All in a Day's Work!

I had a busy and rewarding day yesterday. I got to make 4 necklaces and 2 earrings. I had a bit of a slow start with a new design - did 3 false starts before I finally got the hang of it - then did a quick trip to the local bead store for some emergency supplies and back to beading again. This is a short post cause I need to get back to work! Hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

From the drawing board to reality

Beading is great therapy. It certainly helps me to de-stress from work. But life took a turn and the stress became personal as my husband was diagnosed with cancer. The energies got shifted to him and beads became trivial. But beading still helped to keep my sanity. What do you do when you don't have access to a computer, can't really bring your beading stuff with you and had hours of dead time in the hospital where you really couldn't concentrate but needed to occupy your mind? I turned to coloring triangles. Pages and pages of triangles, I had a box of my son's coloring pencils in my bag, a template of a triangle and I would ease my mind into a mindless mental state and just color those little blocks. Some people looked at me like I was crazy (I still am!). Half the time, the results would be nice, the other half just gibberish. Funny how the mind can go into hypermode and idle at the same time. Mind and No Mind, kind of a thing?Now we are in remission (yay!) and life getting back to somewhat normal - depending on your definition of normal. I took the drawings and started to render these triangle pendants. It's been satisfying to bring these colorings to life. You know what they say about finding some light in life's dark moments. I think about my state of mind then when my purpose was just to color each tiny block. And now the satisfaction I have in finally taking these drawings and creating something tangible, real. And, hopefully, give enjoyment to the person who decides they like the pendants enough to wear them.

Work in Progress

My mental fog has been lifted and I'm working away and I thought I'd show you this pendant as the work progresses. Should I stop here or keep going? I have visions of working further, adding more rings, spiral rope, embellishments, etc., etc, etc... or go minimalist and do a simple beaded necklace.

A New Home!

Yesterday, I was at the Ballston Arts + Crafts Art Market (the last one for the year-sniff, sniff). It was a good day, a bit chilly but people were still out for a walk shopping for handmade goodies. I was happy that quite a few of my pieces found a new home with ladies who fell in love with them. Several of my buyers simply put on the jewelry, not bothering to have me wrap it up for them! I was happy to see them smiling :)