My Creative Space

The past few days I have been working on Nancy Jones' Dragon Bangle which is on the cover of the Feb/March 2011 issue of Beadwork.

I've adored this bangle ever since I received my copy of Beadwork back in late January and thinking this looked like a pretty easy pattern as I feel pretty comfortable working with brick stitch, 

I thought I'd give it a go.

Well.... really struggled getting this piece going. 

The pattern says to keep the tension loose however as you are stitching you naturally want to keep it as tight as possible as the beads are wobbling all over the place.

I've used brick stitch in many designs before but for some reason I just couldn't get the rows to sit well.

Perhaps it was the long magatamas that were making the difference.

I had about 6 or 7 attempts at starting this piece and was nearly going to give up but I am one very determined little cookie so kept persisting with it and voila!

I will admit that I did unpick it again as the size 8/0 seed beads were not sitting nicely which I think is  pretty important as they really are the backbone of the bangle.

I am glad I did because as you can see now they are sitting beautifully!

If you are going to give this piece a go then my advice is that if you are having trouble starting off... 

...stick with it.

Once you have worked 3 or 4 rows the piece starts to sit together quite nicely. 

Be sure to pull your thread as tightly as you can, not loosely as the pattern says and I found that as I was stitching the first few rows, holding the beads down flat on the table with my finger as I weaved through the existing beads seemed to help hold the beads in place a little better.

Also I found adding a stopper bead at the start of the work  helped hold the first few size 8/0 seed beads to sit firmly and not move about.

This bangle is certainly greedy when it comes to beads!

I am only about 3/4 through and my tubes of magatamas are starting to look a little empty so I am thinking that this bangle is going to take more than the quoted 28gm but I  might be wrong.

How's your creative space looking this week?

♥ 

My Creative Space

I have been working on this pendant for a few days now...

It is stitched in circular brick stitch using size 11/0, 15/0 and 8/0 seed eads as well as Czech fire polished beads and drops.

I absolutely adore the combination of the copper with the green using one of my favourite colours of all time, colour lined sea foam/light topaz rainbow.

Rather than just string the pendant on a piece of cord I have decided to compliment it with some gorgeous beaded beads.

Since taking these photos I have also created some larger beaded beads and plan on making some peyote beaded beads also... I just have to wait for the wooden beads to arrive from the USA!

Hopefully they will arrive in the next week or so as I am busting to give these a try, not to mention finishing off my necklace.

What's in your creative space this week?

♥ 

I think that switch has just been flicked!

Marice of La Bella Joya recently wrote a very interesting article on the different levels of creativity. If you haven't read Marcie's post be sure to click HERE - it is definitely worth reading.

Her article got me thinking. I'm always doubting my creative abilities and find myself constantly comparing myself to other bead artists.

Even though many people have told me this is unhealthy I continue to make the comparison. I think it's just human nature to doubt our abilities and compare ourselves to others...right?

But what I have been trying to tell myself is that the artists and designers I compare myself to may have been beading for a lot longer than me.
I started beading in 2003 but only ventured into bead embroidery in 2008 and bead weaving in 2009...so I guess you could consider me a bit of a novice in the latter two areas. 

I also try to tell myself that those I compare myself to may spend more time beading than me.
I only get to bead for around 2 hours a day and that is usually for about half an hour on my lunch break and then in the evenings, late at night.

Throughout Marcie's post she shared photos of some of her earlier pieces reflecting on where she started as a beader and how her beading has developed over the years.

I then reflected on just how far my beading has come since 2003 and that perhaps looking back at my earlier work, as she did, may just be the the flick of the switch I need to make that light bulb light up in my head
and say
''look how far you have come Karyn, stop doubting your abilities".

So with that thought in mind join me on my beading journey...
...so far.

~~~~

My first stringing piece

Gosh I remember how excited I was that I actually made a necklace!
Created with seed beads and Czech glass bugs!

I literally caught the beading bug after this piece!

~~~

And then I developed a love of seed beads and cabochons.

My beaded cabochon, completed in October 2008

The tiger's eye cabochon is a whopping  40mm long - didn't really start with a small one did I?

Instead of gluing the cab to stiff stuff or felt I actually glued it to a leather scrap...not suede... leather!
Don't do this!
The thread was so hard to pull through the leather that at times I needed to use a small pair of pliers. Needless to say I have never used leather again so let this be a lesson learned!

~~~

As I was spending more time with seed beads I found myself paying more attention to bead woven pieces so I made a conscious effort to learn some new stitches.

~~~

My first attempt at Brick Stitch

My first attempt at St Petersburg

and St Petersburg using cube beads

My first attempt at Right Angle Weave (RAW)

 

My first piece using Spiral weave

Tubular Herringbone 

I still haven't tried regular Herringbone!

I also tried my hand at some new techniques.

~~

Using a loom

Adding a fringe
as well as a peyote bezel edge and using drop beads for the edging

  

My first attempt at a peyote toggle

Peyote tubular beads as well as Right Angle Weave round beaded beads.

~~~

And some bead embroidery pieces using lots and lots of seed beads!

This piece was stitched using size 15/0 seed beads. What was I thinking!

This piece included glass fused cabochons made by myself, the largest cab made by my husband!

And last but not least my very first attempt at polymer clay and steampunk!

~~~

What a great journey this has been for me.

Looking back at some of my earlier pieces really has made realise how far I have come.

A great reminder that no matter what your skill level is  

there will always be something to learn.

Focus on how far you have come... not how far you have to go.

Did you hear that click?

I think that switch has just been flicked!

♥

Blue Bliss

Another of my brick stitch pendants. This time for someone that l♥ves blue!

Moroccan Memories ♥ Pink Passion

Here are two brick stitch pieces I have made recently.

I love making these as they are so quick and easy taking me around 3-4 hours to make - pendant, fringing and the necklace! You can't beat that for a beaded piece!

Spencer loves wearing these too! They have magnetic clasps so they are too easy for him to put on and take off!

A fortunate mistake!

I finished this cuff a few weeks ago. It is stitched in brick stitch using seed beads in all shapes and sizes.

Now I have to admit that this cuff was supposed to be the same width all the way around. As I kept stitching I realised that I had accidently increased my stitches a wee bit too much. I was pretty annoyed at myself but as I'd already stitched quite a few rows I decided to keep on going and try and fix the mistake.

Soooo... this is the final result! I am pretty happy with how the piece turned out and have to say it looks pretty good on my wrist! What do you think?

Brick stitch bracelet

Here is another piece I created during my beginner's beading course.

I had never attempted brick stitch before and gee what a great stitch... so quick and easy but the results are just gorgeous!

I created this piece with these gorgeous sz 8 hex beads in delish metallic colours - browns of course... my favourite colours!

I had a bit of trouble with the clasp in the sense that I created the loop before adding the button and of course then discovered my loop was too small... sooooo I added a freshwater pearl to that loop to fancy it up a bit and then made another loop to fit the button... problem solved!

Me thinks I'll be making some more of these bracelets as I have already stocked up on more hex beads!