Little Bead Boxes

Wow I have finally made at least one of every design in Julia Pretl's book Little Bead Boxes.

It started back in July of 2008 when Julia was teaching at Bead Junction in Toronto.

My very first box

Second box where I made it taller by repeating pattern

My variations of the triangle boxes in the book

My variations of the square boxes in the book

My variations of the pentagon boxes in the book

My variations of the hexagon boxes in the book

Here are some additional finished projects from patterns purchased on Julia's website.

Owl box with no lid, great for pens and pencils

Olive box with Swarovski crystal finial that look like an olive pit

Fir tree without the decorations for Christmas

I have truly enjoyed making the many boxes in the book. It came along in my beading life just when I was craving to make something more that jewellry.

Thanks Julia you have truly broaden my beading world.

ABC's of Creativity - February Review

Here is my monthly review of the ABC's of Creativity series that I am contibuting to on Rypan Designs' blog.

February covers C is Color and D is Design Decisions.

Maria's post about color gives you a little color theory and some amazing eye candy. My favourite is this amazing collaborative piece - The rainbow.

My post about design decision is about the what if question you may ask yourself during the creative process. Also includes eye candy (including my favourite bridal piece) and some design process pictures of two Rypan Designs kits.

This bridal necklace was created to meet the requested of the bride and our asking what if --- we used pearls instead.

Only 22 letters to go. So many more ways to spark your creativity.

Happy Beading

Beading with Elizabeth

This past weekend I got to spend the weekend with my youngest niece Elizabeth.

It started with our sleepover at the ROM. We made masks with feathers and explore our favourite part of the museum, the Shad Gallery.

Once we were back at my place on Saturday, Elizabeth decided that we should make something to put in this box we had bought for her grandmother's birthday.

Earrings were the perfect choice. Looking in my drawer of Swarovski she found beautiful little butterflies. Here are the earrings that she designed.

We selected these earrings made with furnace glass from my inventory of earrings.

In the Swarovski drawer she found some Palace Green Opal round crystals which she wanted to use to make a bracelet for her mom. We decided to use some of the butterflies leftover from Grandma's earrings.

She then decided that it need a box. So Sandra gets the Grandma Fifi box.

On Sunday morning, after a good night's sleep in my bed, she selected a necklace from my inventory. I shortened it the perfect length, with an extender chain so she could grow into it.

Of course her next question was did I have a box for it. Luckily I had the perfect blue box.

I decided that we could not leave out making something for Elizabeth's dad and brother. I thought that keychains would be great. I pulled out the raku beads from my Tucson Treasures that Maria had given me.

Elizabeth selected the lizard for her brother, Mackenzie and a fish for her dad, Les. We found some fire polished rondelles to accent each.

She then wanted to make one for herself and her mom. Using the round celtic knots we designed these.

Here is the whole family of keychains.

Elizabeth, it was so much fun the spend the weekend together. We made some beautiful things as a team.

Soup Arrival

I had only expected to find bills in my mail box when I checked it yesterday, but I was surprised to find a small box from Alberta there.

Once I was back upstairs I opened it to find a well packed trio of packages.

Each was carefully wrapped in red and white tissue.

The largest contained a great variety of ingredients including pearls, an assortment of copper findings and beads, beautiful handmade toggle and lampwork beads.

The smallest held a wise and colourful lampwork owl.

The third package was long and narrow, I was very curious as to what it held. Inside were handmade headpins.

Here is a final picture of the complete soup send to my by my amazing partner, Cheryl Brown of Dragonfly Designs.

Thanks Cheryl.

Stop back on April 6, reveal day, to see what I create with this amazing soup.

Peruvian Owl Necklace

I learned from Maria that these amazing Raku beads are from Peru and imported by J.P. Imported. I selected the three owls to make into a necklace.

These beads have a wild array of colours on them. I found some fire-polished that had similar colouring. I added some paper beads with copper bead accents.

A few strategically placed bicones hold the owls in alignment with the other beads.

Tucson Treasures

My friend and beading guru, Maria is back from teaching and exploring the multitude of amazing things at the shows in Tucson. I was very lucky to be given these very amazing beads.

Italian Cane Bead

A selection of Raku beads

More Raku Beads

And more Raku Beads

I am going to start with the three owl beads and create a necklace. I will be fun to create something with the sea creatures and dragons.

Thanks for the great beads Maria!

Bead Soup Blog Party #7 Partner

I am part of the 2nd reveal group for the 7th Bead Soup Blog Party. Today I got my email from our guru Lori telling the name of my partner.

I have been partnered with lampwork artist and potter, Cheryl from Grande Prairie, Alberta.

I just have to give my soup a few tweaks and with will be ready to ship west!

Come back for reveal day on April 6th!