Inspired by Reading: A Discovery of Witches

I actually read the November selection for the Inspired by Reading Book Club but never got around to making anything, so I'm happy to be back in the swing of things this month!  This month's book was A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness.  I remember ages ago picking this up as an ARC at an American Library Association conference and happily handing it over to one of the adult services librarians.  I remember this book having a pretty big buzz when it came out so I was mildly interested in seeing what all the fuss was about.

Overall, I didn't love this novel, but I did stick it out to the bitter end, which clocks in at 579 pages if you're curious.  I thought that the premise was intriguing, but it devolved into way too much romance for my taste.  I also thought that Diana as a main character needed way too much saving by a man... or a male vampire, whatever.  Anyway, I did preserver and finish the book, but I'm not going to run out to grab the sequels. (Although if someone wants to tell me what happens, that's cool.)

I decided to to try and make a pendant based on the de Clermont seal featuring a crescent moon and star.  I used a scrap of copper left over from my Christmas ornament making frenzy.  I had used a couple of different Fretz texturing hammers on the scrap before I used my disc cutter to cut the moon shape out.  I used some spacers under the moon to give it a 3D effect when I riveted it to an Arte Metal circle blank that I went around the edges with my ball peen hammer.  I then riveted a brass star beside the moon and wrapped a brass filigree around the pendant.  I have to say that it was fun to do some riveting.  I want to do more metal work!

I could have left it here and just put on a jump ring and plain chain, but I wanted to do a little more than that.  I made some Czech glass links in metallics and black and finished the design with Vintaj natural brass chain.

When I was putting some unused beads back in their proper place, I discovered a few brass beads with star and moon designs.  I just had to make something with them!  I paired them with some fun purple druzy barrels that I've been holding onto for a bit.

I'd better go pick up the February book from the library and get started soon... or maybe I'll wait until we're back in the positive numbers for temperatures!  If you're interested in joining the book club fun, check out our Facebook group HERE.

Bead Cruise 2018

I'm just back from a wonderful week of jewelry making classes, seeing old friends, meeting new people, fun in the sun, fabulous prizes, yummy food & drinks, and much more.  Where was I that all this happened?  On board Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas for the seven night Bead Cruise, of course!!  This is my fourth time setting sail with Heather Powers of Humblebeads and a group of other wonderful instructors and participants for the Bead Cruise and it's a blast each and every time!

Our ship, the Allure of the Seas, at our first port, Labadee.

This year we left out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and headed for Labadee, Haiti; Jamaica, and Cozumel, Mexico... more about that in a bit.  Most of us fly down at least a day before the departure date... some folks went on a bead store field trip on Saturday, but I got in that day and just headed to the group hotel.

Getting to and on the ship is always a bit of an adventure starting with our shuttle to the port with tons of bags and supplies in tow... but eventually we always manage to get everything on board and settled into our staterooms and classrooms.  After grabbing a light lunch, I found my roommate for the week, grabbed cocktails, and toasted to the wonderful times ahead!

Waiting for the port shuttle with my friend Erin Prais-Hintz... Can you feel the excitement of going on her first Bead Cruise?

Met up with my wonderful roommate (and fabulous instructor!) Tracy Stanley to kick off the trip right!

After dinner on the first night of the cruise, there is a little welcome event where everyone gets to meet up, get the week's schedule, receive our goody bags full of wonderful items donated by the cruise's sponsors, and participate in a pendant exchange.  I ran out of time to play along with the exchange last year so I made sure to get back into the swing of things this time!

Pendant Exchange:  L) The pendant I made with a design and components from Vintaj.  R) The lovely and delicate pendant I received from SandyWetzstein.

If you aren't familiar with the way the Bead Cruise works, there are classes scheduled during the day on the at sea days.  You get one full day class and one half day class included with your registration and have the option of adding up to two additional half day classes.  This year, I decided to break out of my rut and try something new... bead embroidery!  My all day class was "It's A Hippy Thing" with the sweet, patient, and fun Kinga Nichols.  I'm a long way from having this bracelet completed (as you can see from my in progress pics below) but I'm getting there for sure!  I'm super excited to learn how to make a peyote bezel around a cabochon.  Now I won't be sad when I see a lovely bead only to notice that it's actually a cab!  I loved the way Kinga set up our class supplies buffet style so that we could pick our favorite one of a kind cab, the silk color, the leather, and the button individually.  I picked the orange color way for the cab and beads but decided to use the teal silk. 

The next day we were back ashore on Royal Caribbean's private piece of Haiti... Labadee.  I wasn't off the ship for too long, but did enjoy taking the little boat ride to the far side of the island and checking out the artisan market.  (I didn't get there the last time we were there for the 10th Anniversary cruise.)  It was super hot and humid so Heather, Erin, and I headed back to enjoy the pool while most people were off the ship.

Myself, Heather, and Erin on Labadee.  Lovely water of the Caribbean!

The next day was spent exploring Jamaica with a group of my fellow Bead Cruisers and our local guide "Mama" Maxine and guide-in-training Bobby.  We spent the first part of the way driving across the island to Dunn's River Falls.  None of us were interested in trying to climb the falls (it actually looked like a nightmare to do that to me!) but we enjoyed their beauty and many of us did at least get our feet wet!  After a yummy lunch of jerk chicken, fried plantains, and Red Stripe beer (for me, anyways) we headed for a quick tour of the lovely Coyaba Gardens.

Vistas from the drive, and a peek at Dunn's River Falls.

Some cool plants from Coyaba Gardens.  The top right is called Cat's Whiskers!

Later that evening, we had our Neverland themed costume party.  I was too busy dancing and checking out everyone's costumes and jewelry to get many pictures but I did snap a shot of a cute Peter Pan and Tinker Bell!  My costume was a super lazy pirate outfit not worthy of pictures!

After two days in a row on the islands it was back to class!  My half day class was my roommate Tracy Stanley's "Let's Color It" class.  She taught us a fun method for adding color to metal with Prismacolor colored pencils.  I have to admit that I spent a lot of my class time picking out some of the fun shaped metal blanks that Tracy brought and getting them prepped so that I could easily play with the color at home.  I did get one pendant mostly done, though.  I still need to seal it and I'm also thinking that I will add some sort of riveted element to it... just have to decide what that will be first!  This was a super fun technique and I'm already thinking about ways to incorporate it into future designs.

My main piece in progress... I love how even though my rubber stamp work was a little sloppy, the process was pretty forgiving.

Our last port was Cozumel, Mexico.  We stopped there last year and I did a cooking at the beach class at Playa Mia.  I had so much fun last time that I signed up for an excursion that included the same fabulous cooking class but added on some tequila time and a chocolate tour and tasting as well.  I didn't take many pictures (too busy cooking!) but snapped the shots below at the Mayan Cacao Company tour.  A fun, if a bit rushed time was had.  I even grabbed a nice bottle of sipping tequila to bring home to my hubby!

I ended up signing up for two bonus classes this year... one with our lovely hostess Heather and another with Kinga.  I was more than a little nervous about trying Heather's "Welcome to the Jungle" polymer class because it involved making canes.  I was pleasantly surprised by the relative ease of the process and think my beads turned out pretty darn well for it being a first attempt and working with a bit of a time crunch.  I had some ends of the cane that I had lopped off (it gets more distorted on the ends) but they still looked ok.  I decided to try making some little leaf charms since I had some larger sized canes.  Check back on Friday to see a couple of pairs of earrings featuring some of these newly made beads and charms for the We're All Ears challenge. 

It's hard to believe the polymer clay magic that creates the leaf canes that then get applied to your beads!  

Kinga's bonus class "Zeno, the Tiniest Fishie Bracelet" was a great way to end my set of classes.  Much more straightforward and beginner friendly, since it didn't involve bezeling a cab.  I had fun sitting and working on the backstitch outlines in class.  I got more of it finished while waiting for my flight home at the airport, but still have a ways to go.  I'll have to share when I get hime all done.  I was pleased to discover through Kinga's two classes that I enjoy bead embroidery... and it's one more tool in my beading tool kit!

So, eventually my fishy will look like Kinga's samples... I hope!

The last night of the cruise is always bittersweet for me... I'm sad to say goodbye to all of my beady friends but ready to be back home to my husband and kitties.  After dinner, Heather always hosts a Farewell Party before we all have to go back to our rooms to finish packing.  This year, a fun addition to the party was a little photo booth action with lots of amusing props.  Here are a couple of pics of me with Tracy and then Erin and Heather.  Heather also gave out a few more prizes game show style... I won a lovely bunch of sari silk from Design Talented One and a butterfly pendant from Gardanne.

Before I say goodbye to all of you, here's a little collage of some of my favorite things around the ship.  A couple of shots of my favorite area... Central Park, an outside area with real plants and lots of seating tucked throughout; my first chocolate martini... dessert for me on several nights; part of a cool art installation showing the progression of creating a carousel horse; and my favorite towel animal by our stateroom attendant Bob!  Not pictured, but the Oceanaria show at the amazing AquaTheater was super cool.  It was mix of diving, acrobatics, aerial daring, dance, and more with a "stage" that was sometimes covered with only an inch of water and sometimes was deep enough to dive into from 60 feet!

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post... assuming that you're still reading!  LOL.  I write these posts as much for myself as a diary of sorts, so I want to do my best to capture the highlights of all my adventures.

Inspired by Nature Retreat 2017

I meant to write this up sooner, but I feel like I've been running nonstop since I got back from this amazing three day retreat with Heather Powers in South Haven, Michigan earlier this month.  I still wanted to do a little mini wrap up of my weekend reconnecting with my beady friends, learning new things, and just generally getting inspired!

If you haven't heard of the Inspired by Nature Retreat, it's the brain child (love child??) of Heather Powers of Humblebeads.  This was the 7th year of this event that is held in Heather's home town each October and my second year attending.  The last couple of years the whole event has been held at the Riverbend Retreat Resort set on a large piece of property along the Black River.  It's the perfect place to get back in touch with nature and your creativity!

After having some travel glitches last year, I decided to drive to South Haven this year.  Luckily for me, a fellow jewelry maker who lives on the East side of the Twin Cities was interested in road tripping with me!  A long drive is always more fun when you aren't alone!  Anyways, I picked up Anna Pierson of SagaHus and we set out on our adventure.  The first leg of our journey took us as far as the Chicago suburbs where we met up with two other retreat goers for a beady slumber party at Monica Pena's house before making the rest of the journey on Friday morning.  Having our priorities in order, Anna and I did stop for a wine tasting along the way to South Haven!

Day one of the retreat started out with getting settled in, getting our goody bags, and doing our charm exchange (so great to see what everyone came up with!).  Our first project started with making some fun polymer clay molds that we would then use to make polymer clay beads later in the day.  While I found the process fun and interesting, my results were mixed.  I learned some things that I think will make any future attempts go smoother, but mostly it's about practice.  Heather's beads are always so perfectly shaped and even.  Mine turned out a bit more on the lumpy gravy side!  

The top picture shows some of my molds.  The bottom are beads before painting.

We didn't completely finish with this project before it was time for our early dinner reservation in town at Taste... painting would just have to wait!  After dinner it was still a little light out and the weather was mild so we took a little stroll down to the pier and lighthouse.  It was lovely and a little magical to see the sunset over Lake Michigan!  After dinner and our stroll, we kept working on our polymer clay beads.  Some of us actually got painting done, but not this girl.  I work a bit too slowly!

Most of the group after dinner!

What a view!  I'm so glad that we took that walk.

After a good night's sleep and a filling breakfast, we were all ready to begin our next big project on Saturday.  Today was the day for the star of the show... Heather's amazing faux tin process!!  For obvious reasons, I can't share the magic of the process, but I did want to show you a few pics from the day.  One thing that I can attest to, is that having a good file made all the difference working on these components.  I have always hated filing... like, hated with a purple passion!  I can't honestly say that it's my favorite thing, but at least I'm now able to file metal edges smooth without wanting to bang my head agains the way!  No more spending stupid amounts of time filing metal only to to find that I've somehow managed to make it sharper!  (Seriously, don't ask me how, but this was apparently my super power in the past.)  Anyway... pictures!!

Are you good with puzzles?  Making the most of the space I had on my copper sheet!

My bracelet bars:  These are the only pieces that I got completely done... filed and sealed.  

We had a decent amount of down time during the faux tin process, so I finally got back to painting my beads from day one.  I didn't finish the process, going back to sand and add more paint is still on my post-retreat to do list.  You may sense a theme here...

These still need sanding and maybe some metallic accents!

Dinner was pizza and salad at the cabin.  We all hung out chatting and continuing to work fairly late into the night.  Several of my cabin mates toddled back to our little cabin for night caps of wine and cappuccino (not at the same time!).  

Sunday funday and we still had more to learn and make before heading home!  First up, Heather taught us how to do some cool braiding with leather and a lucet (i.e. an amazing fork that Jesse, aka Mr. Humblebeads, made for each of us to keep).  Getting this braid started was tricky for this girl who has never known how/been able to braid anything ever!  I'm so glad that I stuck with it through the awkward first stages because the end result is amazing.  I had some issues finishing the braided ends and Heather had to help me.  If I can't figure out how to do it all pretty on my own, I do have a back up plan that involves bead caps.  Stay tuned... I'm going to try it again very soon!   

The beginning stages of my braid on my trusty new lucet fork!

Forks up!  All hail Mr. Humblebeads!!

I'm really very proud of the finished bracelet... and not just because it's the only thing I actually finished at the retreat!  In all seriousness, for me it's not about how many finished pieces I leave with, but about what I learned.  By that standard, this year's Inspired by Nature Retreat was a huge success!  Anyway, back to the bracelet... other than Heather's disk bead and the jump rings, this piece is totally hand made by this girl right here.  This is the first time I've managed to make a toggle bar that I'm completely happy with... and I think I've learned the secret to making more in the future.  

The finished product!

Running behind a little bit, we ended up having lunch and then doing one last quick project before hitting the road.  Heather taught us how to use the Now That's a Jig system to make a really cool focal for a charm necklace.  We all had 20 brand new charms to choose from to decorate the pendant so the hard part was deciding which ones to use since they were all so fun and fabulous!  I'm excited to say that I went home with one of the scratch n' dent jigs that we were using for class so I'm eager to play some more with my new toy.

Full disclosure: I finished this at home after the retreat.

One last item before we all finished loading our cars and headed out... the group photo.  It was cold, windy, and a little rainy so we all huddled (for warmth and to fit!) on the porch while Jesse snapped the picture.  What a fun group of ladies (and one lad) to spend the weekend creating and laughing with!  Thanks to all (especially Heather and Jesse!!) for another wonderful event!

End of retreat group photo:  Can you tell it was a tiny bit windy??

Not wanting to lose momentum after I got back home, I sat down to finish filing and sealing the faux tin earring charms that I had started at the retreat and get the earrings all finished up.  I love how these little cuties all look.  The last pair is a keeper for me since I discovered that they were a great match for a newer top in my closet.  Now I have to get brave and decide what I'm doing with some of the larger "tin" pieces that came home with me.  Hopefully you'll see some necklaces and other goodies from me before too long.  

My keepers.

It's not done yet, but I had a third piece from one of the patterns and I know what I'm going to do with it.  My plan is to rivet the smaller faux tin piece to some of the etched metal that I did at Bead & Button.  Here's a sneak peek:

Thanks for stopping by and following along with my Inspired by Nature Retreat exploits!!  If you have the chance to take a class with or attend a retreat with Heather, you should totally make it happen... you won't regret it. 

Bead Cruise 2017

2017 marked the 12th annual sailing of the Bead Cruise organized by Heather Powers of Humblebeads fame... and my third trip aboard this beady voyage.  This cruise is always an amazing time filled with laughter, learning, and (for me, anyway) lounging on the beach.  I think most of us Bead Cruisers would agree that the experience is as much about seeing old friends (and meeting new ones!) as it is the wonderful classes.

As I have after past Bead Cruises and other jewelry class experiences, I thought I'd share a little of my adventures with you here to give you an idea of what it's all about.  This year we set sail on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas out of Galveston, Texas with stops in Roatan, Belize City, and Cozumel.  Below you'll see our ship, my roommate Lissa and I on the bus to the port, and us enjoying our first cocktail of the cruise.

Full disclosure: the fun actually started with a couple of nights in Houston with a field trip to one of our fellow cruiser's bead stores, Beadoholique, and a group dinner to kick things off.  Whenever possible, Heather tries to schedule a pre-cruise bead store adventure!  The first night of the cruise, Heather always hosts a welcome party with a pendant exchange.  This gives us all a chance to meet each other and our instructors, get any important updates from Heather, and get out fabulous goody bags filled with yummy and fun things from the cruise sponsors.  Here's part of what I got in my bag this year...

Just some of our goodies from the Bead Cruise Sponsors: Whim Beads, Nunn Design, Allegory Gallery, Firefly Design Studio, Vintaj, East of the Sun West of the Moon, Thornburg Bead Studio, Humblebeads, Sue Beads, Mary Harding, Marsha Neal, Tesori Trovati

This trip we had two at sea days at the start of the trip allowing us to begin our adventure with our full and half day classes (more about those in a bit) before hitting our first port... Roatan, Honduras.  Lissa and I, along with a van full of our fellow Bead Cruisers got a guided tour of the island.  The highlight of the tour was a boat ride through the mangroves and a view of Roatan's Little Venice community from the water.

That night was the Midsummer Night's Dream costume party.  The annual costume cocktail party is always a highlight.  Heather chooses a different theme every year, but people really responded to this year's fairy-centric theme and went all out!  Here's a peek at some of my favorite fairies...

Our second port was Belize City, Belize.  This was my first time taking a tender off of a cruise ship and I can tell you I far prefer ports where you can just walk off the ship.  When you have to tender, you actually end up taking a smaller boat from the ship to shore and back.  It just makes the whole process and timing of things a little more complicated and stressful when you're trying to make it to a shore excursion.  But I digress... after a 40 minute boat ride we found our tour group and headed off to the Mayan ruins at Altun Ha.  Despite the crazy heat, I had to climb to the top of the large temple for some pictures.  I was rewarded with a cool breeze and a magnificent view from the top!

Our final stop was in Cozumel, Mexico where Lissa, myself, and a few other ladies from our group enjoyed some beach time and a fabulous cooking class at Playa Mia.  Those of you who know me, know that I'm no cook.  As a matter of fact, I'm barely allowed in the kitchen!  I'm so shocked that I made myself a three course lunch and it was absolutely delicious!!

Ok, enough about the vacation aspects of the Bead Cruise and onto the classes!  One of the things that I appreciate about the Bead Cruise is that there are classes for a wide variety of interests... it's not all seed beads like some retreats that I've seen.  A full day and a half day class are included as part of your cruise registration with the option to add up to two extra half day classes.  I was an overachiever as always and signed up for four classes.  Sadly, I wasn't as diligent about taking pictures during my classes as I have been in the past (I was super busy with my projects!) but I do have pics of my finished/semi-finished projects.

This year I took classes from Eva Sherman and Heather Powers that focused on metal work and polymer clay.  I never imagined that I would actually enjoy polymer clay until I went to Heather's Inspired by Nature retreat last fall... but I'm really enjoying the versatility of this medium.  My all day class was Eva's "Groovy Cuffs and Pendants" where we learned a fun technique to layer polymer clay and create really cool patterns.  I adore how my pieces turned out and am itching to break out the toaster oven to make some more things now that I'm home!  My half day class was Heather's "Sweetest Song" where we used her "Metal Sketches" technique to create a cute, folk-art inspired bird pendant.  We had all the supplies to finish a necklace, but I ran out of time and wanted to focus on getting my pendant colored with the Swellegant patinas and dyes.  I need to sit down and finish the other components so I'll have a wearable necklace!

The two optional half day classes were held at the end of the cruise on our final at sea day before returning to Galveston.  My morning class was another polymer clay class, Heather's "Sea Pods."  I had fun sculpting a variety of pod and shell shapes and turning them into headpins.  Some of the designs were easier than others, but I'll give them all another try at home where there are no time constraints.  We used alcohol inks and patina paints to give life to these little beauties so now I have more things I'd like to buy to add to my tool box.  My final half day class was back to Eva for her "Gypsy Woman Cuff."  This was a fun bracelet project that looks more complicated than it really was.  Eva had pre-cut copper sheet that she had textured with a rolling mill.  I finished one cuff in class and went home with the supplies to make two more.  Beyond that, I think I'd need to book studio time someplace to use a guillotine and maybe a rolling mill since those are both tools that are a little expensive for me right now.      

The Bead Cruise ends with the last of the annual events, the dreaded Goodbye Party on the last night.  Each year, Heather challenges cruisers to make something using items from our goody bags from at least three sponsors and the group votes on their favorites and prizes are awarded at the party.  It was nice to see prizes go to several first time Bead Cruisers this year.  The next morning it's off the ship and back to the airport for our re-entry to the real world.  As I write this a few days after arriving back home, I still feel the motion of the ocean in my inner ear, but am starting to readjust to life on dry land.  To wrap this up, I'll just leave you with a few pictures of me relaxing during the cruise... when life gets to hectic I'll just close my eyes and imagine myself back on the beach in Cozumel or enjoying a sunset on my stateroom balcony!

Honey Do List: October 2016

This year, my husband Eric has decided to issue me a design challenge each month to get me out of my comfort zone and to help clear out my bead stash... we're calling it the Honey Do List.  I know that I'm not the only one who loves a good design challenge, so I'm inviting folks to play along!  

Here's this month's inspiration and what Eric had to say about it:

For this month's challenge I wanted to use a shot from our recent 15th anniversary trip to Disney World in Orlando.  As part of our trip we did the Wild Africa Trek in Animal Kingdom--a special tour that gets you even closer to the animals!  I have plenty of pictures of rhinos and hippos but they just weren't colorful enough for a jewelry making challenge.  Enter this photogenic giraffe who kept sticking his tongue out at us...

Eric's desire to get me to clean out my bead stash may have backfired this month!  I didn't have much that really screamed "giraffe" to me in my considerable bead hoard (although I did have one semi-formed idea surrounding some faceted caramel agate beads).  But when I went to a local bead show with a couple of girlfriends, I found the perfect Tibetan agate beads and I just had to have them!  (I also bought some of their other friends... have I mentioned that I'm a bead addict??)

Part of me really wanted to make some sort of necklace with my newly acquired "giraffe" beads, but I couldn't figure out a suitable focal.  Instead, I decided to stick with my favorite thing to make... earrings!  I thought it would be fun to hammer some copper wire and then dangle the beads from the bottom.  I think I need a wee bit more practice with this technique!  I hammered two different sets and both curved more than I wanted them too, but I'm still happy with the overall results!  I added texture with my ball peen hammer and gave them a little patina with liver of sulphur.

My first attempts got way too thin at the ends but they really looked like long, spindly giraffe legs to me.  I found a way to still use them though.  I ended up riveting them to some long, skinny brass blanks and then wire wrapping the agate beads to the top.  These will probably have to find that special customer... but you never know!

My second try was a little more even , but still too much curve to them.  At least they were pretty even so they worked for my original vision.  This time, I was slightly thwarted because the scale of the Tibetan agate and the hammered copper just wasn't quite right.  No problem though... remember those agate beads from my stash that I mentioned earlier?  They ended up being just the right size.

In addition to the fun agate beads, I also scored a couple of pairs of matched Septarian pieces that had a giraffe-esque feel to them.  Even though I waited until the last minute to start making my Honey Do List projects, I was determined to use these stones since I bought them specifically for this purpose.  (Plus, I didn't want to have to put them properly away if I didn't get them finished!  The truth comes out!)  

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