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

Hedgehogs in the garden!

Well here I am ... already 8 months into my beady experiment of using one colour of beads for a whole year to create a themed body of work - Midnight Garden.  I am quite pleased with the meandering route the garden is taking with lots of twists and turns and the occasional unexpected but welcome nocturnal visitor.  So I was very happy when Perry at York Beads sent me some dagger beads because when I saw them my first thought was 'hedgehogs' - and really, what self-respecting rambling midnight moonlight garden would be complete without a couple of magical hedgehogs snuffling around the place?  And so here we have Mr & Mrs Prickles - she is a little smaller with a lovely shiny body and a playful twinkle in her eyes and he is larger and sort of dull (and a bit camera shy!) but he's solid and dependable and I think you can tell that they are very much in love ♥ ♥

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

 

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 ...

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!