Crafting ADD

I have Crafting ADD -- Crafting Attention Deficit Disorder.  In case you don't know what this is, I will explain.  I have an art studio behind our house.  When I go in there with no particular project in mind, I get Crafting ADD.  I have a lot of crafts that I enjoy doing -- making jewelry, embroidery, crocheting, cooking and baking, photography, sewing, painting and scrap booking.  These are my favorite crafts.  I have a hard time choosing what craft I want to do and many times I have several projects going at the same time and I bounce back and forth from one to another. I made this Wheel-of-Fortune with my crafts I enjoy doing in eight little pie shapes.  When I go into my studio tomorrow, I can spin the arrow and see what craft I will be doing.  Round and round she goes. . . where she stops, nobody knows.

My Very Own Art Studio!

When I started making jewelry in 2004, I wished I had a room of the house where I could create my jewelry and do all of my fun crafts.  I could have peace and quiet away from the noisy TV and lock out the cat who wanted to be a part of everything I did.  I was using our dining room table as my studio.  I had to pick up my beads before we used the table for meals and I couldn't leave anything out or the next day my beads and paraphernalia would be all over the floor.  Buster the cat wouldn't be able to leave such a fun play area alone!

In August 2013, my husband and I bought a house with an art studio in the back yard!  It is a separate building where the previous owner taught stained glass classes.

After the previous owners left, I had this totally bare building to make into my very own art studio!  She left me one of the big tables which I love and it is perfect for spreading out all of my jewelry making projects and other craft projects.  And they also left two shelving units. 

I decided I wanted my studio bright colors with lots of artwork on the walls and a conversation area to relax and have a cup of tea with a friend.

I found a couple of chairs and a little chest at a resale shop.  I didn't want to spend too much money on this studio, but I wanted it to still look good.  I picked out the blue and green for the walls since the chairs were blue.  One chair has pink flowers with green leaves so I used pink as an accent color.

We moved into our house in February 2014 and I completed my studio with some more furniture and lots of family artwork for the walls.  I love having my very own art studio where I can spend time without interruptions and to be able to concentrate on new jewelry pieces.  And I can close the door and leave a mess without the cat getting into anything.

New Friends and Beads

I love making new friends!  A year ago I met Lyn Belisle through Etsy where I have my jewelry shop online. http://lifeofacrazybeader.blogspot.com/2012/07/friendships.html  Lyn sells these cute, little Earthshard faces -- https://www.etsy.com/shop/EarthShards?ref=top_trail -- that she makes with clay using molds that she takes from old tombstones.  I have used several of her faces in my jewelry.

On Thursday this past week, I ordered some beautiful Czech glass beads from SilverLiningBeads -- https://www.etsy.com/shop/SilverLiningBeads on Etsy.  Aimee, the shop owner lives here in Dallas so she asked if I'd like to meet her instead of having her mail the beads to me.  On Friday, we met at the Starbucks in the Northpark Mall.  Aimee and I sat and chatted for over an hour, talking about beads, bead shops, bead classes and our families.  We have since exchanged emails and we plan to meet for lunch very soon.

What fun it is to make new friends!

Learning New Beading Techniques

I have decided to try something different with the beads – bead weaving.  For some reason I have never been interested in this until I saw this ad for bracelets (that I have yet to make) using some bead weaving techniques.  I think these bracelets are so beautiful, so I paid for the instructions.  I rarely do that.  After reading the instructions, I decided I had better go back to the beginning and actually learn the bead weaving stitches and learn to follow a pattern.

I bought a beginners book and I made my first project.  The even-count peyote stitch was suggested as a good stitch to learn first.  Here is a photo of my first bracelet.  Well, actually this isn’t my first bead weaving project. 

I discovered that what I learned when I lived in Sarasota, was bead weaving!  A friend taught me how to make some peyote beads and another stitch called a spiral. 

This is a photo of a necklace I made with some bead weaving techniques.  I used a needle and Fireline (fishing line) to make this necklace.

I plan to make many more bead weaving projects.  It is a bit tedious and time consuming, but I do enjoy it.

You can find these items for sale on our NeeNee & CheeChee’s Beaded Things website -- www.neeneeandcheechee.etsy.com.