Just for pretty

Hello, everyone.

While doing things in the yard this morning, before the day's heat hit, I found some pretty and some cheerful things to photograph. (Yay for having the phone in my pocket!)

First, the cheerful ones:

The tiny white dots are Green Lacewing eggs. They're a cheerful sight because the larvae, and also the adults of this insect love, love, love to eat aphids. Possibly also mites! 

And the plumeria blossoms are "just for pretty!" I have been giving a spritz of the avocado tonic from Gary's Best Gardening to various other plants on the way by, so to speak. The plumeria has rewarded me by going into blooming mode. (Link goes to Mr. Matsuo's Youtube video on avocado care. Very interesting!) The native pepper plant has also done that--many tiny white blooms followed by incandescently hot oblong peppers. 

More beading

Hello, everyone.

The last little bead project was so encouraging, that I was eager to do another quick little thing.

Off the Beaded Path Video was in the long list of beady bookmarks and so I watched it. And then watched is slowly, with beads and needles in hand.

She uses bicone beads for hers, and I didn't have anywhere near enough of those, so used 4mm cobalt Fire-polished beads instead. It doesn't really show in the picture, but there were actually two packets of the cobalt Fire-polish beads, which of course had dye lot issues. I used the lighter beads for the center of the cross and the darker ones for the rest.

As the beads are dark, this time I used the Smoke colored 6 lb. Fireline instead of the Crystal color. (And no, that scissors in the picture is NOT the one I cut fireline with. I use my Rapala line cutters for Fireline.)


As you can see, this is a two-needle project. It calls for a bit more coordination than I really had on hand! It still came together pretty well. It only needs to have a chain or a ribbon or a strand of strung beads to hang from now.

Final size on the cross made of 4mm beads was maybe 2.5 inches. This isn't really something you perch in the hollow of your throat on a short ribbon, in other words.

Thinking Christmas often means thinking decorations

Hello, everyone.

We got the tree boxes out yesterday. (Sorry, gang, we went with fake trees a few years back. Even if they don't smell wonderful.) And all the boxes of decorations and lights.

Somewhere in the midst of all this Thanksgiving, Christmas, decorating mood I trolled around on Pinterest and found a really cute instruction that was supposed to be for earrings. Well, if you have a long neck, and/or if you're wearing your hair up to show them off! The smaller bead size recommended is already 2" (5 cm) long, which is pretty showy. If you go the next bead size up, the lady says, you're looking at 3". The link is to a Youtube video by the amazingly relaxed sounding Miss Gina. Who gives very clear instructions.

Ornament in progress

I am using Fire Mountain Gems 4mm bicones, from the stash.

I'm only about half of the way through with this cute little dangle--intended for the Christmas tree--and I've already learned some things.

Miss Gina doesn't follow the standard Right Angle Weave thread path, as I had expected at the start of her video. When I broke a bead on the fourth or fifth pass through it, I learned why. If you follow her thread path there is one less strand going through the middle of various connecting beads, and thus less use of the pliers to pull the needle through, and less risk of breaking a bead in the previous row. With all the unthreading that creates! So I adopted her thread path.

I also dug out my handy-dandy little container of Thread Heaven. I am using 10 pound Fireline thread, and it seems like the thread itself is creating friction inside the bead and causing some of the binding, even before the thickness comes into play. So a quick run across the surface of the Thread Heaven is being tried. It will make the thread a little slicker and less likely to hang on the previous strands.

One of the things I like best about doing crafts projects is that, as long as you are trying to to a well-crafted piece and try new techniques, you are constantly learning new things about the materials, the patterns, the techniques, and sometimes even yourself.

Thank you, Miss Gina, for putting up your lovely video on making sparkly diamonds.