Tracy Van Niel

Copper Tulip Pendant Class at Gahanna Bead Studio

2011-04-06T10:12:00.000-04:00

I originally intended to use this Czech glass button in a steampunk theme bracelet, but you know how that goes ... when you finally sit down to start working on a project, it sometimes takes you to a completely different place.

The Copper Tulip Pendant will be offered as a class at the Gahanna Bead Studio on Saturday, May 21 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. This is a good class to get your feet wet for basic bead embroidery ... or if you are an experienced bead embroidery whiz, a quick but spectacular pendant project that you can finish up in a day. And, as noted below, all materials to make the pendant are included in the class price.

Magatama Spiral Bracelet Class at Gahanna Bead Studio

2011-04-06T10:04:00.000-04:00

The new longer style magatamas are so much fun to work with and what better way to create a spectacular look than to use them in a basic spiral bracelet.

I will be teaching the spiral rope bracelet with the new longer magatamas at the Gahanna Bead Studio on Saturday, April 30, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. Gahanna carries a variety of colors for this new bead so various colorways are available if you want to use something other than the spring green or AB purple color used in the samples. Color preferences should be noted when registering for the class so the materials can be gathered beforehand.

Spiral rope is a fun stitch to learn and use in your beading projects as there are so many different variations that can be used, making each project uniquely yours.

Upcoming Bling Button Bracelet Class at Gahanna Bead Studio

2011-04-06T09:55:00.000-04:00

The Bling Button Bracelet (shown right) was originally published in the August 2009 Bead & Button magazine and was also included in Bead & Button's 2010 Creative Beading Volume published in the summer of 2010.

This particular bracelet uses a Czech glass button as the focal point and incorporates a lot of Swarovski bicones for the bling.

Offered as a two session class at the Gahanna Bead Studio, the first session will be held on Saturday, April 30 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The second session will be held on Saturday, May 7 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. All materials to make this beautiful bracelet are included in the class price.

Columbus DIY

2011-02-09T10:08:00.001-05:00

An article about various do it yourself type shops in the Columbus area. My Bling Button Braceket is shown with the shout out for the Gahanna Bead Studio.

http://www.columbusalive.com/live/content/features/stories/2011/01/27/style-diy-fashion.html

Copper Tulip Pendant

2011-02-08T08:15:00.000-05:00

Been trying to get some half started projects finished up so I can start a big project. Just finished this past Saturday, a bead embroidered pendant featuring a glass Czech button. I originally was going to use the button in a bracelet but decided a pendant would be a better way to feature it instead. This pendant will be offered as class at Gahanna Bead Studio on Saturday, April 2, 2011.

Convergence II - Currently on exhibit in Houston!

2010-11-08T13:51:00.000-05:00

The Convergence II traveling exhibit is currently at the Houston Center for Contemporary Art and will remain there through November 28.

To read more about the exhibit, please see the following link to ISGB's website.

ISGB - Convergence II Exhibit at the Houston Center for Contemporary Art

Creative Beading - Volume 5

2010-06-22T13:15:00.001-04:00

I am tickled pink to announce that my 'Bling Button Bracelet' (aka Button Fan as named by Bead & Button and originally published in the August 2009 Bead & Button magazine) is being included in the Creative Beading - Volume 5 annual publication available by pre-order through Kalmbach at the present time. I know Borders carries the Creative Beading series as I purchased two of the earlier volumes at the Borders store close to my home.

Convergence II: Adorning the Past, Present and Pretend

2010-04-08T10:42:00.001-04:00

Terri McGill, a glass beadmaker from Dayton, OH and I collaborated for an ISGB Competition called "Convergence II: Adorning the Past, Present and Pretend". We got the email late last night that our neck piece was accepted for the traveling competition!!! The tour starts in Rochester in May 2010 and ends in Ohio in 2011. Other than a stop at the Bead & Button show in June 2011, I don’t know yet where the other exhibition locations are scheduled.

The competition theme this year was to choose a person (real or fictional) and create a piece of jewelry inspired by them. Terri (The Rabbit Hutch) and I chose Marie Tharp, a cartographer at Cambridge University in the 40's who used sonar readings gather by the university to map the ocean floor. Marie co-discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which then gave credence to the theory of continental drift. The map of the ocean floor she created in the 40's is still in use today!

To read more about Marie and learn what a true pioneer she was ... http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/06/08/tharp.html

"Marie's Ridge" (Photograph taken by Helen O'Donnell)

Bead Embroidery ... on a small scale

2010-03-16T13:19:00.000-04:00

After getting my work table cleaned off from my last big project (a competition piece, but more on that in a later post!), I decided I wanted to try my hand at something small. And new.

Going through my sewing basket, I came across some of the button frames that you can cover with fabric to match an outfit and decided to try my hand at making a bead embroidered button. I went through my stash of hand dyed fabrics left over from a myriad of quilting projects and pulled three different colorways and have made two different buttons so far. The first button was a combination of gold and matte olive/apple green beads and the second was a combination of blues with brass/gold accents. After completing my beautiful buttons, I knew I had to incorporate them into something ...

The Gahanna Bead Studio has just recently started stocking a very cute little cube bead (1.8 mm) that I just had to have and I have bought quite a few tubes in several different colors. Using those to create a peyote band, I made two different styles of a cuff bracelet.

The blue bead embroidered bracelet has the peyote running length-wise on the long side of the band and I created a button hole at the end of one side. With the rotation of the peyote stitch, this bracelet is very stiff and much more like a bangle type bracelet. I actually liked the sawtooth appearance on the edges so decided to leave them 'as is'. The only additional accent was the 15/0 bronze seed beads that I used to finish the ends of the band and to accent the button hole.

The green/gold bead embroidered bracelet has the peyote running width-wise across the band with a peyote loop to form the second half of the toggle. Since I don't like to see exposed thread on my work, I used the 15/0 bronze seed beads to add a picot edging length-wise on the bracelet and to fill in the 'gaps' on the bracelet ends. I really like how they looked in the peyote toggle too. This bracelet is very fluid and fabric-like.

How did you spend the week between Christmas and New Years - Part 2

2010-02-11T12:57:00.006-05:00

Since it sure looks like Christmas outside, I figured this was as good a time as any to post the second half of what I was able to get completed and off my work table between Christmas and New Years. (Clicking on any photo will bring up a larger version.)

The lovely stone in the pendant on the right is a Morrisonite Jasper from Designer Cabochons in England, as are all of the stone cabochons that I use. I stumbled on their website several years ago and LOVE their cabochons. They always have unique stones and fossils, with quite a few from vintage slabs. Vintage and stone, two of my most favorite things!

I used a combination of seed beads to create the bezel and pendant embellishment because I wanted to keep the setting on the simple side. I like the combination of the 11/0s and 15/0s in the bail too. I'm an admitted pearl lover so seem to include pearls in almost all of my pieces. In this case, I used the pearl coins as separators in the tubular Ndebele necklace and top drilled pearls as accents to the fringe.

The final pendant that I finished during my holiday week is pictured on the left. Even though I am more of a 'green' person, I loved the colors in this Ocean Wave Jasper and how much it looks like a beach scene.

The surrounding fringe is a little on the wild side, but the colors are muted and don't (in my opinion anyway) take away or over power the beauty of this stone. I used a combination of seed beads and a couple of different colors of faceted Czech glass beads. I had exactly 12 of the little mottled red glass squares so used them to accent the red band in the stone and as highlights in the strung necklace.

How did you spend the week between Christmas and New Years? Part 1

2010-01-19T19:32:00.005-05:00

I vowed that I would finish up all of the half started projects sitting on my work table, in anticipation of getting started on a larger project. Some of the final results, I loved, and some were just okay ... I very rarely sketch designs out so am working from a picture in my head most of the time. In a couple of cases, I was able to use up some small amounts of beads that would have otherwise gone to the bottom of my bead drawers so even better! Here's Part 1 of how I spent my week ... (clicking on any picture will bring up an enlarged view).

The inspiration for this bracelet came while driving home from the eastern shore of Maryland and Philadelphia the first week of October. Both the drive to the east coast and the drive back home were highlighted by the autumn colors of the trees up and down the hills/mountains of Pennsylvania. Driving home, I was especially struck by a couple of areas that were just absolutely brilliant with red and yellow intermingled with a touch of green and was sad when darkness fell as I was driving because it meant that I couldn't see the trees anymore!

I couldn't wait to get back home so I could create my own personal autumn!

The green high fire ceramic cabochon pictured on the right has been sitting on my work table, glued to Stiff Stuff, for longer than I want to admit. I knew I wanted to make something with it, but just couldn't figure out what.

As I was going through my bead stash looking for beads for a completely different project, I came across these lovely green Czech glass leaves and pulled them out to audition with the cab. I liked how the shape of the leaves mimicked the imprinted teardrop shapes at the top (or what I made the top) of the cab! The green ceramic cabochon is made by my friend, Helen O'Donnell, Embroidered Soul. Helen's cabochons are some of my favorite pieces to use in my beadwork.

Let It Snow Earrings

2010-01-19T19:09:00.001-05:00

Square stitch is a handy little stitch. What I love about it is that you can take any loom pattern and create it 'off loom' using the square stitch instead ... and none of those pesky multiple threads to weave in at the end! Plus, you can take almost any cross stitch pattern and duplicate it in beads using square stitch. About the only part of cross stitch that doesn't work in a square stitch pattern is the half stitch. It's also super easy to create your own pattern by using grid paper and some colored pencils. I charted my own pattern for both the Let It Snow earrings and a Halloween patch bracelet and Jack-O-Lantern earrings that I've taught as a class.

I will be teaching Let It Snow square stitch earrings at the Gahanna Bead Studio on Saturday, January 30 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Hope to see you there!

Upcoming Classes

2010-01-08T14:31:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and start to the new year ...and new decade for that matter! What does the new year bring for me? Some upcoming classes featuring various beadweaving stitch techniques that I will be teaching at the Gahanna Bead Studio.

I will be teaching the Button Bling class in January. This class was originally scheduled to start this upcoming Sunday, but the decision was made today to postpone it for two weeks due to the anticipated weather for the weekend, so the first class will be held on Sunday, January 24 and the second class will be held on February 7. This is a two session class, held from 12:30 to 4:30 both days and includes both the peyote stitch and bead embroidery. The bracelet project was originally published in the August issue of Bead & Button magazine and it will be included in the Creative Beading, Volume 5 publication to be released this summer. The Gahanna Bead Studio has gotten in some wonderful Czech glass buttons specifically for this class and I can't wait to see how they look in the student's bracelets.

I also will be teaching a right angle weave bracelet class on Saturday, January 16, using Czech glass as the base of the bracelet accented with druks and Swarovski bicones, and featuring a Unicorne glass toggle. I like right angle weave projects because the stitch is so versatile and your pattern can have a completely different look, depending on the combination of beads that are used. The larger Czech glass beads allow the base to work up fairly quickly and then it's a matter of finishing with the accent beads. The result is a very elegant and beautiful bracelet. I made two samples, one with a little more muted palette and a second with a more vivid colorway ... the photo here is of the more muted bracelet. I'm not normally a 'heart' person, but this Unicorne glass heart bead was absolutely beautiful and I couldn't wait to find a project that I could use it in.

In case you want to create your very own snowflakes (that won't melt when the temperatures reach above freezing), I will also be teaching a square stitch snowflake class on Saturday, January 30. Reading charts and creating your own charted patterns will be covered as part of this class. (Cand't find my photo, but will post when I do.)

Happy Friday!

Short North Holiday Hop!

2009-11-29T12:04:00.000-05:00

I am happy to say that Marianne Lannan, owner of The Lamp Shade, has invited me back to be her featured artist for the Short North's Holiday Hop on Saturday, December 5. The Short North Gallery Hop is celebrating 25 years this year and I know a lot of shops will be having special events during the month of December.

I stopped in to set up my display on the day after Thanksgiving and it will be up for a week or two after the Hop on December 5.

I'd love to see you if you plan to attend the Holiday Hop, stop in at The Lamp Shade during your stroll along High Street to say 'hi'!

Button Fan Update

2009-10-13T21:21:00.006-04:00

I am so excited!

I received an email late last week from Bead & Button telling me that my Button Fan bracelet project, published in the August Bead & Button magazine, has been selected to be part of Bead & Button's Annual "Creative Beading", Volume 5, to be published next summer!!!

My bracelet (center detail shown left) was included to illustrate a color option in the article and the bracelet made by the B&B Editor for the step-by-step illustrations featured a very striking gold-green colored Czech button.

Convergence Exhibit at Bead & Button

2009-06-11T10:59:00.005-04:00

For those of you unable to attend the Convergence Exhibit at the Ohio Glass Museum or the recent Bead & Button show, Sara Hardin has made a video showing all of the pieces that are part of the traveling exhibit. Thank you, Sarah, for sharing via Youtube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHGdGHgqHq4

The exhibit is now on it's way to Florida where it will be a feature exhibit at the Windisch-Hunt Fine Arts Gallery in Coconut Grove, Florida from June 20 until the ISGB Gathering ends on July 24, 2009.

Art Bead Scene Blog: Monthly Challenge - Monet's Water Lilies

2009-05-05T10:30:00.008-04:00

Do you love using photo inspired challenges in order to get the creative juices flowing? If the answer is yes, then Art Bead Scene's May challenge is for you. The inspiration photograph is Monet's Water Lilies. Criteria includes that an art bead be used in your piece. Click on the link below to see other requirements and the deadline. Good luck!

Art Bead Scene Blog: Monthly Challenge - Monet's Water Lilies

I love photo inspired challeges. I participated in a photo inspired jewelry challenge last year while on an online beader's group and loved it ... I ended up selecting three photographs and making three pieces of jewelry! I definitely took the challenge part to heart, because I selected photographs and color palette outside of what I typically use in my jewerly. I've included photographs from two of the pieces submitted during that challenge. My 'Orange Bird Wing' pendant (shown left) ended up placing second from a very worthy group of entries.

The focal for this piece was a calcite flat bead drilled for stringing ... but you know me, I made it into a cabochon! I had purchased some vintage blue and orange flower beads several years ago and knew they would be the ideal transition accents for this pendant. Blue is not a color that I typically use in my jewelry (I'm more of a green type of gal), but I love the way this turned out. Detail of the pendant is shown on right.

For some reason the photograph of the white bird with the colorfull bill really intrigued me (pictured left). I had purchased a white stone cabochon a while back and even though I usually like 'colors' in my stones, I liked the unusual markings and shape of the cabochon. When the photographs were posted for the challenge, I remembered the striations of solid banding on the stone and pulled it to compare to the photograph. The stone markings reminded me of bird feathers and I immediately knew it would be the perfect start for my white bird photograph inspiration piece.

Because I have a reaction to plated metal, I really like using glass beads as closures instead of metal toggles or clasps. And, the additional benefit is that the clasp will blend in (if you choose) or serve as the special finishing touch to your piece.

Custom Glass Beads to Match Focals ... Why Not?

2009-05-01T20:36:00.051-04:00

Here you are, working with your latest favorite focal (for me, it's usually a cabochon), and you can't find the right glass beads to compliment and complete your piece. Sometimes Lady Luck is on your side and you can find what you need already made and ready to purchase, but other times it's not quite that easy.

In the case of my Lily Pad Jasper necklace (pictured right), I had purchased a set of multi-colored glass beads from Mother Beads and then they sat on my work table ... for months. Every once in a while I would pick them up and roll them around in my fingers, but then ultimately set them aside because I didn't want to waste them on something that I didn't consider to be the ideal project for them. Probably a year later, I added a gorgeous Lily Pad Jasper cabochon from Designer Cabochons to my cabochon collection. As I was going through my stash to gather up beads to start my necklace, I pulled the Mother Beads set over to audition them with my gorgeous new cabochon and knew they were the perfect accent for my necklace.

What happens when things don't work out quite that easy? What do you do then? Well, have you ever thought about having beads custom made to match? It's not as hard to do or as expensive as you may think. My friend, Hannah Rosner of Good River Gallery, has made several sets of custom beads for me to go with my cabochons. Hannah has told me that she loves creating glass beads to compliment my stones and, in the case of a wonderful Spectrolite cabochon, it gave her the opportunity to experiment with a glass bead making technique in order to create just the right effect. (Pictured Left: Hannah Rosner beads made to compliment a Green Adventurine cabochon.)

The next time you have that special focal and are having a hard time trying to find exactly the right complimentary beads to go with it, why not consider having some custom beads made to match. Not only will you end up with unique beads made special for YOU, but your jewelry will become even more distinctive with its one-of-a-kind components. (Pictured Right: Hannah Rosner beads made to compliment a Chinese Pietersite cabochon.)

Mother Beads website: http://www.motherbeads.com/

Hannah Rosner, Good River Gallery website: http://www.goodrivergalleries.com/

Designer Cabochons website: http://www.designercabochons.co.uk/

Convergence Exhibit opens at the Ohio Glass Museum on Friday

2009-04-26T20:48:00.029-04:00

The Convergence Exhibit opens at the Ohio Glass Museum on Friday, May 1. This traveling exhibit is the culmination of a joint venture competition of Bead & Button magazine and the International Society of Glass Beadmakers (ISGB).

The Convergence competition started with an announcement and invitation extended to jewelry artists and ISGB glass beadmakers last October to team together to create a collaborative exhibition piece of jewelry focusing on the four elements: fire, earth, air, and water.

Pam Wolfersberger, ISGB member, and I signed up as a team for this competition. As a starting point for colors, Pam invited me to go through her finished beads and select several that spoke to me. One in particular was gorgeous; cream with highlights of browns, burgundy, and ochre. Earthtones are definitely my artistic color palette of choice and it was my favorite bead out of all the ones I looked at that day. Pam used it as a starting point for creating the outstanding beads that served as the focal points of the bead embroidered collar.

I prefer organic designs and like my jewelry to have a flow to it so I knew from the start that I wanted to use a series of circles that bounced one onto the other to represent the "air" component of the competition theme. As Pam and I talked about the form of the collar, she encouraged me to not limit my vision to something small, but to think big. I drew up several different sizes of circles and then just started laying them out to find a pleasing flow and pattern. We met several times during this time frame to talk about how the design was progressing and so I could make my final selection of the beads I wanted to use from the ones she had made.

Then it became time to start putting it all together. I wanted the collar base to be one piece so it would lay smoothly and hug the body without creases where a base "joint" would occur so auditioned a couple of different types of bases that would be suitable for beadwork. Working with the collar as one continuous piece did create a bit of a bead embroidery challenge.

When I began working on the collar, I ended up revising how I wanted to surround the focal beads. I originally thought about using meandering lines from focal to focal to represent the air part of the theme, but I am not a "meandering line" kind of beader. I really liked how the surrounding beaded lines looked like radiating lines from the focal bead core so continued with that "pattern" for the remainder of the collar.

The final colors of the glass focal beads were very vibrant and I wanted them to be the focal point of the circle "islands" so I ended up using a combination of various sizes and sheen (some matte, some gloss) of glass seed beads, Swarovski pearls, and some gorgeous AB2X Swarovski bicones to form the surrounding terra. Altogether, I think I used 18 to 19 different bead colors and types of beads in creating the pools that radiated out from the focal beads and that didn't include at least 5 or 6 additional pearls and seed beads that I had purchased and ultimately set aside because I didn't like the color combination when using them.

I am quite proud of how the collar hugs the body when worn and, although large in size, does not feel heavy because of how it lays. Additionally, it is well balanced when on the body and only requires one small hidden ball and socket clasp to serve as the closure!

At the end of February, Pam and I received notification that our collar collaboration had been accepted as a finalist in the Convergence competition and would be part of the traveling exhibit. I think I must have used almost a whole roll of tape and bubble wrap to make sure the collar was adequately protected when it was shipped to Bead & Button to be photographed for the exhibition catalog! Then, at the end of March, the letter arrived with the notification that the collar had also been accepted for inclusion in a special Bead & Button publication that will be available in October 2009. In addition to sending my circle pattern that I used to layout the original collar, I needed to write up the instructions for creating the collar and provide a supply list of the beads that I had used and the quantity of each. I had actually created a matrix while I was working on the collar that gave a letter designation to each color/style of bead, the color name and number, its size, the approximate quantity used, and where I purchased it from if it wasn't something typically found. A much different process from how I normally work as I usually pull everything I think I'm going to need from my stash and then use and supplement as needed without worrying about quantity and source (except to buy additional beads of course).

I'm really looking forward to visiting the Ohio Glass Museum on Friday, May 1, so I can see all of the beautiful and outstanding collaborations that are part of the Convergence exhibit. The traveling exhibit will be at the Ohio Glass Museum in Lancaster, OH from May 1 to May 24, then it leaves for the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee, Wi from June 3 to June 7, with the final stop at the Windisch-Hunt Fine Arts Gallery in Coconut Grove, FL from June 20 until the ISGB Gathering closes on July 24, 2009.

If you are interested in purchasing focal beads or scepter beads similar to what was used in the Convergence collar, I've included a link to Pam Wolfersberger's website below. Pam's work encompasses a wide range of colors so I'm sure you will be able to find the right lampwork beads for you!

Pam Wolfersberger's website: http://www.pamelakaydesigns.com/

Bead & Button's announcement of artist teams included in the October publication:
http://cs.beadandbutton.com/bnbcs/forums/t/13851.aspx

"Jewelry Designs with Art Glass Beads": http://cs.beadandbutton.com/bnbcs/blogs/beadandbutton/2009/04/17/make-the-best-new-jewelry-designs-of-the-year.aspx

ISGB Convergence Page: http://www.isgb.org/info/article_239.shtml

Gallery Hop Featured Artist

2009-04-26T18:05:00.004-04:00

Marianne Lannan, owner of the Lamp Shade (http://www.thelampshade.com/store/) located in the Short North neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio has invited me to again be her featured artist for the May 2 Gallery Hop ... Thank You, Marianne!!!

I will be setting up my display on Friday (May 1) and hope to see some of you during the Hop. The Lamp Shade is located at the corner of 2nd Avenue and High Streets (across from the Flower Child vintage store and a public parking lot).

The photo included with this post is of a pendant featuring a beautiful high fire ceramic cabochon made by Helen O'Donnell (http://www.embroideredsoul.com/) who used fresh sage to create the imprint. I used a combination of glass Japanese seed beads, ceramic Greek rounds, and Czech faceted glass beads to create the pendant piece. A combination of unglazed Bulgarian and Greek ceramic beads were used to create the necklace.

Bracelet project will be published!

2009-04-26T17:39:00.003-04:00

Incorporating beadwoven cabochons into jewelry is my most favorite form of beading and, as my beading friends will tell you, I will make just about anything into a cabochon. I had purchased a beautiful square-ish Czech glass button from the 1 Stop Bead Shop in Dublin, OH (http://www.1stopbeadshop.com/) and knew I wanted to make something special with it. The detail in the button reminded me of art deco styling and I decided to mimic it in a bead embroidered band.

With encouragement from my friend, Helen O'Donnell (http://www.embroideredsoul.com/), I submitted a photograph of the completed bracelet to Bead & Button magazine last fall and they indicated they wanted to include it as a project in the August 2009 issue! So, get ready to get your bling on and let me know how you like the project.