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

Art Clay Silver Masterclass with Beads Direct!

If you are a regular follower of my blog you will know that one of my favourite UK suppliers is Beads Direct and that I have been lucky enough to work with them on a couple of occasions.  So when they told me that they were going to be running an Art Clay Silver Masterclass with two of the UK's top instructors and asked if I'd like to join them, I jumped at the chance!  I have never worked with any kind of metal clay before (you know me, I am normally a strictly seedy girl!) but I have often admired the finished work created using this medium and when I saw that one of the classes was to make a silver leaf, I thought that this would work well alongside my current work.  The classes were held at the easily accessible Yew Lodge Hotel just off Junction 24 of the M1 and as we arrived we were all welcomed by the Beads Direct staff who pointed us in the direction of tea, coffee and biscuits.  Nearly everyone arrived early and so it was lovely to sit in the plush hotel foyer and get to know the other students and learn how far they had travelled, what kind of beadwork they enjoy and what they hoped to achieve from the course.  After a round of introductions and a quick health and safety chat, it was straight down to work and our instructor Natalia let us all choose a leaf that she had picked from the hotel grounds that morning - I think the hotel guests who were having their breakfast in the warm dry glass-fronted restaurant must have wondered what on earth the woman foraging in the wet foliage was up to!  I chose a small leaf and carefully began to coat it with my Art Clay under the watchful gaze of Natalia:

Natalia explained to us how to mix each coat to the right consistency, gradually building up the coats of clay on our leaves as we carefully dried each layer before moving onto the next one.

We then learnt how to set a decorative stone into our leaves and eventually our leaves were ready to go into the kiln to dry while we wandered around the room chatting to the other students and staff.

Although they aren't perfect, our leaves were not bad for a first attempt and we were all happy with the results of our work, keen to try out other ideas and hoping to eventually achieve something more like our tutor's inspirational work!

I had a thoroughly enjoyable day and I can't wait to incorporate my little silver leaf with its peridot crystal into some of my seed bead work.  If you would like to have a go at using Art Clay Silver, Beads Direct offer a comprehensive starter kit complete with instructions and they also sell a great range of tools for when you are ready to branch out. Don't forget to keep an eye on the Beads Direct website, blog and Facebook page to see what other exciting events they have planned for the future!

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.

An elegant element!

Well here we are on the other side of the holiday season with 2012 already well under way.  I hope you all had an enjoyable time and that you haven't broken all your New Year's Resolutions just yet!  I had a lovely quiet family holiday and I managed to squeeze in some beading time, which is just as well as the projects are mounting up.  A few weeks ago I was invited by The Beadsmith to join a group of international bead artists who were all asked to choose two clasps from the new 'Elegant Elements' range and then to make a couple of pieces to show possible ways to use the clasps.  The first clasp I chose was the CLSP40SP Nest with 6 pearls:

I fell in love with this little nest clasp as soon as I saw it and all sorts of ideas popped into my head, some of which turned out to be completely unworkable!  However, now I've spent around 50 hours on this piece, it is starting to take shape and I am hoping to have pictures of the finished necklace to show you in just a few days time.  In the meantime, here's a little peek at what's been on my bead tray for the last couple of weeks:

And as another teaser, here is a rather ungainly shot of one of the finished components.  Can you tell what I'm trying to create yet?  Leave your guesses in the comments box and I will be back to reveal the completed piece very soon!

Season's Greetings!

Around this time every year I like to look back on the previous 12 months in my little beady world.  As I ponder, I try and work out whether I met my goals for the year and I smile when I think of how some of those goal posts had to be moved time and time again.  I like to think about the lessons learned and the ones that I need to re-take and I also like to reflect on all the little unexpected twists and turns that life threw at me.  I also spend time dreaming about the promise of the coming year.  I have some plans in place, but really, anything could happen and although that thought makes part of me very nervous, the rest of me finds that an exciting prospect - I have beads and I can make anything, I have life and I can do anything.  Thank you to each and every one of you for your support throughout 2011 and whatever your beliefs, I wish you a wonderful holiday season and a 2012 full of health, happiness and hope!

See you in 2012!

Kerrie x

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