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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.
After coming up with the dimensional Cellini peyote shapes within the framework of my 'Waves and Flames' study, I asked you, people of Planet Bead, if I should make a tut for each or for all, and if I should create a group on Facebook where to share ideas and many answered that you wanted "all". Of course!
"Open Heart" - pendant, earrings,
bracelet and necklace
So I made nearly all the tutorials, individually, and also listed them as bundles: duos, a trio and a quintet for the pieces I made with the 'Flames start; and 1 tutorial for several designs made with the 'waves' start.
I haven't made tuts for everything yet, but I have created the proposed Facebook group, to share ideas with like-minded beaders, who love this stitch too: the "Cellini Peyote Freaks" group. You are welcome to join.
In this group you will find my paper about the principles of the "Waves and Flames" start, including guidelines to make a "Waves and Flames, unfinished" bangle. If you are not into Facebook, you can send me an e-mail via my website to ask for it.
To have something new to photograph for the banner of the group, I beaded up something swirly, of course: a Cellini bezel, which became a beaded bead.
The Cellini bezel is an old idea, left in a drawer, which I took out for the pink ice CZ in Anthea's Tiara - I wanted the bezel to match the Yukka Flowers. It is based on diagonal peyote.
And as explained in my previous post, this gave me the idea to make a gigantic bezel for a tape measure.
Cellini Measure Tape
My first try was not what I wanted for the tape measure and so it became a beaded bead.
Because of its resemblance with Mexican woven basketry (canastas), I called it Bola Canastas.
It provoked something inside of me. Something I cannot explain in words, but these bolas are addictive. I made more.
And more.
And more!
Rounder, longer, double etc.
It's so much fun.
Because I have to take a break to rest my arms, instead of adding this to my pile of stuff to tutify, I posted a short, pretty bad video in the group, to show the beady world how to do it. It's just a technical trick... Amazingly, many beaders got instantly hooked too. Enthusiasm is infectious! I love that. But my video was unclear, so I made a graph and a new video, which you can watch here too:
In the Cellini group, many members seem to actually never have done Cellini, so I created class rooms and made the first graphs for 2 basic techniques, so that they can get started. There is still more to do. It's a nice place, with advanced beaders and beginners, and members are helping one another. Isn't that awesome?
Interaction with other beaders is what I love most. It is what keeps me going and writing patterns and inventing new designs. "Drink me" will probably be a tutorial (perhaps the tape measure too!). Perhaps even a kit, but I will have to find a better quality tassel.
Unfortunately for my arms, all this provoked massive tendon-overload, so now that my video is up, and you beady peeps can fly, I am going to slow down the pace, and thus...
I need help
I need a little help in the group. Thankfully Elisanne M. McCutchen joined nearly immediately as Admin. I am so grateful for her help. But we need moderators. So if you have a passion for beading, are inclined to help fellow beaders, and know Cellini peyote, maybe you will like to help moderate the group? It's not complicated: approving (sometimes rejecting) new membership requests, help newbies finding this or that information and perhaps delete a post that is off-topic.
My dream team would be composed of one more person in the Americas, two from the East (Asian, Australian), one or two more from Europe / South-Africa (or anywhere in between) and a Russian and a person from the Middle East. That would really be awesome. One instead of two would already be awesome, but you've got to aim for the moon to land among the stars, as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said so well.
Enter the rabbit hole. Let's celebrate Cellini peyote together.
Except on paper (sketching), I had never beaded in my bedroom. But last Monday (October 9th 2017). I decided to go there for it is the only quiet place to film a video explaining how to do fast peyote with increases, using two threads. I talked about this method on Facebook, and one of my beady friends said that she was waiting for somebody to show it to her for she didn't get it right. So I thought that it would be nice to show it to all. It is a cool, fast method, and spares the tendons.
You'll see that I am far from being a pro at making videos. There are a couple of big sighs in it, because I have difficulties saying things right - I've always had, also in writing: I often say later what should come first, and vice versa. I also tend to mix up 'stitch-string-add' etc. Because of fibro, I forget to mention things I wanted to mention... and count the beads more times than shown in the video. This results in a lot of editing in both writing and filming. I hope that you will understand it despite the little cuts.
I am happy with the sound from an avian point of view. My first attempt to film this technique was ruined by a lovely, but deafening Figaro. I love my birds and Figaro and Charly are no exception, but they are noisy beasts. Seeing that I can't ask them to shut up, the bedroom appears to be the right place. It is actually really odd to not hear them at all when I am not talking. Next time I think that I'll leave the door open to at least hear them a little bit. I miss them :D
Figaro, Fluff' the Puff', and Miss White, sun bathing.
They are quiet at night, but then I still can't film because I'd need spots and those of you who know me, know that I can't use spots - also not for photography. The natural light in the bed room appears to be good enough - there is a huge window, letting lots of light enter the room without direct sun light.
Now there must be a fire polished bead somewhere in a corner of the room, because I am sure that I heard it fall. It makes a different sound than a seed bead, and seeing that I was adding those lovely faceted bead to the belly of my fish, there were FP on the BOI-board.
So now you may ask what fish?
May I present to you Takato, named after his 22cm real-life model, a big oranda living with us:
Takato and Takato
It is a purse that came together completely naturally. I had a little purse that I kept in my stash to reuse to make this fish. It had a very precise idea in mind since I wrote the book Diamond Weave (DW) but never got to make it. Then one day I saw Julia Turova's beautiful bead-knitted frog and it reminded me of my project.
I didn't want to bead crochet or knit. I wanted to use the beautiful pattern I imagined with the Diamond Weave Chinese Coin Motif stitch (variation 10 with Thread Cover Beads - TCB) for the back of the purse. It was a difficult project, but with plenty of "luck" - many things were made without having to undo or redo them, like the fish butt. I can't believe that I made it right immediately, because I actually was like "OMG how am I going to join it all and give that fish a nice shape? And there, a petal initially made for the gill plates that was too small got transformed into a "butt", which even appeared to be the perfect support for the tail. I call this beading with the Universe. Ask and you are answered. The next petals that I made for the gill plates were again too small, so I kept them for the tail. I really had many "how could I do this, improve that", and each time I asked myself, the answer came like magic. Everything fell in place better than I could have imagined. For those who wonder, petals are a two-increase form that is a very versatile component, The free tutorial can be downloaded by those who are part of my "From Petal to Pod Group" on Facebook - if you want to be part of the group, please drop me a note.
The head, tail and gill plates are peyote petals. The pectoral fins are pear-shaped peyote, based on a Monte Carlo Bracelet (a design by Gerlinde Lenz tutified by me at her demand), the pelvic fins and dorsal fin are made with herringbone with increases and last but not least, the tiny little anal fin was made with brick stitch. The bezels around the eyes were made with circular peyote.
I also used Diamond Weave in full hexagonal variation no. 3 with TCB - for the belly, which I embellished with a myriad of fire polished beads (which was something I had the feeling it was begging for repeatedly, lol).
Beading this purse was something awesome. I posted in-progress photos on FB and had a myriad of encouragements, which I appreciated very much. It helped keeping the motivation up. It took
11 days of intensive beading
2 days of forced rest, a bit of physio
Orange AB seed beads size 11/0 - 24g.
Red AB seed beads size 11/0 - 21g.
Topaz AB seed beads size 11/0 - 14g.
Dark gold permanent finish seed beads size 11/0 - 12g,
less than 1 g. coral lined size 15/0
less than 1g. 24Kt gold plated size 15/0
2 glass cabs
1 permanent marker, black
1 red coin purse
3 needles (size 11, 12 and 15)
1 bobbin of Hana thread "Gold Fish"
And voilà!
With the left over beads I am thinking of beading a lanyard - for the purse frame has some sort of loop for that, a chain tab. But I have to go back to work and write tutorials to add to my shop, for I need to feed my other (real) pets. Did you see that I listed the tutorial for the Pinwheel cuff, and another tutorial for a pretty, dainty bracelet, "Florets"? It is made with the same DW variation as used for the belly of the fish. So fast to make, it will knock your socks off.
I hope to do a tutorial for this, when my video skills and illustration software will have improved, for that are actually the reasons why this and some other designs are still not tutified - like the Samurai Pod and other 3D things. Working hard on it, and the video about fast peyote is part of the learning process.
The last months, I didn't write anything here. I thought that I would write one post per month, but couldn't find time/energy/material to write something. Not that life is boring. I'm just too busy with the book Diamond Weave. The thing I regretted not blogging about was my Etsy shop's B-day, but the special sale had a great success. I'd like to say that I am deeply grateful that there are so many of you out there liking what I create, and even taking time to tell me that you do. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
I wish that I had 2 other me. I'd bead, my second me would work, my 3rd me would be with husbest taking a holiday. But even with that math, there are so many beautiful beads, so many designs crossing my head, so many lovely things I would like to make, I don't have enough of a life to do it all. This is why I like to put things out to the world and see what others come up with.
Today I am happy to share something new with you. But first an update about the book about Diamond Weave.
Seduction, necklace and collar
with the crystals on the outside
Everything is in place. 200 delightful pages of photos, illos, texts and
graphs. We are nearly done with the corrections and more corrections
and more corrections (it seems to have no end). I'm fortunate to have
wonderful proofreaders who come up with great suggestions and
encouragement. I'm deeply grateful.
The last steps are the hardest. I learned and
re-learned a lot. For example: I have been doing and undoing a necklace
a gazillion times just to find out that, as the French say "better is
the ennemi of good". Read: you cannot always obtain the result you
envisioned with this or that material in this or that design and forcing
it won't solve the problem. Right. I hate that. I generally succeed in
making what I envision, lol. In my latest neklace, 'Seduction', the
embroidered part also reminded me to not overdo things. Read more about this necklace
farther in this post.
It's been a struggle translating my best knowledge in the clearest possible way to enable the future readers to make all the projects in the book. There is something for everyone. For all levels. My friend Darcy Rosner says that all the beaders will be beginners with this stitch. That sounds surreal. It means that everything I write, each word or expression about the weave and its variations will have double impact. It makes me feel responsible, and vulnerable too. In fact, publishing something, a photo of a creation, or a text, is somehow quite frightening. I rethink everything a million times and still doubt "couldn't I say this better" or "wouldn't there be a more accurate word for that". For example, with DW, cylinder beads wedge into one another, mutually stabilizing each other by ... imbrication? overlapping? capturing the corners? What's best? This has taken a lot of time and work from both Gerlinde and myself trying to find the best description, explanation, and simple and precise words. And then suddenly I rewrite whole pages because we found better. Dang. Writing in English is not natural for me as French or Dutch. It takes a lot of concentration and time. But it's nearly finished!
Klapukin
When I get tired from Diamond Weave and writing and illustrating, I bead something with a different stich. This is Klapukin, with a cab from Kinga Nichols, and kheops beads from Puca, and the idea for the setting from Klazine de Bas-Verdonschot. Klapukin sounds like the name of a game, which it actually is. Playing with beads. I hope to write a tutorial for this soon.
Complex Bail
I also made a complex, jeweled bail with dimensional peyote and would like to develop it further, make it easy enough to explain in a tutorial too. It initially was supposed to be a bezel for the pendant (from Nikia Angel's Etsy Shop) but it is the small size. If I had the big size, it would look more harmonious, I think, but... I would perhaps succeed in making the bezel and wouldn't have made this bail. It's a beautiful mistake. I hope to make more mistakes like that in the future.
It may sound silly, but playing with other stitches is an antidote these days. Not that DW is poison. Not at all. I love it, it is marvelous. You will love it too! The poison is when work, work and more work puts the fun in the shade. Kinga Nichols describes that very well in her blog post of a few days back.
I made my latest necklace when I needed a break. It is a nice beady adventure. A combo of Diamond weave and Peyote,
MRAW and bead embroidery.
DW embellished flask
Top of perfume bottle
It started as a gift to myself - a lovely little perfume bottle - and as a challenge to myself - the colors Custard, Tangerine and Marsala are not my comfort zone. I regret not having a photo of the 'nude' flask, its body is light topaz with lovely cream speckles, and the top is opaque in exactly the color of the brick red pearls I used. Now I adore the colors and also what I made. I thank Nancy Dale for sending this lovely flask made by Tan Grey to me. I embellished it with Diamond Weave in the Round.
Positioning of artwork
I also created a collar with 'collapsable' links to make a beaded curb chain.
Something I hadn't seen before. I bought beautiful 25mm red magma
Swarovski asymmetric flat back squares, matching perfectly the curve of
the links with their 'wonky' aspect, and a huge pile of firepolished
beads. I hesitated between using the crystal stones or beautiful artwork
and suddenly though 'hey, use both - to protect the back of the
crystals and for a
reversible collar.
I made a short video to better show the MRAW links the collar is made with. I
appologize for the quality, I am really
not at ease in videos. Also, I thought that cable chain was the right word for this, but voilà, now I know better.
I had another hesitation. I loved both the perfume bottle alone and the curb chain alone... Here again, I decided to use both together, but freely. They still can be worn separately. Design-wise it was quite a challenge to put together the
two parts; in short, I went through all stages of creation to
find the best middle
part offering balance and transition of color and use of beads. I'm
very happy with the result.
Bottom part alone
I
started the bead embroidery over and over. The griffin's and the
dragon were more beautiful on their own than surrounded by beads so I
finally ripped off the bead embrodery. The result is lighter, better balanced if worn without the collar.
The
'bezeling' method of the image is made as in Diane Hyde's book, Break the Rules. It is a very nifty way to embellish and
frame an image. If you haven't tried it yet, you should. The fan-shaped brass blank is from Diane Hyde's shop. I printed and
sealed the images myself. Plenty of images. It took some
time to find the right subjects.
The closure was a real adventure. This collar needs to be hold firmly,
otherwise it could unfold. An ordinary clasp would not have helped. I
though of using a shunky magnetic bracelet clasp, but it would not have
been reversible, and I would not have been able to add the second part
of the piece.
Here you can see a photo of the open link I
made using two Elegant Guide Rounds on the inside of the link, to pass
memory wire through the extra beads. The memory wire forces the link to remain closed even when both the
necklace and the collar are hung from it. The collar is kept well in
place. It still is a bit prototypy. In fact, it was very difficult to make due to the angles in the wire. I would like to
improve the concept but I don't have enough time now. As said, I need 2 other me.
Closure with both the collar and the necklace attached.
It can be used for the necklace alone too.
Closure in the make
I wish that I could go to Boston in October to meet with those of you who are going to the the seed bead summit organized by Kate McKinnon, to show you how gorgeous it looks when worn in real life. But, as you probably know, I have to stay away from lights, sun, neons or spots... If you can go, do yourself the favor! I will be present in spirit.
See below the photo for the names of the masters and their work shown in the images.
Seduction, shown with the artwork on the outside.
Squares from left to right:
Frank B. Dicksee, The Mirror 1896
François Boucher, Jupiter in the Guise of Diana, and the Nymph Callisto, 1759
Leopold Schmutzler, Young Girl with Jug 1864–1941
Fan shaped image:
Dicksee, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, about 1890
Thank you for reading this far. Now I'm going back to work. :-)
It is what's called a "Diamant Mandarin" in French (a zebra finch?). Funny that it arrived on my balcony while I'm working on the book about Diamond Weave. When we tried to catch her she came inside. We couldn't find her owner, so we kept her. I bought her a boyfriend and all the things she needs to be well and happy, a cage, food, a bath and more, still to arrive.
She and her boy friend
get along very well
I made a brief video of her and her companion discovering their beautiful new cage. He sings all the time and she loves to bathe. It is very pleasant to hear them chit- chatting. It brings more life in my life and I think that it is a perfect addition for my "smell-the-roses" programme.
It's my birthday this week and I have to buy quite a few things for these new friends and by buying my patterns, you are making this possible. To celebrate and thank you I'm having a 33% discount off of all my patterns during the next
days - valid until the 31st of October 2014 only.
and the code to enter on Etsy is
HAPPYBIRD
Not valid on jewelry - sorry!
I had my flu shot this morning and feel not so good, so I'm keeping this post short today. I just wanted to let you know that I am having a sale in my shop. Your support is very welcome and highly appreciated. Thank you very much!!!
I just saw on Beading Daily that I had missed an online class with Jim Lawson, who is a Lapidary Journal Jewelry Artist photographer. Interweave put an attractive video online to give an idea of the course. I nearly regretted not having attended... read on.
Picture taken in the mirror
Being intollerant to light - call it allergy if you wish, I have a light tent which I cannot even use. Being photophobic has led me to live in an appartment on the not sunny side of a building, where I have what Art Academies call "the Glorious Northern Light", and with my white walls, it is not dark... enfin, not in all the rooms. There are many different colours in the light depending on the season, the weather - the sky is sometimes very blue... the building opposite of mine is terra cotta... (And I must close the curtains when the sun is reflecting in the windows or other metallic parts of that building, or in clouds or in the snow on the roof... *sigh*.)
As a consequence, taking all my pictures in daylight, without spots, is really challenging. I've been told that my pictures are fair and from the person who said that, it was a huge compliment. But as Jim Lawson says, those shadows are not so - so... Ah, those shadows - you can see them on the left of nearly all my pictures... I had a very hard time making a decent picture of the set I am wearing on the picture above-right. I normally enhance my pictures with Paint Shop Pro, but here I did not; I only added my watermark to it, reduced its size, to show it 'as is'. No sunlight that day, so no blue from the sky, no terracotta reflections from the building in front... I used a mirror to bring more light to the piece and I am quite pleased with the result... but I am going to find or make reflecting devices to apply that immediatly to my future photos.
Sixagons Chain
What is so cool with Youtube, is that when one video is
finished, they show a mosaic of other, related, videos and so I could
see some more... There is the usual commercial stuff "buy Mybrand
lamps, lenses, backgrounds", which can be of interest for the
photographer who wants to make the difference and has the budget for it.
Which is not my case.
But there are also a few nice guys out there who
give really useful tips for 'on-a-dime' photographers like me. The
(really) nice guy I wish to applaud here is Michael Seto who has made a series of 22 videos
with super interesting tips for light, settings (you know those secrets
you would find out only after 10 years trying yourself), tripod - (what would I do without my Tripod!), presentation of the
jewelry, etc... Not everything is useful for me, but there are many very
intelligent tips and tricks and things I am definitely going to try! Check it out, you won't be disapointed.
I also like the two videos about presentation by Renaissance Marie Austin, who created "Fiber Style TV", showing how to take advantage of simple objects in her surroundings to shoot her jewelry.
Her tips are cool, see Video no. 1 and Video no. 2.
As for the use of Paintshop Pro or Photoshop - in addition to the 'help' menu of those softs, there are many online
tutorials, videos, and even forums you will want to visit - some folks are real
artists. I prefer
beading and use only a few standard settings...
Just another picture to show you the shadow...............
Thai Silver Tinkle Bell Jewelry Set
Last but not least, here is the website giving a loooooooooot of hints to use with a light tent... I hope I can use my light tent one day.
I don't know when hubby will modify my website for it to become a nice little shop and not just a portfolio... with buttons to pay with Paypal, etc... but there is a possibility that in the future my portfolio won't be visible the way it is now. So I've been thinking of a way to showcase my 'old work' (well, not that old, Jalisco Bangle is new), and thought that a YouTube presentation would be quite nice.
I started it and didn't finish it. There are so many pictures... too many... I had to find a solution to split the big bunch of images...
Beads by Preciosa Ornela
Preciosa Ornela - manufacturers of tiny little glass marvels - I mean beads of course - organize sweepstakes every month to win a kilo of beads! WOW. The more beads the merrier! Preciosa said that they would totally love to see our videos with our creations made with their little treasures.
Halalee... I needed a good idea to put pictures together, but not all, and sorting them by type of beads used in the work is an excellent common denominator... So here is my first video with images of what I have made over the past years with their lovely beads.
It is not really difficult to put this all together with Windows Live Movie Maker. It takes time to find out how to handle all the settings and adjust time, animations, music... Make static images move. It is so much nicer. What I found most difficult was to find music that wouldn't make people run away after a few seconds...something calm, soft. I browsed the Internet and found... so many tunes!!! It took a long time making the video, but also a long time listening to music. There are many talented musicians out there who share and offer their work for free.
So here it is - I am pretty happy with the result. And it was nice to look back... Some pieces have won prizes, some are in books, and there are also a few pictures which I have never shown before... I hope you like it too...
For the music in this video, I wish to thank
Kevin MacLeod
for his 'Enchanted Journey'
and to Tom Cusack
for his 'Piano Ballad'.
I hope to make more videos in the future, for your inspiration.
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