Wednesday, March 31, 2010

There Be Dragons Here

I've been wanting to create a dragon-themed cuff design for a long time, and I've finally done it. Actually, I've only created part of a dragon... the scales.

This first version is done in really bright, shiny colors. I think I'm going with a darker look for the next one: all shades of steel and silver. Dragons come in all colors, you know. :-)


***


Dragon Scales is in my Etsy shop. Where, for the rest of today only, you can get 28% off your entire purchase. Just sayin'.




Sunday, March 28, 2010

Bead Art Originals Goodies

Did you visit the Bead Art Originals blog to see this week's specials? I'm always amazed at the creativity of our team.

This week is no exception, with 14 members participating. Just look at all this beady goodness! And all with a special deal associated... How can you resist???

My Super Duper March Sale is winding down - only a few more days left, and then it's over. From now through midnight EST on March 31 everything in my shop is 28% off. Get it while you can!


Visit the BAO blog to see who created all these lovely pieces and what their specials are. :-)

Friday, March 26, 2010

Fabulous Friday Finds for March 26

Welcome to this week's Fabulous Friday Finds post! I have a whole bunch of new goodies to share with you this week, so here goes:

Fabulous Friday Find #1 is kind of a continuation of last week's goodies. More dolls.

I've long been a fan of Miss Millificent's Mesdamoiselles, ever since I first saw them on the weblog of Athena Workman. I was even lucky enough to win a print of one of Athena's drawings on a blog giveaway. As soon as we build our house, it's going to have a special place so everyone who visits can enjoy it.

But today, I want to show you one of Athena's dolls. It was tough for me to pick a favorite to show here, but I finally settled on A Murder of Crows. Just look at the expression on that face!

If any of you are close to Nashville, Tennessee, you can visit some of her dolls in person. I just read in Athena's Etsy shop announcement that some of her dolls are leaving her shop for a month to go with her to her gallery show. I have a feeling some (or all!) of them may find new homes.

You can see more dolls, ornies, and artwork at MissMillificent.com.




My second Fabulous Friday Find is by an Etsy artist named Natalya Sots. Natalya has some of the most whimsical, fun, cute, and creative bits of pottery I've ever encountered. I love everything in her shop!!

My favorite things, though, are her Alice in Wonderland inspired pieces. I love love love this Mad Hatter cup!

Just look at all those swirls and spots and stripes and COLORS! You just couldn't be sad drinking a latte from that cup. (I know, I know -- it's supposed to be a tea cup, in honor of the Hatter, but I drink a lot of latte.)

This next Fabulous Friday Find takes me back to when I was making all kinds of tags. And even though I'm not making them any more, I'm still just flat out tempted to buy a big spool of this baker's string! I don't know why. I just like it.

I never actually tried to find it, but apparently there are lots of people who like it. It would look great for tying up packages or for making tags.

This ginormous spool of 9072 feet can be had for only $18 from Black Ink Boston and Cambridge.

There's some other stuff on that site, too.

You can have all the string.

I don't need it. Really. But only $18?!?! :-)

Next on the Fabulous Friday Finds list is a website suggested to me by a Facebook friend. I've been searching for containers to hold my massive collection of delica beads, and although I have a "system," it could use some improvement.

This site, called FDJ On Time, has everything imaginable in terms of storage containers, displays, and tools -- just about anything you could want if you're a jewelry maker.

I haven't finished browsing, but these Dot Box containers are what intrigue me. At 3.3" tall x 1.7" wide x 1.7" deep, they seem like a good size for bead storage. And 16 of them are only $3.99, which isn't bad either. They also offer volume discounts, so I could get 16 of these for as little as $2.89 if I bought a lot of them.

I just have to decide whether I want to invest in ~500 of them to store my delicas... decisions, decisions.


Okay, back to cool, artsy Fabulous Friday Finds. This next find is from one of my favorite Etsy shops, uniquebuttons.

You know I like playing around with cabs and beads made by artisans, and LeAnn's buttons look great! I have a couple of them (including that one you see to the left) in my favorites list, and I pretty regularly check out her shop for more goodies.

This face pendant is so cool, and it's on sale right now for only $3.50. Wow.

I think I might have to add it to my cart before someone else snags it. :-) She has more, though. Never fear.


Another one of my favorite shops for cabs, pendants, and beads is JoanMillerPorcelain. I get to see new things from Joan all the time as she posts them on Facebook, and this dragonfly lentil bead recently flew past me.

Just look at those big red eyes and the veining on his (her?) wings!

One of the things I like most is the variety of goodies in Joan's shop. Just looking at her banner makes me want to go exploring.












You know how sometimes you see something you like and you're not exactly sure why you like it? Yes, I know that sounds like a strange way to compliment someone's work, but that's how it is with the neckpieces I found in an Etsy shop called giia.

I could never carry this look off, but there's something about it that I just like.

Texture. Color. Boldness.

Couldn't you see one of these on a fashion runway?

The piece pictured here is called ARMIE. The first one of these I saw was done in shades of red, but I like this gray and black one.

Cool.




My last Fabulous Friday Find is offered up by one of my Full Time Etsy Crafters teammates, Ralph of UnkamenSupplies.

Ralph makes jumprings. Millions and millions of jumprings. In all kinds of colors. And even though I don't do chainmaille, I'm intrigued by all these little rings in all their bright colors. And he has sample packs of all different sizes, just tempting me to try them.

Wonder what I could do with these.

You think I could somehow work them into my beadweaving? Hmmmm.

If you want to see what can be done with these, check out Ralph's (and family's) other Etsy shop, UnkamenGifts.

Now if these jumprings were SQUARE, I know I could use them. :-)

Okay, that's enough for me for this week. I have a pretty endless list of favorites, so I hope you'll come back next week to see more of my Fabulous Friday Finds.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Wriggly, Squiggly New Peyote Cuff Design

I didn't really have anything particular in mind for this week's new design, so I guess it was a good thing I encountered a snake on our property the other day when I was planting some trees. I probably walked across him three or four times before I saw him move. He was so well camouflaged that his movement is the only thing that alerted me to his presence. Just a little thing... only about 18" long. My husband had the shovel, so I called him over to scoop up the snake and move it to another spot out of my way. I knew he wasn't poisonous (based on the shape of his head), but I didn't know what type of snake I had encountered. After checking out the Snakes of North Carolina website, I'm pretty sure it was a worm snake.

Snake adventure over, and trees successfully planted, I came home with the idea of a snake design in my head. Initially, I thought of doing a design of some kind of snake's pattern, but I wound up focusing on the overall shape. I was fiddling around with curves and squiggles and wriggles, and here's what I created: Wriggle

Wonder what other kinds of critters will inspire my peyote patterns...

:-)

One last note: My Super Duper March Sale in my Etsy shop is coming to an end at midnight on March 31. The sale is for 28% off EVERYTHING in my shop. It's the biggest sale I've ever offered (in celebration of 5000 sales), and it's probably the biggest one you'll see from me in a very long time. Just sayin'.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Fabulous Friday Finds for March 19

Friday again! And another batch of Fabulous Friday Finds. Once again, I had no trouble at all compiling this bunch of goodies. They're from all over the place, because I'm all over the place. :-)

My first Fabulous Friday Find is a teeny tiny little creature by the incredibly talented Aleah Klay.

I first "discovered" Aleah on Facebook, and now I ooh and aah over every one of these little pieces she creates.

Her creations range from little people to teddy bears to all kinds of other furry creatures, but when you look closely and realize that these little guys are only about an inch tall, you'll be as flabbergasted as I am. There's so much detail in each piece it's just incredible.

That little guy you see to the left is currently listed on eBay. He won't be there long, though.







My second Fabulous Friday Find is from a new Etsy seller named Tim Scull. I saw one of Tim's pots when one of my Facebook friends posted it, and I immediately went to check out his shop.

This pot is one of my favorites, but he also has some saggar fired pieces that are incredible. This piece is raku fired (and I'm a big fan of raku), with a white crackle glaze with inlayed copper thread, copper mesh, and fused glass, and finally fumed with ferrous chloride. Incredible!


I could see having a whole row of these pots sitting on a shelf... couldn't you?








My third Fabulous Friday Find is an unusual lampwork bead created by my friend Jennifer Cameron (whose Etsy shop is called GlassAddictions). Actually, Jennifer's another Facebook friend (I just keep meeting nice people on there!), a lampwork artist who creates some really unusual pieces.

If you check out her Facebook fan page, you'll see my favorite of her beads as her profile picture. (While you're there, I'm sure she'd love to have a few extra fans.)

This bead to the left, though, completely intrigues me. It's called The Gorgons, a name taken from Greek Mythology. I've grown to really like the combination of lime green and cobalt blue, and this piece with its tentacles and bumps that look like molten lava is just fascinating.

The title for this next piece is a little out of season, but I actually chuckle to myself every time I look in my favorites and see this guy. No, Summer Will Not End is a piece made by a fellow beadweaver and fellow member of Bead Art Originals, Dawn Chastain.

That face just cracks me up.

I swear I've had that very look on my face when I've been on vacation and realized it was time to go home. You know the feeling, right? When your family practically has to pry you away from that sandy beach? Waaaaaaaaah.



If you still have room on your shelf next to all those pottery pieces, maybe you'll enjoy this next Fabulous Friday Find I found in an Etsy shop called OffTheLathe.

I've always wanted a lathe, and every time I visit an arts/crafts show or shop I'm immediately drawn to the turned wood pieces.

This artist does a whole variety of styles and uses lots of different woods. I'm going to keep my eye out on his shop because I have a feeling there's going to be something I just can't live without showing up there... the only thing saving me right now is that we live in a rented house and don't have room for much of anything. My whole collection of turned wood bowls and vases is packed away until we build a new house.

I think that's it for this week's Fabulous Friday Finds. If you have fabulous finds, leave a comment on my blog! Although I like hunting down some of these myself, I'd love to see the things you find and consider fabulous.

Happy Friday!
:-)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

This Week's Peyote Design

While I had no trouble at all coming up with the design this week, I ran into trouble when I tried to think of a name for it. I just couldn't think of anything!

Well, my Facebook fans came to my rescue. I posted a message on my fan page asking for help with a name, and I wound up with more than 20 suggestions! Then the challenge was choosing just the right name from all the great ideas I saw there (sound waves, wood grain, zebra eye, topology... that's just a few of them).

I finally settled on Raindrops. I think it fits because all the shapes are drops, and they radiate outward like water drops in a puddle. The person who chose the name will receive a copy of the pattern (as soon as I get it ready, that is). And all those suggestions I received gave me ideas for other designs...


:-)

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Wednesday Goodies

As many of you know, I recently won the Artbeads.com $1000 sweepstakes, and I promised to share with you some of what I'm choosing. I haven't even come close to the $1000 yet. There's no sense rushing such things... :-)

I don't know if any of you have ever ordered from Artbeads.com (if you haven't, you should!), but you can see how much they love beads and beaders just by the careful way they package their goods. Everything I ordered was wrapped up like a present in bright purple tissue wrap. Underneath that was some protective foam wrap, and then everything was neatly placed into zip lock bags. It was like opening a bunch of birthday presents.

Check out these goodies!

I know, I know. It's hard to tell what everything is there in that jumble of little bags. I decided to try out some beads I hadn't used before, so I chose some of the Toho Magatama beads that intrigued me the minute I saw them. They're like a cross between a seed bead and a fringe drop bead. Click here for a closeup. I'm going to have a ball experimenting with these!

For any of you shopping at Artbeads.com, you can use this coupon code:
SCE20P-SFS
when you check out to receive a 20% discount on any order over $60. It's their Spring Fever Sale, good through 9:00am PST on March 23.

I had two more bits of good news today... Jennifer (aka Palmsprout) included my Damask in Green and Gray peyote cuff in her St. Patrick's Day treasury, and it made the front page! Woo hoo!!! :-)


I went to check out Jennifer's shop and, although I don't have the right kind of hair to wear a hairpin (really short!), I just love the color of this Burgundy Satin Rosette.


Time for me to stop blogging now, finish watching Caprica on hulu.com, do a little beading, do a little reading, and go to sleep! Not all at the same time, of course. But that's what's on my list of things to do for the immediate future.

:-)

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Daisy Chain - Come On, Spring!

It's not at all intentional, but there must be something about my wanting spring to show up that's making me think of flowers. Because I'm normally not a flowery person. No flowers in our home decor, no flower prints on my clothes. And even though I like looking at them in other peoples' gardens, I never really got into planting flowers around our house (perennials were much less trouble!).

Nevertheless, there are more flowers this week for my newest peyote cuff design, Daisy Chain. Two rows of little daisies, one going one way and one the other, reminiscent of those chains I used to make when I was little (mine were clover flowers, but you get the idea).


I thought it might be fun to create just a single daisy chain, too, so this narrow version will be listed in my Etsy shop sometime later today. As much as I like wide cuffs, I like this little bracelet with its single row of daisies (or in this case, some fictional turquoise flower).


I was a little speedier than usual in getting the pattern ready for publication, so if you're a beadweaver and want to make your own version of Daisy Chain, the pattern is listed in my Etsy shop (and through the end of the month, you can still get 28% off your entire purchase!). The pattern includes both versions of the Daisy Chain design.






Lest you think I'm focusing all my attention on coming up with new peyote cuff designs, I have to show you this latest freeform peyote cuff. The colors I used for this one were suggested by Lisa Peters (aka LisaPetersArt, on Etsy), chosen to comply with the Art Bead Scene Color Challenge: Turquoise.

I hadn't really thought of entering the challenge, but when I reached the point of finding a closure for the cuff (freeform means I don't really plan the beads or closure out ahead of time -- so I had to go on a search for just the right button when I got to the end). And just look what I found! I freely admit to having a collection (hoard) of Lisa Peters' beads, buttons, and cabochons; and here was this raku shank button that fit into my bracelet perfectly.

This piece, called Sunshine on Water, is almost 3" wide at the widest point. You may think the blue colors are what inspired the "water" portion of the name; and while that's partly true, the main reason for it is the ruffly wave I incorporated into the top of the cuff. This one is WILD.





I think I have freeform out of my system for awhile... What to do next? I think I should probably finish the necklace I made, using another one of Lisa Peters' pieces, and my newly learned technique: right angle weave (RAW). Yep. That's what I should do. :-)


Time for more beads... and some Pillsbury cinnamon rolls with latte. YUM. :-)

Friday, March 12, 2010

Fabulous Friday Finds

I'm not sure what it is, but it seems like these Fabulous Friday Finds are becoming easier and easier for me. I don't even have to go out searching for them on Fridays -- they just seem to pop up as I'm doing my normal internet surfing during the week. I just have to save them so I'll be able to share them with you.

The first Fabulous Friday Find for this week is a blog post by one of my Facebook friends (and fellow Etsy seller, even though her shop is currently on vacation), Alycia of The Curious Pug.

She's compiled a set of tutorials on her blog.

Tutorial #1: How to Make a Facebook Fan Page
Tutorial #2: How to Add a Welcome Tab to Your Facebook Fan Page
Tutorial #3: How to Take a Screen Shot of a Treasury
Tutorial #4: How to Set Up a Google Analytics Account
Tutorial #5: How to Make Your Photos POP in Photoshop
Tutorial #6: How to Create an Etsy Mini
Tutorial #7: How to Install a Font
Tutorial #8: Long List of Tricks and Tips for Etsy Sellers
Tutorial #9: How to Create and Send a PayPal Invoice
Tutorial #10: How to Create a Slideshow for YouTube

The second Fabulous Friday Find is the incredible work of a polymer clay artist, Dawn M. Schiller. I honestly don't remember how I came across her work, but it's amazing. Gnarly fingers, faces with so much personality they look like they could walk (crawl, scurry, creep) off the page... I love these dolls of hers!

Dawn has an Etsy shop called oddfae, but I spent most of my time browsing through her and website and blog. Those guys you see to the right are some of her hermits. Adorably ugly.





My third Fabulous Friday Find also comes from a new Facebook friend, Nancy Schindler. I had to chuckle when I saw her blog post entitled "Mighty Brighty Lighty is Alrighty!" You just know she has a sense of humor.

Well, she also has a sense of style, as you can see from the beautiful porcelain necklace pictured here.

You can find that necklace and more of her finished jewelry in her Etsy shop, roundrabbit. But the place I think I'll be doing a little shopping is in her other Etsy shop, roundrabbitextra. You see, her second Etsy shop is where she sells jewelry components - gorgeous porcelain pieces of all sizes and shapes and colors. I particularly like the tiny frames she makes - now I just have to figure out how to use some of them...

If you've spent any time on Etsy, you may have seen my next Fabulous Friday Find somewhere along the way. I am completely enthralled by Colleen Downs' LoopyBoopy art dolls. Truth be told, if I had endless supplies of money I think I'd buy every one she has listed anywhere. That's how much I love them. That one you see in the picture is Alice in Wonderland.

And while there are a lot of LoopyBoopy dolls in her Etsy shop, aptly named LoopyBoopy, you can see even more if you visit Colleen's blog. And you can read about her doll-making obsession. And how she prowls through closets at night to find the perfect shade of blue fabric for a doll's dress... yes, Colleen is someone I can completely understand.

I'm not too old to play with dolls, am I? I don't think so. I think I need a doll. I think I know where to find the perfect one.

Maybe I should go see Alice in Wonderland today... in 3D, of course! :-)

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

And the Winner Is...

Comment #8 by Allison Cecil! Hooray, Allison!!!

Allison's comment was chosen by the trusty random number generator, so she wins a $25 gift certificate for my Etsy shop. Wonder what she'll buy???







She said her favorite thing was this Southwestern Checks cuff, but she might just change her mind. :-)


***



Didn't win this giveaway? Stay tuned. I'm going to be doing more of them throughout the rest of the month, and I'm also going to do some on my Facebook fan page.

In fact, I think I'll go add one there right now.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

HOLY COW!!!

HOLY COW!!!

That's what you say when you receive an email saying you've won the Artbeads.com 10th Anniversary $1,000 Shopping Spree Sweepstakes!!!




At least that's what I said. Then, being the skeptic I am, I contacted Artbeads Customer Support to find out if the person who emailed me was legit.

She was. (Customer Support responded very quickly!)

And I did!!! I won!!! I can still hardly believe it.

I spent yesterday afternoon grinning from ear to ear. Truth be told, I've been grinning today, too. Now I just have to decide what I want. Let's see... what could I get?

BEADS!!! Because I love beads. Can't have enough of 'em. :-)

And even though my name's not Earl, I'm thinking there might be something to this karma thing... so I'm going to be doing some giveaways on my blog and to my Facebook fans for the remainder of the month. Not a Facebook fan yet? Click here to visit my page.

So let's start the karmic ball rolling with a giveaway, right here on this blog! For your chance to win a time2cre8 $25 Gift Certificate, do one or all of the following (the more you do, the more chances you have to win):

1. Leave a comment here telling me what you would buy with a $25 gift certificate to my shop (don't worry - I won't hold you to that choice!).

2. Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with a link to your blog post.

3. Tweet about this giveaway, and include @time2cre8 in your Tweet. Leave a comment here letting me know you tweeted.

4. Link to this post on Facebook. Leave a comment here with a link to your Facebook link.

If you do all four of those things, you'll leave four comments here on my blog and have four chances to win! (All comments must be made on my blog, not on my Facebook page.)

Be sure I have a way to contact you: leave your email address, Etsy shop name, Artfire shop name, or something in your comment(s).

Entries/comments must be made by midnight (EST) on Tuesday, March 9. Early on Wednesday (after I've had my latte, of course), I'll use a random number generator to choose the winner. It'll be announced here later on Wednesday.

Good luck! And stay tuned for more giveaways this month ($25 goes even farther this month, since I'm having a 28% off sale on everything in my shop!).

Friday, March 05, 2010

Fabulous Friday Finds

I can hardly believe it's Friday again! This week's Fabulous Friday Finds are an assortment of goodies and good deals (at least I think they're good deals). :-)

The first Friday find is actually one I meant to post last week, but somehow it slipped away from me. I happened across the Yellow House gallery while I was looking at some polymer clay creations posted by one of my Facebook friends, and I was blown away by these beads!

The picture to the left is one of my favorites, but if you click here you can see an entire gallery of polymer clay beauty.

Yellow House Designs is the creative outlet for Julie Picarello, whose work has been featured in Beadwork, Bead Unique, and Bead and Button magazines.








My second Fabulous Friday Find is one that should be in here every Friday: the Bead Art Originals Items of the Week.

Every week members of this team of Etsy bead artisans choose items to be featured in the BAO Blog. The creations are as varied as the members: lampwork beads, polymer clay beads and focals, raku beads, ceramic beads, and beadweaving.

This week there are 12 members participating, with all sorts of deals (and I have to promote my own special here... 28% off everything in my Etsy shop, through the end of this month!).

The Etsy shops whose curators are participating this week are: dumauvobleu, SmadarsTreasure, MAKUstudio, arosebyname, triz, LisaPetersArt, SalamanderHouse, DawnChastain, CieloDesign, Malodora, time2cre8 (me!), and SandFibers

Visit the BAO Blog every Friday to see the new items of the week. You're sure to find something wonderful!












If you're a beader, you've probably heard of Artbeads.com. They have all sorts of beady goodness, and their prices are pretty good.

Well, right now they're having a March Madness Dollar Days Sale, with more than 2000 items marked down to only $1. The sale ends at 9:00pm PST on March 11, so shop fast!


My next Fabulous Friday Find is an incredible piece of artwork created by an Etsy friend of mine, Joe Bagley. Joe creates some of the most intricately detailed paper cuts you've ever seen, and he sells them in his Etsy shop called papercutsbyjoe (hmmm, wonder how he came up with that).

Joe has a quirky sense of humor, as is evident from some of his listings (come on, a neck piece made from paper???). He also has a HUGE talent for turning a photo into an amazing piece of art.

See that picture to the right? Looks pretty cool as a picture, doesn't it? Now think about how incredible it is when you realize that it's CUT FROM PAPER!!! Thousands of tiny cuts, using teeny tiny little blades, and every cut done by hand. Click here to see some closeups.

Wow. Just wow.


I think that's it for this week. Time for me to get back to beadweaving. I need to finish a necklace I started a few days ago, using a technique I had never tried before - right angle weave (aka RAW). I used one of Lisa Peters' gorgeous cabochons and created a bezel using this technique, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with it. I know other people who have struggled with RAW, but since I'm pretty left brained it just seemed intuitive to me. I'm going to have to play with this some more... :-)

As always, if you have any Fabulous Friday Finds of your own, feel free to leave a comment with a link or even do your own blog post! Happy Friday!

Thursday, March 04, 2010

A New Peyote Design, and a Milestone (and a SALE!)

5000 sales on Etsy!!! Woo hoo!!!

That deserves a celebration, right? So in honor of reaching 5000 sales, I've decided to continue my Super Duper Special Sale through the end of this month... with a bit of a change. The Super Duper Special Sale was previously a 28% discount on any one item from my Etsy shop.

The NEW Super-de-Duper-de Special Sale will be a 28% discount on your entire purchase FOR THE REST OF THE MONTH of MARCH!!!

It's way too tedious for me to go and edit all my listings, so to receive the discount you can send me a convo on Etsy to tell me which item(s) you'd like so I can change the price for you; or you can go ahead with purchase/payment and I'll refund the discount to you via PayPal.

Thank you to EVERYONE who helped me reach this milestone!!

In other news, I'm still on target with my resolution to create a new design every week. This week's design is called Poppies. I'd really LOVE to see some flowers outside instead of this new pile of snow that landed on us a couple of days ago. It doesn't appear to be melting yet, so I'll just have to look at this new bracelet to get my flower fix. :-)



Tuesday, March 02, 2010

What Fuels Your Passion?

Can you define what fuels your passion? What makes you want to do the things you do? I don't mean going to work every day (unless, of course, your work is your passion - in which case you're very lucky!). I mean the passion that makes you want to create. The passion that makes you want to explore new places, sample new foods, learn new techniques for your art, even to look at old things in a new way.

I've always considered myself very lucky in that I see inspiration in almost everything, and I believe I inherited my passion for creativity from my wonderful Mom, who was an incredible artist and seamstress. She took the time to teach me what she knew and encouraged me every step of the way when I attempted to make things of my own -- at one time she spent hours with me soaking newspaper strips so I could make a papier mache scale model of the Louvre for my French class (and because I didn't think much about the scale when I started my project, she wound up loading the piece into the back of our pickup truck to transport it to school for me).

Over the course of my life I've tried all sorts of ways to exercise my creativity, and although I've liked some of them more than others, it's been the sheer act of creating that's been my passion. Taking a strand of yarn and knitting or crocheting it into something new, picking up a pen (or lots of pens) and drawing on a blank piece of paper, and most recently, taking beads and weaving them together in a multitude of color and shape combinations is my passion.

What fuels others' passion? Since one of my current passions is beads, I posed the question "What fuels your passion?" to some of my friends. The results are as varied as one would expect, but they all convey a passion for creativity.

Andrea Winkler, lampwork artist, said:

Other people's creativity ... seeing a new technique and wanting to try it MY way, Most of all, a sense of disciplined PLAY and exploration -- knowing how something works, and being curious about "What happens if I .... ?"

The picture at the left shows what Andrea did with Prismacolour patina and a cold-connections workshop.

Visit Andrea at her blog or her 1000Markets shop.


Anne Pomeroy Dixon, jewelry maker, said:

Color. Asking "what if" and pushing the shape and dimension of the beads.

The picture to the left is Anne's chatelaine, completed in 2008 for entry into Ann Benson's 5th anniversary challenge. It has a pocket for scissors, a tape measure, a folder for sewing needles and a little scoop for beads.


Visit Anne at her blog or her Etsy shop.






Jean Hutter, beadweaver and painter, said:

Right now for me would be learning and trying new techniques. Getting out of the old comfort zone and pushing the boundries. I get bored easily and that can lead to a creative slump - so trying something new - whether it be a new stitch, technique, color combo - you name gets me going again.

The cuff pictured to the left is one of Jean's newest pieces, part of her venture into bead embroidery.

See more of Jean's work on her blog or in her Etsy shop.


Gerlinde Linz, beadweaver, said:

For me, it's usually the question whether I can construct a new shape or structure from beads. It started out with the Platonic polyhedra, then came new types of weaves with certain wanted properties, currently it's mostly 3-d Peyote. Exploring new territory is fuel for me.


The diamond sphere pictured to the left is one of my favorite of Gerlinde's creations, although I'm in awe of some of her structural pieces.

See more of Gerlinde's incredible work in her flickr photostream.


Jennifer Chasalow VanBenschoten, bead and glass artist, said:

There are so many things that inspire me! First is the rich and incredibly long history of beads as they have been used by the human species, going back at least 30,000 years. Amazing. Secondly is the incredible variation in beads and self-adornment - every human culture around the world has used beads in some form for currency and self-adornment. Many of the reasons for self-adornment were to communicate societal status, marital status, or some other important aspect of the person wearing the beads. Third is the idea of re-inventing the past through re-creating the jewelry and self-adornments with modern materials and techniques. So if you want it on a very academic level, anthropology and cultural history are what drive me.

The necklace pictured here is one of my favorites of Jennifer's creations. It has a tribal look but is still completely modern looking.

See more of Jennifer's work in her Etsy shop, and check out her articles in Beadwork on about.com


Mona Peepers Ahleman, beadweaver and designer, said:

Need drives my passion and so does color. I've never really analyzed why I create except that I need to because it helps keep me balanced. Some people write, some people run or climb mountains, I create. If I don't have my beads, I make patterns, if I can't make patterns, I play with glass and make mosaics, I sew or just punch shapes out of paper, I have an endless supply of stuff to create with. When I was a kid and would get a punishment for doing something wrong, it usually involved taking away my crayons, markers, and paper.... I like bead weaving pictures the best because it amazes people that you can draw something and then bead it... making a work of art with just beads and string and your gut leading the way.

One of Mona's newest creations is pictured to the left, her original design called Citrus Twist.

See more of her work on her blog or in her Artfire shop.


Heather Kelly Marston, jewelry maker, said:

Many things drive my inspiration. Right now I have a project I am working on based on a color combination I saw this past fall while raking leaves. I took a picture and have that picture stored with the beads and wire I found to create the necklace I see in my head. I will try to post a picture of the photo along with a picture of the materials I am using.

The piece to the left, called Stop, is one of my favorites of Heather's creations.

See more of Heather's work in her Etsy shop.

Carol Dean Sharpe, beadweaver and designer, said:

Based on my recent patterns, we won't discuss what fuels my passion because I think someone put some sugar in my tank.

Carol Dean, despite her statement, is one of the most passionate beadweavers I know. She spends countless hours designing gorgeous peyote patterns and weaving cuffs from her designs, and it's obvious to anyone who looks at her work that she finds inspiration just about everywhere. Her statement above is based on her newest designs, created as part of her Iconographs series of peyote cuffs. I don't know about you, but I think these are a hoot!

See more of Carol Dean's work on her blog or her Etsy shop.

Kim Shaver, beadweaver, said:

My inspiration and passion come from many things. I find it changes from day to day and hour to hour. Some days it is a colour scheme I see around me in nature or someone's outfit, others it's a completely different type of art, such as in "Friendship" (pictured at left).

A huge part of what drives my beadwork is my need to both keep my restless hands busy and to express myself creatively. I find if I don't, or it's even been a little while it makes a big difference!

See more of Kim's work in her Etsy shop.





I'd like to thank everyone who responded to my question, "What fuels your passion?" I enjoy reading about others' inspiration and passion and hope you've enjoyed this post as much as I have.

Do you have a passion? What fuels YOUR passion?