Thursday 29 May 2008

Sun, sea and .... flowers!

Well I had another lovely Bank Holiday weekend and this time I spent it down on Romney Marsh which is where I grew up and where my parents still live. The weather was perfect and as you can see from the photo below, the sea was a gorgeous turquoise colour instead of the usual shade of murky brown! We had a lovely walk along the coast and spend most of the weekend outdoors, just as well we made the most of it as it's hardly stopped raining since we got home!


For the last couple of days I have been experimenting with beading lots of tiny flowers - most of them are less than 2cm(3/4 of an inch) across and are quite fiddly to make. I've used seed beads for some, cylinder beads for others and varied the shapes, sizes and colours. A few have crystal middles, some have silver bead middles, others have tiny rice pearl centres and some are still a 'work in progress' as you can see from the photo. They are very simple flowers but I have several projects in mind for these so I am spending time on them now to get the 'look' right for what I have planned.

I've also turned two silver flowers into a pair of earrings today for a birthday present. These are made with silver-lined Delicas and have a sterling silver frosted bead centre which I have had for ages and have only just got round to using. I've made the earwires too, although I'm not great at wirework (more practice needed I think!) I think the simplicity of these long sterling wires adds to the whole overall effect of 'purity' that I was trying to achieve - I like them ... I think I might even make a pair for myself!




16 comments:

  1. Kerrie - these tiny flowers are so sweet! I love them. I have never made my own earwires before; was that difficult? Did you use your pliers? Or do you have an earwire maker-thingy (sorry, don't really know the real name for it). I can envision those silver flowers with a pale peach/apricot (matte) center, too. Lovely.

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  2. Hi Linda and thanks for your comment. Would you believe - I made these earwires by cutting two lengths of sterling wire, turning a small loop at one end and then bending the wire around a pen before slightly flicking the other end out ... simple but effective!

    Kerrie x

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  3. Kerrie, the flowers are adorable, and they do look like a lot of work. I admire your patience.
    The earrings are lovely. I have similar issues with wire-work myself, but I am practicing.
    I even made some wire-wrap rings last night.

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  4. Hi Kerrie!

    The flowers are beautiful but being an earring girl myself, I must say the earrings are wonderful. Silver on silver, FAB!

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  5. Your work is fantastic!!! It is amazing

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  6. The flowers are looking lovely Kerrie I can't wait to see what you make with them
    xx chris

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  7. I can't wait to see what you make with your little flowers. The silver earrings are great. I'm sure your friend will love them.

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  8. Great pic of you looking out to sea - very arty. Love the earrings, I am sure the recipient will love them too!

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  9. I love these little flowers, they are so cute! The earrings are lovely, you will make the recipient really happy!
    ileana

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  10. The flowers are really cute. And I love that you call them "fiddly".

    I have a close friend (also a beadweaver) who's from the U.K., and I get such a kick out of some of the terms she uses to describe things. That sounds like something she'd say, for sure.

    :-)

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  11. Your flowers are so beautiful Kerrie! I don't know how you do them, but they are so stunning. Love the photo of you at the beach, too...so bright and sunny!

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  12. Wonderful work Kerrie! The earrings are splendid!

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  13. and the earrings are mine mwhahahahahaha, thank you so much Kerrie, they look fantastic in, thank you

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  14. Little flowers and earrings of my dreams, sweet fairy beader !
    Valerie - Luz Bijoux

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  15. Thank you for all your wonderful comments everyone!

    Valerie - you make me smile ... I love, love, love being called a 'fairy beader' :-D

    Kerrie x

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  16. I love your earrings Kerrie! I think they are really elegant and darling! Very nice!

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