Beauty, fragmented

* if you are looking for my BSBH reveal post scroll down :~)*
I am intrigued by the possibilities associated with all the new shapes of seed beads. I am a beadweaver.
I take tiny pieces of colored glass, needle and thread and I stitch them into pieces of artistry. (At least they are artistry to my eye, others may not agree) These new shapes, particularly the 2 holed ones, are a HUGE development to the beadweaver. The opportunity for design is staggering, inspirational and mind blowing. The only downside here is that my hand is not yet able to bead for hours. I can, at best, expect to bead for 15 minutes before I have to rest it. Hopefully that will improve by leaps and bounds, Lord willing.
So with that limitation in mind, I have been playing.
The first thing I did was find the cheapest way to own some of these amazing beads. I shopped in my home town, I found some twin beads and some super duos. Both in limited colors and finishes with the super duos being noticeably more expensive. I wondered why.
Next I turned to online, much better selection but still the prices were still high, super duos more so. I took a trip through online shops, ebay and such finally finding myself at ETSY. ( long story shortened for your reading pleasure) What I was looking for was a good balance between price and selection. I spent many days looking through different sellers and comparing prices and shipping, selection and colors.
I ended up choosing a few to buy from to compare shipping times and customer service. Nitty gritty I have 2 etsy shops I really love, one being in the states and run by a very nice, very accommodating woman named Tamara. Her shop is called Beads to Weave and can be found here https://www.etsy.com/shop/BeadsToWeave
And one in Prague, Czech republic.(One of the things that is absolutely awesome about the internet is that every one is only a click away. :~) The shopkeeper's name is Olga. She was equally nice and helpful.
Her shop is called ScarraBeads and is found here 
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ScaraBeads

Bost shops are great, a little better prices from Scarrabeads but the shipping is higher (duh they come from the Czech republic!) and it takes about 8 days to arrive while Beads to Weave packages come so fast I think she has a transporter! I have no affiliation to these shops other than I have shopped with them and enjoyed the experience and the product.

After receiving the beads I looked online for others experimenting for a simple jump off point. Deborah Roberti has free tutorials and I started with these http://www.aroundthebeadingtable.com/Tutorials/Starburst.html 
This is my first version

I changed the daggers but that was pretty much all. Both the super duos (SD for rest of blog) and twins in this piece worked pretty much the same. The purples in the center are SD matte violet and the peachy ones are twins. In this piece the twins weren't too bad, all though they definitely seem to have a flat back to them. The SD were symmetrical and stacked together beautifully.

This one, in purple, 

is done the same way as above, except I used delicas for the 11's.

The center beads are twins and they are very irregular and different in both shape and sizes, hard to find 5 that were similar enough to use. The outer ones are SD, again, no troubles they are a joy to work with.

So I now made a matching set, using roughly, the Starburst pattern from Deborah.

Sorry I forgot to turn the pic. I put drop beads in the place of my daggers and her rizzo's. One of the spots I put the briolette shaped bead. I am very happy with these and now wanted to make a matching bracelet. The first problem I needed to overcome was there are 5 points and I needed an even number to be able to connect them side by side. Here are a few I tried based on 6 instead of 5.

Although I like these they are tending to ruffle and then the petals are hard to see. The top right piece has Rollos on 3 sides. It ruffles the most.

This is what I am playing with now.

Im not sure this shape will lead to a bracelet. I kind of off on a tangent  now but

I am having fun playing with these beads. I think the super duos are the ones I will stick with. The twin beads seem like they may be improving as the peach ones seemed better than the purple ones, or could the purple ones be a knock off?  Who knows?  This reminds me of a snowflake. 

So what is everyone else doing with these?  

Bead Soup spring 2013 REVEAL #3

Good morning Blog hoppers !  
 Welcome to my reveal for the spring 2013 Bead Soup.
First a thank you to my partner Christa Murphy for my wonderful, abundant soup. (I have posted many pictures of that soup if you care to scroll down and see them.) and to Lori, our organizer for all her hard work. I enjoyed working with my soup, it was challenging doing it mostly one handed. My wire work is not what it normally would be but Lord willing I will get there. 
Being a Christian I was immediately drawn to the faux turqoise crosses she sent, and they went beautifully with the fire agate. I added stampings, chain and and some fiber, simmered and spiced. Fiddled and worked and  Viola, my Soup!   Here is the entire set first.

I will show you the close ups before I show you the other piece. I am doing well but I can use my hand for only a few minutes at a time and limitedly so all the pieces I wanted to make are not done yet but they are planned out. Stop back next month and you can see the rest of the soup served. Lord willing :~)

The bracelet is what I started with, I wanted to use the stamping curved to my wrist and the beads in the back. here is what I ended up with.

I added the fibers to soften up the harshness of the metal and the chunkiness of the beads. I prefer simple pieces that rely on the beauty of good workmanship and beautiful materials. You can see that better in my second "set" of mixed up soup so these pieces are a bit of a stretch for me. I do like them and will enjoy wearing them but probable not as often as my simpler pieces. Now all I need is something to wear with these pieces. he he

The necklace was born quickly, taking its cues from the bracelet. Of course its actual assembly took awhile and I believe working on these pieces was good hand therapy. Minus the week I couldnt do much with the hand due to overuse. woops! 

The clasp, highlighted in green, I made with a vintage clip on earring part and one of the crosses. I did not add the red crystal to this cross because I didnt want it to catch easy and get popped out/off. The clasp for this necklace was confounding me for awhile and I went through some of my "odd stuff" containers ( come on, you all have them, dont you?) and came across the earing piece. I am very happy with how it ended up. What do you think?

And last, but not least, the MOP necklace I made from the pendant Christa stitched for me.

I LOVED the pendant and did not want to overwhelm it or take from the simple beauty

she had created. The snowflake spacers, bead caps, clasp and the blue dyed fire agate rounds are all from Christa. I added the farfalle beads, I love the texture of them. They look like a stitched chain but were very easy to string together as my hand was not up to much else.

It is my favorite for a few reasons. It reminds me of Christa and makes me think of her stitching it up just for me and that makes me smile, It is just so pretty :~) and it sings of warm breezes and hammock swings. Peaceful. 

Well, Thank you for sticking with me through the whole post. I hope you have enjoyed this as much as I have. And again I apologise for the hickup of lateness :~)

Pictures of 7th Bead Soup mixes

My partner, Christa, sent me an awesome soup! I have many ideas and cant wait until my hand catches up with my brain/heart. I wont be making the reveal date in the traditional way (due to my hand surgery) but I may post pictures of "layouts" if Lori is ok with that. I am waiting to hear back from her. at any rate here are pictures of what she sent!

Christa stitched up this pendant for me, isnt it pretty? I think it is just right and when I am able I am thinking I will do up a simple kumihimo cord so as not to overwhelm its beauty. Perhaps adding the seed beads she sent to it. This Bead Soup is such FUN!! Thank you Lori for Bead Soup and all the work you do! Thank you Christa for the wonderful soup you sent!! Blessings to both of you!


When I sent Christa her soup I forget to get the pictures but I remembered just before Steve took the box to the post office. So I quickly emptied the box and snapped a quick pic. Here is what I sent Christa.

She likes floraly stuff but usually works in more earth toned beads so I sent some pink and blue stuff :~)
The lucite flowers I hand dyed, I enameled the beads, hand forged clasp and connectors.  The polymer kaleidoscope beads/cabochons I did as well. The lampwork leaf beads I didnt do, I purchased those. After all, they are pink and blue! There is also a little "beady friend fairy", up in the left hand corner, I sent to watch over Christa. She is charged with freeing up more beading time for Christa.  I dont know how well this all shows up but there is rose quarts heart beads and a nice rose quartz carved butterfly as well.Lots of druks. I cant wait to see what all she does with her soup. At any rate I do hope she loves it and it is blessing her.

Hello everyone out in Internetlandia! How are things in your neck of reality? Couple things today.
First, and most unexpected, I WON SOMETHING!! woot woot!  Deb from DeborahRead.com gave away an etched copper bracelet and I won! I never win anything, so how cool is that? I will post a picture and blog about it when it arrives. Yay, and thank you Deborah!


Second,an update on my hand.
 I am into a little cast/brace for my hand. Its much better than the cast/wrappings so I am glad. I can get it wet so showering is much easier.

It is a molded hard plastic that was molded right on my hand. It leaves my fingers free and my thumb area unmoving. Those "dots" are tiny little holes so my skin can breath. I am not suppose to move my thumb/hand  until the whole thing is healed, then we will work on therapy to strengthen and stretch out the area. Right now I go 2 times a week for ultrasound therapy and scar massage. The idea is to lessen the scar tissue that forms around the surgical areas so it will be easier/possible to rehab it. Doctor says it is looking great. I am very happy with that!
(PS.I got into this brace a bit ago, I am behind on my updates, not like anyone cares or is paying attention anyway so oh well. Full disclosure I guess)

My Hand surgery and how it relates to the 7th Bead Soup

All in all I believe it has gone well. I had a bone removed from my left hand to ease the arthritis symptoms and hopefully gain back some mobility/usefulness. I had signed up for the 7TH Bead Soup before the surgery date was secured. My partner and I have exchanged soups. I will blog, with pictures of both soups, when I photograph hers.

Here is my hand and wrist in the wrappings and cast. I think we took this photo about 5 days after the surgery. My finger swelling is down and the bruising is flushing out towards my elbow.
The surgeon said it went well, however, the bone was stubborn and needed to be shattered to be removed. I must admit I was unprepared for the amount of pain the first 2 days, but, as with everything, the time passed and I healed. It got better day by day and now, at nearly 2 weeks out, the pain is all ready better than before the surgery.
So, if I do actually gain back the use of it, it was a success. I am grateful to The Lord for the success!

Therapy begins on wednesday. I will be rid of the bandages and given a fitted brace. I can not wait! I am  .... how shall we say? Overly involved, preoccupied, with any stitches, bandages, flesh glue etc....... applied to my person. My hand feels claustrophobic!!! I have left it mostly alone, I am impressed to say. On wednesday I will have a better idea if I am to make my Bead Soup reveal deadline of April 13th. I know all my ideas wont be complete. I have an idea for some beaded embroidery that I think may have to wait. but we shall see.
I am grateful for all prayers said on my behalf and thankful for any more that will be said.
Thank You!!!
Gob Bless!