A feather, a flower, and a window

a feather: pattern source (in French)

feather with charms

flower blossom: link to original post

blossom lariat

Blogger has gone a bit crazy on me, but I'm trying to keep up my glacial posting schedule and crank out one post per week so I'm just going to write below the photos and not log off and plan to come back later. Later seems to have a way of eluding me.

This week I've got a feather pendant which I made from a French pattern from L'atelier de mimi.  Her blog is linked in the photo caption and has some beautiful examples of her plumes.  The little butterfly is a charm from Gardanne Beads and the quatrefoil bead is turquoise dyed magnesite.  The pattern uses 11/0's and 15/0's of the same color.  I pulled out some dark bronze Toho beads that had been rolling around in the bead cabinet for some time.  I got to whip up a fun piece and tackle my stash at the same time.

The final photos above are shots I took in the light box which my mom gave me a few years ago.  This is fitting because I made the Blossom lariat for her.  I wrote all about the piece in an earlier entry, but I will repeat that the blossoms are a pattern from Leslie Fraizer (Trumpet Flower Necklace, Beadwork Aug/Sept 2012).  These flowers have captivated me.  I just finished another lariat in a completely different (and very Pantone Spring 2013 colorway), but I still need to photograph it.

Finally, my husband has continued to build onto his mother's house in Mexico.  A few years ago he had a bedroom/bath room suite built, and now he has bumped out the living room.  He wants to make sure that his sisters' families will all have plenty of room to visit their mother during the year when he can not be with her.  Unfortunately, all this building has really taken a toll on her beautiful garden.  I have a feeling we will be working on that next.  Below is one of the new windows in the living room and some calla lillies growing next to nopal cactus.

nopal, callas, and roses

Saw it and made it

How much time do you spend perusing Pinterest?  I spend a little too much time being dazzled by the gorgeous beadwork I find.  I thought I'd better start making some pieces I'd seen on Pinterest to justify the time investment.

saw it and made it

One of my favorite wearable pieces is this bracelet by Lucila based on a pattern by Amparo Santos aka Quimeras on Etsy.  Every few days I would see it again and finally I decided to make my own.  I went to Lucila's blog and saw that the base component was designed by Amparo Santos whose patterns I have used before. 

source

Lucila found her amazing turquoise in Puerto Rico, but on my limited budget, I used turquoise dyed magnesite 8mm and 4mm beads.

my version

When I bought the magnesite, I found these matching quatrefoil beads and decided to use the as clasps.  Somehow they managed to perfectly fit.  Although Lucila finished her bracelet with coral beads, I wanted to keep a simpler color palette and stitched the 4mm's a bit more tightly together.

 

This piece is really a labor of love.  Each component with a bezeled 8mm bead surrounded by four 4mm is an individual piece.  There are 33 of these components stitched together!

Saw something on Pinterest and made it: Check.