Take Me To Your Beader

Hooray for light tents!

2007-09-25T14:20:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-09-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-09-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-23T05:44:00.001-07:00

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

2007-08-18T03:15:00.001-07:00

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

2007-08-16T05:42:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-12T06:43:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-31T13:46:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-07-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-07-20T07:37:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-07-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-07-05T14:23:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-07-01T10:54:00.001-07:00

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.

2007-06-29T12:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-06-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

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

Sarah.

Bead Embroidery - A New Obsession?

2007-06-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-06-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-06-17T14:23:00.001-07:00

Pendant quick fix.

2007-05-31T12:56:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-25T11:59:00.001-07:00

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.

2007-05-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-06T07:55:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-04-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-04-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-04-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

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

Technical issues

2007-04-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

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.

Sunday's show & tell.

2007-03-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

This week I have mostly been surfing the web after discovering Craft magazines blog http://www.craftzine.com/blog/ , it's rapidly become a favourite of mine, but be warned, you could lose hours at a time on this one. I did manage to make some stuff as you can see, a simple s link necklace using copper wire & tigers eye & some super quick earrings , the 1st are laborodite & swarovski, the second are a mix of Czech glass. I have also been making an i-pod cozy from the tutorial here http://craftydaisies.com/category/tutorials/ , scroll down, it's right at the bottom of the page. I haven't done any sewing in about 6/7 years but this is coming out quite well, it would be finished if I hadn't sewn one of the snaps on wrong, grrrr! It's a great tute tho' & the blog is well worth a read, beautiful crafts!

Woven bracelet.

2007-03-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

I finally got my issue of the April Bead & Button last Wednesday. It was a good issue, there were quite a lot of projects that I really liked, sometimes it's just 1 or 2. This bracelet caught my eye & I just had to make one. The base is peyote stitch with a netted embellishment.

Sarah.

Birthday gift

2007-03-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

I made this for a friends birthday & I am happy to say she loved it. It's a simple spiral rope with a petite flower pendant from Bead & Button (can't find the issue ). The colour combination really stands out irl & works well with the simplicity.

2 Beaded Rings

2007-03-04T14:27:00.000-08:00

We took the little boy to our local library yesterday. I just happened to find myself near the craft section & found some beading books, funny that, eh? One of them was Beautiful Beaded Rings, I had hoped to find it as I knew someone who had it already & liked it. I really liked the book, some of the rings are similar styles to ones in some Japanese beading books I have, but others used techniques that were new to me, which I hope to try this week, watch this space. I made these two rings yesterday, they took about 30 minutes each & used up leftovers of beads from other projects. I am very pleased with them both, especially the blue & green one, it's absolutely huge!

Still can't find the camera.

2007-03-02T04:36:00.000-08:00

Here is a piece that I did in class a few years ago. The teacher was a lady called Kaye Edwards. I've taken two classes with her & enjoyed them both, she does lovely work.

I got the latest Step by Step Beads yesterday, I am trying to decide whether to cancel my order with the newsagent or not, for the last few months I haven't really found it that useful, although if I ever decide to take up polymer clay it would come in useful, they have great poly clay projects, but not much seed bead stuff & I guess they leave the wire work to Step by Step Wire.

The only project I may do is the love knot bracelet, I have never tried to do tubular raw before & this looks like nice simple & wearable piece to start out with.

Where's the flippin camera?

2007-03-01T04:50:00.000-08:00

The little boy's in bed, the sun is shining, I actually cleaned the kitchen so I thought I would slack off housework & take some photo's but I can't find the camera, it's not where it should be which means dh has moved it, grrr! I hate it when he moves my stuff! I would normally react to this in a suitably snotty way with an irate phone call screeching the above question, but he is in Canary Wharf at a meeting so stroppy phone calls are out of the question, bleurgh! I will stamp my feet twice instead. Childish, who me?

One of my goals this year is to make more of the blog, I haven't really put much time into it up till now & that's a shame. The fact that I got a comment from someone was really exciting & made me realise that it would be worth putting in a bit of an effort. So instead of stropping off & doing something else when I couldn't find the camera, I dug through some old photo's & came up with this bronze seed bead woven collar.

I made it as a leaving gift for a girl at work last year, the base is a simple 2 drop peyote, I added swags & drops & then edged it. I used metallic bronze & galvanised gold seed beads & topaz swarovski crystals. I was pleased with it because I did not follow a pattern & it actually came out looking like I wanted it too, always a bonus. She was really pleased with it too!

Right, I'm off to look for that camera again.

Bead Fair Loot, recent wirework & an old favourite.

2007-02-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted for a while but am posting today to celebrate the fact that I got my 1st ever comment (well I had 1 already but that was a friend so it doesn't count). I was very excited! So I thought I'd better get posting again.

In January I went to the Chepstow Gem 'n' Bead Fair with some friends. To be honest I wasn't expecting much because it was the 1st one to be held, but I was pleasantly surprised, they were quite a lot of vendors there, mostly semi-precious out of my price range, but as you can see I managed to buy something. A few of the places I bought from were Richmond Rocks (Laborodite, Garnet & Peruvian Opal), Crystals 4 Less (I especially loved the ABx2 finish, it changes the colour so much) & GJ Beads, some nice seed beads & a lovely shell pendant). It was a lot of fun, most of the vendors were really friendly and helpful, although there was one who was a bit snotty, still her loss 'cos there was no way I'd ever buy anything from her. If they are running the event again, I will definitely go next year but I will take a lot more money!

The copper necklace is the one that I wore to the fair, it is one of my favourite pieces to wear, it is comfortable & I love the copper/dark amethyst colour combo, the earrinmgs are the 1st thing I made using my new beads from the fair, I have made other things since but haven't had chance to take photo's, will try to do so soon.

I came across this lariat today, I had almost forgotten it, don't know how since it took flippin' ages to make but it was about 5/6 years ago, the rope is graduated spiral rope, instructions are here http://www.rubysbeadwork.com/SpiralTutorial.html, the Russian leaves are from an old Bead and Button & the iris is here http://beadwork.about.com/library/weekly/aa081798.htm.

Sarah.

Trying to catch up.

2007-01-20T06:18:00.000-08:00

One of my new years resolutions was to post more & make more of my blog, but so far I'm failing big style. Here a few pictures of my latest work including my first 3 year of jewellery pieces, a necklace made using the double rose window & cuboctohedron patterns from www.beadinfinitum.com & a flower brooch from beadwork magazine
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The rest of the beaded beads

2007-01-10T13:11:00.000-08:00

I did complete the task but just did not get around to posting the finished beads here, better late than never?

2 down, 12 to go

2006-12-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

Here is my 2nd bead. It's an embellished spinning top (you can find free instructions for the spinning top bead at www.beadinfinitum.com. I used galvinised gold 11's, amethyst matte ab 8's & purple velvet 4mm swarovski's. The picture does not do it justice.

14 beaded beads til Christmas

2006-12-12T13:22:00.000-08:00

I have decided to make 1 beaded bead a day up til Christmas Eve, here is yesterdays, pattern by Bead Infinitum, swarovskis, glass pearls & seed beads

Long time, no post.

2006-12-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

Been really busy, here a some of my latest pieces. As you can tell, I'm getting into wirework in a big way. Although I did enjoy making the woven piece, it is probably my most ambitious project yet.

Week 4 fsoj & others

2006-10-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

The coil bracelet is this week's fsoj piece, I did not worry about the theme as I wanted to learn the technique, I really like it, There is also a copper, semi-precious gemstone & crystal necklace & two beaded bead necklaces (pattern is spinning tops from bead infinitum)

Lots of new Stuff, including week 3 fsoj piece

2006-10-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

As you can see I've been pretty busy this week, I've made some other stuff too but haven't photographed it yet. The chain and bead earrings are my fsoj week 3 project, I kinda forgot about it & needed a quick project but am still really pleased with them, they certainly stand out!

2006-10-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

Hmm, can't believe I've left it so long to post. I've got quite a lot of stuff to photograph but for now I'll catch up with stuff I should have posted earlier.
Here's my FSOJ week 2 piece, Mother Earth, Father Sky, next up my FSOJ week one piece, Season of Earth & my set for the Bead & Button Forum Monochromatic Seed Bead Challenge, Forever Fandango.

Wirework - practising for FSOJ

2006-09-17T04:02:00.000-07:00

I am all signed up for the Four Seasons of Jewellery 2006/07, I am excited but a bit nervous although 1 piece a week shouldn't be a problem but keeping to the themes might. I know the themes are optional but I do want to try & stick to them as a way of improving my design skills. I have participated in 2 challenges on the Bead & Button forum & have found sticking to someone elses guidelines both challenging & a great learning experience, knowing that my pieces will be posted in a gallery with others by very talented people does seem to make me try new things & think a bit more about the design so hopefully I will build on that with FSOJ.

I mostly use beadweaving techniques & the FSOJ is an offshoot of the creative wire jewelry forum so I have been practising with wire, here are some of the results.

Spiral Rope Bracelet

2006-09-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

Spiral Rope Bracelet
Originally uploaded by sarahjt1.

Here's a very quick & simple spiral rope bracelet I made last night using Size 11's, size 8's & cube beads, the beaded beads on the end are simple wrapped beads. I love spiral rope, it is so versatile & quick to make.
I shouldn't really have made it though as I have a lot of other stuff to do,a bracelet for a forum swap, a victorian & variations style necklace in brown & gold that's in progress, I have just signed up to FSOJ 06/07 so I need to start thinking about that & I have also just signed up to do a victorian style necklace for another forum challenge. I think I'll try to design my own for the victorian challenge, I've got some lovely white opalish seed beads & moonstone rounds that I think will be nice for it.

Purple & Silver Choker

2006-09-12T08:35:00.000-07:00

Purple & Silver Choker .

I just finished this choker today. The medallion pattern is in Suzanne Coopers Victorian & Variations. I used silver glass pearls, purple velvet swarovskis & delicas. I've used this pattern a lot, it is quick & easy & looks great in all sorts of colourways. I am also making it using brown & gold colours for a friend, I'll post that when it's finished.

First Post

2006-09-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe I've finally done this, I've been talking about it for long enough. I am thinking about signing up for the Four Seasons of Jewellery 2006/07 Project & figured I might as well go the whole hog & set up a journal.

Just to test this out here is a photo of a bracelet I created for the seed bead bracelet challenge on the Bead & Button Forum.