Fritillary

It's spring and the crocus are in full bloom. I took photos of them both in the beginning of the week and today, but have been too busy to post any photos. There's also a few other flowers beginning to bud. The fritillary is not one of them. It's from the shop and sits in a pot indoors.

I've developed a penchant for this flower, Fritillaria meleagris aka snake's head aka kungsängslilja, recently. As you can see amongst my pins. There's one, two, three and even four photos pinned that I found just at the top of the boards. (And notice how in almost all of them, they're matched with another favourite of mine, the hellebore.)

We used to have these flowers by the wall of the smaller building where my sis and I live, but they disappeared years ago. At the time I didn't miss them that much as they weren't my favourites, but of cause it was sad to see them thinning out and then, one year, just be gone and never coming back. Then I forgot about them more or less. Until recently when seeing all those gorgoues photos of this both delicate and striking flower. Don't know if it was just its beauty or -- at least partially -- a touch of nostalgia that made me drool over the pics.

Now I adore it. Unusually, it's especially as a cut flower I love it. Combined with a few hellebores or on its own. Perhaps just a single flower with leaves in a clear vase. Normally I prefer living flowers with roots in soil, especially out in the garden or in nature. Flowers in a vase is just not really my thing. Sometimes it's nice, though, and sometimes it's a way to "save" a flower with broken stem for a while. Or you put them in water in order to let them develop roots so they can be planted. But just buying bouquets every now and then to decorate tables etc? No, that's not my cup of tea. I don't even find a dozen red roses romantic because of that.

Anyway, I mentioned that I wanted a snake's head fritillary as my sis and I went to a flower shop to pick up a couple of daffodils. Though they were a tad expensive, though, so I didn't buy, but apparently it'd rubbed off on my sis so she bought a pot. The one in the pic above.

The legend of the snake's head fritillary

Why not take the opportunity to tell of the legend of the snake's head? In swedish it's called kungsängslilja, named after Kungsängen (lit. the king meadow) outside Uppsala. The area is known for the fritillaries, which thrive here. It's the biggest wild fritillary population in the nordic countries. You can find both the usual checked variety seen in these photos, but also some of the white variety that is less common.

According to local lore, the fritillaries here are a memory of a battle between swedes and danes, back in the days a common thing as the wars between Sweden and Denmark were many. For every dane killed on the battlefield, a red flower grew and for every dead swede a white flower grew. As the swedes won a great victory with few casualties the white flowers are very scarce.

Challenge of Music 2014

A belated welcome to my stop on the Challenge of Music blog hop! After what seemed like an eternity of knotting (126 knots to be precise), I finally have a challenge piece to show. It's green, but not so much in anticipation of spring. The colour is in many ways the central component of this story and challenge creation and it all begins in the year 2000.

My studentmössa, "student cap", from the graduation in June 2000.

The year 2000 started, in a way, rather anticlimactic for many after the much ado about nothing 1999 new year's eve. No world ending, no civilization crushing Y2K computer bug, no epic end-of-a-millenium party. But for me and everyone else my age in this country it was the beginning of a very important time. It was our last semester at gymnasiet, the three years following the mandatory nine years of schools, and it was time to choose our path in life. As the year transcended into the Year of the Dragon, many of us were really to send in our university applications. I was one of them, the first one (and so far the only one) in the family to aim for higher education.

This is the first meaning of the green colour as I, during the last year studying at the social science - business administration programme (samhälle ekonomisk), had gotten fed up with what I thought was my path in life, marketing. The more we studied, the less it felt creative and challenging and the more it felt like just learning about how to manipulate people. Business administration felt hollow, without real meaning and importance even though I still sort of loved the dynamic world of business. And having become more and more interested in environmental issues as well as human rights, contrasting marketing with the important issues in the world, money making felt soulless. The solution came one day when our class teacher handed us a list of business admin and economics programmes at the universities and högskolor in Sweden. After looking through the list, one line stood out. It said the Ecological Economics Programme. Not knowing much about all the existing disciplines, this felt like striking gold: I could combine my interest in economics/business admin with my passion for environmental issues! I knew straight away what I wanted to study after the summer. Now it was just a matter of finishing the last courses, get my grades and my student cap and then pursue my new passion in life.

In the summer I got the papers saying I got in and in late August I moved to a student flat in Västerås, a place I couldn't even pinpoint on a map of Sweden I'm embarrassed to say...

This is where the music part of this challenge comes in. Choosing a year was easy, the year 2000 was so extremely important in my life, but choosing a song wasn't much harder. We only had the basic channels on telly (plus the danish as we're on the verge of the area where you can get their broadcasts), but in my flat I got cable, which meant getting two (then) music channnels, MTV and ZTV. I still remember two songs from that year, one mainly from the telly (Overload with the Sugabages) and one from the telly and the clubs I visited with my new class mates that autumn. This is the second song I remember from that year:

The one thing I remember from the actual music video I saw on my telly was -- yes, you guessed it, the colour green.

But there's even more green associated with the year 2000 for me. Not just the green from the song I remember so well from the dance floors and videos on telly, not just the symbolic green of my choice of studies (apart from Ecological Economics, it included all sorts of green disciplines, from environmental sciences and green technology to eco sociology and environmental history). The one thing I remember best from my first -- and so far, only -- flat was not the inside, but what was outside. A country girl moving to the big city, I still felt close to nature: on the back of the student apartment building there was a lawn and a small exposed cliff with bushes and trees. You could at times see many rabbits and on occasions even a roe or two. At the centre of it all was a big linden tree. Every time I looked out my windows, I saw that beautiful tree, it filled up the window frame.

So that my challenge piece was to be green was the one thing I knew right from the start when signing up. Now it was "just" a matter of design and finding the right components. In the end, I settled for a simple (but somewhat time consuming design) that focused mainly on colour. The colour of the music video and the colour of my memories of the year of the dragon 2000.

In a way it's also a reference to home: the paired dagger beads reminds me of bamboo leaves, like from the bamboo bushes dad planted in the gardens. I spotted that while making the necklaces so it wasn't a symbol I intended originally.

As for more references to the music, it's a song that make you want to move -- dance or just jump up and down -- and I can just imagine the necklace and the beads bouncing and moving with the person wearing it.

The necklaces is made using medium braided silk thread and small dagger beads in a very simple pattern, knotting them two and two with spaces in between. Thought about varying it a bit, knotting some daggers in groups of three or one, but in the end I kept it like this --probably because of them reminding me of our beloved bamboo. At first it was intended as a lariat without clasp, but as it tangles easily I felt it was probably better to add a clasp -- none can be seen in the pics as I want a green one to match the beads -- wear it like a multi-strand rather than wrapping it around the neck.

It's very simple, but I like it. It'd be easy add a removable pendant or little beads on headpins if I ever felt like varying it a bit.

And that's it, my challenge creation and my story of an important year in my life. It's my life -- a fragment of it captured in glass beads and silk cord. For many more stories and creations, please visit our challenge creator and blog hop host Erin's challenge reveal post for her creations and for links to the rest of the participants. Enjoy!

Lost and found

Some times you put things in storage and forget about them. It wasn't until today I was made aware of some such things that I had forgotten about. The reason for those bags my sis found was forgotten was one many probably are familiar with: moving. When I first moved out at age 18 to go to uni, I took loads of unnecessary things with me to fill my small student flat. Other things stayed behind, such as a bunch of repurposed knitting yarns I never used after becoming old enough for find finger knitting to be too childish. One thing I took with me was a bag of fabrics and yarns.

Some of the fabrics are leftovers from stuff we made in school (the blue, floral bag with my name on it was the one we used in syslöjden to store our WIPs, pincushions etc in) or scraps I bought way back in the early 90's with my pocket money. I can even remember exactly when and where I got some of them! There's one cat fabric I found after digging through a huge pile of scraps in a fabric shop. There are even a few pieces from the fabric I sewed my ball gown in when we were having the end of school ball in 9th grade (=last mandatory year in the swedish school system and last year in högstadiet). The crochet yarns are remants from a time when I was fond of crochet as a kid. Some are yarn I bought, but most of the stash are yarns I got from mom and a few are old yarns that's been lying on a shelf in the house since my grandma and aunt died in the 70's.

When moving back after uni to attend another uni closer to home, a lot of stuff just stayed in the moving boxes and bags as it wasn't my plan to stay for long. I wanted to have another flat of my own, as any young adult would want, but with the housing situation around Lund being what it was and what with being able to save a lot of money by living at home and commute to uni I stayed. Then I found it hard to get a job and was forced to stay as there was no choice. Still, most of the stuff stayed in the boxes and bags as I either didn't need them (no need for an additional set of drinking glasses and cutlery) or still nurtured a hope to move out soon, making unpacking a waste of time. The bags and boxes where stuffed away here and there. In fact, it wasn't until my sis found the bag of fabric and yarn today that I knew some of the bags were put away in that particular storage space where she eventually found it as part of the big clean out.

It's a big nostalgic, finding many scraps of fabric that I bought 20 years ago. After finding some of my old stash in my personal storage, I sort of thought that was all I had left. Despite still missing the blue bag (see above), which I sort of knew still was filled with fabric or yarn, it seems like I accepted that what I'd found was everything. That the rest was somehow just dreamt up or that I forgot using it for sometimes years ago.

But now it's all here, out in the open and accounted for. It's really high time to use them now. Surely they can't just go back in storage another 10 or 20 years! Ok, some fabrics are no longer to my taste, but others are still as good as when first bought. Can't wait to come up with an idea for them...

I've been wanting to do a rag rug for some time now and because of that lamented not having enough rags. Well, it looks like I can find some more rags now. Not the cat fabric, of cause, and there are other nice, large pieces of fabric that are too good to be torn into rags, but there seems to be scraps I could sacrifice for a rug.

My main reason for doing a rag rug isn't my green background, actually -- nor that I've found some inspiring rag rugs online. It's simply that I want to make a rug or two for my bedroom, but with all the cats that treat rugs like the perfect place to barf -- or, worse, pee or poo in protest of the sub-par litter box cleaning -- I don't want to spend much money on it. None, really. And making my own rag rugs could both a fun and economical option.

Just need to find enough useful rags -- and pick a techniques as there are many fun ones to choose between: crochet, knotting, weaving, locker hooking, tambour, braiding etc.

Old DIY jewellery and accessories article

I actually wrote about this magazine page in my other blog back in 2008, but thought it'd be fun to show it again now that I found it while looking for some other photos. It's a really big scan so if you want to read the text -- which is in Swedish -- or view the jewellery and accessory projects up close, you can just click on it.

I found this page in a crochet book I "took over" after my grandma or oldest aunt. Both dies years before I was born (one of age, one of stomach cancer) and left many things behind in my dad's possession.  The reason this page from an old women's magazine was folded and put in the book was that the other side, page 40, features patterns for a cat and teddy bear knitted in fuzzy yarn. It's also the cat pattern that made me save the torn out page.

Then, in 2008, I got the idea to unfold the paper and see what was on the back. I knew there was something, but didn't remember what. It turned out to be instructions for easy-to-make DIY accessories, or "decorations for the young ladies" as the headline reads. The necklaces and belts are made from such everday objects as bast/raffia, vent chain, curtain rings, glass or wooden beads and wire, while the gloves and purse are beaded with glass and steel beads. Also notice the bead dangles, taken from a crystal chandelier, on the raffia-wrapped metal belt.

A fun glimpse of DIY jewellery articles back in... well, I have no idea what decade or year it might be. Don't even know which magazine featured this. Anyone got any ideas?

Old gifts

I haven't been a very active blogger recently and it's not just because the weather called for outdoor work (according to the SMHI season map last weekend, we've had meteorological summer for a week now) but also other things that've gotten in the way. You should check out that map, it's kind of fun to see how the seasons in Sweden right now range from summer in the south to winter in the mountains in the north. But, anyway, I've got flower pics from these sunny summer days, but they aren't edited. Today I'm instead treating you to some different flowers, printed on fabric.

These are two fabric-clad boxes I got from an friend of my parents'. She was old by then and didn't do much embroidery so she gave me and my sis a few boxes of various sizes containing embroidery threads and a few tools. I have no idea how old they are, all I know is that I got them in the 90's and she was born in the 1910's so she'd had a long life to accumulate things in.

This little box above has a pretty fun floral design. The inside is lined with yellow satin and it has a stamp. Forgot to take a picture of that. I don't know if it was intended for embroidery floss to begin with or if it was repurposed for the sewing basket later. Haven't measured it, but it's about a 1 dm long.

The second box was big and flat like a (large) book. The old and stained wooden box is hinged and opens up to reveal compartments filled with embroidery threads on small bobbins. There was also a (silver?) thimble and the needlebook you can see below. The woman's name is written with a lead pencil on the inside of the needlebook.

I haven't used any of the threads. I don't even know exactly what most of them are (the blue skein on top of the bobbins are real silk, I know that much). It was a kind of treasure, getting all these colours and pretty boxes, so it's one of those things I save for something special. Or just save.

Too pretty -- and too special -- to use.

TAST week 16: French knot

English name: french knot (pl. french knots)
Swedish name: fransk knut  (pl. franska knutar)

Ok, so now I've catched up. Or I will have when showing the aurica sampler, which is the second half of my catch-up post (to be published here soon). This week I focused on ribbon embroidery as I've never really tried to make french knot ribbon roses before. Do know how to make french knots with thread/floss so why not focus on a type of embroidery I want to learn but haven't got very far with yet (oh, I don't want to use my pretty silk ribbons for my first clumpsy attempts -- what a waste of beautiful, and not always that cheap, silk!).

So these are officially my first ribbonwork flowers. First rose I made was the pink one, using 25-30 mm wide ribbon. Actually it's my second because I messed up, trying to just tweak it a bit and then pulled it too hard so it had to be redone (hence why the ribbon is a bit frayed). Not perfect, but I'm pleased with it considering what a newbie I am.

Then I went on to do the blue knots in 7 mm ribbon -- one turned out better than the other -- and the purple flower, which I made from a cheap synthetic ribbon yarn. I think I'm going to try and do some more embroidery with that yarn in the future...

Of cause I've also made knots with the aurica yarn. I tried a few variations, altering the number of twists and changing between starting with a section "open" or filled yarn closest to the fabric. My faves are the two knots in the middle (which you can see close-ups of below). I liked the black centre and puffy orange "petals" around it. In the top right corner you can see some stem stitches -- better pic of them will be found in the coming aurica sampler post. Hopefully you'll also find a less blurry photo of the french knots there...

 Making these stitches made me think of a UFO I found when looking for my old cotton floss stash. It's a cat embroidery I designed and began, but never finished, to stitch as a kid or young teen. The cat is modelled after a fridge magnet I had.

Stem stitches, french knots and bullion knots -- must be the first and last I've ever made so far! -- it was pretty ambitios considering how bored I was with stem stitch as a kid and knots aren't always that easy when impatient. Of cause I also have the first colour sketch and finished pattern (which was traced onto the black fabric).

Wonder if I'll ever get around to finish it? If nothing else my taste in embroidery and colours have changed a bit since then, making it less interesting to pick up again. I'm into other designs and materials today. On the other hand it's a pity not to finish a design I actually took some time to compose and pick out colours for...

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What is TAST?

Take a Stitch Tuesday is a weekly embroidery challenge throughout the year by Sharon of Pin Tangle. You can read more about it here (or by clicking the TAST badge to the right).


To see what others have done in this stitch, check out the comments in this post on Pin Tangle. Be sure not to miss Sharon's lovely stitch variations in the actual post.

Happy Valborg!

Today is Valborgsmässoafton (Walpurgis night), AKA just Valborg or Siste April. I'm not going to light any bonfires -- even if it weren't so dry there's a fire ban -- or sing or celebrate in any particular way other than by enjoying the day. Valborg is the day that celebrates the arrival of spring and with the warm weather lately, it really is full spring. Flowers blooming, trees budding. Unfortunately, they say it'll get colder next week, but on the other hand the rain is needed.

So... I thought I'd send some Walpurgis/May Day greetings by showing some more photos from the garden. Don't forget to listen to Vintern rasat (Längtan till landet).






The wood anemones are still covering the woodlands, as you can see below:


The colours of spring: light green -- almost neon at times, so radiant are the new leaves -- and white, shining in the sun. And to balance that, a few pics below with more shades to them.



And, for a colourful finale, some tulips.




[I shouldn't have looked up that song on YouTube, though: now I'm sitting there listening to En vänlig grönska -- a good soundtrack for my photos nonetheless. I may not be christian but I love those summer hymns (En vänlig grönska, Den blomstertid nu kommer and I denna ljuva blomstertid -- the first one is the best) and there are so many memories associated with them. Two of them were also sung at my uncles funeral, which was held in spring and my aunt wanted it simple, light and hopeful, which it really was.]

Found a grub in my wardrobe...

This little critter is one I recently found in a bag of old stuff in one of our wardrobes. I used to make a whole lot of things from scraps of wood ever since I was a little kid as my dad enjoyed woodworking and more in his spare time. My sis and I would make e.g. snails by hammering nails in pieces of wood. Well, this one I made in school. No idea how old I was at the time.

It's made from unfinished wooden beads, a wood rod (rundstav), nails (for attaching nose and as antannae) and some fleece for hair. Not sure larvae have hair on their heads, but some are hairy.


An example of "beadwork" I made long before I became a beader. Woodshop was so much fun! I've actually also found a copper ring and a few of the enamel pendants I made there. Sometimes politicians want to cut lessons in slöjd (textile and woodshop), arguing it's more important to focus on math, language, science and all of that. But for me, slöjd/"sloyd" and art class are important for children. It gives them opportunity to be creative, to have fun, to experiment -- and to learn. Not everyone has parents with a whole room full of tools and materials to work with like me and my sis and especially for those kids, I find art and slöjd to be important parts of children's education.

Anyway, I'm going to take some pics of my other finds as well some day. Until then, if you want to see some jewellery I made in the 90's check out this pic. The bracelet is new, made from readymade charms, but the pendant is made by me in 1993. So when I was 11-12 years old. I also made a Father's Day pendant for dad.

Gears, sprockets and cogs

One thing I like about this latest fascination with steampunk is that the bead shops (and hobby shops) have begun to sell all sorts of cogs. From watch movements to imitation spoked gears. While using cogs and watch parts might be considered a cliché by the "true" steampunks that just see this mainstream fad as people "jumping on the bandwagon", I love because it's become so much easier to find pretty cog-shaped components for my jewellery. I like steampunk -- I love cogs.
One thing true steampunks dislike is the use of watch parts or cogs as single elements, not actually part of a mechanism. While I could argue that jewellery making is all about using parts in ways not originally designed for, I won't. I'll just tell you why I personally don't mind these "scattered" and lonely parts.

I grew up in the countryside. I still live in the countryside. Like all farms that's been in the family for some time (in our case, my grandfather bought our farm around 1900), you can find a slightly forgotten corner outdoors where the old machines were placed when they were no longer of any use in the farm work. When I grew up, going for treasure hunts there was one of the best things we knew. We had to climb over some wood and then fight our way through bushes and weed until we got to the good stuff. There, with the big ash trees towering over this old and forgotten place, we would pull out all sorts of things: porcelain shards, old glass bottles, wire -- but most of all the rusty remnants of all things discarded decades ago. As there were machines it of cause also included some heavy cast cogs.


So there you have it, really, the reason why I love cogs even though I mostly make more or less romantic jewellery inspired by nature. The same nature that inspired me cotained these treasures. And that is also the reason why I love rust. It's pure nostalgia.

Watch parts was "just" something I wanted to get as the size is more useful in jewellery that the large cogs I'm used to. But if I have to be honest, I do prefer cog-shaped stampings as they look more like those cogs we retrieved for our "archeological expeditions" as kids.


I think the type of "cogs" you see above are nice too even though they look more like toothed washers (known as tooth lock washer or star washer) to me... But I have seen something similar, with many more teeth, in a watch movement actually. Still looks like washers to me, though: you can tell I grew up with a dad who had a workshop filled with washers and other types of hardware rather than watches.


If I had to analyze my fondness for cogs -- which really just gained momentum as source of inspiration since I first heard of steampunk some years back and saw people using cogs as design elements -- even further they have a shape that attracts me. Not just are they shapes I remember for such different things in my childhood as treasure hunts and cartoons (Donald Duck has a way of getting stuck in big gears and watch parts, not unlike Charlie Chaplin in Modern Times). Not only do they make me think of old-fashioned machines and "the good old days", past times always being a great source of inspiration. Not just are they often made in one of my favourite metals, brass. Look at the little watch gear with four spokes that I showed in the beginning of this post. That is more or less the same shape as a bronze age sun wheel/sun cross -- just compare my cogs and gears with these bronze age pendants. Cogs are like the modern, industrialized version of a sun symbol.

While I and probably most other people don't consciously find cogs and gears pretty because they look like the archetypical sun symbol -- nor were they designed to look like that -- I think there might be something of an underlying positive feeling about the shape that can attract people to it. It's a shape that can symbolize industrialism, but when it's made of brass people can be nostalgic and associate it with old times rather than modern industry. The prongs (and spokes if it has any of those) on the cogs also makes a simple but interesting shape: something more is happening than if it were just a plain circle or washer. The design is basically the same, but can vary from the most simple to something very ornate: there's something for everyone, regardless of what styles we like.


BTW, that enamelled spoked gear (by C-Koop Beads) you can see two of the pics above is destined to become a part of a flower. An echo of the nature-meets-culture that a rusted cog enveloped in weeds is -- inspired by the treasure hunts -- and also a way to show that the cog shape can be so much more than just a gear when used in jewellery.

Finger crochet bead jewellery

I felt a bit nostalgic and perhaps even more inspired when I read a post on finger knitting/crochet over at The Beading Gem's Journal. I used to have so much fun doing finger crochet in school: it was so fast and easy to make that many kids got addicted to it. And they still teach this in school, with new generations falling for the same fun addiction.

So of cause I had to give it a try again after reading that post. I use the "looping method" described at e.g. Craftzine rather than the more common "weaving method". So I began looping my yarn, knowing I still remembered the technique -- though, just to be sure I wasn't remembering it wrong I asked my sis if it was correct. "Of cause it is, have you forgotten how it's done or something?", she retorted. Well, it was perhaps fifteen years since I last made a finger crochet snake so why wouldn't that be possible? Anyway, I hadn't forgotten: I've finger crocheted so much it's forever ingrained in my brain I think.

First (finished) piece I made was the simple bracelet above. It's made using a thick novelty yarn called Fiocco Oro by Gedifra (colour no. 6601), making the bracelet look less airy and loose than finger crochet normally do. Also, because my pinkies are so short, I found it much easier to crochet by just using three fingers instead of four. All pieces below are crocheted like this.


Then, of cause, I had to try adding beads to my finger crochet -- after all I do "regular" bead crochet as well as I've tried adding beads to my knitting nancy. I've got a lack of apropriate stringing materials for this technique so I had to make due with what I found, which was subtle enough to crochet and also thin enough to string beads on. I got out some pearl silk. I wasn't sure I had enough pearls strung so therefore only one loop on each turn was made with a pearl. I think the result is kind of nice (se below for more on the issues I had using this stringing material), but I suspect there'll be some of the same problem floating necklaces can have with beads migrating downwards due to the large loops.


That left me with enough strung pearls to make a matching bracelet. This time I added pearls on every loop, which made a significant difference in the result. Just too bad the pearl silk turned out to be a poor choice: if a loop becomes snagged, if so just on a finger nail, it pulls on the whole cord making big unsightly loops. So does some of the pearls themselves as well. A loop is easily pulled back into the cord, but really, you don't want a piece of jewellery that distorts that easily. Add to that the fact that these pieces, necklace and bracelet, keeps stretching! Ok with a necklace, but my bracelet is now far too large.


I wasn't about to give up my efforts to create a beaded version of finger crochet. This time I wanted to work in monochrome as it would highlight the texture and shapes rather than the cord itself. In the end, I got out some C-lon cord in black and strung matte black 8/0 japanese seeds on it. These beads are smaller than the pearls and together with the somewhat more rigid cord, the look is completely different from the pearl bracelet eventhough I used one bead per loop here aswell.

The stiffer stringing material also makes this cord stretchy, but not in the way the silk is stretchy. Rather, this cord is "bouncy" and when not worn it pulls together, almost like elastics when not stretched out. I think it'll stop doing that once I've used the bracelet some time and it's not a problem -- other than when you want to get a good pic of it. It's not slowly but constantly growing like my pearl bracelet; it keeps it's lenght and shape much better.


My conclusions so far are that finger crochet is a fun technique that can be used for jewellery that appeal to adults, it's not just a thing for kids. Just as with many other things, it's just a matter of what materials you use and how you use the finished cord.

Also, it is possible to add beads to the cord, but be aware that big beads can thug the cord so it distorts and note also that small beads can "sneak" through the loops: you can't expect a "perfect result" with evenly spaced beads as when using a knitting nancy, instead the beads will slide along each loop and perhaps even end up in a loop belonging to another bead. A good thing about using beads was that I found it easier to pick upp the string to push it over my finger when grabbing hold of the bead rather than the cord/string. (I use a pretty tight tension regardless of that technique I work with and it's not that easy grabbing hold of string that's sitting tight against my fingers.)

This will absolutely be something I'll continue working with, eventhough I'll probably not do it as often. If nothing else, it's a nice way of killing time or relaxing when I don't feel like beading. And, yes, I'll keep experimenting with bead finger crochet.

Old, but new -- when the child within is choosing what beads to buy

As a kid I did of cause love playing with my Nabbi/Hama beads, making all sorts of patterns on the plastic pegboards and then letting mom or the teachers at pre-school iron them. Most of all I think I made hearts and stars. And like most kids I also made simple necklaces and bracelets by stringing the beads on twine. (I used to chew them sometimes too: this was before I was old enough to buy chewing gum whenever I wanted.)

Then I grew older and put such childish things behind me. Sometimes I looked at the beads, but mostly as a slightly nostalgic note, not with any interest to work with the beads again. Well, that dragon-shaped pegboard was fun.

Fast forward to a few years ago. I'm into beads and active on the bead forums online when I encounter Emo, a woman who didn't outgrow the love for these plastic cylinder beads but instead became an expert on mastering not just the classic flat ironed bead technique but making bead "paintings" as well as 3D figures. At the time I would perhaps enjoy and admire her work, but I didn't feel that interested in trying it myself. Well, that PhotoPearls stuff perhaps, but not going back to creating ironed beadwork. So I did feel a little tempted, I must confess.


That's how I feel for a couple of years. What happens then is that Hama releases a mini version of the beads (earlier, they sold the standard "midi" size beads as well as maxi sized beads for younger children). These plastic beads are just 2,5 mm and much more the same size as the glass seed and cylinder beads I love. Just half the size of the 5 mm midi beads. The small size means you can make smaller motifs as well as creating motifs with finer details. That was what finally made me buy a package. I could no longer resist the temptation. Tiny hama beads, well, that intrigued me.

Still haven't actually made anything with the beads though...

A walk down memory lane

No piccies today. I've had other things to do so pics of my new loot have to wait. But I still wanted to mention today's events.

We went to the nearby village to pick up a much awaited parcel containing among other things pewter sheet, oxidizing liquid, steel wool and tin solder for me and leather scraps and a stone tumbler for my sis. And when there, after carrying this 10 kg package to the car a few km away and then waiting for a friend, we got an impulse to walk to a craft and embroidery shop we haven't visited since childhood. We used to have so much fun going there, buying craft supplies, embroideries and yarn. At least I think we did because the memories are fading. What I remember best is the storefront as we drive by the shop often, the main street in Båstad also being the road you have to take when going from Bjäre northwards. So I've passed by year after year without actually visiting the shop.

Felt very nice to visit it again today. Didn't buy much as I'd already spent much money, but I ended up buying some pretty satin ribbon I hope will inspire me with their rich colours, some beads on sale and a couple of old, old pamphlets about a craft that hasen't been trendy since the 70's or 80's: stocking flowers. And if I won't make any stocking flowers, the shapes are also used for making another type of flowers I've seen in one of my Japanese craft books where wire shapes (petals, leaves) are dipped in a tinted acrylic dip and then assembled. Don't have that particular dip, but a good thick epoxy resin will probably do just as well.

And unusually enough I didn't even buy one ball of novelty yarn. Not even one on sale. And I forgot to ask about crochet yarn for a necklace I'm making for mom (got the beads in the mail today). So: didn't buy much, but it was a very nice shopping experience.

The name of the shop? Broderi & Pyssel on Köpmansgatan 89 in Båstad.

Horse chestnut scented necklace

It's a lovely, sunny and warm, spring day today, whih made me think of this necklace I made last summer. I'm not 100 % happy with it, but it was a case of using what I had at home, "man tager vad man haver".

The theme for the contest I made the necklace for was "summer memories" and I began thinking about memories. Had many different ideas, but nothing felt "right" -- until I blogged about designing with/for all five senses. It was like a minor epiphany: what is summer about if not a lot of different scents? Asphalt after a warm rain shower, dill and matjes on midsummer's eve, flowers, hay, strawberries, the sea and brine. And nothing quite trigger memories like a scent does.

I selected three natural scents that meant summer to me. First, rose petals from our old-fashioned roses in the garden I grew up with. Then, lemon balm, which we also have in the gardens and which I often picked during the summers as a child (as we did with with peppermint). That scent directly takes me back to the summers of my childhood. Last but not least, I chose hay. Up until my grandparents were forced to give up farming, we would help with the haymaking. As kids we -- me, my sis, and our cousins -- would sometimes sleep in the hayloft over the stable when spending summer break at grandma and grandpa's farm. Sometimes we used the heaps of loose hay and bales as a slide. Growing up on the countryside I've also spent a lot of time playing in haylofts with friends.

These three scents are not only pleasant on their own, but also blend well together. Also, I can "boost" both the scent of roses and lemon balm with natural essential oils as their own scents fade. I didn't want synthetical scents which is the reason I e.g. didn't use strawberry eventhough it evokes many memories.

So, I dried lemon balm leaves, grass and rose petals and stuffed them into beaded beads, one bead for each scent. The beads I made in russian spiral/tubular netting technique, using a czech 11/0 seed beads mix (brown-beige-green Earth Glimmer Mix) and opaque white Miyuki drops. This to make beads reminiscent of all the beautiful white-blossoming bushes and trees I love: our century old pear tree, the lilacs, the bird cherry, the cherry trees, the spirea, the apple trees, the white climbing rose on our stable wall. But above all our magnificent horse chestnut tree (as seen in the photos of the collage above). In other words, the necklace you see is different from the necklace you smell.

Initially I wanted to make a chunky bracelet, but I ran out of drops so I improvised a last-minute necklace (approx. 45 cm long), mixing the beaded beads with small dark brown wooden beads, opaque apple green glass beads and "ruffles" made from opaque white seeds. All thing strung on dark brown waxed linen cord and finished with yet another green beads as part of a button-and-loop closure and a smaller "ruffle" as decorative flower on the end of the cord. I chose colours after what matched the colours of the blossoming tree, which is also the reason I opted for opaque rather than transparent beads.

Making netting using drops was a lot of fun, as was making the "ruffles". Things I will be doing again.


PS! You can find all the entries in the forum contest in this gallery.