My creative space - I'm trying!

I made a pair of earrings.

and I finished a bracelet.

Whooooopie! go me!

I really enjoyed making these earrings.
They were quick and fairly easy.
I adapted a design by Carole Horn from Beadwork magazine.
Her design was for a whole necklace - it is very pretty.

I used the lime green beads instead of her pearl rounds.

I also finished the bracelet that I started last week.

I decided to use a button as a closure as I didn't have any of the slidey clasps that were used in the original.

I also like using buttons - they are a simple way to finish a beadwork bracelet and you can do them up with one hand (which is very useful when putting bracelets on).

I'm thinking of joining in with Jewelry making mojo challenge over on Humblebeads blog.
The thing that is holding me back at the moment is that the first assignment is to enter a challenge or contest.
That bit is really scarey!
Also I think i need a fair bit of mojo to do that....and since my mojo is missing it's kind of hard.

I'll think about it.

My Creative Space - not too much creating here folks

It's a relatively quiet time of year - have I said that before.
And I guess I am resting on my laurels a bit, or at least getting through some of the things already made.

But today I made some Czech glass drop earrings for an etsy order - it's nice to get the pliers in hand again.

And something I prepared earlier -

Which just needed finishing.
Aka, they needed the earwires attached - no biggie.

designed by Alice Kharon from Bead and Button magazine

design by Sue Charette_Hood in Beadwork magazine

design by Maggie Meister in Beadwork magazine

There is another WIP.
It's a bracelet designed Smadar Grossman in Beadwork magazine.

I didn't have quite the right beads but I made do.
It's coming along nicely.
I'm nearly up to the clasp stage, so I have to decide how I'm going to do that part.

Watch this space!

How has your creative (or not) been?

Dabbling - my creative space.

Looking for a quick little project to make I found these pretty earrings in a Bead and Button Magazine.

You need 10mm round beads for the centre. Unbelievably I could only find these bright orange beads amongst my copious bead stash.

I found that I had a bit of a colour theme going for the other beads needed, which was great as I no longer have a huge amount of 4mm crystals.

I love the green/aqua tones with the bright orange.

What do you think?

They made up really quickly and I'm pleased with the result.

I'd love to make some more but I have to find/beg/borrow/steal some more 10 mm beads!
Any offers?!

These earrings were designed by Alice Kharon.

What I've been working on - and using up fabric.

In an effort to expand my earring repertoire and at the same time use up some of my far-too-sizeable fabric stash I made some little button stud earrings.

They are easy to make.

They are a bit cute.

And because it is summer - sometimes - some more mixed bead memory wire bracelets.

Again I am joining in with Made by Hand on Christine Lowry Designs.

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?

Going round and round - again, more beady earrings. My Creative Space.

Once I get an idea in my head I have to keep at it until I'm happy with the outcome.
Last week I told you about my aim to make big hoop beaded earrings - here.

This is what they looked like when I finished them -

They are actually I nicer colour than they look here!

They are not big enough!

So now I'm making another pair starting with more beads and see how I go - I'll let you know how I get on.

I'm also still playing with ceramic pendants - this one I've had for a while and it was a necklace - just a simple one strung on some little malachite beads, but nobody loved it : (

I've jazzed it up with some rainbow moonstone, azurite, green kyanite with black agate spacers.

And then I made some simple earrings - just for fun!

Sadly My Creative Space on Village Voices is no more....hopefully it will find another home.
I find it's a great motivation to actually make something and then blog about it.

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.