11th Hour Bracelet

Well, I made it to Milwaukee and I am finally warm & dry in my hotel room. The weather was horrible at home and here, and the plane was delayed. I got soaked walking out on the tarmac to the plane. It made for a chilly plane ride. But now I am here in my hotel room, and I have a lovely nonfat Starbucks latte by my side. Tonight I am meeting my friend, Evalie for dinner. Evalie and I met at the 2003 Ravensdale when she and I happened to have our spots in the community workroom side by side. It’s great to see her here at the Bead & Button Show. I hardly ever get to see her since she lives in Saudi Arabia! I love coming to this show for the excellent classes and the fantastic bead shopping, but getting to catch up with old friends or meet online friends in real life is a special bonus.

So what’s with the title of this post? Well, I am a last minute person. So there I was on Saturday, hadn’t started packing or organizing my tools and supplies yet ,and what I was I doing? Stitching a simple bead embroidered bracelet. I was 2 days from leaving for the biggest bead show in the country, and I had to zip out to get some size 8 brown beads. I’ve been laughing at myself for that one. At least it’s a simple design, 3 rows of small polymer buttons sewn down with size 8 and size 15 beads. I am loving how it’s coming along, but whipstitching the beads around the edge is tedious. Here’s what it looked like yesterday:

I am really happy with how the tiny “buttons” turned out.  I made a large sheet of clay with a coppery mix on the bottom and an ivory color top layer.  Then I cut the sheet into 4 pieces and threw the kitchen sink of paints, inks, foils and even some glitter on them and put a layer of trans on top.  Sometimes I get in a frenzy decorating a sheet of clay and it isn’t always successful.  More is definitely not the answer to beautiful veneers generally, but I have a hard time stopping myself.  And with a trans covered sheet of polymer clay, you don’t really know what you’ve got until you’ve baked it.  I was lucky this time because each button is so small (less than a half inch).  I think they look lovely and not too busy.

So, since I am still working on this bracelet and I’m in Milwaukee, is it the 13th hour bracelet?