Teaching Chainmaille

I signed up to teach a 10 week beginner's course at Saint Lucie County Rock and Gem Club in Fort Pierce, FL! The first (Byzantine) week went off pretty nicely although it kind of surprised me having 8 students signed up! Luckily I made enough kits to go around and two of the students, having had previous chainmaille experience, opted to skip the Byzantine weave and go right for this coming week's project Open Roundmaille!

I'll try to update after each class to show just how smart my students are!

Micro Macrame Tutorial by Donna Littlewood

Many people have been admiring my micro macrame bracelet so I thought it only fair that I post the designer and where you can buy her pattern. Donna Littlewood is the designer and you can purchase the pattern "Waves" on her Etsy site Knot Gypsy Designs. Fun and easy and she has some free basic tuts! I made some adjustments to make it my own and to accommodate my soup beads!

The Bead Soup Blog Party 7

I tried my hand at The Bead Soup Blog Party through Facebook this year. The way it worked (and I'm still not totally sure of it) was I joined, got a partner who sent me beautiful beads, I sent her some also beautiful beads and the challenge was to see what we could make of it. Rules: I had to use the focal bead and the clasp in what I made and I could add my own beads to the piece or pieces. We had a certain amount of time and today was the reveal date for our group! I pondered and thought and came up with two totally different pieces. One is chained and wire wrapped and the other is micro Macrame! The first picture will show a good selection of the beads that she sent me. The other pics show different angles of what I made. My partner is Dana Fowler. She has been pretty under the weather since we swapped and I send her all my love and good wishes for a speedy recovery. The Bead Soup Blog Party is run by a generous and very well organized lady, Lori Anderson. Much thanks to her! I'll learn a little more each time I do this.

Soutache, Crystals, Pearls Oh My!

These are a few of the pieces that I've been working on. I'll be teaching the Chain & Gems here in Fort Pierce and in Maitland (Orlando), FL. I was experimenting with soutache. The Lunasoft cab was my first try. Next I'll be working with a green goldstone cab! The multi-strand embellished RAW was really fun to do!

Bead Soup Party

My Bead Soup Party partner received her soup from me so I'll post a picture of it for all to see. Our reveal date is the last so we have a little time to get started! This is some of what I sent along to her.

Time Goes By So Fast!

Another successful FJARG retreat has passed! The gals attending our winter retreat this past week were the best and they made the retreat the best ever. I have to say that they are getting better each year as we get to know one another. We gathered at Bebee and Hank's spectacular home here in Florida. The classes went well. Above you'll see a beaded box that was taught by Catherine. I'm not the best at bead embroidery but I'm very happy with this project. When I'm having a hankering for chocolate layer cake I'll just pull it out and feast my eyes! It is made with faux leather, ultra-suede, beads, a jasper doughnut and a Republic of Tea travel tin. Next will be a Strawberry Shortcake if I can get my hands on another tin! I'll post pictures of the other projects later.

Jewelry this Week

It's been a beady kind of week! Beading Babes has a challenge going on and I chose to do "Scalloped Pearls" from October 2012 edition of Bead & Button. I enjoyed making it so much I made another. The first is done using the same size beads suggested in the tutorial. I only had one color of the cubes so that's what I used. The second bracelet is made using the editor's suggestion to substitute size 6 and size 11 seed beads for the two sizes of cubes. The purple pearls don't show as purple in my pic. It's kind of Red Hat Lady but I like the way it came out! My friend Annette Holbert has her Tila Bead design "Simply Triangular" in Oct-Nov 2012 Beadwork. I decided to give it a try. Kassie Inman's design "Quilt Cuff" in the same edition is next! I found a chainmaille weave that I haven't done so I tackled that also. It's called Viper Scale and it so much quicker than Dragon Scale!