Calendar Girl

I heard over the weekend that one of my pieces was chosen for the Toronto Bead Society's 2009 Calendar. This year the calendar is supporting Pegasus Community Project.
I am going to be Miss June with my loomworked Floral Garden Necklace.

This is a piece I made a few years ago. I want to do a loomwork piece with no pattern. I used a seed bead mix for the woven parts. I then embellished with pressed glass flowers. To add texture to the fringe there are branches with more of the flowers and clear leaves at the bottom.

The Toronto Bead Society will be selling calendars for $10 at the Canadian Bead Oasis show next weekend in Toronto.

I will be at the show working at the Rypan Designs booth #2231. I will be presenting some of the Rypan Designs seminars at the show.

Beadwork - Drop Earrings

I was given some beautiful glass beads last Friday. There were two sets of these long drop beads. I decided that they would make great earrings. I dug through my Swarovski crystals and found 2 6mm purple bi-cones that matched the slash of colour in one of the sets of drops. Here is my first set.

The other set of drops are grey with a slash of fushia. I am going to get fushia crystals and make another set.

Beadwork - Dragon Box

I finished my dragon box. I have decided not to put feet on this box. I have added a small square lampwork bead on the lid as a finial. I am pleased with the way it turned out.

I did some other beadwork this weekend. One is a piece for a kit cover for Rypan Designs, the other two were colour samples for display in the booth at shows.

Beadwork - Dragon Box update

I have worked on my dragon box over the week. I took a break on Thursday to take my nephew and a friend's son to the Ex for the day.

When I worked on it again I ran into trouble with zipping together the hem and sides. It seemed as if they did not fit together. I put it aside and started a new box. This morning I decided that I needed to resolve the problem of the dragon box. I undid the last row and a half of the hem. I reread the instructions from the class and realized that I had missed a row. Once I stitched the hem correctly it zipped together with the sides quickly.

Here is a picture of the box. I now only have to stitch the lid. Will start it today.

Beadwork - Broad Collar segment

In addition to the box class on Saturday, on Sunday I took the broad collar class with Julia Pretl at Bead Junction.

I have done broad collars before but I used vertical netting. Julia's are done with horizontal bands of ladder stitch.

Instead of attempting to make a full collar we made just a segment of a collar. I have finished the collar section. I am going to finish it off with a combination of chain and larger blue beads.

Beadwork - Dragon Box in progress

It's official I am hooked on making these amazing boxes. I have started the dragon box from Julia Pretl's Little Bead Boxes. I have chosen a few different colours based on what I had in my delica drawer.

Here is the bottom.

I spent a good part of Tuesday finishing the bottom and getting half way up the sides.

I am planning to make another dragon box in blues in honour of my favourite dragon character, Saphira in Eragon. I have some beautiful dichronic blue Aikos that will look amazing.

Beadwork - My first box

Here is the box that I made at the bead class with Julia Pretl at Bead Junction.

Stitched in peyote stitch is followed nicely from the puffy stars I did last week. The start and increasing was done the same way. It was so much fun to make that I start another Saturday evening.

I finished the second one this afternoon.

On Sunday I took Julia's broad collar class. I have got it about 3/4 finished. I hope to get it done by the end of the week.

Beadwork - Little Red Puffy Star

On The Beaders Showcase I have seen some beautiful work by bead artists around the world. One artist - Lidia had pictures of these very cool little puffy stars. I asked if they were her design and if so did she have instructions. She willing shared with me her draft instructions for creating the cool little stars.

This is made with a combination of herringbone and peyote stitch. It was fun to make. I look forward to making more in a variety of other colour combinations. I think that they will make great Christmas ornaments.

Beadwork - Blue Acrylic Necklace

Last Friday I went downtown to Queen St W. There are about 7 bead store within 1 block. At Arton's I found these cool blue ombre acrylic beads. They had a sample piece showing them strung on a chain held in place with crimp beads. I was inspired by the piece so I purchase the large acrylic beads and the small blue glass beads.

I have strung them on the chain with 4mm round silver beads. I really like how it turned out.

The challenge of this piece was finishing the ends. I did not have any finding specifically for finishing the ends of chains. I checked my favourite online source beadfx but the only one that had was sterling silver. I was able to come up another solution. I used a beadtip on each end, with a crimp bead on the end of the chain. It looks good, I just hope that it will hold.

Beadwork - Coral & Lampwork

I started this piece with the purchase of the set of 3 lampwork beads from AirWynn Glass Designs at the Toronto Bead Society Garage Sale. I loved the red embellishment of a clear orangey red glass. I have combined them with the deep red of the sponge coral rectangles, the orange of the hyacinth cubic zirconia rectangles & hyacinth Swarovski rounds.

The challenge of the this piece was the layout of the beads. I played with the placement of the lampwork, originally I had them spaced equally around the piece. That layout did not look great when tried on. Grouping the lampwork beads together in the center gave them the staring role of the necklace.

Beadwork - Black and White Bracelet

At the Friendship Beading retreat last weekend in Montreal I took a class with Diane Reda to make this bead crocheted bracelet.

It was a good project for a class as I was able to almost finish the piece during the class. I finished it at home with a different closure.

This is my second attempt to do bead crochet. This was much easier that my last attempt. I guess working with larger beads helped.

I look forward to trying this project again.

Bead Challenge - Blue Foxglove trio

I have finally been able to finish this stunning necklace. I started back in April and I spent this morning putting everything together. This piece is designed by Kerrie Slade and was published in the April 2008 issue of Bead and Button magazine. It is stitched using one of my favourite beadweaving stitches, ndebele or herringbone. I have used three shades of blue for the flowers.

Here are some detail images.

End of Bead Crazy Week

My bead crazy week is over. I taught three classes this weekend and I also learned how to do an easy bead crochet bracelet. Last night's bead bingo was a hit. 24 bead crazy ladies enjoy an hour and a half of bingo with wonderful prizes for all.

I am going to spend tommorrow just beading. I hope to finish a project that I have with me.

Bead Challenge - Bead it Green Bracelet and Pendant

Bead crazy week continues. Last night those that had arrived in Montreal early were invited to dinner and a chance to shop at one of the local bead stores, Bead It. I purchased some interested green stone beads and was able to sit down this afternoon and make this bracelet and pendant set. I was inspired by the pieces in the store that had the stone pendant on a short piece of chain and then attached to an eye pin.

Pendant stone is Rhyolite (Rainforest Jasper)

Bead Crazy Week - Beading Teens

This is going to be a bead crazy week. It started last night with a beading program for teens at the library where I work. It continues later in the week with the Friendship Beading Retreat in Montreal where I will be teaching and running the bead bingo.

Last night I had 10 young ladies and 1 gentleman spend an hour making basic strung bracelets. Almost all of them make two bracelets. I had one speedy beader who made three.

Bead Challenge - Blue Southwest Charm

I have done many of Marilyn Gardiner's chain mail kits. This is the first of her beadwork kits that I have finished. I have others that I hope to finish over this year.

This piece is peyote stitched with delica beads.

Beadwork Challenge - Sage Fan "Wheel of Fortune"

I am going to be teaching some Rypan Designs pieces at the upcoming Friendship Beading Retreat in Montreal in a few weeks. One of the pieces I am teaching is a one I have not done before. It is a variation of the Fan bracelet which I have done a number of times. It was easy to do. I am looking forward to teaching it.

Beadwork Challenge - Iced Purple Flowers

First piece is finished. This is made with some beautiful lampwork beads by glass bead artist Amy Waldman Smith. I have combined them with some Swarovski crystals and other crystals.

This is a basic stringing project. I have added an extender chain with a pendant drop on the end made with the leftover crystals from the necklace.

Challenge of the Challenge

One of the challenges of blogging my bead challenge will be have great pictures of the pieces to share.

I have tried photographing my beadwork in the past, but have never been pleased with the results. So I purchased a set of light tents, lights and a tripod. I will play with it this weekend to see if it makes a different.

Look for a posting about the attempts, successes and failures, during the weekend.