Patterns of the Week

Behind the scenes at Caron Michelle - productivity has been high!

Check out the patterns for this week!  All using minimal colours - these fabulous designs are based around the art nouveau/art deco period!

Available in my Etsy shop - I have an offer, if you create one of my designs and share pics, I will offer you a free pattern of your choice in return.  Offer available for a limited time!
 

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Pattern Update

Its been a busy time and I'm finally catching up.  Have some exciting projects to share with you so will be sure to post!  I have dusted off my archives and re-visiting some of the loomed patterns that I have created and updating colours and palettes.   If you have purchased one of my patterns, please share the finished design with me so that I can showcase you on the web!

This is what has been listed this week in my Etsy shop.

Patterns

I have had fun designing with patterns again ... its been a while since I have got stuck into creating a design and the passion for playing with the bead programs was generated through a request for some specific designs.  I decided to upload my patterns to Etsy - which now has some great new features including instant download and the capacity to offer a "3 for 2" offer by using a code.

Here is a sample of patterns available at present - I will continue uploading the ones I'm working on over the next few weeks.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy and have a fabulous day!

 

 

Advance Australia Fair

Australians all let us rejoice

For we are young and free

We've golden soil and wealth for toil

Our home is girt by sea

Our land abounds in nature's gifts

of beauty rich and rare

In history's page let every stage

Advance Australia fair

In joyful strains then let us sing

Advance Australia fair.

Week one over and we're fairing reasonably well on the medal tally, lets see what week two brings, in the meantime - I will continue to wear my cuff in honour of those representing us in London!

On the loom - Going for Gold

With the Olympics under way and inspired by the beautifully choreographed opening ceremony and our Aussie team already doing as proud in a range of  events ... I have finally got myself organised and started on my Australian Flag cuff.

The Australian Flag is symbolic of our heritage and representation of our early settlers - the Union Jack represents the Cross of St George for England, The Cross of St Andrew for Scotland and The Cross of St Patrick for Ireland.  The Australian Blue Ensign is emblazoned with five stars that form the Southern Cross and a sixth to represent the Commonwealth of Australia.
This cuff has been on my  mind for a long time, with the planning and development of the pattern a few weeks ago, I'm really pleased to be in the finishing stages and to be able to share with you what is on my loom ....

Aussie Aussie Aussie ... Oy Oy OY

One of our iconic symbols or flags is the Boxing Kangaroo ... the boxing kangaroo has been around since 1891  inspired by the outback travelling shows where the Kangaroo competed competed against men.  The boxing kangaroo became a symbol of the RAAF during WWII as well as featuring in numerous movies over the years.  However the flag as we know it today, received international prominence during 1983's America's Cup with a golden kangaroo featured on a green background (Aussie colours) with red boxing gloves was flown from Australia II which won the race.  The image was purchased by the Australian Olympic Committee and has since featured as a mascot for sporting events.

So here is my pattern design as a tribute to the upcoming Aussies who will be competing for Australia.  Aussie Aussie Aussie ... Oy Oy OY!

Go Australia ...

Aussies are very patriotic sports men and women - especially when competing in international competitions.  The upcoming Olympics have inspired me to design two patterns to show my support - with almost a month left to the start, I better get organsied and start looming!

To start ... we have the Australian Flag ...the actual design will feature metal clay stars attached to the piece (so won't look exactly like this).

I'll feature my other pattern design in another blog post.

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 :)

Anzac Day 2012

Today I had the honour of watching my son and many others march in the Anzac Day Parade.  Whilst watching the parade, there were many fine moments, from the elderly diggers waving at the young children looking on in awe, or the ones who weren't afraid to show the tears in their eyes as they recognised loved ones in the crowd.

It was beautiful to see the diggers from the past ...

 To those currently representing our country  ...

and to the cadets of today ... my boy!

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.