What’s Been Going on + New Tutorial

Where do I begin???? I’ve been busy doing bits and pieces…  some custom orders… some classes…  some metal work… and a new tutorial!!!

First of all let me show you how my first pair of metal worked earrings turned out! :-)

 
Not bad, considering I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing!!! :-)  These earrings are made of copper, sawed, filed and textured (battered) with a hammer and then shaped with a wooden thingy majiggy (don’t you just love my technical jargon!) I think it’s called a dapping die set :-)

What I learnt from making these?  well… I’m not very good with the saw… I am very good at breaking the saw blades…. it’s going to take me a much longer time than I expected to make things… I guess my learning curve is pretty abysmal… I wish I could go to some classes :-)

Then… I got really excited because I found instruction for how to make those really cool leather wrap bracelets… I've wanted one for years!!! and now I have about 7!!! :-) I’ve been making one after another, some for me, some for friends, some as gifts for my son’s teachers for the end of the year…. some still have to be made… but in the meantime here are some of the ones I already made.

These are soooo much fun to make!!!! and I just can’t stop!!!! I even started making buttons for the closures out of copper…. with my newly found metalwork skills :-)

And finally I taught a workshop last week for my Rosette Earrings and now the tutorial is available in my etsy shop:

 

I think that’s it for now… I’m still working on finishing a bead-embroidered bag… I think I’m about 5 or 6 months into it!!! It will be finished soon… I hope! :-)

Wishing you all happy beading! :-)

Reflection & Resurrection

In the last few months I have not been the most productive… between an operation I had to have at the beginning of March, the 6 weeks convalescing that followed… and my dad being in hospital for the last month… well… lets just say my mind hasn’t been where it should be! :-)

I'm all healed up!!!… my dad is still in hospital but he’s doing much, much better… the hard part for me is being so far way from him… he’s in London… and I’m not :-( I did manage a quick trip to London for 4 days to visit him… and it was really hard leaving him there in hospital… but since I got back home his health has improved tremendously!!!

During my time convalescing, when I wasn’t allowed to drive, exercise, pick up stuff, do housework (which I really didn’t mind), basically was supposed to rest and heal… I found it quite hard to bead, as unfortunately beading does require a sitting position and  for the first month I wasn’t able to do so for more than 30 minutes at a time… this gave me lots of time to reflect on things… life… and everything else… and as soon as I could, I created these two pieces.

Reflection – OOAK Necklace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflection was created around a gorgeous MAKUstudio OOAK copper raku ceramic cab.

Resurrection – OOAK Necklace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resurrection was created araound some gorgeous polymer clay beads that I purchased a really long time ago from Valerie Aharoni.

I can’t begin to tell you how gorgeous these pieces are in the flesh… I found photographing them really difficult and I’m afraid I wasn’t able to convey their real beauty… and they look so incredible on!!! I love both of them so much and find it really difficult to pick a favourite!!!

As for other things… well I’m almost finished making another beadembroidered bag… but I lost my box of needles, containing my leather beading needles and as the back of the bag is leather I can’t finish it till I get some more needles… which reminds me… must do that today!!! :-)

I’m also working on some earrings for a workshop I will be teaching in the near future… apart from that…. just trying to get my life back on track…. still haven’t done any major housework :-) maybe if I did I would find the missing box of needles!!! :-) Nahh… I’m sure they’ll turn up eventually!!! :-)

Till the next time…. happy beading! :-)

My New Adventure!

It all started when I was looking for a ring for myself…. I had some idea in my mind of what I wanted… so I started looking on Etsy of course… and there were lots of gorgeous ring… but not exactly what I was looking for… and then I saw that Belinda Saville, who I knew for making really pretty beadwork, had started making metal (silver) jewellery… 

So I contacted her and asked her if she was interested in making me a custom made silver ring… she said yes! i was so excited because I really love her style!!! So we started e-mailing back and forth… she sent me photos of some of the stones she had and I fell in love with two!!! :-)  One of the stones was already in her possession, the other was on the way to her, so she started sketching some designs featuring this absolutely gorgeous labradorite….  and finally we agreed on one design that I fell in love with and couldn’t wait to see finished!!!  Belinda was an absolute pleasure to do business with!!! Apart from the fact that she is super-talented… she is one of the loveliest people I have “met” (through blogging)!!!

It wasn’t long till the ring was finished and not too long after that (seeing that I live in Israel and she’s in Australia) that the ring arrived!!! and oh my!!! the sketches, photos and not even my imagination could have prepared me for its beauty!!!! Absolutely gorgeous!!!!

 

And then came the second one!!! equally stunning!!!

I love… no, sorry… I LOVE both of them so much I wear them both every day, one on each hand!!! :-)

The whole experience was such a pleasure!!! and at the end of it I’m the proud owner of two stunning pieces of beautifully made jewellery that are so me!!!! :-)

So why am I telling you all this? apart from showing off my new rings and introducing you to a wonderful artist (in case you don’t know her already :-D)… well during the whole process I started talking to Belinda about making metal jewellery…. and she sort of gave me the courage to think that maybe I could try out this new (to me) medium… so I spent the last couple of months ordering tools to start me off… and oh my there are a lot of tools!!!  Bought loads of books on metal jewellery design… I painted my spare room… folded up the futon… I managed to get myself a professional jeweller's bench (second hand)…  and finally, yesterday I received the bulk of my tools from the US (birthday present from my dad, thank you daddy! :-D)… I spent all afternoon and half the night unpacking all my new toys and organizing them on my new desk….

Now all there is left to do is find the courage to actually turn that torch on!!! :-)  Not an easy thing for me… first I’m petrified of fire and burning down my flat and the whole building (I bought myself a fire extinguisher, not that I know how to use it!)… second my fear is preventing me from thinking of any ideas!!! So I though, as I’m so clueless, I’m going to start working with copper and bronze (so much cheaper to make a mistake on than silver) and rather than jump in with my own designs I’m going to work through some of the projects from the books I bought… hopefully without burning the building down! :-)

I will be posting my progress… but in the meantime go and check out the beautiful work of Belinda Saville who started this mad adventure!!! :-)

Belinda’s blog: http://belindasaville.blogspot.com/
Belinda’s shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/belindasaville
Belinda’s FB page: http://www.facebook.com/BelindaSavilleHandcraftedJewellery

* Photos of Belinda’s rings by Belinda Saville, used with her permission

Glam Rock

I’ve been so quiet lately… but I have a great excuse… I was in hospital and had an operation a month ago… the recovery is six week… all is well and as I'm regaining my strength I started to bead again!!! :-)

During my time in hospital and for the first 2 weeks thereafter I read everything I could find on metal smith, soldering in particular and some hammering… yes, my next new craze!!!! I’ve decided to expand my jewellery making repertoire into including metals… I have no idea what I’m doing, but have ordered all the tools needed to get me started… they should be here in about 2-4 weeks!!! :-) I’m so excited… and nervous… a bit scared of the torch… but I’ll give it a go! :-)

So my mind has been occupied with metals… which would explain the new pieces I created… very bold, very geometric and very clean design…

Here are three new pieces I’ve been working on for the last few weeks… yes I’ve been working/beading at a snail’s pace! :-) but my pace is picking up as I continue to feel better with each passing day! :-)

Glam Rock Black Leather Cuff 

Glam Rock Necklace

 Glam Rock Silver Cuff

 

I’ve got another necklace… but just as i was finishing it… I notice a mistake, so had to chop off some of it to redo it… but it will have to wait… hopefully I’ll finish it off tomorrow… in the meantime… I’m happy to be “back”! :-)

Wishing everyone, happy beading!!! :-)

Fashion Colorworks 2011

The second International Fashion Colorworks 2011 Beading Contest is being held by My Lovely Beads.

The first International Fashion Colorworks 2010 Beading Contest was a resounding success for all its participants: the contestants, the sponsors, the judges, and the bead lovers. 83 participants from 20 countries submitted 132 entries!

The second International Fashion Colorworks 2011 Beading Contest is on its way!

There are three categories: Seed Bead Jewellery, Finished Jewellery, and Beaded Objects and Accessories.

The entries for each category should be created in one of the chosen three Pantone Colour Institute fashion colours for spring 2011 colour combinations below:

The 1st colour combination:

Russet (CMYK: 44-67-76-9; RGB: 92614C)
Coral Rose (CMYK: 0-63-86-0; RGB: F47D39)
Blue Curacao (CMYK: 63-0-22-0; RGB: 4AC3CC)

 

 

The 2nd colour combination:

Lavender (CMYK: 33-32-0-0; RGB: A9A6D2)
Peapod (CMYK: 56-0-51-0; RGB: 71C59B)
Silver Cloud (CMYK: 25-19-23-0; RGB: C0C0BB)

 

 

The 3rd colour combination:

Regatta (CMYK: 73-28-0-0; RGB: 3397D3)
Silver Peony (CMYK: 3-13-15-0; RGB: F4DDD0)
Beeswax (CMYK: 0-30-78-0; RGB: FDBA51)

 

 

For the official contest rules and more details please visit:
http://www.mylovelybeads.com/contest/

 

I would love to take part, but unfortunately I will be away from the 6th March till after the deadline :-( but I cannot wait to see all the entries… last year they were amazing!!! Let’s see what this year’s contestants bring to the table!!!

Wishing you all best of luck in the contest!!! :-) Happy beading!!! :-)

New Tutorial! Marie Antoinette and Bloody Mary

My workshop went really well the other day… it was nice teaching again after a really long pause and I’m looking forward to teaching more in the future! :-)

The students made some beautiful variation of the leather cuff in lots of colours; khaki, black, red on black leather, brown… it was really nice seeing everyone pick their favourite colour and come up with a totally different look for their cuffs

Here is the tutorial for that class:

PDF Tutorial - Bloody Mary Bead Embroidery Leather Cuff - Instructions ONLY

This tutorial will show you how to embellish around a cab using Swarovski crystals and pearls. Here are two versions I made:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cabochon used for this tutorial is a vintage (c. 1940s) glass cab.  I have a few of these cabs available for sale (contact me for details) if you want to make the exact cuff, but you can substitute the cab with any other similar sized cab.

I think I’m going to make another colour today…. hmmm maybe a black version…. :-)

Wishing everyone happy beading and a great weekend ahead! :-)