First there were three….

In my previous post, I mentioned that I was working on 3 of LisaPetersArt’s beautiful ceramic cabochons… well I was… and I did… and then madness took over me and I cut them up!!!

So after spending two whole days embellishing the piece, I decided that I really LOVED the colours, and the cabochons, but the three together was just too much… I’d already started making the necklace strap for it, when it hit me how much nicer one flower would look on the necklace…. so off with the head! I chopped it! took the lining off, re-lined it, and beaded it again!!!

And here is what came out of my momentary fit! much nicer, I think… let me know what your opinion is, should I or shouldn’t I have cut it up… :-)

Water Lilly

I’m really pleased with how this piece turned out… now I have these 2 left (below)… what to do with them??? hmmmm…. :-)

Frozen Waters - Earrings

 

 

I'm so pleased with how the Frozen Waters earrings have turned out that I've already started making a second pair in a different colour.  Although it's really difficult for me to keep to such small dimensions, compared to my cuffs and collars, I really enjoy making these... it's so nice to be able to start a project and finish it in the same day! :-) instead of my usual days or weeks :-)

Sadly the pictures are not brilliant... this is the best one out of a lot of really bad ones...  lack of light, but I will take some more in a few days when I have a few more pieces to photograph and better light! :-)

 

 

 

These earrings are the perfect complement to my entry for  this month EtsyBeadWeavers' Snow Queen December Challenge. 

Frozen Waters - Cuff

Which reminds me voting is currently taking place at http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ vote for your favourite piece! voting ends 15th December!!!

Snow Queen EBW December Challenge

 

 

31 amazing entries this month!!!! WOW!!!! I have no idea which I'm going to vote for!!!!! They are all so beautiful, I think I have about 15 favourites!!!! I must narrow it down! :-)  Can you pick your favourite????

GO and check them all out at the EtsyBeadWeavers' blog and vote for your favourite!!!!!  Voting starts today 9th December and lasts till 15th, so don't put it off, cast your vote!!!!!!

My entry for the Snow Queen Challenge is # 11:
Frozen Waters Cuff

Vote for your favourite! http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

Water - work in progress - Part 5

After 10 days sick with the flu and most of it spent in bed, coughing, sneezing but mainly blowing my nose :-) I finally got round to tackling the strap for this bag.

I decided to try out a new technique - by new I mean new to me, I think it's been around for thousands of years :-) - Wrapped Rope - I have been meaning to try it out for some time now, and finally took this opportunity (10 days in bed) to finally do so :-)

I followed the instructions given in "Zulu - Inspired Beadwork" by Diane Fitzgerald - however, as I really don't like to be told what to do :-), I simplified them, instead of wrapping with two strings of beads I did it with one :-) The author states that this technique can be done with as few as one strand and as many as six. I'm not sure how I would handle 2 strands let alone 6!!!! I did find this technique, although simple, quite fiddely, it was hard to turn the fabric and hold the tension all at the same time, but then again this is my 1st attempt :-)

First I made 4 beaded beads in square stitch and passed my lovely turquoise silk (once a sarong) though them. Then I started wrapping the silk fabric with turquoise Czech beads.

I'm quite happy with the result, although there is definitely room for improvement :-) but as this bag is for myself, it's good enough :-)

One reason I really liked using this wrapping method is because the beading worked up really quickly. E.g.: it took about the same amount of time to bead one of the beaded beads (30 minutes) as it did a whole section of wrapping - so it could be said that it's about 3 times quicker or even more.

I will be introducing a beaded bag line, in addition to my beaded jewellery, sometimes in the near future, so stay tuned! :-)

In the mean time, if you are new to my blog and would like to see the previous posts on the progress of this bag from the start, please click on the links below:

Water - work in progress - Part 1

Water - work in progress - Part 2

Water - work in progress - Part 3

Water - work in progress - Part 4

Water - work in progress - Part 4

Yes!!! Ok!!! so it's becoming a bit of an epic :-) I am now on part 4 and it still isn't 100% finished!!! :-) having said that, I am thoroughly enjoying this!!!!

I've been sick since Friday... my son gave me whatever he brought home this week :-) I think it's the flu... or a really bad cold... not that I know the difference... in fact I don't even know if there is a difference :-) anyway.... so the last couple of days, even though I still felt like utter and total crap, I took my "water " piece to my room and spent the days in bed advancing with it... First of all I have to mention that this will not be going for sale... it is mine!!! all mine!!! :-) I just love it too much!! That and the fact that I have a terrible bag fetish which I have not been able to fulfil in the last couple of years, I ave decided that I'm keeping this one! I really, really love it + I'm so proud of myself for making a suede bag!!! I honestly didn't think my sewing machine would sustain the extra thickness... but it did!!!

Here's the body of the bag:

I made the outside with the suede from an old suede shirt I've had hanging in my cupboard for at least 9 years.... (I'm so glad I don't like throwing things out!!!!) I think I only bought it because I loved the suede and the richness of the colour... and it was relatively cheap... and now it's been turned into what will probably become my favourite bag of all times!!!! apart from my Fendi baguette that was stolen from my house by a house-guest years ago (but that is a whole other story, and am still hoping one day it will come back to me with the jewellery and watch that was also taken - so if you are reading... :-) and I do know who you are, no hard feelings, just please give me my stuff back!!! ... as I said a whole other story :-D) So, I was saying.... I used the old suede shirt for the body of the bag and for the lining I used one of those lovely designer sample fabrics that my neighbour gave me last week.... I think it may be silk, but am not sure...

For the flap I chose one of the heavier sample fabrics and then cut a square of suede of the same size. I then glued and stitched the bead embroidered piece onto the fabric, did some more embroidery, glued the fabric to the suede and beaded all around the joint pieces. And here is what came out :-)

I'm so over the moon with the result... and I'm definitely keeping this one for me :-)

I still have to make a strap for it, although I actually don't think it needs it, but for practical reasons, walking around holding one 3 1/2 year-old in one hand and the dog leash in the other, it makes sense to put a strap :-)

I sort of have an idea in mind involving an old silk turquoise sarong... and some beaded beads... lets see if it come out like I envision it... in the meantime, here is the back view of the bag:

obviously not finished :-)

Did I say how pleased and proud of it I am??? :-) amazing what one can do with an old shirt, some scraps and a few beads!!! ;-)

Come back soon and check out the finished piece :-)

Water - work in progress - Part 3

Remember "Water" work in progress? Yes, it has been a while but this piece has always been on my mind even when I've been working on something else. In case you want to refresh your memories of this piece here are the previous posts:

Water - work in progress - Part 1

Water - work in progress - Part 2

So my beading rut has thankfully ended and my beading angel seems to be guiding me once more :-) so I started playing around with the idea to incorporate this piece into some sort of bag. The funny thing is, when I first started beading, I started because I wanted to learn to make beaded components for my knitted bags, however.... I got so hooked (ok, obsessed!) with the actual art of bead-weaving that I forgot all about wanting to make bags.... but... this piece scrams to be on a bag... and my neighbour popped up the other day with a huge bags of fabric samples from the furniture shop where she works!!!! Of course I have to make something out of all these wonderful pieces of fabrics!!! so I started playing around with some ideas. Understand that I've only ever made knitted bags... I have no idea how to construct a bag.... I do know how to sew, I have a B.A. in Fashion Designs and obviously we had to learn how to sew, but I HATE sewing!!!! :-) seriously!!! beading is not sewing :-) So armed with little knowledge :-), lots of ideas and lots of enthusiasm, here is the slow advancement of "Water"!

Ok... so here you can sort of see where I'm going... sort of :-)

I've used bead-backing as backing for the suede. The gorgeous chocolate brown suede is recycled from an old shirt that never got really used, the fact that it's slightly distressed or at least doesn't look new adds interest and texture and I like it a lot!!! :-) and the beigy fabric is from one of the samples I received from my neighbour (you can see the bag of samples in the second photo from the top)

I have no idea if this will turn out or not... but I've dusted my sewing machine and have started making something.... a bit worried about attaching the lining to the suede and backing...

I have a bag fetish.... I love them, if I could I would have a zillion, as it happens I have quite a few, but not a zillion.... so this one may just stay in my collection... whatever the outcome :-)

Will be posting updates, so come back or subscribe to receive my monthly blog newsletter by e-mail (top right under "About me")

Water - work in progress - Part 2

It was all smooth sailing... I was really enjoying the progression and the way the design was developing.... but then.... I realised, after having beaded around the whole motif, that I placed one of the large beads in the wrong place!!!!! probably less than 1 cm, but that one cm makes all the difference to the rest of the pattern working. So after a LOT of hmming and phuuffing, and trying really hard not to cry :-) I realised that I had 2 choices... scrap the whole thing and start afresh, or cut the offending bead and its surrounding, re-stitch it in the right place and strengthen all the beads around the area to make sure that none would fall out. # 2 shows the problem and the arrow points to where it should have been. # 3 shows the newly placed corrected bead, the red dot marks where it was.

1. 2. 3.

I have to say, the thought of giving up came across my mind at least every five minutes... I wasn't sure how to carry on, what colour, what bead, what stitch, what pattern. I kept on taking breaks, I kept on looking through all my bead books for inspiration, still nothing!.... the only thing I was 100 % sure about was that I really liked the colour, so I decided to carry on with the turquoise seed beads, but I wanted to give it a lot of texture to contrast the bugles and the other lines, so I tried a new method (see # 5) and I individually stitched each bead, rather than in rows, I stitched them in all directions filling in the spaces as I went along. I'm very glad I did this I think it works really well.

4. 5. 6.

Now comes the hard part.... I'm really, REALLY stuck!!!!! The piece outgrew my original plan, up to now it measures c. 4" x 4", so now am not sure what to do with it!!! should I make it bigger, should I fringe it, should i scrap it? I honestly don't know... for now I'm leaving it and carrying on with other small projects, but I do want to finish it!!! I love how it looks! I just don't know what to do with it!!! arghhhh!!! :-)

Come back soon to see how it all ends :-) and if you missed part 1, here is the link: Water - work in progress - Part 1

And in case you haven't yet you can still go and vote for this month's EtsyBeadweavers' Fire and Flowers challenge. Go vote for your favourite!
http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

Water - work in progress - Part 1

I cleaned up my beading table.... I rearranged all my beads.... and as I said, new colour combinations have entered my thoughts.... I guess it's a logical progression from the Fire and Flowers challenge (voting currently taking place http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/)... the exact opposite... in colour, in temperature, in mood.... it extinguishes fire but provides life to flowers :-)

Here is my progress so far.... yet to be named, as I'm still unsure where it's going....

1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

This morning I went to the post office to pick up a package of cabochons that I ordered from JadeDogBeads. Within the package I received were these lovely Vintage Glass Pointed Oval Cabochons and they were the beginning of my colour selection.

Blue is one of my favourite colours and especially turquoise... I love turquoise!!!! and as summer approaches, you will see just how much I love turquoise.... there is always a period just before summer that all I can think is turquoise, so I usually end up making everything with some turquoise inside... in an almost obsessive way :-)

I started playing around with the white cabochons... and all I could think of is fish swimming around, so I angled the cabochons... just to try something a bit different.... we'll see how it develops...

Come back in a few days to see this piece progressing and of course the finished piece :-)

again, a quick reminder: voting is taking place at http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/. Don't put it off less than 6 days left! vote for your favourite!