Update: Christmas

Well My youngest is 12 going on 22 or 2 depending , and she is getting into the jewelry, hair accessories, you name it, so beads, bangles, and baubles. I will be busy creating what I can before Christmas.
Meanwhile to keep myself in practice I have been practicing, my wire wrapping for making danglies , and also using up my yarns and making throws/lapghans.

Yesterday I whipped up a beaded ring, which took me half the freakin night....EASY? Not for me, I got 2 left thumbs.......While this looked easy....For me it was work. I am sure with the proper beads it will properly be easy. I used bicones, and they would not sit right, and the thread I was using, while it was beading thread, started to fray. Then I had problems with the needle sizes... Eventually I finished it.

My current work in progress, typical granny square throw.
Finished striped lapghan.
Blue Fiber Optic Swarovskis on a silver hoop with Silver fish hook.

My blue chandeliers. I wrapped the Dangles myself. I love these. Also Swarovski

Here is that ring.....

Cherry tree Completed.

I finally finished and assembled the 2 cherry tree. Sorry about the pictures...I am still using the crappy webcam.
Maybe Santa will bring me a new digital....

Cherry Tree #2 in Progress

I have started assembly on the branches. As you can see there is no need for another layer of wire on the branches as opposed to the first one. But I do need to build up the trunk. 22ga. wire was used, I took a strand and doubled it, then twisted it, I repeated this 3 times then braided the three piece for each leg. So I repeated that process 3 times.
BUT IT IS NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO SUPPORT.
It is top heavy. I need to to what I did with the first tree. Take the 16 gauge annealed wire and double it up and twist it in the drill, to make the feet and trunk.

Holding it up.
A close up of the "Buds"
Here are the three annealed 16 ga. wires I will use for the trunk and feet. This should offer the stability needed to handle the heaviness on the tree-top.


After I finish the assembly I will take more pics.

2 Months is a Long Time....

...To be gone.......I just needed to take some time . I spend entirely way too much time on the pc. I took some time away to try to gain control of my blogging. ( I have other blogs, that I RANT on).

While I was gone I was working on my crocheted lapghans and also some beaded cherry blossom trees.

The tree I have currently assembled and am working on fixing is this..........









I made each bud by hand. It consists of 5 loops of ten pink seed beads with a small pearl in the center.

The Leaves were done in similar fashion , except I only used One loop of ten, and I varied between dark green rocailles, and a lime green seed.

My mistake was not wrapping each branch before assembling to the base which is made of 3 strands of 16 ga. black annealed wire that I picked up at the local home improvement store, I doubled up the strand ( folded it in half) and stuck one end in my drill and pounced it litely to twist the wire. I did this 3 times then bent the feet so it would stand.

So now I go back and floral tape then green paddle wire wrap the branches and stems ....Alot of work indeed.......However it is my prototype and I am keeping it as a reminder as to NOT make a tree.

The corrected way would be as follows......



While I really like the beauty of the detailed buds of the first tree, I like the ease and continuity of this type of tree.

Kimberly Chapman has the instructions on how to do this type of branch. ( my idea was the first, based on pics I had seen, and someone had a tree similar to this but I dont recall the site where I saw it)

When I get it assembled I will post some pics.

I have Not been clay working. But I am getting the feel to start up again.
I just need to focus on what exactly I want to do. Last time this happened I ended up with boo coo baskets of beads of which I still have not used. Most of them have been sanded and either polished or varnished/ acryliced.

Also I started experimenting with different types of paper on my bowls. However I'm not really sure about if and how much I like them. They are still an ongoing experiment.