My creative space - triangles and circles, running out and haning options.

A couple of weeks ago I showed you my circle beaded earrings.
I had started these red ones and they are a bit bigger than the original version.
I finished them with a larger size seed bead on the edge - so there are 3 sizes of beads - 15's, 11's, and 8's.
I'm pleased with the result - it's a nice size and has a good firm feel.

So off I set to make it's mate - but, Oh No!
I ran out of beads!
Gah! This is probably a common beaders mistake.
And now I'm trying to track down some more...otherwise I will have created a pendant instead!

Sooooo I need another project? Yes?

This time I wanted to create some puffy triangles to make into dangly earrings.

This idea must have been smushing around in my head because I rummaged through my beading magazines and voila! the perfect pattern was in Beadwork magazine.
It was actually a bracelet project, but perfectly adaptable to earrings.

I know how to make triangles but it was the double-sided puffiness that I needed to learn.

I like them!

So I made them in a few different colours and some different beads .

Now I can't decide how to string them.

This was my original vision - on a curved earwire.
Just simple.
But it doesn't really work as the bead doesn't hang straight and there is no "swing".

Is "swing" important for earrings?

If it is them I could attach a little head pin and then the hanging is more pleasing as well.

Or I could use these gunmetal kidney earwires.

What do you think?
Which style do you prefer?

Owls and trees and a bit of seed beading - my creative space

I'm still finding inspiration from Beadfreaky's lovely little ceramic pendants.

I bought a few of them!

Here I combined an owl pendant with some nighttime themed components.
Some gorgeous rainbow moonstone beads, silver beads that look like birds nests. Contrast comes from the blue agate beads and labrodite beads and chips. I found some glass star beads to continue the theme and add some depth.

Here I used a tree pendant for a woodland theme - brass bird components plus some beads in the same tone family. A wonderful mookite beads, some rutilated rhodonite (the slightly pinky flat ones), a couple of green ceramic bead tubes, accented with the bright green howlite composite beads and a few unakite beads (the pink and green ones).
I used a small portion of chain at the back for lightness.

I'm pretty pleased with the way these turned out - but time will tell if anyone else is!

I also wanted to do a small project that I could do while the tennis is on (yes, it's Wimbledon time again).
I had an idea for some circle earrings - I guess it was making the large loopy ones awhile ago that kept the idea in my head. You can see them here.

I thought I'd have to use different size beads for this, but I really don't like the really little size 15 ones - and I don't have a great variety of this size anyway. But realised that I'd have to use them and some size 11's plus maybe size 8's in order to get the circle thing going.
Now I realise that I'm not inventing the wheel here and that there is probably a tutorial somewhere about how to make circles - so off to the interwebs I went - and I didn't have to look far.

If you haven't already found it, Interweave Press's Beading Daily site is a wonderful resource - there are many free downloadable projects as well as tips, technique tutes and all sorts of other grand stuff.

I happened to spot a beaded toggle clasp by Melinda Barta in the free peyote stitch projects ibook - that would tell me how to do it!

Sure enough it told me what I needed to know - bead sizes, number of stitches, number of rows - easy! So I could also concentrate on the tennis (Our Sam won and then our Bernie : D )

This is as far as I got last night and I think they might need to be a bit bigger, but I'll see what they look like when I finish.

How has your creative week been?

Do you have any favorite in-front-of-tv projects?

Joining in with My Creative Space at Village Voices on Kidspot - hop on over and have a look.