Emerald Baguette Colour Swatch

"A livelier emerald twinkles in the grass ... a purer sapphire melts into the sea" ... Tennyson

I have a quest.  My quest is to discover unusual beads and stones that you will not source through the normal bead suppliers.  I was delighted when I recently discovered these vintage emerald baguettes!

My warp is loomed and I am incredibly excited to commence on another loomy journey.  The colours are incredibly inspirational and I can't wait to create a new design with the baguettes as the centre focal of the next loomed cuff.


Colour swatch which has already changed slightly  ... stay tuned for more pics soon!

For Sale ....

"Whatever you believe with feeling becomes your reality" ... Brian Tracy 

Drum roll ... I am thrilled to announce that I will be selling my loomed beaded cuffs!  

I recently applied (and was accepted) to sell at the super cool Incube8r  Gallery.   (http://www.incube8r.com.au/)  

Incube8r is a local gallery that supports artists - it is located in the hip Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, Queensland - check out their website for more information about Incube8r and see what the other wonderful artists are doing!


Stay tuned for the unveiling on Friday. I am very excited to be embarking on this journey, it is an incredible opportunity and one I am grateful.  I look forward to meeting the other fabulous artists and participating in the activities organised by Vicki (the owner) .


I am setting up my "cube" on Friday.  Here is one of the cuffs that will be for sale - it is a Champagne Pearl Cuff - created with Miyuki beads with the focus on the delicious Swarovski pearls and Swarovski crystals. 

For those who are not able to access Incube8r - I am available for commissions and will soon be launching my online store.

 

My Place ... My Inspiration

“The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most. ” ― John Ruskin

This weeks inspiration is my coats or should I say pashminas of many colours!  I have finally found the perfect bamboo ladder (which I made myself!) of which is both a visual pleasure and quick and easy to access!

My place ... my inspiration

I live in the lucky country and I am lucky to live in a beautiful part of the country.  I am constantly inspired by the beautiful flora and fauna that can be found here and in particular the visitors I get in my back yard.  I have some native plants called "ned kelly" (named after the famous bushranger from the 1800's).  These natives are from the Greviellea family and attracts many birds, bees and other wildlife!

I have a regular visitor - this little Rainbow Lorikeet never ceases to amuse and delight - the beautiful colours inspire my creative streak!  Now you know where I get my inspiration from!

“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. ” ... Shawshank Redemption: A Story from Different Seasons 


Can you see him  ...

Aaaa ... there he is!

Smile for the camera ....

My backyard ... this weeks visitor

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree 
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
How gay your life must be...

As a child - we delighted in singing the alternative:

Kookaburra sits on the electric wire,
Jumping up and down, with his pants on fire.
Ouch, Kookaburra, ouch! Kookaburra,
Hot your tail must be!

Bead Looming Cuff Swap
The looming group I am a member of is holding a cuff swap, these are great fun as you don't know who you are receiving a cuff from until it arrives and you get to know other members of your group.  Our deadline is 31 July so I have to get organised ... this is the pattern I have designed for my swap partner ... hope they like it!

It is titled Butterfly Wings ... and I have a few plans yet for the design finish!

Loomed Beaded Bangle

My latest challenge was to create a loomed beaded bangle.  Inspired by some of my loomy friends designs, I decided to push my boundaries and try size 15/o Miyuki Delica beads (these are much smaller than my usual sized beads).  My next challenge was to create a pattern that would flow and have consistency throughout the design.  This is the result ... enjoy :)

Pattern of the week

As mentioned previously - my beading group has a challenge in progress.  The theme being Art Deco.  I love spending time playing with the pattern programs - it is satisfying to see a picture transposed to a pattern which will in turn be created into a fabulous design.

This is the latest pattern that I have created, it is titled 1920's vogue!  I can't wait to see the pics of this one!

Whats in a pattern

One of my favourite past times is creating patterns - I have a wealth of them sitting on my hard drive which I really need to share .. but (and there is always a but) hold back because they need some adjustment.

This adjustment is called "cleaning up" a pattern.  I use BeadCreatorPro 6 for my pattern designs - this program  has amazing design concepts allowing you to develop the depth and dimension of a design.

I'm involved in a facebook group "Bead Looming Intervention" and our first challenge is to design a an Art Deco inspired piece - this can be in the form of a cuff, necklace, hanging, etc which had some caveats attached to the design.  My piece was taken from this picture:

To commence the process, I worked in Adobe Photoshop to sharpen the image, cut back the unwanted areas and enchance the DPI.  When the pattern was first converted, it had over 100 colours and looked a little like this:

You can see that there is a lot happening in the image, it looks patchy, there are a lot of shadows that the pattern program has picked up and the overall picture doesn't blend.  Imagine looming that!  After many, many hours (I think 5 in total) the colours were blended together, I compared the "real" colours to the ones picked by the pattern program and the final "cleaned" up pattern is reduced to around 35 bead colours and now looks like this:-

If you scroll between the two pictures you can see there are  more clean lines, depth and dimension to the picture and the Art Deco Lady stands out more.

My beads have arrived and I'm now off to stage II of my cuff - the actual looming ... stay tuned.