Bead Soup Blog Party Reveal

Thank you for stopping by!  Today is the 8th Bead Soup Blog Party reveal and blog hop. What is a bead soup I hear you ask?  It's a wonderful collection beads, comprising a gorgeous focal and a clasp, that is exchanged between partners from anywhere in the world, and on reveal day (today) we share what we've created with the beads we received!

In case you missed my post about the beads I received, here’s an other photo of them. I received a huge bead soup from my partner, Esterina. She was clever enough to realise that she could fill the box with beads and not have to pay extra postage, I wish I had though of that! Esterina is a polymer clay artist and she sent me some of her own beads, including two focals, that are amazing! She really is quite talented.



Here’s the first piece I created with the soup Esterina sent me. I used the clasp, one of the gorgeous focals, two of the coordinating polymer clay beads, faceted amethyst and rose quartz, silver beads and purple ceramic beads, all from the soup. I added some glass pearls and daisy spacers. I used a silver pinch bail to attach the focal to the strand of beads. 



Here’s a few more photos of the polymer clay beads and focal.





I thought a few earring were in order. The first pair match the necklace. I used some of the pumpkin shaped ceramic beads from the soup and paired them with larger glass pearls. The second pair pretty much made themselves, keishi pearls from the soup and silver stardust beads. The last pair I made with the batik leather drops and lampwork beads also from the soup and hung from purple anodised niobium hooks.



Here’s a quick memory wire bracelet, using the lampwork beads and random wooden and enamel beads from my own bead soup bowl. I was hoping to have another bracelet completed and ready to show all of you but I'm still waiting on a set of carved wooden beads that I just had to have!





Well enough about my soup, head on over to my bead soup partner, Esterina of e-Klei Jar  and then all the others! Please visit  Lori of Bead Soup Blog Party for a full list of the participants.

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In the Media - Gathered by Mollie Makes

I've been published, just a little bit! How to you get published a little bit? Here's how it all came about.

Since my jewellery making muse is on the fritz I've been indulging in some of my other creative pursuits, mostly crochet. A couple of weeks ago I discovered an Australian site, Yarnover, that sells Lily Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn and my favourite (but expensive) crochet hooks, Tulip Etimo. I received my order early last week and promptly went in search of a couple of patterns for the Sugar 'n cream yarn.

I made this pretty crochet Kitty adapted from a pattern by Janette of the Green Dragonfly. Being me, I tweaked the pattern to include a full twisty tail, some extra shaping in the ears and around the face.

 

I also made these Christmas Coasters, just a set of plain granny squares and a star shaped hot pad for a teapot or coffee plunger.

I was so please by how they turned out I snapped a couple of photos and uploaded them to Instagram. Low and behold on Tuesday evening I received an email from Nina, a Production Assistant for the magazine, asking me if they could use my photo in their Show and Tell section of Gathered by Mollie Makes. I happily said yes, without even checking which photo!

I downloaded the magazine on Saturday and here she is... My Pretty KittyCat lifted right off the iPad.

I still have one or two embellishments to add, a butterfly for her tail and a heart shaped pocked with flowers. If you'd like to be featured in Gathered upload a picture to Instagram, Twitter or Facebook and tag them #gatheredbymm.

And that my friends is how you get just a little bit published.

 

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My Handmade Elf on the Shelf

This Christmas I've decided to make a few handmade decorations and I've been looking at crochet patterns for gingerbread men, elves, reindeer, snowmen and of course the jolly man himself. The kids are protesting at the idea of another snowman, so I thought I'd start with something else.

If you follow me on Facebook you might remember that I posted about a new handmade crochet project I was starting. You can find the pattern on Ravelry and Craftsy for free. I've also started a board on Pinterest that I'm pinning Christmas tutorials, the elf is on there too. Well, here it is! Jill Watt's Shelf Elf .

I knew straight away which yarn I wanted to use for "Elffy", a quick trip into the local store and I had almost everything I needed. Paton's Zhivago in a lovely deep red and some tapestry wool in flesh and white. Zhivago is a lovely yarn that has a velvety finish, it must be the tencel in the yarn I guess.

The Making of an Elf

Making the body

Basically the elf is made from two long skinny crochet tubes for legs, two shorter ones for arms and a long barrel shaped body. After making the arms and legs I threaded pipe cleaners through, to make the elf posable. I stuffed the body (above) with fibre fill and sewed the body closed, attaching the arms and legs at the same time.

That left the collar, head, hair and hat. Out of those three the head is the most complicated. There appears to be a small error in the pattern for the head. In row 7 it calls for chain 9 at the end of the row, I think it is supposed to be sc 9 (single crochet US or double crochet UK).

You can see above there is a small bobble in the centre for the nose and larger ones for cheeks. Just a hint, make sure you place the nose bobble in the dead centre between the ears (mine's just a little off centre), and for colour I used some of my blush on his cheeks and the tip of his nose. If your worried that the blush is going to rub off spray a little hairspray on your finger and rub over the blush spots to seal it, that's an old theatre trick. He looks like he has a strange pink mustache, lol.

If you think positioning the nose and cheeks is tricky well, it's time to add the eyes and mouth. You can use felt or embroidery floss to add these. I'm not 100% happy with his eyes, I might replace them with felt. My tip is to use the pins with coloured heads to work out where to put his eyes. Oh, and don't do what I did and sew his hat on, forgetting his hair! BALD ELF! My fault because I had decided not to crochet him a "rug" (hair piece) and sewed the hat on before I embroidered the hair.

Here he is, finally finished! Keep an eye on my Facebook page, I'm sure he'll get into trouble before Christmas.

You can check out more of Jill's crochet patterns on Ravelry or on her blog Dapper Toad.

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Wonky Bead Blog Hop

Welcome to the Wonky Bead Blog Hop!

The Mission

Purchase a “Wonky Bead Set” from Kristi Bowman Design at Etsy and create a piece of jewellery and share your creations of Reveal Day!
 

Mission Accepted!

Kristi had a number of different sets of the beads in her Etsy store, Fuchsia, Magenta and Red. Each set is a mixture of different shapes, sizes, colours and textures. Of course, I chose the Fuchsia set, and I couldn’t resist adding the earring set as well.

I had truly forgotten what it is like to work with polymer clay beads. This Wonky Bead set has a lovely feel, smooth and silky with a matte finish.



Purple Poppy components (earrings) by Kristi Bowman, Turkish Delight czech rounds (earrings) by Zoe & Bruno, Anodised Aluminium earring hooks in purple, Wonky beads by Kristi Bowman, Shabby Flower Frame by Patina Worx, Purple hemp and leather by Beadsmith, Sari silk  Beads made by me, Wood Beads, Pink faceted Tourmaline, Gold Stardust bead, Brass chain and clasp from stash.



I’m going to keep this set for myself, since I’ve already worn the earrings and the colours are perfect for almost everything in my wardrobe!

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Bead Hoarders Blog Hop Reveal

Bead Hoarding is an Addiction, it sits right up there with Bead Shopping! Of course you need to go shopping first, then the hoarding kicks in. There are two types of hoarders, the organised type and the dis-organised type. I am, of course, completely organised...NOT! My bead hoard is spread out everywhere! Although, mercifully it didn't take very long for me to find the subject of this challenge. What took the longest was trying to find the brass jump rings and tiger tail. Still looking!

Lori Anderson of the Bead Soup Blog Party has given out a challenge. Dip onto our hoard of beads and just make something. Well, there were lots of decisions to make - what would I use, what shall I make, can I really bear to part with this or that? I ended up chosing one of my earliest hoardings and coincidentally the most expensive (curse you eBay!). 

Quite a few years ago I attended a polymer clay workshop taught by Christie Friesen. During the workshop I made a bird brooch by following the steps in the Birds of a feather book, we were also introduced to some steampunk designs. A short while later Christie was having a sale on eBay, selling the pieces she made while creating the book Steampunkery. Well I couldn't help myself I just had to have my own steampunk dragonfly. I'm not sure if it's the one on the cover or made to photograph the instructions but it's a CF original and I'm happy about that.

I knew I was going to have to do something with it someday, but I kept putting it off. I did however start a bead soup that I could use when I decided what I wanted to make. Earthy toned seed beads, freshwater pearls, brass beads and a few czech firepolished beads strung up and woven through the chain and sari silk to add just a bit of interest. The real stumbling block was the location of the holes in the wings. I'm not 100% happy with the setup of the chain at the moment, I may still tweak it.

What really surprised me was the green (likes more yellow in the first photo) sari silk. As you can see its quite frayed and organic looking, I had pictured a deep earthy purple but ended up using the green instead.

For a full list of participants please visit Lori

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7th Bead Soup Blog Party - 3rd Reveal is Here!

I'm over the moon to be taking part in the 7th Bead Soup Blop Party, this is my second time taking part, see here for last years reveal. Huge thanks and a big get “well and hope your feeling better soon” to our amazing hostess Lori Anderson of Pretty Things. (Read more about the BSBP on Lori's blog in the link.)

This massive event with over 500 participants from many countries was split into three separate reveal dates, and because of Lori’s illness we have had two weeks between each reveal. I still haven’t finished blog hopping yet and it’s time for my reveal!!

Also a great big thank you to my swap partner Penny of Smelly Nelly and Etsy shop Forgotten Tracks. Penny sent an interesting soup for me to work with, some of the soup is in colours I don’t normally work with and others are right up my alley. Be sure to visit Penny at Smelly Nelly to see what she made with what I sent her. Here’s is a reminder of the soup she sent me.

The first piece I made was these earrings. Those disks were calling me from the soup dish on my table for a few days before I made them. I’m not sure if the disks are agate or pressed glass but I love them any way. I’ve paired them with vintage brass wire and 2mm lemon jade beads and red copper wire. They measure 3 inches or 7.5cm from the top of the hook to the tip of the jade beads.

This necklace was a simple design, but I really wanted to include the pinch beads from the soup. I’ve never used beads of this shape before. You might not be able to see it in the photos, but the beads, which are a lovely chocolatey brown have an iridescent petrol finish that picks up the colour of the crystals (also from the soup) quite nicely.

Here I've used three of the dragon-veined (dragon-scale?) agate beads from my soup. I LOVE these beads!! I've teamed them with brass bead caps, vintage brass chain and some orphaned lampwork beads from Genschi. The Focal is a large carved wood button from my stash.

And, last but by no means least, the focal and clasp. I’ll be honest, that focal had me stumped, I knew I wanted to use it as a pendant, but how? Then all of a sudden everything came together. I found a brass pendant at Spotlight (local craft/haberdashery store), used a smudge of Vintaj Patina in moss green, glued the focal and paired it with some of my favourite brass chain. The czech bead dangles are from Zoe and Bruno and the wooden disks are from my favourite local bead store Absolutely Beads. The lampwork bead and sari silk are from my stash.

Don't you just love the fish clasp? I also use a little Vintaj Patina on the focal to bring out the centre detail.

Ok that’s it for me time for everyone to get hopping! Visit Lori for the official third reveal list and don’t forget to check Penny of Smelly Nelly to see what she has made with the bead soup I sent her.

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Memories and Thanks Blog Hop

If your here for the Focusing on Life Challenge please click here.

The Memories and Thanks Blog Hop was organised by Lori of Pretty Things, you can read more about the reasons here. This blog hop is for the people in our lives who mean a lot to us. Create a piece of jewelry that tells that story.

I chose to make a piece of jewellery to remind me of my Father, Allan Williams. It was only a few months after my fourth birthday when my Dad died. Being so young I've been told that I couldn't possibly remember what happened, but I do.

My Dad was a Welder by trade but his real passion was music. After graduating high school he attended music school at night and on weekends played guitar in a local band with his brothers. I still remember the afternoons he would practice for the weekend gigs. I was allowed to play along with him on a toy recorder for the first few minutes of practice time. After practice I would sit on his lap and tell him all about my day, right after searching his pockets for the tiny pack of Smarties he used to keep just for me.

I was sitting in my bedroom in the afternoon, waiting for him to get home from work, when it happened. He was walking across the front lawn when he had a heart attack and died. He was 33 years old.

I decided to make a bracelet to remind me of my Dad. Since he played guitar ( I still have the same guitar) I used a MOP-style guitar pick. I made 3 holes with a small hole punch and strung a mix of glass pearls and AB crystals, joining them together with large jump rings. I finished off the bracelet with raspberry/chocolate sari silk, a heart clasp and an angel wing charm. Finally I used a transfer on the pick itself and sealed it with mod podge.

I think I'll make another bracelet for my younger sister, she was only one year of when Dad died. We've always been close, and since she's moving 1200km away I will be nice to have something to keep us connected.

Please visit Lori for a full list of participants at Pretty Things.

For Marianna

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3rd Annual Challenge of Color - Reveal

Hello my friends and welcome to my little corner of the 3rd Annual Challenge of Colour. For those not familiar with the challenge here are the guidelines, choose your favourite palette from one of two original palettes  created by Miss Brandi Hussey (I chose both). The pictures are from the Earth As Art exhibit which can be found at the United States Geological Service and have been taken from the Landsat 7 satellite. Using your chosen palette or palettes you create something...a piece of jewellery, or an accessory.

Stand by for a picture heavy post….

Colour Palette 1 - The Great Sandy Desert, Australia

 

Now, as an Aussie I couldn’t say no to this one!

Before we get into the beady goodies, would you like to know some interesting facts about the Great Sandy Desert?

• The Great Sandy Desert is one of ten deserts in Australia.
• It is the second largest desert in Australia (after the Great Victoria Desert) and covers 284,993km² (110,038miles²).
• Kata Tjuta Uluru National Park (Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock) is located in the far south eastern corner of the desert.
• The average rainfall is 250mm (10 inches) but most is lost due to evaporation. With average temperatures of 42^oC (108^oF) it’s hardly surprising.
• The Great Sandy Desert is the subject of one of the largest, 10m x 8m (33ft x 26ft) Aboriginal artworks. Called The Ngurrara, it was painted by the traditional owners of the desert in 1997.

OK, enough education, on to the pretties!



I had originally intended to make a polymer clay bead around the key, but no matter what I did the clay kept cracking. so, instead I wrapped the key with sari silk and wired some extra key charms. The rhodonite heart and the swirl beads were from my stash.

Colour Palette 2 - Mississippi River Delta

I ranout of time to research some information about this one, so I’ll look forward to reading what other challenge participants have found out.



I fell in love with these lampwork beads by Angela Gensch and just had to use them for this bracelet. Milky Aquamarine czech beads were used for the kumihimo work. this piece will be given to a family member for her birthday (it’s OK she already knows).
This challenge has be a learning experience but also loads of fun. I’d like to thank Erin, for allowing me to take part, and Brandi for her gorgeous palettes.

Please visit Erin for the full list of participants.

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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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Whatever happened to.....Me!

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged here regularly. After the bead soup blog party I must have subconsciously needed a break.

I wasn't completely absent though, I'm taking part in Diana of Suburban Girl Studio's mismatched art bead earring swap. My partner here in Australia is Melissa Trudinger of Bead Recipes. Of course I had a go at the sequintastic challenge in my previous post, and I think I'm over my dread of sewing sequins.

Mmmm what else, well after troubleshooting ipad problems for most of my extended family I bit the bullet (so to speak) and bought one for myself. I'm hoping that I can blog on my ipad (like I'm doing now) and do almost all of the stuff that I was doing on my laptop. More about useful apps later.

I've also finally opened my Madeit store I've only got a few things listed there at the moment, mostly Kumihimo bracelets like these.

I'm in the process of designing some earrings to be listed there as well. Oh, and I've got free shipping in my store for the month of October, to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness. Bracelets for Christmas will be listed soon.

Since I've been designing earrings I realised I needed some custom earring cards. I'm pretty good with photoshop and my youngest daughter is a good sounding board for design. When I've printed some up I'll show them off here. They might make a good product for my store as well. I noticed a quite a few on Etsy but none on Madeit.

Come back on the 16th October for the MisMatched Art Bead Earring Swap reveal.

See Ya!

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