Catching Up

Well hello, nice to see you ;-). It's been a while, not long after my last post my mother in law sadly passed away and with various other things I lost my blogging mojo. I have been beading in my absence so do have lots of pics to update you with!

The necklace above is one I made for myself using a fab eye cabachon from the wonderful Liz Reed of The Crimson moon on Etsy. I bead embroidered the pendant added a netted fringe & hung it on a spiral rope necklace. I have worn it quite a few times to work where it is a bit of a converstion piece!

The more observant of you will notice that I have changed the name of the blog on the shop, much easier to remember and explain than April Is Forever!

Happy Beading,

Sarahx

Stash Search - Downstream

I haven't done a themed piece for a little while as I have been concentrating on catching u p with the various OTTBS challenges that I am part of and also beading some quick cabochon necklaces. I have been wanting to do one though, so I have rushed through the house work this morning so that I could sit down and rummage through my beads.

I am part of the Etsy Beadweavers team and each month they organise a challenge, this months theme is "Destinations". I have been mulling it over and kept coming back ti the idea of fish migrating, I have no idea why, lol. So my theme for this piece is "Downstream". I am imagining some sort of pennant shape pendant necklace, but we will have to see where the beads take me.

I limited my choices a little more than usual this time, but as you can see, I still have plenty of pretties to play with!



Happy Beading,

Sarahx

Happy Cab

The colours in this beaded cab & spiral rope make me happy! The weather is very grey and drizzly here in Wales today, so I thought I would brighten things up a bit!

The handmade glass cab is by Debbie Dew.


Happy beading!

Sarahx

OTTBS Earring Challenge Catch up - Weeks 3-8

I finally caught up with the earring challenge, please excuse the photo's, the lighting is awful, something I will need to work on again.

Week 3


Week 4


Week 5


Week 6


Week 7


Week 8


Happy Beading!

Sarahx

Winter Light - Finished Object

Winter Light is finished! Probably not my best ever technical beading but I am very pleased to have finished my first bead embroidered cuff. I struggled a bit with the free form style while I was making it, I prefer a bit more order I think, but I do find the finished object quite attractive. I have already worn it, so that is a good sign!








Happy Beading!

Sarahx

Winter Light - Progress 2

Here is Winter Light at about the half way stage. This kind of random beading is very out of my comfort zone! I am just going with the flow and letting the beads tell me what to do. It is quite an enjoyable process although I am finding it difficult to know whether or not I actually like the result. Hopefully when the cuff is put together and edged, I will like it more.



Happy beading!

Sarahx

New Pretties

I was lucky enough to go to a Bead And Gem Fair today. I had a wonderful time meeting up with some fellow OTTBS members. We had a fabulous swap meet and then hit the stalls.

Swapsies


New stash


Looking forward to tackling these beauties!

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Winter Light - Progress 1

While sorting out my stash on Monday, I came across a cuff blank that I had bought a while ago and forgotten about. I have never made a cuff so thought I would give it a go. I pulled out The Art of Bead Embroidery to see how I put the cuff together and off I went. I started with the lovely orphan lampwork bead and have used some of those lovely pearls too. It doesn't look like much yet, but am hoping it will improve!


Happy beading!

Sarahx

Winter Light - Stash Search

I really enjoyed the process of making Earth Song, both the new approach that I tried and blogging the progress, so I thought I would try it again. This time the theme that came to me as I searched through my stash was Winter Light.

Here are the results of my stash search, not quite as much as for Earth Song, but still plenty to inspire me, I think.


A close up of a few possible focal beads, including the gorgeous blue round from Lush Lampwork.


I was lucky enough to win this gorgeous sparkly selection of beads from Spellbound Beads for being featured in Bead Magazines Readers Challenge in the Winter Sparkle issue.


And finally, I am hoping to use these lovely pearls.


I tidied up my bead box while searching and discovered 2 packs of needles that I didn't know I had. I am usually desperate for needles, so it will be a nice change to not be down to my last one & hoping that I don't snap it before I get a new delivery.

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Earth Song - Finished Object!

Earth Song is finished, yay! This is quite an achievement for me as I normally only manage fairly quick projects. I did things completely differently this time, I chose a colour theme and let the beads dictate where I went with it instead of knowing what I wanted to make right from the start.



I enjoyed the process and am really happy with what I ended up with and think that this is the way forward in terms of stretching myself creatively with my beading. I will still need to work the other way to build up stock for my Etsy shop but I am going to try and do this on a regular basis.

Happy beading!

Sarahx

OTTBS Earring Challenge Week 2 - Necessity Is The Mother of Invention

I have snuck in at the last minute to complete this weeks pair of challenge earrings. I was struggling to come up with a design this week as I did not want to beadweave. Also my supplies are sadly lacking, I had sterling silver earwires but no chain or headpins. Gunmetal chain and headpins but no earwires and my gold plated, brass and copper findings are in a similar state! I really must do a bit of planning for the next 50 weeks.



So I had to be a bit inventive with what I had, I used silver rings to tie in with the colour of the earwires and added clear and matte grey firepolished.

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Earth Song Progress 2

The focals are now backed and edged! I used 100% wool felt in a mossy green to back them as I only have Ultrasuede in black, which I think will look a bit horrid! I love these beads, I shall definitely be buying more in other colours at some point.



Happy beading!

Sarahx

Earth Song Progress

The Jasper ovals called to me to be the focal pieces of Earth Song. I am embroidering them onto heavy interfacing with galvanised gold and matte bronze AB Miyuki seed beads. I think I have discarded the idea of freeform in this piece. Next step is to decide how to join them together.



Happy beading!

Sarahx

Earth Song - A Successful Search through Stash

This year I would like to make some more adventurous pieces than I have been doing recently, some of my favourite pieces have been bigger, multi stitch designs and I haven't done for a while as I have been concentrating on smaller and quicker pieces to build up stock in my Etsy shop. So this morning I picked up and flicked through Margie Deeb's Beader's Colour Palette, a book which always inspires me to want to try something a bit different.

As I put the book down and went stash diving, I kept hearing two words in my head, Earth Song, so decided that that would be the theme of my next piece. I must have a serious case of denial about my stash, because I can remember thinking that I wouldn't have much that would fit that theme. As you can see below, I was very wrong there!

I juts pulled out everything that I felt fit with the theme, as you can see I have quite a selection to choose from, semi precious, lampwork, crystals, Vintaj components and lots of seed beads.


Here is a closer shot of the lampwork, I don't remember who made what, but pretty sure at least some of them are by Debbie Dew & Ray Skene.


I am hoping to use these large ovals, they are so pretty!


Next job is to refine my choices and decide what stitches to use, I am thinking there may be a freeform element.

Happy beading!

Sarahx

New Year, New Knitting Project

I normally avoid knitting scarfs because they take too long for my limited attention span. I have always liked the Hitchhiker pattern and figured that after making 2 shawls & a scarf for Xmas gifts, I could manage one for myself too. It's a great pattern, simple to follow and well written, I am using a dk yarn rather than sock weight so I am hoping it will be nice and cozy!



Happy Knitting!

Sarahx

OTTBS Earring Challenge Week 1 - Miss Adler

I mentioned yesterday that the Operation Tackle That Bead Stash Facebook Group is holding a year long pair of earrings a week challenge. The challenge is being organised by Clair from Obstinate Pursuit inspired by Beading Daily's January daily earrings challenge, which many of us were unable to commit to. A pair of earrings a day for a whole month would be impossible for me to complete but one a week is doable, I hope!

These earrings were inspired by a character from episode 1 of the new Sherlock Holmes tv series on BBC1. Miss Adler was a serious femme fatale who exuded a certain vintage style glamour, so I wanted to make something that had a vintage look to them. I started with large cream faux pearls, bezzled them with bronze delicas and then added picot edging and incorporated Cyclamen Opal Swarovksi 4mm bicones for a little splash of colour.

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Happy New Year!

I spent most of November and December frantically knitting Christmas presents so have not done an awful lot of beading lately. I did make 5 pairs of fingerless mitts, 1 scarf and 2 shawls though so am pretty happy! I also managed to fit in these gorgeous little baby slippers for a co-workers little girl.



I am not making any resolutions this year but plans include working on some pieces using the design element of repetition & seeing where that takes me, making a pair of earrings a week for Clairs challenge on the OTTBS Facebook group and also finishing or frogging one old UFO a month.

Happy 2012!

Sarahx