New item in my Studios

I love to constantly pursue learning and develop new skills. Most of my skills fall into designing with thread and yarn, something my fingers have a skill for and my mind easily learns. In these pursuits I picked up two new methods that I am rapidly falling in love with for their potential, beauty, and charm. The first is beaded tube crochet which can be used to make necklaces, bracelets, earrings, belts, and a multitude of other items. The items are worked with seed, delica, pearls, and many other types of beads and threads that are crocheted into a tube. I am rapidly learning about the possibilities and types of beads that are available and above all wonders discovered we have a bead shop in Savannah.

The second is tatting. I never really cared for doilies and edgings, and this is all I had seen done with tatting in the past, so it never really sparked my imagination. However, when I happened across some wonderful work done by the artisan Tatania Rosa on Etsy, my inspiration was struck! She has such beautiful designs and the fact that everything is tatted provides new insight on this skill. So not that I will EVER steal her designs, but the inspiration to learn and tat pieces of my own are driving me on in learning this skill. I finally got a ring to close and figured out what was meant by "flipping" the stitch. (This is the point where I was actually calling it a "flippin' stitch" because it was so darn irritating.)

So after much trial and error, I have decided that my skills are increasing and as evidence of that I have finally listed one of my beaded crochet bracelets. Everything came together so well on this - from the beads I bought off of Etsy and Artfire to the availability of threads - that it was destined to be a masterpiece. I call it "Bye Winter Blues" because it was my answer to chasing off some of the dark winter doldrums of the past few weeks. The sapphire and cobalt blue beads are a reminiscent of the chill in the air, but the light caught by each bead creates a glisten and sparkle that reminds me spring is just around the corner.

If you'd like to check it out you can find me on Artfire, Etsy, or Zibbet. Let me know what you think, as jewelry in itself in entirely new frontier for me. I welcome comments and *sigh* criticisms. I am also entering this piece into the Inspiration Avenue - Etsy Team's Change the World Weekly Challenge. This piece is an inspiration to me in that it helped me through what may have been the beginning of a depression. It inspired me to create, to dream of winter past and spring ahead, and to challenge myself by inspiring others to find the beauty and sparkle in every season.