in the works lately

Just a few things that I've been working on lately...

Remember how last month I mentioned that I was finally finishing this piece that I started months and months ago? It's done! I need to take more photos and get it listed, but I'm making progress. It also feels good to finally use some of my ceramic buttons.

I don't use a lot of beading patterns, but I bought Carol Dean Sharpe's bargello ribbon pattern years ago. I've never gotten sick of it. I pulled these colors out months ago without any specific plan for them and this pattern just seemed to be calling them. It has so much color that I decided to pair it with a neutral button. (Edi has these custom buttons in her shop now. Go check them out.)

I finished a red and white striped version recently, too. You can also see it over here. I'll have more pictures of it soon. The green one is a personal piece that I pulled out again to use as a reference for the pattern. I have a 2" version of the pattern that Carol Dean very kindly sent me for free for a custom order a couple years ago. Working on bargello lately is making me itch to try it again.

I've been playing around with some possible color combinations for said 2" cuff, one of which was an all purple cuff. I simply don't have anything in my current stash that works. After multiple false starts with varying colors, I finally settled on this color combination and then decided that it would work better for a skinny herringbone wrap piece.

Originally I was thinking about purple so that I could use another one of my ceramic buttons. I don't think that either of these buttons really works with this piece, though. We'll see if anything else in particular speaks to me as I keep working on it.

I've had an idea for a yellow cuff for several years now. I've picked out beads, not liked what I picked, used them for other projects, and forgotten about it. A couple times. It's way past time to make this happen. Also, this time of year makes me want to work with all of the green beads in my stash. I have beads pulled for a floral / leafy green piece. Getting all of these greens pulled makes me want to create something with yellow and lime, too.

 Finally, whenever Oriental Trading has a free shipping on any order coupon, I check out their current bulk button offerings. This month they had a brand new black and white button stash. Aren't they amazing? This set here is just a small sampling. I also picked up some more wooden buttons.

What have you been creating this month?