Monday, April 26, 2010

Oh, the craftiness of me

Yesterday I once again went to Shipwreck Beads. Click on the link and scroll down a bit for much better pictures than I originally posted--gives you an idea of the scale and variety of the place. It's mind-blowing.

My sister and I had already picked up some beads, but not some other essentials like, say, an actual tool of any kind. Or the right sort of wire--for earrings, the easiest method is to start with a "head pin," which is a short section of wire with a knob or loop on one end to anchor the beads. You string on your beads, loop the other end (trimming off excess if needed) around a hook or fastener of some sort, and voila, earrings! At least, in theory. In practice, it takes...well, practice. My first set turned out nicely from a color perspective, but don't look too closely at the bent parts....

Wood, silver metal, and fake turquoisey plasticky pretty beads


I also made a pair of very simple green fiber optic bead earrings, and a pair of earrings using those crazy rubber beads I mentioned last week. The final and most ambitious project of the day was to use the dangly-earring frames my sister had picked up, thinking they'd at least be an interesting experiment, just to see if we could do it. I think they turned out rather well!

Wood and glass beaded earrings


The wire loops aren't altogether even, and some of the wood beads are more apt than others to half eat the beads next to them, making it tricky to keep them all together. They're actually tidier in person, since I had these laid out on a flat surface rather than hanging, and it was tough to get all the bits and pieces to lay out nicely.

They only swing at the top. There are additional pliers you can get to do chain work, and though that's probably more complicated than I want to deal with right now, I could see working up to that. I like dangly earrings....

In other news, my sister fairly suddenly decided to abandon the Washington relocation idea--she had a friend coming through town, and hitched a ride. So...there's that. I now suddenly have an office / writing space I need to set up, and I guess need to get my mind back to where I was and all the things I planned to do before she arrived with equal suddenness. I think my plan is to keep the computer where it is in my room, and leave that new room pretty much an analog only sort of space, with no distractions except maybe a music source. It'll be a nice writing space--it's nice and bright and has a view out the window. I need more plants, I think. And to set up my far too many pen cups and notepads and Circa stuff and index card boxes and...all the other stuff that has spent the last month or so crammed into drawers and boxes. Oh, to write again....

2 comments:

Strikethru said...

Nice work on both of these. I had an addiction to beads a few years back, probably should stay away from Shipwreck Beads if I know what's good for me.

Anonymous said...

where the fun in that