Category: General Crafts

Still Finding Joy in Making Bracelets

It’s now been more than a year that I’ve been working with gemstone beads. While this hobby started with the “friendship bracelet” fad over a year ago…with words, letters and interesting shaped beads…I was quickly fascinated with actual gemstone beads. Learning about the gemstones and how they were used in history for jewelry, official ceremonies and technology encouraged my interest in them. When I started, I wasn’t clear if others would also be interested in what I was learning. Most folks enjoyed how pretty the bracelets were and were drawn to their favorite colors or their birthstones. You can read about how I got started in making these bracelets at https://marykisner.com/gemstone-bracelets-good-vibrations-for-the-whole-family/

Many of the bracelets I made for the Festival last summer had just one or two kinds of stones in them. I sold 60 bracelets over the three-day festival for $10 each. I will continue to make bracelets like those for the festival this year. I made bracelets in three sizes and discovered the Large (8″) bracelets did not sell as well. Most were bought by or for men. So, I’ll make more of the Small and Medium size and make the Large bracelets with larger beads to appeal to men.

Morse Code Bracelets

Another kind of bracelet I’ve enjoyed making are custom-made to have a person’s name spelled out in Morse Code, using round black beads for the dots and small black cylinder beads for the dashes. The extra beads to finish the bracelet were chosen for a specific purpose…birthstone, favorite color or a specific bead to support a health issue. These could be White Opal beads to reduce stress and worry; Citrine for good luck; or Amethyst for overall good health. Here are some examples:

I actually got pretty good at “reading” the Morse Code in the bracelets…maybe I should work toward my HAM radio license! You can read about making these bracelets at https://marykisner.com/making-morse-code-bracelets/

Bracelets to Support a Health Issue

A few months ago, I was asked to consider making a bracelet to support a friend’s health issue…headaches and migraines. I added a disclaimer that this bracelet was not a medical device! I am not a doctor (actually I am…just not a medical doctor…smile!). While some very sensitive folks can feel vibrations from the gemstones, that is not one of my talents. However, historically some gemstones have helped issues like headaches for some folks. Wearing a bracelet can be a reminder to rest, relax and think about releasing stress which is often the cause of a headache. Wearing the bracelet can’t hurt and the bracelet is pretty to look at. The stone beads are smooth and cool to the touch. Even putting the bracelet in your pocket and handling it now and then can remind you to release stress. Here’s the final bracelet:

I now have several bracelets with specific stones to support a variety of health issues. I’m not sure if I’ll sell these bracelets at the festival, but I can explain them individually to folks. Because they involved more time to make, they will cost more than $10. Here are two other samples:

Making bracelets for others continue to be a rewarding hobby for me. This focused activity helps me release MY stress! Look for me at the Art in the Orchard Festival in July and pick out a bracelet for yourself! If you have a request for a specific bracelet, send me an email and we can discuss it (maryjkisner@gmail.com). To read my post about the Festival last summer, check out this post: https://marykisner.com/follow-up-of-the-art-in-the-orchard/ Enjoy!

Making Another Gift Box with Recycled Greeting Cards

In the fall, we start receiving packets of greeting cards from various organizations…usually with an appeal for donations. Each packet ight have 4-6 cards with envelopes. By December, I may have accumulated over 100 assorted Christmas cards. Some are quite unusual; others are just tacky. Most of the time I don’t even send Christmas cards because I write a family letter that really doesn’t need a separate card. However, I have trouble just throwing all these cards away.

Of course, in the spring we get another pile of cards along with a renewed request for donations. These cards are for birthday greetings, get well and sympathy cards. I don’t send very many cards in the first place, but now I have another pile of cards to store.

I’m always on the look out for craft projects that would use recycled greeting cards. I do reach for an occasional small gift bag, so I’m often checking Pinterest for new ideas.

I’ve already written about using origami paper, calendar pages and greeting cards in the past. You may remember the folded paper gift boxes from origami paper…

https://marykisner.com/how-about-a-folded-paper-gift-box/

From the pile of calendar pictures I had accumulated, I made a bunch of very small gift bags:

https://marykisner.com/make-a-small-gift-bag-in-a-flash/

I also attempted to use up some Greyhound calendar pictures and pretty greeting cards by making placemats:

https://marykisner.com/recycling-greeting-cards-into-a-placemat/

https://marykisner.com/recycling-greeting-cards-into-a-placemat/

All of those ideas were great, but I needed a new idea! Here are some samples of the latest gift boxes…two for Christmas and two that could be for birthdays. To save space, I’m thinking I could make these and store them flat until needed.

Making These Gift Boxes

To make these boxes you will need:

4 greeting cards; 1 sheet of cardstock, about 12″ square; 4 pieces of 1/4″ ribbon (about 14″ long each); Ruler; multipurpose glue (I used B-7000); Single hole punch; Scissors.

The base of these boxes is a single sheet of cardstock, about 12″ square. They come in a tablet of solid or decorative colors. They can be found at Michaels Craft Stores, JoAnn Fabric Stores or any craft store that caters to scrapbooking crafters.

First, I chose four cards that would go together…a floral theme.

I pulled out a sheet of decorative green cardstock…white on the reverse side. The decorative green side will the inside of the box. The cardstock was not exactly 12″ x 12″ so instead of 4″ squares I had to make them 3 1/2″ squares. Here’s how I measured out the template:

I trimmed off the top and side, then cut away the corner blocks. I saved a corner block to use as a template to mark the greeting cards. Here is what it looks like after cutting it apart:

Here is the reverse, which will be the inside of the box:

Next, I used my ruler to help me fold the four sides up:

One of the corner pieces you cut out can be your template to draw the cut line on the pictures on the cards. Here’s an example from the snowman card I’ll use in the Christmas box:

Once you have all four cards/pictures cut, place them on the outside of the base cardstock, turning the pictures so they are right side up when you fold it into a box. Glue each picture down with a quick drying glue…I used my jewelry glue (B-7000 multipurpose glue).

When the glue is dry, punch holes in the top corners of each side:

Using a 14″ piece of 1/4″ skinny ribbon, tie each corner together to make the box.

This project looked like it would be a good way to use up my stash of greeting cards…these four boxes used 16 cards! If I waited to tie them into boxes, I think I could store them flat until I needed a box. I’ll add this project to my list of ways to make gift boxes! Give it a try! Could be a project for kids and grandkids and you could recycle all those cards that come in the mail! Enjoy!

Learning to Take Better Photos of my Gemstone Bracelets

I have enjoyed making gemstone beaded bracelets over the last year and while I’ve taken many photographs of them, I’m never quite happy with how they look in the photos. I’ve just assumed that folks on Etsy and jewelry websites must have a professional photographer take their pictures because even tiny details show up clearly. I finally had a chat with a photographer friend who suggested I get a “light box” and just play with light and color to see what works for me. Sure…

Thanks to Amazon, I typed in “light box” and guess what!! Up came quite a few choices. With the price range from cheap to VERY expensive, I ended up with one like this:

It showed jewelry being displayed, so I figured it would work for my bracelets. It was pretty easy to set up but it took me a while to figure out how to begin. The top had a hole to look down at the surface with my phone camera. The plastic color mats fit inside and the light had an extra shield to diffuse the circle of light.

When I looked down from the top, I could see the bracelet I had placed under the light.

The box came with 6 color choices in plastic sheets.

I first needed to remember what I used last year that turned out such lousy photos. I had a piece of light green foam that I thought would work to put each bracelet on. I did that for each of the 120 bracelets I made for the craft sale in July. The photos looked like this:

Frankly…not very exciting. The colors didn’t show up very well. I recently took pictures of the latest bracelets I’ve made and realized the pale green foam did not enhance the look of any of the bracelets!

So, here’s my first attempt at taking a photo under the light in the light box.

I left this picture at full size so you can see how the circular light is reflected in every bead! Ugly and unacceptable!

Next, I chose another bracelet, put it on the black plastic background with the light at the top. This time I put the extra piece of fabric with a hole in it under the light to buffer the light. A little better.

Next, I stood in front of the box and took a picture. That helped eliminate the reflection from the top. However, the black plastic still reflected the light from the silver spacers.

The black plastic background really doesn’t do the bracelet justice. How about the green background?

Ahhhh…nope!

Next, I tried the beige (plastic) background:

Better for the beads, but the plastic still reflected the light.

Finally, I found a piece of beige linen fabric. That did not reflect any light! Yea! Much better. Actually, if I put the fabric on my desktop instead of in the light box, my iPhone camera and flash does a great job with the picture and is much easier to set up! Who knew that worked just as well as the light box!

I still needed to check a few other bracelets that had more subtle colors. This one had only Amber and Citrine. The beads are washed out with the beige background so I tried a piece of white linen.

Beige background:

White background:

When I switched to a white background, the colors showed up much better!

The final bracelet I wanted to check was the one below, because it had both dark and light beads. The beige background worked fine for both.

I feel so much better about taking pictures of my bracelets now. I’ve got until next July to beef up my inventory! Who knows…maybe I’ll have to put out a catalog! Enjoy!

Crocheting Dish Cloths for Christmas

Who thinks about Christmas in October? Those of us who try to make handmade things for gifts find even October is sometimes too late! As soon as Labor Day festivities are over, we start getting anxious about what we want to accomplish by the middle of December. Of course, retail stores help this along by hauling out the decorations to get us in the mood! We tolerate displays of Halloween ghosts and goblins and Thanksgiving turkeys but we’re already looking for fabrics, patterns and craft ideas. As we know, it takes time to produce a quilt, knitted sweater or gift basket of handmade items.

How wonderful that sometimes folks will request a special handmade gift in September so I have time to actually make it! Love it! I had such a request for crocheted dishcloths like I had made several years ago. Actually, at that time I was making random wash cloths to go with my various bars of soap I was making. I ended up making a variety of squares, trying to find the best yarn to make a washcloth that was strong when wet (not just soft when dry). I finally passed the whole pile on to my son’s family. I didn’t know they were using them and now needed more!

Very well-loved dishcloths!

I had to search for my bag of crochet hooks and of course had to make a visit to JoAnn’s to choose some new yarn.

I shouldn’t have to buy any more crochet hooks!

Next, I tried to remember what kind of yarn I used originally. That was hard, because I remember trying all kinds of yarn…from nylon and acrylic to bamboo and cotton. I was pretty sure I used cotton but now the choice was between a 4-ply cotton yarn and a #3 crochet cotton.

Finally, all I could do was START! I basically used a single crochet stitch. Beginning with about 28 stitches, I first used the 4-ply cotton yarn. Geez! My fingers had forgotten how to crochet! The first attempts made a hefty 10-inch square. It was heavy enough to use as a pot holder! Next, I started with only 24 stitches. That was better. I also went to a larger hook so it wasn’t so tightly woven (plus, I finally relaxed my stitches). I’m not sure about this yarn. Would I wash dishes with this cloth? It was pretty heavy.

Next, I tried the #3 crochet yarn. These turned out thinner and more flexible.

My first cloths with the #3 crochet cotton started with about 24 and then I crocheted around the whole cloth several times. This made a very flexible cloth…but I think it should be larger, so I’ll increase my starting row of stitches.

At this point, I’ll just keep crocheting and around the beginning of December, I’ll put them in the mail to California! What fun for me and hopefully useful to them!

While I was looking for any other posts I’ve written about crocheting…I could find only one! In June 2023 I tried to make my favorite hot pads. They are my favorite and were gifts from a dear friend (Thank you Helen!). I figured I’d better learn how to make them myself. Luckily, Pinterest had several tutorials available. Here’s a picture of the ones she made for me. They wash beautifully and have double protection.

These hot pads were a wonderful gift!

My hot pads were thick enough, but not exactly as pretty!

Read about how to make them here: https://marykisner.com/crochet-a-double-thick-hot-pad/

So for now, you’ll know what I’m doing while I’m watching Hallmark Movies or Penn State football! What Christmas gifts are you going to try to make this year? Enjoy!

Making Morse Code Bracelets

My latest project with gemstone bracelets involves using Morse Code to design a bracelet for one specific person or group of people. This involves learning about the code itself and translating the symbols to beads to represent dots and dashes. Round beads work for dots, but the dashes would be a specific tube-shaped bead. I thought I could just substitute a larger bead for the dash…it made a nice bracelet, but the code was impossible to read. Then I tried black round beads for dots and white round beads for dashes.

My first attempts involved making a bracelet that said, “GREYHOUNDS.” Using black and white beads this was the result. Even if you know Morse Code this is unreadable!

Then I tried to make bracelets for my grandkids that said, “BEN ROCKS,” and “ANNA ROCKS” using two colors.

Again, looked pretty but unreadable. The last letter in each bracelet was the S (three beads the same representing dots). I could work backwards from that.

My friend Toni suggested I make bracelets that said, “GREYHOUNDS.” That was a long word and if I used the beads I had they would never fit and would still be unreadable! I went to Amazon and looked for Morse Code beads and found this kit:

Hicarer DIY Morse Code Bracelet Making Kit

It even came with these cards:

I guess I’m not the only one trying to adapt Morse Code to beads! With this batch of very tiny beads, I started to figure out which of my beads would go with them. I ended up using very small glass beads to separate the letters and add color to the bracelet, with these beads filling out the necessary length.

Here is the code for GREYHOUNDS:

Here are some bracelets:

These “greyhound” Morse Code bracelets will be fun for my greyhound-lover friends. The only thing I find disappointing is the plastic and glass beads are very lightweight. Of course, without a gemstone in sight, they become just a novelty to me. I’ll make a bunch for the next greyhound event, but my heart just isn’t in them!

Morse Code Bracelets with a Heart

Getting back to my gemstone bracelets, and with Morse Code on my mind, I thought about a friend who was worried about one of her grandsons who had just moved to Colorado. My friend shared some heart-warming experiences that me wonder if I could make a bracelet that would ease her worries while helping her focus on supporting her grandson. His name was ALEX. Perfect length to represent with Morse Code.

I ordered some beads from https://firemountaingems.com. I had learned from my first trial and error bracelets that the code needed to be represented with a dot and a dash in the same color. Various spacers could separate the letters and add color to the bracelet.

My dots turned out to be 4 mm Black Tourmaline. The dashes were 8/4 mm Black Onyx tube beads. These two stones provide psychic protection and support inner strength, will power and self-mastery. Those qualities would be important to the grandson.

Since the grandmother would be the one wearing or holding the bracelet while she thought about her grandson, I wanted the final stone to be something that would help alleviate her worry and stress. White Opal seemed to fit my needs. I ended up making a bracelet for the grandson’s mother also. Then they requested another bracelet for the other grandson who they were also worried about! His name was NICK. Also perfect for Morse Code!

Here is Alex’s bracelet (before I figured out a better way to make the tag):

Here is the bracelet for Nick’s mom (notice the better tag):

You can see that while I’m inventing these bracelets, I’m trying to figure out how to fill out the tags to explain the stones and what they mean. I suspect I’ll end up having to make a printed paper or card to go with each bracelet… especially if I end up doing more custom work. I just can’t write small enough, neatly enough to do very many at once! Here are the back of the tags:

These particular bracelets are for the mother and grandmother of the grandson. They are meant to be worn or held to focus attention on supporting the grandson from afar and alleviating the worry and stress of the mother and grandmother. The grandson may never know that such good vibes are being sent his way…but you never know!

I wondered if the grandsons would like, or use, a bracelet to support their new lives away from home? I made a bracelet for each grandson, using the same Morse Code and substituting Tigers Eye beads to fill the bracelets.

I will offer these Morse Code bracelets for the grandsons…in case they ever express an interest. I’ll leave them with the mother to share as appropriate. I have no expectations that these bracelets will make it to Alex and Nick, but my thoughts go with them as they move out into the world. Who knows, the bracelets may end up under their pillows at grandma’s house…kind of like a Dream Catcher with gemstone beads!

I’m sure my future one-of-a-kind bracelets will change as I learn more about the gemstones and how to label them properly. My various bracelets sold at the arts festival for $10 each. I was happy with that, since I could make whatever appealed to me. However, I suspect these one-of-a-kind Morse Code bracelets will take me longer to make and label. I may have to reconsider the price and charge more. Any thoughts about what I should charge would be appreciated!

Follow Up of the Art in the Orchard Festival

The Art in the Orchard Festival last week was a success! I survived the heat (90+degrees), the wind and the porta-potties. I also sold 60 bracelets at $10 each, so my investment in beads over the last 6 months was repaid to my Visa account! Yea!

There were 75 booths arranged around the perimeter of a grassy field. From the parking area for visitors, booths lined the walkway to lead folks down a little hill right to the field. The visitors were mostly families with small children so it was quite a parade of shaded strollers, assorted wagons and backpacks coming past our booth. Luckily, a few of my local friends stopped by to say Hello, gave me hugs and even bought bracelets…just the confidence boost I needed!

Toni’s crafts of various framed pieces (collages…or “assemblage art”) were lovely unique pieces along with many items made with all sorts of sparkly beads drew people into the booth.

A favorite piece that made everyone smile was this mosaic table:

My table was right by the entrance and did not take up too much space. Folks were either interested or they weren’t. I certainly learned a lot about how to “sell” the bracelets. My best customers were young people who already had several bracelets of some kind on their wrists. Even older adult women were interested…often they were already wearing various bracelets. All of the people who stopped by seemed to be drawn to certain colors and would begin shuffling through the bags of bracelets in the baskets.

This was my opportunity to suggest they find out what size would fit so their search was more focused. My set of “tester” bracelets really helped break the ice and t hey didn’t feel I was pushing them to buy. Then I showed them the tags that each had that described the stones and what they mean. I’m glad I had the printout with the whole list of stones I use and their meanings so they could take it home.

My camera must be tilted…it makes the small look bigger than the large!

Over the three days of the festival, we watched a guy make a huge sand tractor with a basket of apples…appropriate for our location…Way Fruit Farm is surrounded by apple trees!

A huge sand pile was dumped in the middle of the field. We weren’t sure what was going to happen with it. Kids played in the sand pile the first day. On Day 2 most of the sand had been shoveled into a wood framework and was being soaked with water. The leftover sand was enjoyed by kids nearby. By the end of the third day, the finished display was impressive. (You can see our purple tent on the right across the field. We had to walk up the hill to see the side he was working on.)

After three days of the festival, we were exhausted and grateful that we didn’t have to clean up after a rainstorm. Packing up was easy for me…all my stuff fits in a small bag. Toni had a much bigger job because she brought the tables, tent and bins of her art. Thank goodness the young man and his friend in the booth beside us was willing to help us load up everything in Toni’s car. Whew!

Of course, being away for three days just as the beans were ready to pick was frustrating. I managed to get out there early yesterday and today to get them picked. No wonder farmers don’t get a summer vacation!

My lasting memory from this festival will be gratitude that there are others interested in my gemstone bracelets. Besides pretty colors, the descriptions that say the stones help you sleep or lower your stress level were interesting to many. It’s kind of like putting a Native American Dream Catcher in a child’s room to help ease nightmares. I need to get better at explaining how to set an intention to experience what you need.

So that’s my experience with my first Arts Festival! If you frequently go to festivals like this, be kind to the vendors…they have invested time and money to make lovely things for you to enjoy!

Coming Soon: Art in the Orchard Festival

Ok folks…this next week is the Art in the Orchard festival I’ve been preparing for with all my gemstone bracelets! This festival will be held at the Way Fruit Farm property just past Stormstown on Rt. 550. Here is the advertisement:

At the same time, two other much larger arts Festivals will run concurrently: the Central PA Festival of the Arts will be held in State College, from July 10 to July 15, 2024; the People’s Choice Festival will be held in Centre Hall at the Grange Fair Grounds, from July 11 to 15, 2024. (The People’s Choice festival had been held in Boalsburg for many years but just outgrew the space.) Both of these festivals are worth your time to attend, but I’m certainly not ready for a venue like that!

The Art in the Orchard festival (July 11-13) has been around for several years and is perfect for my first attempt to be a vendor. Since my set up is pretty small, I’m joining my friend Toni Duchi who has had a booth at this festival for several years. She does amazing things with mosaics, collages and polymer clay. I profiled some of her work in a post from June 2021:

https://marykisner.com/from-a-collection-to-a-collage/

This festival will be a reality check for me. I’ve been making gemstone bracelets for about 6 months and have enjoyed learning about the qualities of the stones and how to make bracelets. I’ve enjoyed the process and enjoyed sharing them with friends and family. It is finally time to see if I can sell them…at least to help pay for all the materials. This is not a cheap hobby! I now have 130 bracelets to sell, in three sizes, for $10 each. We’ll see what happens!

I have so many questions that hopefully will be answered at this festival, such as:

  • Should I keep making bracelets? Do the bracelets appeal to others?
  • Does my display work?
  • What kinds of questions do folks ask about the gemstones?
  • How do folks choose a bracelet…by color, by stone, by the message on the tag?
  • Basically, should I keep making bracelets?

I’ve had to remember that there are other variables that could affect the outcome of sales…especially the weather, the location of our booth, the competition from other vendors at the festival and of course, the competition from the other two regional festivals. I may have to consider other ways to use the bracelets. Maybe offering workshops to teach others how to make them for themselves would be more up my alley!

If you’d like to experience a local arts festival this week, consider heading out to Way’s Fruit Farm for the Art in the Orchard, and stop to say hello to Toni and me! A friendly smiling face will make our day!

I shared bracelets with my family at a reunion in June. They enjoyed choosing the one that “spoke” to them!

Gemstone Bracelets: Good Vibrations for the Whole Family

Three to four years ago, I found my interest in the uses of stones, crystals and gemstones in meditation was a way to focus my thoughts. I realized I was reading about the way gemstones were used in ancient times…in crowns, in prayers and in ceremonies…but I really didn’t know what some of them looked like. Unless the stone was someone’s birthstone, I really didn’t have a knowledge base to work with.

After one of our driving trips to California to visit Ted’s family, our stop in Sedona, Arizona was most inspiring! I discovered the Sedona Crystal Vortex shop. I came home with an assortment of polished stones in my suitcase! Each came with a card describing the stone. Thus began my fascination with gemstones and their meanings.

Over time, I managed to collect at least 24 different polished stones and organized them so the card with information was kept with the stone. Now. I can recognize most of the stones by color and have some basic knowledge about each one.

For several months I carried one or two stones in my pocket, depending on my mood and focus…whether it was confidence with my writing, reducing stress in my life or courage to face hard decisions. Not sure if they made a difference in my writing or my stress level, but they did help me focus my intentions to improve my writing or lower my stress level.

Then, I discovered Sedona Crystal Vortex offered various pendants and earrings featuring specific stones…what fun! Very quickly I could see this collection would be a bit more expensive! Not sure I could afford a necklace for each stone!

Here is a Malachite set:

And my favorite Tree of Life necklace:

Learning More about Stones, Crystals and Gemstones

I continued researching these stones, crystals and gemstones on the internet…so MUCH information was available. I ended up ordering this book, The Book of Stones, by Robert Simmons and Naisha Ahsian (2015. Heaven & Earth Publishing LLC). I learned so much more and could reread sections without turning on the computer!

In the introduction to the book, the authors helped me understand why some folks believe they can feel (sense) the vibrations from the stones. They provided a general theory how humans could actually feel and benefit from crystal energy.

Apparently, the crystal lattice structure found in minerals, such as Quartz, Beryl and Diamond, provides great stability of structure and regularity of flow of any electromagnetic energies that move through it. This is why silicon chips are used to provide memory in computers. It’s also the reason Quartz crystals can be incorporated into watches and clocks to provide highly accurate measurements of time. This crystalline structure is present in all stones and crystals at some level.

Humans have their own crystalline structure in their bodies, even at the smallest level. Our DNA basically has a crystalline structure that manages to pass on genetic information quite accurately. Not too hard to imagine that it may be possible for some people to be capable of detecting, or “feeling” these energies.

I will admit I don’t feel the vibrations from my stones. However, I do believe they help me focus my thoughts.

The Transition to Beaded Bracelets

Recently, as the public became obsessed with Friendship bracelets, folks of all ages were making and exchanging them. Why not check it out! I made a few bracelets with plastic letter beads and made a few to represent one of my favorite sayings:

I used up various glass beads to fill in around the letters. Interesting, but I hadn’t planned to wear them so I sent them to a niece.

I tried to make Penn State bracelets using the letters, P S U, but after 4-5 bracelets, I ran out of those three letters! The letter beads seem to come with the whole alphabet and I couldn’t order just those three letters! Phooey!

I ended up making PSU bracelets with Blue and White beads…no letters. The only “real” stone bead that had the right color to represent PSU blue was the Blue Tiger’s Eye. So I added white glass beads, Opals or Howlite to get the Blue/white feel. I don’t think I’ll focus on making too many of these, since I’d prefer to explore the many other gemstone beads I have.

The transition from stones in my pocket and pendants around my neck seemed to happen in the last year or so. If you’ve read my blog (https://marykisner.com/) you’ll know that I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting projects. I thought if I wanted a different way to carry the gemstones, why not a bracelet.

Look at the difference between a polished stone for my pocket and the corresponding bracelet. Perfect!

Production for the Summer Arts Festival

For the past month or two I’ve been cranking out several bracelets a day in three sizes. I now have over 100 bracelets ready to sell at the Summer Arts Festival which will be held July 11-13, 2024 on the grounds at Way’s Fruit Farm in Stormstown, PA. (These are the same three days as the Central PA Festival of the Arts in State College, PA).

To prepare for the festival, I took my bag of bracelets to a family reunion a few weeks ago and let interested folks choose one. It gave me a chance to talk about the gemstones. Bracelets were chosen by mostly women of all ages and a few young men found stones that spoke to them! Very rewarding to watch the process! Save the dates in July! Hope to see you there!

Checking Out the Bead Mercantile Show

Over this past weekend I drove to Pittsburgh for the Bead Mercantile Show (and to spend time with Kathy’s family, of course). Kathy, her mother-in-law, Anna and I made the 30-minute drive to the Show location. I was so glad to not have to worry about getting to the show…Kathy knew exactly how to get there!

I had no idea what the show would involve but I was hoping to find a few beads for my bracelets. Turns out, beads were just part of the offerings!

The location was in a ballroom of a Comfort Inn & Suites south of the city. I believe the next show will be in the fall. There were at least 15-20 venders with everything a bead-lover could need.

At the registration table, the woman collecting the $3 entrance fee was also a vendor. We got to see amazing works of art made with beads before we even got inside! The display was definitely inspiring!

Entering the large room, I was overwhelmed by the choices! Luckily, I had a list of the specific beads I was looking for.

My first encounter was an assortment of large beads…very unusual and interesting, but I had my best friend Toni in mind. She uses beads like this and could not make it to this show. I wanted to pick up some for her. Here are some of the beads I had to choose from:

These are the beads I picked up for Toni…a total of $12.00!

Unfortunately, the beads I was interested in were more expensive, of course! My strings of beads were $8 to $30 each.

I was also able to pick up some tiny spacer beads in gold and silver plated…the three tubes of beads shown here were $30!

I’ve been saying this hobby of making beaded bracelets was expensive…now I’m convinced that I’d better find places to sell them! I certainly can’t wear them all!

With all the supplies available at Jo-Ann’s, Michaels Craft Stores, Amazon and other online companies, it is a very satisfying hobby. I would recommend giving it a try if you’d like to make them yourself.

Please email me directly if you’d like me to write tutorial piece on how to make them (marykisner@comcast.net). If there is enough interest, I’ll put that together. Enjoy!

New Spring Door Quilt on Wood

Over the last 3 years I’ve been making assorted quilt blocks to decorate my front door. I started with actual fabric quilt blocks. They solved my dilemma of the small space between the door and the screen door that routinely smashed any wreathe I tried to hang on the front door. With 6 quilt blocks, I could change them out about every two months.

Unfortunately, after two months in the sun their color faded and by the second year, I was a little disappointed with using them. You can read more about my transition to painted quilt blocks on wood here: https://marykisner.com/lavender-inspired-quilt-block-on-wood/

The process of painting a quilt block on wood involves first painting a miniature of the chosen quilt block before starting on the full-size (12″ square) block. While the full-size blocks decorate my front door, one at a time, the miniatures are an interesting decoration for my mantle.

To make my new spring quilt block on wood, I first chose a pattern. I have used this same pattern several times…by changing the colors and their placement I was able to use the pattern below (called Fifty-Four Forty) that I made with patriotic colors and change it into the variation that almost looks like tulips!

I always start with sketching the design on a 3″ x 3″ canvas. That lets me see which lines should be erased so the pencil doesn’t show through the paint. Then, I’m careful when drawing on the wood so the pencil lines are faint and won’t show through.

Let the painting begin:

It takes several days to finish a project like this. The final step is to take clear acrylic spray and give it a nice weather-proof finish…all with waiting times between coats. Bert will attach magnets to the back that will stick to our metal front door. In the end, I’ll have a new spring door quilt and a new miniature for the mantle!