Beads AND Knitting!

With the change in seasons, I've been trying to straighten out our closets a touch (actually, they need more than "straightening" - shoveling out is more like it). I came across a few pieces I made BSO ("Before Short One"), including my first felted and beaded purse. We lived in a condo BSO, in a town where HGTV ("Home and Garden Television" for overseas readers) was part of our basic cable package, and I used to enjoy watching all of the craft-y shows like Carole Duvall. This was back before I even entertained the idea of making glass beads or working with PMC. I always admired Donna Kato's work with polymer clay, and that medium seemed a little more accessible at home. So, I waited for one of those 30% off coupons that Michael's has from time to time and bought a pasta machine, tissue blade, acrylic roller and a bunch of polymer clay and started fiddling with around with them. I was only able to work with the clay for a couple months before I became pregnant, at which time I suspended working with it. However, I did manage to make a few things during those 2-3 months, including this little bag. I think this is the only project I've completed that combines my knitting with my beadwork. The bag was one of my first felting projects - we had public washing machines in the condo, and it was always a bit of a nuisance to reserve one of the two machines for felting (of course, now that I have my own washing machine, I haven't made a single felted object - the Husband comments on this ironically from time to time). Anyway, as you can tell, I didn't calculate the shrinkage factors correctly, and the flap turned out too short. With the little button closures, it worked pretty well, however, and the buttons and strap gave me a chance to use my first polymer beads in a project. As you can tell, these are all made from pretty simple canes - the one thing my short time working with polymer taught me is to appreciate the complex cane work of bead artists like Heather Powers - but I liked the bright colors of the clay, and I wanted a "candy-like" feel to the strap.

I'd really like to get back to working with polymer clay one day. Right now my tools are sitting in an unmarked box in the black abyss that is our basement. Sadly, we lost HGTV when we moved, so no more Carole Duvall and no more "Urban Gardener" (one of the Husband's favorite shows). In the meantime, here's a photo of the bag I made.

Oh, and the bead show was very nice - I bought way too much, as usual, but this time at least, it's all stuff that I particularly wanted for the 5 or so projects that I'm working on right now. I'll try to post pics of the haul tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!