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Category: Photo Post

Images and videos that I’ve taken on-the-go

Flower Necklace
Look what I made! I was feeling so crappy when I was home sick Monday that I decided to make myself something pretty to compensate. I started flipping through a bead magazine that Ma Snook recently sent me. There I found instructions to make this great “flower” necklace. I’m a sucker for these things, but I always feel ripped off when I pay some craft fair hippie ten bucks for one. It didn’t look too hard so I decided to give it a shot. I nipped round the corner to pick up the supplies and then plopped myself down on the couch. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but the end result is just gorgeous (if I do say so myself). The actual construction time was, like, 90 minutes, but that was with me watching Friends, Malcolm, and Millionaire at the same time. In other words, this is a super easy project even if you’re a total beginner.

Technically the pattern is for a choker, but I can’t stand chokers. So I made mine a little bit longer, and since the beads weren’t too big it lays pretty flat on my chest. In the instructions below I’ll tell you where you can lengthen yours if you want. To the right you can see the back closure. It uses a “T-bar” which you then slip through one of the loops on the other side, which means it’s adjustable.

Okay, supplies. You need two types of beeds: teeny little “seed” beads (the black ones in my necklace), and bigger beads to use for the petals (the purple ones). Seed beads are those itty-bitty little round ones that you buy in bulk. My shop was actually out of black ones, so instead the ones I used are little chopped tubular ones. You really can’t tell the difference, so just get what’s available. The smallest amount my shop sells is 25 grams, which was way more than enough to do, like, five necklaces. I’d estimate you need a very small handful (and even that will probably leave some left over).

For the bigger beads, you can use whatever you want. Mine are called “Mysterious Beads” and each one is about the size of a small pea. Just keep in mind that they’re going to be clustered in groups of four, so the bigger beads you get the chunkier your necklace will be. Anything vaguely round will do. (The magazine shows examples with faceted glass crystals and freshwater pearls.) You need 88 of them to make the basic choker, but I just bought 100 since it was cheaper that way. I ended up using some of the extras to lengthen it, too.

Other than the beads, you need beading cord. You could probably get away with using fishing line, but I’d avoid sewing thread if possible (I don’t think it’s strong enough). Whatever you get, it needs to be extra-fine because it has to go through some beads twice. You also need a beading needle. My seed beads were too tiny for a sewing needle, so I had to get a special one. It’s basically just two pieces of thin wire connected at the ends (to create a very long “eye” for your cord). They should have some near where you buy the seed beads. You also need the “T-bar”, which is the metal rod with a ring on it that you connect to one end of the necklace. If you can’t find one you can probably make do with a normal necklace ring clasp (it just won’t look as pretty at the back). Lastly, you need a bit of clear nail polish. But hey, everybody’s got that, right?

Instructions:
1. Pull out a length of about 3 yards of beading cord. Yep, that’s like nine feet. You basically start in the middle though and entwine the two ends as you go, so trust me, the length is necessary. Thread your needle on one end.
2. String on four of your bigger beads and slide them all the way to the middle of your cord. Take the needle off and tie the two ends (yeah, they’re long, so don’t get ’em tangled!) in a “square knot”. Personally, I call it a “double knot”, if you know what I mean. This makes the little cluster at the end of the necklace without the T-bar.
3. Thread your needle back on one end. Now, go back through the pearl that’s closest to the knot you just made (and the thread you’re holding). Basically you should have a cluster of four beads with two threads coming out opposite sides of one bead. Right? Right.
4. Now go ahead and use your needle to string 55 seed beads on this thread. Count ’em out carefully. These will make the loops without flowers. When you’re done, take the needle off and thread it on the other thread.
5. On this thread, string 6 seed beads. Now start counting along the length of 55 on the other thread. Take your needle and insert it back through the 7th bead pointing towards the end cluster. You’ll see that you’ve just made a loop! Tighten things up as best you can.
6. Now you just repeat that last step 6 more times: add 6 seed beads, count 7 more along the other strand, go back through towards the start, and tighten. End by string 6 seed beads (so you’ve got some left on each strand).
7. Remove your needle and switch it to the other strand. String 3 of your bigger beads and then 6 seed beads 21 times (i.e. 3 big, 6 little, 3 big, 6 little, etc.). Don’t worry, this will turn out way longer than your actual necklace will. By the time we’ve made the clusters though, it’ll be right. This is also the point where I decided to lengthen mine a bit, so I did the repeat 22 times. It’s up to you, really.
8. Okay, switch the needle back to the “empty” thread. Go back through the first (loose) big bead on the other thread pointing back towards the start. String 1 more big bead, and then go through the 3rd big bead on the other thread pointing back towards the start. You’ve just made a flower cluster! (It sounds complicated, but once you’ve got the strands you’ll see how it comes together.) Now string 6 more seed beads.
9. That last step builds each loop of the body of the necklace, so now all you have to do is repeat it. Keep doing it until you’ve gone through the last big bead on the first strand. String six seed beads.
10. You should have six seed beads on each strand. We’re ready to finish this sucker off! First you’ve got to tighten the beadwork, which for me meant I picked it up by the two strands and kinda let gravity help. Then tie the two cords together with another square (double) knot. Now string 4 more seed beads and then go through the ring on your T-bar (or your necklace clasp). Go back down through the 4 seed beads and tighten. Tie another square (double) knot. Go back through the closest 6 seed beads and tie a single knot before the first big bead. Go through the pearl and tie another single knot. Repeat on the other side. Cross the threads through the bottom big bead and snip. Dab a little clear nail polish on your knots and let them dry.
That’s it! Sounds complicated but really there are only a couple tricks and once you know them the rest is easy. Let me know if any of you give it a try!
February 12, 2003
Hogwarts Scarves

I’ve been waiting for Marci (who just set a wedding date!) to receive the scarves I made her before I showed them off. Since she got them today… here they are! (Don’t worry, Marci; he doesn’t have cooties.) The Gryffindor scarf shown here was acrylic and turned out really long. The Slytherin was 100% wool (some gorgeous soft Tasmanian stuff that I’m now obsessed with) but is wider and shorter.

I’ve gone one more in production, but after that I’m available if anybody wants to place an order!

February 6, 2003
Carpenters Record Album Purse

I am so going to Hell. The big thing on the Glitter discussion boards lately has been album cover purses. Basically you buy an old record album, cut up the sleeve, and fashion a bag out of it. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for suitable albums ever since. Friday I hit the jackpot. It’s the Carpenters’ “Now and Then” album. Saturday I collected all the other supplies and today I made my bag. Is it morbid to carry a fashion accessory emblazoned with the picture of pop music’s most celebrated anorexic? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Okay, before you vinyl purists get all up in arms about the wanton destruction of this album, rest assured that it was a bargain basement, scratched-as-hell, one dollar piece of junk. (I plan to turn the record itself into a bowl, but more on that later.) Here’s what the front of the album looked like. As you can see, it was one of the big folded-type ones, not simply a cardboard sleeve. This was nice because it meant I had plenty of cover to work with. A lot of people make small handbag-type things, but I wanted a full-size messenger bag so I planned to use the whole thing.

So the car image is nice, but it was the inside that sold me. Check out this surreal image of Karen Carpenter. It looks even weirder in real life. She’s all Photoshopped and color blocked. I like it.

And of course, on the opposite side we have Richard. Who looks like a vampire. He’s got really pointy eyeteeth!

The first thing to do is cut all the pieces apart. I discovered that two of the trifold sections (the parts that weren’t the record sleeve) were actually glued along a couple sides. So I had to use a knife to carefully separate them. Once I had all six pieces (the other inside piece was the song list), I planned how I wanted the bag to look. I decided to use the front cover (the car) as the front of the bag, and have the side panels continue the image and sort of “wrap around”. Then for the back, I’d use Scary Karen. Inside, I backed the front with the song list, Karen with Dick, and the side panels with some remaining cardboard. I also used a double thickness for the bottom. (The point of doubling the sides up is just to make sure it’s sturdy enough not to fall apart.)

The next step is to laminate all the boards. I glued the double-thicknesses together and took them up to my local copy shop, but the woman there said they were too thick to go through her machine. So I went with my backup plan, which involved clear Contact paper (the kind kids use to cover their books). Basically I just wanted to waterproof and protect it. So here’s me carefully laminating Dick. I didn’t care so much about the pieces facing the inside, but I made sure that the outsides were perfect and air bubble-free.

Okay, so to fasten all the sides together we need to insert “grommets”, which are little round metal eyelet thingies. I bought this package at my local hardware store. It even comes with a tool. (You push them through the hole from the right side and then bash the end down to keep it from pulling through.) Unfortunately this tool sucks. Don’t buy it. It broke within minutes and even when it worked it did a crappy job. So I went to the craft store and found another package that came with little metal bits that you pound with a hammer. These worked much, much better.

Here’s the Snook demonstrating the right way to pound some grommets. I spaced them so that they’d be staggered along each edge and therefore the lacing would cross and look cool. At least, that was the idea. I messed it up on the back side, but you can’t really tell. Anyway, punching holes and inserting the grommets is the worst part of the whole job. But if you get good grommets from the start, it’s much easier.

Here’s a side view so you can see the lacing that holds it together. I used some cheap (like twenty-five cents a meter) vinyl lacing that I found at my craft store. You could also use leather or ribbon or even fishing line. Whatever floats your boat. I went over every edge twice so that the lacing would be criss-crossed. It worked pretty well. Here you can also see that I’ve put one big grommet in the top of each side panel. This is where I hooked my handle, which was just a basic black nylon strap that I pulled off an old bag I had.

Here’s the completed bag from the front. Neat, huh?

And here’s the back, with Scary Karen grinning at you.

That’s it! As you can see, this made for a really big bag. It’s as wide and tall as a record and the side panels (and thus the depth) are about one-fourth of that. It’s really more like a cereal box than a purse. I like it though. Now it just remains to be seen whether I’ll actually have the nerve to carry the thing… 🙂

December 22, 2002
Valentine’s Day

Snookums and I decided last week that we wouldn’t be celebrating a traditional Valentine’s Day this year. Personally, I’ve always been bitter about the holiday because I never really had anyone special to share it with. (My relationships always seemed to implode about that time of year.) So we decided not to participate in something designed solely to sell merchandise and make single people feel crummy. That’s why I was super surprised when he came home with flowers for me yesterday afternoon. He said it was a non-Valentine’s Day present for me. He even remembered that gerberas are my favorites! What a sweetie. I’m feeling all warm and lovey-dovey now, but I promise to compose myself by Thursday. Okay, single people?

February 13, 2002
EuroDisney

My EuroDisney pictures are finally up! Re-live all the adventure through my witty commentary and photos. Come on, you know you’re curious about those French-types… 🙂

February 2, 2001