Prima product of the month - January/February!

Hello everyone!

It's the Prima Bead product of the month time again and this time the members of the blogging team were asked to become 'guest designers' and imagine that we were writing a project for their catalogue. Each member of the team was sent a couple of toggle clasps, some bicone mirror beads, a pack of crimp beads and a reel of elastic but we were also told that we could incorporate other Prima Bead products that we have previously been sent. As soon as I saw that my bicone mirror beads were red and black I thought of my visits to Spain and words like 'flamenco' and 'pasodoble' started to echo in my mind. Then, when I saw that one of the toggle clasps was a hammered silver circle with a round hole in it - a plan began to take shape. Rather than use the toggle as a clasp I only used half of it and turned it into a brooch/pin which I have called Ojo Del Toro, which I am hoping means eye of the bull. The finished piece represents the eye of the bull in a bullfight with the red and black lances piercing the skin, but before anyone starts writing to me, please note that this is a symbolic piece and does not in any way mean that I support bullfighting!

I will be submitting the PDF of my instructions to Prima Bead, but to make this pin I took the silver hammered toggle and glued a brooch pin to the back of the toggle on the widest part.

 

Next I took some head pins from a findings starter pack and threaded the bicones onto them before turning a loop at the top. Then using the jump rings from the starter pack I suspended the bicone 'lances' from the 'eye' so that they dangle and dance at the base of the brooch.

That's it for this time but I'll be back soon with more beady news. In the meantime, leave a comment and let me know what you think of Ojo Del Toro.

Bye for now!

Kerrie ♥

 

From hot pink to snow white!

The April issue of Bead & Button magazine is out and my project 'Bougainvillea Bouquet' is on page 58.  I used hot pink and bright green seed beads, and a combination of brick and herringbone stitch, to try and capture the feel of this well known plant with its papery bracts concealing the small white flowers.

I have always loved bougainvillea whenever I have seen it on my travels, whether growing wild or cultivated, and although it comes in many colours, the common pinky-purple colour never fails to brighten things up.  Just look at the photo below that I took in Spain a few months ago and see how the bougainvillea livens up this tumbling riot of jasmine and morning glory.

I made my necklace with nine removable bracts, so that you can wear it simply with just two, or add a few, or if you are feeling in the right frame of mind - wear the whole eye-catching cluster!

Looking at the next picture, which was taken in my home town this morning, I think this afternoon would be a good time to get those hot pink seed beads out again to try and brighten things up a little around here!

See you next time, when hopefully things will have warmed up and I will have a new beady project to show you ...

Spring in Spain!

I've just returned home after a lovely two week break staying with Simon's parents who live in Spain. We try to visit every year, usually around Christmas, but for one reason or another it was a bit later this year and so this was the first time I have ever seen Spain in spring. Of course I am always on the lookout for beady inspiration and when I visited last January, I was struck by just how much green and orange there was everywhere; clusters of orange dates hanging from green palms, the odd orange coloured pomegranate still clinging to a leafless tree, the glossy green leaves of the orange trees laden with fruit and some gorgeous coppery bougainvillea bracts. I came back from that trip, fired up and raring to go and made several pieces using beads in various shades of green and orange.

 

This time, there was a much greater variety of colour with splashes of vibrant yellow mimosa everywhere, hot pink mesembryanthemum flowers cascading down cliffs towards the cobalt sea, fields of delicate pale pink almond blossom, pomegranate trees covered in shiny bronze leaf buds, vast areas of sage green olives and artichokes and pure white sails against a clear blue sky. I took lots of photos and made lots of notes, so as soon as I get some free time, I intend to start experimenting!

In the meantime, issue 15 of Bead magazine came out while I was away and I have two projects in this issue; the last in the series of my flower pins Periwinkle Pin which uses increasing and decreasing brick stitch to give the petals their distinctive shape and a simple netted sun catcher which is also shown on the cover!

Thanks to everyone who left comments on my previous post. There is still time to enter my anniversary giveaway, just leave a comment on the 3rd March 2009 entry and I will draw one lucky winner's name out of the hat on April 4th.