Hooray for light tents!

Still need some practise with dh's new camera but I'm pretty pleased with these photos I could not get a good one of the flower though. I will try again.

Sarah.

We have a winner!

Thanks to the two people who commented! I duly wrote your names on bits of paper & put them in my 3yo's cowboy hat, the winner is Diana from the Lone Beader, congratulations I'll be e-mailing you soon!

I haven't been at the computer much lately as I seem to be super busy. I am doing a bit of kniiting, the weather has really cooled down here lately and so I am cutting my teeth on my 1st lace shawl, it's the wildflower pattern here http://www.poshyarn.co.uk/patterns.html it's pretty simple and easy to follow & the pattern is very pretty, the only thing I'm not thrilled with is my yarn choice, I bought a self-striping yarn on sale and its just not right for this. I will carry on though as I will use it round the house and buy some zephyr laceweight for my next one.

I haven't done too much beading this week, I'm still beading my swap gift, that's shaping up really nicely & I have been experimenting with another necklace made with lots of sections of different stitches, I'm learning a lot from it but it definately won't be for wearing, more of a sampler to see what works and what doesn't.

My dh bought me a light tent & I cannot believe the difference it makes! I am hoping to get some time to play around with his new camera this week as I have my 2nd flower brooch to post, only eight more to go.....

Blogiversay contest.

Happy 1 year blogiversary to me, to celebrate I'm offering 1 lucky reader their choice of one of the dichroic cabs in the photo above, all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is comment to this post, the contest will close 18th September 2007 & I will then write the names of all commenters on bits of paper & pull one out of the hat. Good luck!

Sarah.

Almost a whole year gone by.

Wow, tomorrow will be my 1 year blogiversary. The year has gone so quickly, I can barely believe it! I started out with such good intentions of being a regular and insightful blogger, lol, it did not take me long to realise that I would be lucky if I could blog once a week on a regular basis.

I have been having a think about what I want the blog to be, at the moment it is a sporadic record of completed work that I can be bothered to photograph and I'm not really satisfied with that, so at least I know what I don't want it to be, that's a start. I think I'll start trying to include some of my favourite things and what I like about them & maybe do a few personal challenges where I can document the failures & successes of a project, those two things are probably enough to start out with.

This flower is the 1st in a series of flower pins that I am making for the many young women in my family for Christmas, 1 down 9 to go, yikes! I used the pattern by Louise Smith which appears in Dec/Jan 07 Beadwork. It is made with peyote stitch using my absolute favourite delica colour DB029 and size 11's miyuki 352. I enjoyed the pattern very mush, it took a while but was well worth it this little flower really glows in real life, I will be sad to give it away at Christmas, I do have the beads to make one for myself though, but after 10 I may not ever want to make another one again!

I have 2 beaded projects on the o at the moment, another flower for which I have slightly changed the shape of the petals and a challenge project for the UK beaders forum 10 bead challenge.

Don't forget to stop by tomorrow, there may be a little something up for grabs to celebrate my 1st year of blogging!

Sarah.

Another crystal rosette bracelet

I finished this a few days ago but haven't had chance to post, it's been a really busy week, I used a sort of midnight blue matte ab seed beads, matte ab is my favourite finish at the moment. I apologise for the purpleness of the background, I was trying to make my photo's less boring, but I have the feeling that this background colour is just a little too interesting! I also made a tassel necklace for myself but haven't got around to taking pics yet. I am dithering about what to make for my mil, it's her birthday Saturday so I'd better get my butt in gear, but no doubt I will spend too much time reading blogs when I should be beading!

Sarah.

Crystal Rosette Bracelet

The weather is terrible here, raining & very bleurgh, so I am blaming that for the terrible pictures of this lovely bracelet I just finished yesterday. The medallions are based on Marcia DeCoster's crystal flowerette earrings. It combined 2 of my favourite things to do, making small components to create a larger piece & using up leftovers from other projects, I have another planned using black seed bead & some fancy finish swars, hopefully I can get that done this weekend. I am still trying to decide on what my next embroidery project should be, a cupcake or a bird, any ideas?

Sarah.

Bert the beaded alien

Poor Bert, he only has one visible nostril, how's a poor alien supposed to assimilate the smells of planet earth with only one nostril? I beaded from the outside in on this one & things in the middle got a bit squished. Never mind, my son loves him!

Sarah.

Bead Embroidered Heart

I know it's a bit shocking for me to post two days in a row but I'm cheating, I've taken photo's of a few things while we had the light and I am going to eek them out so I have a few posts lined up. Planning ahead is generally not my thing, but I'll try almost anything once!

It's hard to avoid bead embroidery on the net at the moment what with the Bead Journal Project participants producing such beautiful pages, I haven't managed to view that many of them yet(there are hundreds of participants) and The Lone Beaders Banksy Car, which is the coolest thing ever, check it out if you haven't seen it yet, links to the right.

I wanted to practise my stitching so I sketched a simple heart shape to bead, It was fun to just bead without a pattern & I learnt from it. I am now beading an alien face like the one in my banner, it's a bit trickier 'cos the mistakes really show up but i am still really enjoying it.

Sarah.

Blog Tinkering & Bracelet

You might have noticed a change to the blog. For a while now I have been dissatisfied with the name of Sarah's Handcrafts, it's descriptive but boring. I was messing about with our holiday snaps earlier & came across the photo of the balloon alien & since I am a sci-fi geek, take me to your beader made me laugh! I may well get bored & change it again, who knows?

I made the bracelet above this week, it's a design by Dustin Wedekind & was very easy to make using Size 8 & 11 miyuki seed beads. Lately I have been very interested in making different styles of clasps, this has a hidden snap, I like the look but I do find the snap very fiddly to do up, I think I will continue to experiment with seed bead toggles.

Cheers,

Sarah.

Golden tassle necklace

Here is a necklace I made for myself last night using mix seeds/bugles & czech glass with a murano focal. It was pretty quick & I really like it, I've worn it all day today. I am gearing up to start making xmas presents for the many girls/women in my family, I think at least one of these will make it on to the list. Thanks to Lynne Davy (link to the right) for the instructions to make the tassle.

Cheers,

Sarah.

My 1st peyote cab & multistitch necklace

Just finished this tonight, my 1st attempt at peyoting around a cab, I ripped it to pieces once & swore a little bit but it came out nicely in the end. The neckstrap is made with tubular raw, beaded beads & spiral rope. It's quite an adventurous piece for me & I enjoyed making, I have a few new ideas from it too I think.

Sarah.

I've been catching up with the photo's, here's a herringbone pendant for the YOJ theme Pheonix & Dragons, a pair of earrings for the YOJ theme Bronze Beauty & A right angle weave necklace. I seem to be on a right angle weave obsession after reading the article about beading small components in beadwork mag. I tend to flit from stitch to stitch so hopefully I may develop my skill a bit further by using one stitch for several pieces, maybe I should try and do a series, not sure I'm up to the committment though.

If you haven't already, check out Diana Grygo's blog The Lone Beader to see how her bus is coming along, hi Diana! Also vote for her work in the Saatchi gallery, I want her to win so that I can go see her work in London!

Sarah.

I finally got the latest Beadwork magazine on Sunday, it was worth the wait,there are some beautiful projects in it. I particularly enjoyed Marcia de Costa's article about beading small components & these earrings are one of the results. The photo was taken with our new camera, hopefully pictures will improve as we learn more about using it, the detail of the stitching shows up pretty well though I think.

Sarah.

Back from holiday!

We just spent a very relaxing week in West Wales, I did some beading but not what I planned (now why am I not surprised, no pics yet though 'cos we are waiting for a new camera, hopefully we'll get it tomorrow. We were lucky enough to get to visit the Welsh National Botanical Gardens near Carmarthen, http://www.gardenofwales.org.uk/, it's a beautiful place even in dull weather, here are a few pictures I took.

No pics, 'cos the bird did not work well.I like the shape & the colours were fine, the beading was okay with the 15's but I only had 11's in one of the colours & that did not work at all. I will be buying some 15's in the correct colours & try again. In the meantime I have 50grammes of shiney lime delicas that are burning a hole in my bead drawer! I've had them for years & just haven't decided what to do with them yet but I quite like the idea of using them with black 11's for a twist like this http://sarahshandcrafts.blogspot.com/2007/04/herringbone-twist-finally-done.html, not sure yet though. I also have some 15's in lilac & white so may try a flower brooch instead of the bird.

Sarah.

Twisted ndebele ribbon necklace.

I finished this today, I've been wanting to try this variation of herringbone from Carol Wilcox Wells book the Art & Elegance of Beadweaving, ever since the book came out. I thought it would take ages though so never bothered, it actually didn't take as long as I thought, it was much quicker than the other twists I've done. I enjoyed the technique but visually I prefer the contrasting colours in the other 2 twists. I will be buying some beads later so I now know to purchase some high contrast colours, I better go grab Margie Deebs book before I shop.

Hopefully my next finished object will be a bead embroidered folk art style bird, fingers crossed it works out.

Sarah.

Pendants from 1st ceramics workshop.

I started going to a ceramics workshop at the local art centre 3 weeks ago. I made some pendants in my 1st week and glazed them last week, I picked them up on Wednesday & was really pleased to see I had 3 that I really liked and that the others were at least usable. Unfortunately the last class is next week so I won't be able to make any more until September, but I plan to start an ideas book for the class & I have some clay to play with, so I'm sure I'll cope for a while!

Sarah.

Hello Dolly.

Well here she is! Like I said not perfect but lots of fun to make!

Sarah.

Bead Embroidery - A New Obsession?

No pics today I'm afraid, can't find batteries for the camera. I might not have pics but I do have a finished object to talk about, a beaded doll no less, woohoo, a fairly long held beading ambition finally achieved!

I've wanted to make a beaded doll ever since I saw one of Barb McLeans dolls probably about 3 or 4 years ago but was always kind of intimidated by the idea of actually making one. I tried bead embroidery once, from Sherry Serafini's instruction in B&B December 2003, it's still half finished in a drawer upstairs & is very unlikely to ever be completed.

But, this Saturday I found my way to Celticats Bead Doll FAQ, printed off the instructions at 4.30, had a completed doll body from Ronda Kivetts 2 1/2" tiny goddess doll pattern by 6.15, was sat down beading from 7.25 til 10.00 by which time the back was finished & also a bit of the front. (At this point, my hand felt like it was falling off & my shoulders were knotted & sore from hunching over it but I could not put it down, obsessed much?)

Now she ain't perfect, far from it, but who cares? I don't 'cos I actually got off my backside and tried something I wanted to do even though I thought I would not be able to. I decided to forget about perfection & just concentrate on creating texture & a fair bit of colour, she's purple aqua & gold, so I definitely got colour going on there! My hubby hates but pah, what does he know? Pics soon I promise.

Apart from another doll (yes I already have plans), I want to try a beaded brooch using The Lone Beaders instructions, the layering looks like it will be huge fun.

Links to check out
Barb McLean http://www.beaddolls.com/
Sherry Serafini http://www.serafinibeadedjewelry.com/
Celticats Bead Doll FAQ http://beaddoll.freewebsitehosting.com/Index.html
Ronda Kivetts Doll Patterns http://www.kivett-studio.com/patterns
The Lone Beaders Tutorial http://www.ebsqart.com/ArtMagazine/za_522.htm

Enjoy,

Sarah.

New peyote bracelet

I needed a plain black bracelet for a work thing on Monday but wanted a bit of embellishment on it, of course I have very few black accents so I came up with this. I have a few other ideas from it that I hope to make soon.

Sarah.

Pendant quick fix.

I made the necklace in the 1st photo a while ago & have to admit it's sooo boring. So today I thought I would give it a bit of a make-over, a couple of peyote strips & a starflower from Diane Fitzgeralds Beaded Garden book & it's much nicer. Quick, easy & economical, three of my favourite things!

Nice necklace, shame about the picture

I have to admit that I am becoming increasingly frustrated with the quality of my pictures. This necklace is very pretty irl & the pic makes it look a bit blah. I guess I need to take some time to really practise & get a decent set up but the free time I have I want to actually bead. Oh well, can't have it both ways. Have a great bank holiday weekend!

Red & Gold Collar.

I made this for a challenge on the UK Beaders Forum. It had to be completed by this w/e & I started it late Thursday night, remind me never to do that again. I am quite pleased but it's not quite what I wanted, I had intended to do extra layers of netting but it was just too much work. I have wanted a collar for ages though & now I finally have one.

Herringbone bracelet & huge earrings.

I have mostly been mucking about with herringbone this week, here is a finished bracelet & the earrings are this week's YOJ entry.

Quick & Simple Peyote Bracelet.

I made this quick & easy bracelet yesterday. The pattern is by Julie Walker & it's in Beadwork Aug/Sep 06. I took tons of photo's but this was the best I could do. I really need to take a course or something.

Shark Fin Earrings

I learnt circular peyote last week so I did not really concentrate on planning a design for week 17 YOJ project, but at about 8.00pm last night it hit me, circles with a 'fin' on one side. I used these colours to coordinate with a favourite shirt but I am thinking they'd look good in clashing bright also.

Apart from these wire wrap clip on's I haven't completed much this week, I am learning circular peyote stitch, which I picked up ok but is a little slow at the moment, kind of fun, hopefully I will have a finished project soon. Of course I should not be faffing about with a new stitch because I should be either working on my week 17 year of jewellery piece which is due tomorrow & I have no clue what I am going to do, or I should be making 2 other spiral rope bracelets as I made a personal committment to make a series of five within 1 month, I guess I still have 2 weeks though. Oh & I have a few birthday presents to make & I wanted to make something to send off for the Bead Magazine Gallery. I need a to do list!

Herringbone Twist Finally Done!

I seriously thought this necklace would never be finished! I am so slow at this stitch. The pendant started out as a medallion from Suzanne Coopers Victorian & Variations, I peyoted around it for 3 rows than added two rows of netting, increasing the no of beads in the 2nd row to create a frill (which doesn't really show on the pic).

Sarah

Spiral 2 - the spicy version.

I've decided to do a series of spiral rope bracelets, experimenting with colour & texture. Here is number 2, very unusual colour choices from me but I really love it! I used miyuki 11's and a colour mix from The Bead Merchant size 6 I think. I like the contrast of the plainer rope in between the mix versions. In other beady news, I actually picked up the slowest necklace in the universe and dd another couple of inches, yippee!

The 2 hour bracelet

I have been stuck in a bit of a rut with my seed beads lately, my colour combo for a planned beaded bead necklace was not working for me & the herringbone twist necklace I am making in brown & turquoise is so slow it's sending me to sleep. So last night I pulled out a couple of tubes & decided to make a nice simple spiral bracelet. I used silver-lined crystal 11's & colour lined purple triangles with some easy wrapped beads using swarovski pearls as a base. I am really happy with it, the simple colour combo is very striking and the focal beads add a nice touch I think.

Week 15 of YOJ - Earrings

Copper & sterling silver earrings with swarovski bicones. I made the earwires myself! I am very proud!

Technical issues

I am having problems uploading pics to my pc. This is particularly annoying since I was actually intending to be a good blogger & write a post about our day out today. I even took photos as we went along, how very organised of me! Oh well, soon hopefully.

Some Spiral Ropes

Someone on a forum I frequent asked what our favourite stitches were. I decided on spiral rope because it is super quick, easy & can be varied to create a lot of different looks. Here are a few of the spiral ropes I have made. A necklace in silver lined aqua and lilac with a murano glass bead & some swarovski crystals, a chunky red rope using s/l red ab 11's & 4mm miyuki cubes, a bracelet using a mix of accent beads & a necklace in teals using alternating sets of outer beads which include triangles & size 11's, I also used easy beaded beads in this one & finished with a tassel.