My first item ever

Tomorrow is a big day.
One year ago I have made my very first piece of jewelry.

Today I took it out from the closet and took pictures. With the very same camera as I tried to use last autumn when I started my blog. The only difference - I did not know anything about macro. Or day-light. Or background. Or photoshop/picnik.com. You name it ;)

One year ago, I was sitting in the lab and chatting with Jonas and Su-lin. We were talking about art, Jonas had finished his last picture and came to show it to us. The spring sun was shining through the window. The baby in my belly was practicing kick-boxing. And I was thinking that I wanted to buy some new jewelry for the spring, but there was nothing in the shops that I'd like. Hey... What if I tried to make my own? :lightbulb on:

I went to the hobby shop, bought pliers and a green-gold kit of acrylic beads. That evening I've made my first item, a bangle. I still like it and wear now and then.


Yes, I did not have crimping pliers and was not exactly sure how to secure the wire ;)

Happy beading! :)

Do stones talk to you?

Couple of weeks ago, I had an honor to meet in person three Swedish beaders whom I respect a lot: Misan, Asanda and Karton (who does not have her own homepage yet, but some examples of her work can be seen here, here and here). It was an amazing day spent chatting, laughing, sharing ideas and beading. Misan, Karton and myself did some talking awaiting for Asanda to arrive, and one of the things that came up during our conversation was: how do we find our inspiration, especially when working with large stone cabochons. All three of us said almost in one voice - the stone tells us how it would like to have it. It is amazing, we seem to listen to the wishes of the stone about the bezel design!

One of the results of our creative meeting with the ladies was trying out new media for bead embroidery. My Blooming mosses is a direct follow-up of that.

This green turquoise cabochon wanted to have bronze-colored beads around it. I did not mind.




So, do stones, and other beads talk to you as well? I know that they do talk to Swanee and I love that conversation! :)

Africa-challenge: I did it!

Pfew, I'm done with the Africa challenge.

First of all, I discovered that I know virtually NOTHING about African art. Ok, voodoo, masks and sculptures do not count. And I knew a little bit about kitenge or kangas, the fabric that can be used as a gown or as a baby-carrier, here is the picture of the one I use for my kids:

But back to the challenge... First that came into my mind was batique and those huge spiral wire necklaces and earings that masai women are wearing. But then I learnt that batique was brought to Africa by Europeans. As to masai necklaces, they indeed are gourgeous but hardly comfortably wearable.

And than my husband took me for a day-long trip to Stockholm right after the Christmas. We were browsing in the Old City and I have discovered a tiny shop of African art not far from the royal palace. There I've saw those fantastic bronse handmade beads, made by craftsmen in Burkina-Faso. I just got to have them. There were several multistring necklaces on display there as well and all over the sudden I understood what I wanted to do. This is my little tribute to African folk art:




I've put it on display in my Etsy shop, somebody perhaps might like it enough to buy. ;)

Still figuring out the Beach and Tropical Hollidays...

Santa's Little Helper

Last weeks I've been beading like one of the Santa's elves, making Christmas presents. Let me show you some of them.


This one is for my mother in law, I called it Aurora Borealis (check out the gorgeous pictures of the phenomenon taken by Jan Curtis).

The stone is labradorite, one of my absolute favorite stones. It might look gray and simple at the first glimpse, but when the light hits it - oah my... it sparkles and shines in all the colors of rainbow! I think the stone reflects a bit what kind of person my mother in law is...
I do not know why, but people tend to use labradorite mainly in combination with silver, perhaps partly due to is main color. I think that this stone looses a lot when surrounded by beads and metals of similar "shades of pale". I think it deserves gold (or in this case - gold filled).

The second necklace is called Lycopodium or Galadriel's moss. Lycopodium (stag's horn clubmoss) is one of the most ancient plants known on this planet, its spores are known for their healing properties.

Why Galadriel's moss? I just love Elves, that's why ;) The rope of the necklace is crochetted with Miyuki 15/0 and C-lon D. It was a pain in the neck to make it, but well worth the effort! The rope is thin and shiny, and just runs between the fingers. The central piece is made using coralling technique with Miyuki Chartreuse drops on the end of each branch.
Who will get it? Fiancé of my husband's best friend, all three are hopeless roleplayers ;)

Stringing continued :)

Here is some stuff that I have made this summer.

This one was made by request from my brother, meant as a present to his girlfriend. The "challenge" was to string something brown. Well, brown it was: lamp-work glass, seed beads, glass hearts and dyed freshwater pearls.

My mother was next in the line - she needed a necklace to match her new green-brown-copper party outfit. I made two pieces with mixed seed beads and some acrylic ones, added dyed shell beads and dyed freshwater pearls in shades of green and (surprise!) brown ;).


This one was made because my precious soul all over the sudden started to request something light, white and pink. I blame it on pregnancy!

And this is the last piece of my "summer collection" - recycled old and boring string of turquoise chips that my parents bought me in Egypt in 1990. I have added some freshwater pearls of natural white color, clear crystal chips, foiled glass beads and gold-plated metal beads.