Fifteen Flowers ...

My recent work on a new range of floral earrings meant I needed to make much smaller flowers than normal. I find it quite a challenge to get in lots of detailed shaping and still keep the flowers dainty enough to be wearable. Last weeks bluebells were made using size 11 cylinder beads and each bluebell is only 1½cm high. This lead me to want to make not necessarily even smaller flowers but to be able to get more detail in - hence I have splashed out on some delicious new size 15 seed beads in a range of gorgeous colours. As you can see, pinks and greens are the predominant colours I have gone for and these tiny little beads look as though they will be perfect for my future experiments with all things floral. Looks like I will finally have to give in and wear those glasses I have been avoiding for months though!

On the subject of bluebells, it's expired now, but I managed to create another Etsy treasury this week 'She sells bluebells' - which of course I do! I am not comfortable including my own work in treasuries and so I searched for other artist's work with 'bluebell' in the title and look what beautiful items I came up with!

Late bluebells ...

The bluebells here in England this year put on a real show and my favourite area of woodland was covered by a scented carpet of them. I had never really thought about beading them before, but when I bent to look closely at them, I was fascinated by how delicate each little individual flower that goes towards making up the total impact is. I went against the country code and picked a couple of stems (in the name of art you understand!) and kept them in a small vase in my studio so that I could follow them as closely as possible. Of course the real bluebells have all gone now, but finally, after nearly two weeks of trial and error, I have some little beaded bluebell earrings to show you.

I chose a semi-matte cylinder bead in a cobalt blue with an AB finish,which seemed quite close to the colour and feel of a real bluebell and added three of them to each earring to create a cluster. Once again, I have used long sterling silver earwires so that you get a lot of movement when you are wearing them, just like my 'Swingin' Poppies' and I've also added to the series by creating some 'Swingin' Daisies' too.

All three pairs of earrings are for sale in my Etsy store.

The gallery is growing!

I've recently added some lovely new pictures to the 'Readers gallery of work' page on my website. These have all been sent to me by other beaders who have followed my published patterns, often going on to add a new twist of their own by changing the colours or incorporating elements into their own designs. I really enjoy seeing these pictures and receiving feedback on my designs and so I thought I would show a selection of them here this week. If you follow any of my published patterns (details of which can be found here ) please feel free to send me a picture and I will gladly add it to the gallery together with your name and links to any websites/blogs you may have.

Diane Fitzgerald uses the hibiscus flower to embellish her bee themed hexagonal quilt piece!

Adele Rogers Recklies added a frosted flower to strands of silk and organza ribbon to create this beautiful necklace.

Sarah Tucker turned her poppy into a dramatic cuff.

Sue Barker created her Supernova Choker as a gift for a friend.

Alison Inglis added a single flower to a strand of leather to create this beautiful fantasy foxglove.

Christine Moore created her own special pet using the dragon pattern!

I hope you enjoy looking at these beautiful beady pictures and a big thank you to everyone who has given me permission to show their work!

Awards, treasuries and a blog feature ...

I'm afraid there is no new beadwork to show this week, but rest assured I AM beading and working on a project that needs to be kept under wraps for a while - she says mysteriously! There's still plenty to blog about though. Firstly, the Beads Perles blog has given me the honour of being their 100th featured artist . The top part of the interview is in Spanish, but if you scroll down past the photos, there is an English translation. Thank you Beads Perles!

I've also had my work included in two Etsy treasuries in the last few days. The first one 'Magic and Mystery', was put together by Lynn Davy and features my Double Dragon neckpiece which is shown on the top left. Thank you Lynn!

The second treasury 'Needle and Thread' is still live and was curated by Alice of snapdragonbeads My Peacock Pearl spiral rope necklace is shown on the top right. If you click on the image it will take you to the actual treasury. Thank you Alice!

Finally, Jodi Horgan of The Beaded Path has passed on not one, but TWO blog awards to me. Thank you Jodi! I tend not to pass blog awards on as I hate to leave anyone out, so I would encourage you to check out the links in my side-bar for lots of inspirational blogs.

Poppy Pin - version two!

A little while ago, a friend asked me if I could make her a special poppy to wear around the time of Remembrance Sunday. Obviously November is some time away yet, but I don't like to keep people waiting and so I have been working on it and just finished the new version of Poppy Pin.

This one is very similar to my poppy design that was published in issue 14 of Bead magazine but my friend wanted hers without the leaves, which presented me with an engineering issue regarding how to attach the pin. As you can see from the picture of the back of the poppy, I decided to use a similar method to the one I used for my Awareness Ribbons and attached a few size 8 beads to the back of the poppy to hold the sterling silver stick pin in place. I also made the actual poppy slightly smaller with a larger black centre and five fire-polished beads to give it extra visual impact. It will be winging its way to its new owner tomorrow - let's hope this poppy is just what my friend was looking for!

Hello Yellow!

Jean Power has recently started a new blog called Colour Challenge in which she plans to spend the next year exploring individual colours, their historical and social aspects and then experimenting with them in her beadwork. Jean's first colour choice is yellow, not because it's a particular favourite but because she thought it might be the most challenging colour to use in beadwork - kind of 'in at the deep end'!

I'm really enjoying following Jean's adventures with colour as I've been learning a lot about colour myself ever since I started beading. It's shown that my favourite colours in real life are not necessarily my favourites in beadwork.

I love a lot of colours, but if pressed, I would say that yellow is my favourite colour. My studio and my kitchen are both painted yellow and I find them cheerful and uplifting even on the gloomiest days. I also have lots of yellow flowers in my garden, ranging from soft yellow petunias to citrus yellow flag irises and laburnum. Yet I think I have only ever made two yellow items in beadwork; my Primrose Pin and a yellow dahlia pendant and both of those use soft yellow rather than the more vibrant shades.

I don't think I have ever made myself a piece of yellow jewellery to wear either and I'm not sure exactly why that is. It looks like I have sadly neglected yellow for no particular reason and I may just have to do something about that ...

United Hearts

Last year, some of my fellow Etsy BeadWeavers team members volunteered to take part in Jeanette Shanigan's 2009 Breast Cancer Donation Project - "Bead artists have the heart to take on breast cancer". Each year a theme is set, this year it's hearts, in 2007 it was butterflies and the 2008 theme was roses. Jeanette collects all donated beaded squares and stitches them into quilts which are then auctioned off at the Bead & Button show to raise money for charity. Fifteen EBW members from four different countries donated a total of 35 squares and team member Susan Clinkscales did a magnificent job coordinating our efforts and sending the finished squares on to Jeanette. Susan also took photos of each square and created the mosaic below – please note, this is not the actual quilt, but a digital photographic version. For more information about the auction, please visit the Bead & Button show website.

First row (l to r): Susan Clinkscales, Eddy Downing, Eddy Downing, JoJo Curley, Swanee Hielscher
2nd row: Swanee Hielscher, Swanee Hielscher, Swanee Hielscher, Linda Davis, Smadar Grossman
3rd row: Smadar Grossman, Smadar Grossman, Smadar Grossman, Lisa Savoy, Lisa Savoy
4th row: Lisa Savoy, Jama Watts, Jama Watts, Jama Watts, Kerrie Slade
5th row: Kerrie Slade, Kerrie Slade, Kerrie Slade, Victoria Thompson, Victoria Thompson
6th row: Victoria Thompson, Kim Shaver, Dawn Nelson, Melody Murray, Melody Murray
7th row: Ileana Munteanu, Ginny Bracht, Ginny Bracht, Ginny Bracht, Ginny Bracht

I talked about the thought process behind the creation of my four squares in my 'Beading Hearts' blog entry back in September, but as a reminder, here are some close-up shots of my squares.

United Hearts uses three-drop brick stitch with a square stitch heart attached.

Hearts and Flowers is woven in two-drop brick stitch with size 15 seed beads and a freshwater pearl.

Look into your Heart uses herringbone stitch with a small acrylic mirror in the centre.

Ace of Hearts uses square stitch throughout.

Once again, I am reminded of how powerful beads and beading can be and how fortunate we are to live in an age when the internet makes these international projects possible. I hope the auctions raise a substantial amount of money for the designated charities and my thanks go to Jeanette, Susan, my fellow EBW members and Bead & Button for all the hard work involved.