Sugar Rush!

Well this is nearly the end of the year, so time for just one more blog post...

Just before Christmas, I thought I was pretty much beaded out, from making gifts and items for fairs...Then Nancy Dale produced a Christmas Cracker of a tutorial for an embroidered/freeform cuff, and I couldn't resist! Immediately the pdf landed in my inbox, I was mixing soup and selecting focals, I chose a lovely piece of etched dichroic glass which looked like opal, by Silvermoonlyn as the central item and this is the soup mix:

I also had a couple of vintage glass square cabs with an opal effect so they became the secondary focals, and I began by fixing them to some of Nicole's bead backing in pink. The bead embroidery extends a little way, to allow the anchoring of freeform.

Bezelling the squares was a bit tricky and I fudged the first one, but the second worked better and I got everything connected. I then raced away with the freeforming, and by Christmas Eve I was finished (although I might add more dimension later).

I named the piece 'Kingdom of Sweets' after the fantasy land in the Nutcracker ballet, the colours were sugary pinks and lilacs for the most part with the odd accent in copper and orange. I was pleased with the overall shape which is reminiscent of a wrapped candy or a cracker, all consistent with the confectionery theme.

 I recommend the 'Atlantis Cuff' tutorial to anyone who would like to try freeform peyote/RAW. It was a lot of fun to make, and although every piece will be different, there is plenty of guidance and support to help you achieve a satisfying end result!

Thank you for reading and commenting over the last year! Hoping you all have a happy and healthy new year 2013!



June Jubilations

I'll skip right to this current month now, and show some of the beading I managed over the long Jubilee weekend (celebrating the 60 year reign of Queen Elizabeth II). We were lucky and had both Monday and Tuesday off so on Sunday, all the chores done, I settled into a good beading session. On the OTTBS blog, the new monthly challenge theme was posted (no, not Red White and Blue!) and it was Rainbow, to use at least 5 colours from the Rainbow song, and, to double your chances of being a winner of some Swarovski elements, to use 'leftovers'. I looked through my bead soup drawer as I remembered having a multicoloured mix which I'd used for a dichroic glass pendant, which was mainly an iridescent transparent green but also had red orange and topaz silver lined beads. I topped it up with some purple and blue to get a nice spectrum, and managed to make a really speedy Freeform Right Angle Weave cuff. With a few embellishment beads I think it made a good tonic for the AWFUL weather that day!

Rainbow Fiesta

Freeform is my current favourite, and I realised that although I've made small items in freeform peyote I had yet to try a large piece, so 'Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained' I found a beautiful lampworked shell pendant by Tiger Henderson and spent most of a day assembling some beads I thought would go well. My main problem has been NOT matching the focal too closely, as with the loose structure it seems to blend into the background. This is the progress so far:

Seastrand necklace

I've put it to one side now to wait for more inspiration to strike, but with a bit more work this foundation will be ready to embellish.

Next, I decided to take a few more days annual leave, so spent some time making another owl from Heather Kingsley-Heath's pattern, and I treated myself to a lovely new pattern by her called 'Bella's Charm' after the Twilight series of books/films. I liked this as it has another way of bezelling chatons, so I look forward to trying that method as well as the ones in Sabine Lippert's designs

Alternating between making other peoples' designs and trying to make my own works seems best for me, if I get discouraged I can set a piece aside and do an 'instant gratification' project, even a pair of earrings and this helps remove the 'block'

May Treats

Well such a lot has happened I have barely had time to breathe let alone blog! I hope the following post isn't too long as I attempt to catch up.

The Bead Retreat to Derbyshire was another weekend of fun with like-minded beaders. We were fortunate enough to have received sponsorship from a number of Bead Shops including Beadshop Scotland, RB Beads, Jencel, and Spoilt Rotten Beads, in the form of Swarovski crystals, semi-precious stones and a number of other exciting items. As they were in some cases impossible to divide 18 ways, Donna made smaller parcels and numbered them 1-18. At random I allocated every person a number, then put the appropriate numbered parcel in the goody bags that Donna had decorated, so neither of us knew who had what! Also in the bags were a sample of Bead Soup from Nancy Dale of NED beads all the same mix, and a little bead embroidery kit from Julie Cowan and Nancy Dale

The soup and a freeform peyote item I made from it (Laura Zeiner's design)

We also had a great time swapping items from our stash (one beader's unwanted items are another beader's treasure), visiting the pub, learning new techniques and tricks of the bead from each other. The time passed all too quickly but I have a tray full of mementos:

 as well as a load of happy memories and some new beady friends, who I hope to stay in touch with until the next time...

I'll continue the Month's roundup of events in a further post since time is running away with me!

STOP PRESS--- Nancy Dale is now offering Custom Made bead soups, mixed to your liking! Have a look in her Etsy shop---STOP PRESS