Kaliedescope

Here is a new multi-stitch necklace that I finished this weekend. I wear a lot of purple and teals so I wanted a necklace that would work with both colours. I used a variety of stitches, including dutch spiral, circular peyote and spiral rope. It was a lot of fun to make the components and then decide how to piece them together to create the necklace.

Copper Rose Pendant.

I love Eastern art and architecture and was influenced by these when I was designing this pendant. I chose the pink to remind me of cherry blossoms and added copper.

Calypso Flowers

I wanted to try a totally different colour scheme for this piece. I used swarovski crystals in Caribbean opal and lime and a pumpkin orange delicas. The pattern is a favourite motif from Suzanne Cooper's Victorian and Variations. I'm glad I tried it but I don't think the colour combo is successful and won't be using it again. The great thing about beading is that you can frog it & use the beads in something else.

My Version Of A Slant On Bails.

Life is back to normal after the school holidays, so hopefully normal blog service will also resume. My son is happily back to school in year 1, apparently his new class is super-fun!

As I mentioned in my last post I decided to make my own version of Mary Champions A New Slant On Bails from the latest issue of Bead Style Magazine. So the next night I sat down once kiddo was in bed and hubby at the gym to work out how I was going to do it.
First of all, I decided to add spirals at each end of the wire instead of bead covers as I didn't have enough. For the bails I thought delica tubes with a loop would work and decided on crystal shadow twist beads and bicones and hematite seed beads and delicas for a monochrome look. I even drew a quick sketch with notes which I will do more often as it made the actual beading process more easier and quicker.

The delica bails worked well in the design I thought but I think that next time I would add some embellishments to make them more ornate. I enjoyed the process of translating the design into something I could make with what I had on hand and I really like the shape.

I have managed to keep to the bead buying ban but I will soon need to order some more findings.

Holiday Necklace 2 & Making Do.

Here is the 2nd of my holiday necklaces. The shell beads were previously in another necklace which I cut up to reuse the components. I much prefer the new version.

I have been seed beading like mad but yet again have been far too lazy to take photographs. I have also been flicking through lots of my old beading mags and have sorted out a pile to get rid off just not sure what to do with them yet.

I got the latest Bead Style mag today, there are some interesting shapes that I plan to make up replacing some of the components with seed beaded ones, starting with Mary Champions A New Slant on Bails, which is a really great design, I'd love to make it as is but I don't have the required components so I'll have to try & make do with what I've got.

I don't know about you but despite the fact that I have loads of seed beads and a fair selection of accent beads I always want to buy new things and not use up what I already have. My bead box is starting to look like a personal tribute to consumerism. I have recently started watching a cookery show called Gastronomy Economy, at the end of the show, they whip up a three course meal for four by creatively using up ingredients in the cupboards and spending only 10 pounds to buy extras. I have decided to try using this philosophy in my beading for the next couple of months til the 4th October. I will buy findings & thread if I need them, but no more new beads til the Welsh Bead Fair. I know it's not a long time frame but hey it's a start and its my 40th Birthday on the 7th October, you wouldn't expect me to face that without brand new sparklies now would ya?;-)

So hopefully I can get inspired to use what I have to make some interesting new jewellery. In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that I deliberately waited til after I'd ordered Marcia DeCosters new book to announce this new make do philosophy. So fingers crossed that I make it since I'm already off to a shaky start!

Loops and Ladders..

This is the 2nd loopy necklace I made last week and is from the pattern Luxury Loops and Ladders from the most recent Bead Magazine. I much preferred making this one to the other. It worked up very quickly and easily. I love the colours too.

My neighbour has expressed an interest in learning to bead and really liked the style of the Through the Loops collar which is why i beaded it, so that I could decide if it would be a good first project for her. I didn't think it would be the best first project so I tried this one, which I think is suitable for a total beginner.

Holiday Necklace 1.

I bought these beautiful hand made lamp work beads
from Julie Fountain at Lush Beads when I saw them at
the Chepstow Bead & Gem Fair earlier this year.

As my holiday wardrobe leaned heavily towards the turquoise
& blue range they were a natural choice along with some hematite, turquoise & aventurine for a nice simple lightweight necklace to slip into my suitcase. Along with the other 4 or 5 nice simple lightweight necklaces I just had to make:-)

Red Daggers Necklace.

The inspiration for this necklace was the Beadalon Daggers necklace that I mentioned in an earlier post. Mine is slightly different, the pale grey triangles are 2 drop brick stitch with matte grey ab delica's with large red glass drops, the dark grey triangles are made with size 11
hex seed beads in single drop brick stitch. The necklace strap is peyote. It was a fun necklace to make and it drapes very nicely
around the neck.

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

A Teaser

Here is a teaser of my current project, it might take a while because I need to make lots of different components for it. Lately I have been making lots of quick & easy projects but I now feel the need to create a larger piece. I am hoping to incorporate lots of stitches & beads into this one. So far I have used peyote to bezel the 8mm swarovski pearls, fringe & herringbone. I am using swarovski pearls & crystals, delica's in various pinks & greens & I have green 11's that I might use for a rope for the strap.

An Old Favourite

While I was photographing my latest work I also re-photo'd this piece which I made a while ago. The centre rope is picot embellished tubular raw and the other ropes are spiral. It also has beaded beads and a peyote stitch cabochon. I used a variety of beads from size 15's to 8mm swarovski pearls. It was fun to make & I really must make another multi-stitch necklace soon.

Blackberry Swirl

I have had these beautiful pearls for a while but haven't had quite the right idea for them. Last week I was sorting out some of my beads and pulled out some amythest rounds, purple velvet swaro's and some lovely 6mm pale lilac abfirepolish that add a lovely shine into the mix. I started out beading the embellished section by adding the pearls as a fringe when making the spiral. Once I liked the length of the focal, I then beaded the main part with japanese 11's. I then added a tassle which probably took as long as the rest of the necklace! I think it really makes the peice though, so it was worth it.

Herringbone & Medallion Necklace

I am a big fan of Suzanne Cooper's book Victorian & Variations and have made many versions of the medallions from it. I made these 3 to dress up a strip of herringbone that I made by experimenting with different size beads to create curves, the pendant is strung with onyx beads for the neck strap. I like the colour combination of the dark red, bronze and matte & shiny black in this piece.

The worst year.

Haven't been around in a while because I have been dealing with a serious family illness. Again.
What with my fathers death in January, my step dad's heart attack in April and the ongoing deterioration of my maternal grandmothers (who raised me from age 7) health since July, this has probably been the most stressful year of my life. Thank goodness for a supportive husband, a beautiful son, good friends and of course beads. They have all helped keep me sane over the last few months.
Here's a photo of one of my favourite recent pieces, a spiral rope made with size 8's, freshwater pearls and tiger eye accents.

Back to Basics - Black & White & Red All Over

This week I decided to go back to basics with my beadwork . When I first started beading, peyote was the bane of my existence & I absolutely dreaded learning tubular peyote, but it turned out not to be too scary after all! I haven't used the stitch for a while so I decided to make some beaded beads using black 11's & red & white size 8 Toho's, I made 5 and then threaded them onto some knotted suedette cord. So simple but pretty effective!

My next back to basic tubular peyote is using silver lined crystal 11's & blue delica's, the size difference is not so obvious and therefore the tube doesn't have the nice sculptural quality of this piece, might just have to be a test piece destined for the scrap box!