Thirty Words: Sunset at Sea

Surrounded as far as the eye can see by open ocean,

sun sinking toward the horizon.  

A spectacle of color is the day’s last hurrah... 

a lingering moment to savor.

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The premise of 30 Word Thursday is simple... take a photo, write 30 words (no more, no less) and post it each Thursday.  This is a blog hop hosted by Erin Prais-Hintz over on her blog Treasures Found.  Click HERE to see her post for this week as well as links to everyone else's 30 Words.

This was the view from our stateroom balcony on the next to last night of the recent Bead Cruise.  I took a ton of shots as the sun set... you may see another from that sequence in the future.  

An Irish Country Doctor: Inspired by Reading Book Club

It's time once again for the Inspired by Reading Book Club reveal!  This month's book was An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor.  Lucky for me it was a super fast and enjoyable read since I left it until the last minute to read.  I pretty much read the whole thing on the Bead Cruise which didn't leave me much time to make something when I got back.

This is book is the first in a series (that I hope to eventually continue if I find the time!) that tells the story of young Dr. Barry Laverty coming to the small Northern Ireland village of Ballybucklebo to become the assistant to the current general practitioner there... Dr. Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly.  O'Reilly is quite the character and certainly has his own way of doing things!  So much so that Barry often wonders whether or not this is the life for him.  I loved all the humor in the book and the wily ways O'Reilly managed to get the upper hand with some of his more difficult patients.  O'Reilly has a soft heart under his cantankerous exterior which further endeared him to me.  I loved the way that many of the various patients (and their unique issues) got tied together and pretty much sorted out by the end of the novel.  Yet you are left wondering what is next for Laverty and his mentor O'Reilly and the residents of Ballybucklebo and want more of their stories.

If I had of given myself more time I may have made something more specific to the details of the story, but instead I made something that reminded me of the feeling and beauty of Ireland.  I had a great enameled copper pendant in my stash from a local artist, Becka Beads, that has a mix of shiny copper and swirly greens, white and black that sort of looks like a landscape.  I started by pulling a bunch of different green beads that would help accentuate the green notes in the pendant and speak to the lush Irish countryside as I remember it from my two trips there.  There is Czech glass, dyed agate, yellow "turquoise" (according to Fire Mountain Gems), shell pearl, and dragon's blood jasper.

This design is similar to, and inspired by a piece I did last year for the Vintaj Misty Morning challenge.  You can see that one HERE.  My husband was sad when I sold that one so I'd been meaning to do something similar for myself.  (I'm not sure if I'll keep this one or not yet though.)  ANYWAY, I thought that the idea of using the Vintaj copper ivy vine made sense... it made me think of ivy covered cottages nestled into the green, green countryside.  I wire wrapped a bail for it with a little dragon's blood jasper round like in my original design and then starting making my other wire links for the one side.

Inspired by my Bead Cruise class with Erin Siegel (and the purchase of the lovely book she did with Lorelei Eurto, Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry) I decided to do something new to me and do some knotting with Irish waxed linen.  I like the earthy, organic feel that it gives the piece.

This is a blog hop.  Please take some time to check out what everyone else created this month!

Karin Grosset Grange

Ann Schroeder

Jeanne Steck

Sarajo Wentling  (that's me!)

Judy Campbell

Rachel Stewart

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Andrew Thornton, Laurel Ross, Terri Greenawalt, and Alison Herrington

Bead Cruise 2014

I'm just back from the Bead Cruise, and I have to say that I had an amazing time!  I knew that I would enjoy meeting the other Bead Cruisers, taking classes, and having girl time with my friend Kathleen... what I didn't know was if I would like cruising itself.  Turns out I did!  We had a nice mix of classes and free time on the ship and there was never a dull moment.  

It's going to be hard to capture the experience for you all, but I'm going to try... and apologies in advance if this gets a little long winded!  Apologies also for the quality of my pictures.  I didn't bring my real camera, relying instead on my iPhone, and the results were mixed.  Lesson learned for next time I guess!

Here Kathleen and I are about to board the ship!  It's kind of cool (and a little weird) that they use these entry pics for facial recognition to group all of your other photos together under your cabin number.  

There was so much beady goodness in our gift bags!  A huge thanks to everyone who donated items!

My projects in process during Heather Power's "Petals & Leaves" class.  I learned some new hammering techniques as well as how to make those cute little peanut bead and wire links.  I also started my list of new tools that I want!

Projects in process during Tracy Stanley's Earrings class.  Those top ones are now one of my favorite everyday pairs!  (and after this class I REALLY want new hammers)

We spent part of our day in Nassau with the dolphins... and this is the dolphin kiss to prove it!  Next time I'd want to do the full swim instead of the "cuddle" but it was so much fun to get to hug, pet, and dance with our dolphin friend Clifton.

We were all working hard on our half-hitch knots in Erin Siegel's "Triple Row Macrame Bracelet" class.  I really enjoyed working with the waxed Irish linen and learning to make some new knots.

And this is how I finished my bracelet since I had to leave the clip board behind in class!  (Don't worry, I'm keeping this one for myself.)

The Bead Cruisers took over the 14th floor game room to work in the good light.  Here, Diana Ptaszynski (of Suburban Girl Studio fame) is photo bombing my picture of Terri Greenawalt hard at work.

New friends and old:  Diana, Kashmira, Sj (me!), and Kathleen.  I swiped this group pic from Diana since I didn't get one on my camera.

Last day of the Bead Cruise with Erin Siegel.

Remember that gift bag?  Well there is a design contest during the cruise to make a piece with at least three items from your gift bag.  This is my creation featuring a pendant from Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovoti, seahorse charm from Rings & Things, and beads from Rosanne Garvison of 2nd Hand Rose.  There's also one of Heather's beads in there too that I bought during the cruise.  At the farewell party on the last night everyone could vote for their favorites in three categories:  Show Favorite, Most Intense, and Simply Sweet.  I couldn't believe it, but I won for Simply Sweet!  I know I will have fun spending the awesome gift certificates I got for winning.  

Last night on the ship, here I am with two of my teachers Tracy and Heather.  Thanks for the great classes!

I had such a great time on this trip and have to give a special shout out to Heather Powers of Humblebeads who makes it all happen!  Everyone was so friendly and so much fun... I couldn't have asked for a better group of ladies.  And to get to share it all with a friend that I usually only get to see at library conferences made it all the more special.  I will definitely do this again when I can!

Here is the whole gang together for our group picture.

If you love beading and hanging out with a super fun group of like-minded folks while visiting tropical locations, I highly suggest you take a look at the Bead Cruise.  2015 will be the 10th year of the cruise (crazy, right?) and I'm betting it will be bigger and better than ever!  Details should be out on the website in late April I think... so check back.

In addition to my beading exploits, my husband tasked me with doing a roving blogger piece for his blogs on fruity cruise cocktails.  You can check out my report over on the JABlog HERE!

Now it's back to the real world for a few days before our next adventure starts.  Thanks for stopping by!

We're All Ears: March 2014

Once again it's time for the We're All Ears challenge hosted by Earrings Everyday.  Each month the editors will share an inspiration piece on the first Friday of the month.  Anyone can join in and reveal a pair of earrings that they created on the third Friday of the month.  It's super easy to play along!  Here is what they shared with us this month:

Pen and watercolor by Beatrix Potter
from The Tailor of Gloucester from the collection at the Tate Museum

Can it get more sweet and adorable than that?  Like many of us, I grew up with the Beatrix Potter tales and just love the illustrations and the stories.  I'm a youth services librarian in a public library, so I have special affection for an inspiration piece pulled from a beloved children's classic.  (Although the practical side of me does wish that they would publish these books in a larger format...they are usually quite tiny at ???... but I digress!)

I decided to try something a little outside of my normal comfort zone this month and and work with fibers.  To play off the idea of the mouse's needle and thread I used waxed Irish linen.  I chose little Czech glass flowers in pale pink and turquoise to mimic the fabric in Potter's illustration and knotted them onto royal blue waxed Irish linen. (If I had any pink I probably would have gone that route, but I made do with the colors that I had on hand.)  I used a Czech glass cruller in deeper pink right under the ear wire to pick up the color of the thread in the picture.

At that point I thought I was going to be done, but the earrings didn't seem quite balanced.  My husband thought that the threads were too long and that part looked "too skinny."  To fill things out (and avoid cutting the thread off and the effort of attempting another round of even knots) I added a little daisy charm to each earring.  Well, that's enough talking... here's the finished design!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!  You can check out what everyone else made over on Earrings Everyday HERE.

New Earring Monday Weeks 11 & 12

So, assuming that my efforts to schedule this post actually worked, I am aboard the 2014 Bead Cruise this week.  So, in honor of being out on the high sees (or maybe docked in some lovely tropical port) I'm sharing a couple of new beach themed earring pairs this week.

First up is a pair that makes me think of sandy shores and tide pools.  I paired some little lampwork beads from Tanya McGuire with sterling silver beads tiny silver plated shell charms from TierraCast.

My second pair this week features some large Czech glass "Groovy Rondelles" from Lima Beads.  The darker blue made me think of deep ocean waters and the ridges on the top and bottom remind me of waves or maybe ripples in the sand on the ocean floor.  I added some copper plated shell charms and niobium earwires to complete the look.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm hoping that wherever you are, that you are starting to see some warmer weather... or even better, that you have escaped for a little vacation in the sun.

Setting Sail!

Hi everyone!  While I do have a couple of blog posts that I've scheduled for next week, it's going to be pretty quiet here on my blog for a bit.  Why? you ask...  Well, I'm going on a jewelry making vacation to the Caribbean!  Do not adjust your monitors, you heard me right.  My friend Kathleen and I are setting sail on the Bead Cruise with 48 other folks in just a couple of days.

I honestly can't believe that I haven't mentioned this trip here before... I guess that I've just been too wrapped up in other things and trying to get everything ready.  I can assure you that my silence isn't because of a lack of enthusiasm!

I had seen mention of the Bead Cruise in past years, but I think it was the series of post-cruise posts over on the Art Bead Scene blog last spring was what put me over the edge to decide to go in 2014.  I'm not going to lie, the giveaway ABS did with an extra gift bag from the cruise may have been the tipping point.  Don't judge me... there was so much beady goodness!!  You can see what I mean HERE.  

I'm looking forward to the three classes I'm taking over the course of the trip as well as the extra activities like the beading pajama party and disco-themed cocktail party.  Most of all, I'm looking forward to meeting some of my online friends in person for the first time and making lots of new friends that share a love of jewelry making.  (The relaxation aspect and warmer weather will be lovely too!)

I promise a full report on all the fun, friends, and beads when I get back.  Now I better get on with my packing!

Jewelry Mojo Challenge Week 4: Findings

It's week 4 of the Jewelry Making Mojo Challenge that Heather Powers is hosting over on the Humblebeads blog (check out all the details for the challenge HERE).  This week's prompt is about making your own findings.  (For those of you who aren't jewelry makers, findings are things like clasps, earwires, headpins, and jump rings.  They are the backbone of jewelry and can be simple and unassuming or truly spectacular standouts in a design.

Making my own findings is definitely on my list of things I want to achieve.  (Why buy it if I can make it and it would be great to say that something is 100% handcrafted.)  I'm not sure that I have the skills (or all the tools!) to do this in a real way...yet.  I will eventually get there and I think I see some classes in my not so distant future.  But for now, I'm going to try my hand some fairly simple (I hope!) clasp designs that don't require anything I don't already have in my arsenal.

Since I already had Cindy Wimmer's book The Missing Link out on my bead table from last week's challenge, I decided to try a couple of the simple clasps she explains in the front section of that book first.

First up was the simple hook clasp.  The directions called for 18 gauge wire, so I figured that was a safe place to start.  This hook design uses a doubled over piece of wire and, as you can really tell in the picture on the left, I had some trouble keeping the two sides even.  This seemed especially tricky when trying to get the small curl on the unbent end looped with my round nose pliers since they are tapered.  This could be a flaw not just with me but in the directions, but I can't really tell.  My second hook turned out a little bit more even. It's not quite the shape I was going for, but I think it's actually usable!

Next I decided to give the S hook clasp a go even though I didn't have the 16 gauge wire that the project called for...what the heck, I'd try it in 18 instead!  Again, not amazing results, but I only gave it one try.  I had a tough time using the bail making pliers so get that second side curved properly (the side on the left of the picture).  This will clearly take more practice (and the correct supplies) to master!

My original thought for this challenge is actually the last one that I tried.  I stumbled upon (and promptly Pinned) a cute spiral clasp and leaf charm over on Lima Beads back in August of last year.  Fellow customer SquirrelGirl, aka Angela, shared a design she had used in one of her pieces and it looked like an achievable (and cute) project to try.  So, now that Heather has lit a fire under me with the Mojo Challenge, I'm going to do it!  (FYI, you can see Angela's instructions HERE.)

The clasp was not quite as easy as it looked.  I was doing fine until the step where I needed to curl the wire around to form the hook.  As you can see it went a little wonky.  At this point, I was a little frustrated with wire working and didn't attempt the leaf charm or another try at the clasp.  This result will just have to do for now!

I decided that the most usable of my efforts was that second hook.  I paired it with one of my classic hoop links that I made in Week 3 to form the two halves of my clasp.  Since I was working in copper for my clasp, I added in a copper pendant that I had embossed and painted a while back with a combination of blue and teal.  I pulled a variety of glass beads in colors to compliment the pendant and started putting things together.  I added a little dangle from the hoop and here is my completed project!