Dulcey Heller » Beads

More beaded beads

Dulcey Heller — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:32:26 +0000

A slowly progressing project is making more right angle weave beaded beads, to eventually string into a necklace with a wonderful button as a clasp (I’d like to figure out a great embellished loop for the button). I have one orange bead to include. I’m making a bunch of these blue beads. The orange bead that is the base are my “semi-precious beads” given to me by a friend. I think I want to throw in one more color of beaded bead, I think a darker orange. This is going to take me a while to complete as I don’t pick up this project very often.

Zillion bead pickup

Dulcey Heller — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:33:15 +0000

So. I pull a fliptop of red 8s out of my storage, and the cap gets stuck on the metal bracket. I think I’ll start with a broom, see if that will cure my floor’s chickenpox! We’ve all done something like this, right?!

Naniboujou Lodge inspired palette

Dulcey Heller — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:58:47 +0000

The Naniboujou Lodge is located in northern Minnesota, on the shore of Lake Superior just north of Grand Marais — close to the Canadian border. It was built in the late 1920’s as a very exclusive private club. Memberships were sold to Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, and other public figures of the time. The stock market crash and ensuing financial difficulties turned the Lodge into a hotel for use by the public.

It’s an absolutely beautiful property — pines, water, rock beach, and a quiet location. It’s best known for two things: its very good food, and the dining room in which that food is served.

Antoine Goufee, a French artist, painted Cree Indian designs in 1929 on the 20 feet high ceiling, shaped like a canoe. This is the original painting, it has not been repainted. Also in this room is the largest native rock fireplace in Minnesota, 200 tons of local rock.

Naniboujou is open seasonally. My lunch there was wonderful, and I hope I can stay for a weekend someday.

A wonky crown jewel

Dulcey Heller — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:05:53 +0000

Here’s the result of the beaded bone bezel beads below; this is sort of a folk art rendition of a Laura McCabe design. Take irregular bone beads (18mm across), bezel and join them as instructed, and you get a 30mm beaded bead. This is too big for me to wear, so it’ll be a desk decoration. It could be a fan pull, but I don’t want to risk anyone actually pulling on it. There’s more than a little tension on this, mostly because of the irregularity of the shape.

Beaded bone button beads

Dulcey Heller — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:16:04 +0000

Four of six beaded bone button beads done….

A bronze frog

Dulcey Heller — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:32:17 +0000

I was in Chicago, and spent some time visiting with Jan, a beading friend. We went to Ayla’s Originals, and Ayla has some beautiful things. If you like pearls, hers look especially lovely. Seeing Clasmeyer’s clasps in person was a treat. I did buy a couple of things, with this Bob Burkett bead just capturing my attention. He carves insects or animals in wax, and casts these creatures. This is an alloy with some copper in it, I believe, but he works in silver too. This frog is about 15 mm nose to tail, and the hole (created by the frog’s limbs) is slightly less than 4 mm in diameter.

One orange bead

Dulcey Heller — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:43:42 +0000

The seed beads are too square to make the nicest right angle weave, but I love the colors and finishes together….

More olive!

Dulcey Heller — Sat, 10 May 2008 02:10:41 +0000

The last piece of jewelry I made for myself was olive too. I DO work with other colors, these are just the colors I am using right now. I bought these cubic zirconia beads and pearls from Baubles and Beads, a splurge for me. I’d like to knot them. The strand of cz’s is probably 8″ long, the pearls 20″? I’m thinking the cz’s, pearls, maybe some gold-plated seed beads. I’m not sure. I need to buy a nice clasp, maybe some of those knot cover things for by the clasp. I don’t knot much….

“… has a quality like real semi-precious jewels…”

Dulcey Heller — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:18:00 +0000

A friend gave me these today, found at a garage sale. The original price tag said 29 cents. The color isn’t quite right, it should be that scary almost-pink orange of “real semi-precious jewels.” Truth in advertising, dontcha know!

Twin Cities Bead Bazaar Spring 2008

Dulcey Heller — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:07:39 +0000

Carol and I had another bead outing within a week! This never happens, so this is a real treat. We went to the Twin Cities Bead Bazaar. The door opened on my favorite vendor, I’ll end with him. But first, check out the Silly Millies — this is Layle McDill, and I’ve seen her demonstrate at the Minnesota State Fair, and she also sells canes in various places around the metro. Look at the peacock feathers in the lower left.

There were some great fibers available from The Fiber Studio — see that swirl on the blob? I did part of that, needle felting.

A few others of note: Hip Chick Beads had great silver, great findings. There were some great clasps with boro from Bokamo. We also met Christi Anderson, profiled in the February/March 2008 Beadwork. She does amazingly detailed metal clay and cast silver work.

Now, my very favorite, Jeff Plath, lampworker and trade bead seller and all-around bead pusher. He gives me the large tray when I come, because I am helping him close out on the last of his French beads, no longer manufactured (maybe as of 5 or so years ago). He has a store in Taylor’s Falls, Wisconsin, which we will roadtrip to sometime, the Non Necessities of Life. So here’s a choice few pictures of his booth:

Carol and I have had a table at this show, but it’s been two years since we did. She sold doll forms, polymer clay faces, sweater purses, and more. I sold my kits. We had a grand time, and perhaps we’ll do it again sometime. Meanwhile, I left the show with 4 pounds of Jeff’s beads….