Solaris necklace...and another starfish

My latest custom orders have been shipped off to their new owners, and I'm still waiting with baited breath to find out whether they are happy with them.  The suspense is killing me!  I need to know that they love what I have created for them.  I need to know that I have read their minds correctly and have brought their vision to beaded fruition.


So whilst I'm waiting impatiently, I will show them here and ask what you think.


The client wanted a necklace to wear to the office.  She liked my 'Angelus' necklace but didn't want the large angel-like pendant hanging from the centre, and she wanted it in beige tones, not silver.  The result is a VERY simple necklace...so simple, in fact, that I had to ask my husband to tie my hands behind my back so I wouldn't embellish it anymore.  


Less is more, less is more, less is more...  


The Czech fire-polished beads in copper lustre add a little sparkle without being too over-the-top.  The finished necklace reminded me of rays of sunlight (ok, so you might need to squint your eyes...and use your imagination a little...), and so I have named her 'Solaris':

A sweet little seven year old is the recipient of the following necklace.  She loves the ocean and all its creatures, and turquoise is her favourite colour (well it is this week, but she reserves the right to change her mind...she is seven, after all).  So a starfish was in order.  But this starfish is different to my other starfish...because it has a backside!  It hangs from a looooong tubular herringbone rope so that the little darling can slip the necklace straight over her pretty head.  What seven year old wants to be fiddling with a clasp!  

I am still planning on offering a free tutorial for my starfish, particularly now that I have my swanky new 21.5 inch iMac complete with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and the works.  So I will try to squeeze it in somewhere between designing my website, fulfilling custom orders, creating new designs, entering competitions, looking after my two babies, loving my husband, cleaning the house, brushing my teeth... 


Did I mention that I've given up sleep?


Be well!

The Garland of Galatea

She is finally complete! My entry into the Beading Forum's monochromatic 'Rockpool' challenge was a labour of love over many weeks. I'm sad that she is finished, she was such a delight to create :-)

Using tones of teal and turquoise, I set about recreating rockpool creatures in tubular herringbone and peyote stitches, circular peyote stitch, and simple fringing. Each creature is three-dimensional and was created as I stitched, none of my designs were pre-planned. Experimenting and playing brings about unexpected and delightful results!

The finished necklace looked like it would be at home adorning the neck of a sea nymph. Galatea was a sea nymph in Greek mythology and one of the Nereides, 50 nymph-goddesses of the sea. And so "The Garland of Galatea" was born...

Detail photos of various urchins and anemones:

Detail of the toggle clasp, a miniature urchin!

Detail of some of the starfish:

As each creature is dimensional and individually fabricated, I took my time ensuring that the reverse side was as attractive as the front! Here is a photo of the reverse side of the necklace, and detail photos of the reverse sides of some of the urchins and starfish:

If you managed to make it through all of the photos without your computer self-destructing, I applaude you! And I welcome your comments :-)

Now that she is finally complete and I'm 39 weeks pregnant, I guess I should start thinking about giving birth... LOL

Something for me

I don't wear a whole lot of jewellery. A pair of simple earrings every now and then, if I'm lucky. As a piece of jewellery and a toy are basically one and the same to an inquisitive (read: destructive) 19 month old, my daughter's curiosity prevents me from wearing any of my more elaborate creations. So something simple and wearable was the order of the day.

Following much the same formula as Mum's necklace (see previous post), I whipped up this dainty little number for myself from Czech seedies, pressed glass leaves, glass drops and rondelles, and Czech fire polished beads:

It is very basic, nothing too fancy. But it is wearable. And I'm rather happy with the floral clasp, it holds very well so there is no worry that the necklace will inadvertently fall off.

My love affair with herringbone stitch continues. What a versatile little stitch it is, I can't believe I didn't learn it sooner.

*Again, my apologies for the sub-standard photos...we'll be back home in Sydney next week and I'll have the light studio and digital SLR camera at my disposal once again.

Mother, Mother...

Here's a little something I whipped up for my lovely Mum as a gift for Mothers Day. Nothing says 'I love you' like some shiny new beads, thoughtfully and lovingly woven together! ;-)

I seem to have developed a new lust for herringbone stitch lately. As such, Mum's necklace is made almost entirely of tubular herringbone (and its variations) and simple fringing. Nothing too fancy, nor difficult, but it was a satisfying piece to put together.

And most importantly (and very much out of character for me!), it is actually WEARABLE! *gasp* I seem to have a penchant for making over-the-top, completely unwearable pieces...so I'm rather chuffed that I managed to muster enough self-restraint to make something Mum can wear often. Yay me :-)

It is made of Czech and Japanese seedies (sizes 11 and 15) in muted tones of cream and pastel blue and hematite, Czech pressed leaves and rondelles, and some gorgeous Czech fire polished beads.

Here she is:


Detail of the floral centrepiece:


The floral clasp (I was rather pleased with how this turned out):


More detail of the clasp (can you tell I like it?):

My apologies for the el-crappo photos, but I'm without my usual light studio and digital SLR whiz-bang camera...and have to make do with our el-crappo happy-snap camera until we're home again *sigh* The photos don't do justice to the gorgeous Czech fire-polished beads, etc.

This necklace doesn't have a name as yet, and I'm stumped...any suggestions?

Symphonie de Tulipes

My Dutch Spiral Challenge piece is finally complete. Six weeks of learning, experimenting, hair-pulling, frustration, elation...phew!

I had never 'engineered' a piece as complex as this before, so it was a challenge on many levels but I thoroughly enjoyed (almost) every stitch. During the construction of this necklace, it became apparent how little I really knew about beadweaving. The learning curve has been steep, but satisfying. And the end result is a piece I can be proud of:

Symphonie de Tulipes

(Symphony of Tulips)

My 'Symphony' contains no less than six different beadweaving techniques...four of which I had never tried, and had to learn for this challenge:

*Brick stitch
*Odd-count peyote
*Tubular peyote
*Two-drop herringbone
*Tubular herringbone
*Dutch spiral

The necklace can be worn a number of different ways, thanks to a tubular peyote loop which slides up and down the tubular herringbone 'stems'. As above, or like this:

Or like this:

The entire piece laid out:

I spent many hours working on the design of my tulips. The jury is still out on whether they actually resemble tulips, but I'm fairly pleased with the end result as it was my first attempt creating dimensional flowers. I had fun experimenting with colour graduation, each tulip contains three different shades of seed beads. No two tulips are the same...each petal is different!

A close-up of the tubular peyote loop:

And the herringbone 'bell':

I was planning on making a beadwoven clasp, but simply ran out of time. Instead, I tapered off the dutch spiral ends using peyote stitch, and used a simple silver clasp. Voila!

If you managed to make it through all of those photos, you deserve a gold medal! Thanks for looking :)