Tis the season to be...beady

My plum-glazed ham was a runaway success. And we have enough leftovers to feed a small country for a week. Although in my current pregnant state where I *must* eat everything in sight, I doubt they will last long.

How was your Christmas, dear readers? Full of much merriment and mountains of food, I hope. Was Santa good to you?

I must have been a good girl this year (pah, well of course I was!). My stocking contained, amongst other lovelies, 'The Art of Bead Embroidery' by Sherry Serafini and Heidi Kummli. Seeing as I threw myself straight into the deep end of bead embroidery, not really knowing how to swim as such, it's no doubt a very good thing that I now have some guidance and guidelines to follow. I have already read it from cover to cover. It's worth buying for the gallery pages alone. Eye-candy, and then some.



Santa also gave me 'Creative Bead Weaving' by Carol Wilcox Wells. Having recently re-discovered the joys of my local library (I had been shirking the library for years, reasoning that it was only for geeky teens and middle-aged women with a penchant for Mills & Boon romances), I have borrowed 'Creative Bead Weaving no less than four times in the last six months. It's an essential resource for any beader, in my humble opinion. And now it's mine. All mine. *mwahahahahah*



I also received some Delicas in the most drool-worthy shades of purple. They are just begging to be woven into something fabulous. Watch this space.

So all in all, I guess you could say that I enjoyed a very beady Christmas. The best kind!

To all my beady friends and followers, I hope that Santa filled your stocking with much beady goodness. And to all my non-beady friends and followers, from someone who was a non-beader only last Christmas, you don't know what you're missing! Start writing your letter to Santa for next year now and make sure it includes BEADS!

Paradise in Purple (Heather's Garden)

I can finally post some photos of my latest creation. It was a hush-hush project, a Christmas present for my wonderful Mum :) And as she's my biggest fan, she's a frequent visitor to my blog (Hi Mum!) and I didn't want to spoil the surprise before Christmas.

So here it is...Paradise in Purple (Heather's Garden):

It is a bead embroidered choker-style necklace. Many, many hours work. It probably didn't help that I changed my mind at least three times during the process about what I was making...it started as a collar, then became a pendant, and ended up being a choker in it's final manifestation. Nooo, I'm not indecisive...maybe...

It includes some flowers made with simple fringing, a scattering of peyote leaves, and many different types of beads...and even a few... *gasp* ...sequins! I can hear almost hear the beading purists hissing at that admission. I'm not a bead snob, I use whatever works. So bite me!

I wanted to add something to the ends of the ribbon...they looked rather sad in their unadorned state. A jumble of mauve seed beads did the trick. I'm pleased with their berry-like appearance.

I used cotton fabric for the backing as I think it adds something special to the piece. Why shouldn't the back look as good as the front! As recommended by the lovely and always knowledgeable Bianca, rather than gluing the fabric straight to a felt backing (as I did in 'Hope Has a Place'), I used a layer of fusible interfacing between the fabric and the felt. It worked a treat! The finish is much nicer and fraying is not a concern as the edges of the fabric were first folded over and ironed flat. I just love the mind-boggling range of beautiful fabrics available, so it's a thrill that I can use them to good effect in my bead embroidery creations.



I'm pleased to report that Mum loves her new necklace. So much so that she's going to eat, sleep and shower whilst wearing it :)

In the maternal way...

I just realised that it has been a month since my last post, so I figured I should 'fess up about my recent lack of blogging (and beading, in fact).

I know this blog is supposed to be for bead-related stuff only, but heck, some news is just too big and needs to be shouted from rooftops.

I'm up the duff...baking a bun in the oven...in the maternal way... :)

My husband and I are thrilled, we can't wait to welcome our newest cuddly, squishy bundle of goodness into the world. We hope that our 14 month old will be excited about being a big sister. She adores other children so having a permanent playmate at her disposal has gotta be good news, right? It's someone to blame for her mischievous wrongdoings at the very least. "No Mummy, I'm an angel, I didn't do it. It was .........!"

It's still early days and I'm only around 10 weeks along. We had an ultrasound at 7 weeks and we saw our little jelly bean with a heartbeat. Phew. It's impossible to have a completely stress-free pregnancy after you've suffered a miscarriage.

So whilst I'm over-the-moon to be having a baby, my beading has suffered. In fact, I've barely picked up a needle and thread in the last month. The lack of beading is mostly due to my utter exhaustion...I'm lucky if I can stay up past 9pm. Given that India goes to bed at 8:30pm, it doesn't leave much time for beading.

Oh yes, and there's also a little thing called morning sickness. Whoever coined the phase 'morning sickness' obviously never experienced it for themselves...'morning-noon-and-night-and-every-minute-inbetween-sickness' would be more appropriate.

Add to that the fact that I have to eat almost constantly to stave off the sickness and, well...you get the picture. It's a little hard to bead when both hands are full of food *tummy grumbles*

That's not to say that I haven't WANTED to bead. I have a plethora of new ideas swirling around in my scattered, pregnancy-affected head. Mum-nesia anyone?

It's just as well Christmas is around the corner. Nothing like a looming deadline and unmade presents to get your butt into gear. Even if I have to tape my eyelids open to stay awake, I WILL finish my beady presents, damn it!

Now excuse me, but I have to go and out-eat a football team...

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.

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.

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!