Into each garden some rain must fall ...

Of course I have corrupted a line from Longfellow's 'The Rainy Day' in the title of my post today, but it perfectly expresses my feelings.  Due to family illness the Midnight Garden exhibition has had to be cancelled - but that does not mean an end to the Midnight Garden!  Unexpected and disappointing things happen.  In my real life garden a cheeky little mouse has made a tasty meal of my baby carrots and voracious slugs and snails have made short work of my runner beans - I was looking forward to eating those homegrown vegetables myself, but it was not meant to be this year and it does not mean I will not plant new ones.  The walls of the Midnight Garden are still firm,  the twisting twirling leaves and vines are still thriving and the owls, hedgehogs and turtles are still watchful and waiting for a time when new creatures will join them.  The garden was already beginning to take on a life of its own and new ideas were starting to take shape, so perhaps this change of direction was always on the cards - the gardener just wasn't aware of it!

So, although I cannot go through with the physical exhibition in September, I will continue with my personal colour challenge (albeit at a slower pace), I will still be the caretaker of the Midnight Garden and I will carry on with my freelance work.  Talking of which - I have just managed to complete a couple of new Thorn Flower bracelets in different colourways!  These will join the existing bracelet at the York Beads booth at Bead Fest in Philadelphia from August the 17th to the 19th.  And don't forget that you can purchase the pattern for the Thorn Flowers via this page of my website!

 

To round off today's post I would like to thank everybody for the wonderful support the garden has received so far.  I would also like to reassure you that although my work will no longer be displayed at Stitchncraft in September, I will still be working hard on creating this body of work and I will of course keep you updated with all news on my blog or Facebook page.

Bye for now!

Kerrie

Midnight Garland!

After my last post about the new Thorn Flowers, I thought that my work with 'spike beads' was done and that in true butterfly style I could flit on to another shape, another bead, another flower.  But then Perry at York Beads offered to display a couple of pieces of my spike bead work at his booth at the Bead & Button show in June and it seemed like a wasted opportunity to just send what I had already created and so another idea started to form.  After ten days and many hours of making lots of intricate heart shaped leaves, some twisty vine and a few thorn flowers and thorn flower buds - Midnight Garland is ready to be packaged up and sent off on her travels.

And if you were hoping for a Midnight Garden story:  Deep within the Midnight Garden an insignificant looking vine appears.  As the moon waxes the stem begins to grow, small tendrils sprout and uncoil into tiny heart shaped leaves that twist and creep along the ground.  Little buds start to form and as they swell the petals begin to part showing glimpses of an inner light.  The Midnight Garland grows and grows, climbing and spreading throughout the garden, gathering strength until gradually the petals unfurl revealing the centre - and at that special midnight full moon moment the powerful silver spikes point moonwards ...

Bye for now!

Kerrie

Thorn Flowers in the garden!

Things are still growing very nicely in the Midnight Garden but I have to be honest with you and admit that I have no real garden plan mapped out.  Beyond knowing that everything in my beaded garden has to be in shades of grey with a few sparkling glints and highlights, I have no idea what might spring up next.  And perhaps that is just the way it should be?  After all, if you ever find yourself wandering around a real (or fantasy!) garden at midnight with the silvery full moon high in the sky, you never know what you might see or hear next, whether real or imagined - a glimpse of this, a hint of that, a rustle of leaves, the beat of swooping wings, the blink of an eye in the shadows ...

I am not too concerned about the lack of a plan because my garden is not a formal one, it's a wild garden where anything could happen - perhaps a reflection of life.  So when Perry at York Beads contacted me out of the blue and we started talking about his new 'spike beads', I knew that I would easily be able to make room for them in my garden without being tempted away from my chosen colour scheme.  These spikes come in a wide range of delectable colours and finishes and as my grey beads have a beautiful AB finish with hints of lilac and turquoise and gold, I decided to make several different pieces with the same grey beads but using different coloured spikes.

The spike beads can look quite threatening on their own, so I wanted to tame them a little while still allowing them to shine and I thought that giving them petals would be the perfect thing.

From a distance, these Thorn Flowers look quite innocent, but when you get a little closer you can see the warning sign!  They remind me of some of the flowers from the nightshade family - all of which look perfectly harmless despite some of them being deadly!

If you would like to create some of your own Thorn Flowers, the pattern is now available from my website.

Bye for now!

Kerrie

 

Beads and beyond ...

I'm still busy growing lots of new beady things for the Midnight Garden and I will show you pictures of them when I can, but in the meantime I wanted to share some good news with you.  When I attended the Craft Hobby and Stitch International show at the NEC recently, I met the editors of the UK magazine Beads & Beyond and not only did we have a lovely chat about all things beady, they also offered to give me space in their regular 'Meet and Greet' feature to answer 12 questions and talk about my current work.  It was all a last minute rush and I was actually on holiday in Spain when the questions were emailed to me, so while we were at the beach one day, I scribbled some notes and asked my husband to take a new profile picture of me wearing a piece from the Midnight Garden and then I emailed everything off as soon as I returned home.  If you are a regular follower of my blog, you will know about my current obsession with colour (or rather the lack of it!) and so I was very happy when I saw that not only had my photos come out OK, but that the magazine had also colour-coordinated everything so that the header and the text for the questions pick out the colour in my beadwork and my carefully arranged profile picture!  I have included a picture of the article below so that you can see what I am talking about, but of course I have blurred the text - if you would like to read my answers to those thought provoking questions, the latest issue of Beads & Beyond (issue 56) is now on the shelves or available to purchase on-line

 

Bye for now!

Kerrie

The Rivoli Daisy by moonlight!

Although I have been enjoying working on the Midnight Garden for the last 6 months, most of that time has been taken up with some quite intense designing with a lot of head scratching and unpicking involved.  So I thought it might be nice to give myself a break and incorporate a few of my existing designs into the garden - worked in the right colour of course!     I decided to follow one of my own patterns and started off with the Rivoli Daisy bracelet using some gorgeous Swarovski Rivolis in Vitrail Light.

It just goes to show how swapping the colours around can make a real difference to the finished piece.  The next picture shows the original design and both bracelets are made by following the same Rivoli Daisy bracelet pattern!

I am pleased with the end result of the new bracelet and I can certainly picture a delicate fairy wearing this creation as she dances round our enchanted garden.   Imagine the moonbeams glancing off the Rivolis as she twists and turns her wrists, making the whole bracelet flash like fairy lights across the night sky ...

Kerrie

The Fairy Doorway!

We finally have a new piece in the Midnight Garden and this one took me around 3 weeks to get right!  The prototype took nearly 10 days of careful beading and right at the end I discovered that there was a little thing that I had overlooked which spoilt the look of it and for me that means only one thing - start all over again!  So here is the Fairy Doorway.  As you can see I have used another wonderful piece of labradorite and this time I have created a brooch that has a little hinged door that opens and closes to reveal the magic inside.

The Fairy Doorway is surrounded by twisting vines, intricate leaves and delicate flowers arching around the simple door with the flowery handle.  The door serves as a shield to the magic inside to protect it from prying eyes and yet at the same time it beckons the brave.  Would you care to take my hand, approach the door, turn the handle and step over the beaded threshold betwixt two worlds ...

Show time!

If you have been following my blog recently you will know that towards the end of 2011 I was invited by The Beadsmith to join an on-line group of international bead artists who were all asked to choose a couple of clasps from the new 'Elegant Elements' range and then to incorporate them into our designs to show possible ways to use them.  So first I created The Family Tree using a lovely little nest clasp and then I made The Dream Divers using a beautiful domed clasp that reminded me of a turtle.  Shortly after that, Steven from The Beadsmith contacted me to say that his company was going to be attending a trade show in the UK which was quite close to where I live and he asked if I would be interested in showing some of my work at their stand ... what do you think I said?

Yes of course I jumped at the chance!  I also suggested that Steven send me a couple more clasps so that I could make a bigger display showing even more ways to use these high quality clasps.  This gave me just 10 days to come up with some new designs and get all the beadwork finished and ready to display.  Although I did change the clasps on a couple of recently completed pieces so that they could be included, I can tell you that evenings and weekends were cancelled as I pulled out all the stops to get everything finished and ready for the show.  My fingers were quite literally bleeding by the time I stitched the last bead into place but I think it was worth the extra work.

I spent two days at the show meeting and chatting to old friends and making new ones, helping out at the stand (a little!) and talking to people about my work.  Of course people weren't only interested in my work, there was a very eye-catching glass case at the edge of the walkway filled with stunning work created by some of our talented US friends (such as Nancy Dale, Linda Roberts and Cynthia Newcomer Daniel) and as they twinkled and sparkled in the lights they caught nearly everyone's attention.  Don't forget that you can drool over the work from all the artists in the 'Elegant Elements' group in this Facebook album.

And now it is time to recover from all the glitz and the glamour and return to my beady greenhouse to see what will be making an appearance in the Midnight Garden next ...

Showcase 500 Beaded Jewelry

It's been such a busy couple of weeks here in the beady greenhouse that I completely forgot to share some exciting news with you!  Some time ago I responded to a call for entries from Lark Crafts for images of beadwork for their new book Showcase 500 Beaded Jewelry: Photographs of Beautiful Contemporary Beadwork and I am thrilled to say that I have received notification that two of my pieces have been accepted.  One of my favourite beading books of all time is another book from Lark - Masters: Beadweaving and I remember the exact day in 2008 when I received this as a present, I spent hours and hours poring over every photograph, daunted and inspired at the same time but never imagining that one day I would have pictures of my work in a similar publication.

I won't show you pictures of my pieces that will be in the new book as I don't want to spoil the surprise for you, but if you are in a position to, I would heartily recommend that you pre-order this book at its new lower price so that you can dive into it as soon as possible.  If you are an experienced beader I am confident that it will provide you with lots of 'oooohs' and 'aaaahs' and 'why didn't I think of that?' moments.  If you are new to beading then I just know that you will feel the same way that I felt about Masters: Beadweaving and I hope that after you've got over the initial overwhelmed stage, that it will ignite your imagination and set you off on a journey of your own.

And now I must hurry back to my beady greenhouse ... something leafy is just about to sprout!

The Dream Divers!

Normal beady service has now been resumed after my metal clay adventures of last week and I have just finished the latest piece for the Midnight Garden exhibition.  As usual, I am juggling all sorts of balls and one of those is creating some finished pieces for The Beadsmith using their Elegant Elements range of clasps.  I originally chose two clasps but I also received a third bonus clasp and when I first saw it I was reminded of a turtle.  Now turtles wouldn't have been an obvious choice for me to feature in a midnight garden, but I only have so much time and so I had to be a little bit creative and try and make the idea fit.  Maybe our garden is near the coast and there is an overgrown pathway leading down to a secret cove?

I knew straight away that I wanted to try and make a beaded turtle, but once I had done that I was left wondering how to create a finished piece.  I tried making a bracelet with a row of turtles and I tried attaching them to a cuff bracelet but there was no spark in their little pearly eyes and so I knew that I hadn't given them the home of their dreams.  It was then that I heard the story and saw the image flash before me.  The Dream Divers represents two turtles diving through the deep glistening moonlit sea of our dreams, past long fronds of gently waving kelp, singing a song that few can hear.

Do you see their little mouths?  Do you hear their song?  Do you feel the call of The Dream Divers?

Don't forget that you can see the inspirational work from all the artists in the Elegant Elements group in this Facebook album.

Kerrie

The Family Tree

As promised in my last blog entry I finally managed to finish my first piece which uses one of The Beadsmith's clasps from their 'Elegant Elements' range.  As soon as I saw this beautiful nest clasp, I knew that I wanted to create some kind of leafy necklace with two little birds waiting for their brood to hatch.  I've lost count of the number of hours and the metres of Fireline that have gone into this piece, but I know that it has taken me the best part of three weeks to complete.  Several times I found myself merrily attaching leaves in what I thought was the right place and then later feeling dissatisfied and chopping them off again, but I am finally content with the outcome and I think the birds look at home too.

Of course I stuck to the palette I have challenged myself to work in until September 2012 but I think that 'The Family Tree' will fit in quite nicely with the Midnight Garden exhibition.  Now I have another clasp to work with and I will show you the results of that as soon as it's ready.  In the meantime, you can see the inspirational work from the other artists in the 'Elegant Elements' group in this Facebook album.

The Gateway to the Garden!

This piece only measures 2 inches by 1½ inches (5cm by 4cm) but it has still taken me the best part of 3 weeks to make!  I've loved labradorite since the first time I saw it and I always felt that it has magical properties, so I knew I wanted to use some in my Midnight Garden exhibition.  When I spotted this pendant at Kandra's Beads I thought it looked like a doorway (one I very much wanted to walk through) and I wondered if I would be able to create my vision in beads.  My idea was to make it look like an arch through an ancient walled garden that you might stumble upon on a moonlight ramble.  The wall would be covered in vines and leaves that had grown up around it with long grass at the base and maybe there would be an old gnarled tree curving around the entrance.  All of these things would form a frame and through that frame you would be able to glimpse the magic inside.  Then, as you stand transfixed, not knowing whether to cross that threshold or to leave with your secret, you hold your breath as you gaze at the glorious backdrop of the night sky wondering whether the dark intriguing shapes could be fairies dancing in the moonlight?  So I set about using my beads, needle and thread to create The Gateway to the Garden ... 

I hope you enjoy looking at my new piece but more importantly, I hope that you can see what I see.

As always, I love to receive your comments. so let me know what you think and I'll be back whenever something new grows in the Midnight Garden.

Kerrie

The Guardian of the Garden!

A couple of weeks ago I visited the Harrogate bead fair and although I didn't really need any more beads, I was on the look out for some unusual components that I could perhaps incorporate in the Midnight Garden exhibition.  One of the things that caught my eye was a little Amazonite owl from Meena's Gems.  I was drawn to him immediately, but as he's a carved ornament and not a bead, I wasn't sure how I could combine him with my beadwork - but I gave him a home anyway, just in case.  As soon as I'd finished the Dragon's Egg ring I set to work on creating a piece that my owl would be happy with.  I imagined him nestled in a hollow in an old tree, snuggled deep inside, half hidden but still able to peer out of the foliage to keep an eye on what exactly goes on in the garden at midnight.  It was also important to me to make sure that he would still be able to fly whenever the mood took him (when I'm not looking of course!) and so here is the result of my work for the last 2 weeks - Asio, Guardian of the Garden!  I think he looks right at home, what do you think?

Dragon's Egg Ring!

So, I've been busy trying to turn some of my beady imaginings into finished beadwork for the Midnight Garden exhibition and I think I am 'in the zone' now.  A few months ago, I was wandering around a rock and gem shop and I spotted a small basket of opalite eggs.  As soon as I saw them I thought 'dragons' eggs' and so I rummaged through the basket until I found the perfect one, bought it and took it home with me and then forgot about it until last week.  After I had finished last week's necklace I wondered what to work on next and then my eye landed on the egg which was quietly gathering dust in the corner.  Almost immediately I heard a little story begin in  my head and as I listened, I learned how the very rare and precious dragons' eggs are held within protective flowers that grow in a beautiful enchanted garden.  Apparently, these flowers (which are carefully tended by the fairy folk of course) only bloom on moonlight nights and the egg then absorbs energy from the moon until it is ready to hatch.  Once I knew the truth, I began to bead ...

Ok, back to beady fairyland I go!  Oh, and just a little note to my new readers - please do not be alarmed, I am really quite 'normal' ;o)

See you soon!

Kerrie