Boro Toggle Peyote Beadwork Necklace

When I first saw the boro glass toggles on the Artbeads website, I thought that they could be a design element in themselves. I have worked a basic beadwork necklace with short peyote tubes looped to strung bead sections with loop in loop hinges. The hinges provide flexibility as well as places to relieve stress without wearing thread. I have done the necklace in two portions with duplicate catches so that it can be worn as a short necklace and bracelet set or as a longer necklace. The boro toggles can be placed anywhere around the necklace and act as focal points within the necklace. I especially liked the toggles with an internal contrasting spiral. In this case, I used an aqua toggle which is the main color for the beads in the necklace. The toggle has a spiral of yellow which I also picked up in the beadwork as accent beads of yellow as well as orange for spice. And I did have a few pieces of yellow striped aqua furnace glass which I also included, placing the large holed furnace glass on short strips of seed beads so that they have some sliding movement. This was a fun piece to design as well as wear. Now I need to go play with my new puppy. Joanne

Disclosure: The boro glass toggles were kindly provided free-of-charge by Artbeads.com, within the frames of Artbeads.com blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.

Sleight of Hand fiber art deck of cards

The Sleight of Hand Exhibit of the fiberart pieces that were photographed to make the decks of cards is now closed. I am thrilled to hear that my "Clubbing the Night Away" 6 of clubs tied for the People's Choice award with Sandy Kephart's "Jack and the Beanstalk" Jack of Diamonds. The decks of cards have been immensely popular and are already into a second printing. They can still be purchased. For retail locations or to purchase online: http://www.fiberartinternational.org/sleight-of-hand  Joanne

Mini Show, Hanover, PA

I am pleased to announce a mini show of my work at the Hanover Area Art Guild, 32 Carlisle Street, Hanover, PA 17340, just a block off the square for the month of May. Not only will I have my beadwork creations, but also my photography, oil paintings and stitched and felted fiber work as well. It was great fun putting together such an eclectic exhibit and had the added benefit of clearing out my studio for the new puppy that I am getting next week. He was born during the Olympics and his name is Apolo. He is the black and tan Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy on the left. His brother, the ruby on the right (Shaun, of course) goes elsewhere. My existing pair, Ben and Jerry, both Blenheim (that is red and white-see if you can pick them out in the above artwork), can only adapt to one new brother at a time. Joanne

Seahorse Necklace #3

My Seahorse necklace is complete featuring the lovely resin and sterling pendant by Tania Hartman and boro glass toggle closure provided to me by Artbeads (www.Artbeads.com). The result is an asymmetric design of brick stitched starfish and strung beads in cool aquas and teals with flexible loop in loop hinges. A summer combo. The Seahorse necklace will follow my bluebird necklace into the Potomac Fiberarts Gallery, Studio 18, at the Torpedo Factory Arts Center, 105 N Union Street in Alexandria, VA. Joanne

Disclosure: The Tania Hartman Resin and sterling pendant as well as the boro glass toggle were kindly provided free-of-charge by Artbeads.com, within the frames of Artbeads.com blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.

Seahorse Necklace #2

I am continuing to work on the seahorse necklace featuring a seahorse resin on sterling pendant by Tania Hartman provided to me by Art beads (www.Artbeads.com). I have pictured a beadwork starfish in progress. I first establish a ring of five beads and then construct a bead ladder out from each bead one at a time, brick stitching back to the center along one side of the ladder to move on to the next arm. The starfish arms are tapered by varying the size of the beads used.

I also like to incorporate "hinges" in my necklaces. This gives a pivot point that does not stress the thread. Here I have connected separate modules (the starfish) with loop in loop hinges. For more information on this method, look up the back issue of Beadwork magazine: Beadwork.  "Stress Redux:  Send in the Reinforcements!"  by Joanne Strehle Bast, Summer 1998 issue. 

I am also using as a closure the boro glass toggles, also provided by Artbeads. I really like the use of a catch that does not add a distracting metal element into the beadwork. Joanne


Disclosure: The Tania Hartman Resin and sterling pendant and boro glass toggle were kindly provided free-of-charge by Artbeads.com, within the frames of Artbeads.com blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.

Beadwork Seahorse Necklace

I have begun the second beadwork necklace using one of the resin on sterling pendants by Tania Hartman provided at no charge to me by Artbeads (www.Artbeads.com). I had to think about this one for a while and decided to use brick stitch starfish to suspend the pendant. Here is the beginning. Joanne

Disclosure: The Tania Hartman Resin and sterling pendant was kindly provided free-of-charge by Artbeads.com, within the frames of Artbeads.com blogging program. The author of this blog has not received any payment from above-mentioned company. The post above represents only personal opinion of the blog author.

"Sleight of Hand" exhibit

 The "Sleight of Hand" deck of cards exhibit closes in Pittsburgh this Saturday May 8. I am going to Pittsburgh for the Saturday afternoon artist's talk and will bring my piece  "Clubbing the Night Away" 6 of clubs home when the exhibit closes at 5PM. I am excited to see all the pieces together and to hear others talk about their work. The exhibit is at the Borrelli-Edwards Gallery listed below. The deck of cards will continue to be on sale at least through he extent of Fiberart International.

Due to Popularity, Sleight of Hand decks are being reprinted and will continue to be available at:

BE Galleries

3583 Butler Street, Lawrenceville, PA 15201

412.687.2606 / begalleries@mac.com

TUE-FRI: 11am - 6pm / SAT: 11am - 5pm

Patricia Boutique

115 Center Avenue, Aspinwall, PA 15215

412.799.0819 / MON-SAT: 10am - 6pm

3g Gallery (Westin Hotel concourse)

1001 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

412.288.4320 / M-F: 10am - 6pm

The Quilt Company

3940 Middle Road, Allison Park, PA 15101

412.487.9532 / www.thequiltcompany.com

M & TH: 9:30am - 9pm / TUE, W, F & SAT: 9:30am - 5pm

Also at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts

and Society for Contemporary Craft

For retail locations or to purchase on-line:

www.fiberartinternational.org