Wednesday, April 28, 2010

FAUX JADE, EARRING BEADS AND BEAD CROCHET

FAUX JADE


Didn't feel like blogging much since Annie died but I saw a bright star tonight and knew that was her shining down on us to tell us she is ok and that we should keep doing what we love to do and that she is ok now.  My grandma always told me when pets die, they always go to heaven and when they get there, they turn into stars.  I believed everything my grandma told me.

A couple weeks ago Cindy Lietz "The Polymer Clay Tutor" http://www.beadsandbeading.com/blog/ did a video on Faux Jade.  I decided to play around with a couple batches.  I need to make 16 pair of earring beads for our clay guild's May swap.  I've done a couple things and haven't decided which ones I'm going to use yet but here are some things I did with the batches of Faux Jade.

There are 3 different colors.  The top two are a little darker, the bottom right is my favorite, the large one on the left is really pretty but it has little specs of gold in it.  A friend of mine just came back from a two week cruise and went to Costa Rica which I didn't know was the jade capital of the world.  She went to a lecture about jade and her son bought her a purple jade bracelet.  So you know I'm going to be giving that a go.  If only she would let me touch it.  Anyway, I'm liking this faux jade thing.

CLAY GUILD EARRING BEAD SWAP

As I said, our guild is having an earring swap.  I did a few different things just to experiment.  We are making the beads but not finishing them into earrings.  We are going to let each person decide how they want to use the beads.  Some don't wear earrings, some don't wear pierced earrings, etc. so we decided to made sets of beads and the person can decide what they want to do with them and where they want to put the holes in them. 

These are a few of the ones I've been playing with.  Top left are my mouse in the cheddar cheese earrings, the shiny ones shaped like ginko leaves were done with Tina Holden Shimmering Batik tutorial and then covered with Magic Glos, the elephants on the bottom left were done with a mold I made from earrings my mother gave me 20 years ago that were suppose to bring me luck.  The middle ones are part of the faux jade that haven't been buffed yet.  Caught my tee shirt sleeve in the buffer tonight.  Don't do that, it scares the cat.


BEAD CROCHETING

Many years ago a friend taught me how to bead crochet.  I have been crocheting with yarn since I was 5.  I can make a normal size afghan in a week.  This bead crocheting and I didn't get along.  I gave it up.  About 3 weeks ago I saw a necklace I fell in love with and the lady said it was bead crochet.  So I went on youtube and found a lady teaching "BEAD CROCHET".  She was great.  I also ordered a DVD and decided I was going to conquer this.  I strung my beads and was ripping right along until I realized I shorted myself one bead in the sequence so I crushed all the beads till I came to the place where the next set of colors came up correctly.  It was then I realized the cording I was using tore when I crushed the beads.  I've got it back together and am hoping that the place where I fixed it won't show.  I can always sew some beads on there to cover it.  I'm going to keep doing this till I get it right.  LOL.
I'll post a picture of the finished piece, don't hold your breath.


6 comments:

Cara Jane (surfingcat) said...

the jade looks good, I haven't tried it yet - it's on the list!

Good luck with the crochet, I am sure you will master it!

Kate Tracton said...

Your "jade" pieces are really lovely. Congrats!

I tried bead crochet years ago and just had the urge to hurl the project in the bottom of my closet. I wish you were nearby so you could teach me! :)

Thank you so much for your suggestion on my pendant post, and for your lovely words.

Kate

Kathy said...

WOW!!!! I'm really excited for the earring swap now just after seeing your stuff!!!! I need to get started on that.

Phaedrakat said...

Hi Bonnie! I'm enjoying all of your gorgeous pieces, so many things to LOVE! I was wondering about you curing the Magic Glos outside. Do you cover it with something to keep dust/dirt from getting stuck in it, or ?? I was thinking about foregoing the UV lamp now that summer's coming, but wondered how it worked. Thanks for any info you can offer...

Anonymous said...

Your Jade came out great...I have yet to try Cindy's tutorial. WOW, love the earrings...I have yet to start on those. I am way behind. I have been playing in the garden all week, trying to get my vegetable garden going before it gets too hot and the wind isn't helping. After Debbie's class, I hope to get started on my earrings...I better get them done before the next meeting!

Rose said...

Bonnie your Jade is so gorgeous. My earrings are done too. Can't wait to have a clay day with you and the girls. There are still lots of projects we have on our to do list maybe we should add the jade
love you
rose