I work-work... I work-work...

Hi, dear all!

All over the sudden the stars came into a favorable alignment, providing me with a combination of aa free moment, enough energy, will to write, and caring enough to keep my blog going.

I am not kidding about working, though - guess I shared with you my career change. Bye-bye research career, hello working in management. And my boys are growing and require quite some attention. And, finally, I am taking care of my health and working out several times a week. All that means that I do not bead every day anymore. But my heart does still belong to beads.

For those who would like to meet in person this year, I will have a exhibition together with Anna Lindell in Stockholm in May the 11-17th, more info coming later. I will be also teaching classes at Bead Lovers Meet in Lund in March 8-11 and Beader's Best Fair in Hamburg in August (http://perlen-poesie.de/en/one-kind). Guess there will be more exhibitions and classes, but those above are definitely set.  

Well, enough writing. Let me show you some beads in action.

The pictures below are from a commission I had last summer. I met this lady at my first Stockholm exhibition. This necklace went all the way to Russia, and I am very glad for it. The given task was: rose , silver and greys; ribbons instead of a clasp and Art Deco inspiration.

This is my palette - rich rose-pink rhodochrosites + 24K white gold Delicas, sterling silver-plated beads, freshwater pearls, some Bohemian 3-cut seed beads + diverse japanese seed beauties. 

This is my focal. I like shopping at this Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/mygemgarden2. The owner does great job on those cabs!

This was one of my first sketches, but the customer preferred one below:

                           

To us both it was more Nouveau than Deco, but oah well ;o) It was a pleasure working with this customer, she has a great taste!

Here is the final look:

A friend has suggested to call it "Ashes of Roses", and guess it is quite an appropriate name for this necklace. The roses of rhodochrosite are surrounded by silvery grass, lilly of the valley branches and some simple leaves. 

And here be some close-ups:

I am happy for this creation of mine, it's owner will take a good care of it.

'Nuff for today, folks! See you around, however uncertain how soon... :)

HUGS!
Olga

K for "Control" ;o)

Couple of months ago I went gem-shopping in Stockholm. At Kristallrummet in the Old City, I've noticed gorgeous kyanite healing chrystals. This stone is one of my absolute favorites, I'm just dragged to it (pretty much as to labradorites & spectrolites).

Those chrystalls reminded me of Superman cave, how sci-fi nerdish is that? ;) Boy, I was giggling when the EBW September challenge theme was announced.

Although kyanite reminded me of those good chrystals in the cave, its name rimes really well with kryptonite (which everybody knows was quite bad for the poor Superdude). Than my husband gave me an idea - my necklace was going to deal with superhero infestation problem :o)

You can read the complete story here.

Materials: 11/0 Permanent Finish and nickel plated Tohos and Swarosvki bicones 3 and 4 mm; 3D RAW all the way. Do not know what is going on with me - I'm getting addicted to Toho and Swarovski lately. Odd.

And here are all the fantastic entries for the EBW challenge this month.

Please visit our blog and vote for your favorites from 9th to 15th of October! Thank you in advance :)
My favorites are numbers 3, 5 and 14, but I have not made up my mind yet. Which one are you going to vote for?

I was gone for too long :)

Hi guys!

Time to come out from the closet - I am combatting depression. Tired, worried, down, blue - you name it. So far, no medication, just long biking tours around Uppsala. And some beading.

I bough some gorgeous brass stampings this winter, from a fellow Etsian who owns the The Brass Boutique. One of them was a dragonfly that I used for my Temptation necklace. I thought that the branch of ivy will make a nice company to the Russian serpentine cab (Valentina's shop, as usually). After aligning those two, I've got sort of elvish vibes from this combination of brass and green veined stone. Than both the vine and the stone were put aside, until unnouncement of EBW August challenge - The First Ladies of Style.

Lúthien, mother of Elrond, grandmother of Arwen, daughter to the Mr Wood Elf Himself, etc, etc, etc - all can be read in Silmarillon by Tolkien if you have desire (and time)... So, I thought of the fair lady of wood elves. Brass and green, what could better? And I picked up the ivy and the serpentine cab.

Embroidery part was easy. Making the chain took me almost a week. First, I made a wide freeform colar. It has killed the focal.

Than I made several vines with RAW and thought to build a keltic-knot structure. The focal did not look any better.

Finally, the idea of RAW-based chain came into my mind. I did not have enough of serpentine beads, and ordering them all the way from Russia would have taken ages, therefore they are mixed with white onyx beads. I think that is adds a bit of moonlight glow to the piece.
Only than, the focal came alive.



I will let you know when it is time to vote ;)

Be well!
/Olga

Water... Everywhere is water...

Guys, now it is official: I am hooked on blues and turquoise.
I have bought those cool dyed dragon-skin agates at Facett. It was kind of an impuls-buy. That's why I wanted to make something with them as soon as possible, otherwise they would have joined other things in my stash-pile.

I have borrowed the idea from Karton, with her kind permission (thanks for showing it to me, Kristina!).

So, these are the stones:

And here is what I have done with them:


This is the view from behind:

And this is the fringe-part:

I think those two do match :)

Love affair: me and Russian gems

I've just finished another pendant with a stone from Valentina's shop.
This time, it is marvelous Russian jasper. It started talking to me not more than a week ago, asking for ivory, pearls and furs. Imagine that!

The inspiration for it came from two sources. The pendant itsef is inspired by the book of fairytales of people of Northern Russia that I bought to my sons. But the technical part of making it got inspiration from beadwork of a talented Russian artist Guzell Bakeeva, a piece of bead embroidery on fur.

I called it Due North. Well, the timing is not perfect, perhaps (lagom till sommaren). But hey - when stones start talking to you, it's impossible to just ignore it!



And yes, it is not supposed to be symmetric or straight!

P.S. I have used a small bit of a Fair Trade reindeer (caribou) pelt, produced by Saami-people in North of Sweden.

Progress rapport

I have been overloaded last weeks...
I am writing several research grant proposals at work (wish me all luck in the world!), and my boys keep me busy when I am at home. So, when they go to bed at nights, I will just bead to relax my brain. However, nowadays it is only 1-2 hours per day - the head should be fresh to be able to get back to writing next morning.

I have discovered a great gemstone shop in Russia, Kaboshon. Last time it took me three weeks to get my order, which is totally fine. The quality of the gems they sell is outstanding, and the service is extremely friendly. Highly recommended!

Last weeks I have been making some embroideries using those gorgeous cabochons.
Let's start with the first one - Seraphinite. Relatively rare outside Russia, it is mined in Eastern Sibria by Baikal lake, one of the most beautiful places on this planet.

This cab asked for teal. First, I wanted to make a massive embroidered collar, but the stone got upset and stopped talking to me. I do not like upsetting anything, including minerals (which, by the way are living creatures according to uncle Carl Linné aka the Father Of Modern Systematics).

So, I've made the setting in Dori Csengeri's technique of embroidery with a braided cord, teal and silver. It looks a bit cold, like a Siberian spring. That's why I called it Taiga.





A colleague of mine said it looks elvish ;) Guess if I was pleased to hear that!!!

Take care & stay tuned, there are more posts and pictures to come! ;)

Rebellion Monkey

Why monkey? Dunno. It's brown. Many monkeys are brown. See the trend?
Logics is some pretty cool stuff! Glad I am good at it ;)

Last three months I have been doing mainly contest and challenge pieces, as well as some commissions. Excluding perhaps just the Blooming mosses. Know what? I am tired of beading under pressure and/or constraints. Hence - the Monkey the Rebellion.

It is done against all laws of symmetry. I have introduced its focal element here. It has been lying on the shelf next to my beading table staring at me ever since. Until a day before yesterday, when it became talkative. It has coincided with a fever-top, interestingly enough :) And than I knew exactly what to do with it!

Australian Bushfires

I love Australia. I had an honor to spend two months in Perth, as a visiting researcher at the University of Western Australia. And I am honored to call several Australians my friends.

First, I did not pay attention to the news about the bushfire in Victoria. It's a natural thing, happens every summer and promotes vegetation. Australian nature is used to that.

And than I heared about the death toll. People got no warning. Winds made the fire to spread with a speed of a car on a highway. Terrible.

Fellow Etsians have opened a charity shop: OzBushfireAppeal. I could not find anything cloe enough to my heart to buy, I do not like buying stuff that will never be used. That's why, I've decided to make a donation. I hope it will be accepted.

Carnelian Sunset:


and Victoria.

Brad, PJ, Ja-On, Nicolin, Siva, Nura, Titik - I miss u, guys!

P.S.
Bought a .pdf with coiling instructions. I know exactly what to make with its help! ;)

Tropical Holiday - Etsy Beadweavers February Challenge

FINALLY! I am done with that challenge...

Here is its story.
When I read about the topic, I have immediately started to think about tropical flowers. The truth is, I was quite inspired by Kerrie Slade's flower designs and wanted to try to make something by myself. My first idea was to bead bougainvillea, which I thought would be pretty easy. But one flower would not look nice, and I would have to bead a bunch. BORING. Good I did not, dare I say ;)

Than I thought about orchids, but there are already quite many patterns out there. BORING.

Righty, than I have decided to bead Strelitzia.
No Delicas, just Jablonex. And some 6lbs-test FireLine.
Voilá!





The beaded bug-button made its appearance today. Originally, I have put memory-wire inside the rope. Well, the necklace was lying for a week, waiting for a sunny day for a photoshoot. You know, Sweden... midwinter... So, 5 min before taking photos (I asked another person to make pictures first), I've noticed that the wire has pierced the rope, despite that I've bent loops at its ends. I could not fix it. So, I had to re-invent the clasp, and there came the Bug. We'll call it a moth ;) However, it also meant that I could not use the photos taken earlier with professional equipment.
But, finally, it is done and listed!

Please visit the EBW team's blog to see all the amazing entries that the members have created this month! Please do not be shy to vote for your favorite between February 9 and 15!

Two new bracelets

I have started working again. It was not easy to concentrate on that bloody DNA-stuff after being at home for seven months. It would be certainly easier if my head would not be filled with all those craze bead-design ideas ;) But I am getting there and learning to set up correct priorities again.

Here are couple of my latest "creations". It was a while after I have tried free form brickstitch, and it was about time to pick it up again. Guess it is not difficult to figure out why did I call it My Funny Valentine... Besides colors, my brain was actually playing that jazz composition while I was making it ;) It's on display on Etsy.



After the tribute to St. Valentine's, I've made another bracelet, The Polar Night 2.0, by order of the same friend of mine who got the necklace with black stones from the previous post.

I just love those Jablonex seed beads! The golden ones - permanent finish Tohos.

And now - two tiny sneak-peeks. The first one was inspired by a fabulous necklace I've seen on one of the Russian beading forums. I have contacted the author and asked if I can use her idea, but got no reply whatsoever. Pity. Anyhow, I have no intentions to repeat somebody else's design. Right now I cannot decide what do I want to do with this... Is it going to be a part of a necklace or a bracelet, or perhaps a pendant. I am also meditating on its final shape, style and type of backing and the complementing beadwork, of course ;)


And this is my second sneak-peek - a view of my working table at the moment. This is the materials for my entry for one of the Swedish beading contests that cannot be published before the competition is over. But I am allowed to tease the audience a bit ;)


That's all for now. Stay well!