Tuesday 26 January 2010

Over the weekend….

I’ve been busy, busy bee… beading… I lost myself in a beading marathon…. I made 3 leather cuffs a beadembroidered pendant and I’m almost finished with a 4th cuff….

What happened?… I took out a huge box of Lisa Peters Art’s gorgeous OOAK cabochons and some leather and I simply could not stop!!!!

Here are the first 2 cuffs that I managed to photograph before the weather turned grey again…

The first one was designed around one of Lisa Peters Art’s cabs:

Chocolate and Mint Swirls – OOAK

chocolate mint swirl cuff 03 copy

 chocolate mint swirl cuff 02 copy

The second one (below) was inspired by the colours of the first one:

Chocolate Mint

chocolate mint cuff 03 copy

chocolate mint cuff 04 copy

and after this one I had to use some more of Lisa’s cabs… come back soon to see the other ones…. weather permitting I should be taking photos in the next couple of days…

Friday 22 January 2010

Copper Fields

A few weeks ago I received my HUGE order of my favourite beadbacking from my dear friend Nicole Campanella of Beadwright and inside my seriously HUGE box she added a bag filled with goodies!!!! My favourite of all that was in the bag were these absolutely STUNNING dichroic cabochons. You have to understand, until then the only time I had ever seen dichroic glass was on the web, I had not seen one in real life and wow… they are just so gorgeous!!!! So the first thing I did was bead around one, of course :-)

Copper Fields – Pendant

copper field pendant 03 copy Not only is Nicole the loveliest person… a talented beader…. but she makes the best beadembroidery backing!!!! and the best thing about it is that it comes in an array of colours! and… so much cheaper than the lacy stiff one (which only comes in white)!

Above is one of the cabs she sent me which I finished beading about a week ago… and below are the other 2 that are screaming for my attention!!! :-)

 cab 2cab 1

 


 

 

 


and these started me thinking…. I want to make some!!! So I’m now researching the possibility of me learning how to fuse glass… I’ve become obsessed in the search for information…. I need to try this out… I’ll let you know what develops….

and hopefully soon I will have made something out of those 2 gorgeous cabs above!

Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend!!!

Tuesday 19 January 2010

I’m on a Roll….

Exited at the prospect of using another gorgeous art focal bead created by the talented Helen Breil, I set off to work on another cuff…. Here is what I made:

Tigress – Cuff

Tigress Cuff 01 copy

I was very lucky that the sun came out for a few hours this morning…. the weather report predicted storms and rain for the next 3-4 days… so I was extremely happy to see the sun this morning… also it allowed me to go on my morning walk, which I missed yesterday… walking makes me feel really good and I hate missing my morning walk to the beach.

Tigress Cuff 03 copy

If you haven’t already done so, go check out her website and see her stunning work! http://www.helenbreil.com

Tigress Cuff 04 copy
I have one more of these gorgeous Helen Breil focal art beads…. will have to find time to use it! :-) Stay tuned! :-)

Sunday 17 January 2010

First piece for 2010!

I finally finished a whole project!!!! Lately, I’ve been starting a lot of pieces but am finding it really hard to finish them…. sometimes it happens…. but as soon as I saw the gorgeous Helen Breil One-of-a-Kind Focal Art Bead that I ordered about a month ago, I knew I had to start and finish it!!!!… and whilst on the phone to my dear friend Miriam (our daily catching up, bitching and exchanging ideas), she encouraged me to make a cuff out of it…. and it clicked… all of a sudden I could see the finished piece in my mind, and so I set out to bead and not stop till it was finished! :-)

Here it is, my first piece for 2010 and my entry for the EtsyBeadWeavers February “The Ocean” Challenge – it’s been a while since I managed to make anything for one of the challenges, so I’m extremely happy!!! :-)

Sea Urchin – Cuff

Sea Urchin 04 copy
Voting for the EBW challenge starts on the 9th February – go vote for your favourite piece! :-)

And check out Helen Breil’s amazing polymer focal art beads, you won’t be disappointed they are stunning! http://www.helenbreil.com

Monday 11 January 2010

Life amongst other things…

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote anything, and I’m sorry… Sometimes there are just not enough hours in a day… other times there is just not enough energy left in me :-)

I haven’t been sleeping too well… most mornings, I’m up at the  ridiculous hour of 2 or 3 am!!! I remember the days when that wasn’t even close to my bed time… in fact it was probably the time I would start considering heading home… long gone are those days… and now my sleep times have reversed!

The good thing about being up so early is witnessing the most beautiful skies… just before the sun comes up… and here is a picture I took last week from my balcony at some un-Godly hour! :-)

  sunrise 2010

Pretty dramatic! So I guess that’s my consolation prize for being up half the night! :-)

I’m also attempting, yet again, to stop smoking… I’ve cut down from 30/day to 3/day and I’m hoping that by the end of the week I will have managed to stop completely (again!) :-) I’m really trying…  but i have to say that the insomnia is not helping the cause…

So you would think that with all this lack of sleep I would be up all night beading… wouldn’t you?…. well no… not really… I try and utilize that time catching up on my forever-growing list of e-mails that need to be answered… however, some beading has taken place… I’m working on 3 pieces at the moment… one I’m stuck… one I’m trying to work out the right necklace for…. and one I have to find the right clasp in order to finish it off…  Here is a preview of the last one:

preview copperAlmost finished, but not quite! :-)

Also, here are this week’s BAO Items:

bao item of the week

My item this week is:

Venus in Green Bracelet – OOAK

Purchase and pay for this item between now and 14th January and receive 15% off!

Visit the BAO Blog to see all the specials attached to these gorgeous items: http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com/

And one last thing…. I just wanted to wish everyone a very happy new year!!!! :-)