Mood Board: Tropical Reef

It’s good to take a break from life for awhile, especially if you ever start to feel like beading is like work. Even if beading is always the best part of your free time, sometimes it’s just nice to kick back. Lately I’ve been stealing a little veg time with virtual scuba diving via Wii Endless Ocean. I'm having a blast discovering lots of different tropical fish and mammals from the comfort of the couch.

Of course, it’s impossible not to be inspired by the amazing colors, patterns, and shapes of a tropical reef, even if it’s only a digital one. So for this month’s mood board, I went on the search for jewelry and garments that would appeal to a South Pacific mermaid.

Mood Board: Tropical Reef by mortira featuring paper wall art

Aquatic themes are among the easiest to create with beads. There’s an enormous variety of blues, greens, pinks, and oranges to choose from in every material imaginable. There are pearl, shell, and coral beads, beads shaped like fish and sea life, and plenty of techniques that evoke the feeling of an underwater realm. Combine any beads at all with coralling and the right colors, and you’ve got an instant tropical reef!

1. Green Stick Recycled Sea Glass Beads from Happy Mango Beads

2. Fuchsia Fish Leather from Fusion Beads

3. Porcelain Fish Bone Beads from Artbeads.com


4. Shell Fossil Nugget Beads from Lima Beads

5. Kelp Forest Bead Mix by Rhaad5

6. Pacific Blue Recycled Glass Beads from FireSpirit Beads

Do you like to use ocean themes in your designs? What are you favorite materials to use?

Copyright 2014 Inspirational Beading
Subscribe to Inspirational Beading
Get inspired on Facebook and Google+

Throwback Thursday: Cubic Zirconia

Sometimes really great relationships can result from blogging, and one of my all time favorites has been working with Artbeads.com. A few years ago I was a part of their blogging program, and they were a great help in aiding my budding bead repertoire.

In December of 2009, Artbeads sent me some lovely cubic zirconia beads, and I had a great time incorporating them into my designs. I was a little on the fence about using them, with their relationship to gemstones, which is why I haven’t pursued them since. I did enjoy the unique colors and shapes, plus the hefty weight of the beads.

My favorite design was a bib necklace with soft and fruity seed beads in raspberry and wisteria, with a large honey-colored twisted oval cubic zirconia pendant. The color combination and the pattern of the beadwork were very pleasing. What I didn’t know as I was making it was that this necklace would bring me some very welcome criticism.

About half of the off-blog comments I received on the piece were positive, while the others were not. I was a bit shocked at first, because it’s so rare to hear negative comments in the beading community. We love to encourage and compliment each other. Then I realized it was this break from the norm that made me love the comments so much. It was refreshing! I knew for certain that those who didn't like the piece were really taking the time to form an opinion on it, and that was a different kind of compliment. It's good to have a little salt with your sweet sometimes.

Have you ever received negative comments about your work? How did you feel about the experience?

Copyright 2014 Inspirational Beading
Subscribe to Inspirational Beading
Get inspired on Facebook and Google+

Work in Progress: Purple Embroidery

This week I’m doing the multiple projects all at once thing again, and it’s actually a lot of fun. I've discovered that having more than one piece to work on means that if I get bored - but the official when-else-will -it-get-done beading time isn't over - I can switch to a different color and technique, instead of giving up and sneaking to the couch to read my book instead.

So, in addition to a new patterned cuff experiment - which ended up with the exact same color palette as my last cuff bracelet, minus the black - I’m also working on two embroidery pendants. One is another experiment with wonky-drilled baroque pearls, which is turning out to be unusual and interesting. I’m sort of wishing that I’d left myself more room to add colors, because I’m sensing a rainbow effect coming on.

The other pendant is one of my son’s designs. We started with a Czech glass dove oval, and a round of cobalt iris which looks decidedly purple. Next he chose rainbow lemon lime, which gives a nice contrast and looks great with the turquoise Picasso. I can’t wait to see what comes next!

What are you working on this week?

Copyright 2014 Inspirational Beading
Subscribe to Inspirational Beading
Get inspired on Facebook and Google+

August Bead Stash Favorites

August is usually a great time of year for beading in my workspace, despite the sometimes unreasonable temperatures. Summer activities are winding down, and the rush of fall and winter obligations are not yet realized. This year things are a bit different as I divert so much attention to my top secret project, and it has also affected the beads that I’m turning to the most.

One of the most exciting things in my stash right now is a new order from Happy Mango Beads. I haven’t had time to sort or store any of the new goodies, but every time I open my bead cupboard I see these three strands of white hearts peeking out of their temporary package and grin like mad. This time around I picked up some extra large yellows and some orange - I just need to find a little extra time to try them out!

Druks are a huge staple in the designs I like to make, even if they’re just there for the clasps. I’ve had an entire storage tray dedicated to just druks for a couple of years now, and it’s never as full as I’d like. Right now I seem to be using druks so often that their numbers are dwindling even faster than usual. Druks of all sizes and colors are crossing my workspace - I’m particularly fond of the little 4mm ones, which are a lot cuter than the 6mm druks that I use all the time.

I have been cultivating a large selection of brown and golden hued seed beads over the past year or so, and it’s getting to the point where I may have to divide them into light and dark shades, just to have enough room to store them in. Whatever the inspiration or theme, I always want to include one of these colors, and I just can’t get enough. Right now transparent medium topaz and brown iris are my go-to colors. They seem to be able to handle everything I want to do with them.

What beads are you excited about right now?

Copyright 2014 Inspirational Beading
Subscribe to Inspirational Beading
Get inspired on Facebook and Google+

Throwback Thursday: Willow’s Love Beads

It’s interesting to look back at how much jewelry trends changed over just two decades - from the big, gaudy, plastic and neon pieces of the 80’s, to the subtle and delicate favorites of the 90’s. Gigantic brooches and hot pink hoop earrings were replaced by the Y necklace and helix piercings (upper ear cartilage).

I don’t recall a huge upswing in beaded jewelry in the late 1990‘s, but if there was, it might have been partly due to the collection of daisy chain and love bead style jewelry of Willow Rosenberg - a character from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. During the early seasons, she could often be spotted in import-shop style chokers with a familiar 1970’s combination of simple beadwork and opaque color palettes.

The first necklace looks like 8-bead daisy chain, and the others are most likely Potawatomi chain.

What’s your favorite jewelry trend of the past?

Copyright 2014 Inspirational Beading
Subscribe to Inspirational Beading
Get inspired on Facebook and Google+