Change is good

We've been collecting polymer clay supplies and tools for a while now. It's hard to just get started. Finally, we realized we needed a bit more guidance. Since we don't have any teachers or classes nearby, we bought a tutorial.... Rustic Beads and Components from Polymer Clay by Ginger Davis Allman from The Blue Bottle Tree. The tutorial is great. Very well written. However, we didn't have one of the tools she suggested, so we substituted another technique. This means the beads don't look much like the ones in the tutorial. However, since we were looking for a jumping off point, we got exactly what we were hoping for. A good teacher ought to show you how to do something, but more importantly, s/he ought to give you the creative boost to go in other directions. Ginger Davis Allman succeeds admirably at doing both.

Our beads are big..... an inch and a quarter long, or so. Two of them have embedded metal loops. The round one has a hole through the centre for stringing. We love that they changed from step to step, and we had no idea where they'd end up. We think they're like digital photos. We need to make a whole bunch of them and keep only the very best. But then again, isn't all art like that? You just keep playing, and you only show your very best efforts.

We couldn't resist

We saw some lovely beads that BastilleBleu.com had for sale. We're big fans of her lampwork beads. Unfortunately, by the time we saw them, they were sold. Drat! Isn't that always the way? But Nikki made us some as a custom order. Here's a close-up view:

We think she'd probably make you some if you asked her nicely. 

Cassie says, "Go on. You know you want some."

Ice Cream Sundae

Vanilla cord, pretty beads and a new (to us) spring-loaded closure.

7 1/2 inches to 8 1/2 inches long

With fresh eyes

We have such lovely visitors here in the Kingdom and many of them leave thoughtful and helpful comments. One of them is Maria who suggested we put the last bracelet away for a day or 2 so we could see it clearly with fresh eyes. What a great idea! We do that routinely with our drawings.

There's something in our brains that wants to make sense of things. Unfortunately, that part of our brain can sometimes get in the way by not allowing us to see things as they really are. So, we sent the green bracelet off for a tiny time out. When he emerged, calmer and contrite, we could see right away it wasn't the choice of colours or even the choice of beads. It was the placement.

The little, yellow beads were just lost in that great chasm between the focal beads and the large white beads.

See the difference?

Now, the yellow beads can shine. The focal beads are ones we made from polymer clay. They are vibrant and joyful. This is a bracelet for someone who is happy! A bracelet for a celebration. It measures 7 3/4 inches long, with a beaded loop and a single glass bead for the closure.

Thank you to everyone who offered input. We appreciate your comments.

Spinning our wheels

It's a grey day in the Kingdom and we're feeling a little grey ourselves.

First of all, we made these lovely beads and a particularly lovely button but when we went to assemble all the supplies we'd need for a bracelet, we don't seem to have coral beads in the right shade. Darn! We know excactly what colour we want. We will have to set this project aside until we can find some ... Stall #1.

We are also working on a tutorial for a Tubular Cast-On for the Corduroy Roads Socks Knit-along. (Starts tomorrow, if you'd like to join us.) However, we've had some rather enthusiastic help from our lovely (and curious) assistant and as much as we love to have her on our lap ... Stall #2.

We have a couple of irons in a couple of fires artistically-speaking but we can't really talk about them just now ... Stall #3.

So, instead, we'll get to some of the housekeeping we should have done already. We are very lucky to have had some very good testers for our recent patterns. One of them is Kate who, unfortunately, doesn't have a web presence. She made up Duetta for us and used her very fancy sewing machine and the basic yoke template from the pattern to create her very own crazy quilted yoke. Although Kate doesn't have a baby in her life right now, she doesn't lack for imagination and that is how this photo shoot was born.

Kate's Duetta

Annette also tested Duetta for us. You can find Annette online at her blog In Stitches and Seams. Annette's Duetta used the instructions and template to paper piece the yoke. What a great job she did!

Annette's Duetta

As usual, when people complete one of our designs and send us a photo to show on this blog, we like to send them out a little thank you gift. This time, we're sending out a file that can be printed on a home printer to make a gift tag to give along with the sweater. When we print it, we cut watercolour paper to 8 1/2" x 11" and feed it through our printer just like any other paper. The file will print 2 cards on one sheet. You only have to follow the instructions and cut on the horizontal lines and score/fold on the vertical lines. There's room on the back of the card to put laundering instructions and the whole inside of the card is blank so you can write your good wishes.

What's with all the blue Duettas?

And that is it for us today. Be sure to check out the other Canadian craftspeople on the Needle and Thread Network to see what they're up to. And be sure to join us tomorrow as we begin the Corduroy Roads Socks Knit-along.

~ Busily spinning our wheels,

Red Hot Chili Pepper Bracelet

We've been playing with polymer clay. It's amazing. So cheap and you can do so much with it, so easily. We made these round, disk beads. We had thought there'd be a steeper learning curve but we're really happy with these beads.

They're about 1/2 inch in diameter. We didn't bother to sand them. We just jumped right to dipping them in Future Floor Wax. We had our doubts because, really, it just seemed too easy. But, look! They're pretty right?

So, we made them right up into a bracelet. Quick! Before they could get away.

And look at this lovely bead we had in our stash. Just one lonely bead and perfect for this project.

This bracelet measures 8 inches long.

Deeper and deeper

Ever notice how you get into a new hobby and suddenly all kinds of doors open to you? You know. You take up knitting and find yourself wondering about spinning your own wool, for instance. We think when you consider adopting a sheep you might be in too deep but otherwise, exploration is good for the soul.

We've been playing with beads for a while now and recently began to consider the possibility of making our own. Why not? It's the logical next step, right? We tried paper beads but that just didn't grab us and then we found polymer clay. Oh, boy. Inexpensive and readily available. You can cure it (bake it) in a regular oven or even (imagine how much this excites us!) in a solar oven!!!

So, without further adooooooooo...... Here are our first polymer clay beads. They are dainty at 1/2-inch long which is the perfect size and shape for a beaded macramé bracelet. We used black, cherry red, silver and white and the beads that we got are more of a mahogany colour. It seems a big part of the process is: Surprise!! This is what you get.

We also tried a disk shape with the clay and colours more mooshed together. This one is also 1/2-inch in diameter. The pink is a little more pronounced. Pretty, right?

For the record, we don't see sheep in our future 

but we do see more bead-making.

Back to bracelets

We just finished another cuff. We like these cuffs. They're not exactly dainty but they're pretty cool.

This one measures 8 inches long and is about 1 1/2 inches wide. The red disk beads are 3/4 inches in diameter. The 2 faceted black beads that close the bracelet came straight from Czechoslovakia. And we mean straight from Czechosolvakia because these were in the bead stash that we received as gifts. There were only 2 of them and this is exactly what they were meant for, don't you think?

And, in case, you're wondering, the light-coloured beads are grey. They make a more muted look than white would but the whole bracelet is still very dramatic, we think.

Don't you think they'd be right at home at a dinner at Downton Abbey? (our new fascination) or on board the Titanic?

~ Bidding you a beady good day!

We wish to thank the Academy...etc., etc.

Remember that little jewelry contest that we entered? The one at BelloModo.com? Well, we're really happy to announce that The Ice Queen bracelet won 2nd prize!!! And the prize is a gift certificate for $75!! That's a lot of beads! Thank you to each and every one of you who voted for our design. We have loads of ideas for more bracelets and even some necklaces and earrings!

Ice Queen Beaded Micro Macramé Bracelet ...... SOLD

As if on cue ... our resurrected amaryllis bulb has burst into bloom. Mr. Coco truly has the green thumb. Cassie and Grandma Coco just try to stay out of the way.

What a great week it's been with unexpectedly summery weather, 2 fun contests and now, this beautiful flower. We've been working on some secret stuff, too, that we will soon be able to share. We're not very good at keeping secrets. It's so hard!!!

We love presents

Now that Duetta is safely in the hands of our capable pattern testers (thank you to those of you who offered!) and while we wait patiently for them to do their respective things, we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming. Now, where were we? Ah, yes....

Is Cassie going to take up beading?

We ordered some beads and then we ordered some more beads and then!! A few sweeties who went on vacation all the way to Czechoslovakia for Christmas took the time out of their holiday to buy these for us!! So beautiful. Isn't the net cone just the prettiest way to package beads? And the little cellophane bag with the dainty wispy tie was so pretty we hardly wanted to open it. We can assure you though that we DID open it and that we spent a very happy afternoon sifting through all those beads. We sorted them out and organized all the similar ones by shape and colour. What is it about beads that makes it so pleasant to run your fingers through them?


Look at the felted purse. Oh, it's lovely, too. We can see lots of uses for it.

As well, one of the sweeties is particularly crafty and she made us these:

And they are perfect for holding our special one-of-a-kind beads. There's velcro at the top to close the bag and yet the clear vinyl lets us see exactly what's inside. Before we knew it, we had all our beads organized. And that's rare for us. Grandma Coco's not the organized type.

But that's not all!

Look what else they brought us!! Wool! Two balls of Baby Alpaca to be specific.

Can you hear them? They're whispering, "Gloves!!! We want to be gloves!"

Who are we to deny them?








~ XOXO

Shhh........Top Secret

We're working on something secret.....TOP secret. It's pretty exciting and it's taking up all of our time. So.....that means, there isn't much to show today. Sorry. However, since we know you didn't come here just to hear that, we'll attempt to divert you by showing you what the mail man brought. Actually, it's what the mail couple brought. Out here in the middle of nowhere, we have a lovely couple who drive the icy roads, risking their lives to put important things into our big ol' mailbox. Look what they left for us today!

Aren't they beautiful? They were handmade by http://bastillebleu.com/  We are very excited about these beads. We think they'll look wonderful as the closure beads for our micro macramé bracelets. We really had to restrain ourselves and only order 2....this time. :)

And finally, here's what the world looked like here in the Kingdom yesterday morning.....

Do you see a cookie in there?

~ Hoping everyone's got something exciting to work on.....

Winter Watermelon

Nah....not the fruit. It's way too cold in the Kingdom for watermelon today. But this bracelet makes us think of watermelon. Pretty coral red and bright green. Not our usual palette but then, again, our usual palette is shades of grey....pencil, that is. The beads and the bracelets and the COOKIES! They all let us play with colour.

This is the first bracelet we've made without the loop and button/bead closure. We've been playing with wire work and we made this little clasp with copper wire. We really like how it turned out.

Imagine our surprise. This clasp seems pretty secure. You have to squeeze the 2 loops together in order for the second ring to slip out of the hook. Very cool. And total luck. 

~ Wishing you a lucky day!

PS.....Monika reminded us that although beaded micro macramé isn't quilting or knitting, it is still done with thread so Grandma Coco is thrilled to link up to the Needle and Thread Network for the Work in Progress Wednesday post. If you'd like to see what other Canadian craftspeople are up to, just click on the link.

Cooties?!!

Nah! Not cooties.....SPIDERS!!! We saw the cutest tutorial on Shawkl's blog and we knew we just had to try one for ourselves. Unfortunately, we didn't have any wire in the right gauge on hand so we just improvised with what we had. Shawkl's spiders are more elegant but ours was a lot of fun, too. We really like Shawkl's blog. She has lots of cool stuff going on and is very generous with her time and talents. As well, we ordered some Czech glass buttons from her Etsy shop and they are even more beautiful in person than they look on the computer monitor. Watch for them to appear in future projects!

For now, we finished another beaded macrame bracelet. This one is a gift for a young lady we know. We hope she'll like it!

And, finally......SOCKS!

We finished them. We like this pattern stitch. In fact, we like it so much we're planning to cast on another pair. We have a couple of modifications we want to try and then we plan to share the pattern. Stay tuned.

Worksssss in Progess Wednesday

We all know about Grandma Coco's attention span. It's pretty short. She's been making herself crazy with deadlined projects and now that they're completed, she's back on track with many irons in many fires....just the way she likes things.

So, on this particular Wednesday, she's working on the following:

SOCKS! Of course. These are specially made for a very sweet man who went out of his way recently to see that we got to a wonderful yarn store in a city that isn't our home. New socks seem like a small price to pay for such gallantry. The only problem is that he says he has 'hot feet' and, by that, we believe he means his feet feel hot in socks, NOT that, you know, he thinks he has George Clooneyesque feet or anything weird like that. We don't know if he's ever worn a pair of hand knit wool socks before. Maybe he'll just be blown away by the luxury that is in store for him. Maybe not. We're knitting these out of Ariquipa , which is 65% superwash wool, 20% alpaca and 15% nylon. It is soft, soft and the yarn is fine so the socks won't be bulky (which we think might be an issue). We've knit with Ariquipa before and we love it. These socks have lots of stretch. They are ribbed with an alternating twisted stitch that looks like a cable.

DOUBLE KNITTING!. We're working away on kid- and adult-sized versions of Coco's Cap. Along the way, we got interested in other types of double knitting....corrugated ribbing, for example, and the brioche stitch. It's a long and winding (and exciting!) road we're on. And we haven't got a deadline. :)

BEADS!!! Another micro macrame beaded bracelet. This one we're just winging. Because it's fun.

A spooky Haunted Houses postcard in the mail from Pat!

POSTCARDS!! We finished some postcards this week for trading but we won't show them because we don't want to spoil the surprise for our recipients but here's one we received in the mail from Pat. Thank you, Pat! Scary stuff!

And that, in a nutshell, is what we're up to on this grey final Wednesday in October. Pop on over to The Needle and Thread Network to see what some other Canadian fibre artists are up to.