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.

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.

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.

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.