Margie and Me - The Colors of Constructivism - #102

It's that time again for the Margie and Me Challenge reveal.

This time around I chose

The Colors of Constructivism - #102

Apologies that I am a day or two late for posting my creation.

Unfortunately the weather here has been quite bad again and each afternoon when I have gone to photograph my piece... well it's been pouring with rain.


So... please excuse my dodgy photo but it was the best I could get!

I focused on the gorgeous blues, greens and teals in the colour palette and created these earrings using Marcia DeCoster's "Medici Drop" pattern.

I thought the Czech teardrops worked quite well with the colour palette.

I was intending to create a piece using the other gorgeous palette but unfortunately it just didn't happen.

Be sure to check out the other Margie and Me creations on Marcie's blog at La Bella Joya.

♥

Margie and Me - hoping to use both palettes this time!

I am loving that we now have two colour palettes to choose from for the Margie and Me Challenge hosted by Marcie at La Bella Joya.

The first is 

The Colors of Constructivism - #102

I am excited to share that I have already created my piece for this palette. I loved the mixture of blues and greys with a splash of green! I can't wait to show you what I have made!

This time around I am really pushing myself to use both of the colour palettes so here is the second inspiration photo and colour palette that Marcie chose herself.

Image from JMDasso

I love the mustard shades in this palette and can't wait to mix them up with some dark blues and even some cornflower blue...such a contrast but as you can see by the image above they really do compliment each other quite strikingly.

Watch this space to see what I come up with!

♥

Margie and Me - The River Sea - #24

As you probably already know Marcie's Margie and Me Challenge has kicked off for 2011.

For the first challenge of the year I chose

The River Sea - #24

The different shades of green and the hidden browns and coppers really appealed to me as they are colours I often incorporate in my designs.

Here is my creation.

I created this bracelet using Melinda Barta's "Sparkly Wheels" pattern which featured in a 

previous issue of Beadwork.

I have used size 15/0 seed beads, 3mm fire polished Czech beads as well as some drop beads.

These wheels are so fun, quick and easy to make that I already have a shopping cart full of more 3mm beads so I can make some more!

You could easily make this bracelet in a day!

The biggest problem I had was deciding what beads to use!

Be sure to check out everyone else's creations on Marcie's blog, La Bella Joya.

♥

Challenges...get creative and keep the mind busy!

Well due to the floods here in Queensland I have been off work since Tuesday of last week. I thought having the extra time at home would be a great time to do some beading to take my mind off things. 

Well it wasn't...I have spent the last 5 days glued to my laptop checking out Facebook for flood updates as well as other sites.

I decided I need to start focusing on other things and realised that there are a few beading challenges taking place that I haven't even thought about yet.

Margie and Me Challenge

Marcie at La Bella Joya has kicked off the first Margie and Me Challenge for 2011 with not one but two colour palettes to choose from!

The River Sea - #24

And a colour palette chosen by Marcie.

Village  Corner

It's a photo of a little medicine shop in Dolores Hidalgo in Mexico, which she visited 5 years ago.

I am not sure which palette I am going to choose yet but as the pieces are to be shared on 29 January I better get a move on!

Bead Soup Blog Party

I am excitedly taking part in this party again this year, with 2010 being my first year.

An enormous 210 people are taking part this year so poor Lori of Pretty Things has had the mammoth task of pairing everyone up!

I have just found out that I have been paired up with Liz Deluca of Creative Arty Facts, a fellow Australian who is a very talented lampwork artist. I am excited to see what she sends me and between you and me... I am secretly hoping that one of her gorgeous beads is included!

♥

As I mentioned I haven't been beading much over the last week or two but here is a pair of earrings I finished recently which I hadn't shared with you.

They are from Marcia DeCoster's book, Beaded Opulence, and are the Medici Drop earrings.

Unfortunately I could not get my hands on some drops which were drilled horizontally but I think they still look pretty nice and I have worn them a few times already and they still sit beautifully.

I absolutely adore her book so am currently working on another piece.

This one is the Gabriella pendant. I have to admit I have struggled with this one at times. 

The pendant is actually a lot smaller than it appears in the image in the book and actually measures around 2.8 inches long by about 1 inch wide.

I don't think I thought through my colourway very well as the bronze seed beads I have used aren't really in contrast to the tigers eye beads but I think with a big chunk of tigers eye hanging off the bottom and strung on some contrasting beads mixed with tigers eye is shouldn't look too shabby!

Lastly check out this gorgeous bracelet I bought from Marcie of La Bella Joya.

I had my eye on this beauty ever since she made it and recently when she had a sale in her Etsy store I decided to treat myself!

Thanks Marcie!

♥

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.

~~~

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!

♥