Sweden is a wonderful country, you know. I am enjoying a well-deserved vacation (35 days/year in my case) in combination with a paid sick leave to recuperate from nervous break-down caused by stress. Starting from next Wednesday I will be working 50% until the end of January. But until then - sofa, Netflix, beading & cuddling with family.
Sweden is not just a great country with excellent social benefits and low crime; it has its downsides as well. Take weather. Oh boy... Uppsala (my city) is more or less on the same latitude as Juneau in the U.S., which is not really that far up north by Swedish standards. That also means that it is DARK in winter. Just took this picture outside my house in the middle of a Scandi-suburbia, and it is noon. No filters.
My poor rhododendrons... Oah well, they'll feel much better when winter is over. So will I ;)
What's on today's beading mat? Long story. Trying to fix an old UFO, a fluorite necklace I made for Fashion Colorworks contest in 2011. Here is the original:
I was very miserable at that time; barely functioning. As you can see, I did not even care to take a decent picture. The rope is unfinished. The tip ends abruptly and too close to the lowest cab... So, the poor contest piece ended up in the bottom of an UFO-pile. However, I felt that it deserved some TLC.
And with newly gained energy (due to my well-deserved rest), I decided to give it another try. Here are some progress pictures. First, I thought it would need more volume, a different rope and adding length to balance the center piece. Working on it.
I do not want to alter the embroidered part at all, I still like the texture.
It has not been properly assembled yet: the details are held together with a couple of "dirty" stitches. Please do not mind threads sticking out.
Freeform-peyote-ing some leafy thingies with Chalk White Opaque Vitrail Matted - these are Miyuki glass beads coated in the Czech Republic, color code 0300/28171. Not bad, eh?
I bought quite many of those Miyuki seeds with Czech coating, but did not use them that much. I think they look good just bin this type of projects.
These Toho beads were bough in 2010 in Prague form OKTAbeads. OMG, 8 years ago???? are you kidding me??? Was I sleeping or something? By the way, I like guys from OKTA, they have a nice selection of cool Japanese-Czech hybrids.
Actually, in this post I will refer to several products that I like using. It is not a commercial, I am not being paid to say that. I just honestly like them.
And these small beauties are from my dear friend Isabella Lam's shop in Haifa. I had an enormous pleasure to meet Izzie, Miriam Shimon, and Izzie's husband Avi during my Israel visit three years ago. People, Izzie & Avi have a BEAD SHOP. Their own!! We spent half-a-day there, chatting and drinking coffee, looking at the beads. Oh my...
The other box is from a Swedish shop (Pärltorget) that went out of business two years ago. So pity, they were great! :(
And now just to brag about the "equipment" that I am working with. Fist, scissors. I adore Italian Futura-brand. Have one set for threads and one set for embroidery. The ones below are the embroidery scissors, they are GREAT for cutting out some tricky curves.
And this is my thread of choice: FMG's Nymo D. Do not know why, but this is the only Nymo that I am OK working with: only from FMG, only in these large spools. Otherwise, I am a SoNo girl. Or Fireline; I use miles of Fireline! But for this project, I wanted to have a soft thread.
And the Thread Heaven conditioner. Have you heard that it is being taken out of production? :(
Ok, this is enough for this time. The plan for today is to start working on the other side of the necklace.
I have no idea when the next post is going to be. Will try to do it at my own pace: no commitments, no pressure, no anxiety.
PEACE & LOVE from the North! ;)
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