Lucky

Luke Luck likes lakes.
Luke's duck likes lakes.
Luke Luck licks lakes.
Luck's duck licks lakes.

Duck takes licks in lakes Luke Luck likes.
Luke Luck takes licks in lakes duck likes.
Fox in Socks

It's Thursday and I remembered to blog! On one of my many leg-bead buying trips to the beadstore while making my wedding spiders, I saw these blue and copper-ish beads sitting in a bowl. I swear Beadwildered Women in Nyack, NY knows when I'm coming and they put out tastey little bowls of wonderful because they know I will need them in my stash...Seriously, could you resist?

I then had to pick up the tube of coppery triangles to go with them, as well as the blue crystal bicones. I made the spacers and the beaded ropes using the triangles and herringbone weave.


I didn't want to do the entire necklace in herringbone, so into my UFO heap they went until one day, in a beading magazine, I found these spiral wire components and made one. Then I giggled gleefully, and made more. I linked everything together with more wire, some blue rounds, a few more of those bicones, added a handmade toggle, and this little guy graduated from the UFO heap to the finished box. Very few pieces that go into that heap ever make it back out alive, so he was lucky, very lucky :)

Blackbird singing in the dead of night...

This piece was inspired by the ever-popular-on-the-swamp red winged blackbird

I incorporated the bright red 11/0s and yellow Delicas into a Dutch spiral offset by matte black 15/0s. I originaly thought to use opaque red and yellow, but in the end, the piece started to look too Crayola (not that there's anything wrong with that, but it wasn't how I wanted this piece to turn out.)



I used a lava rock flat round bead as a focal, and peyote stitched it into place.



I also added a few lava rounds, spaced by beaded spacers and "red velvet" faceted round crystals. These beads are amazing. They have this awesome depth of color, almost like blood-like. I hearts them lots.



I strung all my components on Tiger Tail, and added a bead and loop closure. I learned something from this piece-Don't mix two vastly different types of beading thread in a single segment. Seriously, self, if you can't remember what you did with the Fireline, go buy a new one and dont switch to Nymo mid beaded thing...That was a few hours of fixing I'll never get back :/


As always, my cell phone photos don't do much for the piece...Seriously, why is it so difficult to photograph a matte black bead in semi-incandescent light with a cell phone :)

Jewelry Swap!

Kell over at Beadativity is hosting a finished jewelry swap! Head over to her blog to check it out, leave a comment on her post, and you're in!

Beadativity Jewelry Swap Link




Happy Beading!

Ocean Waves

What does an ocean say to a ship? Nothing it just waves...(wocka wocka wocka!)



This piece came from a trip to a bead store, and another trip to a bead store, and order from Fire Mountain, and a third bead store...

Let me expain my travel beading- I have several levels of bead storage. At home, in PA, I have The Craft Room. Which houses my bead roller bag(stuffed to the brim), a drawer(also stuffed), a desk, and a bookshelf. For beading when travelling for work for months on end, I have the tackle box and bag, and for short trips, I grab a few tubes and a ziplock baggie.

For this 8 hour flight I reached into the tackle box and pulled out a tube of beads-aqua lined clear Japanese 11/0s. Then I grabbed the first focal that I saw, black and white large oval bead. Then I started grabbing things that went with the two items above.

I peyote stitched the bead in place using the aqua, a few colors of Delica, some black 15/0s and a few drops.


I then stitched up a spiral rope with the above, and added some black 11/0s. I added beaded toggle, and called it a day.

Yes, I know I missed Thursday...twice

It seems like Thursdays are getting busier...Working 12 hectic hours or so at my day job doesn't leave much time for blogging! This is the plan view of what our site will look like when it is done. All the squiggly lines running across this picture are going to be tidal ditches that will irrigate the wetlands that we are building over our 240 acre site.



This is a fly-over photo of the first one we worked on. This was taken June 10th. To give you an idea of the size of this project, and each channel, that little road on the left-hand side is the New Jersey Turnpike. The tan colored areas are what are known as Phragmites. They are an invasive species and tend to take over everywhere they can. On this site, they have sprayed them, mowed them, and mulched them, and are trying to beat them back so our new plants can get a foothold. Our subcontractor is going to plant thousands and thousands of other species to enhance the biodiveristy of the site after we finish excavation and grading of all the dirt we dig out. Their crew are some planting fools, let me tell you! The big squiggly channel on the right is a mostly natural creek on the site. (If you were standing on the date stamp in the top photo, this is what you would see if you looked to your left, just to give you some orientation.)



I don't have any more recent flyovers, but this is the same map as above, and the red squigglies are the channels that are completed. I can't wait for the new flyover photos. It's going to look super cool!!


Alot of the work my company does is environmental cleanup, and generally happens underground, or it all gets buried, and we never see it again. It's nice to be able to see what we have done for a change.

Also, on a serious note, please keep moonlitfantaseas 's father in your thoughts. He is ailing, and they both could use all the thoughts, prayers, hugs, and support they can get right now. When my dad was diagnosed with cancer, I know I took it hard. He's been in remission for 2 years now, but I still remember that fear of losing him like it was yesterday.

As far as beadwork goes, I have two pieces nearly complete, one inspired by the marsh and one inspired by reaching into my travel bead box and pulling out a random tube of beads. I hope to finish them this weekend, and also get in some studying for my professional engineer's licensing exam. Here's to hoping!