Wordless Wednesday

Thinking Ahead to Christmas.

I am currently in full on making mode as I have a jewellery party this Friday, a sale in my work's coffee shop and two craft fairs before Christmas. I have quite a lot of stock already but it's always nice to have new stuff.

I made this bracelet using some of the lovely chunky, black and silver beads that I bought at the fair last week. I think it's perfect for the party season.


I had a few beads left over, so I made this trapeze style chain necklace.



While I was working, my 6 year old son asked if he could do some wirework! So I cut up some lengths of copper wire, handed him a pair of round nose pliers and he dug through his bead box (yes, he has his own) and he decided to make some Christmas decorations for the tree. I think he did a pretty good job as I did not tell him what to do (other than not to poke himself in the eye with the wire) but left him alone to freestyle.

Sarahx

The Welsh Bead Fair.

Well, I know I am supposed to be tackling the bead stash, but bead fairs don't come around that often here and I have got a lot of events to show at before Christmas, so I needed new stock, honest ;-)

The Welsh Bead Fair was held today st the Village Hotel in Cardiff and I was lucky enough to meet up with an online beading buddy, the lovely CraftyCarol. The event is quite small but enough to do some damage at, I purposefully left the plastic at home. The only thing I was disappointed at was the lack of chains and sterling silver findings but I did keep some of my budget back so I can stock up online this week.I left my camera at home so could not take photo's at the fair but I thought you might like to see the goodies I brought home.

First up are these lovely ceramic beads from Moon Beads,


I bought some beautiful and funky focal beads from The Beads Nest,


The stall I did most damage to my Budget at was Anita's Beads, I got some fabulous glass pearls,



Some lovely glass including some honkingly big black rondelles,


More glass beads and some fantastic pendants,

These beautiful lampwork beads are from Debbie Dew,

I tried to contain the seed bead buying but could not resist these three tubes,

And last but not least are two Stringing magazines and a fabulous book by Laura McCabe.

That lot should keep busy for a while!

Happy Sunday everyone!

Sarahx

Wordless Wednesday

Adventures in Freeform Peyote - Part 2

Once I had decided that I was going to make a freeform bracelet, it was then time to choose my colours and try and pick a theme. I started by rummaging through my collection of size 11 seed beads. I started with the box that seemed the fullest, it contained blue beads, so I pulled out a few shades, teal, royal blue and a dark matte ab aqua, I then chose turquoise to add as an accent, galvanised gold cube and size 8 beads also looked good with this collection.

As I looked at the tubes lined up together, I realised that the theme was pretty obvious, they are very reminiscent of peacock feathers. I love peacock motifs so I was more than happy to go with this theme, I also think that these colours will be perfect for a late autumn/winter accessory. All that was missing was purple, so I dug out some violet size 8's. I have quite a few accent beads in these colours too, but I will leave them out for now and we can discover them together as the cuff takes shape!

Now my colours and theme are sorted, I need to start thinking about what approach I am going to take & what kind of techniques I am going to use.

See you soon,

Adventures in Freeform Peyote - Part 1

Recently I have been focused on making small, relatively quick pieces in order to get a large amount of stock for sale. While I am still only making things that I really enjoy, I have been hankering after something a little more involved. I thought it would be fun to start a bigger project that I could talk about the design, techniques and the process over the space of a few weeks. Since I am still rather busy with a few fairs, a jewellery party and a fledgling Etsy Store to stock, I had to think quite carefully about what project I committed to in order to fulfil these goals without impacting too much on the time I need for making new stock.

I ruled out netting straight away, although it's a favourite stitch of mine and works up quickly. I have been using it a lot lately and feel like a change. I did consider brick stitch, as some of my favourite pieces have used it, but I am quite slow at it so that's out. Eventually the answer came to me, freeform peyote would be perfect, it works up fairly quickly, is a lot of fun to do and can pretty much go in whatever direction you want it to.

I have made a number of freeform projects over the years, some were successful and some weren't but all were lots of fun to make and I learnt something from each one. The last project that I made (picture above) using this technique was a necklace inspired by the Winter Olympics. This time I have decided to make a bracelet, this should allow me to have fun with the technique and create something interesting and unique.

In preparation I have been browsing the web to familiarise myself with some different approaches to freeform peyote, I'll share some of my favourites later. Next I am going to rummage through the stash and decide on a colourway and theme. I don't often work with themes and it may seem at odds with the idea of freeform but I think it will help me focus on where I want to go with the project and will hopefully stretch my creativity.

Sarah