Color

Autumn is thrilling to me. Each day the colors of my surroundings change, plus the air smells crisp and sometimes fruity.
Someone shared with me the iPod app called irodori. It breaks a photograph down into color tiles. Ya know, like those little squares of color at the paint store. Here is a shot of one of the most striking oak trees I have seen:





Usually I expect oak to just go brown, eventually. This one is sweet and delicate and the leaf color is amazing. Here is that pic rendered into little color tiles by irodori.:





Isn't this cool? The Beader in me ( by the way, every time I type Beader into my iPod it capitalizes it. Interesting. Like it recognizes it as a proper name or even a, dare I say, religion. ) As I was saying, the Beader in me is constantly breaking down so much of what I see, or imagine, into color blocks or even smaller: beads. And here is an app that makes it possible for anyone to break any sight into its colors. Well, anyone with this app. I invite you to send me an image (as an email attachment). I will momentarily store it in my iPod and process it with this app and either send it as reply or post it to share here, your choice. Www.carolcypher@gmail.com

The new necklace that drew all my attention over the weekend is set aside as i respond to the need to whip up another Fireflies at Sunset necklace.





The sample I sent out to Studio 34 sold! So, Marilynne asked for another. I'll be teaching there November 20 and 21. Join me? You too can whip up Fireflies necklace. The kits for the Sunset version rendered in Amy's bead color choices, are still available. In it's place, this coming year at the Bead & Button Show , I'll be teaching Fireflies at Midnight:





A few of the regulars at Beadzo have asked to make the Trillium and Pillow Beaded Beads at the November 11 class.





Call the Tivoli NY store to reserve your seat 1-845-757-5306. The new necklace that occupied me this weekend sprung from these beaded beads. And here is a convertible necklace/bracelet I designed with them last month:





Fran will be arriving at the studio any minute so I better get on with it. Enjoy the colorful and transitional beauty around us. -posted using BlogPress from my iPod

Right after spending wayyyyy too much time blogging, Sylvia e'd me asking "where did the pictures go?". I have no idea but for most of the day an x marked the spot where the photos had been. Alas, they have returned. Mysterious.


This shot of Janet, taken in the studio class, captures her vibrant beauty AND her bright, bubbling spirit. And as though her presence were not enough, she brings brownies. Not a cakey brownie, not a fudgey brownie, not a box brownie... Oh NO! These are the BEST brownies we've ever tasted. And don't bother to ask her for the recipe. I understand it is a guarded secret.
You've read about her and her beadwork often in this blog and you might also know her as BoomerangPro. She and her husband make and sell beautiful and comfy, turned wooden-handled crochet hooks and beading looms.
Notice her necklace? She is wearing one of a series of necklaces she's created using the 3D triangle components I taught a few years ago at Bead Emporium and at the Bead & Button Show .



Also in the studio class, Jill completed this necklace. It is a shorter and simpler design for her aunt, that she spun off from this one I taught her a few weeks ago:


Last night in the Beadzo class, Ginny brought the wall hanging she had mentioned a couple weeks ago in class, as being her only beadwork until now.


Each cut and pieced square represents a significant aspect of her son's life and is composed mostly of his neckties. She explained that the bear and white buffalo...





...held special significance to her son.


She used silk to create a feather.


This block is for her grand-daughter, his daughter.



Wish i could speak more intelligently about this piece. Piecework is not work I know much about but, even I can identify several techniques she employed in creating this memorial: french knots, quilting, piecing, bead and ribbon embroideries. She told us that she'd investigated having this motif machine embroidered but, upon hearing the price, she added hand embroidery to her skill set.
Lovely lovely work that her granddaughter will treasure always and a precious testament to her son's life.
So here I sit here with goosebumps, reflecting on the amazing life I have, spent in the company of creative and delightful women, sharing and doing all the things I love to do. Thanks for allowing me to share bits of it with you here.

Studio 34 workshops

This hand felted and beaded bangle workshop I designed especially for Studio 34 Creative Arts Center in Rochester NY. Come felt AND bead with me November 21st at their sister-store location: Bead Breakout, 2-5 pm. That same day, from 10am to 1pm, I'll teach Two Sides to Every Story:





This workshop shares a stitch I invented to produce flat beadwork using a similar threadpath as the tubular stitch [regrettably] called Polygon stitch. The beadwork corrugates as you add the rows, making the piece reversible.
On Saturday November 20th we'll meet and bead at Studio 34 for a morning of Purple Plum Polygon Bracelet:





and afternoon of Fireflies at Sunset:





You can choose the original Sunset kit in Amy's palette or the new Fireflies at Midnight kit.
Reserve your place in one, or all:) of the workshops by contacting them at 585-737-5858 or studio34artists@aol.com See you there?
-Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

On October 23rd I'm teaching a workshop on those textured, gorgeous-from-every-angle, polygon stitched, beaded bezels I've been loving, at Beads by Blanche in Bergenfield, NJ.
Blanche's reputation for providing workshops with all the national teachers at her store is well known. In October alone she is offering workshops with Marcia DeCoster, Tracy Stanley, Laura McCabe and...moi. Recently it was explained to me that taking a workshop at Blanche's requires that you commit to the entire weekend. Could be just Sat and Sun or might mean a 3 or 4 day commitment.



Slip a fruitful but single day workshop into your weekend and come bead with me October 23rd.


In one single day you'll learn new techniques to incorporate into your repertoire.


Expect to finish a few pieces during class...


and take away several recipes for variously shaped stones and cabs to refer to in future.
I'll bring "show and tell" to see how I've incorporated these bezeled beauties into my beadwork, offering inspiration for your designs.


Bonus: If you drop me an e mail (carol@carolcypher.com) or voicemail or call (1-845-384-6417) giving me a heads up that we'll bead together at Blanche's on the 23rd, I'll bring you a special treat. (Could be I'm preparing for the following weekend of TRICK or treat).
See you there?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

Amy was working on more of the beaded components that, when connected, will complete her Tetraphyls necklace, a class she took from Phyllis Dintenfass. She paused to work one component into a beaded ring. You see, we share an affinity for artful rings. Amy's collection includes Kate McKinnon, and is there one by Dustin Tabor too?
Her own beloved husband, John Bridges, an artist known for his works composed of found objects, is creating jewelry out of skate boards. Here is one of his rings with colored pencil inlay.



We both have glass and silver beauties from Bronwen Heilman and Amy has one of Bronwen's new ones of recycled glass and rubber; plus I have a Ronna Sarvas Weltman polymer clay ring I adore. Check out Ronna's rings.




Mine is more like this style:








It inspired me to make a line of felt component rings. Here are a few.








If you NEED one of these, I can use this sweet little ipod to email pictures to you and then accept your credit card for the $50 to $90 purchase. I digress... Back to Amy's ring, here it is.








My friend Judy Spark








and I spent Sunday at Mohonk Mountain House. While I was teaching in Indianapolis, "Fiber Works", an exhibit of her work and of Elena Tobin's, opened at the Hendrick Hudson free library in, Montrose NY.
I've posted about the events I do at Mohonk each summer. And I just recently came across one of the promotional materials from one of two of their Artist Inspirational weekends when I taught there:








If you haven't been, the grounds are lovely. Hike the well maintained trails, scramble the mountainside or stroll through the gardens.








The colors and shapes of nature provide me endless inspiration for both my feltings and beadwork.

















The blossom above would be fun to capture in beads.
So I must get back to work on that new piece I'm designing with the dagger and firepolish bead stash I just invested in yesterday at York Beads, my favvvvvvorite. I know some great stuff is gonna happen in the studio class tonight that I'll want to share. Until then...

Posted using BlogPress from my iPod

Bead adventures in NYC

Today I met up with Bert and Dana to share various beadyness.





You may recall reading about them twice before in this blog. First time was when I met them at Beadfest last year. Their booth featured their bead carrying/ project storing invention called "string-a-long". They gave me a set: specially designed beading mat with attachable clear plastic bead project bags. Very cool. Check cut their website. Then we met again at Beadfest this August. This time we enthused about Tulip Co., Kazue and Kang from Tulip and their silky crochet hooks that we love. Kang and Kazue are working hard to make their Sucre hooks, designed especially for bead crochet, available in the U.S. And it must be said that we admire the c.e.o. of Tulip, Harada-san, for putting young women in positions of power in his company.
Bert and Dana teach beading and are best known for their bead crochet designs and kits.





Check out Dana's firepolish lariat. I love the graduated bead sizes and, hard to detect in the photo, her subtle color transition. It would be wonderful to see them teach at the Bead & Button Show in June. They are still waiting to hear. Meanwhile, you can always catch a class with them in Manhattan. Happily i can say that they will be coming to the Bead Blast next month!
We had a ball visiting and reveling in how kindred our spirits are. Plus Dana and I share the same birthday, though a few years apart. Small wonderful world.
Bert went out and bought an iPad after Beadfest, when I shared with her the way it has rocked my world. We shared a couple app recommendations over lunch.
Dana had to dash off after lunch. So Bert and I consoled ourselves with an excursion to York Beads, my fav bead store in NYC. Perry (owner York beads) had sent Dana an email during lunch about the recent arrival of a fire-polish shipment from Czech Republic.





Guess you could say we got first dibs.


I chose a few of this and a few of that and the entire supply of one of them! Not to be greedy. No! It is so that I can kit the design I will make with them so you too can have one.



Here's Perry helping put my purchase together. Quite an investment but, it avoids the despair of tracking down beads JUST LIKE those used in a project that needs to be kitted.
Bert saw me back to Grand Central Terminal. What an amazing place. I could spend a few days there happily looking at all there is to see. When we arrived and checked the departures board we were surprised to find I had 2 minutes to get to track 30. Honestly, I didn't even make a dash for it. I'd have been perfectly amused shopping at the food market or bookstore there before heading home. That said, it was delightful to plunk down into one of the few empty seats JUST before the doors closed.






Tomorrow in the studio class I'll share these new projects using the pillow and trillium beaded beads. Thursday at Beadzo I'll share these or that new dagger necklace Janet shared with Mary.
Don't forget that in 2 weeks it is time for New York State Sheep and Wool Festival.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Felt jewelry made in the IBS workshop

Some of you know how very wonderful I think my iPod is. Well, add to that, knowing how to shoot snapshots with it! Thrilling! Writing and posting my blog on it is the best thing ever AND i can even share the pics. Wow!
So just now I was reviewing the snaps I shot this past weekend in the felt jewelry workshops i taught for the Indiana Bead Society. I'd be remiss if I didn't share them with you now.





Francie embellished her's a little more after class and brought it to the next session for us to see.





Nan purchased that dichroic glass focal bead at Heirloom Classics Jewelry & Beads. Shame on me that I cannot with certainty credit the beaded bangle on right.





Judy, HCJ&B store owner, skipped beading a beaded bead for her felt bangle, opting to embellish it with a focal bead. She liked the notion of a snug fit, afforded by the use of a magnetic closure. She promises to add a safety chain.











This is one of the best moments of the day ... when the labor- intense felt cane is cut into beads. It never gets old Katie.






Chris's color choices really paid off. I've heard it is a sin to covet your neighbors beads but.....





Again, shame on me, these few hours afterwards and I cannot recall whose finished necklace this is. Could it be Nadeen's? I recall she made her's stylishly long. Beautiful.





Kim made a simple and complex cane, simultaneously. While she could just always overachieve, this, in particular, was the result of felty happenstance.
It was a delightful time i had with this bead society. And, as I knew might happen, when I awoke back at home today, I do miss them.
A few members bought a Turbo Felting Board so I know they will continue. Kim wasn't able to join the felt bangle workshop but was there for the Complex Cane felt bead necklace. I'm sending her the (first and to date, only) instructional DVD so she too can create her own felt bangles.
If you need one too, call me. You know I can take credit cards over the phone now, right? It is a service I use through Paypal. Nancy Cain shared all the details with me when we were teaching at Bead & Button in June. I applied for it as soon as I could and appreciate being able to offer students the convenience of using their credit cards.
Better unpack and move on to the next great adventure. BTW, Indianapolis airport was my peak travel experience.