Retro Flowers

It’s been a strange day today… I spent most of the day feeling incredibly lethargic and spent most of the day sleeping… something I rarely do… I usually have the opposite problem and I average about 4 hours of sleep per night… I guess today was my catch-up day! :-) so I woke up in the late afternoon feeling extremely rested and energized and managed to work on two more pieces from my “Retro” Collection… and here they are:

Retro Flower – Necklace

and

Retro Flower – Cuff

If you missed my earlier pieces from the “Retro” Collection you can find them here, and as I’m feeling completely awake now… I think I may work on the last two pieces…. hopefully I will post them in the next couple of days… in the meantime…. let me know what you think! :-)

Happy beading everyone!!! :-)

Retro Chic – New Collection!

It all started with me buying some new beads from 2 new artists (new to me) who make up the team of Golem Design Studio. I became aware of these artist through their FaceBook page and I “had” to go and check out their website! and I “had” to buy some pieces to try out! :-)

So I received my package from them and it contained some gorgeous black and cream (ivory) and red ceramic beads and a black and ivory pear-shaped ceramic pendant… so I took all my cram, black and red beads and started beading! :-)

The beads are gorgeous, rustic yet modern, retro and chic so I wanted to create a piece that reflected those qualities and this is what I came up with:

Retro Chic – Necklace

and

Retro Chic – Cuff

These were my first 2 pieces and as you can see they don’t use any of the beads… funny that, how I got so inspired by some beads, yet I didn’t use them… I did use the black and ivory pendant for a necklace, but you’ll have to wait till next time to see it… I still have to work on the photos and it’s time for bed now! :-)

Wishing everyone a great week ahead!!! :-)

Volcanic Collection – 4 New Pieces!

It all started off with me receiving some absolutely stunning cabochons and buttons from MAKUstudio… and that was an accomplishment in itself!!! Every time a new cab was posted on her facebook fan page, I would click on the link and…. it would be already sold!!!! Am not surprised because her pieces are so yummy… anyway, so I managed to put an order in and received them about a week later… and got out the few I had bought from her a while ago…. and all I could think when looking at these gorgeous pieces was…. fire… earth… lava… volcano… ancient… tribal… primitive…. so I gathered my beads (another accomplishment as they are spread all over my flat) and started to bead my first piece which is designed for the Bead Art Originals “No Bones About It” September Challenge. We are supposed to design a piece inspired by the TV character Temperance Brennan from the series "Bones."

The character, Temperance Brennan, is a forensic anthropologist who works together with the FBI to solve murders. She is often seen wearing gorgeous tribal and ethnic jewellery and I love this series!!!! :-)

Her jewellery style and her profession inspired me to design this gorgeous primitive/tribal-influenced piece featuring two of MAKUstudio’s gorgeous cabochons (actually the top one is a button that I used as a cab).

Volcano Goddess – OOAK Necklace

Then as soon as I finished this, I got loads of ideas for making more pieces with MAKU’s raku ceramic cabs…. first came the cuff:

Volcanic Rock – OOAK Cuff

then another necklace…

Volcanic Rock – OOAK Necklace

(both the necklaces and the cuff above use all MAKUstudio raku ceramics)

and then of course the earrings…

Volcanic Rock – Earrings

and I wanted to make more… but I run out of dark copper beads and almost the black ones too!!! (more ordered and on their way!)

So I put this collection aside… and started a new one! Still have to work on the photos and decide on a name…. but I’ll tell you this, the colour combination for it is coral red, black, ivory and gold… and it is GORGEOUS!!!! and I made THREE necklaces and THREE bracelets!!! I’m in a total beading frenzy!!!! and…. just now as I was typing, the doorbell rang…. the postman is here with my order of copper and black beads!!!! The only problem is, I actually run out of Fireline… my dad, who is coming to Israel on Tuesday is bringing me loads…. so I guess no beading till then :-) and just as well as I have loads of work to do for my ‘real’ job! :-)

Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead! :-)

Bollywood Nights Earrings – Remade!

Remember the Bollywood Nights post a few weeks ago, where I showed you my EBW Challenge entry and a pair of matching earrings that I was really unhappy about?  Well I remade the earrings! cut the top bit off and remade them using smaller Swarovski crystals and reattached it to the bottom part but in a different configuration…. and this is how they came out! :-)

I’m so much happier with how they turned out this time and am really glad I took the first ones apart!!! What do you think? do you prefer these or the originals?

These earrings bring me to the EtsyBeadWeavers September “Bollywood” Challenge  which is currently open for voting and will be open till 15th September,

My entry for this challenge is the matching cuff of these earrings, # 6 on the list of entries.

So hurry, go and visit the EBW blog and vote for your favourite piece! http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com

And last but not least…. let me wish everyone a happy new Jewish year! may it be the best one ever!!!! :-)

Queen Boudicca – OOAK Cuff

Remember the Queen Boudicca Necklace I posted a few weeks ago? I wrote at the end how I wished I had another same-shaped cab from Lisa Peters Art so I could make myself a similar necklace? Well… shortly after I posted my blog, Carol Dean from SandFibers contacted me, telling me she had 2 similar cabs (also from Lisa Peters Art) and that she would send them to me the next day!!! How generous is that?!?!?

A week later I got them in the mail and eagerly started making myself the necklace (of course I forgot to take photos, but it’s similar to the original except for instead of hanging from a beadwoven necklace it hangs from a 3-strand leather choker, mainly because I was too lazy to beadweave a whole necklace just for me & because I was running out of black matte seed beads)… I love my new necklace!!!!!!!!!!!!! but Carol Dean sent me 2 cabs… hmmm what to do with the second one??? :-)

I started beading…. and the next thing I know… it developed into this cuff:

Queen Boudicca – OOAK Cuff

My only regret is that I can’t show you this piece in real life… it is so amazing…. powerful…. I just love it!!!

and as I have Carol Dean to thank for her generosity which led to my new necklace and this new cuff… I wanted to show some of SandFibers gorgeous beadwork that is for sale!

Click on the pictures to be taken to the listings for these cuffs and don’t forget to browse her shop for a huge selection of beadwork!!! SandFibers also offers lots of patterns for sale!!!

Thank you so much Carol Dean for those cabs, they really made my day and now I’m the proud owner of a incredibly gorgeous necklace! :-)

Bollywood Nights

My palette tends to be quite monochromatic… although I love using colour, I usually try and stick to one or two colours within one piece and tend to play more with textures and shades or variation of a colour… but next month’s EtsyBeadWeavers’ Bollywood challenge allowed me to expand my usual colour use and create something using contrasting bright colours. As I mentioned, the challenge is Bollywood and when I think of Bollywood, or anything Indian for that matter, I think of bright colours, bright gold, sparkly gemstones, richness, excess… and armed with these adjectives I set out to create something for the challenge… I started off with the idea of making a necklace… but that’s still on my beading table… and whilst I was beading component for it, I veered off and made some earrings…

I do like these… but something about them is not 100% right! for a start, you can’t see in this photo but take my word for it, the top component shows too much beadbacking … so I've decided to remake these… maybe using smaller crystals… maybe doing away with the top component altogether… am not sure yet… will have to sleep on it… but what I did finish and am so happy with is a new cuff:

Bollywood Nights – Cuff

I really love using all these bright colours!!! I now just have to think of what to do with the component I made for the necklace….
I’m trying to work out what type of strap/chain/base to make for it… sometimes it comes easily…. sometimes it doesn’t :-)

So unless I come up with something spectacular for the necklace… which I don’t think I will… the cuff will be my entry for the September EtsyBeadWeavers Bollywood challenge!

Voting will start on the 9th September and run through till the 15th… don’t forget to go to the EBW blog during those dates and vote for your favourite piece!!! http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/