Bead&Gem Show

Ok.. let's face it. I never take enough money to these shows with me and usually end up blowing the majority of my budget at the first few stalls. This is what happened to me on Saturday in any case..

The Bead&Gem Show was on this weekend in Sydney and I went with my room mate, Ellisha, her fiance and his mum. There weren't very many stalls there - maybe about 20 or so? - and I went straight to the one where I knew they had what I originally went there for in the first place.. Those new czech glass spike beads. This particular store also had a wide variety of seed beads, so I was already treading in dangerous territory..
Come time for me to pay after picking my goodies (and desperately trying to hold back on getting more stuff) and then I realised I had spent about 80% os my budget at the one stall.. Oops!

We continued down the stalls - me and Ellisha carefully picking out what we wanted while constantly getting cracks from the other two about 'OMG! They have moved 2 stalls in the last half hour!' shock horror! - Lol. Alot of the stall holders recognised me from the last show that I went to because I was wearing the same shoes =P My shoes that are literally COVERED in metal spikes (they are amazing). We watched a demonstration about working with apoxy clay and using this paste that colours metal settings and the like.

Long story short, here is the stash that I came home with!


Clockwise from top left corner: 8x tubes 11/0 seed beads, 3x tubes 15/0 seed beads, 3x baggies of czech glass spike beads (black, nickel, hematite), Diamond glaze glue with round and oval clear cabochons and 6x patterns of rice paper, filigree findings, some of the colouring paste in silver, gold key charm, 2x cabochons (red and blue iris), 4x pear shaped swarivski crystals and 3x Montana ractangle swarovski crystals, flat backed swarovski hotfix beads silver, 2mm round swarovski crystal beads light siam and 3x tubes of 11/0 seed beads 



 So, I think we came home with a prety good haul this year :) the 3x tubes of seed beads in the bottom right are Ellisha's as is the gold key charm, some of the filigree settings and we are sharing the clear cabs with the different patterned papers.

I can't wait to start playing with it all!
Emma
xXx

A Time to Stitch

I recently joined a beadweaving blog hop created by Theresa Frank of Thereses Treasures and Christine Altmiller of One Kiss Creations where myself and 22 other talented beadweavers were to make something using either herringbone stitch or peyote stitch or both! This was a bit of a kick in the pants for me, because recently I have been on a bit of a cubic RAW and square stitch kick.. BUT I was not going to dump this challenge.

I decided that I was going to try my hand at a Cellini stitch bracelet - A tubular version of peyote stitch using a variety of different sized beads. I had only attempted this once, and it had not worked out too well, but I am very pleased with how this one turned out.



Please excuse my lack of skill at photography, this was taken with my iphone at the wee hours of the morning..

It was made with a swirl of purple iris 6/0 down the centre with a matte bluey/purple 8/0, the same colour in 11/0 and a tiny swirl of matte purple in the grooves of 15/0 beads.. This detail would have been difficult for me to photograph with such a bad quality camera.

I realise that it is currently a UFO but I have this silver cresent moon shaped 'bangle' with two removable balls on the end. My plan is to take one of the balls off and gingerly thread the cellini spiral onto the bangle and put the ball back on.

This bangle however is currently m.i.a in the deep depths of the mess of my beading room (aka. my bedroom) which was, also, a kick in the pants as I didn't want to show off my bracelet unfinished... =(

But I digress..

I was also hoping to get something made in herringbone stitch but unfortunately, just couldn't get around to it.

Please go around and check out the other fabulous creations that these talented artists have produced!

Therese Frank and Christine Altmiller

Katherine Gale

Emma Andrews - you are here

Karin Slaton

Kim Bender

Lola Surwillo

Amy Severino

Bobbie Rafferty

Sally Russick

Tanya Goodwin

Paula Kramer

Sarah

Karen Williams

Shannon Hicks

Andra Weber

Beth

DW

Marla Gibson

Lisa Stukel

Mandy Duffy
Cynthia Machata

Shirley Moore

I had so much fun with this one and I can't wait to be able to take part in another one. By the way, I shall be going home and finding that bangle piece if it's the last thing I do!!! This shall not turn into another UFO!

Emma
xXx

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