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[thecrackedbead]

New arrival in the shop...

[thecrackedbead]

Bulging beads and flowers

So I've been playing around with my Toho Challenge 2023 kit as I have tentative plans to enter into the contest. I have no real expectations of winning, but why not try?

The given inspiration for the challenge is Robert Frost's poem Nothing Gold Can Stay and thus gold is a primary colour theme in the kit.

Thoughts on the poem

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay

- Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay

Given that the Toho beads - not the Czech faceted or two-hole triangle beads - are supposed to be the star of the show, I am rather dubious of the bright white, pink and green beads provided. I find myself suspecting that someone behind the challenge noted that Robert Frost was a respected poet, saw the word 'gold' in the title and thought "This is how we show we are super cool, super meaningful and super incapable of reading comprehension!" The poem's themes of change and fading glory seem lacking in the colour scheme provided. True, the gold colours appropriate for its association with autumn and the death of summer but the these ones...? Shouldn't there be some orange and red? Maybe black?

That being said, I also suspect I am being pompous. Poetry is open to interpretation. White is associated with death in many eastern cultures and is the colour of winter. Also for "Eden [to sink] to grief", there needs to be something bright and joyous to sink from. There's also my design taste is likely tainting my assessment. I like contrasting dark and light colours while green and pink beads, particularly blend together.

Flowers and failure

For those who follow my blog, you may have noticed that I've played around with making leaves with the kit as falling leaves and autumn go together. As of yet, I haven't produced any that I really like. However in the past, I have made flowers and sunflowers are found in autumn - so why not? Thus like a Canadian Goose flying south for the winter, my experience with would work as a guide for current project.

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The noble skyrat that is the Canadian Goose. Yes, it has to be a specifically Canadian Goose. As a Canadian, I am required to establish my identity every five minutes lest the the Americans annex us. (Picture by Tom Koerner/USFWS, found on Wikipedia)

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Only problem the challenge encourages the participants to use as kit's beads as possible. This doesn't seem too bad until one takes into account, that the beads are a mix of round beads in 8/0 and 11/0, triangles and demis, I did NOT have experience mixing bead types and sizes like that and the patterns I looked to help almost never used such mixes either.

That Canadian Goose I spoke of so proudly? It would be trying to navigate when

All the landmarks had been destroyed by a combination tornado, earthquake and volcano.

Its internal compass was been damaged by a severe brain injury.

It cannot see due to an eye injuries.

Its head has been crushed (as indicated by #2 and 3).

It is forced to use a map made using the imperial system.

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Pretty much a depiction of the just stated list. (Bloody explosion by Omarvero Imperial unit farm map from Units Index. Horrific editing done by myself. Please don't judge the sources by my work; the originals are way better.)

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Bulging beads and sunflowers

Method-wise, I was primarily using peyote stitch in the round with bits of RAW (right angle weave) as well as square and brick stitch thrown in. I was improvising as I went as no beading program that I am aware of allows for variation in bead sizes. (Most don't even acknowledge the existence of demis.) This mean that my work was very prone for for their to be sections of bare thread when one hasn't added enough beads or beads bulging when one has added too many. I strongly recommend avoiding the former as much as possible as bare thread is very prone to catch on things, break and ruin an entire piece. As for the former, it could be a good thing as the bulging makes one's work 3D. With the flower pedals, I really liked he effect and tried to master it.

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Here's a case of a sunflower pendant where the bulging was used to make pedals

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Unforunately there was a problem with this. While the things 3D is that, while such methods make the result more organic (like the pedals in the picture above), the result is less predictable. Things would rarely bulge in a different or a different amount than I wanted.

Solutions?

After LOTS of fiddling, I found three things that sometimes worked.

Sew it to a backing - Shown in example #1 below. Sewing the right beads at the right spots gave the piece proper structure. The circled brown beads were particularly important to sew down at the right place.

Use quadra lentil beads - As shown in example #2, I used the 4-hole quadra lentils in the challenge kit. I found that I could use them to make a flower pistil with two layers of beads, one directly under the other. This provided enough stiffness to guide the flower's shape.

Experiment...a lot - You can see a result of this in #3. I was lucky and stubborn enough to eventually stumble onto a combo that turned out right.

Example #1

Example #2 - A pendant

Example #3

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What next?

I think leaving #1 as a pendant with a simple cord would be the best combination. I could crochet a bead rope for it instead but I think the result would be too busy. At the same time, I believe the cord wouldn't impress the judges.

#2 has potential. Maybe as part of larger piece?

Ironically of the three flowers, #3, the one that does not resemble a sunflower, is the one I'm most inclined to submit. My idea is to turn the design into a pair of earrings. Go figure. Admittedly, I'll have to make two new ones as I need a set and submitting an earrings which you bled on is a major faux pas.

[thecrackedbead]

New pattern over in the shop.

[thecrackedbead]

New pattern coming soon...

[thecrackedbead]

More experiments with the Toho Challenge kit...

I'm continuing with my experiments. This time focusing on leaves rather than sunflowers.

Honestly, I'm pretty much tossing all my bead weaving knowledge in a blender and hoping something pretty comes out. It doesn't help that with particular kind (what is the proper name for this anyways?) is the sort I'm least familiar with. I'm good with brick and peyote stitch as well as looming. This not so much. Fiy: These are by far the nicest of dozens of experiments while the others were taken apart.

A key frustration for me is that, other than some size 8/0 browns, the kit's seed beads are all pastels. So it's easy for them to visually run together or fade into the background. I'm trying to compensate but using the empty space between sections of beads as an unofficial colour to provide contrast.

#4 above is still in progress and I'm trying a different method than the others and working outside in rather than vice versa.

[thecrackedbead]

So... That was a bust.

Sometimes things don't go as planned.

The whole psyching up myself to do another craft fair worked and that was great and wonderful and I continue to be proud of myself for risking myself that way. I am frustrated I made considerably less on a day with way more customers passed by on the day of the freaking snow storm. Considerably less meaning that I sold absolutely nothing and in fact lost money by renting my spot.

*sigh*

Given the wrought emotions leading up to my first craft fair which was an unexpected success, you'd expect that my second one being something of a disaster would cause them to spiral. I am strangely calm about the fallout. Instead, I am mulling over what I learned and some plans for the future.

Learned

Sometimes you sell nothing. Okay. Okay. I actually knew this already, but living the reality is important.

I think my table set up has improved. Maybe?

This one isn't definite yet but I am wondering if the clientele I was exposed are the sort who would ever be interested in my stuff in the first place. Knowing one's customer base and those knowing who and where to sell one's goods is useful.

Plans

Look into what sort of business license, if any, I need to get so that the CRA and other government agencies don't murderize me. On the bright side, I have barely made anything money-wise from crafting so this is unlikely to happen... Uh, yay?

Job hunting as I for all intents and purposes have lost my day job. (*sigh*) Tempting to throw it all to the wind and focus on my crafting but realistically I don't have the collateral to try something so extreme. Besides I do better with having one to help me keep a sane schedule.

More research. I am currently listening to some podcasts on creative enterprises.

Put together a list of definite goals and possible ones. (I'll be honest: I am not sure what this will entail but I'll be trying anyways.)

Put together a schedule. Though admittedly, my schedule consists of "11 am tomorrow - work on schedule".

Sign up for another craft fair and try again.

Do a little dance... What does this mean? One of the podcasts I am listening to recommends celebrating successes and putting together this post with its albeit less than stellar news is a success.

In conclusion

No real conclusion. Things are imperfect. Vaguishing plans are made and I'll be wildly flailing around apartment while Peter Quill and company are shipped off to Space Prison.

[thecrackedbead]

Experimenting with the 2023 Toho Challenge kit...

So I've been playing around with the Toho Challenge kit for this year. While I don't have any real hopes of being a winner, I figure I'll at least play with it and if I make something I really like, throw my hat in the ring.

This year's theme is based on Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay.

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Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Unsurprisingly this means there's a lot of gold in the kit. That being said, I am surprised there aren't more dark colours considering the themes of impermanence and loss as well as winter. However, I guess the winter is not a prologue to spring? While it b may not be be implied by Mr Frost's poem, things may wither but such times pass and good things, if sometimes different ones may bloom.

Either way, I've been playing around with them to see what I can make. Keep in mind I'm an intermediate level bead weaver and I'm used to working with seed beads that aren't the same size and I'm not using any pattern; thus these are rough at times.

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The beads. Forgive the massive amount of lint. Bead mats attract the stuff like magnets.

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Attempts at making leaves. Yeah, I know how to make leaves other ways but I decided to play mad scientist on these.

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A little bit of wrapping beads with beads.

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A small foray into flat stich.

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Earlier attempts at peyote stitch with the unusually shaped beads. If you look closely, you can see the thread more than you ought to.

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Much improved.

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I'm curious as to what else I'll come up with.

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[thecrackedbead]

PINK!!!, puke and shattered ice - A love story in retrospect

Two years ago

"Uhmmmmmmmm... Uhmmmmmmmm... Uhmmmmmmmm..."

Uhm... Just to be clear: The former was not an ancient Tibetan meditation exercise. You see, I had purchased some jewelry tools from Facebook Marketplace for $100. Quite a deal! The condition of purchasing those tools was I also take a two boxes of other jewelry stuff that the seller was trying to get rid of.

Opening these boxes revealed that my 'deal' was closer to highway robbery. I proceeded to drool over my findings, a massive treasure trove of beads, late into the night, only to stop around 3 AM lest I drown. This was the origin of The Hoard of Doom™.

However, there was a segment which, when I laid my eyes upon it, caused my saliva river to halt. It was plastic container full of beads but unlike the bulk of the hoard with the nice neat symmetrical shapes, these beads were *gag* chips with odd jarring angles which, when I looked at them for too long, made me feel like they were going to hop out of the box and jab my eyes.

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I'm sure some of you are looking at the above contents, identifying the lovely unakite, labradorite, citrine, a number of colours of quartz and more and rolling your distinctly unjabbed eyes at me. There's clearly nice stuff there and, with it, I could make equally nice stuff. So why was I complaining?

Well, I looked at the cherry quartz and thought PINK!!! - the sort of pink which makes you think of tween girls and ultimately ends up with you being buried under unicorns, boy bands and bubblegum - not inherently bad but those weren't my style even when I was a tween girl. Additionally the various shades of green chips made me think of chunks of puke. The blue-dyed quartz didn't offend my colour sense. I also have a Thing about symmetry and order when it comes to the jewelry I wear and this comes out when I design. While I could just mimic someone else's design, using up he chips then sell the result, I have another Thing about making stuff that I myself don't like. So for the past year, every time I would be hunting through The Hoard of Doom™  looking for inspiration for something new, I'd stumble across the chips, try to come up with ideas on how to use them and thus: "Uhmmmmmmmm... Uhmmmmmmmm... Uhmmmmmmmm..." would ring through my apartment.

* Please note that cherry quartz isn't actually quartz but glass.

Inspiration

Since then, I have been a hop, skip and jump away from either selling, giving away or throwing away the chip beads. The first of these fell through as no one was interested in buying them, the second I never got around to and the third never happened as I hate wasting things.

This was a good thing. I've grown since then as a designer. I attribute this largely to due to working with things that drive me bats. It was the designing necklace 'A Reflection on Asymmetry' that ultimately proved the most helpful. It had used up some lumpy jasper beads (really labradorite as I later found out) which had put my symmetry-obsessed brain into a spiral. I ultimately positioned beads of relatively similar size and texture so they 'reflected' each other so to give the feeling of symmetry rather than the reality.

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'A Reflection on Asymmetry'

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One day, I was doing my regular bead sorting and the necklace popped into my mind and I wondered what if I implemented symmetry purely in colour? I had lovely creamy blue amazonite at hand and this wasn't so different in colour to the blue-dyed quartz chips.

'Shattered Glass' or learning to work with inconsistent beads

I find when implying symmetry, having a distinct line of symmetry between the two makes it work better. This wasn't necessary for a larger piece like 'Reflections on Asymmetry' as shape of the necklace did it for me. However, I was bent on a bracelet, and having the chips and the amazonite so close together, it wouldn't work so well. So I fished out some black, white and grey network agate beads out of The Hoard™ and used a pewter 1-to-3 connector links to hold them together and act as an attachment point for the clasp.'

Sounds easy? Design over. Yes and no. The idea was there but it required a bit of tinkering.

Firstly, the larger the beads, the more the strand connecting them shows. This is particularly problematic in cuboid beads. Now if you put considerably smaller beads in between them, this mitigates most of the problem. Secondly, nugget beads are inconsistent in size and I needed its strand to be as long as the other two. network agate strand. The quartz chips being quite thin weren't a problem as it was much easier to make their strand longer or short but the network agate were consistent in size; thus, I had to try different combinations of nuggets to get the strands to line up.

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When working with items that go around something like a necklace or bracelet, cuboid sides, unlike spherical ones, press against each other exposing the wire or thread used to string them.

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The result I absolutely loved, partially because I made something which I thought was beautiful but mainly because I had passed a mental hurdle to do so. Later on, I'd love them even more as it provided the basis for the next two bracelets that I will be mentioning.

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'Shattered Ice'

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'Sun upon moss' or no they don't look like puke

I later returned to try to replicate the previous success with an array of smokey quartz beads in place of the amazonite ones. As for what to take the place of the blue quartz chips, my eyes strayed to the array of yellow and green-shaded ones. Mixed together they'd make a brownish colour. Not exactly the mirror effect from before but akin to it.

First impressions can be difficult to fight and ones that are related to a certain substance being forcefully vacated are more so. , the array of green and yellow chips were hard to stomach. So, I decided to logic my association into submission.

So they look green and yellow? Plenty of things have those colours. Yellow is found in corn, sunshine and daisies. Green are found in the ocean and in grass and leaves and...

Eccentric!Me: Mold!

Sensible!Me: Uh, yes.

Eccentric!Me: Mold can be yellow too!

That...is true but I am trying to step away from such associations.

Eccentric!Me: Bacteria can be those colours too when you grow it in petri dish.

Sensible!Me: *sigh* True but I don't want ugly associations.

Eccentric!Me: But mold and bacteria can be pretty! *presents photos*

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BacArt, created by Maria Peñil Cobo in the Berkmen laboratory. These things are alive by the way.

Fungi photographs by Alison Pollack

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Sensible-but-also-somewhat-eccentric!Me: Ooooh! Yes, they can be.

Eccentric!Me: Toldya!

I had found pretty if, er, unconventional things to associate with those colours and help me over my road block. From here things when easy enough. I also took advantage of the brown and yellow shades in the beds to find a use for some of my gold-plated beads in the centre stand. If they remained gold, they'd match the rest of the bracelet and if they turned brown, they still would.

I made one more noteworthy decision with this bracelet. I went with 'moss' in its name instead of 'mold' or 'bacteria' despite them being inspiration. I want to attract potential customers opposed to sending them running. Sure, you readers know but you got past the word 'puke' in the title; I figure if that didn't scare you off, nothing will.

Eccentric!Me: Coward!

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'Sun on moss' picture

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'Copper and Cherries' or taking PINK!!! down to pink

At this point, I had become an old pro at this. For my cherry quartz chips, I didn't have any obvious choices as to what beads to use for their 'reflection'. Ultimately, I landed on just buying some cherry quartz beads.

This didn't solve the problem of the overblown pinkness. In fact, it made it worse. I tried pairing it with cooler shades of beads but all that did was take it from PINK!!! to PINK!!!!!! by contrasting them.

So I put the pink beads next to a number of different colours to 'audition' the combination and found that copper of all things went well with them. I am not sure as to why. Perhaps because both the copper and the cherry quartz have red in them and the copper is more sedate a colour than the quartz, the latter helps transition the former from tween land into the land of sanity? Maybe I'm reading to much into it.

Whatever. I made it. liked it. What more do I want?

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'Copper and Cherries'

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Success and sadness

I like to incorporate second-hand beads into my work. However even shopping new, I often cannot replace certain beads. This means that for some pieces like, I can only make a couple of them. It can be a frustrating finale to a design. Due to these bracelets, I am quickly burning through my chip beads and soon the problem will crop up. However, I take comfort that like 'Reflections' inspired 'Shattered Glass' and it inspired this bracelets, they too will live on in my later works.

Links to them on my Etsy:

'Copper and Cherries'

'Sun on Moss'

'Shattered Ice'

[thecrackedbead]

The Cracked Bead (eventually) goes to market

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A totally authentic, unmodified picture of myself.

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So I did it. I. did. It. I DID IT!!!

What was it exactly that I did? I probably should have started with that. The title of this entry does little to explains.

Let's try fix that...

The why of things

A couple months ago, I signed up for a craft fair taking place at the Marpole Neighbourhood House. This event has been a long time coming as I started dabbling in selling my creations a couple years ago but from a chromatic financial perspective, the dozen or so leafs that are the Green have been quickly consumed by the bonfire that is the Red.

Don't get me wrong. I predominantly bead for fun. It's a hobby, but I'd be lying if I didn't have the odd day dream of *gasp* making money or climbing up to the shining pinnacle where it is a successful full-time career. Obviously, a craft fair would be an excellent way to work towards it. I would get experience selling, network with my fellow crafters and, well, sell things.

Sensible right? Of course it was, but for me sensible isn't necessarily easy.

The how of things

A couple things got in my way. The most obvious one being finding a craft fair. Internet searches sent me to massive craft events in many of Vancouver's biggest indoor venues. Unfortunately such events cost an arm and a leg to pay for a table or, barring that, my first born. The former was impossible as I need both arms to bead and I am sadly lacking an offspring to bargain with. Also I couldn't afford paying with large quantities of cash as that was not in my budget.

Logically, there would be other smaller craft fairs that cost less and didn't deal in mutilation or permanent child-care but the internet was not being helpful in that respect. I, of course, could use it to reach out British Columbian crafters for suggested venues or go to the bigger craft fairs and chat up those crafters. Great game plan!!! Except... Uhm... Here's where we come to the other complication. The complication that is me.

Before I go on, I think it is EXTREMELY important to state that the following problems only crop up when I’m the only one who benefits from my success. Put me in a workplace or abandon with a horde of small, needy and vulnerable babies and I’ll do well, if not excel. Though in the latter, I’ll do this by calling the police on the person responsible as why they have a horde of babies and why they left them with only a single person to care for them is a touch suspect.

Now that we have that out of the way, I have mentioned in my blog is not just about beading but about mental health. I find blatantly exposing it to the world actually helps me. Putting a neat definition on anything involving the mind is tricky so I'll stick more to one of its effects in this post. I'd have my excellent plans of how to find a craft fair and suddenly come up with one billion ZILLION reasons why I wasn't ready for one. I needed more merchandise, more busts to display them on, my merchandise was shit, no one would like my beautiful merchandise, Ineededevenmoremerchandise,morebusts,mymerchandisewasstillshit,stillnoonewouldliemy merchandise,etc,etc,etc - OH LOOK! SOMETHING SHINY! - etc.

..Sigh. That is my brain in its anxious procrastination mode.

Thus, one day, when I was heading home and I saw the poster for the Marpole Neighbourhood House's Christmas craft fair and had the inkling that I afford this one, my inner monologue was a deluge of "Do it. Don't think. Do it. DO NOT THINK!" as to wash away other, nastier thoughts before they took hold.

I looked it up on my cell. It turned out to be too late to sign up for that one but I did put myself on the notification list, all the while continuing with "Do it. Don't think. Do it. DO NOT THINK!" (How it is possible to sign up without thinking, let alone think to I am not sure. Maybe I'm talking to my nuttier side?) A month later, the notification came and after about of a week of dithering back and forth on the worthiness of my stuff with breaks for - OH LOOK UP IN THE SKY! IT'S SUPERMA - Wait, that's just the sun. - BUT ISN'T IT PRETTY?! - I managed to sign up. I'm not sure how.

Thankfully, once I'm committed, things becoming considerably easier. My self-sabotaging self sulks in the corner periodically where she makes the occasional snide comments. Whatever. I am a Vancouverite. A little rain on my parade was hardly going to stop me.

Naturally, it snowed instead.

The snow on my parade

Now, this is the part where my fellow Canadians start laughing at me and the rest of Greater Vancouver. Snow is what we're known for and Vancourites, uh, start panicking when there's a half a centimetre of the stuff on the ground. To be fair to us, in our considerably more temperate climate, we don't have the infrastructure for it. So when, like last weekend we got 20-30 cm dumped on us overnight, things got complicated.

While the craft fair remained on, my initial car-borrowing plans to bring myself and my merch got torpedoed for safety reasons. I mulled over alternate arrangements while my self-sabotaging self hopped up and down in her corner, making comments that sounding annoyingly logical. Safety is important, cabs and Ubers are expensive, and with the snow, who knows how many customers would be there? But... even I had to turn back because of the weather, even if I didn't sell a thing, if I stopped myself now, who knows when I'd next be able to get up the guts to push my little dream out into the open?

Failure is the mark of a life well lived. In turn, the only way to live without failure is to be of no use to anyone. Trust me, I've practiced. — Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer

Risk for potential mental well-being...Worth it?

The dramatic decision

At about 3:00 AM (stress had been messing with my sleep), I started packing all my stuff into my backpack and a heavy, giant clunker of a rolling suitcase I own. I'd take transit to get to the general area and wade though the Devil's Dandruff as necessary. I WOULD make it to the fair. Whatever happened next, that had to be worth something.

It had to.

The Journey

Here's the part where I tell you the trials and tribulations of my journey to the craft fair. Thing is...there weren't any unless the effort of dragging myself out of bed after the aforementioned early morning Dramatic Decision counts.

My step-dad drove me.

He had the right type of tires and driving experience and, knowing how much the entire thing meant to me, offered. I got to the fair easily, in good time and the weather turned out better than the forecast predicted.

Life can be weirder than fiction but typically is more boring. Given the type of fiction that I like reading, I'm happy for the anticlimax.

The Fair

What can I say about the actual craft fair. In some ways, I think I this is the dullest part to recount though, for myself, the most pleasurable as inner turmoil is only interesting after the fact, if ever.

I take a great deal of pride that many of the things I used in my set-up (the mirrors, the earring 'racks' and most of the linens) were thrifted or found at a discount. Even a fair bit of my jewelry are at least partially made from thrifted or salvaged beads. Much the clothes you see me wearing are too. I love thrifting. It's an addiction.

I was lucky enough to have my table positioned between the lovely Eleanor and Tracey. Eleanor had a selection of lovely handmade cards and gave me excellent advice involving social media to grow my business. Tracey sold a selection of decorated, handmade journals made from such things as vellum and exquisite glass bead earrings which almost made me wish to be next to a different vendor but this sentiment was fleeting, washed away by my admiration for her work and our neat discussions on bead craft. Both her and Eleanor made great company. They gave me freedom from boredom during the duller moments of the fair and generally were my cheerleaders.

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Eleanor and Tracey respectively.

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The journey home

Another anticlimax. Whoohoo!

Thank you, evil stepfather. Though you may want to check if you still qualify for the 'evil' status.

Next time?

I think I can do better. Here's a few thoughts:

The snow likely did do a number on my customer count.

I can experiment with my display. Things were missing due to the weather complications but at least I should have a sign. Maybe try a few setups and have internet people give me feedback. Invest in a 2x5 foot table possibly as least for demo purposes.

Try different sales tactics. I have a 'slight' tendency towards talking, particularly when nervous. This is great with some customers but can drive others off.

Get new business cards. The current ones don't display any jewelry on them though they do feature my lovely Cracked Bead icon. Also, I recently discovered that I put the, uh, wrong email address on it. Sigh.

Continue to reach out the local crafter community. Remember 99% of them are nice.

But above all, I need to get out there and do a fair again. Use the momentum before my doubts and distractions drag me downward.

There a place called Slice of Art that regularly hosts crafters for ~$50/table. More expensive than this last one and my doubts have Opinions on the matter, but...

Right now as I'm writing this, I'm going to open the sign up page, input my details and...

I DID IT!

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Me again. Though my head looks strangely skinny compared to the first one.

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[thecrackedbead]

I meant to do that - Or the making the 'Frosted Leaves' necklace.

I...uhm...er....sort of meant to do that. Yep, I totally had the whole thing planned out. Yesiree. I Meant To Do That.

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The before and after pictures of 'Frosted Leaves'. A great demonstration of my definitely, totally screw up-free design process.

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The start

Don't understand what I'm talking about?

Allow me to backtrack to a few months ago. I often get ideas from thrift store jewelry. Sometimes I leave the jewelry but take pictures. Sometimes I take them home and reuse the materials. Sometimes I take them home and do repairs.

The last of these was my plan for the necklace which I'd recently picked up for $12.99, or rather $9.99 as gotten a couple dollars knocked off when I had pointed out the frayed thread wrapping some of its cords, the broken clasp, the missing leaves and the split rings, attaching the aforementioned leaves to the main necklace piece, which were so warped and badly made that caught on *everything* (my poor shirt/pants/tablecloth/etc 😭). I'd replace the feathers with ones from The Hoard of Doom™️ and replace the frayed cord with something like dyed-leather.

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The evil split rings.

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So I got to work, cut off and dispose of the old clasp and the evil-fabric-destroying spring rings and put the intact findings in The Horde™️ to be reused or given away later.

The Screw-ups Things I Totally Meant to Do

I don't know exactly why I thought it was a good idea, but I started out by attaching non-evil split rings to the main piece's connector loops. As these ones where solidly made, it was taking a bit of fiddling to get it properly attached and...

*pop*

...the loop broke off. Fiddlesticks!

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Whoops.

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I took a breath and figured I could break off the opposite loop, to keep things symmetrical. It popped off easily enough.

You'd think I'd be sensible at this point and switch to open jump rings for the other loops as the former were putting too much stress on the piece. Yeah, about that...

*pop*

Darn it to heck!

Surely now I'd be careful and I was. This time I managed not to twist the loop off when I put the split ring on, but I did bend it a touch. So carefully I grabbed my pliers to gently bend out back into p...

*pop*

Sigh.

Yep, this was clearly all part of my magnificent plan.

Regrouping

At this point, I had a bit of a hissy fit and the remaining necklace pieces were thrown into my pile of half-finished prototypes and there it sat for a month or so.

Eventually, I returned to the pile and was tossing things there into the giveaway, finish and take apart piles. As such, I found myself reexamining the necklace. I still liked the shape and detail of the main part. Carefully I removed the other loops and filed down the remains. The silvery colour of the base metal revealed and the ease at which I did this told me it was pewter. It tends to be soft. No wonder the loops has broken so easily.

I was also left with shimmering patches of gray where the loops were once attached along side the bronze surface metal. This initially annoyed me but...hadn't I made a bracelet with gold-plated beads that were supposed to look good both with gold colour and the underlying brass should the gold wear off? I could play with the idea again.

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The bracelet mentioned. First, the gold-plate is still on the beads. Second, it has largely worn off.

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Having the silver only in one area wouldn't work; so, I attacked other areas with my file to spread it out.

Ideas disgarded, idea claimed

At this point I revisited by original idea of using the original beads and some leather and remaking the original look. This crashed and burned. Multiple times. Generally shortly after take off.

I'd get out the original beads and some cords of different and my eyes would start burning as soon as I set them next to each other and that would be that. (Maybe I should have said burned then crashed?). I eventually removed the original beads from the equation as the changed colour scheme of the main piece no longer fit.

I fiddled around with leather cord, twisting and braiding it. Better but not by much.

In the end I when with my fallback rule: 'Keep it simple, stupid.' I tracked down beads that for the new colour scheme, silver with faux glass opals, bronze with bronze glass beads and more bronze plus blue with impression jasper. I used the variety of sizes of jasper beads to hold the main piece in place and keep things from being *too* simple. I finished things off with using bronze-plated pewter bead caps at the ends and, in keeping with my earlier chose attacked them with a file to reveal some of the silvery pewter beneath.

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My bead type and size choices.

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You can see where I used the larger beads to hold the main piece in place.

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So what happened to 'I meant to do that'?

They say, "No plan survives contact with the enemy." They say, "There's a point in every artwork where you can see the final product."

In this case, 'they' were right. The necklace and it's stupid *pop*ing and my own artistic sensibilities kept me from making any progress. At the same time, those enemies were key to making something I like better than anything I planned or what I imagine the necklace originally looked like. They forced me to wait until I could see the final product and what I was meant to do.

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The final product.

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[thecrackedbead]

Feathered Amazonite Earrings

[thecrackedbead]

Crystal and charcoal - Bracelet made from amazonite, network jasper and quartz beads

Now for sale at my shop.

[thecrackedbead]

Not my style, in good condition and the beader did way too good a job for me to take apart in good conscience. Passed. Congrats to its future owner.

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Nice idea but poor finishing. Probably silver plated. Take home, clean beads and possibly remake.

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Good idea but modern style black beads seem to flash with rustic silver. Take, take apart and clean beads for future use.

[thecrackedbead]

Those damn gold-plated beads - Or designing the 'Fire on a Winter Night' bracelet, necklace and earrings

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The full Fire on a Winter Night set of jewelry. Bracelet, earrings and necklace.

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I have issues with metal-plated beads and findings. I hate that they're everywhere, I hate that they are frequently poorly labeled, I hate that they cause allergic reactions and I definitely hate when they change colours was as the plate is sloughed off due to wear and the wearer's own body chemistry and the base metal is revealed.

The last of these happened over a month ago when I made a lovely bangle bracelet. Purple, blue and black crystals framed by pearls and little golden beads. I was feeling proud of myself and so I put it on for the day, came back, looked at it to see if anything had come loose and found I had lost most of the gold-colour of my beads.

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My unnamed bracelet. Unnamed because the damn 'gold' beads screwed up my design. I don't even have a picture of the original colouring. Maybe I should call it the Damn Stupid Beads bracelet?

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As of late, I have been selling, recycling and giving away most of my plated silver and gold findings. I had probably a thousand of the gold-plated beads and so I considered the last of those option but, given how quickly his had happened, the gold plate must have been as thick as a paper shield is protective. If I gave them away, I had a sneaking suspicion that the next crafter would notice the same problem then toss them. This seemed like such a waste. Surely I could find something to do with them but what?

Something stirred in the back of my mind, then slithered through the webs of memory to purchasing a bracelet which I call Age with Glory. It too had faded beads, silver-plated to my gold but despite this, I liked it.

In fact, I liked it more because of the fading. So I wondered if I could mimic the effect?

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The Age with Glory bracelet. Designer: unknown. Maker: unknown. I'm afraid the discolouring doesn't show up well in the picture. I promise you it is much more obvious in person.

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Making the prototypes

The bracelet

Looking at my inspiration, it seemed clear to me that the lynchpin of Age was the large glass beads. Within their depths contained all the shades of orange and yellow that were found on where the silver beads' plate had sloughed off and the brass beneath was revealed. As I knew that when the gold came off, my little beads they would turn shades of red, orange and brown, I headed off to my local bead shop and hunted down lampwork beads in that colour scheme. These would become the basis for the rest of the bracelet's colours.

Coincidentally, I also had many of the exact same silver-plated beads found in Age in The Hoard™. They needed using up and if they faded? It would add to the design not subtract. I also had some raw brass beads kicking around and its colours made me think that if the gold beads ever become completely not-gold, the brass beads could act like a homage to the past. Finally, I sorted through my crystals, thinking something yellow would work. Instead, I stumbled across a set of black crystals in an array of size. They'd been sitting there for ages and figuring that the lampwork beads had black in them. So why not?

There wasn't any great mystery to my stringing method. I used stainless steel memory wire to create a wrapping bracelet. (FIY: NEVER use silver or gold-plated memory wire. The plating will run away screaming when you get a tool anywhere near it.) There were few repeating clusters of beads, I made a rule where no two beads of the same colour could be next to each other and tried to limit the brass and lampworks used so I wouldn't run out then was mostly random.

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The bracelet prototype. In the first photo, the gold-plated beads actually look gold. In the second photo, you can see the colour change due to time.

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The earrings and bracelet

From here the other two were easy.

The earrings were made by moving around the beads until I found something I liked. (Sometimes I think designing is more chance than any sort of creativity or intelligence.) Then when I came to the necklace, I was running out of lampwork beads at this point, I ended up making one a focal, thus excusing myself from using more in the necklace lest I show it up. All I needed to do from there was layout the beads in a way I liked and string it up.

Earrings, bracelet and necklace prototypes

The final designs

Honestly, I would have happily made my prototypes my final designs; however, I was running out of the silver-plated beads. This of course was a good thing, right? I was trying to get rid of all my plated beads, right? Naturally, I was going to celebrate and move on to another design to use up my gold beads, right?

So, I...

...uh...

...er...

...sort of bought more silver-plated beads.

I guess the the road to Hell isn't paved with good intentions but rather beads.

The final designs.

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Other thoughts

Since I often get my beads via thrifting, I'm sure there's more of metal-plated beads on their way. Thus, it is good to know that I have at least one idea of how to turn that ilk into something I can work with.

Why work against flaws when you can turn them into features?

Now available:

The Fire on a Winter Night... Bracelet prototype Earrings and necklace set. Full necklace, earrings and bracelet jewelry set

[thecrackedbead]

Saw this in a FB beading group…

[thecrackedbead]

Stupid consistently paying job, getting in the way of my nebulous-income job.

...Need to do a whole lot of photos.

[thecrackedbead]

Designing the Auntie Earrings

Version 1.0 of the Auntie Earrings.

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The Intro

So a couple months ago, I actually sold something via my Etsy store, specifically the pattern and instructions for The Auntie Earrings. At this, I essentially fainted and then had to resist the urge to act like an overeager puppy by jumping all over my new customer. Such things are cute when done by a ball of fluff, not so much by a 80 kg woman.

I have sold things before, but those had been to friends and family or their friends and family. Yes, those cases all count but it is all to play it off as people just being nice to me. However, early in my beading days, my aunt asked me if I sold my work. At the time, I didn't but was happy to donate some pieces to her to sell at a craft fundraiser. I found out later that not had they all sold but my Neo Celtic Bracelet had sold before the fundraiser started as one of my auntie's colleagues spotted it, asked the price and upon hearing it, chucked out the money and gleefully ran off with it. So between her earlier question and this, the seed to my current attempts was planted.

What does anything of this have to do with the title of 'Designing the Auntie Earrings'? The colleague, who was also a beader, made using tubular bead crochet. Upon a visit to Alberta and her home, she showed it off to me and it was well worth showing, a lovely warm mix of colours. The way the light hit the colourful matte beads made them to seem to glow.

So a couple months ago, I actually sold something via my Etsy store, specifically the pattern and instructions for The Auntie Earrings. At this, I essentially fainted and then had to resist the urge to act like an overeager puppy by jumping all over my new customer. Such things are cute when done by a ball of fluff, not so much by a 80 kg woman.

I have sold things before, but those had been to friends and family or their friends and family. Yes, those cases all count but it is all to play it off as people just being nice to me. However, early in my beading days, my aunt asked me if I sold my work. At the time, I didn't but was happy to donate some pieces to her to sell at a craft fundraiser. I found out later that not had they all sold but my Neo Celtic Bracelet had sold before the fundraiser started as one of my auntie's colleagues spotted it, asked the price and upon hearing it, chucked out the money and gleefully ran off with it. So between her earlier question and this, the seed to my current attempts was planted.

The Start

What does anything of this have to do with the title of 'Designing the Auntie Earrings'? The colleague who purchased my bracelet was also a beader made a lovely necklace of my aunt's using tubular bead crochet. Upon a visit to Alberta and her home, she showed it off to me and it was well worth showing, a lovely warm mix of colours with copper beads splitting the alternating patterns. The patterns themselves were made using matte beads. Up until then, I was guilty of eschewing matte beads, ignorantly thinking that they were dull but The way the light hit the colourful matte surface caused it to scatter as it reflected, ultimately giving the beads a ethereal glow that put me in mind of stain glass windows (Note to self: Try making matte beads window fixtures that look like stainglass?) The end caps were a lovely copper and the spherical bead focal was also copper with a simple turquoise crystal upon its tip. Having looked it over and trying not to drool on its beauty, I asked my aunt if she'd like me to make a matching pair of earrings and she said yes.

Quick Aside

Logically, you'd think I would have an actual picture of the original necklace. I, uhm, sort of deleted all the photos when I was freeing up space on my phone. So, enjoy the mental image I guess? (*is so embarrassed*).

Logically, you'd think I would have an actual picture of the original necklace. I, uhm, sort of deleted all the photos when I was freeing up space on my phone.

The Search

I cannot say that I had any particular plan as to what the earrings would look as I tend to find that, unlike the more traditional arts like when I draw or make ceramics. You may have an idea of what you want to make but, with beading, you making objects into your artwork, not making objects which are the art. So you often need all the items in front you before you can make a solid plan. Thus I searched.

Though I'd been to Calgary plenty of time, my beading obsession during those times had been nowhere near the level it was then. This plus the knowledge that her colleague likely lived in Calgary and thus likely bought her supplies locally meant that I had an excuse to go devour a perfectly logical reason to search the bead stores there. Here's what I found:

Micheal's. Mainly I went here to see if their seed bead collection varied from that of my hometown. It did not, and once again I glowered at the massive prices for the Czech beads and sighed at the pitifully small selection of Toho ones (which were also overpriced). I do not recommend their store to seed beaders.

The snake oil store. I never looked at its bead stock. Instead, I backed out after taking a a glance. They had crystals with large signs promising they would heal you ("Balance your body's humors to ward off disease for only $599.99." Ugh.) I do think crystals can help, if only psychosomatically, as the body and mind are linked. One can mess with the other but only to a point. Thus, I get ornery when I see things promising cures for real conditions. So I felt it important to leave before I was overwhelmed by the urge to play baseball with the displays.

A number of store that didn't have what I needed but were nice nonetheless. Most of them specialised in larger beads or other forms of jewelry-making.

Beads and Plenty More. Ultimately where I got most of my stuff.

I swear I am not associated with the last or benefit from writing this in anyway; therefore when I say their employees, stock and prices were wonderful, I am getting nothing out of the bargain. I must have been exhausted or perhaps the sight of all those beading supplies acted like a drug because I completely misunderstood all their well-marked signage and stared at hopefully at section after section of beads like a puppy in a pet store, except I was begging them to come home with me rather than the other way around. When the staff politely sorted me out (thank you guys for being nice about me thinking everything was 90% off instead of 10%) and didn't stare at the metaphorical drool on my chin, I came away with seed beads and findings that matched those on my aunt's necklace and a lot of other 'essential' items.

The Actual Design Process

The extra 'essential' items aside, I did have more than I actually needed to make earrings in the necklace's colour scheme. In fact, with what I had I could make a dozen things in those colours. However, I settled into the madness that is perfectionism and simply

It’s only recently that I have begun experimenting with making stud-style earrings; thus, it should come as no surprise the designs were all dangly ones.  The designs went through three primary section: the extra long dangles, the flats and the final one.

The extra long dangles.

My first idea was a pair of long dangly earrings. I had managed to find a miniature version of the crystal on the necklace’s focal...which would have been great if I had more than one. So instead, I found two lengths of crystals in colours that matched the necklace’s other parts and when mixed together, gave the feeling of the correct colour of crystal. From here I was going to use copper eye pins with alternating colours to make long, skinny earrings.

The showerhead

My second idea was a showerhead made from a cord end with had crystalline ‘water’ pouring down and out of it. I had managed to find cord ends that matched those of the necklace.

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The extra long dangles, the showerhead, and one of the flat designs. (I really should have taken pictures at the time...

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I did and still do like the ideas, but after I made a prototype of my first design, it became readily apparent that while the colours matched those of the necklace, the feeling it invoked did not. This went for both ideas. The necklace already had a lot of things going on in it with its multitude of patterns. Why add more?  In addition, skinniness of the earrings compared to firm, stout form of the necklace didn’t match.

The flat designs

This section took embarrassingly long to pass, and I spent a massive number of hours on it. At the time, I was living with my parents and it wasn’t unusual for my mum to give me the evil eye when she caught me awake at odd hours of the night experimenting...also being ordered to bed by your mother when you are in your 30s is a weird experience.

I was using peyote and brick stitch to replicate certain sections of patterns in 2D form. Much like the previous stage, none of the results were exactly bad. However, unlike that stage, the reason why I was dissatisfied was not readily evident to me. I suspect that’s what kept me up. My unconscious self knew what was wrong, knew what I had to do to fix it, but she was too much of a douche to tell me. She was like an annoying older sister, holding the answer just out of reach while my conscious mind kept on jumping up in an attempt to snatch it out of her fingers.

Given this implies that my conscious mind was unconsciously doing this to my unconscious mind...I don’t have a clue on how that worked or what sort of bizarro logic was involved. Similarly, I don’t know when and how the answer for my problem was finally solved.

The final ones

It seems obvious in retrospect what I was doing wrong. I had focused so much on the patterns and colours of the necklace that I had forgotten a key part of the design: its shape. The tubular aspect brought the necklace into a 3D form, losing that my aunt might as well being wearing a picture of her necklace around her neck. Therefore, any earrings seeking to match the necklace needed to have a tubular shape.

With this in mind, I did a bunch of fiddling with tubular brick stitch. It quickly became apparent that if the tube I made was too long, it would collapse inward. (Maybe the bead crochet of the necklace provides more support than brick stitch?) Eventually, this led to the general lantern-shape of the final product. From hear toyed with having multiple lanterns, each with a different pattern. Ultimately, this was too fiddly (at this point, I was extremely grumpy) and their relative length wouldn’t fit with the stout shape of the necklace. Thus, I picked a pattern where almost all of the necklace colours were featured and threw in a couple crystals atop each earring as a nod to the crystal on its focal.

Morality of selling the pattern

Once a beader gets to a certain degree of skill and provided the pictures are detailed are no, we can pretty much replicate any patterns we can see. At that point, when we buy patterns from each other, it is as much courtesy as a matter of learning to make something with the pattern. When I considered selling, I was worried I was going to stomp all over that courtesy.

Many a year ago, I took watercolour lessons. My teacher said that if you were copying someone else’s work and changed seven things, it was no longer copying and instead was a new piece of art in its own right. The triangle pattern I used was modified from the original, where the triangles spiralled around the tube (it’s not readily seen from these pictures). Where the necklace had both shiny and matte copper beads separating the different patterns, I only used the shiny ones to frame my little triangles as I reasoned it would look too visually busy. The product was made with a different method which I decided on and there are many subtle design elements that I added on. Finally, my earrings are, well, earrings, and not a necklace. As outlined triangles are hardly copyrightable, the only thing I really took was the colour scheme.

Conclusion

I do wish I had managed to find or get a hold of the necklace’s designer so I could, depending on their desire, credit them, link their shop and/or change the colour scheme of my earrings. If by chance someone knows their name, contact me.

The inspiration alone was and is priceless.