing robe of the figure whose top part you see up there on her own.  Once I get further into the design, I'll feel better about it all. Right now it's a bit unnerving, deciding what to do next!

The white is lovely to work with,soft, and thick so it fills in nicely.  It helps the other colors to soften and blend, too, nice.  And I will probably thread some gold here and there in the robes, too. I'm already considering how to make the range of colors work well, and I think a repeating idea such as trailing gold thread, might do that job pretty well.  How unusual for me to be wondering if a bit of gold would work here.

Friday I'll be open for the public, but now I have a better idea of what I'll be doing then.  I also have a little beaded woven section to add in somewhere, probably as I do the robe parts, we'll see.

AIR, oh, yes, need raw material

The weaving goes on, at home at the moment, since weaving takes a lot of raw material (you can reduce your yarn stash in no time by weaving a few bags), so I took some of the lovely spanish merino roving I got from the wool shop in Cape May ages ago, and dyed it using silk dyes from Dharma Traders, nice people to work with.   

Just a note: I don't make anything from mentioning people and businesses, this not being a monetized blog, since I like to call my soul my own.  But I do like to give a shout out to people who are good to work with and sell nice product I'm glad to use.

Back to the drying of the dyeing.  This was done in the teeth and claw of opposition from my kitties, who objected to my putting the metal lid full of wet dyed yarn over the heat register in the upstairs room,  to dry gently, since they had planned to sleep right there.  I went up a couple of times and found wet yarn scattered about a bit, and the lid shoved off the register.

However, I persevered and have a nice little supply of roving to spin.  This involved finding my spindles, picking the middle size, and then realizing I'd forgotten how to begin.  Oh. off to YouTube to watch a few videos of people demonstrating how to spin with the spindle. 

A word here:  there are a lot of videos, some of them by skilled and famous spinners, and they are not necessarily the best teachers.  The reason for this is that the roving turns almost magically into even, fine yarn in their hands, and even when you watch and listen, you can't see how they did it.  They can't really slow it enough to teach.  

But less skilful spinners who are still pretty good can be excellent teachers, moving slowly enough, remembering what to explain and when and best of all, moving the camera where necessary so you can actually see what they're doing.

One wonderful, generous and very nice person in the textile world has the worst videos on earth, because her spinning is so rapid that most of the time her hands are off camera, and you see her chest and a line of yarn traveling somewhere with no clue as to what's going on!   It's all coming so naturally to her that she can't really remember back to when she hadn't a clue, either!

Anyway, I did manage to remember and created a spindle's worth of rather lumpy yarn, perfect for my tapestry purposes, but far from skilled thread.  I had to rest after that, to let my upper body recover from the stress of learning!  here and there I magically found I was creating a lovely fine yarn, rhythm of spinning and drafting and parking and all that working lovely.  Then it would go all funny again and try to unspin itself before my very eyes...but I shall persevere!  It's really lovely to handle nice roving, very meditative work.

So here's the output:  this will probably form part of the sisters' robes, at least that's the plan for now.  

And I made a bead weaving with paper beads yesterday, which I will finish so that it can be incorporated into the tapestry,too.

And spinning always reminds me to salute spinsters!  they were a vital part of the family food chain centuries ago, when the unmarried women of the family would spin all the fiber needed for every stitch the family wore. Highly skilled and very underrated importance in the family fabric, to corn a phrase.  Spinning was considered a skill requirement of any female, and you see people in old paintings and engravings holding up a spindle and working by the fireside.  

Wealthy women, too, did this, but more as a model of industry and skill than as a necessity for their families, since they could afford to hire spinsters, or import fabrics from other countries. Just a dull little historical note of the kind I love to inflict on people.

We Came, We Stitched, We Had a Great Time

The Embroiderers' Guild of America, Princeton Chapter of which I'm president along with another poor soul, we somehow found ourselves elected way back,  had our annual Stitch in Public Day today at a local library.

The actual national event takes place in February, but we decided that owing to the kind of winter we were having, with cancellations right, left and center, roads closed, states of emergency every five minutes, we'd do better to wait a bit and have our own day on a different schedule.  So it was today, great weather for getting out, not too sunny, not too cold,just about right for coming out and heading to the libe.

To see more about that, feel free to go here 

Meanwhile, in the course of the event, where we all showed up with current work, completed work to display and a lot to do in general, I took along one of my cardboard looms and did a bit of bead weaving for the earthloom tapestry at our own local libe.

I was using my own handmade paper beads, which I've had lying around for years, having sold a lot of necklaces at various fairs and festivals, and just kept a bag of them for old times' sake.  This turned out to be interesting to the Guild members and several of them thought we should have a program where I get to teach them how to make paper beads.  Which shows there are still people in the world who don't know how yet. So I will probably get on the EGA schedule next year to do this.  

Funny that after I get into tiny size 11 and smaller seed beads, I find myself working with these giant fellers.  But they're nice and lightweight, good for the tapestry, and in fact good for jewelry since you can wear several of them at once without feeling weight on your neck. 

So the afternoon was successful in several ways.  Great fun all around.  And it feels like what goes around comes around in the world of beads.

Artist in Residence, the Loom continues

This afternoon saw some progress on the tapestry. Here's the scene as I set up to work today. Note the four faces in readiness for their closeup, and the all important cup of tea.  I think there should be a tea called Weaver's Mainstay.
 

Before anyone arrived, I quickly did a quick attachment of the first face, woven temporarily in place so I can see where it will be. 

 Some interesting visitors, notably Patty and Sylvia, who stayed a while and asked the most interesting questions.  We had a great discussion --they're accomplished knitters, crocheters, and I'll bet other arts too-- and their comments were very helpful. 

The work is starting to shape up now, and I can begin to see where it's going, always a cheering moment. 


This is where I got to before my session ended today

 

Nice afternoon, and the local paper has done a  great writeup of this current tapestry work and the upcoming exhibit. 

Now I'm getting ready for something completely different: Stitch in Public Day on Sunday at Monroe Library. With my Guild friends. Watch this space for more on that!

My Inner Kindergartner rules

The work for the April show is finished, as am I.  Thirty one artworks framed, organized, and ready to hang. The catalog is sort of written. I'm all created out for the moment.

So last night at the stitch-in of the embroiderers' guild, I was totally noncreative, just using an old set of ATC sheets to stuff with floss in some sort of organized fashion.  

I had finally decided that plastic bags full of random bunches of floss, tangled and messy and pretty deadly looking, had to go.  No stitching in progress at all right now, so this was a good opportunity to Get Organized.  Not to mention amusing the other stitchers who were all busy on actual projects.

So Mary Corbet's blogging yesterday about sleeves to slide flosses into and store them in binders struck a chord. I already had a lot of ATC sleeves, smaller than the ones she showed, though, 

 

and three ring binders.  I like to store items book fashion (even in my freezer, where my pesto is stored flat in ziplocs, on edge, as in a bookcase).  So this was a project to do between projects.

And I found an unexpected bonus: with the flosses grouped in color families on the pages, you can see through several pages at once and detect interesting new possible color combos.  I took a couple of pix to let you see what's up. 

Embroidery on paper

In among all the exhibit and AIR excitement the embroiderers' guild goes on merrily, and here's the February project, which our doughty program chair Ginny kitted and distributed.  

We all changed the design as we went, I substituting my own small gold beads for the official glass ones, and doing a little bead design on the reverse instead of the suggested initials.  

Here's the front

and the back

Interesting project.  This consists of two pieces of the perf. paper, which you work then stitch back to back before cutting out the shape.  It has a hanger for holiday purposes.

The glass beads were not wasted, though -- they've ended up on the big tapestry, much to the amusement of a guild member who came by to watch me in progress on Friday.

AIR last inclusion

The last inclusion is done.  Last figure/face concept is what you see here.  It's a face and part of the person squeezed into the surrounding shapes, or it will be.  After this all the work has to be done at the earthloom, so I will probably put in some extra time there when I can be fitted into that room or vicinity.

The next passage will be tricky -- it will involve securing the inclusions to the weaving by weaving them in.  This may need an extra hand at the back of the work as well as two at the front, so I may need to figure this out!  

I'm a bit anxious about this part, but once it's under way I expect it will be okay.  All right on the night.

AIR continues, with the last face.

Working at home on my small looms, and with access to my embroidery gear, is good for new ideas, and I think I've reached the last of the four faces in the Four Sisters tapestry.  Except that I think I will rethink the first face, now that I've done the others -- I'm in a different place now on these, so it's good I made them in modular fashion, easier to swop out.  

These will be woven into the big piece -- those little strings are the long warp ends I've left so as to help me situate them for weaving in.  You can see the draft design on the loom behind the smaller one in progress, and laid beside the bigger one.  I traced these off the big cartoon behind the tapestry on the earthloom, to bring home and work on.

We had a power outage today, very rare for us, and I was so smug that it made no difference to my plans, since it was daylight, to work on a primitive handmade loom by the window!  and to make soup on top of the stove, since I have a gas stove, and it was the electricity that was cut.  

Calls from neighbors, son, to say, well, this has put a crimp in my plans which all involved power use!  my next door neighbor said jokingly I'm so desperate I think I'll read the paper!!   Son decided on a walk until the power returns.

Turns out it was an emergency in the next town over, live wires sparking on the roadway, so the power co., just shut down the grid to the immediate region, until they got things fixed.  This is fine, not a lack of expertise on their part and not a systemic breakdown, unlike other power companies in this region who shall remain nameless so as to protect the guilty.  

Early weavers never had this to contend with, as long as it was daylight and the sheep kept on growing fleece and they could fashion looms from saplings.

I wonder if they dreamed of their current work, too, as I seem to be doing.  Very peaceful weaving dreams.  I don't need a dreamcatcher as long as my mind works as one!

All of this work has to be set aside tomorrow, in favor of getting all the catalog info together for the upcoming exhibit in April.  Pieces all over the house, panic over where they all are, which go with which, how to describe, price, etc., you name it.  Organizing it enough to make sense to gallery manager Donna, she has enough headaches without adding to them, all this will keep me busy. I never know, until I deliver the pieces whether I even have an exhibit.  But at least this one is coherent in theme, a big advantage.

More about that in here when it's organized.  And I will put on a virtual gallery show for you as soon as I can do it.  All exhibited art, unless otherwise noted, (i.e. NFS meaning not for sale) is for sale, as always.

AIR day, more weaving, more faces emerging

Yesterday was an interesting artist in residence session, with the people stopping by full of questions about the whole process, and  all the materials I'm using, especially my handspun yarn and handmade beads.  

I didn't get much actual weaving done, but I did accomplish the other purpose, which is to let people into the world of someone who makes art, right in the act of doing it, and the decision making and the materials they employ, some fancy, some humble.  

I took in a couple of beaded bracelets to show, and the looms I made them on, which was very surprising to people,  to one of whom I gave a quick lesson in beadweaving on the fly.

And, as usual, as I was packing up after giving an extra half hour, a little group arrived and was all sad, oh, you're leaving!  why?  but they think they'll be back next Friday to watch. 

And with any luck next Friday, my glackity inner artist will remember to bring the camera to record the week's output.  It's now marked on the calendar along with the event: AIR BRING CAMERA, to be exact.  For years and years I never took a step out of the house without the camera (largely to record my walks and encounters to show Handsome Partner on my return after he was unable to walk with me) and recently it seems not to be getting on the agenda.


However, I did more work at home last evening on a small loom (it stuns people to realize these crummy old bits of cardboard are looms that can yield actual art) and photographed last evening's output for you.  

Beading, coarse yarn, medium yarn, and fine variegated.  I looked up and realized it was getting on for midnight before I had to stop working.  This is a very good place to be, and a first in many years, if ever, that I can just give the art the priority and not have to be attending to anyone or anything else.

Back to the AIR: it will take a while for this kind of "first" to be understood by the general library-going public, which is fine by me.  Along the lines of the second mouse gets the cheese, I've usually been the first one out there in a variety of contexts, not getting the cheese, but making way for people coming next who get a bit more attention and cheese. I like firsts, though, since I can just make the rules.  Suits me fine.

And sometimes cheese shows up many years later as a huge and lovely surprise.  Either way, it's getting the chance to make the art that counts.

Four sisters continues

I've been working up a storm at home, beadweaving and regular weaving, all on cardboard homemade looms, to create two inclusions for the Four Sisters Artist in Residence tapestry, which I hope to weave in place tomorrow when I do my next afternoon in residence.

Here's a pic:  the weird bits of cardboard behind the weavings are small  looms! no need to have a fancy loom to make fancy art.  the pencilled in shapes are the design for the pieces lying on top of them in the pic. 

At this stage, the strings sticking out all over can be disregarded, since they will disappear once I weave them into the big tapestry. Very handy to make small areas which I can insert into the big work, much easier on the artist that way.  Same with the beadweaving, create the small area and weave it in.  It won't be apparent at the end that this was done in modular bits.

At least,that's the plan.  There's always a plan.  The reddish variegated piece and the peach section  is from my own fleece, thank you Paula, yet again! 

Sidebar information: Paula Levy's a knitting designer, you'll see her on Ravelry, who used to be a fellow artisan around here before she upped sticks and went to the left coast, but before that she gave me a fleece, unprocessed, from a relative's flock, which I processed, the fleece, not the flock, then dyed and spun.

Back to the present: the white section is a beautiful Spanish merino semispun (by me) roving.  The multicolor part is sock yarn, commercial,variegated, mainly to give a contrasting firm flat area for the other items.

Beadweaving, pearls, metal beads, Czech glass, woven on crochet thread with gold weft thread.  If you're interested in what technicalities I have, not a lot!  I don't worry about wpi and reeds and shed sticks, at least not in this work.

For further exciting updates, watch this space!  and thanks so much for your support of this somewhat scary adventure.  When this piece is finally finished, I'll give due credit to the other artists who donated nice stuff over the years which ended up here!

Did I mention that I'm so carried away with the earthloom, upright, no need to secure it to work on it, that I've asked my friend and local handyman and artist to build me a holder upper for the artist stretchers I use as looms at home?  

He's off working on the design now, in between renovating people's houses, after a couple of meetings in which I managed to forget vital bits of information, forgetting he's not a weaver.  Such as the need to warp around the outside of the stretchers, so the bottom one can't be locked into a frame at that time.  Etc.  

He had a great counter suggestion though:  why not put the loom into the holder-upper sideways, and warp side to side,then turn it upright and start to weave.  Brilliant workaround. 

I'll post pix when this is done and in operation.  He's using old shelving of mine to build with and will add hardware or something, for the holder upper to be able to be opened, the loom dropped into the channel, then be tightened to work.

If this works, we'll have to apply for a patent!  But I think we'll have to come up with a better name than Liz and Mike's Loom HolderUpper for the application.  The LAMLHU.  Sounds very foreign and esoteric.

Insertions for the tapestry

Two pieces of woven beadwork, which will be inserted into Four Sisters, the AIR tapestry at the library.  I'll be doing a good bit of work at home on smaller looms, on insertions like this.  Judy T. you may recognize the blue beads seen here.  And more may show up in this work as it goes.

First Artist in Residence stint done

The first Artist in Residence afternoon, first of six, went very well.  It's a first for the library, and a first for this artist, too, so that was exciting. 

I've made a couple of small beaded insertions at home, woven to fit into the faces of the figures -- this piece is named Four Sisters. There are three other pieces in other media going into the exhibit on the same subject, too.


Five more Fridays open to the general public, and I'll be doing modular work at home, too, beadweaving and other bits, to weave into the bigger work.

 Some people stopped to chat and bewail the loss of handmade nowadays, and to talk about how their grandmothers could spin and knit and crochet, and how they liked crochet but not knitting, and where did I get all these different yarns and stuff.  Very nice, because working a tapestry is hard on your back and arms, and an excuse to stop was welcome now and then.

 Here you can see the cartoon -- drawing -- on the back of the warp.

And here some of the ton of yarns and homespun and beads and ribbons which might find their way into this work.

I got the establishing rows done, to stabilize the general layout of the piece. 

 

Goodnight moon, the cover is thrown over the work until I get there next week.

This is really a terrific opportunity, very happy with it.  Gallery Manager Donna is doing above and beyond work to publicize it, along with the April exhibit, very happy with all that, too! See exhibit poster, here, on the library website, to various people,  plus great presser already went out and will appear in early April, poifect timing.

And back at the ranch, here's my old cardboard loom, on which I'll do a couple of the heads I drew on there -- two on the one loom, but I can remember which line is for which figure, so I can do two weavings one by one on the same loom. And maybe I'll get to use up my handspun, yay.  But then I'll have to remember how to spin, oh, right, yes, that, to make more.

All in all, a good time was had by all!  In fact I checked the time after a while, figuring I'd been working maybe 45 minutes, and found it was nearly two hours and soon time to tidy up and leave.

So if you're in the neighborhood of Plainsboro Public Library, next five Fridays 2-4 p.m., ending April 11  come up to the third floor, and meet and greet and ask anything you want to ask!

Blue glass bracelet done

Here's the completed bracelet, with a pic alongside a ruler to show the measurement.  Czech glass beads, with semi precious bead closing.


I'm wondering if I should start naming these items?  they're one of a kind artworks, so that may be a way to go.  Name for this one, perhaps, about ocean, waterfall, summer sky, what do you think?

Stop me before I bead again

After working at framing, which entailed finding frames and mats, which ended up entailing organizing and tossing and generally rendering useful a whole area of the studio, and finally managing to get a couple of pieces framed for April, I decided I needed a rest.

So I got on with the Gilded Star, not much of a rest, since it entails counting on the diagonal, not my best moments.  So I then warped up the little loom and started a bracelet cuff, using my favorite two shades of blue beads.  The pleasure of picking up the beads, the colors and changes in the light, is a big part of why I do this.

So this is where I am.  This is warped on beading hemp, fine strong cord, rather than elastic, since it doesn't want to be snug, but a bit more casual.  Because the beads are glass, and don't show up against the dark grey cardboard loom, I slid a kleenex behind them, for the pic, but I don't work with it in place. Click on it to see better.

 Haven't decided on the fastening yet, but I will be dyeing this piece after the beading's done, to a shade of blue, the warp, that is, since the beads and the gold attaching thread will be unchanged.  We'll see how this works. I like it a lot so far. Let me know if you think it has your name on it.  It's going to be about 8 inches of weaving plus the fastening, in length.

Today: finish this, more framing and finding and tidying, maybe even some creative stitching, we'll see.  The cold is very hard on my hands, much pain, but I think that will go away once the weather goes away.   I hear that if there's a strike at the Weather Channel, we won't have any weather until it's settled.

New in the Art the Beautiful online occasional store!

Newly available: handwoven bead bracelet,glass and metal beads, woven on beading elastic. Loop and button closure. Relaxed length, end to end of fastenings, 6.5 inches, stretches to 7.5 in use. 

It can be slipped over the hand without unfastening, too, since it stretches.  Seen on a 7.5 inch wrist, snug but comfortable fit.

$US25 plus $5 s and h.

If you like this but need a longer length,  let me know and I will quote you the price and make one that will work for you.