Princess Tia + BAO Items of the Week

Almost a week has gone by since my last post… I had a crazy work week (real job) and completely forgot to post the second necklace I made… where did the time go? … where is my head??? :-) so, apologies, and here it is:

Princess Tia – Necklace

The centrepiece for this necklace, believe it or not, came about from a mistake… well I was super happy to have made this mistake, as it led to this creation! :-) I was trying to make the neckpiece for the previously posted necklace Cleopatra by beadweaving a band in graduated herringbone stitch, but it just didn’t work… and as I hate wasting, I started playing around with the “mistake” and got the idea to use it as a centrepiece by adding to it this gorgeous triangle Swarovski crystal I bought not long ago… sometimes mistakes pay off! :-)

Sadly, since this was made I’ve had absolutely no time for any beadwork… as I said above, it’s been a crazy work week… hopefully things will quiet down in the next week or so and I can go back to beading!!! :-)

For now, let me show you this week’s BAO Items:

My item this week is:

Emerald Queen Necklace

Purchase and pay for this necklace between now and 31st December and receive 15% off + free shipping!

To see all the beautiful BAO Items of the Week visit:  
http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com/

Wishing all of you hay holidays!! I hope you are all enjoying yourselves with your loved ones!!!

Ridin’ the wave - bangle

I’ve been so busy beading lately that I’ve come to a point where I need to take a break from beading only so that I can start posting some of the things I made before I accumulate too many to handle! :-)

When I first started beading… around 4 years ago… I started to experiment with different stitches as I was learning them… and one of the stitches that I really enjoyed experimenting with is the herringbone tubular twisted stitch… and this is one of the very first bracelets I made and THE very first I sold! I got the chance to take a picture of it the other day:

I completely forgot I had made this bracelet and when it came into my possession again I took the opportunity to take photos of it and to make another one, because I liked the design, because I wanted to see if I could remember how I made it and to see if during the last 4 years my beading had improved… here is what I made:

Ridin’ the Wave - Bangle

OK… so I now use much better quality beads (Japanese and Czech seed beads) which are more uniform in size allowing a much nicer finish… and probably my beadweaving technique has improved a little too…. but I also like the 1st one for it’s un-evenness and roughness… I just really like this design I guess :-) so maybe more to follow…. in the meantime I did start a necklace matching the new bangle… but got distracted by the other 3 pieces I’ve been working on! Come back soon and check them out! :-)

Primeval Forest - Collar

A new piece!!!  I recently bought some gorgeous cabochons from MAKUstudio and as always, spent a rather long time ogling over them before actually doing anything with them.  So a couple of weeks ago, as I already had all my copper beads out on my worktable, I decided to beadembroider one of Maku’s beautiful creations…. and then I got stuck and became very uninspired (not with the cabochon, just in general) … but after a few weeks of no ideas coming into my head,  I got inspired once again and found the perfect necklace for this piece – here it is:

Primeval Forest – Collar

I picked all the colours that I could see in the cabochon and made this lovely herringbone-stitched collar, finished off with a pretty complementary square-stitched toggle and peyote loop.  

 

 

  I love the colours!!!! this looks so good on, especially as I’m quite tanned now! :-)

Go and check out MAKUstudio for some more gorgeous cabochons and jewellery!

Purple Flower - Finally finished!!! :-)

I started this piece in around April , and although the actual flower was finished and the necklace part started, I just could not get my head around finishing it. I seriously had a mental block against beading the band in herringbone stitch, but finally this week-end I literally hid in my bedroom and put my mind to finishing it... and am so glad I did!!! finally!!!! :-) I am terrible.... I get bored so easily!!! so the prospect of beading not one but 2 plain long bands was just more than I could take! :-) but once I put my mind to it, I really got into it, of course I was in front of the telly catching up with all the programs I missed during the week... and the next thing I know.... it's actually finally finished!!! :-) I have to say.... this piece looks so amazing on!!! I must find a model for it.... my 6' something houseguest is a bit too hairy to carry it off :-) + am not sure he would do it anyway ;-) but in the meantime.... here it is!!!!

Click on the links below to see previous posts of this piece in progress:
Purple Flower - Part 1
Purple Flower - Part 2

Today I'm teaching, and tomorrow is my son's 4th birthday, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to add this piece to my etsy shop.... but soon :-) In the meantime.... let me know what you think :-)

Happy beading everyone! :-)

I added this piece to my shop: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=13349847

Purple Flower - Part 2

All going well :-) finished beading it (# 1), cut it and attached it to the ultrasuede (# 2)... all good... :-) I start beadweaving a band to make the loop to attach the flower to the crocheted rope.... and again!!! confusion and uncertainty!!! I actually quite like the effect the beadwoven band (# 3) has against the flower... so now I don't know what to do!!! :-) and that is how my next project started :-) so I'm going to sleep on it for a couple of nights before I make a decision and of course whichever I decide will then only create the next dilemma... to fringe or not to fringe? :-)

1. 2. 3.


Ok, so if any of you feel like giving me your tuppence worth on wether you prefer the white crochet rope or the lilac-ish beadwoven band, please feel free to do so by leaving me a comment... I will take all suggestions into consideration, because truthfully I like them both, but really, REALLY don't feel like making two of them :-) so help me decide!!! :-)


If you missed the first part of Purple Flowers please go to Part 1


I'm not sure how much beading and blogging I will be able to do this next week as my son is home from kindergarten all week!!! :-) It's Pesach (Passover) starting Saturday night. Most people hate this festival, mainly because of the dietary laws during this week (no bread, no pasta, no rice, no yummy food basically) but I actually love it (except of the food problems). I love it because it's spring and Israel just looks, smells and feels amazing. The weather is perfect, bright skies, lots of sunshine, longer days, no humidity, warm but not hot.... but most of all I love it because I was born on the 7th day of Pesach, so it's my Jewish birthday, and although I decided (last year) that I would no longer celebrate my birthdays, in an effort to forget how old I am and therefore not care (I'll let you know how that works out in a few years ;-D), I still really like the feeling of this festival. I'll be going to my sister for Seder night, so am looking forward to a nice relaxed evening with her, her husband and my gorgeous nephews and niece!!! :-) My parents flew to Italy, so it's weird becasue I think this is the first time ever that I haven't seen them around pesach and I'm jealous I want to go to Italy!!! :-) and my other sister is staying put in London with her hubby and her 2 little girls. I miss them!!! :-) I haven't even seen my latest niece, who is only a few months old... hopefully I'll be able to go to London after the summer... I hope so, would like to see my nieces before they go off to university :-) + my son is driving me nuts because he wants to see grandma and grandpa and wants to go on the aeroplane again :-) and then wants to take the train to Paris to see Nonna (my grandma who is 96!!!).... I think he thinks of all transport as the car... just another way to get somewhere :-) my little jet-setting almost 4 year old :-)


Ok so I rambled a bit.... I told you... I'm not the mood to bead :-(


Wishing everyone who celebrates Pesach, a peaceful, happy and kosher one!!! :-)

Blazing Flowers

Fire & Flowers is this month's EtsyBeadweavers' challenge and to be honest, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to miss this challenge.... I had so much going on this past month, that the last hing on my mind was the challenge... I did every-so-often think about it, but had absolutely no inspiration whatsoever!!!.... and then yesterday morning I did a search on etsy under ebwc to see what the group had come up with for this challenge. I was so inspired by what I saw that I quickly got out all my fiery colours and started beadweaving... 36 hours later, this is the result... I love the smouldering quality of the flowers created by the ascending and descending orange, red and purple beads....

Blazing Flowers

Voting Starts on the 7th April and only lasts 5 days, so don't put it off!!! :-) Go vote! http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

Merry Widow Bracelet

and here it is the Merry Widow bracelet that I posted about yesterday, the sun came out and I was able to take some (more like a trillion!!!) shots :-)

I really like this bracelet.... lots of pearls, lots of textures.... I love how the matte black beads contrast with the colour and lustre of the pearls....

Yes! I'm happy with it! :-)




so next... has to be earrings!!! :-) haven't beaded anything today, as my son is home sick, but am glad that at least I managed to post this :-)

and I hope that after we go down to the park (he wasn't that sick after all! :-D) he'll be ready for a nap... and then... the beading frenzy can continue!!!! yeah!!!!!! :-) you must all think that I'm off my rocker... well... :-)

Updated Eye of the Storm photo

I've been meaning to post this new photo of the Eye of the Storm necklace for a few days, but have been feeling quite sick, so have avoided being on the computer as the eye strain wasn't helping my migraine.... but here it is!!! I am so much happier with this photo than the other millions I took!!! :-) For more info on this piece see also previous posts: Stormy Weather and Eye of the Storm

Eye of the Storm

Another early awakening... this time because I was having a dream that someone was knocking at my window.... and I jumped.... out of my skin and out of my bed.... so here I am at 4.15 am.... posting my newest piece... at least the storms have past us and the weather forecasts beautiful spring weather from now on!!! :-) that makes me happy!!! :-D

As I mentioned yesterday, I am so pleased with this piece.... I really, really love it!!!! it just feels so good to finish off a piece and be 100% happy with it.... having said that I am less pleased with my photographing skills.... I must have taken hundreds (literally) of shots yesterday afternoon and the only one I'm happy with is the back view. I had a lot of problems capturing the focal cabochon. unless I got really close up to it, it just lost all its detail, depth, shine and beauty... I even tried to use Photoshop to bring out some of the cabochon's details, but to absolute no avail!!! If the weather permits, and if I'm in the mood, I'll try and take some more later (after the sun come up :-D), but in the mean time, here is my newest piece for the EtsyBeadweavers Stormy Weather Challenge.

Visit their blog and see all the entries for this challenge and vote for your favourite!!!! *Voting starts the 7th of March*.

Eye of the Storm

Read more about this piece in yesterday's post "Stormy Weather".

Stormy Weather

It's 4.30 am here.... Jerusalem is covered with snow!!!! Stormy weathers all around.... I've been tossing and turning for the last 40 minutes or so.... I just can't seem to stay asleep past 4 am lately.... ok, the fact that almost every part of my body aches and that I'm feeling like total crap doesn't help too much!!!.... but I just can't seem to sleep... so rather than toss and turn for the next 2 hours, I thought I would start sharing my next challenge piece for the EtsyBeadweavers.

This month's challenge is Stormy Weather, and the day I was ready to start dealing with this challenge is the day the weather looked like this....

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So, I quickly went out on my balcony armed with my decrepit yet still functioning digital camera and shot the sky... I do love looking at storms from the inside of a cosy warm room even though I much prefer bright blue skies :-)

There is something very romantic, dramatic and beautiful about storms... I started searching the web for images of the "eye of the storm".... just to get a feel for it.... so thanks to modern technology and the practicality of using a digital camera rather than my old SLR and having to spend hours in my darkroom (that is now the storage room for all my son's toys) to develop the film, I was able to start on my piece straight away... the palette of colours was pretty obvious.... I knew exactly what palette I'd be using and which beads!!! I bought these beautiful vintage 30 mm milky white cabochons from Bead Friendly on Etsy and I have to be really honest, but at first when I received them, I thought I lost my mind for buying them, although they were beautiful, I had absolutely no idea what-so-ever what I was going to do with them and even worried that I made a mistake by buying them..... well, less than 2 months later and I've already used one, have plans for the second one and want to buy more!!!

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I knew I had to use the cabochon so I started a bead-embroidered centrepiece. Here are some photos of this piece. The centrepiece is finished, I'm now working on the necklace part... I was having quite a bit of a problem with the necklace.... I envisioned exactly what I wanted to do but I just couldn't get it right with the size of beads that I wanted to use, so I went for the same idea using a completly different method... originally I was going to crochet the necklace, but now I'm using tubular Herringbone Stitch, the twisted kind... I'm sooooo but SOOO pleased with how it all turned out that it was worth the complete waste of day yesterday, while I started and restarted option after option till I got to deciding to go with the herringbone stitch. I really, really LOVE this piece... and yes I know that I probably get this enthusiastic at almost all the pieces I finish... I do fall in love with them.... but this one I really, REALLY LOVE!!! :-D

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First I glued the cabochon to some black beadbacking I bought from Beadwright on Etsy, then I peyote stitched round the cabochon in these gorgeous tiny milky white Japanese cylinder beads and I was already 100% sure that it would work!!!! The rest I embroidered around the focal cabochon with Japanese squares, Japanese and Czech seeds, "Venezia" seeds and tiny 3 mm firepolish multicut Czech glass beads in different shades of black and grey.... as I said, the result I LOVE!!!!! and the result is "Eye of the Storm".

Am still finishing off the herringbone twisted necklace and hopefully I should be able to do that by today and if it's early enough, and the weather clears up a bit (at the moment it looks a bit like the pictures above, but even darker and more menacing) I'll be able to take a photo of the finished piece and post it here..... so come back soon to see the finished piece!!! :-D

Magic Red Carpet - EBW Red Challenge

Photography by Patrizia Tager

I'm seeing red everywhere.... particularly around my nose.... I've got a stinking cold.... the sort that makes you dread every sneeze.... :-)

And speaking of red.... here is my 2nd entry for the Etsy Beadweavers Red Challenge.... love this herringbone-stitched bracelet!.... I love the texture and the deep red and purple together with the matte antique-gold.... it feels very rich and luxurious.... and..... I'm so pleased with the photos, which I took myself..... thank you Avia for letting me in on the ins and outs of jewelry photography.... not as good as Avia's, but seeing that I had to take them with my crappy digital camera, and I literally had 5 mins of batteries..... I'm very pleased with the overall result... yeah!!! :-)

Again, let me remind you that on the 7th January voting starts at the Etsy Beadweavers Blog. So please, please, please :-) go and vote!

Better get back to nursing my runny nose.... and back to my beading.... a few projects on the go.... soon to be revealed ;-)

Happy new year!

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Please visit http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ from the 7th January and view all the wonderful entries at the EBW’s blog and vote for your favourite piece from a selection of very talented bead weavers.