Thrift Store Gold

Thrift Treasures

Here's the latest thrift store finds. Sea shell beads, plastic purple beads, and cool striped beads. There's two stores on the same block, so one trip can hit both. Under Five Bucks for the trip!

Wedding Crafts

The Bead That I Need

Turns out the beads that I needed were purple metal and reconstituted turquoise. I do love turquoise, it's natural and not all gemmy. Plus, it's my birthstone.
I should learn more about it, though, because there are different types, like from different regions, I think.
I'm also not sure exactly what reconstituted means in regards to turquoise, but I'm thinking it's probably like taking apart and then putting back together.
So I would think that reconstituted is a good stone, waste not want not and all that, right?
I guess overall, I need to learn more about stones. Maybe I should get a rock tumbler...

Finding The Need For The Bead

"Sometimes you find the bead for the need and sometimes you find the need for the bead."
This is a thought that I first had many years ago, when I was asked how to decide what beads to buy. There was a huge bead show, where they rent out a conference room in a hotel, and vendors buy space to sell their wares. I was planning on going with my saved up bead money. This was long enough ago that I couldn't find a large selection of interesting and diverse beads easily in person. There's always catalogs. Those wonderful ten pound catalogs. But there was less bead selection out there in the craft stores than there is today.
So I was excited for the upcoming bead show, and excited to be able to spend this saved up money (this was also a time when extra money was kinda scarcer for me), and I shared my excitement with my co-workers.
One co-worker who is an artistic soul and a crafty chick, but hadn't worked with beads before decided to check out the bead show, and I happened to bump into her while I was there. Which wasn't hard considering I was there for probably three hours. I showed her what I had picked out so far, and she spun around the room, a bit overwhelmed. "How do you ever decide what to get?"

That day I bought some of the beads that made up these earrings that I made last night. That day almost ten years ago. And a couple weeks ago I found the other beads in a local craft store. Both times, the beads just "called" to me. That I needed to use them. Sometime. And when I brought home the new beads, I spent an evening digging through all the beads I have (ok, only the ones that are actually organized, I'm sure there are more beads hiding here and there), and in the last container at the bottom of the stack, I found the beads from years ago, and realized they had to go together. And now I know what I bought them for.

First PMC

This is my first attempt at PMC (precious metal clay). I knew my first try wouldn't be perfect, but I made it just for me, and I love wearing even with it's flaws.
I made the outside shape freehand, the hole with a straw, and for the main decoration, I pressed a wooden Meeple (playing piece originally from the game Carcassonne) into the clay. I kinda wanted to cut around the Meeple shape, for a cut-out, and I think I will try that at a later time, but with my first try, not knowing quite how the clay felt and handled, I was more comfortable just pressing it in.
Plus, I'm interested in (eventually) learning how to put colored enamel on the silver clay, so I thought at some point, I could experiment with this pendant and enamel.
The necklace is just a hemp cord that I have to tie off each time I wear it, but I couldn't find the kind of necklace that I really wanted.

Mom's Pin

Mom's Pin
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

Feel free to skip this post if you are not from Nebraska and/or don't give two hoots about Nebraska football*


So back in the beginning part of December a new coach was announced for the Nebraska football team. And some very enterprising t-shirt company created a bunch of shirts with 'Bo' slogans (would that be Bo-gans?) on them 'Bo Fence', 'It's Bo Time', 'Just Say Bo', and of course, 'Bo Big Red'.

Mom's Pin
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

In all the excitement, my Mom mentioned that she might add a 'Bo big Red' t-shirt to her gift wish list, being the 'good' Nebraskan that she is. But it was way too late for me to change my list of things to do, so I came up with a new plan.
Since I've been making all sorts of felt pins lately, I decided I would make her a special one. This is one of those times where I was making something that I would normally not ever consider making, I wouldn't make these to sell. I knew it wouldn't be ready in time for the gift exchange, but I got it done not too long after, and mailed it to her. It's always fun to get mail!


*And in the spirit of full disclosure, this would include me as well. I was born here, and have spent most of my life here, but as I say, I'm not a good Nebraskan, I don't like beef and I don't like the 'huskers.

One Boy's Christmas Present

Three sets of earrings
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

Several days ago, my cousin who lives the next block over called to see if I could help him make a pair of earrings for his mom for Christmas. Of course! That would be fun. He is my first cousin, but a little younger than myself, just 12 (but all-of-a-sudden sounds like a grown up man), and I was pleased he thought of me, and thought of giving handmade!
We got together on the 23rd, conveniently after my immediate family had finished our gift day, and before his did. He brought over some pretty specific ideas of what he wanted, all based on birthstone colors, he being Sapphire, both his sisters being Emerald. Unfortunately, my current bead stash does not include any Sworoftsky crystals (his first choice) in those exact colors, and even more unfortunately, neither did the craft store we went to. For some reason, dark Emerald is hard to find in any kind of bead in a local store. Is it that unpopular, or just more expensive?
We found some crystals that would work, and some 'cat eye' or 'shadow' kind of beads, and a package of random Czech glass beads in our colors, but when the hard decision came of which one, or even two we liked best, then came the sweet question of 'couldn't we make all three, please?" So of course, we did.
He was a very good designer, and an excellent critic of color choices, and helped with some of the production as well. I hope his mom was happy with her gift, I know he and I had a great afternoon together making them (and playing a little Smash Brothers when we were done).

For photos of the individual pairs, click the photo and go over to flickr.

Someday Your Whole Name Will Be In Lights

Someday Your Whole Name Will Be In Lights
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

My brother's girlfriend had a birthday last week (Happy Birthday, D!), and when I got the e-mail reminder from mySpace Wednesday (not that I had forgotten!), it prompted me to think of something to make for her. I started this Wednesday during my afternoon break, and got most of it done during breaks Thursday and Friday. I had the idea to stop by their place after work Friday if it was finished to deliver it, but it wasn't quite finished then.
This is the first time I've named a pin, I guess that makes it an object d'art. ;p
I did the center of the D first, so I could stuff as I went along the outside. The stuffing went pretty well, better than I expected, it's very poofy.
And the background is my new coat, my early birthday present from My Guy (thanks, Honey!), isn't it luscious?

Angel Pin

Angel Pin
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

I've been doing lots of felt embroidery, in the form of pins. I've discovered that a small felt pin is a perfect thing to work on. I can get a lot done durning my work breaks, often I'll do the cutting out of the pieces during that time. And while at work, when there are little waiting periods, waiting for the computer program to finish processing, I can get a few stitches in. I'm keeping the current pin pieces and embroidery thread and supplies in my little lunchbox, so it easily goes from work to home, and I can sneak in a few stitches waiting for my computer at home, too. It's fairly easy to pull out the little lunchbox anywhere, and I'm getting better at 'crafting in public'. So far that's been my grandma's house, a game day, and (not felt, but still in public) a coffee shop.
This little angel was made specifically for a work friend who is moving out of state. I was her 'Secret Santa' last year, and I remembered that she loves angels. The angel is made up of three pieces, a heart, triangle, and circle. The pin itself is 2 3/4", which is a little big, I think for regular wearing. I figure this size pin will be good to put on a coat, hat, or bag.

Bracelet Kit

Bracelet Kit
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

As I was on my way home after work, I realized I didn't know what my Thing would be for today. I was going to the grocery store, the hardware store, and the thrift store, so I decided to give myself a little challenge. I would find something at the thrift store that cost less than $5, that inspired me to make something out of it, and that I could finish and post before the end of the day. Boy, did I luck out. I found several kid kits mixed in with the toys. This glass and wire kit was the best of the lot, I found a deck of cards I wanted, too, and I spent less than $5 total between the thrift store AND the hardware store. Score!

Bracelet Kit
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

The glass pieces look sharp, but they really aren't. Five pieces of blue glass, five of clear, including one with little bubbles on it. I don't know what's up with that. The wire is greenish in color. I read through the instructions, which were pretty vague, if I were a kid that had never done a craft before, I don't think the instructions would have been sufficient. I debated a bit about making something different than a bracelet with the supplies, but I couldn't come up with anything better.

Earrings

One of the things I love about making jewelry is making things that match. Well, I guess I'd have to say that about most crafty things, sewing too. I'll have to post a photo of my mom and I in matching outfits when I was little, that's probably where I got started with the matching stuff!
Anyway, I got this new skirt, see the small photo, it's mostly brown, with a sage green stripe and a dark turquoise stripe at the bottom. I actually purchased three shirts to go with it (two in the green, one in the turquoise), because the colors were so perfect, because I have other things to wear with those colors, because the prices were very reasonable, because people have told me I look good in that color green, and because that color blue is one of my favorites, and I'll wear it even if no one ever tells me it looks good on me! ;p Plus, I hate when I decide later that I should have bought a shirt in more than one color, or that I don't have anything to match something which has happened too often, because I'm trying to limit my clothing budget too much.
All that being said, I'm going to wear these clothes for a while. So I decided I needed a pair of earrings to go with the whole set. I knew I had a few turquoise chips left from a long time ago, and I knew I had some cool wooden beads, and some rice beads in that color green, so I didn't have to purchase anything to make these earrings, that's a bonus, too.

New Jewelry

Here's a necklace and earring set I made over the last couple weeks on my break at work. Grape colored rice beads, mother of pearl rice beads, and silver stars.

The New Site

One of the things I made this week. It seems like it's been a long week, of making things, and it's only the first week. I'm still working out, in my head, how all the pieces will fit together, but I'm thinking that this blog will be where I tell more of the story. Don't you love those shell beads? I think I got them as a necklace at a garage sale, but I don't remember. If I bought them today, I'd take a picture before I took apart the necklace. I also wish I could see how the beads went together before, they are so irrigular because they are natural, they were hard to get to go together. That's how I ended up putting the green beads in. The "sea green" beads, in case you didn't get the connection. I actually had to bend the head pin somewhat to get the green beads down inside the shells.
The earrings are a bit heavy, but just about right. I don't like it when I make earrings that are so light that they want to clip out of my ear. I have a bunch of these beads left, I'm thinking a nice bracelet. No, a necklace, with the green beads. Probably don't have enough beads for both. But I'll be on the lookout for more, that's for sure!

Musical Amulet Bag

OK, the bag doesn't play music.
This is a photo of the first amulet bag, made with gourd (peyote) stitch, that I completely finished. I designed it using a computer bead design program. The inspiration was my choir director, I wanted to say thank you to her for all her work, and show her how much she means to me. The notes are actually the first line of a song that was one of our favorites at that time, I don't remember now what it was called. The photo's not that great, the background is cream, the staff is burgendy, the notes are blue. The blue is carried to the fringe with glass crystal beads, and the bottom of the fringe is freshwater pearls.