Monday's Weekend Recap

Another weekend has come and gone and now it's Monday again.  And what a dreary, overcast, cold Monday it is.  We are supposed to get our first snow fall today and tomorrow.  Good news, I don't live in northern WI, were they may get up to 14 inches snow.  I'm not quite ready for that.  I'm not quite ready to get that winter coat out, but with the weather predicted for this week, I think I'm going to have to.  Blah.  Someday I'll live somewhere that it's warm.  Someday.

This wasn't that exciting of a weekend around here.  J had a lot of homework to do because his final presentation is coming up soon.  His group is the first group to present at the beginning of December.  That's great because he'll be done early, but it's very stressful for him to get all that done in such a short period of time.  I'm so proud of that boy and I can't wait to throw him a huge party this December when he finishes up his masters.  So exciting.

So what did I do this weekend?  Hmmmm.  I recalibrated my laptop battery.  It's an exciting life I live.  But what did I do that was beady?  

Well I finished up a guitar string bracelet that is off to it's new home in MD.  I love these bracelets.  I have a few myself and I love to wear them all stacked up on my arm.  They are a lot of fun and I hope it's new owner loves it as much as I do.

I also got a little bit more work on the large red leather gauntlet done.  I'm about 80% done with the studs and beadwork.  I would like to finish this up this week so I can get it glued by this weekend.  I'm excited to see this finished because it is the first gauntlet I've ever made.

I even got a little bit of time to work on my solar system project.  I started attaching the planets to the canvas and adding some paint.  So far I only have the sun attached, but I plan on working on this today, so hopefully I'll have a couple more attached by the end of the day.  This might be the most exciting project I've done in a while.  I'm in love.

So that's what I accomplished this weekend.  Tomorrow I'll have an update on the artist reception at Ebling Library.  That was a pretty neat event.

Till then, stay creative.

Silver and Gold Freeform Cuff - Finished

Well I was going to post new pictures of day three of my beaded vessel. I know what happened to day two, I just didn't get pictures taken.  I was excited to get more work done on it, you can't blame me.  So I packed up everything so I could go outside at lunch and snap a few pics of my progress.  But that plan came to a screeching halt when I got to work only to realize the point and shoot's battery was dead and I didn't have a charger.  Booo, but wait, I did have the computer cord, I'll just charge it through my computer.  It will take a little longer, but should work.  No, no, my computer isn't even recognizing that the camera is plugged in, so I guess a progress report is out of the question.  But I promise to get some pictures tonight before I start working on it a bit more.

Finished Free Form Cuff

But I don't want to not post any pretty pictures.

Here is the final outcome of my free form cuff.  As you may remember I wasn't sure if wanted to embelish this cuff or leave it as it was.  Now I got a lot of feed back both on the blog and on Facebook, so I decided to leave it be, sort of.

I changed out the button.  Not that I didn't like the button before, I just wanted something a little different.  I took the center part out of the button and created my own button.  I used a dark blue swarvoski bicone to hold the button in place and then created a little bead garden around it with the silver and gold seed beads and those great vintage beads.

Old Button

Here's a crappy phone picture of the old button.  It was nice, but just not what I had in mind.

I'm pretty happy with this outcome.  I like how the new button toggle really finishes the piece.  It brings everything together and it's kinda fun.

This is my entry in the August EBW challenge Silver and Gold.  I wasn't missing out on this challenge.  So I got my challenge piece done early and got the pictures done as soon as I stitched the last bead.  No more lazy me.  I'll post something as soon as I get it listed (see I still might miss the deadline) and I'll post a link when voting starts.  I know I'll be up against some stiff competition with my simple free form cuff.  But I'm happy with my entry.

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And just because I wouldn't be a very good GF if I didn't say anything.  J and the guys have a gig this Saturday in Madison.  They will be at Legends Sports Bar & Grill on the west side.  It's free cover and $1 beer and brats.  Check out their facebook page for more info.  If you like ska and live in Madison, you better be there.

Also they have T-shirt preorder going on right now.  If you want a shirt get me or one of them the info by Thursday. 

Too Embelish, or Not

I have finally finished my free form bracelet.  I'm still not super excited about it, but I do have to say it's better then what I expected.  While I was working on it, I kept thinking it looked like it was a fish.  I'm not sure why that was stuck in my head, but I was convinced the bracelet looked like fish scales.  But now I don't really feel that way. 

I finished it off with some fringe around the borders and the with a button I've picked up along the way. 

I do love the black beads in this bracelet.  I received them from my aunt, well she's not really my aunt, but that's what I've always known her as.  She is a professional organizer, so she's always sending me little treasures.  These were a nice little surprise.  I found a little bubble envelope in my mailbox one day and all that was in it were these beads.  I fell in love with them immediately and I've been adding them to projects here and there.  They're very pretty little imperfect hex beads with a AB finish.  Just beautiful.

So at least I love one part of this bracelet.  Now I have to decide if I want to do some more embellishments or leave it as is.  This is going to be something I'll have to think about, so I'll get back to you with that answer ;)

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On other bead news, I've decided I want to try......now wait for it........sculptural beadwork.   I know really, you want to try and make a little basket or vase out of beads, are you crazy?  I just feel like I would really like to push myself and give this a try.  I'll make something little to start (unlike the first time I tried bead embroidery and then I didn't want to pick up an embroidery project for years after that, but I digress).  So stay tuned for crappy iphone pictures of my progress with this new project.         

Sorry for the picture quality

I have the next couple of weeks off.  Well sorta.  I don't have an art show for a few weeks and our friends just had their baby boy, so J's band has a little hiatus for now.  We finally have some down time that we can just relax and maybe catch up with some things around the house.

I finally got around to using the gift certificate I got for my birthday, back in April.  I bought two really great books.  It was so difficult for me to pick just two books, but I finally made my choice.

One of the books I bought was Seed Bead Fusion by Rachel Nelson-Smith.  I love this book.  The projects are so colorful and creative.  I've just been drooling over it since it's arrived.

So since this is my "vacation" time, I thought I would work on something new.  I really love the cuffs in Rachel's book, so I'm working on one that is inspired by the book.

 

I know it's an awful picture.  For some reason I decided to leave the real camera at home today so I snapped a quick pic with my phone.  I tried to clean it up in photoshop, but to no avail.  But you get the idea from the picture.

I love RAW (right angle weave).  It's one of the first stitches I learned.  It's just so pretty and can take on so many looks when just altered a little bit.  I've even started using it to make three dimensional items.

So one of the bracelets in the book is RAW and the little circles are filled in.  Now I've filled RAW with crystals and pearls and etc, etc.  But I just love how the little holes look with little seed beads.

I altered the project a bit.  The base is a bit different and I'm not filling in every row.  I like the more open look as well as I may have used to thick of thread to be able to go through the beads that many times, but we'll go with I like the open look as the main reason :-)

I'm really happy with how it looks and  I can't wait to finish it up so I can wear it.  I don't really make myself that much lately, so this is kinda a little present to myself.  A new sparkly bracelet.  I'm hoping to finish it tonight and get pictures soon.  I know I'll be wearing it as soon as it's finished.  And if you're looking for a good book to inspire you're bead work check this one out (no this is NOT a paid endorsement, I'm just really happy with my book).

I also missed the deadline for the EBW challenge, but I should have pictures of my cuff that was intended to be included in July's challenge.

And I also want to remind everyone to vote for Beads of Courage at the Pepsi Project website, the link is on my side bar.  This is a great program that helps kids with cancer.  To find out more about it check out their blog and vote today!

Day Five - Last Sneek Peak

Day Five

I finished up my bead embroidered cuff this weekend.  I'm so happy with it.  It's fun and colorful.  I love using bead embroidery to paint little pictures.  Here is the last picture of it as a work in progress.  I'll drag out the light tent and hopefully get some pictures of it before this weekend (2 art shows and J's band has 2 shows this weekend, what were we thinking).  Stay tuned for the final reveal.   

Day Two

Just a quick post today. Here is a sneak peak at my challenge piece. It's only day two and and half done with the bead embroidery. Now just to finish up the second half and start working on the embellishments and attaching it to leather.  I'm really excited about how this one is looking.  I'm starting to grow quite fond of bead embroidery.  There are so many possibilities with it. Stay tuned for day three pictures tomorrow. 

Day two! It's really starting to take shape.

*Storm Update*  Yesterday J stayed home to clean up the flooded basement and I left work early to help.  We got it all cleaned up just in time for the storms that hit us last night and this morning.  Now the basement is flooded again and this morning there was water leaking from a light switch up stairs.  I don't know about the rest of you that live in the area, but I think I'm done with the crap weather.

Beauty of the Sea

I just finished one of my favorite bracelets to date.  I started this one probably about a year ago and ran out of the silver pearls when I was almost finished.  I only needed about three to five pearls to finish :-(  And so I put it aside and forgot about it.  But I finally got around to ordering new pearls and finishing it up.  And boy am I happy I did.

I'm in love with this bracelet.  It has a base of silver lined red seed beads and then is just covered with silver and white freshwater pearls.  And it's finished with a fun little button clasp.  It's fantastic.  So decedent and regal.  I love it, have I said that before, oh well.

The pearls give it a wonderful weight, but it's not too heavy to cause problems when wearing it. It's perfect, but I may be a little bias. 
 

I really should make some more of these since a year ago I went on a pearl kick and bought hundreds of pearls.  I'm serious, I bought hundreds of them in every color you could imagine.  I like pearls, I just don't normally use them in my work.  Now I have no excuses to not use them. 

So be on the lookout for more like this one. 

The Phantom

Here is my third "jumble" necklace so far.  I love making these fun sophisticated necklaces.

This beauty is based on the Phantom of the Opera.  I'm not that into Phantom, but the graduate student in the lab is.  She loves it, so she helped me out with a few different ideas.  She told me about the pipe organ, and the rose, and red dress, etc etc.  And this is what my little mind came up with.

I used a wonderful silver lined gold for the herringbone rope.  This represents the pipes of the organ.  And then the "jumble" part consists of silver lined red triangle beads, silver lined seed beads, silver lined square beads, and lovely garnet chips.  The red "jumble" represents the rose and the dress and the passion.


And I wasn't finished with just the necklace. I had enough left over beads to make a matching bracelet.

Again I used the silver lined gold beads as a base, then I just covered the whole bracelet with the collection of the red beads.

I am so happy with how both of these turned out.  They both are quite substantial and a little on the heave side due to the large quantity of garnet chips that were used, but they both very comfortable to wear.

What do you think?

What's New?!?

So much chaos; a mess of a bead board.

So I've been busy, busy, busy.  I just seems like I can't wait for spring, but once it rolls around I'm on the go constantly.  But that's okay with me. :-)

I have said before that I'm finishing up getting ready for show season; I still have those pesky table cloths to make.  But I have been feeling extremely creative too, even if it feels like I don't have time to sit and think for long.  So I thought I'd share what's currently on my bead board with everyone.

And here it is.  I know it's a mess right now.  I have a bunch of projects that I'm working on all at once (and the one's you can see aren't even all of them). 

I'm making a few more triangle earrings for my "Go Team" line.  But I'm also make a few new triangles to go with the fantastic copper earwires I just got.  I just love making those little guys.

I'm also finishing up a small bracelet to match a wonderful "jumble" necklace I just finished; you can see both in this picture.  They're a wonderful combination of silver lined gold and red, so rich and luxurious.

I also finished up my summer project for ArtBeads, I just need to get pictures taken.  It's a fun bead embroidered cuff.  I'm also finishing up a smaller bead embroidered cuff that just needs to be stitched to the leather.     

Like I said, I've been busy.  I have less then a month to get ready for my first show, so I better get my butt in gear.  No more pretty beads for a while, and lots more sewing :( 

A New Pattern

I listed this new pattern in my Etsy Store this morning.

This cuff was designed for my little sister for her last birthday. She is a dancer and performer, so I wanted to make her something special.

This cuff would be great for the dancer in your life.

It measures 1.80 inches by 7.03 inches (4.57 cm by 17.86 cm).

You can find it HERE in my Three Fates Design store.

I really like this cuff. I think it's so elegant but still simple. I love it in the black and white with silver accents, but I bet it would be lovely in many other color combination.

My little sister turned 17 today. I don't get to see her that often, so I wanted to make her something special.

She's a dancer and a performer, taking part in musicals and plays. So I designed a simple cuff with the silhouette of a ballet dancer in the spotlight. I really love how this turned out.

She got it in the mail today and loves it. Yay!!!

I'm all done!!!!

I have been working non stop on my latest entry in the EBW monthly challenge. This month's challenge was Fairy Tale. Oh the possibilities. I love fairy tales and fables. They were some of my favorite things to read as a child. I remember my grandfather had this great old book full of classic fairy tales. The pictures in this book were amazing. Even before I could read, I would sit and thumb through the book just to look at these wonderful works of art. Sometimes I miss the old illustrations (no offense modern day illistrators).

One of my favorite stories, well actually two of my favorite stories are Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I have always loved these stories. I'm actually re-reading Through the Looking Glass right now. The characters in these stories are just amazing, so creative and colorful. How could you not love them?

And my absolute favorite character was the Cheshire Cat. I even wanted to dress up as the Cheshire Cat one year for Halloween. I'm not really sure what it is that draws me to this character, I just love him.

As soon as this month's challenge was announced, I knew what I was going to do. I was going to do a two drop peyote cuff, but that would be much of a challenge to me. So I decided to try bead embroidery again.

I used these great Lapis cabs for the eyes. I've had these cabs for a little while and I knew they would work perfect for this project.

I wanted to do a completely black cuff with just the eyes and the smile visible, but wasn't sure how I was going to pull that off, so I compromised with black eyes and smile and a gray background.

I then added a great pink and blue beaded boarder around the edges and backed it with green leather.

I am so proud and excited about this cuff. I am completely in love with it. It has really helped get me over my winter creative slump I've been in. Every night that I worked on it, I got one step closer to the final piece. It made me excited again.

It also has again renewed my awe and just plain wonderment for all of the artists out there that do bead embroidery. This is not an easy task and so many make it look easy. I enjoy doing the bead embroidery, but I think after this project I'll be taking a little bit of a break.

This cuff can be found in my etsy store.

Voting for this challenge begins on March 9th on the Etsy Beadweavers Blog.

Matching Bracelet!

I have really been enjoying working with the St. Petersburg stitch. I really like the way it looks. It's very pretty.

So after working on my necklace with my ArtBeads items, I decided to make a cuff that went with my Antheia's Bounty Necklace (I finally came up with a name).

It's just a simple blue and black cuff using the St. Petersburg stitch. I think it looks really pretty.

I finished off the cuff with two metal flower beads I have been hoarding for the perfect project.

It really compliments the necklace well. It brings all the beautiful blues out in the necklace and because it's simple, it doesn't overpower the necklace.

I'm happy with this one, I can't wait to make more with this wonderful stitch.

This one is available in my etsy store, HERE.

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I've started applying for art shows for this year. I've already applied for my first one that will be held in Madison on February 13th. I'll know by next Tuesday if I was excepted or not. I have my fingers crossed because I really think this will be a good show (and it's in a bar, a fancy one, so J will be happy he can get a cold one if the show is too boring for him). So hopefully I'll have good news early next week. And then I'll keep everyone posted on other art shows.

Newest Guitar Cuffs

So I've been on quite the kick of making guitar cuffs lately. I really don't know a thing personally about guitars, but J does and I think he's having as much fun helping me as I am making them.

I have two new guitars to offer up today.

First up is my blue guitar on a super fun, bright yellow background.

I probably like this one the best so far. But who knows what I'll make in the future.

It's 1.6 inches wide and about 7 inches long.

This one is available in my etsy store if you'd like to see more on it.

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The next one is a white and black guitar on a brigt red striped background.

I really like this one. The two reds are the exact shade, but one is a matte transparent bead, so it's a subtle difference.

It measures 1.4 inches wide and about 7 inches long.

I just finished this one up this weekend and I'm hoping to have it listed on etsy soon.

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Stay tuned for more guitars. I have a couple more styles that I'm working on. And I also hope to have the patterns up online soon. I love seeing how created people are.

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And don't forget FREE SHIPPING on everything in my etsy store. Yoda's recovering well, but we still have mountains of vet bills. All sales will go towards taking care of those. Do a little early Christmas shopping and help a little puppy in the process.

Pretty in Pink

I've got a bunch of pink stuff.

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First off I have a fantastic pair of beaded hoops. I really like these. I used a mixture of pink seed bead soup to work these little babies up. Then I used pink glass beads in the middle to give them that little added sparkles.

They are very delicate and girly. I'm not normally a huge pink fan, but I really love these.

These hoops measure about 2 1/2 inches in length.

You can find these great little hoop earrings in my etsy store .

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Next up is this great little pink bracelet. I used a wide verity of different shades of pink. Then I threw in a few different types of purple beads. I finished this great bracelet off with this super fun purple swirl button.

I've been holding on to this button for a few years waiting for the perfect thing. I knew before I even started this bracelet I wanted to use this button.

This bracelet measures about 1/2 inch wide and about 7 inches long.

You can also find this bracelet in my etsy store.

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Then last but not least, I have a very cute pair of pink triangle earrings.

These little guys are using the same great pink bead soup mixture. They are extremely delicate, yet modern.

I love these little guys. The triangle itself only measures 1 inch long and they are a little over 1 1/2 inch with the ear-wires (sterling silver of course).

Tiny and pretty.

Check them out in my etsy store.

Finally Friday

Well It's Friday, Yippee!!! I have had such a week, I really hope this weekend will be better. Lets just say I had a little bit of a crazy week.

The good news is, I finally sat down and finished taking pictures. Ok, so I didn't actually finish, but I made really good headway, and that's all that counts, right (and after yesterday's mess, I'm surprised I got anything done).

First up is the second small "cuff" I've made.

It's the same width as the first one, 3/5 of an inch wide. I love anything checkered, so I really love this one.

It's again, super simple to wear, you don't even really realize you have it on. I like the way the "crystal" button makes it a little bit "fancy". (Wow, I really like quotes today) I think it dresses up the more casual pattern of the beadwork.

So I'm pretty happy with this one. Part of me say 'keep it for yourself', but the other part of me says 'no, you can always make another.' So I'm going to part with it. You can check it out in my etsy store if you are interested.

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Here is one of the pictures I took last night. OH MY GOD do I love this picture.

I spent the majority of my time last night taking new pictures of older items. Ones that I took pictures of a while back before I learned how to use the SLR. The pictures weren't bad, they just weren't great. You can see an example of an earlier picture of my seashore necklace below. I just didn't know what setting on the camera to use or how to set up proper lighting. I think I've gotten better at both of these things.

So I just wanted to share one of my new favorite pictures with everyone. I'm in love with how the colors of the coral and beads really come through in this picture. I never thought the pictures did this necklace justice until now.



Okay I'm done raving about that picture. Everyone have a good weekend. I know I'm going to try.

Introducing - Tiny Cuffs

So I've been working on a few new bracelets. I would like to call them cuffs, but at only 1/2 in wide, I guess they are not cuffs.

They are really simple, but still really pretty. And they look great on, most important feature. They are also very easy to wear. Perfect for the person who doesn't want to sport the 2 inch cuff. This one is the first one I've listed on etsy.

I'm really happy with how they turned out. I'll have to get more pictures taken so I can show off the rest of them I made.

New Bracelet

This cute little bracelet was a custom order I just finished. I really think it turned out pretty cute!

80s-Tastic Cuff

I have a brand spanking new cuff!!! I call it the 80's-tastic cuff. I'm in love with it. It's bright and colorful and reminds me of the track suits and ski jackets of the 1980s.

Teal and purple triangles, classic 80s.

This cuff is so fun to wear. I thought about keeping it for myself, but I wanted to share it with everyone, so I listed it on etsy. And I really should stop keeping things for myself, LOL!

This is the first time that I used Toho seed beads. They were on sale and I was curious about them, so I bought just these three colors. The teal is a silver lined bead, the purple is a metallic bead, and the black is an opaque hex bead.

This cuff is just over 1 1/2 inches (actual width 1 5/8 in) and about 7 inches long.

You can check it out HERE.

I'm Finished - WooHoo

I have finally finished my free form cuff. I'm so happy with how it turned out. It's very fun and colorful.

It reminds me of a gypsy. Fun, colorful, and a little wild.

I'm very glad I tried to do something like this. I'm usually attracted to things that have a set pattern, but this was well worth the try. It was so freeing.

I've already started on my second one. Completely different from this one, which is one of the main reasons I think I'm starting to love this stitch. You can sit down with the same beads, but come up with so many different possibilities. It's so fun.

I'm so happy with this cuff. It wears really nice too.

I wore it all day yesterday, while I did house work. and it never bothered me. I really didn't even notice it. Well I noticed it, when I would look down and see a supper fun cuff and it would make me smile. But it never interfered with me doing laundry or cleaning. So it super awesome.

I'll get some pictures of the one I'm currently working on. It's just as colorful and fun as this one. Then hopefully I'll be able to get one or two done and up on etsy. FUN! (but it will have to wait till after this weekend, it's J's birthday!)

Have a fantastic Friday and wonderful weekend.