My creative space

Today I had an unscheduled day playing shops at the craft co-operative that I belong to.
How it works is that we take it in turns to man (or woman) the shop, which is open every day.
But todays rostered person had an appointment and asked if I could swap.
That's one of the things that is so good about the co-op, we all help each other out.

So I grabbed a couple of boxes of beads so that I'd have something to do between customers. In fact customers like to see when we are creating and I always get comments about "all those tiny beads"!
















This is a spirtal roe bracelet using 7 different shapes and colours of czech and japanese beads from size 11 up to 4mm cubes.
Did I tell you already how much I love cubes?
Remind me to show you what I made last time.

I also have to show you my newly organised workspace but it's not quite ready yet!
Maybe next week ; )

If you would like to take peek at other creative spaces pop over to Kirsty's blog at Kootoyoo

Mad about - earrings

I am mad about earrings!
It's how I started along this crazy path 16years ago.
Are you sitting comfortably? then I'll begin....

We'd been living in Tucson, Arizona home to the biggest bead and gem fair in the world and there was no shortage of fine creative types producing lovely and wondrous earrings.
Then we returned to Australia and nothing - no earrings! It's hard to believe now when there is such a flood of jewellery designers, but I just could not buy earrings that I liked. There were no earrings at the craft markets or gift shops. There were no on-line stores like etsy and madeit.
So I wandered down to the local Spotlight store and found some beads and decided to make my own. Of course I didnt have all the things I needed to make earrings and the beads were pretty awful, but that is how I started.

I still love earrings from the most splendidly simple and classic -

rocket earrings by finchbird

through enormous handformed porcelain discs with the look of ancient relics -

porcelain earrings by Round Rabbit

to dainty enamel studs -

enamel studs by rmdjewellery

Sometimes all you need is a beautiful handmade glass lampwork bead -

soft blues lampwork earrings by andyjusty

or a luminous little cabouchon of glass that you have made yourself (if you have a glass fusing kiln!)

bright and transparent sky blue studs by RadicalGlass

None of those?
How about using little beads to make a bigger bead for your earrings -

fountain of seeds earrings by fredbeansnook

or different types of beads combined with cabouchons -

celeste earrings by triz

or go wherever the beads take you -

oysters with pearls freeform earrings by KristinsSilverStrand

Do earrings have to be matching?
I dont think so - but they can tell a story -

the perfect fit by ReneeLoughlin

or share a theme -

flit and fly by leaestella

they can be incredbly lush and decadent -

kyanite, ruby and apatite earrings by Maykela

What are your favorite earrings?

I feel I have only touched the tip of the earrings iceberg.
I think I'll have to bring you some more another day, but for now please leave a comment because I'm going to give away a pair of earrings at the end of the week!

My creative space

I was hoping to bring you pics of my newly sorted and tidied work room - BUT, due to big hotness and much procrastination it isnt finished yet.
It is on the way and I've thrown out stuff I've collected over the years for projects that I've totally forgotten about - you know - all the UFO's*.

So instead I've been playing with little beads -


A portable little project to take when I'm playing shops at The Nook, Leura.

One of my portable creative spaces is shown here -


A plastic shoe box from chain store.
I put a bunch of bags of beads, some thread, needles, scissors, whatever.
I cut a beading mat in two and it fits in the lid giving me a nice no-slip work surface.
And heigh-ho it's off to work I go!

For more creative spaces please visist kootoyoo's blog.


* unfinished objects!

My creative space

Hi! and a bit excited to be playing along with this bloggy fun! (even if it is the last one of the year : ( )

Today I turned a bit this pile -

and some of that -


into this -


that -

and the other -



My creative space is hosted by kootoyoo here. Pop along and have a look - there is much craftyness and lots of lovely crafty folk!

What to do with donuts?

I cant stop buying donuts!

No! not the sugary, jammy kind but donuts for jewellery.

But then I never know how to string them!
You could just loop a strand of leather through it and make a simple necklace.

Or you could purchase a special donut bail, like these from abeadstore.com


They are simple to use and look quite pretty.

But I am never prepared enough to have special bails like that.

So here is what I have done -

A simple wire wrap.
I didnt want to hide the lovely design on this ceramic pendant, and the gunmetal wire kind of blends in with the design.


A simple wire wrap plus dangle.
This is a gorgeous ceramic donut, but it looks like stone doesnt it?
I wanted to make it a bit more fanct but not overwhelming, so I strung a brass spiral charm after I did the wire wrap, and it covers the wire up too.


Another wire wrap plus dangles.
I wanted to incorporate several flower charms on this very large peace stone donut, but nothing worked.
The flowers have double holes on the back, like a button shank and so wouldn't sit flat.
So I made separate loops on them and strung them as I made the wrapped loop for the bail.



Beaded loop.
I made two seed bead loops for this large lime jade donut.
I like the way it hangs from two suspension points.



Several beaded loops.
The loops on this jade donut form part of the freeform peyote design.


I have also seen very elaborate beaded bails in beading magazines.
And I'm keen to do some more freeform wiring to hang donuts.

Now I feel inspired to make some more!

How do you deal with donuts?
"munch munch"

some little things this week

I feel that I havent been very productive lately.
Well at least it is a quiet time of year.

So I have been allowing myself to do some playing.
I was playing around with different beads in different colours in peyote and brick stitch, and I was going to make it into a pendant, when a friend asked was it a brooch?

*ping*

I added a vintage glass button, sewed on a brooch back and 'voila!'

- a brooch.



This set me to thinking that if I stitched a base of peyote stitch that is big enough to take a brooch pin and if I then added on segments of different stitches using different beads, I could drape and fold the pieces, sew them down and have a brooch with a flat back.

My first attempt - it is very free-form looking -


but there is definitely a possibility here.

Watch this space!

Sale and some new stuff

You know when you are just sick of seeing the same things?

I have been feeling like that about some of my jewellery, especially some necklaces that have been around for a while.
So I decided to have a clearance sale and see if I could get rid of them to make way for some lovely new creations.

I'm always a bit reluctant to lower my prices because my prices are so reasonable anyway, but maybe it will encourage some people to take the plunge!

- and I've threatened them, if they dont sell - then I will cut them up into bracelets or other things. (the necklaces not the customers!)

Where is this sale happening?
At The Nook at Leura, which is a craft co-operative that I belong to.
When?
Now!

And here are some new pieces -

peruvian opal and azurite with brass chain

rhyolite, chalcedony and pearl

brass pendant an assymetric mix of beads

and some cute owl earrings.

New projects for the new year

What I've made this week!

I love Beth Stone! I wish I could adopt her and we could sit and bead together.
She has a new book "More Seed Bead Stitching" which is endlessly inspirational and I have been delving into it for some new projects.

Like this version of her "easy bracelet" -



and this "spur of the moment bracelet" where I use 6,8 and 11 size beads instead of 8,11 and 15.
(I find 15's impossibly small).



In this new book Beth visits the amazing triangles and as these are quick and easy to make, and my stock of them is dwindling I made some more.





I'm loving bright colours at the moment and need some more bright seed beads and delicas.


Time for another shopping expedition??

Monday's treasuries

It's summer!
And the DUST (down under street team of Australian sellers on etsy) have been blitzing the treasuries to show just what we have down here.

I was thrilled to be included in two of them last week.

Feliciafairy chose BoosTees Barney Blue Owl tshirt in her bright and breezy day at the beach.



Emma of feliciafairy has many talents and her specialty is converting underwear into goreous topwear - like this lovely colourful slip dress.
I am already the owner of one of her creations - I'm very tempted by this one as well.

hand dyed vintage slip dress by felicaifairy

Deb of twocheekymonkeys fame selected another BoosTees creation - Mungo mushroom man amongst her favorite picks for an Aussie summer.




Deb makes beautiful classic jewellery - and I just cant go past this stunning necklace in my favorite colour.

sea breeze - teal bar necklace by dspdavey

And lastly I got carried away after I spotted some amazing red cowboy boots and found some Australian items to co-ordinate with them.
To me these colours represent the bushfire season here.

A new stitch

I like learning new beading techniques but some things just dont seem to work.

For example I have tried working with right-angle stitch, but it is so boring! and hard to get looking right.

Sometimes it just needs the right project to shine a light on things.

And so it was that I found a light in the latest Bead and Button magazine.

A really pretty bracelet design by Cindy Caraway using right-angle weave.



This is right-angle weave.


This is one half of the bracelet.
It is pretty enough to be a little bracelet in it's own right.

But you sew two together and this is what it looks like.


I finished mine with a decorative button from my button stash.


I love it and it was easy!

If you'd like to learn how to make this bracelet go check out Bead and Button magazine October 2009 issue 93.

what do I want to be when I grow up?

Like many other craftspeople, I like to dabble.

What I mainly do is string beads, make earrings, necklaces, bracelets - things that dont take a great deal of time, are popular, sell and enable me to go and buy more lovely beads.

But it's fun to dabble and play and learn!

This is what I have been dabbling with recently.

I much admire beader Beth Stone.
Her book 'Seed Bead Stitching' is much more exciting than it sounds, showing basic techniques of bead weaving and a myriad of variations.

I have been learning some of her techniques.

right angle weave, daisy chain, tri stitch, quad stitch, tri stitch variation, and twisted brick stitch made into a bracelet.

I subscribe to Beadwork magazine, and it is always inspirational.
With my growing collection of japanese cylinder beads I was lured into making this bracelet, designed by Linda Gettings.

It took ages!

roller-girl bracelet

I am still fsacinated by triangles and they make up relatively quickly.
The hanging part is the most challenging.
Trying to find a method that looks part of the piece is my goal.
I want it to be an extension of the triangle somehow, but havent got it quite right here.



Back to the drawing/beading board!

More triangles

no matter how hard you try - triangles never go away!

Once you try them, you are addicted!

So a couple of experiments with colours and design, this week.

I got out all my blue cylinder beads, and started with the darkest shade and moved up to the lightest.
I'm not sure yet what sort of bail I will attach.

I have a plan......

I love turquoise and coral together.
It reminds me so much of Arizona, when we lived in Tucson for a couple of years.
So I thought I would try some simple native american designs.


My idea is also to string some fringing with small coral chips at the end.
It will be a very big, bold pendant.

We shall see....