Popcorn Cabochon Necklace

My new necklace with popcorn cabochons and Kabela Designs filligree.

     My friend Michael Harrington of Beads that Bounce gave me one of his new popcorn cabochons to play with and, of course, I had to make a necklace to wear to Bead and Button.
     These beads came about thanks to a male shopper at one of the bead shows who was admiring Michael's cold inclusion beads.  Michael explained that because no heat was involved in the process, he could include anything he wanted.  The shopper said "Oh yeah?  Can you include popcorn?"  Thus started Michael's experiements and resulting new beads.
    

My first effort: a beaded bezel


I first tried a beaded bezel but it seemed to look too busy.  Then I thought about the beautiful filigree pieces from Kabela Design and went shopping at their booth at the Innovative Beads Expo in between my bead crochet classes.

First wrapping effort.

Beth and I played around with a few things; surprisingly the new sliver-plated components looked best.  The first was a lovely component that we tried wrapping around the cabochon. 

Here is the back of the component.

 It was nice but then I stumbled onto the component below.

The winner.

I decided to just glue the cabochon to the filigree with good, old E6000 for a clean look.  I wove some fine-gauge, craft wire across the hole to give the glue more surface to grab onto.

Back of glued cabochon with woven wire support.

I glued a piece of ultrasuede over the wire support to make things look nicer.  I played with a number of necklace treatments but they looked too fussy.  So a nice silver chain, some cute Czech, pressed glass beads, a little wire work and I had a new necklace and earrings to wear.

BEAD AND BUTTON 2012

I was too busy to take many photos at Bead and Button but here are a few shots of my adventure.

Here's my favorite security guard at the Frontier Airlines Conference Center.  He is actually a polyester resin sculpture by Marc Swan.

Now on to real people.  My first class was Metal Made Easy, taught by Gwen Youngblood, on Tuesday night.  This was my first sheet metal class in a very long time and Gwen and her husband Hull made this a fabulous learning experience.  We did everything: cut out metal shapes, textured the shape, added decoration with rivets, added jump rings, added dangles, and put a patina on the surface with liver of sulpher. 

Gwen (middle) chatting with two fellow students.

Two sample pendants

One of Gwen's necklaces with copper and silver pendant.

My pendant

My Wednesday class was the Kalahari Oasis lariat with Carol Cypher.  I had so much fun with Carol's felt class last year that I decided to learn the African Helix from her this year.  Carol is a patient and generous teacher and we all had a goodtime. 

My finished Kalahari Oasis necklace.

My next class was Wire Nautilus Pendant with Barb Switzer on Thursday morning.  Here I learned to spiral the heavier wire into a nautilus shape, wrap a thinner wire around the spiral, and weave in beads and crystals.  Unfortunately, I had to leave class early for a meeting so I had no time to stick around after class and take photos.

My Nautilus Pendant

Friday's class was a Zipper Teeth and Beads Freeform Cuff class with Jeanne Barta Craine.  Here we learned how to prepare zippers to sew onto a base and sew beads on to fill in the spaces.  I already knew bead embroidery but was excited to learn her zipper technique.

My zipper and bead cuff in progress.

On Saturday, I did something entirely new: Lanterns: Twined Wire Earrings class with Marilyn Moore.  This class taught us to twine ( a basket-making techinque) with fine wire.  Marily also showed us her technique for blending colors of wire.  I was worried that this class was going to be really difficult but the twining is actually pretty simple;  on top of that  Marilyn is a cheerful and patient teacher who encouraged us as we all mastered the technique.

Twined Wire Earrings: Front of earring on left, back on right. 

 

Of course I had to go shopping--or at least visiting all of my friends who were vendors at the show.  Here is what I bought:

My first stop was Beyond Beadery, where I loaded up on seed beads and Swarovski crystal. 

Barb Switzer lent me her Lindstrom tools in class and I was hooked so I bought the flush cutters and the round-nose pliers from Beaducation.  I also bought on of the new Wubber square pliers.  As a bonus, we got the baby Wubber pliers in our Bead and Button goodie bag.

I stopped at Parawire to buy some wire for a new class that I will be teaching in a studio in Manhattan.

Everyone flocked to the York Beads booth for their first appearance at Bead and Button.  I bought some spikes, duo beads, and two interesting-shaped, Czech beads.

I found these lovely tulip-shaped end caps at Elka Designs. 

That temptress Sabine Lippert alerted me to the wonderful lampwork beads of Steven Wheeler of Zion Waters Glass.  Steven incorporates high-end crystals and minerals into his art glass and then uses copper electro-forming to cover parts of the bead.  My bead incorporates fossilized ammonite and the copper layer has a patina on it.

I did a lot more looking but you can't buy everything that you like.  Now I am off to play with my new beads.

SOME PHOTOS FROM BEAD DREAMS 2012

Whew, I finally have some time to sit down and write a few posts. I will start with the easy one: a few photos that I took at Bead and Button of the lovely beadwork pieces in the Bead Dreams 2012 exhibit. I only had time to take a few photos but here are some of the works that caught my eye.

Svetiana Chebotayeva

Linda Landy

Diane Hyde

Heidi Kummli

Miranda Groenendaal

Anneta Valious

Sherry Hutchinson Serafini

Emi Tsuneoka

Emi Yamada

Megumi Kobuki

Tatiana Van Iten

Kathy King 

Mieko Ogura

Melissa Ingram

Irina Rudneva

Ann Braginsky

Hatsumi Oshitani

Svetiana Chebotayeva

Pamm Horbit (left) and Nancy Rocknich

Beki Haley has also put up some photos from Bead Dreams 2012 on her blog so you can click on over to Beki's Beading Blog to see more eye candy.   Enjoy!

BEAD SHOW AND CLASSES IN NEW YORK CITY

The Innovative Beads Expo (or as someone misread it last night the Innovative Bead Sexpo, which would bring in a whole other crowd) is back in Manhattan on May 4, 5, and 6.  We have an exciting group of classes including 3 bead crochet sessions taught by yours truly.

Friday afternoon's class (May 4, 1:30-4:30) will be The Side by Side necklace.  This is a good class for someone who wants an introduction to crocheting with beads because we use larger beads and fiber. 

On Saturday morning (May 5, 10:30-1:30), I will teach the Turkish Delight Bracelet.  This is an intermediate- level bead crochet project based on a stitch that I learned in Turkey.  It uses smaller beads and crochet thread to create a sparkly bracelet with an eye-catching closure.  The closures are done with needle and  thread.




Sunday morning's class (May 6, 10:30-1:30) will be an introduction to Tubular Bead Crochet.  Students will make a bead crochet tube and turn it into a pendant with a bit of simple wire work.  Crochet experience is helpful but not required.



Students who register before 5:00pm on Wednesday, May 2, 2012 will save $10 on the class price.  For more information and registration form, please visit Innovative Beads Expo.

Along with my classes, Marti Brown will be offering wire work and Viking knit classes, Meg Fillmore will be teaching a stringing class and an earring class, and Pat Reisner will be offering 3 fun, needle weaving classes.  Hope to see you there.

POPCORN CABOCHONS

My friend Michael Harrington, the artist behind Beads That Bounce, brought some of his latest experiments to our Bead Society meeting tonight and caused quite a stir.  Michael has taken his cold inclusion bead technique and made what he calls Popcorn Cabochons.  These are made of epoxy so they are light as well as beautiful.

The cabs range in size from 1 1/4 inches (3.2 centimeters) to 2.67 inches (7 centimeters).  Michael will be at Bead and Button with all of his beads but in the meantime, here are some quick photos that I took at our meeting.

     This blue bead above is one of my favorite ones because it looks like a modern art painting.

This one above almost looks like a something under the sea.  A few of us got cabochon samples to play with and I am anxious to play with my yellow, diamond-shaped cabochon.  To see some of Michael's cold inclusion beads made layer by layer with beads, sequins, and optical-grade resin, visit Beads by Michael.

CROCHET CORAL AT ANTHROPOLOGIE

The coral I made during the demonstrtation.

 The NYC Crochet Guild was asked to give a crocheted coral workshop for the shoppers at the Anthropologie store in Rockefeller Center on Friday.  This was part of their Earth Day celebration.  Along with the Guild, the store had some live coral in a tank, a lady who helped kids make sea anemone out of dyed toothpicks and styrofoam balls, and sweets.

 Here is Mary, the organizer from our Guild at our table.  Notice her lovely knit and crocheted necklace.
Some of our coral on on the table in front of her.

                                                                             Below are some of our intrepid volunteers at the teaching table: Willena (facing us) and Kim
(standing) along with people working on their own coral.










More of our coral display.  My coral with the crabs was a bit hit.



The other end of our display.








Demonstrating and teaching.

 A whole coral landscape made by Willena.

 We had so many people wanting to try their hand at crochet that Kim had to take a seat on the store's couch.





A few pieces of coral made at the teaching table are resting on the orange coral.



Here is another shot of the coral that I made during the afternoon spread out so you can see the structure.  Most of it is a blue microfiber with bits of Fun Fur (both by Lion Brand)  crocheted in.  A last row of Fun Fur gives it a lush look.  Lion Brand was one of the comapnies that donated yarn for the afternoon's activities.

As a thank you gift, the lovely staff of Anthropologie gave us these Air Plants in plaster and chicken wire baskets.  A lovely way to remember a fun afternoon.