It's All about the Colors

"Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment." Claude Monet

"The best color in the whole world, is the one that looks good, on you!" Coco Chanel

As I posted last week, I was getting pretty tired of beading with pink beads, so this week I decided to bead up something in my favorite colors. By favorite colors, I mean the colors that look the best on me. So here is a pic of my latest project.

Now that I am done with pink beads and have used my favorite color combo of black and red, I have to start doing fall colored stuff for my Zibbet shop. As I was going through my bead stash, I noticed that it is getting quite low. I am not totally out of  beads, but what I have is mostly beads leftover from past projects. Little bits of many different kinds of beads, but not a whole lot of any one type or color of bead. So instead of  buying more beads,  I ordered the book Beaded Colorways by Beverly Ash Gilbert. She makes amazing freeform beaded jewelry using bead soups. Bead soup is when you mix a whole pile of color-related seed beads, gemstones, crystal, etc together creating colors and textures of great depth. I plan on making lots of bead soups to use up all my left over beads. The book comes with two color wheels and templates to use with them to explore many different color schemes. The book has gotten me very excited about color.

So in closing, here is the new fall 2010 color guide for women from Pantone.  Pantone is a world wide authority on color across several different industries including fashion and interior design.

I hope you find these colors as inspiring as I do.
TTYL and make it a good day,
Debbie

All Pinked Out

OK, so I finally remembered to purchase the beads I needed to finish the project I told you about in my last post. Remember, the project that I was really excited about? Well, I did whip right through the project and  I did thoroughly enjoying beading it. I kept forgetting to stop at the Bead store though, to pick up the Swarovski crystals I needed to complete the project! The bead store is between my work and my house, and every morning I would tell myself that I would have to remember to stop at the bead store on my way home. Every night, though when I would sit down to watch tv and bead I would kick myself for forgetting. I guess that's what work does to one's mind :) Anyhow, without further ado, here is my latest project:

The pattern is from Christina at Good Quill Hunting. She is very gracious to let me use it. If you want to see some major beaded eye candy, you need to check out her work at http://goodquillhunting.wordpress.com/ .

These earrings were done in the second stitch I ever learned, which is brick stitch. I hadn't done any brick stitch in a while. When I first learned it, I must have done about 20 pairs of fringed brick stitch earrings in a row! No wonder why I haven't done it in a while, I guess I just got sick of it.  Anyhow, the earrings are beaded with galvanized purple and light pink delicas. At the bottoms and tops are a 4mm purple Swarovski crystal bicone bead.

OK so, as the post title says, I am all pinked out, so while I was waiting on my purple Swarovskis, I beaded up a fall themed piece. No pink involved. Here it is:

I had seen some necklaces like this for sale at the Brimfield Antique Show & Flea Market, and I thought to myself,  "Hey, I can do that" so I had the Donut and the chips in my bead stash, and filed the thought away for later. So while I was waiting on my Swaros for the earrings, I remembered that I was going to do the necklace, so here it is, just in time for fall. The gemstone chips and the donut are Fancy Jasper. The seed beads are metallic rainbow green.

Well that's all I have to show for now. As usual, I have already started my next project. This one is going to include a bezeled focal stone. The only problem is that I have never bezeled anything, so the project will be a learning process for me. Hopefully it turns out well. I'll be sure to let you know.

TTYL

and make it a good night

Debbie

Not Much Going On Here

Wow, I think this is the longest I have ever gone without posting. Probably because I don't really have much going on lately. So I guess I will update you on the craft show I was telling you about. Well, I sadly underestimated the whole show. I thought hardly no one would be there, including  both sellers and buyers. So to make a long story short, I got lazy and only set up a small table with about 25 items. Bad mistake. There was a bit more action than I thought, including 2 other jewelry vendors each with about 200 (or so) items for sale. I did manage to get a bit of traffic though, and somehow made my booth fee back. Oh well, I am just going to file the whole thing under "Lesson Learned" and move on.

Ok, so moving on to better things, Here is a cute pair of cloisonne earrings I whipped up. Very summery.

And here is another bracelet made with the pink glass pearls I used for the last bracelet. This one is in a different stitch, though. It is done in a flat spiral stitch. I also used a different color of seed bead in this newer bracelet. The seeds I used are transluscent light purple luster. Anyhow, here it is.

So that's about all I have for now. I should be posting again very soon though, because I have already started a new beading project which takes me back to the 2nd stitch I ever learned. I am thouroughly enjoying working on this project and feel it will turn out really well. So as usual, I hope you'll stay tuned for more.

TTYL and make it a good day,

Debbie

A new Bracelet

Hello. I hope everyone is enjoying summer and is not too hot. It is very hot up here in New England and Tammy hasn't wanted to go swimming yet. I can't go swimming without her, because I am a water wimp and I usually don't get into the water until she literally pushes me in!!! Oh well, more time to bead.

Well, I finally was able to start and finish an entire bracelet. It is an embellished right angle weave bracelet. I used medium pink glass pearls and transluscent light pink luster seed beads. Anyhow, here it is:

So now for the 1st time I get to say,- "This bracelet can be found in my Zibbet shop." - Now I just need to figure out how to actually link to the item in my shop. Oh well, another thing to add to my ever-growing to do list. First things first, though. I still need to put a clasp on the spiral rope bracelet I also whipped up over the past week. It is light green, light blue, and gold and matches the necklace I posted a while ago. I also found a pretty little lampwork bead that matches perfectly to dangle off of the extender chain. I think I'll whip up a few more spiral bracelets in summery colors for the craft show I'm doing later this month. So that's another thing to add to the to do list,  if only I could find it!!! I'd better start looking for it now, before I find something better to do, like bead --- or swim!!! 

TTYL and make it a good night,

Debbie

Mission Accomplished

Yay. I did it. I listed my 1st item in my Zibbet shop late Tuesday night. I listed three more yesterday evening. I was working on the 4th when Tammy came home. I haven't been able to get to the computer or my camera since then, because Tammy has been using them both non-stop since she got home. She finally went outside with some friends just now. So I am jumping on the chance to use the computer to report my progress.

Listing the items was actually pretty easy. Zibbet is very user friendly. The hardest part was, of course, getting decent pics up. I am going to have to break down and buy a better camera eventually, but for now I have to make due with the one I have.

Maybe I'll list some more stuff tonite, but I kind of feel like taking a break from it for now. I am itching to start a new beading project. All this Zibbet stuff is taking away from my precious beading time. There is an award winning beader named Laura McCabe who has named her business "Just Let Me Bead" . I think I now know how she feels.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you that I will be setting up a booth at a craft fair on July 18. This is big news for me because I work every Saturday and can't really do craft fairs. This one is on a Sunday night, so I can do it. Our town holds concerts on the common on Sunday evenings during summertime. This year they are trying something new and inviting vendors. July 18th is crafter's night, so of course I jumped right on board. I am hoping that I can generate some traffic to my Zibbet shop and have already updated my business card with my shop's web address. I think the card came out really nice. Here it is if you want to see.

Ok, so now I am finally done with my "quick" update. Now I can go bead. It's about time.

TTYL and make it a good night
 Debbie                                      

More UFOs Completed

Hi, just checking in to say that I am still on schedule to open shop by the end of the month. I completed two more of my unfinished objects. I have been writing the item descriptions and taking the photos of them as I complete each one. I really wanted to get outside yesterday, to see how they looked shot in the sunlight. Sunday is major chore day around here and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't grab a few extra minutes to do it. I did play around with the Kodak Easy Share Software, though. Previously, I was using Windows Picture Viewer. I can't tell which program I like better, maybe a cross between the two.

Anyhow, here are the pics of my recently completed items.

Tonight, I plan on completing a few more ufos. Tomorrow is Tuesday and then Wednesday is the end of the month. I have no idea how easy or how hard it will be to actually get the items listed. But I will tell you this, I do love a challenge, so come Hell or High Water my shop will open on Wednesday by 11:59 pm est. Another reason that I am very determined to meet this deadline is  that Tammy bet me $20.00 that I won't. How's that for motivation?

Ok, so that's my update and now I need to get off this laptop and get busy beading. As usual, I hope you'll stay tuned for more.

TTYL and make it a good night

Debbie

Bracelet, Zibbet, & Thoughts of Murder

Yes, you heard me right, I did say murder. But you'll have to wait for the story. First I want to show you my latest bracelet, seeing as I didn't show you any pics last post. This is a bracelet woven in a flat spiral stitch. The inner beads are multi-colored blue czech glass. The beads spiraling the edges are smaller blue bicone crystal beads woven in with shiny whitish seed beads. You'll probably be seeing alot of these in my Zibbet shop, because these are pretty quick to do as far as beadweaving is concerned, and I must have every color of czech glass bead in the world.

 Speaking of Zibbet, I am still on schedule to open by the end of the month. Along with my profile, I now have all my policies done. It was easier than I thought. So now all I need to do is complete a few more items, and figure out how to post them.

 Now we can move onto the good stuff. --- Thoughts of murder. Well those who know me will have already guessed that the person I want to murder is none other than the preteen named Miss Thang Tammy. So now you are asking why would Debbie want to murder poor sweet Tammy? First you must know that I live for summer vacation. A week in Lake George, NY.  Well to make a long story short, I was just informed that Miss Thang has to attend summer school, and of course some of it falls during my scheduled summer vacation.  She assured me she had picked up her grades, was no longer goofing off, and actually was now attending school to learn ,not to socialize. We even had one of those talks (you know the talk I mean- the one where mother goes psycho on poor kid and puts the fear of God into her). Well because of Tammy's assurances and the fact that I wasn't contacted by any teachers, I believed we were good to go, so I scheduled my vacation at work. And then on the last day of school, she pulls the paper out of her back pack for me to sign. Talk about being pissed off. So of course, the rest of the calendar at work is already filled up with everyone else's vacations, and there is no decent week left for me to take. Oh well, you will be glad to hear that after alot of thinking, I decided to spare the child her life. There are always long weekends and day trips. Besides, I don't think I would be able to bead in jail!!

Oh well, after that long rant, I'm pretty tired, and that's all I have for now.
TTYL
Make it a good night
Debbie