EBW April 2011 Challenge...Spring Around the Corner

It is finally here! The big day for me...my first entry is actually posted on the Etsy Beadweavers Blog for VOTING tomorrow April 9 thru April 15th > Will I win...not a possibility...but I am IN IT!!!!

http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/2011/04/voting-for-april-challenge-spring.html

To share the same space with such AMAZING Bead Artists is my DREAM!! The competition is OUTSTANDING!!

Please be sure to cast your vote for one of these STUNNING pieces but be sure to look at the offerings of ALL of the ARTISTS on their Etsy pages...you will not regret it!!!

Thanks so much

EBW Team April 2011 Challenge ENTRY

Here is the Before, During and After photos of my Very FIRST entry in an Etsy Beadweavers Team Challenge. The theme for this April 2011 Challenge is "Spring Around the Corner".This is my attempt at designing a one of a kind Bead Crochet Rope masterpiece in homage of SPRING...a season I never fully appreciated until I lived in Fayetteville, North Carolina for four years.

While I perform every technique and manner of beadweaving....for the past seven years I have specialized in bead crochet ropes as an Instructor and Artist This is a very exacting & time consuming pusuit which was right up my alley.

The first step was designing the pattern on bead crochet graphs (I use Judith Bertoglio-Giffin's version)using 19 different colored pencils. It is much like creating a counted cross stitch chart, but with many more limitations. Step two is putting the graph on a magnetic board & using magnetic strips to hold my place as I string the EXACT pattern one tiny seed bead at a time onto the heavy duty polyester thread...my pattern area was 18 inches before repeat so there was no margin for errors in stringing...which I made several times and had to start over and over to perfection. I used size 8/0, 10/0 and 11/0 Japanese and Czech glass seed beads as well as Czech pressed glass mini drops in the construction of the main body of the 40 inch long lariat. The fringe contains an additional 10 colors of pressed glass Czech beads. The 40 inches of seven beads around necessitated approximately 280 inches of strung pattern. After all these beads are strung precisely as designed, the crocheting with the tiny 1.25 steel crochet hook begins. In the case of this particular piece it took three plus weeks from start to finish...i am not real good about tracking my time as for me it is a labor of LOVE not Business.

I am SOOOO enthusiastic about being permitted to participate in this challenge with the Best Beadweaver Artists on Etsy....Please CAST YOUR VOTE for your favorite design in the Etsy Beadweavers Team Challenge of April 2011 at:

http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com

ANYONE can vote...the entries are awe-inspiring. That is how I was drawn into the Team...maybe YOU will be too.

ETSY BEADWEAVERS TEAM

Yeah!! I finally got the courage to join the Etsy Beadweavers Team!!

I have been lurking in the shadows...voting for all the Challenges every month. Salivating at the artistic prowess of these AMAZING artisans...now I am in their ranks and hoping to enter my own pieces in the monthly Challenges.

If you are not familiar with these Challenges, you can become educated at this site:

http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

The Challenge VOTING begins the 9th of EVERY MONTH and ends the 15th.
EVERYONE is invited to vote for their favorite entry. Entries are submitted via each member's Etsy Shop.

I am currently hard at work composing what I hope will be my very first entry in this upcoming Challenge for April:

"Spring Around The Corner"

Please come and join me in my enthusiasm for this Spectacular Etsy Team by getting involved in the voting process.

I am also a member of the Etsy Bead Team:

http://www.etsy.com/teams/6360/etsy-bead

Etsy Pure Handmade Team:

http://www.etsy.com/teams/7747/

Etsy Trade-A-Holics..

http://www.etsy.com/teams/6490/etsy-trade-a-holics

more very active ETSY TEAMS!!

TERRIFYING TRANSITIONS

SOOOO I have been a very bad blogger for a whole long time now! First reason being...no polymer clay project has been accomplished & I PROMISED IN MY LAST POST THAT I WOULD NOT BLOG AGAIN UNTIL I HAD MADE SOMETHING!!!!!! Well, then along came life & chaos involved in remodelling the whole blasted house. A bladder surgery also ensued and a two & a half long visit from my long lost friend of years past and and ...yadda yadda yadda Basically, I am COPING with a whole lotta changes in life as I knew it for the past 8 years. AND I realize that the whole CHANGE thing is JUST BEGINNING!! The photo I have put up this time shows my adorable (GORGEOUS) almost four year old granddaughter, ELLA with her friends already starting to BEAD without ME!!!! HOW CAN THAT BE??????????????
She is the sweetie in front on the left beaming her show-stopping smile at the camera.

THIS is one of the MANY MANY reasons I am hustling to get this house ship-shape for selling so I can be joining my little honey bunny ELLA & her AMAZZZZZING brother, Mylz in NC ......ASAP!!!

Oh, and a sling of some sort to prevent my stress incontinence was put in me on July 6th at Oro Valley Hospital, Oro Valley, AZ by Dr. Peters. She did a superb job but the real Kudos go to the staff of the Oro Valley Hospital who were simply the best medical caregivers I have EVER experienced. And believe me, in the past 8 years, I have experienced a ton of medical personnel...most of whom should never have been called "CARE"-givers!

My friend of 40 years was a life-saver. She has serious health issues of her own but she drove about 180 miles from Sun City, AZ (NW of Phoenix) just to be here for me through my own mini medical crisis. Thank You Jeanette, even though you don't own a computer & pretty much don't believe in them.

My method to avoiding the remodel CHAOS is simple. Squeaker (you all KNOW my soul mate by now) and I 'hole up' in my bedroom and either sleep, read, knit, bead, crochet or listen to the radio & chill during the entire noisy messy session of hard work going on around us. TODAY, however, BIG CHANGES will be made! I MUST relinquish the final room to be scraped of wallpaper, popcorn ceiling disposed and new paint restored....OUR SANCTUARY....my bedroom for the past 8 years.

SCARY as it is for this dutiful only child...I AM MOVING INTO MOTHER'S MASTER BEDROOM!! Yup I am gathering courage as we speak and preparing for the HUGE transition. I will provide photos later.....so stay tuned ya'llll

I have been so busy trying to upload my new work now to TWO locations. I finally got bold enough to be a verified member on ARTFIRE...the Tucson operation.

These three photos are some of the items listed on artfire:
http://www.beadacious1221aces520.artfire.com/
which is to be a cooperative venture with my daughter, April who is clear across the country in NC...wow, I am getting brazen with this internet thing, huh?

Artfire is supposed to provide a shopping cart on my blog here too...when I figure that one out, you will be the FIRST to know...after me, that is...LOL. Please take a look at OUR new studio on Artfire.
Thanks

Picture Perfect/Desert Bloom

This is the FIRST finished piece of what I hope will be a long and fruitful relationship between my shop and
www.sarahsetsy.etsy.com
whose artwork is showcased in the sumptuous cactus flower pendant on my intricately crocheted rope in the photos here. Please be sure to visit Sarah's shop to see her magnificent photography!
And now....THE REST OF THE STORY:

Early into my Etsy experience I discovered that we can check out who is local on etsy. In other words, shops who are in the same city or state as we are. This I thought was very KEWL!
I spotted this shop with really spectacular photography AND the artist made some of her prints into art pendants.....WELL

I sent a convo (message) to this gal, Sarah Whitney, that I loved her photography, but especially her handmade pendants with cactus blossoms, jack rabbits, southwestern skies, etc. My only problem was if the bails would slide on my crochet ropes. I expessed my desire to showcase her work in this manner. Sarah started brainstorming where to find larger bails. She is just the sweetest gal.

Shortly thereafter I was a beadwork demonstrator at the Pima County Fair just outside of Tucson. While chatting with different people, I learned of a shop not too far from my home that carried the larger bails we were looking for in sterling silver.
Sarah was more than anxious to acquire the right sized bails to start custom pendants for me to buy and use in my work. She lives miles and miles from the glass shoppe location, but she put her youngest son in her vehicle and met me at the shop.
It was so special for me to actually meet another artist on Etsy and sorta collaborate on some pieces together IN PERSON. And her son and daughter,who I met when she was kind enough to deliver her finished pieces directly to my door, are just precious.
The personal touch of meeting and associating with local artisans would normally have me all jazzed to form some sort of local Etsy group cooperative for support and networking.
That was the old me...jump in with both feet and mingle with the masses.

My situation is now changed and I am lucky to leave the house once a week to buy groceries or pick up prescriptions. Occasionally, terrific encounters such as mine with Sarah, remind me of long long ago. Seven years have taken their toll on my psyche but I guess somewhere my true personality lurks deep in my soul.

MY FAVE FIRE DIVA

Can you even believe how beautiful this bead is?????

JanelDudleyBeads posted such a glowing statement about my work that I don't even know how to act. I was fortunate enough to find her shop on Etsy, http://www.janeldudleybeads.etsy.com/ , when I first opened my own. I was looking for good focal beads to use in my crochet ropes and there IT was....the perfect compliment to a hank of seed beads that I knew I already had on hand.

I bought that bead and a couple others (of course I couldn't resist) and set to making the rope. It took me longer to get around to putting it all together than it did to crochet the two halves of the rope to showcase her fabulous handcrafted lampwork bead. I have finally posted the finihed product in my etsy shop http://www.beadacious1221.etsy.com/ for the WORLD to see. I will keep you posted as to when the other beads by this "Fire Diva" make it to my work as well.

FABULOUS LAMPWORK CREATIONS

I FINALLY got busy finishing off my pieces with lampwork art created by various Etsy Glass Artists, This is the first of many items that will showcase the work of Pam Dansie.


She is an Etsy Artisan, Artfire Artisan, and 1000 Markets Artisan. I bought this wonderful slider focal bead from her shop on Etsy:
http://www.mycabincreations.etsy.com/




She is also a blogger on this site:
http://www.wildsagelampwork.blogspot.com/
I don't have her other locations, but if you visit either of the sites given you will gather all the info you need to see her marvelous work on any of her many sites.



And, oh yeah....by the by, if you spot anything of hers that you might like ME to put into one of my special bead crochet ropes, please let me know either here, or at MY etsy shop:
http://www.beadacious1221.etsy.com/
or at beadacious1221@gmail.com




I couldn't capture the actual depth of colors in the design of this bead with my camera. It is just a super stunning piece!