For the longest time, I referred to art made with yarns as fibre art. F-I-B-R-E. That’s because I was living in England when I started making fibre beads, and placing the “r” before the “e” is just how it’s done over there. For the five years we lived on the isle, on an almost daily basis, I would discover words that needed to be henceforth added to my vocabulary. Words like “bin” and “petrol” you might discover on day one. It’s only a year into your relationship do you realize that your partner grew up saying “fringe” instead of “bangs” and that boys are as equally suited as girls to dispatch the word when describing their own hair. It’s at that point that you also realize you might as well reconcile yourself to the fact that you’ll always and forevermore be confused about “chips” and “crisps” and “biscuits” and “pudding,” even though you understand their new meanings.
I digress. I’ll save the machinations of my English language journey for another day.
I’ve been living in California again for over nine years, so maybe I’ll go with fiber now. That’s F-I-B-E-R.
The big news is that I sat down and made some fiber beads this evening.
The bigger news is that I recently learned from E.J. how to make Stone Age copper chains.
One thing always leads to another, and curious student that I am, I was poking around on his YouTube channel and found his video on making malas. By watching, I learned how to create a series of elements that could be linked together, easy as mince, as the Brits might say (although they don’t).
Behold.
Each element consists of a fiber bead (more on that process later) surrounded by two beaded-beads, not necessarily matching, or two wooden beads, matching. There are fourteen elements in all, which means fourteen fiber beads and twenty-eight store-bought beads, and twenty-eight loopy dingies I needed to make, by which I mean the links.
Those beaded-beads are some of my favorites. I’ve been holding on to those for years, and I used them all up to make the necklace. In the process, I had a quick search on the internet to see if I could get more. Alas, page one of Google did not deliver. I tried Etsy and struck gold. On my first search, I found a pattern to make-your-own-beaded-bead staring me in the face, so I added to cart without hesitation. I obviously like to give myself more work to do. I have a painting commission waiting for me and ten journals I plan to make in the near future, so I need to bead my own beads like I need a hole in the head. All fun, to be sure, but there’s no denying, fun is work these days. I’ll be sure to post if/when I start seed-beading.
I digress again.
Back to the necklace at hand.
This one is going to be a gift for my friend, Misty, as her birthday was yesterday, and I can’t wait to see her face when I give it to her. I know it’s late, but she doesn’t mind. She’s one of my quarantine friends. In fact, aside from my family and a few neighborhood kids and my mother, who we’ve chosen to see in person, Misty is my only close contact right now. She’s a real gem.
Here are a couple more photos of her necklace.
I couldn’t help but notice that the shadows look like train cars in that last pic, don’t ya think? Maybe not exactly. I know, the shadows are a little lumpy to be train cars. Futuristic train cars for sure though, with bubble-shaped enclosures, housing Oxygen pods for atmosphere-famished passengers on another world.
I digress again, and simultaneously realize that if I use the word “digress” just one more time, I will spontaneously transmute into my eleventh grade English honors teacher. Her pointing out our digression with some frequency is my primary memory of her. I think we were just too smart and too socially adept to keep quiet or refrain from tangential engagement, though she might analyze our behavior a little differently.
Nay, I digress again!
I might as well talk about the copper chains in this post, too, seeing as they led me to create the necklace. I wouldn’t have had any copper wire on hand in the first place if I hadn’t gone out to buy some a few days ago to try making chains. E.J.’s really the best at explaining how to make them. You can find his copper chain tutorial videos on his YouTube channel, ejgoldguru, by searching on the channel itself for “chain,” or better yet, “copper chain,” if you want his most recent and complete tutorial to come up top. You’d be looking for “How to make a copper chain with clasp-an amazing demo.” I could embed it here, but if it’s something you really want to see, it might be worth the few extra clicks to get over there on your own volition.
Not much more to say, except that the copper chain was a major delight to make. I guess I’ll never get tired of learning new things. It was very pleasing to bring a chain to completion, successfully, fifty links in all. Mine is very simple, without a clasp. I don’t have many photos of it, just this one, which I snapped today, with my third hand.
I’m kidding of course. I don’t have a third hand. Unless you want to call my husband my third hand, and that would be very true. He is both my third and my fourth hand.
I posted this photo on Instagram and I joked that I could almost make a cat’s cradle with my chain. Remember that game?