Pods & Leaves

One day while Rosanne and I were waiting for our metal to etch, we worked on the pea pods from Mary Hettmansperger's book, "Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet." Mary is teaching again on the next Bead Cruise, she is wonderful and her classes were a huge hit this year! There were fun and easy once you got the hang of it.

Yesterday I gave myself a little free time to play around and was drawn to some aluminum flashing that Jess has in the studio. At first I tried using the flashing for the pea pods, but the metal didn't fold as nicely as the copper. I had wanted to make a pod with my clay work breaking through. Instead, I wound up making these petal forms and quickly decided to use it as a base for a thin layer of my branch designs.

I'm loving them and this opens up many new ideas and possibilities.

I'm going to make some for myself, I see a lariat or tassel necklace in my future. Metal work in general is more appealing to me every day. Now I just need to get my hands on a torch!

I decided to take a quick photo of what my grab bags look like, for those who are curious. Each one has at least 5 beads, some more. I coordinate the beads so you have a nice selection that will work together. I have 6 new sets that I put together after a serious studio cleaning this weekend.

If you aren't on my email list, #1 - why not? and #2 - you may not know that my humblebeads website is currently open for wholesale only. And until September 1st, anyone who meets the wholesale minimum can take advantage of 50% off. Use discount code wh2008 when you check out for 50% of your order of $300 or more.