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.

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.

It’s no secret, I love skulls. In any shape or form. In fact I’ve collected quite a few skull pendants and I thought it was about time I actually did something with them! And as I love using different materials together, combining them with beadweaving seems the perfect answer.

Punk Rocks features a fantastic skull & crossbones pendant made from pewter suspended from a spiral rope necklace in black and purple.

I’ve also made this man-in-the-moon brooch using seed beads, fresh water pearls and one of my polymer clay face cabochons. This is the first time I’ve used real pearls and I’m really pleased with the subtle rainbow effect these potato pearls have given.

Both are available in my Etsy shop.

February already?

I turned around for five minutes and look…it’s February already! What happened to January? In this post I listed all the things I had planned for the first month of 2011 and despite time flying by and struggling to keep up with everything I actually got a lot accomplished. I made it to the bead fair in Chepstow, finished all my challenge pieces in time and of course created lots of lovely new pieces of jewellery!

Here’s Nia, my new Welsh Goddess…

This was my piece for the January Moodboard on Operation Tackle That Bead Stash, Venezia…

These are the result of me playing around with embellishing some beaded beads one afternoon. There’s a tutorial for these beads coming soon…

Cute Forget Me Not stud earrings made with tiny hematite cabochons…

More fun combining fabric with beads…

And finally, fed up with the dreary weather, I called this brooch A Little Bit of Sunshine…

Most of these are available in my Etsy shop :)

Happy Winter Solstice!

Happy Winter Solstice!! The snow can cause a lot of disruption but it seems fitting to be surrounded by this beautiful snowy scenery on the shortest day of the year.

Now to warm you a little with some photographs of this bead embroidered heart brooch I’ve made. Seeing Mabel’s wonderful version of my Winter’s Heart project made me want to make another. The original heart pendant was red and black and made for a swap on the much-missed Bead forum. I’ve been meaning to make another ever since and I thought it would be interesting to make a smaller version and turn it into a brooch for a change. I’m really pleased with how it turned out! Follow Your Heart is made from tiny Japanese seed beads, stitched around a little heart button.