Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a safe, happy and healthy 2010!

It's got to be French

I was a bit naughty today and bought myself two bottles of French perfume!

My two all time favourite perfumes are Samsara by Guerlain and Paris by Yves Saint Laurent. I visited the sales today and to my surprise they were both marked down so I treated myself to 100ml bottles of each!

Honestly.... how could I resist when the Samsara was reduced from $189 to $82 and the Paris was only $74?

Ohhhhh I do L♥VE French perfume!

Mastering St Petersburg

St Petersburg is a stitch I have wanted to learn for some time now. I have always been a little hesitant to try the stitch as it just always looked so difficult and time consuming!

I mentioned this to a friend of mine at my latest bead meet in December and she was kind enough to teach me. I have to say I was really surprised at how quick and easy it was to learn.

So here are the first two pieces I have created. I managed to stitch my second piece in just under 2 hours!

My first piece is a simple bracelet stitched in gorgeous matte black and root beer seeds.

My second piece has been stitched with my favourite bead at the moment - topaz lined seafoam with matching drop beads and gorgeous bronze beads.

My name's Karyn and I'm addicted to seeds ♥

I never thought I would see the day that I would be drooling over teeny tiny seed beads. I have always loved beads but it has only really been over the last 18 months that I have started working with seed beads and who would have thought I'd fall so hard!

I recently bought a stunning book "Cube Bead Stitching" which has some gorgeous pieces stitched with, of course, cube beads.

So my latest bead order included a stunning selection of cube beads in a range of colours and sizes. I have to say I adore the 1.8mm Miyuki cubbes - they are so teeny tiny and I think they are just going to sit together nicely.

Watch this space for some creations from the book!

Blue Bliss

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

Our own little Batman

Spencer is a Ben 10 kind of guy and has never really been into any other "superhero"... but since we bought Lego Batman for the Wii he has been obsessed with Batman.

So when we were at a recent football club Christmas party where they had a face painter... well it was no surprise what he chose to have painted on his face! Yep... a BAT!

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!

Our visit to Australia Zoo

I've wanted to take Spencer to Australia Zoo for ages so on Saturday, 28 November 2009, we finally got to go. I had said I didn't want to go on a day which was too hot. This day they were predicting a top of 30 degrees with possible thunder storms in the afternoon so we thought we'd risk the weather.

Well the storm hit at around 12.30pm whilst we were in the kangaroo enclosure so we ended up stranded with around 15 kangaroos and 20 other people under a shelter for around 1.5 hours enduring torrential rain, strong winds, thunder, lightening and hail! We finally made a dash for it once the rain had eased off and managed to get only slightly wet...ok we were damp!

The rain persisted but only light showers so we were still able to walk around without getting too wet. The rain actually cooled things down a lot and in the end we had a really great day!

Here are a few pics from the day ♥

RAW necklace

I created this pendant a while back. The gorgeous cabochon is chrysanthemum and I adorned the cab with size 11 and 15 seed beads, delicas, rice pearls, red tigers eye and Magatama beads.

I recently made the Right Angle Weave (RAW) necklace to hang the pendant on. This was the first RAW necklace I have made and I think it looks gorgeous with the pendant...

What do you think?

Raku pendant

♥♥♥

When I made this raku glass fused cabochon I fell in love with it immediately and I knew I had to keep it for myself!

I beaded the cab up with black seed beads - nothing to fancy to take away from the cab itself.

I love this piece and every time I have worn it have received lots of comments on the cab. Feels great to be able to say I made the "whole" piece!

♥♥♥

Something old ♥ Something new

I created this piece for a friend at work who had this gorgeous Czech glass button that was from her mother's button collection. She asked me if I could do anything with the button and this is what I came up with!

I have to say she was very happy with the piece and if the button wasn't so special to her I'd have been tempted to keep the piece for myself!

A piece just for me

I had been busy making pieces for challenges as well as a few pieces for some friends and family so I decided I'd make something for myself.

I made this pendant using another acrylic cabochon and embellished it with galvanised gold seed beads as well as black seed beads.

The necklace was strung with black seed beads and black bicones.

Orange Delight

♥♥♥

I made this pendant back in July for my step-mum's birthday.

The gorgeous cabochon is actually acrylic - yep I know it's hard to believe that it's acrylic!

I then embellished the cab with gorgeous galvanised seed beads in a rich orange colour as well as the gold and added a few Swarovski crystals.

♥♥♥

Steampunk Chameleon

I made this little fella back in August 2009. He was made as part of one of the challenges of my monthly bead meets.

He is made from polymer clay and is inspired by Christi Friesen, a very talented polymer clay artist.

Unfortunately this guy is actually the second chameleon I made. The one I actually made at my meet was burnt to a crisp...literally... when I baked him in the oven. I was so upset that I have to admit I actually shed a tear as I had spent all day making him.

Alan felt so sorry for me that he asked me to show him how I made the first one so we sat down together and created this little guy ... and isn't he adorable!

He is made from polymer clay and embellished with watch face bits and pieces and finished off with some gorgeous golden mica powder.

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?

Time flies when you are being creative!

I didn't realise so much time had passed since I last posted!

I've been busy making lots of beaded pieces so will post some pictures soon!

Mosaic Madness

Here are a few mosaic style glass fused cabs made by Alan... he does a marvellous job at piecing together the squares of glass to fuse into these gorgeous designs ♥

A few new cabs

Having spent around 8 weeks working on my Rockpool challenge pictured in my previous post I was spending nearly all of my spare time working with green seed beads.

So on the weekend, with not a single seed bead in sight I cranked up the microwave and made these beauties... ohhh it feels so nice to be working with glass again ♥

Fingal Frolics

The theme for the latest Seed-It Challenge on the Australian Beading Forum of which I am a member is "Rockpool". The piece was to be created using only one colour and using seed beads.

Here is the story behind my piece.

As a child our family had a caravan at Fingal Bay in Port Stephens in NSW. We would visit the caravan nearly every weekend and I would spend hours and hours down at the beach frolicking and fossicking in the rock pools.

One day I found the most amazing starfish and I begged my dad to let me keep it. Of course he said no but luckily for me that same day I found a hermit crab with the most beautiful shell so he let me keep him instead... you know I still have that shell too!

So when I saw the theme for this Challenge I just knew I had to create a piece that included a starfish to commemorate my cherished days at Fingal Bay.

The piece is created using seed beads, delicas, Swarovski crystals, Czech glass beads, Indian glass beads as well as a selection of glass fused cabochons which I made myself. The gorgeous large cabochon that takes pride of place in the centre of the largest starfish was made by Alan.

I really enjoyed creating this piece as I adore the many shades of green and also because every night when I was working on the piece Spencer would come up to me and say "how is your beading going mummy... how is your little starfish...awww he is so cute".

Now that the piece is finished his very first question to me was "so who are you giving it to mummy...nanna?" .... after the countless hours I have spent on this piece I think I might just hold on to it for a bit longer!

Alan, Spencer and I spent four days at Fingal Bay back in 2006. We stayed in a little cabin in the very same caravan park and I can't describe how wonderful it was to return there. I honestly felt like a child again and felt so happy and content to be there.

Although we didn't find any starfish my real treasure was being able to take Spencer to this special place where I spent many cherished hours as a child.

♥

From chunky to gorgeous!

Check out this gorgeous glass fused cab I recently created.

The glass on the right is a chunk of lampwork glass that one of my lovely beadie friends, Nat, gave to me.

Nat is an amazingly talented lampwork artist based in Australia. She kindly gifted me with a wonderful selection of glass chunks - which I am guessing are the result of some of her unsuccessful beads she had made. I have been like a kid in a candy store fossicking through the bag of glass and imagining how beautiful the successful beads were that she made. She also gave me a huge collection of Moretti glass rod ends from which she creates her beads which were too short for her to use... too short = burnt fingers = OUCH!

I adored the chunk of glass before I fused it so I was soooo happy to see how the cab turned out.. an adorable little triangular cab. I'd love to take credit for the shape but it formed that shape all by itself.

Talk about a great way to use unwanted glass!

Watch this space for more cabs made from Nat's lovely glass.

One of my beadie friends is taking part in a wonderful idea called Pay it Forward of which I am taking part.

Nothing beats treating your friends to something nice - not as a treat - but because they are your friend and they deserve it.

So I thought I would post this idea on my blog... I hope you join in!

Creative people are adventurous!

So, if you would like to participate, please send me a comment and the first five people will receive something from me in the mail.

Here are the rules, and happy posting!

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. This is an adventure!

2. What I create will be just for you with love and good wishes. It will be made of actual materials, not of cyberspace.

3. It will be done this year (2009).

4. I will not give you any clue what it’s going to be!

5. In return, all you need to do is cut and paste this text on your Blog (from "Creative People are..." and create Five things for the first 5 people to respond to your post.

6. Send your mailing address after I contact you.

IMPORTANT: This offer is null and void if you do not post on your own blog to pay this forward.

So come on PAY IT FORWARD!!

I've been published again!

One of my designs has been published again in Australian beading magazine, beads etc.

Issue 23 of beads etc magazine which was released in May 2009 includes a tutorial by me, Bohemian Rhapsody.

To be honest when I submitted this piece as a tutorial submission I didnt' think it would be accepted - let alone make it on the cover... so I am just a wee bit chuffed!

I have to say I was also excited to see the page below advertising magazine subscriptions which show two issues of the magazines - both with cover shots of my work!