August Voting Time!!!

It's that time again, time to vote for you favorite EBW challenge piece.  This month's challenge was Gold and Silver, and boy where there ever some pretty entries.  Visit the EBW Blog from now until August 15th to vote for your favorite one.  Click on the mosaic above to go to the EBW Blog to see all the pretties.  

This was my entry; Chrysus - Free form Beaded Cuff.  It's # 37 on the list.   

It's gonna be hard just to pick one of the 50 entries, but what are you waiting for, go vote today!

EBW Challenge Piece

My EBW challenge piece

I know I've shown pictures of this cuff before, but I finally got it listed on etsy, one day before this month's deadline.  I didn't want to miss out on this challenge since I had missed last month's deadline (I forgot that the deadline was the 5th).

This month's challenge is Gold and Silver.  I love this idea.  Just that perfect combination of two extremely classy colors.  I also love seeing all the beadwork made with these two colors, all those little tiny silver and gold beads just shimmer in the light.  Beautiful.  I know voting is going to be difficult this month, there are already so many beautiful entries.  You can search EBWC on etsy to find all the entries and don't forget to visit the EBW blog between August 9th and 15th to vote for your favorite piece. 

Here are a couple of my favorite entries (even though it's hard to pick).

This beautiful cuff, Silver Remake Beaded Cuff,  was created by Beads and Blooms and is just to die for.  I absolutelty love the silver mesh piece in the center of the cuff.  Just beautiful. 

Then I love this necklace, The Sunshine After the Rain, from The Crimson Moon.  It's has a simple yet spectacular feel to it. 

Both pieces are just a taste of some of the beauties that you can vote for this month.  Like I said before, it's going to be a tough decision this month. 

*****

And I've already started thinking about next month's challenge; BollyWood.  I have a clay cab I made that will just work perfectly, now to decide what I'm going to do and start working on that one.  :-) 

Day Four

Here's a [crappy iphone] picture of day four progress of my latest challenge piece.  I didn't get a chance to work on it Thursday night because we were screen printing t-shirts for J's band (which turned out really nice).  But I did sit down on Friday night and got almost all of the blue finished.  I'm making good progress.  I've finished all the beading today and should be able to get almost all of the beadwork sewn on to the leather tonight.  So hopefully by tomorrow, if all goes to plan, I will have a finished cuff to show off.  Stay tuned for day five pics. 

Day Three

Here's sneak peak day three.  I know what you're thinking, this doesn't look that much different from yesterday's sneak peak, what's up with that?  I know, I wasn't quite as productive last night as the night before.  But I did get some things done.

Day Three

First, the green on this side of the cuff wasn't completely done, so I finished that up.  Then I added my little frog friend there.  I also added little pops of color that are supposed to be flowers, it's hard to tell in this crappy phone picture, but they're there, you just have to take my word for it.  I also started on the blue.  That's on the other side of the cuff, so again you'll have to take my word for it again.

I'm really happy with how this cuff is turning out.  Stay tuned tomorrow for the next sneak peak.      

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.

EBW Voting Time

It's time to vote for your favorite EBW challenge entry.  This month's theme was Light as a Breeze.  Stop by the EBW blog and vote for your favorite today.  There are 32 gorgeous entries this month, so it will be difficult to pick just one. 

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.

My Humor Cuff!

This cuff was created for the June 2009 Etsy Beadweaver's Challenge. This month's challenge was HUMOR.

This free form cuff was stitched using tiny little glass seed beads, cube beads, larger seed beads, and a flower bead. It is then finished off with a beaded toggle clasp.

I was excited when the June EBW theme was announced. I was just starting to experiment with free form stitching; I thought 'what a great way to show some humor. I'll show everyone my attempt at free form.' And this is what I came up with.

The humor in this is twofold. The first is my feeble attempt at free form, and the second are the bright colors and patchwork. I envisioned a jester, with all the colors in a harlequin pattern. And this is what my mind came up with. Fun, colorful, and funky; that sums up this wonderful cuff.

This cuff measures approximately 1 1/2 across, and is about 6 1/2 inches long.

All items are made in a smoke free environment, in my small studio in Southeastern Wisconsin.

You can check out this cuff HERE in my etsy store. And don't forget to click HERE to check out all the other fantastic entries for this month.

Voting will begin June 9, 2009 and run until June 15, 2009. You can stop by the Etsy-Beadweaver's website to vote (voting is one the right hand side, and don't forget to click submit after you make your decision)!