Margie and Me - The Nautilus Part 2

In case you missed Monday's post, this week's inspiration was the Nautilus color palette from Margie's book. I really had a great time playing around with these colors this week. I realized that I would never have thought to put these colors together if it hadn't been for this week's challenge, but I must say, I do like the results.

I call this necklace The Nautilus (duh), and I took a little hint from the nautilus itself and stuck with the beautiful swirl. It really turned out to be quite an amazing group of colors, and the pendant looks great. I hung it from some simple gunmetal chain, I didn't want to overwhelm the pendant.

I hope you like it! If you played along this week, leave me a comment with your creation and I'll update this blog post with a link to your blog.

I also listed a Chunky Turquoise Ring in my shop. This was my entry for Bead Star in the stones category, and it didn't quite make the cut, so I'm sharing it with you! These are a lot of fun to wear and if you're a person that talks with your hands (like me) they tend to distract whoever is listening to you.
Have a great weekend!

A little gift...

I was so honored to receive this little award from two different bloggers. The first is Nikoletta from Piky73 and the second is Kristen from My Bead Journey.

So, just as you asked, here's my 7 things you may not know about me.

1. I like to dance. Salsa, bachata, cha-cha, merengue, tango...if it's Latin, I like it.
2. I love vanilla lattes.

3. My favorite t.v. show is Fringe.

4. I'm an avid reader. I like sci-fi/fantasy with a little history thrown in. Oh, and time travel and ancient civilizations never hurt anybody either.

5. I live 10 minutes from the beach, and have only been 2 times in the past 4 years.

6. My favorite restaurant in town is a little pita joint that serves Lebanese food where I've been so many times that they know my order by heart.

7. I like interior design and me and my mom make a pretty good design team.

Okay, so here are a few bloggers that I'd like to know more about:
1. Briggancs
2. Caroline Fung

3. Fabi from Con Tus Manos

Check out their blogs, they do some pretty incredible things with beads and clay!

Newbie(s)

I posted two new things in my shop yesterday. The first is a pendant that I call Limestone. The great thing about bead embroidery is that you can take a simple stone and a few beads and create something truly unique and one of a kind. It doesn't have to be fussy or gigantic, it can be sweet and simple.

The second thing that I posted is a new necklace I call Bead Pod necklace. I like to make beaded beads. (I bet you didn't know that) I also like the way that beads look when you combine them with metal, stones, etc... So, I did just that and created these tiny little beaded beads and wrapped them like you would Swarovski crystals.


The result is this very sophisticated necklace with a great feel. I wore it all day yesterday and it's nice to make a piece of jewelry that you really want to wear. I'm planning on wearing it again tomorrow. Now all I have to do is find a matching shirt...

Margie and Me - The Nautilus

Yesterday when I sat down to pick out a new color inspiration for this week, I found myself flipping through the Living Color section of Margie's book, specifically The Briny Deep and The Sea Shore.

Now, I'm not one to look creepy crawlies, even if they are underwater, but I couldn't get past her colorway entitled Nautilus. (#198) She takes inspiration from the inside of a nautilus shell and creates a palette featuring ivory, peach, and these wonderful tones of blue-purple. I also like the way that she chose to add the AB finishes, which give the palette this wonderful mother-of-pearl/iridescent effect.

I found a couple of photos for a little added inspiration, just cuz I don't have open nautilus shells lying around the house.
Alright, that's the challenge for the week and you've (I've) got 'till Saturday to come up with something good. Who's in?

Margie and Me - India Pink - Part 2

Well, it's Saturday (wow, the week went fast), and I wanted to show you the result of playing around with Margie Deeb's India Pink palette. If you missed the explanation of the colors, you can check it out here. The first think I did was drop the gold. I found these shiny shimmery green faceted czech glass beads, and I knew that they had to be the green in the color palette. I also knew I wanted to create a pendant, maybe a medallion. So, this was the first attempt.

I liked it, but it seemed a little rigid to me, not organic enough, it needed a softer flow. So, instead of starting with the faceted glass vertical, I started the pendant with the beads lying horizontal. Which produced my second attempt.

Almost, but still a little too geometric. I really wanted that mandala shape, so I added two beads to the center to soften the curve and ended up with this:

This is my favorite. I call it I'm Sari and it's made the cut into my shop. I wore it yesterday and really, really liked it. I think beadwork walks a fine line. It's not necessarily the most "in" thing right now, and one of my challenges is to create beadwoven items that aren't too much, but just enough, but that also have some modern appeal. I think a great beadwoven pendant really fits the bill.
Which one is your favorite?

Oh, and also, if you'd like to play along week to week with my little challenge, feel free, simply leave me a comment with the link to your blog and I'll post it here on Saturday. You've got to have Margie Deeb's The Beader's Color Palette to play. I'll post the new colorway on Monday, you check it out in the book, and post your creation on Saturday. I'll post the link to your blog in my Saturday post. I think it's great to push yourself a little bit and get out of your color comfort zone!
Enjoy the weekend!

I'M A BEAD STAR FINALIST!!!

I'm sorry, you'll just have to forgive my enthusiasm. This is the first year that I've entered, and both my pieces were accepted. I am one happy camper. Please be sure and visit Bead Star to vote. Anyone can vote, all you need is an e-mail address!

This is my entry for the Seed Bead category. It's mostly seed beads with a little wood and some copper thrown in.

This is my entry for the Metals category. It's mostly metal with a couple stones thrown in and the tiny little watch parts actually spin. I like it a lot. :)

Be sure and vote for your favorites!!! Woohoo! I'm so excited!!!!!

Thank You and an upgrade!

Okay, first of all, I've been going through my shop lately, trying to upgrade the pictures of some of my items. I've gotten bored with the limestone rock background, so I'm changing it up a little to see what I can come up with. I'm also starting to play around a little with photo editing and lighting.
This was the first picture I took of my Rusty Vines bracelet. Nothing wrong with it, it's a fine picture, but not quite what I wanted. I realized that because the background was the same color as the ceramic beads, they tended to kind of disappear so I wanted something with a little more contrast.

So, I chose a lighter background, and a prop to give the bracelet a little more height and a better angle. I think this background does an excellent job of showing off the colors of the bracelet. It looks to me like it's popping out of the picture now and not just lying quietly by.

Also, I'd like to thank everyone for the overwhelming support of my Fire and Ice Cuffs Tutorial. It seems like I've been doing nothing but e-mailing tutorials for the last couple of days! Thank you so much and please please send me pictures when you're done, I'd LOVE to see what you created!

Last but not least, has anyone heard from Beadstar? I haven't heard a thing and I was just wondering. Anyway...enjoy your Wednesday!

Margie and Me - India Pink

This week, I chose from the Cultures of our World section of Margie's book. I wanted something brighter and with some more summery colors and I knew I could find it in the Culture section.

So, my choice for this week is #113 India Pink.

Margie talks about the jewel tones of the Saris worn by the local women and puts together this striking palette with pink, deep purple and fuschia. The accent colors are green and a shimmery gold. I really like how striking it is, and it should make for some great summery jewelry. Come back on Saturday to see what I was able to do with these colors. Have a great Monday!

New Things and Tutorials!!

I promised y'all a shop update, so here it is! I've got some great new stuff and some instructions on making some old stuff.

First up, Vintage Blooms, a wonderful feminine spring bracelet made with beaded agate beads and wire wrapped brass connectors. It has a wonderful weight and an old antique vintage feel.

Next, we've got Long and Linky. I don't normally wear long necklaces, but this idea popped into my head and I love it. The colors are great, so summery and the necklace is adjustable, so I could wear it a little shorter if I wanted to. Also, you don't even have to unclasp it to put it on, which is a huge plus if you're short on time.

And then, Stellar, because that's just what this is. It's a little beadwoven pendant made with some super sparkly charlotte seeds and faceted czech glass. I can see this paired with a modern sundress. It would catch the moonlight so well, so be sure and wear it at night.

I also renewed this cuff. I call it Apt. 19. I can't get the idea out of my head that these look like little windows in a super modern apartment building. It's made with RAW. It was actually only my 2nd attempt at RAW.

I also listed Baldacchino. It's the result of my Margie and Me challenge. This has got just enough appeal to make it a really nice every day bracelet and because it's completely seed beads, it's just so light and easy to wear.

Last but not least, I finally finished my tutorial for my Fire and Ice Cuffs!! It's officially on sale and talk about fast shipping. As soon as I receive your payment, this baby is in your inbox along with hours of beady fun.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Margie and Me - Baldacchino

In case you missed my other post, I've given myself a challenge to create a different piece each week using a color scheme randomly chosen from Margie Deeb's book The Beader's Color Palette.

Last week, I chose #73, Baldacchino, which in Margie's words "is a mix of gold and silver metallics with black and bronze accents and a rich shimmery hunter green thrown in."

Well, here's the result. A bracelet that I call....appropriately enough, Baldacchino. I stuck pretty close to the color palette, but toned down the shimmery. I wanted to use materials that I had on hand so I stuck with gold and hunter green seed beads and some copper delicas for depth and contrast.

I also wanted to stay true to the feel of the architecture, so I used the cross motif (the Baldacchino is located in St. Peter's Basilica).

The pattern is an original one that I created with a little trial and error.
I really enjoyed this challenge, I wouldn't normally work with colors like this, and I hardly ever work with gold, so it was nice to step out of my comfort zone and try something a little diferent.

On Monday, I'll show you the new colorway I'm planning on attempting and tomorrow I'll have some new things to post in the shop. Have a great weekend!

Published

My copy arrived in the mail yesterday and I couldn't be more excited! My project is on page 20 and I am in the company of some amazing artists. I do hope you'll check it out. Oh, and if you decide to make the project from the book, I would love to see some of your work. Just contact me and I'll let you know how you can get a picture to me.

In other news, I'm gonna try to get some new things in the shop on Sunday. I've got a few ideas rolling around in my head for some really simple pieces and I've just got to get them out of my system. I hope you guys have a great day!

Some really good news...

A lot has been going on lately, and I've been pretty busy, so sorry for the absence.

Okay, first up, you may have seen this photo on the Beading Daily newsletters. It's a micro shot of my Cerulian Turbulence bracelet which will be in this month's issue of Beadwork Magazine! I'm filling in the Simply Seeds department with this bracelet and I'm very excited. I do hope you'll enjoy the tutorial and I would love to see your version of Cerulian Turbulence!

I also entered a bead contest at my local bead store called Spring Fling, and I won! It was a "Use the Muse" inspired contest where each person bought a kit not knowing what the contents were and then made a necklace using the materials. I won a gift certificate which was pretty awesome considering everyone likes to spend money on beads!

Last but not least, I've been working hard on a tutorial for my Fire and Ice Cuffs. It's taking me forever, but I'd like to get it into my Etsy store by the end of the month. I've had a lot of requests for a tutorial for this bracelet, I just didn't realize how much work it would actually be to put one together. Have a great week, I'm off to work on that tutorial!

Margie and Me

I happen to believe that this is one of the best books a beader can buy. I can't tell you how many times I've gleaned valuable color inspiration from this book by Margie Deeb. So, last night as I was browsing through the pages for the umpteenth time I decided to challenge myself.

Could I make a piece of jewelry from each of the inspiration categories in her book? Allow me to explain...Margie has, ingeniously I might add, divided her book into inspirational sections. Historical palettes, nature, and cultures of the world are just a few of the places she pulls from for inspiration. Each has a unique and interesting approach to color, most of which happen to lie way outside my color comfort zone (read: turquoise, blue, and purple).

So, my challenge is to take a new pallette each week and to create something that week using the colors in the pallette.

Here's an example:
My Molten Lava Cuff was created using Margie's Blinking Embers Pallette (#12). It's a beautiful combo of contrasting oranges and yellows with smoky grays and blacks. I took the liberty of throwing red in because I wanted a little extra heat!

This week's color challenge:

Baldacchino (#73). Inspired by Bernini, a Baroque artist, this palette is a mix of gold and silver metallics with black and bronze accents and a rich, shimmery hunter green thrown in. I can't wait to get workin' and hopefully by Saturday I can show you what I've got.

Souper Excited

Yep, I'm bead soupin' again. Did it the first time and loved it. Got my patnuh yesterday and I'm lookin' forward to this one. Details are at Lori Anderson's blog and there are a lot of people signed up. Last time I was able to read most of the blogs in about 2 days, this time it may take substantially longer! :)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Things I been workin' on...

First of all, I downloaded a program called Inkscape. It's free and it's so cool. I've been working on some tutorials using the program. Here's a shot of one of the diagrams.

Also, I just finished this awesome herringbone weave necklace. It's tubular herringbone with bugle beads. I've made one before and it sold. These are really easy to wear and this one is in some really nice summer colors. It reminds me of the mood rings that were so popular when I was in middle school!

I'll be Mother's Day shopping today. Enjoy your weekend!

Time to Vote!

It's that time again when El Reto for April is up and ready to be voted on. The challenge this month was to use some type of faceted bead to create a ring that is an original design.

My design this month was Esmeralda. All of the designs look great and I really encourage you to visit El Reto and vote for your favorite! I know it's in Spanish, but you can click to see the pictures and the voting is in the column to the right. Enjoy!

Bead me up, Scottie!

Sorry I've been so MIA lately, we went to Virginia Beach over the weekend and I spent all day yesterday working on a custom order, but I'm back and back to beadin'.
While I was gone, I had an epiphany about my beaded beads. So here's what I've started to do for those who have mentioned they'd like beaded beads.

I'm going to begin offering them made-to-order. I've started with what I'm calling the Summer Series Beaded Beads. These bright colors will be available until mid-July. When you purchase, you'll receive two beads and you can pick your colors. You can mix or match, or do two of a kind, it's completely up to you. If you'd like more than two beads, I've listed them in a larger quantity, you can simply buy a higher quantity, and then let me know what colors you'd like.
I hope this helps add a little beadwoven flair to your stringing projects!

I'd also like to take a minute to thank those that read my little story from the previous post, and I'm glad you liked it. I find writing therapeutic, but it's funny, because it's like these characters find their way into my head and then I have to give them life. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Oh, last thing....today is the LAST day to enter for my giveaway on Etsy Stalker! Visit my Shadowbox Gallery and leave a comment, I'll be drawing a name tonight!