New LBS

As it turns out, there is a bead shop not even a 10 minute walk from my house and I didn't even know!!

I took my new room mate, Josh (YAY!) out to his old place to help him move his stuff into our place - We managed to get all of his stuff in the one trip.. I AM THE TETRIS MASTER!!! - and on the way back I decided to go by the back road, rather than head back onto the main road and get home that way. I was driving along and there on the side of the road, just before turning onto my street, was this huge sign saying 'BEAD SALE'.

Beading is all I have been thinking about because I am trying this new market in 2 weeks and I have been frantically trying to get my inventory up to scratch. So you can imagine that the first thing I thought was 'I really must be losing it if I am mistaking 'Bed Sale' as 'Bead Sale'. Then Josh said to me "Hey, look. A bead sale.." My foot hit those brakes so hard that any harder and we would have had to Flinstone our butts home!! I pulled into a side street and stopped the car - asking Josh if he didn't mind of course - and we went in to have a goosey..

I never knew it was there because on the sign above the door it says 'Ceramics and Jewellery Making'. But as I was always driving past, all I could read as I zoomed past was 'Ceramics and...'. I was like a kid in a candy store there!!! And the best part about that shop... THEY ARE BEAD WEAVERS!!! It is sooooo hard to try and find a bead shop in the city that sells all the stuff for beadweaving and they doooo! I was so excited. I was in there for a bit, Talking to Jo the store owner and I thought "Wait a minute, I will take Josh home first and then come back and explore." So that's what I did. We jumped back in the car and I took him home. We emptied the car and off I zoomed, back to this store.

The owner Jo was lovely, she reminded me EXACTLY of Kerry, my old boss at the bead shop I used to work at, so it brought back good memories.. She had some other ladies in there who were doing a session and they were all so friendly and chatty.. I think I might have to go in there for a session one day! Jo said to me that she was getting rid of all the ceramics on the wall and guess what she was going to fill it with.. seed beads.. delicas, matsunos and tohos.. again, heaven!

I know that this is another one of those pointless stories that I usually rant on about but this is very exciting for me! No longer do I have to traul the net or drive the 2 hour trip to see Kerry for my seed beads.. HUZZAH!!! Pointless.. I know

Emma
xXx

P.S. I may be a little bit M.I.A over the next week or 2, as I have been trying to make all this stuff for the market.. See you soon!

My new motivation

PHEW! Things have been going CRAZY over here!!! And I have the best room mate and friend that a girl can ask for! I applied for a market stall in my local area today and got the ok back, so now I have been trying to frantically work andwork to try and get as much stuff made up as possible, including beaded flowers.

I have a wall full of vases that I had collected over a few months that I was going to fill with flowers and so I thought that this would be a good opportunity to try my hand selling them at this new market - you won't know if you don't try!

I have a big box of UFO flowers, so I pulled them out and thought 'I need some of this colour green to finish these and this colour red to finish my roses.. Easy!' So yesterday after work, I went to my LBS (local bead shop) to re-stock on these particular colours... Ah, but if only twere that easy... They don't stock them anymore! I went to the shop across the road and they had SOME nice seed beads, but not these specific colours I needed..

Needless to say, I went home in a huff (well, half a huff.. the second bead shop I went in had 60% off gemstone strands so I came home with a bargin ;) lol)

So I got home and was throwing my room apart trying to find something, anything, a meger SCRAP of these beads so I could finish these projects!! Then Trent came home and was trying to calm me down and he found some green beads that sort of matched what I was after for the first project, so I thought I would give it a whirl.. Anyways, I had been so busy chucking a thrombo that I realised it was 11pm at night, and once I see the time my brain goes 'OK! Time for sleep' and makes me tired - whether I was 5 minutes ago or not. So I went to bed. *sigh*

Woke up this morning, my brain still running a million miles an hour trying to figure out what I need to do, what I can do, blah blah. Stumbled down the hallway and into the bathroom to find this scrawled on the bathroom mirror:

"You are an amazingly powerful woman and can do anything! I love you xxxxxx"

I nearly broke down in tears right then and there! But let me tell you after reading that, I went straight into my room and knew exactly what to do.. I packed a bag full of beads to take to work with me that I can do on my break and after I post this, I am making a to-so list and I'M GOING TO STICK TO IT!!!

Not only have I posted it here, but I have also posted it on facebook and beading daily forums.. Just to show off how amazing my best friend in the world is!!! And how can I let down one of my favourite admirers?

I loves him soooo much! If anyone is going to pull me out of my funk, its my poodle, Trent :)

Beading Babes Project 4 reveal!

This was my first project challenge and - even though I didn't get much done - I had a blast! I can't wait for the next one!

There were 3 projects on the list this time round:
- Tellis necklace by Nancy Dale
- Ruffled Chain bracelet by Laina Goodman and
- Paisley Drop earrings by Jane Lock

Unfortunately, I only had the chance to do the earrings, but hopefully I will get to the other two projects later on down the track (when I'm NOT on the verge of a nervous breakdown...)

Here are the 2 earrings I did:

The pictures came out a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea :P lol

Check out some of the other items that the other AMAZING ladies created!!!

Therese - from Therese's Treasures

Vimala - from The Bead Diaries

Amy - from Amybeads

Maryanne - from Zingala's Workshop

And finally, the lady of the day

Karyn - founder of The Beading Babes

Karyn's page also has plenty more eye candy from other participants. Thanks for the fun Karyn and I look forward to the next one!

xXx





I promised to deliver

and delivered I have!!!

After working for what seemed like hours (of course it seemed that way.. it WAS hours) I finally came up with my first necklace using the Venetian pendants from last post.

 

This necklace was woven using bronze size 11 seed beads in herringbone rope. I then added a freeform 'vine' around the rope using size 15 beige charlotte beads. Luckily, this was the point of time when I realised "Omg, I need to put the pendant on!" Otherwise we would have had some problems.. Then using delica beads in bronze and pink to match the pendant, I wove little flowers onto the rope at random sections to make it look like a flowering vine woven around a tree branch. 

All in all, it probably took me about 8 hours to make.

Then I thought (at 8.00 at night) I still have time to at least START another one.. and that I did!

Choosing to create a simpler, but just as pretty necklace, I decided to take the dusty pink and purple heart and add it to a spiral rope.

The spiral rope is woven with delica beads with a silver magnetic clasp at the end.

Believe it or not, I actually forgot to put the pendant on this necklace too and started sewing on the second half of the clasp. I noticed just as I started weaving my thread back through my work to end it off. Luckily I hadn't gone too far OR made any half hitch knots, so I was able to unpick it with ease.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy my eyecandy for now.. Not going to disappoint my facebook fans any further, so once I get home from work.. NECKLACE #3!!!

Emma
xXx

Pendants Galore

I love the beauty and the uniqueness of Venetian Glass Pendants.. No two are ever going to be the same!

I have worked up quite a collection of these stunning little beauties! Some were brought back from Italy for me by my sister Jess, another was found in amongst a collection of random objects at a flea market, whilst others were simply bought out of passion at my local bead shop. Nevertheless, even though I have this collection, I am yet to create something from them.. I think only about 2 or 3 have only successfully made it into a fully wearable piece of artwork, but the rest have simply lay dormant in an empty ferrero rocher container for safe keeping..

BUT NO MORE!!!  

After having a conversation with Trent about Venetian glass, he was saying how much he admired them and I thought to myself "Hey, I have some of those" So I went back to my bedroom/beading studio and rummaged through my treasure trove until I finally found them.

I took a photo of the collection of them and posted on my facebook 'For each like I will make one necklace using one of the pendants'..

Well silly me got 7 likes now didn't I?!?! (Probably should have said for every 3 likes..) But what's done is done. And so - not to disappointment my facebook fans - I am now venturing onwards to create 7 necklaces using one of these pendants, each one more beautiful than the next.

Even as I type, thoughts are flying through my head of the different sorts of projects I can do with these pendants. Stay tuned folks, I shall return with sparklies to show!

Emma
xXx

Finding Inspiration

I have seen many a person talk/post about where they find their inspiration and what around them suddenly sparks a surge of creativity.. One of the most popular one I have seen is 'nature'. I love nature and I think that the outside world if gorgeous and don't get me wrong, I do find inspiration there, but I have a rather different means for most of it..

I LOOOOVE music.. I mainly like my heavy metal music and industrial (the heavier, the better ;) lol) and I love to get alot of my inspiration from music videos.

I'm sure that most of you will be familiar with Katy Perry.. She obviously, is a mainstream singer but I really enjoy alot of her songs and I am currently obsessed with her music video to the song ET. The colours and the images in this clip is amazing and if you have not seen it, I suggest you get onto youtube right now and watch it, because it is amazing!!

These are some screenshots that I got from the film clip, because I want to create a piece based on these images:

She has 3 different costume changes in this film clip, all of them just as stunning as the next.

I love the colour combination of red, purple and blue together.. I know that it's not everyone's cup of tea but there is just something so vibrant about it that captures me.

Then there is the stunning combination of white, silver, light blue and fuschia. There seems to be such a touch of elegance in these combinations.

Then there are the earthy tones in the last costume change with ever the so slightest touch of blue.

I don't know what it is but I just find so much inspiration in something that I am so passionate about. And I have never been more inspired to bead 3 items as much as I have with these 3 seperate scenes in a 4 minute clip.

So now to ask the ultimate question.. What is it that inspires you?

Emma
xXx

A friend in need..

Is a friend indeed..

I received a facebook notification from one of my friends the other day saying "Emma can you help her out" with a link attached to it. And I thought 'Oooh, I wonder what all this is about'. I went and had a long and - long story short - A lady up in Queensland who was making this outfit for a client to wear next week that was being ADORNED in swarovski crystals had the corset in the back of her mums car.. and some #*^$*@!!! broke into the car and stole the corset..

It amazes me how truely disgusting some human beings can be..

So she was calling out on facebook for some help getting some of the beads to make a replacement corset for next week for her client, and that she would be willing to pay for the beads. As she originally bought the beads in Thailand, it's not as if she could just go back there as she pleases to get some replacement ones.

I emailed her saying that I had some swarovski crystal beads that I could send her. They are mostly bicones, and a small amount of marguerites but it was better than nothing. So she sent me back a reply email saying that she would love them and sent her address. I rumaged through my stash to try and match some colours that I had to the corset. I sent up some Purple Velvet, Emerald, Blue Zircon, Violet, and Fuschia and Purple Velvert 2xAB in a variety of sizes via express post so that hopefully she gets them today.

I know that there is not much point to my telling this story, but I feel really good for trying to help out a follow artist in need.. I really hope that she gets this corset finished in time for her client. If you see anyone try to flog off this corset on Ebay or something, please let me know!!

Emma
xXx