Bead Table Wednesday

Is it Wednesday again already? Time comes and goes; sometimes I'm only vaguely aware of its passing because I'm too much involved with various things. But we all feel like that, don't we?

Not this weekend, but the next I will be in a show. It's the first of the year for me and very exciting because it is a jewelry-exclusive one and I'm just flattered to have been accepted into such fine company. I'm hoping it will be a great chance to meet other jewelry makers from my area and network. Maybe I'll even meet someone to bead with! That would be so fantastic. :)

Anyway, so my "bead table" has been a bit strained as of late while I try to scramble a bunch of stuff together. I didn't realize I had so many half-finished projects tucked into all my bags and boxes. At some point you have to tell yourself, "NO! You cannot start something new until you finish at least three of these already-started ones." So that's what I've been up to.

I found these old Scrabble tiles in a box inside my parents' garage last time I was home. We have a beautiful Scrabble set, so I'm not really sure where these came from, nor do I know what I want to do with them, yet. I also recovered that beautiful shell, which is used in Native American smudging rituals. We tuck bound sprigs of white sage in there to burn for cleansing. From the left: "Dream Walker" (was experimenting with different ways to wire-wrap tumbled stones; this is quartz and amethyst with an agate thrown in), "Slave Charm III" (inspired by amulets that pre-Civil War domestic slaves would carry to ward off evil spirits and later pray for freedom), and "Auberon" (I'm loving those little branch focals; this time with coral, green fire agate rounds, vintage filigree beads, and Vintaj bead caps).

These are the Pollyanna prisms (read: chandelier crystals) and antique key I mentioned in my Victorian inspiration post last week. I just took the old, nasty, rusted wire off the prisms and am looking forward to using these for something.

And now for something entirely different...

You could probably tell from my last giveaway that I've got ocean on the brain. The one on the right began with a complete accident. I was trying to make one of those wire cuff bracelets with the woven beads, but something went wrong with my design and I couldn't get the wire to work out properly. In exasperation, I set it down and stared at it for a few moments. To my surprise, a fish was staring back! So I took some of the Marsha Neal Studio silk and made some wavy, fin-like flowy loops and then found some suitable oceany-colored beads, and then a sorta-kinda-almost a fish-hook-like hook (does that even make sense?), and voila! It's artsy and chunky and I love it. :3 This is also the first time I've ever fashioned a clasp of my own! Yeah, I'm a bit late to the party...

The middle one is a focal that I don't know what to do with, yet. (Yes, another half-finished project...) It was made with a huge blue stone bead that I bought at a bead store back in my college town before we moved away (*sniffle*), so I've had it for a while. Don't you think it is the perfect match with that beautiful pewter Green Girl Studio pendant, though? It's like the mermaid is peacefully drifting in the depths of the sea. The one on the far left was made with (believe it or not!) leftover beads.

This one is the most recent finished piece. It fits in with Andrew Thornton's theme this week: "Flight."

This one is special. It takes me right back to childhood, when we would sit out on our porch at dusk on muggy summer nights. The fireflies would be just starting to twinkle their little green lights in the meadow at the edge of our yard. All the moonflowers would unfurl their white petals, gently fragrant in the moonlight. And, across the road where an old school house stood dilapidated for ages, hundreds of birds (mostly swallows and sparrows and pigeons) would make a nightly dance. They would circle and swoop and flitter around, sometimes swinging so low, they'd touch the tall grasses with their wingtips. Then, all at once, they would descend upon the school house and disappear into all the cracks and nooks and broken windows until dawn would find them again the next day. That is what this necklace is about---that unfettered night joy, after a long beautiful sunny day, of coming home again to rest.


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