Onward and upward!

Today's Daily Special is Keeper of Mementos. This is currently the only locket necklace I have available -- I think I need to fix that!

I just mailed off my 2010 Layne's Legacy -- Beading For A Cure project. You may have noticed that unlike the last two years, I did not make any in-progress posts or indeed, even post a picture of it. The truth is that I was not very happy with this year's bead kit, nor with the style of lampwork included in it, and as such I ended up doing a much simpler project than I would have liked. I simply was not inspired.

Now that my BFAC project is out of the way, I have a reasonably clean slate (bead-wise, at least) and I'm looking forward to attacking more enjoyable projects -- upcycling my vintage Taxco necklace (turns out it's really not vintage enough to be valuable), making some brooches for the shop, and working on a couple of projects for the Tahoe Bead Retreat in October. Not only do I want to have something pretty to wear for the reception there, but they're also having an Ugly Beaded Project contest, and I have the perfect idea in mind for that.

I suspect that things are going to quickly get much more lively around here!

Wrapping lots of loops.

Now that I actually know the proper way to wrap a loop, it allows me to do things like this! I made this necklace this morning, with a little corgi help. It has a few leftover beads from the Collaboration Exploration that I did last year, a little locket that I bought in NY a few years ago, and Sterling chain with lots of dangles. I call it Keeper of Mementos and it's today's Daily Design Challenge piece.

So, the good news is that I found my 100ft spool of Beadalon that I was sure I had ordered earlier this year (it was actually right where it belonged, but I thought it was something else). The bad news is that after making this necklace, I'm down to only a dozen headpins. Yikes! Definitely time to order some findings before the holiday rush.

I feel like doing a little beadweaving, so I think that after I finish all of the networking things that I have to do here at the computer, and put away the leftovers from my last two projects, I'll go pick out the beads for a medusa necklace that I've had planned for a very long time. While I was deciding what to make today, I actually came up with 3 weaving projects. I think what I need to do is make sure to put a little weaving time in every day after I complete my Daily Design Challenge piece.

This is especially important because I'm trying to join the Etsy Beadweavers team, so I need lots of beautiful beadwoven items for my store! Most of my best woven pieces are on my website, though since that is still down, I might re-photograph some of them and move them over to Etsy.