January Bead Stash Favorites

Over the past several months I’ve accumulated a lot of new beads. Many pieces are left over from my secret project, while others simply tagged along with my stock up orders and were forgotten in the mix. My mission for 2015 is to make my way through all of the amazing accent beads in my stash and see what they can do. This month I’ve got my eye on some really fun pieces.

I’m a huge fan of carved bone beads in almost any style, but these dyed tubes are definitely among my favorite. A while back I added a strand in crimson to my supplies, but haven’t had much of a chance to play with them. I’m thinking of a few different projects for this, including fringe and multi-strand. The color is just right for Egyptian designs, and looks amazing against turquoise.

I might be able to combine my new bone tubes with these gorgeous turquoise Picasso teardrops. In 6x9mm, the size is very full – one could almost say plump. The Picasso finish is very enticing, of course, and the color is ideal for just about anything. I’m thinking these might make a great collar fringe, although there are only enough for one project. This ignites the hoarder in me that wants to hold onto them until the time is just right. I'm going to challenge myself to just jump in and use them up.

Picasso has been on my mind a lot lately, and my final favorite this month keeps with the theme. I just recently picked up a strand of these delicate caramel daggers and I can’t wait to see them in action. There are definitely enough for a collar, plus at least one more project. I’m not going to worry about waiting for just the right inspiration to strike. All I need is a great palette of seed beads to back them up.

What materials are you working with right now?

Copyright 2015 Inspirational Beading
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Throwback Thursday: Fresh Starts

This week I went back and had a look at the first projects that I did after finishing big challenges that I’ve done here on Inspirational Beading. Ever since my very first custom jewelry order, I’ve experienced a feeling of creative elation whenever I get to just bead, just because.

Although I had done some continuous beading themes before, the first ever deadline beading challenge I did was to make and post one new ring every day. It seemed like it would be easy to fit it all in, but there were times when I had to sacrifice design for time. There were a lot of lessons learned during this challenge.

The first piece I made following Ring a Day was a destash necklace featuring a custom soup of all my pink and purple beads, with a hint of pale blue. It was a little weird, but I still really like this one, probably because of the way the blue beads pop out of the chain.

With the first challenge feeling like a success, I decided to do another more difficult one later that same year. Necklace a Day was a lot of fun, but there’s no way I’d be crazy enough to try it again.

After completing the last necklace, I didn’t post another project on the blog until the New Year, when I started yet another beading challenge. This one was more manageable, but a much bigger commitment. Bracelet a Week began with a simple herringbone cuff in neon green and coppery 6/o seed beads. It was pretty exciting at the time.

Fast forward 12 months to the end of the bracelet challenge, and I was working on trying out a new bead shape in the form of long magatamas. I may have been feeling a little burnt out, because I ended up going with the simplest possible design. It still turned out great, as simple things often do.

Bracelet a Week was immediately followed by an open Destash Challenge, in which I forced myself to use up beads that I still had lying around because I didn’t want to use them. It was actually a really rewarding challenge and helped me clear out a lot of baggage. A few of the designs – like the first collar – are still my favorites.

The end of the Destash challenge blended a little with the 2013 Egyptian Gods series, which technically was never completed as I ran out of time once my side project got rolling. It didn’t occur to me until I started looking back that I’ve always had some kind of beading commitment on the go. This year I’m just going to do what my beads tell me for a while; but there’s no guarantee that I won’t have a craving to do another daily challenge in 2015!

How do you like to challenge yourself in beadwork? What motivates you to try new things?

Copyright 2015 Inspirational Beading
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Work in Progress: Blue Fringe

It is so exciting to get back to full tilt beading! This week I’m heading into my third project of the year, and things are going great.

Over the past several months, I haven’t had any opportunities to bead just for the fun of it, and my creativity was feeling a bit cramped. Now that my special side project is pretty much finished, I can get back to making projects on a whim. I thought that when I was free to create, ideas would come flooding out, but at first I felt overwhelmed by choice. I didn’t know where to begin.

This year I’m taking it easy by avoiding any big challenges, so I thought it would be fun to go back to my old methods of focusing on specific inspirations and beads. In the first few days of January, I took a little time to play with my new bone ankh pendants, and made some triple strand necklaces. The first one in green was slow going – I didn’t start to love it until it was almost finished. The second necklace with blue seed beads and striped bone tubes was so much fun I completed it in half the time.

Right now I’ve moved on to a new fringe necklace. It took a while to work out a palette that I liked. I started with the blue tube beads for accents, then went back and forth on colors for the tubular base. I decided to toss in the last few 8/o seed beads from the Artbeads Designer Blend I tried out last year, so a matching turquoise seemed like a good way to go. I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to include the vintage red white-hearts or not.

What are you making right now?

Copyright 2015 Inspirational Beading
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Bead Giveaway: Strands and Charms

Happy New Year, beaders! It is my great pleasure to announce that I’m ready to get back to my normal routines, and what better way to kick off a new year on Inspirational Beading than with a giveaway? I still have some lovely goodies from my last surprise grab bag, and I need to send them to a good home.

This month’s prize pack includes 2 strands of semi-precious stones and a pair of cute rhinestone charms. There are 4mm pink zebra jasper rounds and 6mm multicolored magnesite/howlite rounds, plus elephant and dragonfly bracelet charms. These pieces are all much too pretty to languish in my bead stash!

How to Enter

For a chance to win all of the beads shown, leave a comment on this post letting us know your favorite stitch or technique for round beads. One lucky winner will be drawn on Tuesday, January 13th. This giveaway is open to readers in Canada and the US.

Important: Comments must be posted directly at InspirationalBeading.Blogspot.com to qualify, but no log-in is required. Please make sure to leave a contact method in your comment if you do not have a profile with a public email address. For security, you can type your email like so: username AT yourmail DOT com. Incomplete or duplicate entries will not be included in the draw.

Good luck, and happy beading!

Update: This giveaway has closed.

Copyright 2015 Inspirational Beading
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Work in Progress: Intermission

I am very happy to report that all of the beadwork for my secret project is now complete! I feel like I’ve just crossed a finish line - not least because I need a bit of a break. Right now my bead tray is almost completely empty. Apart from the usual apparatus, the only things on it are a cup of freshwater pearls that I forgot to put away the last time I had my pearl bead box out.

I won’t be starting on any fresh new projects for at least a few days, as I’m using my normal beading time to work on this year’s felt Christmas gifts - tiny pillows with Minecraft faces on them. I’m also whipping up a “tacky Christmas sweater” for my a school Christmas party. Apparently they are all the rage this year, and everyone is going to be wearing one to show school spirit. We went with some simple felt shapes like ornament globes and a beribboned gift.

There has been one new addition to my workspace this week. I was shopping for stocking stuffers and decided to treat myself to a pencil and paperclip caddy. It’s absolutely perfect for storing and organizing excess bead packs while I’m working on a project. It also keeps materials out of my elbow space until I get around to putting them away.

What are you making this week?

Copyright 2014 Inspirational Beading
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