Sunday, October 19, 2008

Hope Has A Place

Here is my latest work...a pendant for Fiona, a friend of my Mum.

Fiona and I have never met, however she was kind enough to donate to me (through Mum) a number of beautiful necklaces which she no longer wears, with the hope that I could re-purpose the beads. These beautiful necklaces contain such treasures as Labradorite and Lapis. I'm saving these special beads for a special project.

Fiona is battling breast cancer...so I wanted to make a necklace both to thank her for her amazing generosity, and to empower her during her ongoing battle. I bought a beautiful Sodalite cabochon a few weeks ago and when I read up on the stone's properties, discovered that it promotes inner peace and belief in oneself. It was a perfect match!

Driving home one day and thinking of the pendant, Enya suddenly came on my iPod singing 'Hope Has A Place'. It seemed a fitting title for Fiona's pendant.



Pendant detail:



Back of pendant:



I've been wanting to try a fabric backing on my bead embroidered pieces, so Fiona's pendant was my first effort. I'm quite happy with the result and look forward to experimenting with this idea further. The beautiful patterns add a nice touch to the pendant, I think. Something different to the norm anyhow...which is always a good thing.

Moroccan Pendant

I can finally post some pictures of my Moroccan pendant. I've been sitting on it for some weeks now...it was a hush-hush project for a swap on the Beading Forum.



Detail:



The pendant now has a home with the very talented Jo of Cranberry Berry-Licious Beads. At 10cmx10cm, it's more of a wall hanging than a pendant.

I suggested that Jo could also use it as an emergency distress beacon should she ever find herself lost in the wild.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Colour theory

I have had a fascination (read: obsession) with colour for as long as I can remember.

As a child, I would rearrange everything into rainbow-coloured order. (For my colour-naive readers, that order would be red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Take notes as I will be asking questions later.)

Everything included the books in my bookcase, the pencils in my pencil tin, the anodised aluminium cups at my Grandpa's house...

Nothing has changed...I still HAVE to arrange things in rainbow order.

*twitch*

And I'm afraid my obsession is even starting to effect my one year old daughter. Her wardrobe is sporting an unusually high number of rainbow-coloured outfits...

Being so driven by colour, it's not surprising that my beadwork is usually colourful. It takes all of my self-restraint to create a piece in a subdued, 'adult' palette. I guess I'm a child at heart. I'll always love rainbows.

With the hope of awakening the colour obsession within you, here are a few of my favourite colour theory websites:

Margie Deeb is the master and guru of colour theory for beaders. *all hail the master* She has written numerous books on the subject and I think any beader would find these an invaluable resource. Her absolute passion for colour really comes through in her writing. I highly recommend a visit to Margie's website!

Color Matters is a interesting website on colour theory. This website contains information on everything from the basic principles of colour theory, to the effects that colour has on the body, to quirky factoids about colour. Did you know that turkeys have several flaps of skin around their head and neck which change colour depending on their mood? No, neither did I.

Color Hunter is a very handy colour palette generator. Simply upload your favourite picture and it will provide you with a colour palette based on that picture. Nifty!

Worqx is a comprehensive resource and offers a wonderful tutorial on colour theory. Highly recommended!

Happy days

You may recall my 'Sunflowers' neckpiece and my contemplation on entering it in the Sydney Bead & Gem Competition?

Well, I entered...

And I am now a proud finalist in the Finished Jewellery category!

*grin*

I am utterly delighted.

But with the delight comes some minor disappointment...I won't actually be able to attend the show in person. We are in Brisbane until Oct 16, so I will miss the entire Bead & Gem Show (and the opportunity of seeing my work on display with the best of them) by a measly four days.

Alas, it was not meant to be.

This is the first time I have put myself out into the public arena. What a thrill! But damn, it's terrifying. The fear of rejection, and of being 'judged', was almost enough to stop me from entering in the first place. But on the advice of the lovely and ever-sage Bianca, I donned my beaded armour and decided to just go for it.

And now I'm really glad that I did... :)