I realize that I haven't been very active on my blog, but that's because I couldn't. My latest makes were long-lasting projects, like the Prince of Wales inspired pouch for the Beadworkers Guild journal, which took forever. My entry for their annual challenge even longer. In fact, I am active on my blog, busy writing my blog post about the challenge, but you can't see that, of course. I did a little bit of something in between to not feel like I never achieved anything, and I thought that I should share these 2 designs with you.
Oh and I also made things for Preciosa Ornela, for their Permalux campaign, and because it has a story on its own, I wrote an article about that too!
Bead embroidery can be time consuming, but this was not too long a make, in particular not compared to the above-mentioned pieces. What takes the most time here are decisions about which bead and what colour would be best.
I wanted to make a different fringe, but didn't have enough fire-polished beads in 3mm madder rose. That is also the reason why I made the matching earrings with bi-cones. If I can find more of the fire-polished, and the result is as I envision, I will post it to show the difference.
Although I was completely exhausted when I finished my challenge entry, my fingers wanted to bead after two days again. I decided to make a Diamond Weave rope sampler. It is a two-unit wide rope, that includes the basic stitch and the 10 basic variations, just to see how good or bad these would look made with seed beads. As explained in the book, basic DW and most variations don't look so good when there are no thread-cover beads to stabilize the structure.
It's not super attractive, but I like it. It's an interesting piece to keep for reference, because it also shows how many units are needed
for an inch of length. I separated each portion with a gemstone. There are many possibilities to play with. The
last 3 portions are my own alterations and tbh, I love the 'plume' at the bottom. And it sure reassured me that I am not a slow beader, because I made it in one day.
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| Wonderful Wesekh, Tutorial available in the Guild's shop |
I bought / tested something new: a light box, or what they call a portable photo studio. I love it!! I wish that I had bought it 10 years ago! No more waiting for clouds to go away, always ready even at midnight thanks to the led lights, great back grounds... but most of all nearly no more photo editing! The above image was made with a very ordinary Gigaset G4 mobile phone, and I only cropped it a bit. It's amazing when a camera doesn't need to increase the light exposure - with the ring of LED at the top, this box offers various light and colour intensity, which is great.
I can only recommend the Puluz 40x40cm with ring light. Below more photos of pieces that I re-photographed before sending to the UK for the Guild's beautiful "Purple and Gold" display. I used the grey back ground and medium white for all the photos.
Above, left: Mermaid Tail, beaded beads: 1 slide, 2 cord ends and a
pair of earrings. Right: a long Bola Canastas with a Mermaid Tail bail, eg. the beaded bead reversed. I love it!
Purple is one of my favorite colours, but so hard to do justice. I always had a huge amount of work editing images because of the lack
of light, in particular with purple beads, and often the result was still not as wished. Well... this new tool is a wonderful
change!
Above, left: Cellini Ribbon earrings, as per my masterclass tutorial, or my Day and Night necklace. Right: Tulyda necklace - with my Lyda chain and a modified version of the Tuya Tassel (part of the Day
& Night necklace design) to include a rivoli at the top. When placed on a display of this kind, I always had issues with the camera, no matter which camera. Here, there only is a slight lack of light at the bottom of the bust, which can be compensated with an extra little lamp at the front.
Above: Fandango earrings - matching the Fairy flowers with Bola Canastas hereunder:
One of my pieces that I consider a "very satisfying to make" design is the Paradox Pendulum with its matching little Amphorette (free pattern) and Roller Chain Rope. Do you know the inspiration behind this piece? it's already more than 5 years old, but I still love it dearly.
And of course I included the Muserie necklace. Such a pleasure to wear. I've finished the first part of 3 tutorials for my Muserie workshop and those who attended it know how much work went in it already. The 2nd and 3rd parts will need a bit more time, but I am sure that you will love all.
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