Starry unicorn

After almost one year of no beading and crazy upside-downs in my life (finally more ups than downs), I lost control of my credit card and made agin a big bead order.
Ok, not so big, but enough to get inspired again to squeeze some time to sit on the table with thread and needle.

What I did, needless to say, is again another star, just notnChristmas related this time...

Was supposed to be a unicorn and needs still some details adjustments,  but I am happy to welcome back my muse..hope she will stay longer this time.

Gingerbread Star!

Seems like a long, long time has passed....wait...it's already 5 months since my last post!!!

Haven't been beading lately, but experimenting with patterns. And with my life.

Since I got a job in a big store in September, and I also continued with the German school, it's been impossible for me to do anything else. But I found some volunteers that tested my latest pattern and...

Without further ado...

What do you think?

The actual beadwork and the pic are from April Barnes, a customer that turned this last month into a helper and adviser, and I have to say it is good to be a little pushed from someone who likes your work.

Gingerbread cookies are really popular in Austria, their name is Lebkuchen and taste amazingly. You can't see all the details here, but a pattern will be soon released... just in time for Christmas!

EBW Christmas

Christmas is almost there, but there is still plenty of time to make new decorations for your tree - and for yourself.
I'd like to show you what my fellow beadweavers (and myself) have to offer!
From me, you know I have a fixation with stars, so maybe you'll like my little penguin tutorial

you can have it on your tree or on your keys, it will bring a happy atmosphere! Also check his "friend" Santa here!

You can't miss this snowflake decoration tutorial from Crystalstargems

white, sparkly, and a bit edgy with its spike pendant.

Then let's have some gold with these cute bells and a pudding from Beadflowers,

who offers an amazing ebook to make these cuties.

Let's move to packaging with this gorgeous beaded box from Amethyst Ravenstar

I think the box alone is a wonderful present, perfect  to put your preciouses in a special place, or can be used as central piece on your Christmas table.

Let's talk about outfits. You should really wear something red on Christmas, especially if it is as festive as this amazing piece from Maewa

or this from Beauty Glamour Luba

Complete the look with some easy but beautiful earrings from Olga Terranova's tut

which you could also make as gift for your besties.
Did you get any good idea???
I hope so!
Check all the amazing items under EBW on Etsy to see more beauties!

Cute and cuddly, boys. Cute and cuddly!

Thinking about ice and cold really helps when it comes to such hot days.
So here is my new buddy, directly from the South Pole:

I've had him and a lot of other charachters in my mind for such a long time, and I hope little by little to write tutorials for all of them.
Here is the link to the tutorial.
He might give Santa some company...

P.S. a speciale thanks to my dear Ile for testing the tut!!!

Summer gifts and packing

My bead mate Dorota, my favorite chocolate pusher (remember???) has just received a little thing I made for her

Sorry, I had to steal her pic!

I asked for her favorite color combo and it was perfect with the idea I had of making something for summer.

I'm happy to see once again outgoing mail is much faster than incoming.
 I've been waiting for a knitting needle for more than a week now, and it's from Germany. My shawl is stuck halfway and I was hoping to finish it while on train next week, so I hope my mail will come soon!

I am also starting to organize my beads in order to decide which ones I'll take with me this summer.
How do you choose?
Sometimes bringing W.I.P. projects doesn't work and you start regretting not bringing more beads with you.

Last summer I didn't bring much 'cause I wasn't planning on staying more than 2 weeks, and they became 2 months. This summer I already know it will be 2 months and a half and I don't know which beads I can do without. And threads, and jump rings and stuff.
Hard decisions on my way...

Features and sold item

Please visit Nina Design blog to read about their experience as judge for the Bead Soup Blog Party and to see their choices.
It's so nice to be there!
Just got back home from a milanese happy-hour with my friends and found this beautiful surprise, plus another one in the form of a sold pair of earrings

and a couple of surprises to talk about in the next months...
Good night now!

More earrings please!

I've been working on a Christmas order today and finished these beautiful earrings, pattern by the great Csilla Csirmaz

I also dedicated one pair to my grellow compulsion and made these:

even though I cheated and added some lilac beads.
I'm also making some triangular peyote earrings for another customer and just translated my new pattern for Santa Super Star in English and sold my first copy.

Busy day!

Honey, I Shrunk Santa

This year I'm thinking about Christmas in advance due to some orders I've received, but I think this is the right time to actually think about it: when you have a fresh mind, rested from summer vacations, and not when you're overwhelmed by lights and colors and bows and shopping frenzy.
I decided it was about time to make some other beaded Santas, only smaller.

When I made them a couple of years ago I intended them as tree decorations, but all my aunties were so amazed by it, that they put it on their necklace or on a pin to wear it. So now I have two size options

(the bigger guy is a wrong prototype) and I also have my quirky piece of jewelry for next Xmas.

Not my fault!

Stars, like hearts and pink and glitter, are one of those things hidden in every girl's DNA. Even though you try hard to convince yourself that you are too old to wear, let's say, a heart printed t-shirt or star shaped earrings, it's impossible to resist them.
It's not your fault.
So that's what happens when I bead stars and have people around me: I can't even finish one and that's already sold!

Here are my latest puppies, ready to leave me: a beautiful lilac pendant made with size 11 miyuki

and these tiny earrings, so elegant and delicate, made with size 15 miyuki

These last look great if you're tanned and might as well be worn as bridal jewelry.
I'll see if I can get some pics of people wearing them!

Old habits...

...they really die hard, so here I am again with a beaded star.
I was playing with macrame and braided bracelet, which I'm lately stacking shamelessly on my wrist and dutyfully removing before each bath at the beach, but it's pretty annoying and time consuming, so I was looking for a solution...and I came up with this:

It's a wrap bracelet which changes style at each turn on your wrist, from a braid to macrame knots with a cute pendant

I used a special closure for this one, coated in silver glitter:

I'm surely making more of this, we still have a long summer to decorate ahead of us!

Perfect holiday

How is a perfect summer holiday for you?
Mine involves the sea (possibly my hometown beaches)

good books, and of course the right weather to enjoy both, which is hot but slightly windy.
Until now I've been fully satisfied!
I've decided to stay as much as I can here this summer, since I'm not working and the heat is impossible to bear in Milan, besides: would you ever leave this

for Milan with 40°C???!
This summer, I'm certainly not!!!
Unfortunately I didn't bring all my beaded items with me 'cause this decision was unexpected, so all I can eventually sell is: tutorials, custom orders and my Orange starfish earrings, which were accidentally in my stash box.
Hope everyone is having great vacations!

New stars

Some new arrivals in my shop:

Grey starfishes

Bronze ones

and light blue

Summer is coming....

Bellflower

One of the Pantone spring-summer 2012 colors is a bold Lilac called Bellflower.

via Pinterest

Seems pretty neglected from what I've seen in shops, while Tangerine Tango and Margarita are going to be the big hits of this summer.
I was just looking at a huge bag of beads in this wonderful tone on Ilenia's blog. Have a look and drool!
Yes, because Ilenia (a fellow beader from Etsy Beadweavers team) is one of the participants of the Pantone 2012 swap, and she was lucky to receive her partner's gift in no time...
Maybe sharing brings good luck, 'cause after reading her post I looked at my shop and saw...1 more sale!!!
This puppies are going to leave me tomorrow

and they happen to be in the same Bellflower color I was watching.
Hope they will bring some colorful joy to my customer's summer!

Last minute inspiration

They say best ideas come at the very last moment, and this month's EBW challenge is the perfect example. After struggling for days with sea shells and bead embroidery attempts, which went better than I'd thought, I was stuck and had a bit of a beader's block. Too many ideas in my mind, but none of them were quite my style, and I didn't want to create something just because it was ok for the challenge. Sea shells are gorgeous, and have an elegant look, but when I think about nautical I always remember Jean Paul Gaultier "Le Male" ads: the sparkling white, the blue stripes, the (gorgeous!) tattooed sailors. It was past midnight when I finished listing my item, and my eyes were almost closing...but the result is exactly what I was looking for:

something simple but classicly nautical: blue and white stripes, sailors' knots, and -of course- a star to remind a little bit a wind-rose

Remember to go on Etsy Beadweavers blog and vote for your favorite piece of nautical art from 9 until 15 may, spread the word!

Earrings!

Lately I made a lot of earrings. I think it's because the temperature is rising and I can't help but imagining myself on a beach, with a colorful bikini and a pair of even more colorful (possibly matching) earrings.
Started with the tab earrings



and couldn't resist to make some stars in the same colors



and then tried a purple color combo


but this metallic violet is impossible to catch with the camera.


I tried and tried, but the picture is very far from the sparkly metallic finish they have in person.

I have so many half-finished works that I feel ashamed every time I open my bead boxes and look at them...first of all there are other 2 beaded stars which are waiting to become SOMETHING.
We'll see...

Santa Claus super-star!

I've been looking for nice Santa Claus beaded dolls but didn't like any of them really much.
I wanted something different.
So I decided to make it from something I know very well how to do: a star.
The result by now is this:



I keep making mistakes...hope next one will be perfect!
I drew my own peyote charts and I am very proud of the result!