I worked on a beaded bead tutorial for my Mosaic of Color challenge piece. For loads of details hop over to La Bella Joya. This week's challenge was to use either the color palette or the feel of the theme inspiration:
I tried to get a little of each in my beads. I wanted to include the cobalt and a hint of green, but everything started to get a little crazy with too many colors. I do a bit better when I work with a limited palette. Maybe I just like playing with shape and texture? I really love to wear many colors, but like to work with as few as possible.
These beaded beads started on 10mm stone rounds. The pattern tutorial is by Quimeras de Náyades and can be found at her Etsy. If you look at the bead she shows you will wonder why my beaded beads look different. No, it rally is the pattern I used, but I added an extra layer of beads to each vertices in the dodecahedron. Quimeras shows this in the tutorial, but not in the pictures.
I didn't have a Margie & Me piece this week, but head over to La Bella Joya's blog and see what Marcie and others have created. When I checked on Saturday there were only a couple of links to the post, but now I see that many others have added. And I'm totally crazy about the current inspiration, Mosaic of Color #129.
I've been nursing a cold or something related to a sinus explosion all week. Perhaps it is a reaction to the wildfire burning through the Arabia Bay Swamp near the Okefenokee Swamp? Swamps really are not supposed to burn, but we have had so little rain for the past few months that a good lightening storm could set all of south Georgia and north Florida ablaze. Yesterday I heard that 867 acres had burned and all 5,000 acres of the swamp were expected to go up in flames. Now it was raining cats and dogs when I heard this story on the radio, so I expect that they mean it. Over the weekend, the wildfire was being described as 88% contained, but I imagine that it is now burning underground if a complete burn-off is predicted.
from http://john1-3.blogspot.com
Between smoke blowing in from 50 miles away and the dust being kicked up from the cotton harvest and ginning, the air is filled with dust.
I have wanted to work on some small pieces and thought that the La Bella Joya Weis Church Challenge would be perfect. I started out by sending an email to Marcie saying I would make something small - maybe some earrings. OK, now I was committed. But after about ten minutes, I got an idea that was a bit more elaborate. I loved working with some white AB Delicas in a previous piece and wanted to show off how they shimmer pink and blue - perfect for this challenge although nearly impossible for me to photograph. I made some little wheels:
I made an all white and gold wheel first. Then I thought that I should use some pink &/or blue. The bottom design seemed a little art deco to me so I added some more one-cut 15's and got the top design. When I made these little wheels in white and gold they totally reminded me of my great-grandmother Mildred. In fact I could picture the white wool dress with which she would wear the piece.
That is Mildred as a cut-out photo figure. I think this photo is from her honeymoon to France.
Finally I decided to ditch the pink and blue and just go with the shimmery white. And I decided to make a bracelet. Oopps, what happened to just something small?
So all the threads hanging out might have given away my secret - I actually have not finished this piece. I have about three more rings and two toggles to make. After I started putting it together, I figured out a better way (isn't this always the case). I also have been having a problem getting the thread tension right when I string them together so that rings that were nice and flat suddenly start to pucker. At any rate, I really like my festive bracelet and even if I didn't fully explore the color palette, I would never have made this piece without the challenge.
I had loads of ideas for playing along with La Bella Joya's Margie & Me Badlands theme. But I swore I would not make any runs to buy any materials...so I had to raid my own stash. Early in the week I made a bead soup and had a rough plan for a necklace. But last night I was looking through a Belle Armoire Jewelry which I bought over the summer and decided to try one of the projects and use the Badlands palatte. I got out my 16 gauge steel wire and started to form. Check me out tomorrow when I can put up better pics than I was able to take tonight with a flash.
These beaded beads started on 10mm stone rounds. The pattern tutorial is by Quimeras de Náyades and can be found at her Etsy. If you look at the bead she shows you will wonder why my beaded beads look different. No, it rally is the pattern I used, but I added an extra layer of beads to each vertices in the dodecahedron. Quimeras shows this in the tutorial, but not in the pictures.
