Update and the rest of my BOTB14 pics

So yeah, to my disappointment I didn't make it further to the next round of Battle of the Beadsmith. It was the very first time I participated in it and I wasn't really expecting my piece to go further.
Of course I feel disappointed, everyone does when you literally work your ass off and feel really proud and happy about your accomplishments and then just having it "not being good enough". You know what I mean.
It happened weeks ago, and the moment I found out that I didn't go through, I'm not gonna deny it, I felt really, really sad and even ended up shedding some tears. I haven't posted an update showing the rest of the photos I had taken due to a couple of reasons. This is one. I felt that I needed some time to think and reflect, pick myself up and just move one. The world doesn't end cause of one bump on the road, it just takes a moment to pick up the pieces.

The other reason to why I haven't posted anything is cause we're planning a wedding in a month (30th of August at 13.00 to be precise).
Exciting, but very stressful. I have to admit that I also felt a bit sad over that situation (not the wedding itself, don't get me wrong! lol), I was expecting to have my side completely empty. That turned around tho as my aunt and uncle called me on skype about two weeks ago and let me know that my uncle is sending both my aunt and my mom down in time for the wedding. So yes, I feel a lot more happier and a lot more excited.
For those that are following me on FB, Twitter and Instagram, you would probably have noticed the wip photos I've been posting of the necklace I'm gonna wear. If you're not already following me on any of those sites, just look up "AIF Design"; either with a space or not.

I've also began to upload a couple of Youtube videos on my channel after getting such a great response on the "make your own glass cabochons" tutorial that I just decided to make after I got a few requests on how to make them from people that have been seeing me post my own on the various social media sites I'm hanging around.
I've recently finished a bangle patterns that I'm gonna film as soon as I get my wedding necklace done. Then I have a couple of other video tutorials planned. If any of you, my precious readers, have any suggestions and ideas on tutorials that you would wish me to make, you leave a comment in the comment section and I'll see what I can do :)

Battle of the Beadsmith 2014

As all of the BOTB entries have been posted in their facebook group, sorted battle-wise in folders I can now share my entry with you. I'm also gonna share a little bit of the process I went though to create these.

It took some thinking before I decided on making a pair of finger-less gloves. At first I was pondering about making a huge statement necklace, but that was going "maybe, maybe not", since I expected most of the entries to be necklace. Nothing wrong with that before you think anything, heh. A huge amount of stunning piece were sent in and I just feel in awe and honorable to be able to be a part of the contestants.
The reason to why I decided on making a pair of gloves is that I wanted to try something different. Also, my own personal favorite accessory to wear are gloves.
I first started on making the pattern I would use. I know how the essentials of constructing a glove works, and I've been sewing a couple of them years ago before I began beading.

Anyway. The graphic idea of the piece got into my head as I was listening to the book "World of Warcraft: Stormrage". And I decided to use the essence itself of the story to make a graphic impact.
I decided on using black matte beads for the base color, and then pair it up with different shades of green. My purpose in using the black matte was to get the green beads to "pop", and I'm very happy in how the result turned out.

One thing that kept bugging me in the beginning was how to make the gloves close and be able to fit on most types of hands. After some time of pondering over that question the idea of making a corset binding on the opposite side of the thumb came to mind, and that is how I ended up making the "closure". And yep, it really works. So I'm really happy with that.

 Before I even began the piece I used some of my contacts to trying to find a model for the photos. And hear, hear, I was really excited and happy when I got the call back from my mother in law that she had found one.
During the very last week of the deadline she was free and I was able to take some awesome photos of her wearing them. And I'm so happy and grateful that she was willing to pose for me wearing my beady gloves. Without her, I really don't think I would have been able to display them as well as they are displayed in the photos ♥

Two Necklaces and my BOTB 14 is done!

After I completed my Battle of the Beadsmith piece I decided that I wanted to take a little breather from anything bead related, but only for a short moment, really.
I managed to get my hands on a wonderful model who was willing to pose wearing my piece, so I'm really, really happy with the end result and with the photos of course. I sent the mail to Steven (the person who is taking care of the "battle" arrangements etc.) and everything is in order. Now all of us just have to wait till we are allowed to show the photos, which happens after they're up on the FB group of BOTB. I'm really excited and curious what everyone else have created and I'm so looking forward to see all the pieces!

Enough of that! :)

I managed to complete two necklaces after I finished my battle piece and I wanted to share them with you...

A couple of weeks ago, in April, I decided to take a little short break from my battle piece and play around with some polymer clay and I ended up making a violet. Violets are one of my favorite flower. I think it has to do with the facts that my grandmother had a very small spot in her garden were she had planted some seeds a long time ago, and each summer they would pop up and bloom with a wonderful, vibrant violet color with yellow accents. I remember that I never picked them, but instead I used to lay down on the grass right next to them, smell them and just look at them.

I ended up linking the violet I made in clay so much I decided to make a rather simple necklace of it. I didn't want to take away too much focus from the flower so I used a lot of black matte seed beads with some iridescent green Swarovski crystals.

The second necklace I began to make after one day from when I completed my battle piece. The plan was to make this necklace for my mother on Mother's Day. Of course it was one week later (last Sunday of May in Sweden) than the day when I managed to complete it and send it with the post. But at least she got something, heh... Well, everyone in my family knew I was gonna be a bit absent and work on my battle piece as I told them so...
The necklace I made for my mom is a very huge difference from what I normally do. I rarely work with suck opaque colors when it comes to beads, but as the focal piece is that tiger/cat cab (which I also made with polymer clay), the colors looked so good together with the tiger.
Speaking of the tiger... or cat... Yes, I made it as well with polymer clay. I wanted to make something a bit more personal for my mother and I had asked her a couple of weeks ahead what animal she likes and her answer was tiger or lion. So I decided to try my hands more at sculpting and made the focal myself. I'm not sure how others see it, but to me, the "tiger" looks like a hybrid between a tiger and a cat. Maybe the eyes? *shrug* Always something to work on in the future, none the less :)

I'm also gonna mention that the beaded chain on both piece are inspired by Nancy Dale's "Wrap-bracelet"  technique, which appears in one of the early numbers of "Digital Beading Magazine Australia".

BOTB 2014 "Sneaky Peak"

So yeah, I'm participating for this years "Battle of the Beadsmith" and I've been very, very busy working away on my piece and I haven't really done much else so that's the clear reason to why I haven't been updating :)

Decided to share this little "sneaky peak" photo that I shared on instagram and FB about a week ago. Yes, the photo is blurred out on purpose and then I've been playing with the color filter etc. just to tease since a lot of battlers do these "tease" photos every year since the beginning of the competition, heh.

About a week too late, but I'm wishing everyone a Happy Easter in this post :)

Polymer Clay, Bangle Obsession and BOTB 2014

I thought I would make a little quick update on what I've recently been up to... :)

So yeah, I caught the polymer clay bug really big time these last two weeks, and I've been a bit obsessed with making a couple of bangles which I'm sharing in this post.
I've been wanting to create polymer clay bangles for quite some time, but the thing that has always kept me at bay from it was that I didn't have any bangle bases to work with - they cost about 3-5 euros depending on where I buy them from and what sizes I want.
So what made me finally create bangles?
Simple.
I'm a member of a couple of different beading and polymer clay groups on FB and one of the polymer clay groups, which mostly focuses on sharing tutorials (free or those that costs moneh), a lovely lady shared her way on how to make bangle bases from scraps of clay. Yes, I decided to take pretty much all the scrap clay I had put a side and ended up creating a couple of different ones in rather unregular sizes - I only eyed them, I didn't measure them to 100% accurate, which wasn't needed anyway as the shapes ended up looking great.

Due to my recent, greater journey into polymer clay I've been thinking about creating another blog which only would put focus on my polymer clay creations. I'm just wondering if I should make the blog now, or wait till after this years vacation to Sweden, we'll see.

This year I'm also very happy to announce that I'm participating in "Battle of the Beadsmith 2014", and there about two weeks left until I finally can begin my battle piece.
Gosh, I'm actually starting to get nervous as I really hope I can keep up with the time (have two months, but you never know!).
I finally have somewhat of an idea what I want to create and I really hope I can stick with the plan and that it will turn out as I want it to *crosses fingers*.