Beads+Pillows=Love

The function of a bead can be limited to a small decoration on a bracelet or as vast as a MacGyver vessel of escape (come one, why not?). Locking yourself in a craft room with jewelry, scrapbook, sewing, and photography supplies can be, well, an interesting combination!


When the Hubs and I moved into our new house I was dead set on figuring one thing out first: our color schemes. While most of our house is black, white, and red (homage and continuation of our wedding celebration), I was ready to re-vamp our bedroom colors from bold magenta and gold to a more inviting and sedate color combination. While reading a magazine provided by my gal Cheryl on the drive from Los Angeles to Missouri, I spotted this:

Though pastel-type of colors usually aren't my thing, I for some reason fell in love with this pallet. We started with painting one of our bedroom walls a beautiful light purple to match the scheme (well, I actually never lifted a brush -- I threw a Paint Party and a dozen people from church did all the work before I even got a chance to leave the kitchen!). Next was the accents... I knew that I wanted to make a headboard out of a lime/mint greenish fabric (more on that once it's actually done), and that I wanted to also coordinate with some beige colored Chinese lampshades and a dark purple of sorts. I shopped all around for some kind of dark purple/floral/bold accent pillow with no luck. So what's a girl to do? Make one herself, of course!


When shopping in the jewelry/garment district when we were back in LA for the Hub's ordination, I looked everywhere for some kind of tweed/thick deep purple fabric. When I couldn't find any, the $2.50/yard plain cotton won simply due to it's color. And that fact that I have next-to-zero sewing skills and I figured such fabric would be gentle on this beginner!

In my mind, I had envisioned a 3-D floral pillow, with a swirl of ruffles revolving across the whole front of a 16x16" or so throw pillow. Other than that, I had NO set measurements/instructions/etc. Just me, my scissors, and my sewing machine! Needless to say, I used less than sophisticated tools:

I knew I wanted to add ruffled-petals of sorts in a circular pattern to the pillow, but I didn't really have much of a game-plan other than just playing with the fabric and going from there! I first used the "schrunchie" method of loosely sewing thread into one side of panels of fabric then pulling the thread to bunch the fabric together...

Then, and most time-consuming, came pinning on the ruffled fabric to the pillow case front panel, using the bowl-drawn circles as a guide: 

Then I sewed on layer-upon-layer of the stuff...

Until the ruffles were done... but with to do with the middle? 

I searched all over my house for a flower broach I had purchased a few years back for the wedding to no avail. Then it hit me - and it should have hit me sooner - BEADS!

After sewing seven light purple crystal beads in the center, we had our pillow front. Now was the most interesting part - watching me try to measure and figure out how to most strategically sew on the back panel while also leaving room (an exact amount of room, actually) for the pillow stuffer (16x16") I bought for the inside. I am sure there is science to this, but my organic method left me literally staring at my deconstructed pillow for a solid 30 minutes before I just went for it... after sewing 3 sides of the pillow on the machine, turning it right side out, stuffing the stuffer inside, then hand sewing the bottom side (all while watching The Office on my computer), I got this:

Totally not what I had originally envisioned, and in all honesty it is a bit frillier than I prefer... but dag-namit, I made it with no instructions, no forms, and literally no experience on a sewing machine! I love it! AND - it looks great with the colors I already have going on in the bedroom!

When I showed it my Hubs, he said "Oh cool! You made a pillow that looks like the top of a cupcake!" Wow - didn't see that one coming. If we are going with cupcake analogies, I think it looks more like the paper wrapping once it is off of a cupcake. Whatever you want to call it - cupcake, flower, beaded pillow - I dig how it seems to POP in our newly painted bedroom! (Oh, and that fabric hanging on the wall is the fabric I hope to use for a headboard... eventually!). 

I figured that while I was at it, I might as well keep on sewing - I was on a roll (even though this purple pillow took me the better half of a whole non-stop day)! When I was at Michael Levine's in Los Angeles searching for this purple fabric, I also spotted this:

Now, I am not typically a fantasy/comic/children's art kind of a connoisseur, but I have some dear friends to whom I owed a huge thank you gift and with whom we have a running gnome joke... so this fabric was just begging to be purchased! With a few cuts, snips, and another intimate getting-to-know-you session with my sewing machine, I came up with this:

And even used the left-over fabric to make a coordinating card!

Whew! So I guess this is what happens when you have sewing, scrapbooking, beading, and photography supplies all in the same craft room! But I better get back to it -- I have to make jewelry for three weddings, enough jewelry for my annual fall show, and a whole house to decorate before the summer is over! More next week!

*Yelp is for Jewelry Addicts

It's times like these that make you realize how blogging has become so ingrained in your life! I want to apologize for being MIA lately -- I just started a new job (and if this was a personal blog, let me tell ya, I would write a novel about the transition!), my brother just moved in (which has distracted me from creating - in a good way), and LA has been hit with all sorts of rain that has left our roof leaking and our garage flooded. I have been working on a few custom pieces and will post about them soon (one I am particularly thrilled with!) and have been collecting items to include in my Spring Collection. I promise - I have been Beadin' Up - just not online so much! That said, I just wanted to thank you for hanging in there and being patient with me - I am working on re-creating a routine that will allow me to post at least 3-times a week, if not more. In the meantime, I wanted to share with you my recent feature on Yelp! I was nominated to be an "Elite" member early last year and have been a featured Yelper a few times - but this week it was for my series on LA's Jewelry District! If you haven't checked out *Yelp, no matter where you live, I suggest you give it a try - it's addictive and really, really amusing (and free!)

Los Angeles Jewelry District

What's this?

Interact with the map to check out the locations on my featured list! Ciao, bellas!

I Love You, Wednesdays: Numbers and Stars

In light of all the problems we are facing, it's so refreshing - and often sometimes humbling - to be reminded by how little they are in the big scheme of things. Yesterday an earthquake hit the island of Haiti, killing over 100,000. For as hard as I try, I cannot manage to comprehend what that number really means. It's like taking all of my Facebook friends and multiplying them by 100. Or looking around the Superdome and still adding 30,000! In numbers, it's a whole nation, history, and culture of people. Please remember to keep the people of Haiti and those working on local relief in your thoughts and prayers. And if you feel compelled to do so, consider donating to a disaster relief cause, such as Lutheran World Relief.

The magnitude of numbers especially overwhelmed me yesterday when I took yesterday off of work and drove my parents and brother (parents are visiting from Kentucky; brother just moved here) to the Griffith Observatory. I have heard that this place is an LA Must-See, both for it's impressive view of the city, but also for it's equally impressive, newly renovated museum. Oh, and it's home to lots of movies, including Rebel Without A Cause, The Rocketeer, and Yes Man. We drove to the peak of the Los Feliz Mountains and within minutes understood why this is on the top of the list. Breathtaking.

(love my new camera and picnik photo enhancer!)

I'll spare you all the details of the Observatory and it's recent renovation and programs and get to the good part (my husband is good at reminding me to "Get to your point!" when I am telling stories - I am like spaghetti - to me, it's all connected!). Connecting the new and the old wings of the Museum and Observatory (which is celebrating it's 70th birthday this year!) is the "Cosmic Connection." I was BEYOND surprised with the exhibit along the walls of the corridor... I'll let the website's description do the talking: "The Cosmic Connection, the corridor linking the historic building above with the new Gunther Depths of Space below, provides the transition from ground-based and more familiar astronomy to a new realm of cosmic perspective. The main element in this passageway is a 150-foot timeline of the universe whimsically composed of celestial-themed jewelry in the glass case that lines the corridor. At the top end of the corridor, near the Guide Station, visitors pass the Big Bang. At the bottom end, near the Edge of Space mezzanine, all of human history occupies a fraction of an inch. In between, large images illustrate key moments in the evolution of the universe and our cultural connection to the cosmos." That's right - a whole astronomical illustration made of nothing but JEWELRY! It was beyond amazing - 150 feet of star-themed broaches, necklaces, earrings, even some sheriff's badges and studded belts, all lines up to depict the infamy of the history of our universe! According to the Epoch Times, the collection is made up of over 2,200 pieces of jewelry, most of which were from donor Kara Knack's private collection. She started collection celestial broaches when she noticed the conversations they started. As a friend of the Observatory, she offered them to the new wing of the museum and managed to collect over 500 more pieces thanks to friends who worked at Swap Meets. Originally the use of her pieces was discouraged by scientists and astronomers who saw them as "kitchy" and "unscientific" (lame - and perhaps proving the science and art are often like oil and water?!).According to SFGate, "In 2003, Krupp [the director of the observatory] prevailed, insisting that 'a ribbon of jewelry will serve as a time line of the universe.' Just days before the Galactic Gala on Oct. 29, 2006, that marked the reopening, Knack unrolled a 165-foot-long piece of paper in her driveway. She drew a line that she said looked like a giant string snapped like a whip. At the Los Angeles jewelry mart, she bought connectors, pins, nails and needle-nosed pliers. She enlisted 18 volunteers who stationed the jewelry along a display board, earring by bracelet by necklace by pin, with Knack organizing the pieces to appear 'random and chaotic.' Having worn almost every piece to one occasion or another, she knew them well." Working on a crazy timeline, she and the volunteers constructed the entire display within ONE day! The resulting display shows "the universe of over 13.7 billion years, from its beginning to today, a time line marks each billion year interval, and in panels written by Carolyn Collins Petersen, tells what scientists think happened during specific time periods. Clustering many small pieces at the beginning symbolizes the Big Bang, the beginning of our universe, and placing numerous pieces with suns and moons that have human faces toward the end of the line to mark the beginning of human life" (Epoch Times). The pieces really were each stunning, each in their own right, and shined ever so beautifully under the bright display lights. Most astounding of all was the scale of the display: 150 feet represents the 15+/- billion year history of our universe! That means each of the 2,200 pieces of jewelry represents 6,818,181 years of history! That really puts things into perspective! Or, in terms of the recent Haitian disaster, every piece of jewelry represents 45 lives lost. I can comprehend it more clearly now, and am left, for once, speechless.

Fall Line 09 - I'm a machine.

This was one of the first weekend's in a long time where I didn't have massive amounts of plans consuming any potential free time. In other words, I had lots of time to make jewelry! Making jewelry, much like scrapbooking, painting, writing, etc, doesn't just happen. You need to be in the mood and have some sort of inspiration keeping you going. Sometimes I sit in front of my supplies and think "WTF am I going to do with this?" Or other times I would rather waste away in front of the TV rather than face the disaster that has become my craft room. And it always seems that when I set aside time to get crafty, I come up with excuses or have no motivation or inspiration what-so-ever. Thankfully, this weekend, none of these were the case! When I started thinking of what I wanted included in my "Fall Line," the first thing that came to my mind was brass. I have seen alot of it around the craft world lately, so I knew I wouldn't have a problem finding this unique material. I have scored alot of brass charms and findings at Michaels, but the buggers don't carry matching chain in a size of my liking! I found myself in quite the dilemma on Saturday afternoon while staring at dozens of brass charms with no chain to match. Thankfully, the Hubs agreed to join me in a little trip to downtown LA's Jewelry District, simply to find the perfect chain. It had only been 3 weeks since I was last there, but I have already used a good deal of what I bought the first time I visited and knew that this trip would be much shorter than the last since we knew where we were going this time! Compared to our last visit, the Jewelry District this time around seemed more lively and promising (maybe because we weren't intimidated by it's randomness anymore: see picture on right). It's a mix of bead stores, trim stores, fabric stores, button stores, ethnic stores, mixed in between lots of random taco, hot dog, and ice cream stands. Kids run up and down the street playing with toys, guys stand under door frames urge you to step in their shop for a look, florist man corners hoping to sell gifts for sweethearts, and fabric lines the buildings on the sidewalk. We tried to visit a few stores that we missed during our first visit, but apparently this section of town is known for closing at 3 on Saturdays (fine, then!). No worries, the main store I hoped to visit, Athenian Fashion, was open and ready for me to drop some serious cash on some chain! I had a nice chat with the owner of the store and asked him if I could take a picture to share with you all. No dice, though I did at least get him interested in posting some on Yelp. I walked away with over 100 feet of chain and enough fixings to make dozens of necklaces! With the AC and TV on and food in my belly, I sat on my oversized suede chair for the majority of the rest of the weekend, making as many necklaces as I could on my ottoman. In the past, I have been proud of myself for making at least 3 necklaces in one sitting, but with my new supplies in hand, there was no stopping me! I think it also helped that I only had what I knew I was going to use for this specific project in front of me (instead of having ALL my supplies on the table - this only ever overwhelms me!). I also used only one kind of material and had a series of components that I mixed and matched. After a few cuts, bruises, and bandaids on my fingers accompanied by a very sore back, I was shocked when I counted how much I made: 30 necklaces and 5 pairs of earrings! I separated what I planned to sell on Etsy and what I am holding for my upcoming Jewelry Party, and then tediously packaged the two dozen necklaces in preparation for a very busy October. Here's a picture of all that I made: In the meantime, here's what I posted on Etsy this morning - click on any of the images to go it's listing!

I would love to hear what you think! I hope to add more every Monday for the next few weeks until my jewelry party... keep checking in! Now, where's that Tylenol?

Los Angeles Jewelry District - A Beaders Dream AND Nightmare.

First of all, so sorry I didn't get around to posting my weekly Fashionably Friday entry last week. It's been a crazy few weeks with leaving and returning to LA unexpectedly, though I think I am starting to get back into the groove of things. I think...

I have been living in LA for over a year now and have yet to find a jewelry supply store that makes me smile. I have heard all kinds of mixed reviews about the Jewelry District downtown, though have been avoiding it because a.) I didn't want to leave disappointed and b.) though it's not far away mile-wise, LA's traffic and subsequential parking is a nightmare, so just making the 12-mile journey is exhausting and takes the better half of a whole day. That said, this weekend my end of LA (the Valley) has been plagued with crazy amounts of smoke thanks to harboring wildfires, so on Saturday morning the Hubs and I needed a reason to get outta the area. I could think of nothing better than to finally cowgirl-up and make the adventure to the Jewelry District. After facing a fair amount of traffic and not finding the exit Google maps suggested, we drove into the first parking lot we could find and figured we would find where we hoped to go on foot.

LA is both alike and unlike other cities in that downtown itself is only really used by business people on the weekdays. Most of the city life is outside of the city limits. Except Broadway, which used to be the theater district of the West whose theaters are now factory stores (with the exception of the Orpheum). Broadway is bustling with ice cream carts, hole-in-the-wall pharmacies, taco trucks, crappy fast-food restaurants, guys trying to sell CD's on the corner, woman trying to sell something else on the corner, you get where I am going with this. Oh, and Broadway is also home to The Jewelry District itself. Perfect. (I thus didn't take as many pictures as I had planned since it was the kind of hood where you didn't want people to know you were carrying around an expensive electronic gadget. Same goes for the GPS I could have benefited from on my Blackberry. Next time I am going with just a few bills hidden deep within my bra and a good pair of tennis shoes. That's it). That said, we didn't really know where to begin when we started our trek around the hood since every store claimed "Wholesale" and "Unbeatable" prices. The majority of stores seemed to sell jewelry itself rather than jewelry making supplies (no surprise here). We finally found a hole in the wall little bead store (oddly called SSMAGR & MB, so good luck finding it in the phone book! The owners are from Egypt so I assume the name means something having to do with Jewelry in Coptic!) on 7th near Broadway. I had a great conversation with the lady behind the counter, who told me a bigger shop was just down the street a bit. I left with only a strand of emerald glass crystals that cost $12 - my kind of deal. (note: You can click on the name of each store I mention to read my Yelp review on the business). I tried my luck at the next little hole in the wall store next door but only found rude sales people and overpriced beads. Blah. I finally found a store that I have heard alot about - Bella Beads. This place was a little trippy but I left with some good finds, including some gold chain (for which I have been searching high and low for months) and some great rare gemstones and headpins. The location itself, as stated in my Yelp review, is more of a factory store for people with a business license than amateurs like myself, though the lady working there made me feel semi-comfortable! The husband helped me pick out some items for what he is calling my "fall line" and even encouraged me to buy more than I had planned. My kind of guy! At this point, though I had purchased a few good items, I was itching to discover where the real goods laid hidden, and suggested we find the 8th and Maple intersection Yelp deemed as the heart of the Jewelry District. Of course we got lost, and of course I didn't want to bring my Blackberry out to help me find the place since stood out as it was. After about an hour of circling the district in the 100 degree heat, the mecca was in sight: 8th and Maple! According to Google Maps, this intersection is home to about a dozen jewelry supply stores, many of which claim to be the biggest in the city. We started by visiting "Beads and More," which at the time I thought was the best jewelry supply store I had ever seen in my life. Aisles and aisles of gemstones, pearls, glass, Czech, fire-polished, porcelain, wooden, seed, and rare beads. Not only that, but they were all reasonably priced, well organized, and well marked. The only downfall was the sneudy staff who at one point had the nerve to come up to me and ask what my husband was doing sitting in the corner. You can read all about it here :) I left with some really funky gemstone beads, yet with a really bad taste in my mouth thanks to the crappy and intrusive staff. (Haha, note the google maps picture. Wasn't about to whip out my camera in this hood!). The poor husband at this point was dehydrated and ready to melt, but I pushed him enough to visit just one more store (with a little puppy-eyed action and a "pleeeeeeeeeeease!"). We walked down the street and stumbled on a non-marked building that looked promising. I walked in and gasped in disbelief. Poked myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. An actual bead heaven! This store, Athenian Fashions, had it ALL! Aisles and aisles of well organized, thematic, and color coordinated findings galore. The store is divided into three sections: findings, chain, and children's. The findings room: We're talking every size of headpins, spring rings, clasps, etc, and in 4 options - gold, silver, brass, and copper! The stuff literally is stacked from ceiling to floor. They have TONS of charms sold in bulk at SUPER cheap prices - featuring everything from religious charms (sectioned by religion rather than all jumbled together, and including rosary materials!) to a huge selection of skulls! The chain room: is basically my heaven. I have been looking EVERYWHERE for some gold chain and found it BY THE AISLE here! AND - it's all perfectly priced and organized! They not only have silver, gold, yellow gold, copper, and brass colored chains, but also pink, blue, white, green, etc. They also sell them by the ream in addition to by the foot. Amazing. (Note all the gold chain options in a super organized fashion!). The last room was full of what I consider "children's" beads - wooden, plastic, funky, brightly colored, etc. A perfect resource for a teacher or parent! If all this amazingness weren't enough, the staff here were 100% cordial and interactive. I had some great conversations with the gals working there and even gave some of them my card. They also have beautiful sample pieces on display and put your purchases in a nifty reusable jewelry bag! I have found my main jewelry source in LA - and now know how to best get here without getting lost :) Overall, my adventure into the heart of LA's Jewelry District was successful, but not without the blood, sweat, and tears (ok, fine, blood-curdling heat, sweat, and Gatorade) it took to find it's gems. I bought lots of cool items and now know what resources are at my disposal. Now longer do I need to reply on Michael's! Go figure, though, that the next day we swung by the chain craft store for something un-jewelry related to fund that they had just re-structured their whole bead section. There goes that idea! (note my Hub's glee in the newly renovated section - there goes our next paycheck!).

You can read my list of LA Jewelry District reviews here :)

Laos and LA - I N S P I R A T I O N S

Perhaps my least favorite international trip was when I went to Thailand a few years back. I could get into massive detail as to why I hated this trip (think group trip for school with strangers and no translator), but I'll instead include one positive story of the "adventure." (It's all blogged here if you want to read more or see pictures!).

One Sunday, while we were visiting a church in Vientian, Laos, I met a local gal who spoke perfect English (a rarity). Her name was Sophia. We asked each other questions as little Lao children watched the foreigners interact with one of their own. She finally noticed that none of us had joined the large crowd for lunch and arranged us a table. No utensils this time, just plates of meat with vegetables through the catalyst of sticky rice balled up in ones hand. Of course the only thing on the table that was vegetarian friendly was sticky rice, and I ate as much as I could stomach to suppress my hunger. Sophia noticed that I was helpless and walked me down the street to find some food. A woman bent over a rusty cart making some kind of fried coconut milk with corn and green onion ensemble. Her skillet was similar to one we use for Danish breakfast at home, with a dozen circular inlets which produce a round shaped fried food. Sophia purchased four for me and then some friend banana from another shop across the street, and refused my money when I offered.

She explained to us that her father was a pastor and thus she had always grown us Christian, though had a hard time at school as others did not understand her cultural choices. All this time, I could not keep my eyes off her beautiful earrings, made of Tibetian silver and a kidney wire. When I mentioned that I liked her earrings, she immediately took them off and put them on my ears. She said she was just happy to help me find food and that the earrings were the least she could give me. I didn't deserve anything from this gal, nor did I have anything to give her in return but humility and thanks. (You can see Sophia and the kids of the church in the top picture, as well as me wearing the earrings later that day below). While shopping at Beadazzled in Baltimore, guess what I found? The silver tribal beads! I of course bought them right up and put them on some kidney wires. They are available on my Etsy shop here. _______________________ Also found some great inspiration in LA. For whatever reason (other than the fact that LA is rad?), I have spotted a bunch of these little tweet-like birds hanging from cables, mostly in the Hollywood area. I dig it and just had to buy these precious bird charms as a reaction (they are 12 x 17 mm and 14k gold plated with matt finish). Of course no bird necklace is complete without a Swarovski crystal and cute little bat-like charm to top it off. (Bird picture by my friend Josh).

You can view this necklace on my Etsy shop here.