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Welcome to my blog! I love beading and this blog is an attempt to share a few of my beady tries and things, thoughts and thrills and inform you about what's new (patterns, jewelry, etc..) I got hooked by the wonderful art of beading in 2004 and never stopped since then. I live in Switzerland, in a small town between Geneva and Lausanne.
Upon popular request, I transformed the Sunshine workshop into a video class. You get the full, detailed tutorial with lots of explanations, and access to 8 videos with all the demos you need to make your own pendant - or brooch or toy or ornament - at your own pace.
Browsing my blog for a photo of the Sunshine, I realized that I never posted one of the original Sunshine pendant!
I am not the most tech savvy so it was - and still is - a bit of a
learning curve. But feedback has been very positive. I'm really happy
with my first efforts and hope to do more of this kind of teachings in
the future!
I also listed the pattern for the sweet Fairy Flowers... which was published in the Bead and Jewellery Magazine earlier this year.
* The Muserie Pendulum can be made with what students learn in my "Muserie" Workshop. The first edition was a great success, so with the Guild I will do another Zoom workshop in September, at a more US-friendly time. See the workshop page on my website for other dates when to learn to make an infinite number of designs with warped hexagons!!
**This "Mary" Pendulum is based on my Chess play. There is no pattern for this pendant (yet), but another very lovely pendulum that would look great with this tassel is my Paradox Pendulum.
To encourage you to make a flower, I listed a special bundle of bucolic patterns for US$ 19.- (instead of US$ 53.-) in my shop. This special offer is valid only until the 31st of July, which is the last day of IBW. By then, I hope to have finished the pattern for the Poinsettia flower...
It is not a competition, so any flower you made or make qualifies to enter the draw. I made an edelweiss for the occasion:
There will be Zoom meetings nearly every day of IBW, morning and evening sessions, to suit as many members or even non members as possible. Lots of goodies to win, a special course, etc. Join the International beading week group where we also have our annual rainbow challenge.
As a permanent Ambassador for IBW, I create and make a free tutorial for a special IBW design, every year. This year, it will be something made with these little bezeled chatons:
2018 comes to its end and I wanted to look back at it.
I have been struggling a real lot with my health. The Summer was too
warm and sunny and if you know me, you know how hard that is for me.
Both
my desire and ability to write tutorials was
extremely low after the Cellini peyote shapes were finally all done. I
am grateful to those who bought a pattern: Thank you very much for your
support! But I hope
to sell more of my Cellini peyote shapes, for I haven't done anything
else for sale the past 6 months, except Frosty. Instead, I did a lot for
free:
'Frosty' - snowman made of one single Bola Canastas
I founded a wonderful new Facebook group, Cellini
Peyote Freaks, where you can learn a lot about the stitch and its
applications. Color challenges with prizes are organized.
I wrote
and drew instructions for various Cellini peyote techniques, including
the Bolas Canastas. I consider it as a technique people can take
further, like I did with Frosty, this little snowman. He is one Bola
Canastas. You will find the tutorial only in my IndieMade shop.
I
was very happy with the two workshops I organized in collaboration with
my ergotherapist and am very much looking forward to founding a beading group in my hometown next year.
I was less happy with some painful
misunderstandings. And with people who didn't understand my
genuine concern, who didn't see that I cared for them. People who
understood things I wrote wrong and created more darkness in my life. One of them not only spread hate, tore my reputation to pieces, but thinks that everything is all fine now! Well, some harm cannot be undone. There is no UNDO in real life.
Fortunately, I saw this video about Sunny Jacobs,
reminding me to shine my little light of mine. It helped me more than
telling myself that Karma would bite eventually. And my many other, real friends on FB were precious allies. You know who you are! 💗💗💗 I thank you from the bottom of my heart!
'Silver
Lining' also reminds me that there is light in the dark. If none, there is my light. That there is a tomorrow, with new friends and
adventures. Always. And that we learn. and learn. and learn.
I for sure enter 2019 wiser and freer than I was in 2018.
I wish you a Happy Holiday Season. May your heart be filled
with love and your days be peaceful. And I wish you a
The birds, the fish, the dragonfly, the pangolin, the big and the small
cats, the apes. the trees, the moon, the sun, the stars, the entire
Universe. Your life. Your body. Your soul. Everyone's life, body, soul.
Love is sacred.
The love in your heart is sacred. Even the sorrow in your heart is, for
sorrow is linked to love that is not acknowledged, may it be because of
absence or departure...
Time is sacred.
Your time. Everyone's time. Because life is time.
Your feelings. For feelings come from love or the lack of it.
Your eyes telling how you feel. My eyes. Theirs. Your eyes seeing life
unfold. Our eyes seeing miracles happen. Miracles of life, miracles of
love.
And all this echoes with that light that you have inside of you, that
light that has no name, that light that shines or sometimes dims...
The time you are not gazing at the moon, not holding a kid's hand, not
laughing with friends, not making love - maybe because you can't, but
still need to put all that love into something to keep that light shine
on, is sacred. Maybe just to say to whomever will see it that you
exist, with all this love or light inside of you that you don't know
what to do with... To say that you are life, still alive, also there,
also a part of it all. To be acknowledged.
And so the things in which you put all that time, all that love, a
little bit of your soul, making it meaningful things, are sacred. By
extension.
This is a very important warning. It appears that many, many Etsy vendors, be it beading artists, designers, sellers of items to make jewelry and more, discovered this week that a hacker, or maybe a group of hackers, has created websites using their photos, listings and every little detail about their artwork, to create fake shops. They seem to have abused Etsy's database by passing via their statistics system. Everything is cheaper on these websites, but it are fake websites. You think that you will receive patterns or findings or crystals for half the price or even less, but in fact, you are buying wind. All they're after is your hard-earned money, and your credit card details.
Sofar, 7 sites, which are craft-oriented, have been spotted. If you buy from those sites, your credit card info and paypal ID will be known (and probably stolen) by the site, you will pay for your purchase but will never get what you paid for.
These are the sites we could identify as frauds - but please note that they can multiply and be copied in just hours with a new name, so please read on:
Beware of where you buy your supplies and patterns. We artists only sell on well known platforms, not on strangely named websites. I only sell on https://caththomasdesigns.indiemade.com/ and on https://www.etsy.com/shop/SamohtaC. If you see a pattern sold elsewhere, it is a scam. So be careful: these fraudulent websites are after your $, your credit card nr. and other payment ID.
And should you already have bought something from a site like this, it would be better to change your ID and passwords immediately for PayPal and possibly warn them, and Visa.
Now to finish this article on a less unpleasant note: this proves, once again, that it is better to buy directly from us, artists. We work hard for you to have fun beading, and we need your support, because if you don't buy from us, we will disappear. Don't buy from impostors.
See Katie Dean's brilliant Beading Patterns Directory for Legitimate Shops. This Directory shows the names and website of the shop of reliable designers. Have your shop added to that list if you are a designer, buy from these shops to be sure that you are buying from a Legitimate source.
And if you get patterns for free (we know that people share a lot without afterthought) but appear to like it and bead it or use it to learn, please come to our websites, and buy it to make things good again.
Finally, after the 5 designs made with dimensional Cellini peyote with a "flames" start, I finished one tutorial for designs made with Cellini peyote with a "waves" start: the Open Hearts. The components are wonderfully versatile and you can make them in small, medium and large size - to either use on their own to make earrings (small) or pendants (large), or as links of a "Fox tail chain" (medium) for a bracelet or a necklace.
It is, of course, my favorite design of the moment. It makes me think of a Victorian corset, but also of birds dancing together, like the very endangered hooded grebe. But it also really looks like the beak / head of an owl. I might well bead an owl using it one day. But despite the fact that I have a lot of birds, I called it Open Heart (there will be more "Wings" in the future, wink).
Here is a little video showing the chain a little bit better:
I've been very busy designing, drawing, photographing, and beading (and a lot of starting over) for this tutorial, not counting the study on Dimensional Cellini technique itself, for which I will soon publish a paper.
I have also been beading a lot on three pieces within the framework of International Beading Week! I made (and sent) a beaded bead, "Peak into the Soul", for a draw organized by the Beadworkers guild, founders of National Beading Week several years ago (which is now International Beading Week (IBW)). It is a layered sort of puzzle beaded bead, cool to play with. You can still participate in this draw too - send a beaded bead, or more! There are lots of prizes. Visit the website to learn more about what to do to enter.
I managed the International Beading Week group on Facebook the past 12 months - from July last year to now. In this group we shared photos and videos of our favorite moments during Beading Week last year, and will again this year.
During the 11 months between last year's beading week and this year's, members of the group beaded something every month, in one color of the beading week banner, to end up with a rainbow of elements. The photo below shows some of mine. I can honestly say that if the first color hadn't been yellow - which was not at all my favorite, I would have had difficulties finishing all this. The entire year long, I was astounded by how the collection looked happy and fun with yellow. Thanks to this year long bead along, I have developed a true love for the color combo yellow-orange-fuchsia. I am grateful for that!
Now that it's beading week, we are going to put it all together. I have a bit of advance, because In the group, during beading week, I will teach the bracelet I made with the "pentabezels" as I like to call them, so I had to finish it before the date. May I just say that this bracelet looks stunning on the wrist, and is very pleasant to wear? I'm really happy with the result.
Pentabezel bracelet "Meryl"
Like captured sunlight, the color yellow has a hold on me.
It is named after movie star Meryl Streep, actress extraordinaire (my favorite) because she can play just any character so brilliantly; all the colors of the rainbow! The bezel draws a star in the open space of the bezel where the rivolis shine through. Yes, rivolis, which act very well as pentagons. If pentagon crystal stones exist in colors and sizes like the rivolis, I haven't been able to find any. About 3 years ago, I asked Swarovski (over FB) if they would make some, and I asked again when starting this project, but got no answer, alas.
The bezels of my bracelet are closed at the back,
but I will show you that you can (more) easily back
the stones with leather.
I will soon reveal what I made with the 'Yukka flower' components in another blog article. Join the International Beading Week Facebook Group to bead along with us. You will find a shopping list for this project there.
For those who are interested: the interview I told you about in my previous post about IBW, has been published in issue #88 of Bead & Jewellery Magazine. Get a copy - it is full of beautiful projects by talented people (you can see the cover in the column on the right).
And finally, before I forget: I recently archived two of the Facebook groups I created - the Petal to Pod group, and the Tutorial Tuesday group. There was not much happening in these two groups and checking them daily (like 8 days a week :) ) for spam posts was not the funniest thing to do. Note that these groups can be unarchived any time, which I will probably do for the petal to pod group after IBW and a good Summer break! We'll see then!
In the meantime, I wish you happy beading!
Cath
Look at that yellow... hide it and tell me how that looks ;-)
The past months, I have not only beaded and tutified a lot, as you may have understood from my previous post; I have also, somehow, made an old dream come true.
I must have been about 15 when I met with the father of one of my brother's good friends. The man was a nose for the firm Firmenich in Geneva. Ah! creating fragrances - how divine! Of course, I wanted to do that too. My mom seemed not so enthusiastic about it, but during the "professional orientation" meetings which were organized by the Department of Education of the canton, I asked to meet with translators (my other option), and with people working at one of the (still now) major producers of perfumes and fragrances in Geneva, Firmenich or Givaudan.
Together with 2 other students the visit took place at Firmenich. We saw the old labs and facilities (not so attractive, actually), where thousands of graduated phials and other mysterious materials were on display. We also briefly visited the administrative building, where we took a Paternoster, which was an event on its own. This is a Paternoster:
Although it might have been a great way to test people's reactions, or wake them up enough to do a good job (and not blow the lab up with a silly chemical reaction), the dangerous thing has been removed because accidents ought to be avoided everywhere, of course. But I loved it. Being a monkey in Chinese astrology must mean something: as a kid I climbed on every metallic structure when there was one on a play ground and, older, even crawled from one balcony to the other on 3rd floor one day, so this was peanuts.
"Nose" working at an impressive perfume organ
Working in a lab didn't seem very attractive (I don't remember seeing their perfume organs, which was somewhat disappointing), but sitting in a little box as a translator even less, so I already saw myself enter Firmenich for an apprenticeship and was super motivated. Chemistry became my best subject. I loved experimenting and collected miniatures of all perfumes that hit the market.
My first favorite fragrance
Sadly, I did not become a nose, but not because of my nose...
I became an administrative assistant. This was not bad at all, in particular in the pharmaceutical branch and even more the International Union for Conservation of Nature, where infrastructure was/still is very good, but when a book like "the Perfume" - and later the film- came out, my heart reminded me of my old dream. Fortunately, a visit to the parfumerie and a new flask of Eau de toilette in my bag did somewhat the trick.
Perfume can make you feel better in many ways. It should lift your spirits, makes you feel a stronger, more beautiful you, bring self-confidence. If it doesn't, you haven't chosen the right one. Also, you shouldn't smell much of it yourself. That is the hard thing with a well-chosen perfume: you nearly won't smell it yourself, because it is very much "you". It should feel like an invisible veil magnifying your charms. You won't notice it much, but others sure will. If you smell it yourself, it is either not the right scent, or you put on way too much.
My last bottle of The Beat "died" not long before last Christmas, so I decided to find a new favorite scent, something I had smelled earlier on somebody, "Sì" by Giorgio Armani.
A good perfume should feel like an invisible veil
magnifying your charms, but should not contain
phtalates and other dangerous ingredients.
Fact is: they nearly all do
Delicious, but... perfume can also make people feel really bad. My poor husband had a terrible
reaction to it and got really sick, and even I felt that something was wrong with it. Browsing the web we discovered that there are many allergic people and that many perfumes are just a big mix of chemical poisons.
Because perfumes always have to be the same, producers rely on chemical essences (artificial scents) to always recreate perfectly the same fragrance. Natural products always differ from one batch to another, due to the weather, soil, temperature and maturity of a plant at harvesting time, etc... I've noticed that essential oils, like eucalyptus, can differ quite a bit depending on the batch, producer, year, geography... Of course, there are chemical products that are harmless, and there are natural products that can provoke skin reactions.
I decided to find out more about perfumes made with essential oils and to go for what I know I can eat. I first searched for matching aromas present in my favorite brands over the past years and wasn't surprised to find several common ingredients, like bergamot, vanilla and mandarin (and always jasmine too, but that is most certainly a culprit for my hubby's allergic reaction, seeing that he can't even bear natural jasmine flowers or alike).
I ordered some oils and extracts - all high quality, organic products, played with them like a real pro - with blotters and all, and... created a scent that makes me happy. My perfume is a fruity and slightly spicy scent with vanilla, bergamot, rose petals, cardamom and pear, all things that are edible... It smells very good, and it doesn't make my husband sick. Hurray! Also, each time I work with my oils, I feel immediately better, in particular emotionally.
Nicolas Neufchâtel - Portrait of a Woman
holding a Pomander - Detail
Confident that it wouldn't harm the best man in the world, I could finally make what I had planned to make with my dimensional Cellini peyote baubles: Precious Pomanders.
Pomanders are so delightful! Precursors of modern aromatherapy, their name comes from "pomme d'ambre" (Amber apples in French). Very popular during the plague at the end of the Middle Ages, these balls filled with herbs, preserved in a wax-like substance, worn around the neck, wrist, or waist, rapidly became the ultimate accessory jewelry among the wealthy. It can often be seen in portraits, worn by people (men and women) who believed in nearly magic protection. This protection was actually somewhat correct, seeing that many plants have antiseptic properties. Learn more in this interesting article about pomanders, and discover an ancient recipe by Nostradamus, who was primarily a doctor and apothecary, and way ahead of his time in the field of phytotherapy and hygiene, and maybe the reason why Catherine of Medici lived pretty long in those hazardous times.
Pomanders are very practical for people who avoid perfume on their skin, or like to change scent without fear of interactions between two different ones.
Glass beads offer enough of a barrier between the oils and the skin, but let the scent emanate well, so a beaded pomander could only be a good idea. All I needed to find was a carrier bead. Not one supporting the bead work to give it a shape, but a bead to carry the oils. I found back colorful felt balls in my drawers, which appear to be perfect for this. Two drops of E.O. per bead are more than enough. I let the beads cure in a glass container, so that the volatile essences went inside the bead. A few days sufficed for the felt beads, which are very porous, but a couple of weeks in the jar would be better for wooden beads.
The fragrance can easily be renewed by adding a drop of oil to the carrier bead through the slits on the side of the pomander. The same scent as the one before should be used.
Tip: you can match the colors of beads with the fragrance - like purple for lavender, red or rose for roses, etc.
I don't know if the oils will affect the coating of the beads in some way. So far everything is fine, but it probably depends a lot on what oils are used. But I can always bead another pomander and change oils. I imagine making them in yellow for lemon, bergamot or vanilla, orange for mandarin, oranges, and cinnamon, maybe a green one with peppermint and eucalyptus,... purple... pink... red... yum. One for every occasion.
In my previous blog post, you may have read that I put a "musical bead" in the fruit punch & gold pomander. It is also called harmony ball or Mexican bola, and is often worn by pregnant women on very long chains or cords so that the ball itself rests on the belly button. It is said that as of 16-20 weeks, the unborn baby will hear the soft chimes sound coming from the harmony ball. The sound is said to soothe the unborn baby and can even have calming benefits for the mother to be. Personally, the sound makes me think of magic and I simply love to play with it. But the baby will remember the sound heard in the safe mother's protecting womb, and that will help him or her soothe when feeling discomfort or stress after birth.
The pomander can also be beautiful bauble for Christmas decorations, or a precious napkin ring if the points are left open. All this is explained in the tutorial.
Thank you for reading this long post! Please leave a comment below - I love to hear from you.
The projects are for intermediate (Pomanders and Tulip), advanced intermediate (Bangle, Parrot Earrings) to advanced beaders (Mermaid Tail). You need to master peyote stitch, herringbone stitch and at least have zipped a beaded triangle or warped square to create 3-dimensional beadwork.
I created a Dimensional Cellini Peyote category for these designs, and will soon add more - I will be working on the "Waves" start the coming weeks. The Waves start will probably be only one tutorials. I haven't decided yet.
I have never written this many tutorials in so little time. It generally takes more than 2 months to put one together: it starts with an idea, lots of trial and error, more beading to find better/best thread paths and make WIP photos and post-edit these, drawing the illustrations, writing all the instructions, "beauty shots", and putting it all together and then list it all and write some informational blog post and newsletter. Which isn't ready yet. You can subscribe to my newsletter (see the box on the left).
Plus taking some designs further, to inspire you beady friends...
The tutorials are also listed in my Etsy shop, but only single tutorials - not the combos with the discounts. Now I am taking a short break to rest a bit and have quality time with hubby and family, and then will work on the next bundle for shapes with "Waves start".
Thank you all, for reading me, beading with me, and supporting my art
When I showed my "Fishtail" cord ends in a group on Facebook, a lovely friend, Susannah Thomson, asked "Mermaid Tail?"... Oh my! that was the name it had to have! So now, the set of beaded beads is called Mermaid Tail. You can make wonderful cord ends, perfect for purses or bags. They complement pendants beautifully (I like them dangling on my back), and can also become earrings, or beaded beads (spacers).
Little Mermaid
Of course, I had to make a Little Mermaid using a bigger beaded bead for the body, and slightly smaller ones for the tail. I used a sweet little "Leilani" doll head that I got from the lovely Siân Nolan from the UK.
The Mermaid Tail instructions do not include how to make the Little Mermaid doll. The tutorial is only for the Mermaid Tail. However, you certainly may try to make your own version, so here are a few hints and tips - play to see where you can take it. This is valid for Octavio too.
Side view of the body and tail
As you can see from the picture left, the forms interlock well (the number of rows, together with information about the bigger bead, is mentioned in the tutorial,). The torso is beaded around 2 mother of pearl round beads added on the inside, between the top points. I used 15/0 and 11/0 to cover them. Then the tail was added, then the head and then the arms. The arms are made of two tiny petals (3/5 and 5/5 - as explained in my "From Petal to Pod" tutorial).
The bottom is left open to put her on a stick for display.
She lives among my plants together with a fairy and her new friend, Octavio.
Three Wing Scarf Ring
'Enhanced' Parrot Earrings
Original Parrot Earrings
I made a beautiful "Three Wing Scarf Ring", one of the upcoming projects with "Waves" start, in yummilicious fruit colors, to match one of my favorites scarves, and of course had to have assorted earrings. The pair on the right is a pair of Parrot earrings, with 3mm Firepolished beads added. Less rows are beaded, because these pretties tend to curl a lot more than made only with seed beads, but are the same length.
After I finished the tut for the Tulip Tassel - a pretty bell-shaped flower that is really lovely as home decor or pendant -, I had to make Octavio. Because even before I finished the first flower, the shape said "Octopus" to me. Yes, really. Like "I am an octopus. Make my arms too!" I promised that I'd make his 8 arms.
Octavio the octopus
Each time I took a break from tutifying, I beaded. And after 8 endless arms, which took at least 8 hours per, and a lot of fiddling to find the best thread path, I am very proud to present you Octavio the Octopus.
Octavio the Octopus
His body is a nearly finished Tulip and his beak two Chili beads.
After a bit of testing what the best thread path would be, I added the arms to the tulip in one go.
When I made my "Waves and Flames unfinished" bangle (the left, pink and grey one) based on a Rick Rack start, in the hope to find an easier method to make and teach "Embers" (read: without damaging fingers, needles or beads) I didn't expect what happened next.
I had to better understand the whys and hows, to better explain it to you. I made samples to show the difference between this & that start and the construction methods.. and this happened: a big pile of projects and ideas. I want to make a necklace that will take... forever. I need 10 other me.
But first of all, and related to this bundle of work primarely because it was inspired by the Embers cuff, I'd like to show you this "perpetual" Dimensional Cellini spiral which isn't PWAT, also not the indespiral. It is stiff 3D Peyote, and asymmetric. It is just a prototype. If I'd continue beading, it would become gigantic and, just like everything in the Universe, the ends would eventually, meet, but that would take many, many loops and I need my tendons for other exciting things. Read on!
'Perpetual' peyote ring
So here is what my muse and I have been up to the past months while playing with 3D Cellini peyote:
First I came up with little pods that are hollow and are totally perfect cord ends, but can also be excellent slides, as you can see here. I love how these pods look like fishtails when snuggled up :)
Cellini slides and pods
Cellini slides and pods
As some of you know, I love to add little metallic accents to my beadwork, but here I also could include Chirimen cord (and tassels and metallic drops). Chirimen cord is a Japanese Kimono fabric with cord on the inside. It is lovely, colorful material and I can't get enough of playing with it.
Then I made this special necklace, "Chirimania". I passed the Chirimen cord through a ring that makes the length adjustable. The pendant shows 2 "Open Hearts" which are built in the same manner, but folded differently.
Did I mention somewhere that I love to fold and zip peyote? ;) :D
"Chirimania"
"Open Hearts"
When making the bail, it reminded me a bit of the Hooded Grebe, which is a critically endangered bird species that has one of the most amazing courtship dances of its family. But once attached to the open heart, it reminded me of a quidditch ball with wings up high. Which inspired me to revamp an old pendant that I bought eons ago from the Metropolitan Museum of Art gift shop in Geneva.
I played happily with the Open Heart shape. I think that it is very beautiful (and you can see a photo-shopped Heart chain, which is the project I referred to above).
"Open Heart" - interchangeable thanks to magnets
"Open Heart" earrings
"Heart Chain" necklace project
Hogwarts pendant:
Quidditch bail, Open Heart pendant,
with a reproduction of an ancient rising
Pheonix pendant
I also tried to make a closed heart, but that didn't work so well... it became more and more difficult at each row, and so not something I'd teach. A bit like Embers, an impossible thing... but I love it.
Still decided to make a bangle, I started one in pink and gray, with more beads, and bling fire-polished beads, based on a waves start which doesn't shrink like a flames start, but there still is shrinkage and the bangle ended up becoming a beautiful, reversible scarf ring, which I love very much.
Intrigued by this astonishing shape, I made a second one using seed beads and delicas only, and to my surprise, ended up with an adorable little dice-shaped lantern. I love it even more
Cellini Dice earring
Still on my quest to make a bangle, I a beaded a Cellini tulip. It brought more insight about the number of beads I'd need to use in a start for a bangle, for which I thought that I was ready...
Cellini Tulip pendant
... but I made a mistake in my count. When not built on a disciplinary Rick Rack (and even if...), flames somewhat shrink (enormously) in the process and it ended up the size of a napkin ring. I didn't need napkin rings, so I made this beautiful ball, inside of which I put a musical bead - it's fun to play with! Now I feel the need to make a real "pomander", as I call this, with real essential oils - tell me in the comments what scents you love the most!
Musical Cellini Pomegranate
or Scented Cellini Pommander
Then 2 new inhabitants of my aviary, 2 beautiful Turquoise Parrots, "Neophema Pulcella", strongly inspired me and I finally made a bangle based on a waves start with their beautiful color.
My beautiful Turquoise parrots (and Fluff'dePuff' at the front)
So here is my "Parrot Wings" bangle. Although in the photo below it looks a bit impressive, it is a quite dainty bracelet, soft around the wrist.As you can see, the colors are not my ordinary colors.
Parrot Wings in Turquoise and Yellow
I think that the bangle looks like parrots in flight. See below a photo of another parrot in flight. When I see it, I feel happy that my birds can fly in our aviary.
Parrot in flight
I beaded another one to see what difference the bead count would make in size and the answer is: an enormous difference. I'll explain this in my tutorial. I added a small hook clasp to the second bracelet.
Parrot wings in Pink and Yellow
I matched colors with my new handbag
Of course I also made perfectly symmetric Parrot earrings. How could I not? I love these very much. They look awesome when worn.
I like to add something at the point of my shapes. It makes each piece different. First I added feathers to my parrot earrings (from the feathers lost by my birds during their moult), but they're very long, and so I prefer the shorter version with metallic feather charms.
Parrot earrings with feathers
Parrot earrings with metal charms
I didn't expect that I would wander such a path of exciting finds again. But voilà ! I tried to make another sort of Embers cuff, based on a Rick Rack. The Rick Rack became something totally different and there still is no other sort of Embers, but now I know why it didn't work, and thanks to that, there are beautiful Cellini waves and flames, and I am more than happy with it all.
I also haven't finished exploring. It is so much fun to bead. I hope to soon finish a bangle based on the flames, and I have started to illustrate the instructions. I made a gazillion photos... but now am wondering how you would prefer this to be brought to you? Would you prefer:
a) a separate tutorial for each shape / project
b) 1 separate tutorial for the flames and 1 separate tutorial for the waves (4 to 5 projects with flames, 4 to 5 projects with waves)
c) 1 big tutorial - something that would actually nearly be a book, with about 10 projects, including the Waves and Flames Rick Rack.
d) all of the above and a Facebook group where we could happily share all new finds, right from the start and beyond.
