Special Summer Sale

A quick update for you all following me here on my blog. I am so sorry for not being very active here. These days my writing skills are fully dedicated to the book Diamond Weave, a collaboration with Gerlinde Lenz I told you about last month. I am a slow writer and so blogging is a bit calm... I can't do this many at the same time.

Mosquito net

Of course I am beading a lot of things for this wonderful project and do enjoy the process in every way, but I regret not being able to show you my work right now. I also am trying to put together the pattern for the Tulip many of you asked for, and hope to have this done by the end of the month. Time goes by so fast. I wish that there were 48 hours per day. I have so many design ideas which I would love to make. I even bought glue and varnish for paper... maybe I will be able to make that little pendant "à la Diane Hyde" I'm dreaming of...

The weather has improved tremendously and I can finally bead, or work on the book on the balcony. I

call it BOTB-ing - Beading on the Balcony.  Hubby and I have eaten there last night and tonight and it felt great to be 'nearly outside' thanks to all the birds singing. With hubby, we went to buy mosquito nets for all he windows of our apartment because last year we had an invasion of hornets in the area, and a few of them tried to establish a camp in our bedroom... I also bought little flowers which have a lovely smell!

Potentilla and Heliotrope

Summer holidays are often the moment a beader can find a bit of time for a favorite project and so it seems to be the perfect moment to offer you a special discount on my patterns in my Etsy shop.

Check this out: if you buy one pattern, you may chose another pattern of the same or inferior value, for free. Simply let me know what you would like to receive and I will send it to you. This is valid until May 21, 9pm UTC (that is 21:00 in Geneva, Paris, Amsterdam and Barcelona)

Happy Beading!

Spring fever

Little Thumb

It is Spring, I am busy as a bee. It seems to me that I'm most active during this season. It might come from the awakening of nature, the smell of the ground, the beautiful weather, the light. I might be light-intollerant, it doesn't mean that I like darkness. As long as I can remain in the shade of the building where I live, it is ok. I can't wait to bead on the balcony again.

Little Red Hood

This year Spring is much nicer than the past 2 - 3 years. My Hortensia is growing a bit too fast, but that's often the case on a balcony. My bamboo is a bit thirsty, because I was reluctant to water it, fearing that it would freeze, which generally happens in March. But this year it was nice nearly the entire month. It's not a big issue - it grows like grass... (which is normal, because it's the same family). April is nice too, the temperature is lovely. The heating doesn't even function here in the flat...

Hyper Eddie hasn't left and it's nice, because I am really having fun with beads. There are 3 new files with pictures on my computer, Fairy Figurines, Creepy Creatures and Jeannie.

'I dream of Jeannie' Barbie

As part of the Facebook Group Bead Dollie, I wanted to follow Diane Hyde's advice "Play around and just make something quick, little, and fun." So I made a Little Thumb - because I've always wanted to make little boots based on my Calla Lily flowers. The little figurine shows the moment when Tom puts the fairy boots on and they adapt to his size progressively. A little Red Hoot soon joined him. I have started a 3rd character of the 17th-Century writer Charles Perrault. This is really fun!

Tiny tulips - "Oranje Boven"

For an informal challenge to make clothes for Barbies within the framework of Contemporary Geometric beadwork, I made a bellydancer outfit for the doll Kate McKinnon sent too me. The bustier is the first thing I wanted to make with the pear cup shapes of Gerlinde's Monte Carlo bracelet. You may already have seen the Monte Carlo pattern I wrote in collaboration with her; well this little bracelet has opened a breach in my imagination.

Little Angler fish

I made little orange tulips for the very first King's Day in the Netherlands - until todayDutch National Holiday was Queen's day, but now there is a king...

I also made a tiny Angler fish based on the peyote structure and a 3rd "Creepy creature" is already in the make.

And all this while continuing writing tutorials for you. Today, I am really proud to announce that the 2 tutorials to make your very own "Souls" necklace and/or ring and earrings (or both patterns together) are now available in my Etsy Shop. This was a labour of love when I made it for the Battle of the Beadsmith back in 2013, but also writing the tutorial was not the easiest thing. It was nearly as hard to explain how to make it than to make it. I hope that you will be as happy with yours as I am with mine.

Souls

Last but not least, at Contemporary Geometric Beadwork the editorial work of the Edit team (which I'm part of) has started.
Did I say that I'm as busy as a bee somewhere?

Geometric Jewels Designs - First tutorial

The original Monte Carlo bracelet

Maybe you'll remember my blog post from November 2013, about Gerlinde Lenz's visit at my place. What a wonderful time chatting, beading and exploring techniques we had. Together, we discussed the possibility of publishing her designs which many a beader admires, including me, and because she doesn't see how she could possibly find time for both beading and writing instructions while also taking care of her two parents, we decided to team up to publish a few tutorials.

The design I wanted to make first is what I called the Monte Carlo bracelet because the movement makes me think of a pin bend, and Monte Carlo is famous for  their Formula 1 circuit. And because it is reversible. I immediately wanted to add pearls in the little pear-shaped cups and am very happy with the result.

I entirely remade the bracelet to find the best way to teach it and make WIP pictures, and came up with two ways: either by making all the little cups separately or using an all-with-one-thread method, for the more advanced beader.

I am pleased to announce that the first Geometric Jewels Pattern is now available in my Etsy Shop in the section "Geometric Jewels". 

And if life allows, it will not be the last design. Soon more!

SamohtaC Etsy-B-Day

Tomorrow my Etsy Shop SamohtaC will be one year old. It's been a lot of work and learning and love and I am very grateful to all those of you who encouraged me, inspired me and who bought/buy my little patterns. You make my life better! Thank you so much for choosing my designs, for liking them, sharing them, favoriting them, and adding them to treasury lists.

You are wonderful. I hope that our walk (or dance?) on the beady roads, together, will last many more years.

Tomorrow, to celebrate the Birthday and to thank you, you can use the following coupon code to get 25% off of your order:

SAMOHTACDAY2014

Happy Beading! and much love!

 

 and just because this made me smile out loud and the colors match my blog so well:

(tomorrow means 21st March...)

Are hyper Eddie, the Universe and the Subconscience One?

Butterfly Ropes: Matinée, Lariat
and 3 strand-bracelet

Yes they are, because of It.

I blogged about a creative whirlwind not long ago, and beaded like crazy, so many ideas popping up in my brain, beading them up immediately, writing tuts immediately too... The Butterfly Ropes in January, two new creations this month and wonderful other things I cannot show you now... Of course my shoulder said stop. And I will have to listen because the stitching / weaving movement certainly may become responsible for about 50% for RSI or a frozen shoulder, the remaining 50% being Fibro's fault. So I will not be able to bead for the Battle of the Beadsmith or another big contest. Fortunately I will have adorable visitors from Paris next week. Perfect timing! That will rest my arms and lift me up.

Keira Bracelet - made me think
of a bracelet of a 'piratesse'

My muse, Eddie, (I think of him as a guy), is hyper, and driving me nuts. I love to have so many ideas... what I like less is having only two arms in not so excellent condition. Eddie is the imaginary personification of my creative juices. My studio is in a typical after-hyper-Eddie state: Hiroshima. I will tidy up while having this forced break. This is also the reason why I bead in such an incredible mess: I know that there always comes a time that I can only fondle my beads by putting them back in tubes and bags. I don't waste time doing that when my arms are good enough for beading... 5 beading trays are always covered with stuff.

A few days ago, a video with John Cleese presenting a talk about creativity went round on Facebook and it was so good, that I can't help but sharing it here. This long one is full of funny jokes,

and this second one, shorter, is also good but more serious and straight to the point. Watch both! or at least the short one now.

I discovered with my latest design, the Keira Bracelet, that everything he said, the exploring aspect, the playing (with beads), an 'open mode' (spirit) as he calls it, enough "pondering time" (especially long in this case) and a 'closed mode' after the 'open mode' (to let experience and technique master the job) are certainly the key to new designs. He explains this extremely well and I encourage you to watch both videos, really excellent, sure funnier than goats...

Pippi with black cat and gold
fishies, an autobiographic necklace

I just don't know if, as he says, it is our subconscience working behind the scenes, or the Universe. The name of 'It' doesn't matter, because It is the same thing, for sure. It is also the same thing which the Japanese wish to let flow when practicing an art, the essence of what makes them consider the handling of arcs and swords, drinking tea, practicing calligraphy and Ikebana as an art. It must be some sort of universal energetic flow which wants something to come to existence and uses me, and you, and them, to co-create.

I am writing about this because I am generally not a 'what-if' person - I am used to have 'It' talking to me (or through me) pretty loudly and I think that I practice the open / closed naturally. The nature of beads is greatly encouraging open-closed switches of the brain. But the Superduos / Twin beads which I always though of as 'that fatty little double-hole-bead provoking tons of weaving with other tiny little seed beads to hide the thread' obviously needed a long, very long pondering time to suddenly become a favorite.

Keira Beaded Bead

The use of it as a design element together with pinch beads first came up in my Pippi Longstocking's necklace (which I submitted it in the Design Contest organized by Bead Style Magazine). I actually focused on them because I could use them as anchor points for headpins... Then I made the Butterfly rope - which was already designed by the Universe because I had dreamed of it before, and now this. Hurray! They are a catalyzer and not an obstacle anymore and now have my full appreciation.

And while Keira wanted to become a beaded bead, a choker to go out to a wonderful theatre in Milan in Italy and another bracelet and earrings too, I thought by myself that it is good to sit down, play, ponder, wait, and see things unfold in our hands.

Sera alla Scala

You may have noticed that I sell my jewelry very rarely. I have offered the jewelry set (necklace and earrings) Sera alla Scala to Linda Roberts as a fundraiser to support her daughter and son-in-law who is facing tremendous difficulties with his health and, as happens often in such cases, they have to deal with many bills to pay... See the fundraiser here in her Facebook Album.