Oh! My Dragonfly

Or Oh My! Dragonfly?  Which is it?  I just realized I've been using them both interchangeably, but would like to settle on one rather than flitting all around the marsh like this sweet little green darner.

Here's another Oh My! Dragonfly that I just finished as a special order for my Mother-in-Law.  You can say what you want about MIL's, and I do, but this woman has impeccable style.  Plus, she has the added benefit of having raised one of the finest men on the planet.  I'll give her that!  So thank you, Elizabeth, for all that and for this stunningly tailored color choice.

I will be putting this brooch in my shop, but in the meantime, here it is in all it's simple beauty.  This is a brooch sewn with a cute, little netted flower around a Jet black Swarovski rivoli.  Adorable on a lapel or a winter hat!

As with any beadwork I post, please feel to contact me personally via email if you are interested in it or in a special order!

Love,
Rayo

Moving Camp

There is one tiny detail to be worked out, but it looks 99.9% certain we're moving to Peoria, Illinois.  After 10 years of living in Portage, Wisconsin, this is not a small undertaking.  Leaving friends, the comfort of the familiar, my home... and just the logistics of moving accumulated crap... are all overwhelming my brain.  It will get done, but it's frighteningly difficult.

And when, WHEN, am I going to find time to bead?  I have a million projects in mind!  My little black book full of ideas is bursting to the seams.  I've finally taken to writing them down or sketching them so I can refer to them when the time is right.  I find myself waking up to new ideas and amazingly, they're very complete pieces.  There's this very hazy moment when I first wake up, before my eyes are even open when the muse seems to sing to me.  She's lovely and soft and gives me these little heavenly gifts for which I'm humbly grateful.  They're beautiful!  I just stare at them in awe and laugh with joy!  There is always so much sadness and brutality in the world, I feel blessed to be able to bring a tiny spark of joy and beauty.

The Source

I look for inspiration from other bead artists all the time, but I don't copy their work, unless that work has been published in a magazine or a book with the specific intent of distributing that work and the instructions for how to make it.  Even then, I rarely use the same colors or size of beads.  I'm trying to find my own voice.  I'm inspired by them.

Unfortunately, many of the small pieces I've been doing lately are very easily reproduced or copied.  I'm not flattered when this is done.  It's stealing.  I'm happy to show anybody who asks how to do the technique, how to do peyote stitch or right angle weave or brick stitch or bead embroidery or any of the many stitches I've studied over the last 10 years.  I'm flattered by that request.  It's an honest desire to want to learn how.  Lord knows, it's been my obsession for over 15 years now and I'm happy to pass the information on, but I would like to encourage them to find their own voice.

What inspires YOU?  Do you find joy in large beads?  In certain colors?  Look at what excites you and learn from it!  Are you a sunny person?  Do you enjoy blues and yellows and think of the ocean mists?  Do you gravitate toward darker, metallic colors?  These are details that take sometimes years to recognize.  Are you monochromatic?  Do you like tweeds and browns?  What colors have you painted the rooms in your home? What clothes do you wear?  What patterns excite you?  Do you get joy from 60's flower prints or Chinese coral?

These things are all going through my mind when I choose to make a piece;  every decision, from the tiniest size 13 Charlotte, to the largest neck piece, is chosen with care and purpose.  With intent.  Sometimes those decisions are well-thought out ahead of time; sometimes made on the spot.  But they have to be made sometime along the creation process, so I take ownership of them.  It's a complicated process.

Just because you CAN copy something, doesn't mean you SHOULD.  Peace, Love, Rayo

Rick Rack hat pin

Is it possible to look past all the fuzz on this old hat?   This is adorable on though.  It's a rick rack pattern, another experiment from the Contemporary Geometric Beadwork book.  It started out as a bracelet, but I made it too small, even for my tiny wrists, so I adapted it into a flower rather than take the whole thing out.  I think it turned out rather sweet!

Excited!

 The book, Contemporary Geometric Beadwork, will be out soon so watch for it! www.beadmobile.wordpress.com

Lovely Earrings

I've had what might be called the worst day of technical nightmares ever experienced by a rookie blogger.  First of all, I updated my cell phone to the new IOs6 system which started a cascade of FAIL across every trick this old dog has ever learned.  Couldn't get a wi-fi connection, couldn't get on facebook (if you know me, you know this alone was enough to push me over the edge), couldn't post any pictures onto this blog, couldn't access my email.  Charlie went on an extended trip to a conference and took our trusty lap-top which I've been using to accomplish said tricks, so I was forced to use my i-pad.  No luck.  No pictures from i-pad to blog without downloading google plus.  STILL no luck.  Forced to use the Mac.  Still no luck.  I know this sounds like pathetic whining from a very spoiled person who has every single gadget known to mankind, but sometimes more is just not better.  It takes a tremendous amount of time and focus to learn how to use these things, and it just doesn't help that I've been trying to learn them under the influence of double doses of DayQuil and NyQuil.  For the love of all things holy, couldn't something just go right?  I decided to bead instead.

I just can't seem to stop making these beautiful earrings!   They are so elegantly simple to wear and look beautiful all dolled up or just having lunch with a friend.  These are made with the really top-end Miyuki delicas in 24kt gold plated, 22kt white gold, and nickel plated steel.  They really shimmer!

Here they are in matte green turquoise, tri-cut green iris, and nickel plated steel.

The Muse is Strong

It's been a particularly productive few days for me!  A couple of lovely bracelets and a necklace have willed their way into existence.  The bracelets are more of my wings and horns experiments but on a much more user friendly scale.  These are made out of a combination of dark bronze/22 k. gold beads and a plethora of my current dark walnut lined obsession.  They're absolutely stunning and shiny.

The necklace is a culmination of many years of beading and designing and I think I've fallen in love with it!  I just love this particular combination of bronze and gold with a few rose hex beads for extra shimmer and depth on the third layer.  The strap is completely made of bronze colored beads and seems to give the whole necklace a metallic grounding that's very current yet a little edgy.  Fun!

Koi Bangle

I finished it today!  This has been an exploration into the wings and horns ideas presented in Kate McKinnon and Jean Power's new book Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.  I'm learning these fun, new techniques because, at this point, I think I would do just about anything to win the heart of Kate McKinnon.  Her blog is so inspiring.  Really, I was just introduced to her book and blog about a month ago and I feel like I KNOW her.  I'm really not a freaky stalker, really, but her writing and thoughts are like comfort food for my soul.  I just love her!  See for yourselves:

http://katemckinnon.wordpress.com

http://beadmobile.wordpress.com/

See these little horn thingies on the bottom and top rows?  They have so much potential!  I'm just beginning to learn how to make them and I can't wait to play with the design, make something just really extraordinary. I'll keep you posted!

In the meantime, you can pre-order your copy of this book too to learn these fabulous techniques!

Getting Started

If setting this blog up is any indication of how 'blogging' is done, I'm screwed.  It took me 45 minutes to choose a simple template color and text color and I'm still not satisfied with how this looks.  I just want to add some pictures to the header, jazz up the color a little bit, add some bells and whistles and be a pro RIGHT NOW.  I have patience for beading; I have zero for computers!

But here I am!  I want to do this so I can add more detail to my beading posts, detail I cannot add on Facebook.  I'm afraid I've got a lot of work to do to understand how this all works, but I'll do my best to enlighten and entertain you with my crazy bead obsession.

First, a little about me.  I've been teaching myself bead work for about 10 years now.  I started by buying a book by Sigrid Wynne-Evans on those fabulous little beaded amulet bags and it became an immediate obsession.  Then I spent many years buying bead magazines and literally beginning on page one, I would make every project in the magazine mastering each technique and step.  Learning the craft, finding what I liked and didn't, and finding my own voice.  I love peyote stitch, you couldn't pay me to string a necklace.  I'm in love with seed beads--their color, texture, size.  I'm also fabulously intrigued by bead embroidery and love making each piece uniquely my own.  These are my own designs from beginning to end and I love that opportunity to explore.  It's also a little intimidating and sometimes I just sit and stare at the beads and my needle with a little tear in my eye.  "I don't know what to DO".  And then it happens.

I have small objects for sale, earrings, some necklaces and I hope to bring those to this blog as well.  They are the fruit of my labor and I bring them to you with joy!