Jewelry Design Star

I decided to participate in ArtBeads.com's "Jewelry Design Star" this month.

I would love to get some support on my "Emerald Dream" cuff :)

http://promoshq.wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/224307/voteable_entries/51301107#

Make sure to participate in this yourself, if you haven't already during the next one ^.^

Book Review: The Art of Bead Embroidery

“The Art of Bead Embroidery” is written by the publisher of Bead&Button magazine, Janet Kay Skeen and is published in 2007.

In this wonderful beading book that puts its focus on bead embroidery is the author taking her help from two of the greatest bead embroidery artist ever, Sherry Serafini and Heidi Kummli.

The book begins with a one page background story of each one of the two artists.
It is really structured out well when we get to see the different basic stitches Heidi and Sherry are using to create their wonderful pieces. Both of them are either using the same stitches, or completely different ones, so you get to expand your knowledge a lot in here.

The book, “The Art of Bead Embroidery” is not only suited for an experienced beader, but also for beginners.
In the first section of the book Heidi and Sherry are explaining what kind of thread, tools, glue, needles, backing and foundation each one of them prefer to use and why.
On top of that, each one of the two bead embroidery artists displays six different (twelve in total)  step by step projects that the reader can learn from.

In the end of the book there are a few pages with a photo gallery that show some of the beautiful creations Heidi and Sherry have done over the years.

“The Art of Bead Embroidery” is definitely a book that anyone that have any interest in working with bead embroidery needs to have in their crafting book collection. 

I wasn’t disappointed when I bought my copy, and I’m sure you won’t be either!

Button Frenzy!

I've always found buttons really fun to look at, ever since my grandma took me with her to the fabric store when she was gonna buy fabric to make curtains. I remember how I used to look at all the shiny, beautiful and interesting looking buttons in the tubes the store sold them in.

These are some of the buttons I received from my aunt.

A while ago my aunt told me she was going to take a look in a new opened second hand store that just opened near their neighborhood. As I just got an interest for incorporating and using buttons here and there in my beadwork, I asked her if she could keep an eye out for some interesting buttons, if they would have any. A couple of days later I called her and she told me that she found a couple and was gonna send them down when my mom would come over here for a visit.

Now... Somehow my grandmother had heard that I was looking for buttons and had also sent with her "a couple" too.
A couple? She sent a huge bag loaded with buttons, not only that she had bought, but the ones she had collected from her mother and her mother in law.
When I opened the bag, I could not believe my eyes and I did not know where to start. So out of instinct, I began to dig in the bag and look what kind of shinies were in there.

I collected a few memorable out of the bag and cleaned them with a napkin and took some photos of them, and also of some of the ones my aunt gave me.

These are some of the many buttons I received from my grandma.

BTW - 23rd of May 2012

First to say; I had a great and really nice week here, together with mom and my bf. We went to a Monastery for monks not that far from here (Tongerlo). The place was HUGE and so beautiful, and you could just see all the elements from the medieval age (the monastery is from about 1500 century). The special thing was that they have a museum about Leonardo DaVinci, and also the best preserved replica of "The Last Supper", in real size, which was a wonderful sight for the eye and very interesting. They also had gorgeous replicas of a bishop hat and robe - I can't remember what the actual words for these things are in English, but I'm sure it's not "hat" and "robe", heh. They had rows and rows of beads and gemstones embroidered to the fabric. I wish I could show picture but you weren't allowed to take any :(

Anyway.
This Wednesday I have a bead embroidery project laying on my table. What a surprise, huh? (lol) I'm currently working on a larger piece this time. A necklace. And so far I've had in mind of mainly using black in different finishes on the beads. I might add some coral red at some point, but until I've "drawn" out the exact design I want, I won't add anything else.
The cabochons I chose to work with so far in this piece are mainly black onyx. The red one... I'm not really sure of what it is. I got it in a gemstone cabochon mix that I bought some months ago. If anyone might have a clue, I would love to hear what you think it might be :)

Besides the bead embroidery laying on my bead table, I've also been sorting some beads that I received from my younger sister as a late Christmas present, which my mom was kind enough to bring with her. I really love the pink round beads in this photo, they are so gorgeous, and the sparkly ones too of course, nom nom.
The hardest part to sort (still sorting, not done) is the seed beads that was in the box I got from my sis. They had been really rough with my mom's traveling bag on the air port, so all the beads had ended up in a big soup. Luckily all the beads were still in the box, heh.

BTW - 9th of May 2012

This Wednesday I've been playing around with circular brick stitch and came up with a pattern that looks kinda flower like. My idea was to use some of the 8mm Swarovski pearls that I've been having laying and collecting dust for ages, and make some flat-back earrings of them. After completing one of the pair and taking notes I actually decided that attaching the back side of the piece with some E6000 would be best. To be honest E6000 glue is the best glue I've ever laid my hands on.

I also decide to take a picture of my work surface. I actually cleaned it up a lot before I got sick, but lol, I'm not sure anyone can tell since the mess is almost there again, haha. The area isn't 100% complete according to myself, I want to add a shelf with two or three planes above the desk on the wall. But we'll see when that is gonna happen.

I'm also gonna add in this post that I might be absent for at least 10 days, as my mom, whom I haven't seen now for almost three years is coming over today. Her plane should be landing in Brussels in about two hours. So I'm most likely gonna be busy spending time with her :D