2010...creatively speaking

I was flicking through the hundreds of photos I have saved on my laptop thinking it was time I burn them to a CD and save them on our other computer. 

In doing this I decided it might be a good idea to organise my beading photos into years so I can look back and see what pieces I made for each year.

So here is a recap of what I got up to in 2010.

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2010 started with teaching my beautiful nieces to bead in the first few days of January

Resulting in these beautiful earrings

I adore St Petersburg so I decided to make a few bracelets

Of course beading wouldn't be beading (at least for me) without a few beaded cabochons

and because I love working with cabs I made a few glass fused ones in my microwave kiln!

I excitedly took part in my very first Bead Soup Blog Party hosted by Lori of Pretty Things

I was jumping up and down with excitement and pride when I became an Artbeads Design Partner as part of their Blogging Program...the only Australian to be taking part at that time!

Designing pieces for  

Spring

Summer

and Fall

I took part in the "Margie and Me" challenge hosted by the wonderfully talented Marcie of LaBellaJoya

I discovered a wonderful group of beaders who have called themselves the Bead Mavens and entered their "Ice Queen Challenge"

as well as the Fashion Colorworks Beading Contest hosted by Zoya 

I took part in Erin's Challenge of Color blog hop with our colour palettes chosen from paint chips!

I won the Most Unusual Category for my entry into the Beaded Passion contest for my piece, Fingal Frolics, below

and I was honored to be interviewed by Beads Perles

...if you missed the interview please click HERE.

But the biggest highlight of 2010 for me from a beading perspective was to win the 

Wonderfully Whimsical category 

in the Use the Muse competition

with my Treasures of the North Sea piece

Sometimes I feel I'm not being as creative as I could, spending time worrying about what I am not achieving rather than focusing on what I have achieved. You might recall me speaking about this in a previous post, "I think that switch has just been flicked".

So it has been wonderful looking back on the pieces I created in 2010.

Here's to another year full of beads, creativity, inspiration, colour and challenges!

♥

Ice Queen - A Bead Mavens challenge

I think I have spoken about the Bead Mavens Ice Queen Challenge enough over the past few weeks so without further ado here is my entry.

(click on images for enlarged view)

This is the first collar piece I have ever made and it was designed and created specifically for this challenge. 

The piece features a gorgeous Czech glass button as the main focal, Swarovski crystal bicones and rondelles, Czech glass beads, freshwater pearls, bugle beads and lots of seed beads! 

The necklace consists of silver links and velvet ribbon and the piece is backed with leather.

I wanted the piece to have a definite icy feel so I have used lots of transparent beads as well as Swarovski crystal and Czech glass.

The silver galvanised beads were used to depict the cold, icy feel an Ice Queen would experience living in the snow.

The Czech glass button is reminiscent of a snowflake and the freshwater pearls represent snowballs.

Wish me luck!

♥

Ice Queen Challenge - another sneaky peaky

I am making steady progress on my collar piece which, as you will know from previous posts, I am entering in the Bead Mavens Ice Queen Challenge.

A few of my original design plans are now...shall I say... on the wayside... but I am still happy with the result so far.

All that is needed to do now is back the piece with leather, attach the edge beads and construct the necklace.

I am hoping the leather isn't too much of a bother to stitch.I usually use ultrasuede but silly old me didn't check to see whether I had enough cream suede and yep you guessed it... I don't have enough!

I figured I'd have plenty, not taking into account that this piece is a lot bigger than my usual pendant size embroidered pieces. Not to worry. I think the leather will give the piece a luxurious feel!

Mental note for next time though is to check how much suede you have before you start stitching the piece if you have a deadline to meet!

I've thoroughly enjoyed working on my very first collar. My crystal ball sees a few more collars in my future!!

Entries for the Ice Queen Challenge are due 28 November so I will be sharing the final product with you in a few days!

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Just a reminder also that if you haven't voted in the

Artbeads

"What Inspires You''
contest

then be sure to drop by and take a look.

Voting is open until 8 December but vote now as you may forget later!

Here is a link to the piece I entered

Happy voting!

♥

My Creative Space... and a sneek preview!

I've been beading up a bit of a storm over the past week as I am frantically trying to complete a piece I am entering in the Bead Maven's Ice Queen challenge.

As previously mentioned it will be a collar style necklace and is my first collar piece I have ever created so that in itself will be a challenge.

The piece is stitched with transparent and silver galvanised seed beads with a few Czech glass and Swarovski beads thrown in here and there as well as some freshwater pearls for good measure!

I have to admit I normally steer clear of transparent beads so they too have proved to be a challenge!

Here is a sneak peek of the front

and the back

I am making steady progress and feel relatively confident I will meet the 28 November deadline.

Watch this space!

♥

Something Old ~ Something New

Ok ...so our newly built deck isn't exactly old yet but I thought I'd share some photos

now that I've ''prettied it up''!

I found these cute wall features and just had to have both of them!

We had dinner on the deck for the first time last night.

Spencer actually refrained from blowing out the candles we had lit...ok I had to tell him at least five times... but they remained lit!

We still have some work to do on the yard surrounding the deck

but you can only get so much done in two days.

Why is the weekend the two days of the week that seem to go the quickest?

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And my something new is a new piece I am working on for the Bead Maven's Ice Queen Challenge.

I have never created a collar piece so this is definitely something new for me.

I am a wee bit nervous about how it is going to turn out, especcially with it being a challenge piece, but I guess that is half the fun of the challenge!

I did get a little technical and used a saucer from an espresso cup and saucer set for the circular part of the collar!!

At least it looks like I know what I am doing!

Watch this space...

♥