Bead-It-Forward 2019 (Flowers)

Hello! First of all, thank you so much for your lovely comments. I greatly appreciated them.

This is just a quick post to say that I am participating in Bead-It-Forward 2019.

The deadline for the beaded squares to be received is 31st March.

If you can know more in this post of the Bead-It-Forward Blog: http://beaditforward.blogspot.com/2019/01/2019-theme-flowers.html

I am sorry about the low quality in this photo taken with my mobile phone. I could not locate my camera.

I am using a pattern from a former event: 
http://www.facetjewelry.com/bead-buzz/projects/2016/10/bead-it-forward-flower-patterns


The beaded squares will be stitched to quilts and put on sale on Etsy, for instance. If you want you can contribute too by buying the finished quilts: https://www.etsy.com/shop/BeadItForwardQuilts


EDIT:
These are all the beaded squares I was able to make this year. I had great fun in stitching them!

Beaded Pendants

Hello, dear readers!

Today I have to show to you some beaded pendants. The Starburst Earrings that I've already shown you HERE, have been transformed to pendants that I've hanged from fine trace chain, The original design is by Deborah Roberti that you can find HERE and it's free of charge.

They have been added to my Etsy shop and I've already sold one - the simplest one, which is only silver coloured. I'm more and more attracted to simpler designs and colour schemes. The customer said it reminded her of lace. And lace is so trendy, right now, isn't it?

I've also made a dark blue and silver version. I'm so fond of these silver versions of the original design that I have made one for myself and wear it often.

Deborah's Starburst Earrings are definitely inspiring. I could say that I've experimented everything with them but one can not say that. Who knows what comes next?

Bead happy!

Big Star Small Star

Hello, dear readers!

One of the patterns I have been working on is the Starfish pattern. A blogging friend of mine, the highly criative Fatima Menser-Potter has made one design for a big starfish pendant that you can hang from a chain. I have followed the instructions and made a pendant in sand colours.

I have used Japanese Toho seed beads in 8/0 and 11/0 sizes and Wildfire thread 10lb. I am very happy with the result even if it is not as curved as the ones in the photos of the tutorial. 

The best results, according to the author, are achieved with Toho 8/0 and Miyuki 11/0 (I don't have Muyiki in this size) and Fireline 8lb (I don't have this size). 

You can buy this tutorial at Fatima's ETSY shop named She Walks in Crystal where you can find kits, tutorials, beaded jewellery, and so on. The link to the tutorial is HERE. 


This is not my first starfish. I had previously made a smaller one. 

For this one, I've followed the instructions from a YouTube video made by Gena Hopkins. It is a double-sided small starfish and it's gorgeous. I prefer small scale objects to bigones. You can find the video HERE. I have entered this creation in the Operation Tackle That Bead Stash challenge dedicated to the beach. You can see all the entries HERE.

Latest makes in beadweaving

Hi! I'd like to share my latest makes in beadweaving. All of them are designs by Ruby Lockwood - a talented Canadian lady that you might know from the YouTube as she has more than 150 videos just on beading. 

This teal and silver bracelet was made using the Roman Hugs and Kisses design. This is not properly a recent make, I made this bracelet last year for a blog challenge. More information about it can be found HERE.

With this one I entered the challenge Operation Tackle That Bead Stash last June. An earth tones palette had to be used in the finished piece. You can see all the entries HERE. Almost forgot to tell that this is the Evening Love design in case you want to look for it.

And this is the last but not the least. The Simply Simple Bracelet design uses the Pondo stitch. It is made with three main colours. 

Happy beading!

Starburst Earrings

Hi, lovely readers! Today I'd like to write about an amazing pattern by Deborah Roberti that I have been using a lot to make different colour combinations, and by doing that, the look of the finished product completely changes.

Original pattern 

This is the original pattern with Rizo beads that I've changed later because I think the Rizos (the spike beads) are loose, sometimes pointing to the front sometimes to the back. This a free pattern that you can find HERE. So, my change was replacing the Rizos by Mini Drops. You can see the difference in the below photo.

Changed pattern

Since I've made this replacement, I've been using this pattern a lot to make all kind of colour combinations.

Two coloured design

This is one of my favourite combinations.The superduos are just one colour and all the other beads are silver. The star is evident in this combination, more evident than in the combination above.

Two coloured design with picasso blue superduos

I love this one too. Lately, I have using lighter colours. 

Light blue and light pink versions

Do you like to experiment with different colours using the same pattern?

Most of these earrings are available at my Etsy shop. I'm having a sale right now. Everything is 20% off.

Have a great week!

Coin Band Bracelet and Amazing Czech Beads

Hi, everyone! This time I want to show you a gorgeous pattern I have found for the amazing square Czech glass beads that are the CzechMate Tile Beads. The ones I have used came from Bojangle Beads. This is a UK based on-line shop that I found last year. I have ordered twice from them. I love the variety of Toho seed beads, the gorgeous metal beads, the quality of their findings and last, but not least, the many shapes of Czech glass beads, like the Tile beads. 

choosing the seed beads for the bracelet

the bracelet with the chosen seed beads (brass coloured)

an overview of the bracelet including its clasp

another bracelet with Tile beads in a different colour, not much difference, actually, it's a pink brown

this bracelet still needs a clasp, I'll have to finish it

The finished bracelet is for sale in Etsy, HERE. It fits a small wrist, like mine, in fact, but it can be fixed.

The Coin Band pattern is a paid design by Deborah Roberti and can be found HERE. 

Which is your favourite bracelet? Do you use Tile beads? 

Have a great weekend!

Ana

A Time To Stitch 6 Blog Hop Reveal

Hi! Today is the reveal of A Time to Stitch 6 Blog Hop. This is the 6th edition of the blog hop organised by Therese Frank and Christine Altmiller. A big thank you to the hostesses.

This time the objective was to use a graphed chart, a word chart or a picture chart for creating our beadwoven piece. You can read more about it here.

After I signed up for this challenge, I searched for a beautiful peyote pattern for a bracelet. I am attracted to small geometric patterns like those designed by Diana Costa (Etsy Shop), Anna a.k.a. as Anabel (Etsy Shop) and Carol Dean Sharpe (Etsy Shop). These are my favourite designers in what comes to peyote bracelet patterns. 

Nevertheless, when I laid my eyes on the Crazy Paisley from Fusion Beads, I said to myself, this is the one I'm going to make. As my bead stash is limited, I had to order new beads which eventually arrived, but then came Christmas and Christmas gifts. After that, I couldn't find the ordered beads anymore. They have gone astray. 

Printed instructions with bead list

So, plan B had to come in. Last year I had heard about Bead-It-Forward project and I had decided that I had to donate something to this charitable programme in favour of breast cancer research.

I have made two squares and I plan to make two more.  If you are reading this and you are interested in participating too, you can read the guidelines here.

Each year there is a theme and this year's theme is Animals - Wild About Finding a Cure. You can create your own patterns or use the ones already available. There are several I love but the one I chose (the two-drop peyote bunny pattern) was, by coincidence, designed by Therese. I have used the word chart instead of the graphed chart which was a surprise to me because I think I am a visual person more than a word person. Don't tell anyone but I've spotted some mistakes when comparing the two squares. I'll be remaking the flawed square this weekend.

I can't wait to see the creations of the other participants. This is the list. Enjoy!

1-Therese Frank  (Host)    

2-Christine Altmiller  (Host)

3-Cynthia Machata

4-Samantha Wescott

5-Karin Slaton

6-Wendy

7-LizE

8-Dagi (Kokopelli)

9-Lola

10-Paula

11-Karin G.

12-Becky Pancake

13-Ana Cravidao <---- you are here

14-Alenka

15-Debbie (Kepi)

16-Nelly May

17-LiliKrist

18-Sally Russick

19-Maryanne

20-Kim

21-Amy

Winter

Today I'm sharing my participation in the November challenge of Operation Tackle That Bead Stash. The theme was Winter. Isn't this an inspiring photo?

Icicles by Paul Van Der Werf

I have made a pair of earrings using Twin beads in the Winter Wonderland Snowflake Earrings design by Kelly Dale.

This is a Free tutorial that you can find in my Pinterest board dedicated to Christmas. According to the instructions I've just read on Pinterest, an embedded pin should be displayed here. As things aren't working properly, I'm providing the link to the video from Kelly Dale HERE. If you prefer the written instructions, there is a PDF tutorial for sale on Etsy.

Barbara motif

Hi, lovely readers!

I've made a necklace using the Barbara motif, which was designed by Irene, a talented Belgium beader. You can visit her website HERE. You can use Google Translate to put the French text in your own language.

Barbara Necklace

Close-up of the necklace with three motifs

I adore it. I've used firepolished beads in blue and two sizes of Toho seed beads in bronze colour.

I've also made some earrings to match, adapting the pattern, but I find them too big. 

So, I've used the Flora Earrings designed by Linda Genaw to make a smaller version. You can access the pattern HERE.

My Earring version of the Barbara motif 

 Flora Earrings

Happy beading!