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.

Chrysanthamum Bracelet

Recently I have been more & more drawn to nature as themes for my beadwork including flowers and bird feathers. I was playing with looping seed beads around a bezeled pearl and realised that it looked like a chrysanthamum. I grew up with these flowers in my aunt's garden and constantly in vases at my nan's house, while they aren't my favourite flower they do bring back a lot of happy memories for me. In other news I finally got a daylight task lamp today which I used to light my photo, I am quite pleased and am looking forward to improving my photography!

Going Around in Circles

Hi everyone, its been a while!

It's been pretty busy around here so I have neglected blogland a bit. I'm spending some time catching up with everyone while my son has a playdate with his friends and thought it would be good to show some of what I have been up to.

I have moved from an obsession with circular netting to an obsession with circular peyote! I am also trying to work more in series and so far have 2 series. The Camelot series inspired by the ladies of King Arthur's court and have so far beaded designs in colourways inspired by Viviane, Ygraine, Guinevere, Morgan and Nimueh. The second series is based on birds and so far I have peacock and Raven with Dove, Flamingo and Robin to follow soon. Here are a few of the pieces for you to see;

Viviane Necklace

Peacock Earrings
Nimueh Earrings

Wordless Wednesday