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Over The Hump with Hemp
Greetings Weaving Friends! I have had a difficult time with “re-entry” after my knee surgery. No matter what I did, I was very tired all the time. I tried resting, pushing myself, smiling a lot and pretending I was fine, letting myself feel everything and even crying too. I was the dreaded….”Unproductive”. It wouldn’t go away! I stopped in at my shop for an hour or two here and there and was simply overwhelmed. I wondered if I would ever feel “normal” again. Even as my knee improved…I got out of bed, then off crutches, then walking with a normal gait, then not in pain all the time…My life seemed to be more difficult to manage. But slowly, the real me has been re-emerging. My life seems to be coming back on track. I guess I am “over the hump”.
And guess what….I am back at the loom!
While I was on leave, we started carrying hemp cord at Poppyfield Bead Company (my bead shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico). I have never worked with it before and on one of my post-op visits to my shop it captured my attention. I like mixing opposing elements, and I wondered how the the natural organic texture could blend and contrast with elegant glass beads. In keeping with some skills I picked up during my last experiment (see post), I decided to warp with hemp cord and weave a combination of two-holed Czech beads, hexagonal delica seed beads, and fire polish beads.
Working with a variety of sizes of beads can be tricky. It took me several attempts to figure out how to keep the sections aligned. Two 3 mm fire polished beads should combine to take as much as space as a 6 mm bead. But there are other factors that come into play, and they don’t. So being flexible and willing to “undo” and make adjustments is key getting the “mosaic” look I wanted.
Finishing this will be the next challenge. Stay tuned!
Deals, Products, Projects
I told you so!
As I was packing beads and way too many kits to haul off to Convergence where we had a booth in July, Elena said: “These are fiber weavers. They are not going to buy beads and kits.”
“Sure they will,” I said with complete certainty.
Guess who was correct? Turns out the customers at Convergence were looking for . . . drum roll . . . LOOMS.
The good news is I didn’t haul that much stuff. There isn’t really enough to put on the website, so I thought I would list them here. All you have to do is add up your total and send a PayPal payment to: claudia@mirrixlooms.com. Shipping is $6.00 no matter how much you buy, so please remember to add that.
First Deal:
Eleven five gram tubes of those amazing CzechMates. These beads all have two holes and YES you can weave them on a Mirrix Loom.
What can you do with these beads and a Mirrix Loom? I’ll show you.
A combination of super duos and size 8/0 beads on a leather cuff.
Weave this on a hand-painted silk warp. You can find the silk here. The beads are a combination of ChechMate Tile beads and Superduos as edging.
This last one is a little wild. Silk warp and a combination of every bead in this collection. I threw in some porcelain beads at both ends. Yes, it was fun to weave and just as fun to wear.
Here are the beads: The colors are beautiful. Some are mixes I made and some are single colors. You’ll love them all and then work really well together: 1 box each of 6mm Lentils, 3/6 mm bricks, 5/16 mm two hole daggers; 2 boxes each of 5/16 mm triangles and 6 mm tiles; 4 boxes of Superduos (my favorite!). Eleven 5 gram boxes in all for $35 (plus $6 shipping). The bad news is there are only five bags of these beads left.
In case you are not aware of the shape of these beads, I borrowed some photos to show you: 
I thought I would play with the Tapestry/Bead Cuff Bracelet’s size both beads and cuff. Instead of using size 8/0 beads, I wanted to use 11/0 beads. The cuff became a 3/4 inch cuff versus a one inch cuff. The spring is a 14 dent spring instead of a 10 dent spring. It’s a finer version of the original cuff and I am sure someday we will get around to listing it on the website. But if you want it now (price $69 plus $6 shipping) you can order by just making a payment to our paypal account: claudia@paypal.com. We have nine of these kits available, but if they are popular we will make more!
Kit includes: two 3/4 inch brass cuffs, hand-painted silk, novelty yarn, 20 grams of 11/0 seed beads,C-Lon beading cord and thread, E-6000 glue, ultra-suede.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at: claudia@mirrixlooms.com. Flat shipping $6 even if you buy them all.