The Doris medallion

 Last year, I got a sweet message from a woman named Doris. She said that after reading my blog post about my BWG challenge entry of 2020, the Fantasy Chess Play, where I mention that I love the Neuschwanstein castle in Bayern, she wanted to send me something related, but needed my address for this.

 

So I gave her my address and then the wait to see what this could be started. I fantasized about it. Maybe it was a water-filled ball with snowflakes inside? No idea. After a while, I wondered if it had been lost, but fortunately not. For some reason the envelope got returned to Doris, so she could send it again.

When I opened the letter, I found a beautiful hand-crafted Christmas card with a little "frame" with a brand new 2-Euro coin inside. One side of the coin was struck with the image of the Neuschwanstein castle.

 

Doris bought it several years ago and had been the only one to touch it, until she sent it to me. 

I feel very honored, Doris, that you offered me this little treasure. The coin is really beautiful and I love it. 

Of course I had to make something beautiful with it, and here is what it became: a lovely medallion made with a Cellini Peyote ribbon, with a special rope with lots of little variations made with hexagonal Diamond Weave. 

 I used precious metal seed beads (gold and platinum- plated) and 3mm faceted gemstones in a yummy camellia rose-red and am very pleased with the result.

At the back, the Cellini bezel shows well.

 

A leather cord can be used too.

The rope is 3-unit based  and the bail is made with a 5-unit start. 

I love to see the coin from this angle, where the details in the metalwork show so well, how the castle is not flat but really 3D (with relief).

 

I hope that you like it too.

 

 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.

International Beading Week 2018: BIP!

The lovely editor of Bead and Jewellery Magazine, Vicky Roberts, asked me to answer a few questions for an interview. The next magazine will have lots and lots of great things to discover, many in relationship with International Beading Week. That made me realize that it is approaching fast. Really fast! If the weather wasn't so lovely, I wouldn't believe that it is nearly June!

It is still very calm in the Facebook group - but I hope that it will soon be lively like last year, if not more!

What about your plans? If you organize something, you can fill out this form to have your event added to the IBW official website (sponsored by the Beadworkers Guild) for others to know. This is valid for everyone - beaders, beadshops, teachers. Let the world know that you're having a special event! Perhaps a beader on holidays in your area will love to meet you!

No plans yet? There are many things you can do. Either attend a meeting, a workshop, or or organize one. Teach to children, do bead bombing, create beaded beads to enter the IBW contest and have them displayed by the organizers during Beading Week... Learn more about all this on the here .

Use the FB group tools to create and promote your own event and find & invite people. By creating an event, you also create a FB page specially dedicated to your event, where you can interact with people, ask and answer questions, etc.

In 2017, Irinel Maria Maranjic from Romania organized
a workshop with young children. They were
all very proud of what they made.

Add friends to the group, to help them and others find people who live nearby. Add photos of the beady creations made. You can create an album. Perhaps you will like to post a video, too.

It doesn't have to be a super fancy meeting. Just a get together with people in your area. Perhaps organize something nice for beginners, because Beading week is about celebrating our Art, but also bringing beading to new people.

Maybe you'll prefer a bead-tea party - perhaps with iced tea if it is too warm in August... Ask the nearby grocery, bakery or tea room to inform the public about your event.

Some peeps like to do a buffet, where everyone brings something to eat. There always is a mountain of remaining food and the extra is taken back home: no cooking after a beautiful day makes it even better. Tip: don't forget the empty lunch boxes ;)

IBW happens the first week of August for a reason: the weather is generally good enough for outdoor beading. Croquet or other outdoor games for the husbands and children who are not interested in beading seems to be a good idea. In France, "Jeu de Boule" is a hit!

IBW is about celebrating and showing our wonderful Art. To people who have never beaded and might want to learn it and incidentally to people who don't understand how much time goes in it. If you can, go out, sit at a table in a park and BIP (bead in public).
3 good reasons:
Beading deserves its stripes. Proudly wear and talk about what you make. 
Beading may not be right for everyone, but it might be for someone. Maybe put a sign: “Free demo” on the table, and have a tiny tin with beads, mat, needle and thread for those who want to try. Hand out a few cards of your preferred bead shop to give to the person who falls in love with it...
Beading helps many people relax, feel good by being creative, cope with chronic illnesses, depression, etc. You might well save someone's sanity or find a new best friend.

In this photo, you can see the malachite
green piece that I made for the
month of May. Only 2 left to make!

Because I am a stuck at home, I will do a bead along on the FB page for those of you who are too (and also for those who aren't - of course everybody can participate!). I will explain to you how to make the pentagon bezels I made over the past months. What it will be when assembled is still a secret, and the final result will be revealed during International Beading Week. I hope that you will like it. Look out for more bead alongs. And visit Kerrie Slade's blog to discover her contest within the framework of this big beading party.

I am looking forward to seeing your photos and videos! I just love to see beady peeps together, smiling and having fun, sharing the love of their Art.

 Until then, bead happy!

Cath

Rainbows of color

Rainbow star

I sent my first gifts to my French friends a few days ago and I am now waiting to hearing from them... I hope that everything will arrive safely and that they will like what I made for them. This was either within the framework of PIF's or simply a present I wanted to give because I love them... sweet persons I've never met in real, but whose presence on Facebook makes life a little more beautiful. For example, this  star - a design by Jean Power - is for a girl  I met on a Fibromyalgia-related group... She is, like me, a strong believer in positive attitude and we both love rainbows. I used Delica mixes from Miyuki to make a rainbow with only 5 variations.

June is a very exciting month. Many beaders and teachers are in Milwaukee to attend the Bead and Button show, but there is also the unfolding of the Battle of the Beadsmith, which started yesterday. There is a lot of beautiful artwork to admire in the albums there. Some pieces totally amaze me. It is a crazy moment and it will be hard to choose between two excellent pieces. I remember how difficult it was last year to eliminate one out of two gorgeous necklaces...

'Souls'

The many positive reactions to my necklace totally overwhelmed me. I am so happy that people like it, but most of all, I am incredibly glad that they also understand or simply feel the message behind it, the love.

I have the impression to be part of a huge family having a fantastic bead party all around the globe, and I totally love that.

Below the full description of my BOTB'13 piece.

1) Name of piece: Souls

2) Name of stitches used: Peyote, Herringbone, Square Stitch... The clasp is a hidden clasp made of a loop under the crystal bead and an empty ‘pod’.

3) Name of products used, size and material: Seed Beads, Anthracite, Miyuki 15, Czech 11, Czech 9, round dyed howlite beads, 4mm, 6mm, Swarovski crystal bicones, 6mm, crystal cup chain, black Nymo, smoke Fireline, Delicas size 11/0 for the ring, gunmetal lever-backs for the earrings.

4) overall size of piece. Length 44cm - 17.5’’; width from 2.5cm to 5cm- 2’’ (depending on how the ‘curls’ are positioned); depth approx. 2.5 cm (1’’).

5) time to complete: approx. 100 hours

6) -

Inspiration for ‘Souls’

I am a firm believer that the soul never dies, that it goes through stages of development, that it is in a body like a seed resides in a pod, and gets liberated when time has come...

We all have chakras in us, represented by colors, equivalent to the rainbow, the stairway to heaven... it’s inside.

Take a color wheel and turn it, and it will seem to be white... That is because it is made of opaque colors. Pure light is made of all colors. Each color is of equivalent importance. So to become enlightened, every step needs to be made, experienced. There is no good or bad. If one color is missing, it cannot result in perfect light at the end. Light is equivalent to truth, to knowledge.

This necklace is an allegory of the walk of life.

It has a very organic look on purpose, curling, moving, making tours and detours, here and there a soul falls, sometimes it is too much in the green or blue or red zone... The walk is never straight and there are many side-walks.

The soul which has experienced everything and evolved to a miraculous level of consciousness has not one specific color, it has them all. It is pure light, like crystal.

You can do anything, anywhere. But whatever happens, wherever you are, the walk is paved with diamonds. They are not always visible, but they are there, all the way long, all the time, at every step. Because Life is glorious.

Namasté.

'Souls' - back