Happy Canada Day!

Today is Canada Day and there will be plenty of celebrating across the country.  We will be making our way to the park at the beach in our little village to take in some of the live music and later on, enjoy the fireworks in the evening from our backyard.

It is tradition to wear our Canadian colors on this day which is red and white and that is what these pieces reminded me of.  Can you guess what they are for?

It is a tea towel holder for our kitchen to hang on the stove handle.

I've been wanting to make myself one of these for some time now and this is one of my first prototypes.  Some of the ideas I come up with are basically stemmed from something I would like for myself.  We also had some of the quilt stores ask for ideas on ways to use some of our buttons such as this tea cup one.

The ring that I made is basically a bangle bracelet that was textured with Helen Breil's "Conga Line" texture sheet which is one of my favorite patterns.

Stripe Blends

The blended stripes in these beads and bangles are made from the same color blends I use for my bargello motifs.  It is my own easy method for creating color blends and shading gives them an almost 3-D effect with lots of depth.  I share how to create this effect in my tutorial, Building Bargello Motifs, as well as how to make this bangle and the tube beads with built in bead caps.

Texture Tube Variations

I've been working on some new design variations using the Textured Tubes & More tutorial.  One is this curved focal bead.

The other is a textured bangle bracelet.  This one has elastic strung through it with some rondelle spacers.  I'm not really fond of the color on this one but it is only a prototype.  I made it out of an ugly mud brown scrap clay to see if it was going to work.  I was messing around with some inks afterwards to give it a little color and this is what I got.

   

I decided the size and design works well for me though.  Dave's cousin was visiting and she was admiring our solid type bangles but they wouldn't fit over her hand.  She slipped this one on easily and  loved it.  I'll work on this design and show the results later....

Flowers for Fall

I love this time of year when the days are warm but not too hot and we become surrounded with all the colorful autumn leaves and fall flowers.  I'm working on some new fall colors and this is a bangle that is now listed in our Art Fire Studio.  I came across these gorgeous metal bangles some time ago.  They have a strong spring hinge on them so they stay closed while wearing but are easy to put on and take off.  Unfortunately I only have one size in stock and they fit a small to medium size wrist.  The inside measurement is 6-5/8".  

Of course if you would like to make your own bracelet, this tiled bead set is for sale in our Etsy Shop.  There are 7 tiles -- plenty for a gorgeous fall bracelet.  It is also reversible so if you want a plainer look, there is a quilted look texture on the opposite side in the matching warm fall colors.  I strung some beads on to show how they can look.