And the "bead" goes on....

A new day and a new project!
Spring is here and I seem to be bursting with new ideas for jewelry pieces. My latest project is a piece that I call "Gifts from the Sea". I had a similar idea many years ago, but never go around to working on it. 
I love the ocean and we get so many gifts from the sea! I love to work with shells and pearls in my jewelry making! And I love ocean colors! This project puts all of this together to create a wonderful new bracelet  for my collection! 

Here is my palette:

I usually begin a project with a focal piece and then set up a palette of beads and embellishment like a painter sets up his paint palette.

 

 I "sketch" out a general idea of what I want to do, but this changes as I work on the piece. 

I really enjoy working on a piece and seeing it develop! I love he creative process and I am always excited to see the final outcome! 

I have been working most of my pieces directly on ultrasusede fabric, but I have noticed lately that the fabric pulls out of shape as I am working. I don't like to work with "Laceys Stiff Stuff" like a lot of beaders  do. I like the look of the ultrasuede on the finished beadwork. I am going to try to use some heavyweight fusible interfacing and see if that helps. 

I did a simple beaded bezel around a pale peach calcite donut. I added beautiful pieces of "everlasting" shell  to the center of the donut. These shell pieces are in shades of beige , pale peach, white and brown gave me the colors that I wanted to work with. And I knew that I wanted the "waves" on the bracelet to be turquoise blue/green with white "breakers". I am happy with the colors that I have chosen and I think that the piece will turn out beautifully! I will post the finished piece when it is done!

And the color is....

 And todays color is ..... YELLOW!

I am working on a new bead embroidered bracelet!
I have been putting it off for too long! I have so many really great focals for the center of bracelets, I needed to start putting them to good use! So here is what I am working on:

My work space! I don't really follow any set pattern when doing bead embroidery. This is my process:
1. I choose a focal for the center of the bracelet. In this case I picked a beautiful, hand painted Czech glass button!

2. Next, I pick out seed beads, and other embellishmen to compliment the focal. Here, my focal is yellow, red, orange and green with gold accent. I picked out seed beads in opaque yellow, transparent  yellow ,trans red, trans. orange, opaque medium green, trans. med green, and silver-lined topaz in 11/0 seed beads and silver-lined topaz in size 8/0. I also picked yellow pressed glass flowers, green pressed glass leaves in two sizes, white, yellow and orange glass hearts, brass daisy spacers and brass round "studs". 

I had a number of other glass beads out, but ended up not using them.

 3. I bead a bezel on the focal. I used 8/0 "gold" around the button and then rings of the other colors (except red) and ended with 11/0 "gold" as the final ring.

4. This is where I start adding embellishments and see what happens! I added glass flowers and leaves around the button. I penciled in a vine on either side and added the "gold" studs. In the center of the studs I added a vermeil bead cap and a red seed bead.

More leaves and heart beads that look like flower buds!
 

  I added daisy spacers with yellow, red and orange seed beads in the middle (not pictured) . Now I am working of filling in the rest with green. I had to order some more trans green seed beads, so I have to stop til I get them!

The backing is yellow microsuede and I will be mounting the bracelet on an aluminum bracelet blank, backing it with more yellow microsuede and edging it with silver-lined topaz seed beads. I can't wait to see how it looks when it is all done! I will post more about this tomorrow! Have a great night!

Beading needles and new projects...

It has rained all day, so it was a good day to write a log entry and work on my latest project!  I found this pattern on a blog called Beads Magic. This is a necklace called "Teresa".
The original necklace is done in black white and gold seed beads. I decided to try it with Spring colors and this is what I came up with!

 The pattern on the blog was just drawn out diagrams with no real instructions or list of supplies, but it was not too hard to follow. I made my own drawing for the blog pictures!

And  I designed a pair of earrings to go with the necklace!

I am enjoying working on this necklace! It looks floral and great for Spring!

In the past couple of days, I have been working along and all of a sudden my needle breaks! Annoying! Well, I decided to say a little about beading needles here for new beaders who might experience this!

I use a size 12 beading needle. I find that most of what I do requires many passes of thread through the beads, and a larger needle just would not work. 
I use two brands of needles. Each brand has it's issues and I will share this with you.

The first brand I use is John James.

 These needles are English nickle-plated steel needle. They are very good quality and have a larger eye that is easier to thread. They are the more expensive of the needles that I buy.
 The issue with these is that they seem to break easily!
If you put too much pressure on them or bend them too much, they just snap! I use these with projects that I know I won't have to do a lot of manipulation of the needle.

 The second brand of needles I use is Lance.

 These needles come from India and are also nickle-plated steel. They are much thinner than the John James and that must be why they are much cheaper! 
The issue with these needles is that they bend out of shape very easily. This keeps them from breaking as easily as the John James. You can straighten they  by holding near the eye with flat nose pliers and then pull the needle between your thumb and finger.  They usually don't stay straight for very long, but you can still work with them curved!

I switch between the two needles depending on the project and they seem to work well for me!

I am going to go back to working on my necklace and blog again later!

 Okay! I am back and ready to post again!

I have not posted on this blog for many years. I am not in good health and much has happened since the last time I posted. I won't get into all that! Everyone has their own lives to worry about.

I have decided to get serious about my beadwork again and one way to do that is to post my "works in progress" here!

Right now I am doing bead weaving again. I am trying to get a collection of "Spring" jewelry together to post in my Etsy shop. Here is what I am working on right now:

So here is the work space set up for my "Spiraling into Spring" Necklace and bracelet set.

This is a spiral rope with 8/0 yellow core beads, and a combination of  3mm opaque white bugles,8/0 pink opal beads, 10/0 2 cut Sol Gel beads in Kiwi green, and 11/0 yellow-lined crystal seed beads. I am using white Nymo thread size D and a John James 15 beading needle.

                               Spiral taking shape


Here is the bracelet that is already done:

I am really happy with this pattern! I love the spring pastel colors. I should be done with this tonight. I am going to try to list the set in my shop (https://www.etsy.com/shop/ElementalNature) tomorrow! 

I am really enjoying beading again! My next big project is to do inventory of my stock. I have moved since my last post and I have jewelry supplies in boxes. I need to get it all organized again so I know what I have to work with!

I hope everyone enjoys the pictures!

Back on Track

Well... I'm back!

I haven't been able to get the time to post anything lately, but I want to get back on track. I have been busy since my last post!

I have taught myself how to bead on a loom. I bought a beading loom many years ago and I never really learned how to use it. Recently, I decided that I wanted to learn and I went in search of my loom. Phooey! I couldn't find it anywhere! So...
I made a loom!
It was a process of trial and error! I made two "end combs" for the loom with plastice lids from food storage containers. I cut out two rectangles of plastic and cut slits across the long side of each to use as the thread dividers. The first try I used a stryofoam block as the base to hold the combs. This didn't work so well. The threads wouldn't stay tight. I came up with the idea to use a small drawer from a little wooden cabinet that I bought at the Dollar General a few years ago. This turned out to be perfect! I taped the combs to opposite side of the drawer with packing tape. I strung the loom by tying one end of the threads to the drawer handle. I strung the combs and then I added a push pin to the bottom of the opposite side, which wrapped the tightened threads around. I then secured the ends with another piece of tape. Voila! Homemade loom!

This loom works really well for the work that I am doing right now. I am going to get a Czech loom in a couple of weeks, but this works for now! Here are a few examples of what I am doing:

Can you tell that I am having fun? I really like working on the loom! You can do so many different patterns and interesting designs!  I will post pictures of the homemade loom tomorrow! Thanks for reading!

KC

Retro Cuff Bracelet

Good Afternoon All!

Well, I finally got a new project together to post!

I found a pattern for a "Brick and Strand" bracelet on AboutBeading.com. I made one in pink and silver and I really liked the style. I played with the pattern and came up with my latest cuff bracelet. Here are the pictures of the process:



Begining the ladder panels

I started out by making two ladder stitch panels with turquoise seed beads and dark copper bugles.



One panel done, one to go!

Then I connected the panels with strands of turquoise  nuggets.




Turquoise strands added!

I finished the ends of the bracelet with brick stitch and added a copper toggle clasp.

Brick stitch with turquoise seed beads

I really like the retro look and feel of this bracelet. It reminds me of bracelets I remember from the 60's and 70's.  It feels really smooth and silky , and conforms really nicely to the wrist! I really like this one and I am going to experiment with other colors and stones! Here are the rest of the pic's of the finished bracelet:

This is available for sale on my Etsy site http://www.etsy.com/shop/ElementalNature

Checking in!

Hello lovely followers!

I have not been able to get here to post anything lately! I have been having some difficulties here at home! (My gas is turned off, and I am trying to get Energy Assistance)
I try not to let things get to me and I keep on beading! (Even in the cold!) I don't have anything new to post yet. I have been working on my piece for the May EBW Challenge, but it's too early to post that! I want it to be a secret until May! I am working on some other projects, and I will try to get photos and post something tomorrow!  Keep smiling and beading!

KC