Boxing day

While I haven't been blogging about anything I've done lately, that doesn't mean I haven't done anything. On boxing day, I took out the o beads I got for christmas (technically, I got christmas money to buy beads from so I got the beads before christmas eve) and played around with them. Really like how thin they are and how well they can be sandwiched between beads like the superduos in the pic above.

You can see some thread in some places so they aren't all perfect, those first three samples. Will play around some more with these designs and see what I can come up with. And of cause I'll embroider with them too, stitching them "face up" so to speak.

(By the way, if you need some inspiration for your new O Beads, check out this pinboard. The pinner also have a lot of other inspirational pinboards with various themes such as specific bead shapes or techniques.)

And as for this thing I also made on boxing day, can you guess what it is? If I give you another view?

No?

It's actually a cover for my embroidery scissors. After putting all my threads and needles in an organza bag along with the scissors, I realised how much I needed some sort of protection for the sharp blades -- both to protect the scissors from being damaged and to protect the organza bag from being pierced.

The cover is made from something I just grabbed in my stash: the most ugly looking of my silk rods (aka silk carrier rods). It was already softer than most of the other rods, but was soften even more by being rubbed. I then folded it in half and stitched the edges with uneven, but luckily close to invisible stitches. Not the prettiest thing ever made and ideally the shape should follow the shape of the scissors and be tapered, but with some embroidery -- with beads or floss -- it could look pretty nice I think. Should have embroidered first, but forgot to plan ahead...

 
The hard edge on the end is used as a sort of clasp or clamp to hold the scissors in the cover: once it gives in it'll be replaced by a button and loop closure.

At least it's serving its purpose and that's pretty much why I made it the way I made it. It's not about looks, it was about finding a quick fix and crossing it of the to-do list. But I do kind of like the look of it as well. Very earthy/forest feel about it with the texture and colours in it. Might even keep it like this and not embroider it...

Beaded string lights

Today is all about light in the winder darkness. I thought I could show you what I did last night in order to pruce up my plain string lights. And, yes, it's a string of blue lights and, yes, I chose the colour myself (though it was a couple of years ago when coloured christmas lights weren't that prolific so the choice of colour was limited).

Anyway, my idea -- after having seen different versions of it online -- was to embellish it with beads. Do something so that it would look nice even during daytime when the lights are off and the whole string hangs in in the window in plain sight, looking dull and out of place.

As I'm a seedbeader you might expect me to do something like this, but I really just wanted to do something quick and simple -- and in that finding a reason to use a strand of lampwork beads I've never got around to using in my jewellery as they aren't really my style (won them so nothing I picked out myself).

So what I did was simply to put the ruffled silverfoil beads on headpins, make loops and attach them onto the electric cords of the string light using rubber o-rings wrapped around the cord. The reasons for using rubber o-rings were two: 1) to make it easy to remove the beads when I want to, and 2) to make sure they won't slide back and forth.

I just made one mistake when ordering. Or, well, two but not counting how many o-rings I needed wasn't a problem as it turned out one package included 20 pieces which was just the same as the number of silverfoil beads on the strand. The mistake was choosing white rings. And this rubber is a pure, shiny white silicone rubber, not even a dull almost yellowed white rubber as you often see. My reasoning was to use white as the string is white, but I forgot that the metal of the electric wires shines through and the plastic had aged a bit and yellowed. So in the end, the rings were too bright and white to match the string as planned. And I missed that the seller had two different white rings -- of which the ones I didn't buy probably would've been a better match. Well, you live and learn...

Here's a comparison of "before" and "after". Or rather, of two parts of the string as 20 beads was about half of what was needed to embellish the whole string. Below is a couple of photos of the string lights hanging in the window.

Above unlit and below lit. From a distance you don't see that much of the beads when it's dark.

Not sure if I'll keep it like this. Not that I hate the simple embellishment, it's more that I want to do something more as the string lights themselves are so boring. Blue lights was fun at the time, but now some years later I just regret not choosing purple or plain warm white. And now I wish it was one of these instead.

Maybe I should try this idea (ping pong ball lights)? Or make one of these from reddish paper so the blue lights would create a purple glow? Maybe I could do the same with the first idea there too, paint the balls first? Either just red or purple or mixing colours.

What do you think?

Glow-in-the-dark bead fun

As I've mentioned before I've got a childish fascination with glow-in-the-dark beads. And after having seen this project, I came to think of GITD Hama beads and what if I could use that technique and those beads for something... The lightbulb moment came months ago, but it was just yesterday that I got some cheap beads and was ready to realise my idea. And here's the result.

The beads are cut and then put on the thin cables, one bead for each light. The result is a "double" light garland that is either lit up by the LED lights or glows in the dark (as long as the bead "charge" lasts). I couldn't get any pics of what it looks like in the dark so I made this illustration based on one of the photos:

Nice, huh? My very own little night sky. Now, if I could only charge the beads enough for the "stars" to shine a little longer so I could enjoy it a bit more every night...

(Just remembered: this isn't my first indoor night sky project: when my sis and I had to repaint the corridor between our bedrooms, we painted a silhouette landscape and used glow-in-the-dark paint to illuminate the sky with stars. We used real constellations as templates so you can find e.g. Orion and the Big Dipper on the ceiling and walls, but not in the right place in corelation to one another.)

UPDATE: There's a step-by-step tut at my other blog available now. You'll find it here.

 *

Talking about home decór projects, why not take a look on my new makeshift lampshade? It really is just something I threw together, something to make the lightbulb feel less naked and austere until I can come up with an idea of a proper lampshade. One that doesn't include fluffy pale pink tulle because I may be a romantic but I don't like girly pink and frilly stuff like that.

If you take a really dark photo it can look quite spooky:

Found a grub in my wardrobe...

This little critter is one I recently found in a bag of old stuff in one of our wardrobes. I used to make a whole lot of things from scraps of wood ever since I was a little kid as my dad enjoyed woodworking and more in his spare time. My sis and I would make e.g. snails by hammering nails in pieces of wood. Well, this one I made in school. No idea how old I was at the time.

It's made from unfinished wooden beads, a wood rod (rundstav), nails (for attaching nose and as antannae) and some fleece for hair. Not sure larvae have hair on their heads, but some are hairy.


An example of "beadwork" I made long before I became a beader. Woodshop was so much fun! I've actually also found a copper ring and a few of the enamel pendants I made there. Sometimes politicians want to cut lessons in slöjd (textile and woodshop), arguing it's more important to focus on math, language, science and all of that. But for me, slöjd/"sloyd" and art class are important for children. It gives them opportunity to be creative, to have fun, to experiment -- and to learn. Not everyone has parents with a whole room full of tools and materials to work with like me and my sis and especially for those kids, I find art and slöjd to be important parts of children's education.

Anyway, I'm going to take some pics of my other finds as well some day. Until then, if you want to see some jewellery I made in the 90's check out this pic. The bracelet is new, made from readymade charms, but the pendant is made by me in 1993. So when I was 11-12 years old. I also made a Father's Day pendant for dad.

Revontulet -- one of my first bead embroideries

I recently had a look at my little bead embroidered piece called Revontulet and since this is my first finished bead embroidery project it was a bit interesting, re-visiting old beadwork I haven't thought about in a couple of years now. I made it in 2008 for a beading contest at Pärlplatsen, a Swedish bead community were I'm a member. You can see all the entries here. I won, but you can see that I was a newbie at bead embroidery when I made it.

The theme for the contest was aurora borealis, the Northern lights. Bea, the founder of the community lives in Norrland (far North) so she's used to this phenomena and it was when looking at the lights that she came up with the theme. I live in Skåne in Southern Sweden and have never seen it IRL.

In my research for finding an approach to the theme, I read all sorts of folklore and myths. I stumbled across a site that said the Finnish word for Northern lights, revontulet, means fox fires. According to legend, there'd be special fire foxes in Finnish Lapland and when they ran across the snowclad mountains, sparks would fly from their fur. Those sparks were the Northern lights. Didn't know enough about Finnish folklore to judge if the story was true or not, but it sparked my imagination.

This piece is made using several different stitches: couching, satin stitch, back stitch, running stitch, back stitch variation. I wanted to test many different stitches as I was new to bead embroidery. When I was finished I came to this conclusion: it toughest part is that embroidery take so much time, even the little things -- the hardest part was translating my sketch into beads. The beads have a whole different feel and density than pencil marks. Where my sketch focused on the soft and ethereal, the bead embroidery had to focus on colour and shape.

I wanted to avoid using beads with AB finish as it felt a bit cliché so instead I used sparkling-lined Delicas in green and turquoise hues. I also used jet green iris to get the feeling of the dynamic in the Northern lights, the flowing and changing properties you can't capture on photos. Iridescent beads look black in certain angles and sparkling green, blue and purple in others.

The background is black, unbeaded felt and the contours of the landscape is embroidered using transparent gray lustre 15/0 seed beads. There you find two tiny sterling silver "foxes" (actually wolf or coyote beads, I think) and the sparks from their furs (also known as purple iris Delicas). All in all, this piece is 16 x 11 cm big/small.

Not an easy piece to photograph with the sparkling, shimmering beads and black background that refused to get as dark as I wanted on camera. This is the original photo I submitted to the contested, haven't tried re-shooting it.

A handful of beads

This is the second beaded ball I've ever made. The thing I like about it is the size: it's about 4,5 cm, making it ideal to hold in my hand and play with. To that, I've used soft "unfinished" wooden beads and matte glass drops so it feels very nice and soft to hold.

The bead is a basic 30-bead ball. After it was finished I added large drop beads to each "joint" where the thread was visible between the beads. Not only did they cover the thread, but I think they added a bit to the design as well. My reason for using large beads was to be able to use them as home décor, inspired by a cover of The Bead Book Magazine where large beaded balls made from a variety of beads were used almost like fruit, placed in a bowl.

I can't say I enjoy making these bead balls, but I kind of like them enough to probably make a few more in the future.

First flower of spring?

Ok, I admit to being slightly obsessed by seeing the first flower of the year around here. I need spring flowers right now. Most of our garden is still covered in snow so while it might be mid-March we still haven't got even one snowdrop. Nor any of the winter aconites that normally blossom already in December. I see signs of spring around here though. Above is a pic of what it looks like near the foundation by the Western wall of our house. Tiny, tiny leaves have begun to sprout.


But no flowers. So I had to make my own.


It's just a sweet white lucite flower on a blackened copper wire (with balled end acting as stamen).

Apples in a bowl

A couple of days I go I made a comment on the Vintaj blog about beading on filigree. Which made me think of this little objet d'art I made back in October 2008. The bowl is a piece of dapped brass filigree ("Garden Trellis" from Vintaj), 40x40 mm, and the apples are made using 6 mm round soo cho jade beads with Toho 11/0 seeds in matte opaque chocolate. The beads are simply stitched to the filigree base using brown K.O. Beading Thread. I just use it as a small decorative item, but others have suggested it'd also make a nice brooch.

I thought the "jade" was just the right autumn colours for apples, eventhough the seed bead "calyx" make them look a tad like ripening currants in the end. Well, at least now I know how to make bead currants.

A copper bookmark

When writing about bookmark tutorials and projects in Manekis Pärlblogg, I did make a few bookmarks just to illustrate the post (you can see them here). Later I got a copper bookmark from a fellow beader in Malmö and it too became part of a "post illustration" when I showed how to work with double pendants/charms. But this is the first time, I think, that I publish a photo of the bookmark as a whole, not just focusing on the dangle.


I know the moon isn't dark blue, but I still feel like the fairy (or woodland nymph) is standing in front of a full moon. Probably the round shape combined with the midnight blue colour of the MOP charm.

I like the ornate bookmark hooks, but otherwise I prefer simple bookmarks that are easy to put in the pocket, lay on the bookshelf, or place in small bowl on a table. Like the chain or ribbon bookmarks in the other blog post or simply using a piece of paper.

Flowers, berries and black iron

I like using blackened annealed iron wire fot its variegated, matte colour. Probably inspired by the fact that it is also a type of wire traditionally used in luffarslöjd/trådtjack, wirework made by bums in the early 20th century (they picked up surplus wire to work with, thus avoiding be arrested for vagrancy).

Above is an exemple of a creation I made after being given a bead challenge to make a picture frame. For it I used 0,7 mm iron wire and West-african flower beads made from recycled glass. The beads are very uneven, but very pretty. I had never done a frame using wire before so there are many things that could be done in a different way, but I still like it.


In the same challenge I also got to make a pen holder. Using the same 0,7 mm wire, I made this twined basket that remind me a bit of the baskets we used to pick potatoes in as kids working at our grandparents' farm. Not that it was decorated with flowers and leaves, but the sparse twisted wire is more or less the same. To make a dense bottom, stopping the pens and pencils from going through it, I used vaxed linen cord.

Then, in a word challenge, I got the word gooseberries. As soon as I got it I thought of my strangely coloured cat's eye beads -- and barbed wire. As gooseberry bushes only mean one thing to me: thorns!

Growing up in the countryside on a small farm, we still used the old-fashioned ways sometimes. This included using barbed wire instead of electric fences every summer when a couple of grandpa's heifers were grazing on our lands. We now have tonnes of that springy, errant wire in storage. It is difficult to work with, especially seeing I couldn't anneal it, but having held and pulled barbed wire since I was a toddler I was experienced enough to wrap it without being scratched more than once.

I only had a few cat's eye beads so I decided to make it autumnal, the last gooseberries for the season left on a near defoliated bush. I attached the berries and leaves using handmade iron wire headpins, stringed onto more wire, which I twisted together making a short vine. As you can see, the vine is separate from the thorny barbed-wire wreath.


Of cause I also make jewellery using this wire. More about that some other time.

Ribbon and fabric flower jewellery

I've always found ribbon and fabric flowers to be cute, even if I sometimes get bored of the satin roses, sold everywhere. So of cause it was only a matter of time before I started incorporating them in my jewellery (you've already seen my Spring flower earwires).

Above you see one of my first attempts, called Blommor och trä (Flowers and wood). It was at the time just an experiment using store-bought ribbon flowers. These were a style I hadn't seen before so they inspired me more than the usual satin roses, which I had used before in a couple of simple stringed bracelets. I only had three flowers so it was just barely I had enough supplies to make a bracelet to fit me.

It's a simple design with linked dark wooden beads connected to the loops in the leaves of the flowers. I then choose a clasp that was square, as the wooden beads, with a flower-shaped hole.


Now this is a more dramatic piece, using carnation-like ribbon flowers, big shiny black beads and black findings. It has no name, or rather, I seem to give it a new name every time I show it to someone... Here I tried another way of attaching the flowers by pushing the wire through the leaf and make a loop. Nice try, I don't think it'll stand up to much use... But apart from that, I really like the design and overall style.


This necklace above was made for a bead shop contest on the theme Carl von Linné (Linnaeus) and I called it Tidig sommar (Early summer). Here I attached the flowers by skewering the flowers on headpins and linking them with chunky dyed shell nugget beads. Not my favourite bead type, but I thought they looked like grass and fitted the theme (before making this necklace I thought of using the flowers with my rhyolite coins, which didn't work very well).
I also added a "antique gold" butterfly stamping by punching a hole in the tip of the wing and attaching it to the centre flower.

I mostly do symmetrical jewellery so this time I tried to do something asymmetrical, but I think that part failed...


What is this them? Another early attempt at using sation roses ended this way. Started of as a circlet, but ended half the size (a good size to decorate wide candles). Here the roses are kept in place by twisting two blackened iron wires together. Crystal AB drop beads added to give the illusion of dewdrops.

Many different ways to attach flowers in other words. Normally I prefer skewering them or stringing them as it feels more secure that linking them using the ribbon loops/leaves.

~*~

Nowadays I also make jewellery using my own handmade ribbon flowers, but more of that in another post.

Wild strawberries

Some of you might be pretty tired of winter and snow right now so here's another daydream back to summer.

I made this in 2007 or 2008 I think. It was in a word challenge I got the word smultron, wild strawberries. As a pure co-incidence, I had bought red "ice pearls" months earlier as I thought they looked like strawberries. I bought them eventhough I normally don't like this type of beads. Then I got the challenge. Perfect!

I thought long and hard of different ways of making a beaded straw. Knotting, bead-weaving, weaving etc. My idea was to make it into a bracelet or necklace. But then I had a new thought: why complicate things? When I've got so much of the real thing just outside the door? Nothing but grass everywhere. So I went out, grabbed a handful of timothy-grass. The beads had just the right size holes to fit onto the straws.

The result was a simple objet d'art that I placed in the book shelf as a reminder of summer.

Not just jewellery -- napkin rings

Even if jewellery is what I enjoy making the most, I do make other types beadwork too. In this case a couple of napkin rings. The theme is spring, wood anemones, and bridal colours.

These were pretty easy to make. The base is half a dozen golden "lattice" napkin rings I got cheap from a second hand store. Onto those, I stitched a lovely green leaf ribbon. First one row going in one direction, then a second row going in the other directions. Repeat so that the ring is covered in four layers of ribbon. Putting the ribbon in different ways like that made the leaf more lively, not all of them pointing the same way. Also, I "interlocked" and pieced the leaves together making it a bit more dimensional.

After that I embroidered buds (Miyuki drops) and flowers (MOP chips with 15/o seed beads as "stamens") to the bead of leaves using stop stitches.

On the photo you see one napkin ring, photographed from two different angles.