Hair Clip: Freya

Starting off this post with saying that I haven't been able to either blog or make anything jewelry related at all of the facts that I've been having a rather serious disease. 
My hands and feet have been completely swollen up like balloons and I've had a very annoying rash pretty much all over. I went to the doctor last week on Friday and he took a sample of my blood and also gave me some medicine against the rash and the swelling, which didn't help a bit.
On Monday (darn weekend) I got the result, and it turned out to be a rather serious infection in my blood stream. 
I got some really strong antibiotics and they're helping. 
Again I'm able to sit at the computer and to play around with beads, which I've missed loads! :)

So, enough about that, heh.

I managed to finally finish up this bead embroidery hair clip that I was working on for the April's Challenge at "Operation Tackle That Bead Stash!". I didn't manage to finish it on time though, before the deadline, but it was something different then what I've done so far, so I'm happy anyway.
The cabochons are handmade with polymer clay (by me as always). Then we have some mother-of-pearl buttons and a crystal flower from Swarovski.
The seed beads I used were in sizes 11/0 and 15/0, from Matsuno, Miyuki and Preciosa, and some 1.5mm Miyuki cube beads.

Necklace: Denim

Finished up this piece about a day ago, after laying it to the side trying to figure out how to execute it. It actually looks nice, and kinda unisex, which I wanted with it.
My main goal with this piece was to create something masculine, I just have a huge problem getting myself out of my own feminine zone and making something directed towards the opposite gender.

Aaand my boyfriend isn't the best help in the world either to look for an opinion about this either. He's not wearing any accessories at all, not even a watch, so it makes my life harder, lol.
At least I managed to force him into wearing it so I could see how it would look like on a guy, and it looks really nice. I wasn't allowed to take pictures of him with it on at all, not even if it was just from the bust... Mean! Lol.


The chain I used is a copper chain and it's aprox. 63cm, and it hangs down towards the center of the chest. The pendant is aprox. 5x5cm (2x2") and is, of course made with bead embroidery.
In the center is a tiger's eye bead that I decided to use for this piece.
I wanted to incorporate so less rounded shapes as possible and go with square shapes, since they are more masculine.

Necklace: Dagr

As I mentioned in my btw post this week I was working on a simple netted lariat necklace, and yep, it's complete.

I haven't been working that much with bead-netting before, so I decided that it was time to refresh myself a bit in this, I must say, very relaxing form of beading.
It is also the first time I made a lariat necklace, which was fun and time consuming. The lariat is about 130cm (51.2") in total, with the tassels included.

The tassels are wooden beads, which I painted with an acrylic gold paint and varnished it. The bead is also covered with bead-netting.
I also mentioned in my bead table post this week that I found a use for this shiny and bright crystal/gold, silver, copper lined 11/0 Czech seed bead mix. I've been having this in my stash (aprox. 1 hank) for a bit more then a year and I'm pleased to say that the WHOLE hank was used for this lariat and not a single seed bead of it remains, lol :D
For the fringe of the tassels, I decided to mix in some 11/0 galvanized Czech gold seed beads to give some non crystal contrast to the piece.

Winter - Spring 2012

I couldn't resist...

Some of the creations I did from the beginning of this year 'till now...

Book Review: Dimensional Bead Embroidery

I finally got my act together and did a book review. I had planned it after all to make a couple of them this year :)

Dimensional Bead Embroidery

by Jamie Cloud Eakin (published 2011 by LARK CRAFTS)

The book “Dimensional Bead Embroidery” is one of the most informative books out on the market, that focus around the art of bead embroidery.

Not only a person that already is basic with bead embroidery will enjoy it, but the author explain everything from basic scratch on how to create jewelry with this wonderful technique. In other words, the book is also very useful for beginners.

Like in most beading books the author brings up what kind of basic materials you’ll need for beginning; different types of thread, seed beads, beading needles, backing materials, stabilizers, findings and other tools that are essential to have nearby.
The author also explains how you take an idea and sketch it out on a paper, to later transfer the whole vision into reality.

Jamie will go through the most common bead embroidery stitches from when working on the embroidery surface to a lot of different ways to do the edging.  She also brings different bezel techniques into light that are more than back-stitch laddering and peyote.

One thing Jamie brings into focus that I haven’t really seen in any other books about bead embroidery is how to deal with uneven surfaces and make them flat a.k.a non-cabochons.
She also shows some examples on how to use pendants, doughnuts etc. in bead embroidery; things that have a hole in them. There are also a couple of projects available in the book that shows step by step how to make each one.

“Dimensional Bead Embroidery” is definitely a book that each beader needs to have in their book collection.
Also, if you haven’t read Jamie’s other book, “Beading with Cabochons” I recommend you also to pick that one up as well.