Lots Going On

Much like my last post, the Covid-19 virus is keeping me home most of the time. So I continue to work with supplies that I have on hand...which for me is quite a lot. Between the beads, jewelry findings, Goodwill T-shirts, paints, and stencils, I am pretty much good to go with almost anything. I also managed to do a cute little birdbath from recycled bits. So, here we go.

All of the items are available other than those marked with an * after the description, which denotes they have already been spoken for. 

The top necklace is made of clear crystals (they look pink because they are picking up the color from the dress form), teal blue glass beads, and silver beads. There is a set of simple earrings to match.

The green necklace is made up of green glass beads, gold and green bulge beads, brass spacers, and vintage long glass beads taken from an old necklace that was broken. *

This necklace is made up of brass plaques set with black stones, and what was a filigree brass earring. 

Going from top left to right = Silver Celtic knot with yellow bead and silver bees *, Silver Scotch thistle hung with green beads and silver feathers *, Gold faux-coin discs (reverse side has a religious figure but I don't know who it is) with black and gold glass beads.*

Bottom left to right = Clear crystal and dark green beads, Blue squares topped with silver and blue beads, Pale blue squares topped with silver and opaque white mini-crystals. 

This shirt was one that had been cut out and beaded, then put on a back burner for over a year. I finally finished it. It is made of Goodwill T-shirts, stenciled, and beaded. The binding is sewn on with feather stitch embroidery. I may end up beading the binding as well, but for now at least it is off my "to finish" list. *

This is a shirt I did a while back, but I have decided to let it go. I have a lot of beaded shirts and my closet is starting to look a little OCD with beaded stuff. LOL The T-shirt is a size M, with a stenciled, beaded and stitched appliqué. The center piece is a silver Celtic knot. 

And this was my little recycle project. The wire base was a plant cage filled with succulents. They outgrew the basket that was in the bottom, so I took them out, and took off the top of the cage. The glass bowl was a light fixture we took out when we remodeled the kitchen. The small hole in the bottom was plugged with a bit from a kneaded art erasure (I couldn't find my floral putty). I filled the bowl with glass "stones" leftover from those we put in our propane fire pit. I am going to look for some artificial greenery to fill in the bottom of the cage. The crock was one I bought decades ago at the Rose Bowl swap meet, and the slate was leftover from another project. I added a couple of rocks for the birds to stand on and eh voila! Birdbath. It only took the birds about two days to find it and start to use it. There is also a little tree frog that likes to hang out in it as well. That made me quite happy. 

If you are interested in anything shown you can leave a comment here and I will get back to you. 

Hope you are all staying safe in these chaotic times. 

Two Recycle Projects

With the weather becoming more and more iffy, inside projects are nice, for the most part relaxing, and give me a few new items of clothing to wear. Here are the latest ones to keep me occupied when I'm in-between painting and cleaning horse stalls, and it's pouring rain outside.

The first is a turquoise T-shirt. It's a bit shorter than I like them, but it was only $2.99 at the Goodwill, so I bought it because I loved the color. I decided to stencil a design on the front then add either tulle or more T-shirt material to the bottom and sleeves. I have seen tulle added to shirts, and as long as it doesn't look too cutesy, I like it. So, black stencil design to be beaded, and then black tulle added to the hem.

The photos make the shirt look royal blue, but it isn't. The stencil is a Martha Stewart.

The little white mark at the center is made with soap, to help me line up the design.

I think I will add a small piece of T-shirt material on the inside of the shirt, behind the stencil design, to help carry the weight of the beads and stitching.

The next in line is a very wide sweatshirt, also purchased at the Goodwill. I want to make a jacket out of it, with elbow length sleeves.  I am always shoving the sleeves of sweaters, T-shirts and sweatshirts up my arm, so figured why not just cut this one off at that length. The lines on the front are made with soap to show the center, and then how much I am going to trim away from the front. This thing is REALLY wide (the size tag says M, but two medium sized people could fit inside it), so I will also have to figure out a way to take in the back. Maybe make something out of the leftover sleeve material— like the little mini belts on the back of jackets (I am sure they have a proper name, but I don't know what it is).

The T-shirts above it were laid out to see what trim color would work the best. I finally decided on the dark blue. The buttons and beads will go on last. Originally I had pulled out some very nautical looking brass buttons with anchors embossed on them, but decided it looked way too yacht club, preppy, proper, ladies-who-lunch, so I put those back in the button box and went with these mother of pearl ones, turned back side forward, with some old red buttons I dug out to be sewn on top.  This project may or may not work out. I have mixed feelings about it, so when I get it sewn up, if I don't really like it, I won't bother to add any decorations.

Here are both projects laid out on my big work table in the garage.

Those should keep me busy for a while. I am especially looking forward to stitching and beading the T-shirt. So, time to grab a book on CD, make a cup of tea, park myself in a comfy chair, and bead away.