Beaded Dream Catcher

My sister's birthday snuck up on me this year. I'm not sure how, since it's always within a few days of Mother's Day. I usually need a lot of time picking something out for her because she is so damn hard to shop for. She is much more practical than me and she tends toward Native American art and anything horse related. With no time to go shopping, I had to think of something to make her. All the horse beading patterns were way too big and complicated to do in one day, so I settled on a Native American design. The Dream Catcher is a common design for many tribes and is traditionally made of willow, sinew and feathers. It's not meant to last forever. The one I made is on a brass ring wrapped in leather thong and strung with size 11 seed beads. Grandmother Spider in the center is a quartz cube. I have only made one other and it only had eight points. This one has 16, which made it much tougher. The center color had to be pulled out and redone because it came out too loose the first time. I did make one mistake at the beginning but chose not to correct it because it is a Cherokee belief that we are but human and cannot achieve perfection—to do so would bring bad luck. If you take a good look at any of my beadwork you will see that I live by this belief. My beadwork will never bring me bad luck. I sure hope my sister likes it. I'll try a horse design later, I guess.

Titania's Garland of Leaves

I think she likes her necklace. This is the biggest bead project for me ever and I can't believe I got it done in time. Remember back in February when I posted nine leaves? Well, here they are with the other 31 on a herringbone base! When I saw the original necklace being worn by Carole Horn I knew I had to make it for Beth. The class was ages ago but of course I finished it the day before I needed to give it to her. I really wanted her to wear it with her garb at The Hudson Valley Mayfaire. She was the vendor coordinator and Hilary and I were her minions. Looks like we all got roped into doing it again next year so make plans to come see us and all the cool vendors.

I'm gonna miss working on this piece. I wish I could put it in your hands so you could feel it. The weight of it and the cool smoothness of the beads really makes me happy. Now that I'm finished my fingers are itching to do more beadwork. After 40 leaves I almost want to make more, for a different project. I can't decide what to do next but I have to figure it out before the end of the week. I promised I would have a new project started by the time Temple of Craft meets. Maybe I'll felt something to bead on? I'll keep you posted.

Look real close.

I am a very happy and lucky girl. I got to go to Death Valley last week for the third time in five years. In 2005 they had the biggest bloom in park history and I got to see it! It is the lowest, driest and hottest place in the U.S., so you don't see too many critters during the day. So far I have seen a coyote, collared lizards, humming birds, burros, a pronghorn, and turkey vultures. This trip I really wanted to see wild burros again.

As we left the park proper I saw a burro-crossing sign and got very excited. Just a couple of miles outside Beatty, NV, we saw them from the highway! We pulled over and I hopped out of the van and ran across the road with the others in my tour. I took a picture of the first four I saw as I walked closer. A woman in the tour walked up the fence and found two others. One of the burros did a strange, aggressive hop toward the woman as she got closer. I walked over and saw a foal up next to the fence. Then my heart sank when I saw a burro's leg sticking up along the fence. You can see it in this photo in front of the foal. I assumed it was a dead animal until she moved. OH MY GOD, SHE'S ALIVE! I yelled something like that to our guide, who was still across the road. He came over and I asked who we should call — as if we could get a signal in Death Valley. There were no other options, so I decided we had to do something and our guide warned that I could get hurt. I said I would take my chances and went over and held the burro's head down to stop her from flailing.

She had been hitting her head against the ground, trying to use her strong neck to push herself up. I covered her eye to calm her. She still kicked a couple of times and I ended up getting pretty dirty. I told our guide to try to get the barbed wire off from around her ankle. It was too tight so I threw him my hat to wrap around the barbed wire for better leverage. It still held tight, so he loosened a wire on the fence post and was able to slacken one line of barbed wire and get her hoof loose. Luckily, our guide and I could get out of the way before she stood up! She trotted up the fence line without favoring her leg, which made me ecstatic. Members of her herd followed her since she was on the wrong side of the fence. Driving in the same direction she was headed, we saw that there was a break in the fence a few miles up, so I'm sure she got around without too much trouble.

Our guide called his boss as soon as we had a signal and she spoke to her contact at the B.L.M. (Bureau of Land Management) and let them know what happened. I was going to do a follow-up call the next day until I spoke to my sister and got the lowdown on the federal government and their policy on wild burros. I didn't want to remind them. Even though burros are not a native species, they deserve a chance. Life is tough enough in the desert. Had a B.L.M. employee come across her I assume they would have shot her instead of freeing her. It would give them one less one to round up later. Many of the wild burros and wild horses they round up do end up being adopted to loving homes, but too many of them do not. Wild burros have been living in the Mojave desert for about 400 years, since before the gold rush. At least that poor girl we found got a second chance. It was luck. The only reason we stopped was because her herd stayed with her. It was mid-day, when you usually don't see animals in the desert. I think it's a good example of having a circle of friends -- or am I anthropomorphizing?

Making Things For Others

I love to make things for other people. That's were what I make usually goes — to other people. Once in a blue moon I'll make something for myself, but it's rare. Sometimes I'll make something with the intention of keeping it, and then I think of someone else who would like it. The T-shirt above was done for my friend Lisa. This is another example of the bleach stencils I wrote about before. She couldn't make it to the Temple of Craft when we did the shirts, so I took one of her T-shirts and did it for her. (That way she got stuck with the idea I had for her.) She is devoted to her three wonderful kitties, so this seemed appropriate. The necklace and bracelet below were done for my knitting friend. I turned her onto the wonders of tagua nuts and wanted to make her something. Tagua is a nut from South America that can be carved like ivory. The pieces used here are just slices, but they show the thin brown skin covering the seed. Since her favorite color is brown, I thought of her right away. The necklace is brown silk, and the bracelet is made with elastic and African trade beads. I did keep one big tagua for myself that is dyed red like coral, I put it on blue silk for a necklace. I was so happy that there was a tagua dealer at the latest Whole Bead Show. Some time I'll post pictures of the amazing carved pieces my friend Argentina has brought back for me from her hometown in Panama.

How much do you love coffee?

As an ADD crafter I highly recommend Craft: magazine. It's been coming out quarterly for a year and a half and every issue has great ideas and here is the newest fun: "Bleach Shirt Stencil". There are some amazing stencils out there, but mine tend toward the simple. I've done three so far and can't wait to do more. So far I have learned that it works better on thinner material. Cotton or blend doesn't seem to matter. After I did the stencil, I used the T-Shirt Printing Kit to do the words in fabric paint. How far can I push it? Who knows? I like to see how far I can go before the nice suburban ladies frown in disapproval. You should pull out some old t-shirt and give it a try. Blank t-shirts are pretty cheep at the big craft stores too. Even if you don't splurge on the stamps, you can always paint words with fabric markers. Get out there and make something!

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This may seem totally out of left field, but WFMU is near and dear to my heart. I thought about this for a few days and I couldn't not do my part. I love WFMU. It's freeform and limitless. The DJs are volunteers and they don't take underwriting or corporate money. The whole thing is run on donations. There are so any different types of music represented. I love many of the shows but there is stuff I can't stand on there too. It's great that even the crazy shit has a home. Along with everything being available online whenever you want to listen, there are also some radio-unfriendly web-only shows. Do yourself a favor and give WFMU a try. If you love it you could donate as little as $10. I'll be working the phone bank on Monday from noon to 3 pm. You could call! 1-800-989-9368. The marathon is only once a year and ends on March 9th.

Beaded Leaves

The class I took was great! I'm really happy about joining The Bead Society Of Greater New York. It is good to have challenges after beading the same way for so long. All my prep work helped a little. Of course the herringbone stitch I taught myself was the opposite of the one used in class, and we did angular peyote stitch — which is the only peyote stitch I have never done. I'm still looking forward to finishing this project, and I'll use this leaf technique for lots of other things too. During the class I made three leaves and about a quarter of the necklace base. The pace and structure of the class worked really well for me. Carole Horn did a great job with her instructions. They were simple and precise. As long as I pay attention to the instructions I'll be alright. I'm up to ten leaves and the goal is forty! I'll end up making extras because there will be leaves I'm not thrilled with (there already are). Picking the colors was a little tough, first because I have a recipient in mind and the colors had to be right for her and second because when I showed up for class there was a feeding frenzy around the bead table and I could hardly get through. I ended up going back over after the class started only to have beeds I needed sold out. Luckily, I'll be able to use beads from my stash. I really want to finish this soon, so I have been hanging out at Coffee Labs, sitting in the window.