when beads come out of hiding

-
I used to make lampwork beads. You might already know that. I played with fire and molten glass for 16 years, until the economy and my super powers both seemed to fail me at the same time. Whatever the reasons, I lost that loving feeling, sold my torch, and moved on.

I do still have a bit of a bead stash though, and the other day I looked at my box of tiny spacers, and thought, Hey, you guys wanna be stitch markers? You should have heard them hollering yes.

I went digging for wire, pliers, cutters, a hammer, and my tiny torch that's better suited for making a creme brulee than jewelry. I made some headpins, added beads, shaped and hammered the loops, and before long, those long-ignored beads transformed into beautiful, functional knitting accessories. I love the segue, though long awaited, from beadmaking to knitting. Now there's a connection I hadn't seen before.


I sold all of these very quickly. Not surprisingly, they all went to people who used to buy my beads regularly. I'll make some more, and see if maybe there's a larger market for them. I only have a small stash of beads left, so this little project can only go so far.

No... I don't want to go back into the beadmaking biz. But I do enjoy bending wire and smacking it with a hammer now and then. So we'll see if there's a way for me to bring something I used to love into what I love now.

Does this appeal to you? Let me know. Leave a comment. I do so love comments.

xo Kim

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comment!

Popular posts from this blog

cats are not dogs, and how tangling string untangles frustration

-
Image
As Airbnb hosts, we have lots of lovely interactions with guests while they're here, and with potential guests making inquiries before they book. I try to be really clear in our listing, about the house, amenities, and rules. The trouble is, some people would rather not actually read the listing, or if they do, they just ignore the parts they don't like. Oy. I mean really, who thinks cats and dogs are the same thing? Today I got a booking for two nights in March, from a very nice-sounding couple coming down from Canada. They were very excited to stay here at Mermaid's Nest , and everything was great... until I got to the part in their message about bringing their cat... Ruh roh... I had stated very clearly in our listing that we allow small dogs . Cats were not mentioned. Neither were goats, snakes, skunks, or rhinos, because I figured people would see that part about dogs , and at least ask before assuming all other animals were welcome. Oh, silly me. Apparently the...
Read more

where to buy what i make

-
Image
I closed my Etsy shop recently. What??? Why??? Well, because I think Etsy has done great harm to the livelihoods of makers everywhere. If you do manage to get noticed, which is pretty difficult these days, it's impossible to compete with the pricing on so-called "handmade" goods that are mass produced in foreign countries. Equally frustrating to me is the number of actual makers who drastically underprice their work, effectively turning themselves into voluntary sweatshop laborers in order to stay in the game at all. I'm not playing. I would love to see makers of all fine handmade things everywhere reclaim a sense of dignity, and charge a fair price for their skills and talents. Until I find such a group of folks that I can join, I'm back to being on my own here, in my own little shop, charging a reasonable price for the quality materials and hours of work it takes to make the things I make. I feel good about this. The Shop, at the moment, contains exactl...
Read more

soft spring scarf

-
Image
If you come here often, you know that I finished this pretty little swath of yarny love a few days ago. The yarn is from CandySkein , and I love it. A lot. It's a beautifully hand-dyed, washable merino fingering weight that was quite wonderful to knit with, even though I'm sort of a lazy knitter and usually use something quite a lot more bulky. This worked up into a delicious, lightweight-but-warm fabric that's perfect for between-season wear. Pardon my pilly worn-all-winter sweater, and focus on the scarf. It's my favorite style - an asymmetrical triangle, worked from end to end. It has a ziggy-zaggy edge on one side, and a smooth edge on the other. The pattern is called the Hitchhiker Scarf, and you can get it on Ravelry . I test drove this one for a day and loved it. But as I do with most of the things I make, I also decided to let it go. Only three have made it into my personal wardrobe for keeps, and I'm just fine with that. Make them, love them, let ...
Read more

and what do you do?

-
Image
I'm in my outdoor office this week, at the picnic table on the patio. I have a favorite vintage tablecloth, lilacs in a martini shaker, and tea in my new favorite cup, made by Charan Sachar . I'm considering a new format for my blog, which I'll try here today. I suspect that only three people actually read this, and yet I persist. I like to write, so that can be good enough. I have lots of things to talk about, so I'm going to try dividing my time here between Life Stories and Ponderings, and of course, Knitting. Feel free to tell me what you think, or even just grunt if you're out there. Really, have no idea. Pondering... I like meeting new people. But I hate the inevitable moment when New Person will politely raise their eyebrows and ask me, "And what do you do?" It's sort of like the human equivalent of dogs sniffing each others' butts. We need to size each other up somehow , right? What better way than to sniff out what a person d...
Read more

yarn that speaks for itself

-
Image
I've had this amazing ball of hand-dyed-and-spun yarn for months. It was made, and given to me, by my friend Valerie, which makes it even more special. I've moved it around the house, looked at it, held it, and asked it what it wanted to be, but it's been very quiet. I've loved it so much just as a ball of yarn, I was in no hurry to knit it into something else. Here it is with my great-grandmother's hand carved crochet hook. So much wonderfulness. Maybe sometimes yarn can just be yarn, at least for a while. As the weather got colder, I started think of hats. Not just baby hats like I make for the hospital, but big hats. For me. That wind on the beach can really bite a girl's ears in the winter. So, long story short, I knitted my beautiful, most favorite yarn into a hat. I found a really easy pattern for a beret, which Rick made for his daughter (yes, he knits a bit). Here's the pattern . It's really cute! And here's my hat. Also really cute. ...
Read more