A Master Class in Stringing

Last year Kate Richbourg of the Beadshop ran a six-session master class in bead stringing based on the style and techniques of Helen Dietze; of course I jumped all over that.  The result:

The photo does not do it justice

This was a lot of fun to do. Kate's project centered around a large stone donut, but I did not have one in a color I liked. I did, however, have a giant brass replica of a Chinese coin, so that became the core around which everything else was built. I rooted through my stash and pulled every purple, burgundy, brass, and gold-colored bead I had and got to stringing. Some progress pictures:

This is not the first time I've done a Helen Dietze project; decades ago the late, lamented (by me at least) Bead & Button magazine featured her and a version of one of her ambassador necklaces. I made it but I never wore it -- it called for long dangles at the back to counterbalance the weight of the front. However, those strands were uncomfortable and set off my sensory issues. When I began this project, I knew I'd need to keep the front from getting too big and heavy so that I would not have to have too much hanging off the clasp. This necklace is much easier for me to wear.

The fun in a project like this is that it is completely improv; when I started, I had no idea what it would look like, just what colors I wanted and the fact that it should be a little smaller than Kate's to fit me proportionately. Playing with what was functionally a giant "bead soup" was a blast, and I'll want to do something like this again. It's a great artistic exercise.

Book Round-up

 A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett: This collection of Pratchett's early stories (mostly published under pseudonyms) had all of his trademark wit and whimsy. A quick, fun read.

The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman: The mystery in this, the third of Osman's delightful series, wasn't as strong or as interesting, but at this point I'm here for the wonderful relationships. I think there's one more to read.

Weight by Jeanette Winterson: Part of the Canongate Myth series, where modern authors reinterpret or retell a myth of their choice. Winterson's retelling of the Greek myth of Atlas and Heracles is a wonderful meditation on the weight (get it?) of expectations and responsibility.

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz: The second in Horowitz's series about the editor of a cozy series who has to solve not-so-cozy mysteries in the "real" world. I enjoyed the dual stories in this one, but I'm not sure how long Horowitz can sustain this premise.

Dream Angus by Alexander McCall Smith: Another novella in the Canongate Myth series. McCall Smith tells some of the stories surrounding the Celtic god Aengus, alternating with stories -- vignettes, really -- about love and dreams set in modern Scotland. The stories are not particularly profound, but they nonetheless touch on universal truths.

Jewelry Round-Up: I Can't Stop Edition

Months and months ago I received a newsletter from a bead shop (no idea which) that featured a beautiful project.  I could not afford the kit but I loved the mix of colors and finishes, so I dug through my stash, put a bunch of beads together in a tin, and promptly forgot about it. When I pulled out the tin in late June, I realized I never saved the email and had no recollection of the original project; I needed to figure out my own thing. I've been on a knotting kick and I wanted to try a knotted necklace made with a wide range of bead types like Candie Cooper often makes, so that's what I did. I'm very pleased with it.

The jewelry designer Danielle Wickes designed these nifty circular discs with holes to create beaded fringe, and Kate Richbourg of the The Beadshop did a tutorial on how to make tassel earrings with them.  The seed bead mix I used, "Mardi Gras," came from the bead store I worked at part-time in college; I had originally made a daisy chain necklace with it, but the thread was showing it's age. These earrings are so much fun to wear.

I bought these beautiful, deep purple crystal rounds but I wasn't sure what to do with them. I also had a tiny jar of shimmery raspberry chalottes for which I had not yet found a pattern. By pure chance I put the two next to each other while I was sorting through my work area, and I fell in love with the combination. To make the earrings I basically reversed engineered the pattern from lunasulmare1's cipollotti earrings (she and her tutorials have vanished from the internet).

I'd been wanting to make earrings to commemorate one of my favorite shows, Pushing Daisies, for years. I finally put them together: pie charms, bee charms, and daisy flowers made by me.

The Bead Place came up with a cute decorative project, attaching beaded charms to chicken wire in an embroidery hoop (really). My first thought was to make the wire base myself because why buy a kit when I don't have to? But I quickly realized chicken wire is sold by the yard and super hard to work with. So the kit it was! I had fun using all sorts of flower beads from my stash.

And finally, a simple necklace with an inexpensive locket from Michaels strung with pink tourmaline and lepidolite in quartz (that's a mouthful).

I need to start selling some of my jewelry again.

Book Round-Up

Camino Island by John Grisham: the best part of this novel was the beginning, specifically the description of the theft of priceless manuscripts from Princeton University and the federal investigation that immediately followed. Unfortunately the narrative fizzled out after that.

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin: a fun mystery, wherein the murder victim tasks her putative heirs with solving her murder if they want to inherit.

Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher: I continue working my way through Kingfisher's novels. The subject matter in this one -- patriarchy, misogyny, domestic abuse -- is bleak, but Kingfisher wisely balances it with fairy tale elements like impossible tasks and goblin markets, along with a healthy dose of absurdity (such as a demonic chicken).

PopCo by Scarlett Thomas: I don't know why it took me so long to read this given how much I liked Our Tragic Universe, not to mention the math, puzzles, and cultural commentary in this book. And, for the most part, it was really good! The only flaw was the reveal late in the novel of a plan that seemed to me (but not the characters, apparently) hopelessly idealistic and not at all well thought out. In that sense, it reminded me of The Absolute Book. 

Jewelry Round-Up: I-Keep-Forgetting-to-Post Edition

I participated in a bead swap way back in March (I swear I'll do that post some day), and the very first thing I made was a cute pair of earrings with lilac-colored flowers:

Cheap but colorful beads from Michael's + silver charms that had been languishing = an easy, fun necklace:

I'm such a dork I bought not one but two Middle Earth-themed candles. The second, by North Ave Candles, was their Shire Sweetgrass candle with a cute little mushroom charm. I made a bracelet with it:

(The first candle had The One Ring in it. My 10-year-old is mad I didn't give it to him, but it fits my fingers, not his!)

I love, love, love the fringe charm earrings I made from Susan LeGuyader's pattern in the spring issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry:

The "popcorn padre" beads at Beadshop.com have been calling to me. I finally succumbed and bought them, then made the shop's Tahoe wrap bracelet: 

I originally paired these silver charms with burnt umber beads; pretty, but I never wore them. Turquoise chips and ruby beads are much more my style:

Shell necklaces are in. I happened to have a shell with a hole right where it should be (a lucky beachcombing find), so I cleaned it to remove calcification, rubbed some mineral oil in it to bring back some color, and edged it with gold paint. Brass beads from who-knows-where completed the look:

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

 I've been a fan of Kelly Link's weird, speculative short stories for a very long time, so I was thrilled to hear she published her first novel. The Book of Love is about three teenagers (and something else) who come back after being dead for a year, only everyone now thinks they were studying abroad. They are told by two mysterious men to complete certain tasks if they want to stay alive, while dealing with false memories, magical rivalries, a dangerous goddess, rock bands, horniness, and what to do with the rest of their lives.

There was a lot to like about the story, but it never quite gelled for me. Much of the plot dealt with preventing the goddess from finding the key that would allow her to restore her faded power, and several of the magical people serving her were looking for escape, but the stakes as presented swung from preventing great evil (she feeds on dead souls and treats living people as marionettes) to simply obtaining one's freedom regardless of the consequences to everyone else. Teenagers can be notoriously self-centered, and Link particularly excels at capturing their wild swings in maturity and thoughtfulness, but the narrative itself did not seem too concerned with the broader consequences of the characters' actions for large chunks of the book. In fact, until the climax (which was tightly written and compelling), I feared that Link would, like Grossman, come to an amoral conclusion. Which isn't to say that the book ends on a simplistic note; it's quite messy in some ways, but it is clear that at least some of the characters are thinking about the right things.

The best parts of the novel were smaller elements: Mo's grief and loneliness, Susannah's struggles with other people's expectations, Carousel, the critiques of the romance industry, not to mention the weird imagery and absurd fragments (more akin to magical realism than straight fantasy) that Link is known for. I continue to be her fangirl, and I look forward to more of her writing.

The Needle Case that Jack Built

I got a hankering to do some English paper piecing, specifically The Maker's Stash's star ornaments. EPP lends itself to small, portable kits, so I placed the cut-out papers, fabric, scissors, glue stick, and thread in my favorite pouch. I needed a place to store the needles, though, and a square of felt seemed too boring. Why not make a needle case just for EPP? 

So I flipped through all my sewing books until I found a cute pattern in All Sewn Up by Chloe Owens. But I didn't really need multiple felt pages for just a few needles; maybe I could just sew a felt patch on one side and sew a kind of loop on the other to hold scissors. 

And then I started looking through patterns I've torn out of magazines, and found a needle book by Cindy Blackberg which has a cord cleverly sewn down the center to hold a spool of thread.  So why not add that?

The Owens needle book had a fabric collage on the cover; Blackberg's had wool flowers. Why not make a little hexagon flower, since this is a needle book for English paper piecing?

The result:

I'm contemplating adding an elastic loop to the right edge to hold the glue stick. I still haven't started the stars.