Strung Out: Beadaholique Beading Contest: Falling Leaves

My Bead Soup Partner Julie Bean let me know that her store, Beadaholique,  is holding their first contest.  I tried to copy over the informational page but was not able to transfer more than the first line.  Then a notice appeared that blogger no longer was supported by my internet browser, and to try Chrome.  What the heck! I am not comfortable with Chrome, it took me 10 minutes just  to figure out how to find my blog with Chrome and still haven't been able to favorite it so I can return easily. I just doesn't seem to be very "user friendly" to me... But here I am, using Chrome for my post for the first time.


But I digress, the purpose of this entry is to talk about Beadaholique's contest.  Here are the pertinent details.  I hope that the links copied over OK.

We are very excited to announce the first ever Beadaholique beading contest! Enter a photo of your original jewelry design for a chance to win a $50 Beadaholique Gift Certificate and lots of exposure on our blog and Facebook page. The theme is "Falling Leaves" and you can interpret that however you like, let your creativity and inspiration flow! Just make sure to use at least 1 item from Beadaholique and follow the contest rules. 

From all the entries we will narrow it down to 10 finalists, all of whom will have their entry pieces published on the Beadaholique blog and Facebook page. There will then be public voting to decide the winner. 

We can't wait to see all what everyone comes up with! 

Here are some important dates to keep in mind: 

• Wednesday, October 26 4 PM PDT: Last day to submit
• Friday, October 28 @ 1 PM PDT: Top 10 will be posted on our Facebook and notified via email
• Tuesday, November 1 @ 4 PM PDT: Public voting closes
• Thursday, November 3: Winner is announced in the next issue of The Beading Wire and notified via email.

Click here for a complete list of rules, deadlines, and more specifics. 

Happy Beading!

Check out this virtual book tour

My muse has deserted me lately.  Stress from both work and personal issues (Prince Pippen took a turn for the worse and has kept us very busy) has taken it's toll on my creativity.  Last night I found myself making the same bead over and over again. Boring....

So tonight I have been browsing the internet, looking for inspiration. I didn't find any polymer clay inspiration since one of the first things I  come across was an absolutely fascinating virtual book tour being hosted by Barbara Lewis. She is the author of  a new book on Torch Fired enameling.  I just got this book several weeks ago from Amazon, but have not had the time to more than casually look through it.  After visiting the blogs featured in this virtual tour and all the different ways Barbara's techniques are being used, I am serious thinking about taking up this art too.   But where to find the space and proper ventilation in my tiny house....? 

Please do yourself a favor and check it out at

http://paintingwithfireartwear.blogspot.com/

Warmest place in the House?

Looks like Rue found a warm place to take a nap.  Just had to share.

Daddy needs his laptop, honey

Lookie at what I won!

I am constantly amazed by the technology available today.  When I was in college ( I am really dating myself here) there was ONE computer on the whole campus.  Now they are everywhere and ingrained into our lives. I can not image a day when I am not on line doing something.  One of the things that I like the most  about computer technology is that I get to meet many people online that I would never have meet in real life. 

One of these people is Lynda of SCDiva.  I first meet her when I started posting to Flickr several years ago. She is a very talented artist who's work really resonates with me.  She was the first person to become a follower of my blog. 

Every month this year she has been having a give away and, of course, I have entered every one and crossing my fingers, hoping to win.  And this month I DID.  Wow... I am jumping for joy. 

These lovely flowers will be winging their way to my home this week.  Aren't they the most delicate beauties? 

Metal Revisited

I have really been liking my new metal embossed earrings.  I haven't touched polymer in several weeks,partly due to a bad case of Blogitis (the contagious BSBP virus), but also because I have been exploring this different media.  I have used several embossing plates but keep returning to the same swirly design. It seems to be the most attractive, at least I think so.

These two earrings are embossed with different plates but made using the same ink combination. 

 The same swirling embossing plate, using yellow and steam inks to color.

At first I was only coloring the front of the metal.  They turned out OK, but on this set I colored the back too. I think it looks better hanging from the ears to be colored on both sides.

The same earrings from only the front

The majority of the earrings were made from a blank about the size of a $0.50 piece.  I did have some smaller blanks which are not large enough to dap into a concave shape.  So they are being left flat.  They are about the size of a quarter.  These are colored on both sides too.

Bead Soup Follow up

I signed up for Bead Soup in order to challenge myself by working outside my comfort zone.  In that aspect it was a huge success for me.  I really learned how to make wraps for dangles - over 60 dangles on  Little Kitty 2 Two. 

  Also I got another bad case of Blogitis.  With 362 jewelery artists involved, it took a long time to visit them all.  I saw a lot of gorgeous piece by some very talented designers.  I found a lot of blogs that I added to my favorites and am following now (have to keep it at a minimum since I find that the more time I spend on line, the less time I spend making.   Oh how I wish there was more than 24 hours in a day). 

The downside was that I was so busy visiting other blogs that I have not touched polymer in over a week and have not blogged since  the big reveal.  How the time flies when having fun.

 My blog was visited a lot.  I know that for those people who are old hands at blogging, this may not be a big deal. But I just started in January, slowly building up a following,  and for me this was a HUGE thing.  I want to say a  big

THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY

Bead Soup Reveal

The day is finally here to show off what I did for my first Bead Soup Blog Hop. As you can see, my wonderful partner, Julie Bean from Beadaholique, sent me a ton of beads.  What to do with them all?

I am a bead maker, not a jewelery designer per se.  One reason I did the Soup was to challenge myself to try something I had not done before.  I have a tendency to over do and the first week I went nuts and worked on the main chain part for hours.  Then life intruded and I only finished it up this week.  I couldn't believe the trouble that I had figuring out how to attach the bead caps to the silk cord.  I had it in theory, but practice left a lot to be desired.

I had seen a lovely piece on line that was composed of charms and dangles and wanted to do something like that.  I went through a lot of head pins and dug into my stash to add to the variety that Julie had already sent me. I had a piece of black silk cord in my stash that I used to extend the chain to necklace length.

The rules of  Bead Soup Blog Party are simple. After signing up with Lori Anderson at Pretty Things (one of my faves), she assigns partners. I can't believe that she has the energy to undertake this but I am sure glad that she does.  Then you exchange a focal, beads and a cool clasp (not lobster).  And you need to have a blog to let everyone know about what you are doing.  On the day of the BIG REVEAL, you get to show off what you made and visit all the blogs of the other designers.  There are a ton of people who signed up for this current Bead Soup and would take up a huge piece of  this post to list them all. The link to the complete list is:

http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/

Go ahead and check them all out. Get a jolly case of Blogitis...you know you want to.

Are you ready.... Here it is, full monty and the little bits that make it up. (I snuck a pair of polymer clay beads into the dangles: Can you spot them?)


I dub thee "Little Kitty 2 two"

The lovely focal by Golum Ceramics.  Salt and Pepper kitties like my own Eyesis Rue and Prince.

Isn't this clasp lovely.... The detail is delicious.

Trying a "Glamour Shot". Not sure I succeeded

Showing off how it hangs. I really wish I had a better
form to photograph it on

After all this I have beads left over (Julie was sooooo generous), so I had plenty of choices for earring design. 

The little blue flower earrings are my favorite.  I love color of the little rose beads, but were not able to use very many of them.  The bead holes varied in size greatly and not many of them were big enough for the headpin to fit into.  I will probably be able to use them in a piece later that I use string rather than wire. In looking at the final piece I am wondering if it is not too busy? The focal looks kinda lost in the forest, so to speak.  I have beads left over and I may do something simple with the focal later.  I am sure that I will get inspiration from all the wonderful pieces I am sure to see in the next several days as I visit the other Bead Soup Party Members.

Thanks again to Julie Bean  http://www.beadaholique.com/  for all the great beads and to Lori Anderson for all her hard work at putting this all together.