Bead, Beads, and More Beads

I love going to different bead shops.  The rows of beads, colors, textures(glass, wood, ceramic, fibers, plastic), it doesn't matter.  I love them all.  Even the smell of new beads.  OK, I know beads do not have a smell, but a girl can fantasize can't she.   Buying new beads always gets the juices flowing, especially if I have a creative block.  I am always looking for new and interesting ways to create new jewelry, with different beads and components. 

I received an email from EHOW.  The article caught my attention right away.  It was titled - How to Make Bahamian Sand Beads.  After I read through the article, I thought I would share this information.  

When people want to make jewelry, but there are no beads in sight, they figure out how to make their own beads with the materials available to them. In the Bahamas, if you want to make some beautiful pieces of jewelry, all you have to do is go to the beach and scoop up some sand! If you don't have a beach nearby, you can still make these beads at home with a few inexpensive materials found at any craft store.

Instructions

Things you'll need:
Sand
Screen or cheesecloth
Papier-mâché
Glass bowl
Vegetable oil
Craft glue
Acrylic paint
Sewing needle
Clear acrylic glaze


1. Collect 2 cups of sand from the beach, or buy some sand from a craft store. Make sure the sand is fine. Sift it through a screen or cheesecloth and rinse it off very well to clean it. Set it out in the sun and let it dry completely.


2. Pour the sand you prepared and two cups of papier-mâché into a clean glass bowl. Rub a coating of vegetable oil on your hands and add some glue. Knead the mixture into the consistency of bread dough. Add the desired amount of acrylic paint to make colored beads. Rinse your hands off and apply more vegetable oil if your hands get too sticky as you work.


3. Roll the sandy dough into the desired sizes and shapes for your beads. Let them air dry over night.


4. Pierce each bead through the middle with a large sewing needle after they've dried over night, or have just dried enough so that you don't crush them between your fingers. Since the beads are so thick, letting them sit for up to eight hours will not dry them completely. Don't let them dry all the way or you won't be able to poke a hole through them.


5. Brush a coat of clear acrylic glaze on each bead to make them glossy (if you want) and let them dry. Now you can make jewelry with your homemade sand beads.

I have not tried this yet.  I am waiting for school to end.  Once I make the beads, I will post the beads, then I will create a piece.  Wish me luck,

Time is slipping away

I love what I do.   I love making jewelry, creating cards, recycling, re-purposing, reusing,  multitasking.  I wish I could spend the whole day, just creating(I also like to sell my creations).   I am always trying to do several things with one motion.  I guess that is why I have five blogs.  Yes five blogs, one website.  It sounds crazy.  It might just be.  A friend(Her Blog is Peaceful Reader) of mine mentioned to me that I had not blogged in over 4 weeks.  It did not seem that long, only because I am always making adjustments to the blog without posting.  I do have a tendency to get lost in exploration of the world wide web and making improvements to my many blogs.   All of my blogs now have a great  foundation and all I have to do is add the decorative touch.  The Internet is always changing and I like to keep up with the latest and greatest.  Whether I use it is another story.

Now my reasons for not bogging as I should, are simple.   There is not enough time in the day to do all I things I want to do.  With all that I have to do, I wonder why I am doing what I am doing.   Let me give you an example.

1. Connection with my spiritual life, God and Jesus

Christ(this is a must)

2. Writing., posting, decorating  the five blogs/web site

3. Making jewelry and paper crafts, and any other projects that I tackle

4. Marketing and Advertising for my jewelry and paper craft business

5. Taking pictures, uploading and writing captions

6. Recycling, Re purposing and reusing to save money

7. Reading and seek new ideas, functions, items, etc to promote my business

8. Taking care of my home, family and friends

9. My personal time, time to me and be free

10. I manage the bills, make all the phone class, etc.

11. Preparation for teaching two classes (basic computer class and basic jewelry making/repair and redo.

And on top of that, I am applying to go back to school for web design.  Time has a habit of slipping away. Having to do all of this and work a full time job is insanity.  At least that is what my therapist said.  I feel my days getting shorter and shorter.  As I continue to pile on more things, projects, causes on to my day, it has become apparent to everybody but myself, that I might have a full plate.  I feel better when I am doing something.  It is even hard for me to watch a movie now.  I will be writing or making jewelry while I am in bed.  I feel like it is not productive just to sit.  Activity is the name of this game, my game.

The amount of activity is your choice.  Whatever you can stand.  My choice is to have as much on my plate, maybe having it run over sometimes.  I will have plenty of time to rest.  At least I think so.  I will check to see how much time I have.

Recycle, Redo, Repurpose

I like all kinds of jewelry.  I love wearing it, making it and more times than not, I will redo a piece to make it my own.  I happen to pick up a box of items and in this box was some bracelets.  I am always happy to see jewelry or things I make into some accessory.  Two were wood and the others were plastic.  They were pretty banged up, but the creative person in me came out and tried my hand at redo the bracelets.  I have remade, recycled and re-purposed jewelry before, but it has strictly been with earrings, necklaces, and beaded bracelets.  I have made jewelry out of belts, Cd's, string, rubber and whatever I could get my hands on.  I kinda of miss that.  For so long I have been starting from scratch, making pieces.   I decided to get back into the swing of things,  This is an excellent time, with the country going green and people are looking for a way to save money.  

From time to time I will devote myself to redoing a piece for either restyle or a full out redo. You can look at one of my other project with a light green purse that I restyled.  I think it turned out very nice.  

So here is to dipping my toe back into the world of redo, recreate and recycle.  Take a look.

This first bracelet was very simple.  It had a few scratches on, but I could not buff them out or paint over.  So I just added more scratches.  I like unusual things.  The more to the left, the better I like it.  I have gotten a lot of compliments on this bracelet.

The next bracelet was this ugly shade of blue, with white swirls.   I painted the bracelet and added stickers.  I varnished over the entire bracelet so that the stickers would stay and put a shine on the bracelet. 

Here is one of my favorites.  I just deepened the color(burnt orange) and I had already punched(I brought the punch at the dollar store) out this swirls.   I just glue on the swirls and waited for them to dry and varnished the entire bracelet. 

I continued my sticker theme with the next two bracelets.  Just to keep the stickers in place, glue them, let them dry and varnish to keep the stickers in place.  This also places a high gloss to the object.

I believe 99% of any object can be reuse again.  All it take is time, creativity and a little love.