Making Beaded Snowflakes

At this time of year, I particularly enjoy making snowflakes.  Even though they are a relatively small project for me, they completely take over my beading space when I work on them.  My beading mat fills up with dozens of tiny piles of beads.  

I like to mix many different textures, shapes, sizes and colors.  I mostly use glass beads, but sometimes I add a pearl, shell or gemstone bead.  So far I have used bright colors sparingly, which is why some of my bead piles are so small.
 

It is amazing how many different kinds of white there are.  So far my work has been strictly in cool whites; I haven't even broken into my boxes of warm cream colors yet.  I want to make some ivory snowflakes too, maybe with amber touches.

Each snowflake has been unique - I make up the pattern as I go along.  This takes longer than working from a set pattern.  Sometimes I try something that doesn't work very well and it takes me several tries to get the get a snowflake to look right.  I keep meaning to make copies of some of my favorite snowflakes so far, but it's more fun to try something new.

How about you?  Do you have a favorite winter project?

Inspired by a Blogger

Last week I read a blog post from Duni about how popular gray, pink and orchid are right now.  She showed some lovely pictures of this color scheme.  A few days ago, I was looking at a necklace that had gotten broken because it had been thrown in a drawer with sharp objects (don't ever do this to your jewelry, by the way).  This is the only picture I have of it:

I got to thinking, when I repair this necklace, I could add some pink and orchid to it to give it a little more pizzaz.  So I did.

This is my Work In Progress picture:

I liked the idea, but I felt the center piece was a little dull, so I added pink to it:

 I like the way the labradorite flashes complement the colors in the necklace.

 I just listed this necklace in my Etsy store today.  What do you think?

Waterfall Bracelet

Some of you have followed this project, which started with a day trip to the Columbia River Gorge, then progressed as I continued beading at home.  Now have have finished the project:

I lengthened it into a bracelet and embellishing it with freshwater pearls, labradorite, and peridot.  I used labradorite and peridot chips for a more natural feel.  I used freshwater pearls with a little bit of texture to the surface for the same reason. I made the clasp out of a lampwork bead in my stash that reminds me of a waterfall:

Thank you all for your encouragement!

Waterfall Inspiration

Several days ago I took a day trip to the Columbia River Gorge with my beading. I shared my travels with all of you, but I never showed you what I made when I was sitting by Horsetail Falls.

 While I was watching and listening to the water thunder down into the pool, I became very interested in the look of the plant life growing on the basalt cliff face.  I liked the texture of the basalt, the line of the water, and in between, trailing along the edge of the falling water, the wildflowers and moss.

I decided I wanted to make something that would capture the way the cliff, the plants and the water all looked together.  The first thing I did was put together some color mixtures.  I had brought at least 12 boxes of beads with 20 colors each to choose from.  Here are my grays and greens.  I was sure to include lots of cube-shaped beads in my grays to mirror the basalt formations in the cliff (maybe I will write a post about basalt sometime - it's very interesting).

Then I was stumped for a while.  How was I going to portray a waterfall?  I had just finished a big project - a necklace inspired by the ocean.  I wanted something a little smaller and simpler this time.  After some mental debate, I decided I wouldn't worry about what my creation would be used for.  I just concentrated on the waterfall and beaded.  Here's how far I got before my legs fell asleep (I was sitting on big fallen rocks at the edge of the pool).

The next day I filled in a little more and added white for the water:

Now that my beading was looking more finished, I once again started wondering what I should make it into. It's really too long to be an earring (although waterfall-inspired waterfall earrings had a certain appeal). Necklaces are really my "go to" comfort-zone type of jewelry, but it felt awkward to try to make this piece into a necklace.  I finally decided that it would be easy to lengthen the random netting and make the piece into a bracelet.  I'm also thinking of adding some semi-precious embellishments, like fresh water pearls in the white (water), peridot in the green (plants) and my favorite stone, labradorite, in the grey (cliff).

What do you think?  Is bracelet a good choice?

Finally Finished!

Have you ever had one of those projects that seemed to take forever? 
Me too!  I wrote about my summer project and how I was having trouble finishing it.  All your encouraging comments helped me focus on getting it finished.

Yesterday, I pulled my kitchen table outside onto my deck.  I worked in pleasantly warm sunshine, filtered by my leafy grape vine.  I finally finished my project and this morning I listed it.

Thank you everyone for your encouragement.  It meant a lot to me.

Has anyone ever encouraged you when you were stuck?

Simon and Garfunkel Challenge

These earrings are my entry in the Etsy Beadweavers Challenge "Simon and Garfunkel - The Songs of Inspiration". I initially felt really challenged by this theme... but then I remembered what I love most about Simon and Garfunkel songs - the vivid descriptions of the lyrics and music.

One of the things I've always found compelling about their music is the way they could set a scene in my mind with only a few words and measures of music.

The song I chose is Patterns. I was especially inspired by the first verse.

The night sets softly
With the hush of falling leaves
Casting shivering shadows
On the houses through the trees
And the light from a street lamp
Paints a pattern on my wall
Like the pieces of a puzzle
Or a child's uneven scrawl

In these earrings, I used black and white to try to capture the starkness of the song. I love the phrase "shivering shadows". I wanted the patterns on the earrings to move, so I made two layers that can swing independently. I tried to give the patterns in the earrings a random look (though I did not really pick up the beads randomly). I was thinking of the shadows that might be cast by leafless trees in winter.

The last picture is my favorite because the earring looks fractured. My youngest son (7 yrs old) set that photo up :)

Please visit our team blog, (http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com) between the 9th and 15th and vote for your favorite entry. You will see some wonderful works of art!

What to do with my last bunch of grapes?

This autumn the grapes growing on my back porch inspired me to design a beaded bunch of grapes. I had enough 4 mm round purple beads to make 3 bunches of grapes. I used 2 of them to make a pair of earrings. Now I have one bunch of grapes left.

I thought maybe I would make them into a necklace. But what kind of necklace? Something simple? An elaborate stitch? How wide should it be?

After some thought, I decided to try spiral stitch, using the colors in the grapes. Spiral stitch works best with 5 colors, so I added a darker purple and a darker green.

I took some pictures of the necklace in progress. I'm glad I went with darker shades instead of lighter. I think I also like the little gold cube beads at the center of the necklace. What do you think?

New Treasury

Etsy Beadweavers produce some amazing pieces. I put together another treasury of geometric patterns in autumn colors. Please stop by and leave a comment for these amazing artists!

'Beadweaving... Tribal and Geometric Styles' by AsteropeBC

Search "EBW Team" for more beautiful beadwoven creations from the Etsy Beadweavers Team. You can also view our blog at http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com

Queen Boudicca - Necklace triz $245	FREE SHIPPING Himba Girl Ear... AmaryllisBouti... $74
Blue and Brown Agat Handmade... veroque $99	Peyote Bracelet CharmedAffecti... $75
Circles of Life Bead Embroid... CircesHouse $74.5	African Sandcast Trade Beads... MaggiesFarm $25
Native American Beaded India... TSBeading $20	PERUVIAN DREAMS NATIVE SOUTH... sandystreasure $165
Black Geometric Cuff by Sooz... BoodlersBeads $45	Red Geometric Beaded Tapestr... arjarvis $135
Copper Pyramids EPOriginals $30	Geometric Peyote Cuff LiTelle $35
Beadwoven Jasper necklace - ... Kankou $115	Leather denim cuff with unak... windyriver $72.00
Dots'n'Dashes Pendan... MFDBeadworkOri... $65	Tairona's Geometric Bead... njdesigns1 $20

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

Snowflakes

This weekend I wanted to make some beaded snowflakes. I have made beaded flowers and stars before, but never snowflakes. I had to experiment to come up with a pattern with the look I wanted.

I started with a six pointed star in the center:Then I added branched structures to represent ice crystals. My first branches were a little bit floppy, so I added more branching to add to the "iciness" of the snowflake and also to help stablize the whole shape. The end result looks like this: