What I Have Been Doing When I Have Not Been Blogging, Part 2

I embellished another Hope Stone. This is my June BJP. Hope Stones are given to Survivors at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Survivors are encouraged to keep them as long as they need the extra hope and then to pass them on to another cancer survivor who needs some extra Hope. You can see some of the other Hope Stones I've embellished here.

Like the other Hope Stones, this is mounted on Lacy's Stiff Stuff and backed with UltraSuede. I used a peyote stitch bezel, not my usual method. Instead of lots of fringe, I made starburst sort of things around the outer edges. I'm sure there's a name for them. There are Swarovski crystals on the tips.

My May BJP was also a Hope Stone. I neglected to photograph it. It was given as a door prize to a Survivor at the 2013 Holland-Zeeland Relay for Life.

This is the fourth year I have served on the Planning Committee for our Relay. It's an important project for me because the American Cancer Society is the largest funder of cancer research other than the US government. I want my children, my grandsons, my nieces and nephews, and my great-nieces (and everyone elses!) to have a future without cancer.

I studied more German. Important question:

Wie viel kostet das?

Hope Stone for a Friend of a Friend

It's a question of priorities.

Hope is a priority. Sharing hope with someone who needs it is a priority. As a cancer survivor who can still remember days with not quite enough hope, I find that sharing hope with others facing cancer is a priority with me.

This Hope Stone is for a friend of a friend. I don't know my friend's friend, and I don't need to. All I need to know is that she is facing cancer and that she may have times when she may not be able to summon up enough hope within herself. So I will send her this Hope Stone to let her know that there are many of us standing with her and supporting her spirit as she undergoes treatment.

Glass stones with the word "Hope" etched on the top are given to survivors at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. When they are ready, survivors are encouraged to share their Hope Stone with someone else facing cancer. I mounted this Hope Stone and embellished it with extra wishes, hopes, dreams, and prayers in the form of beads and stitches.

You can see some of the other Hope Stones I've embellished here.

And the priority--Embellishing this Hope Stone was more important to me than completing my February BJP on time. If you have a problem with that, DO NOT let me know!

Today I'm celebrating 11 years as a cancer survivor. I need to find some chocolate.

Brown Hope Stone

This brown Hope Stone was a very unusual color. I don't often think of brown when I think of hope. I mean, who's favorite color is brown? But then again, when everything seems brown a person may need hope the most.

Hope Stones are given to cancer survivors at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. When the survivor is ready, he or she can pass the stone on to someone else living with cancer who needs hope.

It was a challenge to find beads that would enhance the brown color and make the stone as beautiful as the thoughts that go with it. I don't even know what color to call the beads I used to embellish the stone. Bronze? Kinda...

In the end, I was quite pleased with the way this Hope Stone turned out. You can see the other Hope Stones I've embellished here.

I'm not sure where this Hope Stone will end up. If you have cancer and need hope, let me know.

Endless Hope

This Hope Stone was made in response to a special request from my niece. It's for someone I haven't met. But I can still send hope and good wishes. There is no end to the hope a person can send.

Hope Stones are given to survivors at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. Whenever he or she is ready, the survivor is invited to pass the stone on to another person with cancer--to share the hope for the future. By embellishing the Hope Stone with beads, I add my own special wishes. If you look closely, you can see the word HOPE on the front of the stone.

You can see the other Hope Stones I've embellished here

Emerald Hope Stone

If you look carefully, you might be able to see the word HOPE etched on this stone. Hope Stones are given to cancer survivors at our local American Cancer Society Relay for Life.

The stones are intended to give a survivor hope when he or she needs it. Survivors are encouraged to pass along a Hope Stone when there is someone with cancer who needs this physical symbol of hope.

This stone is emerald green glass. I mounted it on Lacy's Stiff Stuff, backed it with UltraSuede, and added the edging, fringe and ribbon for hanging. I donated it to our Relay for Life to be used as a door prize at the dinner for survivors. I wanted to give someone some extra hope.

You can see some of my other Hope Stones here.

How Much Is The Purple Hope Stone Worth?

I made a purple Hope Stone for the American Cancer Society's Cattle Baron's Ball.

It's purple because the ACS color of survivorship is purple. Ok, it doesn't look purple. It looks blue, doesn't it? I assure you, however, that this Hope Stone is purple. I fiddled and fiddled with the color of the photo, but I couldn't get a good representation of the purple. So even if you can't see purple, think purple!

In our area, Hope Stones are given to survivors at the end of the Survivors' Victory Lap at the Relay for Life. Survivors are encouraged (whenever they are ready) to pass the stone and the hope along to someone else who needs an extra boost of hope in dealing with cancer.

The stone is about 1.75 inches high. It is mounted on a piece of Lacy's Stiff Stuff that I painted with violet Dye-na-Flow and backed with UltraSuede. The beaded fringe was added last.

If you want to see my other Hope Stones, you can look here.

The American Cancer Society representative asked me the value of the Hope Stone. How do I answer that question?

The cost of the materials? I already had a bunch of purple beads, the UltraSuede, the Stiff Stuff, the thread, and the Dye-na-Flow. I did buy some beads, but I have plenty of them left over.

The cost of my time? I'm retired. I beaded most of this piece while on vacation, sitting on a porch listening to the sounds of a lake.

The price at a retail shop? Oh, puh-leese! I don't sell hope! Hope is to be shared, to be given away, to be presented generously to anyone who needs it.

I understand that the ACS needs to keep track of the value of contributions, but it was very, very hard to determine how to set the value of the Purple Hope Stone.

How would you value this stone? I'd like some ideas so I can have a better answer next time.

The Red Hope Stone

This is the red Hope Stone I made for the mother of a friend. Hope stones are given to survivors at the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. The stones are plain, with the word "Hope" engraved on them. I add mount them and add fringe. The stone is backed with ultrasuede.


I also made a little storage bag for this stone. It's edged with gold seed beads in the picot stitch.


I'm sending lots of hope and good wishes to my friend's mom as she undergoes treatment.

You can see a couple of the other Hope Stones I made here. I've made two or three more that I did not photograph.

Even More Hope!

I made another Hope Stone. This one, the fourth or fifth I've made, was for the door prize drawing for survivors at our local Relay for Life.

Glass stones with "HOPE" inscribed are given at the end of the Survivors' Victory Lap at the Relay for Life. The idea is that one survivor can pass the stone on to another person who is in special need of hope. I think that most cancer survivors will agree that immediately after diagnosis and during active treatment, any extra hope is welcome.

You'll have to look hard to find the word "HOPE" on this stone, but it's there. The stone is mounted on Lacy's Stiff Stuff that I painted with Dye-na-Flow. Since the stone is translucent, I didn't want to use glue. I stitch back and forth across the stone to temporarily hold it to the backing. Then I attach the beads to the backing to bezel the stone on.

The method for bezelling (Is that a word?) the stone on has varied from item to item, mostly because I never remember how I did it before. It's pretty much reinventing the wheel. Our library has a couple of books that show how to attach the stones, but they never seem to be in when I'm ready to use them. One is Beading with Cabochons by Jamie Cloud Eakin and the other is Beading on Fabric by Larkin Van Horn. The two authors use different methods, so I figure that gives me the opportunity to invent my own.

One issue with these Hope Stones is that they are relatively thick with a somewhat straight edge. That needs to be taken into account when attaching them to the backing.

I then attach an ultrasuede backing with a picot stitch and add fringe at the bottom. I used to find keeping my fringe symmetrical a fussy task. Then I invented a way to keep the beads organized. I got a piece of cardboard--like a cereal box--and cut it about 5" by 8". Then I made elongated "donuts" of masking tape* and stuck them on the cardboard. Voila! A 5" by 8" piece of sticky stuff. I found that I could lay out rows of beads for each fringe, and they wouldn't move around. I could put the whole thing in a plastic bag and press the bag onto the tape, and the beads would stay in place if I had to stop before finishing.

I'm working on another Hope Stone now for the mother of a friend. If you want to see the second one I made, look here.

*If you don't know what masking tape donuts are, ask someone who taught school before there was poster putty.

Finished Hope Stone

Here is the finished Hope Stone. I'll send it off this week.

Hope Stone

Glass stones with HOPE inscribed on the top are given to survivors at the Relay for Life. Survivors are invited to pass the stones along to someone else affected by cancer to share the hope. I am embellishing the stone to add more good wishes before I send it to a friend of my daughter.

It is mounted on stiff interfacing that I painted to match the stone. To hold the stone on the backing while I stitched the beads on, I stitched it temporarily to the interfacing by crisscrossing it with thread–stitching from one side to another. First the row of large (6/0) beads was stitched to the interfacing. Then I added one row of 11/0 transparent aqua beads. The next step was to build the spokes that go up toward the center of the bead. Finally, I added the tiny 15/0 gold beads. I ran the thread through the gold beads several times so the stone (cabochon) would be held firm to the interfacing.

I glued some aqua Ultrasuede to the back to cover the previous stitching. I had to get over my glue with beads aversion in order to do this. Then I stitched the Ultrasuede to the interfacing using a beaded picot stitch.

Now I’m adding some fringe to the bottom. I sure wish I could remember how I added fringe to the one I made last year. I’m pretty sure I didn’t do it the way I am doing this one. It’s about half done, but I won’t be able to post the next photo till next week.

A great reference book for this sort of thing is Beading With Cabochons by Jamie Cloud Eakin.