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!



Wind and Weather

Although we've been lucky over on the Eastern side of the UK, not to have been flooded as some other regions were, this week has had some fierce weather! Occasional sharp showers have caused drains to overflow, and high winds have brought down tree limbs in our neighbourhood. The temperatures range from 10 to 29 degrees Celsius so it is a challenge to dress appropriately.

On the other hand I am beading more than usual for the time of year as the garden is watering itself Yay! When they introduced a hosepipe ban you knew what would happen...

This week I concentrated on some gifts for work colleagues. On Tuesday we had a leaving party for a co-worker who was made redundant. This was rather depressing but I'd made her a couple of beaded gifts to help cheer her, and bought her a beading tutorial since she has beaded in the past and will have some time to do more.

I made a ring with some of the beady gift from last week:

Passionflower Ring

Then it transpired that our Summer student is getting married in two weeks time. Second time for both of them, and they are going down to Cornwall for a short break, the ceremony will be extremely small. I was going to make her a bracelet as a leaving present, but I changed my mind and decided to make something  for her wedding based on her description of her dress 'Champagne Lace'. I included plenty of pearls as her name is Margaret (which means pearl).

Margaret's wedding cuff

Amazingly it was a great fit, so I just sewed the snap fasteners in place, and apparently a great colour match too! Phew! I hope she will be able to wear it on other occasions too.