A Wonky Christmas tree for a "crooked" Christmas

I didn't  plan on doing anything special for Christmas this year, beadywise. I had my mind focused on Octavio the Octopus, the Sunshine pendant workshop and I want to work more on my 2022 Beadworkers Guild Challenge piece. Not much progress has been made on the latter; it has been an endless tergiversation resulting in tons of beads bought that won't work (the trouble of having a specific idea in mind!). I also have a pile of Czech beads to play with... I'm busy, happily busy.

Beautiful version of Sunshine
beaded by Eileen Montgomery

But!!! I did an unexpected and totally improvised "workshop" in the  Facebook group Cellini Peyote Freaks, a group founded by me but expertly moderated / managed by Linda, Dee, Sarah, Eileen, Karyn and Coral.

Click on the image to go to the FB group

 

Linda asked me if I knew about the existence of a pattern for a Christmas tree design made with Cellini peyote, in particular with the "Bola method". The bola method is flat diagonal Cellini peyote. Immediately an image took shape in my head that I wanted to try to bead.

For this little green Cellini tree, I used a sequence with softly increasing sizes of Czech seed beads (11°, 10°, 9° and 8°). Below the 4 photos show it from each side.

Yes, it is a wonky tree. And the more I look at it, the more I love it. No need for perfection. We need variation.

 I tried to do a live demo on FB, but it didn't work right.

The videos with the instructions are posted in the FB Cellini peyote freaks group. I hope that you will enjoy making your version with your favorite colours and look forward to seeing it.

I also tried to use Japanese seed beads and see what I could substitute. That resulted in this pretty white wonky tree. 

And now members are testing various combos and it is really interesting to work on this together, to bead together. 

Even if far apart, we are close, we are a family. A family of beaders. 

And thanks to this experiment, I discovered that "crooked little Christmas trees are actually a thing. Charly Brown, Grinchmas and even an adorable Christmas tale all feature wonky trees. 

This is a link to a nice lecture, with beautiful
illustrations, great to watch with kids.

One thing leading to another, I had to try another snail after making my Wonky tree, of course, but it was far more complex to do than I thought and it took me quite a bit of trial and error, but I am so pleased with the result! So much better than my previous snails.
I hope to tutify this pretty "Snow Snail" next year.

 

During this challenging year, meeting with fellow beaders through Zoom and Facebook has helped me very much to stay positive and creative, and I hope that this is the case, somehow, for you too.

May the holidays be happy and cosy, may you stay safe, and find reasons to rejoice, even if it are only "the little things".

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate.

Cath

Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year

2018 comes to its end and I wanted to look back at it.

I have been struggling a real lot with my health. The Summer was too warm and sunny and if you know me, you know how hard that is for me.

Both my desire and ability to write tutorials was extremely low after the Cellini peyote shapes were finally all done. I am grateful to those who bought a pattern: Thank you very much for your support! But I hope to sell more of my Cellini peyote shapes, for I haven't done anything else for sale the past 6 months, except Frosty. Instead, I did a lot for free:

'Frosty' - snowman made of one single Bola Canastas

I founded a wonderful new Facebook group, Cellini Peyote Freaks, where you can learn a lot about the stitch and its applications. Color challenges with prizes are organized.
I wrote and drew instructions for various Cellini peyote techniques, including the Bolas Canastas. I consider it as a technique people can take further, like I did with Frosty, this little snowman. He is one Bola Canastas. You will find the tutorial only in my IndieMade shop.

I was very happy with the two workshops I organized in collaboration with my ergotherapist and am very much looking forward to founding a beading group in my hometown next year.

I was less happy with some painful misunderstandings. And with people who didn't understand my genuine concern, who didn't see that I cared for them. People who understood things I wrote wrong and created more darkness in my life. One of them not only spread hate, tore my reputation to pieces, but thinks that everything is all fine now! Well, some harm cannot be undone. There is no UNDO in real life.

Fortunately, I saw this video about Sunny Jacobs, reminding me to shine my little light of mine. It helped me more than telling myself that Karma would bite eventually. And my many other, real friends on FB were precious allies. You know who you are! 💗💗💗 I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

'Silver Lining'

'Silver Lining' also reminds me that there is light in the dark. If none, there is my light. That there is a tomorrow, with new friends and adventures. Always. And that we learn. and learn. and learn.

I for sure enter 2019 wiser and freer than I was in 2018.

I wish you a Happy Holiday Season. May your heart be filled with love and your days be peaceful. And I wish you a

Happy New Year!!!

May laughter illuminate your days often.

Last but not least, this is the text I wrote on Facebook when posting the photos of my 'Silver Lining' bracelet there. Learn more about this cuff.

What is sacred?

Everything.

Life is sacred.

The birds, the fish, the dragonfly, the pangolin, the big and the small cats, the apes. the trees, the moon, the sun, the stars, the entire Universe. Your life. Your body. Your soul. Everyone's life, body, soul.

Love is sacred.

The love in your heart is sacred. Even the sorrow in your heart is, for sorrow is linked to love that is not acknowledged, may it be because of absence or departure...

Time is sacred.

Your time. Everyone's time. Because life is time.
Your feelings. For feelings come from love or the lack of it.

Your eyes telling how you feel. My eyes. Theirs. Your eyes seeing life unfold. Our eyes seeing miracles happen. Miracles of life, miracles of love.

And all this echoes with that light that you have inside of you, that light that has no name, that light that shines or sometimes dims...

The time you are not gazing at the moon, not holding a kid's hand, not laughing with friends, not making love - maybe because you can't, but still need to put all that love into something to keep that light shine on, is sacred. Maybe just to say to whomever will see it that you exist, with all this love or light inside of you that you don't know what to do with... To say that you are life, still alive, also there, also a part of it all. To be acknowledged.

And so the things in which you put all that time, all that love, a little bit of your soul, making it meaningful things, are sacred. By extension.

And so, everything becomes sacred.

Everything is sacred.

Bolas Canastas & Cellini peyote freaks

You may have noticed by now that I am a Cellini Peyote freak. And a pearl aficionada. My moto could be

"If it ain't got pearls, it's got to have swirls."

Because I love pearls too. I love to use them together.

Cosmic Spiral (not Cellini peyote, but it's got pearls and swirls)

After coming up with the dimensional Cellini peyote shapes within the framework of my 'Waves and Flames' study, I asked you, people of Planet Bead, if I should make a tut for each  or for all, and if I should create a group on Facebook where to share ideas and many answered that you wanted "all". Of course!

Lotus Bangle, Mermaid Tails,
Parrot earrings, Precious
Pomanderand Tulip Tassel

"Open Heart" - pendant, earrings,
bracelet and necklace

So I made nearly all the tutorials, individually, and also listed them as bundles: duos, a trio and  a quintet for the pieces I made with the 'Flames start; and 1 tutorial for several designs made with the 'waves' start.

I haven't made tuts for everything yet, but I have created the proposed Facebook group, to share ideas with like-minded beaders, who love this stitch too: the "Cellini Peyote Freaks" group. You are welcome to join.

'Waves and Flames, unfinished'

In this group you will find my paper about the principles of the "Waves and Flames" start, including guidelines to make a "Waves and Flames, unfinished" bangle. If you are not into Facebook, you can send me an e-mail via my website to ask for it.

To have something new to photograph for the banner of the group, I beaded up something swirly, of course: a Cellini bezel, which became a beaded bead.

The Cellini bezel is an old idea, left in a drawer, which I took out for the pink ice CZ in Anthea's Tiara - I wanted the bezel to match the Yukka Flowers. It is based on diagonal peyote.

Pink Ice cubic zirconia on top of Anthea's Tiara

And as explained in my previous post, this gave me the idea to make a gigantic bezel for a tape measure.

Cellini Measure Tape

My first try was not what I wanted for the tape measure and so it became a beaded bead.

Because of its resemblance with Mexican woven basketry (canastas), I called it Bola Canastas. 

It provoked something inside of me. Something I cannot explain in words, but these bolas are addictive. I made more. 

And more.
And more!

Rounder, longer, double etc. 

It's so much fun.

Because I have to take a break to rest my arms, instead of adding this to my pile of stuff to tutify, I posted a short, pretty bad video in the group, to show the beady world how to do it. It's just a technical trick... Amazingly, many beaders got instantly hooked too. Enthusiasm is infectious! I love that. But my video was unclear, so I made a graph and a new video, which you can watch here too:

In the Cellini group, many members seem to actually never have done Cellini, so I created class rooms and made the first graphs for 2 basic techniques, so that they can get started. There is still more to do. It's a nice place, with advanced beaders and beginners, and members are helping one another. Isn't that awesome?

Interaction with other beaders is what I love most. It is what keeps me going and writing patterns and inventing new designs. "Drink me" will probably be a tutorial (perhaps the tape measure too!). Perhaps even a kit, but I will have to find a better quality tassel.

Unfortunately for my arms, all this provoked massive tendon-overload, so now that my video is up, and you beady peeps can fly, I am going to slow down the pace, and thus...

I need help

I need a little help in the group. Thankfully Elisanne M. McCutchen joined nearly immediately as Admin. I am so grateful for her help. But we need moderators. So if you have a passion for beading, are inclined to help fellow beaders, and know Cellini peyote, maybe you will like to help moderate the group? It's not complicated: approving (sometimes rejecting) new membership requests, help newbies finding this or that information and perhaps delete a post that is off-topic.

My dream team would be composed of one more person in the Americas, two from the East (Asian, Australian), one or two more from Europe / South-Africa (or anywhere in between) and a Russian and a person from the Middle East. That would really be awesome. One instead of two would already be awesome, but you've got to aim for the moon to land among the stars, as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said so well.

Enter the rabbit hole. Let's celebrate Cellini peyote together.

Thank you!!

Cath