The 6th Photo

My good friend, Nicole, invited me to participate in a fun little game called 'The 6th Photo'.

I have to show the 6th photo that I ever posted here on my blog, and critique it...what would I do differently, how could I improve it, etc, etc.

*gulp*

Here goes:

Eek, it's my first EVER attempt at bead embroidery!  Little did I know, that this piece was the catalyst for an enduring love affair with the technique.  I created this piece, 'Phoenician Scarab', for a 'Phoenician' challenge on the Beading Forum.


What would I do differently if I had my time again with this piece?  I would use better quality seed beads!  I have rarely worn this necklace, but the cheap silver-lined gold seed beads are looking rather ugly now.  The silver lining is turning black!  Lesson learnt, and now I only use the best quality Czech and Japanese seed beads ;-)  Aside from the cheap seed beads, I'm still rather happy with the design.  It's bright and bold...just my style!


Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Nicole!  Feel free to play along and critique your own sixth blog photo...make sure you leave a comment so I can come and take a look!


Thanks for looking, and be well!

An award or two

Sunshine is something that we are never short of here in glorious Western Australia. Having said that, I don't think you can ever get enough! Nothing lifts the spirits and gives us a feeling of wellbeing more than a good dose of vitamin D, I say ;-)

So I was delighted to receive the Sunshine Award from two of favourite blogging friends, Sharon of Mana Moon Studios and Nicole Campanella of Beadwright. Thank you ladies! You are both so special, thanks for adding a dash of sunshine to my life!

Here are the rules:

The rules for accepting the Sunshine Award are:

- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.

- Pass the award onto six bloggers

(it was initially 12 bloggers, but I'm going to follow Nicole's lead and split the difference!)

- Link the nominees within your post.

- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Here are some of my beading friends to whom I would love to send a little sunshine ;)

Andrea of Andrea's Beads & Fancywork

Anna of Il Mondo di Redanny

Joanna of Joanna's Blog

Margie of Marlier Designs

Nikoletta of Piky73

Karyn of Releases by Rufydoof

Speaking of awards, I was also fortunate to win the Czarina challenge on the Beading Forum with my 'Alexandra' necklace. Here's my pretty new badge:

I will have some more beadwork to show soon. And a pair of wire wrapped earrings! I've had fun playing with boiled egg as a patina on copper wire. A little bit smelly, a little bit hmmm...but interesting nonetheless.

In the meantime, have a great day and be well!

Bump, bump, bump

Some bump, eh? Almost large enough to bead off, I reckon ;-)

This photo was taken last Monday. Today I'm 38 and a half weeks pregnant...and even bigger! Amazing how much a baby grows in the last few weeks. I think he's finally running out of room though. If he grows any larger, I'll need to be carted around in a wheelbarrow.

Despite the lack of blog posts this month, I've been madly working away on a necklace for the latest challenge on the Beading Forum. I figure that after *Nemo* arrives, I won't have much time for beading so I'm making the most of it while I can! The theme is 'Rockpool' and the piece must be monochromatic, which is a challenge in itself.

I'm hoping to have my necklace finished by the weekend, or early next week at the latest. And if I'm really lucky, the sun might actually come out long enough for me to take some photos for your viewing pleasure.

I've convinced myself that *Nemo* will stay put until I've finished. My legs will be tightly crossed until then!

On a lovely sidenote, I've been bestowed with a "One Lovely Blog Award" by the lovely Julz ! Thank you Julz, you are such a sweetie for thinking of me ♥

Happy days

It has been one of those happy, happy days today...

I was delighted to receive the news that my 'Symphonie de Tulipes' won the popular vote in the Dutch Spiral challenge on the Beading Forum.

*chuffed*

This doesn't mean it is the best creation (how can there be a 'best' when each piece is beautiful and unique in it's own right?), nor the most technically challenging or well-crafted, nor the best suited to the theme. It just means that my peers like my work. One of those feel-good moments, to be sure.

Also, I passed my Boat Licence test this morning. So you can now address me as 'Skipper'. Heh ;-)

A typical sunset over the bay near home

Now, if only there were a way to combine beading and boating...

Neglectful

Sometimes I'm convinced that my life exists in a time warp. How else can two weeks vanish in the blink of an eye? Time has never really been on my side, and that seems to be becoming ever more apparent as I grow older.

So what have I been up to in the last few weeks (aside from neglecting my blog)?

A little bit of boating...

Our 17 month old daughter, India, playing Skipper

And a little bit of beading...

An as yet unfinished and unnamed botanical experiment created with RAW (right angle weave)...perhaps "Belindaflora Bigbellyus" would be appropriate?

I finally got my lazy pregnant butt into gear and also started working on my piece for the Dutch Spiral challenge on the Beading Forum. In a moment of beading madness, I decided that it would be a good idea to bead a 3-dimensional tulip.

Have I ever made a 3-dimensional flower before? No.

Have I ever beaded a tulip before? No.

I know the point of a challenge IS to challenge oneself, but sheesh, why do I always set the bar so high?

A tulip is one of those deceptively simple shapes. I thought it was going to be a breeze, but I was kidding myself. Did you ever have to draw a dolphin at school? You think, "A dolphin is a simple shape, how hard can it be to draw?" The answer is HARD! Unless you get the lines and the proportions just so, you end up with a creature which looks more like a hotdog with fins than a dolphin.

I was having the same problem with my beaded tulip. I estimate that I spent more hours unpicking stitches than I did actually stitching them. After a number of prototypes, I think I'm finally on track. My 3D tulip is looking more like a tulip and less like a deflated umbrella having a crisis of identity.

I attempted my first sample of dutch spiral last night and, much to my surprise, I really like it. If it weren't for the challenge, it would no doubt be yet another stitch on my 'must try that one day' list.

In other news, my darling friend Sharon of Mana Moon Studios has bestowed a lovely new award upon me and I haven't had a chance to blog about it yet. I'm sorry Sharon, I haven't forgotten! There is a really nice sentiment behind this award so I will dedicate a whole post to it :)

Shaken, not stirred

*Cue James Bond theme music*

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the words 'spy movie'? For my husband, it was HANDCUFFS. Read into that what you will... LOL

I had to agree with him that beaded handcuffs would perfectly suit last week's Year of Jewellery theme on the Beading Forum...SPY MOVIE!

Ever since buying Carol Wilcox Wells book 'The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving', I'd been wanting to try dimensional right angle weave (the book features a project for some fantastic 3D RAW beaded beads). Using the same technique from the book, I set about creating my beaded handcuffs.

With the usual week-long deadline looming, I had to simplify the design greatly. In fact, I was so short of time that I only managed to create the handcuffs, when I had been planning to make them into a necklace.

Here is the end result - made entirely of size 11 czech seed beads in 3D RAW and tubular peyote:



And a different angle which better shows the 'dimensional' part of the cuffs:



And yes, I'm aware that the handcuffs have no keyhole...I realised that fact by the time it was too late to add them... *doh* Ah well, there's no escaping these handcuffs ;) *mwahahahahah*

Despite much unpicking, hair-pulling, and learning as I went along, I'm keen to experiment further with 3D RAW. It has infinite possibilities. It's a technique which allows you to create structures that are not possible with any other stitch.

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.

Another lovely win

What a thrill...my 'Celtic Twilight' necklace received the most number of votes in this week's YOJ poll. So I have another lovely banner to add to my blog.

There were some beautiful pieces created for the Tuatha De Danann challenge, which makes my win all the more humbling. I don't feel as though my necklace was better than anybody else's. But it was a subject close to my heart...I do hope that my Celtic ancestors are pleased.

I enjoyed this theme and found it so inspiring that I'm planning on creating many more Celtic pieces. A Green Man is also on the cards. As always, so many ideas, so little time...

Celtic Twilight

The 'Tuatha De Danann' are an ancient race of Gods and Goddesses who feature in Celtic mythology. They are also this week's YOJ theme on the Beading Forum :D

Being of Celtic/Scottish descent, and a long-time lover of anything mythological and archaic, I couldn't pass up the chance to make something with a distinctly Celtic flavour.

And 'Celtic Twilight' is what I came up with:








I was particularly inspired by Brigid (pronounced 'Breet'), one of the more well-known of the Tuatha De Danann. She is considered a Celtic Triple Goddess, and I wanted to represent the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone into my piece...hence the three glass drops. The Celtic knotwork is a design which I found and modified to suit my design, and it hangs from an antique copper chain.

Doorways...

My first tutorial is in the works...

A little premature, you might say? Or vain?

Perhaps... but there is valid reason for doing so...

A lovely Beading Forum member adored my Sunflowers neckpiece so much that she requested a tutorial of my design. Not willing to provide step-by-step instructions for my entire piece (as I was contemplating entering it in a beading competition), but nonetheless flattered that someone was inspired by my design, I happily agreed to see what I could come up with for the centrepiece sunflower.

So stay tuned for my free sunflower tutorial in the coming weeks :)

Not long before making my necklace, I had bought a wonderful book by master beadweaver, Carol Wilcox Wells. Something in her introduction really gelled with me and stuck in my head... each of us opens doorways for others to pass through…

Her words really struck a chord in me, and rather than try to selfishly keep my designs and my ideas to myself for fear of being copied or outdone, I was inspired by Carol’s words to share what I know (which, mind you, is very little…but you never stop learning, no?).

I like the idea of inspiring others to find their own creativeness, spurred on by something I have designed. I don’t like the idea of others ‘copying’ my exact design (another reason I will only provide a blueprint for the centerpiece sunflower, and not the entire neckpiece). Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but I prefer flowers and chocolates, thank you very much.

Although I own a rather ridiculous amount of beading magazines full of beautiful beading designs, I have never made one of them. Not one. Zip. Zilch. Rather than copy what another artist has designed and created, I prefer to create my own interpretation of the part of their work that inspires me. By generously providing a tutorial on an element of my own creation, I hope to inspire others to create their own interpretation of my work. If someone is going to take credit for my design, it is more a reflection on the sort of person that they are. And besides, I hear Karma has a rather nasty bite ;)

If no-one ever shared their knowledge of beading, the art would eventually disappear and be lost forever. For the continuity of the art of beading, I am happy to pass on what little knowledge and ideas I do have. And I hope that they will be appreciated.

Ding, ding, ding - we have a winner

What do you think of my shiny new banner?

My 'Sunflowers' necklace received the most amount of votes in this week's YOJ challenge on the Beading Forum, so I got to take home this lovely banner.

Noice.

I'm particularly chuffed about winning this week as I put well over 30 hours work into making this piece...many hours of sleep were sacrificed during it's creation, so it's nice to have my peers recognise and appreciate the amount of work I put into it.

Sunflowers

Here is my latest and greatest.

Entitled 'Sunflowers', it was inspired by the sunflowers series of paintings by the master, Van Gogh. And predictably, it was made for another YOJ challenge on the Beading Forum...yes I know, I know, I'm an addict!

I started the large sunflower on Wednesday night, and the entire necklace was finished by Sunday morning. How's that for efficiency! Well, I haven't been getting much sleep lately with a teething 10 month old terror, so I figure I should make the most of my late nights by doing something constructive.

At this point, I'd like to thank my ever-supportive husband for putting up with my beading madness over the last few days. This necklace was BEGGING to be made, and it would still be a work in progress if it weren't for him. Thanks darling! *mwah*











I'm toying with the notion of entering it in the Bead & Gem Show Competition this year. However, as I only started beading earlier this year, I've never even been to the Sydney show and have no idea what the level of competition is like. Anyway, I may just try my luck...