Saturday, August 25, 2012

Echo Creative Club



I have the pleasure of being a guest blogger for Jeannie Dukic's Echo Creative Club. Jeannie not only sent me some of her Fractured Beads, she also sent a beautiful pendant by Marie Voyeur-Cramp of Skye Jewels. 

Jeannie wanted me to use her beads with the pendant. No prob. Got this in the bag. Hmmm....well, my first challenge was how I was going to hang the pendant. Oh, I'll bezel it. I've been bezeling everying in sight. Except...it didn't want to be bezeled. It was a horrible failure. Not a prob. I'll hang it from the hole....that is not centered with the butterfly. I'm just the tiniest bit ocd on stuff like that. The hubs to the rescue, drilled a hole on the other side so my butterfly would hang straight up and down.
I thought I would use a RAW rope that I've made a couple of times recently, and include the beads into it.
Hmm, nope, they didn't like that. Tried putting them at the beginning of the rope, just before the pendant. Nope.
Getting just a bit anxious here, cause Jeannie asked me to put them all together. But, well, those pretty beads wanted to be the center of attention all by themselves. So of course I listened!
I've recently learned kumihimo, and absolutely love it.
I love the echo of the dark brown that shows through the fracture of Jeannie's beads. I didn't have that exact color, so I picked it up in the golden seed beads, and also in the raku beads that have the brown, and blue hues. I also used a dark brown and golden tan cording for it.

See how happy it is? This is a new favorite in my wardrobe!

Next up is Marie's pendant...
Isn't she pretty? A beautiful garden of colors for my butterfly!

A flowery beaded button for the clasp. 

 See, all nice and straight! :)

My last piece is a new look for me. I really love where these beads took me.
A CRAW bracelet! For my non-seed beader friends, that would be Cubic Right Angle Weave. And it is a very special one, because the awesome Heather Collin wrote the tutorial for this after I asked her a question! You won't really be able to see the swirl pattern, since I used such soft colors, but it is there, I promise.


I love the contrast of structure and swirl in this bracelet. The Fractured Bead stands out proudly, surrounded by support and love. 
Thanks for having me guest Jeannie!
Here are the regular participants.

Cindy Cima Edwards http://www.cindycima.com/
Shannon Chomanczuk http://www.formysweetdaughter.blogspot.com/

Blessings, Shirley




17 comments:

  1. Oh my sweet friend I love where these beads took you! All three creations are so unique and special! And that chain for the pendant!!! WOW!

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  2. OMG Shirley your are an amazing bead weaver! All of your creations are gorgeous! I'm OCD also so I am glad that you were able to right the butterfly '-). I just taught myself how to do Kumihimo and have not tried it with beads yet, but it is on my list. The CRAW bracelet is awesome love it. I have not tried CRAW a little scared, but I will over come the fear and give it a try.
    Therese

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  3. Freaking awesome! Love your beadwork and the beads you got really took you down a nice road.

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  4. Beautiful Shirley, that is all I can say! I love the blues, so calming....great job!

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  5. ok, first I have to say your ocd and mine don't match! the hole is at 12 o'clock so that the clock is right way up ... and butterflies don't fly straight ;p. I just had to get that off my chest. Upside down and sideways even it would still be beautiful. What a beautiful collection, while they may not be all in one piece they can all be worn together :)

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  6. Your bead weaving skills are incredible! I love each and every gorgeous piece you made!!!

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  7. Emma, you're funny!

    This is drop dead gorgeous! You made my beads very happy. I admire people who can do beadwork like this. It's so magically to me. If you had any anxiety about this, I would never believe it. Thank you Shirley for creating such beauty.

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  8. Shirley - all I can say about these pieces is I LOVE YOUR STYLE and DESIGN!!! These are all so gorgeous I was audibly gasping as I scrolled down the page!! BRAVO! I love them each so much I can't even pick one that I like the most! Also - I picked up a kumihimo disc a month or so ago and am dying to try it and learn it - and I think you've inspired me!!!!

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  9. Love your bead weaving - this is something I will never have the eyesight for. All of your designs are beautiful!!!

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  10. Your weaving is lovely. Such great designs.

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  11. Stunning beadwork! Glad I stumbled across your blog :)

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  12. Wow!! Your weaving is so perfect with Marie's pendant and Jeannie's beads - gorgeous designs, just gorgeous!!

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  13. Awesome!!!!!! This is great Shirley!

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  14. You have been nominated by me for the One Lovely Blog Award! See my blog for the details!

    Mandy

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I'm thrilled you stopped by! Thanks for your words of wisdom.