Hap & Hop, Looking for Their Ramp

Vintage plastic ramp walkers, 1950s.

In my Etsy shop.

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To the River -- Work in Progress

A cuff bracelet in progress

• The bezels are 24K gold coated charlottes a la Betcey at Beyond Beadery.
• The stones, I believe, are chrysoprase. I bought them several years ago at the estate sale of a local cabochon maker and jeweler. It was conducted by his really lovely wife.
• Most of the beads are true cuts (love that blue!) with occasional Czech and Japanese guests.
• I am beading this on my own equivalent of Lacy's Stiff Stuff. You can bead all the way to the edge if you need to, with no tearing.

My goal in this design was to avoid (except for a bezel or two) creating a cuff-slash-cabochon design based on concentric circles. The stones and pearls represent rocks and pebbles in the water. The purples are the mud & earth by the of running water, and the green beads are (of course) fertile land. 

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Tutorial: Collaged Bamboo Tile Bead

I've been sorting and bagging bamboo tiles for my Etsy shop, and it occurred to me to include some of my vintage images in the listing, too. That way, people don't have to search for collage images to practice with. They're sized just right for the beads, with 2 each of 4 different images ready to cut and glue. Makes a great little art attack pack!

So here's a quick tutorial explaining one way to work with the beads and images:

SUPPLIES used in the example

• 1 bamboo tile bead
• laser printed image to size (1 for one side, 2 for both sides)
• scissors
• sandpaper (fine to medium, use gently!)
• small flat paintbrush (the softer the better)
• tinted decoupage medium, or gel medium, Diamond Glaze, etc.
• tiny flatbacked rhinestone, cabochon, button or other embellishment
• The Ultimate glue by Crafter's Choice, or jewelry glue

1. Cut away all the white space around the image. I also like to tip the corners.

2. Sand the bamboo tile lightly for better adherance. Wipe it clean.

3. Paint the back of the image with the decoupage medium. It's ok if the tinted medium seeps through the paper a little bit. We're going for an antiquey look.

4. Position the image onto the tile, pressing from the center out to avoid bubbles. Press firmly to adhere the image all the way to the very edges. It looks so cool when the image wraps around the tile a bit. Let dry.

5. Sand lightly around the edges of the image and then gently wipe clean. The sanded edges will look pretty white, until the next step, when they start absorbing the medium.

6. Paint the top of the image with tinted decoupage medium. If the brush leaves strokes or ridges, dilute the medium just a bit with water. Repeat when dry, for a second coat. It's fun to add even more thin coats of tinted medium to some areas and not others.

7. Attach the rhinestone (or other embellishment) with jewelry-appropriate glue, and let dry.

Now your tile bead is ready to string, knot, wrap with wire, etc.

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Anthem for the New Year

 

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in.

--Leonard Cohen, Anthem

The Posole is Almost Gone

Not to worry. It's turkey. It'll keep. :-)

In case you were wondering, I did not get eaten by pigs. They were wolves. They dragged me into their lair and made me show them my secret red chile sauce recipe. I'm back now, and wow, the house is fairly clean, considering...

Nikia's elk tamales made the Christmas Eve gathering, although Aunt Marian's cheese log (I cannot bring myself to say "balls") was a close second. The cookies are gone (thank you baby Jesus) and speaking of baby Jesus, Christmas Day was blissfully relaxed and there may have been prime rib on the table...yes, I think there was! Christmas Night -- wow, illahis for Shaykh Nur in the cozy warmth of the tekke.

The MOTH (man of the house) strung those vintage lights that have bubbling colored water in the tubes when heated up. The above photo is the box he found last year of those amazing large reflectors you slip over a little colored bulb on the tree.

God bless Amazon and your "Give Album OR Song as Gift" button, and God bless this little black rectangle in my hand where I can push a few buttons and hear my ma's voice anytime I want (provided she's not napping or out on the town).

Tonight? It's crock pot Italian meatballs and UFC141. There have been a half dozen teenage boyz' butts on my couch since Christmas Day and tonight there will most likely be a few more...

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