"Nest" Team Challenge

This year one of my goals is to enter at least 6 of the monthly challenges from the Etsy Beadweavers Team. Here is my entry for this month:  Honeycomb Bracelet

 The theme for the Etsy Beadweavers January Challenge is "Nest".  Here is a description:

“It will still be winter in the Northern hemisphere in February and I believe thinking about nestling could make us feel comfortable. What I would like us to do: If you think about (or google for) "nest", you will find much more than birds building nests. Insects like bees, hornets and others also do.

So let´s get inspired by their pieces of art. Let´s see what ideas nature gives us. I´m sure, everybody will find a way to find their own interpretation of NEST……My intention is NOT building whatever nest in beads. When you think about what associations we have with the term "nest", it´s not necessary to construct a complete copy of a natural item.

For me structures are important. You cut out a certain detail and transform it into beaded art, the main thing is that everybody will have the association NEST!"

You can read more about the challenge here on the Etsy Beadweavers Blog.


When I was a child I spent a lot of time at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, which has tons of great, hands-on learning activities. One of the permanent displays in the museum at that time was a bee hive inside a cylinder of glass. One end of the cylinder was open to the outside of the building so the bees could come and go.  It was fascinating to watch the bees fly in and out of the hive and move around the honey comb. If you touched the glass in an area where the bees were thickly clustered, it felt warm and cozy.  I wanted to capture this feeling in my challenge piece.

I set out to make open hexagon shapes in warm, golden colors.  The first problem I ran into was that the beads tend to pull into a circle on the hexes on the edge of the bracelet, though I do get nice straight hexagon sides where they border each other.

After a little experimentation, I discovered I could give the edge hexagons a better shape if I added an extra bead at the corners.

So I made a golden honeycomb bracelet.  Now I just needed to choose a clasp.  I went down to the fabric store and found some cute honey bee buttons.  The only problem was that they just didn't quite go with the colors in by bracelet.  This was very sad for me because I really did a good job attaching that bee.

So I made a new bracelet in yellow, white and black colors.  I used black drop-shaped beads in the corners.  I think this is a much better match.

Now I just need to decide what to do with my first bracelet.  I'm thinking about folding it into a three dimensional shape and using it as a pendant (after I take the bee off).  What do you think?

Wordless Wednesday: Rose Hips

Wordless Wednesday: Lone Leaf

Wordless Wednesday: The Last Raspberries

Wordless Wednesday: Looking Up

Wordless Wedensday - Orange!

Wordless Wednesday - Spiderweb in Oaks

Wordless Wednesday: Autumn Flowers

Serendipity

Sometimes little special moments crop up at inconvenient times, when it doesn't fit our schedules to stop and enjoy them.  I had a situation like this last week.  I was running late to my car pool.  I needed to get my kids to the sitter and get going to work.  I had just gotten everyone herded out to the car when my youngest said, "Look, balloons!"

At that moment, I had a choice.  I could say, "That's-nice-now-get-in-the-car."  Some days I do.  This day, I ran back into the house and got a camera.  There were four hot air balloons that appeared to be landing at an airfield near our house.  I took a few moments to enjoy them with my kids and snapped some photos.  Then I stuffed the camera into my purse, and off we went.

Fast forward to the evening, when I finished work.  I work in the center of a large building.  Whether I am at my desk or in the cleanroom, I generally cannot see a window.  This day was not uncommon; I had worked 9 or 10 hours without stopping for breaks or lunch.  When I first step outside into the parking lot, it is such a release to see the outdoors again.  We have a beautiful campus (I really should take more breaks).  I often see some scene that just seems breathtakingly beautiful and think, I wish I had a camera.

Well, this time I did have a camera!  I took some photos of the way the light was slanting across a dry field and through a copse of trees.

If I hadn't stopped to enjoy the balloons with my kids, I wouldn't have had the camera to capture this scene after work.  Two happy moments for the price of one :)

Have you had any moments of serendipity?  I'd love to hear about it.

Down By the River - Summer Nostalgia

Now that summer is over, the kids are back in school and the days are getting shorting, I feel nostalgic.  The summer fun we had only a few weeks ago seems a long way off now.

We took a camping trip a few weeks ago in the Mt. St. Helens area. During the day we played and took in the local sights.  In the evenings, we often took the kids down to different parks along the Toutle River to let them wade and play in the sand.

The kids really enjoyed experimenting with erosion.  OK, I thought it looked like a geology lab.  They thought they were making a cool waterfall by digging cliffs into the sand then pouring water over it.

This is a representation of Mt. St. Helens.  It's creator enthusiastically threw sand up to simulate the big eruption for my photo :)

One evening we saw four river otters swim by us.  I was a little slow with my camera.  I got a great photo of the back of one otter's head and a blurry photo of one floating on his back.  They kind of came out looking like the Loch Ness Monster.

One evening there were hundreds of little frogs.  The kids had a great time catching them.

There is a lot of volcanic ash along the river from the eruption.  One park we visited had a volleyball court and play structure built with ash instead of sand.  I think this piece of play equipment is the best use of ash I have seen.  The kids loved it.

After a few hours by the river we came back to camp for dinner.  After dinner we would sit around the fire and wind down with smores and chat.  Very relaxing!

What are some of your favorite summer memories?

Mt. St. Helens

Last week we went camping with several other families.  The highlight of our trip was a journey to get a close-up view of Mt. St. Helens. From where we were camping, we drove up the north fork of the Toutle River to Johnston Ridge.  I was 12 years old when the big eruption destroyed Mt. St. Helens.  I lived just south of Portland, so we did not get the worst of the effects, but I do remember my older brother's baseball games got canceled due to volcanic ash.  I also remember going on a day trip with parents to see the damage.  We drove for hours through miles of a grey, devistated, dead landscape.

This bridge is at the edge of the blast zone.  As you can see, the trees in the area have really grown a lot in 32 years.  This land is owned by Weyerhaeuser, and they replanted the area with noble fir.  The National Volcanic Monument has not been replanted.  Instead, life is being allowed to come back naturally, under close observation by scientists.

We drove all the way up Spirit Lake Memorial Highway to Johnston Ridge Observatory, which is located less than 5 miles from the volcano.  This is as close as you can go without a special permit.  The Observatory is named after David Johnston, the volcanologist who died on duty when the big eruption hit.

The big eruption took place in several quick stages.  First, the top and north flank of the mountain slid down and slammed into Spirit Lake and Johnston Ridge.  The landslide scoured the ridge down to bare stone, then was deflected into the Toutle River valley.  This was the biggest landslide in recorded history.  The water in Spirit Lake was completely displaced, then washed back to settle on top of the landslide, 200 ft higher than it had been before.  Many new lakes were formed by the landslide, including Castle Lake, which you can see in the distance in this picture.

 As soon as the mountain fell, the pressure on all the heated water inside it was released, creating a giant steam explosion called the lateral blast.  The lateral blast was fast, hot and deadly.  It hit Johnston Ridge in about 40 seconds.  The area between the ridge and the volcano used to be old growth Douglas Fir forest.  The lateral blast shattered the trees to splinters.  This photo shows the stump of a shattered tree.

By the time the blast hit the ridge, the largest rocks had dropped out of the blast cloud.  Beyond the ridge, the remaining small rocks knocked over all the trees less than 8 ft in diameter.  Eventually the small rocks dropped out, but the hot gasses continued to expand out, killing another section of forest where it stood.  In the picture below, the trees on upper part of the ridge in the foreground were knocked over.  Behind that, in the background, is another more distant ridge where the trees were killed in place.

After the lateral blast, pyroclastic flows of gassy lava poured out of the volcano.  Mudflows filled the Toutle River and blocked shipping in the Columbia River.  And, of course, ash poured out of the volcano.

What's amazing to me is to see how much life has returned.  In May of 1980, there was still a lot of snow on the ground at this elevation (4400 ft).  The hot lateral blast passed through so quickly that small mammals and trees hidden under the snow survived.  I was surpised to learn from the park ranger that silver fir were big survivors of the eruption.  In the old growth forest, small silver fir would lurk near the forest floor waiting for a Douglas fir to die.  As soon as a path to the light opened up, they would shoot for the sky.  Lots of silver fir survived and are now quickly growing up.

One of the areas that is most resistant to the return of plant life are the pyroclastic flows near the volcano.  The new soil is very nutrient poor.  One plant is making great inroads, though.  Lupine, a relative of the pea that does well at high altitudes, is one of the first plants to move in.  It is able to add nutrients to the soil, so more plants will soon follow.

Mt. St. Helens has continued to erupt since 1980.  The more recent eruptions have built a dome of lava in the crater.  In the close up picture, you can see the glacier that has formed on either side of the lava.  Even though the lava looks like it is steaming, the surface is not hot right now.  The steam is caused by gasses escaping from the volcano.

 The more recent eruptions can still pack a bit of a punch, though, as you can see in this picture.  The twisting piece of metal is a scientific monitoring instrument that got caught in a steam blast.

Visiting Mt. St. Helens really brings home just how fragile life is.  Yet at the same time, life is incredibly resilient.  Even Spirit Lake, which was totally dead and full of mud and ash and dead trees after the eruption, is now thriving with life.  The grey, lifeless hills that I remember right after the blast are now covered with trees and meadows.  Elk, deer and coyote have moved back into the area.

How about you?  Do you know of an inspirational place or story that brings home just how precious life is?
(And, for those of you who made it to the end of this very long post, thanks for hanging in there with me!)

Waterfall Bracelet

Some of you have followed this project, which started with a day trip to the Columbia River Gorge, then progressed as I continued beading at home.  Now have have finished the project:

I lengthened it into a bracelet and embellishing it with freshwater pearls, labradorite, and peridot.  I used labradorite and peridot chips for a more natural feel.  I used freshwater pearls with a little bit of texture to the surface for the same reason. I made the clasp out of a lampwork bead in my stash that reminds me of a waterfall:

Thank you all for your encouragement!

Waterfall Inspiration

Several days ago I took a day trip to the Columbia River Gorge with my beading. I shared my travels with all of you, but I never showed you what I made when I was sitting by Horsetail Falls.

 While I was watching and listening to the water thunder down into the pool, I became very interested in the look of the plant life growing on the basalt cliff face.  I liked the texture of the basalt, the line of the water, and in between, trailing along the edge of the falling water, the wildflowers and moss.

I decided I wanted to make something that would capture the way the cliff, the plants and the water all looked together.  The first thing I did was put together some color mixtures.  I had brought at least 12 boxes of beads with 20 colors each to choose from.  Here are my grays and greens.  I was sure to include lots of cube-shaped beads in my grays to mirror the basalt formations in the cliff (maybe I will write a post about basalt sometime - it's very interesting).

Then I was stumped for a while.  How was I going to portray a waterfall?  I had just finished a big project - a necklace inspired by the ocean.  I wanted something a little smaller and simpler this time.  After some mental debate, I decided I wouldn't worry about what my creation would be used for.  I just concentrated on the waterfall and beaded.  Here's how far I got before my legs fell asleep (I was sitting on big fallen rocks at the edge of the pool).

The next day I filled in a little more and added white for the water:

Now that my beading was looking more finished, I once again started wondering what I should make it into. It's really too long to be an earring (although waterfall-inspired waterfall earrings had a certain appeal). Necklaces are really my "go to" comfort-zone type of jewelry, but it felt awkward to try to make this piece into a necklace.  I finally decided that it would be easy to lengthen the random netting and make the piece into a bracelet.  I'm also thinking of adding some semi-precious embellishments, like fresh water pearls in the white (water), peridot in the green (plants) and my favorite stone, labradorite, in the grey (cliff).

What do you think?  Is bracelet a good choice?

Beading in the Columbia River Gorge

Yesterday I found myself with an unexpected windfall - a whole day of freedom.  My kids went to visit the grandparents and my husband had to work.  Don't get me wrong - I love their company!  It's just that I don't often get to decide how to spend my time by myself, without input from others.  After some debate with myself, I decided to go out to the Columbia River Gorge, which is about an hour from my house to find a scenic spot to do some beading.

The morning was overcast, but warm and dry.  I always feel excited as I enter the Gorge and the cliffs and bluffs come into view.  The Gorge is a huge place.  I decided to take the Historic Columbia River Highway until I found "a good spot".  This highway is beautifully constructed and passes many major waterfalls.  Here are some images of the highway:

The first few waterfalls I passed were impossibly crowded.  Bridal Veil Falls was closed for a wedding.  Wahkeena Falls and Multnomah Falls had absolutely no parking available.  In fact, it was a bit of a traffic jam to get past them.  But the next stopping point was Oneonta Gorge.  I knew it would not be a great place for beading, but it is a really magical place, so I stopped.


I love this place - the tall cliffs covered with mosses, lichens, ferns and wild flowers are amazing.  I was really tempted to get my beading stuff and sit on that log by the stream, but I wasn't ready to settle down yet.

I had been following the trail on the west side of the gorge.  It petered out, so to keep going, I needed to cross the stream.  Unfortunately, I didn't plan ahead for this, and I wasn't exactly wearing water shoes:

Fortunately I made it across without getting wet.  It was a lot of fun to step across from stone to stone.  Once on the other side, I was able to continue down to a big log jam where the gorge narrows dramatically.  It was so worth it!

My next stop was Horsetail Falls.  I love the shape of this waterfall.  It isn't the tallest or the grandest in the Columbia River Gorge, but it sure is beautiful.  I brought my beading stuff down to the edge of the pool and sat down to do the beading.


I spent a couple of hours sitting at the edge of the pool and beading.  People came and went.  One fellow went swimming in the pool.  Most people only go wading because the water is very, very cold.  In the summer streams like this are mostly melted snow and ice running down from the Cascade Mountains.  This fellow was looking for crawdads.  He would catch them, admire them, and then release them.  His dad let me take a picture of one of the bigger crawdads they found.


Eventually my legs fell asleep, sitting on the big rocks at the pool.  It was time to move on.  The sun had come out while I was beading, so I decided to just enjoy the day for a while.

How about you?  What would you do with a day of unexpected freedom?  What places do you find inspiring?