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!

♥

Marcie, Margie and Me - Weis Church Fresco #80

It's hard to believe another 2 weeks has passed since the most recent Margie and Me challenge was set by Marcie at La Bella Joya.

The colour palette for this challenge was 

Colour Palette #80

~~

"Weis Church Fresco"

I used the masterpiece, that is the ceiling as pictured above, as my inspiration. 

I decided not to go with the colour palette created in the colour generator but focused on the pinks, blues and golds that make up this incredibly amazing ceiling.

The focal piece is a glass fused cabochon I made especially for the challenge in my microwave kiln.

After a little trial and error I managed to create a mix of colours  I felt reflected those found in the church's ceiling.

The cabochon was very difficult to photograph due to the glass being extremely shiny and no matter how hard I tried I continued to have a lot of reflection on the glass...until I took a shot of the piece on it's side!

It's hard to tell from the images but the picot edge is so pretty and shimmery. 

The seed beads are a mixture of size 15/0  gavlanised gold seed beads as well as Rainbow Cream Soda beads in size 11/0, producing some really pretty colours in the light.

Delica beads were used in the peyote bezel and the piece was backed with ultrasuede.

 I have to admit that again the color palette isn't something I'd normally go for. 

I don't consider myself the most "girliest of girls" so when I chose the church's ceiling for my inspiration I was a little concerned with the very ''pretty" colours.

  

But yet again this challenge has resulted in me not only using colours together that I normally would not...

....but yet I have again created a piece that I love!

Thanks again Marcie for yet another great palette choice 

and encouraging me to create out of my comfort zone!

♥