Hair Comb: Autumn Fall Colors 2011

This morning I began on a smaller project that I've been having in my mind for a while, ever since I saw the fall colors for this autumn; pink, turquoise and light yellow.
I decided on going a little crazy and use ALL the colors in different shades and make a hair comb using wire and crochet.

For beads I used some 11/0 seed beads in the different colors, some pearls and some Czech glass roundel beads, 28gauge black coated copper wire, 24gauge black coated wire and of course a silver-plated comb which is about 4x5cm (40x50mm - I don't know it in inches, sorry).

For this design, I first made the pieces I wanted to crochet and then I wired them around the holes in the comb in the order I wanted them. Then I began building some little "towers" or whatever we can call them lol.
What I wanted mainly with these towers is that I wanted to be able to twist the crochet ropes around them to bunch 'em up in a nice way.
Also also used some transparent crafting glue here and there, just to make sure the design will forever remain (unless you drive over it with a truck of course :D ).

Personally, I don't really use accessories to decorate my hair and I'm not sure I'm gonna use this either. It was just a fun project which gives some variation to the bead-weaving I'm normally doing. But yeh, if I get any personal requests in the future about more hair combs I won't hesitate.

Bead Embroidery: Polymer Clay Cab. Day 2

Yarr!
Been spending this longer weekend together with my bf so I haven't really been able (or wanted) to blog anything for these couple of days :3

♥I also took the freedom of changing some colors and images on my blog just for the fun, and since the season is changing... And yeh, I were a little bored of the old one LOL.

My last post were about an almost finished project were I used bead embroidery (featuring a handmade polymer clay cabochon) - awesome technique by the way!

So yeh, I finished it now and I'm pretty happy about it.
For the chain I wanted to attach the pendant in I decided on making a spiral rope. I just did this spiral rope like I did with the opera length necklace I did in gunmetal with some triangle beads (Thorn); I first strung on the focal beads until I got the desired length I wanted for the necklace. I used a nylon coated wire were I put the 8/0 focal beads on tho, just to give it some more strength. Then I used nymo and a size 12 beading needle, making sure I would be able to get both my needle and my thread through the 8/0's.

For the "bail" I used simple peyote stitch, and then I embellished it a little with some 11/0 galvanized silver seed beads, and again those gorgeous moonstone chips.

Bead Embroidery: Polymer Clay Cab. Day 1

I posted last week a couple of polymer clay cabochons that I've made, having in my thoughts that I would do some bead embroidery.
Here is the "almost" finished result. I'm gonna work around the edges after I've cut it out, and then I'm also gonna figure out a chain and how I'm gonna attach it.

I really enjoyed this, and found it extremely fun. And with embroidery you can work pretty much how you want, and experiment with different types of stitches.
I ended up attaching a couple moonstone chips as an embellishment as well and I really, really like it.

I chose pretty much only to work with metal like colors for this one, since I didn't want to run away too far from the theme which the polymer clay cab already had.

Stretchy Montee Rings

I looked this morning at the bead channels I'm subscribed to on YouTube and noticed that Off the Beaded Path had put out a new video featuring a ring, embellished with some montees. I wanted to try this one out since I have stacked up on a couple of montees since this spring.
After I made my first ring, I felt that I just HAD to make a second one. The ring is really pretty, and it goes really, really fast to create and are a perfect gift, now when the holidays are slowly beginning to sneak up.
To go directly to the video, click here.

The supplies you need are a couple of montees; mainly size 3.2mm, but for my second one I used a 6.2mm. You'll also need 10 4mm pearls and about 10 11/0's and a few 8/0's. And some beading thread and a stretching cord. I found my Stretch Magic laying around in a box, lol.

The best thing I find about this ring is that it uses the stretch cord; means it will fit most sizes of fingers, and is therefore a really great gift if you don't know what size the person you're giving the ring to has.

Polymer Clay Cabs

So, yeah. Having my final dutch exams this week; finished the first four and still got the last one on Thursday.

I took myself some freedom to actually create some polymer clay cabochons this Sunday. The reason was that I've been having a couple of polymer clay colors laying around, I just haven't been in the mood since a little while. The other reason is that I haven't been able to find any cabs in any of the local craft stores - so I have to wait until I'm gonna make my next online purchase to fill my stash even more, Mwahahaha!

The process I went through before I began making my cabs, is that I first measured out some different sizes I wanted to make, on a paper. Yeh, I'm gonna get my hands on some molds in the future as well, lol - will make life a tad bit easier.






Yeh, the inspiration I kinda had when I made the following cab was pretty much a scarab. 

 For this cab, I wanted to experiment with the bronze powder I bought a while ago. Then I made a little texture print using some different stuff. Then I painted over the texture with the powder... shiny.

For the following little rectangle set, I ran out to the garden and tried finding a perfect leaf that I could work with. Then I put the leaf on the clay and used my roller to get the texture of the leaf. Then I used some silver powder to make it shiiiiny lol