Hello February!

Well I must say, January bombed spectacularly! Due to health and family problems I didn’t manage one post and my crafting went from creating almost daily to almost nil. I also missed the bead fair which I was incredibly disappointed about. But I did achieve one of my goals and that was to post a monthly book review on the OTTBS blog and you can read that review here!

Craftwise, I  made a few bracelets in a new design that I will be posting here very soon. I also made some Follow Your Heart brooches which were a commission from the local wool shop that stocks some of my work. It was nice to do something that I’d made before and didn’t require any designing decisions, making them the perfect thing to create when my mojo has gone awol :)

The earrings are made using my tiny Atom beaded beads and I thought it would be fun to make them ‘mis-matched’. Each pair is made from six different shades in co-ordinated colour schemes. These and bead embroidered Goddess art doll ‘Skadi’ were made at the end of December but it took me some time to get the photos taken! They are available in my Etsy shop.

Pair of Eyes

More fun with eyes! These were a pain to photograph. I take my photos on a north-east facing windowsill, a nice bit of bright daylight but out of full sunshine, which most of the time works well for me. But whatever I did I couldn’t stop the window from reflecting in the glass cabochons! And while I’m fault-picking, the camera has made the eyes themselves look very fuzzy when in real life they look lovely and clear. I’m guessing it’s something to do with the dome of the cabochon.

Ok, quit complaining girl and get on with it! I’m really pleased with how these turned out, especially The Seer, which I was really tempted to keep for myself. I’ve picked out the blues and purples of the eye and as a complete fluke the AB beads have a touch of the yellow/green that’s in the centre. I think this piece looks quite futuristic, helped by the metallic coated crystals.

For She Wolf again I’ve picked out the colours of the eye for the beads and crystals. Lovely topaz and olive greens with a touch of amber. Does anyone else think this looks a bit like a sunflower? Both of these are available in my Etsy shop and on my website.

My Little Vampire Heart

I’ve been a huge fan of horror and vampire movies since I was little (thanks Mum and Dad for letting us kids stay up to watch Hammer Dracula movies until 1am!) so I was really excited to hear that they’d re-made an old favourite of mine, Fright Night. I have to admit that I think Colin Farrell playing Jerry the vampire and David Tennant playing Peter Vincent are both odd choices but I’m reserving judgement until I see the film for myself! I hope the new version will have both the scares and the darkly comic moments that the 1985 movie did.

So this, and my love of all things scary, inspired me to make this gothic style pendant, complete with dripping blood! I’ve embroidered it in stripes of shiny and matt black seed beads, ‘painting’ with the red beads as I went along, and it’s turned out exactly as I had envisioned. I finished it off very simply with a length of black thonging and added a tiny glass heart to the end of the chain.

If you love the dark side as much as I do, you can find my Vampire Heart pendant in my Etsy shop and on my website.

Another angle…

The reverse…

The Adventures of the Peacock Brooch

Regular readers of my blog will know that I like to combine materials in my work and for some time I’ve been thinking of ways to incorporate crochet/knitting somehow. You may think that this brooch was completely planned to do this but in fact I designed it backwards! It started off with a little beaded flower I was making in the colours of our August Moodboard on Operation Tackle That Beadstash and me wondering what I could do with it.

The usual ideas like make another and turn them into earrings went through my head and then I thought…hmm, wouldn’t that look nice with a crochet flower behind it! As luck would have it, I had a little ball of Robin variegated yarn in the exact same colours. After sitting the beadwork on top of the crocheted flower, it looked nice but a little bit floppy so I came up with the idea of putting it on top of felt flower. This would not only give it an extra layer but would also add some much needed stability. It was at that point I decided it was going to be a brooch.

Then came the blanket stitch edging. Would you believe I had to Google this? I hadn’t blanket stitched since I was a little girl! I don’t know whether it was the lack of practice or just the thread I was using but after about an inch or so it looked dreadful. So I unpicked it and, remembering the bead-edged fabric earrings I’ve been making recently, added a layer of purple seed beads. The final touch is a little crystal at the centre. It’s a shame the camera has refused to pick out the green in this, it looks mostly blue. But I’m not blue, I love the finished brooch! : ) You can find it on my website and here in my Etsy shop.

Enchanted Forest

Well my last post was a complete disaster! I was playing around with the Gallery feature here on WordPress and accidentally hit Publish instead of Preview. I’ve fixed it now but that will teach me not to mess around with things that I know nothing about. Hmm, thinking about it, it probably won’t!

What I was attempting to show was this new brooch. Made using a gorgeous walnut heart button that was handmade by Etsy seller WendyElf, who I featured in this post. I recently treated myself to some Toho Hybrid seed beads which are the most gorgeous shade of green and brown and along with an autumn mix of Miyuki beads they work wonderfully with the button. I’m planning on making another and turning it into a pendant so watch out for that coming soon. In the meantime the brooch is available in my Etsy shop and website.

It was featured in this gorgeous treasury curated by ALDDesigns…

I’ve also added three more mini book thongs to my shop, this time featuring gorgeous faceted beads!

Heart Buttons

I absolutely adore this collection of items made with heart buttons. Many thanks to AngelaDesign for including my Gothic Heart 2 ring in this gorgeous treasury!