Cuff: Emerald Dream

I know, it's been almost two weeks since I blogged last. But I have an excuse, lol. Last month Mass Effect 3 came out and I've been waiting for it for over a year, so I've been a gaming nerd for the past two weeks, lol, sue me =P

Of course I've been beading on and off when I've been in the mood. I've been working on the project I posted last time, the bead embroidery cuff, and now it is finally done, mwahahaha! Lol.
Actually it was a very fun project to work with, and I think it turned out very nicely for being my very first bead embroidery cuff. Of course I'll make more in the future, since I really enjoyed it and I have a couple of more designs in my head for something similar :)

As I mentioned in my earlier post I decided to use three of my handmade polymer clay cabochons that I made about a month ago. After I glued them on I was first a bit worried on how the tear drop cabs would react when I would began to bend the whole thing to with onto the cuff, but it turned out very well, better then expected.

Since the cabs are in an emerald color (name is "emerald" on the clay) I decided to use 11/0 Miyuki emerald seed beads with a frosted AB finish as the main beads. I also had some emerald frosted AB long magatamas laying around so I incorporated them as well together with some 9/0 Czech galvanized seed beads.
Besides the polymer clay cabs I also added four acrylic flower cabochons and two flat backs. The flowers are in light coral and I decided to add them to get some more contrast into the piece.
In the end I also decided to add some gorgeous, green twisted bugle beads that I had laying around.

I wanted to add a picture on how the piece looked like after I was done with the embroidery. I was really happy with the result on how it ended up looking on the backside, since I know that it's important also to have a good looking backside, even if you're going to cover it up with backing. As always I use Lacy's Stiff Stuff for the foundation and Ultrasuede for the backing, but in the future I might even try to out Ultrasuede as the foundation as well, since I've been curious about that. The reason why I haven't yet is cause I find the Stiff Stuff stiffer to work on while embroidering then Ultrasuede.
But one day! Lol :)

Broach - Pink Bow

I've been seeing these simply adorable beaded bows around the web ever since I began blogging myself. I've been wondering how exactly they are created. They look like some sort of peyote stitch creations, no? Actually they are created from four brick stitch diamonds in two different sizes and then joined together.

You can have a look at the pattern yourself by clicking here. The website is in Russian, but it's pretty easy to understand and to figure out since the graphs are pretty clear.

I had no idea what to do with the finished bow once it was completed, I just wanted to make it, heh =P
Although, in the end I decided to glue it stuck to a broach back and make it into a broach. My very first one, lol. At least I bought some broach backs if I would end up making one in the future, even if I don't really use 'em myself.

I used 11/0 crystal lined pale rose (name of the color) seed beads to create it.
The broach is about 5cm (2 inces) in length.
I might even end up making more of these since I kinda fell in love with them, lol! Nah, I just find them darn cute :)

Earrings: Simplicity

Okey, so on New Years Eve I wanted earrings to go with the rest of the red jewelry piece I wore so I quickly wrapped this cute little pair together, using circular peyote stitch for the first rows, adding a picot fringe to make 'em look like snow stars (or whatever the real english word would be for those).

I used 6/0 seed beads and 11/0 seed beads to make these.

I'll probably make ,ore of these in different colors in the future since they are so simple to make and goes rather fast :)

Necklace: Amphitrite

I manage to complete the project I've been working with this week on Friday. I know, I know, I'm a bit slow at posting once in a while.

When I were browsing through Marcia DeCoster's book, "Beaded Opulence", I came across a project named "Etruscan Treasure" on page 61 that gave me the idea for this necklace. At least for the pendant itself.

I'm lacking in a lot of things when it comes to this book (the projects in the book calls for a lot of crystals etc.).

And as you can see I attached a paper bead in the chain, where I ended up writing my initials :)

I decided to use the idea of shaping metal wire into a shape that I would bead around later. The instructions in the book called for metal wire in 14gauge? which I don't have, so I decided on using the 20 gauge wire I have and make two identical shapes, and then wire them together with a 24gauge wire so the wire would keep its shape.

I used 11/0 seed beads to the entire piece in navy blue opaque and in bronze.
I also used a 14mm swarovski rivoli in saphire that I've been having laying around for some time. To attach the rivoli in the center I first made some peyote straps on the left and right side, which I embellished with some moonstone chips together with 15/0 bronze seed beads. To make the rivoli sit even sturdier I sew through the top and the bottom of the pendant with some seed beads to the rivoli.
I also embellished the center just above the bail with some seed beads and dagger and drop beads n bronze to personalize it more.

The chain I made with circular herringbone stitch.

This was a christmas present for my mother in law as well :)

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.

8mm Beaded Bead

When I were surfing around on my favorite beading blogs earlier yesterday I came across a link leading to a Hungarian blog named Gyöngyikék; no idea what it means tho...

It features an article about beaded beads, and she made a really nice pattern on how to peyote stitch around an 8mm beads using 11/0's. I thought that since I have quite a few 8mm'ers laying around, and since I love making beaded beads, I just had to try this out.
I also have been trying to find a guide or something, which explain how to do beaded beads with 11/0's instead of 15/0's, so this was perrrrfect ^.^

In the article is also a graph, which you just can copy and paste in a graphic program (or print out), and then create your own pattern following the graph.

After I made my first one, I felt that it would fit as a really cute pair of earrings, so I made a second one, with the same design as the first one. And then I also made two other pairs.






I read on the blog were I found the link ( Bead For Brains: 365 -> link to the article here) to this Hungarian blog that, not only the blogger, but also a lot of readers had the problem where the last four beads wouldn't close snug properly.

I tried a solution, to see if I could avoid this problem myself; I peyote stitched each one of the circular halves separately, adding one row more for the other half. I then used a headpin (just to keep en eye where the hole in the 8mm bead was), then I put the center of the first half trough the pin, then added the 8mm, and finally the last half. Then I joined the halves together, pulling tightly through the joining - and cleverly avoided getting any ugly gaps.

 

Bangles

I'm feeling a bit better now, and I managed to take my time to caress my shinies (lol) and figure out what I wanted to try next.

After reading the post from "Beads For Brains:365" blog about this cute little peyote bangle I really, I mean REALLY wanted to give it a shot. I've always had some sort of weakness towards bangles - ever since I were little.
The pattern is designed by Viki - FDEkszer and can be purchased from her Etzy store for a very reasonable price. She also have a lot of other patterns, so I highly recommend to take a look.
To be honest, I've always been a tad bit against buying patterns online but... I... Wanted it! After all; Rules are meant to be broken.
The pattern itself calls for 11/0 cylinder beads, for mine I used Matsuno seed beads instead since I haven't really been stacking up on Delicas at the moment... You'll also need about 40 3mm beads - again I changed mine to 4mm since I'm all out of 3mm'ers, but it works just as nice.

Finally I also got to use some of my crystal lined hot pink seed beads for something. The color is very bright and clear so I've been a bit scared of using it to just anything, but this I love. I also decided on using up some of those czech fire polished glass beads in capri blue that I bought a while ago. I love the capri blue color since it's so radiant, and I like the crystal lined hot pink, didn't know what to combine them with. I bought about 20 grams of crystal lined copper seed beads and hey, they look really good with the capri blue beads, it almost gives it an antique Egyptian look to it.

One of the most fun part with this project is that I got to practice my peyote stitching a lot more. I also learned how to the peyote stitch in a REALLY FAST way. You can read about it at the "Wild Sally Road" blog here. You HAVE to read it.

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.

Stringing and Square

So, I manged to finish up the bracelet I've been working on yesterday evening. I were just too tired to post it. And I was kinda waiting for the daylight to come, since I think you get the best light on a photo when using the natural daylight as a light source.
I haven't gotten my fingers out of my ass to make a lightbox yet :P

I got the inspiration for this piece from this photo, and I chose to use the colors from it.

I did this piece with a variation of square stitch and stringing. The toggle clasps is made by using peyote stitch. The bracelet sits nicely around the wrist and frames it.