My Muse Has Returned

It's been a long time since I posted here.  I was beginning to think my muse went AWOL permanently.  The past year hasn't been kind and I've taken it personally, but I'm trying to come back with renewed optimism.

This blog has been primarily bead work and crafting, but I think I'm going to expand it's content.  Good health is important to every aspect of life, so I'll be posting some natural health titles as well as crafting.

A few days ago Sandra Halpenny posted a picture on her facebook page of a necklace called So Many Cubes.  I was scrolling through and had to go back and take a good look.  The necklace was her pattern beaded by ME way back before I started designing and went by beadette2.  The cubes struck a chord with me and I went browsing through my cube beads.  I didn't find any 4mm (the most commonly used) that struck my fancy, but I found these 6mm Russian Jade ones. 

The picture is terrible.  There's no sun and my light box is set up to take pictures from the front (and one of the lamps is burned out), so I had to rely on over head lighting which cast reflections all over the beads.

I rummaged around and found some cream size 11's, some brown iridescent size 6's and some olivene bicones. I'm still just doodling with these, but I really like the bicone edging.  I only have 7 of those, so I ordered some more.  Now, while I wait for my order,  I have another doodle started with pearls.  It's still in the ???what is it stage so I haven't taken a picture of it yet.

Cubed Hearts

Well, Christmas is over and we're in the home stretch for the new year. While I was dragging out the Christmas decorations I found my muse. She was napping 'midst the glitter and glow. Suddenly the thought of unakite hearts started swirling 'round in my brain. Hearts? How do you make a heart of cubes, and how is unakite connected to hearts? So I grabbed one of my semi-precious gem references and looked up the properties of unakite. "is said to bring unconditional love of humanity, connection and reunion, and can help with healing of abandonment and separation issues". OK so unakite hearts it will be! It took a while but here's what I came up with.

I finally settled on the beautiful bronze iris seed beads I'd bought way back when I first started beading. They worked up perfectly.

Then I got out my red glass cubes and gold size 11 seed beads to make another pair. The seed beads wouldn't work around the glass cubes although they were also 4mm. I carefully measured both kinds of cubes and sure enough the unakite are just a hair over 4mm. So I went rummaging through old forgotten seed beads and found some size 12 gold beads that I'd bought at the same time I bought the bronze iris. They fit nicely around the glass cubes. I added a dangle of 3mm swarovski bicones and 4mm fire polished rounds.

Now I'm off to see if I can work up the RAW sculptured heart bracelet that I've designed.

Happy New Year!