From the Shores of Gitche Gumee's Little Sister

I've been working on this bead embroidered pin. It's a commissioned piece; a gift for a local civic event. I was told that the giftee loves Lake Ontario as much as I do, so the broach includes a pebble, shell shard and piece of beach glass from the stash of stuff I've been combing from her shores since 1969.

Although intrigued by the work of Sherri Serafini and Robin Atkins, I consciously avoided bead embroidery for the longest time. Which seems particularly silly because hand-embroidery was one of my earliest endeavors...in the 1960s I embroidered amazing (at least that's how I remember them) copies of Cat Stevens album covers on patches for my brother's jeans. His wonderful wife says she saved those patches somewhere, if they ever turn up I'll post pictures.

This past summer the Upstate New York Glass Bead and Jewelry Guild took on a bead quilt project and I--such a huge fan of seed beads--couldn't very well refuse to participate. My worse fears were realized...I love the process and am going now to get back to another pin in progress.

We Interrupt Our Regular Schedule

For the first time in many months, I beaded something just for the fun of it...not for a pending class or a commission or to fullfill a request of any kind, but simply because some beads spoke to me. I can't remember when I bought the garish faceted beads--just that they were a ridiculously inexpensive impulsive addition to a bead-feeding frenzy. They made a lot of noise at the time, but have barely whispered since I got them home. I stumbled across them this past weekend when I was under the influence a commercial for The Other Boleyn Girl and this vaguely (Pre)Elizabethan necklace was the result.

The pendant is another take on the Ukrainian Gerdany I've been so crazy about since Irene shared the technique at last October's "Beads On Sunday". It seemed like the pendant designed itself, then demanded a simple necklace that could be worn long or short (because I saw somewhere that long necklaces with bold pendants are all the rage this season, but just about everyone I know prefers a shorter necklace that won't get caught in a desk or kitchen drawer). The final product is over 40" long which gave me plenty of practice incorporating straight-line beading into an overall right-angle weave. I may even remember what I did the next time.

I'm pleased with the piece and refreshed and ready to get back to a project already in progress.