Leather Cuff Making Frenzy! Part 1

Yesterday I mentioned that I’ve been on one of my mad-shut-myself-in-my-room-for-over-a-week-beading-frenzy…. and I made 9 leather cuffs… well here are the first 3:

Forget Me Not - Turquoise Leather Cuff

 

Sugar and Spice - Caramel Leather Cuff

 
Red Flowers on Red Leather - Cuff

All 3 were created around Golem Design Studio’s gorgeous handmade stoneware, on leather covered cuffs… I have 6 more cuffs to post… but after spending the day taking photos and working on them… I am calling it a night!!! :-)

You’ll just have to come back in a few days to see the next lot! :-)

Happy beading!

Stuff….

First of all… I’m so excited my A Hazy Shade of Winter – OOAK Beaded Wrist Bag won the December Simon & Garfunkel EtsyBeadWeavers' Challenge!!!!!

Thank you to all who voted for this bag!!!! All the entries were amazing and I’m really chuffed I won!!! :-)

My other bag, Arearea – Joyousness is currently in the Bead Art Originals (BAO) Team’s December challenge!

The challenge was to pick a famous work of art and to create something inspired by that piece. Go and check out the BAO team blog, http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-challenge-art-inspiring-bead.html between now and 26th of December, chose your favourite creation and leave your vote by commenting on that post, and enter your chance to win a fabulous prize (TBA)!!!!!

As for me…. I’ve been on another cuff-creating frenzy… so far nine!!!! must stop and take some pictures in the next few days!!!

Till then…. :-) happy beading!!! :-)

EBW Simon & Garfunkel December Challenge

Check out the incredible entries from the EtsyBeadWeavers for this month’s Simon & Garfunkel “Songs of Inspirations”.

In case you missed it… my entry for this challenge is:

A Hazy Shade of Winter – OOAK Beaded Wrist Bag

Voting has started and will continue till 15th December, so don’t put it off!!! Go and vote for your favourite piece!!! http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

Wishing everyone a fantastic evening!!! :-)

Arearea - Joyousness

I finally finished my new bead embroidered bag Arearea – Joyousness. I honestly never thought it would get finished!!! :-) but each and every single stitch and bead was put there with so much love and enthusiasm, because I absolutely LOVE this bag and LOVE how it turned out!!!!

I created this bag for the Bead Art Originals (BAO) Team’s December challenge. The challenge was to create a piece inspired by one of our favourite famous works of art; a famous painting, sculpture, photograph, etc...

The painting I chose is Paul Gauguin’s Arearea – Joyousness (1892)

This is one of my all-time favourite paintings and I have a postcard of it (that I purchase in some museum about 15-18 years ago) pinned to my note board next to my computer.

I love this painting for so many reasons, the composition, the exotic feel to it and the colours. Both the exoticism and the colours are what inspired me to create this bag.

The bag is made entirely by hand (hand stitched) in chocolate brown genuine suede, and is lined in bright purple Ultrasuede, beadembroidered around three gorgeous MAKUstudio One-of-a-Kind ceramic cabochons (1 heart and 2 discs), beautiful Swarovski crystals in Montana Sapphire, burn orange and Golden Shadow, Swarovski Crystal Copper elongated bicones and loads of multicoloured fresh-water pearls all beadembroidered with Japanese seed beads in light bronze, dark copper, Swarovski Montana Sapphire crystals and Czech copper bugles.

The strap is a gorgeous and sturdy beadwoven spiral rope encrusted with the Swarovski Montana Sapphire crystals and the multicoloured fresh-water pearls.

I have fallen heads over heel in love with this bag!!!! I must make a similar one for myself, as soon as I can find the time!!! :-)

Let me know what you think & wishing all who celebrate it a very happy Hanukkah!!!

Please visit the BAO team blog, http://www.beadartoriginals.blogspot.com between the 16th and 20th of December and vote for your favourite entry by leaving a comment on the blog post.

A Hazy Shade of Winter – Wrist Bag

I’ve been incredibly sporadic with my postings for the last year…. sometimes it’s because I’m beading…. sometimes it’s because I just don’t feel like writing… well I’m happy to say that the reason I’ve been silent lately is because I’ve been busy beading! :-)

A Hazy Shade of Winter is my entry for the EtsyBeadWeavers’ December Challenge “Simon & Garfunkel – The Songs of Inspiration”. I love that song and its title inspired the colours for this new bag, the first in a new line of beadembroidered bags I will be creating for my shop.

A Hazy Shade of Winter – OOAK Wrist Bag

I’m so pleased with how this bag turned out!!!!! I love everything about it!!!! from the beadembroidery to the crocheted rope!!!

The bag was designed around one of Lisa Peters Art’s gorgeous handmade ceramic cabochons, grey Swarovski crystals, smokey grey Czech glass cabs, antique silver, antique gold/bronze, metallic black iris and ivory Japanese seed beads. The strap was crocheted with metallic black iris Japanese cubes.

I’m 3/4 of the way through a second bag… but it’s taking me longer than I expected… so I might not finish it before next week, but as soon as I do, I’ll post the photos!

Please visit the EBW blog, http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com between the 9th and 15th of December and vote for your favourite entry.

And to all who celebrate it…. Happy Thanksgiving!!!! :-)

It Only Took 5 Years….

Around 5 years ago, I went past my local bead shop (which no longer exists), and saw that they were offering beadweaving classes… I enrolled… and the reason I did so was because I wanted to make bags and incorporate some beaded elements on the bags…  that was 5 years ago!!! :-) My beadweaving repertoire has definitely grown since those early days and finally I designed (and made) my first bead-embroidered bag!!!!

It isn’t perfect… and there is definitely room for improvement, especially in the finishing and edging (which I’m not 100% happy with – yes, I’m a perfectionist! :-D)… but it’s good enough for me and I have been using it everyday!!! :-) I do love it!!! it’s the perfect size for walking around with enough room to fit my mobile phone, my keys, a small wallet, some tissues… you know, all the essentials! :-)

It wasn’t easy, and it took me way too long to complete… I think partly due to the fact that I was really worried about screwing up the suede (which isn’t cheap).. it took me about 4 1/2 days to complete, which is way too long, and am hoping that the next one will take about half the time…

I used one of Lisa Peters Art’s gorgeous large cabochons/tiles that I've had in my collection for a while and thought this would be the perfect project for it, and some lovely Swarovski crystals that complemented the colours depicted in the cab.

The beadembroidery was done directly onto the suede, which I’m not so sure I will do again, because when I wanted to unpick, it left holes in the suede (in this case it didn’t matter as the piece grew larger and covered the bits I unpicked, but in the future it might be a problem… I think next time I will bead onto beadbacking and then add it to the suede/leather.

I’m dying to make another one… although am a bit apprehensive about how long it took… well I’m a bit apprehensive as I’m not completely comfortable with how to finish it, so I guess the next one will be experiment number 2! :-)

Let me know what you think… .and if you have any ideas for the edging I would be very grateful to hear them! :-)

Happy beading everyone!!! :-)

More Retro Cuffs

I’m not quite myself lately and it seems that every little thing is taking me forever to do… I have to get used to a whole new schedule as my son didn’t want to go to the school afternoon programme anymore, which means I pick him up at 1.45 pm everyday and of course have to give him lunch! :-) and then play with him… I’m not used to this middle of the day interruption to my work schedule so I’m completely thrown off my routine…. and I really don’t like change!!! :-)

I’m sure I will get used to it, eventually…. I hope so!!! :-)

Trying to fit in beading has been almost impossible… taking photos even worse… and blogging… well you know when the last time was that I managed to post anything… so tonight I’m staying up late just to do all of the above and here are (finally) the last four cuffs I made a few weeks ago:

Retro Drop – Cuff

This cuff (above) was created around one of Golem Design Studio’s gorgeous pendants. Yes, I did say pendant… I like using pieces that fit my design ideas regardless of whether they are supposed to be used that way or not :-)

Retro Square – Cuff

Retro Square Black & Mustard – Cuff

Retro Square Red & Purple – Cuff

As you can see, I really like making these leather cuffs!!! and every time I sell one, I somehow make two more! ;-) I just love playing with different colour combinations and variations of this design + they look so gorgeous on!!!

Hopefully this weekend I will get some actual beading done…. I can’t go on more than a week without picking up needle, thread and beads… that’s ridiculous!!! I just hope my son can entertain himself and leave me some nice chunks of time where I can totally submerge myself in my beading!!! :-)

Till the next time…. :-)

For the Love of Andrew

Andrew Thornton is an incredible artist and is dealing with cancer and the hoard of medical bills that come with it. The EtsyBeadWeavers have been donating some of their gorgeous beadwork to send money to the Andrew Thornton Medical Bills Fund.

Here is my donation:

Purple Balagan

This piece is on Sale (25% off) $187 instead of original $250 and 100% of the proceeds will go directly to the Andrew Thornton Medical Bills Fund.

Please check out the EBW treasuries featuring donations for this fund here:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cbf44f812b58eef61ca2377/for-the-love-of-andrew?index=1

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cc1d04a5ccc8eefc04f22b6/pay-it-forward-andrew-thornton-medical?index=0

and if you are doing some early X-mas or Hanukah shopping what better way than to purchase something from these treasuries and know that your money is going to help a fellow artist though some very difficult times.

Waiting for Autumn

It’s been an incredibly long and hot summer here!!!! Temperatures have rarely gone below the 30 degrees centigrade since around May!!! We had 2 glorious days (10 minutes each day) of rain and a drop of about 5 degrees… making us all think that autumn had finally arrived…. well after the second heat wave this week and temperatures back up to 32+… we are still waiting!!!! The only difference, thankfully is that the humidity is down and the evening are a bit cooler…. but it’s almost the end of October… even I, who hates rain, is hoping for some relief soon!!!

Ethan is back in school and I’m back in my studio (bedroom) beading my little heart out!!!! I made 5 cuffs and am 3/4 of the way through finishing a beadebroidered bag!!!

This is the first of those cuffs – as soon as I saw the gorgeous MAKUstudio raku cab I thought of the autumn that isn’t quite here… the colours are just so gorgeous – gold, bronze, green with flashes of red, and with that bright green leaf in the middle it really depicts the colours of our so-called autumn!

Waiting for Autumn – OOAK Cuff

The MAKUstudio raku cab is surrounded by bronze and green Japanese seed beads and dark brown Swarovski pearls. The cuff is covered with genuine leather on top and chocolate brown Ultrasuede on the inside – I love how this cuff turned out!!! Let me know what you think… in the meantime I’m going to go and have a nice refreshing shower trying to escape the sweltering heat!!!

Retro Drop Necklace

Here is the last of the Retro series… I say last but I mean last for now, as I absolutely love this colour combination and an sure I will make some more pieces… but these are the last I made up to now :-)

This necklace, or rather the pendant I used to make this necklace, was actually the inspiration for all of the Retro pieces. I bought some gorgeous pendants and beads from Golem Design Studio, which I fell in love with and this is the first piece I made using one of their ceramics.

Retro Drop - Necklace

I also made this cuff as part of the series, but ended up giving it to my mum… my parents are visiting from London and she really liked the Retro Flower – Cuff but unfortunately for her (and fortunately for me) the cuff sold the day after she saw it, so I gave her this one instead… I think she like it, she was wearing it today at lunch :-)

In case you missed the previous posts of the Retro pieces, here are the links:
Retro Flowers
Retro Chic

As I said, I really like the colour combination, so I’m sure I’ll be making some more eventually, especially as I just received some more pendants from Golem Design Studio! :-) Check them out, they do really beautiful stoneware beads and I can promise you the quality is superb!!!

and just a reminder, today is the last day for voting at the BAO September Challenge, so visit the post and leave a comment saying which piece is your favourite and enter your chance to win a fabulous prize!!!

No Bones About It – BAO Sept. Challenge

Here are the entries for the September BAO Challenge “No Bones About it”:

Please visit the BAO blog before midnight of the 1st October, leave a comment on that post (not this one) saying which entry is your favourite and enter your chance to win a fabulous prize by one of our talented BAO members!

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/

The Next Generation + BAO Item of the Week

I spent the last 2 months together with Ethan! We’ve had a ball!!! We spent most of our time at my parent’s pool which overlooks the sea… it’s a hard life! ;-)

Ethan has mastered his front crawl… and I’m so proud of him!!! I love swimming and the fact that we can now swim together, rather than me following around the pool having mini heart attacks every time he goes underwater, has been an incredible pleasure!!!

He started showing an interest in photography… another of my hobbies…. so I gave him my old digital camera and he takes it with him everywhere!!! The pool, walking the dogs, the supermarket…. everywhere!!!

Then one day… out of the blue… after I received my loom in the mail… he said: “mummy I want to learn how to bead too! I want to make bracelets and then you can sell them on the intranet (internet ;-D) for me and give me the money so I can buy lots of toys!” :-) my heart melted… the next day we went out looking for a kiddie bead loom… it took me a few days to find it… but we eventually did!

here he is, hard at work making his first bracelet which will be a birthday present for his cousin Shani who just turned 4! :-)

How precious is that!!!!! I couldn’t be prouder!!!! :-)

As for me… I’m busy making the next EBW Challenge “Bollywood”….

and last, but not least… here is my BAO Item of the Week:

Cleopatra – Necklace

Purchase and pay for this necklace between now and the 26th August and receive 5% off + free worldwide shipping!

Visit the BAO blog to see all the specials our talented member are offering this week: http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com/

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!!! :-)