Muffin Tin Challenge

This post is a sneak peek behind the scenes here at Songbead Designs! One of my good beady friends, Heather of Humblebeads (also chief bead guru over at Art Bead Scene where I am a co-editor) posed a challenge for her fellow-jewellery designers a few years back, and this week revisited this challenge. I joined in, although this post is at least a week later than it was supposed to be! Ah well, better late than never, eh?! Basically, you take a muffin tin (or similar) and gather selections of co-ordinating supplies in each little section, and then create designs from each wee section. It's great fun and stretches you just that little bit more. 

I actually don't own a muffin tin (yes, I wish I was a domestic goddess, but I'm definitely not...), so my alternative....

...a random collection tea light holders. They did the job - Ikea's finest! The collections of beads I selected for each holder varied, but there was one (almost) unifying theme throughout....I'll see if you can guess, reading though.

And here are the results...

 

These earrings came together really quickly. The purple handwoven {song}beads are in my very favourite shade, and larger than most which I use for earrings. However, I had a random pair done and dusted, and I thought they went beautifully with Claire Lockwood's celadon leaves. The rustic Vintaj brass visually knits them together. 

This bracelet is a real mixture of beads which I've been hoarding for quite some time now. One of my favourite bead artists, Alison Sachs of Beads by Earth Tones made the majority of these, with the addition of a neat little ceramic house from Elukka and a pewter clasp from Green Girl Studios.

I don't quite know how this piece came together, but I'm so glad it did! It was one of those things that simply wouldn't have happened without this very specific way of working. A Humblebead bird, handwoven {song}beads by me, a pewter clasp from Green Girl Studios and stunning porcelain roses from Claire. 

 Happily, my little tea light holder for this bracelet had quite a few beads and bobs left over....so these happened too.

 This bracelet, you could perhaps see as a cheat. Whilst I was scrabbling through my supplies to create the 'fillings' for the tealight holders, I realised I had the correct beads to recreate this design from before Christmas. It was one of those that I made the day before a craft fair and which then sold immediately, so I was keen to remake, not least because there had been a lot of interest online too! It's hanging out here, if you fancied taking it home ;-) Again, handmade ceramic birdie from Claire, and handmade polymer facets from Beads by Earth Tones. 

A sweet piece which was/is, quite frankly, a right bugger to photograph. Berries and leaves and blooms - oh my! I really like this one. It looks better in real life, and I may have another go with it and my camera at some point this week. Beautifully rustic ceramic leaf bar from Bo Hulley. 

Last, but hopefully not least, this sweet and simple necklace. I love long necklaces - the only length I would ever consider wearing (I really don't ever wear necklaces), and they are so versatile as well as comfortable. Two more wonderful ceramic artists - Petra Carpreau and Kylie Parry - along with Czech pressed glass and faceted brass. I think this could be a really special piece for someone, with any luck. 

Anyway, I am pretty pleased with the results of this challenge. Ok, so I didn't play along within the given time frame, but I enjoyed myself, and I am also quite happy with what I came up with. Once I'd filled my candle holders, the process was quite smooth and straightforward, also - the pieces really came together with ease. A worthwhile exercise that definitely bears repeating! Thank you Heather for organising this fun challenge. 

Oh, and want to see what happened when I took part in this challenge a few years ago (thank goodness that even given the January light, my photography is very much improved!)? Here's the link...Enjoy!

a new humblebead bracelet

last week i got a wonderful package in the post from heather powers of humblebeads - one of my very favourite bead artists. amongst other things, it contained six - yes, SIX! - of heather's beautiful new house beads. i had been lusting after them for a while and went a little crazy when i placed my order.....good crazy though, clearly ;-) here are the beads i bought; two of each:

willow house bead

tree house bead

bird house bead

and here's what i came up with with one of my precious house beads. a plethora of art beads - alongside the humblebead, a sweet porcelain button from hodgepodge arts and two enamelled flowers from a custom order from gardanne beads. i am slightly obsessed with those enamelled flowers; you'll see them popping up all over the place in my work at the moment....

i had a photo session on this a few days ago but i didn't get enough shots that i was happy with to list quite yet - watch this etsy shaped space - if you'd like this though, it's £32 (about $48) so just leave me a comment and it's yours :-)pyrite, czech glass, amethyst, antique brass and copper, and waxed linen cord. 

A quick instagram

2 knotted bracelets from last night, with a humblebead toadstool charm, and a Jenni Connolly lampwork bead. Autumnal shades of my favourite colours.

Humblebeads

I was one of the lucky buyers to snaffle up one of Heather Humblebead's Groupon-style vouchers a few months back. Here are some of the fab goodies I treated myself to. Can you tell what my favourite colour is...??! 

Heather is a fabulous artist. I'm only a recent 'convert' to polymer clay but I absolutely love it now. Heather is one of my favourite bead artists, full stop. I also adore Barbara of Floridity's work, particularly her cute birdies. 

Who are your favourite bead artists? Is there a medium you were unsure of that you've now come around to and if so, what made you change your mind? I'd love to know!

Cupcake Challenge

Here are the results of my muffin tin or cupcake (for me!) challenge.

The idea was to fill your muffin tin (or selection of cups in my case) with a selection of co-ordinating beads. Your job was then to make jewellery from the selected beads. No tricky bead decisions to make, just put them together in a pretty manner! 

I did a couple of switches after making up these cups - the central row, two furthest left. Bead choices made in the dark, when I checked again in the morning, they just didn't quite go....

I was surprised at just how much I liked this method of working - I'll definitely be using it again. There were quite a few benefits. 

1) I used quite a few beads that I'd been hoarding and either not been able to quite bring myself to use them, or hadn't been quite sure how to use them (such as the SummersStudios heart bead).

2) It was great way to focus on creating. On quite a few occasions, I was more than happy with exactly the beads I had selected and could see immediately how I wanted to them to go together. 

3) Putting all the pieces together has created a bit of a snapshot of my style and particularly my love of colour! And brilliantly, although there was a lot of turquoise (only to be expected where I'm concerned) I did branch out into some other colour schemes.

So I think I'll try working this way again - very productive and instructive.

Here's a collage of the art beads I used in some of these pieces. 

In no particular order, they are

turquoise egg and nest charm: Humblebeads

red heart ceramic charm: SummersStudioEtc

green polymer bird bead: Floridity

polymer roses: Elise Canning

purple willow teardrop charm: Humblebeads

lily pad patinated charm: MissFickleMedia

polymer egg charm: Humblebeads

red polka dot lampwork beads: BeadsByLaura

pink and purple lily bead: Humblebeads
Teardrop leaf clasp - DaisyChainDesigns
pale peach lamowork - Moogin

I also used hand dyed ribbon by Sowzere Designs but forgot to snap a close up. Photos not the best....the light was doing me no favours and I knew I had to get this post done quickly....looking forward to seeing what others have done!I've created:

4 pairs of earrings

1 necklace

1 pendant 

6 bracelets

Hurrah! A very productive few days. Thanks Heather!

The postie always rings...seven times...

Hi! Firstly, if you're after a spot of bead soup, check it out here.

***10.03.11 Update: Only 20 more blogs to go!!! I've done my 20 for today, I'll visit the last batch tomorrow as I have a touch of bead soup blog blindness now...***

I recently posted about some bits and bobs which had come in the post...all very nice! And most of them have now been put to good use. Now, like many of you (I hope!), I am quite the little bead-shopaholic...a vice which does occasionally get me in trouble with my partner...I thought I had been trying to be good this year but imagine my horror when I got home from college yesterday to be told that my father-in-law (who had come over from Yorkshire for a flying DIY visit) had struggled to open the door because there were seven parcels behind it. Yes, that's right. SEVEN. Slightly extravagant, no?! Thankfully, most of them contained things like two spools of linen cord and nothing else. (Honest!) But there was one delicious parcel from Humblebeads and another equally lovely one from Kylie Parry. I think customs must save them up and then get them sent out to the postie all at once because it does quite often happen that a bunch of parcels I have been waiting for all come at the same time. That's my excuse anyway! 

The Humblebeads parcel was one I had been eagerly anticipating because it contained my January bead of the month! (See what I mean about customs saving them up? January...!) along with a beautiful clasp and a lovely M bead I bought for my Mum (Maggie). And a couple of sweet spacers Heather threw in for me.

 

Please forgive the late afternoon lighting with these pictures...they're not as bad as I was anticipating but still, they could be better.

And here's my selection of Kylie Parry....a new addiction....

Don't you just love her work? I cannot get enough of it at the moment. I love the finishes and the colours she uses, lovely and rustic and romantic...I adore the fact that I have a bunny rabbit bead that is sweet and lovely but not the least bit cutesy....I'm not really a cutesy girl, and bunny images so often are. Not that I'm saying my two house bunnies aren't cute because they definitely are! So this bead in particular makes me very happy. 

And last of yesterday...some gorgeous headpins from Genea, whom I discovered on my (still ongoing!) bead soup party blog hop. Her swap with Mary Harding was one of my favourite combinations on both sides and I just had to snaffle some of Genea's gorgeous lampwork.

And as a little postscript, here are some rather lovely beads which arrived a week or so ago and I didn't get round to photographing until now.

Yes, more birdies....I'm so predictable I know! These beautiful handmade paper clay beads come from Heidi Post. They are very sweet! And lovely colours. She has finished three of them off with a wonderful crackle glaze which gives them a lovely texture. She's got a few more available here - check them out! And do have a read through her lovely blog - she makes some really gorgeous pieces, I'm sure you will agree.

So how are your weeks going? Productive? Too many parcels?! I'd love to hear about what has come through your letter box. 

Messing around with Picnik

Thanks to Heather of Humblebeads (a new beady obsession!), I have recently discovered Picnik.com, a photo editing website. Now, photography is not something that comes easy to me (especially when my camera is lost...!) as you probably gather if you have read my blog before - my photos are definitely hit and miss! More often somewhere in between the two, but I know it's something I have to work at. A course one day, perhaps....when time and money permit! I'm also not the most techno-savvy of folk either - I'm only 29 but somehow I feel like the lost generation when it comes to computers and the like - I did a little computer work at school but my pupils are much more au fait with such things I think. And even my Mum (60) seems to know her way round her computer and camera at least, more comfortably than I do, maybe because she had to start from scratch in her own time. Perhaps that little bit of knowledge I received at school was a dangerous thing...I can't be bothered to learn any more! But I'm getting there, slowly but surely. 

So, getting around Picnik hasn't been very easy for me (I'm sure it is really, just not for me!) but today I have come up with a couple of collages of recent pieces! And I'm pretty pleased with them. I have often wondered how folk on other blogs managed such things and now I have too - hurrah! Let me know what you think - of the jewellery and of the collages!

Gaea ceramic beads, vintage czech glass and mocha lace ribbon

You  can see I started playing around with inserting the text after I made that first collage. I couldn't work out how to go back and re-edit it! And couldn't be bothered to upload and re-do....see what I mean about my bad attitude?! 

I'm feeling inspired by out latest spate of givewaways in our wee beady community (Lori and Malin in particular), I'm going to offer up the best type of prize....beads!....to anyone who can come up with some names for these three pieces. I am rubbish with naming my titles as I find the balance between charming and vomit-inducingly cheesy a hard one to strike. So, leave me some names...nothing too corny...I'll pick my faves and post you out some beady goodness from my far too vast collection! 

Hope you are all having a great weekend! x x x

PS I've recently become obsessed with vintage lace ribbon and trim....how did that happen???!!! I don't need anything else to hoard!!