Necklace: Surface

So, here's another Russian spiral necklace, after a commission I received about a week ago.
The costumer was home to me and actually pointed out what beads she wanted together; black and gunmetal - 11/0 and 8/0 seed beads.

After feeling a bit tired and restless for only doing them Russian Spiral stitches I decided on adding a little attachment in the back just to get some change to the other ones I've made so far.

In the ends, I decided on adding one 6mm gunmetal bead on each side with the lobster clasp. And I added a small piece of the gunmetal-plated chain I still have laying around, and a RAW square at the end of the chain. The whole thing ended up looking kinda cute, and I'm satisfied about it, just hope the costumer will as well, heh =P

Ring & Pendant: Meteor

I took myself time to try out some beaded bezels with the swarovski rivolies that I bought last month. It's actually quite fun, and very frustrating, at least when it comes to fitting the rivoli into the bezel itself.

I decided to use both the smoked colored crystals in a set piece. I decided on using those gunmetal colored beads as well, since they are so pretty and also cause the color is in fashion this year.
I ended up making a necklace, using the 14mm rivoli, a few 4mm fire polished glass beads, a few 6mm fire polished glass beads and seed beads in sizes 11/0 and 15/0.

For the necklace I also added a chain which happened to be gunmetal plated - what convenient! I used some jump-rings in sizes 4mm and 6mm in 20 gauge for attaching the pendant to the chain. God, I still love those jump-rings. I just haven't been able to use 'em that much since metal really are expensive at this time.

For the ring I only used the same 4mm fire polished beads as for the pendant. And then for the ring I used herringbone stitch.
Herringbone stitch is actually one of my favorite stitches, since it gets that scaly effect, and when you touch it it just feels like a nice surface.

Rainbow Shock

I bought this rainbow color mix of 11/0 seed beads around last year from Beadaholique. I decided that I wanted to use it, but I wanted to make the colors actually fade from one another towards the other. Yeh, I also had to add a few extra colors to the mix so it would look a lot softer then it did at first.

Since the color mix already was mixed, I decided to do the annoying work of sorting the colors from it. Phew, thank god for tweezers.

To make the base of the bracelet I used the Russian rope stitch, and then I fringed it. I made the toggle-clasp bigger then ordinary, simply cause I wanted to, and cause I've always made them smaller and it would make a nice contrasting effect (taste thing really).

It was actually the very first time I tried on making the Russian rope, but I found it rather fun, AND annoying, lol. I had to constantly keep my thread tight at all times; I think that must be because I'm using Nymo. Might be easier with FireLine or Wildfire, but duno, my more expensive thread is out of stock and tbh I'm one of those folks that actually likes Nymo.

Earrings: sakura fans

I took a look a few days ago at  the youtube channel of tsummerlee and found this tutorial to make fans by using circular peyote stitch. They were absolutely adorable, so I had to give 'em a try hehe.

I also like her videos a lot. The thing that keeps me interested in watching her videos is that she's very personal in the videos; if she makes an accident or whatever isn't planned she doesn't do like most folks that are doing tutorials and cuts off the bloopers to make the video look over professional.
I've also seen that a couple of ppl are moaning just about this, that is takes too long, and that there's 15 min of useless babble etc. No one is making 'em watch the videos so they can just pull out that stick they have up their asses imo :P

In her video she used delicas, but I went with the Matsuno 11/0 seed beads in two different colors for mine. I think they're just adorable, lol.

I also added the jump-ring on the side of the fan instead of adding it at the base. I found that you can see a bit more of it like that. And I put the jump-ring on the opposite side so you can either make the points point towards you or away from you.

Russian Spiral: Golden Sands

I finished up a commission I received a few days ago about a russian spiral necklace in white and golden shades. I made a similar one for my mother in law a while ago and someone had seen it and wanted one as well, heh :P

Personally it's not really  my favorite colors, when I first made it it was an experiment, and I wanted to get rid of some 8/0 in a golden sand mix that I had purchased a while ago, but never could find a use for heh.

I made it using 8/0's from that golden sand mix, and some white 11/0 Czech seed beads with a pearl luster reflection on the surface (I LOVE those ones).

Siblings :)

I've also been a little busy this week. I got two cute little kittens on Monday, and I've been busy entertaining 'em and keeping an eye on 'em. We already got an 7 year older cat so can't be too careful. She haven't done anything to the kitties (which ended up being two females), besides hissing and growling at them. Then after that display she's always been running upstairs, sulking :P

Yuki

Sissi

Starry Pendants

So I sat up last night and doodled around a bit with all them glass beads that I've been stacking up for a while, and decided to do a lil' pendant, using a few of 'em.

 I used 6 8mm glass pearls, a few 4mm fire polished beads and a few 4mm glass beads. And some seed beads in two different colors for each one of the pendants.

For the chain I just used a nylon coated wire which I covered with some seed beads and 4mm fire polished ones in the same colors.

I LOVE those Bugle Beads!

Yep, I really like those bugle beads. I've stacked up a few over the months but I haven't really put any effort to add them in to any of my projects so far. One reason is that a lot of people write about their fears of bugle beads, since they have very, very sharp edges and have a tendency to cut off the beading thread.

So I thought, what the heck; Lets give them a go for once.

The color scheme I chose to make for this bracelet was mainly metallic, and I mostly used gunmetal for this cute lil' piece. I chose to work with gunemtal mainly because I bought a lot of seed beads and other beads in gunmetal this spring, and also cause of the reason that gunmetal seems to be a huge trend this year in a lot of elements.

I also chose to add some color by using some machine cut bugle beads in fushia. And I chose to add some silver plated 4mm jump-ring together with a silver plated toggle-clasp. I think it looks like a really nice combination with the silver seed beads in the bracelet :)

Bracelet: Mamba

Today was the very last day of the dutch course I've been following since may this year. We arranged a lil' party in the course room where  pretty much everyone had brought with them something typical from their country. Mostly Moroccan food, mmm... Was very tasty :)
I brought with me a pair of Swedish chocolate buns that I had been doodling on last evening :P

I also took myself some time to start a new beading project since I didn't have a bus for some reason. Don't ask me why, but the thing never showed up :\

I drew up a very simple pattern on a graph and began playing some more with them peyote stitches. But, I decided to use two different sizes of beads; 11/0 and 8/0. The result ended up looking kinda like a snake skin, which I really liked. I'm still pondering if I should create a choker next, using the same technique, beads and colors, but we'll see :)
Besides the seed beads I also used some 4mm glass pearls for embellishment. I also managed, for ONCE, to use only one single thread without having to cut it off and put in a new one xD I kinda prefer that, then I don't have to think too much on where the heck I ended the last row etc. lol

Two Rings a Week: Peyote

So this has been a very boring week - so far. The last week of the dutch course I'm doing and pretty much everything is done, and we had to do some boring stuff papers that the instructor gives us when she doesn't have anything to come with, yay.
So rather pointless.

But enough moaning!

I doodled a bit last night with some peyote stitching and decided to make a little ring using the same amount of seed beads, but with two different sizes, and yah, the result ended up pretty neat.

I also took myself some time to pop by in the store to see if they had anything on sale when it comes to beads. It's the lovely summer out sale so you never know. Well, I didn't manage to find anything that were on sale of the things that I got interested in, and pretty much everything were out that they had on sale. Bah, I knew I should have been out earlier.

But I got a few new finds that I can't complain about too much.

I found these little cute porcelain beads with this cute print on. I only picked up two. Damn, that store is SO overpriced. They charged 75 euro cent PER bead.

I've been drooling over these a few times when I went to that store, but I really never had the guts to buy 'em until now. I think they are about 6mm. Yep, I should get something to measure some of the stuff I'm unsecured about :P

Two Rings a Week: Crystal Rose

Yeh, I know. I haven't manage to update two rings during last week. Reason is that I had my final exams at the end of the week and I were a tad bit nervous and over focused.

Anyhow, I also got a present from my mother in law - beading supplies! I was able to go a bit crazy from stores I normally buy from on amazon. I got a budget and went after that.
I were also very happy when I saw that GJBeads added a ring mandrel in their store. I've been trying to get my hands on one for a while but I didn't want to buy one that would be too expensive, and I wanted to keep myself to only two stores just to avoid the extra transport etc.

I took a piece from my supply of aluminum wires and I also snatched some beads and put together my very first wire wrapped ring \o/


The wire size I used was 18 gauge and I also used one 8mm and a few 6mm glass beads.





 I also thought I would share some pictures of some of the shinies that I got last week in the mail *hyper*

I had to add some rivolies to my beading supplies. They are sooo shiny and pretty, REAL eye candy LOL. I only bought a few 14mm ones tho. More sizes will most likely pop in later ^^

 

I also added a few 4mm swarovski bicones in capri blue. Damn I really love that blue color :)

And I also bought  a bunch of 4mm fire polished glass beads in a lot of different colors. I only featured a three colors on this pic :P

These tila beads in mate gunmetal is just to die for. So pretty :)