Not a kit (for a change)

I do love these blown glass Czech beads. I've used them in the Czech kits I did earlier. The same website, 32 Degrees North, that sells the kits also sells beads. I had a pattern I had bought (3D Bohemian Star) and picked out beads from 32 Degrees North. The beads they had didn't exactly match the ones in the pattern but they were close. Since I had bought a variety of beads it was pretty easy to find some in the stash to make it work.


I had hoped to use fuchsia 3-bump beads joining the center and outer star points but they were out of stock for a few months. Gold seemed a pretty good option too.

I put all these beautiful blown glass beads in a little plastic container I had sitting in the craft room. After making this ornament, the open container was sitting on the desk calling to me. I wasn't quite ready to put them away. I pondered a few of them that were the same shape but not matching colors and came up with this simple extra.

Ornament or cat toy?

I enjoy many different crafts - probably obvious from the assortment of ornaments I've made so far this year. One of the things I particularly enjoy is chain maille - putting together jump rings to make various objects.  I've made bracelets, necklaces, earrings, pendants and a cute little tree ornament. I've used metal rings - the norm - as well as rubber rings and glass rings. Chain maille isn't too hard although sometimes manipulating the rings can be tricky. The size of the rings you use makes or breaks the design. Aspect ratio - the ratio of the thickness of the jump ring to the size of the ring - is a critical part of making a design work. Different metals and thicker gauge rings can be more difficult to open and close smoothly. My favorite way to mess up is to mangle rings with my pliers.

I saw a chain maille Santa that could be used as an ornament or a pendant on pinterest. When I followed the link to the website I discovered the pattern came from a website in the UK - Beadsisters. They have some interesting patterns as well as kits and materials. I thought I should be able to find the right jump rings at one of my usual US sources but I had trouble finding the correct gauge and size in the right colors. I probably could have done a little arithmetic and found different combinations but there are not as many colored rings available as plain metal ones. I decided to give in to temptation and buy rings from Beadsisters. The rings arrived relatively quickly - along with a few extra kits (surprise!) - and I set in on the ornament. It went well and I had an adorable little santa.

But then there's the rest of the story. I brought it downstairs

from my craft room and set it on the coffee table waiting for a photo. A little later I heard my cat Pepper playing - chasing something all over the kitchen. Later when I put food in their bowl I noticed Santa on the floor next to the bowl. I guess we know what he was playing with! Hopefully he didn't bite or scratch it too much. I guess if he did it would hide any plier marks that I left on my rings.

I wonder if I could make a bigger ornament with bigger rings?

Silly ... and quick!

I spent Mothers Day weekend in Seattle. We enjoyed two Mariners game - a win and a loss - and some shopping. And dinner at Poppy - one of my favorite restaurants. I started two felt ornaments thinking I would do the embroidery on them while I was there. I took them out in the hotel room but just wasn't inspired to work on them. I really don't like embroidery. Another one I wonder why I bought!

Anyway, I got home Monday and evening and needed an ornament. Another kit to the rescue. This really is cute albeit kind of silly looking. It might even look sillier in the photo than in person. And boy was it quick! A little glue, a few cuts and voila!

I have stuff for two more. Anybody want it?

Another one that was a long time coming ....

I'm trying to keep things mixed up: not too many beads or pins or whatever in a row. After a few beaded objects I thought it was time for some knitting. For a few years (and definitely a few years ago!), Knit Purl in Portland released 3 or 4 ornament kits each December. Guess what? I bought them. Not too surprising I guess.

One of the early ones was a sweet little star. It was knit in a beautiful Tilli Tomas beaded silk The kit came with silver yarn. I attempted it pretty much right away. I wasn't a great lace knitter at that point. I struggled with it, ripping it out multiple times. Eventually I got a reasonably close. Until the bind off.

The bind off calls for knitting with a piece of fine wire along with the silk.I remember struggling until I pretty much threw it across the room. By this time, the yarn was not at its best so I went and got some more in gold.

For years I have been working up the courage to try again. This year long project spurred me on.  I am a much better knitter now. The lace knitting was not difficult at all! I used 5 short double points, down a size from that called for (I always need to go down at least one size).

Then I got to the bind off. I clearly am not meant to knit with wire. After taking that out and getting things back in order on the needles I decided to bind off with just the yarn. Once that was done, I fed the wire through the edge. The wire is absolutely essential to shaping the star. It might have been better knit in but I think this worked fine. So fine that I might have enough silver that I can salvage to make another - maybe following the six pointed star directions instead.

Czech Beads

There have been a lot of new shapes of Czech glass beads made in the last few years. Many are made by Preciosa. They have some beautiful examples using their beads on their website. There are also several designers who make wonderful things with them. ElllaD2 has beautiful jewelry designs. Ivona Suchmannova has many lovely things for inspiration including some terrific snowflakes made with spike beads.

I am not very good at looking at a design and figuring it out. My 1st attempt used the biggest (about 20mm) spikes. I made a Superduo center and then did herringbone stitch up from the gaps between them with  size 8 and 6 seed beads. Between the spikes I made points of Superduos. I added more seed beads and a crystal later and went through the spikes quite a few times to try to stabilize it. Still a bit floppy but not too bad.

Next I used 15mm spikes and added a little copper color. This one is much more stable. I have more of this size of spike so I think I will keep playing with the concept.

Crystals and pearls

I have found - and saved - quite a few ornament ideas on Pinterest. By far, I have gotten the most repins of the Forget Me Not Beaded Ornament Cover. This spring I decided I should buy the pattern and make it as part of this project.

I started it last week but needed to order more 3mm pearls to finish it. The pattern calls for 70 of them but it actually takes 90. I sent the designed that correction along with 2 others where the diagrams don't match the photo and/ot written directions. It is nonetheless a beautiful design and I am very happy with it.

I don't have a lot of yellow in my ornaments, and yellow flowers are some of my favorites, so I thought that I would use Sunflower Swarovski crystals and white Swarovski pearls. I put it on a lovely matte chocolate ornament ball that I got years ago. I also shortened the dangles by one 4mm pearl/seed bead section - mostly because I goofed on the first one.

I have a couple of tips for this design. The flowers are very fiddley. For me, they flopped around and the petals twisted until they were all attached to other parts of the ornament. Part way through the 10 flowers, I changed to doubled thread. That helped some. I was using Nymo B, probably not the best choice. I think Fireline might have helped to stabilize them better. I also went through the center of the flowers and the connection between them a second time I wonder if there would have been an alternate construction where I could have made the collar around the top and added the flowers (or some of the petals of the flowers) instead of starting with the whole band?

I also have a few tips for beaded ornament covers in general. I find it easiest to work on these while they are on an ornament ball. But, the beads scratch up the ball and remove the finish. I keep one ball that I use to work on all my ornaments. I put the ball in a teacup from a Chinese tea set. That helps keep it contained and stable, making it easier to work on. I also leave it there when I'm not working so it doesn't get tangled. In fact, the ornament I finished two weeks ago sat in the teacup for years the the beads in the cup under the ball. Easy to find the supplies that way! My one caution for this cover is that it has to be put on the actual ball you want it to end up one before tightening during the last step. Once that is done the ball is in there for good.

I still don't read Czech!

I started another beaded ornament cover this week. The pattern had the number of one of the elements wrong and I had to order more so I didn't finish it. More on that next week I hope!

I decided to make another blown glass bead ornament that I ordered after finishing last week's ornament. I still couldn't read the instructions since they are in Czech. But, I learned an important thing last week - the photo of a completed ornament can be quite helpful! I also learned that I can pick out the numbers from the text so I knew how much wire was needed for each step.

I had one small problem with this kit (I again bought it from 32 Degrees North). Instead of being a very rigid geometric shape it had a number of small parts off the main object -nose,  wheels and props. I found those difficult to attach properly - mine didn't have the nice round wire loops on the ends and were a bit wobbly instead of tight. But I still think it came out quite cute!