A New Beginning, of Sorts

It seems 2014 has suffered the same fate as the mythical October of the previous year.  It just won't exist on this blog.  Somehow, I managed to go the entire year without posting. I thought about it now and then.  I even seriously considered posting several times.  In fact, just before midnight on December 31st, I tried to post something just so that there would be one post for the year... but then my computer had a nervous breakdown in the middle of my attempt, and all was lost.

I suppose it isn't quite the same as the month that I keep mentioning, and then crossing out as a stupid joke, because that month was miserable.  I am not about to claim that all of 2014 was equally miserable... quite the contrary, I had plenty of fun and worthwhile experiences throughout the year. Highs and lows, successes and failures, completed projects and abandoned efforts.  I just... didn't end up posting about any of them.  I think this is largely because I haven't been sure what the purpose of this blog is.  I'm still not sure. And along with all the times I thought about posting, there were times I thought about deleting the whole thing.  I guess until I decide what in blazes I'm doing and what I want to get out of it, I'll just keep posting stuff... because spending a whole year not posting in it certainly didn't help me figure anything out.

Enough dramatic musing! Here's a necklace!  I finished this last month... I think.  I discovered spiral bead crochet quite by accident last year, and after a few false starts just to test the waters, I designed and made a beaded rope to match an opal and brass pendant I had made previously.  I didn't like how the pendant looked on chain or ribbon, and the beaded rope proved to be the perfect solution.

 

You really can't tell, but there is a pattern on it. The antiqued brass colored beads, of which there are actually three different shades, form little curly vines and flowers that are supposed to match the flowers on the pendant.  No, really.  They're there.  It's just that they're rather lost in the random mix of four other colors of beads that are supposed to match the opal.  Yeah... my first original bead crochet design is not entirely successful.  I mean, it turned out really pretty, and it matches the pendant perfectly... but considering the time I spent planning out the pattern and putting all those tiny beads on the thread in exactly the right order... well, we'll just call this one a draw.

 

I've started another one with a not-so-original design (found the pattern online) that has fewer colors, more contrast, and a wider circumference, so we'll see how that one turns out.  Hopefully, the branches and flowers on it will actually be visible!

 

The Curse is Broken

Okay... so that whole "at least one post each month" thing I declared I was trying to do back in May? 

Clearly that didn't work.

In August, all I managed was a post about how wretched August was. Then in September, I whinged about how much worse September was, and tacked on a picture of a great many ties.  October?  There was no October.  I'm simply not going to acknowledge that October even existed.  That isn't to say I didn't finish any projects... because actually, I did.  I meant to post one of them in November (because there was no such thing as October, even though that's when I finished this thing) but every time I thought about it I had too many other things to do to stop and prattle about a necklace on my blog.

So yeah...  my belated post for October November that didn't actually make it onto this blog until early December is a necklace.  There's going to be a LOT of those on here... just a warning.

I thought it up way back in April of 2010, and then started on it that summer, after collecting all the materials  needed.  For some reason though, I didn't finish it until October of this year, even though I knew how and had all the pieces.  I guess it was just taking a long time and I got a little tired of it and needed a break... and then forgot about it.  Which is almost fitting in a way, because of the story that inspired it.  "Stronger Than Time" by Patricia C. Wrede (found in The Book of Enchantments) approaches the Sleeping Beauty fairytale from a different angle than any other I've seen.  What if the prince failed?  What if she really did have to stay in an enchanted death-like sleep for 100 years?  I loved the story, and the author's description (in the back of the book) of a castle ruin that sparked the idea... so when I found some grey marble block beads on one of my supply sites, and discovered some lovely hand-dyed silk ribbon that came in a color called "Briar Rose", this necklace design started coming together in my head.  Pity it took so many years to come to life.

 

The roses are sculpted out of the silk ribbon, which also makes up part of one side of the necklace, mixed in with some chain, and the vines are twisted satin cording.  With tiny folded ribbon thorns.  Er... those were one of the things that made me abandon it for so long, they were not a fun bit to tackle.  Getting the vine to appear to be climbing up the stones was not much fun either.  However I love how it all came together in the end.

 

The random watch bits and jewels are mostly vintage stuff, with a few shiny new Swarovski crystals thrown in.  The bit of Dragon's Breath glass on the gear is my favorite of the jewels.  I love that stuff, it's so... glowy.  I also seem to be developing a fondness for asymmetry in my necklaces.

It's late, and I'm starting to describe things in a less than coherent manner (...glowy?) so I'll post this and get some sleep.  Hopefully not 100 years of it though, I have WAY too much stuff to do to sleep in that long.

 

A Serendipitous Synthesis

All credit for the awesomeness of this necklace goes to Beadtrap and  ColorKissedSingles on Etsy.  They made the lovely glass pieces and hand dyed silk ribbon I used for it.  All I did was fasten it all together.

About a year ago, I stumbled upon a ruffly purple, peach, and cream piece of glass after doing a search on Etsy.  I honestly don't even remember what I was looking for.  It was to be the first of several purchases from that particular glass artist, I'm afraid I became a bit of an addict.  I've always liked colorful glass, and the swoopy unique shapes just won me over.  Plus this particular piece reminded me of an iris, and I like irises.  I mean the flower... not so much the part of the eye.  Though I do quite like being able to see, and some eyes are really pretty, so I guess either one works.

Anyway, I wired some cheap purple pressed glass leaves onto it and hung it from a ribbon.  It was pretty.  It got compliments.  But I wasn't entirely happy with it.  Then I found some fantastic ribbon that was the perfect mix of colors to match the glass, with the exception of a bit of green.  There was a simple way to fix that though, I just had to replace the cheap purple leaves with nice green ones. Sparkly handmade green ones from the same artist who made the freeform piece in the first place.  It was like they had all been made to go together, except they weren't.  Sometimes things just come together that way.  Pity it took me over a year to find all the pieces.

 

Up next, I'm working on a really simple shoe mod (I just need to go buy some matching thread) and I'll re-post the one project (also shoes) that made it into The Hutch before it got locked up.