Focus on Life - Week 17 and 18

I’ve been running so far behind the Focus on Life series I’d thought I’d take some time during the week to play catch up.

Week 17 - Color/Colour

“Did you ever notice the way colour can effect our mood and perception of the environment around us?”

Just after I read this post for Week 17 the weather turned from very pleasant Autumn to a chilly taste of Winter to come. I was in need of hot Summer colours and they came to me in the form of beads.

When my Bead Soup partner, Penny, sent me some dragon-veined Agate I know I needed to find some more and these were my solution.

The centre portion of these strands are a brighter colour than the ends, which I presume means they're dyed. I really don’t mind all that much because the end beads are a lovely mottled brown with the brighter colours running through. I’m not sure what these are destined for, I’m sure I’ll find out sooner or later :)

Week 18 - Abstract

“The use of visual language of form colour and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the real world”

This one was fun! I played with one of the photos I took of the beads from Week 17 and ran it through some filters in Photoforge2 on my iPad and finished it off in PSE7.

I made a bead from a pile of beads! I used the Tiny Planet filter in Photoforge2 to create the circular blurred effect and loaded it onto my computer to add the rippled glass background filter in Photoshop Elements.

Don’t forget to come back on Saturday for the next Focus on Life post, and check out the others joining in.

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Brewing up Bead Soup

Yay! I've signed up for this year's edition of The Bead Soup Blog Party. I enjoyed last year so much I think it will become a regular occurrence for me.

 

So, it's time to brew up some bead soup for my yet to be decided partner. I've done a little shopping on etsy in an Aussie destash shop and on my favourite online store Over the Rainbow. I was going to drive to Absolutely Beads, a local bead store who also have an online store. I was happy to discover that they had moved their bricks and mortar store a lot closer to my home, 5 minutes away!

 

The best part of Absolutely Beads being in the small town of Hahndorf is that it is only around the corner from a boutique coffee roasting store and three (!!) chocolate shops. Beads, coffee and chocolate, I'm in heaven! No chocolate or coffee this trip though, just beads....

 

Absolutely Beads has a nice selection of czech glass and kashmir beads. I found some good lampwork beads that are destined for earrings too. Now don't worry that I might be revealing some of the Bead Soup components, I removed them from the pile before I photographed them. Unless of course I change my mind :)

 

What is really hard for me to find at the moment is a really good clasp. I might end up making them, time to check the Internet for tutorials I suppose.

 

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Blog Hops and other stuff

It's been a busy couple of weeks here in our little cottage. I've signed up for two Blog Hops and celebrated three birthdays. The birthdays were my mother's and the parents-in-laws and the blog hops are for the Challenge of Color and the Memories and Thanks Blog Hop.

I've received my colour palettes for the Challenge of Color and I'm so excited about the colours. The photos for the palettes are from the Earth as Art image gallery, Landsat images donated by NASA. I'll show off the palettes and the homemade bead soup I created next week.

Here are some photos of the parcels delivered last week. The postie has visited again today with some polymer clay pieces this time. The polymer clay heart pendants are from OddBod Beads, an online shop that has a select range of Australian artisan beads

Bead Box Bargains and eBay deliveries

Mermaid Beach heart focals form OddBod Beads

Easily the biggest pendants I've ever seen, at least 85mm across! At the opposite side of the size spectrum, I also received my order from Humblebeads etsy store today.

These lovely beads make me want to get my polymer clay out again, I do have some very old buttons stashed away that it wanted to make some moulds of. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with some of these, but the pink chrysanthemum link is MINE! I want to make a bracelet for myself.

Before I go I'll leave you with a birthday cake, made by my sister-in-law. Father-in-law is a bit of a fishing nut!

 

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I got Mail and some New Listings!

Yes, the postman has visited this week.

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Vistaprint offering a $30 discount voucher. Since I was after a new tote bag for Christmas shopping I ordered one of their deluxe styles (black base and handles) with my logo printed on the front. I scored a discount on shipping too! That parcel arrived on Friday. Since the tote was considerably bigger than any of my bag organisers I've ordered a "nurses bag organiser" from eBay with lots of pockets and big enough to fit my ipad! That's due in the letterbox letter this week, photos of both to come.

The second and third a parcels arrived yesterday. You should see the huge grin on my face, my Bead Box Bargains order arrived. Bead caps galore! Lucky timing too, I've signed up for another challenge (more on that later in the week). The third parcel was a bit of a treat for me, I've given myself a subscription to Artful Blogging magazine. It's impossible to buy at any news agent here in Australia! I called all the specialty news agents within 100km radius of home and no stockists anywhere. Luckily I checked online and discovered Blue Bazaar has subscriptions and sells some back issues. At $22 plus postage for each magazine this is a major treat for me!

No pictures of any of my purchased :( so I'll leave you with this.

New listings

I listed these items in my Madeit store yesterday. A Christmas Candy Cane Striped Kumihimo beaded bracelet, a pair of faux enamel Christmas earrings and a pair of Blue faux enamel earrings. The faux enamel effect is achieved by using Sakura Glaze Pens, another eBay purchase from last month. These pens seem to work better on silver tones, the colour disappeared on the copper filigree :(  Last day for orders to ensure delivery for Christmas is 10th December!

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Bead Shopping Update

In my last post I mentioned that I wanted to buy more art beads, mostly from Aussie makers. Since then I've been shopping!

These gorgeous beads from Aussie lampwork artist Angel Gensch who has two bead shops on etsy, Journey Beads and Genschi. Top left - Pumpkin Organic bead pair, top right - Whispy Pale Lavender bead set, bottom left - Dusty Purple Mottled Bead set, bottom right - Pretty Pastel Monet Bead set.

I know what I'm going to be doing with some of these! Two of the mottled purple are going to be vocals in a couple of Kumihimo bracelets, the pumpkins are destined to be a pair of earring for a Christmas present. The Monet beads are a set of five, Angela sent a bonus matching bead so I'm thinking a bracelet and matching earrings.

I've also put an order into Bead Box Bargains, a bead closing house in the US. I saw a post by Lauren (Bead Box Bargains) on the Bead Soup Cafe on Facebook. The were having a great sale on bead caps so I asked Lauren if she was willing to ship to Australia, and she was! I ordered what would have cost me $150 here - for $20!! Shipping was only a little more expensive than normal Aussie shipping.

I've also ordered some brass and pewter pieces from a supplier in Hong Kong on eBay. Mostly unusual bead caps, a few sets of focals and a a really nice set of clasps. I might hang on to a few of these for the next Bead Soup challenge next year.

Well, my October purchases will be arriving in November (I hope). I wonder what I'll buy this month? I'm thinking some polymer clay beads, if you can recommend any Aussie sellers out there I'd appreciate it, I'm too lazy to make my own!

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