Flowers for Patricia - EBW Spring Swap

It is always fun to stretch ones comfort zone just a bit.
To be honest, I am not so fond of beaded flowers (actually any man-made flowers that is). However, sometimes, beaded flowers can be pretty, and what is much more interesting - they can be challenging to make.

Another thing that I am not comfortable with, is a combination of green and pink. Once again, when put in the context of "challenge" it is becoming a really fun thing to try!

This necklace was made for Patricia Vener, a talented beader from the U.S., a fellow member of Etsy Beadweavers Team. I am trying myself in ndebele stitch, making beaded flowers, and mixing greens and pinks ;)

To see more of absolutely wonderful creations that my team members made for the Spring Swap, please visit the blogpage of Christine's Beadwork.

I am patiently waiting for my swap piece by our dear Naan... It was sent from Italy couple of days ago, but, together with most of the European airmail, has been delayed by the volcano in Iceland. No comments ;) Just hope it arrives safely! I adore Naan's spirit and the beadwork that she does. It is going to be a nice surprize, I am more than sure about it.

Dreams of Pandora: The Dragon Rider

This is the next necklace of the "Dreams of Pandora" series (see Avatar The Movie for details). At the same time, it is the latest of "my own, my precioussssssss" series as well: it was intended for display in my Etsy store, but I just do not want to part from it.

I just wanted to make my version of Toruk Makto: the Dragon Rider of Pandora. It is a bit like ancient people were recording stories in their dress embellishments - I was telling my story about Avatar ;)

Here is toruk, and an ikran flying besides it:


Here are the eyes of Jake and Neytiri:


There also are the braid of Na'vi and the holy tree of Eiwa:


And here is myself, exhausted by writing FREAKING scientific grant applications...


Two more weeks of this madness and the last application must be turned in. Wish me luck, ppl!

The Beauty of The Spring

Spring has finally arrived even to Scandinavia!
The snow is gone, but it will take a while before everything will get green. First flowers start to pop up here and there.

So, what have we got here? A combination of spring, longing after flowers and a generous offer of the blogging program of Artbeads.com. I have chosen to work with several types of glass beads this time: a HUGE Swarovski cabochon, my favorite Toho seed beads, Czech firepolished (4 beads, to be exact) and some tiny-winy 2 & 3 mm Swarovski bicones.


The rope is made in 3D RAW. It certainly looks best with even beads, and Toho has a great shape for this sort of work. I've picked some transparent seed beads to mimic the gentleness of first flowers of spring: bluebells and liverwort. Sparkly Swarovsky bicones draw a bit extra attention to those.


The focal Fancy Oval is just the quintescence of SPRING, as I see it. It is sparkly, but does not overwhelm the composition (IMHO). I've captured it with RAW.


The necklace will appear in my Etsy store soon.
Sorry guys, I gotta brag a bit about my own little spring oasis!


DISCLAIMER: the beads used to make the necklace were kindly provided by Artbeads.com free of charge, within the Artbeads Blogging Program.

Fashion Colorworks contest @ MyLovelyBeads.com

I never have time to enter any competitions, but I've just found out that Zoya and George Gutin have changed the deadline for their Fashion Colorworks contest. The time for submissions is between the 1st of April and 15th of June! Which would theoretically mean that I can manage to make something. Guess, it will be colorcombo 1: something embroidered; 2: something entirely beadwoven and 3 - crazy freeform. No promises to fullfill any of these ideas, but I will give it a try.

Otherwise I am probably going to keep a relatively low profile under the coming month or two - writing grant applications at work, it takes all my mental energy. There is also a blogging challenge from Artbeads that I've just barely started. And EBW spring swap... Hope I'll survive in one piece ;)

Malachite and March EBW challenge

Malachite is one of my most favorite gems. I found out about its existance when I was five, when my grandma and grandpa were reading Pavel Bazhov's Fairy Tales to me.

Recently, I browsed e-bay in search for some malachite beads... PEOPLE, I wanted to SCREAM!!! Most of those "genuine natural malachite","rare beauty", "we guarantee that our stones are 100% natural", "limited quantity available" etc, etc, etc - ARE MAN-CREATED! Assembled, pressed and stabilized from malachite dust in the very best case, and glossy plastic multi-colored monsters in the very worst. By understandable reasons, I will not paste any pictures here. But I can barely hold myself... Very, very upsetting indeed.

Wanna see a real malachite? Here it comes:

I used this lovely cab in my latest piece, made for the EBW March Challenge, "Fairy Tale".

It is called Хозяйка Медной Горы, or Lady Of The Copper Mine. To cut a long story short, the Lady was mighty but slightly arrogant, cold but extremely beautiful. She fell in love with a young miner and (among other things) asked him to make her a vase, shaped as a stone flower. The poor guy was a perfectionist and after several trials has delivered a stone flower that was as good as alive. There are lots of gems, copper and malachite in that fairy tale!

The shape of the pendant is a crescent, and this is my interpretation of a traditional female protective amulet that was common in Russia (and not only!).

Actually, I was amazed to find out that Swedish miners also have stories about Lady of The Mine. And their stories are quite similar to what I heard as a child. How very interesting...

Oah well, you know what you will have to do somewhere between the 9th and 15th of March: go to our blog and vote for your favorites! Otherwise, you can always search for the "ebwc" tag on Etsy!

Be well! :)
And please, if somebody is trying to tell you that there is such a thing as "red", "purple", "multicolor" or "rainbow" malachite - please do not believe those people... Or at least do not pay more than a buck or two...

Dreams of Pandora series

And here comes another finished UFO!

Have you seen Avatar the movie? If not - you should. Even if you are not into sci-fi, just go for the colors. It is such a treat for the eyes! Even if the scope is slightly primitive, the movie was spectacular. I mean SPECTACULAR. Be sure, it will be an endless source for your inspiration.

Honestly, I'v made drawings for this one even prior to the movie. But I just did not have inspiration to finish this piece. After seing the Avatar, I got a kick in my back.

I called this one Ancient Ritual. Still not sure if it should be fringed or not... Do not think so, actually.


Yes, one more thing... Guys making jewelry for sci-fi movies, I do envy you big time!

Deep Blue Sea - EBW

Pfew, it was a close shave this month, but I've finished the Challenge piece two days before the deadline.

The theme is "Ocean". Here are my waves. The original plan was to feature a large kyanite cabochon in the middle of the choker, and to make a wavy pattern on entire length of the necklace. It looked too busy and I had to cut it. The kyanite got replaced by a large Swarovski pendant, because the stone just did not want to play along with other crystals that I used to assemble the 3D RAW wave. It took a while to find a suitable ribbon... Then it was a long hunt for a clasp that I wanted to be sterling silver ribbon holder. Guess if I was glad to find it in France for couple of weeks ago. Did I get within three to five working days as was promised by the shop? Not really... So, I had to invent a wheal, in this case: clasp. Seen something similar once (work of Kristina Kristianson) and just borrowed the idea due to lack of time and inspiration.

Well, enough complaining - it actually does not look all too bad.


Voting will start as usually, on 9th of February at etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com and will continue until February the 15th. Everybody is welcome to vote and leave a comment!