I am still here

Wow, it has been over two weeks since my last posting. Since then I have purchased a stack of TBS calendars to give out this holiday season.

I also have two books that I need to review and blog. I have also finished another of those wonderful boxes. They are very addictive. I am in the middle of another one and have purchased the beads for 3 or 4 more. Hope to blog my reviews and my new box or boxes by the end of the week.

On the weekend I went downtown and wander thru the Indigo at the Toronto Eaton Centre. They had a copy of Creating Crystal Jewelry with Swarovski by Laura Mccabe. I love the look of Laura's Crown Jewels. They are wonderful 3-D balls made with seed beads and Swarovski crystals. I have often thought about ordering one of her kits everytime I see the ad in a beading magazine. I am sure the book was less that the kit and I have so many other this I can make as well.

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.