Making do!

Kumihimo is a Japanese braiding technique that is fun and relaxing.  It also creates an interesting beaded chain for bracelets and necklaces.  I had a piece that I bought years ago that needed a special cording to hang it from.  I'd tried making some beaded and chained pieces for it but none of them seemed to complement the piece..... until now.

When making a bracelet, the cording is cut two feet long.  For a 20" necklace I cut the pieces 60" long as the ratio for the braiding is 3 to 1.  Also, the use of the longer pieces requires a bobbin at the end of each cord.  The bobbins keep the cords from tangling during the wrapping process.

As the bobbins work up to the Kumihimo board they have to be unwrapped and repositioned.  It is easier to loosen the bobbins when not holding onto the board.  So...... I looked around for something to hold the board and it's cords.  What I found was a foldable magnifying stand that I bought in Florida.  It actually resembles the holders that are used in the Kumihimo process.

The beads weren't quite what I wanted, but in the end I think these do work.  Remember, I did not make the focal point.  Not sure who did, but I bought it long before I got into jewelry making.

Jack and the Beanstalk

Well, surprisingly the challenge piece is done. As was mentioned in the previous post I ran into a major problem but the issue was resolved.

The challenge was to make a piece inspired by your favorite fairy tale. The pieces are due on Friday and it will be interesting to see what direction the challenge took people. The two pieces that are posted already are based on the story of Medusa and Alice in Wonderland. Just seeing what people consider to be fairy tales is interesting since this challenge group represents people from all over the world.

The web site to see the challenges is http://mcchallenges.blogspot.com/.

It's been so long since I thought about my favorite fairy tale. My first thought was Rumplestiltskins (not sure about this spelling.) But, the old brain just wasn't wrapping itself around any ideas. The beanstalk came to mind when I looked at a piece of dichroic glass I had made awhile back.

Various ideas popped about in my head, including adding the golden egg and the figure of Jack. But as I thought about it, what I remembered most about the fairy tale was the giant beanstalk. As a small child the idea of something growing so big that it disappeared into the clouds intrigued me so I decided to focus on the beanstalk. The design on the dicrohic piece looked like trees so I decided to surround the piece with leaves and go up (like Jack went up.)

The black ABS beads and the kumihimo bead weaving just seemed to fit both the color of the glass and the sense of a big stalk. The color of the beads also have a rich metallic color that would suggest the golden egg.

There is a lot of silver (and time) in this piece. Pretty much everything on this piece was made by me, the glass cab, jump rings, cones and toggle clasp.

Now on to the next challenge!