Procrastinating….

I don’t think there is anyone who is more guilty of procrastination than I am!!! I’m not into new year’s resolutions, but if I was… trying to stop procrastinating would definitely be on the top of my list!!! While writing this post I’m forced to look at myself and try to understand why it is that I do this? I’m not lazy… I enjoy what I do (of course I’m not talking about putting off cleaning the flat… which is the only time I forgive myself for procrastinating!)… so why do I find myself constantly putting off stuff? am I easily distracted? do I have so many ideas floating about in my head that I constantly jump from one to another?… am I too overwhelmed? I think that maybe all apply!!! So this year I will attempt not to procrastinate as much as I usually do… and in an effort to do that I’m now posting pieces that I made in the last few months and just didn’t get around to photograph, list, post, etc. …

Ocean Flower – OOAK Necklace

Ocean Flower – OOAK Cuff

 

Arctic Lagoon – OOAK Earrings

Arctic Lagoon – OOAK Bead Embroidered Leather Cuff

Crowning Glory – OOAK Silver Leather Cuff

All the pieces above were made quite a while ago…. but somehow I didn’t manage to post until recently… and now for some more recently made pieces… all soutache!!! Did I mention that I'm really enjoying this new technique?!?! ;-D

Burgundy, Wine, Lilac, Pink & Silver Soutache Pendant OOAK

Emerald Dream – OOAK Soutache Necklace

And now… I’m finally all caught up!!!! :-D

To celebrate the new year I’m offering a 13% discount on anything in my shop (including sale items and tutorials).  To receive the discount enter coupon code HAPPY2013 (valid till 13th January 2013) at checkout in my etsy shop!

Wishing you all a healthy, successful, prosperous and happy new year!!!! ;-)

A Touch of Royalty – EBW February Challenge

It’s that time again…. time to go and check out the beautiful entries for this month’s EtsyBeadWeavers Challenge!!!

My entry for this challenge is # 31 on the list:

Marie Antoinette – Pink Leather Cuff

There are 62 incredible entries for this challenge, so your challenge will be to pick just one as your favourite and vote for it before the 15th February!!!

So don’t put it off, go and check out the amazingly talented EtsyBeadWeavers Team and vote for your favourite entry!!! http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

Happy beading!!! 

EtsyBeadWeavers Challenge – Time to vote!

The August EtsyBeadWeavers challenge is currently open for votes!

My entry is Golden Galaxy (entry # 25)

Please visit the EBW blog from now till the 15th August and vote for your favourite piece! http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

Eye Candy from the EBW & BAO

I’ve been incredibly uninspired lately… and for the life of me I cannot seem to sit myself down and do any beading whatsoever!!! So, I thought I would look at some of my team members for some inspirations and it’s been a really long time since I last made a treasury, mainly because I just haven’t had the time but also because the treasuries seem to open up when I’m either out or I’m asleep! :-)

I really wanted to share with you some of my favourite pieces from some of the team members of the EtsyBeadWeavers and Bead Art Originals, to which I belong, and here they are (not in any order of preference):

CieloDesign

StickLizardDesigns

myfairladyvt4

FleurDeIrk

HauteIceBeadwork

    SmadarsTreasure

 daynamiles

gwenbeads

SandFibers

 

giapet

time2cre8

Naftali

   MAKUstudio

arosebyname

thejadedog

Malodora

SalamanderHouse

LisaPetersArt

sedonaskye

nemeton

This is by no means an extensive list of all my favourite pieces or artists…. There are so many more incredibly talented artists that belong to the EBW and BAO… but I couldn’t show all of them, sorry…
To see more search for the tags EBW and/or BAO on Etsy.

EBW September winners

The winner of the EtsyBeadWeavers Indian Summer Challenge is:

Indian Summer Sunset by Lorraine of Trinity Designer Jewellery

Second place is my dear friend Miriam from Cielo Design (who has to listen to me bitch and moan on a daily basis! and for that she deserves a medal!) :-) with her Parvati's Grace Necklace

and 3rd place… yours truly with my Indian Summer Nights

Thank you to all of you who voted for me, I really appreciate it!!!

To see the rest of the runners up + all the gorgeous entries, please visit the EBW blog.

EtsyBeadWeavers Challenge – First Ladies of Style

The voting for this month’s EBW challenge started a couple of days late due to some technical hiccups… but check out this amazing selection of eclectic, diverse and beautiful entries for this month’s challenge First Ladies of Style by the EtsyBeadWeavers!!! and vote for your favourite here!!!

My entry for this month’s challenge is # 14 on the above list, For Sofia – Choker, you can read more about it in a previous post here.

Go and vote for your favourite piece!!! Don’t put it off, voting is open for a short time only!

http://ebwteam.blogspot.com/2009/08/august-challenge-first-ladies-of-style.html

A New Look!

I don’t know what took over me this morning a 6 am… but since then I’ve been glued to the computer… and now 12 hours later I have finally reached a point where I’m relatively satisfied with the way the blog looks! + I’ve had enough of sitting here + I have a gorgeous necklace just waiting to be finished!!! :-)

I’ve been meaning to change the template on my blog to a 3 column one for about a year… I lacked the courage to even try and figure out how to do it… but this morning that changed and I conquered my fear! The result is this new look! I still have some changes to make and some tidying up to do… but I think most of it is done! Let me know what you think…. is it better? is it worse?

and as I’m incapable of posting without including some eye candy… here are some of my latest favourite items from Etsy:

For Sofia - Choker

Inspiration came this weekend, when I suddenly remembered how little time I had left to enter the August EBW Challenge - First Ladies of Style. So I locked myself in my room and beaded my little heart out! :-) This is one of the 3 pieces I made over the week end – For Sofia - Choker

This wonderful piece of wearable art was created for the EtsyBeadWeavers August Challenge “First Ladies of Style". When I think of a First Lady of Style, I think of Sofia Loren. In my eyes she is the epitome of woman, beauty and style. Through decades we have watched her develop from a beautiful young woman into a beautiful mature woman, and even at 75, the one aspect of Sofia Loren which remains constant is her beauty and her style.

I wanted to create something that would exemplify her style. Sofia Loren has the most beautiful long neck and she is often seen wearing gorgeous chokers.

Not long ago I received the most gorgeous rectangular Russian hand-painted pendant depicting a design based on the Gustav Klimt painting, Judith, from artbeads.com.

In 1901, Judith was considered the incarnation of the femme fatale. She exudes a dangerous form of sexuality, confidence and fearlessness; hence it is the perfect centre piece for a Sofia Loren-inspired choker.

For this pendant/bead and for similar one, please check out - Russian Pendants and if you are a fan of Klimt also check out - Venetian Beads.

I will post details of the August EBW challenge sometimes next week. Back to the beading board :-) to finish off one of the pieces I started this week end… stay tuned :-)

June EBW Challenge

The theme of the June EtsyBeadWeavers Challenge is Humour and the entries are definitely humorous and whimsical!!! :-) Go and vote for your favourite from today until the 15th June: http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

I didn’t manage to enter this month, but have already finished my entry for the July challenge themed “Here come the bride…” chosen by Cielo Design who won the May challenge. As soon as the theme was announced I rushed to my bead stash and beaded my little heart out. Stay tuned, I will post pictures after the current voting has ended. :-)

In the meantime…. go vote!!! :-)

Golden Pool

One of my favourite things about having joined Etsy is the discovery of so many talented and wonderful artists. One of those talented artists is Lisa Peters from LisaPetersArt. She makes the most beautiful OOAK beads, buttons and cabochons using different types of clays, glazes and firing methods. In the last year or so I have bought quite a few of her cabochons and some buttons. They are all so beautiful that I sometimes find it difficult to part with them and use them in my beadwork. I just love looking at them and fondling them! :-) However that is why I buy them… to use in my beadwork… so last week I did just that! I picked one of her cabochons and decided to make something out of it…. and this is what I made:

Golden Pool

I love her pieces so much that I didn’t want to detract too much from the beauty of the cabochon so I decided to keep it simple, at the same time I wanted to somehow depict and incorporate into the beading the movement of the golden swirls, so I bead-embroidered round the cabochon and tried to mimic the movement by adding a twisted edge to the bead-embroidery. This was the first time I had tried using this technique and I have to say I’m really pleased with how it turned out…. I’m sure I will be using this twisted edge again! :-) I wanted to make the necklace along the same idea, so I simply strung two strands of beads and twisted them together, and I think it works well.

If you’ve been following my blog recently, you may have noticed my current obsession with using turquoise/green together with gold. Well this obsession has not even come close to running its course! :-) I’m currently working on a green and gold St. Petersburg stitched necklace. I decided yesterday to overcome my (unfounded) fears and try and see if I could manage to do it… and manage I did, it's actually relatively easy and am finding it extremely relaxing to work with… I have no idea what I’m going to do with it… but will be working on it later today and hopefully something wearable will have emerged from it in the next few days… come back and see! :-) In the meantime this is what I’ve managed to do so far:

For more of Lisa’s beautiful work, please visit her links below:

Shop: http://www.LisaPetersArt.etsy.com
Blog: http://www.lisa-petersart.blogspot.com
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisapetersart

Congratulations SandFibers!!!

Congratulations SandFibers on your 3 year Etsy anniversary!!!!

To celebrate this milestone, SandFibers is offering 20% off from now till the 6th March!!!!

Please visit SandFibers' blog for details. In the meantime here is a selection of some of my favourite items from her shop:

Ok I could go on and post almost every single item in her shop.... sooo many gorgeous and funky beadwoven pieced!!! Here are just a handful of some of my favourites.... visit her shop and see all the rest!!!!

Don't forget to visit SandFibers' blog for details on how to qualify for the 20% off!!!!

EtsyBeadWeavers Tropical Holiday Challenge - time to vote!

It's that time again.... time for voting!!!! Go to the EtsyBeadWeavers' Blog and vote for your favourite piece!!!! It will not be easy to pick just one out of 47 gorgeous entries!!! But that is what you must do! ;-)

My entry for this challenge is # 19 - Tropical Chic Choker

Voting ends on the 15th February, so don't put it off!!!

http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/