Cool Moon and the Coyote

As you may have seen from the link and the profile to the right, I am 'into' metaphysics. I have worked in the field for over 10 years, but have been drawn to various spiritual paths for much longer than that. I am also an Astrologer, a Reiki healer, and a Feng Shui expert. I currently spend many part time hours holding down the fort at Coyote Wisdom, a wonderful store on the northern edge of Lansing. It's in a converted house (house stores always seem to be so cozy), so space is limited - and filled to the brim with ALL things new age, spiritual, mystical and beautiful. I also have my beads and jewelry there, and am developing a following with many of the regulars. I took my camera with me to work today, so I thought I would treat you to a tour - of my space, and of Coyote in general. (Thanks to fellow Coyote-ian James Wortz for providing the Coyote store photos.) So grab a beverage, and sit back and enjoy.... 

My "Cool" space in the bay window. 

I specialize in mystical pieces, and usually incorporate at least one type of semi precious gemstone bead into each piece I make.  The Buddha piece in this photo is done with Sodalite, which is for mental accuity, and aids in reaching spiritual enlightenment.

This shelf is based on the feminine, with the Ankh featured in several of the pieces. 

A selection of mostly semi precious beads - there is also a tray of glass for accents, and a tray of Sterling Silver beads and findings.  I have strings of beads hanging from rods in the window, as well as focal pendant beads in bone, stone, wood and glass.

THIS is the book nook.  The Astrology section of our little store.

A very small selection of the different types of semi precious stones we carry.  These are our biggest sellers, with people spending HOURS and LOTS OF CASH on stones that hold various energies and properties.  Our stone section is the best in the area, and it grows regularly.

We also carry a large selection of Essential oils, incense, candles, Tarot cards, and all types of import items from the middle East, India, Africa and other exotic places.
I would like to thank you for taking my little 'tour', and invite you to visit our store or at least - our website. 
www.coyotewisdomstore.com has a video tour on the home page of many other features of the shop.

Peaceful beading,
TTFN

Designing from the floor

People are always asking me how I do it;  how I combine colors, textures, and simply find my ideas.  And I gotta tell ya - most of the time, they find ME.   What happened this morning is a perfect example.   I just got some cool seed bead & Swarovski mixes from Fusion Beads that included not only a pretty turquoise shade, but some lime, and some deep greens as well.  So what do I put with them?  I pulled out my bag of cabs - there are probably about 50 cabs in this bag.  I pulled out some turquoise.  Ok.  Now we're forming a plan.  Then I pulled out a serpentine/pyrite cab in the lime color.  Ok.  But not floating my boat quite yet.  I went through the ENTIRE bag of cabs, looking for the perfect companions for what I knew was going to be Turquoise, Lime and Dark Green.  Finding nothing better - the serpentine/pyrite became the choice.  OR SO I THOUGHT.  I looked down, and on the floor - there it was.  The PERFECT companion for the dark green shade in the seed bead mix, a Moss Agate cab, screaming PICK ME, PICK ME!:

And THAT is how I end up designing most of the time.  I let the pieces tell me themselves when and how they want to be used, and just as with "Vintage Wynter", they tend to turn out more perfectly than when I take the time to plan ahead.  Hence the reason for the box of UFO's!  :0)
So here is the beginning of the next project.  I'm thinking of the peacock theme for this, and matched a few colors to the feathers I keep on hand:

A little more subtle shading than normally seen when designing around the peacock theme, and there really is a bit more lime (more peridot/olive) in the bags than you can see in this photo - but I kind of like it. The lime will be more of an accent than an in your face!  Just gotta wait for the glue to dry on those cabs, and then I'm off to the races!

Peaceful beading,
TTFN

 

Drumrolling, part 2

I had to resort to plan B.  The focal, the way I showed it in the previous post, just didn't hang right once I had the necklace portion created.  I was afraid of that, but was so excited that I had gotten so far that I felt I need to try various things before giving up.  Luckily, I was on a bead play date with my friend Sally the other day, and she suggested that I make them three separate pendants, (as I had originally thought) that can be changed out, depending on  your mood.  And ONE of them has a pin on the back - so it can be worn as a brooch.  I really like the simpleness of plan B better, anyway, I think.  How about you?:

This is focal piece 1, with the simple spiral rope necklace.  Each pendant bail is large enough to slide off the rope:

Here are the second two:

All in all - very happy with the result.  Hope they're a seller! 

And on a sort of related note - I LOVE the affect that the closed cover of my laptop gives to the background of my jewelry pieces.  I used to take the time to lay out fabric, or find the right size display, but I gotta tell ya - I love the contrast of the gray background. 

Now I've gotta come up with another project!  Probably bead embroidery, as my play date the other day consisted of actually showing Sally, previously just a stringer, how to bead embroider.  And wouldn't you know?  We've addicted another one!  She was so excited to learn not just bead embroidery, but peyote stitch too.  She still has to learn to attach the backing (sometimes the most boring part, I think), and also what to do about finishing the piece.  But all in all - how fun that I taught someone else one of my favorite passions?  I know that what she's going to want to focus on for our next few dates, so I better be prepared.  I may have to loan her a Sherry Serafini or Jamie Cloud Eakin book too.  Those will really push her over the addiction edge!  LOL!
Peaceful beading everyone,
TTFN

Drumroll, please

Actually, TWO drumrolls.  The first - I made it to 7700 visitors!  7702, as a matter of fact!  YAY!  I wish I had a way of knowing WHO my lucky number visitor was - it almost seems prize worthy.  
And the other drumroll - and I apologize to the readers who feel back patting and horn tooting aren't cool - because I'm patting AND tooting today!  lol!   My dream of how I wanted Vintage Wynter to be changeable, from a 3 focal piece pendant, to one single - has been realized....I honestly don't know where the ideas come from, I believe something higher than myself is involved in my creativity lately - but here is what it looks like so far:

After much thinking, and planning, and a little bit of trial and error with some box clasps (thanks, Sally!), I came up with the hook and eye idea.  I still need to add bails to the top of each - I haven't decided about whether I want a big peyote bail on them all, or if I just want to create seed bead loops.  I will be creating a simple spiral rope for the necklace, using all of the purples and the white.  Unfortunately, I had to order more of one of the purple colors, and wouldn't you know, during a week with a government holiday, putting the mail behind a day.  So this may be where I stop with this piece for another day or two.  I'm very please with how it looks so far, though...

This photo is how the center pendant will look (minus bail), when worn alone.  I really love the dangles, which help disguise the eye rings needed for the hooks. 

The only part about this necklace that didn't quite work out as I planned, is that I had originally thought about making EACH pendant so that is could be worn separately.  Having used the hooks on the side pieces, though - they don't look quite right just hangin' out there alone. 
So anyway - this is what's on my bead table this Wednesday!

Peaceful beading,

TTFN

Soooo close

Only 55 more views and I'll have had 7700 people visit my blog!  So glad you've been stopping by, and I hope many of you are returning readers.  I will probably have some more changes for the blog soon - including a link to my reopening Etsy shop!  Not sure when - so I'm not putting a time frame on it - but hopefully by mid April (before the East Lansing Public Art Gallery ART! Expo).
Vintage Wynter is coming along, for those of you that have been reading about it. That 3rd piece of the 3 piece focal is driving me MAD - but I'm not ready to give in yet. Can't remember if I posted the update with the progress of the other two pieces, so here it is:

There will be little tiny box clasps between each piece, along with large peyote bails.  They will attach to each other with the box clasps to be worn together, or remove the side pieces and wear the center leaf piece alone.  I know, right?  I can't wait to see if my vision will actually become reality as easily as my mind THINKS it will!
Peaceful beading,
TTFN

Do you Pinterest?

It seems to be the new craze right now, and it's very addictive.  I spent so long on that site this morning, I used up all of my precious quiet bead time before the dogs and hubby got up!  That's pretty bad/sad.  But it's fun - and informative, and dangerous all at the same time.  Fun to see what others - complete strangers, close friends, and even family members, like and find interesting.  Informative because of all the great IDEAS pinned - decorating, crafting, clothing - it's a wealth of information, with links back to the original sources, which will in turn have even MORE ideas.  It really is a wicked circle.  And it's dangerous, because it's made me already want to make some changes that involve buying new storage items, and I've got lots of ideas for my garden for summer.  And the recipes.  Oh, my goodness, the recipes.  We'll have extra ingredients for some scrumptious stuff on our grocery list for weeks to come!  Even my husband is a follower, and has asked me if I saw this or that, and would I make him that cookie or cake recipe.  It's give us something to talk about other than dogs and bills for a change!
Another reason to use it - it's a great marketing tool!  More and more of us that are designers, creators, and artists in one genre or another are pinning to boards that are shared and re-pinned, and re-pinned, and re-pinned again.  Talk about exposure! 
If you haven't tried it yet (I'll be surprised - it seems as though EVERYONE is Pinteresting) - here's the link.  You can browse a little bit without signing up - but it's really worth it!  http://pinterest.com
It's easy, it's free, and it's sooooooo fun!
Have a peaceful, Pinterest-ing Sunday,
TTFN

Sneek Peek

Yesterday's Bead Table Wednesday beads are becoming something quite unique - just as I suspected.  And of course,  NOTHING like what I originally envisioned.  Here is that sneek peek of where I am this morning.  Heading out for my yearly optical check up, though, and because they will be dilating these baby blues, I may not get back to this until later this evening. 

The name that came to me for what I had together yesterday was "Wynter's Path".  However - the pearls have given it a much more vintage look than I had expected, so it is now "Vintage Wynter".  I have two more sections to add to the main focal, sort of a bib affect, I THINK.  I am also considering working some thin silver chain into the actual embroidery too.  Once again - totally different than I envisioned.  That may have to be ANOTHER piece!
Have a peaceful, beady Thursday, everyone
TTFN