July 27, 2009

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.

6 comments:

Bead-Mused said...

Have I told you lately that I think you rock? You came home with wonderful inspiration! I'm ready for a vacation like that!!

Valerie said...

those pea pods are really eye catching!

Cindy Gimbrone said...

You made magic with the aluminum flashing, Heather! The pea pods are lovely too but the aluminum is such a burst of creativity - very cool!

Cindy

Judy said...

How fun it is to make something new! Love the pea pods, I think I would like to try making them.

Unknown said...

The blue one is very pretty and those grab bags look great!

Nice work!

Emi

Rosanne said...

You really are cool this week kiddo! Those pea pods are great along with everything else.