To bead or not to bead ...

is not the question. I'm a bead junkie! So the question is rather: why do I bead and why we should all transmit our passion for beading to other people during International Beading Week (and beyond).

I am a permanent International Beading Week Ambassador. I am not paid for this. I have discovered the magic of beading thanks to generous, kind souls who transmitted it to me for free, and I want to pay it forward. IBW is about sharing passion, friendship, and making this world a better one, one bead at a time.

Many beaders start beading because a friend showed how to make something beautiful. Others started beading because they needed something to change their mind from something frightening... like illness and treatments, or to have something to keep their hands busy... Some do it for cultural reasons, some bead to make a living.. but most bead because it is simply so good...

"After the Rain" glass tubes and
metallic round beads

Yes, beading is good. It is grounding. It is fun. It is beautiful.

And... colors do good.

Chromotherapy has been used since times forgotten by humans and left aside by modern medicine. It is fortunately making a come back, because it has proven to be healing, physically and mentally.

I think that this is one of the reasons why I can't stop beading. It is my colortherapy.


After the many years that I bead, I know now that if I listen well, my body will choose what feels right. I've beaded with all colors, starting with blue, then green, brown and gray, later pink, purple, orange and yellow. The last two were my least favorite colors until I started beading rainbows; now I don't know how I could live without them. I love red too. It is always very intense, and after making something with red, it takes me a moment until I want to use it again.

Meryl bracelet - a free
pattern made for IBW 2018

My "need" for colors resulted in a lovely stash. I have beads in colors which I absolutely "had to have" but beaded nothing with. Just having them, looking at them was enough. I know that I will make something with these beads one day.

The healing properties of colors might also be the reason why, after having beaded during many years, you suddenly have a blockage or no more desire to bead, or no more interest in using this or that color. Maybe you've healed something in you without knowing about it.
 
It's a bit like a sailboat waiting for wind. While waiting for the wind (or here your muse) to come back, you can do other things...  like beading rainbows. Because rainbows will make you feel good. Always.

International Beading Week logo. 

We bead rainbows in the International Beading Week Group year long challenge.
I created Anthea's Tiara (which won a gold medal in the Fire Mountain gems and Beads beading contest last year) by making each month one element in one color of the IBW banner.

Anthea's Tiara

The free pattern for the Meryl bracelet is still available on my website (and will remain free).

This year I beaded bolas canastas in the colors of the IBW logo, and the instructions for them will soon be available there too, as well as in the IBW group on Facebook. I will also make a video to explain the method.

Rainbolas - tiny bolas canastas - this is the project
for International Beading Week 2019

Not only does beading do good, but as far as I'm concerned, beading prevents me from going nuts. Thanks to beading and the Internet, I am blessed with lots of online friends, like-minded people I would love to meet in person but cannot because of my health. If you can, don't hesitate and go to a beaders meeting. You'll have a blast! And if you cannot attend one of the events listed on the BWG website, then create one yourself!

Farfalle stitch - Rainbow Butterfly Cuff

Invite friends, or do a demo. You can do this anywhere! Sit at a café table or in a parc and take out those stunning beads and weave them together. Show your art to others, be proud. Don't forget to let the world know about it in the group and tell the Guild, and post lots of photos and videos of the fun!

Remember that beading might not be for everyone, but it might be the right thing for someone.
And we are there to help him/her find it!

Little Rainbow Warrior's ruff (2012)

International Beading Week is about our beautiful art, about friendship, about connectedness.

It is about raising awareness about our craft, making it better known, and recognized as a noble Art.
It is about raising awareness about ethics, and promoting our local bead shops, because we need them to continue sourcing beads and findings for us to enjoy.

It is also about raising funds for charities - for example, Jean Power's secret bead along is a  big success every year and all the procedures go to the charity of your choice.

During IBW, you can become a member of the Beadworkers Guild for a special price. Take advantage of this special offer to discover the quality of their magazine and projects. I love to read their articles.

The Guild also organizes a draw during IBW, in which you can win awesome prizes. To enter, you only need to send a beaded bead to the BWG for their beaded bead collection, which is a many yards-/meters-long beaded bead chain to enter. You can also bead a name badge, of which a photo is enough to enter.

Last but not the least: artists from all horizons offer free patterns of beautiful beadwork and beaded beads for free, to download either directly from the BWG page or from their websites. Visit this page for more information.

Counting down to New Year's Eve, one bead at a time

Eiffel Tower seen from the Alexander III Bridge in Paris

Photo courtesy AG Photography

Do you remember my blog post in September where I told you that I would be the "cover girl" of the beautiful magazine Perlen Poesie in December? Well, it's been a long wait, but I can finally show you what I cooked up for this 35th issue, and I hope that you will find it worth the wait: here is "New Year's Eve", composed of a Roller Chain Rope lariat and a Paradox Pendulum pendant:

"New Year's Eve" - Paradox Pendulum on Roller Chain Rope

You may notice that this project is a simplified version of my Toho Challenge Roller Chain Rope and Paradox Pendulum, but I omitted the embellished Cellini swirl at the top of the pendant. The Roller Chain Rope lariat is a double sided Diamond Weave Rope and can also be worn in a variety of manners without the pendant - you will find suggestions at the end of this post.

X-mas 'pendulum'

I am really happy with this piece, because to me, it has the perfect feeling of a December night in the city. When making it, I had "December" in mind, but even though the pendulum can be a very nice Christmas decoration, I wasn't motivated to make one early in the Summer, so I went for a "New Year's Eve" theme. I made the Christmas bauble in the photo here on the right later.

Now to explain how to make a Roller Chain Rope and a Paradox Pendulum is one thing - that is the "tool box" part that you will find in the magazine, and in my shop in February. However, to explain what exactly made me choose these colors and forms, beads and charms, is a totally different thing, and that is what this post is about: I make things from my heart and I will try, using images, to explain that aspect, and hopefully it will help you to make your piece a happy one, from your heart. Maybe yours will want to be ocean blue and turquoise green with cauri shells instead of cotton pearls, or emerald forest green and fuchsia with exotic bird charms or flowers...

The main color in my pendant is iris purple. It represents the mysterious variegated dark plum skies we sometimes have above Geneva on Winter nights, resulting from the amber street lights and other sources of light reflected by mist or clouds. David Fraga's beautiful photo of the Arve, a river crossing Geneva (colliding with the Rhone further down), illustrates this perfectly:

Arve, Geneva, photo courtesy David Fraga

Other cities also sometimes have this type of beautiful purple sky for the same reasons, like Paris:

Paris-la-Défense, Paris - photo courtesy Dimitri Destugues

The big white coton pearls remind of snow, but they also represent old round street lamps. I've always loved white globes. When I was a teenager, I often appreciated their soft light down town Geneva in December, for my school was located Rive gauche, and to go to the train station on Rive droite, I had to cross the Rhone river, which I did often by foot. There are several pedestrian bridges which are lit by these globes, as you can see in the photo below.

Quai Besanson-Hugues, by Patrick Nouhailler

I also love the beautiful railings and the Rousseau Island farther in the back, recognizable by its tree silhouettes.

Mr. Serge Vescovi sells chestnuts since more than
50 years - Photo Pierre Abensur, courtesy TdG.

Closing my eyes, I can nearly smell the roasted chestnuts sold at the Pont de l’Île where the above photo has been taken from (the "Island Bridge", which has a very old history). Roasted chestnuts are an institution in Geneva in the Fall and Winter. I might well have bought some from the vendor in the photo left :) Yum! 

But let me come back to the lamps: some are well known meeting points for people, before going to a party or event. I love the one in the photo at the top of this post very much - it is the famous "Ronde des Amours" on the Alexander III bridge in Paris. It is an extraordinary work of art, but uses electric light. London still has 1600 Victorian gas lamps, lit and taken care of every day by gas engineers, and I find that simply amazing. I love these beauties! 

Gas light engineer in London - courtesy Daily Mail

And maybe you guessed it already, but the orange fire-polished beads in the Roller Chain Rope represent all those lovely lights which look like long necklaces on river banks, bridges, roads and boulevards...

Alexandre III Bridge, Paris, France (25 December 2010)  by Dimitri Destugue

Brooklyn Bridge over East River, New York, USA

Geneva, Lake, the Quai Gustave-Ador and the Salève
with the Pâquis light tower at the Front

As you can see, this lariat and pendulum are all about light in the dark, meeting points, roads and bridges - all symbols of reunion. And that is what the 31st of December is about. Coming together with friends and having a good time and, for example, sing Auld Lang Syne... And of course rivers and bridges are great places to watch fireworks, for the view is excellent and the water a safer place to lit fireworks. But in Switzerland, fireworks are not shot on New Year's Eve, so there are no 'Fireworks' added to my pendant. I added clock parts and chain, to symbolize time and the count down to midnight, but you can add your own fabulous coral fringes if you wish. The pendulum is a very versatile and playful design and will love to be customized.

Now some hints for the Roller Chain Rope:

The lariat has a gold-filled hook clasp hand made by Almendro on Etsy, whose work I like very much. This type of clasps is very practical for reversible or twisted ropes.

Hook clasp

I like to make a surgeon's loop in the center of the lariat (also called an overhand bow) as you can see in the photos above. If your thread tension on the edges is soft, you can make all sorts of knots, like a tie knot or Chinese knots. There exist so many knots! The more loops you will make, the shorter the rope will become. You can also not knot, but twist the rope.

Have fun playing!

Make the lariat long enough to wrap it 5 times around your wrist, which should make it possible to wrap it easily 2 times around the neck, or 4 times around the ankle. For me, this resulted in a 1-meter lariat. Depending on your morphology, this can vary somewhat.

1

2

You can wear the lariat in a variety of manners. Because it is flat yet dimensional, it is reversible and can be twisted. It is visually more interesting to use two different colors for each side.

3

You can wear the lariat as a long twisted rope (1), as a short double twisted rope (2), or as an infinity loop choker (3).

4

Note that if you twist the rope, it will become shorter.

It is beautiful when completely twisted (4). The hook clasp is hidden inside the beadwork.

Voilà! Now you know nearly everything about this project and the playful possibilities that it offers. Yes you understood that well: nearly. There is one more thing to discover: a litlle secret hidden inside the pendulum.

"New Year's Eve" - Paradox Pendulum on Roller Chain Rope

My next blog post will be about this little secret that is a small Christmas gift for you.
Stay tuned! 

I wish you happy beading, counting down to New Year's Eve, one bead at a time ;-)

OTTBS challenge

I finally succeeded to finish something for a challenge, in this case organized by the excellent team of OTTBS (Operation Tackle That Beadstash), a Group of fun, positive and kind beaders. They have a Facebook page where I like to 'hang out' from time to time. They organize a theme-based challenge every month and the November's challenge was ''any film, no tricks''.

Gone with the Wind immediately came up in my mind, and looking at it, I knew what I wanted to make pretty quickly, but could not get to it until Friday 29, and due day was Saturday 30! Friday it went all wrong, wrong wrong, in particular the second earring - I finished it only at 3:30! They had to be finished, so that I could take pictures on Saturday!
So here are my “Scarlett” earrings. They are made with only one thread for the entire earring.

"Scarlett" - click for a larger picture

Inspiration is a pair worn by Scarlett together with her ‘Curtain Dress’. Since she has lost nearly everything during the war, I suppose that it is a favorite piece of hers which she kept as long as possible. I chose this pair because the bottom seems to have a feather, which is a nice wink to the title of the film. I also like the look of the bezel, simple yet sophisticated.

It is very probable that this jewelry was made by Joseff of Hollywood. I've never heard of him before.  While searching for more info about the jewelry worn in Gone with the Wind, I found out that he made an enourmous collection of ‘historically correct’ jewelry, with an antique matte gold finish that nobody has ever been able to copy.

Christmas tree of Joseff jewelry during a company holiday party.
Joan Castle Joseff on the left seems to fear that Shirley Jones
might really touch it. Photo courtesy Joseff of Hollywood

I liked the challenge of trying to make something which would look antique and the matte gold-lined Toho bead and matte crystal chatons are really looking ancient.

It was surprisingly difficult to find matching earwires. Gold and silver both took attention away from the discreet matte seed beads; bronze was too yellowish, copper too rose. I don't have lots of findings and spare parts like Joseff, so I took apart the hinged gun metal earwires from another pair, which ended up being a suitable addition.
 

Looking for more information about this man who made approx 90% of all the jewelry worn in films during the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood, it surprised me that his work is not in a museum like many costumes and gowns are. This is because he mostly rented the jewelry to the studios, and it remained in the hands of the family-run business. He was very famous, known as "Jeweller to the Stars". You can still hire jewelry for shows.

Eugene Joseff and Jimmy Glaser
photo courtesy Joseff of Hollywood

According to the International Business Times, the Harry Ransom Center acquired five dresses from the collection of Hollywood’s producer David O. Selznick in the early 1980s, amongst which the curtain dress, and intends to display them at an exhibit to mark the film’s 75th anniversary in 2014. Maybe the jewelry will be presented to the public, too.

Contemporary Geometric Beadwork - from 'What if?' to 'I want (because I can)'

I want POINTS

I often read in magazines that most designers play with beads and try 'What ifs'... and this brings new ideas and fabulous designs. Although I am a 'Whatifer' too, I am also an 'Iwanter'. In that sense that 'I want to use this bead, make this shape, have points here, wings there, cut-out openings...' You can do anything with beads, or nearly anything. And if you doubt this, you might not have read Contemporary Geometric Beadwork Vol. 1.

CGB empowers the beader, bringing tips and tools to go further and beyond trying. It makes sketching easier (you know that you CAN do it). It enables you to make things you would never have thought possible.

Ribbon?

It took 4 days of beading to make this collar. I hesitated a lot between toggle and ribbon. I love ribbon on this type of collars, it is so comfortable, but making a geometric clasp was just irresistible. I hope you like it too.

This piece was inspired by the work of two wonderful bead artists. Firstly Jennifer Chasalow VanBenschoten, whose collar for the Battle of the Beadsmith 2012 made me want one like that. When I saw it, I really fell in love (and I still am). It took me more than a year to come up with my own 'pointy' collar.

I want a SQUARE toggle

I had indigo Tila beads and lovely burnt Sienna Delicas to make it, but I was missing something complete this piece. When I saw Mikki Ferrugiaro's Lotus Flowers, someting hit me. This was exactly what I wanted for the lower part of my necklace.
Do I need to mention that the nifty instructions in the book Contemporary Geometric Beadwork by Kate McKinnon to make the zig zag and points were very helpful? 

Last but not least - for reasons of motion, I built the lower part on Delica beads added like Kate shows in her 'Guide Round' - available to those who pre-order Volume 2 of Contemporary Geometric Beadwork.

Looking for a name...

Now I need to find a nice name for this collar. Do you maybe have an idea?

Getting organized

I am still a little bit stuck with beading. Not because of lack of inspiration. In fact, I feel pretty tired and only make little things here and there on the corner of a beading mat. There is stuff everywhere all over the place to be put in boxes and, well... there is a serious lack of organizing boxes here in my room. A creative mess is nice, but I have to admit that having no place to put away unnecessary stuff, the space being eaten up by it, is really anti-productve. I feel demotivated. And tired. But I am not being lazy: I really want to clean my place.

Thinking of solutions, I realized that there is not much I can do apart from buying more boxes with compartment - because I have a nice place, with lots of trays and places to store my stuff.. And suddenly I thought that I could share with you what I prefer most.

Make-up organizer

I love my two little transparent make-up organizers which I use for tools, thread, pens for fabric, etc... here you can see one of them. Small but soooo handy.
And as you can see, I've added an elastic around bead tubes for them to remain together because they inspire me - maybe a new project? Don't know yet!

I have 10 plastic - stackable - drawers in which there is - fortunately - still place left for organizers. So I bought a few more little boxes online, and plastic tubes - I like my seed beads to be in tubes.

Bead Tube Tower

When ordering the tubes, I noticed that the little square flip-top (tic-tac) containers are less expensive... I have 4 bead towers for tubes from the Beadsmith and I love them - they are so practical to sort beads by type and by color. The Beadsmith now also offers a "Bead Tower II" for flip-top tubes. Click the image on the right to see their YouTube presentation. I still prefer round tubes because the lid of the flip-tops comes off if you use them a lot.

While browsing IKEA's website, I saw a very pretty oranizer: a white letter-tray box. To be honest, I have enough trays already, and I love them. My trays wouldn't fit in this organizer.

IKEA's letter organizer

Maybe I'll succeed to adapt my workspace to slide my trays like this somewhere... I think I will need my dear hubby's help for this.

I also saw a transparent over-the-door multi-pocket organizer on Ebay but didn't buy it - I already have a multi-pocket organizer where I put little bags with bead assortments for future projects, waiting for time.. but it is not transparent and I sometimes forget what's in there... It is made of green sturdy fabric. Shall I cut out little windows in the pockets?

I have white drawers with miscellanous stuff: adhesives, sewing-, cutting-, measuring-, and other useful material. I have 2 transparent boxes with little drawers in which I store finished projects which are not for myself and shelves with books. I like things to be white or transparent. It doesn't influence the colors of the bead work.

My order of last week (Delicas) has just arrived in the mail box and I can't wait to get started with them. However, I need to get rid of the mess first.

This is what it should look like:

Huh?

You think that I have too many beads?

Of course not, one can never have too many beads!

Being true to myself.

Yesterday there was a fabulous surprise in my mailbox from Laura Irenze: a very beautiful colorful flower. It is so beautiful with the opal-like stone in the center and the rainbow colors, I like it more than my own flowers. It adorns my summer hat already. Color becomes more and more vital in my life.

I also received beautiful cabochons and beads from Ruth Buffington. Boy am I spoiled. Look at those fabulous vintage cabs and seed beads!

Laura and Ruth's gifts are Pay It Forward gifts. I am so very grateful!!!

Fingers crossed

I finished my Battle of the Beadsmith 2013 piece. I am really happy with the result. It tells something; and exactly what I wanted it to tell... It will be a nightmare to make decent photos of it. Which is pretty often the case with pieces I make, especially when I use memory wire... I wish I could afford a professional shooting session and have it worn by a beautiful young model...

For the model I have an idea. Fingers crossed.

It might not seem to be a particularly difficult piece, (which is also the case of most of my difficult pieces), but I lost my temper several times when adding the chain. It's not because I don't take myself too seriously as a contestant, that I didn't get totally mad at the beads and chain and thread when things got really complicated...
Luckily more than 3/4 of the piece went really well.

But the last quarter has left me a bit exhausted.

Other projects are impatiently waiting for my hands and head to have time. I am in a beaded-flower-period. I need to write patterns. Continue the project I call 'Spoutnik' (probably too late for FMG's beading contest)... Update my Etsy shop to offer Instant Digital Download. Upload pictures of my last creations onto my website. Prepare gifts and PIFs and write lovely cards and letters and send them... I nearly feel stressed. I'm in some kind of grey zone between "I want to make/do this" and "I must make/do this", which could eventually lead to "I don't want to make/ do this." Gosh. Do I need a Holiday from my beads? Do I want too much? Because, yeah, I really want to do all this, but time seems to slip through my fingers faster than ever before.

Where does this feeling come from? Or is it a state of mind?

Image: Mirall Lifestyle on Facebook

Is the Mighty Mind taking the lead too much? Well, if it does, meditation should help with that. In addition, my feeling is that I need what Andy Puddicombe calls "Headspace". But then again, to get that (there), I also should meditate. 10 minutes per day are supposedly enough.

...

I seem to never find time to meditate.
Time...

I realized that I need a little help to step out of the viscious circle... and I think that I've found it.

Yesterday's first 10-minute session of Andy's free "Take 10" changed something in me. I can feel it already, because while writing this post, this happened in my little head:

"Too many things to do? Wait Mister Mind, I do what I can and... I have time! Don't stress me!"

Thank you Andy Puddicombe. I am looking forward to the next session and feeling better soon!

Beautiful artwork by Lori Portka on Etsy.

I found this pretty picture on Etsy and love the serenity coming out from it. It's not the picture that I want, though; I simply hope to be like the girl in the picture.

Busy... and dreaming of warmer days

I am longing for the Spring. A bit warmer weather... it is so cold outside. And I want flowers and green leaves... Fortunately it is warm at home and there are beads and there is enough to eat for the coming days... A lot of snow has made transportation difficult in Switzerland. This is from far the whitest winter I've gone through in the Valley of Léman!

"Extravagance" mix by Preciosa Ornela

Looking at the beautiful selection of colorful beads of Preciosa Ornela, I warm up when I see this particular mix... I can see myself beading the hell out of them, believe me. I have tons of projects, some finished, some on the go, some still at the stage of paper sketches, and it is terribly frustrating because I can't show anything for the moment.

What I can say is is that they're all Beautiful. With capital B, and they are mostly made with the wonderful glass beads of Preciosa Ornela. I wish I could show it all here.

BOTB'13

Patience. Have many projects on the run. In addition to the tons of projects mentioned earlier, I'm making a swap for a Facebook friend and need to prepare several gifts for the many lovely people out there, in particular a PIF for 5 persons. For that I fortunately have the entire year!

Closer is the Battle of the Beadsmith in which I will participate this year. Not to win - I don't think that I have the slightest chance... No. For the tremendously exciting whirlwind of creativity it represents, for the inspiration, for the fun, for the love of beads and beading and creating. And the congeniality...


So I will probably not blog much the coming weeks, except for one special project that I will be able to reveal in March, and even though it is about a finished project, it will be subject to several posts to show a beautiful creation in progress...

In the meantime, much love to you all. Stay warm and safe!

Color and colors

I have coral-dyed marbles of several sizes in my stash. I have already used them with turquoise and white pearl, which is a quite common color-combo, but after that, I didn't really know what to do with it... Having many other projects to bring to life, I put the beads aside and forgot them for some time.

Color Scheme Designer

Kuler

Recently, they started begging for attention... but I didn't know how to use them well... So I asked fellow-beaders which colors they would use with coral... and the clever Laulo Darbas came up with a link to a very interesting Color Scheme Designer, a tool for website designers... why not beaders? Lucky me for having kind friends who discover new things and tools and who have a brain to remember the things that I forget... 'CSD' is nice. I am  impressed by the bold and vibrant colors, as well as by the various formats of the files one can  download with this tool. But as for all the color generators here, you need to use the print-screen option to keep the image on your computer if you don't want to create an account to save the color studies you make. Kuler is also very an impressive tool, and it seems to be nice to use...

Paper samples available for free at DIY such as the Home Depot (for paint) was the first 'tool' that I used to find which combos I liked most. It was pretty useful for my home: the colors weren't too bright and I had quite some fun with it. Their clever online tool, Behr's Color Smart Tool is really very nice for choosing colors for your house. You can even paint your own house virtually!

Seeds

The thought of Behr's Tool led me to search for a downloadable generator to make color palettes myself, like the incredible Eva Maria Keiser who has made an amazing series of 'Artisan colorways'...

I haven't found a software available for free, but I've come along a few nice color generators though:

Seeds offers an amazing amount of incredibly beautiful pictures and color palettes which you can download for free and print. There is something for everyone's taste; if you are stuck and need inspiration, this is the place to go. No need to go further if you don't have your own image.

Degraeve

Now, if you are inspired by an image or picture, you might like to use this tool from Degraeve or Color Hunter to see which are the dominant colors of your favorite image; either by entering the url of the image, or simply loading it up from your computer. Both generators will give you a vibrant and a dull color palette.

Color Hunter

Bighugelabs , focused on fabric, is also a nice color generator using your own picture - the result is quite exhaustive - many beautiful colors...  See here what JaneVille's design look like thanks to this tool. It allows you to download the swatches in Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) format for Photoshop or compatible applications and  CSS Drive (yes another one) allows you to save the palette as CSS stylesheet (.css file) or photoshop swatches (.aco file).

There are many color palette generators online, but I think that my two favorites are Seeds for the inspiration by color and by theme and Degraeve (white background) and Color Hunter (dark back-ground) for their succinct selection of the colors.