It's All About the Handwork

Coffee in a lovely sea green ceramic mug, Lynne's podcast on metal clay and the lapping of waves and the calls of the gulls for my music. Photo at right courtesy of Lynne, who is an avid and excellent photographer. This time in Florida is a time of focused, creative recharge. I brought four projects with me--two beading and two textile. I have so far worked on three of the four, and will start the fourth today. I have also meditated at least once a day, done yoga every day, and moved January from "dry" to "moist"... or maybe a little more damp than that. It's not sopping wet yet, but there are still two more days! Oh, and if all that wasn't enough, I finally figured out the premise for an urban fantasy series I have long wanted to write. More on that in another post. Today, it's all about the craft(s). 

Project I is a 3-D beading endeavor. On last year's January trip I visited Jumping Mouse Beads, a friend's bead shop in Blue Ridge GA. She had a frosted blue bottle with a peyote (bead, not hallucinogen) abstract sleeve on the neck that she used for a display prop. I fell in love with it, and convinced her to sell it to me. Since then I have wanted to do my own 3-D bead overlay, and the current project is a beaded deer antler. The idea, antler, and instruction came from Laura at Austin Bead Gallery 

I realized when I arrived here that I had neglected to finish drilling the holes in the antler, and had not bring any kind of hole-making apparatus. I am a resourceful mammal with a credit card so was undaunted. However, Cedar Key is a small town... village... dot on the map. It's smaller than Polson--our summer home in Montana. When we walked around the corner to the town's hardware store we discovered that they don't carry power tools. Nor did they have a manual hand drill. (Insert shocked face emoji here). So we all piled into Becky's car and drove 30 miles to the Ace Hardware in Chiefland to acquire a Dremel and a couple of 1/16" drill bits. 

Back at the house-on-stilts, I drilled the remaining holes and set to beading. It's a completely unstructured project where both the beads and the stitches I use are at will and at random. I have just started this project, so there is a lot of bare antler and not very many beads--though there are more beads on the underside. But hat will change. By today even.

A couple of hours later, I switched to Project II: an art deco-style beaded necklace by Linda Richmond with two gorgeous Swarovski crystal square rings for the focal point. It uses peyote, herringbone, and brick stitches, and came as a kit so I didn't need to design the colors or scrounge the materials--enabling me to just focus on the technique. 

After a couple of hours I had an inch and a quarter done... and three and a half inches more to go on the first small section. A bit daunting, but I reminded myself that it is all about the journey--and went to take a nap. Napping is a HUGE component of creativity--especially when nit is prefaced with a glass of wine.

After napping and before dinner I worked on Project III:Norah's Vintage Afghan, a Berroco pattern which incorporates different colors and stitches in a series of knitted squares. I started this project pre-Covid or early Covid, and am about one quarter of the way through. I am not going to put it down again till I finish it. Ironically, when I first started it, I enthused about it so much to another friend that she also got the pattern... and then knitted the whole thing. To add insult to injury, she made it with the wool I brought back from Iceland for her. I, of course, have done nothing with any of my Icelandic wool. (Insert eye-rolling emoji here). I suppose if I make it a requirement to knit something with the plötulopi (a special kind of Icelandic yarn) I brought home before I can go to Iceland again, I might get in gear and knit a sweater... or maybe a tunic... a scarf?

Today I begin another new project, a crocheted mandala afghan from Annie's Kit Clubs. I'm making the multi-color one on the right, and I know I won't have any trouble finishing this one as I already completed one of their other crocheted afghan patterns (in record time for me) last year, and I loved doing it. I gave it to Jessie, and she liked it enough she took it to college this year as her one blanket from home. This was quite an honor as she has at least three other hand-made blankets she could have chosen. 

Okay, enough with the writing about crafting, on to the crafting!