La primavera - Spring

I was so excited when Artbeads contacted me as part of the blogging program and told me that this time the theme was “Spring” as spring is my favourite time and I could chose anything from their incredibly large selection of products that reflected my own individual interpretation of Spring for their ‘The Beauty of Spring’ theme.

So I chose the following: Light green Swarovski pearls in 4 different sizes and Swarovski XILION Gold-Plated Setting with 2-Holes in Light Amethyst and this is what I made adding some Japanese gold and gilt-line opal lilac seed beads and a few light amethyst Swarovski crystals.

This is what I made!

La Primavera – Necklace

Luckily, I have a new flatmate! :-) I say luckily because I was able to model the necklace on her neck… as this necklace looks so much better on the neck than off! so thank you Jai Lynn for lending me your neck! :-)

I’ve been super-busy beading up a storm this last week and have since made a complimentary bracelet to this necklace, another necklace and 2 more bracelets… need to stop beading and start taking pictures so that I can show you! :-) hopefully in the next few days and soon after that I will post them!

In the meantime… happy beading everyone and I hope your are all enjoying the spring!!! :-) and don’t forget to check out www.artbeads.com

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Disclosure: I am a reviewer of Artbeads.com products and a participant of its blogging program. I received all the components free of charge. This post reflects my honest opinion and Artbeads.com is not compensating me for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.

Fly me to the Moon

Remember I started to fuse glass in my microwave? Well, here are two more cabochons that I (successfully) made and used within my own beadwork! I’m so proud of myself!!! :-)

The first piece I made into a cuff:

Fly Me to the Moon – OOAK Cuff

The second I made into a necklace to match the cuff:

Fly Me to the Moon – OOAK Necklace

and whilst I was in a matching mood I made some earrings too! :-)

Fly Me to the Moon – Earrings

I rarely make matching pieces, but these HAD to be made. I’m so please with how each one has turned out and love them as a set but also individually!

I got some more glass a while ago, must get my glass fusing kit out and make some more!!!! I really do get so much enjoyment out of beading around cabochons that I made myself from scratch! It just adds to the beading mania!!! :-)

I have actually made another set, well… I’m halfway through making the bracelet, the necklace and earrings are finished, but I wanted to show them all together… so you’ll have to wait till next week…. What I can tell you is, they are purple and GORGEOUS! :-) so stay tuned!

Abstract Fusion

Remember my post a couple of weeks ago about my new adventures in glass fusing?

Well, here is the first beadwork creations made around my first successful fused glass cabochon!!!!

Abstract Fusion – Cuff

I’m so proud of myself!!!! especially as I managed to make it without blowing up my whole kitchen!!! :-)

You have to come back and see the next 2 cabs I made which I used for a necklace and bracelet set! They turned out pretty cool!!!Hopefully I’ll be able to upload them by Sunday….

I also wanted to share a link I was sent today by Cynthia of Beady Girl. She wrote to me a couple of weeks ago asking for permission to use my design idea for these leather/ultrasuede cuffs to teach in one of her classes… of course I said yes :-) so check out her blog and see the beautiful cuff she made!!!
http://beadygirl.blogspot.com/2010/02/inspiration-from-triz-designs.html

Fusing glass

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I had this crazy idea that I wanted to somehow fuse glass… anyone who knows me pretty well, knows that I often go off into these crazy ideas and before you know it I have bought all the equipment necessary (and a few dozen books) in order for me to try “something new” out!  Some of the things I tried in the past are: photography (I still have my black and white darkroom set up amongst all my son’s toys), pottery, fabric silk screen printing, fashion design (actually got a degree in this),  law, politics (managed to get a diploma in Social Policy and Criminal Justice – very useful :-D), beading (at least this one stuck),  polymer clay (I have a huge box of unused Fimo and a pasta machine),  etc…. and so it was to no surprise to any of my friends when I announced that I wanted to melt glass at extremely high temperatures. :-)

So I started researching on the net… and asked a few people for advice…  and finally decided that a “proper” kiln was a bit too much money (kilns start at around $500 and go up into the thousands) to spend on a new endeavour  that I had no idea whether I would like or not…. so I opted for a Microwave-kiln.    I bought the kit, first because it was the same price as buying the kiln on its own, second because as I’ve never done this type of thing before I had no idea what I needed to get me started.

 

Well I finally got my kit yesterday… and was extremely eager to start!!!!

My first attempt was a joke :-) I stupidly thought that glass would be transparent so I sandwiched a piece of dichroic glass in between 2 blue ones…  see below… that little black thing in between is the hidden dichro…

…..I laughed… and learned…

the second attempt, although I managed not to bury the detail, looks like… well… like someone had too much to drink and brought last night’s party back up :-)

 
and the third one…. well…. at least heading in the right direction…

 

….still not a great thing of beauty… but at least it doesn’t look like something you bring up after a bad night of drinking! :-)

So here is what I have to say about the microwave kiln:

It’s fun and quick and definitely recommend it if you just want to try it out and make really small pieces of fused glass (max 1 1/4”), which is limiting, especially for me, as I like working on a larger scale.

If you buy the kit make sure you buy a separate selection of glass and dichro because the selection that comes in the box is pretty naff!!! and make sure you buy some clear glass (I assumed it would come in the kit but it didn’t) because I think that is the trick to finishing off the piece making it look a bit less “crafty” and a lot more professional.  Also,  make sure you buy some extra kiln paper (which I did), because the kit only comes with enough paper to probably make about seven or eight 1” squared cabs… and I promise you they will be used up within the first 2 days!

I’ve only been using it for a couple of days now and I’m glad I got it but it’s given me a taste for wanting more and wanting to make bigger pieces…. so here we go, I have to start saving up for a kiln!!!  but until I managed to save up the money for it, this will do me fine and will let me experiment (with limitations) a bit!

Now back to my microwave! :-)

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

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!!! :-)

 

 

 

 

 

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!!!

Why I’ve been so Unproductive… and a new piece

Well… Lately, even though I seem to have all the time in the world, as my son started pre-school and comes home at 4.30 everyday, leaving me lots of time to bead… work… and even exercise… I found myself unable to sit down and come up with anything creative… although I have managed to work and, believe it or not, exercise… every morning, as soon as I have dropped him off at school, I blast my ipod and power walk for an hour… very proud of myself!!! yet… beading… has been more difficult to do… so I looked at my workspace… and this is what I found… a HUGE mess!!!!

Shameful, right? :-) This could explain my cluttered mind and my inability to sit down and bead… nowhere to sit and bead, that’s why!!! So I dedicated a whole day to cleaning up and tried to re-organize my workspace! and here are the results:

So much better, although not perfect, but at least I can actually find the tables!!! :-)

So no more excuses!!!

I bought these AMAZING lampwork beads from Tera Belinsky-Yoder of BeadyGirl Beads and really wanted to make something with them!

Here is the first piece I made using one of these beautiful pieces of glass art:

Cosmic Carnival Bracelet

Amazing what can be achieved with a bit of order in ones life! :-)

I even made another bracelet, although not with Tera Belinsky-Yoder’s beads… a remake of one of my first designs that I found at the bottom of a box…. I haven’t worked on the photos yet, so come back tomorrow and check it out!!!