Bead Table Wednesday

This all started with  a free pattern from Bead & Button...  I thought that the Peyote rivets were really neat so tracked down the 2 hole black bakelight connectors....

They come from A Grain of Sand, beware!, there are lots of neat things there!

The original bracelet is all bakelight components... I made my own ring and my own 'rounds'... I 'finished' the top piece yesterday and really don't think that I want to continue the bracelet as 'advertised'  because that would put the bakelight 2 hole connectors on the sides of my very tiny wrist... so I guess I have the makings of two nearly identical bracelets.. I can use my ring as part of my closure and make a few more frosted purple 'beads'

Flap Your Wings... an Artists Tribute to Judy Glende

I didn't know Judy Glende, but  she was a jewellery designer & fellow blogger who was  diagnosed with brain and lung cancer in December 2011, her second battle with cancer.  Judy lost her battle the middle of March. Flap Your Wings was the name of  Judy's  Etsy shop...Tania of Moobie Grace Designs  has organized this tribute and fundraiser in honor of Judy and her family and other families who have lost friends and relatives to cancer.

When I read about this challenge I had just heard that my sisters first husband had  died of cancer  last fall.  I was in high school when they got married and if there ever was a fifth wheel in a relationship it was me.  I was always underfoot, I'm not sure how much influence he had on my career choice but my first degree was in Geology, his chosen profession... and I worked for him at the Alberta Research Council on two different occasions.  I have a pilots licence because he flew... I drive a standard car because one of the summers I worked for him I was handed the keys to a standard truck and had to figure out how to drive it... I however do not wear long underwear and hiking boots every time I fly on a commercial jet liner, I have great faith that we are not going to crash on the top of a mountain... BUT, my carry-on does contain lots of clothes  in case the airline misplaces my luggage!  I hadn't seen Andre for over 20 years when he died, but I will always remember the kindness he and his family showed to me.

I really like the concept of 'flapping wings'... there is something eternal and everlasting about those two words... My Bird  focal was part of a bead exchange... I might have used the bird in my necklace for that exchange but I held it back as I felt it was so appropriate for this necklace!

I don't work with a bead board (I don't own a bead board ... so length tends to be whatever I end up with... I like the length this turned out although I am thinking that I need to make a short chain to hook the back together to make it double) I haven't decided yet if I will donate this necklace to a charity auction or just donate money to the local Cancer society ...Cancer doesn't care who you are or what you do, so go out and  flap your wings now, we don't know how many tomorrows we have.

A link to other participants in this bloghop

Bead Table... someday

Finally finished my beaded rubber duckie... I won the pattern last winter... , So I bought the beads, then I started it using the pattern I won while we were driving through the US last May...but it was way bigger than I wanted... so I redrew the pattern last week... started making it using peyote only to discover that I had drawn the pattern sideways on the paper so it was drawn for brick stitch not peyote.....  cut the poor duckie apart and remade it using brick stitch... think this was the first time I have done something in brick stitch... I can see lots of things I would do differently another time.....

Starving Jewelry Artist Carnival Blog.... " using other people's work in my Jewellery!"

When I first saw the topic for this month I thought to myself well I don't do that...  Sure I buy lots of other peoples beads but I don't use them....  You wouldn't believe the beads that I have in this house!  But ... the Monthly Challenge is 'Using Pearls in your Work'  I use pearls and I don't make them so I guess I do use other 'creatures' work... Since I'm not sure that I would call a mollusk a 'people'...

                                                      Lampwork and coin pearl bracelet

                                               Beaded Bead Pearl balls & sterling chain earrings

                          A wire wrapped piece I bought in Hawaii that I made a hand knotted pearl 'chain' for

AND my favorite toggles are hill tribe or Bali silver...

although I have started making my own toggles (mainly in copper so far)...

Then there are bead soup parties....  I got these gorgeous sterling leaves in this necklace from Jo of Daisy Chain Jewellery ... Yes I do cut my own rings and make my own chain maille

So yes I guess I do use other 'people's' work to compliment my lampwork beads.... and I use seed beads to make beaded beads.. I just  didn't have enough lampwork beads in this house I needed a few drawers of seed beads to keep them happy!

Check out the Starving Jewelry Artists Blog here

And other participants in this Carnival blog will be added as they go live!

BeadSire

Galadryl

JewelryArtBy Dawn

J3

AMDesignsby Angela

FamiLee Jewels

Almost Wordless Wednesday & Bead Table Wednesday

I bought myself this on St Paddy's day... I thought a green Orchid was a most appropriate gift... And since it's still thriving after 2 weeks it doesn't look like it's going to commit suicide because it didn't approve of the move!

And on my bead table... (OK it's the floor) is my prize from coming second in the tassel challenge.... The prize took 31 days to get from CA to a small Canadian Island off the coast of ME! That is a new record for me for parcels coming from the US... someone didn't like the way Sig wrote my address... but you can clearly see that what they rewrote is exactly what was there in the first place!

This was the tassel and 'chain' that I won with... here's the link to the original challenge!

Almost wordless Wednesday

This was the gold that I found at the end of my rainbow last week!  I just love those little gold plated seed beads... Guess I should have paired them with green in honour of St Paddys' Day but I've always thought that Red & Gold were the perfect duo!  May have something to do with the fact that my music teacher only had red, gold, blue and silver stars.... So I'm used to seeing ruby red with gold and saphire blue with silver

Starving Jewellery Artists challenge for the month was to use GOLD... well this is gold fill or plate or something but it still LOOKS like gold ....

Bead Table Wednesday

This is more or less what my 'Bead Tray'  looked like last night when I finished the bracelet!  This was a 3 day project and inspite of cutting off over an inch of the spiral core .. I think it is still too long!  I really like the toggle though and can see lots of uses for it in other projects!

(The pink you see showing through the 'spikey beads' is part of the spiral weave base.

Bead Table Monday

Attempting to knit a scarf using seed beads... I get to knit 2 or 3  rows then I get to move beads... I started with 220 inches of beads and I use about an inch of beads every 4  rows.  Think this project may last quite awhile!
The triangular 'seed bead'  beaded beads will be earrings and a pendant... Not yet how I'll work the pendant!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

MY finished tassel.... Here's a link to all the finished tassels so far, deadline is feb 11!

Bead Table Monday

New hopefully weekly post... What's on my Bead Table first thing on Monday morning..... The idea for this post was actually


Bead Table Wednesday... but my blog already has a wednesday post so your getting my Monday morning mess!
Week 1

Yes it's messy.. I do clean up between projects.... and I suppose that isn't technically a table it's actually a tray so I can carry it around with me... the original plan was to be able to take it in the car... so far it hasn't left the house!

What am I making.... the copper links (which I made yesterday) are for the chain to support my tassel for the tassel challenge. IF you too want to make a tassel for

Beadedbear's Nonsense and Complete Waste of Time: Tassel Challenge!

click on the link.... not sure if we're suppose to give previews on the tassels but here's a teaser

Still wondering about linking all of those copper elements together for the chain... the '#(#%)' tassel weigh's a ton... might need a counter weight hanging down my back ..... will obviously have to have the toggle clasp at the front ... but that's about the only given!

Check out other peoples bead tables by clicking on the link in the thread above this one!

What I spent my evenings this week doing....

I spent 8 or 9 hours this week in the evenings while I was watching TV making this! The pattern was a free download from Bead&Button. The tree would have shown up better if I'd used oencolour of green opaque beads. My white beads are larger than the rest which I actually think looks better. If anyone has 9 hours to waste I will be happy to send them the link!

Book Report... 'The Art of Beaded Beads' Starving Artist Blog

I haven't done a book report since I was in High School.... and I won't tell you how long ago that was, but if my graduating class every had any reunions; I've missed 10, 20, 25, 30 and 35..... Actually, that's not entirely true I seem to remember rewriting a few book reports 6 years ago for my son....

THE BOOK 'The Art of Beaded Beads' Exploring Design Color & Technique
edited by Jean Campbell
Publisher LARK



I got this book last summer to help focus my new found passion for seed beads... And since I'm a bead maker, what could be better than a different way to make components or BEADS!

I run a gallery all summer and on nice days between customers I sit outside, so this summer I tried to turn a lap-full of tiny beads into a single larger bead. (slightly more successfully than spinning straw into gold...) .

The first bead I attempted was the tropical Bouquet Bead... First you make the leaves then you add flowers, the design calls for 3 flowers... I couldn't see the point of the 3rd flower as it would be on the bottom so mine has 2 flowers.


Then I moved onto the tetrahedron bead.... ("A shape with 4 triangular sides") I fell in love with these beads and made little triangles for a couple of weeks, they make great earrings.


Then I tried to make a Dodecahedron... There isn't actually a mistake in the instructions on this bead but the layout of the text instructions could have used a bit more thought... This bead took me 4 days and I will never make another one... It's lovely but....


I also tried the Sea Anemone Bead... I can't get this one to work properly even though it's suppose to be easy.... The shaping on this bead is done by changing bead size ... (Bead size trivia: Seed bead size is the number of beads that can be strung on an inch of thread, So if you have beads and don't know what size they are just string them and measure an inch! The Japanese ones will be exact, the rest you may have to sort out the wonky beads....) Yes this project called for Japanese Seed Beads, I only have Japanese beads in size 15, my 8's and 11's are just 'cheap' seed beads... which could explain why this bead is not working....



DO I like this book yes, although I'm not sure what criteria was used to organize it, as shape & style & difficulty of bead projects seems to be totally random. The book starts off with instructions on how to do all the basic 'weaves'...however, I found the instructions for individual beads to be more than adequate... knowing exactly what stitch I was doing seems overated! I can see myself attempting lots more of these beads this winter, the book features instructions for 40 beads. That leaves me 36 more to try!

I think one of the nicest things about making stand alone beads is being able to use them in an original project once they are finished... the great coloured images throughout this book are all of 'beads'. There are few examples of finished jewellery so if you do turn the finished projects into jewellery you have something that is uniquely yours!

Other member book reviews!
Galadryl Design

http://danagonia-enc...uriosities.html

http://famileejewels...ed-Jewelry.html

http://thisnortherng...1/28/gemstones/

http://beadsophistic...al-book-review/

http://islandgirlsin...aded-beads.html

Almost wordless Wednesday

Remember the little triangular seed bead beads... Well I made them a big brother... a dodecahedron bead... it took me 4 days... Will I ever make another one??? NO!

Beaded Beads

I'm a book junkie! One of my more recent acquisitions is the book The Art of Beaded Beads edited by Jean Campbell... I've actually attempted a number of the 'beaded beads' but so far this is my favorite.... (scale is about .5 inches high once the sides are folded up and it's sewn together....





The copper beads are copper plated glass....

These beads make great earrings... Yes I am testing the prototype pair!

Use the Muse IV... "On the Fringe"

This might be more appropriately called Where's the MUSE? The early bird deadline for entry for the 4th Use the Muse contest is in one hour... I actually sent my entry in at 11:25 AT it was due at 11:59 ET... It's actually been done for a couple of days.. but I've been having photo issues.

This is your "sneak peak" at my entry... My husband said my description should have been something along the lines of an eclectic collection of strange/interesting/weird JUNK! This is not a reflection on the sponsor Artbeads.com. Yes some of the components I used were from them, but the majority came from my stash! (I kept their components to use later!)

When will you get to see the rest??? Sometime on or after April 12th... The anticipation builds!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

This piece is called Red Hot... if you really think you can't live without it I listed it on ETSY!

Doesn't this look like fun?

This is what I've spent the last three days doing.. I made the focal bead etc.. before I left for NYC and bought the seed beads while I was away... The necklace was inspired by the necklace "Turning Tides in the Jewelry designs with art glass beads magazine published by Bead & Button.... Is it finished? Probably not completely but for the time being it is as I lost my needle!