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

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

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

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

Bubble Flower Earrings

Last weekend I made it my mission to bust my stash of Miyuki drop beads. These are one of my favourite types of beads, but I rarely use them for anything other than spiral ropes bracelets. I decided that it was time to rectify that and came up with this pretty textured flower earring design. They are so tactile. The tutorial is fairly easy t o follow, though I probably wouldn't recommend for an absolute beginner to beadwork as the work is pretty dense toward the end so someone new to beading may have difficulty with weaving in the ends.



Happy Beading!

Sarahx

Peacock Feather Earrings

One of my favourite inspirations is the peacock, the colours in their feathers are just so beautiful! I have made a few patterns over the years but have always wanted to design my own pattern and I have finally done it. These earrings use tubular peyote and herringbone. This is now my fourth pattern available in my Etsy shop, very exciting!



Happy beading!

Sarahx

Beaded Acorn Ring

Well sadly life got in the way of my 2 rings a week. A combination of a dental infection resulting in a minor op for me and my mother in law being hospitalised seriously curtailed both beading time and my mojo. Things started calming down a bit last week and I got the beaded ring bug back.

I came up with the acorn bead cap last year and have being trying to find other ways to use it. I wasn't sure if it would work in a ring, but I figured that there is only one way to find out! I really like it and it is wearable, I wore it all one day last week and I think it will hold up really well.



In other news, I am currently having a Bank Holiday Sale in my Etsy shop, use code BHAUG11 for 20% off all tutorials and jewellery from today through til Friday 2nd September.

Happy Beading!

Sarahx

Challenges aplenty.

I was listening to episode 1 of the Bead Circle podcast earlier today and Mandi was interviewing Nancy Zellers. One of the things they discussed was participating in beading challenges/competitions in order to grow as a beader. As a member of Operation Tackle That Bead Stash, I participate in a monthly colour challenge and I know how fun it can be to work with a palette that you may not choose yourself, I thought that I may spread my wings a bit in the next few months and try a few other challenges and as if by magic, 2 came up in my blog feed today, so I thought I would post about them and have a little look around the web for any others I could find.

Ottbs April Moodboard Colour Challenge http://tacklethatbeadstash.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-moodboard.html

Art Bead Scene's April Monthly Challenge http://artbeadscene.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-monthly-challenge.html

Andrew Thornton's Weekly Word http://andrew-thornton.blogspot.com/2011/04/weekly-word-reflect.html

Bead Maven's Bead Soup Mixer http://beadmavens.blogspot.com/2011/04/bead-mavens-bead-soup-mixer.html

Margie & Me Colour Challenge http://labellajoya.blogspot.com/2011/04/margie-and-me-hollywood-glamour-and.html

I think that is probably enough to choose from right now! I am particularly drawn to Andrew's weekly word challenge as I find it harder to bead to a theme than colours, so I think that will challenge me more, I'm not promising anything mind as I am not even halfway through my OTTBS April challenge yet!

Happy beading!

Sarahx

My First Pattern for Sale!

I am very excited to announce that after many years of wanting to design patterns for sale, I have just listed my 1st one on Etsy!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/70723662/pdf-beading-tutorial-spring-blossom I am sure it won't be my last! It was a lot of fun to design and write the pattern, although the technical issues drove me nuts!

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Speed beading in circles.

I have a craft fair on Saturday and I always like to have new stock to take, I left it a bit late for anything too elaborate so I decided to make some triple circles and use them as pendants instead of earrings. I am really loving these peyote circles at the moment. They allow me to play with colour and there seems to be an endless way to use them.

I made these 3 pendants this morning, my neck is still sore!

Happy Beading!

Sarahx

A Teeny Tiny Chair!

I've been beading for quite a while and have often fancied trying sculptural 3d work, but always shied away from it as I was a bit intimidated! I mentioned wanting to try it on Facebook a couple of days ago and got egged on by my crafty friends! I thought it was best to start with something small and relatively simple. So here is my teeny, tiny chair made from Miyuki 11 seed beads and cylinder beads, using peyote and herringbone stitch.

Handmade Valentines - Free Brick Stitch Heart Pattern.

I'm not a terribly romantic person generally, hubby and I don't go a bundle on Valentine's Day, we usually just buy each other our favourite bar of chocolate (Bounty for him, Cadbury's Caramel for me) and cook a meal together. However, I have been influenced by the many heart projects that I have found on the internet recently, so this week's blog theme is Handmade Valentines.

To start us off, here is a free pattern for a brick stitch heart that I posted on Operation Tackle That Bead Stash yesterday. The heart is designed with delica's in mind but you can substitute Japanese 11's if you prefer. You can use it as a pendant, brooch or make a few and link them into a bracelet or a necklace.

Hope you like it!

Sarahx