The rest of the costume shiny bits

 Hello, everyone.

The remaining shiny bits for the Sailor Moon costume are in recognizable order. All that is needed is to attach an elastic to the sides of the tiara so it will stay on.

The earrings are clip on. There is some wire wrapping going on there and some jump rings, plus the found clip-on backs.

The tiara gem is a little more complex than some of the illustrations, but I think she will like it. The elastic band will attach at the loops on the sides. 

The Mylar wrapping foil behaved this time, probably because it has gold tulle over the top. I sewed the tulle on at the back to pull the foil edges around to the back instead of trying to stitch it. (Gluing the edges didn't work, they were cut too close to the size of the tiara base structure.) The stitching of the accent rows along the edges went smoothly. The main gems are glued in place, the other accents are all sewn down. The little red bobbles at the top corners are seed beads.

Working towards Halloween

 Hello, everyone.

Halloween may be a bit different this year, but the children still enjoy dressing in costumes.

DGD expressed an interest in being Sailor Moon, an anime character in a cartoon series. The character is a schoolgirl in Japan, so her outfit is based around the typical Japanese girl's school clothes. That means a sailor (middy) blouse and a pleated skirt. 

Years ago I made a costume for DD2 of this type, but it's long gone to another relative and even if it were findable, DGD isn't the same size. So I'm doing it again.

This time I started with a purchased school girl outfit. Added a pair of red knee-high athletic socks for the "boots," and sewed a gem onto each one. (She is intended to wear the knee socks with her tennis shoes.) The sock gems can be removed later for normal wear.

That was the easy part. Next began the work on the gem for the bow, the tiara (no pictures of that yet), the ribbon choker, and so on.

The bow gem in progress. As there are a number of variations of the bow gem in various drawing of Sailor Moon, I used artistic license in designing something that has multiple colors around the central red element. A ring of the round gold beads was added after the photo. 

The back side of the bow gem, showing the pin back. The beads are sewn with Fireline 6 pound test crystal colored line. Yes, I have a fishing line cutter to cut it with, the braided nylon line will ruin your regular sewing scissors.

The ribbon choker. The ends have extender chain and a spring ring and are somewhat adjustable for size.

Many of the components are from stash: Mylar type gift wrap, round gold beads, stiff interfacing and felt, faux leather and pin back, etc. The small round gems were even in stash, though I had forgotten about them.

The larger, acrylic gems were from JoAnn's. 

The tiara is still under construction, with more of the stiff interfacing and Mylar and also some gold colored tulle, and more of the acrylic gems. Like the bow gem, there will probably be a line of gold beads around the top and bottom edges of the tiara. The plan is to have a strand of elastic to hold it in place when she wears it. 

Beading bits n bobs

Hello, everyone.

There was a lot going on in December. Who has time to shop?

A gift for a young lady, made of beads:

The bracelet is child-sized. The necklace is about 16" long. I think the colors will work for: Christmas season, Valentines season, Fourth of July season...and also if the child lives in a school district where the local school colors are some form of red and white. Also with that length she can wear the necklace for a while.

The beads are red glass rounds, white perle rounds, and crackle glass clear rounds. All from, stash on hand!

Bead stash usage: another purse charm

Hello, everyone.

This is another purse charm, all bits from stash. The colors are in a springtime theme.

As with the last one, the catch was in that three-pack at Hobby Lobby. Most of the beads were from Fire Mountain Gems--some in their Boss's Bead Bag which is a random mix. (That used to be really fun to go through but the last time, some years back, it was less exciting. Still really useful, though.)

There are 5 strands strung onto 6# Fireline. I used a wrapped loop to connect the strands to the catch inside of the cone finding. Two of the strands were designed to provide balance to the other three, which have accent beads up and down the strand, so they're just plain old mixed white/clear seed beads.

I tied the bottom bead of each strand thoroughly, strung it to the right length, and held it in one of those little spring type bead holding clips. When all 5 were strung, I tied them to the wrapped loop, dropped the cone finding onto the wire, and made another wrapped loop to connect to the catch.

A Beaded Hairpin (more stash usage)

Hello, everyone.

Today's picture is another hair pin. It began as one of the bridesmaid hairpins, but the work was coming out too dense: the little branchlets too close together. Fortunately this was discovered before the whole hairpin was constructed. The densely twisted piece was set aside.
Today it became a hairpin by itself:

Interested viewers may note that this time the background is more friendly to the project. (They may show up well in person on black, but the photo of that was not so good.)

Teardrop faceted bead plus bead cap for the top bud, assorted faceted glass and pearl beads. The smallest perle beads are 3mm Swarovski beads, left over from another project some years back. The top pink bead is a 4mm Swarovski bicone, accompanied by a couple of simple 3mm fire-polished faceted glass round beads.

More Bead Play (also uses up Stash!)

Hello, everyone.

I have to give a hat tip to the Russian ladies on Youtube for this idea. They have uploaded bunches of twisted-wire work involving beads for hair, bracelets, whatever.

This is a bridal-style hair pin. A young lady I know thought that her ladies might like to have sparkly bits to tuck into a braid for The Day.

The beading actually grew like Topsy when I started working on it, I think the original idea was the daisy in the middle and maybe three or four beads sticking up, but one thing led to another and here we are. It uses up a number of crystalline faceted rounds and bicones, and some teardrops, some pale pink ones, and some seeds and various sizes of perles and even some cultured actual pearls. (The teardrop shaped ones on stems.) Also an assortment of bead caps.

The twisting has to be done carefully, I actually gave some of the wire metal fatigue by twisting too tightly and it broke. Who knew that could happen? But if y'all are thinking of doing something like this, now you know.

Beads mostly from Fire Mountain Gems, some from Hobby Lobby, wire likewise. Hair pin from the pile in my hair stuff! Rhinestone in the flower from Fire Mountain, it's a montee from a pack I got years ago to replace a lost rhinestone on a sweater. You never know when extra bits will come in handy!

Stash busting: Purse charm

Hello, everyone.

Another little stash-busting success: a dangly thing to put on purses. (It could also be hung from any other hanging point, like maybe in a window as a decoration.)

I used up some white & silver and perle bead mix, some pendants, some crosses and pressed-glass butterflies, faceted ovals, and some quartz crystal diamonds. The hardware was half-off at Hobby Lobby.

These little stash busters are fun, but there need to be more of the necklaces if there's going to be a measurable reduction in bead stash!

Stash Busting, Beads Edition

Hello, everyone.

There is a lot of stash around here, as has been said before. I saw a number of seed bead bracelets on Pinterest and watched a video or two and got inspired to see what I had to work with.

I did say, lots of stash. (Sadly, repeating that phrase doesn't use it up. One must actually make things to use it up!)

Lots of seed beads are included--size 11 Dynamites, size 15 Rocailles, assorted odd bits and pieces, they all went together into a few bracelets and a necklace.

Three bracelets and a necklace

What I'm learning: yes, there is a handy video about braiding the strands. It's trickier than it looks, especially toward the end of the braid. Y'all will note that only one thing in this group of projects is braided.
Using the bails that don't open or adjust in size with seed bead strands is only sort-of possible. It's surprising how thick a strand of the tiny beads is!
The little cones at the end of the strands are working with a wire-wrapped loop to hold the strands, it's the only way I could make sense of it. Also the tigereye bead on the necklace is on a wire work piece. It's fun and peaceful to wrap the wire around the pliers to make things.

Another bracelet

I was happy to be able to use up some of the odd bits from "assortment" bags that have been gotten from Fire Mountain Gems over the years. Also to find homes for some of the assorted saints' medals that have accumulated.

Walk report: South Mountain Park, Phoenix, Arizona

Hello, everyone.

We did a training walk today--in the midst of a road trip! DH looked up the city as it was on our passing-through itinerary, and discovered this city park.

We drove over to it when we hit town. It's a mountain inside the city, sort of, and we had water bottles so we set off on a trail. The stated length was 1 1/4 mile up and the same to return. It goes to a lookout on top of the mountain.

It was already 1:30 pm local time and the temp was probably close to 90F. Full sun, of course--it's Arizona after all. The trail was rocky. Not continuous climbing, but some of the rock "steps" are a bit tall.

We walked most of the trail to the top. When we got to probably the penultimate trail marker, it informed us that while we had walked most of the distance, the remaining quarter mile was going to be a hugely steep climb. I surveyed my legs, DH asked his ankle that had broken before, and we decided that the last bit would be too much.

We walked back down, for a total of about 2 miles (3 km) and got into the car and drove the long, squiggly road to the top to see the view. It was lovely. There was an old CCC hut and some benches. Also a couple of folks were selling trinkets--necklaces, rosaries and the like--at the parking lot at the top. Pretty stuff.
Quite a number of folks had also driven up. It is a lovely view of the city.

Unfortunately the pictures I took are all either on the phone or the real camera, so they will have to wait. We did see some old petroglyphs along the path, and a lizard or two. Plenty of cacti.

This city park is quite nice. I recommend it for Camino training. I also strongly recommend walking the various trails here in the morning. It gets fairly warm in the Southwest desert after about noon. Bring water, and wear a hat and sunglasses if it's late in the morning or after noon.


Edited for tag labels.

Update on bead embroidery project

Hello, everyone.

Last spring I started a little embroidery project.  It was a practice piece, mostly, and to try out the stabilizer I had gotten in the mail. (Lacey's Stiff Stuff? I think so.)

It was also a way to use up some bead stash.

Yesterday the beading on the face was finished.

Posing on a different chair this time, a scallop shell.

It's time to choose a finish for the piece. Options include adding it to something else by stitching it down and adding a row of beads at the edge. Or adding a felt backing and putting it onto a headband. Or adding a vinyl back and making a pin or necklace or a simple fidget.

I think it's a little small for a plain fidget piece. Too easy to drop and lose!

There may be headbands around but they're still buried in a box somewhere.

The other options remain open for now. Feel free to chime in with a suggestion for the finish in the comments!

A small beading post

Hello, everyone.

It's been very busy--even though I thought things would settle a bit after the angel party, it's only held on High Level since then. But--to my personal amazement--the United States Postal Service is not only very busy but according to my email they're working 24 hours at this point. (God bless them!) The last package is supposed to come to me today...halleluia!

This little picture is from my very first experiment in freeform peyote stitch, It's a bracelet.

The seed  beads were part of a mix--mostly browns with some accents--and in the end I was not enthused about the "mixy" look. The strands of the mix I tried just never seemed to work out. So when I decided to try out the freeform style of peyote, I pulled by color from the dish of mixed beads and added accent beads into the weave as y'all can see. (Dyed freshwater pearls, glass beads, and I think a piece of agate.)

The freeform weaving is fun, and with a limited palette of colors it works, but it does require a lot of creative decisions to be made all along. Whether you enjoy it or find it a burden to do that many decisions is probably related to whether your life outside the bead bowl is frenetic or calm.

Most of the beads were from Fire Mountain packages--I like to get the Bosses Bead Bag assortment just to see what's in it--and over the years many interesting things have appeared. Lately, however, they've gone to having a lot of different assortment packs and the Bosses Bead Bag is more fillers and small bits of findings. There is often a dusting of seed beads in the bottom of the bag, though, and many of them have turned out to be Delica types over the years. Thus the brown color assortment that turned into this bracelet!

Just in case it gets too busy tomorrow to make a post, I wish for all of y'all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. (If you're Jewish, a happy Hanukkah.)

A neck chain for the shell pendant

Hello, everyone.

As mentioned a few days ago, there has been a project to get the bead-woven shell element back into use.

Thanks to this entry on Pinterest, and a careful study of the beads available in-house (that means stash usage) a neck chain was woven and put onto the shell.

The lobster-claw catches are on the front, not in the back. It means adjusting the routine when adding it to an outfit, but that way the chain can be completely detached if there should be a reason to do so.

Beads used: silver bugle beads from the craft store, silver-lined 15-count rocailles and blue 11-count Delicas from Fire Mountain Gems. Strung on 6 pound Fireline. (I love working with the Fireline!)

Beading, re-using a piece and using up stash

Hello, everyone.

Y’all may remember the peyote-stitched shell image that I had made and hung on a purse in 2014…the purse was just the right size (too small for a lot of junk) and I liked it a lot. Unfortunately, it became dilapidated over time, and I had to get a new purse. The new one has no place to hang the blue shell dangle.

So the shell, after being cut off of the old purse, has been sitting around in the assortment of bead things that need to be dealt with.