Peyote

I remember hearing murmurs, back in the days of my youth, that someone "was doing peyote".  Well, the peyote that they were doing was certainly different from the peyote that I am doing.  The peyote they were whispering about is a cactus that has hallucinogenic properties and has been used for years in religious ceremonies of various "indigenous people" of America  (for those less politically correct...American Indians).  During these ceremonies bead covered gourds are used and over the years the beading technique used for this decoration came to be known as peyote stitch, or gourd stitch.

I have a fairly ample supply of seed beads that were a gift from a very lovely gal some years back.  I have used these beads in jewelry making, as well as bead embroidery and even mosaic work.  They are so pretty, sitting there in their little plastic tubes and I love how colorful they are.  Over the years, as my cataracts gradually began affecting my sight, I stopped using my seed beads.  As many of you know, I had my cataracts removed so I am now delving back into my stash of tiny beads.  With the help of various types of magnifiers I am attempting to relearn peyote stitch.

Just to get back in the groove, I started out with larger sized beads.  Using various colors of size 8 seed beads, I whipped up this little color block bracelet. 

I fashioned a button and loop closure for the bracelet and added some larger glass beads for fringe, as well as weight.

Now I'll tackle peyote using much smaller beads and see what I come up with.  I purchased this magazine

 at Books-A-Million this week and it has fun projects in it.  I also have a very nice loom that another sweetheart of a gal got for me, and the projects that you can make on a loom with the tiny beads are really nice.

When not reading or beading, I've been crocheting a shawl, and I've done this much so far...

At first I thought it was finished, but when I tried it on I realized that it was too thick to be a scarf, but too narrow to be a shawl... so back to the hooks for me.  I'm currently adding a triangular shaped piece to the back to make it more shawl like.  I'll keep you posted on that.

Hope everyone is having a nice September and if you're like me, you are waiting in anticipation for Autumn.  I love Fall and everything that goes with it.  Sweater weather is what we called it when I was younger and it's not here yet, but almost.

Well, children, that's it for now, but take care and remember to stay creative. xoxo