September Crafting

Hello lovely readers. This post is soooooooooo delayed but I have an adorable excuse. The major creation that I'd been cooking up for the past 9 months arrived 8 days late, on 19th Sept. My little girl, Thea.

 Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of creating done in the second half of Sept! I did get some done in the first half though whilst waiting for her to arrive. :o)

First, some beading. These earrings are based on a free tutorial by Sidonia.

 

Next, a haircomb. This is the Crystal Rose from Japanese Beadwork by Sonoko Nozue. I started this yonks ago for Bead, Book and Bounce (blogged about it here) and finally found the time to finish it.

Some knitting and crochet next.

The knitted elephant is designed by Sarah Keen and can be found in the fabulous book 'Knitted Wild Animals'. The stripy giraffe is a free pattern by Emma Dent and can be found on her blog here. The turtle shell and little hat are photo props for Thea but the shell turned out far too small! I'll eventually make it into a toy for her. I just made it up as I went along really after seeing some I liked around the net. Last is a bag made from boodles yarn. Again, I made it up as I went along. I made it for me to replace a handbag I use a lot but it's a bit small really.

I think that's everything I finished in Sept. I do have one more thing to show you though, the pendant I mentioned last month. I have given it to my friend so I can show it to you now. It's a shaped and textured sterling silver pendant with a yellow topaz centre. I think she liked it!

I doubt I'll have much to show you next month but I have started a couple of pairs of earrings so maybe I will have something if little Miss demanding allows it. :o)

Happy October everyone

xxx

OTTBS: Bead, Book and Bounce- Japanese Beadwork

The fifth book in the OTTBS Bead Book & Bounce book review project is Japanese Beadwork by Sonoko Nozue.

I've had this book in my collection for about half a year I think. I added the book to my Amazon wish list after seeing the gorgeous free pattern for the Crystal Rose offered as a sampler on the Lark website (here). Despite now owning the book I still wanted to make the Crystal Rose for my BB&B project.

Unfortunately, even with the reveal delay, I still haven't finished it. Bump is leaving me feeling very uncreative and if I do feel slightly creative my brain seems to be stuck on browsing Ravelry's baby patterns! I wish I could say I've started something there but alas not so far. Anyway, I digress...

I decided I wanted to try and do as much as possible from stash. The only 15s I had at least 20g of were opaque black. So I settled on black and vitrail medium. I had the 3mm bicones but had to buy the big sparkly for the middle. I should have read the pattern more carefully though as I knew I wanted to make a hair ornament so wouldn't be needing the necklace rope so I didn't actually need 20g, more like 10g probably. I chose a crown stone from Crystals and Ice rather than using the button crystal used in the pattern as I didn't like the look of seeing the button hole through the crystal.

I found the pattern ok to follow but I'm not sure a beginner would find it easy. Sonoko includes several rows/steps in each diagram so it is quite easy to get a little confused unless you have a good idea where you're going anyway. I did think that my stone would not fit into the bezel as I was making it but it all came together nicely in the end. So the central part is done but I'm currently working on the crocheted tube for the flower petals. If you don't bead crochet, don't despair though. Looking closely at the picture on the hair comb little example picture it looks to me that the petals rope has been done in herringbone stitch. Obviously you would need to do a round of 6 or 8 beads instead of 7 as in the crochet though. It should still be flexible enough to knot as in the pattern. My rope is currently over half done I think.

I'd love to get this finished soon although its a bit boring now crocheting many tiny black beads and 15s grow soooooo much slower than 11s! Here it is so far.

One day/year/decade when I'm back to creating for me I would love to do a few more of the projects from this book. There are quite a few pretty, smallish ropes. Much more my style than enormous, heavily decorated ones. I especially like the Sonoko Spiral, Sonoko Wave, Aurora, Midnight and Powder Snow. Quite a few for my to-do list then! Quite a few projects in the book are adaptations of spiral rope and many are very sparkly, good for busting crystal stash, but bad for the bank balance if you don't have much of a crystal stash like me.

Hopefully soon I'll be able show you a beautiful sparkly new hair comb....having said that, how many of my unfinished BB&B projects have I actually gotten round to finishing?...Ummmm....maybe I should have a dedicated finish-off-BB&B-projects week/month!

 I do have the book that's next in the series for OTTBS BB&B but I am going to stop for a little bit. Not because I don't want to join in, I love doing this, but because I don't want to set myself too many deadlines as a combination of baby brain, exhaustion, sickness etc is completely sapping my creativity. Don't forget to check out the OTTBS blog though each month if you want to keep up with what others are doing for BB&B.

Oh and why not stop by the BB&B reveal for Japanese Beadwork to see what others have done from this lovely book.

Gemxxx

OTTBS: Bead, Book and Bounce- The Art and Elegance of Beadweaving

This post is a little delayed. Blame illness and blogger playing up, sorry!

The fourth book in The OTTBS Bead, Book & Bounce (info about our book review projects can be found here) is The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving by Carol Wilcox Wells.

 

 

 

I have had this book in my collection for many years, possibly since it first came out. I bought it because I loved her previous book, Creative Beadweaving. Despite the fact that I've owned it for about 10 years I haven't actually done a lot from it! Naughty Gemma! Its not because I don't like the book though, its fab.

 

The chapters in the book are: beaded beads; chevron chain; crocheted ropes; herringbone stitch; peyote stitch; and spiral rope. I find it a little odd that beaded beads comes first as some use peyote which you're not officially taught about until later but it was fine for me as I had learnt about the various stitches in her previous book.

When flicking through the book for BB&B I decided quite quickly what I was going to make. When I first got the book I made a couple of bracelets using the instructions for the 'Zigzag necklace' by Rebecca Peapples. I made them with cheap bugles though so they only lasted a few minutes before cutting through the thread. Its always a project I meant to return to. Other things I had previously done from the book were a couple of 'Rainbow necklaces' by Carole Horn. I made them with 15s, delicas and 11s. I ended up making 2 to save a friend from snaffling mine! Here's a pic of my 'Rainbow necklace' made quite a few years ago.

I also used the instructions for the twisted herringbone rope in 'Choker with a secret' by Leslie Frazier to make a pen. I can't find it at the minute but basically I just covered a refill with the tube. This book is where I first learnt about twisted herringbone I think and there are recipes for a few other twists that I would like to experiment with.

So, on to my new version of the 'Zigzag necklace'. I love the used of short and long turns in this pattern to create the zigzag shape, its really clever. I have changed the pattern slightly. Rebecca used 2 drop peyote but I've used 3 drop. There's a bit in the valley of the zigzag where the pattern puts one bead behind an identical bead. I've just used 1 bead here rather than stacking the 2. I used 15s rather than 11s and the accent beads I've used are 2mm firepolish. I found it very handy that the graph is provided as well as the diagrams as I used it to colour in my pattern. The diagrams are really easy to follow. To be honest I didn't really read the instructions, it was clear enough from the diagrams!

Its not quite finished. I was delayed a little while because I ran out of the firepolish then illness has wiped out my beading mojo somewhat. I haven't decided yet whether its going to be a bracelet or a choker. Its currently bracelet length. I also need to decide how I'm going to close it. Rebecca uses a button and loop for a clasp but I'm not sure I want to do this. I quite like the thought of making it look seamless but not sure how I'll achieve this. Pondering required! Here it is so far anyway.

Whilst waiting for more firepolish to arrive I decided to have go at some beaded crochet. I first found out about beaded crochet from this book and really wanted to have a go. I must emphasise that I was not able to learn it from this book. I tried several times and always ended up in a mess. I eventually learnt from a workshop over at Stitch'n'craft. Now I know though I thought it would be great to have a go at some of the projects in here. I was visiting my parents for New Year and as this involves a 3h40min train trip it seemed an ideal project to take with me. I strung up the beads whilst at my parents and crocheted the whole bracelet on the trip back. Its the Eye beads pattern by Martha Forsyth, Pat Iverson and Kathryn Black. I decided to use just 3 colours rather than 7.

I did make a stringing mistake, which I didn't discover until I was stitching it up. Its not majorly obvious though so I decided to leave it. Its a 72 bead repeat so I was bound to make a mistake somewhere, I'm surprised it was only 1.

I really like the spiral in Three bead spiral bracelet by Carol Wilcox Wells so this one needs to be added to my ever growing to do list. That and some beaded beads. I think this book was probably the first place I'd seen them. I've dabbled a little but don't think I've actually made any from this book yet.

I do like this book but I think I got more benefit out of it because I'd read her previous book. Whilst I was not an experienced beader when I first bought my copy I think I was more able to access it because I had some idea about what I was doing.

Pop along to the OTTBS blog to see what others thought of this book.

The current BB&B books we are working on are Japanese Beadwork by Sonoko Nozue and Beaded Fantasies by Sabine Lippert. I own both and haven't done anything from either so I hope to continue to join in with this project assuming my mojo returns. Hope you can join in too!

Gemxxx



OTTBS: Bead, Book & Bounce- Little Bead Boxes

Welcome to this month's Bead, Book and Bounce, a beading and book review project we are taking part in over on Operation Tackle That Bead Stash. This is the third review in the series and we are reviewing 'Little Bead Boxes' by Julia S. Pretl. (Check out the introductory post over on OTTBS if you want to know more about the BB&B project.)

 

Now when Clair announced this book as our project I did not own the book. Oooops! I may have bought it just so I can play too. It didn't help that several members of our facebook group showed us loads of gorgeous boxes they'd already made. They can be viewed here (you need to be a member of the group to view pictures, I think, but anyone can request to join us, so please do!) I had seen this book in the past but never bought it because I'm not sure what I would do with all the little boxes if I made them but I decided that the construction techniques would be invaluable to learn. I decided to try it out on the kindle. First time buying a crafting book on it. It was fab that I could read it the instant I purchased it but it was occasionally faffier to use than a print book would be and the layout didn't always make total sense.

I would not recommend this book for the beginner. You could do with being very familiar with peyote stitch as that's what they are all based on. You could also do with a stash of delicas. The instructions are fab, as are the diagrams, but it is fiddly. There are times when you know exactly what you are supposed to be doing but you're really not sure how you are going to achieve it. I have been beading for many years now, and beadweaving in particular for at least 16 years and I did not find my first box easy to make, in particular the hem. Beads breaking were a major problem. Its a high tension project and I ended up making unpicking and restarting the hem on the box 3 times and on the lid at least 5.  Julia does suggest a way to replace broken beads but in my opinion it never looks right and its best just to pull the whole thing back to your broken bead and start again. It really turned in to a labour of love I'm not going to let this &^$£* thing beat me!

 

But I got there! Eventually...
I was hoping to get a couple of them done for this review but I only just finished my first one this morning so no time to get another out before this review needed to be published. I decided on the 'Star' box. Partly because I loved the design and partly because Julia says that the pentagons lie the flattest. I decided I didn't want feet. Personally, I'm not convinced on the look of them. I might change my mind though. All delicas for this box were from the lovely Rachel of RB Beads.

 

 

 

To make it, especially as I mostly read the pattern from my kindle, I tended to use the word maps (all box designs are given in word map and diagram form). Sometimes, I did use the kindle reading app on my laptop though when I needed to see the images in colour. One major tip though, actually sit down and read the book before jumping in with both feet. A large proportion of the book talks about the general box construction. The 'patterns' don't really make sense unless you understand how the boxes are put together. I read these parts of the book several times to get my head around them before even selecting my beads and which box to make. The patterns then made much more sense. Its probably the first book in many years that I've actually read the technique bit before actually starting!

 

So will I make more? Probably, yes, when the memory of the frustration of breaking beads on the hem fades! It does feel great to actually have finished it, especially given the pain it was at time....literally....fiddly and high tension = many stabbings of Gemma with needle. Oh and make sure you have a few needles to spare. I broke 3 doing this one box alone (I used size 13 short needles.) I would recommend short needles and a heavily used wiggly one is VERY handy for the hems!

 

Oh and I suppose I better make more seen as though my finger has just slipped on Julia's website, ooops. Well she is having a sale today and 'Blue Bloom' and 'Olive' are soooooo pretty. ;o) 

 

Check out other members boxes and reviews here!

 

OTTBS: Bead, Book & Bounce- The Beaded Garden

Welcome to this month's Bead, Book and Bounce, a beading and book review project we are taking part in over on Operation Tackle That Bead Stash. This is the second review in the series and we are reviewing 'The Beaded Garden' by Diane Fitzgerald. Check out the introductory post over on OTTBS if you want to know more about the project.

 

 

This book has been in my collection for a few years. I bought it shortly after Phil and I got engaged in Aug 2008 with a vague idea of making myself a beaded bouquet. I remember making 1 flower (the five petal flower made with shaped leaves on page 23) and it look me the best part of a day. What with spending many weekends during the next year at my friend's house helping her make my wedding dress and I was still teaching in school at the time, I realised there was no way I'd have the time to make a whole bouquet. I thought maybe some beaded flowers mixed in with the real ones but in the end I only used beaded flowers on the favours. I did make a few samples though and here they are.

 

 

Left to right, top first:
Five petal flower made with variation 1 shaped leaves; morning glory; pom-pom flower.
 Rolled flower with loops; flower made from 5 pansy petals; tiny tulip; lilies of the valley.

BTW- my wedding wasn't red and blue! I was using blue beads as I had plenty before I chose a colour scheme and then switched to red (and copper) when I decided that's the colour I wanted.

 

This is a blue version of the five petal flower made with variation 1 shaped leaves (the first thing I made from the book). I added a sterling silver bail through the centre to make it into a pendant. I believe a did a crafty swap with someone for this a few years ago as I no longer have it.

 

 

Here are the flowers that actually made it into our wedding, the pom-pom flowers. I made quite a few of these and strung them on ribbon to use as ties for the favours. As far as I can remember they make up fairly quickly- ideal as I was making quite a few!

 

 

I don't remember having any difficulties with the instructions of any of the flowers I made back in 2008/9. I did have a few difficulties based on the fact I was using poor quality seedies and in the red 5 petal flower in the samples picture I was using a needle that was a bit too fat for the tiny hex cut edges so I broke quite a few. I have been beading for many years but I was out of practice when I made these due. I hardly did any beading at all during my classroom teaching days so I don't think you need to be an experienced beader to attempt the projects in this book.

 

One issue I have with this book is, what do you do with the flowers once you've made them?! The only flower that has been turned into something from all those I made pre-wedding is the blue one above. The rest have been sitting around in a box for the past 3 to 4 years. When Clair announced this book as the next in BB&B I was determined to make something that could be worn and this is what I made in the last few days- daisy hairsticks!

 

  

They are based on the daisy pattern but I used frosted crystal AB 11s rather than white cylinder beads (mostly because I don't own any white cylinders!) It meant that my petals ended up a little bigger than the pattern but that worked out quite well as my buttons are slightly bigger than the instructions call for. I used 15mm 'hemline' plastic self cover buttons. I didn't have any yellow fabric but I did have some cream and a yellow permanent marker! I purchased a pack of hairstick blanks from Etsy a while back to use in this amazing pattern (not that I've gotten round to it yet) so had some going spare. I drilled the hole in the top a lot wider so that I could glue the button shank into it. I also added a calyx round the base of each daisy. The instructions were easy to follow but I would add that if you need to change thread, weave off the old thread though a petal and not the base row like I did on the first one, especially if you use fragile frosted beads like me, or you'll risk broken beads.

 

A chapter I love in this book is the creatures one. One day I will make a butterfly necklace and I adore the dragonflies, though I am slightly disappointed that there aren't instructions for the large dragonfly shown at the start of the chapter. Hopefully I can make one by adapting the first dragonfly pattern though. I also love the small gallery at the back featuring floral designs from other beaders, very inspiring. I adore the seed bead buds by Jo Lessa Willey.

 

My verdict on the book? Clear instructions and a fab variety of flowers with a few creatures thrown in too. You might want to think carefully about how you're going to use them though.

I hope you enjoyed my review. Now, hop across to the main review links page on the OTTBS blog to see other peoples' reviews.

xxx


PS. Did I mention how incredibly difficult it is to take a photo of the back of your own head?!!



OTTBS: Bead, Book & Bounce- Bead Romantique

Welcome to Bead, Book & Bounce, a bead and book review project organised by the lovely Clair in Operation Tackle that bead stash. If you want to know more about the project then read the introductory post on the OTTBS blog here. To summarise though, its a monthly blog feature encouraging us to actually use our wonderful beading books!

 

Like many members of the group I have many beading books that I look through regularly, but there are very few that I've actually made anything from so I was eager to take part. I can't promise I'll join in every month but I hope to when I can. The first book chosen was "Bead Romantique" by Lisa Kan.

 

  

To be honest, I was disappointed with the first choice because its not a book I owned and I wanted to join in straight away. Although I've seen this book on many an Amazon browse I never felt tempted to buy it because I'm not an elegant, ornate and ...well...romantique-y sort of person. Whilst occasionally I do dress up 'all posh like', I spend most of my time in scruffy purple DMs and jeans so I'd never felt the urge to buy the book. However, when fellow OTTBS members started posting pictures of goodies they had already made in our facebook group I became more interested. As I had a birthday coming up I decided to add it to my wish list and see if some lovely person would buy it for me- and they did!

Things then conspired against me to join in this project but fortunately for me the reveal date got pushed back a month so that gave me more time. Lacking mojo and other projects have meant that I haven't really done a lot but I thought I'd join in the project with my thoughts and the little bit I have done.

 

On a first flick though the book I thought there were many beautiful designs but, like I'd thought, many are too ornate for me. For those who'd like to know, the instructions are in written and diagram form. I think they are clear and easy to follow. There are beautiful photographs of the finished pieces of jewellery, occasionally in different colourways. There are a variety of different materials used in the 17 projects, such as seed beads, drops, triangles, chain, crystals and pearls. There are easy projects more suited to beginner and more complex ones too though they are not difficulty graded.

 

Despite the fact that this book is too ornate for me, on closer inspection I discovered that I want to make elements of more than half the patterns. There are probably only 2 projects I would make pretty much 'as is' (Netted Rivoli Chain Earrings and Victorian Diamond Cuff), but many projects I like certain elements of. For example, I love the pendant bit of the design on the front cover but its too much for me with the rest of the necklace. I'm thinking about making just that part and adding it to a simple beaded rope or many making a few of them and linking together in a bracelet.

 

The small bit of the book I have actually done so far is a rope. Lisa has a few gorgeous ropes in the book with wonderful textures. I decided to make the rope from the Deco Collar as I love the combination of triangles and 15s. I decided to make a simple bracelet with some frosted black toho size 11 triangles and some fuchsia lined 15s I've had in my stash for yonks. In the tips, Lisa mentions how to make the tube smaller so I decided to go for a 3 unit start rather than 5 to end up with a narrower tube. Whilst the instructions are clear and easy to follow I got a little confused by Lisa's description that it is odd-count tubular peyote. Its not like any tubular peyote I've ever done before and to me it looks much more like Russian spiral (a quick search to check and I'm pretty sure it is)- but I've never gotten round to doing that stitch yet either so I ignored my knowledge of peyote and just followed the instructions. I did remove the starting row at the end so that I could make a seamless tubular bangle. Here it is, totally un-romantique-y but much more me.

 

 

I have also started the Black Lace Lariat but not gotten very far with it yet. I'm not going to make the full lariat, it will be a choker instead. The pattern calls for size 11 and size 13 charlottes. Hmmmm...I don't have any and you don't see them much in the UK. You can get size 15s and I occassionally see size 13 but not sure I've ever seen size 11s online or at fairs, haven't looked that hard though yet! (Quick aside about resources: Lisa gives a suppliers list for each of her projects including contact details at the back. She is California based though so all her suppliers are US) I would love to make it in black charlottes because the single facet would make it fab but as I don't have any, I decided to see if it would work with normal size 15 and 11 seed beads. It does seem to be working okish. So far I only have 2 medallions done. I think I'll need 12 to make it round my neck and I will run out of the gunmetal fire polish before then so it wont be finished any time soon but here it is so far.

 

Another project I really want to do is the rope the last project in the book, though I'd probably make it a bracelet. Its triple spiral and has lots of 3mm swarovski bicones. As this will make it quite expensive I've shelved my plan for this one at the moment. However, on an impromptu visit to my local bead shop (The Southampton Bead Shop) I found 3mm Chinese crystal bicones. Not quite as regular but they will probably be fine for this project and lots cheaper. I didn't buy any as I'd spent a small fortune at a bead fair the other day but definitely worth remembering!

 



 I will make more bits from this book (I hope) and will let you know on my blog when I do. My verdict on the book? Excellent if you like the more ornate and elegant style. There are still some good elements if that style isn't really your cup of tea, but maybe try and get hold of a copy to look through before you buy.

I hope you enjoyed my review. Now, hop across to the main review page on the OTTBS blog to see other peoples' reviews.

xxx