And still I can't get the mosaic to show up as a decent size... whatever. Voting has started for the Time Machine challenge. Go over to the Etsy BeadWeaver's blog to see the mosaic at full-size, links for all of the items, and the voting widget. Lots of great entries this time around, as usual.
The May challenge theme is Hollywood Red Carpet Creations. I don't know if I'll do it or not. It might be fun to make something extra glitzy, but I should probably get started on my BFAC project instead.
Speaking of BFAC, we were inadvertently participating in eBay's definition of shill bidding and they suspended our account for 14 days. That's right, no warning, no chance to cancel the bid, just "We're shutting you down for 2 weeks." Just another thing that I dislike about eBay. Makes me really annoyed that I'm stuck using one of their subsidiaries, PayPal, for a lot of things. Don't you hate it when a company that you don't like buys up the things that you do like?
I think I need to spend more time beading and less time at the computer. There's too many annoying things going on in Internet-land lately.
Her Airship Sailed Through Time is my entry for the EBW April Challenge, Time Machine. I'm very happy with how it turned out. I think it's attractive, wearable, and fits the theme pretty well. It's also completely not what I had planned originally.
Originally, I was going to make a necklace called Trinkets I Gathered on my Journey Through Time. The spiral was going to be a lariat with a dizzying array of nifty beads and found objects in the long fringe at each end. But as I was working, I realized that I might not have enough black size 8 beads to finish it, and since I had started it so late in the game, I didn't have time to order more. Remembering the neat steampunk heart toggle clasp that I bought from Green Girl at gem show, I decided that instead, it would be a front-clasping necklace with fringe spilling out from behind the clasp.
So yesterday, I went into my temporary beadroom (aka the laundry room) and picked out all sorts of awesome items. Keys, a coin, a carved skull, a carved moon face, various little lampwork beads (domestic and import), vintage beads, stone beads, Czech glass, a scarab, nuts and washers, etc etc. Then I laid them all out on a bead mat and strung a single eclectic fringe. I went to the mirror, tried it on, and found that the fringe did not hang nicely from behind the clasp like I had planned.
Well drat, I thought, now what? Maybe I could attach the fringe to the extra hole at the bottom of the clasp. Except that it was a small hole, so not a lot of fringe would fit. Then I hit on the idea of using one of the washers as a ring to hang the fringe from, so I used a little chain and a jump ring to attach it to the clasp. But it looked so cute that I couldn't stand the idea of overwhelming it with all of that chaotic fringe. What to do, what to do?
I remembered my stash of Earthenwood Studios Steam Stones, so I dug those out and my muse demanded that I use the ship's wheel and the "freedom" charm. Unfortunately, the ship's wheel had a very odd hanging loop configuration. I wasn't convinced that I could cut the superfluous loops off without either leaving poky bits or damaging the tile. But wait! I could use chain to attach the freedom charm to the bottom, and chain to attach the extra loops to the extra hole in the clasp. I could make it work!
At this point, I had the idea that maybe I should get a second opinion, but Chris was working and couldn't be interrupted. Well, forget the approval of others. Like a mad scientist, I was caught in the grip of an idea that wouldn't let me go, and I had to create! I returned to my little beading spot and began linking chains and rings and components until it all came together in the piece you see above.
And all of those eclectic beads and found objects? They're still sitting on my table, waiting for me to put them away before the cat decides that they'd look better on the floor.
I finished my Time Machine challenge entry just a few minutes ago. I changed my mind on what to do, and I think it turned out pretty awesomely.
The problem is that I changed my mind after I picked out all of the components I was going to use for the original idea, which was very bead-intensive. Now I have to put them all away. A beader's work is never done!
Pictures and full story tomorrow :)
This awesome doll was created by Cynthia S. Bicker, and I won it in last week's BFAC auctions. Woohoo! I think I'll hang it in my guest room, to keep vigilant watch over the well-being of my guests.
I took a break from working on my beaded flower to create an entry for the April EBW Challenge: Time Machine. I'm hoping to finish the necklace tomorrow or Friday at the latest. It's going to be a little different from what I normally do, more eclectic, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.
I never seem to get these mosaics to load up at a size I like! It would probably help if I did HTML instead of using the basic blogger thingie, but if I took the time to learn HTML, I would have less time to bead, dance, and write.
Anyway! Voting has begun for the Temptation challenge! There are 35 gorgeous items to choose from. Click Here to view the mosaic at a more realistic size, visit all of the item listings, and cast your vote.
April's theme is Time Machine. I can't wait to get started on that! I might even put off my BFAC project, in order to have more time to dedicate to the Challenge. If I can settle on an idea, that is.
Last night, at around 11:45pm, I finished Moonlit Seductress, my entry for the Etsy BeadWeavers' March Challenge, "Temptation." Given that it had to be completed and listed by the 5th (you know, yesterday), I was really, really cutting it close. I had planned to finish it on Wednesday, but Wednesday ended up being a bad day and I didn't bead at all. In a way, that was for the best, because the ideas that I woke up with yesterday are better than the ones I'd been toying with all week. I didn't come up with the cab edging or the idea to stitch beads onto the edge of a ribbon until I was finishing the embroidery around the cab yesterday afternoon. I wish that the pictures were better, but let's face it, this is what happens when you finish a project 15 minutes before it has to be listed on Etsy.
In other bead and jewelry related news, the 2009 Layne's Legacy -- Beading For A Cure auctions are under way! All photography and auction descriptions by yours truly. All beadwork by around 70 incredibly talented artists. It's a couple weeks yet until my Locked Away necklace goes up for bids, but by all means, you should visit the rest of the auctions and see if there's anything else you'd like to bid on. Remember, all proceeds (minus our small operating expenses) get donated to the National Colorectal Cancer Research Association. Bid early, bid often!
I changed my mind on the Temptation theme project. I will still be making a necklace with the faerie button and dichro cab, eventually, but not for this challenge. I decided that the faerie in question wasn't tempting enough (I gave the pin-up girl faerie button to a friend), but the nude mermaid cab that I have is very tempting. So I glued her down, and tomorrow I get to start beading.
While the glue was drying, I made a cute little necklace with a nice brass filigree piece that I got at gem show, some brass chain, and a few beads. I made matching earrings, too, because the chain was longer than I needed. I think it's a cute set, and I'll try to get it photographed soon.
After I finish the mermaid necklace (probably titled Moonlit Seductress), it's time to start on my BFAC project! I know pretty much what I want to do, and I think it's going to be called Iris's Star.
Speaking of BFAC, auctions start this weekend. Woohoo!
That's what I've got slated for tomorrow. Badgeholders. I was supposed to make them today, but I got sidetracked and only got as far as picking out the beads. The fact that one of them has to be pink and grey, a color combination that I have no love for, is probably what caused me to put it off. That's the problem with custom orders -- oftentimes, they're just not appealing. But it's good to make some sales, so I'm not going to complain.
After I finish those, I have a few other projects that I want to work on. There's several things that I bought at gem show that are demanding to be played with, and I need to come up with an entry for the March Etsy Beadweaver's challenge. The theme this month is Temptation, which allows for a lot of interpretations. A few of my teammates have already turned out some great items, so I know I'm going to be seriously outclassed as usual. I just want to actually complete something this time! I was just now struck with the inspiration for another faerie button necklace, this one accented by one of the dichroic cabs that I bought at gem show.
You ever have a day when the internet seems to be out to annoy you? Not only do I keep getting disconnected, and having time-out errors and all sorts of other stupid things, but I can't get this image to load full-size. So if you'd like to see the full-size mosaic, view all the entries, and vote for the Etsy BeadWeavers' Snow Queen challenge, please click this link.I'm #13, Snowdrop. My entry is far simpler than most of the others, but I'm still happy with how it turned out.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to glaring daggers at my computer.
Ok, I'm through delaying! Today I photographed Snowdrop and now she's up on Etsy and ready for your admiring glances. There are three more images in the Etsy listing, including a couple of close-ups if you want to see more detail (and I know you do!).
I created Snowdrop for the Etsy BeadWeavers' December challenge, Snow Queen. For more eye candy, search Etsy for the tag "ebwc" and see what my team mates have come up with!
A wide variety of white and crystal beads went into the creation of this frosty beauty. There's Japanese seed beads in two sizes and colors, Delicas, a silver-backed crystal rivoli, white opal crystals, crystal moonlight teardrops, vintage teardrops, and a big opal and crystal givre teardrop, plus a cute little Czech glass button for the clasp.
The rivoli is bezeled with peyote stitch, and then I added three layers of embellishment. First, the long fringes with accent beads. Then a layer of short, plain fringes behind them just to fill it out. Then some ruffly picots all around, to give it some extra texture.
The necklace itself is a variation of chevron chain. I love this stitch because it's quick, sturdy, and attractive. This particular variation looks like interwoven hearts... although if you look at it just right, it sort of looks like hearts alternating with pretzels.
Now that Snowdrop is done, I can focus on the necklace I'm making for myself, which is never going to be ready in time for Thanksgiving!
These Hidden Secrets earrings sold within 24 hours of being listed on Etsy. The funny thing is, I told myself that if they didn't sell, I could replace the brass hooks with some bronze titanium and keep them. I really, really like them! But I'm very happy that they sold, it's a rewarding feeling to know that my favorite is someone else's favorite, too.
I have one more of those medallions left, and 2 more of the keys, so I'm thinking of doing a matching necklace with the brass chain I bought the other week. Although, since the earrings are already gone, I may do different bead accents, just to mix it up. Hard to say. Those matte, swirly Czech ovals are rather pretty.
In other news, I'm working on my piece for the Etsy Beadweavers' Snow Queen challenge. I'm not sure what it will be called yet, so the working title is Snow Queen. It's weird to work with these crisp white beads, after a week of the russet, earthy tones of Wastelands Tribe and all the green and brass for the earrings. It's good to mix things up! Not sure what I'll do next after this, though. Maybe more wintry colors, since it is that time of year. Oh, or the magenta/purple/celadon bead embroidered pendant. I guess those are more Spring-y colors, but I don't adhere to seasonal themes as much as I probably should.
The December theme for Etsy BeadWeavers is "Snow Queen." As luck would have it, I've had several snowy pieces planned for a while, but hadn't worked on them yet, because it wasn't winter. Tonight I decided to pick out the beads for the most appealing one, which has a "Crystal Moonlight" colored rivoli, and some matching briolettes.
If you've been following my jewelry for a while, you probably know that whenever I make an icy necklace, I tend to add light blue to the white, because I like color. But this time I'm forcing myself out of my comfort zone and working only in shades of white. I think it will make for a much icier, snowier necklace. It will probably also be a pretty bridal necklace, something which I am pretty much lacking.
I might need to order some 15s before I proceed, though. The best I could come up with were some plain matte crystal, and I think they're going to look too drab with the white-lined crystal AB Delicas and 11s. Plain white was too stark, and gilt-lined opal white was too yellow... and that exhausted my selection of white beads. I almost never work in white, preferring cream and ivory for neutrals, so I have almost nothing to pick from for this necklace!
Anyway, with any luck, this will work out better than my attempts for the November challenge did!
I may have already said as much on this blog, but after the beaded book didn't work out, I decided I'd try doing a necklace based on the expression "a stitch in time saves nine." Today I sat down to work on it, and it was one little problem after another, which resulted in a crooked and unattractive pendant. Grr. Hopefully I can pop the old watch face out of the glue, because it's the only one from my package of watch faces that actually has numbers on it.
So after two failed attempts to come up with something appropriate, and the deadline for the November challenge looming, I'm quite frustrated. It's reached the point that -- despite the fact that I am not an evolutionist -- I think I'm going to go WAY back on the ancestral scale and make a primordial ooze bracelet. Ooze about matches my mood right now. And ooze is green. Working in green should make me happy.
And if that doesn't work out, I have to give up on the November challenge altogether! I have too many other deadlines on the horizon. Darn my tendency to bite off more than I can chew.
Voting for the Etsy BeadWeavers' November Challenge ends at midnight! I'm not sure if that's midnight PST, EST, or some ST in between, but there you haven't. If you haven't voted already, click here and choose your favorite! The poll is conveniently located on the right side of the blog.
I'm pleasantly surprised to see that I'm in 4th place, which isn't bad at all, since I think there are more than three items which are much better than my necklace ;) And there's a very good chance that the item I voted for will win, which is great. Everyone loves to pick a winner!
I plan to work on my beaded book at the game tonight. It's actually the perfect sort of project to work on during a game; small, easily portable, and at this stage, very repetitive. Tomorrow I'll probably take a break from it and finish the dragon brooch, as a friend of mine sent me plenty of pinbacks. So many pinbacks, in fact, that I may have to make more brooches!
After considering various parts of my heritage, I decided that rather on focusing on a particular country of origin, I was going to do something rather specific to my family. I come from a long line of teachers, readers, writers, and general bibliophiles, so I'm making a beaded book.
I did want to do some sort of pretty, elaborate piece inspired by the jewelry worn by ladies in Renaissance portraits, but let's face it -- there's no aristocracy in my family tree. We're all a bunch of peasants, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Besides, a beaded book is something I've wanted to do for a while.
I came up with the idea last week, but I finally sat down to work on it today, I'm using square stitch, which is not my favorite technique. It's pretty time-consuming. But it will give my book nice straight edges, like a book should have. I'm using Delica beads, whose uniformity will help create the image of a smooth book cover. Hopefully it will turn out! Watch this blog for in-progress pictures!
No, I'm not talking about the US Presidential Election. No politics here, only beautiful beaded jewelry! The turtle compels you to vote for your favorite entry in the Etsy BeadWeavers' challenge! Go forth, view all of the lovely pieces submitted for the Animal Instincts theme, and cast your vote. Tell all of your jewelry-loving friends, too!
Please note, I am not one of those people who tells all of her friends to vote for her, and to tell their friends to do so. I created Turtle Talisman to challenge myself to make something I wouldn't normally (a piece of jewelry with a non-fantasy, non-insect animal), and while I think it's very nice, I do not think that it is the best item in the poll. I want people to vote for the item that they like best. That's what I did. There are some really great items, made by people who were clearly more inspired by the theme than I was.
Now, if you want to tell your friends to buy my Turtle Talisman, I will not stop you ;) That would buy me a lot of cabochons! (ok, maybe not a lot, I have expensive tastes)
On a barely related tangential note, today was an awesome mail day. I received my two most recent Etsy purchases -- a pair of hairpins with clock face cabs, and a gorgeous steampunk bottle -- and a package from my friend and frequent blog commentor Marilee, who sent me some awesome sewing and beading supplies. Hooray for packages! (and for my nice mail lady, who brings them to the door, and who doesn't mind having two corgis charge at her every time)
After a mostly relaxing weekend, my zombie feelings are gone and I think that when I wake up tomorrow, I'll be ready to conquer the world! Or at least my house. The house could use a good conquering.
I've got a nice vintage dragon cab all glued down, and by tomorrow the glue should be all cured and no longer producing headache-inducing fumes, and I will get down to some serious beading. This may or may not end up being my entry for the Etsy BeadWeavers' November challenge, "Ancestral Expressions." Given my heavily (ie, 100%) European ancestry, a heraldic-looking dragon fits, but I'm not sure if it's what I want to do. I might honor the Welsh side of my heritage. For that matter, my great-grandma Chapman claimed that we were from the same branch of Chapmans as Johnny "Appleseed" Chapman, so I could do something like that*. My English roots would give me a good excuse to do something Victorian, and I always like an excuse to do that. I'll probably avoid Irish, as several other people are already discussing that. I could even be silly and do something Elven, since I joke about being an elf or a faerie, but I do have enough of that in my shop already. The French and German/Prussian sides of my family call up no immediate inspiration, though I do have lots of nice vintage German beads.
I have almost a month to decide, though, so we'll see what the muse says!
*Due to this admittedly probably apocryphal bit of family lore, I'm always amused when I hit the part in American Gods where Shadow meets John Chapman. One can't help but be amused when one's possible ancestor shows up in ones favorite novel.
I finished the Turtle Talisman and he is on Etsy! Just click on the link to see more pictures. I'm pretty happy with how he turned out, especially since I almost never do animal-themed jewelry. The greens are all very nice, the bead soup was fun to work with, and it's good to do fringe that isn't branchy every now and then.
Now, of course, I just have to figure out what to make next! I'm thinking of maybe bezeling around another rivoli, or possibly just doing some stringing for the next couple of days. I don't want to start a major project until I find out what the next Etsy BeadWeavers and Art Bead Scene challenges are. Besides, I have a lot of non-beady stuff that I'm supposed to be doing right now, too!
I thought I'd post a little in-progress picture of my turtle project. As you can see, I liked those green satin beads from Mr. Skully-Man so much that I used them here, too. I thought it was a nice break from the size 15s I was using, adds a little more visual interest. Then I spent a while doing a brick stitch edge to hold the base and backing together, which gave me a headache and sore fingers. Next, I shall experiment with fringe! I'm still trying to decide exactly what to do for the actual necklace, too.
Last night's gaming went fairly well. Everyone seemed to enjoy playing at our place, and the dogs definitely liked having us home all night, along with extra people to shower them with affection. We did have a small problem as people were arriving. Maggie had managed to step on a nasty goat-head thorn, and didn't want to hold still to let me get it out -- she was more interested in limping around the yard to greet all of our guests. Our friend Casey was quick to help me hold her down while Chris searched for good thorn-removing tools, and as soon as I pulled it out, she was back to her usual happy self. I just need to figure out what plant is throwing those thorns and get it out of my yard! I hate those things.
By the way, I am part of this fun "Buy and Replace" Treasury on Etsy. I bought a pretty Japanese paper and glass pendant, and in return, got my earrings featured to replace it. Check out the items on display! The ring at the bottom is made by one of my Facebook pals, and she's the one who told me about the treasury.
Today I finally figured out what I'm doing for the Esty BeadWeaver's challenge, and it involves a cute little turtle bead. To match the colors in his shell, I decided to use three shades of green. Then I got a wild hare and I... mixed them all together!!!
Ok, so a lot of beaders make bead soup. But I really don't, because I like my work to be all neat and orderly. But the focal bead is variegated and I wanted to carry that theme into the beadwork. Besides, it's good to force myself out of my comfort zone. Not that it's too far out, since it's green bead soup.
Anyway, I'm going to go back to stitching this green soup onto the green felt around the green turtle. So much for less green jewelry...
And still I can't get the mosaic to show up as a decent size... whatever. Voting has started for the Time Machine challenge. Go over to the Etsy BeadWeaver's blog to see the mosaic at full-size, links for all of the items, and the voting widget. Lots of great entries this time around, as usual.
