Waxed Linen Blog Hop

I have always loved fiber arts and anything with vibrant colors. In fact, I started making jewelry because I wanted to crochet some earrings. While making them, I realized how intimidating threads actually are to work with...other than with needlework and embroidery. I just was not comfortable finishing them, kept feeling everything will open up and fall apart. I did make jewelry with it in spite of my fear, but never got comfortable with it. I bought books and read all about it, I read tutorials and saw other people do it, yet, I could not trust that my work won't fall apart. Until the bead cruise...when I met Erin Siegel and took a class with her. She made it all look so easy. While I am still not as skillful as I would like to be with it, my fear is definitely gone.

Another friend I met on the cruise, Suburban Girl - Diana Ptaszynski. She was helping Erin with her class and fell in love with waxed linen as well...and thus happened this blog hop! She asked who else wanted in on all the waxy, lineny fun, 42 folks rsvp'ed for the party, and here we are :-)

My first entry is this pair of earrings.

Simple earrings that go with this necklace. I made it before I signed up for the hop, so they are not officially part of the reveal, but here it is for the sake of completeness..

I took the necklace me on the cruise to get some input from Erin about the closure. I had made this necklace for a friend who has a young baby, and he likes to yank all the pretty colorful things she wears. I needed to make it baby proof. And Erin did show me how to reinforce it. But I don't have a picture :(

Moving on...I made a knotted necklace to match a pair of earrings a friend bought from me. The earrings were purple and yellow, and I found the perfect lavender cord in my stash to make the necklace with. I made it, and added a loop like Erin had taught me. But I am not a good student. And I am also a very stingy economical person. I hate wasting materials, and ended up cutting less cord than I needed for the loop. Ended up with this super ugly loop while trying to add more cord to what I already had. Don't even ask what I did. It was so wrong!

But I trudged along and finished the necklace. Only to see that it was too long. I wanted to make a choker and what I ended up with was just not right. So I tried opening the knots. Yes, I know, laugh away. I didn't even manage to open a single one. I had used up all the beads I had, so I had to cut each bead out of my work (all the while the miser in me cringing about the wasted cord!). I did it all over again, and this time made a different loop. Just strung some small seed beads instead of doing the half-hitch knot. Here's the final product..

 

I really like this necklace for two reasons:
1) I had wanted to make a color-blocked piece for the longest time, and this is just a perfect example.
2) I hate the luscious colors of the cord sometimes get lost in a design. It can be seen very nicely in the yellow section, so that goal also achieved :)

And then I had this cord lying around. It had come with a gorgeous marble pendant which I made a fitting necklace for (that's for another challenge, so can't show it here). And I had the pendant all wrapped and lying around for a while too. So I put the two together and made this:

The pendant is from Southern Gals Designs. It is a gorgeous pendant, lots of details and colors in there. I should say it "was" a gorgeous pendant. I wore it today on my trip to New Mexico. I admired it my entire flight. And somewhere between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, my worst fears were realized. The knot opened up, and the pendant fell off. I didn't even realize it! Am so so sad about it. The necklace looked fantastic.

Oh well...

There's more...the best one!

Diana, Erin and I visited our friend Barbara Bechtel of Second Surf when our ship anchored in Florida. Barbara gave each one of us a little box of beads which came in a cute little bag, which was tied shut with a handmade wood pendant, which was strung around cord. Her stepfather cut them for her from different hardwoods from his wood pile in Pennsylvania, and Barbara wood-burned them. So its a  very special pendant!

I used a thicker cord for this...added African bone and brass beads, seed beads and my favorite part: little brass bells! Yes, they jingle! A friend has already claimed this necklace and I will be making matching earrings as soon as I get home from New Mexico.

A big thanks to Diana for hosting this party! I know its a lot of work and its much appreciated :)

Here are the other participants:

Diana Ptaszynski  <-- The Gracious Hostess

Kelsy Vincent

Susan Kennedy

Linda Landig

Kashmira Patel <-- That be me, you be here

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Vanessa Gilkes

Sandy Huntress

Kay Thomerson

Sarajo Wentling

Kari Asbury

Rebecca Anderson

Melissa Trudinger

Ann Schroeder

Shai Williams

Blanca Medina

Cheryl Brown

Johana Nunez Rivera

Lori Bowring Michaud

Kelly Morgan

Barbara Bechtel

Kristen Stevens

Heather Boardman

Janet Bocciardi

Kathy Lindemer

Lesley Watt

Susan Kolovson 

 

Jayne Capps

Michelle McCarthy

Cynthia Deis

Karla Morgan

Erin Siegel 

Becky Pancake

Kelly Hosford Patterson

Sharyl McMillian-Nelson

Inge von Roos

Carolyn Lawson

Linda Younkman

Sandi Volpe

Toltec Jewels

Michelle Mach

Jen Cameron

Dorothy Winchell

Darlene Mansue

Cory Tompkins