Beads and Bread: July 2013

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Fish are Friends Blog Hop

Woohoo! Glad you're here! Bet you will leave with a smile on your face! Why? Cause there is just no way anyone can see these cutie pies and not grin from ear to ear. The fabulous Karen Williams is the author of this challenge. She is an extremely talented designer, and wrote the tutorial for the star of the show...the fish!
So, before we get started, I have a little, teensy weensy confession.....I am a tiny, little bit right angle weave challenged. Whew! Ok, so now we've got that out of the way....what? Yes, the fish is created in right angle weave, so?!
So, I really, really had to concentrate to make his little adorable self, but it's all good. And, just like when I first started understanding right angle weave by trying out Nancy Dale's Trellis necklace. It still wasn't my favorite stitch, but at least she got me to finally understand how to make something with it!
Karen's fish helped me get to the next level. Her tutorial has some awesome tips on increasing and decreasing, and this sweet little guy has so many design possibilities, it's just crazy! This is really one of those tutorials that helps you wrap your mind around how a stitch works, and starts the creative process flowing.
I made two of them, but I will most assuredly have a school of them before long, they are that addictive.

I played around with my poly clay, intending to make a dogtag style piece that could hang on a necklace with the fish. Matthew 4:19 is where Jesus tells the disciples to go out and become fishers of men. I didn't create what I had in my head, but that's ok, at least it helped me to know what I didn't want. :)

This is my first baby. I love his little kissy lips, and bright happy colors!

My hubs told me I had his side fins back too far, so I kept that in mind for my next one.

I have a couple of mistakes in this one, but the color scheme is much more...me. I love contrasting matte and AB beads in a pattern.

This is one of the few beads that I actually have the same color in all the sizes. I used 13 one cut charlottes on the petal part of the side fins, and size 8's for the end bead on the dorsal fin and the tail. The charlottes created the cutest little eyebrows that I just adore!

His tail and dorsal fins remind me of Rainbow Fish. Did you ever read that book to your kids?

His body was supposed to have been fatter, but I couldn't get my bead to fit.

I'm for sure going to be making some friends for my two babies to play with!

Huge thanks to Karen for the tutorial, and the opportunity to understand RAW a bit better! Please check out the other participants of the challenge. Blessings, Shirley

Our wonderful hostess- Karen Williams-Baublicious

Francie Broadie - FAB Custom Jewelry

    Shirley Moore - Beads and Bread You are here
    Bobbie Rafferty - Beadsong Jewelry
    Tanya Goodwin - A Work in Progress
    Cynthia Machata - Antiquity Travelers

Kathy Jo - KJ's Beadacious Beads
Therese Frank - Therese's Treasures
Nancy Sopp - AlaskanNancy
Alison Oman
Dolores Dwight
Amy Severino - Amybeads
Eleanor Pigman - Eleanor Pigman

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Seasons Blog Hop

Welcome everyone! I love reading all the blog posts when Lisa Lodge hosts a challenge, so I was super excited to get to participate in this one! This one is to celebrate either a 'season' of the year; or a 'season' of your life. I live at the beach, so as soon as I saw my packet of beads, I knew what my 'season' would be...summer at the beach!!! Now, I did forget to take a pic before I got started, so the bead soup has some of my own mixed in as well. Just look at this gorgeous pile o' beads!

I just fell in love with that rich mix of color. It reminds me so much of the sand at low tide, with bits of seashells scattered throughout the sand., and the foam of the ocean washing it smooth, tumbling the shells around.

My first piece is a Nancy Dale pattern, called Color Play. Nancy is an incredibly talented artist, and I knew her Color Play would work perfectly with this bead mix.

Just look at that mix of color!

Those beautiful lampwork beads are such stars in this necklace, and yet allow the other beads to shine as well.

I love those blue lined triangle beads!

This is one of the techniques Nancy explains in her pattern.

I had some yummy tigereye discs and Picasso pearls that were begging to be included!

Here is one of the royal blue glass beads captured in a cage of size 11 seeds.

This bracelet held several surprises for me. My original intent was to use the blue lined triangles with the royal blue glass beads, but they didn't want to play nice with each other.

So, instead I got to use some brand new beads, a lovely AB druk from The Beading Room.

The chevron chain is one I've been wanting to try for a while, so this was a great opportunity to see it perform.

I love my little CRAW curved toggle, it works great with the gentle curves in the pattern.

There were several beads I didn't manage to use from the soup Lisa sent to me, but I was pretty happy with what I had made. I was wrapping up my post, and cleaning up my work space, and then.....those blue glass beads just started whispering to me.........ever have that happen?

Well, here is what they said!

Quite a different take on the color scheme, huh?

Have you ever seen that flourescent seaweed? Really wild colors, just washing up in the surf. That was totally what I thought of when this piece was finished. Not my normal colors at all, but it is so very bright and happy!