Tribal Dance – take 2

Remember my post not long ago about a soutache piece, Tribal Dance, where after I had finished it and taken photos the beads peeled?  Well, I was so upset about it (and still am) and I wanted to make another piece using the same colours… and this is what came out:

Tribal Dance – OOAK Soutache necklace

Although it didn’t come out anything like the first one… I love this one just as much if not even more!!! Really happy with how it turned out and how it looks on!!!

I’m really loving this soutache technique!!! Still learning… and trying out different things with it…. but am definitely loving it!!!

And now… back to the beading table!!! have a wonderful weekend!!!

Tribal Dance… gone wrong!

This post is not what I was expecting to write today…. in fact, completely the opposite.  I was going to write all about my new soutache necklace and how it took me two and a half weeks to make it… how the design developed… how I felt as though I was giving birth throughout the process… and the excitement of having given birth to this piece… and how happy I was with how it turned out.

Well this morning as the sun came out I took photos of my new piece… worked on them… and was just about to write a description for my listing… when I noticed some of the turquoise beads peeling!?!?  At first I thought it was a bit of fluff… so i tried to wipe them gently with my fingers…. and then the realization that two and a half weeks of intensive labour had just gone down the toilet!!!! Upset???? that would be the understatement of the year!!!! I’m literally fuming!!!!  I guess my only comfort is that they peeled before it was sold and shipped… I would have been mortified to have sold a piece and found out that the colour of the beads had peeled off after the customer had received it!!!

So here is the necklace (prior peeling):

 

I was so, SO pleased with it…. and here is a close up of the part that started to peel (see turquoise rectangular beads, bottom 2 have peeled to white):

I guess what I will do is peel off the rest of the turquoise beads, so that they are all white and keep this piece for myself :-)  at least I’ll get to use the necklace… and it will look great on me this summer :-)  as for those pesky turquoise beads…. the dustbin seems like an appropriate place for them!!!!

as for me…. I’m calling it a day and am going to hide under my duvet!!!

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!

Peacocks… my version :-)

It’s 4.23 am… and I’ve been up for over an hour!!!  I wouldn’t mind, as I usually wake up around 4 am every day…. check my e-mails, facebook, etc…. and I’m usually out the door by 6.15 am for my run with the dogs… but tonight I’m teaching and have no idea how I’ll be able to stay awake and sound coherent! :-) I hope I can mange a nap at some point during the day… so I thought… I’m up… I have a blog to post… so here I am! :-)

In the last post I mentioned I had loads more pieces to show you and here are some!

These pieces were inspired by the colours of peacock feathers (or at least the way I see them in my head) :-) The peacock colours are represented in my choice of the Swarovski crystals I used.

Peacock OOAK Necklace

 Peacock OOAK Asymmetrical Cuff

Peacock OOAK Earrings

Yesterday, as I waited for my son to finish his swimming training (2 hours), I had the bright idea to take all my almost finished pieces with me, and instead of going for a run or reading a book (which is what I usually do when I’m there), I managed to finish 4 pieces!!!! Hopefully today, weather permitting, I’ll be taking photos and hopefully should be posting them around the weekend… so stay tuned! :-)

Till then… have a great one!

Belt Buckles

I’ve been very quiet… and absent… just finding it difficult to be a fulltime single mum and manage the rest of my life at the same time… I think it was easier when my son was little and had naps during the day but he’s 8 now and between homework, taking him to his extracurricular activities, dealing with the mountains of washing and dishes… and lets not forget simply loving him and being with him… there comes a point when I just can’t do more… so this year I guess I reached that point and although I may not have been terribly active on my blog it doesn’t mean that I have not been beading!!! :-)

During the summer I managed to make quite a few pieces and I have finally gotten around to taking  photos… and here are two of my newest pieces!!!

I’ve been meaning to make belt buckles for the longest time…. for two reasons, first, I love them and wanted to make some for me to wear with jeans and second, because they are fun quick projects to make and best of all I can use all my left over beads and don’t need to worry about quantities… I have a lot of leftover beads… so expect some more belt buckles in the future!!!

So here are my first two belt buckles:

Southwestern Belt Buckle Bead Embroidered in Silver, Black, Turquoise, Coral and Ivory

    

Large Boho Belt Buckle Bead Embroidered in Brown, Turquoise, Orange and Ivory on Brown Leather

    

There are loads more pictures of new jewellery to post (and loads I still have to take)… Hopefully after the weekend I’ll be able to put some more up.

Wishing all a fantastic weekend ahead!!!

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! :-)

Barrettes!

A few weeks ago I was asked to teach a bead-embroidered barrette workshop… so I got busy making a few barrettes to show the class different variations and of course to write the instructions… These instructions are now available as a tutorial here:

For a better look at the actual barrette, see the photo below:

Silver & Turquoise Bead Embroidered Beaded Hair Barrette

So I made a few of these, one to leave as a sample where I teach, one for my shop, one for myself :-) and then started making a few variations, here is one:

Blue Lagoon - Hair Barrette

You may have noticed that I'm back on the turquoise!!!  I’m not apologizing for it… I LOVE turquoise!!! It is by far my favourite colour… so I’m sure they’ll be more to come! :-)

On a personal note, my best friend went back to London… it was great having him around… and Ethan had a ball with him!!!

Here’s a couple of pictures taken of him & Ethan goofing around (hmmm good job he doesn’t check my blog too often cos I know he’s not going to be happy about the ones of him diving at the pool… honestly he can dive, I just had a really hard time catching him in the act… poor lighting as it was raining + using my mobile camera)

A few minutes before the rain…

  

A few minutes after the rain…

and although the temperature here is still pretty high… I guess him going back to London marked the end of the Summer for Ethan and I :-(

so now… back to work… and back to beading!!! :-)

Almost 3 Months!!!

I cannot believe it’s been almost 3 months since my last post!!! Shocking! Shameful!! Terrible!!!!  and for some of that time I have some excellent reasons (excuses)… I went to London in the summer, stayed with my baby sister and her family – had a great time… the highlight of my holiday (apart from spending time with my sis and my lovely nieces) was going to the Lollibop Festival where I was picked out of the crowd whilst watching the AMAZING performers Osadia… and this is how I looked afterwards :-) 

Photography by Size Barnes

Bare in mind that I had to ride the bus through London and go to Friday night dinner at my parents looking like this!!! :-) What an amazing experience!!! if you ever get the chance to see Osadia perform… go and see them!!!

Also, whilst in London my son and niece celebrated their birthdays… so I made cakes, of course! :-) Ethan wanted a ghost castle and my niece a beehive

and whilst there… and because I don’t have any nice pictures of my son and I together, my friend Dawn, who is a photographer, took some gorgeous pictures of us, here are two of my favourites:

Photography by Dawn Aitman

and then we did come back home, but Ethan was still off school… so I spent lots of time with him at the pool… summer holidays ended… school started again…

and I went back to teaching workshop…

So, through out it all, I found it hard to sit down and do some serious beading… but somehow managed to make (and finish) these two new piece:

Tropical Waters – Necklace

Tropical Waters – Cuff

 

I have a few more pieces on the go… and hopefully as soon as my friend Michael, who came to stay for two and a half weeks,  goes back to London (yes, yet another wonderful distraction)… I will bury my face into my beads and get some more pieces finished… till then… HUGE apologies for not having been around for so long… but sometimes life takes over and thankfully this time it was all good! :-)

Happy beading everyone!!!

Sinai Glitz

Anyone who knows me well knows that I LOVE turquoise and love ancient Egypt art & jewellery… a while back I bought two lovely turquoise vintage glass cabs depicting an ancient Egypt figure… so I had to use them… and this is what I made:

Sinai Glitz – OOAK Cuff

The colours remind me of the landscape in Sinai… turquoise skies, copper/red mountains, scorching hot sun (gold) and the cuff of course inspired me to create these earrings (which I absolutely adore!!!) 

Sinai Glitz – Earrings

I started working on the second cab… supposedly to make a matching necklace… but no ideas have come to fruition yet…. we’ll see… and a week ago I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow BAO member, Janice Abarbanel of Naftali who is visiting Israel and who makes the most beautiful polymer cabs and jewellery… we met in Tel Aviv  and we went bead shopping of course!!! I got some beautiful coral and turquoise beads as well as some gorgeous dark blue and copper Cryscholla cabochons (which I'm yet to decide if to use with my metalwork or with my beadwork)… I had so much fun!!! it was so lovely meeting Janice!!! and look what she gave me from her own jewellery line…

This pendant is soooo beautiful… my photo really doesn’t do it any justice… and it looks even better on!!! So very sweet of her!!!  My only regret is that I didn’t take pictures of our meeting… I forgot I have a camera on my mobile… Janice however did, and I hope it comes out, as I would love to have a memento of our meeting in Tel Aviv.  If you are not familiar with Janice's work, I would definitely recommend heading over to her website http://janiceabarbanel.com/ and her etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/Naftali (although at the moment her etsy shop will look empty as she’s on holiday and her shop is on vacation mode till 14th July).

Ok… now lets see what I can do with that second cab…

Till the next time :-)

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!

Revisiting Old Friends

If you knew me really well…. you would know that I consider a little trinket hanging over a piece of string or leather, my most prized possession!!! Apart from when I get dressed up and actually go out…. which is so (soooooo) rare lately, I love wearing really simple jewellery…. the same sort of jewellery I wore when I was 16!!! :-) OK… so I’m immature and refuse to grow up + I’m a rebel at heart! :-)

About 2 years ago, I made this pendant which was so perfect for me! So I decided to keep it!!! If you have been following my blog you may have seen it… and in case you are new or have simply forgotten here are my posts from 2 years ago:
http://triz-beadingmania.blogspot.com/2008/07/not-sure-where-this-is-going.html
http://triz-beadingmania.blogspot.com/2008/07/keeping-it.html

One of my favourite pieces of jewellery I own!!!

I wear this all the time…. and I mean all the time! I go swimming with it (something I would definitely not advise anyone to do, especially with beadwoven jewellery), shopping with it, walk the dogs in it… basically anytime I want to wear something turquoise and I don’t want to ruin some of my other prised possessions… I wear it! :-)
Whilst wearing it…. during the last 2 years… I’ve been complemented on it… by people who usually wouldn’t even look at jewellery… but in the last month, people actually asked me to make them some… so of course I obliged :-) I made a smaller version for a lovely lady I met at my gyno!!! :-) and 2 more for a mother and daughter who come to Israel on holiday every year and we became friends last year at the pool…. so I thought… why not make a few more of these to sell in my Etsy shop… and I did! :-)

Zebra Jasper Donut - Pendant

Turquoise Mosaic donut - Pendant

Larvikite Donut - Pendant

I really enjoy making these!!! so as soon as I can find some more donuts that I’m happy with (I’m really, REALLY fussy) I will probably make more!!! :-)

I know these are very simple… but I love their simplicity and design…. having said that, come back tomorrow and check out a gorgeous, GORGEOUS new bead embroidered piece I made for this month’s Bead Art Original colour challenge!!! the challenge is: Black, dark green, copper and bronze (optional). I’m debating whether I should part with it… that’s how much I LOVE it!!!