My Big Crafty Weekend

On Saturday, I got up early, got all my beady supplies together, then drove through the rain to the Dallas Bead Society meeting. Marcia DeCoster is coming to teach classes next month, and we were practicing Right Angle Weave in preparation.

My friend Ralonda just finished a huge project, Willow, who is a semi-finalist for the Land of Odds Competition. I can't show a picture until its been posted to the site. She needed to go on a huge bead shopping spree to restock. Two other DBS members Carol Ann and Lisa joined us. We went to Rock Barrel, had some fabulous crepes at Cafe Brazil, then headed to Artful Bead. Here's a shot of my loot:


Driving through the rain this whole time made me realize my Jeep needed new windshield wipers! After my DH installed them, I was off to Larry's for the Esty Dallas 2nd Birthday Party. We had a great time and honored our fearless leader, Stephanie, with a surprise:

I LOVE football. So all I did the entire rainy Sunday was bead and watch the Cowboys, and a few other games. At 9pm, I watched the final episode of Design Star, and my fav from the beginning, Antonio, was the winner! Those design shows can inspire my work and give me great ideas, so I can't wait to watch his show :)

6 New Pens, 1 Brand New Design

I know you're not supposed to list items in your shop in batches, but I can't help it. That's just how I work, I guess. I had fun playing with the colors of my butterfly, swirl, and vertigo designs. Then, I worked on a brand new design: the flowers.

I played around a lot with the flowers design: drawing, beading, and ripping out! I was going to have them swirl around the pen, but you couldn't see them very well. I staggered them, but then the back was too blank. After ripping that out, I decided to do 6 flowers on each side. I think it turned out great, how about you? I'm going to try to get a few of these listed in my shop today.

Special note: The first of the monthly giveaways begins tomorrow! Just leave a comment on tomorrow's post to enter. Also, the subscriber-only offer (for those of you signed up for my newsletter) ends tomorrow at midnight.

Worktable Wednesday: Butterfly Bracelet

Yesterday was my birthday! I worked on this piece for some of the day, and later had drinks with friends. I feel pretty good about being 26.

The bracelet encompasses 3 of my favorite things: butterflies, purple, and button clasps. I plan to turn this project into a free tutorial on my other site www.beadcircle.com. I moving the site to my new server today, and then I have some more exciting ideas to add :)

Worktable Wednesday: STRIKE!

This is one of the art cards I've been working on for the Bead Journal Project. DH and I are in a bowling league that meets on Sunday nights. One night, he threw the ball down the lane so hard a chunk of the ball broke off! He still got a strike, though. I decided to use the broken piece of ball in this art card by encasing it in beads. I had another layer of beads on the ball but took them off because the gold beads were overwhelming the bigger gold beads I was using for the finger holes. I'll have to think of something else or get some matte gold beads. The pins were fun to bead and it's lookin pretty good so far.

What do tattoos and mustaches have in common?

They can both be beaded on pens!



The mustache pen idea developed during a craft circle (crafts and wine have created some awesome projects). Tamara of TP Design was making necklaces from 40 year old vintage velvet Christmas bows rescued from her parents house. She even added pearls and I wanted one really bad! So we decide to trade for a custom mustache pen that I am finally sending her way. She is a beautiful person and a ridiculously talented artist. Click here to visit her shop.

The tattoo pen features the symbol of local artist Jared. He paints, he draws, he tattoos. We have some of his coffee paintings in our gallery at the Starbucks where I work. The symbol is an arc with 3 lines slashed through it. It's tattooed on his forearm and he sometimes signs his work with it. If you're in need of a killer tat, see him at Artistic Encounter on Rosemeade. Ask about the swine flu tattoo :)

Worktable Wednesday: Embellishment Explosion + Finished Lariat

I'm finally feeling better from being sick all 4th of July weekend. All I did was watch the history channel and bead. I got a little beading done between cat naps on the couch. My table looks like a bead bomb went off when its time to embellish! Here is my completed Dragon Tears Lariat by Melanie Doerman:

Worktable Wednesday: I'm at the end of my rope!

I'm finally at the end of my rope! It took 16+ hours to complete this netted rope with size 15/0 black and purple seed beads. I'm really happy with it, and now its time for the best part...embellishment!

Survey for Beaders

My computer is on my "worktable" for this Wednesday. I am planning a redesign of my beading forum, Bead Circle. I have some exciting ideas, but I wanted to ask the opinion of beaders before I dive in. The survey is 10 questions long, mostly multiple choice, the last one asks you to describe what the perfect beading website be like. What features would it have? I'm very excited about this project, and I can't wait to receive your feedback! Thanks!

Worktable Wednesday: Letter to the Clutter Fairy

Dear Clutter Fairy,
I want to thanks you for visiting the Dallas Bead Society this past February. We appreciate all tips you gave us on how to organize our bead spaces on a more creative level. Artists and crafters are obviously visual people, but it was a new concept for me that our supplies are so inspirational/motivational, they should be out and seen at all times. After organizing my studio and implementing all the tips I learned, I somehow managed to lose the beads I was using for my Dragon Tears Lariat (pictured above, half finished), a class I took from Melanie Doerman. It just seemed so ironic. After I finished my Stars in Her Eyes Lariat, I decided to finally clean off my desk, and found my beads! So, I promise to use my organization system and my project cases more effectively from now on.
Peace and Love,
Mandi

Stars in Her Eyes Lariat

It is finished! I've mentioned this lariat in my Worktable Wednesday posts, and blogging about it was enough motivation to get it done. It was designed by Marilou Porth who teaches at Artful Bead, and is a member of the Dallas Bead Society. I finished it while listening to some audio that is part of a business and marketing course I am taking online. Adding the stars was definitely my favorite part, and it turned out so beautiful!

I've been mentioned on 2 other blogs recently! First, I was a featured designer on A Bead A Day. Second, my Peace Sign Mini Pen is a hot pick on the Jesse Jane's blog. Thanks for featuring me, I'm honored!

Worktable Wednesday

Last week I mentioned those beaded purple and gold stars in the top left container. Well, blogging about them was enough motivation to work on it more. I tripled the length of the herringbone lariat rope! I worked on it at the Dallas Bead Society meeting on Saturday. I can't wait to add all the little stars to the ends. It's like the reward for working on such a long rope!

Worktable Wednesday

This is my set up I have going in front of the TV. My DH (see footnote) is a huge movie buff so we're always watching movies (or baseball), and I feel the need to be productive at the same time. This is my bead board that goes nearly everywhere with me. I was lucky enough to get my OTT-LITE from the Dallas Bead Society Holiday Party this past December. We sat in a big circle and someone read a story, and when the reader said "left" we passed our gifts to the person to our left, and the same for the word "right." I was sooo happy to end up with it! It is the best work light I've ever owned and I LOVE that it shows true colors. I can also angle it so I don't disturb DH's movie atmosphere. I set both of these on my Table Mate. My DH is geeky and has a computer hooked up to the TV as well. He was always wanting to set his keyboard on MY table! We had to get another one. These tables are awesome! Time to get back to work because my new shop is opening June 1st! Now you know exactly where I will be sitting.

Footnote: DH is short of "Dear Husband" not "Designated Hitter" as I originally thought when I first started posting in forums! Yes, I LOVE baseball.