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.

Update - I still live!

Yeh, I haven't really been too active this nor the previous week. The reason is that I've been rather sick, and I haven't had enough strength to blog at all, nor to do much beading either. I'm still a tad bit sick, I woke up this morning with a running nose as well...
I just wanted to update and show that I'm not dead yet, and also share some minor stuff that happened this week.

I finally were able to go and pick up my new glasses, which I ordered two weeks ago at the store were I bought my previous ones.

I couldn't resist these. They were so shiny and damn smooth.

And while I were waiting for them to open again (lunch break) I went to the store where I buy some of my beads to see if they for ones had received some new ones in store, which they had. O'boy, they had. There were a lot of new stuff which I wanted BUT... I won't pay 3 euros for one single bead that wasn't really worth the money, so my purchase ended up a bit smaller then I hoped, but I had planned for that to happen anyway!

I added some pics of what I bought, and I also added a posing cat just for the fun of it lol, and because she's so damn cute.

I bought a few of these disc beads, which are just beautiful. They have a rainbow pearl effect shine on the surface.

Yum yum.

CRAW attempt

I was so happy when I saw this video on YouTube on how to make CRAW - Cubic Right Angle Weave, or 3D RAW.
I saw a diagram on this in one of the issues of Bead and Button Magazine, but I found the diagram and the description being extremely hard and complicated to understand.

This video tutorial by Heather Collin is really easy to grasp, and even if she only shows how to make one row, it's easy after that to figure out how to add more.

On my attempt I used some 9/0 seed beads; I wanted to use some bigger beads since I were learning. I also added a second row...

Necklace: Veins

One commission is finished and taken pics of...

At the moment I get a lot of commissions on russian spirals in different color combos etc... This time, since I always want to change the design in some way, when I haven't done the color before, and if I haven't received any directions on how the person want it to 100%. Then I tend to take the design a bit further then just a plain, simple rope chain.

This time I only used two core beads, to make the chain a bit thinner then what I normally do. I also attached a simple line of 11/0's that swirl around the piece, and then square stitched the three laps in the center so it wouldn't hang too loose. For each end I added two 6mm fire polished AB Czech glass beads. Then I added a copper chain and a brass lobster clasp.



 

Necklace: Iris

I really, really love working with the St. Petersburg chain stitch, and decided on making a double chain, incorporating some 4mm glass beads into the piece.

Erhm... I don't really have too much to say about this piece as I just wanted to make a double chain...
I also used 11/0 seed beads, in a color called "Multi Iris" hence the simple name :p
I also used an 8mm pearl in the same color as the 4mm'ers to work as a focal bead.

Since I do love to work with the St. Petersburg  chain stitch, I'll definitely do more pieces with it. For example I've had in mind of making a bracelet piece using two double chains, going with the same colors I used for my"The Crow and the Butterfly" choker I made a while ago, but we'll see when that happens. I'm gonna begin with the latest commissions I've received in a moment, so it might take longer to begin and finish up what I wanna do for myself :p