ArtBLISS 2012

 Last weekend I had one of the best weekends of the year. I got the opportunity to attend and teach at artBLISS Workshops hosted by creators, Cindy Wimmer and Jeanette Blix. I've wanted to be apart of this event ever since Cindy and Jeanette founded it back in 2010. I had only experienced it through blog posts and pictures of past years and even then, I had felt it was a special place I wanted to be. A community of creatives I was drawn to and I felt a strong urge to be apart of it somehow. There are people there that I greatly admire. Ladies I wanted to connect with. And it sure did look like a ton of fun!

Reading those blog posts and looking at the photos of years past, I would daydream about attending the next future event. Early this year, I even seriously considered mustering up enough courage to apply to teach a class there. Then, something truly amazing happened...I received an email from Cindy Wimmer inviting me to come down and be apart of artBLISS! I was just over-the-moon. I couldn't believe this was happening. I would have been happy to just attend, but the fact that I was on Cindy and Jeanette's radar and they wanted me to be apart of their fantastic line-up of authors and instructors, made me so happy and grateful. I am truly so grateful when things like this come my way. I don't have much in the way of photos, but I'll share what I have with you.

Me and my Mother-in-Law, Nancy Siegel. She is my travel companion and assistant. I don't know what I would do without her! Photo credit: Cindy Wimmer.

On Saturday, I had a table set up next to the artBLISS Annex, where I demonstrated macrame knotting. I also had supplies, tools, kits, tutorials, books and jewelry for sale. In the photo, I'm demonstrating a macrame square knot, as used in my Macrame Flower Bracelet. I use a macrame board and T-pins to hold my work as I knot.

Lori Anderson tying the knot in class! :)

 Macrame flower bracelet project made in class. 

It's now available as a PDF digital tutorial in my Etsy Shop.

Saturday night, I held my Macrame Flower Bracelet class. I felt completely at ease with a class full of friendly familiar faces! I'm honored I had Lori Anderson, Cindy Wimmer, Jeanette Blix, Kelly Fogle and Nancy Siegel in my class. These ladies handled the square knot very well. They made my job pretty easy, even though they were working with fine waxed linen cord and making the tiniest knots!

I'm thrilled to say artBLISS was everything I imagined it would be and so much more. What impressed me the most was the loving and supportive atmosphere and vibe. It seems to be the smaller, more intimate event that helps facilitate that experience for everyone. The sense of camaraderie is incredible. I met some of the sweetest ladies and I was excited to see some familiar faces as well. Everyone is warm, friendly, inviting and genuine. I was shown lots of love and generousness both emotionally and financially. I am thankful to all the lovely ladies at artBLISS for their kindness and support! Also, a gigantic THANK YOU to Cindy and Jeanette for having me there. I feel so BLISSED and I just hope they will want to have me back again next year.

Knotted Friendship Bracelet TUTORIAL

 Knotted Friendship Bracelet TUTORIAL

It's time to show off my first project tutorial designed for Ornamentea.com! Wear and give these adorable friendship bracelets. I'm so excited about these colorful lil' cuties. They are made with my favorite Irish waxed linen cord and Swarovski rhinestone ball beads that add just the right touch of sparkle. I had a blast creating them and playing around with the rich-hued linen and glittery rhinestone beads. I know you will, too. They are simple and oh-so-chic and stylish. These bracelets are a great way to add just a touch of those trendy bright colors for Fall and they are wonderful projects to make for the holiday season. You will want to make a whole stack of them. Find all the supplies for them and the FREE tutorial HERE on the website. Plus, with the quantities of the materials on Ornamentea's  website, you can make exactly two of the same bracelet. That works out perfectly! You can keep one and give a matching bracelet to a friend, hence the friendship part. I love that you can make a whole bunch of these and give them as gifts. Absolutely ideal for any gift-giving occasion.

 Knotted Friendship Bracelet

Ingredients

- 2 ½ yards of 4-ply Irish waxed linen cord
- 1 Swarovski rhinestone 8mm ball
- 16 antique brass 2mm beads

Tools

- Scissors
- Ruler
- Macrame board and T-pin or clipboard

1. Cut a 16" piece of cord. This will be your "core" bracelet cord. The remaining long piece of cord will be your "working" cord you will be knotting with. Bring one end of each cord together.Measure 3" from the ends and tie an overhand knot with both cords as shown.

2. Pin the knot to your macramé board with the T-pin or clip to a clipboard. Use the "working" cord to tie half-hitch knots around the "core" cord as shown. Hold the "core" cord taut as you knot and pull the knots tight. The knots will twist, creating a spiral pattern as you go along. Continue tying
half-hitch knots around the "core" cord for 3". Use the "working" cord to tie an overhand knot after the last half-hitch knot. Trim close to the knot.

3. Use the "core" cord to string 1 brass bead, the rhinestone ball and 1 brass bead. Tie the "working" cord back onto the "core" cord with an overhand knot just under the last bead as shown. Trim tail. Use the "working" cord to tie half-hitch knots around the "core" cord for 3". Tie an overhand knot with both cords after the last half-hitch knot. Trim both cords 3" from the overhand knot.

4. Place the left and right bracelet tails parallel to each other with ends in opposite directions as shown. With the remaining piece of your "working" cord, you will create the sliding knot closure for the bracelet.

5. Place the "working" cord on top of the bracelet tails. Loosely wrap the "working" cord around the bracelet tails and the tail of the "working" cord. Wrap the cord around your finger to keep the wraps loose and to help keep track of the wraps. Wrap about 5 times around, moving towards the
tail end of the "working" cord as shown. Insert the end of the "working" cord through the wraps you just made, exiting through where you started wrapping. Pull the ends of the "working" cord tight.


6. String 1 brass bead onto the "working" cord tails; tie an overhand knot and trim as shown. String 3 brass beads to each of the bracelet tails; tie an overhand knot and trim.

I'm designing for Ornamentea!

Gold Glam Earrings 

These earrings were designed for Ornamentea. The tutorial for them appear in the 2012 issue of 101 Bracelets, Necklaces and Earrings on newsstands now.  All materials can be found at Ornamentea.com.

Hello all, I have some really exciting news to share! I'm pleased and very, very proud to announce I'm now a contributing designer for Ornamentea.com. Ornamentea is a shop and online store known for unique, high-quality jewelry and craft supplies, cool classes, awesome Elaine Ray ceramic beads and hip, chic jewelry projects and tutorials. I am just bursting-at-the-seams giddy about this amazing opportunity that owner, Cynthia Deis has bestowed upon me. There isn't a person or business that I would want to be associated with more than Cynthia and her fabulous Ornamentea. We are a perfect match and I couldn't be happier with this partnership! I hope she will want me to design for her forever and ever and ever.

So what will my role be as an Ornamentea designer? Every month, I will be creating a jewelry project and step-by-step photo tutorial with supplies and materials all from Ornamentea.com. My jewelry tutorials will be available for free download on their website, located on the Free Tutorials and project ideas page and the tutorials will also go out in Ornamentea's project newsletter, the Dispatch. If you don't get the Dispatch newsletter, you'll want to sign up. It will keep you up-to-date with all the new free tutorials and projects! My finished projects will be on display at the physical store location in Raleigh, NC as well.

In the coming days, my first project will be available online. I. can. not. wait. to share it with you! I hope you will enjoy my projects and creations from goodies you can find at Ornamentea...Stay tuned.