Spring Sample Making

According to the calendar spring is offically here, in reality it does not feel like spring. Another sure sign of spring is the start of the bead show season.

Next weekend it is the Creativ Festival, for not just beaders but for all creative people. I will once again be there help Maria at the Rypan Designs' booth (#372).

The following weekend is the Toronto Bead Society's Bead Fair at the Toronto Reference Library.  Maria is not going to be doing this show. I hope to stop by on the Sunday.

Of course the big show is Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee at the beginning of June. Maria will be there in her usual spot, booth #933.

To help her be ready for these shows I have been making some new samples for new designs and new colour palettes.

Here is the Ndebele Motif cuff. This is a new project that Maria is offering. I did two new colour combinations

Teal, purple & cream

Grey, rose & cream

I also played with new colour for the Maria's Beaded DNA bracelet. These did not photograph well. The colours look much better in person.

Green and purple iris

Purple and purple iris

Hope that you will be able to get to one of these spring bead shows. Be inspired by the amazing offerings of the venders and designers.

Happy Beading!

Vintage Lucite Challenge - Arrival

Back in September the bead soup guru, Lori Anderson, offer the opportunity to participate in mini Cup of Bead Soup with vintage lucite beads. The beads were provided by Crystal of Bead Happily Ever After.

Tonight when I checked my mail box there was one of the wonderful padded envelopes that we love to see. Inside was this amazing selection of  beads.

I started to play with the beads as I was on the phone to see if my friend Anna was going to come the our Bead Society meeting tomorrow night.

I think I will take the beads to the meeting tomorrow night and see what I can create. Reveal day is November 10, so come back and see what I am able to make.

Spring Variations

The Toronto Bead Society Bead Fair is on this weekend. In preparation for the show Maria, of Rypan Designs, found some great new triangle beads in spring colours for her Diagional Weave Bracelet. I got the call to come pick up some beads and make samples asap.

Last night I made up these three bracelets.

Frosted Lilac and Frosted Mint

Imperial Purple

The other requested sample is this beautiful mix of greens, teal and purple iris. This is the Seafoam Beaded Soutache Bracelet that I worked up this morning. Maria is teaching this design Saturday morning @ the bead fair.

Seafoam Beaded Soutache

All designs and images in this posting are © Rypan Designs

Literary Inspiration

Next to my passion for beads is my passion for books and reading. I work in the children's department of a public library in the west end of Toronto. I love to share books and stories with children. Sometimes the books inspire a bead creation.

Two years ago I was inspired by the children's novel "The Calder Game" by Blue Balliett. In the story the children learn about mobiles and the artist Alexander Calder. I decided to make a mobile for the Bag of Beads challenge at the Toronto Bead Society. I made a number of beaded objects and created a mobile which hangs from a copper pipe structure.

Beads we were given

Stumpers, copper pipe end and metallic fibre paper

Work in progress

Finished mobile

It was fun to create each of the individual objects, but then I had to fine tune them and the lengths of wire they balance on. The science of the art of the mobile was an added challenge.

The completed mobile sits on my book shelf with the books by one of my favourite children's authors, L.M. Montgomery.

Being inspired by a book and and artist for this project was fun.

I am off to work on a vase inspired by a flower. More about it soon.

Have a great weekend.

Bag of Beads Challenge

It is time again for the Toronto Bead Society's Bag of Beads Challenge. This year's bag included seed beads, bugles, pearls, faceted beads, chain, feathers and a butterfly. 

OMG! What am I going to make with these!

For a month I did not know what I was going to do. I had an idea for the butterfly based on a ring that Kelly Osborne wore on a red carpet show for the Grammys.

It was not until I was at the Thursday class with Diane Fitzgerald in March that I got an idea of what else to make. Fellow beader Colleen was wearing a beaded pendant that used bugles and seed beads. I played with the given beads and created this peyote stitch tube that holds three of the feathers.

Full view of pendant that will be worn on a length of the chain

Detail view of the pendant

Tonight was the presentation night for the bag of beads. As always it was an amazing night of inspiring beadwork.

Some favourites

Cubes and Leaves

A just over a week ago, Diane Fitzgerald was here in Toronto teaching at beadfx and talking at Toronto Bead Society. I was lucky enought to take both of the classes. On Wednesday it was Moorish tile beads. They are fun to make as they are related to Julia Pretl's beaded boxes that I love.

First bead with colour inspiration

Fellow beaders finished beads

My first and second beaded beads

I am going to make all seven designs in the instruction package.

Thursday's class was for Diane's iconic Ginkgo Leaf Necklace. I got past the fact that it is done with brick stitch, my least favourite stitch. The first part of the class with learning about different ways to blend colours. Here is my first leaf.

I have started another leaf with shinier beads. I have it about 3/4 done. I am not likely how it looks, so I am only going to make more leaves like my first one. Only 10 or 11 more to make. I am then going to attach them to a bronze chain rather that with beaded lariat Diane uses. Not sure how long it will take for me to get this project done, maybe by the fall.

Amy Waldman Smith Box Collection

 The original inspiration set of beads by the talented Amy Waldman Smith.

The first box in the series is triangular with orange, yellow and blue. Here it is in progress back in March.

The second and third boxes are a matching set with a pair of earrings in each.

 The second has the red on the bottom. Here it is in progress again in March

 The third has the blue on the bottom. Here it is completed in December

 The fourth box was done within the last week. I finished on Tuesday night so that I could take it to Show and Tell night at the Toronto Bead Society.

Finally a much better group picture of the collection.

Thanks for the great inspiration Amy!!!

Show and Tell night @ Toronto Bead Society

Last night was the first Toronto Bead Society meeting of 2011. We had a show and tell night. I took in my collection of boxes inspired by various things. Here is my display of boxes and inspiration sources.

My sources of inspirations included to following -

Margie Deeb's book The Beader's color palette for the Sea Anenome Boxes.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and Eargon by Christopher Paolini for two of my dragon boxes.

Lampwork beads from glass artist Elly Peters.

Lampwork beads from glass artist Amy Waldman Smith. Watch for a complete post about this series soon.

 

Of course the starting inspiration for all of my boxes is Julia Pretl's book Little bead boxes.

Thanks to fellow members who also shared their beadwork. Also for all those who admired the work on display I hope that you were as inspired and amazed as I was.

Red, Gold and Orange Snow??

No, it is not snowing colourful snow it Toronto. But over the last week my friend Anna and I have made snow ornaments in red, gold and orange.

Anna wanted to make these colourful snowflakes for her daughter in-law and a friend. I was recruited to help get them done asap.

We used the pre-made snowflake forms and added various beads to each arm to create one-of-a-kind snowflakes. As in nature no two snowflakes are alike.

My first was this all red flake.

Anna made these four orange and gold snowflakes.

I made these six red and gold flakes.

 

We tried to use only bead that either of us had in our stash of beads. I was surprised at how many different orange beads I had. Many of the red beads were extras from the 2007 Toronto Bead Society bag of bead challenge.

This are quick and easy to make, but as with all stringing projects it is the layout of the beads that takes the longest. It is also a challenge to finish the ends. You can glue a bead on the end, but we decided to fold over the end. It is not easy to do but it give you a small loop to use for hang the snowflakes.

Calendar Girl

As usual it is a few days into the new month before I get calendars turned to the new month. I turned my TBS calendar over to November this morning and there were my Sea Anemone Boxes.

I had forgotten that I was Miss November in the 2010 calendar.

The calendar for 2011 will be on sale at Bead Fair this weekend at the CNIB on Bayview. I am one of the beaders, who have been in over the last few years, included on a bonus page at the end of the calendar.  This year's charity is the Native Women's Resource Centre.

I will be at the bead fair at the Rypan Designs booth, stop by and say hello.

Flashback Fridays

Earlier in the week I was looking it the drawer that I keep most of my finished pieces in. I was looking for one of my recent freeform rings. It had gotten buried under the many other pieces. I came across many great pieces that I made before I started blogging about my beadwork in July 2008. So I am going to start posting some of these pieces on Fridays.

This netted ornament is from the 2007 Toronto Bead Society Bag of Bead Challenge. We were given a selection of red, white and black beads along with the red and white cording and a stumper. I used the stumper to hang the ornament.

This year's challenge piece had many hanging things as well. Here are the components and the finished display piece. I look forward to see what beads we get this year and what we all make.

Watch for another Flashback piece next Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Black, Red and Dragon's Blood

I have a few colours that I am always drawn to, namely red, blue and black.

At last week's TBS meeting I purchased some great beads from Dawn Masters, including matte and shiny black cubes. I strung them with coral beads and spikes, along with some black rondelles.

Coral Spikes Necklace

At Bead Oasis, last weekend I bought these great polymer clay beads, by Jessica Greschner, called dragon's blood. I also found these great rondelles at Canada Beading Supplies' booth. I have combined the with some hematite Swarovski crystals. This is a great piece. I have wore it to work the last two days and received many compliments.

 Dragon's Blood Necklace

Close up of Dragon's Blood beads

Beads and Chain Necklace

I was playing with the beads that I purchased at last night's Toronto Bead Society meeting. As I was looking for things to add to them I came across these lampwork beads I got from Amy Waldman Smith earlier in the year. I of course got side tracked by them. Here is my finished piece, combining the lampwork with a few Swarovski crystals and lengths of chain.

Chicklet Bracelets

Among the few things that I got at last week's TBS bead fair were some wonderful pressed glass chicklet beads. These rectangular beads are used in Rypan Designs' Chicklet Bracelets. I found some coordinating seed beads and made these two bracelets.

Iced Blueberry Chicklet Bracelet

Bollywood Chic Chicklet Bracelet

Gothic Cross

This is a kit from Rypan Designs. I have had this kit for a number of years but not done it as I could not get my tension right for the cross using beading thread. Maria and I were talking about it as we were preparing for the upcoming TBS bead fair. I said that it might be easier with beading wire. That is what I did, using very fine Soft Touch by Soft Flex which you can knot. Once I had the finished cross I used beading thread to finish the piece.

Bag of Beads Mobile

Ok, I finished the mobile a few weeks ago, but getting a useable photo has been a challenge. The pictures from the bead society meeting had too many distractions. Today I was able to get this picture.

Bag of Beads Challenge

Every year the Toronto Bead Society runs its Bag of Beads Challenge. For $10 you get a collection of various beads and things (stumpers). Everyone who participates gets the very same thing. You then have two months to create something using at least one for each of the different item in the bag.

Here are the beads that we got this year as well as the stumpers, a copper pipe end and bronze paper.

Here the various parts on my piece. The first three are ruffled beaded beads.

These ones have some turquoise drops that I have added to.

The final two parts have drops added as well.

These components will be balanced together in the final piece. Watch  for it in the next few days.