Wednesday, January 4, 2012

day of the dead competition ...part one

this post is long overdue. 
it is about my participation in the competition
hosted by the HOLE BEAD SHOP. 
this is their internet bead store. 

they have a brick and mortar store as well and it can be found here:
The Hole Bead Shoppe  
317 SE Delaware Ave  
Bartlesville, OK 74003  
if you would like to visit Kelli, Tarlee or Michael, you can do that
Tues-Fri 10-5 Sat by appointment only.

i met kelly years ago on EBAY.
luckily, Al Gore had invented the internet for us to stay in contact over time. 
what would we do without al?

anyways, i was on facebook one particular evening when kelly had posted a photo of some beads she had recently ordered. 
i was so excited, that i did not read what they were for or
 where they were coming from.
the photo below is the one that sucked my breath out of my chest 
in sheer excitement and joy. 

how could anyone not want to play with all of those little sugar heads?
well i wanted one really badly. 
i was especially fond of the one with the peace sign in the eyes. 
 i kept my eyes peeled for when kelli said she would list them. 
needless to say, i did not pay adequate attention to the entire project that was to 
accompany the one major league handsome hand crafted sugar skull bead. 
by the way, these were fashioned by hand and genius 
by the Palm Tree Queen. 
her work is seen here:
www.palmtreequeen.com
she had me at sugar skulls. 

since there were only to be 10 kits sold, i thought i would try to give my kit a go. 
what could that hurt? 
well many of the details unfolded and i started to panic. 
and panic big time. 
some of kelli's dearest friends/customers, 
were very gifted needle artists and teachers. 
i seriously can't do anything like that at all. 
it takes putting a couple of beads onto the needle with thread and i am lost. 
so very painfully lost. 
i knew the competition was steep, 
but i thought, it would be fun to take my mind off of the usual stuff i am mired in. 
i needed a palmtree vacation, even if i didn't have the chance to go anywhere. 

here was the kit that was sent to me. 

full of the ever so dangerous seed beads. 
the kind that i would never be able to use up in a gazillion years. 
i spent a lot of time thinking about the contents of this kit. 
it had some very pretty and some unexpected things within its confines. 
and the selection looked like this.


the contents were amazing and varied. 
1}.there was of course the promised glass bead sugar skull. 
it was everything i had hoped it might be and more. 
so very delicate with so very very many details, a lot of whimsy and even a little creepiness. 
2}. there were seed beads in a nice bright chartreuse green, that I LOVE
some in a shade of patina green
some in a little dark moss with an almost aubergine wash on them
some square frosted beads
some white teensy teardrops
some black seed beads
and some orange seed beads. 
if i am missing any of the seedy varietals, forgive me. 
i neglected to take a particular inventory.
3}. a small bag of pretty clay beads that looked as if they were hand made and 
fired in a wood oven in the raku process were included. 
these came in round and ovaline and bird and some other shape. 
along with these were some very interesting black beads in a very round shape. 
they looked too much like the raku style ones , but were a lot smaller. 
they also were a tad bigger than the conventional seed beads. 
4}. there was a mass of odd and interesting beads on strings as well. 
a strand of orange, pink, purple and blue blister pearls. 
a strand of red dagger beads
a couple of strands of faceted black chinese crystals. 
a strand of pretty red smallish beads too. 
5}. anothe small bag in this treasure trove held some silver  and brass charms. 
you can see that other artists in the competition were more able to incorporate those better. 
6}. the last items that i remember are the collection of lucite flowers and leaves. 
they were included in a variety of sizes. 
from the itty bitty ones around 1/4" flowers to the long, deep, dark green  leaves. 
kelli and i found our earliest bonding over some of these lucite components way back in the day. 
these are hers from her store's inventory and not ones i have squirreled away over time. 
hers have more colors and shapes and therefore potential.

surely there were plenty of other small sized trinkets from within this treasure trove. 
i just neglected to make a proper list of them. 

i have to make this a two part posting. 
tomorrow, i am to meet kind david, my artist representative. 
he is off to break into the new season and show me off. 
naturally, just like a naughty schoolgirl,
 i am without my homework completed. 
lest you think i am some sort of cool calm collected person, 
i should assure you that i am not happy until i am gasping 
as i hit the finish line. 
i spent all day practically looking for the little snaps to use 
on my new collection of bracelets. 
i was so frustrated, i picked my son up from his lunch with his girls
 {from last year's science olympiad}
and dragged him all over craft hell. 
you know the juicy big box stores that have everything...
except when you are up against a deadline, the stock you need is sold out...
and some old lady has been farting all over that underused section of the store. 
the mix of that smell with the multitude of bridal candle making supplies,
and their perfumes... 
literally made my eyes water.
it took two stores. 
and it was a failure to find the proper things to use. 
i know cause when i got home, 
i tried to match up the 4 parts to make a snap, 
and was just a heartbeat too short on the stem to connect properly. 
i kind of gave up on that. 
too much to be disappointed in. 
instead i made dinner, 
worked on refurbishing my sell sheet for tomorrow and 
had my daughter try to deal with my general case of overbearing and indecisive
decision making. 
poor kid. 
still, if i get up tomorrow and take a few pics, i can get her to insert them into 
my sell sheet,
rush to kinkos, 
print the suckers.
then i can shuffle the boy to his ortho appt.  
and have my husband drive all over creation, play my tennis hour with the raisin
and 
chauffeur us both to different sides of the city, 
while i am meeting with david.  
if i had a superhero power, i think i would like to be able to do that 
blink of an eye like barbara eden and transport myself anywhere. 
this chaos is just so much stress. 
i feel it all the way in my teensy bones. 

truly, i had such grand hopes to complete so many things. 
and i just could not get it going. 
i did make this light little necklace that is 
long enough to cover a few spots on my shirt from undesired food spills, 


yet if on my wrist, wrapped 3 times, makes a nifty bracelet. 
{it was 27-34 degrees today, so please ignore the old icky chicken skin seen in these pics.}







it is simple and easy to put on relatively speaking. 
i wanted something that would stay put when on the wrist, 
so you could put it on easily. 
all by yourself. 
novel as that is. 
i wanted it to be full in look, but light to wear. 
i wanted a wintry palette. 
i will be making more of these for my store... 
should i ever get back into the swing of things. 

the holidays and the flu ate me alive for breakfast for more than an couple of days. 
it was not worked into my schedule, so it was unpleasant to accommodate.

i am going to sleep now. 
tomorrow, i shall finish part two of the novella about this competition. 
perhaps i can even get all of the other stuff needed to be done for then. 

night night. 
xoxo. 
W.

1 comment:

  1. I love the piece that you created for the day of the dead competition :) I went and voted when I saw your piece the first time. The second piece in this post I absolutely positively adore! The colors are stunning and made me immediately think of a winter day with icicles and snow. The fact that it can be both bracelet and necklace and look beautiful both ways is amazing... keep getting your bling on :)

    ReplyDelete