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!

♥

The Challenge of Color

Erin at Treasuries Found:Inspiration is Everywhere is holding the first Challenge of Color.

Erin has selected paint chips (palettes) for each entrant.

We then have to create something using those colours.

Here is my colour palette.

The deadline is 3rd December and I have absolutely no idea what I am going to create yet so I guess I better get a move on!

I have one design in mind involving a donut...the turquoise variety not jam and cream!

Watch this space!

♥

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!

♥

My Creative Space

I've been working on something new this week.

Not new in the sense that it is a new piece I have started but a new design I have never attempted before.

The pattern can be found in Seed Bead Fusion by Rachel Nelson-Smith and the design is Mosaic Cuff.

I wanted to make something with a Moroccan feel and thought this cuff would work nicely with the colours I had in mind.

The space of each square of stitches will be filled with rounds of peyote which will add some dimension to the piece rather than it being a flat cuff.

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I am also still deciding whether to take part in two challenges.

One is due at the end of this month and the other in December.

I love entering challenges but sometimes I find the pressure of having a deadline to get something finished takes the fun out of creating the piece. I think this is dependent on how I am feeling at the time!

I am enjoying working on my cuff. I feel no pressure to get it done ... 

I am just making it because I can't wait to wear it!

♥

Use the Muse - a preview

Here is a little sneak peak at the feeble amount of beadwork I have done so far on my Use the Muse piece.

My overall design is going well - I just have to seriously, as they say, pull my finger out get beading and stop procrastinating. Perhaps I should make that one of my public announcements "must not procrastinate"!

When I first opened my kit I felt that the little round wooden pieces from Artbeads had a bit of a nautical feel to them so that is the theme I have stuck with.

Thankfully this weekend is the Easter long weekend where I will have 4 days away from work and 4 whole days to eat lots of chocolate do lots of beading and hopefully get this piece close to being finished as the due date is 12 April.

Wish me luck!

♥

Having a go at freeform

Well as you would have seen by my last post I am venturing into the wonderful world of  freeform beading.

Last night I sat down after procrastinating all day a busy day and got started using a pattern from my Beaded Colorways book. So without further ado here is my work in progress...

I posted this picture on my Releases by Rufydoof fan page on Facebook to gain a little feedback and most people said that they would prefer to see opaque seed beads rather than the transparent ones saying that the colours don't "pop" enough.

To be honest I was actually pretty happy with the colours I just wasn't sure about the overall design of the actual bracelet itself.

The gorgeous glass fused cabochon was made by talented hubby - isn't he clever! But shhhhhh don't tell him!

What do you think?

Memories of Camelot

The Australian Beading Forum of which I am a member, from time to time have Beading Challenges. The theme of the latest Beading Challenge is "Ladies of Camelot"

Here is my entry for the Ladies of Camelot Beading Challenge...

Memories of Camelot

The title represents the beautiful and wonderful treasures the Ladies of Camelot would carry in this amulet.

When I learnt of the title of the challenge I instantly pictured a Knight in shining armour riding his horse. I researched the Ladies of Camelot and really struggled with choosing just one of these wonderful ladies.

So instead I decided to design a piece that represented all of the Ladies of Camelot and have created a small amulet/coin purse that the Ladies of Camelot would carry with them.

I can picture the Ladies of Camelot using this amulet to carry precious gold coins, a delicate lace handkerchief to wipe away her tears as she farewells her brave Knight as he departs for battle or perhaps even a favour.

The main design has been stitched in size 15 seed beads, the border row in size 8 beads and the purse has been embellished with brass findings, Swarovski rhinestones, gold silk cord piping and a little black tassel.

I have to say I am pretty proud of myself as this is really my first heavily embroidered piece... that I have spent many, many hours on!

Spencer loves this purse and insisted I take a photo of him holding it this morning so I couldn't resist including this picture.