Out with the old

So as part of my New Year's clean-up, I am cleaning out my beading supplies.  I started by returning a metric butt ton of unused seed beads which I ordered online and haven't opened in the two years since I purchased them!!!  I don't have the original receipts, so we'll see if Artbeads will even take them, but if nothing else, they're out of my tackle box!

Meanwhile, I'll be featuring one of my destash listings every couple of days until I come up with better content.  LOL.

Here's a listing for 20 pressed glass flowers:

The flowers are drilled through the center from top to bottom (so you could see the entire flower laying flat if you string it). These are AB coated on one side. Would make a cute bracelet for your favorite little girl.

Look! Another Etsy Treasury!

Check out this treasury of handmade crafts, made in Hawaii!  (BTW, those are my earrings, on the last row, 2nd from the right.)  Cool!

 

 

 

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4d1a69903c236d91716322b4/handmade-in-paradise-team-hawaii

Another New Year's Resolution

Remember last year, when I decided to try "a picture a day" blogging?  Well, that lasted about a month.  :)  This year, I decided to ditch the minimalist black background and liven things up a bit.  

Here are my blogging resolutions for this year:

1. Post at least one photo a week
2. Include a tutorial or how-to at least once a month
3. Expand the content beyond just crafting projects

Simple enough, right?  We'll see.

Pearl and Brass Sparrow Double necklace

If you have Filipino family, you know that there are always extra people either living with you or traveling with you for the holidays.  The reason I explain is because even though I'm not Filipino,  my sister in law is.  On occasion, she catches me off guard with the assumption that her relatives are my relatives.  She is bringing her little sister to my parents' house for Christmas, and based on previous experience, I know the expectation is that the sister will also have something to open for Christmas.

 If you haven't noticed from my previous blogs, well, my budget for presents was pretty tight and I've more or less blown it already so I'm making gifts.

Brass is less expensive than silver, but that's not why I picked it for this particular piece.  These brass swallows are showing up all over the place right now... it's a really popular motif with the younger crowd.  You could, I guess, have a brass focal piece and use sterling chain, but I hate to mix metals and then add pearls and crystal in different colors.  I wanted a double strand look, and didn't want too many competing elements.

Of course, that being said, I think it needs a silk ribbon or something soft next to the pearls.  Time to dig through the stash and see what I can come up with.

Here's a shot for scale, so  you can see the length.

Another gift- Grandma's Angels Purse Charm

Earlier this year, I got a great deal on rice cookers. What does this have to do with beading? Well, I bought one for my family and another to squirrel away as a Christmas gift for my parents. Lo and behold, my dad was over for dinner after I ordered these things and says, "Your mom wants to go to COSTCO to buy a new rice cooker, because ours is dying." Five minutes later, the UPS guy shows up with my rice cookers. So anyway, my dad went back home with a new rice cooker and a funny story.

With interisland airfare being what it is, there's no expectation that we'll bring another gift when we go to my parents' house to visit for the holidays. However, I don't want to show up empty handed... And thus, I made my mom a purse charm with one angel for each of the grandkids.

I mean, really. What do you make for a person who doesn't wear jewelry? I guess you could also clip this to a key ring or hang it in a window as a light catcher...

Anyhow, these are quite simple. The dress is a pressed glass flower, metal wings are available in a number of different shapes, the heads are Swarovski crystal in birthstone colors, and a circular Bali silver spacer is used as a halo. They are hooked to a larger looped cable chain using 4.5mm jump rings. There you have it.

Fatima Earrings...

I'll admit, money's still tight around here so I'm making gifts out of things I've had in my stash for a while. Here's a pair of dangly earrings I made out of some laser cut Hand of Fatima focals.

I did buy the silver feather dangles and smaller (3mm) jump rings in order to make these, but they were relatively inexpensive. (Silver is sold by weight. Earrings need featherlight components.)

And to make a "card" to hold the earrings in its gift box, I took an old business card, punched some holes in it, and had my 2 year old scribble a "rainbow" on it. Voila! Hand made goodness!

My Entry in the "What Inspires You?" Contest

I decided against rushing the necklace and entered my best selling piece.  This ring is a real pain to make.  Pearls tend to have very small holes, shells are very fragile (read: large, irregular holes).  The other fun part is with the ring.  The original ring was made using a Thai Silver embellishment ring, and although I've since learned to make a very similar ring using wire, it is a bit challenging to make them exactly the right size. 

If you feel inclined, please vote for my ring in the contest!
http://wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/61138/voteable_entries/10392896

Quick Sundress

It's coming up on Thanksgiving but we can still wear sundresses here.  :)

 So anyway, while I try to figure out what to do with the necklace, I decided to whip up this cute little dress for my daughter.  I started out with this tutorial from Martha Stewart's website and a yard of cute pink and green plaid.

Anyway, as it turns out, since this dress is basically one large rectangle, I really only needed 1/2 yd for a cute knee length dress.  However, there were these super cute skirts on all the girls in Japan which were using plaid in layers (like a shorter peasant skirt) but alternating with the pattern on bias (diagonal). 

So anyway, since I needed about 16 inches of length, I decided to make the top 12 inches with a 4 inch ruffle on the bias.  It took about 2 hours to make the dress from start to finish.  There is plenty left over for patch pockets and some additional things like a sash or small purse.  (I might end up making new shoulder ties- we'll see how hard they are to tie as is.  I really hate to have long dangly ties on my own clothes, so I deliberately made these short.)  Also, thanks to smocking, the dress can eventually be used as a top with some jeans.

We'll see if we can get the girl to wear it.  :)

Creative Paralysis

As you may recall, I'm working on a necklace to enter in the "What Inspires You" contest for Artbeads.com.   I'm done with the Right Angle Weave "base" for the collar, and decided to embellish using some leftover beads from one of my flat spiral bracelets... so there are two toned 4mm fire polished Czech beads and 5mm Swarovski bicones.

What comes next?  Well, there are a couple of design problems.  First of all, I ran out of the magatama beads so I can't make the choker base any longer.  It's approximately 10 inches long, so I need to figure out something decorative to attach the collar to the clasp.  If I ordered another batch of beads now, they might arrive in time to lengthen the collar but not in time to plan the scalloping. 

Which brings my to my next problem.  The original concept was to use 4x6mm red teardrops to represent the lava flowing into the ocean... which seemed great at first but when I laid it out there were just too many other things going on.  The scallops need to have larger accent pieces.  I actually have larger red teardrops which look better, but I haven't decided whether to incorporate red or to stick with the black/blue/gray... I do have some terrific briolettes in my stash, including labradorite, moonstone, and quartz.  I can't decide... but I guess I'd better make a decision soon since I have to get the piece submitted next weekend.  :)

Inspired???

Remember the Artbeads beading contest that I decided to enter? I decided to do a necklace loosely based off of this idea:

Instead of doing a simple scallop, however, I wanted something a little more significant as a choker style with scallops and drops. I've never learned to do the right angle weave, but I know how to sew, so I decided to try this Embellished Right Angle Weave using a tutorial I found from Auntie's Beads on YouTube.

The thing that caught my eye about this RAW pattern is that it forms a grid using seed beads.  There are all sorts of variations you can do with that base.  So anyway, I modified her pattern here by using 11/0 Miyuki Delica seed beads and also 3mm Toho Magatama seed beads.  The cool thing about the Magatama beads is that the hole is not centered, so it gives a little more random look to a highly structured pattern.  I have some 5mm Swarovski bicones that I scored on sale at Ben Franklin and two toned AB 3mm Czech beads that are left over from a flat spiral bracelet I made last year.

Anyway, the result looks great so far, but it's kicking my butt!  It takes me about an hour to cover 3/4" and since I want to do a dog collar type of choker, that sucker ought to be 12" with an extender chain but as it turns out, I only have enough Magatama beads for about 9 or 10 inches.  (Darn.)  So then I have to figure out some additional stitching on either end of the right angle weave. It also takes a long time to add thread since there are multiple passes through beads to begin with and the fact that I want to err on the side of caution with the weight of the finished piece... if I ever finish, that is.  My hands cramp after about 2 hours so you can do the math.  I've got about 6 inches done on the base.  At this rate, I'll be lucky to finish in time.

The original plan was to do a picot edge on the top of the choker and sort of a lotus type scallop on the bottom, like this pattern.  (With more and smaller scallops.)

I sure hope that part goes faster than this right angle weave.  At my current pace, I'm going to have to start working during my lunch breaks at work.

Thong, tha thong thong tha thong..

So my mother's birthday is coming up. She said no presents, which she says every year. But she never turns down anything I send her. :)

Anyway, I decided to make a book thong out of some leftover materials I had laying around. The round beads, you may recognize from my recent purchases Queen Bee II in Akasuka-bashi (Tokyo). The focal is a flat brushed aluminum link that I picked up at a Michael's just over a year ago. The charms are from Artbeads, if I recall correctly.

Basically, I took 12 inches of beading wire, made a loop on the end using a crimp bead, put some heavier beads on the end, then strung 15/0 seed beads that I had leftover from some other bracelets. The trick is, in theory, to have at 10-12 inches of thin or flat stuff in the middle, so some people use thread (waxed 4 ply seems to pop up a lot), or ribbon instead. I put the heavier dangle on the side I imagined to be the lower side. I'm not sure that really matters.

We can ask my mom her opinion on how practical the design is after her birthday. :)

Inspiration?

Remember the Artbeads.com contest?  I decided to do some sort of necklace related to some recent photos of lava flowing into the sea...

In all honesty, I don't know precisely how I'm going to capture this in a necklace.  I was thinking of using a modified lattice in blues and blacks with red czech top drilled teardrops and maybe a light silver chain?  My stash already contains a large number of seed beads and Swarovski crystals in various sizes, shapes, and colors, so the challenge is to keep the design manageable.

Anyway, one of the conditions is that 50% of your components must be from Artbeads.  Again, not a problem because I buy most of my staples from them and Fire Mountain Gems.  However, it was a great excuse to get more stuff... hehehehehe.  And my order arrived today...

Bugs in the Garden

Here's another memory wire bracelet I made during naptime. Boy am I going to miss that quiet time when it's gone!

This one was a variation on the cosmo pattern I tried selling. (Everyone always commented on how pretty it was, but no one ever bought any.)

If you look closely, you'll notice that one of the wires is actually shorter than the other. I did that on purpose so the butterflies wouldn't be all over each other, fawning for attention. :)


The trick to this style, more or less, is to figure out which beads have holes big enough to pass both wires through.

The artistic intent of this bracelet was to remind us of the bugs in the garden!

Whimsy for the Girl

Here's a quick bracelet I made for my toddler during naptime.

It's fairly simple, just some beads and jelly bean buttons I picked up in Japan... and strung on memory wire. The girl loves to play with my glass bead memory wire bracelets. Since she's two years old, she more or less breaks any of the larger glass beads.

So, this one has plastic bugle beads, silver spacers, Czech fire polished glass, and plastic buttons. It took me a while to figure out a pattern that didn't put the jelly beans all bunched together.



The other reason I like memory wire for making play jewelry is because it's easy for little ones to dress themselves- no clasps to worry about. Not to mention that a quality memory wire doesn't lend itself to breaking very easily and since you can't make one out of sterling silver the wire itself is relatively inexpensive.



Here's a shot of the bracelet on my very accommodating model.

:)

Cute enough to eat!

More sewing...

It's soccer season... my son's team is in first place, which is the first time that's ever happened in his life. That's exciting but some of the games happen right during naptime. So I decided to make a little quilt for the toddler to sleep on while her brother embarrasses me with his smack talking.
It's a little quilt, only 2x3 feet. As always when I quilt, I draw out a much larger pattern, then end up only doing a piece of it. Anyway, the concept here are 12 inch squares of randomly sized strips. Not too complicated, and made of materials already on hand. If you look carefully on the left side of the picture, you can tell I was about 4 inches short on the pink fleece binding and patched in a piece of white.

Don't ask me why the standard increment in prepackaged binding is 3 yards, when there is no quilt or blanket you would ever make with only 3 yards of binding, but I bought these packages on sale years ago...

My carpal tunnel is acting up, so beading is difficult... but I can do machine quilting. :)

The next project I want to try is an "I Spy" quilt, and then maybe a T-shirt quilt.

Artbeads "What Inspires You?" Contest

Artbeads just announced their first ever ‘What Inspires You?’ jewelry contest! There are two categories, necklaces and other beaded designs for this contest. Voting will be open to the public to determine the top 3 winners in each category. A picture of the inspiration and design will allow the voters to see how each entry is represented.

The Grand Prize Winner in the Necklace and Beading contests will each receive a $500 Artbeads.com Gift Certificate, the 2nd Place winners will each receive a $250 Artbeads.com Gift Certificate and the 3rd Place winners will each receive a $100 Artbeads.com Gift Certificate.

This is a contest of originality, design, and vision. All entries MUST be an original design. At least 50% of the beads and components in a submitted entry must be purchased from Artbeads.com. Participants must upload one picture of their design and one of picture of their inspiration. This contest is open to beaders worldwide, aged 18 and older.

More Asakusabashi Finds

Can I just tell you how much I loved all the bead stores in Asakusabashi? Here are more pictures of the nifty things I found. Hand crafted lampwork beads with lovely details can be found in many stores.

Flowers and nature motifs are also quite popular.
I also picked up a quartz apple for a friend who is a teacher. Quartz is said to help people clarify their thoughts and focus their energy and is good for people who need to attract good energy.

Also found in Asakusabashi, these gemstone strands... I have no idea what they are. I suspect the blue beads are some sort of crushed composite... maybe quartz as well. The red and green ones will be perfect for Christmas gifts. :)

Buttons, buttons, everywhere!

As you may have already noticed, I also like to sew. My mother made sure I took sewing lessons and know how to alter clothes, sew from scratch, and alter patterns. I couldn't resist these cute little buttons... Aren't they just yummy?

This cute little bear is probably going to be a toggle on a purse or something similar. The jelly beans, flowers, and small Hello Kitty buttons are going to embellish ribbon covered hair clippies for my daughter.

HAHA, poor girl. She doesn't really like wearing clippies.

Maybe I'll make some hair bands or something else instead.

More from the Road

While wandering from bead store to bead store, I came across another store with an Indian shop keeper. The prices weren't all that great but they had these really unusual sterling spacer beads. If you haven't already noticed, I'm a sucker for small and dainty components.

Since it was sold by the gram and marked up quite a bit over the current market price for silver, I only picked up a dozen of these.

These little beads are so cute, I had to wire up another pair of drop earrings... so I sandwiched them between some faceted roundelle iolites. I brought wire, but didn't bring any headpins, so the only thing I could do was use briolettes at the end of the drop.

Fortunately, I brought these beautiful moonstones along with. They were actually quite expensive and are also relatively soft. When I started working with them, I actually ruined quite a few stones. It's a shame. Moonstones are beautifully opalescent, and look different from every angle. I love these, since each stone is unique.

The iolite is the perfect compliment to the bluish hues in the moonstone.
(Actually, iolite is also kind of soft... but not as much as the moonstone.)

Since all of these gems were purchased in strands, I could actually make a couple similar pairs of earrings. They are light and pretty, but I probably wouldn't make these except by special order or as gifts.

Maybe I should go back to Akasukabashi and look for more of these beads. Hehehehehehe.

On the Road

Today marks the end of my first of approximately 2.5 weeks in Japan. Figuring that I might have time to bead, I brought some things along with me. As it turns out, beading is a very popular hobby around here. So, as I was wandering around Tokyo, I found a huge concentration of bead stores in the Akasukabashi area.

This strand of pearls is one of my Akasukabashi finds. I couldn't resist the luster and color of these pearls for the price. :)

So anyway, I paired the pearls with some faceted garnet discs I brought with me, and some metal charms I bought on my trip to DC last year. These came out so cute that I made a couple of pearl and garnet links to make into a matching necklace (once I get back home and get into the chains and clasps already in my stash).

Since I don't get out of meetings until after dark, I'm stuck with artificial indoor lighting.

But anyway, here they are... my dainty little Tokyo pearl and DC garnet earrings!

One Dress a Day

This chick is chic!!! OMG, I've been wanting to get into upcycling and repurposing thrift store finds into crafty type things like quilts and purses, but here's a young lady (and I can say that because I'm older than her) who decided on her 30th birthday, to spend a year making her own clothes... 365 new items in 365 days on $365.


Her creativity also extends to her writing. You should check her out!

http://newdressaday.wordpress.com/

Other Nifty Crafts

Here are some cute little blogs with free crafting ideas:

First, a "Twirly Skirt Tutorial," with awesome photos of each step (and other cute kids' patterns) at House on Hill Road. I am totally making one of these! There is also a really detailed tutorial on an absolutely adorable shirred tank top (which I knew how to do, but rather than explain it to you, well, her directions are much better than anything I could explain!)

Then, you've all seen those "I Spy" bags, right? The local yuppy educational kid's toy store sells these things for $35. Being a crafter, I can't bring myself to spend that much on what amounts to a glorified bean bag that would cost me about $7 to make. Well, check out this mega creative tutorial on Make It and Love It!! OH MY GOODNESS, this is an even better idea than the one I had! (Which was basically a glorified bean bag.)

And last, but not least, my favorite online beading supply place has a terrific section of free ideas of what to do with the rest of the stuff I bought from them! HAHA. I got an email notification from Artbeads months ago saying they were doing this, but to be honest, it wasn't all that creative when it started. However, it has significantly expanded to include all sorts of different designs that are submitted by customers. Very cool. I should get back to beading and submit my own design!

I Wish I Had More Time!!!

Life is crazy but good around here.

My husband is on travel, and the break in our daily routine somehow led to this pair of earrings last night. The beads are a natural stone which has been sitting among my things so long that I can't remember what they are anymore. The metal flowers were picked up at a sale from Michaels' almost a year ago.

The wire cutters I used to make these are so sharp that I accidentally nicked one of my wire wraps on the right earring, so I need to re-do that one. I might just have to break out the wire jig and make a little clover or something.

Anyway, since I haven't had time to do much of anything this year, I'm going through my stash to make presents for friends and family. I guess that means I need to resist the urge to wear these!

Chirimen Kanzashi

It's been a while. You know how it goes. Anyway, I finally had a few moments to myself and decided to try a new craft: tsumami kanzashi.

Basically, it entails folding cloth and gluing pieces together to make flowers typically used in hair ornaments. I grew up doing origami and can make a crane out of 2 inch paper. (Which takes a needle and some skill.)
Since tsumami kanzashi involves the assembly of many pieces, the cloth size you start with is typically quite small. It is recommended to start with a 2 inch square... each of which makes a petal or leaf.

So I followed most of the instructions I found online, and improvised a bit on the glue and wire base. (Hey, I'm into beading, and you need SOMETHING to be in the middle of all these petals.) Not bad for a first try, but as you might be able to tell, instead of starting with more expensive silk chirimen cloth, I chose polyester.

It was still a bit pricey, as I bought the material from a craft store in Japan. I think next time, I'll go with variegated colors without the distracting print. Although I cut enough squares to make 3 similar sized flowers plus two smaller ones (presumably for a comb or full sized head piece), I might just call it a day with this one and make a different style of flower with the rest of the squares.

As you can tell from the 2nd photo, this flower is pretty huge. Personally, I prefer dainty... however, this is large enough to make a pretty cool headband or cover for a large spring loaded barrette.

Maybe I'll make the rest of the flowers and make a larger, funkier head piece. Instead of the traditional metal bira bira and wisteria falls, I've got tons of ribbon and (of course) beads!

I guess technically, since I'm using fabritac glue and nylon, this is actually a lower end flower. We'll see how this all turns out.

A Worthy Cause

In case you were wondering what to do with that extra material, there's a young lady from Kentucky, Michala Riggle, who makes bracelets, donating the proceeds to a charity which conducts research on autism. String some basic bracelets and/or donate the supplies !

Here's an exerpt from her website:


With just $7.35 cents and a passion to help kids like her brother, Evan, Michala Riggle, age 12, started doing the only thing she knew how to do...make bracelets. See what happened!

Beading Sales!

It's been really busy around here with the family and work... unfortunately, I haven't been beading much recently. We also started getting some minor renovations done around the house, and the baby is now potty training.

However, for those who do have the time, Soft Flex is having a show at Ward Warehouse this weekend. This is always a really cool bead show because they bring in suppliers from throughout the country. On island, it's hard to find certain types of things, for example, lucite, porcelain, and discontinued Swarovski in interesting shapes. There are also super high end strands of all sorts of gemstones which are typically sold by the piece locally...

So there are great deals to be had for high end jewelry makers and those who enjoy challenging themselves beyond your standard stretchy crystal bicone bracelet.

If you can't make it to Ward Warehouse, Bead It! in Kailua is having a silver trunk show in their new location. Apparently, we're getting a Whole Foods in Kailua, next to Longs. So, Bead It moved across the street, next to BookEnds.

Anyway, they do these trunk shows at each of their shops about once a quarter. Typically, you can find a lot of charms, Bali style toggle clasps, hoops, and decorative links. Sometimes they have smaller blanks for metal stamping. Pretty much the same stuff you can get online from Rings & Things, but without the handling fees for smaller orders and without having to wait for shipping.

Maybe it's just me, but when I buy things, I always have a project. When the product is purchased online, sometimes the product isn't quite what I expected or can't be used for what I had in mind. Going to these shows, even if you can't buy everything you want right away, is a great way to put hands on some of these materials so you have a better idea of what you're looking at online.

So there you have it! Go have fun!

Tsunami Alert

Fortunately, it ended up going as predicted by the experts and there was no loss to life or property.

Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers!

Wire Wrapped Quartz Pendants

Although I haven't had a lot of time to myself lately (the hubby is still deployed), I did take some time last night and made a couple of playful pendants out of quartz.

I bought this strand when I was playing around with different ideas for my wedding jewelry, so it's about time I did something with these.

When I first started working with wire, I was obsessed with neat, tight wraps. Honestly, that gets boring after a while. It's a lot more fun to play with the wire and make something different... however, artistic creativity should not be confused with sloppy carelessness. Typically, even the artsy wire wraps start out with the neat, tight wraps to ensure the integrity of the piece.

Anyway, clear quartz is considered (by those who believe in the power of healing stones) as the "master healer." It treats physical conditions as well as emotional... but in particular, it is said to calm its wearer, aid concentration and memory, and help motivate positive action.

Doesn't that sound perfect for school?

Hee hee. My son is a fidgety kid. He is constantly talking and asks a million questions. I doubt that would stop if I somehow managed to create a quartz piece he would actually carry. But, it's a nice thought, right?

Pencil Urchin necklace

Until recently, I haven't made many necklaces. Part of the reason is that when I first started beading, my most of my previous crafting experience came from sewing... therefore, I was drawn to beadweaving and other intricate, time intensive, eye straining techniques.

Obviously, in the end, my impatience got the better of me. Besides, while I do wear chunkier bracelets, I don't wear beaded ropes around my neck... For daily wear, I like delicate chains and simple but unique focal. Actually, I personally like sturdier construction on bracelets, since I am rough on jewelry. Maybe it's weird that I like such delicate chains...


So anyway, this particular CZ pendant is a 9x36mm Light Amethyst faceted flat teardrop. Buying things online can be tricky, since the concept of scale can easily be misconstrued. I actually got two of these, intending to make a pair of killer, dramatic, threader earrings. When they arrived, however, I immediately recognized that this piece is just too spectacular to get lost in a pair of earrings. And so I made a necklace instead. :) This is a really beautiful cut -check out the firey sparkle and delicate color!

The chain is a sterling silver link, connected via handmade bail constructed from 22 gauge sterling silver half hard wire. Due to the small openings in the links, I also used the same method to attach the chain to the clasp.

You can find this necklace and other creations online at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/SimplyLeilani

Disclaimer: The CZ pendant was sent by Artbeads, free of charge in exchange for a product review. I was not compensated for my opinion or endorsement. My opinions as expressed are my own.