Cosmic Tree Cabochon Necklace is a Beauty Indeed!

Gorgeous new cabochon necklace is available at Art a la Carte PA!

For all of us who love TREES, the subtle "image" that I see in this round agate gemstone cab is of a single beeeautiful tree. With the colors, I gazed upon it and they sang out to me. It is paired with what's known as "phantom quartz" or "rainbow quartz" gemstone necklace straps and one of my favorite magnet clasps. Easy on/off but stays put while you're wearing it. Get a load of that needle! It's bent because the size 12 and size 10 beading needles need to be very thin to go through the tiny beads, so by the end of the project they're often bent. I sometimes prefer to use a bent needle so that it'll curve right up as I build up the border rows.

This is the start of the cabochon necklace. These are the colors that sing out from the cab itself. Yummy!

The cab gets glued to a fine piece of ultrasuede, which is the perfect host for the hundreds of beads that will comprise the border. My favorite stitch for this is the traditional Native American peyote stitch. To begin, I put four beads on at a time and backstitch down, up, and through, so they sit smoothly. This is what creates excellent quality. I've found over the years that if I do these too close together the rest won't work; it's the thread/cording that lets the beads breathe so they can sit nicely as I build the layers.

It can take years of experience to be able to gauge how much thread will fit through the tiny 11/0 seed beads, some of which must be able to take at least four, and sometimes five to six passes. I even have to switch needle sizes to get the final stitches done, which are woven back and forth through the border. No knots except for the start and finish. So it takes a couple of yards of thread (no tangling please!) to get through the whole border. If anyone wants to know, yes, I do talk to my thread, and it's usually very responsive. If it wants to tangle upon itself I say, "Oh this is just boring. Do you WANT to be a beeeautiful necklace?" And magically it will allow me to easily undo what could be a potential nightmare.... Only dreams please. Thanks! Magical tips: the cording hates competitive games or violence, so I'm picky about my TV and music while I'm working. YEP! It WORKS like a CHARM! Pretty good for me too! 

Yep, these are my TOOLS! And I LOVE THEM! The beeswax that you see has been used literally hundreds if not thousands of times as I condition the thread as I sew. This strengthens it and helps it not to tangle. The black is not dirt, it's what comes off the cording if I'm using the dark one. Yep, one of my tools is a verrry old-fashioned diaper pin that I used for my son's diapers before we switched to disposable ones (that was more than 30 years ago, how time flies!). Sometimes I have to use this to clean out the holes in some beads, especially wood ones, before I use them. And everyone knows that scissors are sacred, yes?

The spoon on top I use all the time for putting the tiny beads into their saucers for working. Apologies for not polishing it before the impromptu photos. It's sterling, Native American. I picked them both up in California. The one on the bottom somehow found its way into the garbage disposal for a few seconds (I wasn't manning the sink at the time, oh nooooo!) and I know just where to take it for repair. That's on my list of things to do.... 

The "tinies," or "littles" are the 15/0 inside row or two of beads that help the border to tighten around the cabochon. Also a skill that takes years to master properly. I choose a few different colors but wait for the cab to let me know which one(s) to use as I finish.

THERE she is! Do you see the image of a gorgeous tree? I'm in love with it. 

There's much that I do not have control over when I do this artistry. One of those things is the order in which I build up the border. I've learned over the years that before I begin, I must put each color of seed bead onto my needle and discern which ones are the widest and which are the narrowest, because for my process, it's essential to go from large to small (bottom row to top row) when building the border, otherwise it won't sit tightly when done.

Oh gosh, the border is done and I can tell it reeally wanted to be made, because though I don't "count," when I chose the final row to have a bit of extra decoration in the four larger green beads (at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock), the math worked out PERFECTLY. I LOVE when that happens. I suppose I could do the math beforehand, but I don't like to get bogged down when I'm in the creative process, unless I'm doing a beading chart for loomed bracelets or something like that. All the green around the cab will be trimmed off during the last few steps of the process.

Isn't she just lovely?! I don't know if she wants fringe yet, so far she hasn't asked for it, but she'll tell me after her necklace straps are on, which is the next step. Or, if someone is interested in her I'll do the fringe if they let me know they want it : ) It has to happen before the final backing so the start and finish knots don't show....

Here she is with the phantom/rainbow quartz beads that will comprise the necklace straps. She is emanating beautiful, soft, grounding and balancing energies.

So we're doing the second phase of this cabochon necklace. We've glued the backing on, and in this photo you can see the two layers of dark green ultrasuede.

I've trimmed the backing to about 1/16 inch around the outside. (Don't mind the reflected light....)

I push my needle between the two layers of dark green ultrasuede and out the back so the knot at the end of my cording sits inside and won't show. Excellent quality for my work means no knots showing, ever! I love when people say, "How'd she do that?!"

I pick up one bead and come up through the back to the front, making sure I get both layers but don't invade the rows already on there. Repeat, repeat, repeat, all the way around.

This is what the back looks like and I try to keep my stitches tiny and uniform.

Once you've made a few of these your hands learn how to hold everything to make things sit nicely. See that bead sitting on my finger? I'm going to make sure to push it towards the front of the piece so the row will sit nicely next to the other rows.

After I've finished putting on that whole row it kind of sits sort of raggle taggedy, so I sew around it again, and like magic they all sit beautifully aligned next to each other. Here, I'm sewing through the second time.

This photo shows how the beads are nicely aligned after the second round through along the bottom part, but the top part isn't done yet, and you can see it's a bit raggle taggedy. (Is that a word? It is now!)

She asked me for a bit of star power, so I sewed a sweet picot border all the way around with the red that's also in the cabochon itself. There are lots of different tutorials on YouTube for how to sew a picot border, and with this one, I went through twice as well, to make sure the red beads sit next to their sisters properly. Sorry for the poor lighting. Don't mind that white light on the cab, it's just my overhead OTT light (which I could not do this work without!)

The length of the necklace is 20 inches, so it sits a bit below the collar bone. With wear and a bit of age, the color of the copper clasp and wire guards will mellow and blend in. Most times with these necklace strands I take the extra effort to match the two sides though of course with the gemstones there's always a bit of variation; that's part of their charm!

Here you can see the 20 inches. I go through the necklace straps four times so they have about 32 lbs of strength in the cord itself on each side. With these necklaces I don't double up the cord to do this because the needles are verrrry thin so as to fit through those tiny seed beads, and they can break easily. So I take the extra time to go up and back, knot, then do a new thread and go up and back again. I like my work to last a long time : )

The cabochon is just shy of two inches. A really nice size, not too big and not too small.

Here she is! TA DA!

The lovely Cosmic Tree Cabochon necklace is finished! YAY!! Here's the lowdown on the final steps. She's now available at Art a la Carte PA!

Beautiful agate cabochon (the middle part), "phantom or rainbow quartz" necklace beads depending on how the vendor describes the gemstone, copper accent beads, and a luscious selection of seed beads with a sweet picot border. Yes, you can definitely wear her with jeans and a tee! She doesn't mind at all. I wear my cab necklaces with very informal clothing all the time : ) Or pop on a pair of heels with those jeans or some gold or silver sandals and a button down with extra buttons left undone for date nights. She likes to get dressed up with you for special events too. She's one of a kind, no other like her in the whole wide world!

Takes me about 16-20 hours to make these plus materials, which are the best quality I can get (some of my best cabochons come from Jaipur, India, and gemstone beads from all over the world), so when you see the price tag, which will be around $180, it's a giveaway full of love. What else would I rather be doing? It's one of my very favorite things to design these and I want you to enjoy them! Time well spent indeed : ) It's on my list to start doing some videos of the process but I'm not set up for that yet. 

No worries if she sells, I try to keep several special pieces available at Art a la Carte, and am happy to work with clients on custom pieces. The design process is so much fun and so personal, and it doesn't cost any more to have one made on commission. I've done commission work for people all over the world, so you don't need to be able to visit me in person, we can communicate and share photos in a number of ways thanks to technologies today, yay!

I'm at dreamkeepercreations@gmail.com

Thanks for taking a peek! Happy beading if you're checking in to learn! 

Namaste,

~Jen

New Spin on Traditional Mala

It's a busy month for me, and I've finished another commissioned mala. This one is a departure from the traditional bead pattern I use, which, of course incorporates the traditional 108 prayer beads. This one also has the 108, but this person wanted particular energies from several kinds of gemstones. So I stepped slightly out of the box, using 12 different kinds of gemstones for the 108, and gave it 9 rounds. It was so much fun, and I got good goosebumps when it was finished. WOOT! How did I do?

Lots of wonderful energies in this mala!

Close-up of the beautiful shooting star bead,
which is the teacher bead on the mala.

This is one of the magnificent shooting star beads made by my favorite bead artists, Barbara and Katie in Edinburgh, Scotland. There are two accent beads: carnelian, and onyx.

Quality in attention to detail : )

Here you can see the matching pattern of the sides. (Please excuse my working mat which gets a lot of wear and tear....)

TA DA!!

And there she is, her playful self! Sooooo MUCH good energy in this one! I hope it brings comfort, strength, and joy!

Playing with Neurographic Art, SO MUCH FUN!

See if you can spot the pointed part that I missed.
I went back and corrected it, lol.
(You can click on the images to make them larger.)

One of my friends recently taught me (thank you Sandy!) about a concept called Neurographic Art, as defined by Pavel Piskarev in 2014. Last night I checked out the videos on YouTube - wow so fun, and all so different! So I decided to play with it today for lots of reasons, partly to "warm up my hands" in preparation for doing the illustrations for my first children's book, and also because it has developed a wonderful reputation for creating a calm, relaxed state (which art does anyway), and for helping to heal various challenges in the body (which relaxation does anyway). WOOT! It is SO MUCH FUN!! Just playin'. Yes, this is GREAT to do with kids of all ages! And yes, I've already broken some of the rules, HA! Well there aren't very many - much of the literature around it hasn't yet been translated and the basics do vary according to who is teaching it, so I figured it's okay to just have fun. I'm going out tomorrow (yay) and MUST make myself go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight and NOT stay up all night painting it, will just have to look forward to it after I get home! I'm always happiest when I know there's a fun project waiting for me whatever I'm doing when I'm away from the studio.

Almost the beginning of the process.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the lines themselves before adding the rounding and other details, but I forgot. This is a fun activity because I can sit on the porch in a spankin' wet bathing suit and play away! After I'd done some initial circles and lines, I spent time rounding all the pointed angles (one of the "rules" of neurographic art), then one of the circles called to me to make it a beautiful face, so I did. I kept on going, and could see other things appearing in the lines and shapes just as they were, so enhanced them. She's turning into a lovely pregnant woman who's taking a nap and dreaming with her baby.

A little bit further along...

I added what I call "soul stars" and spirals and a bit of love in the little hearts. Also drew her feet, which are curled up while she naps.

A little more doodling, this is fun!

She let me know she's wearing her yoga pants with her lovely pink tunic and that she reeeeally loves the baby, so I added all that in. The baby has the spiritual spiral and so does her mother, baby within its whole belly since it's an ancient spirit coming into a brand new body, and mom in her third eye, from which she dreams and meditates and receives spiritual guidance.

All the lines and black and white are done!

One of the last steps was creating balance, so I worked around putting in the dark parts, balancing the flowers and kitty let me know he'd like more detail so we can see him. I like to pretend those two spirals next to kitty are the yarn he likes to play with when he's not snoozing. Next step is to begin adding some COLOR! WOOT!! The whole thing is very "retro." Why fight it? It's what was already there from the beginning, just needed a few nudges to pop right out!

Color starting to happen!

I might have to go back over some of the black because the gouache fades it out a bit, so that might be one of the final steps once I'm finished with the painting.

Yep, I did go over the black designs in her yoga pants and some other parts too. Now starting to work on the background, which I think of as a soft quilt underneath her. Bringing in some balance with darker colors. Sat looking at those white spaces and asked them, "What do you want to be?" Then I listened, and they told me.

And now most of it is done except for the skin tones which are always scary to me, but I won't put them in until after I test them first on a scrap piece of the same kind of paper.

It's like a little message to trust and keep going to see this little heart shape on my paper towel after I've wiped my brush I used to mix skin tone on it.

Now her face presents a challenge. Her cheeks are too pale for the rest of the painting but going over them takes patience. WAIT for the skin tone to dry! WAIT! WAIT! NOT YET! So I went and tidied up the kitchen and came back....Okay, now you can do that.

So her little cheeks are nice and rosy and her hair, which also presented a challenge because it's black, has some pretty highlights. I also gave the baby a mouth after practicing on the scrap paper, and spent a bit of time going over some of the blacks to make sure they're nice and dark. 

And now I can feel that it's done. So I took the brushes and palettes and water holders into the kitchen and cleaned them up. And of course after I looked at it a while I found one more pointed area I forgot to round off, so I did that. Lol. Never perfect, but good is good enough, right?!

I'm superstitious about my paper towels that I use while I'm painting. I never throw the one away that I'm using until I'm onto the next project. And I've used the same water containers for years and years and years. Classico organic spaghetti sauce. Before that, years ago I had a special green shirt that I had to wear when I drew or painted. I grew out of that one, but not the other superstitions, lol. What superstitions do you have around your artwork? 

Tip for you - I LOVE to use the porcelain palettes because they clean up really well after using acrylic gouache. All ready for the next time!

And I have a ton of brushes, but this time tried out the Winsor and Newton Series 7 ones that are fairly soft compared to my old favorites that have a lot more bounce. I really like how these performed so will use them for the children's book.

I totally encourage you to play with Neurographic art, however it feels FUN for you. You can use plain old black and white, or color in with markers or colored pencils or whatever feels good! Give yourself permission to play, we all can benefit from this kind of activity.

I think it would be LOADS of fun to do a sip and play party at some point, maybe out by the pool with a few peeps who might enjoy this activity My patio table seats six! Let me know in the comments if you'd be interested. You don't have to finish the whole thing but it was actually pretty surprising that it didn't take hardly any time at all, maybe three hours all in all to draw and another few hours to color and go over some of the black. A really nice couple of evenings....

All the joys to you!

Namaste,

~Jen 

Tribute to Our Beloved Bennie

 

Beloved Bennie

Hard to believe this little fella lived to be 101.5 in doggie years (14.5 in human years). Wow, SO MUCH LOVE! And so many darling sweet memories!

This is Benjamin Berghage, also known as Ben, Bennie, Bennifred, Buns, Bunny, Little Man, Tinyboy, Cuddlepuff, Hugmuffin, My Love, Sweet Boy, Chippyhunter (he never caught one but loved to stand guard for hours at the entrances to their homes and along their backyard highways), Spinnyboy, Trotter, The Best Boy in the World Right Next to His Brothers, and many more endearments.

I think he had a vocabulary of about 200 words and I swear he could understand whole conversations. Not only "our" conversations: "Is it time to flirt for your supper? You flirt so GOOD! I could feed you all DAY!" but also the puppy conversations that echo throughout the neighborhood when anything's going on, such as the mail peeps making their rounds, or storms coming, or puppysuppertime, or other pups walking by and leaving their calling cards out front. You could set your watch by him, he ALWAYS knew when it was "3 in the morning bark at the moon time, and maybe I can wake all the neighbors, oh, I'm supposed to potty and come in quick? No way. Just a few more sniffs needed time," "wake up Pop way too early time with the first birdsong," 4 p.m. and just an hour until puppysuppertime so time to flirt, 8:30, 9:30, and 10:30 (outtie o'clock times again), plus "Bigbed Time" at around 11 when he and his brother get snacks after they come back in and get ready for nighttime sleeps with Pops (Bennie) or in the studio with me (Lil Bear). 

One of his many favorite things to do was watch the "Bennievision," which streams all the neighborhood happenings outside the big picture window right behind the couch. He and his brother, Lil Bear, loved to prop themselves across the back of the couch and watch for hours or snooze in the sunbeams coming in.

One of Bennie's fave spots by the Bennievision window.

Falling in LOVE!

I fell in love with him at Steve's pet store years ago when we still had pet stores with pups and kitties and rabbits and birds and fish and turtles and gerbils and guinea pigs and all the lovelies awaiting their forever homes. I'd stopped by after work, which was something I loved to do whenever I was in the area just for the joy of visiting with the animals. THERE he was, and I went into the puppy area and played with him for quite a while. I found it just so hard to leave him, but I hotfooted it home and told my husband, "I KNOW what I want for my birthday!" Then said, "Come with me!" So we hopped in the car and went back to the pet store, and there was some WOMAN walking around with a Yorkie in her arms, well I was about ready to grab him and run, but I realized THAT wasn't Bennie, it was his SISTER! So I dragged my hubby to the puppy visiting room, where I picked up Bennie and batted my eyelashes at my husband. He put his hands in the pockets of his jacket, knowing that if he touched this dog it would be all over. I pulled his hands out and plopped Bennie right into them, and YUP! It was all over. Bennie gave Rob a tiny, polite little kiss on his face and cuddled right in. Happy Birthday Jen!! WOOT! Heck of a birthday, he was a purebred Yorkie, father named Rambo (hence Bennie's fairly good adult weight of about 16 lbs) and mother named Buttercup. I think he took after his mother, he was such a sweetie. 

But here's the thing.

When we brought Bennie home, WHO did he fall in love with and follow around and play with and snuggle with? Yep, it was ROB.

Who's dog is this? ROB'S!

So this lasted for a couple of years, and one day I decided to pop into the pet store again for fun, and LOOK WHAT I FOUND! Or should I say, LOOK WHAT FOUND ME!

Uh oh!

When I was sitting on the floor in the puppy visiting room this little fur ball came up to me and climbed right into my lap, licked the inside of my elbow for a few minutes, then settled in for a nap. Oh GOSH! I fell in LOVE AGAIN! (When he grew up my sister's granddaughter named him Lickiedog as this habit of grooming people he loves has stuck fast.)

So I hotfooted it home and put a total head trip on my hubby, saying how even though Bennie was my birthday present, he didn't bond with me, he bonded with ROB, so perhaps we should pop by that pet store again just for fun. MUHAhahahahaha.... I had a plan. So when we got there I made sure Rob didn't put his hands in his pockets and I batted my eyelashes at him again, real hard, and I said how I just didn't think I could leave this little puffball behind, and GUESS WHAT HAPPENED! Bennie got a BROTHER! 

So we had Benjamin and Lil Bear together for ALL THESE YEARS and they loved to walk shoulder to shoulder all around the neighborhoods in the evenings with us, and they wrestled like brothers before puppysuppertime, and they shared the beeeautiful backyard comfortably, (Bennie's the city boy and always preferred the patio, where Lil Bear is my nature boy and rambles over every square inch of the gnarly grassy/woodsy areas) and one time when they got out the front door they took off for an unsupervised downtown adventure that made me CRAZY with worry, but they stayed shoulder to shoulder then too, and some wonderful Penn State students picked them both up and brought them home to us, THANK GOODNESS. I gave the pup rescuers my brand new perfectly unwrinkled $50 dollar bill I'd just gotten for birthday money, I was sooooo grateful.

Shoulder to shoulder funtimes!
Helping Rob with the Christmas tree.

So they've had many years together and now it's time for Bennie's next chapter, a true adventure indeed. He gets to cross the Rainbow Bridge and get a total reboot on his aging little body. He has physical challenges that he can't recover from, and it's clear that he's in too much pain now. So we are loving him extra (if that's possible) this weekend and Monday is his Return to True Home Cross the Rainbow Bridge Day. I'm so glad he will no longer be in pain. We've had him on meds and special stuff for about a year, but he is fast declining now.

Good Boy Ben! Good job!

Of course I've prayed that things would happen naturally, alas to no avail. And I've had conversations with him letting him know it's okay to go. He sleeps most of the time, so he's been halfway there for quite some months. When one of his tumors started bleeding rather profusely yesterday, we agreed that it's the sign I was asking for to know when is the right time to give him some help. So Rob put a soft sock on the foot Bennie was scratching with and wrapped it with some medical tape, and so far it's working so Bennie can at least sleep and enjoy a few of his favorite things, such as lots of cuddles, extra snacks, and the good sniffs in the beeeautiful backyard. We washed the tender spot but couldn't dress it or wrap with bandages, so we're glad the soft sock is working.

THANK YOU Ben, for all the LOVE, and may you feel ours forever and ever, as we do yours. See you on the other side, Buns, and that will be excellent indeed XOXO 

Yes, with love, we can do hard things. And we've got LOTS of friends in Heaven.

Wishing you all many blessings and much love.

Namaste,

~Jen