New Tutorial! Marie Antoinette and Bloody Mary

My workshop went really well the other day… it was nice teaching again after a really long pause and I’m looking forward to teaching more in the future! :-)

The students made some beautiful variation of the leather cuff in lots of colours; khaki, black, red on black leather, brown… it was really nice seeing everyone pick their favourite colour and come up with a totally different look for their cuffs

Here is the tutorial for that class:

PDF Tutorial - Bloody Mary Bead Embroidery Leather Cuff - Instructions ONLY

This tutorial will show you how to embellish around a cab using Swarovski crystals and pearls. Here are two versions I made:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cabochon used for this tutorial is a vintage (c. 1940s) glass cab.  I have a few of these cabs available for sale (contact me for details) if you want to make the exact cuff, but you can substitute the cab with any other similar sized cab.

I think I’m going to make another colour today…. hmmm maybe a black version…. :-)

Wishing everyone happy beading and a great weekend ahead! :-)

Tudor Splendour

I was looking in my jewellery case today and realized that I forgot to post a necklace and bracelet I made sometimes in April or May. I made it straight after the Purple Rain necklace and had to wait a long time to take photos of it, because the light was really bad… but I did take photos, a few months ago, I just completely forgot to post them!!! Where is my head??? Frying in this incredibly hot and humid weather I guess! :-)

No more procrastinating!!! Here are the necklace and bracelet:

Tudor Splendour – Necklace

Tudor Splendour – Bracelet

Both were beadwoven in Right Angle Weave (RAW) with loads of gorgeous dark brown Swarovski pearls and embellished with bronze and orange Japanese seed beads and orange Swarovski crystals… I love working with Swarovski pearls!!! I really do!!! They just feel and look so good!!!

Time for bed now… the weekend is over here and tomorrow is another day… Sunday is a working day in Israel… I miss having a 2 day weekend!! but to all of you who have Sunday off…. enjoy the rest of your weekend!!! :-)

Summer Breeze

The theme for Artbeads blogging program this time is “Summertime”! yeah!!! I love summer!!!!

I was informed that I could choose anything from their incredibly large selection of products from the following categories: Charms, Pendants and Glass Beads.

So I chose the following:
2 14 mm Bermuda blue Swarovski Crystal Cosmic Rings
1 20mm Swarovski Cosmic Ring Crystal Bermuda Blue
3 24mm Faceted Teardrop Pendant Crystal (1 in Bermuda Blue and 2 in Crystal Volcano)
and my favourites at the moment, some Swarovski pearls in cream.

OK, so not the most original of choices… the pearls, well, I just love them… and at the moment I seem to want to only create pieces using Swarovski pearls! and the crystal cosmic rings, although I’ve seen them used quite a bit, I never saw them used within beadembroidery and I really wanted to try them out as well as wanting to try out this Bermuda Blue colour, what better colour to portray the summer!!!! at least for me as I relate summer to swimming, the sea and fun holiday time. I chose the cream pearls to go with the Bermuda blue because I LOVE the off-white/turquoise-blue combination for summer, in fashion, in jewellery and even in home decorating!

So this is what I made:

Summer Breeze – Necklace

Originally, I was going to use the teardrop pendant as a pendant and not beadembroider around it, but the hole at the top of the pedant kept on cutting my fireline and after 3 tries I gave up and decided to treat it as a cabochon. So be aware, although gorgeous, the teardrop pendant is not very good for beadweaving and would probably suit wirework or the use of a metal bail much better, or as I did beadembroidery.

The necklace was beadwoven using hundreds and hundreds (over 700) Swarovski crystal pearls.

I still had the 2 smaller cosmic rings to create something with and I really wanted to make a pair of matching earrings, and here they are:

Summer Breeze – Earrings

All I have left now is the 2 volcano pendants which I will turn into a pair of earring to match a necklace I’m currently working on… stay tuned! :-)

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Disclosure: I am a reviewer of Artbeads.com products and a participant of its blogging program. I received all the components free of charge. This post reflects my honest opinion and Artbeads.com is not compensating me for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.

La primavera - Spring

I was so excited when Artbeads contacted me as part of the blogging program and told me that this time the theme was “Spring” as spring is my favourite time and I could chose anything from their incredibly large selection of products that reflected my own individual interpretation of Spring for their ‘The Beauty of Spring’ theme.

So I chose the following: Light green Swarovski pearls in 4 different sizes and Swarovski XILION Gold-Plated Setting with 2-Holes in Light Amethyst and this is what I made adding some Japanese gold and gilt-line opal lilac seed beads and a few light amethyst Swarovski crystals.

This is what I made!

La Primavera – Necklace

Luckily, I have a new flatmate! :-) I say luckily because I was able to model the necklace on her neck… as this necklace looks so much better on the neck than off! so thank you Jai Lynn for lending me your neck! :-)

I’ve been super-busy beading up a storm this last week and have since made a complimentary bracelet to this necklace, another necklace and 2 more bracelets… need to stop beading and start taking pictures so that I can show you! :-) hopefully in the next few days and soon after that I will post them!

In the meantime… happy beading everyone and I hope your are all enjoying the spring!!! :-) and don’t forget to check out www.artbeads.com

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Disclosure: I am a reviewer of Artbeads.com products and a participant of its blogging program. I received all the components free of charge. This post reflects my honest opinion and Artbeads.com is not compensating me for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.

Purple Rain

Some of your may know that I belong to the ArtBeads.com blogging program. A while back I received some gorgeous Cubic Zirconia products from them. I’m ashamed to say (and apologise profusely) that it’s taken me this long to create something with the products they sent me. The reason why is… I chose items that were completely out of my comfort zone, both in terms of material, shape and colour. When choosing, I usually try to pick items that I wouldn’t usually chose for myself… to try something new and different and to challenge myself.

This is what I received… way back in December:

From left to right:

1. 9x36mm Light Amethyst CZ Faceted Flat Teardrop Pendant
http://www.artbeads.com/cz-lam-td36.html

2. 12x18mm Light Amethyst CZ Faceted Fan Pendant
http://www.artbeads.com/cz-lam-fn18.html

3. 20x30mm CZ Faceted Oval Drop - Light Amethyst
http://www.artbeads.com/cz-lam-ov30.html

The Teardrop Pendants were a no brainer! They would make perfect earrings!!! And I knew I would use the Oval Drop as a centrepiece for a necklace…. but the Fan Pendant…. that left me really baffled! The shape was quite bulky and a bit awkward… for some reason I was expecting it to be a bit flatter… so rather than dwell on what I didn’t know how to use, I started beadweaving around the Oval Drop. I wanted to show the beauty and transparency of the Cubic Zirconia by bezalelling around it and had this image in my head of creating something very graphic and modern…. but when i finished… I wasn’t so happy with the results, so I put it aside and went on to other thing… finally last week I decided it was time once again to revisit the started piece… well I really hated it, so I unpicked it and decided to treat the pendant as though it was a cabochon (yes, back to my comfort zone!). That was the best decision I made!!! and I was able to realize what I had envisioned… but best of all I even found use for the Fan-shaped pendant that had been the cause of my creative block! :-) and this is what I made:

Purple Rain – OOAK Necklace

I beadembroidered around the pendant with some beautiful silver-lined AB purple Japanese seed beads that I bought a really long time ago, but had no idea what to do with them, and my favourite beads, Swarovski pearls in dark purple. Once the centrepiece was finished, I had no doubt that using the pearls in lots of different sizes in a Right Angle Weave would work perfectly with it!!! Isn’t it great when you finally get it together using materials you had no idea what to do with! I love how this piece turned out!!! It’s pretty, it’s elegant, it’s perfect!!! :-)

The earrings were easy once the necklace was finished:

Purple Rain – Earrings

I mentioned in my last post that I was working on a bracelet to match… well I’ve been sick all week and just didn’t feel like beading… or doing anything else for that matter… so the bracelet is still a work in progress… hopefully I will finish it over the weekend… in the meantime go and check out all the wonderful Cubic Zirconia products that ArtBeads have on offer – they come in so many lovely colours and they are really nice to work with!
http://www.artbeads.com/cubic-zirconia-jewelry-beads.html

Now I’m going back to bed to nurse this stinking cold!!!

Wishing everyone happy beading!!! :-)

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Disclosure: I am a reviewer of Artbeads.com products and a participant of its blogging program. I received all Cubic Zirconia components free of charge. This post reflects my honest opinion and Artbeads.com is not compensating me for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received and reviewed.

Chanterelle Necklace

Here is the third piece I made… although I have since finished another one, and started a new one… all those months of not much or very little beading, I’m sure making up for it now… I think I have about 4 projects on the go at the moment… but as of tomorrow I really need to concentrate on finishing my sister’s necklace and bracelet!!! :-)

Chanterelle Necklace

The centrepiece was beadembroidered around 2 topaz Swarovski Rivoli crystals and the necklace was beadwoven in embellished Right Angle Weave.

In the next couple of days I will post the next piece I finished and if I have time hopefully a matching necklace… so come back and check them out!!! :-)

BAO Items of the Week

This week’s gorgeous items from the BAO:

My item this week is:

Black and Pearl Blossom Earrings

Purchase and pay for these earrings between now and 19th November and receive 15% OFF + FREE shipping to anywhere in the world!!!

Visits the BAO blog and find out what specials offers are attached to this week’s items!

http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com/

Truffle Trilogy - Cuff

I promised you the second piece I made… and here it is!

Truffle Trinity – Cuff

This was definitely inspired by the piece I posted yesterday, as far as the colours go, however design-wise, not so much… and I have quite a few ideas for some variations… am very exited!!! :-) especially as during the last few months I felt so uninspired…

Obviously I’m in a chocolate-kind-of-mood lately! :-)
I beadembroidered the centrepiece for this cuff using exactly the same beads I used for Truffle Temptation but this time I used the Jet Nut Swarovski Rivoli buttons I received from artbeads.com as my focals.

Instead of beading the whole cuff, as I usually do, I decided to use the Ultrasuede as a design feature rather than just to line the inside of the cuff, and I absolutely love the contrast between the dark chocolate Ultrasuede and the shiny beads!! Am very pleased with this piece and as I said have plans to make more in different variations and colour combinations… so stay tuned!!!

Tomorrow I will post the last of the 3 pieces, come back and check it out! :-)

Truffle Temptation

Remember I said, I’ve been quite busy beading three new pieces?…. well here is the first one!!! :-)

I received these amazing Swarovski components from artbeads.com at the beginning of September and I am so ashamed to say that it’s taken me this long to finally create something with them… but finally I did! 

Whilst I laid in bed with the flu this weekend, I had this overwhelming need to use these luscious Swarovski crystal components! I ordered an Octagonal Fancy,  a Fancy Pear and some Rivoli buttons, all in Jet Nut, a colour that I was not familiar with, but I thought would be nice to try…. well, the colour is just so gorgeous!!!! A deep, rich dark chocolate brown almost verging on black… just yummy!!! probably why I wanted to use these when I was sick, as chocolate is by far my favourite comfort food and I guess beading with this beautiful colour was what I needed! (I was too sick to go out and get chocolate ;-D)

Truffle Temptation Necklace

So I bead-embroidered around the Octagonal and the Pear shape Swarovski using these beautiful bronze-lined crystal Toho seed beads, and some yummy,  luscious  deep brown Swarovski pearls.  That was the easy part… the hardest part was trying to find the right necklace for this piece… that took me about two days of going through every magazine and book I have on beadwork before I decided to go with a lovely chevron stitch using the same Swarovski pearls but in a tiny 3mm… and I’m happy to say those two days of research surely paid off, as I’m really happy with how this piece turned out!!!

For the clasp I used one of the Rivoli buttons and then made a peyote stitched loop to accommodate the button.

As I said I’m really pleased with how this piece turned out, but let me know what you think! :-)

And if you are looking for Swarovski products, check out the extensive range  artbeads.com has.  Not only do they provide a great selection at great prices but they also offer amazing customer service, they are a pleasure to do business with!!!! Here are some links to their Swarovski products:

Swarovski crystal beads: http://www.artbeads.com/swarovski-crystal-beads.html

Swarovski rhinestones: http://www.artbeads.com/swarovski-flatbacks-rhinestones.html

Swarovski pendants: http://www.artbeads.com/swarovski-crystal-pendants.html

Yesterday, I received this lovely letter from them which included a card offering 10% discount.  They informed me that I could share this discount code with friends, family and of course my blog readers! :-) Did I not say they are great?!?! :-)

So here is the discount code: SCF10P-ARTBEADS-0424
There is no minimum order and it is valid until 31st December 2009
Free shipping to the U.S. and only $1 to Canada!
Check them out!!! I know I will be definitely placing an order very soon!!! :-)

To see what I made with the rest of the Rivoli buttons, come back tomorrow!!!

Wishing everyone a great beady day!!!! :-)

BAO Items of the Week

I know I keep repeating myself… but look at these gorgeous items!!! I can’t help myself!!! :-) Here are this week’s gorgeous Items of the Week from the BAO:

My item this week is:

Spring Bride Bracelet

Purchase and pay for this bracelet between now and 1st October and receive 20% off!!!

Check out all the gorgeous items and the special offers attached to them by visiting the BAO’s blog!

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend ahead!!! Happy beading! :-)

BAO Items of the Week + Happy New year!!!!

Here are this week’s BAO Items of the Week and as per usual they are GORGEOUS!!!

My item this week is the Cream and Pearl Pendant:

Purchase and pay for this item between now ant the 24th September and receive 20% off!!! $68 instead of the usual $85!!!

Visit the BAO blog to see all the special offers available this week!

Tonight marks the beginning of the Jewish new year…. and the year is 5770!!! Tonight, and for the next two days, the Jewish People will be praying and probably stuffing their faces with their families… :-) Tonight I will be celebrating this festival with my sister, her husband, her kids and a couple of my cousins…. The rest of the holiday will be spent with my parents who are visiting from London…. looking forward to lots of yummy food!!!! I wanted to take the opportunity to wish all of you who celebrate it, a Happy Jewish New Year!!!! Shanah Tovah Ve Metuka (A good and sweet year)!!!! May next year bring only good things to all of you and your loved ones!!!! See you all next year! ;-)

Indian summer – etsyBeadWeavers September Challenge

Voting has started at the EstyBeadWeaver’s blog!!!! Go and vote for your favourite!!!

Some stunning entries were submitted for the September “Indian Summer” Challenge.

My entry for this challenge is:

Indian Summer Nights, # 1 on the list above

So don’t put it off!!! Go and vote for your favourite!!!
Voting ends 15th September!!!

http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

Indian Summer Nights

Second post of the day!!! I’m on a roll!!!… I was going to show a piece that I made a few days ago…. but the photos were abysmal… so I’ll have to take some more another day… and instead I’m posting my next EBW entry… not the one for which voting starts today… but the one for September… am so on top of things, that I managed to finish it even before voting has started on the EBW blog for August!!!

As soon as I saw the theme for September, Indian Summer Dreams, I knew exactly what beads and colours I wanted to use and got on with it!!! am so happy with how this turned out… you could actually say that I have completely and utterly fallen in love with it!!! I spent hours whilst making it just staring at it… I may have lost some marble! :-) and probably should venture into the outside world more often…. but instead I have fallen for an inanimate object! :-) and here is the object of my affection! :-)

Indian Summer Nights

I will post all the EBW August detail tomorrow, as well at the BAO Items of the Week… but in the meantime, if you would like to take a preview look at this month’s entries, please visit http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/ voting ends 15th August.

Time, summer holidays and BAO Items of the Week

Where is the time going? I can’t believe it’s a week since I last posted!!! My son is home for the summer holidays… 2 whole months!!! ….which means not much time to do anything!!! I’ve been cooking…. doing laundry… some exercising (which I really, really need)…. but mainly spending time with my son and spending most of it at the pool! some slight relief from the sweltering heat :-)

As for beading… well I’ve been trying to fit it in whenever I can, but nothing has come to fruit, yet….

1st of September schools start again and my life will hopefully go back to normal… and although I am enjoying this time with my son, I am feeling extremely guilty for not fitting in more bead time and work… and although I hate to admit it…. lack of time has not been the sole culprit in my inability to fit in some beading…. lack of inspiration has played a rather large part too…. maybe it’s because my mind is in this holiday mode…. roll on 1st of September!!! :-)

In the meantime…. here are this week’s Items of the Week from the Bead Art Originals:

My item this week is the Black and Pink Pearl Pendant

Purchase and pay for this pendant between now and the 2nd August and receive 20% off!!!

Don’t forget to check out all the other gorgeous items of the week and see what specials are attached to each one: http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com/

For now, I’m going back to my roasted chicken and potatoes (special request by the little man) and my roasted veggies :-)

Elizabethan Cuff Revisited

I originally made the Elizabethan cuff in black, a really long time ago…  A couple of weeks ago I was asked to make a similar one using silver wire and gold beads… I forgot how hard it is to crochet with wire…. and after a few false starts and a lot of blisters :-) here is what I came up with:

Elizabethan Cuff – Silver and Gold

I did make some modifications from the original one, because from wearing the black one (a lot) I found that the crochet wire stretched quite a bit, so I made this one in a tighter knit to counter-act that stretch. Let me know what you think….

Also, I wanted to thank all of you who have left comments on my blog and apologize for not replying to these comments and for not always being able to comment back, and it’s not from lack of trying!!! but every time I go into my blog and a lot of others I get an “operation aborted” error message…. which makes it impossible for me to leave a comment on here and on some of the other blogs – apparently blogger is dealing with it… at least I’m still able to post (via Windows Live Writer) – so again…. sorry!!!!

Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead!!!

Stepping Stones Cuff

It feels like ages since I posted anything new... and am happy to finally do so!!! This cuff was so much fun to make and at the same time took forever!!!!  The main part  was ready weeks ago, and I was about 3 hours away from the end.... I had a complete mental block towards it and refused to finish it!... probably because I wasn't 100% happy with it.... it's the over-achiever-perfectionist-nutcase in me :-)  Now that it's finished, finally, I do LOVE it!!! I really love the colours! I used lots of shades of grays and bronze, accented with dark purple Swarovski pearls and light gray fresh-water pearls.... full of sparkle!!!   What can I say... I just love bead-embroidery!!!! and am now going to hide in my bedroom and start something new!!!

To see more information on this cuff click on: Stepping Stones Cuff or the photo.

Tonight is Seder night (1st night Passover) - I will be spending it with my sister and her family... am looking forward to it!  although am sure I will be regretting the over-eating which tends to happen at every Jewish gathering... it's a curse... almost like all sense of reality and what is right escapes you, and you are no longer able to understand when you are satiated and full.... so you eat more... and more... and more!!! :-) I'm full already just thinking of it!!! :-)

Hoping to survive a ridiculous amount of food :-) and wishing everyone a happy Passover!!!

BAO Items of the Week

Here are this week's items from the BAO.

My item this week is:

Pink Chic - Choker

I designed and made this piece for my sister Silvia's birthday which was last month. She likes very simple things and all that is pink (lucky for her she was blessed with 2 little girls, so she gets to do the pink thing a lot!).... and only silver!!! It took me a while to come up with the right combination of pinks and silver, but this was the result... and best of all she said she loved it (unless she only said so because she didn't want to hurt my feelings :-D).

Purchase and pay for this item between now and 8th March and receive 5% off + free shipping to anywhere in the world! :-)

Please visit the BAO and check out all the amazing bead artists that belong to this group and see what specials are being offered this week:
http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com/

BAO Items of the Week

So many things I want from this week's Bead Art Original Items of the Week!!!

My item this week is the Cream and Pearl Pendant - purchase and pay for this item between now and the 2nd November and receive 10% off + FREE shipping!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please visit the BAO blog to see all the offers available on these gorgeous items for this week only-
http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com/2008/10/bao-items-of-week-oct-27-nov-2.html

Bead Ethics

The funniest thing happened to me a few weeks ago... well not funny ha ha... I mean funny=strange.... I went to my local shopping centre with my son, because I promised him a present :-), wearing my Black and Pearl Pendant (which is the project I taught for a class a few months ago) and I was accosted by a woman. ... All exited she started telling me that I must have learnt how to make the necklace in the same place where she did :-) well I was taken a bit back!!!! understatement of the year!!! :-) seems that one of the students that came to my class is the owner of a bead shop that is part of a larger chain of shops here in Israel.... and seems that she is teaching my class.... hmmm... my first instincts were to give this nice woman in the toy shop my card and feebly explain that it was my design.... I've never felt such a mixed bag of emotions... on one hand I was upset that after having spoken in the class that the design belonged to me but they could go ahead and teach the technique, which here happens to be bead-embroidery, and having printed the instructions with the appropriate copyright statement, that still someone who has a successful business would feel it ok to go ahead and teach the class without even giving me credit!!! The other half of me felt quite chuffed at the idea that people were actually signing up for my class, even though none of the earnings are going to me :-) Well, I was so confused about these mixed emotions that it took me a week to even mention it to my friends, or actually anyone.... one of the first people I told is my dear friend Nicole Campanella, who wrote back saying that lately she has received so many similar e-mails from other beaders that she decided to write a series on her blog about it. Her first post is What is Beadwork Ethics - Do you know? She is asking people for their opinions/thoughts on bead ethics... I feel really strongly about this matter, I felt just as strongly about it even before my little incident.... so please if you have an opinion on the matter let Nicole know by leaving a comment on her blog: http://beadwright.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-is-beadwork-ethics-do-you-know.html

BAO Items of the Week!!! Check these out!!!

Here are this week's BeadArtOriginals Items of the Week - another gorgeous collection!!! visit the BAO blog and see what specials offers are on these beauties!!!

My Item of the Week is my favourite pair of earrings!!! these look so gorgeous and elegant on!!!! 

Black and Pearl Blossom Earrings:

Purchase and pay for these earrings between now and 26th October and receive 5 % off + FREE shipping to anywhere in the world! :-)

Visit the BAO and see more!!!
http://beadartoriginals.blogspot.com/