Seed beads got me :(

I have discovered FiremountainGems and their gallery of designs. Disaster. Have surfed Russian seed beading sites. Big Fat Disaster. Surely enough, I just had to try embroidery with seed beads as well as some weaving techniques. Here is the result!

This bracelet got a romantic name "Aqua". Freeform peyote with 11, 8 and 6° rocaillies (Toho and Ornela), square Toho, and 5mm crystal bicones.




This is my first trial of beading around cabochons and embroidery with seed beads. These ones are Toho size 15-6° and Gutterman size 9. I called this piece "Ural", let me explain why.

My mother is born in a small (by Russian standards) city in the Ural mountains (Nizhniy Tagil for the curious readers). Among other things, the mines around that city are known for their semi precious gems, and malachite is one of them. Without any doubt, malachite is one of my absolute favorite gems. I just love the magic of its shades of dark green mixed with ribbons of black. I learnt about it from the fairytales that my grandparents used to tell me. People say that malachite protects its bearer from "evil eye" and "negative energies". Well, even if it does - it is just a plus. It is a truly magical stone!


Well, this is really my very first trial of the technique. In some places, the base of embroidery shows through the rows of beads, and some rows are not perfectly lined up. But I promise to work on it! ;)


And this is one of the last pieces, I called it "Celestial Chaos". It is made in freeform brick stitch, using the "Rich" mix of seed-beads in all possible sizes and shapes, to which I have added golden buggles and copper squares.




BEADING IS FUN!