Showing posts with label free form. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free form. Show all posts

Saturday, July 15, 2017

Fairy Chrysalis Tutorial and Bead Soup Sale

Fairy Chrysalis Beaded Pendants
I recently updated an old tutorial on free form beaded pendants.  Ten years ago, I wrote instructions to show how to stitch a Fairy Chrysalis, a pendant designed to look organic and constructed from a wide variety of beads. You can read all about the tutorial here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/536288125/tutorial-fairy-chrysalis-beaded-pendant

If you would like a kit to make a Fairy Chrysalis, then you should visit my Etsy shop this Wednesday July 19, 2017at 5 PM Pacific time. I will be having a big sale of kits of bead soup.  I hand selected each lot, and each lot of beads is unique. You can go to Facebook to tons of photos of all of the lots before they go up for sale, with sizes and prices.

Lot #1 has a crazy lace agate with crazy cool banding.  Red and earthy.

 Lot #3 has an amazing piece of orange bumblebee jasper. 


Lot #4 includes a very flashy labradorite.
Which looks really different under different lights.
There are lots more lots. To see the rest of the lots that I will have for sale on Wednesday, see this gallery on the Bead Infinitum fan page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/beadinfinitum/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1516325788427996

Thanks for looking!

Monday, June 5, 2017

Upcycled Freeform Cashmere and Wool Sweaters

I made a few sweaters last Winter and Spring, but somehow I forgot to blog about them, and now it's June. This post is totally seasonally inappropriate, unless you live in Australia. So, as you read this, pretend that you're Australian. I promise, it'll be worth it.

Sweater No. 13 Dusty Rose
This was a custom order for a friend who does a lot of needle crafts.  I wanted to make it especially detailed for her because I knew she would appreciate the effort.  So I covered the front of the hood with folded roses made from cashmere sweaters. 
Here's a close up of the roses before I added the buttons. To make the roses, I used classic "folded ribbon rose" techniques but with strips of sweaters instead of regular ribbon.


Sweater No. 14 Periwinkle
This was my first adventure in free-form sweater sewing. It's is all cashmere, mostly hand dyed.
I like the way the black seams make it look like stained glass. 

Sweater No. 15 Black Berry
This was my second adventure into free-form sweater sewing.
I found that I could use the leftover scraps to make the hood.  I really love the way the lines and colors on this piece worked out.
This Black Berry Sweater is mostly cashmere, mostly hand dyed.

Here's a close up of the bobble at the end of the hood.

Sweater No. 16 Kelp Queen
I made this piece for myself... because... LIME GREEN!!!!
I had to dye almost all of the sweaters to get enough lime green.  Here's a photo of the hood before it was a hood.
When I first showed this photo, my friends said it looks like a landscape painting, like one by Wayne Thiebaud or this:
http://www.annadillon.com/tor.html
 

Sweater No. 17 Hot Pink, etc.
This was a custom piece for a good friend of mine, pure cashmere. She likes hot pink.  A lot. It's more purple than blue, as the photo suggests
Here's what the hood looked like before it was a hood.
Okay, that was way too much of a blacklog of projects.  I need to start blogging more.  Note to self.  Anyway, as always, thanks for looking.

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Upcycled Sweater Number 5

I really enjoy making these new sweaters out of old sweaters, enough that I decided to start numbering them.  This one is number 5.  I'm finally feeling more comfortable with the technique of sewing sweaters on my serger without fretting over every seam.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/209757932/sweater-dress-cardigan-upcycled-cashmere
It's made of fine wool and cashmere.  It's pretty soft, cozy and warm.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/209757932/sweater-dress-cardigan-upcycled-cashmere
Plus, it buttons up the front with some old buttons from my grandmother's button box.  I made the button placket myself, which I'm pretty proud of.  It took me 13 tries on a scrap to figure out how to get my sewing machine to make button holes properly, but I got it, and I took notes for next time. 
https://www.etsy.com/listing/209757932/sweater-dress-cardigan-upcycled-cashmere
I'm rather pleased with how the neckline came out.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/209757932/sweater-dress-cardigan-upcycled-cashmere
The little leaves are all stitched on separately.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/209757932/sweater-dress-cardigan-upcycled-cashmere
I also added leaves on the sleeve hems and on the patch pocket. This sweater is SOLD.  Thanks for looking.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/209757932/sweater-dress-cardigan-upcycled-cashmere

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Felt Cuffs XII and XIII

Textile Cuff Bracelet XIII - Twilight in Gray Purple Nuno Felt with Silk 




 I finished a few new cuffs yesterday and listed them in my Etsy shop. The one above started as a pair, in purple and white wool (and other fibers) felted over hot pink silk fabric. When I wet felted them, the hot pink ran and dyed the white a very faint pink.  I really didn't like the colors, so I cut one up as an experiment.  This week, I got some black acid dye, so I was able to overdye the remaining one to make the pink into a nice middle gray.  Then I beaded it using freeform bead embroidery, following the lines in the felt.  I added snaps and a tag and called it done.

Textile Cuff Bracelets XII - Running Water in Lime Green Blue Aqua Nuno Felt with Silk 


Click the titles to see more photos and read more details.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Felt Cuffs

Anybody who knows me well knows I always have cold hands.  My freezing hands have inspired a small line of felted cuffs.  These are made from merino wool, falkland wool, silk fabric, silk fiber and seed beads.   What I learned: A tiny bit of light silk fiber goes a long way in coloring dark felt.
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