Bead Soup Sent

Well, after one of those series of days where everything that could go wrong went wrong, I finally got my bead soup sent off to my swap partner yesterday. I've been mucking around with my photo editing software to disguise the look of the soup I've sent so I could give a tease of what my soup looks like. There was one that let you swirl the image, but I couldn't find that. Instead I went with this and hope it's tease enough without revealing too much to my lovely swap partner Éva Kovács. 

Heather

6th Bead Soup Blog Party

Yeah, I've decided to join in the 6th  Bead Soup Blog Party. I had so much fun last time, I simply wanted to play again. The exciting part is my partner Éva Kovács. Check out her blog EWA World of Pearls, at least that's how it translates as Éva lives in Hungary. I'm looking forward to gathering some soup for Éva to create something fun with. I'm looking forward to what she sends me, too. I'm especially interested to see how long it will take our packages to arrive.  

Heather

Beading Babes Project 5

I've been quiet as far as my blog goes, but I have been busy beading. I recently joined the Beading Babes, and online beading group. I've made the two projects for this round. Both are by designer Helena Tang-Lim and both incredibly easy to make. 

As always the most time consuming part of any project is locating the necessary pieces and choosing the colours. I found some coin shaped beads at Yashmacreations.

My first choice were perhaps a tad smaller than the pattern suggested, but turned out to 

be a little more difficult to find tila beads I was happy to pair them with. So they're sitting awaiting another

project for now. Anyway, I've really happy with how my necklace turned out - below.

The other piece was an easy and fast project to make up. I love how satisfying that was. It really does tempt me to make it in many other colours. Here's the image of my version of the Four Leaf Clover Cuff - below.

I hope you enjoy viewing these pieces. Please take the time to look at the other pieces created by the other Beading Babes.

Heather

Designer Quest #24

When the pack of beads for the Australian Beading Forum's Designer Quest arrived I swooned at the beauty of the gorgeous Czech beads with a slight twist. I had several weeks to come up with a design, but some of my ideas just weren't working. I let the beads sit on the bead mat and just glanced at them every day for a couple of weeks. Eventually, I design idea gelled and I sat and worked the first of the purple Czech beads. I had to play with the right combination of colours, but struck on the final choice as a winner.

I made all eight components and thought about how to achieve what I had in my mind, but that was also a trial and error process of different ideas that worked, but not for this design. I finally settled on the firepolish Czech beads in between each of the components and made the already decided St Petersburg chain for the rest of the necklace.

I'm really pleased with this design. I wore it on Sunday and had several great comments on the piece. Anyway, here it is. I hope you enjoy viewing the finished product. The beads are all from Cranberry.

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Heather

Michelle Mach's Suddenly Spring Blog Hop

It's always so much fun to push yourself with challenges. This one, another by Michelle Mach, was a reasonably simple challenge. Take this bracelet (pictured below):

and create something with it. The idea is that it could be anything. I had the urge to put copper with the aqua coloured beads and decided to keep things classic after letting go a few of my wilder ideas. The photo below shows the finished necklace and matching earrings. I used herringbone weave in graduating seed beads, some hex ones thrown in for a bit of texture and feel the finished product is pleasing on the eye. The design can be worn with the toggle at front or back, for a different look.

And the other blog participants are listed below. Please visit them and leave comments to join in the fun.

Michelle - Beads and Books [Hostess]

Andrew - The Writing and Art of Andrew Thornton

Christa - Adventures of One Beady Woman

Dita - Alankarshilpa

Donetta - Simply Gorgeous

Erin - Erin Siegel Jewelry

Heather - As I Bead It (You are here)

Jean - Snap Out of It Jean - There's Beading to Be Done!

Karen - Over the Moon Design

Kate - We Can Make That At Home

Kay - Palm Coast Art

Kim - CianciBlue

Kristina - Wild Roses and Blackberries

Linda - Lindy's Designs

Lisa - Pine Ridge Treasures

Marlene - Amazing Designs by Marlene

Michelle - Reverie & Revival

Pam - The Crazy Creative Corner

Renetha - Lamplight Crafts

Sharyl - Catchenthesun

Terry - Pink Chapeau Vintage Jewelry

Therese  - Therese's Treasures

Pamela - Someday Beads

Heather

December/January Andrew Thornton Reader Challenge

I've been terribly busy over this last month. Having mum spring a surprise trip for my family to come over and stay for almost two weeks kind of threw any creative plans I had for challenges and jewellery making. Not that I minded. I think I really needed a holiday. But when I realised Andrew Thornton was going to do his reveal soon I pulled out my jonquil kit and worked like a mad thing. I couldn't do any on it last night, but took photos of what I had done, in three nights of work, mind you, and I think it's come together pretty well. I'm not currently on his list of bloggers, but will contact him to add me, or just leave a message in the comments for those who want to see this piece, too. I'm eager to go see what everyone else did with their kit, too.

I hope you can envisage what this piece will be. I've yet to add the beads to the other side and sew in the loose ends. I'm going to attach the chain with jump rings on one side and a toggle to the other. I am not a huge fan of this colour, yet I love the earthy feel the beads gave, so felt a free form peyote base was what they needed. I hope you agree.

The unfinished necklace:


Close up detail:


And here are the other bloggers:

Kate Richbourg

Christina Porter

Kim Dworak

Tara Linda

Jessie Nelson

Dawn from Morning Glory Beading

Michelle Burnett

Pine Ridge Treasures

Rebecca Anderson

Karin Slaton

Cynthia Riggs

Therese Frank

Alice Bavaud will have pieces on Andrew Thornton's blog

Heather

Christmas Jewellery

Sorry I've been so very quiet. Things are ok with hubby. He had a bit of a scare, but is a lot better now. I've had my hands full with caring for him, rehearsals for our church Christmas choir, which was part of the Christmas play the kids put on. Last night we finally had our performance and all went very well.

Here's a photo of the jewellery I made for the night and a photo of me wearing it, with my youngest son, who was an angel in the play, though he's not in costume in the photo. Made using Swarovski crystal elements and beads, and sterling silver findings. If I don't get a chance to say so before Christmas I hope you all have a lovely time with family and friends.





Heather