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. :-)
This week's installment of Fabulous Friday Finds is just overflowing with goodies. So I'll get right to it:
Fabulous Friday Find #1 - All Things Littleput (aka Ryan) has taken some wonderful spring photos (spring? what's that?) and wants help deciding which one to use. You can vote for your favorite and win a set of any three of her photo cubes! Click here to visit her blog, so you can read the rules and vote.
Don't know what photocubes are? That's one of my favorite sets, Forest.
Fabulous Friday Find #2 - Another giveaway, this time by GafferGlassUSA. I came across their goodies when I was poking around on Facebook (amazing how many talented people are on Facebook!), and now I watch their updates every day. They're hosting a 100th blog post giveaway, and the prize is this adorable Melanie Moertel Gaffer Glass lampwork glass penguin bead.
Click here to visit their blog and see the details about the giveaway.
Fabulous Friday Find #3 - I think this one is fabulous because I LOVE LOVE LOVE purple! One of my beadweaving friends, Smadar (aka SmadarsTreasure) just listed this incredible bold necklace that features agate teardrop nugget beads. Just look at those!!! Smadar has all kinds of wonderful goodies in her Etsy shop, but this has to be one of my all-time favorites. Yummy!
Fabulous Friday Find #4 - If you read last Friday's post (which was actually Saturday's post, but that's a whole different issue), you saw some cute little ceramic houses. Well, apparently I just can't get enough of little ceramic houses because I found some more. These are made by mudpuphouses, and I think they're absolutely positively adorable.
And once again, I can envision having a whole VILLAGE of these!!! I think this purple and pink one's my favorite, although it was really hard to choose.
Fabulous Friday Find #5 - This one makes me wish I lived closer to Pennsylvania. Although it's probably a good thing I don't, because I have a feeling that the Berks Bead Bazaar would melt my credit card for sure. The bazaar is tomorrow and Sunday in Reading, PA; and there are sure to be some mouth-watering beads, buttons, and cabs there. I sooooooooo wish I could go!
One of my favorite artists is going to be in attendance - Lisa Peters. She's been posting pictures of her new goodies on her Facebook fan page, and my laptop is in danger of shorting out because I've been drooling over the pictures so much. That picture you see to the left is just ONE of the many she's posted.
If you're lucky enough to live in the area and want to attend Berks Bead Bazaar, Lisa also posted a link to a coupon good for $1 off admission.
***
Okay, I guess five is a good number of Fabulous Friday Finds, so it's time for me to have another latte and get back to my beadweaving. And I'm going to be doing a little Google searching for the Asheville area so I can figure out where to go for my BIRTHDAY on Sunday!!! Woo hoo!!! :-)
Don't you love getting packages? Even when it's something you've purchased online, it's fun to open the box and to get to hold your new goodies in your hand. Even if it's just a stack of books (I have LOTS of books!), it's nice to hold them in your hands and anticipate the joy of reading them later. (BTW, I thought of books because I just recently received a package of eight books by some of my favorite authors -- Stephen King, John Sandford, Karin Slaughter...)
Well, I'm practically stalking the mailman now that I know I'm going to be getting a couple of packages from some of my favorite bead artists. I entered Lisa Peters' Black Friday Blog giveaway, and I won $100 worth of her goodies!!! I don't know what they are, but I'm VERY familiar with Lisa's work and know I'm going to love everything. Since I don't know what's going to be in the package, I can't show you exactly what I won; but you can check out Lisa's Etsy shop to see some of her goodies. Be forewarned... Lisa has stalkers, and whenever she starts listing new things in her Etsy shop, they seem to disappear just about as quickly as they're added.
I'm also stalking the mailman in anticipation of receiving this INCREDIBLE set of polymer clay beads from Dee Wilder (aka Malodora). I also have a good-sized collection of Dee's creations, but that doesn't stop me from wanting more. I love everything about Dee's beads. They're varied in style and color, but there's always something unmistakeably Dee about them. The last batch I received were lathe-turned beads, and even my husband was amazed at the look of them - even more so when I told him they were turned on a lathe. When I saw these sitting in her Etsy shop, I knew they had to be mine.
One of my favorite things about these is their size. They're HUGE. In addition to these lavender and orange beauties (aren't those colors great together?!), Dee's been making and saving beads in my favorite color combination: black and white. Some Natasha beads and some more lathe-turned beads. I can hardly wait. (Where's that mailman?!!?)
I've been pondering whether to treat myself to some beads by another of my favorite artists on Etsy -- Kristie Roeder (aka ArtisanClay). I'm especially tempted now that she's selling $25 gift certificates for only $20!!! If you look back through some of my recent posts, you'll see that I had quite a lot of fun using Kristie's beads and cabs for several projects; but since I received my last batch, she's created even more goodies like this sagger fired square bead. Yep, I might just have to grab that one before it's gone. Kristie's also doing a giveaway on her blog, for one of her $25 gift certificates. I could spend that in a heartbeat.
Okay, enough drooling over all these beautiful beads... I have to get a couple of bracelets made for the giveaways I've done this week (one on this blog and one to my Facebook Fans). Speaking of which, are you a fan of my Facebook page? If you're not, I'd love to have you become a fan. I'm going to do more giveaways just for fans, so you could even win something.
Time to do some beadweaving now!
:-)
I'm not listing my peyote cuff patterns nearly as quickly as I'd like, but I do have two more of them available for purchase in my Etsy shop.
Jigsaw Puzzle, which is great for puzzle enthusiasts as well as supporters of Autism Awareness.
and Windowleaf, a tropical design that will make you feel like taking a vacation in the Caribbean.
I've also listed a couple of new beadwoven bracelets, just two of the several pieces I've created over the past month or so. It takes me so long to get around to taking the photographs!
It had been a long time since I created a odd count peyote design. The symmetry possible with odd count peyote is great, and sometimes single peyote is required just to get the right amount of detail. I'm quite pleased with this one, particularly with the colors. The frosty finish on the silver lined blue and gold beads is beautiful, and they look even better against the pearly white opaque beads I used as the background. I'm not sure if I'll publish the pattern for this or not... maybe after I make another version or two. (Unless, of course, I receive a special request - then it'll move up in my list.) I named this piece Royal Flourish.
My newest listing is called Water. As I was working on this, I kept being reminded of the foamy froth in a clear blue ocean. The pale aqua-lined beads I used for the ruffles are beautiful, complemented wonderfully by frosty and clear glass focals. Water is created using the Oglala technique, one of my favorites. It's amazing just how much variety one can achieve with this simple technique.
Also new to my Etsy shop is Autumn Bloom, a necklace I created using one of Lisa Peters' gorgeous stoneware buttons. If you've never checked out Lisa's Etsy shop, be sure to visit. She creates one-of-a-kind beads, buttons, and cabochons using porcelain and clay; and I think I'm in love with every one of them. I've amassed quite a collection of them on my own, and just last week I was lucky enough to win $100 worth of Lisa's goodies in her blog giveaway!!! I can hardly wait for the mail to arrive. :-)
You can see just how gorgeous her work is in this flower (click here to go to the listing for a closeup):
I decided to make Autumn Bloom my Bead Art Originals Item of the Week for this week (December 4-10), so if you purchase it before midnight on the 10th and leave "BAO" in the Notes to Seller when you check out, you'll receive a 10% refund! Visit the BAO Blog to see the details on the other members' Items of the Week - aren't they beautiful!!?!!
Back to my beads!
The subtitle for this post should be "beadwoven carcasses." Because that's what I've created. Two of them. Two dead little bits of beadweaving that will be deconstructed.
I don't often deconstruct, but I just wasn't happy with what I was getting; and when you're working with something as gorgeous as this cabochon sent to me by Lisa Peters, you just can't accept something less than perfect! I'm a perfectionist anyway (just ask any of my former coworkers), but I usually have a better idea of how I'm going to do something before I start.
I have to admit that I was a bit stymied by the shape of this cab. Why, you ask? What could be easier than a hexagon? Ha. That's what I thought. It's a geometric shape, after all, and I'm a big fan of geometry. Adding the beadweaving around it? That proved to be a whole different animal.
Not to be outdone by a simple piece of geometrically-shaped clay, however, I kept at it. And here's where I am now. Happy with the direction, and busily beadweaving away because this has to go to the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee on Thursday night! At least I know what I'm doing with the rest of it (that part hasn't changed).
I'm so excited about being able to attend the show, and I'm even more excited and thankful to Lisa for sending me two of her cabochons so I could make something for her to display in her booth (#1213, in case you're attending). My work will be there beside the incredible pieces created by Carol Dean Sharpe (who you may know as SandFibers). Although I'm racing against time now to get this piece finished, I have to say I was happy to see that Carol Dean finished hers so I could make sure not to create something similar. We have pretty similar styles and tastes (we're cosmic sisters, don't you know), but we're also unique. Trust me on that. Unique. (And for those grammarians out there, you'll be happy to see that I didn't say "very unique." hehe.)
You can visit Carol Dean's blog to read more about her pieces, but I just have to show them off here:
Okay, back to beadweaving! I still have a lot to do before Thursday night. Now I can breathe a sigh of relief that I figured out a way to conquer the hexagon and create something I like. :-)
Good grief. A week's gone by. Poof!
Well, it was a busy week. That's why my blog wound up being the thing I neglected. I'm going to try to make up for some of those missed posts by posting every day this week, but I'm not making any promises.
So with this post I'll just show off some of my newest creations. These are (or were) all listed in my Etsy shop. I have another little stack of completed pieces waiting to be photographed, but I didn't get good enough lighting today to do much.
This cuff, another color variation of the design I created of monsterosa deliciosa leaves, is called Blue Hawaii. I love these two colors together!
I'm not even sure what gave me the idea to use this robin's egg blue and the purple together. Sometimes I just sit and stare at all the colors of Delicas I have, choosing different pairings to see how they look. I'll have to try some more variations of blue and purple, cuz I really like that one!
Most of the cuffs and bracelets I create use peyote stitch, but this time I decided to try something different.
This bracelet, called Lisa's Heart, was created using some beautiful matte beads whose official color is iris gray. Trust me, though, when I tell that you that there's absolutely no gray to be found!
Now, for the name. Why Lisa's Heart? It's simple. See that beautiful little stoneware heart? It was made by a talented bead artisan (and fellow member of Bead Art Originals) named Lisa Peters. It's such a beautiful button, and I designed the bracelet to show it off. The colors of the beads are the perfect match for it, too! If you want to see more of Lisa's work, check out her Etsy shop or her flickr photostream. You'll be amazed!!
This last one is so simple, but I still love it. I'm gaining a whole new appreciation for the color green, so I used two different types of beads to create this little bracelet.
I named it Emerald City, and then I printed off a movie still from the Wizard of Oz to use for the photographs. I'm always messing around with backgrounds, and this one was just too much fun to pass up.
The other "Monday" news to share is the Bead Art Originals items of the week. There are 12 participants this week, with all sorts of different offers. All the details of the offers are posted on the BAO blog. I don't usually discount my beadwoven pieces, but I thought I'd break with tradition this week and offer a $20 discount on my Passion for Purple necklace and pendant. The offer's good only until August 31.
Off to the video store to return the movies! It was such a busy weekend that we wound up watching all three of our rentals today so we could return them on time.
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).
