Sweet Spring.

This months moodboard challenge on Operation Tackle that Bead Stash is lovely soft pink, cream and green, perfect for spring. With the weather gloriously sunny & crisp here in South Wales, it wasn't to hard to be inspired!

I always seem to have a lime green fetish at this time of year, so I dug out these matte ab 11's and used a cream opaque to soften the look. I love netted bracelet bases, they are so versatile and supple. With this one I added a picot fringe which ruffles the edges of the bracelet very prettily and made a little pink flower with some swarovski crystals.

In keeping with the start of a new season, I have started a new craft! I have become obsessed with embroidery after finding the Feeling Stitchy blog on Friday. I will blog about my progress later this week.

Happy beading!

Sarahx

New Free Ring Tutorial On OTTBS

Today I spent some time writing up a tutorial for this simple ladder stitch ring that uses up those little bits and bobs left over from larger projects and posted it up on the Operation Tackle That Bead Stash blog.

http://tacklethatbeadstash.blogspot.com/2011/03/pearl-ladder-ring-tutorial.html

Working on my photo's.

One of the things I have struggled with most since starting to sell my work is product photography, particularly lighting issues and staging. Last weekend was quite sunny so I thought I was on to a winner, however the photo's came out very harsh looking with a lot of shadows. After sulking a bit, I had a think about how I could improve them and I remembered
this excellent article by Blue Forest Jewellery http://blueforestjewellery.blogspot.com/2010/03/photography-tips-from-non-professional.html

My dining room has a big bay window which gets a lot of sun, I placed a piece of white card on the dining table and propped up another piece of card (I didn't have anything more transparent)vertically behind it to try and eliminate shadows. I set up a tall white coffee mug and hung a pair of earrings of it. The camera was set to macro and I turned the flash off and I snapped and snapped and snapped, lol.

The photo's came out quite dark but that was soon sorted out by adjusting the exposure in my photo editing software. I am quite happy with this pic and am actually hopeful that I may soon have consistently decent photo's!

Happy beading!

Sarahx

Happy Valentines Day to Me!

The husbeast and I aren't very romantic but today we did have the day together while the small one was in school and popped to Cardiff. We had lunch in Jamie Olivers which I have been really wanting to go to, the queues are usually huge but today we were lucky!

I also popped into Crystals and Ice and bought some lovely new seed beads! I do have quite a stash already but lately I have been making lots of patterned peyote cuffs and really wanted to expand my colour palette. I'm especially loving the zingy chartreuse green on the end, I always seem to buy that colour at this time of year, I think it reminds me of spring!

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

In the mood for Purple & Gold.

The January moodboard challenge on OTTBS was purple and gold. Wonderful, I thought, no problem, I have loads of purple and gold seed beads in different sizes. I know, I thought, I'll make lots of lovely peyote circles, using gold for the outside beads and different purples on the inside and then I'll sew them all up and make a lovely necklace. Simple.

Well, it may not have escaped your notice that the piece above is not in fact a circular peyote necklace but a bracelet using netting and right angle weave. I sewed up one of the circles in the wrong colour order and because of the way I constructed it I couldn't rip it out without frogging the whole necklace! Grr!

I sulked for a week but finally bucked myself up and made this bracelet using metallic size 4mm firepolish beads and size 11 gold seed beads.