Some news and some jewellery...

Hello all! No posts for a while, where have I been, yada yada ya.....BORING - you don't want me to recite the usual spiel, so I won't. More importantly, I'm back on the blog now, and sharing a bit of news and a few new pieces of jewellery.

In my previous post from about his time last month, I mentioned that I'd taken up swimming again. It's safe to say that I'm still going strong! A couple of days after I wrote that post, I signed up to Swim 22 - a charity swimathon for Diabetes UK where you commit to swim the length of the English channel (22 miles) over 3 months. Well, the challenge was meant to run from the 22nd February - 22nd May, and I signed up on the 19th May....safe to say that, much as I've been building up my distances, I did not manage it in three days! Three days no, but three weeks yes - I completed it a week ago with a rather epic 152 length (3800m!) swim. Pretty pleased with myself about that! You can still sponsor me here - I've already raised over £500(!!!) thanks to several rather wonderful people - but I am sure that you, like me, know more than one person affected by diabetes, and so it's never too late to contribute. I need to get a silly photo of me with my Swim 22 swim cap on but I haven't managed that quite yet - it's coming!  

Other than swimming, I have been galavanting about the country (my sister's Masters recital in London, singing lessons in Kilmacolm, concerts in Glasgow) and  enjoying lots of gorgeous sunshine, although that's gone for this week, sadly. I have had an EPIC delivery of new beads for Curious (I've got a 'New-Restocks' section now to make it easy for you to check these out) so lots of beads to count and sort, and I am awaiting more favourite metal spacers and - new to the shop - some artisan polymer from Humblebeads! I'm seriously excited for these to arrive - SOON, I am hoping! And, last but not least, I have found a little time to create more jewellery. I need to find a heck of a lot MORE time for this, as in 10 days, I am taking part in the Royal Highland Show! First time for me so I'm excited/nervous/anxious - you know, the usual combination before a big event. It is a GREAT day out, so if you are around central belt Scotland on the 23rd - 26th June - or if you fancy a trip to Edinburgh! - then come and see me in the 3d2d tent. There will be tons of awesome craft exhibitors plus all the usual Highland Show excitement, so do come along. 

Now, onto the jewellery! Here are a few items that I managed to create over the last week.

Breathing Dreams

A lovely long beachy necklace, with artisan beads from me, Soul Silver and Swoondimples. I've combined these with some cultivated beach glass which is just delicious! Perfect over a simple vest top, or with a summer dress. 

Fierce

I fell in love with these awesome ceramic decal 'shields' with floral decoration on them from Grubbi Ceramics - the combination of softly feminine and rustic is just perfect. I've combined them with some awesome rough-cut citrine and a bunch of mixed metals - Vintaj brass, and hand-oxidised copper and sterling silver. Yum! 

Diving to the Lilacs

This necklace was made sitting in the hot sunshine in Kilmacolm last week. What a joy that was! I had the factor 50 on for sure. I have had this Round Rabbit diving swallow pendant for years (literally) and came across it whilst organising some of my MANY boxes of art beads, and felt that its time had come. I'm not sure where the double layer at the bottom of the necklace came from, but the pendant seemed to want it. Artisan handwoven glass from me, and a super-sweet word bead from Grubbi Ceramics again - the perfect turquoise glaze to go with the beautiful swallow.

Polka

I had a custom order of these awesome polka dot nuggets from Jasmin French made up a couple of months ago, and I'm so glad I did - aren't they just awesome? The black and white polkas go so well with so many of my favourite colours. I used a few with some lagoon-blue turquoise previously, but here I've paired them with some handwoven orchid purple rondelles, and some oxidised sterling silver. They've got a touch of the 80s about them, don't you think (in a good way!)?

Soul Home

Last but not least, I whipped up this little bracelet last night - ceramics from Elukka, polymer from Swoondimples and lampwork glass from Soul Silver. A good friend of the top necklace, don't you think? I know I am not alone when I say that the sea is my spiritual home. It doesn't matter if it's a scorching day on the Mediterranean coast, or a blustery day on a Hebridean island - the sea puts me at peace in a way that nothing else can. (And I always have to take a shoe off and put a toe in the water - even if it's that blustery day we're talking about!) I've combined the artisan elements with my own handwoven beads as usual, and added in a strip of larimar nuggets. Very rustic; very beachy. 

I'm heading over to Etsy now to list all of these so they should be available online asap! Message me if you don't see what you're looking for however. 

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Jana Filípková's Astonishing Beads

I told you the other day that I had to share some of the most especially awesome beads that I've bought over the past few months with you - some lampwork glass from Jana Filípková. 

This set, specifically. Aren't they amazing? The detailing, the depth of pattern and colour. I recently made my first lampwork beads and honestly, I can't quite fathom these at all. They are simply astonishing.

I snagged this set a few months ago, and I couldn't believe them when they arrived. Jana describes her work as 'painted' with glass stringer, which of course they are (painted with MOLTEN GLASS) but what I love about the butterflies (see?!) in both of these sets is that they have such an illustrative quality to them. Really, it would be amazing to even be able to 'draw' a crude butterfly with little or no style with 0.5mm molten glass stringer, but to be able to create a drawing with such style and character - well, my mind is blown. I've used 2 of the large petalled vocals, but I haven't quite worked up to any of the butterflies from either set yet. Bead intimidation...

This set is on its way to me. Just look at those colours....throw in a little turquoise and I'm in Autumnal-platte heaven. I'll let you know when they arrive!

Oh, and by the way, whilst writing this post I realised that Jana also has an etsy shop! I know that Facebook auctions are 'the thing' these days, but I love an online shop. Nice to have fixed prices and be able to stroll through sold items too. 

Three Bracelets

Three wee bracelets for you today, all quite different from one another. 

Most frequent readers will know that I *love* colour in general, but I think it's fair to say I tend toward to vibrant. I reached for the softer tones here though, and I'm pretty pleased with it's gentleness. We can always do with a wee bit more gentleness in the world.

Ceramic bird - Something to do beads

Polymer rondelles - Alison Sachs

This bracelet seems very 'me' to my eyes. I love flowers (especially in bead-form, it must be said!), I love turquoise and orange/red and I love birds. And if you add in a piece of vintage brass chain from Paris, it can't hurt, can it? Unfortunately this bracelet is an absolute pest to photograph. The chain section just doesn't behave when sat on a flat surface. Much better on the wrist. I hope you still get a good idea of it nonetheless.

Polymer birdie - Tree Wings Studio

This last one is a bit different in more ways than one. It's a return from Stringing magazine, where it was published in the Winter 2014 edition. The first issue with some of my designs featured - I was pretty chuffed! It was part of the issue's 'delicate femininity' section, and I love, love, love the palette which Stringing selected, part of which you can see below. Hand-cut tiny gemstones, a bit of organic rusticity alongside it's delicate palette and general dainty-nature. My quandary now is that I just don't know how to price this type of piece. It's unusual that I would use quite so many gemstones in one piece. I get most of my gemstones from Precious Sparkle Beads and honestly, the quality is second to none. So I am keen not to undervalue a piece like this with the wrong price. It may be that I just *have* to keep it for myself.....oh well, it's a hard life and all that! 

Up, up and away!

...in my beautiful balloon! 

I've been hoarding this gorgeous ceramic balloon from Bo Hulley Beads for several months now - not that long in the world of hoarding, but still, I felt it was overdue for turning into jewellery. 

Sailing off to Germany later today...

Happy Post

Hello all! Here are some of the gorgeous handmade lovelies that have arrived or will be arriving with me soon. Don't you just love a good post day?

How sweet is this little guy? I love his sparkly turquoise ploominess. He's from Elukka.

Scorched Earth spiky droppers, in the most fantastic swirly red glaze. My Scorched Earth earrings have definitely been one of my best sellers this craft fair season. Got a few more on the way but I don't think they will be here in time for my last show, unfortunately. Ah well, all the more for my etsy shop!

Claire Lockwood has been making ceramic beads for a wee while now, and I have amassed a miniature collection (there are never enough ceramic bead artists in the world for me - I always have room for another in my collection - Bo Hulley, Kylie Parry, ChelleV2, Mary Harding, not to mention the ladies featured in this post....I could go on, and on and on....). These beautiful bead caps will be joining my others soon....

...as will these beautiful rustic roses. I have a thing about roses - in real life too. I always have - my Grandma had some absolutely beautiful old-fashioned roses in her garden, and bead roses always remind me just a little of them. Check out Claire's etsy shop - she had a huge update recently!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing the little treasures I've been acquiring recently! 

Art Bead Scene November Challenge

Hello there! You probably know about the other blog which I write for - Art Bead Scene. Each month we have a challenge, where we take a piece of artwork and invite our readers to design art bead-filled jewellery inspired by our challenge piece. 

Let me hand you over to our editor-in-chief, Heather Powers:

"The Art Bead Scene editors have risen again to take the monthly challenge. We are having so much fun playing along every month we've decided to make this a regular feature. Take some time this month to enter the challenge for a chance to win some amazing prizes. 

And don't forget beadmakers, we have a category for you too and you could win a month of advertising on the ABS."

Yep, you read that right - there are prizes too! 

"Cattelya Orchid and Three Hummingbirds" 1871 

by Martin Johnson Heade

34.8 x 45.6 cm"

Oil on Mahogany Panel

This month (as Heather said), some of my co-editors and I carved out a little time to take the challenge ourselves. 

There is SO much going on in this picture....I can't really decide if I am drawn to this picture or not; the folliage and imagery here is so lush it feels like it is almost over-ripe and on the cusp of decaying. (Is that just me?) However, it is certainly very intriguing - a piece of art that really makes me question what I am seeing. First of all, it seems like the orchid is the central point, but somehow I kept coming back to the largest hummingbird to the right....his colouring specifically.

Feather components - Green Girl Studio

Next, a piece based around the painting as a whole. The colour scheme, the birds, the lush foliage....

Willow leaf pendant - Humblebeads

Lampwork discs - Helen Chalmers

Rustic polymer nugget - Beads by earth tones

Polymer birdie - Bead eyed bunny

Handwoven bead - The Curious Bead Shop(me!)

I hope you will find the time to take the challenge too! And do take a minute to check out the other participating editors' blog posts too:

Heather Powers

Mary Harding

Tari Sasser

Claire Lockwood

Art Bead Scene - The Mermaid

The Little Mermaid (At the mere sight of the bright liquid they drew back in terror) signed and dated 'Edmund Dulac 11' (lower right) and with inscription 'At the mere sight of the bright liquid...they drew back in terror' 
This illustration was one of at least 28 prepared by Dulac for the 1911 Edition of Stories from Hans Andersen and, in this case, it was one of those accompanying the tale of "The Mermaid". It is associated with the following text:
'If the polyps should seize you, when you go back through my wood,' said the witch, 'just drop a single drop of this liquid on them, and their arms and fingers will burst into a thousand pieces.' But the little mermaid had no need to do this, for at the mere sight of the bright liquid, which sparkled in her hand like a shining star, they drew back in terror. So she soon got past the wood, the bog, and the eddying whirlpools.

Welcome to a mini blog hop featuring certain editors of Art Bead Scene's take on this month's challenge piece. We're hoping to excite your imagination and encourage you to join in with us! 

First, let's consider the inspiration piece. I absolutely love this illustration, but I found it hugely challenging to create from. I think the reasons for this are 1) this huge colour palette used here and 2) the densely detailed pictorial nature of this piece of art. You can really tell that along with watercolours, Dulac has used pen and ink in this illustration. It's gorgeous - but somehow, I didn't quite know where to begin with it. 

Of course, I could have 'just' focused on the colour scheme. But there are just SO many colours here, even that left me feeling a little panicked! I was also keen to get a slightly watery feel to whatever I created. 

I had a whole other necklace finished and ready for photographing, and I could have shared it here, as it looked lovely laid out....but very annoyingly, it just wouldn't hang right once it was 'on'. The clasp kept flipping over and some of the beads kept swivelling around too....We've all been there, I know, but this doesn't lessen the annoyance! Here's a peek at what could have been:

I took the rather painful decision to take it apart and begin again. Glad I did however! Here's what I came up with:

The Mermaid (available on etsy)

Pretty simple at the end of the day! I am glad I was able to pare the inspiration down mentally. I chose not step AWAY from the detail, and be inspired by the bleeding colours and the watery, frondy feel. Yes, I know the chain has leaves to it and could be seen as Autumnal, but the feel of it seemed reminiscent of underwater plants - fronds that sway beneath the salty waves. 

It really started when I spotted this long-hoarded Round Rabbit porcelain pendant, which had just the perfect bleeding of colour to it:

 Add to that rustic freshwater pearls from Smitten Beads and a single matte glazed ceramic round from Kylie Parry and you have my finished necklace. 

The Mermaid (available on etsy)

If you would like to create something based on this month's (or any month's, for that matter!) challenge, then here are the Challenge Guidelines. Each month, we have at least 2 sponsors from whom you can win prizes for entering. There are some really awesome prizes on offer this month (and every month)! Have a look at what you could win by entering. I hope you will join us!

Rebecca is a Scottish jewellery designer, currently living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. You can read more about her and her work at her blog, songbeads.blogspot.com and see more of her jewellery at songbead.etsy.com. She also has a supplies shop at thecuriousbeadshop.etsy.com.

Owls, Roses and Art Beads

Almost all of my designs feature handmade beads in one material or another. Handmade beads, or 'Art Beads' as they are known, are just what they sound like - tiny little pieces of 3d art, ready to be used by jewellery artists and included within our work. I always think of this as a silent collaboration between myself and the bead artist(s) and it really is a tremendous privilege to work with handmade components on an almost daily basis. (Oh, and if you are passionate about handmade and beads too, you will want to check out Art Bead Scene for more scoop on artisan-made beads and jewellery the features them. I am one of the editors over there and post for them at least once a week.)

The longer that one works with these miniature pieces of art, the more one learns to recognise which beads work with one's style. Sometimes when I am trawling through etsy (it's a hard life, but somebody's got to do it!) searching for new art beads, I will spot certain beads that I love but that I don't necessarily feel would work within my jewellery. Sometimes I take a leap of faith and buy them anyway, and edge myself out of my comfort zone - it's good to push yourself creatively after all -  but sometimes you just know that certain art beads are not meant for you. 

You also get to know that there are certain art bead artists that you have a real affinity with. There are several bead artists who really speak to me, and I will no doubt blog about more of them in the future....but vying for the number one spot must be the extraordinarily talented Kylie Parry. Her quirky animals and pictorial beads are absolutely the perfect match for my narrative, story-telling jewellery. 

Some of Kylie's beautiful beads

Here, I have paired one of her owls with another of my favourite bead artists, Leah Curtis of Beady Eyed Bunny. Poor old Leah recently had the misfortune to have to make me thirty rose beads as a custom order - I'm sure she never wants to make a rose bead again now! 

Some of the beautiful roses that Leah custom-made for me.

But aren't they just the perfect match for my own antiqued copper deco rose clasp? 

Country Garden set

I don't always make matching sets of jewellery, but I had three roses in this lovely pale blue, and after I'd made the bracelet, the other two were just crying out to be earrings. Wouldn't you agree?

Country Garden Earrings

It's hard to see there, but I've added some handmade oxidised sterling silver earwires to these. The steely silver is perfect with the cool blue.

Country Garden bracelet

And the bracelet....well, anything with one of Kylie's owls is a winner for me, but I am very pleased with the warm rust, soft topaz and sky blue. A soft, soothing colour palette, perfect for the country garden theme. Definitely an English garden I feel, perhaps in spring before all the plants are out in full bloom, and the earth is rich and ripe.

And what could be cuter than this wee face? 

T'wit T'woo!

A few pretty pieces in the autumn light

Golden Hour

Flight of Fancy

  

Road Trip

Nesting

Reverse side of Nesting. 

I'm hoping to make it out to snap some pics today, and upload into les shoppes later. I'll make the links live as and when. Toodles!

Art beads from: 

SwoonDimples

Bo Hulley

TheaToo

Earthenwood Studio

DaisyChainExtra

Mamacita Beadworks

Lush Lampwork

Gardanne Beads

Some lovely post, and my 2nd vlog

I did my first vlog a while back and have meant to follow it up for a while. Had a couple of things I wanted to share with you and thought - why not? So here it is.....excuse the first bit being upside down, I haven't quite got the hang of this videoing thing yet....

I got cut off before the end because my phone ran out of space! Oops. What I was saying was, this particular bead isn't going to be turned into jewellery because I have a place where I put very special beads. I will share that with you some other time.....it's pretty awesome. The two ladies I talk about are here:

Emma at FredBeansNook

Bo at BoHulleyBeads

And PS Remember my sale....there are still a few items left in my shop with 40% off, any sale items left will be taken down on the 1st May!

Flap Your Wings

If you read my post here, then you will remember that last month Judy Glende lost her fight with cancer last month. Many of us in the beading community were very affected by her loss and wanted to do something as a tribute to her life and work. Tania of Moobie Grace Designs has organised a blog hop in order to do this. 

Life has somewhat run away with me over the past few weeks, and I really didn't want to rush this and come up with something that wasn't fitting, especially as I had already made this, inspired by Judy:

Using Erin's beautiful pendant....

...Anne's lampwork egg, D'Arcie's songbird, Gaea's clay round, Cindy's flower...

...and Cynthia's inspiring pewter link....

along with a clasp made by me plus a peach link from Shannon.

I am so pleased with how this piece came out, and you can read about this piece, Stronger than Death, came about here. I have decided to auction this piece off for Cancer Research. I feel that although this charity is UK based, research into cancer benefits us all, worldwide. I hope you will agree. I'm starting this off at £20/$30 (if no one wants the necklace, which I hope they will(!), I will donate at least £20 to CR). Open to bidders worldwide, I will cover postage including international.

Please visit Tania's blog for the list of other hoppers! I will list them here when I can :-)

Quick update - my bidding will close at 10am BST on Tuesday 17th April. Bidding currently stands at £33/$52.26.

The winner is Scotknit (my mum!) with £35. Thanks Mum, and to all the other bidders too!