New Adventure with Crystaletts®!

Last December I had a very serendipitous meeting.....

resulting in a new adventure for me!

Crystaletts® ~ The world's smallest crystal button!

It all started six months into the button's development, when I met Dorinda Balanecki, Director of Design for Horsman Ltd. at a charity function! I was intrigued by some sparkly bits she was knitting with and asked about them. Dorinda explained what they were and I squealed with excitement imagining all the possible uses in beadwork! We determined to meet up again after the holidays, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Here's the back story to these nifty buttons: Horsman Ltd is known for their dolls. They design and manufacture poseable fashion dolls. When Dorinda's doll "Urban Vita" needed crystal buttons for her argyle sweater,,, voila! a new product was born. 
Click here to learn more about Horsman Ltd. 

I am now the Beadwork Designer for Crystaletts® 

My first project with Crystaletts ~ Crown Cuff

Confetti Cuff
Playing with color!

Harlequin Fortune Teller Bangle
Playing with concepts from
Contemporary Geometric Beadwork
by Kate McKinnon

Crystaletts were introduced to the beading community at the Bead and Button Marketplace this year!
Crystaletts was the "belle of the ball", a hit with everyone!

Crystaletts Booth at Bead & Button
Product launch to the beading community 2013
Owner Kenneth Young

This is part of the Crystaletts Booth display.

I enjoyed sharing this wonderful new crystal element with everyone who stopped by the booth.

If you couldn't attend B&B please visit the Crystaletts web site and FaceBook page!
I can't wait to see everyone's designs with these lovely little darlings!

Please "like" Crystaletts on FaceBook!

Click here to visit the FB page

Still Trying to catch up!

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I found this tidbit.  While cleaning up the docs on the new desktop PC, the one that all the old info was unceremoniously dumped into and left.  I found the Christmas slash New Years letter that I wrote, ahem, a year ago.  It never went any further than my PC.  Well, it was a technology laden Christmas after all.  I was dizzy with the computing options before me and half afraid to turn them on for fear of being forever lost in the wonder of the Internet and app wonderland.  Never mind that shortly thereafter I determined we must have Wifi in our house!  Ah! Freedom!  Recently we've added a wireless printer to the mix and life is even more pleasant, no more running stairs to print thus and such! 

So for your reading enjoyment here is what I wrote:

Twas the day after Christmas, when all through the house

Paper and boxes were strewn through the house;

The family was lounging on couches and chairs,

Thankful the Fat Man showed up with such flair.

The children were surrounded by new gizmo's and toys

And in every room all you could hear was their noise.

Mama in her snuggie and dad in his jammies

Had just settled in for TV programmies

The weather outside was blowing and cold,

And the clouds blocked the sun just like Christmas’ of old.

No one moved, we all lounged and we snacked

On the goodies left from yesterday’s feast.

 

When suddenly on the front porch what did we hear

But Unkin Brian who had driven back here.

We yelled “Come on in!” and got up from our stupor

Grandma and Grandpa Wagner thought “Isn’t this super!”

Then later that evening according to agenda

Yvonne arrived in her Honda from far off Indiana.

The TV was tuned to the big football game

The men were all drawn to watch as moths to the flame.

The kids went to work and the little boy griped

"I just puked my hands and face need to be wiped!"

The women were bored and wondered just how long

The men would be mesmerized by the athletes’ song.

As a sick pitiful child makes a petulant plea

The male parent leaps to resolve it immediately.

So out to the pickup went Grandma and he,

Started up the great beast and rolled out as the child laughed, "Tee hee".

They went out for some orange juice and who knows what else

They’ll come back when they’ve cleaned off the grocery shelf.

So now here I am sitting at this PC today

Shall I figure out my new iPad, laptop or just play?

Instead I am writing all this droll doggerel

So I can post it with pictures on my blog, can’t you tell?

Enough is enough, I have beading to do!

So Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year too!

Where did 2011 go?

I have been seriously preoccupied else where....
I will attempt to attend to this blog more diligently in 2012....but that is not a New Year's resolution.  I don't make them. 

My last bead project of 2011, the Tila Bead Bracelet designed by the beautiful Kellie Burns, was lost during a girls day out to the DIA.  Sigh, I knew I should have added a safety chain to the magnetic clasp.  Sadly, I don't even have a picture of it.  It turned out lovely and in colors I don't normally use.  Someone out there found it and now has the pleasure of losing it themselves when they wear it. 

I have many things on my plate for 2012 and it will be an exciting year!  Hopefully it will not include visits from local law enforcement, various civil servants or require trips to the attorney's office for a change! One can only hope!  Ironically I wrapped up 2011 with a lovely encounter with the aforementioned law enforcement just before Christmas.  No good deed goes unpunished.  In transit to give groceries to the needy family living in my rental house in Mt. Clemens I was stopped by the local patrol officer.  (Read wet behind the ears, snot nosed youngster packing heat and an attitude)  What a beautiful addition to the Christmas lights, red and blue flashing lights just for me!  My DH and I were both baffled and could not begin to guess why.  It seems the light in the previous intersection was Yellow when I rolled through the intersection.  Mind you, I was not even going the speed limit. It's not as if I gunned my minivan to make it either, not at all.....barely strolling through town by my estimation.  It was rather amusing actually.  I smiled serenely and confidently shared my complete surprise, while relishing the knowledge that I had done nothing worthy of being stopped.  Even if he remotely thought of ticketing me, I knew I would hand him his 8$$ in court.  With a clean driving record and no actual violation he sent me on my way...go figure.  Good for a laugh. But sent our "Incident Board" back to zero. 
Hmm, when I started typing this I thought I didn't have anything interesting to tell you.  Hah!

Okay, so far for 2012 we are 4 days without incident!
I have a beaded ring from the December issue of B&B almost done. I have several magazine projects I want to do. I also have to sit and do some design work for Synergy! My bead maker Sylvus is already working prototypes for me!

Let's get on with 2012 then!

Gone beading....

I am in Kentucky.

I will bead when my eyes are open and I'm not napping.

The rest of the time I'll be hanging out with my mom and my daughter.

Enjoy your summer!

Bead & Button Withdrawal Therapy

I was not able to attend Bead & Button this year and I was totally bummed!  Last year I had a super time working with Jeannette Cook of Beady Eyed Women!  It was my first time ever at the show and I was there with a seasoned professional!  What I learned working with her is immeasurable and I am eternally grateful to Jeannette for the experience!  This year I know so many more people at the show...and so I have been watching the fun via the Internet.  But it's just not the same as being there! 

For my B&B Show withdrawal therapy I came up with some unique projects. 

I commemorated my time with Jeannette last year with some great new funky earrings, using her famous Curl technique!  "Mastering the Curl" is a must have technique for your beading repertoire!

Jill Wiseman of Tapestry Beads proposed a Hat & Fascinator Day for Saturday at Bead & Button and of course the beading community loved the idea! Bead & Button is a glorious week of women strutting their stuff, so here was one more exuberant way to do it!  Again, undaunted by my lack of attendance...I participated vicariously.  I up cycled a thrift store hat.  This past Friday afternoon and evening I pretended to be a milliner and decorated my own hat!  You may have seen my profile pic on Face Book...well here is another pic of me with my new hat! 

Can you guess my favorite color??

My local beading guild The Great Lakes Beadworkers Guild is having our annual "Strut Your Stuff" pizza party on June 21.  Guess what we've proposed to our members?? You got it, hats, fascinators and tiaras!! Get 'em out and wear 'em to the meeting!!!  I can't wait to wear this hat, you can't see the mock Bird of Paradise feathers I attached!! I was working on an idea for a fascinator.  Since I came up with this great purple hat my other project may end up as a necklace.  The scale of it is along the lines of one of New York City's most fabulous and outrageous beaders and my friend Suzanne Golden.  It is no where near as fantastic as her work, but I love Suzanne's style and fearless use of color, materials and proportion!

My project idea originated with a class with Carole Horn of The Bead Society of Greater New York. She came to our guild to teach for the first time last year!  When she demoed the class project she used plastic pony beads, etc.  We all loved the resulting piece with those huge beads and it stuck in my head!  Well, I had to make one!  Voila!  I'll have a huge flower to wear as a necklace soon!

I also checked in on my friend Kate McKinnon from time to time the last couple of weeks to see what she and Dustin Wedekind have been doing on their current book collaboration Geometrics.  Needless to say they are up to a lot of interesting things!  I had promised myself for weeks that I would pre-purchase the book, so I did and bought Kate's other self published books before they gone forever. 

This is how I salved my broken beading heart the past couple of weeks.

And now that B&B is over I will stop pouting and start planning for next year!!

Hugs!!

Playing with beads

It has been a wonderful six months!

As a member of the beAd Infinitum Design Team I have had the opportunity to play with their patterns, create wonderful pieces of jewelry and share them with you! My fellow designers are an auspicious group of creative people and I am proud to have been included.

Those who know me well, know that I cannot just simply follow the directions...I have to tweak and play with things to give it my touch.  That is just what I have done with beAd Infinitum's patterns. 

After playing with Kepler's Star I knew that I wanted to make a tubular version using this pattern.  It is a very simple pattern to adapt for this, but still requires some finessing. 

None the less I have my first piece to share.

Dungarees

Look closely, you can see the Kepler's Star forming the tube. Inside are a combination of wooden beads and Chinese crystals for a little sparkle.  The focal beaded bead is, of course, one of my favorites  the Infinity Dodecahedron.

The last pattern I received as a team member is the Circular Starburst.

This pattern by Cindy Holsclaw is another variation of the Dodecahedron. 

This is a challenging piece, requiring some practice and attention to your tension.  I am not completely satisfied with my final iteration, so I will continue to play with this pattern until I have mastered it to my satisfaction.  I used my final beaded bead on a bracelet using memory wire, a product I haven't worked with much.  The beads are a bit heavy overall for the wire, but I like it.  That's all that really matters, don't you think?

Brickels Bracelet

Earlier this year our Guild posted a contest challenging members to submit pictures of their "messy work space".  I was one of only a few brave people to participate.  Our webmaster, the instigator, decided to award all of us.  We got to choose from several sets of vintage crystal rivolis from her stash (she's so generous!).  Below you will see how I used one pair of the six I chose!  I challenged myself to play with a color I don't usually use, yellow.  I picked up some nifty pillow decoupaged beads from my local bead store (Alada Beads).  I knew they needed to be together in earrings.

I bezeled the rivolis and the pillow beads using the Infinity Prism pattern.

Lemon Kickers

When it came time to assemble the components, I asking my beading buddies for their opinion.  We all agreed that they were so fun that they needed to match but not be exactly the same.  I love the way they turned out!

I have one more project still in process...coming soon. 





Silver Star Lace

Here is the bracelet I made to go with my Prismatic Infinity Necklace.

This bracelet is made using the Kepler's Star pattern from beAd Infinitum.

Silver Star Lace Bracelet

Just like my Jeanee-Rachel Star bracelet I couldn't leave those large openings un-embellished.  This time I used some lovely Chinese crystals I bought in California in January.  This photo does not do this bracelet justice.  Everyone comments that it has the look of "vintage" jewelry.  How cool is that?

I have another idea in my head that uses this pattern....coming soon.