Last chance to enter my giveaway!

WIN ME!!!

I'm excited about the giveaway.  Remember, if you want to get in on the fun and have a chance to win my Drops of Honey embroidered cuff, deadline is tonight.  So hurry and get your name in the hat.  Go to the previous post for all the details!

I'm also excited about the new things I will be creating soon.  I have decided to jump head first into the pool of polymer clay.  I've seen such amazing things come from polyclay that I wanted to give it a go and see what I can do.  I am in no way, shape, or form talented in the area of painting, so making amazingly painted face cabs like Beth over at Bellesanbeaus is definitely out...but, I think I can mix clays and techniques to make some pretty cool polyclay beads and focals.  I'm hoping the birthday fairie (my daddy) comes this month.  I have on my wish list a pasta machine that I saw at Hobby Lobby, an extruder, some little cookie cutters and, of course, lots of colors of clay.  I bought a few blocks of clay about 2 weeks ago along with some tools and a bead roller.  I learned one important lesson already.  Don't use Fimo Classic!  It is soooooo hard and is nearly impossible to get soft enough to work with.  Fortunately I only bought one of those.

I have 2 books about polyclay beads on order at the library.  One of them came in and I'm going to try to get hubby to take me to the library to pick it up.  I can't drive myself....had a scare yesterday morning.  I got up early and went to the corner store.  I have no a/c so I was driving with the windows down.  I heard a swoosh-swoosh-swoosh sound coming from my tire as I was driving along.  I thought that maybe i need some air in the tire.  They sometimes make that sound if the air is too low.  Went home, got Sami ready for school and was headed out the door to take her to school.  I decided to take another look at my tire.  I bent over, put my hand on the tire as I started looking at it, and OUCH!!!!  Something cut me!!!  Holy crow...my tire is almost shredded!  The wires are coming through and the tire is all cracked around the side wall!!!!  I am sooooo lucky my tire hasn't exploded and come off already!  Especially on the freeway or something.  How dangerous is that?!  So, to make a long story short, I will not be driving my car until we can afford some new tires and I will be depending on my DH to take me where I need to go (I don't drive his van).  Sooooo I am excited about picking up the one book that came in and drooling over the pretties and learning whatever I can.  I will keep you all posted.

Also, I have learned how to make PDF patterns for beadwoven pieces.  I have made a pattern of my Wrapped in Red netted collar necklace and a pattern for my hematite flat spiral bracelet.  If you'd like to take a look, they are in my Artfire shop here.  And, I had some pros review my first patterns.  They were gracious enough to take the time to guide me along, give some critiques and suggestions, etc. to make sure that my patterns are as professional as possible.  Thank you Nicole from Beadwright and Kathy from England!!!  You two were my angels these past few days, helping me with something new.

Ok, kids.  I'm going to head off for now.  I have been rambling today, haven't I? :)  Don't forget...go to the previous post and enter the giveaway if you haven't already!

Giveaway Celebration!!!

Can you believe it?  I have reached 100 posts!  When I started this blog, October 31st of 2009, I had no idea what I would write about on a regular basis, if anyone would ever read what I had to say, or how long I would continue to do it.  So far it has been a great journey!  I have met so many wonderful people and made such good friends through the blog world.  It has been great for me because I don't get out much, and I have never been good at meeting people.  Maybe it's just that I don't put myself in situations to be able to meet new people.  I live a very sheltered life, even having gone through almost 2 years of severe agoraphobia where I barely even left my room let alone went out and spoke to someone.

I have so very much enjoyed writing, reading your comments, emailing you back and talking about things and then visiting your blogs and getting to know you through your posts.  I appreciate your friendships very much.  In return for your kindness, I would like to give away one of my pieces.  I thought about making something new, but all of you probably already know I am really short on funds, and I didn't want to skimp on anything.  I wanted to give away something special.  So what I have decided to do is take one of my cuffs out of my online shops and give it away to one of my readers for my 100th Post Celebration.  I am giving away one of my bead embroidered cuffs that I call "Drops of Honey".  It is one of my favorites.  I just love the shell discs.  The colors are so rich and creamy...they look just like nice big dollops of honey to me.  Here are some photos of it:

What do you think?  Do you like it?  It is made with an aluminum cuff base with microsuede on the inside.  It could be yours!  All you have to do is be (or become) a follower here on my blog and leave me a comment...make sure you tell me how to reach you in the event you are the winner.  If you'd like a 2nd chance to win, post this to your blog with a link to the post, and I'll even do a 3rd chance to win by sharing to your Facebook page (you'll have to friend me, too.)  Leave me a separate comment for each of your 3 ways to win so I can keep an easy count.  I will do a random number generator to pick the winner.

The deadline for entering my giveaway is going to be Saturday, April 2nd at midnight EST.  I will ship this anywhere, so everyone is welcome to enter.  I will announce the winner on Sunday, April 3rd.  I hope you like my giveaway, and I hope to see lots of entries to make my celebration a party.

Thank you again for making my blogging experience a great one!!!

Lemon Squeeze

I show my mother-in-law all my work, and she ooohs and aaahs and thinks my bracelets are so pretty.  She's talking about taking them to work with her and showing them off, and maybe getting a sale or two.  She works at a pretty large high school, with LOTS of female teachers and staff.  Well, she seems to be obsessed with me making something in "blond colors".  She keeps thinking about her boss and that she might like to have one.  Then she keeps mentioning a particular outfit that is yellow and black.  I'm not a big fan of yellow, and wasn't sure what to do with it. 

I finally found this Serpentine stone that has pretty shades of yellow in it, swirled all around.  So I got that, and then didn't know what to do with it.  I bought a tube of transparent lemony-yellow seed beads that I thought were kind of pretty.  And then I got some pale yellow glass bicones.  So I got home and set everything out, and thought it needed something.  Well, I had to add some black to go with that outfit she keeps talking about, otherwise I might have done some complimentary purple or something.  I also found some pale minty transparent green seed beads that went really well with the yellow ones I bought...in the tubes anyways.  Thing is, once I started beading with them, you could hardly see any color at all.  Bummer!  So I sprinkled in some shimmery yellow delicas, which livened it up a little.  The photos really show a stark difference with the delicas, but in natural lighting the delicas are a little more subtle.  I added the bicones tipped with a black 15/0 hex cut in a pattern of two on a row, then one, then two, then one so there were 9 bicones on each side.  I got the the backing on and then the beading on the form and got the edging done.  Then I decided I hated it.  The bicones on there looked ridiculous to me.  I took the scissors and cut off the black tips, took off all the bicones, and then used nail clippers to snip the threads as close as I could (with nightmare visions of cutting the bead threads and ruining the whole dang thing).  It is very plain jane, but it looks so much better than it did before.

So here I am now with a yellow bracelet that I made with the urging of my mother-in-law, not even sure if this lady is remotely interested in a new bracelet to go with her yellow and black outfit...so I may be stuck with a yellow bracelet.

I read a blurb from one of Etsy's email newsletters about signing or tagging your work.  So I thought what the heck and I initialed my name with "Indigo's Beads" on the back of the microsuede lining.  You can click on the photos for a larger view if you want.

Lemon Squeeze

Also, there are two days left to get your name in the hat for my giveaway.  Read the next post if you haven't seen about it yet.

Drops of Honey

I finished my newest bracelet this afternoon.  I wanted to get this up tonight before I call it quits.  You know, dealing with mental illness and extreme anxiety takes it toll on me.  I was so excited to get a facebook message today from my high school best friend who I haven't talked to in nearly 16 years.  I've tried to find her over the years, but had no success...then *poof* there she is!  We talked for nearly 2 hours on the phone, and it was so great to hear from her and to catch up on our lives.  BUT, as soon as the phone call was over, I started having a panic attack.  I don't know why.  The only thing I have figured in dealing with all this crap is that my body doesn't know how to handle and process extreme emotions whether it be fear, pure happiness, excitement, (fill in other emotions here).  So it comes out in the form of a panic attack.  It feels as though my skin is peeled back and all my nerves are exposed and even the slightest breeze from the fan makes me feel like I'm going to jump out of my skin and go through the roof.  It is the worst feeling ever.  My head is pounding, my heart is racing, my breathing is shallow and fast, I clench my teeth so much it makes my face and jaw hurt, I'm shaky and jittery.  I could go on and on about the affects of a panic attack.  And here lately they have been lasting 10-12 hours at a pop before my adrenaline levels start to come back down and I can relax again. 

I guess there is no point really to my ramblings except to say that I had just a little bit of the edging to finish when I got off the phone with Angela.  I knew I wanted to get it done, and man were those last few inches ever so hard to finish!  My hands were shaking so badly, I kept poking my fingers with my needle and my thread kept getting tangled the wrong way and I had a heck of a time keeping it straight.  But I powered through.  I call it Drops of Honey because the amber shell discs looked like, well, big drops of honey.  The color in them is so rich and yummy.  There are 5 discs going around the band.  The bracelet is 1 1/4" wide.  It's very simple in it's design...I wanted the honey drops to stand out and take center stage.

I have so many new and wonderful beads to work with, thanks to my generous Dad and his birthday gift to me.  However, given my current state, it looks like this attack with last through the night and I will probably need tomorrow to recover.  And tomorrow is therapy day...those are always rough.  So it may be a day or two before I start on something new.  Who knows.  I'll just have to see how it goes.  You can click on the photo, btw, if you want a larger view.

Shell Mist

I think this one is pretty cool looking.  It is covered in little pieces of black and grey shell.  I don't know what the center stone is, but it looks so misty and foggy to me I think it's neat.  It looks to me sort of industrial for a down-played casual look, but at the same time I can see it being worn with a little black dress for a night on the town.  I think it could be very versatile.  What do you think of it?  (Oh...it's 2" wide.)

Shell Mist

Sunburst Cuff

Here is my latest creation.  I read a post by Robin Atkins on her blog, Beadlust, called How to Blend Colors (click to check out her post...good reading).  I've been toying with the idea of blending colors for quite a while, but the thoughts never materialized into anything but that.  I was a little bit at a loss.  I could visualize what I wanted, but I think I was intimidated to try it.  Her blog post gave me the confidence that it's not that hard of a concept, and it can have some great results.  My cuff here probably isn't exactly the way she would do it, or the way that it might "supposed" to be done, but I'm very happy with my own variation and the results of it. 

I call it the Sunburst in the middle because that's the first thing that came to my mind, but if you can think of a better name for, please by all means give me suggestions.  Anyways, it starts with the sunburst in the middle, then goes from green to blended green and gold to gold on the back side.  Of course, just like looking at a pixelated picture, it looks more blended when you step back from it. 

I used a circular peyote stitch around the porcelain cab, then surrounded that by a circle of short stacks with dark olive green 6/0's topped with 11/0 gold beads. I extended the burst with 9mm gold bugles tipped with 15/0 light olive green beads.  The rest is done with size 11/0's in a simple backstitch in olive, gold and transparent amber, but I was surprised at the amount of time it took to think through each row and plan which colors would go where.  Again, I am very happy with the edging that I learned from Lynn at Beading Heart Art.  All in all, I am very pleased with this cuff.  I think I am getting better with each one.  *pats self on back with satisfied smile*

So, here it is...you can click on the pics for a larger view.  I would suggest looking at it up close at your seat, but also try stepping back from your computer a ways to see the colors blend more.  Let me know what you think! 

Sunburst

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and taking the time to read what I have to say and to look at my pics.  I appreciate you coming by, and I hope you come back again!  Comments, thoughts, criticisms, critiques, just a hello...all are welcome.

Dots

I finished another cuff bracelet last night.  I really kinda like this one.  Simple, but fun.  I found these little rectangle black shiny beads with colorful spots on them.  So I just mimicked the colorful dots throughout the bracelet.  I am ecstatic about the edging.  I had seen pictures of cuffs that use just a one bead edging that I thought looked really sharp.  If I only knew what it was called I thought I could look instructions up on Google or find a video on youtube, but I didn't know the name of it.  I saved some pics from other cuffs and sent them to my good friend Lynn at Beading Heart Art and asked her if she could identify the stitch for me. She did better than that...she made a video for me!!!  (On a side note about Lynn, please click on her link and look for her post called "Done!" and take a look at the amazingly gorgeous handbag she made for this year's Beading for a Cure.  You'll see why she's my bead idol.  I call her a Bead Goddess!!!)  It's a good thing she did send the video because I never would have gotten it if it was just written instructions.  My edging on this cuff turned out so nice and even.  I am simply happy with it.  And I'm pretty pleased with my backstitching too.  For as simple as this one looks, for some reason it took me quite a while to finish it.  Maybe because I was trying to make the stitches even and nice.  I don't know.  And I wish I knew what the little rectangle beads are called.  The bead store where I do most of my shopping is pretty poor at labeling their beads and stones.  Anways...

Dots

And, for those of you who were wondering...my beading class went great!  I hid my nervousness well.  I made an outline so I stayed on track and didn't get lost, and man did that help!  During the class a woman and her daughter came in and stopped to see what we were doing and looked at my work.  They both seemed very eager to learn and to take the class.  Also, the owner of the store said that some others really wanted to take the class but that it was a bad day for them yesterday, so it looks like we will be scheduling another one coming up pretty soon.  I didn't get through everything on my outline and it took 2 hours!  I can't imagine what it will be like when I get someone who is slow or just doesn't get it.  Fortunately I loooove beads and have patience for it.  So it will be ok.  I took my camera, but taking pics wasn't on my outline, lol, so I forgot. 

Well, that's about all I got for now.  Have a beadiful day!!!

Summer Blossom

This bracelet is way different than the ones I've been making.  This one is much simpler, but I think it's fun.  I think I did a really good job on my stitches on this one.  What does it remind you of?  Watermelon?  Strawberries?  A Hawaiian lei?  These are all things that come to my mind.  My husband hates watermelon, so he's not particularly fond of this one.  lol  oh well.  I wanted something bright, cheerful and that reminded me of summer.  I call this one "Summer Blossom".

Give me your honest opinions.  I value your feedback!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Couple of Firsts

Here is the cuff for my first sale.  I'm very happy with it!  I have to give a great big shout out to Bobbi at Beading at the Beach for giving some awesome advice on making my peyote better.  I think her tip worked, because my peyote around my cab is nice and even with no strings showing. 

Jennifer (the lady that ordered the cuff) only said that she liked the colors in my mom's cuff and that she wanted gold beads in it.  I think I have filled her requests with this one.  My husband is not too interested in my beading, but even he said this one was really good.  That made me feel spectacular!

I wish you could see it in person.  My picot edging was really nice and even too, although you can't really tell in the pics.  Rather than looking at the top edge, because I think the front side and back side overlap and make the edging in the pic look messy, look at the picot on the bottom edge.  It's my best yet.

I for sure undersold myself on this one.  I gave her a price, but after looking on Etsy and stuff later, I could have at least doubled what I asked.  But it was my first sale, and I was just happy about it.  I can always go up a little in the future.

AND it was confirmed yesterday that I am going to teach my very first class!  It will be on improvisational bead embroidery.  I specifically asked for the class to be small...not more than 5 people...because I have a lot of problems with nerves and anxiety.  I don't want to get overwhelmed my first go around.  It wasn't that long ago that I was agoraphobic and wouldn't even step out, let alone be in front of people.  I wrote up my handouts last night and either today or tomorrow I will be going to the bead shop to pick out beads for the kits.  We haven't set a date yet, but it will be in the next couple weeks.  I'll take my camera and see if anyone minds if I take their picture to write about it and post on my blog after it happens.

Purple Bracelet (because I can't think of a better name)

Here is my next cuff bracelet.  I just hate how the camera shows the, um, "quirks" so much.  But in person it looks rather nice.  I just need a little work on my peyote stitch.  I think the problem was that bottom row was 6/0's and the next rows were very skinny 11/0's, so the size difference made it difficult for me.  I'm just learning peyote, though, so be gentle with me.  Also, my picot stitch in person looks pretty good but the pic doesn't make it look very good.  :(

So what should I call this one?  Come on ladies...I know you're all creative!  Give me some good ideas!

I had a fun thing happen today.  I showed this and my mom's cuff to a couple people today.  One lady just flipped over my mom's bracelet and wanted to buy it from me right then!  I told her I couldn't sell it to her, though, because it was specifically for my mom.  So she ordered one!  yea for me!  My first cuff order!  She didn't give any specifications except to say that she wanted some gold beads in it.  Ok...I can do that.  Off shopping I go tomorrow!  woohoo!

Off topic from my beading.  I have to show you my two little ones.  It's the start of baseball season, so between their two teams we're at the field about 4 or 5 times a week.  Very tiring, busy nights!  But here they are, Matthew (10) and Sara (8).  I know I am a little biased, but I do believe I have beautiful babies! :)

Cuff for Mom

My mom saw my first cuff and really wanted it.  But I knew it would be too big for her.  She says, "You know, my birthday is coming up."  lol  yeah...in June.  So I knew I wanted to make her a bracelet, not for her birthday or for Mother's Day or any other day except an "I Love You Day".  I didn't tell her I was making it, but she said she wanted one like the first one.  I went out and bought the same package of doodads that I used to make the first one, but of course they never turn out the same.   On hers I omitted some of the doodads and I added some gold colored discs, which give it a nice little flair.  This one, with the edging a little wider, is 2 1/4" wide.

I used a bracelet blank this time.  I have to tell you, though, that I was a little disappointed when I got them.  They are 6" long, and the opening gap is so big that it falls right off.  My solution was to put two buttons on one side with two strings of beads and loops on the other just for security.  Next time I'm going to custom order them at 7".

I know I've got things to work on, like not being afraid to trim closer to the blank and making my picot edge stitch more even.  All in all, though, I'm happy with it.  I hope she likes it!!!

I did it!!!

I did my first cuff bracelet!  I had no clue as to what I was doing most of the way through it, from buying the foundation materials, to the closure, to the backing, to the picot stitch all the way around to sew the front and back together...but I managed to get one done!  woohoo for me!  The pictures didn't show the colors so well, but the main focal beads are sort of a mossy green with brown spots.  I used some awesome bugle beads from Fusion Beads that are silver-lined transparent brown...they are kind of a cross between brown and copper.  Very neat.  I used Czech chocolate mud pie mix, some different shades of green in 11/0 and 15/0, a package of coordinating doodads and some coppers. I used microsuede to back it, and stiff felt for the foundation.

This was my first time doing peyote stitch around the focal bead.  I usually use tall stacks, so that was a first.  Also, it was my first time using the picot stitch to sew the front and back together.  So this was a journey in firsts for me!  Which is why I'm calling this bracelet "Journeys". 

I liked this piece because it is not symmetrical and has interesting things to look at.  What are your opinions?

The other issue for me was size.  I used myself as a dummy for sizing, which probably isn't a good idea.  I'm a big girl.  Whereas my wrist is only 6.5", this bracelet measures 2 1/4" wide, which means it's going up my arm.  That's where the problem came in.  It fits a little loose on me, but it is 10" long!!!  I see bracelets that are 7" on average, which would fit just my wrist, but being so wide I had an issue.  What are the standards for bracelets?  My daughter is average with skinny wrists.  She can fit it closed over her hand and it fits very loose on her.

I really enjoyed making this cuff, so thank you, Carol, for making my mind up for me!  I would like to make more, but I would really like to hear your feedback, kudos and criticisms on what I did right and what I did wrong.  Be honest!!!

Thanks for stopping by!