ABC's of Creativity - June review

With the year have over, here is my quick review of our June entries.

It started with K is Kits which I did. It includes this vintage Rypan Designs kit.

I also included some of my favourite kits and how I create my our person kits for project I want to do, like this. 

Later in the month Maria was scheduled to do L is Loomwork, but blogger was not making it easy for her. She sent me the information it posted the blog posting for her. I love the loomworked Kimono which was on display at Bead & Button show.

She also covered various styles of looms. My favourite Vyacheslav Kalejnikov, a Ukrainian beadwork artist, who makes his own looms for large scale projects. He uses whatever he can find to make his loom.

Maria will be teaching her loomwork series later in the fall at beadFX.

Happy Beading!!

ABC's of Creativity - May Review

I know that this is a little bit late but here is a quick review of the two entries from May in the Rypan Designs' ABC's of Creativity.

First was I is Internet. I covered a variety of online bead resources. From Pinterest to the new Swarovski Youtube Series The Professor of Crystal.

Then I did J is Jewelry. It is a top to bottom look at the various jewelry item you can make for yourself and others.

Pinch & Twist Hair Comb (beaded by M. Rypan)

Earrings (beaded by J. Woolverton & M. Rypan)

Guide to necklace lengths

"Y" style necklace (beaded by J. Woolverton)

Tussie Mussie Pin (beaded by K. Naray)

Crystal Elevation Bracelet (designed by M. Rypan, beaded by J. Woolverton)

Quetzal Ring (from Beaded Opulence, beaded by J. Woolverton)

Hope that you will hop over to the ABC's of Creativity and be inspired.

ABC's of Creativity - April Review

It is May and spring is finally here to stay in southern Ontario. April was a crazy month but here is my review of the ABC's of Creativity.

I wrote both posts in April, G was Gems and H was Herringbone.

Here are some of my favourite images from G is Gems.

Turquoise Mosiac Bead with turquoise chips and copper, beaded by M. Rypan

Turquoise Necklace inspired by piece @ ROM, beadwoven by Christina Dufrene from 2010 TBS calender

Lampwork beads accented with amber, glass beads, beaded by J. Woolverton

From H is Herringbone I enjoyed show the variety of herringbone, flat, tubular and Maria's variation.

Flat Herringbone - Ribbon bracelets, designed by Kathleen Kimball-Baker, beadwoven by J. Woolverton

Tubular Herringbone - Flowers on twisted herringbone rope, designed by Kerrie Slade, beadwoven by J. Woolverton

Maria's variation - Beaded Soutache Necklace with Fluorite pendant

Only 18 more letters to go. Hop over to Rypan Designs blog to see more.

Happy Beading!

ABC's of Creativity - March Review

March is coming to an end and I hope that some April showers will bring May flowers. Here is a review of the ABC's of Creativity posts from March.

We started with Maria's post about Embroidery. There are images of many things including shirts, jackets and shoes.

Embroidered fabric shoes by Roger Vivier, France @ Bata Shoe Museum

Santee Dakota Northern Plains men's jacket, about 1870's @ Museum of Civilization

Then I did a post about Freeform. This is a form of beadwork which I find a challenge to do (I like order and pattern) but many amazing beadweavers create beautiful work. Here are two of my favourites.

Maria's Window on the Sonoran Desert using the 2006 TBS Bag of Beads

Susan Hood's Dragonfly Moon has a lampwork dragonfly encircled with freeform beading

Only 20 letters to go. So many more ways to spark your creativity.

Happy Beading

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

ABC's of Creativity - January Review

Maria of Rypan Designs made it part of her start of the new year to get her newsletter out to her mailing list (you join the list using the form on the right). As I was helping her prepare the content of the newsletter we came up with the idea of having a bi-weekly posting on her blog about creativity. We call it the ABC's of Creativity.

I offered to help with the creation of the blog posts. So far I have done A is Art and B is Beads.

A is Art includes links to online galleries for inspiration as well as my favourite art to jewellry creative path.

Starry Night by Van Gogh

Hand made beads by Heather Power inspired by painting

Finished necklace by Jo-Ann

B is Beads has a variety of beads from ancient shell beads to lampwork and beaded beads.

Photograph Marian Vanhaeren and Francesco d'Errico (from nationalgeographic.com)

Lampwork beads by Amy Waldman-Smith

Belissimo Beaded Beads, designed by Marcia DeCoster

Only 24 more letters to go.... I will review each month's letters here at the end of the month.

Happy Beading!