Bike Rides and Thigh Highs

Nearly 70 degrees and it's almost December? Don't mind if I do.  This morning I left the house sweaterless and pantless ... well, I wore bike shorts and thigh highs.  Absolutely foolproof, I wasn't even cold and discounted any curious glances.  I took a casual ride through midtown (that's sarcasm by the way) to stock up on all kinds of goodies from my favorite bead store BeadsWorld - where I refrained as best I could from buying things I didn't need.  You could not imagine the will power involved when put infront of an entire store neatly packaged and color coordinated.  I am thinking about a few things:

- bead embellishments

- bead crocheted bracelets

- a necklace for myself. 

I recently got a haircut and collected a handful of images of 1960's babes to give my hairdresser a reference point.  Many images were the classic black and white photographs of chicks with their hair in a perfect bouffant or silky flouncing waves, but I was especially drawn to the color photographs.  Perhaps it is my affinity for everything mustard yellow, but many of the color photos have this great warm/yellowish tint to them.  It's kind of like the camera has a filter that affects colors the way brown tinted sunglasses do.  I don't know about you, but when I put on brown sunglasses the entire world around me is amplified with brown sunglass filter, it is warmer, yellower and best of all, I look tanner.  I may also be attracted to the vintage photograph/brown sunglass filter because that hue of color has influenced many of my color choices.  So, I'm looking at all these images from the '60s and came across these incredible archives of photos.   

These images were particularly inspiring:
  

I love the contrast of wood beads with metal chain.  It is the classic cliche art school juxtaposition(so over that word) of natural and man made.  I will be exchanging wood beads for felted beads and chain something I have not yet worked with for my personal pieces.

There is not much to say except that her necklace is absolutely out of control.  I love the texture and the layers, and the whole necklace meets collar meets body art adornment.  For a while I have been flirting with the idea of putting my sewing skills back to work and creating simple garments to accent my neckpieces.  Perhaps this is my kick in the butt? Maybe, maybe not but it most certainly gives me something to think about.