So as you can see a few flowers have started to come up and everything is in slow motion. One day it’s warm and then winter is back with cold , cold temps. We have had an unusual winter here in Arizona. I am happy we have gotten more rain. some places up north are getting a lot of snow. I prefer rain. Hey, but where we live even if it snows it only stays for a day. So today I thought I would work on this blog. I get so busy with so many things like beading and leather work that I don’t write. This is my attempt to blog again. We will see how it goes. Gardening is coming up very soon and that will take my afternoon and evenings. We are looking so forward to spring and all the beautiful flowers.
Daffodils and Iris flowers
Chives are coming up
Parsley from last year and mystery plants
River checking things out after a major wind storm
A lot of beaded medicine bags we made this week.
I do container gardening because at my age it’s so much easier on my back, knees and all around everything. I don’t have to deal with grass , gophers, moles, and weeds. Especially gophers and moles. They just move peacefully on when they can’t get into my buckets.
Today I am going to start on a beaded turtle for a pipe bag.
We make a variety of medicine bags for our customers. This is a few of the beaded ones we have. We also have many other colors, sizes and designs. We are a made to order shop so get your orders in in plenty of time.
The beginning of a work in progress beaded Thunderbird bag.
Beaded Thunderbird by Thunder Rose Leather
This is the beginning of a work in progress beaded medicine pouch. I just finished this and love the way it turned out. It’s going to look cool on the saddle tan leather bag I make. I will show that finished work later on.
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Another beaded favorite that I finished up is this beaded medicine bag that is ready to ship on our website.
This small necklace amulet bag is beaded directly to the leather. You can find it on our website thunderroseleather.com
New ready to ship bags. These leather pouches are ready to ship. We have some fringed, some with burned animal totems and beaded pouches . Each is unique in it’s own way.
I created a different beaded rosette this week and love the way it turned out. First I got all the beads and stones I wanted to use . As you can see I started off with a simple yet elegant turquoise stone cabochon. Around the turquoise I added some glass fire polish beads in a turquoise green color that went with the turquoise cab. From there it was some of my favorite colors of glass seed beads that I thought would look real pretty in this colorful sunflower.
Once I had the rosette done I decided what color of leather this beaded rosette would look good on.
We have a variety of hides in the shop so I take the beaded rosette off to the leather shelf and start pulling hides down. This time I picked a wonderful mahogany color hide. It is one of my favorite colors. It reminds me of the red rocks in Sedona.
Now it’s time to decide what kind of bag do I want to make. This time I decided to do one of our favorites which is a simple fringed handbag. It’s great for a phone and a few other items. It’s also a great place to keep a special journal.
We cut out the bag, lace it up and now it’s time for the beaded rosette to be added. I glue it down then I sew it down. Then I lace around the rosette giving it a beautiful extra dimension. As you can see in the picture.
The last time I did a blog post I shared my latest beaded turtle bag that I did with the abalone cabochon. At the end of my post I showed you what I was working on. It was a beaded green turtle that I added to a forest green leather crossbody bag. It is ready to ship in our Etsy shop.
This crossbody leather bag is a fun size for traveling light. I like this style for the times when you only need a few things a phone , camera, keys and small journal. Lets say you are going to the beach or the creek to sit and meditate and you really don’t want to carry a lot of stuff. That’s what I’m talking about.This is that bag. It would also make a great festival bag.
This fringed leather bag measures 8.5 inches tall and 7.5 inches wide not including the fringe. It has a 48 inch strap length.
This small purple medicine bag measures 6 inches tall x 5 inches wide. It has a double drawstring closure and a beaded dragonfly on the front of the bag. For all of you who have dragonflies as your medicine totem or if you really love dragonflies this is the bag for you.
I can also see this really making a little girls day!
Our ready to ship section has a variety of different items that are always changing. So come by and see if there is something there you might like.
Most of our leather bags and purses are made to order and Christmas is around the corner so come by and get your orders in now.
We also make a very wide variety of handmade , hand stitched leather bags , baby and children’s moccasins in all kinds of styles and sizes.
This bag started on day when I received some abalone cabs and was looking at them.I was stunned at the beauty and thought about what would be the perfect rosette for this. My mind went right to a sea turtle. It was very fitting. Everyone who knows me knows how much I love beading turtles. Turtles really mean something to me. I feel I have learned from them in this lifetime. For one they are so ancient and represent Mother Earth who I love dearly. Their wisdom teaches to slow down and be in the moment and enjoy life. For me when it’s time to go inside and be quiet then do so. Be still and go within calming the mind and refreshing your energy. In water they can move fast and gracefully. So the wisdom in life for me is when life is moving fast and intensely be sure to breath and move mindfully through life’s intensities. If you get off track come back and start again from where you are.
I looked at this beautiful abalone cabochon and picked out the beads I thought would look best with it. So this is the turtle.
Beaded turtle totem with abalone cabochon
Once the turtle was finished it was time to make a choice on what color of leather would bring out the abalone. I looked at some smoke leather, chocolate leather , green leather and then the burgundy leather came in. WOWZA! It was perfect ! It totally brings out the colors in the abalone cab.
This burgundy leather bag is ready to ship in our Etsy shop.
I decided on this style bag because in the meantime between making the turtle and the leather purse I had another inspiration flow though me.
So many of us love to journal these days in different ways. Some of us like to sort out our minds this way , some like gratitude journals , dream journals, you get the drift. I have enjoyed journaling mostly by writing a prayer , poem , inspiring thought and gratitude thoughts. I love coloring in mine . It’s fun and makes the journal pretty.
My inspiration is it would be great to have a very special bag to keep a small purse size mini journal in for when you go for a hike or want to sit by the creek , ocean , river or sit in your yard like me and watch the birds.
I needed a bag that would also be big enough for your cell phone and keys.
This is the kind of mini journal I am thinking of. My friend Carola Bartz makes and sells these in her Etsy store
It’s Wednesday evening and I have been brainstorming all day on how to best share friends. I came to the same conclusion I did a long time ago. Brainstorming? Yes…..I came to find out that I have always thought that the best way for me to share my friends art is by blogging and social media. I really love to blog others. Just makes my heart sing . Art is my passion helping and being kind and compassionate is my life goal . This and family love is all what makes life worth living. So tonight I am going to reciprocate the love by making a treasury for my dear friends who support John and I through social media and treasuries. There are so many of you but 16 is all I can fit in the treasury!
A big shout out and thank you to all of you who share our shop on social media and include me in your treasuries. It means a lot to us. Peace and Love! Debbie
Good morning friends! It’s Monday again . Today I would like to show you a very special clutch I made last week. It was a process like all of our bags. The bead work on this one was fun and I love the way the orange sunflower turned out. The turquoise background really makes the beaded flower stand out. I love beading! Anyway here is the clutch…..
This white leather clutch with a beaded sunflower and long fringe front and back measures 4 inches tall , 7 inches wide and 1.5 inches deep. The leather is soft and strong . This leather clutch purse is decorated with turquoise blue glass crow beads and the closure is a leather tie that wraps around the clutch. This is a one pocket bag and fits a phone and a few other things it just depends on what your needs are.
This was a really fun clutch to make from start to finish.
Come by our Etsy shop and take a look . If you would like this clutch in a different size , color or even a different bead work please feel free to ask.
We do custom work ! Making something special just for you!
I have been working on this project and decided to take pictures along the way. We got a new camera and it is fun and very helpful. I even shot my first video this week. That was all about my garden I will do a blog about that later and stay focused this morning on the beaded bag project I did.
I must say I love my shop my big desk , my sewing machine that John just fixed up for me. We have one in the big shop and now I have one in my little bead shop. I do bead work and small projects in here and big , large leather projects in the big shop. Just for fun take a look. So here you are seeing my machine that is used for very small medicine bags. Most of our bags are stitched by hand as you will see in the pictures below. Next to the singer sewing machine is my bead desk. I have my special medicine bear and hummingbird Kachina that my friend John carved for me while he was staying with us. He carved the bear out of a rock and the Kachina out of wood. He is Hopi Tewa and a great friend and awesome artist. Big thank you to John!
Singer sewing machine
My desk
The bead work you see is the one I made for this custom leather crossbody bag. First, lets take a look at a couple work in progress pictures.
So there you have it. It is a journey from one end to the other in this little shop. Of course all the cutting happens on the big leather table in the big shop. Here is a picture.
We have been doing all this for over 25 years now. It has been an awesome part of our journey.
When I started this blog post I was just going to share this leather crossbody bag I made this week. It evolved into a little more. Hope you enjoyed the journey. Isn’t that what life is all about.
thunderrose 