Dutch Spiral Version 2

I loved doing the dutch spiral so much that as soon as I had completed Safari, I tried another version. I'm quite into beadwork on neckwire's
at the moment so I made a shorter version using purple, grey and white ab seed beads and accented it with a silver crystal shadow square ring. I love it but if I'm honest, it doesn't
really suit me so this will probably be going in my present bag. I have a nice collection of beaded items all ready made up stored in a nice gift bag that I dip into for birthday presents.

I haven't blogged much the last few weeks as I have been pretty busy, going away, searching for holidays online & various other things. I haven't done a lot of beading either as I have been reading instead. I read a great book called PopCo by Scarlett Thomas, it was a really interesting read and quite fun too, I have another of hers to read which I am looking forward too, The End of Mr Y.

Safari Dutch Spiral Necklace

I have never taken much notice of the Dutch Spiral Stitch but after seeing Belinda's amazing Necklace Symphonie de Tulipes I really wanted to try it out. I also decided to break out of my usual colour combinations and was inspired to use this scheme of greens and oranges after taking this photo at Longleat Safari Park last week. I used 2 colours of green size 8's, Topaz 4mm crystals and orange size 15's. I graduated the size of the loops towards the front. I will be making something else with this stitch, there are so many possibilities! Thank you to Belinda for introducing me to it!

Link to Belinda's amazing necklace -> http://beadfetish.blogspot.com/2009/04/symphonie-de-tulipes.html

Some links to free projects.

My beading mojo seems to be taking an Easter break this weekend, I have started a few projects but nothing looked good, what with that & running out of beads for my green & magenta flower necklace and this peyote tube necklace, I felt the need to trawl the net for some inspiration. I found a lot of free projects,some I had seen before and some new to me. Since I don't have a new project to share, I thought I would share some of the projects that I have added to my beading to do list instead.

Beadalon Free Projects

http://www.beadalon.com/designworkshop.asp

There are lots of great free designs on this website, but these are the ones I think I will actually make;

http://www.beadalon.com/argyle.asp A necklace featuring beaded cube beads, designed by Nicole Schlinger

http://www.beadalon.com/daggers.asp Another necklace by Nicole Schlinger, this one has 2 drop triangles as the main element & looks really fun to make & wear.

http://www.beadalon.com/sparkleflower.asp A departure for me, these wirework earrings by Meredith Roddy caught my eye when they were featured in magazine adverts a while ago.

Beaded Bead Projects

I love beaded beads. The 1st ones I ever made were the spinning top beads from Florence & Gwen at Bead Infinitum and I still make them, they are quick, easy & extremely versatile. If I am stuck for a special last minute gift idea, I invariably use some swarovski crystal pearls for a few of these and then string them with more pearls and 4mm crystal bicones for a bit of sparkle. unfortunately I don't have any pics as they are usually out of the door as soon as I make them. I really must make one for myself.

Bead Infinitum's Spinning Top http://www.beadinfinitum.com/Kits/SpinningTopInstructions.pdf

I found a few other links to some beaded beads that I would like to try as well;

Janie Warnick's Versatile Bead

http://www.angelfire.com/tx3/janiesbeads/versatile.html

Cathy Lampole Perla Perle Beaded Beads

http://cathysbeadwork.blogspot.com/search/label/directions

I hope you enjoy the links, I'm off to gather supplies for the dagger necklace.

Mardi Gras Bracelet.

Like many of you I'm sure, I have a large collection of beads leftover from other projects. They have been staring at me reproachfully every time I open my bead box. Last week I came across a large packet of headpins and decided to do something about them. I made a lot of wrapped loop dangles and threaded them onto the beading wire in colour groups with some large green firepolish beads to create some resting places for the eyes. I wore it today to Easter lunch with my family, it is fun to wear and great to know that I have made something pretty with leftovers.

Fringe Bracelet

I seem to have a bit of a crush on the purple/pink colour combination, shock horror, how girly! Could I finally be getting over the brown & turquoise that is usually my staple? This bracelet is made with the fringe technique & delicas & drop pearls. Another quick & easy project to appease my instant gratification demands!

Simplicity Ring

The easiest ring ever! A peyote band with a swarovski square pendant attached. This just took an hour or so while watching tv. The turquoise seeds are miyuki 11's and the square is bermuda blue. I am looking forward to wearing it, I love big rings!

Taking shape.

A 2nd photo of this piece, I bezelled 7 8mm swarovski pearls, attached them on to brick stitch triangles and sewed the triangles to form a flower shape. It was a fairly labour intensive task, I'm quite proud of myself as I have recently become fairly lazy & focused on instant gratification projects in my beading. I am hoping to change that though as I would like to improve my skills and take a step up. I am hoping that committing to this multi-component piece will help me move towards that goal. I have hit a stop at the moment as the green 11's which I bought to make a rope really don't look good with the green in the flower and I only noticed in natural light at home. I have to buy more of the delica's and that way I'll be sure that the base of the necklace and the other bits work well together. In the meantime I am back to the instant gratification projects!

Red & Silver Bracelet

This herringbone variation bracelet was in Beadwork magazine a while ago. It was a lot of fun to make, it's a very lightweight bracelet. I would like to make another in some richer looking colours.