Beadus Interruptus!

Hard to get anything done for the last few days with visitors in the house.

It's amazing how much time you lose when certain people come for a day and a half....I figure I've lost five days of work!

The only thing I've been able to sneak in and settle to do is a few components for the Ice Queen challenge....here's a sneak peek.

 

  I'm keeping the major components under wrap until the big reveal so you'll have to wait for those.  A certain Maven panicked when I said I'd run out of crystals after ordering 300...lol!  It's amazing how fast you can use those babies up in my secret components and I really didn't think it through enough.

Working totally in white is tough for me, not the designing aspect but seeing where the thread goes...give me black any day!

I have been thinking I'd like to do this piece in black and call it "Black Ice", much more something I would wear as white says wedding to me. My working name for this piece is "Oksana" after Peter announced his as "Svetlana" before me...lol!  I guess we both relate icy and pretty with Russia.  However, the white wedding thing has me thinking "Aspen Wedding" or just "Aspen".

I'm sure it will scream it's name at me once it's finished.

Anyway...it's off to play catchup for me.

Let Me at Dem Beads!

Saturday my brother and his partner arrived to help us empty the attic and get some things ready for a yard sale so there were lots of errands to run in preparation for their arrival so the only beady thing I managed to do was lay out the newly arrived beads for my Ice Queen challenge piece.

Today I'm still looking at them on the board dying to start beading them and boy, has it been hard not to ignore everyone in the house and retreat to my little beading corner.  Today I shall be able to start beading :)

I'm really happy to be using some of the vintage Swarovski rivolis I bought from Kandra's Beads at the CCBS bead show, they are perfect for this challenge.  Sometimes buying things that aren't on my 'Need' list works out really well, other times....well, I still haven't touched a bunch of beads that I got when the ABC bead show was in town. Though, the wonderful Nancy Dale sent me a tutorial that gave me an idea for some of them :)

So...it's Monday and it's back to beading for me. I hope you get some time to play with your beads today too.

"Rubus Autumnus"

So I finished the first Maven to Maven challenge which was an Autumn inspired piece.

I'd started this piece a few weeks ago before we had put the challenge together but it just seemed like the right color scheme for Autumn and as it was still in the beginning stages I let it tell me how it wanted to turn into something for Fall.

The freeform strands reminded me of the twisted stalks of the bramble bushes I used to pick wild blackberries from as a child in England. So it set me off with the challenge to design a tiny leaf that would really make the piece say "brambles".

I confess to getting way carried away with the leaves...love making these little babies, and I actually had to prune the brambles :) I like how the pearls say "berries" without having to look exactly like a blackberry, though I put a couple more like blackberries in the front fringe.

Working a freeform necklace was way different from making a freeform cuff.

The whole approach was different and required more planning...planning a freeform seems like an oxymoron but that's what it took.  The focal cab and the clasp were done first and then basic strands to connect everything so it was the correct length. I worked with the piece on the neckform to make sure things were evenly balanced and definitely recommend this technique.

For more pictures head on over to the Bead Mavens Forum

Two more challenges in the works the Bead Mavens "Ice Queen" challenge and GoodQuillHunting's "Haute Couture" challenge.

It's a challenging time of year :)

A-pondering I Shall Go

I have an idea for an entry into the Haute Cuture contest....but I'm pondering how to go about it. It will require an armature and I am contemplating whether it should be wire or something else.  I am very tempted to do the something else because it's something I haven't done before.

Yes..I know I'm being enigmatic but I hardly want to spill my guts and have someone steal my idea.  So this might not even be the picture I'm inspired by :)

So...the pondering continues.

Do I play safe or dangle myself off the cliff?

Well...my personality type tends to go for the dangle.

It makes me wonder how other designers deal with these kind of dilemmas....do they play safe or take a chance?  Is the sale more important than the creativity? 

I'll have to go hunting today and see if I can find the something else.

If you like contests and challenges you should head on over to the Bead Maven's blog and check out the Ice Queen challenge:)

Snowed In

No...I'm not, but I would like to be.

I loved being snowed in when I lived in the mountains of Park City, Utah.

It's the perfect excuse to curl up with a good book and a latte. Of course thesedays I'd switch the book for beads. I beaded yesterday and managed to make a lot of headway on my Autumn challenge piece and I named it..."Rubus Autumnus". The name came because the leaves mixed with the freeform remind me of bramble bushes. I like the Latin translation of "Autumn Brambles" ...I'm English and Latin is somehow inbred :)

So...I have some fringing to do today and maybe this one will be finished and ready for it's reveal :)

I'm toying with an idea for Good Quill Hunting's Haute Couture Contest, something a bit different, something I haven't done before.

And my beads are ordered for the Bead Mavens Ice Queen challenge, of course no prizes for me in that one :)  But...for you, so give it a try.

I'm continuing my quiet time for the next few days, sometimes you just have to step back and do the thing you love without any of the business stuff attached.

Self Doubt

Sometimes it just creeps up behind you and sucks you up before you know it, and then you have to figure out the reasons and deal with each one.

It's been creeping up on me since I got back from my trip and I'm feeling like I'm clinging onto furniture to stop myself from being sucked into the wind tunnel.

So....I'm off to think and bead, bead and think.

My Own Leaf Challenge

As some of you may have seen last night on FB I challenged myself to create a new leaf.  It seems like such a little thing and yet this is a huge challenge because everyone and their sister has designed leaves so to create a new one is no easy task. Plus I wanted tiny leaves which doesn't give one a lot of options.

I tried a few things and finally settled on this peyote version which measures 3/4" by 1/2"

It works perfectly into my freeform piece and will take it from just Autumn colors into a fully foliaged Autumn piece.  I now just have to finish the freeform necklace part before I can add all the leaves I want to.

The piece is for an Autumn challenge the Bead Mavens set for ourselves...but if you have an Autumn piece you should head over to the Bead Mavens forum and share a pic of it with us...we'd love to see.

And we are inviting you to join us in an Ice Queen challenge...check the blog for info on that :)

Whether someone has done a leaf this way is unknown to me, it's pretty basic so I sure don't think I've recreated the wheel and it's not original enough to claim copyright anyway.  Speaking of which...did everyone see the excellent article about copyright and beading ethics in Beadwork magazine this month? A very informative read for anyone doing beading.

Have a great Tuesday everyone.