Time Change - Kumihimo - Dragons - What a Week

Well, it's that time of year again where the clocks had to be changed.  sigh.  This is so stupid.  Leave the clocks one way or the other for petes's sake !  There is no need to do this.  It is proven it takes some people weeks to recoup from the twice yearly change and that's just not good let alone productive.   I could go on a major rant here about all this but I won't.  Time to move on.......

The last several weeks have been so busy (as I have stated more than once) I've had barely enough time in the day to finish up what I start.  Doesn't matter what it is.  So time to slow down, like I mentioned last week, and pace myself.  Do you ever find it's just too much sometimes ?  I'm there.  lol !  I have a list of what I NEED to be doing and as I look at it, I am making plans on when and how much time I will spend on each item.  Maybe it'll take more time than what I planned for a particular "job".  With that, next time around I'll plan it better.  :)

I have been "playing" with beaded Kumihimo of course as I have been for months now.  Have I learned anything new recently ?  Not alot but that's only because I haven't had the time to sit and learn something new.  lol !  I have several new books to read, a BUNCH of tutorials to go over and actually make something, including a new lampwork bead tut.  I've glanced over a few things and am anxious to try it all.  So in the meantime, I'm still making some jewelry pieces, as time permits, and having fun with that.

The first necklace I made weeks ago.  It was one of the braids I made to go with the shell pendant - possibly.  It ended up going with the little blue dragon seen below.  Such a great match !  Turned out really good together.

This second photo is of another dragon necklace.  This little dragon is Esmeralda.  For whatever reason, as I was braiding the Kumihimo braid, I kept thinking the braid belonged to Esmeralda, the little purple dragon.  :)  There she is.  The braid is made with my own hand dyed pink silk cord, purple satin cord and one "strand" of gold color seed beads.  LOVE it !  She is for sale if anyone is interested.  Just message me.

That's a couple things I was able to finish up last week.  I really enjoyed making the pink and purple braid.  I love working on my Marudai and would do it daily if I could.  ;)   The beaded Kumihimo braids are all made on a foam disk.  Which is fine but I get more pleasure out of using the Marudai.  Not exactly sure what it is.  The feel of the fibers ?  The movement of the cords ?  Could it be I can actually DO more on the Marudai ?  Meaning making more movement of the cords ?  I'm not sure but I love it.  :)


 Please remember to come on by my Etsy shop for a look at my new hand dyed silk cords !  Lots of colors available with more to come in the next week.  All are available by the yard ! 


That's all for this week.  Thanks so much for coming by.  I hope you come back again sometime. 

Adding Elements to A Lampwork Bead

Today's post is all about making and adding a certain element to a lampwork bead called a twistie.  These are little pieces of art all on their own if you ask me.  Simple to make to some while a difficult undertaking to others.  They add yet another wonderful step in adding design to the glass bead.  Pictured just below are the twisties I've made so far this week.  I will be making more along with canes.  Canes, are yet another element and will be explored further at a later date.  :)
 

 

As you can see, they come in as many color combinations as one can think of !  The skies the limit as far as that goes as well as how many colors that can be added to a single twistie.  For the twisties pictured, I pretty much stayed with up to 4 colors.  The sizes you see here range from about 6" in length to a couple that are 20" in length.  Twisties are put together using a few different methods and they all work perfectly.  The paddle method, adding stinger to a rod of glass, attaching several rods together with a rubber band, etc.  Once all the colors are melted in, then you pull and "twist".  Depending on how much glass you've added, you can get a pretty long twistie !    

I'm sure there are video's on YouTube showing each method but since I rarely go to YouTube I can't connect to any here.  Sorry.  I would just do a search for lampwork twisties there.  

 

Now that the twisties are ready to use, it's time to add it to a bead.  The photo below shows a few ways twisties can be used in a bead.  Once again, the skies the limit as far as what can be done with these colorful addtions to a bead !  In the past, I made lots of beads for Beads Of Courage using bright, colorful twisties.  Below, the large one on top left is twistie cane encased.  The blue donut bead is a twistie melted on top, no encasing.  Bottom left is one for the BOC kids, twisties just melted into a white bead and eyes added.  The bell flower next to the dime is a red, yellow and orange twistie melted into a press to make the pretty little flower.  :)  So much more you can do too !

 

 

Making twisties to use can be very time consuming but well worth the effort to be sure !  And at the end of the torching day, if you have any tiny nibs of twistie left, you can add them to an "end of the day" bead and end up with a surprise that might be the best bead made all day !  lol ! 

 

Thanks so much for coming by.  I hope you come back again soon !