Some work that was gifted, sold or otherwise left my home over the holidays!

I have not been able to post very much lately, but beadwork has been coming and going!  Here are some photos of recent pieces that are hopefully out there in the world being worn...

The first two are Sabine Lippert designed components that I made into simple pieces.  She is so incredibly talented.  I love her designs and love to make about 1/8th of each one and get it on a rope so I can wear it!  Her pieces usually have dozens of these little components all hooked up to make something spectacular.  I am chicken, though, and tend to wear only one at a time...

This is a bead-embroidered cabochon, I have no idea what the stone is - some sort of agate?  It is pink - sort of dusty rose or cranberry I guess.  I got the matching semi-precious gems at Bead Show last year but of course forgot to write down what they heck they are either...

 

This one is a kumihimo braid using Delicas, which are very expensive but worth every penny for the effect.  Kind of looks like baby dragon scales, no?  The clasp is sterling and one of my favorite finds from Bead Show last year.

I did some of these really simple bead crochet strands before our trunk show, using fire polished and Czeck pressed glass, with antique buttons as closures (from Raven Beads).  These are wrap bracelets - the pink one wraps three times and the blue and green wrap twice.  Very hip, also an unusual style for me.

 My very first bead crochet tube with a magnetic clasp:

Twisted Cubic Right Angle Weave WHAAAAT???  Yes!  And SO FUN TO MAKE, thanks to Gwen Fisher for the tutorial:

Finally, a kumihimo rope using size 8 Picasso beads.  These beads are sooooo lovely - mottled and almost antique looking. 

Not-Yet-Invisible Join

Sigh.  These freshly bead-crocheted ropes look nice from a distance:

But I  really cannot get a knack for the invisible join.  Authors Bert and Dana Reed have perfectly clear instructions in their book Bead Crochet Jewelry but I end up with this:

YUCK!

My next stop for advice will be Marion Jewels in Fiber.  They seem to have lots of resources on tubular bead crochet.

In the mean time, if any of you out there have mastered the invisible join, feel free to share your tips!  Does my tension suck?  My first row too tight?  Ugh.

My Challenge Piece for Etsy Beadweavers in August is POSTED!

After being a member for months, I have finally entered by first Etsy Beadweavers Challenge!  The prize for winning is picking the next month's challenge.  There are 12 challenges per year and I am inspired to start entering more of them afte rthe fantastic experience I had making this piece.  There are about 250 beadworkers from all over the world on the team, which is moderated by several wonderful bead artists.

I am really proud to say I designed all of the beaded beads here save one, the red netted bead which is her "Easy Netted Bead" from Diane Fitzgerald's Netted Beadwork.  The rules of the challenge state clearly that I have to have designed the piece and not used any pattern or tutorial, but this is one easy beaded bead that I needed to balance the rest, so I thought that would be OK since the entire rest of the necklace is 100% Jobi (at least to my knowledge)!

The challenges really force me to create something "outside the box" so I hope to do many more in the future.

Let me know what you think!