Work in Progress: Springsicle Collar

Do Creamsicles and flowers go together? Both are things we look forward to when spring starts to appear, so I’m going with yes. This week I’ve been working on an assortment of odds and ends, and in the margins I decided to whip up a new chevron collar with a little twist.

It occurred to me that since the outer edge of the curved chevron pattern has five seed beads, and a daisy stitch is three beads wide, add two more beads for bumpers and it’s a perfect fit. I wasn’t really sure where I wanted to go with the idea until I decided I wanted to use up some of these lustered orange seed beads I have that never seem to fit anywhere. The solution to that is just make them the focus of a design.

This piece just needs a clasp, then it’s on to more top secret experiments. I can give you just a little hint about what I’m working on - it involves lifting a few of my bead taboos, and I couldn’t be more excited about finally letting go a little. I’m going to have a lot of fun making some designs that have never before been seen in my studio!

What are you working on this week?

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Egyptian Gods Challenge Wrap Up

The past 14 months have been filled with amazing inspirations and beading successes. My personal beading challenge to create a piece of jewelry for the most popular Egyptian gods has been a great learning experience in many ways. Most of all I learned just how much of a workload I can handle, especially when taking on a lot of elaborate designs.

I had two more pieces in my to-do list – a collar for Ra and a rope necklace for Wadjet. It was a bit of a disappointment to have to carry the challenge into 2014, and now I’m afraid that I’m going to be cutting it short before completion. I’m clearing everything off of my plate to work on an important side project, and that means it’s time to bring this challenge to a close.

To save time for getting all of the pieces completed this year, I’ve skipped sharing updates of finished pieces. These are the designs that have made it through – some of them are my among favorites for the entire challenge.

For Shu, the god of air, I created a new ombre lariat with blues and whites. I’m incredibly fond of this design overall, especially when blending colors together. For this necklace, I got to include some striped Java glass, which is always a welcome treat when beading. Although the colors didn’t blend quite as well as some of my other ombre designs, I still love the combination of whites, blues and browns for the god of air.

For Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, I ended up combining a lot of different inspirations. Water, serpents, the sun disk of Ra - this necklace was a hodgepodge of ideas relating to the first divine mother. To bring everything together, I stuck to a fairly simple palette, with a splash or two of gold for Ra. My favorite thing about this piece is the combination of color blocking and stripes in the fringe - something I’m definitely going to come back to in future designs.

Next was Thoth, the god of scribes. Whenever the essence of a god or goddess is difficult to capture literally, I’ve usually gone with a collar in the god’s colors. This time I took the opportunity to change things up a bit with a new design. It took forever to stitch, but it was a really worthwhile experiment. I combined papyrus-like colors with stripes and Nile hues for this necklace, along with ibis inspired long daggers.

And the final design in this challenge is a Sa amulet necklace for Tawaret. The hippopotamus goddess was often shown holding the Sa amulet, so I attempted to capture the look of that symbol with colors inspired by the Nile and hippos. The beadwork took a lot longer than it would seem for the end result, so I probably wouldn’t duplicate this piece, but it turned out just how I wanted.

Thank you so much for joining me and reading along with this very rewarding challenge! I had hoped to have a new challenge underway by now, but it has been put back on the drawing board until I’ve wrapped up my new project. In the meantime, I do have some fun ideas for quick new designs that I’m looking forward to sharing whenever I can.


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Bead Color Ideas: Ceramic Picasso

Here on the West Coast we’ve been lucky enough to have a few days of mild weather and sunshine, providing the first few opportunities for spring explorations. Last year our family’s nature expeditions focused a lot on bugs, but this year mosses and fungi have grabbed our attention. Perhaps it’s due partly to the very abundant mushroom season we had this past fall, when the entire view from our patio window was filled with enormous orange milk caps. Now we’re on the lookout for strange and unusual plants everywhere. When you take the time to really look closely, these hardy little life forms are abundant and sometimes beautiful.

Studying plant patinas can certainly be inspiring, with their organic patterns and quirky color combinations. With lichens and fungus in mind, I wanted to try out some new spring color palettes starting with an organic looking focal. The perfect choice were some speckled, Picasso finish ceramic drops. The unusual pear shape certainly looks like it could be found out in the woods, and the colors bring to mind the mottled bark of an old tree.

Starting with a little inspiration from the eggy-beads themselves, I added seed beads in robin’s egg blue. This color picks up and enhances the light undertones of turquoise in the drops so well, that the only possible option to complete this Bird’s Nest palette would be terracotta brown. It complements the speckles really well, while also adding a bit of warmth.

With this first success, I decided to try another blue on for size. Transparent aqua adds a watery, raindrop feel, while also giving the impression of a Cloudless Sky. Rather than splash more color, I added some jet black for a neutral background, although some dark gray or mossy green may have been even better.

Finally, I couldn’t resist going back to one of my all time favorite spring palettes. Wisteria-lined crystal has the perfect purple hue of new flowers, while transparent lemon lime AB provides a sour Splash of Life. This pair always works when a cheerful look is needed, and they both bring out the gorgeous greens of the ceramic beads.

Have you been inspired by nature recently? How did it take shape?

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Work in Progress: Beaded Beads

I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by my to do list of late, and I’m way overdue for a bead tray update. This week I’ve been working on wrapping up some projects, as well as experimenting with new stitches and a few little inspirations.

Right at this moment, I’ve got a handful of simple beaded beads that I’ve been playing with for an upcoming project. I just threw together a few favorite colors and got stitching. It’s been really fun! It’s interesting how different a technique can look just by changing up the placement of colors.

In other news, I’ve got a brand new camera and it’s my absolute favorite thing right now. The old one was dropped by a certain small person, right on the lens while it was open. After that, I couldn’t get it to take a clear photograph, and it was time to invest in something new. Even though I bought one of the least expensive models available, it’s still way better than what I was working with before.

The new camera is a Nikon COOLPIX,and my favorite feature - apart from the crystal clear photos it takes - is how lightweight it is. I’m looking forward to trying it out a lot more in the coming weeks. I’ve already finishing photographing the new rope necklace I was working on, which turned out pretty great. It was a lot more work than was worth it for the results, but it looks exactly the way I wanted it to.

What are you working on this week?

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Sweet Spring Inspirations

Last week’s bead giveaway had a wonderful turn out, and as always your answers to our inspiration question were wonderful. Reading about all of your favorite spring sights, smells, and sounds definitely makes one long for an end to snow.

The winner of the Spring Jewels giveaway is Emily. She says: “Spring is endlessly inspiring, but my favorite Springtime activity is a hike in the forest to stimulate my creativity. The new fern fronds curling out of the leaf littered soil and the first wildflowers opening get me thinking of dangling earrings and coiling bracelets in yellow-greens, creamy white and shades of pink and lavender. Brown is always a favorite with me. I have to stop myself from using it in every thing I make.”

I love this vision of soft colors and budding growth - just imagine a beautiful palette of creamy pearls, purple silk, and green glass!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the giveaway. May you have amazing color inspirations this spring!

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