Beading Again

It's been a long, quiet summer this year.  I haven't done a whole lot of beading, buying beads, yes...but not doing a whole lot with them.  To get back to it, I decided to play with some wire, wood and my bead soup.  I started out with painted dowel rod, making sure to cut two long pieces and two short.  Wrapped the wire around the cross pieces, to create a frame, then made wire wrapped bead balls.  I used 20 ga galvanized wire throughout.  Measuring by eye, I took separate pieces of wire and wrapped each of them around one end of the frame, added beads and finished wrapping the wire at the opposite end.  Created a hanger with another piece of wire and Bob's Your Uncle, a nice little piece of bead art.

 

It's so nice to be able to use up all those bits and bobs of loose beads that have been hanging around on my bead desk to create something fun to hang on the wall.

 

Last week, I was cleaning up the mess I call my bead desk and uncovered a bag of sea urchin spines.  These are really cool with all the different colorations and patterns they have.  So, out came the crystals, the chain and more wire to make a fun necklace.

 

Sea Urchin Spine Necklace

Even tho' it's still summer and the heat will be returning next week, I can feel and smell fall coming, especially up here in the woods. With the change of season, I will be at my bead desk more often and will be sharing more beady goodness soon.