Arearea - Joyousness

I finally finished my new bead embroidered bag Arearea – Joyousness. I honestly never thought it would get finished!!! :-) but each and every single stitch and bead was put there with so much love and enthusiasm, because I absolutely LOVE this bag and LOVE how it turned out!!!!

I created this bag for the Bead Art Originals (BAO) Team’s December challenge. The challenge was to create a piece inspired by one of our favourite famous works of art; a famous painting, sculpture, photograph, etc...

The painting I chose is Paul Gauguin’s Arearea – Joyousness (1892)

This is one of my all-time favourite paintings and I have a postcard of it (that I purchase in some museum about 15-18 years ago) pinned to my note board next to my computer.

I love this painting for so many reasons, the composition, the exotic feel to it and the colours. Both the exoticism and the colours are what inspired me to create this bag.

The bag is made entirely by hand (hand stitched) in chocolate brown genuine suede, and is lined in bright purple Ultrasuede, beadembroidered around three gorgeous MAKUstudio One-of-a-Kind ceramic cabochons (1 heart and 2 discs), beautiful Swarovski crystals in Montana Sapphire, burn orange and Golden Shadow, Swarovski Crystal Copper elongated bicones and loads of multicoloured fresh-water pearls all beadembroidered with Japanese seed beads in light bronze, dark copper, Swarovski Montana Sapphire crystals and Czech copper bugles.

The strap is a gorgeous and sturdy beadwoven spiral rope encrusted with the Swarovski Montana Sapphire crystals and the multicoloured fresh-water pearls.

I have fallen heads over heel in love with this bag!!!! I must make a similar one for myself, as soon as I can find the time!!! :-)

Let me know what you think & wishing all who celebrate it a very happy Hanukkah!!!

Please visit the BAO team blog, http://www.beadartoriginals.blogspot.com between the 16th and 20th of December and vote for your favourite entry by leaving a comment on the blog post.

A Hazy Shade of Winter – Wrist Bag

I’ve been incredibly sporadic with my postings for the last year…. sometimes it’s because I’m beading…. sometimes it’s because I just don’t feel like writing… well I’m happy to say that the reason I’ve been silent lately is because I’ve been busy beading! :-)

A Hazy Shade of Winter is my entry for the EtsyBeadWeavers’ December Challenge “Simon & Garfunkel – The Songs of Inspiration”. I love that song and its title inspired the colours for this new bag, the first in a new line of beadembroidered bags I will be creating for my shop.

A Hazy Shade of Winter – OOAK Wrist Bag

I’m so pleased with how this bag turned out!!!!! I love everything about it!!!! from the beadembroidery to the crocheted rope!!!

The bag was designed around one of Lisa Peters Art’s gorgeous handmade ceramic cabochons, grey Swarovski crystals, smokey grey Czech glass cabs, antique silver, antique gold/bronze, metallic black iris and ivory Japanese seed beads. The strap was crocheted with metallic black iris Japanese cubes.

I’m 3/4 of the way through a second bag… but it’s taking me longer than I expected… so I might not finish it before next week, but as soon as I do, I’ll post the photos!

Please visit the EBW blog, http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com between the 9th and 15th of December and vote for your favourite entry.

And to all who celebrate it…. Happy Thanksgiving!!!! :-)

It Only Took 5 Years….

Around 5 years ago, I went past my local bead shop (which no longer exists), and saw that they were offering beadweaving classes… I enrolled… and the reason I did so was because I wanted to make bags and incorporate some beaded elements on the bags…  that was 5 years ago!!! :-) My beadweaving repertoire has definitely grown since those early days and finally I designed (and made) my first bead-embroidered bag!!!!

It isn’t perfect… and there is definitely room for improvement, especially in the finishing and edging (which I’m not 100% happy with – yes, I’m a perfectionist! :-D)… but it’s good enough for me and I have been using it everyday!!! :-) I do love it!!! it’s the perfect size for walking around with enough room to fit my mobile phone, my keys, a small wallet, some tissues… you know, all the essentials! :-)

It wasn’t easy, and it took me way too long to complete… I think partly due to the fact that I was really worried about screwing up the suede (which isn’t cheap).. it took me about 4 1/2 days to complete, which is way too long, and am hoping that the next one will take about half the time…

I used one of Lisa Peters Art’s gorgeous large cabochons/tiles that I've had in my collection for a while and thought this would be the perfect project for it, and some lovely Swarovski crystals that complemented the colours depicted in the cab.

The beadembroidery was done directly onto the suede, which I’m not so sure I will do again, because when I wanted to unpick, it left holes in the suede (in this case it didn’t matter as the piece grew larger and covered the bits I unpicked, but in the future it might be a problem… I think next time I will bead onto beadbacking and then add it to the suede/leather.

I’m dying to make another one… although am a bit apprehensive about how long it took… well I’m a bit apprehensive as I’m not completely comfortable with how to finish it, so I guess the next one will be experiment number 2! :-)

Let me know what you think… .and if you have any ideas for the edging I would be very grateful to hear them! :-)

Happy beading everyone!!! :-)

More Retro Cuffs

I’m not quite myself lately and it seems that every little thing is taking me forever to do… I have to get used to a whole new schedule as my son didn’t want to go to the school afternoon programme anymore, which means I pick him up at 1.45 pm everyday and of course have to give him lunch! :-) and then play with him… I’m not used to this middle of the day interruption to my work schedule so I’m completely thrown off my routine…. and I really don’t like change!!! :-)

I’m sure I will get used to it, eventually…. I hope so!!! :-)

Trying to fit in beading has been almost impossible… taking photos even worse… and blogging… well you know when the last time was that I managed to post anything… so tonight I’m staying up late just to do all of the above and here are (finally) the last four cuffs I made a few weeks ago:

Retro Drop – Cuff

This cuff (above) was created around one of Golem Design Studio’s gorgeous pendants. Yes, I did say pendant… I like using pieces that fit my design ideas regardless of whether they are supposed to be used that way or not :-)

Retro Square – Cuff

Retro Square Black & Mustard – Cuff

Retro Square Red & Purple – Cuff

As you can see, I really like making these leather cuffs!!! and every time I sell one, I somehow make two more! ;-) I just love playing with different colour combinations and variations of this design + they look so gorgeous on!!!

Hopefully this weekend I will get some actual beading done…. I can’t go on more than a week without picking up needle, thread and beads… that’s ridiculous!!! I just hope my son can entertain himself and leave me some nice chunks of time where I can totally submerge myself in my beading!!! :-)

Till the next time…. :-)

For the Love of Andrew

Andrew Thornton is an incredible artist and is dealing with cancer and the hoard of medical bills that come with it. The EtsyBeadWeavers have been donating some of their gorgeous beadwork to send money to the Andrew Thornton Medical Bills Fund.

Here is my donation:

Purple Balagan

This piece is on Sale (25% off) $187 instead of original $250 and 100% of the proceeds will go directly to the Andrew Thornton Medical Bills Fund.

Please check out the EBW treasuries featuring donations for this fund here:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cbf44f812b58eef61ca2377/for-the-love-of-andrew?index=1

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4cc1d04a5ccc8eefc04f22b6/pay-it-forward-andrew-thornton-medical?index=0

and if you are doing some early X-mas or Hanukah shopping what better way than to purchase something from these treasuries and know that your money is going to help a fellow artist though some very difficult times.

Waiting for Autumn

It’s been an incredibly long and hot summer here!!!! Temperatures have rarely gone below the 30 degrees centigrade since around May!!! We had 2 glorious days (10 minutes each day) of rain and a drop of about 5 degrees… making us all think that autumn had finally arrived…. well after the second heat wave this week and temperatures back up to 32+… we are still waiting!!!! The only difference, thankfully is that the humidity is down and the evening are a bit cooler…. but it’s almost the end of October… even I, who hates rain, is hoping for some relief soon!!!

Ethan is back in school and I’m back in my studio (bedroom) beading my little heart out!!!! I made 5 cuffs and am 3/4 of the way through finishing a beadebroidered bag!!!

This is the first of those cuffs – as soon as I saw the gorgeous MAKUstudio raku cab I thought of the autumn that isn’t quite here… the colours are just so gorgeous – gold, bronze, green with flashes of red, and with that bright green leaf in the middle it really depicts the colours of our so-called autumn!

Waiting for Autumn – OOAK Cuff

The MAKUstudio raku cab is surrounded by bronze and green Japanese seed beads and dark brown Swarovski pearls. The cuff is covered with genuine leather on top and chocolate brown Ultrasuede on the inside – I love how this cuff turned out!!! Let me know what you think… in the meantime I’m going to go and have a nice refreshing shower trying to escape the sweltering heat!!!