Beadweaving progress report:-)

I know I'm late, but Happy New Year to everyone and hope 2012 has started well for all of you!:-D

In the last few years, I stopped making resolutions, and simply make a little list of nice things I'd like to have a go at, no pressure at all. I take my time settling into the New Year and it doesn't really get going for me until February at the earliest. This year has been no different, and I had the flu to recover from just after Boxing Day, so I'm now moving forward again slowly, one baby step at a time.

Anyway, in August 2010, a few months after I started to learn beadweaving, my Japanese seed beads collection looked like this


I sorted my current collection yesterday. I now have a Quality Street tin for my size 8s, a Victoria Biscuits tin for 11s, a few packets of 6s, another box for 15s and faceted beads plus an old paintbox for the special weaving beads - squares, hexes, drops, mixes etc. Also a much treasured Buffy tin at last found a special use - I put all my threads in there. Wow!

Now I'd like to share a few things I'm proud of on this beadweaving journey of mine, before I go further this year.

Lynn Davy's Pendragon Cuff, my first brick stitch bracelet. I call it Vampire Bites and Dragonscales:-) Made last August, took me over a week, working a couple of hours a day.



My first full go at a beaded pattern, and first large piece made with odd-count peyote. It went all wavy but I liked it so I exaggerated it and then stitched it onto an envelope. Begun Boxing Day 2011, completed last month, and designed by Chris Franchetti Michaels.



And now for something I made my own. I began to stitch Swirly Twirly Earrings from Interweave, but it just wouldn't work! So I decided to let it go its own way and it was fun to do that, though not sure why I put the blue and green in there lol.



I'll be sorting my lounge this year as the beadies are taking over, so hands up, who wants to see my beadstash when I lay it ALL out on the floor one day soon? Hehehe.

The wonder of polymer clay... plus something Wildly Beautiful

Wow, so much for blogging more this year lol. I still have time to improve though...

It's been a strange year, with a lot of personal challenges. Since 2007, I've been going through a huge and wonderful (and at times quite scary) healing process. This year, an extra intense and deep creativity became a part of that process, and here is where lovely, magical polymer clay comes in. Each of my claying around sessions are not only fun, but truly healing too!

The next 3 photos are a selection of things I've made since I began claying in April. Hmm, I think I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, hehe.







I might just put up my latest batch (baked last Friday) later this week. But in the meantime, here is something I made over the weekend from wire, beads and charms as part of that BIG healing. I call it Wildly Beautiful, hope you can all see why!


(Hasty pic, hope it's clear enough though! The heart beadie at the top is just something to rest the piece on as it's quite uneven)

Back soon, fingers, AND toes crossed lol. I am so happy to say that I am still claying, beadweaving or wireworking every day!:-D So if I can just finally get blogging a bit more often I'll have oodles to share on here!

What I Did On My (Beading) Holidays

After a good few years of wanting to be able to be creative every day, with beads, or wire, or indeed any other way, it has finally happened!

This year I found myself going beyond my comfort zone when my family went off to Finland in July and I was asked to house-sit their house for a fortnight, with just their sweet little fishy for company. My parents have a detached house and 1 1/2 acres of garden, and unlike here in my flat, there are no steps to have to go down to it. The area is really quiet compared to where I live.

I created myself a few bead kits to take with me - mostly designs that I'd wanted to try for aages, and threw in my box of wire, with various coils of wire and a couple of stones to wire up - just in case! On the very first night there I set up everything I had brought with me on the big dining room table. In my flat all my beads are on the lounge floor in various boxes and I either bead on the floor, or on the sofa.

I began to bead that night, just a couple of hours, using the Fairground Attraction kit I'd won in March from Liz Reed (TheCrimsonMoon) on Operation Tackle That Beadstash . I'd actually bought the pattern off her last year but had not got round to making it yet. Sometimes life gives you just the right thing to do when you REALLY need it. Thank you Liz and OTTBS!:-D After 3 days I'd completed the pendant.



And then I found that I could no longer stop - without fail I beaded in some way every single day - because it just felt SO good! Along with that I had absolute bliss and quiet, no noisy neighbours (alas, mine fight loudly every day, though they are otherwise nice), and no struggle to go into the garden either so I got fresh air every day. It did me a world of good!

I travelled on the buses too, for the first time in 2 years, because my lovely Mam made it possible for me to catch taxis to and from the station, and yep, I got creative in my flat too, when I came back for a couple of nights to look after my garden!

To top it all off, I managed to take a 15 minute walk to the bead-shop just up the road a few days before I got a lift back home! It took most of my energy that day but it was worth it, and the kind owner let me sit and rest as much as I needed to. I went over my budget, oops, but the owner put the extra stuff aside for me to pay for next time!:-) That's why the pic has no gemstones lol.



And yes, I did end up using a few wire coils and the stones, all 3 of them!



Oh, because he was a little star and did not make a fuss when I fed him at odd times of the day, the fishy deserves some recognition. I was told I did a good job of looking after him nevertheless hehe. So, here is Dimitri Mendeleev! (Had to look up the spelling for his name, tee hee!)



I will return very very soon with tales of polymer clay, promise! Here's a sneak peek though... And I now have a Fimo pasta machine, too!

My birthday bead shop haul

It was my birthday last month, yay! I asked Mam to take me to a bead shop that is just up the road from where my family lives. She agreed, and said she would pay for my purchases:-) It's a BIG thing for me, I've wanted to visit a bead shop, a real "bricks and mortar" place for ages, in fact since 2005, when I began to make jewellery! I have known about Serendipity Beads for 2 years, and just never made it there, so as you can imagine I was SO SO excited!

It's a small shop, with a lovely staff, and I felt very welcome there. Despite its smallness it feels light and airy so it was a pleasure to browse the beadies and findings, and here is my birthday haul, and then some, cos I got Mam to take me back there before I came home, and so I splashed out hehehe



There is quite a bit of Swarovski, tagua nut, feldspar, a HUGE jasper cab, pink spot jasper, jade, some yummy dark red firepolish beadies, kilt pin brooches, large pretty acrylic beadies and of course, Japanese seed beadies! I'm going there again next month...YAY!!!

I'll be back soon, with tales of the commissions that have been challenging me and my newest hobby - lovely, colourful, FUN polymer clay!:-)

Inside me (another poem before I start blogging more again!)

Inside me there is a tightly coiled snake
poised to strike swiftly as an arrow

Through my stormy skies a noble hawk with
lethal talons outstretched flies ever higher

Walking the echoing, hallowed halls of me is
an angel with wings of black and red

In the field of victory stands a weary
warrior with an ancient rune-inscribed blade

Under the silvery Full Moon light of this
ever-thirsting soul runs a sleek black panther

And...

watching over them, clad in her black rainbow
cloak of eternity, the Goddess stands, smiling

2011 - The Fire of the Goddess

The Fire of the Goddess

My long journey draws to a close.
I am battle-weary, tired of absolute
darkness, pain, fear, and feeling the
storms of lifetimes long past

The flame of my heart, incandescent
with promise, burns still, unquenched,
unbeaten, forever alive and fiery,
and hungry, so hungry for more!

It is the fire of the Goddess within me
brightening, growing now, healing,
burning away the dross as I feel the
slow death pangs of my old life

A light dawns on the sky of my soul,
and this darkened angel, scarred
warrior, wounded child of the Universe,
now begins to hope again, at last

A month of learning

Wow, so much for posting more regularly lol. I don't know what happened but nevermind, this is truly a strange year, most things have slowed down to a crawl for me, but I think I'm creatively learning more than ever, so that's a good thing!

Following my last entry, well I have been stocking up on favourite "sweet darkness" colours for future beadweaving - lush reds, purples, blacks, and silverlined seed beadies in 6s, 8s, 11s - and brainstorming in my sketch book and jewellery ideas book aplenty! I've also been immersing myself in films and TV series that really switch that side of me on - the utterly divine The Crow, Angel (an old favourite I never tire of along with Buffy), and the funny, VERY naughty and irresistible True Blood, amongst others. Fun!

I got a mix last month that had some great beadies in, look at these colours... I immediately thought ooh how can I combine some of these with beadweaving?



It has got to a point where I am even dreaming about beadweaving! In one dream I was shopping with a friend and ignoring everything she pointed out to me, and I made a beeline for a heart pendant I just knew would look awesome with some beadweaving! Should I be worried? lol

And then here are some fun samples I made learning netting, and fringe.

First one is pretty ordinary really, though I had fun of course, and I have proper night-lighting now so I can see the tinies easily in the silly hours.



Umm. I call this one Fringe Madness, I don't know what happened but in one fell swoop a few hours ago I learnt to make drop fringe, corkscrew fringe AND branch fringe! Hehehe.



Lastly, a few days ago I turned a purple and silver spiral rope sample into a ring with a purple and black peyote band, and it actually fits, so I is enormously happy with it!:-D



All that, AND I made 3 pieces for the OTTBS blog, which you can see here And I got my first proper commission from a friend when she saw my purple necklace on there! Excited and nervous but she said I can take my time learning to crimp better. So glad. (Yay, I found out how to link properly too, at last hehe)

That's about it I think, getting awfully sleepy...