A commission

I had a commission before Christmas, to make a bracelet for my friend Andrew's sister. She had looked at my jewellery and nothing quite fit the bill exactly - she liked elements of lots of things, but there wasn't one individual piece that was quite her. So Andrew asked me to make a bracelet for her.

She especially liked this necklace:

Nesting - still available, by the way!

but wanted a softer colour palette - natural tones; delicate peaches and pinks with golden overtones. Not a colour palette I work in often, not because I dislike it, I am just so drawn to vibrant shades the more natural ones often get overlooked. 

It's taken a while for the clasp to arrive from America - January has been a slow month for the post for some reason - but it arrived at the end of last week, and I set to soon afterwards. Here's what I came up with:

I know it's a little uncouth to enthuse too much about one's own work, but I must say, I am thrilled with how this one turned out! I have only recently begun shopping with SwoonDimples (where the clasp from the bracelet and the pendant from the necklace are from) but I am just thrilled with the quality beauty of Heather Millican's work. Sometimes it can be intimidating working with higher priced components, but when you get it right, it's so worth it! I also love the cheeky wee bird I included - handmade by a women's co-operative in South Africa. I bought a set of five in the summer, at the Edinburgh Craft and Design Fair. I love it when you get a commission that pushes you in an unexpected direction, and you fall in love with something new. I will be returning to these delicate tones. 

Just stopping by....

....to share a few new pieces with you. The jewellery gods and goddesses were kind to me this morning, and I snapped a few pieces I created in January, along with a VERY overdue project's photos, which made me pretty happy. Another project to tick off my to-do list tomorrow, but the one completed today gave me a good sense of achievement. All these pieces are currently for sale on my Facebook page....hope over if you're interested - I've got a free postage promotion running! I also have a rather exciting competition, with the chance to win not just one, but one of FIVE prizes. If you're on Facebook, do take a minute to check it out. 

 Buttercup

I Know You.... 

 I flew by, but you were gone

 Rosewood

 Mrs Jolly's Brolly

Tree House

Reader Appreciation Offer - Art Bead Scene January Challenge....better 4 days too late than never!

As one of Art Bead Scene's contributors (I've been part of this fab team for over a year now, can you believe?), I wanted to try to create a piece for each one of the monthly challenges this year. I don't think I managed any of them officially last year - very poor show! The art work selected is always so inspiring, it's not that I don't have the inspiration or even that I don't have the inclination, it just seemed that last year, every month ran away with me and before I knew it, the deadline had passed and I had nothing to show for it. Not so this year, I told myself when January 2013 dawned. So when Heather Humblebead's gorgeous peacock pendant popped through my letterbox a little over a week ago, I got to straight away and made this necklace quite quickly! 

I recently bought a few of Amanda Davie's gorgeous glass and copper clasps, and this one seemed to tone perfectly, along with some vivid yet rustic ceramic beads from SlateStudiosSupply. I even customised the clasp, wrapping tiny seed beads onto the hook; a very pretty effect and one of my favourites. 'Well done Rebecca' I thought (foolishly) to myself, 'quite a few days in advance too. You're well on your well to starting off the year on a good foot!'. Ahem. Famous last words (thoughts!). Of course, I wanted to get some really good pictures. So I kept putting off photographing as I was never free to go outside on a morning when it wasn't raining, and then of course, the deadline came and went....with no Songbead entry to the competition. Epic fail on my part....

However, tonight I absolutely had to take some shots of another piece that had a strict deadline. My only choice was to get out my lightbox and photography lights and snap away. So I pulled out the peacock necklace and decided to snap away.

Now, I can get some fairly decent results in this way. I have a nice old chipped door that I shove in there, with the end sticking out and balancing on my knee. I can also get some really duff results, and I cannot figure out why. Now, I know that not every photo is going to be great, and there will be some variation. But I cannot figure out why sometimes the backdrop looks positively yellow (it's not) and sometimes very close to white. It's definitely a slightly creamy white in reality, but still - I'd describe it as off-white rather than cream. Sometimes I'll take a few pics, load them onto the computer, and then when I come back to the set up minutes later, the next batch will be yellow, and sometimes even a little fuzzy! Despite everything seemingly being in exactly the same place, lighting conditions being the same etc....I must be doing something different - I realise that - but what; I'm not sure.

Anyway, I won't bore you too much with my photography woes! I seem to be doing that rather a lot lately. I am glad to share this piece with you, despite it's lateness. The photos for this particular necklace turned out nicely I think.

 It will be available in my Etsy shop on Monday, but I am offering it at a discounted price for you my blog readers, if you snaffle it up before it hits the virtual shelves of Etsy. It should be £60, but I have knocked 20% off until Monday, so grab it for £48 with flat-rate shipping of £3.50 through the weekend. My reader appreciation offer to you!

Sold, with thanks.

Have a lovely weekend, wherever you might be spending it :-)

Curious Bead Shop Update!

So, it's somehow been a busy week in the land of Songbead and The Curious Bead Shop. One of those weeks that feels busy, but you're not quite sure what you've achieved come the end of it.....

One of the most exciting events was my new order of beads for Curious. It wasn't quite so prolific as I had hoped - my supplier was out of stock of quite a few things I had ordered - but I did a good restock yesterday, and also got 5 new beads in. Some beauties, I'm sure you'll agree!

From left to right, clockwise:

Purple Rain

Miss Havisham

Urban Landscape

Dewdrops

Coal Dust

I've got to say, although I like them all (well, that goes without saying - everything in The Curious Bead Shop is hand picked by me - I'm surely not going to pick anything I don't like!), I am particularly drawn to both Purple Rain (this cut is just stunning!), and Urban Landscape. I love the mossy look the green splash gives these small but very useful beads. They remind me of the type of wild life that grows on an abandoned industrial estate - hence the title I gave them - the really sturdy and stubborn plants that grow, often upwards, whatever the conditions are! I could see these, and Coal Dust, in some edgy, very contemporary designs. 

What is you favourite out of my new beads? What is your favourite colour of bead to buy?

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

More Bird Beads on Art Bead Scene

I have taken over the weekly 'Show Me Sunday' posts over at Art Bead Scene from Melanie Brooks, who is taking time to explore avenues within her business other than beads. We ask you each Sunday to list us your favourite handmade bird beads. Last week, I made a treasury of some of my favourite finds; this week, we had such a great response (plus a little more etsy trawling on my part - it's a hard life.....) on ABS and on Facebook, that I was able to make another treasury.

'More Bird Beads!' by thecuriousbeadshop

More gorgeous handmade bird beads from artists all over the world. Featured on www.artbeadscene.com

Raku Nightingale Bead elementspotter... $10.00	Bird Skull ScorchedEartho... $2.25	Deep purple bird cage cerami... blueberribeads $12.00	Destash Porcelain Birds and ... suburbangirlbe... $20.00
Bird Bee Eater Charm from El... cassioppea $13.50	Blue Chirps - Handmade Polym... BeadsByEarthTo... $3.00	Pottery Cuff bead with Birds... CapturedMoment... $4.25	Bird and Beads Pastel Colors... yolandasclay $14.00
Etched Copper Dotted Birdie ... BooBeads $10.00	Hand Cast Pewter Love Bird MamacitaBeadwo... $17.99	Little Flying Bluebird bead ... TreeWingsStudi... $8.00	Handmade bird pendant, Handm... THEAtoo $7.50
Artisan glass lampwork sandp... simplycindy $32.00	Handmade Ceramic Porcelain B... WhiteCloverKil... $9.00	Sweet Bird / Ceramic Bird a... gaea $21.50	BIRD FOCAL Lampwork bead fs0... GilaDesign $24.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

I also had a lot of fun last week creating mini collage boards combining some of the amazing handmade beads I had picked with some of my beads and cord from The Curious Bead Shop. I thought I would do it again this week too. 

Solid bronze bird pendant - TheaToo

Down the Nile - opal aqua Picasso finish turbine beads

7ply chocolate brown irish waxed linen cord

 Handmade ceramic bird beads from Bo Hulley Beads

Pick your own colours Irish waxed linen cord 

Maple - czech glass Picasso finish leaf beads

 Handmade polymer bird beads - BeadsByEarthTones

Shabby Chic - off-white Picasso finish spindle beads

4ply teal irish waxed linen cord

Love bird pendant - Mamacita Beadworks

Liquid Light - aqua Picasso finish large czech glass rondelles

Eye of the Storm - rich turquoise Picasso finish large spindles 

Looking through The Curious Bead Shop, it's feeling a little empty at present. I ordered a new batch of beads in December but due to the holidays I am guessing, they have not arrived yet. Fingers crossed for this week! There are a lot of Sold Out listings I'd like to update. I will let you all know when they arrive.

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

A couple of owls....

It's been an evening of owls for me.....do you have a favourite image to work with in jewellery? I adore owls. Not sure why. I have a feeling it may just be as simple as - they are very cute. I like to think my mind works on a deeper level, but I'm not sure it does! The necklace owl is from kylie parry, and the bracelet owl is from Nancy Schindler. Love them both.

Photographing - white or rustic? And do I need a new camera....?

For the past wee while - about 6 months now -  I have used an old, white cupboard door to photograph on. The past month or so, I've been using a light tent and photography lights to shoot with as well. Before this, I've always had to go outside for my shots - for some reason, despite our flat not being particularly dark, there's just not a good spot for snapping here - no big window that gets the right type of light. It's frustrating, and I am always trying new things to see if I can improve things. The photos I have taken over the past couple of weeks, using the light tent set up,  have just been rubbish. They haven't seen the light of day - it's been a case of loading them onto the computer and then immediately deleting! I don't know why. So today, I decided to get out and about and try shooting on a nice rustic, weather-beaten table. It's 8.30pm here, and I've just finished loading them onto the computer and editing them. And most of them are pants. Hours of work altogether, and almost all for nothing. *sigh* It's so annoying. 

Anyway, I thought I'd show some of the ones which worked better than others. I'm not thrilled with any, but I want to show you what I have been working on despite that! I got at least one of most of the items of jewellery I was snapping, but not enough to load anything onto Etsy. 

I've been wondering if my camera is partly to blame. I mean, I am sure I am personally partly to blame too - camera skills are a constant work in progress - but I have been investigating what features are recommended in cameras for jewellery photography anyway. Mine has a really good macro setting. But you can't adjust the aperture or shutter speed and I think these things could make a difference.....another thing to add to the shopping list! My birthday is in April so perhaps then.....

So I wonder, what do you prefer? Rustic wood background or white? And do you think it matters if shops have a mixture of backgrounds? I've been thinking of shooting on a rough piece of linen too, which I did a little of back in the Spring. 

Feeling a little frustrated this evening and hoping for some inspiring advice here in blogland! Any given, much appreciated :-)