Paris Again

Bead Street Store Progress:  Although all the seed beads have been organized, when the truck arrived, the Czech glass boxes were unfortunately all placed on top of the seed beads.  Since there are no other tables to move this stuff to, the glass will have to be organized on the slat walls.  I would like to say it will take a few days to do this - particularly since it came down in an afternoon.  However, my guess is it will take at least a week before the seed beads see the light of day.  I will keep you informed on the progress.


Now back to Paris.  After our French Onion Soup lunch (still Day 1),  Barb and I headed to Ile' Saint-Louis - the second island in the River Seine - across from the Notre Dame.  No real sight seeing sites but it is home to the best sorbet in Paris.  Reason enough for Barb and I to go. 

Paris neighborhoods are all very different.  The Ile' Saint-Louis had fewer tourists, and was a very classy, quiet area.  The boutiques on the pricier side,  but they had very beautiful items to look at.  A lot of 'soutache' jewelry - as seen on the cover of Bead and Button magazine.  But these pieces were more refined, smaller in scale and absolutely beautiful.  Barb and I are now on the lookout for soutache cord to try our own version. 

Ladder stitched bracelets very popular here as well
 but Parisians like the single wraps better,
 then they stack a dozen of these on their arm.

Not quite the same look as the Parisians - but works for me

From the Ile' Saint-Louis, we ventured west, thru the south side of the Marais, and made our way to the famous Hotel de Ville.  This is the Les Halles area and a lot of people - both tourists and locals partly because the George Pompidou Centre is two blocks north, and the Louvre and Grand Palais just to the southwest.  A large metropolitan downtown area with lots of department stores and lots of traffic and there was yet another tent being assembled for  another fashion show.

Hotel de Ville, now is the Paris City Hall and houses
108 statutes of famous Parisians
plus 30 more representing french cities. 
 Free tours but they are booked out a week.

We went south, back across the River Seine on Rue Dauphine.  The Saint Germain shopping area and more beautiful shops with fabulous items.  We found one little shop that had some crocheted jewelry that was to die for.  Think fine crochet that looks similar to  your Grandmother's doilys in miniature, using Nymo thread with size 15 seed beads added here and there.  I have no idea how this gal did this.

Since it started to rain, and we were without umbrellas, we headed back.   Through the Sorbonne area, by the Pantheon - we got our first look at the Eiffel Tower. 

Barb looks pretty miserable. 
And later we found two umbrellas at the apartment
that the owner had graciously left for us. 
Tomorrow we will check the weather before we venture out.
Districts covered today 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Macrame and Leather Wrap Bracelet

When I was young, my Grandmother  taught me how to tie knots in cords to make jewelry.  I can’t remember whether we were doing macrame or just something similar.    We’d put our feet up against the coffee table in the living room, 'safety pin' the ends of cords to our pants - somewhere around the tops of our knees and spend hours weaving cords over and under, back and forth around a shoe lace.

This Macrame and Ladder Wrap bracelet is reminiscent of those projects.  A lot prettier here - because of the gorgeous colors of C-Lon Macrame Cord - but very similar to what we did in the 1950's. 



Beads are Czech 4mm fire polish and freshwater pearls.




A vintage button for a closure



2mm leather cord

Four colors of C-Lon Macrame' cord.

If you would like to try this project, now is the time.  All of the materials, except for the leather, are on sale right now at Bead Street.   Click on Videos on the top navigation bar to see a how-to on making a ladder stitch bracelet if you are unfamiliar with this technique.  Add macrame' knots in between each group of beads to create your own version.