Bette Greenfield - Freeform Peyote Watchbands

Several of the Adventurers on our Freeform Peyote Challenge don't currently have their own blogs, so I'm hosting them here as guest posts.  Here's Bette Greenfield talking about her freeform bracelet and watchband designs:

Freeform embellished cuff by Bette Greenfield

I made this bracelet by decorating the top of a plain brown peyote band. The color patterns of the peyote band are freeform designed as well, and I used the band to anchor the threads.  I made this for a local art show and it sold in the first minutes of the opening.  

freeform peyote watchband by Bette Greenfield

I am a great fan of Freeform Beading.  After learning how to do many beading stitches by reading magazines and taking classes at local shops, I didn't want to continue copying other bead artists work.  It didn't feel right to me.  So I decided that freeform beading might be right for me.  

I Googled everything I could find on Freeform beading and found that this was the style for me.  I practiced with different colors and sizes, peyote and right angle weave, ripped and tossed, ripped and tossed and I eventually began to do combinations I liked.  And still, I wanted to do something different.  Enter freeform watch bands.  I practiced over and over again until I learned how to work the band firmly onto the watchhead.  

I still have not learned how to adjust the length for different size wrists. Advice anyone? 
  

Return to the full list of Freeform Adventurers. 

Alisa Lehman - Freeform Peyote Adventurer

Several of the Adventurers on our Freeform Peyote Challenge don't currently have their own blogs, so I'm hosting them here as guest posts.  Here's Alisa Lehman talking about her wonderful piece that seems right at home Under the Sea:

Alisa Lehman's first freeform peyote bracelet

This is my first try at freeform peyote -

 

detail of Alisa Lehman's first freeform peyote bracelet

I started by laying out some beads – I already had some left over beads in blues and greens from another project so I started with those.  There were a few colors of size 8 and some larger assorted beads.  I added some size 6s that I had hanging around, some bugles, some drops and some 15s.

 

I started the process by using a tutorial I found by Beki Haley that suggested making the first length of beads the length of your bracelet and starting with just one size.  I did that and just kept building out and adding bridges.  

For quite a while It went through an ugly duckling stage.  I liked a few bits, but some of the edges were rippling and some of the beads did not play nicely together.  Then I started embellishing the top and it started coming together.  When I finished, I felt like it needed a little something more and I found the starfish in my stash.  It seemed to work well with the blue/green ocean colors so I popped it on right on top of some of the top level embellishments (in hindsight, it would have probably been better to have added it early on and embellished around it.  I felt I need to balance the starfish color, so I added the 3 round gold beads on each side.

 

I used a glass button I had for a clasp.

 

I really enjoyed to process and I have already laid out my beads for my next bracelet (see photo at left).  

If that goes well, I would like to try a necklace.

Return to the full list of Freeform Adventurers.
 

Kay Haynes and Vintage Wine

Several of the Adventurers on our Freeform Peyote Challenge don't currently have their own blogs, so I'm hosting them here as guest posts.  First up is Kay Haynes, talking about her first freeform peyote piece, a bracelet she's named 'Vintage Wine':

Vintage Wine, freeform peyote bracelet by Kay Haynes

Vintage buttons from her 88 year old friend

I used two vintage glass buttons given to me by my 88 yr old friend.  She has collected buttons since she was a young girl.  I drool every time I look thru them.  I picked beads from my favorite color scheme so that was fairly easy to do. 

I learned that it is NOT as easy to do freeform with no pattern and no rules since I am a person who needs structure and a pattern (or thought I did).  

front view of Vintage Wine in situ

I did not do any embellishing on my bracelet because I loved it the way it is.  Our local craft store has asked if I would teach a class in early April.  So, I will definitely be making more.  I'm working on a second one now that has beach colors and shells.  I'm in love with freeform peyote.  Wanted to try it for a long time and now that I have completed one, I'm going to be making more for sure.

I love the way my bracelet turned out.  It was so much fun to just go with the flow.  Thank you so much for allowing me to participate in your adventure.  - Kay

a process photo from the making of

Return to the full list of Freeform Adventurers.

Guest Post on The Book Designer

Joel Friedlander at The Book Designer, whom I met at Pitch 2.0 back in December, asked me to write about my experiences self-publishing a craft book through Createspace.  

He wanted to know why I decided to do it myself, the kinds of obstacles I encountered, and what role the book plays in my overall marketing of myself as an artist and artisan.  The first question I'd touched on before, but the last made me really think about both what I'd hoped to achieve when I wrote embarked upon the project and how that has changed in the year since its publication.

Thank you Joel for the opportunity, and for making me think through these questions.  Working on the answers helped me to focus on what I hope to achieve in 2012 as well. 

The post went live yesterday!  If you're interested, click here to check it out! 

Earrings from Freeform Peyote Beading - not part of this month's challenge