Poster Sketch: Lakeside Morning

Congratulations to Debbie of Abracadebra Designs, who has won the Cobalt Blue bead draw! I am so pleased to have found a good home for this collection of delightful beads! I can’t wait to see what she does with them.

I asked each entrant to describe a perfect memory to capture with beads, and here’s what she said:

If I could recreate a memory in beads it would have to be of the view from my hotel balcony of Lake George, NY. I have never been on a tropical vacation, so to me Lake George is the most beautiful place on the planet. Anyhow that view was in the early am, sun just coming up over water, mountains in the background. The various shades of early am sky, water, foliage and distant mountains was absolutely breath taking. I swear it almost made me cry, if you know what I mean. It was just so beautiful and peaceful.

To celebrate this marvelous inspiration, I created a treasury of picks reminiscent of morning on a mountain lake. To learn more about the artists featured, visit Lakeside Morning.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the giveaway, and happy beading!

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading and Etsy.com

Giveaway: Cobalt Blue Beads

Sometimes when we see a certain style of bead, we instantly see the perfect project to use it in. Something about the color, shape and texture calls out, providing inspiration before the beads are even out of their package.

That is the way I see cobalt blue beads. Unlike most blues, which are cool shades, cobalt has a mysterious warmth to it. Even turquoise, which can be used to represent a tropical ocean, can’t compete with the heat of cobalt blue. I like to combine them with bright, electric colors, like toxic chartreuse green or sunny opaque yellow.

In my large collection of vintage beads, I have a stash of round cobalt blue lucite that I’ve been hoarding for years. Even when I still used plastics, I could never bring myself to work with these beads, because they were just too beautiful to part with. The 10mm rounds are perfectly clear, and when they catch the light just right, they seem to amplify it, like a fiber optic cable.

It seems like such a waste to let these beads hide away in my stash, never to be seen in a piece of jewelry. So I’ve decided it’s time to pass them on to another beader who can appreciate their beauty. Will it be you?

How to Enter the Cobalt Blue Giveaway

For a chance to win my collection of vintage cobalt blue beads, just answer the following question:

If you could capture and recreate any memory with beads, what would it be?

Leave a comment on this post with your answer, and you’ll be entered in the draw! There are 161 beads in the set - about ½ a cup of gorgeous cobalt blue rounds. The draw is open to residents of Canada and the US.

Receive a second entry by Tweeting this post. Leave a link to your Twitter account, or your Tweet, along with your comment.

You can also receive an extra entry by mentioning this giveaway in a blog post, and link back to Inspirational Beading. Leave a link to your post with you comment!

The winner will be randomly drawn on Monday, August 23rd.

If you do not have a public Blogger profile with email contact enabled, you must include your email address with your comment. You can type it spam free like this: beadlover AT yourmail.com.

Good luck, and happy beading!

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading

Inspired Beader: Hypho

Having an incredible tool like the internet allows us to explore any art or technique we desire, from free tutorials to amazing books out our fingertips. Although all of this information gives us freedom, it often seems to encourage sameness in our designs, when we all draw from the same sources. So it’s very refreshing to discover a fellow artist who is creating something totally unique.

One of the most exciting jewelry makers I’ve seen in a while is Angela Roest of Hypho. Not only are her materials and techniques beautiful and unique, but they are handmade from start to finish. Necklaces are knitted by hand; stones and pearls are incorporated as the piece is formed. Weaving, braiding and sewing are also used to achieve certain effects. Even the jump rings are created in the Hypho studio!

Inspirational Beading: How did you first become interested in jewelry design?

Angela: When my daughter was born, I had just finished my master’s degree and I was aching to make things – it was a vague but desperate need ! I explored hardware stores and experimented with some unusual materials and techniques – wire and knitting became the most satisfying combination. An added bonus was that I could knit while nursing (soldering just wouldn’t have worked)!

Inspirational Beading: What‘s the number one material you can‘t live without?

Angela: Wire.

Inspirational Beading: Do you have a favorite style of bead?

Angela: I don’t have a favourite, but I have an ongoing series of ‘bead-crushes’ – a period of utter infatuation with a particular style of bead. Right now, I’m obsessed with Miyuki beads, (seeds 11/0 or smaller). When I began going to bead stores I looked at these and, with a sigh of relief, told myself that there was at least one kind of bead that would never tempt me – such fussy little things ! Well, years later, I’ve developed a dangerous addiction to them and the tiny burst of colour each individual bead gives in a large piece.

Inspirational Beading: If you could master any new technique, what would it be?

Angela: Something entirely different – I’d love to work with resin. For years, I’ve made sketches of various projects without really knowing how resin ‘works’. I’d love to start experimenting with it soon.

Inspirational Beading: Who do you hope to inspire with your work?

Angela: I don’t really hope to inspire anyone, but I do hope that my creations are enticing enough to encourage women to be experimental with jewelry – to wear things that are a little daring and unexpected.

Angela has lived in France, Belgium and Spain, and completed a Master’s Degree at Nantes University for her research on French fashion of the 1920s. Her beginnings as a wire artist may have stemmed from rummaging through her grandfather’s scrap metal pile, but her techniques have evolved into inspiring creations.

You can see some of Angela’s latest designs in her Etsy shop, Hypho. Her work can also be found in various artisan galleries, as well as in the boutiques of national museums and galleries. Her pieces have also been featured in FASHION and Back magazines and in the premier issue of Jewelry Affaire.

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading and Hypho

Cornucopia Lariat

As I write this, I think I may be sitting right between two of the hottest days of the year. Even in the wee hours of the morning, the heat from the previous day still lingers while the sun makes it’s way back up the sky. Yet despite the summer’s last attempts to melt everything in sight, fall is closer than ever.

You really can’t beat fall. It’s always a favorite time of year, because so many wonderful things occur in autumn. The weather is mild and bearable - you can do what you want and wear what you want while doing it. There are wonderful holidays, with even more wonderful treats. Seasonal fruits and vegetables are in abundance, and the air is fragrant and crisp.

Perhaps I’m letting go of summer too easily, but I can’t wait for fall.

The Inspiration:

Sometimes ideas come from the most unusual sources. While I was working on a herringbone lariat using a mixture of red and pink seed beads, my husband walked by, and asked me why I was making red corn.

I had to look at the rope again with new eyes to see what he meant, but sure enough, the assortment of tiny red beads arranged in a neat tube looked just like a dried cob of corn. I was instantly overcome with a need to create a new lariat using fall colors and shapes.

The Beads:

It took awhile to collect enough beads for the project I had envisioned. I wanted to include a variety of accents that would represent different types of fruits and vegetables. I also started collecting leaf beads of different shapes and colors.

For the corn itself, I started with a hank of yellow charlottes. I wanted to make sure that the rope had some natural-looking texture, and hoped the facets would add a natural look. I mixed the charlottes with Japanese seed beads in oranges, browns, and rusty reds. I thought the minute size and shape difference between the Czech and Japanese beads would also add a more organic look to the design.

Cornucopia Fringed Lariat

The Beadwork:

This necklace was several months in the making, mostly because it kept getting put on the back burner for other things. Before I knew it, the end of summer was approaching and I had to get in gear and finish it. After a few weeks of stitching between trips to the beach and the pool, it is finally complete.

The corn rope turned out exactly as I had hoped, and although it comes in at over 40 inches, it was the easy part. Planning out each strand of fringe, and trying to evenly distribute all of the accent beads was the real challenge.

Each side of the necklace is basically the same, with different amounts of each seed bead color, and a different pattern of fringed strands. To keep things simple, I paired up the same beads each time: purple cat eye grapes with shell oranges, glass tube zucchinis with vitrail leaves, chocolate pearl potatoes with vintage amethyst leaves, and so on.

Although I used fewer strands of leaf fringe that I have with previous lariats like this, the fringe is full and lush, thanks to all of the beautiful accents. Because Cornucopia turned out exactly as I had hoped, it was totally worth all of the effort.

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading and The Sage's Cupboard

Bead Color Triads: Blue Tang

With fall quickly approaching, August is a time for getting in a few final tastes of summer. We’re all taking last minute camping trips, and dashing to the beach, hoping to make the most of the season while it lasts. Even though the weather is still warm, little signs are warning us of cooler times ahead. Even some of the leaves are turning early, as if to say “Store some food or you’ll be next”.

For this month’s color palette, I wanted to focus on something colorful, tropical and warm. Something that would help carry summer heat and light on into the darker autumn months.

The blue tang is a boldly colored reef fish from the Indo-Pacific, also called the palette tang. It has long been a popular aquarium species, but especially since the appearance of Dory in Pixar’s Finding Nemo. I thought that a stunning tropical fish would make for some wonderful summer palettes, and the blue tang does deliver.

The first palette I created was quite literal. The deep yellow and blue of the fish easily translate into beads. To create Splish Splash, I used Miyuki seed beads in transparent cobalt and opaque yellow. For black I added a pair of CRYSTALLIZED™ - Swarovski pear-shaped pearls. Although the colors are borrowed directly from the image of the blue tang, they remind me more of scuba gear than a fish.

To create this Sea Monster palette, I had to turn down the brightness a bit, and started with some smoky blue shell coins. With their obvious aquatic nature, it’s still easy to see the summer theme. I matched them up with yellow cat eyes, like little orbs of sunlight, and shiny hematite black 8/o seed beads.

The final palette was an odd one. I started with some transparent yellow seed beads, and opaque blue Czech fire polish rounds. After adding shiny black bugle beads, I thought that the group would make a wonderful sea anemone. But the beads began speaking for themselves as I drew the palette, and ended up with some kind of psychedelic palm tree.

I had trouble finding a name for this palette. The best I could come up with was 20,000 Leaves. What would you call it?

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading