Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving a lil bit early.  I don't imagine that I will be on tomorrow what with all the cooking and prep.

I've been creating new pieces this week and will try to post pics on Friday.  I don't plan to take much part in the Black Friday frenzy.  It makes me feel grinchy.  I will go out at 9 or 10 when the madness is mostly over and hope that what I am looking for is still available.  Since I'm not in the market for electronics or the hot toy trends I think I should do alright.

Finally some pictures...

Cold and clear here today in western NY.  We had some gentle snowfall last night but no big accumulations yet!  Still it has kind of put me in the holiday spirit and winter days make me want to sit down and create.  Maybe the need to create in cold weather is partly to keep me from wanting to curl up in bed and hibernate like a bear.

Jenna and I have been very inspired by great beading magazines passed along to us by my sister Syd.  Most of the projects here are inspired by Bead and Button and Beadstyle magazine projects.  I must say though that we have found a ton of help via tutorials on You Tube.  Thank you to all the ladies and a gentleman who have posted video tutotials that we have found so helpful.

I apologize for the picture quality as they were taken with my not smart phone.  I recently got a new camera but keep forgetting to pick up a memory card for it.

Ok now for the pictures... 

These are a collection of St Petersburg weave bracelets made by Jenna.  They have been done primarily with 8/0 seed beads and various embellishments.  She has been so inspired that she is now trying different patterns and seeking shows to sell her wares. 

Two bracelets in full persian chainmaille weave with beaded embellishment.  Chainmaille is a new passion for me, there is something really cool about bringing theses historical weaves to the present in beautiful jewelry rather than the armor they were originally developed for.

Full persian weave necklace, bracelet and mathcing earrings.  I wish I could figure out how to rotate this picture!

Chainmaille flowers bracelet.  I love this bracelet but am disappointed in the jumprings I used, they have some sharp pointies at the opening.  Lesson learned, when it comes to rings, you get what you pay for, however it was good practice with inexpensive materials.

More St. Petersburg and full persian maille.

This is a set I made for Jenna for her upcoming Winter Ball.  It matches her dress.  The necklace took more hrs than I would like to remember.

European 4-1 chainmaille ring.  Tiny rings = difficult to open and close.  Fun piece when it's finished though.

Current jewelry work in progress.  This is done in herringbone weave with 11/0 seed beads.  It takes 32 of the loops on the left woven together as shown on the right.  The loops take some time to make so this one could be in progress for quite awhile.

 We are still new to beading and maille so I will continue to post pictures as we improve.  My advice to anyone getting started in either is to buy the best materials you can afford.  I mentioned in one of the pics above how the cheaper jump rings are a little scratchy.  Beads are the same story, we soon learned that the czech glass seed beads are well worth the money as the color and size are far more consistant than their less expensive counterparts.

Here are some needlearts works in progess.  This makes me wonder, could jewelry be considered needlearts?  After all many of the pieces you see above are sewn with needle and "thread".  In our case most of the pieces are stitched with 6lb Fireline, so it's technically fishing line and not thread.

Yo Yo border for Jenna's future quilt.  Thank you to Syd for cutting all those circles and then passing them along.  So far it's around 3ft long.  Yo yos are a great take along project though!

Irish blessing sampler in progress.  So far it's all sheep and no blessing, but it's coming along.  Once it's complete I have some linen pieces I want to get working on.