Filed under: Uncategorized — by movetothebead @ 11:13 am
Well, almost feels like it, in our back yard anyway! We have had huge amounts of rain in the last week which has turned our backyard (that is at present a construction site) into a muddy quagmire. Sadly the rain has been quite localized so whereas we have had lots, places just down the road haven’t had any! Very frustrating for the farmers I’m sure. Unfortunately with the rain has also come lightening and thunder most evenings and having a household rule of no electronic gadgets on during storms this has meant I haven’t had much time on my computer. The upside to this is that it has given me no excuses to avoid beading! Sounds strange that I might try to avoid it but it is amazing how much time you waste in an evening watching TV and surfing the net, I tend to find once I am ensconced on the couch it is hard to motivate myself to move. Over the last week I have continued to work on my Turquoise cab. It’s been a process of two steps forward, one step back as I try different things and redo bits. I have almost finished it now, just need to decide on final length and what clasp to use. Once that is finished I am going to move onto the Seed Bead Challenge we have running on the beading forum at the moment. It is a colour challenge using the Cellini Spiral technique. Now, colour combo’s are not my strong suit, I tend to be very conservative in my colour choices and often stick to a fairly monotone colour palette in my pieces. So this is very exciting and also very scary! At the moment I am trying to decide whether to try a complimentary or triad colour combination from the colour wheel or to find a lampwork feature bead and take my colours from that. I sort of feel that the second option is the ‘easy way out’, in that I’m using a colour choice already made by someone else (ie the creator of the bead). But then when you are colour challenged, as I am, maybe that is the way to go! I guess I will have to sit at my work table and give it some thought, see what develops. Hopefully I will have a few pictures to show soon.
Regards, Sharyn
Well as promised, here is a picture of my wire wrapped Anne Dundas vessel
A simple wrap but I’m quite pleased with the results. I have now commissioned Anne to make me a set of beads to match so I can add a strap.
While we were away in Newcastle I worked on my turquoise Cab. I played around with a few ideas and decided on one that I think will look good. Luckily, being in the big smoke, I was able to pop into a nearby bead supplier and pick up the materials I need to finish the piece – not a luxury I am used to here at home. I was thinking of trying to incorporate another African Helix but in the end reverted back to my good old favourite – the spiral rope, I don’t think you can go too far wrong with a spiral rope. Now I just have to decide whether to add a few silver beads or not. My style of beading is more a trial and error style (ie “suck it and see”). I’m not very good at visualising completed designs and usually start out with only a vague idea and then see what develops. So far this method has seemed to work!
Over the weekend I sat down and started to play with the Beading Forum Quest pack, usually I leave this until the last minute and then throw something together. I laid the beads out and rearranged them a few times and finally came up with a layout that I quite liked the look of. Wasn’t sure how I was going to achieve putting it together using cord but once I started the piece came together really quickly. I’m really happy with what I have achieved. Unfortunately I have to wait a few weeks before I can post any pictures!
A bit of news, my African Helix necklace, which I finished off with some beautiful bali silver cones and clasp, sold to the first client who set eyes on it! Not only that she also bought the bracelet I had made as a sample piece for an upcoming workshop – so now I have to make another one! LOL. (not that I’m complaining! all sales are good)
Cheers Sharyn
Well my beading has had to take a back seat in the last week. Juggling work, house renovations and getting ready to send my first born off to Uni has taken up most of my time! It looks like this will continue for a few more days but by next week hopefully my daughter will be settled into uni accommodation, the builders will be sorted and I can get back to what I love. I did, however, get a little time over the weekend and wire wrapped a beautiful glass vessel which I received from Anne Dundas. For my first go I was pretty pleased with the results and as soon as I can get a good photo I will put it up so you can see. I also quickly made up a couple of bracelets on Monday night for a workmate who was looking for a present for her niece. As it turned out she chose something that I already had in stock (always the way). I’m hoping that over the weekend between settling my daughter into her new home I can get some down time to relax and work on a couple of ideas that I have.
Thanks to all who have taken the time to have a look at my blog and my gallery and who have made comments. I really appreciate it.
Cheers
Sharyn
Well after my flurry of beading last week, this week I haven’t done any! Although I have placed an order for lots and lots of new seed beads, so that should get me going. Now that the holidays are over I’m also planning to start teaching classes again at our local craft shop. I’m also waiting in anticipation for an order of the lovely Anne Dundas’ beautiful beads. I think however, that I will have to stop buying from her until I’ve used all the ones I already have! I do have a tendency to buy the lovelies and then just sit them on my desk where I can gaze at them. Perhaps the time has come when I should make them into beautiful jewellery and ‘release’ them to be enjoyed by others!
Cheers Sharyn
PS – they arrived! YAY
