Hello, My Name Is Marie...

Hello, my name is...

Hello, my name is Marie and I am a bead hoarder.

Yes, I don't like that name, I would appreciate; collector, connoisseur, keeper of beautiful objects...

Oh, I jumped at the idea of this Blog Hop thinking it would be fun and a no brainer... I could do this even if I can't see. I won't be doing any tiny needle work, I'll tell you now, I had to make up my mind that if I want to do what I like, I have to back away a little and just do what I can... . I hadn't considered all the places that I have 'stashed' my jewels, where all I would have to climb, jump, crawl on hands and knees, Wow! ... I have them here and there and seemingly everywhere. I kind of want to sing that old Macdonald song... eieio. When I started out, I also thought doing the work would be ok, my eyes are a tiny bit better, well, the left eye is better, I can't stand having my right eye open for long. But back to the story, I didn't realize that it would be so long in making my first project, which is nothing like anything I've done before, well, I've made odd necklaces, and used the materials, but the techniques were totally governed by my eyes.  I also didn't think about taking pictures.

 Turritella communis fossil pendant

Thus far, I haven't taken a picture since I have gone into this ordeal with my eyes. Or if I did, it was on the little Nikon, which is hit or miss and usually it is just point it and shoot. I was amazed at how using the left eye is so much different in the picture outcome than I had realized, seems everything is thrown off to one side now!  I did get some pictures along the way, and I stayed up late thinking I would play around with the timer, lighting, and backgrounds... well, that didn't last long!

This first necklace is kind of a fun ode to summer. I found the heart shaped pendant at a little shop in Salado, Texas a couple of years ago. I had completely forgotten about it, I like it because it is a fossil, and it is pretty. When we lived in central Texas, I would dig in the yard for fossils and made different crafts out of them, now I live further West and there are still fossils, I just don't get out and dig in the yard anymore.
I wanted to make this very earthy and summery, and I kind of like it, a mixture of odds and ends, I found a piece of peyote stitch ribbon that I didn't like for whatever reason, but it matched just right, not very long, but I like it. I also used shells, crystal, glass beads, glass pearls, real pearls, and there is even a piece of jasper left over from the BSBP from Shannon Hicks, who is in this blog hop as well at Falling Into The Sky. Go see what she made!  Back to the ncklace... there are two types of yarn, bound by beads woven around. I like the light color. I was so impressed that I had finally made something with the pendant that I had forgotten, the day I bought it, I had this wonderful organic necklace in mind, with tons of seed beads and some pearls that I got from my grandmother, and some shells that we brought back from the Solway Firth, they would be perfect... now I can't find those shells, so I made do with these that I purchased for a totally different project!
I made another necklace. There is the picture in the blog below that shows the choices I had, but I had found so many more beads after that, I just couldn't decide... and I was getting kind of creeped out, thinking this is the first step, next I'll have a house full of cats and become a hermit... people will say, she was so nice, but we noticed that she was climbing out her window...

No, I'm not that bad yet, but you never know what sets that kind of behavior off. I do hoard, which is really saying, I do a lot of crafts and have every room full of my junk. So I say, we need to have a bi-monthly bead hoarder blog hop, so I can declutter.  Like I said, I thought this would be easy, how many beads could I have stashed away? hmmm, mmm, hm, I won't answer that. If my sewing machines haven't gotten me committed, the beads would.  I actually got kind of excited when I saw some of the beads that I have fondled and caressed and gently put away in drawers, cabinets, wardrobes... It was like seeing old friends, hello pretty bead, aw, you haven't aged a bit...
This is the second necklace I made. I don't know where I got any of the beads. I liked them, but never got further than putting them away in the dresser that serves as an overflow for my workbench.
 I do remember when I bought the beads I had in mind a very oriental feel for the necklace. I think I just got caught up in the day to day and forgot where I put them and just didn't give another thought about the beads, you know, out of sight, out of mind.?  I love the red beads, and I like the patina look in the big beads. They aren't expensive, I think I got them on half or more off... and that was cool with me ! I don't mind mixing my beads, some nice, some almost on the cheap side. I figure that no one else will use them, and they are kind of fun.  The clasp is from the Rebecca Nunn collection of Adorned Life. I love the pieces, they are so heavy and feel like they are expensive. The necklace is kind of long, the reason I can wrap it around the neck of the display.

 There are so many beads that I love, I buy these cool colors and stick them in a drawer...  I usually work with lighter colors, since my eyes have been so bad, that is the safest thing to do, but I hold out hope that something can be done so I can work on darker colors... These were really tough to string, the more I worked on them , the less I could see. I had to walk away time and time again, but I got them done

white or purple?

trying out colors with the mesh

I wasn't satisfied with just doing the two other necklaces, so I went ahead and made the black and white necklace (that nearly ended up as purple and black) that I had in mind when I found the black knit wire, which by the way, I love.  I bought some of the silver, gold, and copper Silversilk a couple of years ago and loved it. I have used it for bracelets, necklaces, even earrings. It is so pretty and versatile, and not as expensive as I thought it would be... but it wasn't something I would just play around with. I did take my torch to the copper, which I was kind of worried about, you never know what the content is of copper that you get now a days... but it was really nice copper. It made a nice patina and I used the piece in a rustic bracelet.

trying out beads, I didn't go with this clasp

 Finally the white pearl and black beads won out when I started this, I really thought about doing hot pink or fluorescent green... that would be cool, but this is nice... kind of plain, but I might add something else later on. I had thought about using the knit wire as a ribbon and winding it around the length of the necklace... but this is as far as I got, well, I got a bracelet done as well. I thought the bracelet needed something else so I used a red beaded head pin for the flower. I am tired, my eyes hurt every day after working on anything, but it was fun and I need to do some work to keep me out of trouble.. You see, I look at beading as therapy. I have time to think, to rest, and to curse if I want to, and there isn't anyone that will curse me back... Ha,

black mesh flowers on the necklace... bracelet on top with mesh flower

Sorry that the color on this isn't that great, I'll see if I can get a better picture, but it is really difficult for me to see the setup on the camera... maybe get the Nikon out and see if it will take a better pic. It has a screen to see what the picture looks like, ummmm, a display, which the Cannon doesn't show you the pic on the screen until after it's taken. Drives me kind of batty, trying to squint with the wrong eye!

So I hope you enjoyed the little goodies that I made for today. Please go over to Pretty Things Blog to see the list of reveals, and visit as many as you can. I haven't seen any yet, but I know there are a lot of really great talents on the list, and I am sure they will all deliver something great!  I hope that I get to see every blog, I know it will take a while, quite a while...  but I am willing to read one blog a day if that is what it takes!
Enjoy!!!

circular clasp, hinge on one side small clasp on opposite, seems sluggish

PS... has anyone used this kind of clasp? It has both side that are round, one side has a tiny hinge and a tiny clasp opposite the hinge. I love the look, but it isn't easy to open, Maybe I am just not doing it right????

close up of mesh flowers in natural light. I think they are prettier in person

 

here's another picture in natural light

Turritella communis fossil necklace

And be sure to go to the Bead Hoarder's Blog Hop to see the list of people that participated. There are so many pretty things!!!

Bead Hoarding

Bead Hoarding

I stated in an earlier blog that I joined the Bead Hoarders Blog Hop (Hoard is such a perverse term, I prefer stash, it sounds normal to me... OK, that is the first part of having a problem isn't it?), and if you haven't seen the page, go to Pretty Things Blog and see about the Bead Hoarders Blog Hop and see what it is about. The registration is closed, but when the reveal comes around, you can go to all the blogs and see the amazing designs that these great bead crafty designers came up with!!

OK, so mine is going to be beads, but not bead weaving, the old eyes are still not cooperating very much, I am several types of drops into the therapy, or whatever they will call it, and it isn't much better. The drops are to help with the swelling of my retina, we will see where it goes after that. I can tell the difference in the way my eyes feel. I still  start to type and will get a few minutes into it and I can't see (we'll see how long it takes me to post this! ha) . I can't drive, or shouldn't, but have to get to and from the doctor and pharmacy, and grocery store, but that is my limit. I can't get in the sun, I can't watch tv, can't read, and I haven't done any jewelry really speaking of, for almost a full month..  I am pretty sure that  I am giving up with the notion of crochet, but... saying that...  I found this thread while I was in the work room, looking through the stash,  and I had a flash in my mind of the necklace that I had envisioned when I found the thread. I loved it at first sight, and I touched it....and I knew, It was mine...
 I found this in Penrith at a little charity shop while I was just killing time, waiting for a passing rain shower so we could go explore Penrith Castle. Thankfully the rain subsided quickly and I didn't buy too much!  I did get 6 skeins of this beautiful brown thread, made in England, very soft, and shiny. I envisioned this beautiful Victorian type necklace made with amber crystals and maybe pearls... someday it would be, but...  I say I'm giving up on the idea of a necklace right now, because I can't see to thread the beads onto this, however, if I can get my son to do the stringing......

So the second choice for my design might include this. I found it on sale once and bought some 'cause I love the idea of using the wire mesh to make everything from Christmas ornaments to necklaces... and I have some black and white beads that I really, really need to use. Every Fall, when we go to the football games,  I have people ask me where I get my necklaces or earrings from, and it would be nice to have a few made up ahead of time so I can say... "it just so happens... I have this" and pull out the samples of my wears... sigh....

There are so  many beads that I have that I could use in this... it will be really hard to choose. My first thought when I bought it, the main  thought was white beads or pearls, but... I have purple, pink, green, turquoise, neon green, neon orange that would look great as well... so I just will have to pick which one to use and go with it. Then I can make another with the white and black beads that it was intended for, ha, haha...

I really love this stuff... I have even thought about painting it to change the color, since I only bought black when it was on sale... I bought silver, copper and gold at BeadFest a couple of years ago and I tried heating the copper knit... it didn't ruin it, and it made a nice patina, but I didn't try to do anything else with it, it was kind of expensive. I just can't see paying so much for something so pretty and then ruining it... this mesh, it really wouldn't matter much. because it wasn't expensive... and it is just sitting here...

Then there is this... OK, tell me there is anyone else out there that has gone to Bead Fest and NOT bought something on impulse?
Yes, I said it, impulse.
That has to be the only reason that I bought these.

I don't know what I was thinking. I do love Tiger's Eye, and I have a lot of jewelry made from it, and i just thought the gold dragons were really nice... but... OK, tell me you haven't done this before.

So if that isn't enough to commit me... these might. They were pretty....... and if I don't ever use them for jewelry, I can hang them up in the window, they are that pretty, and yes, I know that it was foolish as well to buy them...but, hey, when I saw them, I was thinking of doing something so different with them, and then... I realized that I was really not ever going to make a wild necklace, so I toned down the idea, and put them away.

Now these, these are pretty, so I can't be blamed for buying them, and I can't say that I have ever regretted the purchase, even though they have been sitting in the drawer with my other nice  stones that I just haven't gotten around to using.

I love blue, I really love blue.. and anytime I find any, especially this color of blue, or the turquoise colors, or  Lapis Lazuli I will buy it. It has to be an illness. Has to be.
I do have a string of Lapis, I just have it already spoken for, so I am not even going to drool over it tonight. These are the candidates for this blog hop, and that is the only project that I will allow myself to think about right now.

 These... I don't even know what they are called, but I really like them, the way they are cut makes them look like they have these tribal designs, and that is why I bought them. I love that look, but I really don't have a lot that will "go" with them, and just don't know what to do with them. Oh, I know what I want to do, but I won't go out and buy anything else to do this project. I will not... see, I don't need therapy... really, I don't.
 Bone and some kind of pearl, maybe a brown, and maybe some wood would look nice with these. I have...somewhere, back in the back of my hoard  stash, a bunch of hand made wooden beads. I'm pretty sure they are what  I was thinking about when I bought these lovely stone beads...The wood beads came from a necklace that I bought one time, way back, at an estate sale. The necklace was dark wood, with  twisted brass wire, and some really pretty beads. Seems like it cost a whole dollar... It was calling my name. Anyway, I bought this handmade necklace, and I came home all inspired. I thought it was such a cool idea, and why can't I do something like that? well...I could and did. But... I had a new baby at the time, and I just didn't have the time or patience to make more than a few handmade beads, so they all got packed away, nice and neat, and it got put in a safe place. You know that place... the "it will never be found again" place? but if that place happens to be found in the next few days, I will for sure use those wooden beads with these.

The reveal is July 20th, and I can hardly wait, but I'll have to decide what I will do, or if possible, maybe two things to make, or three... ha, wish me luck! When decided, there will be updates, it isn't one of those that I have to keep secret what I come up with.