EBW Ocean Challenge

This necklace is my entry into the Etsy BeadWeavers' Ocean theme challenge. I happy to say that I've finally had enough time (as well as inspiration) to participate in the challenge this time!

The colours I used are reminiscent of the colours of a stormy ocean, here where I live on the West coast of British Columbia, Canada. The ocean is my muse in most things, most days and my favourite time to view it is when there is a good storm blowing. The necklace sparkles as the ocean would when the wind whips it and sun glances off. The three circular pieces are meant to represent the ever changing tidal pools which teem with life.

It was fun to create and I'm working on a variation on the theme in gold, with pearls. Watch for it!

It's available for sale in my Etsy shop.

Necklace for Keely

My granddaughter Keely sent me this pendant and asked for a necklace for it. I had four false starts before I decided on this design. I think it complements the pendant nicely. It measures 36 inches end to end and the closure is (guess what?) a Swarovski crystal 10mm square button. I beaded the bail to match the closure. Just hoping it's not too much 'bling' for her! The 'sparkle' is my favourite part!

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New Pearl Necklace

It's finished! I'd made this necklace before but this time I used fresh water rice pearls instead of button pearls and I love the look of them. The last one sold quickly and I'm hoping this one will do the same. One of the differences is that instead of the gold toggle fastener, this one has a square Swarovski crystal button.



I'm also enamoured of the 24K gold plated delica beads. I need to order more!

A New Year Begins

I was surprised when I realized that it's been such a long time since my last post. The holidays were a bit of a busy time for me and probably one of the best things about them was the time I was able to spend with my granddaughter. She stayed with me for five days. We took a ferry trip to a slightly larger city than the one where I live. Our purpose was to do some shopping. When looking around in a great yarn shop, she spied a pair of fingerless gloves and asked me if she could learn to knit them. That was a pretty exciting request from my point of view, so we bought wool and got her started. She's doing quite well for a beginner though the project isn't happening as fast as I think she'd like it to. Hopefully I can keep her moving forward on it.

I haven't been doing a lot of beading but I do have a few projects in progress. Here's my proof:



I did finish one smaller project...a necklace. And I finished it again with the Swarovski square button. I think this has become my new favourite closure. The hex beads I used in this spiral necklace sparkle quite beautifully. I have an order for this necklace in greens.

The Winning Christmas Tree

There is quite a story behind my Christmas tree this year.

It began when I asked my son to go out into the forest and get me a tree. Not too tall. Not too big around. Maybe even a Charlie Brown tree. When the tree arrived it was about 8 feet across and 8 feet high. Too big for my living room. But my son assured me that when he was finished with it, it would be great.

There was quite a struggle between my son and the tree. It refused to stand up straight in the stand. He had to go before the job was done but assured me that he'd be back another day. Round two between the tree and my son and the tree won again. He assured me that he only had to stop that time because he'd run out of cuss words.

I had a go with it on my own...twice. The second time ended with me throwing it out the front door, over the railing, complete with the stand and the tree top angel that got broken in the first struggle with my son so it was now zap strapped on and I wasn't about to put any energy into removing a broken angel. Sigh.

After much thought about what I'd do, later that day I went out and bought an artificial tree that came complete with lights. It was easy to put together. Three sections with plugs between them for the lights. Plugged it in and it looked great. Turned my back to get the rest of the ornaments and when I faced it again...the top section had gone out! I wiggled and juggled the plug. Nothing! So I sat to contemplate what would be next. And the lights came on. And went out again. And came on again. And went out. With no one and nothing touching the tree! Packed it up and took it back. Checked elsewhere and managed to get the same tree six inches taller and $50 less expensive.

Fortunately, the second tree I brought home worked perfectly and looks absolutely lovely covered in my (mostly) hand made ornaments! So...here is the winning tree....

Three Piece Dark Denim Set

The inspiration for this set was the colours of the beads themselves. When I looked at them together, I envisioned them worn with jeans, heels, a tailored wool or leather jacket and a mannish white shirt. The juxtaposition of the feminine and masculine elements feels balanced to me. You couldn't wear this set and not be feminine, no matter what you wear with it.

I've been toying with other sets of beads and thinking about another set.

The closure button is a 10mm Swarovski crystal button in a colour called Montana Sapphire that I bought online at Artbeads. The way it finishes the necklace and bracelet is exactly what I wanted.



Three types of beads make up the spiral rope; triangles, Toho hex beads and seed beads.

Finally Back to Beads!

Colour me happy! Happy to get back to my beads! The bezel for this stone had been done for a while. In between all of the other things I've been working on I took little snatches of time to work on finishing the pendant. Then the neck piece got done and today I started the day with finishing the toggle for it. It's going into a Christmas sale this weekend.

Being in my studio with the beads has all kinds of things running through my head. I'm happy to say that after Sunday, I'll be able to indulge myself in making whatever the spirits move me to make.

Warning - Not Beading

It's true - that I haven't been beading. I've been really wanting to get back to beads but I'm working on some other things for the PR Fine Arts Christmas sale. It's the last weekend of the month. I also have the opportunity to display my 'wares' at an evening market on Thursdays. My main concern is that I don't have enough inventory. Anyway, I've been working on mini quilts and I have these ten completed.



Too bad you can't see the hand quilting on them. It's there, but the camera doesn't seem to have caught it.

I'm working on another four that are about half way done. I'm sure I'll finish them tomorrow. Then I can get back to the beading. There are so many things that are rolling around in my brain that I want to try. I'm really feeling the urge to experiment with a new direction for both my beading and my quilting.

That's it for now.

Fiery Inspiration

I often watch programs on the National Geographic channel. A week or two ago I watched a fascinating program about volcanos where the host took groups on tours across active lava beds. Cracks in the upper crust of cooled lava often reveal glowing rivers of flowing magma and that was my inspiration for this third amulet bag.



The branch fringe dangling at the bottom of the bag is meant to be reminescent of the movement of the flowing lava.