Creating Jewelry in Beautiful Vancouver

I honestly spent my first couple of days in Vancouver in a creative slump.  Not because I was home visiting per se, or because I didn’t have enough time to weave, but out of sheer frustration.  It all started on the drive home.  Normally, since my husband likes to do all the driving, I bring along weaving projects and weave the entire time we’re on the road.  It keeps me from going stir crazy!  And, for some odd reason, I can weave without getting car sick but not read.  Go figure.

Well, my first project was really small and finished in very little time.  That at least  was successful – although I am thinking of redoing it to make it bigger…  Anyway, I then moved on to one of my Swarovski crystal bracelets that I was going to make for Bu in payment for her painting some pendants for me.  Um, yeah, that’s when I discovered that the base beads I’d bought to compliment the crystal were the wrong color!  Massively disappointing.  So I pulled out my next project, a Christmas present that I had designed.  One problem.  I’ve only ever done even count peyote.  When I designed this I failed to notice that it was odd count peyote.  Grrr!!!  Still, ever busy, I moved on to the next project.  One I knew I’d have no problems with because it’s one of my lace necklaces that I’ve made at least a dozen of!  Wrong.  That’s when the road started getting curvy and next thing I knew I was spilling beads.  I gave up in frustration and spent the rest of the trip with painfully idle hands.

The frustration continued…  I printed up instructions on odd count peyote and went back to work on the Christmas present with no success.  I tried 3 different times to make it work, over several days, and it just wasn’t working!  I think I simply need to get more comfortable with the stitch in a more basic pattern – which is ok because this is a Christmas present – but frustrating because at home I could simple grab some different beads and do so!  LOL  Oh well.  I also discovered that one of the colors of beads that I had bought specifically for the project is junk >_>  So I’m going to have to find something different.

The good news is I finally snapped out of my slump!  Yesterday I wasn’t feeling very good so I stayed home the entire day and did a bunch of random things.  Including 8 new listings   I also spent a few hours weaving last night while watching the Olympics

Today I’m going to spend the day watching movies with some of my closest friends and I intend to bring along the few weaving projects I have left that are viable and weave all day!  Yippee!  You should be seeing several new weaving projects when I get home

For now I’ll leave you with these – my new Funky Sky Blue Earrings!

Beadweaving Fun!

That’s right ladies and gentlemen – my wrist is healed enough that I can bead weave again! I made this over the course of the afternoon

It’s a choker done in the Potawatomi style – which the bead book I got it from says came from a book on Native American designs!  Cool huh?  This is the second one I’ve made – the first was my Patriotic Weave necklace – but I like this one a lot better :p  The dangles are optional to the design and I didn’t include them in my first one – I like it a LOT  better with the dangles!

I love bead weaving for many reasons.  I find it extremely relaxing for one!  Which is perfect for a day like today where I really just don’t feel that good.  I also love the many different things that can be done with bead weaving!  I’m constantly learning new styles and, if you check out my hand woven section in my shop, you’ll see that there’s a pretty good variety of styles already!

I learned a new pattern today that I love!  I can’t show it to you though because its my first Christmas present I’ve created this year

Creative Overload…

Do you ever get to that point where you have so many things you want to try that you can barely decide where to turn next?  That’s exactly where I am at right now.  I have so many beads that I have projects in my head for, so many new designs I want to try, that I can hardly decide what I want to work on!  And sometimes finishing a project is torture because I’m so excited about trying the next one…even when I like what I’m working on!

After the rush of this last week, trying to get my Patriotic Delights line put together, I’ve decided I need to slow down slightly.  At least for a week or so!  So I’m going to work on a few things just for me.  After all, how will people I meet in person ever learn about my jewelry if I don’t wear it?

On another note – I’m falling in love with bead weaving.  It’s something I’ve been doing for awhile, as my bracelets attest too, but I’ve been having a lot of fun learning new techniques and branching out lately.  I think that’s where part of my creative overload is coming from, there are so many new bead weaving techniques I want to try!