Kumihimo Journeys - Part IV

Doing the Kumihimo
Okay, I think I've caught most of the major pre-construction issues that should be considered before starting a project.  Onto actually making a beaded braid... (For the purposed of the rest of this post, I am talking about an 8-strand all-bead braid, with the same beads on each strand).

Beading Your Strands.  This may seem a bit confusing, but while your braid will have 8 separate strands, you are really working with only four pieces of fiber.  You get eight strands because you're folding four pieces of material in half, and the middle is going to be the start of the point of braiding. 

Good planning is essential.  Measure (more about needed length below) and cut all four strands of fiber at the same time, fold them in half and mark the center point with a marker.  Roll up one side of the fiber onto a bobbin until you get to the middle, then roll up the other side.  When you're adding beads, keep one side rolled up, confirm your count and write it down, then roll up the side you added beads to - and try to capture all of the beads within the bobbin before unrolling the other side.  If you can't capture all of the beads, make a slip knot at the midpoint to keep the beads from floating to the wrong side.  Unroll the other side and repeat.  Do this on all four lenghts of fiber (8 bobbins, four pieces of thread, eight ends - get it?)

Mounting the Strands on the Disc.  Try to keep all of the beads captured within the bobbins and carefully pull out any slipknots you've needed to make.  At this point, pull out enough fiber so that there is a total of 6 inches between the bobbins - 3 inches on either side of the center mark.  I like to start with the fibers crossed North left to South Right, South Left to North Right, East Top to West Bottom and West Top to East Bottom.

Beginning the Braid.  If you haven't thought about it before, this is the time to decide how you are going to actually finish the end of the braid, because how you plan to finish will determine the best way to start.  In each case, you'll be making a dozen or so passes before actually using any beads, and you also will have to attach the counterweight. 

I am deeply fond of cone shaped bead caps captured by an eyepin buried in the braid, then wrapped.  I was also taught to use solid caps glued onto the end of the braid.  Another method calls for starting the braid around a jumpring that captures all eight strands at the point of braiding (where all threads are crossed).

The first five steps are how I start every beaded braid except when I'm using a jumpring at the poing of braiding.

1 - Get a piece of narrow (1/4 inch) ribbon, about  3 inches long.  Plus a long (2.5 -3 inches to be safe), eyepin in the right metal to match your findings.

2 - Flip the "loaded" kumihimo disc over.  If your disc is fresh, the slots will be nice and tight and you won't have to worry about the cords slipping out.

3 - At the point where the cords cross, capture the strands with the ribbon and made a SINGLE knot - one half of a box knot.  The knot must be on the bottom - this is ESSENTIAL.

4 - With a safety pin, attach the counterweight (a drawstring jewelry pouch filled with pennies works very well) to the tail ends of the ribbon.

5 - Start braiding.  I'm not going to tell you how this is done - you should know that before you start. 
There are videos on YouTube if you need a refresher.  Make 4 passes.  By "passes" - I mean a complete movement of North to South - South to North, and turn left. Two movements of thread, not one.

Now comes the fun part - incorporating the eyepin into the braid.

6 - At the point of braiding, hook the eyepin around one strand.  The pin must face downwards when you are holding the disc in the working position.  Check and make certain that the eye on the eyepin is securely closed, so it doesn't fall out.

7 - Braid another 6 passes and stop.  Check that the eye of the eyepin is securely capture by the braid - which should be tight and tiny at this point.  If it feels insecure, braid a few more passes.

8 - If everything feels secure, flip over, unpin the counterweight bag from the ribbon and very carefully unknot and remove the ribbon from the braid.  Reattach the counterweight bag by carefully putting the safety pin through the eye of the eyepin. 

Now you're ready to start moving beads into the braid.  I like to get about two or three inches of braided beads and then add the beadcap at the working end. 

9 - Flip the loom over again and place it on a flat surface - and made sure that all of the threads are secure in their slots. Remove the counterweight bag and safety pin.

10 - Feed a beadcap on to the eyepin and do a loop and wrap (I'm not telling you how to do this either).  Replace the counterweight bag by pinning it through the wire loop.

11 - Start braiding again, and keep at it until you've used up all the beads.
To finish the far side, you basically have to reverse the process.  It's a little tricker to add the eyepin, which will face UP when the loom is in the working position.  You're going to be braiding around the pin - like ribbons 'round the maypole this time.

Other Problems You May Encounter and One Thing You Sould NEVER EVER DO

1 - The Bead Won't Stay Tucked.  This is a particular problem at the start, when tension hasn't been established.  This is why I like using a counterweight bag, it creates the tension needed to keep the first few beads tucked.  Sometimes though, a bead just won't stay tucked, and you may have to hold it with your thumb before crossing it with the other threads. 

2 - I didn't tuck the bead, and I've made a few passes.  The bead is on the inside of the braid.  What do I do?  This is probably the most common mistake, and in trying to fix it, the easiest way to screw up your braid.  You'll need to undo the braid to the point where of the untucked bead - but you have to be CAREFUL.  Undoing means you are literally "backing up" - moving your strands and recollecting beads to the bobbin in the reverse order of the braid.  Unslot only one thread at a time. 

Never, ever, ever remove two strands from their slots at the same time.  EVER.  Got it? 

It's worse than crossing the streams*. It is even worse than feeding them after dark and getting them wet.**

When you take mulitple strands off, you lose the order of the braid, and it can be nearly impossible to repair.  There is no way to "fake" a braid - all mistakes are visible.

In some circumstances, if you don't catch the tucking mistake until it's too late (too many inches to undo), you can use a crochet hook to bring the thread over the bead and "pop" it out.  Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't.  And sometimes, if you try to force it, you'll break the strand and then you'll have to start from scratch.

3 - I have beads left on some bobbins, and none on other.  In other words, I miscounted.  Is your piece long enough?  Do you have any beads left?  As long as the cord stays in the slot, you can unwind your bobbin and add beads at the back end.  In once case, I miscounted so badly that I had a total of 46 beads on three strands and zero on the other five, so I simply redistributed them on each strand.

4 - I've run out of cord on one side, and I'm not done yet!  Sorry kid, but your SOL.  You can't add thread length without having a visible break in the action.  You need to be careful at the start - my favorite motto is especially appropriate for kumihimo - Begin as you mean to go on.  Measure twice and cut once is also somewhat relevant too.

Cord Length:  I guess this would be a good time to write about how much cord you'll need.  Everything is dependent upon the beads you use - bigger beads will mean you'll use more cord during each pass, and since it's not possible to add length to a working piece, you've got to plan carefully.

Frankly, I don't care about wastage - I'd rather have to throw out eight pieces of 10 inch long waste than be left with a too-short braid.  Working with largish beads or pearls, I double the finished length and add a few inches for good measure.  But wait - that means that each of the FOUR (not eight) pieces of cord/thread will be four times (and then some) the length of the finished necklace with you first measure and cut (because those four strands are folded in half).  Seed beads mean you've got to plan for 1.5 times the finished length.

I am certain that there are other things about kumihimo and beads that I should have mentioned - but those will have to go into another post, at another time.  The best thing about beads and kumihimo is that if you are willing to experiment - with your bead choices, your pattern layout, the string materials and the colors you use, you will never stop being surprised and delighted.

GO TO PART I, PART II, PART III

__________________________
*Ghostbusters
**Gremlins

Kumihimo Journeys - Part III

I'll confess that while my first and only class on Kumihimo was really about how to add beads to the braid, it took me a few months of just braids, reading and research before I committed to an all bead braid.  The green braid I posted for the Green/Yellow challenge on Beading Daily was my first effort with an all-bead braid. 

What astonished me was how quickly the braid grew - completely out of proportion to how long it took me to string the beads onto the SuperLon.  This piece was where I learned that using SuperLon was not really the best material - while the size 8 beads had nice sized holes, the thread was just too heavy to get through doubled on a Big-Eye needle, which meant that I needed to string a few hundred beads onto eight strands one by one.  That took about 6 hours - but it only took about 2 hours to actually complete the braid.  I also had a bit of a mess when I was laying out the strands - I hadn't bobbin'd them - so everything got messed up and it too several hours to get the dratted strands unknotted.  I strongly recommend using the following procedure - string your beads and spool everything onto bobbins (more on that later, leaving just enough thread on each side of the middle to get the thread mounted in the loom slots) as you work - don't leave the winding until after you've got everything strung. 

Centrifugal force is NOT YOUR FRIEND, and you'll end up with a tangled mess.

Okay, enough with the basics.  On to the beads!

The Beads
I've used everything from size 11 Delicas and round seed beads on all eight strands, to keishi and drop pearls on alternating strands, to a combination of 2mm hollow metal beads, 2.5mm black onyx, 4 mm black onyx and 4.5mm peridot drops, and I've encounted a few problems:

1 - Getting the beads onto the braiding strand.  When you use natural materials such as pearls and stones, you're very likely to encounter uneven and very small holes.  This is where the choice of braiding fiber is important - you've got to plan for the smallest hole in your bead selection, otherwise you're going to spend a lot of quality time with broaches and reamers.  The worst were the nearly microscopic holes in these peridot drops.   I was warned when I purchased them that the holes were even but extremely tiny - and if I forced the thrread, I would likely crack the bead.

So, I sat with my halogen desk lamp turn up to solar flare strength and threaded several hundred drops onto Fireline without a needle.  I had to keep dipping the end of the Fireline into a tube of KrazyGlue to make it stiff.  This was an instance where having very very fine Beadalon or Softflex would have worked better, but I actually think the holes on the peridot were too small even for that.

2 - Having Enough Beads.  This can be a big problem, especially for a longer necklace.  I'm not terribly good at math, but if I was, I could probably figure out how many beads I needed for each inch of length on the finished braid.  It's not as simple as counting how many beads on an unbraided inch, since the beads both nestle and turn at an angle.   To be honest, most of the time I just wing it.  When I'm working in all pearls, I always use eight full strands - one for each strand on the braid.  I usually try to buy nine strands of the same pearls, so I have extra.

This one is made from 6 strands of gold potato pearls - the temp strands were 12 inches.  The finished piece is close to 20 inches.

3 - The Wrong Type of Beads.  Yes, there are beads that should not be part of a braid.  First are those are beads that are liable to cut through the strand fiber.   That means that unless you're going to use Fireline or a coated beading wire, heavy hollow metal beads and crystals are not a terribly good idea.  Even if the crystal beads don't cut the thread during the braiding process, there is a strong possbility that they will while wearing.  Other beads you may want to avoid, particularly when first learning, are bead with an uneven or assymetrical shape.  During the braiding process, the beads have to catch at a certain point among the strands - I call it "tucking" - and an irregularly shaped bead may be difficult to keep tucked.  If it doesn't stay tucked, it will pop inside and the braid will look wrong.
I am sure that there are other cautions, but these are the big three.


Patterns

One comment my teacher made about using beads on all eight strands, or on more than four strands, is that you don't see the braid for the beads, and it looks more like crochet than kumihimo.  My reply is "so what?"  You can play with pattern, shape and color with beads just as you would with different stringing materials.  The variety is truly infinite, and you may find yourself completely surprised by the results. 
The way the finished braid looks is greatly dependent upon how you've set up the beads (or the color) initially.  If you're using all the same beads, of course the order of the braid doesn't matter, but if you've got multiple colors or shapes you are going to want to pay attention to the initial set up.  I strongly recommend getting a copy of Anne Dilker's Braiding for Beaders, which has a layout of the possible colorways for 8-strand braids.  This is also an awesome book on how to get started.  As I noted earlier, Anne Dilker was my instructor.

About being surprised by the results - sometimes there is really no predicting how a pattern will work out.  I was experiementing with a relatively small quantity of vintage pink satin glass beads - two sizes of drops, in combination with two strands of 2.5 mm and two strands of 4 mm black onyx and I ended up with a completely square braid!   The onyx and peridot braid above has a natural spiral to it (because the fireline was so much lighter than the black silk, it pulled tighter, creating the twist), but this pink and black "thing" is like a long, retangular log.

Pattern can be achieved in the use of color with adding beads to a strand.  But this means counting carefully - it's following a pattern EIGHT TIMES.  If you're off by one bead, it can be a big deal - and mean that you have to restring an entire strand.  Or not, if you don't care. 

This rainbow was achieved by simply putting the right number of size 11 seed beads for each color, plue one vermeil bead as a break.  It was definitely tedious, and I had to redo strands several times since I kept obsessively checking the pattern along each of the eight strands.

This one was not as successful - I was playing with both color and size, and at a certain point I was off by 1 or two beads, which means that the little copper bead "breaks" were off (although you can't see it in this scan I know that it's not perfect).  To fix some of the more obvious problems, I actually had to break off some of the seed beads.

END PART III

GO TO PART I - GO TO PART II

GO TO PART IV

Kumihimo Journeys - Part II

NB:  I had not intended to take nearly 4 months to write more about my Kumihimo efforts, but between the holidays, my continuing obligations for The Noritake News, a herniated disc in my cervical spine, and a trip to Tucson (yah!), I completely forgot that I had started to post about my Kumihimo work.  In fact, this post was originally meant to be a cross-posting of a series of pieces I wrote for the Beading Daily forums, mostly in response to a recent Beading Daily blog entry by Leslie Rogalski, who wrote about using wire and pearls for Kumihimo.  The initial post in November was written from the perspective of learning a new craft and exploring possibilities.  The following (and subsequent posts are more about conveying what I've already learned).

ooOoo

I'm not an expert on Kumihimo, by any stretch of the imagination. I don't use a traditional marudai and tama, and I don't think I even want to, and if you want to really learn about the art and science of braiding, I definitely recommend reading Jacqui Carey's or Roderick Owen's books on Kumihimo and other braiding techniques. I've simply taken one class with a very good teacher, read and practiced and then extrapolated on the single technique of braiding with a foam disc, plastic bobbins and beads. In my daytime/non-beading life, I put a lot of effort into capturing "lessons learned" and publishing institutional knowledge for my company - and it seems to always carry over - I just like to educate, I guess.

The Tools:

The traditional Japanese craft calls for a wooden marudai and weighted tama (bobbins) - and you work with both hands moving opposite strands in a variety of motions to obtain specific patterns. It's very difficult to work with beads using the traditional tools. Actually, its simply difficult to work with the traditional tools, period - with or without beads. The smooth wood and the need for weighted bobbins and counterweights on the growing braid are simply not conducive to moving beads.

The Loom (Or Disc): The invention of the foam disc with 32 slots made working beads into braids extremely easy, since the foam slots hold the working strands in place, eliminating the need for weighted bobbins. There are two major manufacturers for the standard round 32-slot kumihimo disc - Hamanaka and BeadSmith.

When you start with the basic "fill the slot" kumihimo braid (the best one for an all-bead braid), you need to orient the 8 strands equally, and this usually works best with cardinal compass points (NESW). Both the Hamanaka and BeadSmith versions have the cardinal points marked, but for some odd reason, the Hakamata disc offsets the points by a few degrees - so when you hold the disc and the logo is parallel to the floor, the strands form an X, rather than a cross, but since you need to orient the strands to a cross (cardinal compass points), this becomes awkward. The Beadsmith disc has the markings correctly oriented and aligned with the logo, so you start out properly. I did not know it at the time, but the person who taught me how to make beaded braids - Anne Dilker of Mosshollow Pottery - was working with BeadSmith on the new disc.

Making your Own Disc. This can be done with 1/3" thick foam rubber - though you can definitely use foam core or cardboard (both of those will break down quickly, though). I've found the perfect round disc in the Children's craft section of Michaels' - it's sold as a "memo" or "pin" board, and you'll have to pull off the hanger from the back, but it the only piece of thick foam that I've found readily available. The foam stuff in the craft stores is very thin and you'll otherwise need to glue several layers together - which can be messy unless you can find the packages of pre-adhesive circles.

When you cut your slots, try to keep the cuts short (no more than 1/3 of an inch, and it does help to cut a little of the foam away from either side (look at a premade disc to see what I mean), This will help getting your strands in and out of the slots, and keep finer materials from fraying.

Bobbins: Bobbins are essential - in both large and small sizes. Even when making short braids, having your thread tails properly wrapped up helps ensure even tension. These are not sewing machine bobbins, but ones that are used by knitters. The best type are the disc shaped ones, called EZ-Bobs, which have flexible covers that pop opened with a little thumb pressure. You can get a set of 8-12 small bobbins for about $4 on eBay, or $8 for the larger ones. While you make only work with 8 strands at a time, it's always a good idea to have an extra bobbin or two around. The small sizes are good, particularly for short strands and when you are braiding with thin cording, and the larger for heavy cord, long strands or bigger beads.

Counterweights: My teacher didn't think that counterweights were necessary when using the foam disc, but I disagree, I like to use a counterweight on the braid, particularly when starting out with lighter weight strands or a combination or light and heavy weight strands. My counterweight is a drawstring bag filled with pennies - and I can adjust as needed. When using a traditional marudai and tama, the corrolation between the weight of the bobbins and counterweight on the braid need to be pretty exact.  Using a counterweight on a foam board is just a matter of determining what feels best and keeps the tension even on the growing braid.

There have also been times when I've needed to counterweight the bobbins instead of the braid. After a few uses, particularly with heavy material strands (such as satin cord), the slots stretch. If you then go back to using thinner material strands, it becomes hard to keep even tension when the braid becomes heavier than the collective weight of the bobbins. For example, when I was working on a braid with eight strands of seed beads, I needed to keep a counterweight on both the braid and on each of the bobbins (which were, individually, quite light). For the bobbins, I used brass drops I found at Metalliferous. They had holes in them, so I used either safety pins or paperclips to attach to the far end of each of the braid strands.

Stringing Materials - Non-Bead Strands

Satin Rattail - This is a smooth, shiny woven cord, soft and flexible - but also quite durable and not prone to fraying along the body. It is pretty much the most popular material for non-beaded braids. There are three sizes and two kinds of rattail. The sizes are referred to as Rattail (largest - 2 mm, and most popular weight), Mousetail (medium - 1.5 mm) and Bugtail (thinnest - 1.4 mm), and are either made from Rayon (wood-based fiber, US made. Expensive and can hard to find) or Polyester (petroleum-based fiber, Chinese made, very common and generally cheap). Both the rayon and polyester come in a wide variety of colors in the "rattail" size, and less variety in the other sizes.

Except as noted below, all of these braids were made with satin rattail. The large diameter braid (third from the top) is a twelve-strand monster.

Gimp - Shiny rayon or polyster thread coiled around a multistrand cotton base, equivalent in size to bugtail. Gimp can be found in spools or unwoven from upholstery trim. It's also a difficult material to use with a foam board, particularly a new one, since the coiled/wrapped covering doesn't hold up to the constant rubbing against the slots, and the bobbins, nor against pulling and retensioning. The green braid, fifth from the top has two strands of green gimp and the last braid in the arc (on the bottom, with the green beads) used six strand of gimp and two of Super-C for the beads.

Knitting Yarn - Great stuff, particularly novelty stuff like ribbon yarns, eyelash yarns, ombres, etc.  I strongly recommend checking out the closeout pages on WEBS, for single balls of really interesting yarn.   I've had my eye on yarn made from recycled sari silk, and I'll provide an update when I finally do try it out. The one thing to be careful about is matching weights when you're mixing fiber types. Lightweight yarn should be mated with something that has a bit of body and strenght (like S-Lon or SuperLon) when other strands in the braid are made from heavier materials. The narrow pink, purple and black braid (second from top) is make with Japanese knitting ribbon paired with matching colors of SuperLon.

Embroidery Floss - Great stuff too, and this is the traditional material for making "friendship" bracelets (a type of flat braid). An all-floss braid will be very small in diameter, but quite strong. An interesting treatment is to combine on or two separated threads of metallic floss with a strand of rattail into a single strand (one of eight).

String Materials - Bead Strands

SuperLon or S-Lon: Nymo's really heavyweight cousin was invented for the shoemaker trade - this is the same stuff that holds the uppers to the soles of your shoes. Althought this was the thread I was taught to use for beaded braids, I've found that it is a bit of overkill strenghtwise and can be hard to work with when using beads that have small holes, or when you really would like to use a big-eye or twisted wire needle when threading beads. The diameter of SuperLon is just too thick to pass through most beads when doubled. I do like to pair SuperLon with lightweight yarns on a single bobbin to give them strength and durability.

Nymo: I have not had a good experience with Nymo - I've found it to delicate to withstand the constant pulling and friction on the disc. However, your mileage may vary.

Beading Silk: I'm a big fan of Gudebrod spooled silk, for both stringing/knotting and for kumihimo. There is nothing like the slide of beads on silk, and the suppleness of the finished product. While there is a lot of length on a spool (in 20 years, I've only emptied ONE spool of silk), it is still expensive and a full range of colors can be hard to find.

Pearl Cotton Embroidery Thread: This is the best substitute I've found for silk, and I've got a line on a great supplier who sells the thread on bobbins in a very wide range of colors - Threadart. Frankly, I bought the thread and figured that it wasn't going to work - that it would fray from the slots and the pulling - but it's as durable as silk (maybe more so). While the cotton is not as frictionless as silk, it's still a pleasure to use.

Metal Wire: I do confess, I was left scratching my head after seeing and reading Leslie's post on Kumihimo last week when she used wire. No disrespect intended, but the results were less than pleasing to my eye. The wire looked kinked and the finished bracelet examples looked very stiff and uncomfortable to wear. The essence of kumihimo is the evenness of the braid - each strand fitting and interlocking, creating a seamless whole. Using wire for every strand (even "dead soft") defeats that. I can see where a thin wire, married with rattail, could result in a very pleasing, albeit stiff, braid, but I'm just not on board with eight strands of stiff wire. Sorry.

Coated and Cabled Beading Wire (Beadalon, Tigertail, Softflex): Not something I would recommend under regular circumstances (see the "Beads" section for irregular circumstances). This stuff is expensive, particularly the 49 strand material that has the best drape and flexibility! Why waste it in a braid?

Fireline and Other Braided Filiments: Useful for particular circumstances (see "Beads" section for further explanation).

A note about thread color.

When creating an "all bead" braid, the color of your thread will be of minimal importance, unless you are using transparent beads. The thread is fully buried inside of the braid, so you'll usually will never see it, but if your beads are large, or irregular, the thread may be visible within the work. If you're a perfectionist (like me), you'll probably want to match your thread to your bead color regardless.

When beads are on only a few strands of a braid, color will be more important, since you'll see the bead strand thread within the body of the braid.

END PART II- GO TO PART I - GO TO PART III

365 Creative Challenge

I subscribe to quite a few jewelry and craft arts blogs (note to self - update the blog roll to the left), and a few have written about a recent challenge - to complete a piece a day for the entire year. This is a bit of a head-scratcher for me, looking at it from a jewelry arts perspective.


If I was a professional jeweler/artisan - then completing 365 items/one per day for a year may make some sense, but as a hobbyist? Is the point of a hobby to create as much as possible in the shortest amount of time reasonable, and is the jewelry actually being completed worthwhile and something to be proud of?

Some of the challenge participants are lampwork artists who are using their own glass beads as the principle elements of a work, others are making very simple earrings with premade earwires and single crystal beads. To me, this latter group is cheating - big time. While simple works such as these have their place (usually the $2.00 basket at a local crafts fair), how is this being creative? It seems to me that such "efforts" are done for the sake of achieving the challenge, not for advancing one's skills (unless closing a headpin is a skill that needs improving) or creating something to be proud of.

Okay - I may be making a huge pile of assumptions here - but looking at the works of some of the participants (the earring-makers) - these artisans are capable of so much better that bead on a wire dreck.

Perhaps my issue is not with "cheating" the challenge - i.e., creating something simple and mindless just for the sake of achieving the goal of one piece per day, but with the challenge itself. Artists and artisans, just like writers, go through both periods of great creativity and periods where nothing seems to go right, when works in progress just pile up, or pieces started and ripped apart. This is, to me at least, a part of the creative process, and it makes us better - whether in a spiritual sense (suffering improves the soul), or in a technical sense (working on the process hones your skills). A challenge that is essentially makes the challenge participant a factory production line is pointless.

Would not a better challenge for an artist or artisan be to learn a new skill a week for a whole year? A skill could be anything that improves your workflow, reduces your costs, or betters the completed product. For example, learning how to use flush cutters to create two flush ends on a jump ring - this may not seem like a big deal at first glance, but it's a skill that means you don't have to purchase pre-made jump rings.



I need to think about this some more...

Adventures in Cosmoline

If you buy tools that were made in any of the former Eastern Block countries or in India or Pakistan, you're probably familiar with the brown goo - the Devil's gunk - the big sticky - the crap known as:

Cosmoline

Wikipedia has this to say about the stuff:

"Cosmoline is the trade name for a generic class of rust preventatives, conforming to MIL-C-11796C Class 3, that are a brown colored wax-like mass; have a slight fluorescence; and have a petroleum-like odor and taste. Chemically, cosmoline is a homogeneous mixture of oily and waxy long-chain, non-polar hydrocarbons. It is always brown in color, and can differ in viscosity and shear strength. Cosmoline melts at 113-125 °F (45–52 °C) and has a flashpoint of 365 °F (185 °C).

Its most common use is in the storage and preservation of firearms. Previously, cosmoline was used to preserve other items. Objects the size of entire vehicles could be preserved for future use with cosmoline. During World War II, US Coast Artillerymen (serving the huge coastal artillery batteries) were known as "Cosmoliners" because they were tasked with the near constant cosmoline application ("greasing down") of the guns. During Pacific island campaigns in World War II, the United States Marines sang a song about cosmoline. Adapting the popular big-band tune "Tangerine," they would sing "Cosmoline...keeps my rifle clean."

Due to its gelatinous nature, cosmoline can be difficult to remove..."

An understatement to say the least.

***

Firearms aren't the only thing that come coated in Cosmoline - tools made from carbon steel from the aforementioned places East of Here come packed in it. It makes sense, since they are shipped via ocean freight, and salt and water are innimicable to non-stainless steel. It would be nice, though, if once they got to the US, they were cleaned up and repackaged so that one could actually use the tools without having to spend hours degreasing.

Getting Cosmoline off of steel bench tools is probably child's play compared to getting it out of a rifle or engine, where it's packed into every tiny crevice. A few months back, on the Beading Daily forum, I was bemoaning a lost opportunity to purchase a small rolling mill. I had passed on it because the gears were caked in the sticky goo, and I had no way to clean them. A member told me that he had great success using denatured alcohol instead of a commercial degreaser - which is extremely caustic. I tried it on a disgustingly sticky bench block, and was eminently satisfied. Denatured alcohol does need to be used with proper ventilation, but it's not caustic and won't destroy clothes or skin.

Anyway, last month I bought myself the PepeTools dapping block and punch set I really wanted - the one with the big 2" punch and the 2.5" block. For some reason, I thought that it would be all nice and clean and look like this:

But no, it wasn't. It was a bag of brown, stinking mess. Actually, it was a bag of brown stink in a box filled with packing crud. I tried to save myself a bit of effort by opening the box over a garbage can (a big 60 gallon can already three-quarters filled with packing material and other assorted detritus). That would have been a Good Thing, except that I picked up the bag from the wrong end and all 21 punches plus the block fell out of the bag into the garbage can, swiftly sinking amongst the upteenthousand pieces of polystyrene packing peanuts. I was able to get the big pieces easily, but the small punches were elusive. Shifting the garbage into an empty pail, I recovered 20 out of 21 punches, before I up-ended the last quarter of the garbage onto the floor to sweep through it by hand. Of course, I almost missed the last punch - it was the smallest one, with 3 or 4 peanuts sticking to it.

Ready to commence de-greasing, I reached for a small metal utility bucket - from the paint department at Home Depot - when I nicked the tip of my right middle finger on a strip-making tool for my metal clay work. Lesson learned - putting a sharp edged tool out of the way does not mean you've put it away safely. The blood from this cut ran down my hand, dripped over my arm and spattered all over my workbench (note to self, check hammers for blood spatter).

Since I hadn't even thought about shop safety (note to self - get a small First Aid kit for the bench), I ran back to my desk, fumbled for the spool of medical tape I keep handy, a paper towel and some latex gloves.

I also decided to see if regular rubbing alcohol would work on removing the Cosmoline coating. It actually did - for the punches, which were also wrapped in Cosmoline-coated paper. The block, however, was another story. The goo was too thick for the isopropol alcohol to work, so I switched containers and poured the denatured alcohol over it. Eventually, with a bit of elbow grease (pun clearly intented) the goo came off.

Of course, well after the fact, I went on-line and researched methods on Cosmoline removal. Most of the information comes from gun and militaria collectors who have a strong preference for commercial degreasers, but one site recommended using a steam cleaner, which makes perfect sense. While boiling hot water will melt away the gunk, I'm adverse to exposing easily rusting metal to water, and letting large hunks of steel soak in boiling water brings up a different problem altogether. Metal holds heat, and letting a pound or two soak long enough to remove the Cosmoline will mean that it will become too hot to handle easily, which means that if I let it sit in the hot water long enough to cool down, all of the grease will re-attach itself, leaving me back at square one. Using a steam cleaner means that while the steel is exposed to boiling water, the steam flashes hot, blows the goo off and the minute droplets dry quickly, minimizing the opportunity for rust.

Anyway - I've cleaned up all of the bench tools, gave them a light spray of WD-40, and now that my vacation's over, I'm left wondering when I'll actually have time to use them.

Pre-New Years Bead Celebration

Glass beads haven't been my "thing" for a few years now, so I haven't had much reason to go to 37th Street to buy beads, but since I started on the kumihimo, I've found a need for certain types of glass - drops and larger seed-type beads, and 37th Stree is really the best place for these. Not only are they cheaper, but the selection is head and shoulders above anything that I'd find in a retail store or on line, because I can buy in quantity.

Since it was a holiday week, I elected - despite the consternantion of MDF Val - to drive in. Thanks to the coupons at CentralParking.Com ($20 for 6 hours, including tax), it was actually cheaper for the two instead of taking the train. I parked on 38th, between Broadway and 7th, and it was a short walk to bead paradise.

Although the ever wonderful Crafts & Creations (a/k/a Amola, a/k/a Crafts and Cretins) has been gone for nearly half a decade, there are still treasure to be found - and in the old stores (the ones run by 3rd and 4th generation Jews) it's definitely like digging for buried treasure. There are a bunch of newer stores, run mostly by Chinese - legitimately wholesale outfits (as opposed to the dreck-filled retail outfits on 6th Avenue, close to Bryant Park, north of M&J), and while quality and price are reasonable, the shops are too clean, too bright, almost too homogeneous to be fun.

Val and I did spend some time in Stone International - mostly perusing the pearls. She was looking for really great silver/gray coin pearls, and found some good ones that didn't look "gloppy", while I bought mostly copper beads, some interesting carved quartz crystal, smallish pyrite coins, and of course, some pearls.

From there, we went into Margola. They were packing up for Tucson, so the place was even more of a wreak. V got a lot of bigger beads - interesting color Czech fire polish, while I concentrated on the seeds. I ended up buying some duplicates of beads I bought last October, when we made a flying visit after the Whole Bead Show (that will teach me to put beads away in the wrong places), but I also found 11 and 15 Czech charlottes in great iris colors. It seemed to take forever to check out (no pun intended), and when we finally walked out, it was close to 1pm and V was starving and my headache was back with a vengence.

We had lunch at a very expensive steakhouse ($7.50 for 2 glasses of fountain-dispensed club soda), and then it was on to York Beads.

I haven't been in York since before the turn of the last decade - I made a trip there just before my eBay selling days crashed and burned and I packed it all away for nearly 7 years. The store has changed quite a bit - it's nearly tripled in size (they took space from the first floor storage), a much greater emphasis on direct sales, and the basement's all cleaned up. But you still have to buy most stuff in quantity - quarter-masses and the like, but there's also bins of strands for $1-$3 on the floor. Although if you looked at the loot I brought home, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of self restraint - I actually did hold back. No round glass beads (although there were many luscious pink opal glass strands I could have bought), no flower beads, no leaf beads. Just drops and daggers and farfalle beads.

Now, I've got to get some projects going - especially the one commissioned - a kumi-rope of hematite, which I'll use the hematite-like glass drops to create a square rope.

And something in orange and perhaps some pink. Just to bring a little sunshine into the depths of winter.

New Business Cards

I'm off to Tucson at the end of the month, and MDF Marie of East of Oz reminded me that I need to bring business cards. It seems that some of the wholesale dealers don't like to sell in small quantities, but if I tell them that I'm working on a new line - and having business cards to prove that I'm a bona fide business - I shouldn't have problems.

I finally have found a use for the tres expensive Dover Pictura Vector collection of Art Nouveau images I bought last June - although I wasn't able to use the EPS files - my skills with Illustrator need a lot of work. I did find that the JPG files were really high quality, and I was able to get the same effects using Photoshop.

I had started out with a picture of recent works all massed together, and after taking nearly 100 pictures that looked like garbage, I decided to go in a completely different direction - and I must say - I like it. Although I am typically and Art Deco kind of girl, when it comes to graphic images - Art Nouveau/Arts & Crafts/Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood can't be beat.

The back of the card, which isn't finished yet, will have the William Morris fruit tree background in gray, and all of my contact details. Then off to Vistaprint - which I find is still the best deal in town.

Kumihimo Journeys - Part I

A bit of background. Back in late March, early April, I took a class on how to make kumihimo braids and incorporate beads with Annie Dilker of Moss Hollow Pottery. (I was interested in Kumihimo because I thought it would be a good craft to travel with - not that I really knew anything about it, but I'd seem some pieces made for a class at Beads n Stitches, and I was intrigued.) The class was given during an Innovative Bead Expo show, which I had only gone to because my PMC class was cancelled. I had been thinking about learning the technique for a while - and when I heard a woman behind me on the line to get into the show ask about the class, I chimed in that I'd like to take it too. It turned out that there were no students signed up for it, but the teacher would be willing to give the class anyway.

I made this necklace - very typical "me":

Unlike other some teachers I'd taking beading classes from, Annie didn't bark at her students, she didn't act like she was the Queen of the May deigning to teach something. She didn't play favorites. Better yet, her instructions weren't full of errors, missing pages, steps or written backwards.* Simply put, Annie was a great teacher - patient and dynamic. She didn't info dump, rather she would have us pause our work and she'd relay some information. I walked away from the class excited and eager to learn more. When I got home that evening (the show was in Tarrytown), I spent hours on line trying to learn more about my new skill, and (equally important) where to find braiding materials. In class, we used satin rattail for the non-bead warps, and SuperLon for the bead warps, and while I bought a range of colors in the SuperLon from Annie, I figured I'd have no trouble getting the rattail. Turns out that finding rattail in quantity, cheap, isn't easy. The rayon cord is better than the polyester, but it more expensive and is much harder to find.

I also discovered Jacqui Carey's site, and learned about the traditional method and materials for kumihimo - the marudai (the loom and stand), tama (weighted bobbins), and the loose multistrand "ropes" made from silk or rayon (in my eyes, the braids made with these materials are much more interesting that the rattail braids). I ended up purchasing a whole range of colors of the polyester rattail from a seller on eBay (Dollites) , a bunch of larger ez-bobs from Primative Originals, the self-covering bobbins favored by the modern kumihimo braider, and a few books.

During the class, I realized that I have a lot of potential braiding materials - loads of gimp (wrapped satin cord used in upholstery), as well as skein upon skein of DMC embroidery floss. I also had a few huge spools of Japanese knitting ribbon in various shades of pink and purple. I tried braiding with the gimp, but the foam kumihimo loom was too rough on it, and the wrapping began to decay. The embroidery floss was just too fine, and didn't work will with the extremely heavy SuperLon. The ribbon faired better - in combination with the SuperLon, it created a lovely, strong and narrow braid.

I got in my order of rattail, and began braiding like crazy. I swiftly became bored with the simply one-over-one basic 8-warp braid, and tried out a few others. After a while, my interest waned. I was not successful in translating the marudai based instructions to the slotted loom, and the rattail was really beginning to bore me. I wasn't incorporating beads, and while I did enjoy the results of the braid, I soon realised that had no idea what to do with the product of my labors.

It was time to start thinking about the beads again.

GO TO PART II, PART III, PART IV

___________________
*Can you tell that I'm talking about someone in particular?

The Jumeirah Silver Queen - Pearls & Kumihimo

So much for keeping this blog up to date...I really need to remember to cross post works that I publish on Beading Daily.

Just because I'm travelling doesn't mean I can't bead! My original intention when learning kumihimo in April was to have something do keep my hands busy during a trip out west. I didn't enjoy the process enough at the time to make good on my intention, but after my recent works with kumihimo and beads, I thought I'd give it another shot.

I must say that there is probably no better beading project to travel with than kumihimo. No scissors and needles, no need to worry about losing beads during turbulence. So long as you've got everything set up before departure, you'll have no problems.

I started this piece during the flight from New York to Paris

The first portion is eight strands x 20 rows of antiqued pewter beads. The main section is four strands of "cornflake" beads and side drilled potato pearls x 40 rows. I set up the strands so that the beads would stack 4 of the cornflakes and 4 of the potatoes. It finishes with another 20 rows of the antiqued pewter.

I was able to work on it sitting out on my hotel room balcony for about 3 hours, sipping ice water (that's the glass the strand is draped on) and watching the tourists take camel rides along the beach. It finally got too hot and I had to head back inside. I may finish it this evening, or leave some of it for the flight home.


At the Jumeirah Hilton, with a balcony view of the Atlantis hotel (at the apex of the outer palm island).

Cut to the post trip review:

I've finished the silver pearls kumihimo, finally. I had actually completed the braiding before leaving Dubai, but I had a lot of trouble with the second half - the last twenty rows of antiqued pewter beads. Because the strand was already so heavy, it kept dragging down the active braiding area, distorting the braided beads. I undid and rebraided it so many times (about 5) that the silk wore out and nearly broke. I packed it up and didn't work on it any further until I began recovering from my jet lag (Sunday afternoon).


Besides the problem with the last section of metal beads, it was simply too long and too heavy, and I took drastic action. I cut the ends off on each side, pulled out the metal beads, knotted the end strands together and contemplated how to finish the project. I found a pair of longer bead cones in Hill Tribe silver, a Saki silver clasp, and some jump rings. With an hour's fierce concentration, I finished it.

It sat on my form, waiting to be photographed, when I got a brain storm. I was writing a reply to this thread, when I remembered a WiP - a beaded bezel for a pair of Art Deco crystal cabachons that I created as a proof of concept, but could never figure out what to do with. All the colors were right for a marriage between the two pieces, and with a little figuring out, I attached it to the braided pearls.

I present to you, without further delay - the Jumeirah Silver Queen!

Pendant Detail

The clasp

Challenge Swaps, Foredom and Serendipity

Whew! Lots of cobwebs in here - it's certainly been a while since I've last posted an entry. There are a bunch of posts in draft, but I've not had the time or the inspiration to finish. I've been busy making things - not finishing much, but making - yes, definitely.

The occassion for this post is serendipity - something I adore writing about, particularly when I am the sole locus of the event. As always, there's quite a bit of background that I need to express, so bear with me.

In mid-July, the ever-talented Jeni Smathers decided to host another color based Challenge Swap. Beading Daily (BD) members would send her some beads in the designated colors (blue, yellow and green), and $2 to defray the cost of postage, and she would divvy out the beads to all the participants, who had a month or so to create things with those beads. Participants would then send Jeni pictures and descriptions and ultimately all of the BD forum members would get to see everyone's work.

I sent Jeni a big box of beads, and got my package about 2 weeks ago. I have to say, I was a bit dismayed - lots of seed beads, some plastic beads, and worse yet - lots and lots of the very beads I sent to Jeni, but in very small quantities (mostly vintage glass that I've been holding onto for years). I sorted everything out then put everything away. There just didn't seem enough of anything that I could use to make the type of jewelry I like to make. Every night or so, I'd take out the package, fiddle around a bit and then put them away. Nothing seemed to kindle any spark of creativity,* and my participation in this challenge seemed quite doomed.  Last Friday; however, I called MDF Lois to ask if she wanted anything from BeadFest, and we got around to discussing the challenge.  She was kind enough to send me an email with pictures that gave her some inspiration, and although the jewelry in those pictures were not the kind I would normally create - I did find something to get the creative juices flowing.

I'm not going to describe the piece in detail (that may come in another post), but it was basically built around copper and copper colored findings.  One of the elements is a chain of copper rings, which gave me the impetus to finally try out my new PepeTools jumpring maker.  In addition to the mandrals and mounted chuck and handle for coiling the wire, there is a cutting rig that uses a blade and collar mounted on a Foredom size 30 handpiece, and a jig that holds the wire coil.

Now, I've got to backtrack quite a bit...this is where serendipity lands.

Back in the dawn of the eBay era - late 1996 or early 1997, thereabouts, I bought a real Foredom Flexible Shaft Machine.  It arrived and I couldn't get it to work - the motor just wouldn't turn on.  The seller basically disowned all responsibility, and I felt I pretty much wasted $90.  The box went into the back of the basement, and although I never quite forgot it was there, I really didn't want to even think about it. 

Fast forward to 2006 - I was definitely getting back into the jewelry arts, or at least beading.  I was surfing eBay for fine silver wire, when I came across the listing pages for Finding King, a jeweler supply company based in Arizona.  They were offering an off-brand (read, Chinese-made) flex-shaft, with the hanger, and several dozen bits and burs, for $75, and I bought it, along with a spool of 28 gauge fine silver wire.  The transaction with Finding King was the worst in a decade of buying on eBay - they didn't actually have the flex shaft in stock; over the course of a month, random parts of the order would arrive - a bunch of burs, the hanger, and finally the flex shaft itself.**

I used the flex shaft on and off since it arrived, and much more once I started working with PMC.  When the peddle  got a bit dicey, I remembered the Foredom and dug it out from underneath a mound of computer boxes.  The Foredom peddle worked fine with the off-brand.  When the handpiece got too hot, I tried out the one from the Foredom, and that worked like a dream - this is the difference between American made quality products and Chinese off-brands.  When I bought the PepeTools jumpring maker, I wanted to dedicate the off-brand handpiece to the cutting rig, but it wasn't a true #30, so I set it up with the Foredom handpiece.

Swapping the handpieces on the off-brand was okay - it always took a few tries to ensure that the flange on shaft connection was engaged.  But something happened on Monday night when I put on the handpiece with the jumpring cutting rig - no matter what I tried, the motor would run, but the shaft wasn't spinning properly.*** 

At this point, I was actually feeling quite sick§.  I really did not want to purchase another flex shaft - and I was intensely disappointed that I couldn't get the jumpring cutter to work.  I thought that I could try to swap out the shaft from the Foredom, but I couldn't seem to make any headway with getting the shaft disengaged from the motor on the off-brand.  In a fit of desperation, I hung up the Foredom, plugged it into the peddle, flipped the switch and with no expectation of anything happening, depressed the peddle.  And guess what!

IT WORKED!  IT WORKED! IT WORKED! IT WORKED! IT WORKED! IT WORKED! §§

I was able to finish my Challenge Swap necklace, and I've got a very fine working Foredom Flexible Shaft Machine.  It's so much more powerful than the off-brand - it's the difference between a Geo Metro and an Audi A3.
 


______________________
*I think my head's been too wrapped around PMC to be an effective beader
**The spool of wire wasn't shipped until after I left Finding King negative feedback and threatened to file a complaint against them with the Arizona BBB.  Oh, and sent them an email calling them a bunch of morons.
***It may be that just the bushings need to be replaced
§ It wasn't just the circumstances.  It was also the heat and the stink from the previous night's dye job.
§§ I suspect that it was fully operational all along, but I didn't have the On/Off switch set to On.

Playing with PMC

The results of the PMC I bought myself back in April

My Happy 3rd of July

My company's offices were closed for July 3rd, since the Fourth fell on a Saturday. My plans for that day were set pretty well in advance - I wanted to go to Metalliferous and shop for tools (which I seem to love to buy even more than I love to use). This year, for some reason, the store was not having Saturday hours - I think it's because they couldn't get staff to work, not because there wasn't enough business. The Tuesday evening hours are not really convenient, since I needed to drive in and a weeknight schelp into NYC from work would take about an hour and a half.

Taking the train was also not in the cards - my shopping list consisted of a number of fairly heavy and bulky items - a brass deadblow hammer, an annealing pan filled with pumice, a small crockpot for pickle, and other assorted tools. The thought of schelpping back from 46th and 5th Avenue with those items, through Penn Station and a possibly crowded train filled with semi-drunk holiday-minded workers was enough to make me consider mail order.*

As much as I was looking forward to shopping there, I was also a bit leery. My friend Valerie of http://www.barneybeads.com/ had a truly awful experience there a few weeks before, involving the extremely uptight and quite nasty store owner and a box of dropped metal beads. Marie from http://www.eastofoz.com/ also reported a less than satisfactory experience with the store's climate control system. Armed with the knowledge that they staff at the store is not known for their friendly and helpful attitude (check out the yelp.com reviews), I had made up a shopping list the night before, took out my backback (they want you to leave your purse unguarded at the front of the store) and set my alarm for 8 am.

Friday morning dawned clear and bright - a mild breeze and low humidity would make for a perfect day to be in Manhattan. I was on the road by 10:30 am, and through the Midtown Tunnel by 11:00 - unheard of on a weekday morning! My preference was to park on 46th Street, but I was not expecting to find a spot on the street between 6th and 7th - but I had to try. I was surprised to find MANY open spaces on the street, and after contemplating the extremely confusing parking signs, I pulled into a spot near the corner of 6th Avenue, between two private vehicles with NJ plates that disregarded the admonition that the area was reserved for commercial vehicles only between 6 am and 7 pm .

I put $5.50 in quarters into the Muni-Meter, stuck the receipt on my dashboard, set an alarm on the iPhone for the time that the meter expired, and merrily and warily made my way to Metalliferous.

Where I was very pleasantly surprised.

The A/C was cranked up to full blast, and although there were a lot of customers in the store, it was comfortable to shop in. I had a slight moment of aggravation when I found I left my carefully prepared list at home, but since I had been thinking about this shopping trip for several months, I knew exactly what I needed to buy - the list was more for those catalog items that would have been nice to have.

I was disappointed to see that there were no deadblow mallets out, and when I asked for a brass hammer, the salesclerk showed me a tiny little watchmakers' mallet. I nearly burst out laughing, but we got that settled quickly when she pulled out the catalog and I showed her just what I wanted. I also picked up a 7" annealing pan, the mini Crock Pot for pickling, an assortment of sanding sticks, tinner shears, soldering pick, Solderite 6x6 board, a block of charcoal, and a metal scribe.

I also asked about the "Junior Polishing Set," and this is where certain members of the Metalliferous staff really shined. The female salesperson first thought I was asking about a set of polishing burs for the flex shaft, but I showed her what I wanted from the catelog. She didn't know if the kit - a 1/16th HP two spindle variable speed buffer was in stock, so she asked one of the guys - a Russian I'll call Yuri (probably NOT his name). Yuri told me that the kit in the catalog was "no good" but he had a better one, for less money. When he showed it to me, I saw that it was the same one that Linda had brought to class last week (the polymer clay session), which was fairly low powered, but I thought would be ok. I pointed out that I really needed tapered spindles for both sides (it came with a fixed-size chuck for the left hand spindle). Yuri said, rather good naturedly, that that could be a problem, but he'd see what he could do. He checked the Foredom catalog, found the correctly sized l/h spindle and said if I wanted the chuck, it would be $7.95 extra (he swapped it out for the tapered spindle). Now that the tool shopping was out of the way, I wanted to explore the metals.

I had gone through the stampings the last trip, so I concentrated on the oddities in the very back, and picked up some interested "faceted" brass flatback "buttons" in various sizes (they are more like very large sew-ons), a few strips of textured brass, some 6x6 copper sheet in 20 and 24 gauge, a package of bezel wire, 6 inches of patterned gallery wire, a small strip of 22 gauge fine silver, plus easy, medium and hard solder, a small bottle of flux, some flux brushes, a set of needle files (which HAVE to be better than the crap set I bought at Micro Center), a full size flat and a full size oval file, and a couple of leather finger cots. Gathering everything at the front counter, Mr. Full of Himself (the one who gave Val such a hard time) told me I was making a mistake buying the low powered buffer. We talked a bit back and forth, and I actually thought he was right - at the end of the day, I'd seriously regret the purchase. So, I ended up treating myself to a hammer handpiece for the flexible shaft machine**, a chasing hammer and a texturing hammer (this last item I don't know if I'll really ever use).

Checking out was a real pleasure - the salewoman who helped me was a doll - young, but really talented - and a Star Trek freak. She remembered that one of the Dabo Girls from ST:DS9 had the same first name as me. We talked a bit about holiday plans - she's heading home to San Francisco for the week that the store is closed. I left, feeling very satisfied - and about $500 poorer.

I walked back to my car, which reminds me - funny story about parking. When I was getting ready to check out, the alarm on my iPhone started to ring.*** I commented that I probably should run back to my car and put more money on the Muni-Meter, and four people promptly told me I didn't have to bother - it was a holiday and all meter requirements and parking rules were suspended.

Anyway - when back to my car and was going to go bead shopping at the two stores Val told me about on 47th Street.

So I walked around the block, only to find that 95% of the store fronts were empty, and some had signs "Closed for Jewelers' Holiday - 7/1 - 7/13". A guy comes out of one of the buildings, and sees me looking. He asks what am I looking for, and I say there's an arcade with a bead store - he tells me that they are closed until mid-July - like everyone else.

Oh, well, it's not like I really need to buy more beads. I walk down 47th Street, some of the windows still had jewelry on display - I admired one store with some pretty spectacularly large mine cut diamond earrings. There's a vendor on the corner selling "Pashmina" for $5 a piece - I bought four. So the walk shouldn't be a total loss.

I though I'd also stop in at Allcraft - which was located (according to my iPhone) at 45 W. 46th Street. No, it wasn't. I think it's on 29th Street now. So, I bought a bottle of cold water, went back to my car and headed home, a happy shopper.

_______________________________________
*I hate doing mail order for tools. It costs a fortune to ship, even though the store is probably using a flat rate Priority Mail parcel.

**I just love saying/writing "flexible shaft machine" - especially to people not in the jewelry trade.

***If you're keeping score, the alarm was "Coultergeist".

Silver on Silver - Oddly Victorian

Materials

Hill Tribe Silver Beads - Cast 15mm bicone - Thailand
Hill Tribe Silver Beads - Woven metal ribbon 8mm bicone - Thailand
Sterling Silver Donut 4mm Spacers - US
Sterling Silver 2mm seamless rounds - US
Dark Silver 10mm ovoid fresh water pearls - China
Light Silver 5mm keishi pearls - China
Bali Silver "S" Clasp


Stringing Material - Light Silver Gudebrode Silk - "E" weight


Tools
#10 wire beading needle (2)
Silver "french wire" fine (.5 inch)
Tri-cord knotting tool






A co-worker commissioned a necklace from me. She wanted chunky and silver and long. Since she wasn't prepared to spend several hundred dollars for 48 inches of Hill Tribe Silver, I suggested gray pearls and a little bit of silver as accents. From the selection I showed her, she homed in on the light gray/silver palette - particularly the small keishi pearls and some larger 12mm ovoids. From my silver box, she selected probably the heaviest silver beads I had, but I was able to steer her to some lighter, less expensive accents as well.

The result is oddly Victorian, which really wasn't my goal, nor is it particularly my style, but I am really pleased with the results. I don't normally work with a monochrome palette - contract is king in my book. But I really like it, and will make a variation of it for myself sometime soon.


Materials Cost: $50.00
Time to Complete: 2 hours
Difficulty: 2 out of 5

Bone and Amethyst - A Match Made in Hell

Sometimes the magic just isn't there. It's not a matter of lost mojo, but not every design really works. That being said, a little background on some of the beads...

Early on in my beady-beading career, my mother (and best client) asked for a necklace of ivory and amethyst. A lovely combination to be sure, but real ivory beads cannot be sold except as an antiquity. I convinced my mother that I could find substitutes that would be just as good - and I did. Way back, some time around 1992, I found 16mm round polished bone beads. They were from Germany and I paid a pretty penny for them (probably close to $100 for two strands). I paired them with 10mm round AAA quality amethyst and 14k spacers. The whole thing was struck on silk and was one of my mother's favorite necklaces.

When she passed away in 2002, neither of my sisters were interested in the collection of beaded jewelry I made her, and so they sat in a drawer, in little silk pouches for about 5 years. It took me that long to overcome my grief and appreciate the love and pride that each of those necklaces represented. A few weeks ago, I was about to put on the bone and amethyst necklace when it broke. One of the hazards of using silk - it does disintegrate over time.

Rather than remake the same necklace, I decided to use the beads to create something wilder. I added pearls, swapped out the 10mm amethyst for big faceted chunks, and went against conventional wisdom and used silver accents rather than gold. And you know what, I really, really, really hate it.

It was supposed to be a two strand choker, but it's too long. The stones clack and clunk against each other, it's so heavy that it just pulls my neck down. The amethyst are out of proportion, the clasp doesn't go with the rest of the design. It's just plain ugly.

I guess this endless rain has got me down - and I woke up thinking it was Friday. That's enough to put a saint into a bad mood.

Pearl Torsade - It's Alive, I Tell You - It's ALIVE!

Materials:

8 Strands - 6mm x 8mm teardrop freshwater pearls, mauve-grey - China

10 Grams - Size 10 Rainbow Light Amethyst Matte Delica cylinder seed beads - Japan

150 (approx) 5mm round brass coated pewter beads - China

75 (approx) 4mm Tanzanite AB2X bicones (art. 5301) - Austria

Various Miyuki and other Delica colors - size 15 and size 11 - Japan

Brass Rolo Link Chain - 3 inches - Antique, origin unknown

Brass Colored Pewter Toggle Bar

50 Yards (approx) Fireline - 20lb Test - United States

Tools

2.5" Big Eye Needle

Thread Zapper

Nylon Jaw Flat Pliers

Well, not really - but I've been feeling a bit like Victor Frankenstein, obsessed with my own creation.

The materials include 8 strands of teardrop pearls, about 75 Tanzanite AB2X 5301 - 4mm, 5 vintage amethyst Swarovski crystals, 150 brass spacers, 2.5 tubes of size 10 Delica Light Amethyst and a few size 11 Delicas in the same color. And nearly a full spool of Fireline.

Here is a closeup of the center embellishment

Figuring out the closure was a nightmare. When I ended the piece with the peyote stitch caps and the little "ruffle" of size 15 Miyukis, I was planning on using a magnetic closure so the two ends would "kiss" closed. Didn't work - the necklace was too heavy for the magnets. Then I created a toggle set from matching Delicas:

Ugly isn't the word. Two additional attempt were even worse. But last night, I had a brainstorm - and this is how I finished it:

Material Cost: $250 (approx)
Time to Complete: 100 hours
Difficulty: 5 our of 5

What I've Been Doing Lately...

I'm not the type of person who makes New Year's Resolutions, but something prodded me this year.  I decided I wanted to learn at least three new jewelry techniques.  I settled on beadweaving, glass fusing and precious metal clay work.

All I can say is that I've completed all of my resolutions, with resounding success.  Thanks to my friendly neighborhood Local Bead Store (LBS).  Well, actually not so friendly - some of the staff are, shall we say, not quite Nordstrom-ready if you know what I mean.  Beads n' Stitches, in Hickville is a really incredible place - not for the beads (although the selection is pretty nice), but for the classes.  Since January, I've taken a class just about every other week, starting with Peyote Stitch bezel (which is what induced me to start doing this), diagonal peyote (not my favorite), and toggles and bails with a Russian Spiral, which was nothing that I couldn't have taught myself. 

So, just as I've gotten pretty addicited to the little seed and cylinder beads, I signed up for the basic fused glass class. taught by Jane Cummins.  That one was loads of fun, and I made some really pretty stuff.  I was thinking about signing up for the classes at the Long Island Art League in Huntington, but glass isn't where my heart it.  It's with the metal.

Two weeks after the glass class, I got my first taste of PMC in the first of a series of classes with the amazing Linda Twohill. 

Oh boy, am I hooked!  Well, I wasn't really hooked from the first class, which was ring making.  The skills we learned were pretty advanced for first-time PMC users, and I was not 100% sold on the material when we got done, but it has really, really grown on me.

In this first class, we had the choice of making two out of three ring styles.  Everyone did a PMC on sterling band (mine came out pretty junky, and I wasn't to heartbroken when I broke it), and then there was the choice of making a wrapped wire and PMC slip ring (cool but not me), or a slab/wrap ring.  I think I was really attracted to this style because of the design possibilities.  And what do you think happened?  I got too ambitous, and killed my clay (overworked it and it dried out too much).  I needed to buy a second package (not a big deal, I was able to resurrect the other clay for the next session), and I was thrilled with how the finished product came out.  I wear this ring two or three days a week.  It's not flawless by any stretch - I was a little uneven in the pressure when stamping the pattern, and the ruffles don't quite line up.  It's also a bit big for the ring finger, and a big snug for the middle one on a warm day, but it works for me.  I'm actually still "refining" it - the edges are a bit rough (someone hogged the greenware files in class, and so didn't smooth them before firing).  It also had a strange encounter with some eggs, and a large part of the band turned black.  I've buffed it up, but it should be repatinated. 

Two weeks later, Val and I took the "focal bead" class - and that was a ball.  I had most of a 16 gm packet of PMC from the rings class two weeks earlier, so I made two pendants.  The first one, with the ruffled edges is good, but not perfect, but the second piece is pretty close to excellent. 

Before the end of that day, I signed up for the Intermediate Techniques class, and PMC studio session - no new techniques, just PMC and all of Linda's tools and toys to play with.  (I also enrolled in her metalworking class, more about that in a later post).

The Intermediate Techniques was fantastic - we learned box making and stone setting, how to use stencils, PMC syringe and PMC paper, and lots of other really neat stuff.  I still had some PMC left over from the Focal Bead session (and Val gave me her leftovers), so I was able to create two really substantial pendants.

The zodiac piece is my favorite, and I wear it all the time - but it's pretty wonky.  The top ring is really uneven and the backside is a bit twisted - but the effect is cool, and I love how it feels around my neck.

I also like the flat box piece - it's two pendants in one.  The nautilus on one side, and the Victorian flourish on the other.  It also "sings" a bit - the chain makes a slight noise against the silver walls.

Next Saturday is the PMC Studio Time session, and I've been dreaming of the piece I want to make.  I don't know if I've got the skills to execute my vision, but I am going to try.  It's a set of braclet links.  The large center piece has a Celtic dragon embossed on the top, with a frame around the dragon, the back embossed with a swirl pattern.  I also want a subtle pattern on the frame, too.  The corners will have triangular holes, and I want to set a few orange opal cabachons.  The side pieces will feature the same frame and embossed pattern, but I'll add dragonflies from PMC paper instead of full-sized dragons.  I haven't worked out the clasp yet.  I may just bring in a Saki clasp as a template.  It's very, very ambitious.