Bead Arts

Technique Tuesday!

Destiny is a bracelet that I made last year for the Fire Mountain Gems annual contest. It won second place in its category, and has been gone since…October I think?…for the company to photograph it. It finally came home a couple weeks ago. Please let me know if you see it in any of the FMG catalogs or print advertisements. Details on this year’s contest are on the FMG website.

I’ve got a tutorial on making an embroidered bracelet on my old blog. You can find the instructions here, and don’t forget about all the rest of my old tutorials that are still available!

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media

The Bright and Beautiful Design Contest is on! Use some of the suppliers listed in the previous post to create a masterpiece, and then submit it to Create Your Style for the 2007 design competition. Here are some of the details:

PROCESS FOR ENTRY

You may submit as many entries as you wish for contest, however you may only compete in one category: Professional, Amateur, Student. Completed application, two digital photographs (jpg or gif and not to exceed 2 Mbytes) of the design and a complete list of CRYSTALLIZEDTM - Swarovski Elements used must be submitted by registration deadline of July 13, 2007. Do not send finished pieces.

SEMI-FINALISTS

The top 20 designs from each category: Professional, Amateur, Student will be chosen by a panel of jurors and notified on August 31, 2007. Semi-finalists will be required to send Swarovski their design piece(s) no later than September 15, 2007, or Swarovski will assume the semi-finalist has chosen not to continue in the contest. All semi-finalists will receive the CRYSTALLIZEDTM - Swarovski Elements used to make their design, plus a $50.00 gift check. Every effort will be made to send the participant the exact CRYSTALLIZEDTM - Swarovski Elements used, but substi­tutions may be necessary.

FINALISTS

The panel of jurors will choose 5 finalists per category: Professional, Amateur, Student. All finalists will be notified by October 30, 2007. All finalists will be invited to the VIP Reception in Tucson, Arizona on February 6, 2008 at which time the winners will be announced.

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, Swarovski, calls-for-entries

Costume Jewelry Supplies is one of my favorite places to get vintage lucite and glass flowers. I just dropped a load recently, because I’ve got quite a few projects coming up (in my little brain, that is) that required me to restock my rapidly dwindling supply. Do you have other favorite sources?

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media, vintage-lucite

Make Art Monday!

My newest mixed media necklace is finished. I started off calling her “grape girl” for lack of a better idea. The central cabochon was created by making a mold of a vintage piece that I have. I’m pretty satisfied with the way she turned out, and more than happy with how well the mold worked. I’m thinking about what to do next with this basic idea.

Chardonnay


The piece is not quite as light and bright as this photo suggests. The colors are a bit more subdued and purple…the beads in the strap are not pink like they appear. I’ve got to figure out this lighting stuff when photographing gently-tinted pieces!

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media

I’m not going to post a picture of it here, because some folks are just not going to want to see it! I entered the Ugly Necklace Contest this year, and was thrilled to be named as a semi-finalist! Yes, I made the necklace as hideously ugly as I possibly could…on purpose. And I learned a ton about the rules of good design by doing it.

The online voting has just started at the Land of Odds, the sponsor of this contest. Would you go and vote? You can vote for as many as you want, but please don’t try to vote for any necklace more than once. I’d be thrilled if you voted mine as 100% ugly, but please follow your heart…or your queasy stomach…in this matter!

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media, ugly-necklace-contest

That won’t be her name, but I haven’t really picked one yet!

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media

Beaded chain stitch

The Beadwrangler has a great introduction to this art form. There are several adjustments that you’ll need to make when you decide to start filling your embroidery stitches with beads, and she goes over all the basics!

beads, beading, bead-embroidery, mixed-media

My wild and wacky necklace is now finished. All I can say is…I have no idea where I or anyone else would ever wear this!

Through the Looking Glass

My real challenge for this piece was learning to incorporate the shisha mirrors into the design. I found a wonderful book that walked me, as a total beginner, through the process. It’s an older book, but you can still find used ones on Amazon: Shisha Mirror Embroidery by Jean Simpson.

Detail

Detail

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media

I’m working on a pretty wacked-out piece, different from anything I’ve done before. It involves embroidering on shisha mirrors, wrapping wire in ribbon, mixing seed beads and lucite, and a few other surprises that are not quite finished yet!

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media

Would you like to see some beadwork by an artist who is equally proficient in vessels and sculptural pieces as she is in jewelry? Then visit Melanie Doerman’s website, The Magpie.

Melanie has created a loomed self-portrait which I find fascinating:

And her vessels, which she has made to illustrate the Tarot, are astounding:

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media

Make Art Monday!

Not only are these pins fun and easy to make, but they’re a great way to use up your small quantities of left over beads from other projects. The mesh tops are domed, and come with a pin backing that has prongs to fasten the top on.

These close-ups make the pins look much bigger than they are: the metal frames are only about an inch across:

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media

“And just think…..all I ever wanted was a box of 64 colors!!”

So says extraordinary bead artist Cassandra Graham. You’ll need to set aside some serious time to take in all of Cassandra’s gorgeous pieces on her website, Wilde Jewels. Amazing pieces live there, like this Bead Dreams finalist called French Vanilla:

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media

In the ocean of information that is the world wide web, there are a few websites that rise to the top when it comes to covering the basics of beadwork. Not surprisingly, one of them is the Beadwork Site at About.com. Paula Morgan has compiled the very best tutorials on just about every aspect of beading that you can imagine: bead weaving stitches, stringing, wire work, and loom weaving. So really, this is the place for you to start.

One other brilliant site has made my list of the best of the best: Beads East has animated tutorials on many of the most popular off-loom bead weaving stitches! This is one of Ann Benson’s sites, and if you haven’t seen Ann’s beadwork before, prepare to be amazed!

There are a few additional sites that each have great tips to offer:

Bead Jewelry Making
Some harder-to-find seed bead instructions

Beading Help Web
Well-written articles and tutorials geared mostly for beginners

Jewelry Making at About.com
Tutorials and tips on all aspects of the art, including business

BeadStyle Magazine
Some good tips on working with wire

Fire Mountain Gems
How to use specific tools

Bead&Button Techniques
Pdf downloads of instructions available

handmade-beaded-jewelry, wearable-art, beads, beading, jewelry, mixed-media, tutorials

I finally managed to finish this monster necklace that I’ve been working on:

Orinoco Flow

My daughter was home for the weekend, and she came up with the name. She pointed out to me that the piece uses several very primitive symbols, like concentric circles and jagged lines, which often represent watering holes and the rivers that connect them.

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Robin Atkins is an extraordinary bead artist, and she also writes an entertaining blog! Here, you can keep up with Robin’s new projects and her musings on life.

She is also the co-author of one of my favorite bead embroidery books:

Beaded Embellishment