I’m thrilled with the number of sales I’ve had on Etsy lately but the downside is that my shop is looking a little empty! So I’ve been beading like crazy to fill it up a bit and here’s what I’ve made…
Granite beaded beads
Transition beaded beads
Ariana
Morgana
Meredith
You can find all of these in my Etsy shop and on my website ;)
A very quick post today, just to share photos of another couple of Welsh Goddess I’ve made this week, Teagan and Gwen. Both are for sale, you can find them in the usual places :)
I know that Tanwen isn’t the name of a traditional Welsh Goddess but I believe that all us women are Goddesses, Welsh or otherwise! With this in mind I’ve decided to give my Goddess pendants Welsh names from now on in an attempt to inject a little bit of Wales into my work. I recently joined the new Welsh Etsy Team and realised that none of my beadwork can be considered Welsh. Not that being part of the team means you have to sell Welsh items but I thought it would be nice to add a touch of Cymru to my shop. You can find Tanwen here…
If you’re a regular reader of my blog then you’ll know that I love making these pendants! This one was made using the beads I received from the Acorn Club this month, which is run by Oak Tree Crafts. If you’ve never heard of this club then let me enlighten you. You pay in advance for as many months you want to (I usually subscribe for 6 months) and then each month they send you a pack of beads especially chosen to compliment each other. As you can see, November’s theme is gold and red. Normally you get a tube each of sizes 8, 11 and 15 seed beads, a tube of 4mm crystals and a reel of matching beading thread. You also get a ‘mystery item’ which could be anything from another tube of seed beads, larger crystals or even clasps and other findings.
I really look forward to my beady package arriving each month and having fun guessing which colours are in the envelope, before ripping it open and seeing if I’m right! I’ve honestly never been disappointed with any of the selections they’ve sent me so far and only a couple of tubes have been duplicates of what I already have in my stash - and I have a LOT of stash! My local bead shop is about 25 miles away and I don’t drive so I buy everything online. Colours vary on screen so it’s great for someone else to do the choosing for you, and I know the beads they send me are going to look good together. On top of that I’ve also noticed that I don’t buy so many beads now as I get my ‘bead fix’ this way instead! And before you ask, no I don’t work for Oak Tree Crafts, I’m just one very happy customer :)
You’re probably fed up with the treasury overload but I can’t resist showing this gorgeous collection, curated by AngelaDesign, which features my Hip 2 B Square pendant…
I made this chunky cuff for our Monday Moodboard challenge on Operation Tackle That Bead Stash and I have to say I enjoyed every minute of it! I like to be spontaneous when I’m creating jewellery and very rarely plan too far ahead. This often means that I’ll encounter problems along the way but sometimes these same problems turn out to be a blessing in disguise. This cuff was no exception as the flower originally had petals made from herringbone stitch, but I ran out of beads about ¾ of the way through! I decided to unpick the petals and redo them with a simpler stitch and halve their length. This turned out so much better, the length suited the face more and the petals are fuller and have their own little twists and turns giving them a bit more life.
I also have a funny story about the face. I use a flesh coloured polymer clay to make them and I was debating whether or not to add some pink acrylic paint to give it some colour. I decided against it and started the beadwork. Not long after I noticed the face starting to get a little pink. Then I saw my thumb and realised what was happening. I’d coloured the backing material with a pink permanent marker and hadn’t quite left it to dry long enough, as I was working my thumb was tranferring tiny amounts of pink from the backing to the face. And you know what? I thought it looked really nice! I think this is what they call a happy accident!
So here’s ‘Flower Power’ which will be for sale very soon. If you’ve got a minute please visit the Monday Moodboard post and see what the team and our readers made :)
I had intended to make another little Moonbaby pin, but when I got my face cabs out this larger one jumped from the bag and begged to be beaded!
I’ve used exactly the same technique, embroidering seed beads onto foundation fabric and then adding more seed beads and Czech firepolished beads around the edge and I challenged myself to use black and white beads only. I’m really pleased with how it turned out!
The finished pendant measures just under 2″ in diameter and the necklace, woven in slinky herringbone stitch, measures 17″ long with a beaded toggle clasp. This wll be in my Etsy shop and on my website sometime this weekend.
Meet Asteria, Goddess of falling stars…
Here are a couple of book thongs that I made recently. I’ve only just found the time to sort out the photos and list them, there seems to be 1001 things to do at the moment! I’ve used a couple of gorgeous little artisan lampwork beads and combined them with clusters of Swarovski crystals. I love adopting these little orphan lampwork beads and these two seemed perfect for book thongs. You can find them in my Etsy shop.
And I got another wonderful beady parcel from the Acorn Club, this time in beautiful blues. I made this little Moonbaby pin as a Mother’s Day gift for my Nan : )
