My Creative Space...

Here are a few pieces I have been working on over the past few weeks.

This is a gorgeous pendant using Marcie Abney's "Looking Glass" pendant tutorial.

I made this for my gorgeous friend, Jess, for her 21st birthday. 

Her favourite colours are hot pink and turquoise.

This is such a quick and easy pendant to create and really does make a lovely gift.

~*~

This is my Earthly Hues piece from Beading Babes - Project 2.

You might recall that I ran out of beads when making this piece so I wasn't able to complete the piece in time for the reveal on 5 December.

The round beads are Ocean Jasper - one of my favourite stones, and I've used Matte Metallic Khaki Iris cubes and round beads.

I found this piece relatively easy to make with the fiddliest part being the pendant. I found I had to go through the beads several times to hold the piece together nicely as mine was sitting too loosely.

Overall I am pretty pleased with the final result and love the mix of earthy colours.

~*~

I am currently going through issues of Beadwork and Bead and Button magazine choosing the pieces for Project 3 of Beading Babes.

Two pieces will be selected again, but remember you do not need to create both.

I will be posting the details up in the next day or two and will then give you a couple of days to vote on your favourite two.

Watch this space!

♥

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.

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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.

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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!

♥

Any Suggestions?

This is a piece I have been working on for a few weeks now. 

The focal is a gorgeous lampwork cabochon and the rope has been stitched in Herringbone.

I plan on stitching a peyote beaded toggle clasp but I can't decide how to attach the cab to the necklace.

I was thinking perhaps I could stitch a peyote bail as I have done in the piece below.

Or perhaps just a simple loop bail as below might look better?

What do you think would look best?

Any suggestions?

♥

A work in progress...

I have nearly finished one side of my Herringbone rope so thought I'd share a picture as I think it's going to be a good week or two before this piece is finished...

...especially now I have to fix the problem which arose following me dropping the cab!  Oops!

I am pretty happy with how this is progressing. 

So far I have used size 11/0 and size 8/0 seed beads as well as size 11/0 delica beads. 

I am thinking I might make some beaded beads to go between the pendant and the rope... what do you think?

♥

My Creative Space

The past few days I have been teaching myself Herringbone or Ndebele stitch as it is also known. This is a stitch I have wanted to learn for many years now but have always been fearful of.

I used a variety of instructions but really could not figure this stitch out until I found this great video tutorial at Beads East and then it all made sense. If you haven't tried Herringbone and would like to or have trouble picking up this stitch I highly recommend taking a look at this tutorial.

So here is the piece I have been working on. 

A gorgeous lampwork cabochon that I stitched up a while ago and two pieces of herringbone. I started the longer piece first and then decided that the ''stripes'' didn't really go with the cab so I created a little bead soup and have now started stitching with the mix.

Which do you think looks the nicest?

This morning as I was taking my pieces outside to photograph I dropped the cabochon...eek! 

Thankfully the glass cab didn't break but one of the delica beads in the top bezel row did which has now caused a bit of a problem with that row of beads ...as you may be able to see (the exposed thread on the bottom left hand corner of the cab) in the photo above.

I am now going to have to remove the entire row and restitch it which may be difficult as I have already backed the piece with ultrasuede. 

I suppose I could always add another layer of suede once I have added the row?

Mastering Herringbone / Ndebele

I recently posted this question on my local Beading Forum but unfortunately I have not received any replies so am interested to see what tips and advice

my fellow beading bloggers have to say in response to my questions regarding herringbone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have just taught myself Herringbone stitch using a fantastic online video tutorial (using diagrams).

Instead of starting with flat Herringbone I jumped in at the deep end and started with tubular.

The pattern I have used is called a "basic 3 ladder stitch'' which I am currently stitching in size 11/0 seed beads using 4 colours.

My questions are:

* If I want a thicker rope do I simply use larger beads such as size 8/0 or do I just add more beads to the starting ring (which was made up of 6 beads).

* If I add extra beads will that mean the number of ladders will be increased (me thinks it will)?

* If I want to use a mixture of beads such as size 11/0 seed beads and delica beads do I have to use the beads in any specific order (i.e. a row of seed beads and then a row of delicas)

* Can I randomly replace one of the seed beads with another bead such as a hex bead or small bicone or will this alter the structure of the piece?

At the moment I have been creating strips of 4 colours but am not happy with the stripey effect so I think I might create a bead soup of the 4 colours and use that mix instead.

I started this piece using a different pattern which used delicas only but I found the piece was so fine it was just too fiddly to work with whilst learning the stitch.

I am currently using 00 Nymo to stitch the piece and think perhaps a thicker thread might help with the tension. I don't seem to be having any tension problems so far but the Nymo does feel a little thin.

I don't like Fireline so that isn't an option for me unless someone can twist my arm to give Fireline another try! I currently only have 1lb so am thinking this might be too fine.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

♥

My Creative Space

Well I am a few days late this week but here is my Creative Space for this week.

I am currently working on my Artbeads Design Partner piece which is reminiscent of Spring. 

So far I have successfully made 6 peyote beads and plan on making a few round beaded beads. I am debating whether to string them together with some simple strands of seed beads or get a little adventurous and try my hand at Herringbone.

Watch this space!

Don't forget to visit Kootoyoo's page to visit lots of other creative spaces.