Stratford Fringe Bracelet

So I was in Stratford on Saturday. We 3 sisters took in Cyrano de Bergerac at the Festival Theatre.

We picniced in the Theatre grounds overlooking the small knot garden. I had my fav PBJ and fresh fruit followed. A quick turn through the Giftie Shoppie and a visit to the Ladies and we were set for the 3 hour performance.

Colm Feore was Cyrano. He was in every scene and had great long speeches as well as running around. It was a wonderful

performance!

And I wore a new bracelet. The picture doesn't do it justice.

The whole thing measures 9.25in (nearly 24cm) but the bugle bead fringe takes up a lot of that extra room. The spine' is 10/o silver glass seed beads and the fringe is #3 black glass bugle beads with the silver glass seed beads at the ends. I made a fancy button clasp.

The bonus, well really several bonus-us-us, is that it works up quickly. And all the silvery bits sparkle and gleam when the house lights are up. They even sparkle in the ambient lighting from on stage lighting. The bracelet has little weight and it's a great bracelet to play with. It feels good. So I guess you could consider it a grown up toy to wear to the grown up theatre.

I also have made a set ~ necklace, bracelet, earrings ~ using the spiral technique and primary coloured bugle beads. It's different than the fringe technique of the Stratford Fringe Bracelet. Instead of using seed beads in the spiral part, I used #2 bugle beads and 10/o seed beads. And it was fun to do. I wonder how much I enjoyed doing this up is related to the cheery primary colours?

Now. I've been so busy and loving every minute of it. Even when my beads fall on the floor I cannot say I don't like beads. Picking up all them there lil beggars is among the yuckiest of beading tasks but .....

My 2nd cousin, or is she my 1st cousin once removed? My cousin Gwynith asked for a Ladder Garden bracelet way back last Christmas. It's finally done. And we're planning to visit her in August and I'll deliver it then.

Why did she ask for this bracelet? She saw the Ladder Garden Bracelet my sister wears. She wanted one but with her colours. And that's what I've done. And that's the pic right there on the left. I hope she likes it.

What's in my lap now? I've done some more work with the spiral technique using bugle beads. I'm looking for a way to simplify a double spiral piece. I can do it in several passes but that means I have to guesstimate the length of the bracelet and take into account the 'fluffiness' factor. I'm working on it because I want to write up a kit to sell at the next Bead Oasis show in Toronto in September.

That's it for now. ...Helen

News!

I bought a new computer!! I decided my time was too valuable to struggle with my missing keys and I was making too many errors in passwords and I have a big whack of new kits to write and ....

So I bought a new computer: a Mac this time. I've been learning how to do things with my new Mac and I really am pleased. The 'help' references really do help. And they are written for people like me who have difficulty following orders. Y'know, I've never thought of myself as a person marching to a different drum but I must be one of those: instructions are so hard to follow that I try to do everything without them and refer to the instructions only when all else has failed. Hmmm.

I've been using the exercise of writing a new kit, complete with my own diagrams, to learn the ins-and-outs of Mac-dom. I think I'm rather happy: not toe wiggling happy, just garden variety 'happy.'

Now that I've written something new I have to move over to Artfire and load them up for you to buy.

And a friend of mine turned me on to VistaPrint. I've seen them on the 'net but always passed them by. But with the endorsement of my friend I decided to try them. I managed 3 lots of free business cards: each with a different design element. Now every day I get their notification of something else just brought into the 'free' category. I am awaiting a small indoor sign. That's going to help my visibility at the fall Bead Oasis Show in Toronto. My next VistaPrint project will be invitations to my 'net friends for that show: it's in September, by the way.

My sister was wearing one of my necklaces yesterday and it was being admired by one of my wholesalers, a new wholesaler, and I thought 'hmmmmm.' I'm going to try that in a spiral technique.

Yup! Right after dinner was done and the dishes put into the dishwasher I sat down and began to play. One of the things I like about beading is that you can experiment to your heart's content and reclaim the beads to try again. All you are out is some thread and that's hardly the most expensive thing in beading. Not like needlework where the threads can be very expensive. I mean the 'do I eat or do I buy thread?' kind of expensive.

Well! 2AM arrived and my eyes were willfully closing. I had to put my needle, thread, and beads down and plod to bed. This morning I think the insides of my eyelids is made of sandpaper. My back aches and I've got a headache ~~ I really don't know why I stay up so late when I know the consequences are so unpleasant. Well, maybe I'll have a nap soon. That might help.

And right after I post the new kit on Artfire I'm gonna sit down to work on the new design. No! Wait! I'm going to get my nap out of the way first.

Oh, yeah! My ads for Artfire and VistaPrint are my opinions only. I receive no compensation and neither I nor my relatives are employees of these companies. ........Helen