Day 4

The left side is taking its shape. Thinking of The Perfect Clasp...



Have a nice day!

Days 2 and 3

Was teaching bead embroidery class yesterday - capturing Swarovski rivoli. And today I'm down with a cold. Hope just it's not that bloody swine flu.

Anyhow, the custom order... Turns out that the customer is not into fluffiness and fringe, but into thickness and chunkiness. Back to the drawing board then :)







So long!

Day 1

Beads are behaving well. Oah, well, they are behaving as usually - in the most unpredictable manner imaginable.

Customer got inspired by Dini's fabulous Forest Walk. Here is my interpretation of it.

Central part:

Right side:

There is no use to take pictures of the the left side under artificial light, it all comes up as a big orange blob :(. I'll make a day-light picture of it as soon as Swedish autumn would allow me.

That's the result so far:

Have no idea how it will look by tomorrow ;) Oah yes - I'm teaching another bead embroidery class tomorrow, which means very little progress on this necklace. Pity, but such's life.

Stay tuned!

Custom order

I've got a custom order via Etsy. Necklace. Feeform. Rich autumn colors. Its' gonna be fun!

These are going to be the main colors:

I'll add more of that gorgeous Toho Rich mix from BeadsDirect.co.uk - the ones that you can see on that "old" bracelet of mine (that I still love dearly and wear quite often). And some corals and Latvian amber.


And than I went beadshoping ;)

Lampworks, crow-beads, Czech pressed glass...



That's the ingredients. Will see where they will take me ;)

I WON!!!

Not exactly the B&B show, and not FMG contest, but nevertheless I won in a all-summer long beading contest, Gråtyngda dagar, that was arranged by PärlPlatsen. The challenge was to use only gray beads. White, silver and black were allowed as well, but the main weight should be put on gray (that's why I nicknamed this contest "Another Shade Of Pale"). Each contestant could enter with two items. My second necklace took 5th place of 18. I am glad!

Tadaaa - my winning piece, Morning Mist (Morgondimma):

Before the contest, I asked organizers if it was Ok to use beads with AB/RB effect, including labradorites and spectrolites, that are natural color-shifters. And, sure it was! Well, I went for it.

I have developed a strange addiction to labradorites lately. It says that the stone cures depressions. Maybe that's the reason?

As most of my creations, its a freehand bead embroidery. Basically, beads told me how they wanted to be arranged. My inspiration came from early mornings in August, memories that I had from a field courses in botany and zoology back in Latvia. 4 o'clock wake-ups and listening to birds by the lake... That's what this necklace is all about.

The cab is made in (of course) Russia, thanks to Valentina! If it originates from Finland or Norway, I do not know.

Here are some details:



And these are just some pictures of the focal stone under different light conditions:

Special thanks to my office-mate, Su-lin, for modelling.
Many thanks to Zoya and George Gutin for their comments on the design.
(to fringe... or not to fringe...)

Are you ready? Here are some pictures of my second entry - Rainy Summer (Regning Sommar).

Netting, free-form peyote and fringe = grey sky, heavy clouds and rain. Swarovski = sunshine through the clouds.



Many thanks to my second office-mate, Cecilia, for being my model!