Indian Summer

It’s November… not that you could tell by looking at the weather we are having here… the temperature has dropped slightly… about 3-5 degrees… it’s so unbelievably hot still!!! but at least the nights are cooler than they were in the summer… and thankfully it isn’t as humid!!! 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m NOT complaining… I love the summer, and am not too crazy about the winter… but it would be nice if the temperature would drop a little bit… I don’t know, down to maybe 20-22 degrees.

The thought of Autumn but the reality of what we actually have makes me think of Indian summers and inspired me to create this necklace and matching cuff.

Indian Summer OOAK Necklace

What I’m most proud of in this piece is the beaded caps and closure.  I love wearing leather necklaces but don’t really like how they are usually finished, so I tried to improve on the finish by creating beaded end caps, I think they smarten up the whole look and I’m really pleased how they turned out!

Indian Summer OOAK Cuff







I really love how this cuff turned out! I love using the metallic silver leather!!! and I love the edging, it came out so pretty and the cuff looks amazing on!!!

More silver leather cuffs to follow as soon as I get around to working on the photos!
Till then… happy beading!

I LOVE Turquoise! :-)

OK… so I absolutely LOVE turquoise…. and I usually purposely try to stay away from it, because otherwise all I would ever wear, use, think about is turquoise!!!  But every so often I indulge myself and allow the turquoise to take over my life! :-)

I mentioned in my last post that I made some jewellery for my cousin’s daughter’s Bat-Mitzvah…. and that with her permission (which I got) I would post the photos of the gorgeous Bat-Mitzvah girl wearing the jewellery I made for her…. so here she is my gorgeous cousin modelling OOAK Triz Designs :-)

 

Note, she’s wearing a turquoise dress! :-)

For the Bat-Mitzvah party I bought myself this gorgeous teal satin top… so of course I wanted to wear something to go with it… and the ideas started flowing!!!! here are some of the pieces I made to go with that top…

Around & Around – Bead Embroidered Necklace

 
Around & Around – Bead Embroidered Silver Leather Cuff

Around & Around – Bead Embroidered Earrings

There are more… but the pictures didn’t come out too great so I want to retake them… unfortunately two weeks ago, if tripped over, fell down, somehow landed on my chest…. either cracked a rib or bruised it really badly and hurt my left hand pretty badly too… so I spent the last two weeks feeling very sorry for myself :-( + I was in quite a bit of pain, so didn’t do more than I had to… walked the dogs, looked after my son, helped with homework, did the washing… you know daily chores… and any spare time I had I spent it laid out flat on my back trying no too move too much to try and give my ribs a chance to heal… and just as they started to hurt less… I get a bloody stinking cold!!!!! So I thought before it gets worse and I end up in bed again, I would quickly post this…. the other pieces will have to wait till next time…

Till then, enjoy your weekend and carry on beading! :-)

Neptune’s Bride

I finally managed to photograph my new piece and entry for the EtsyBeadWeavers July Challenge “Here Comes the Bride…”

I say photograph, although I’m really not happy with how the photos turned out… they lack the sparkle and colour intensity of the actual piece… but for some reason I found it really difficult to photograph…. strange how some colours and pieces are harder to photograph than others…

I was inspired to create this piece as soon as I read the challenge theme chosen by Cielo Design, winner of the May Challenge and a dear friend!

I don’t think I ever finished a piece for any of the challenges as early as I did this one! But as I’m going on holiday at the end of June for a few weeks, I was worried I wouldn’t get it done in time, and am glad I did! :-)

Neptune’s Bride was inspired by the colours of the sea, I envisioned a mermaid and attempted to design a bridal piece that was classic in its design while at the same time using non-traditional colours. In Roman mythology Neptune was the god of water and the sea. This piece was designed for his bride.

I really love how this piece turned out!!! but what I’m most proud of is the necklace band (see left photo), beadwoven in Right Angle Weave, which is one of the most versatile stitches and the first beadweaving techniques I learnt, and embellished with tiny Japanese cubes. You really need to concentrate on this stitch when using it, as the direction changes continuously and it’s so easy to get lost. So not the quickest of stitches but by far one of my favourites! :-) and once embellished, one of the prettiest!

In the next few days I will post another piece I’ve been working on, but in the meantime…. have a great weekend!!!! :-)

Blue Lagoon Choker

Here is the Blue Lagoon Choker that I spoke about a couple of days ago... I had it all ready for posting, but I got distracted by a new piece, which I love even more than this one, and I love this one a lot!!!  the perfect complement to the Blue Lagoon Cuff!

The pendant is bead-embroidered with my current favourite colour teal....  I tend to go through colour stages... and at the moment, strangely enough for me, I'm on a gold roll... I say strangely for me, as I've never really been a gold person... I have always worn silver, and when I did buy or receive something in gold it's usually white gold... but all of a sudden, all I can see in my mind is these wonderful bright colours combined with gold... does it mean I'm getting old? ;-) are my skull-and-crossbones-silver-jewellery-hanging-from-a-piece-of-leather-days completely over???? well, ok, the skull and crossbones days have been over for a while, I just hadn't paid attention to it... :-)  however the silver pendant on a leather choker pretty much still exists, although since starting to bead, my pendants tend to be beaded and larger, but still hanging off leather :-) it's the repressed hippy in me! :-)

So in this crazed gold and bright colour roll I've almost finished a bead-embroidered cuff, all that is missing is the right clasp/closure for it (I will be checking the net today for just the right one).... and for the last 3 days I've been working on another bead-embroidered choker, also in gold, but with amethyst cabochons and ruby red Swarovski crystals.... I love this colour combination, it's so rich and majestic... and that's what I will be doing for the rest of the day... if my son can entertain himself (he's home from kindergarten with yet another ear infection, but he's ok... his ear is leaking which is why I'm keeping him home... a couple of days of eardrops and he will be back to normal and he's already expressed an interest in playing on the computer today, so my beading time looks pretty much un-threatened )

And one last thing.... my heart, thoughts, prayers go out to all the brave soldiers out there and their incredibly brave and strong families.... to all the mothers of these boys, I have no words.... praying that they all come home safe and sound, that this conflict will be over soon so the south can go back to normal living and in an idyllic world that there will be final lasting peace in the region with ALL our neighbours.... wishing everyone a safe, quiet shabbat shalom!!!!

Celeste Earrings

As the craziness of December is finally over, or is at least winding down... I find myself able to go back to all those projects that I didn't have time or energy to finish... and here is one of those project.

Believe it or not the earrings were almost finished a long time ago, all I had to do is attach the top part to the bottom.... would you believe it if I told you that it took me over 3 weeks to actually sit down and do it?!?! talk about procrastinating... I'm almost ashamed! :-)  I don't know why but there are times when the design is so close to completion and nothing on this earth would actually make me sit down to finish it! why??? I'm not lazy... there are just so many distractions... mainly in my head, with ideas for new pieces... and I just have to move on to the next piece.... it's all very well, until I find myself confronted by tons of pieces that are in the almost-finished-stage... with still more stuff cluttering my little brain! :-)

Anyway, here they are: Celeste Earrings - Bead-embroidered around white Quartz and Jade cabochons in gold glass beads and greeny-blues Swarovski crystals - I just LOVE them!!!! I wish I had learnt how to bead while I was out and about partying in my 20s and 30s... I would have worn these to death!!! :-) now my idea of partying, is cuddling up under the duvet in front of the telly and hoping for 6 hours of sleep! :-) not much need for ear decorations :-)

Tomorrow I will post the Blue Lagoon necklace.... I'm still working on the photos... till then... happy beading!!! :-)

Blue Lagoon Cuff

 

Here it is... my first finished piece for 2009!!!! the first of the many projects that I've been working on for the last few weeks!!! :-) Funny, because this was actually the third I started... but with so many on the go at the same time, it's the one I felt like finishing first... for no particular reason.... or maybe because I just LOVE making cuffs. ...

Strangely enough it was inspired by my Frozen Waters Cuff, obviously the water theme... I was thinking of waters melting in the sun... in an effort to keep warm as the temperatures finally dropped and winter arrived... and I already miss summer :-) we've only had a few weeks of winter, so I can hardly complain :-)

 

 

 

I played around with lots of combinations, and cut up the cuff and restarted it more than 4 times till I finally got to this one... and as I was doing that the bead-embroidered centrepiece grew in height, which I'm really pleased with... I like the fact that it's not flat and that it has a rather domed effect....

The matching necklace, which was actually created first... I do tend to do things backwards... is almost finished, well it is finished, as soon as I find the time and inclination to make a bail for it... the actual bead-embroidered part was finished even before starting the cuff... what can I say... I'm a bit confused at the moment :-) 

For more information on materials, size,  etc. please check out my shop - or click on this link:  Blue Lagoon - Cuff