Beading Arts

Some of my friends - around the US and around the world - have probably wondered why I've stopped posting new work. Here's why: I run a food pantry and a weekly dinner for the food insecure, lonely, and marginalized people in my community. With the covid-19 crisis, my work there has increased a higher percentage than I can even figure out. I've been eating, sleeping, and breathing Stone Soup Kitchen Ministries . It has left no vacant brain space for making new art right now. As an introvert, I would have liked nothing better than to hunker down and just make things. But that wasn't in the cards.  I've been put in a uniquely privileged position to be able to do this, and I thank you all for understanding that it is the most important thing to me right now. Some day in the not TOO distant future, I hope to be able to create art again.

I'm so happy to be able to share these treasures with you.  Our last stop in England was the world-famous British Museum.  My tastes have always run to the ancient, so I headed for some of the most ancient pieces in the collection.  Created about 2500 BC, these pieces of jewelry were found in a royal Sumerian tomb.  Sumer was the earliest known civilization in southern Mesopotamia, located between the Tigris and Euphrates.  One of the best-known city states in Sumer was Ur.  Most of the Sumerian artifacts in the British Museum come from Ur. This stunning headress is a reconstruction, but the jewelry is original.  This suggests the arrangement of the jewelry worn by the royal Sumerian women found in the grave called The Great Death Pit.  Below is the signage with information about this burial site.  Click the image to enlarge it for easier reading. These are some of the pieces worn by the queen's attendants, similar in ...

The other day, I showed you some photos that I was able to take in Cambridge England (link at the bottom of this post), and today I want to turn to the first of two world-class museums we visited in London!  In no particular order, here we go! Micromosaic jewelry pieces are made from the very smallest glass pieces (tesserae), some of which contain more than 5000 tesserae per square inch!  The necklace, bracelet, and earring set were most likely made in Italy around 1850. This piece is called Devil's Trumpet, and was made from recycled and electroplated cutlery in 2016 by artist Ann Carrington.  It was inspired by Dutch still life paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries. Life Began in Water , about 1950 by artist Sah Oved.  The necklace contains gold, silver, agates, jasper, and aquamarines. Inspired by a Picasso drawing, Portrait of a Woman , artist Wendy Ramshaw made this necklace in 1988 from patinated silver and colorcore. ...

Mike and I just returned from a trip to Cambridge and London, England!  Mike was working, and when I wasn't busy being a groupie, I was out exploring.  I loved loved loved visiting two of the museums in Cambridge, and was sorry that I didn't have time for more.  The Fitzwilliam Museum is not to be missed, but since it doesn't have much to do with beads per se, I thought I'd concentrate on the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology instead.  You must go if you every have the chance.  It is a "small" museum, but is three floors high, with lovely displays and wonderful guides/guards available. In no particular order, here are some of the things I liked best.  The quality of my shots is poor...the lighting as designed to preserve the pieces, of course, and flash photography (as everyone should know by now) is not appreciated.   The so-called square headed brooches of the Anglo Saxons.  They could be worn either direction, so the 19th centur...

The only thing constant in life is change   ~ attributed in various forms to Greek thinker Heraclitus of Ephesus I have fought against it for a few years now, but at last it is (past) time for me to make a change.  I have had a website since 1997 and have been blogging tutorials, artist profiles, book reviews, and art business tips since 2005, as well as writing magazine articles and e-books, making projects for my friends' books and for suppliers, and enjoying almost every minute of it. But now, I am ready to shift my focus to doing my own work, just because I want to do it and not because I think it will make a good blog post.  That doesn't mean that I will not be posting anymore, but it will probably be much less frequently, and may or may not include any instructions. I am leaving you a huge archive full of projects, tips, and inspiration.  Beginners, I have always had a special place in my heart for you.  My goal has been to cater primarily to you...

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to be blessed to be able to be with my grand-girls for Christmas!  Since they don't read blogs, I feel safe in showing you some things I've made for them  :-) Here are instructional links to the stitches that I used.  I didn't make any of these things exactly as in the tutorials, but rather I used the ideas and recombined them to suit myself.  Fingerless gloves (except I did the tops with V stitch and crocodile scales...and smaller!) V stitch - used for both gloves and hat Crocodile stitch Hat pattern - I made mine smaller, added crocodile stitches, and left the top open for a long ponytail! Copyright 2018 Cyndi Lavin. All rights reserved. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

Don't wait till the last possible minute before you make, find, or buy something special for Valentine's Day...whether it's for yourself or for the one you love!

I will see you all again in 2018!  Hope your holiday season is wonderful :-) Nate, Lizzie, Cyndi, Mike (back) Katherine, Dani, Julianna (front)

  Last week was a vacation week for me, but I worked anyway.  This week I really really really mean it!  See you next week <3

I play with fire, knives, and power tools to create objects of beauty which bring joy to people. Unfortunately, they also require a sacrifice of the blood of a non-virgin. If you want to join in, leave a link to your blog post in the comments!

To all my friends who celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ:

To all of my friends who celebrate the Festival of Lights

I'm taking a week off to visit with these goofballs!  See you back here next week :-)

May the coming year be full of everything bright and beautiful for you and your family!

Can't help myself, folks!  I've got to take some time off to be with my family...hope you have a wonderful rest too, and make sure you spend some time thinking about your art resolutions for next year :-)

Are you going to need to entertain children or grandchildren this summer?  If so, then you might want to think about picking up a copy of Lark's Craft Camp .  There are over 40 projects, arranged in four sections of increasing difficulty, time consumption, and adult help needed. The Basics section in the beginning covers the materials you will need.  They are mostly all easily found locally in supermarkets, hardware and craft stores, so you won't spend all your time trying to source the projects. The projects are marked as to which must have adult supervision.  They are designed by many different designers, so you will get a wide variety of styles and themes. I really like these milk carton tea lights, shown above.  I can see making those with my own granddaughter this summer.  And for those of you who like polymer clay, look at these cute bookmarks below: Overall, this is a very enjoyable volume, and I am quite happy to have some...