30 Day Bead Challenge 2015-Part 2

Day 4.  Favorite Swarovski crystal or effect:
All Swarovski crystals all my favorites!  Bead mixes are lovely to look at, and I defintely squirrel them away in my stash, but I prefer order and patterns over random bead placement so they are hard for me to work with.  But, that being said, I decided for at least one day to embrace randomness.

Wisteria crystal mix from Beyond Beadery.

Purple Haze crystal mix from Fusion Beads.  Unfortunately, this mix has been discontinued.

 

Day 5:  Skipping this one.

Day 6:  A Hollywood inspired piece.  Working on it!  

Day 7:  Go wild for wire!  I've been playing around with Viking Knit;  whether or not I have something worth showing remains to be seen.

Day 8:  Give your beading space a make-over:  Are they kidding?  I'm right in the middle of some challenges!  My beading space is, and will be a disaster, for quite a while.

 

 

When Pantone Gives You Marsala

I was a regular contributor to Margie Deeb's Color Reports and I've really missed them, so I decided that this year I'll be beading along with Fusion Beads as they feature one of Pantone's Spring/Summer 2015 colors each month. 

January Color of the Month:  Marsala:
What can I say about this dull, brownish, slightly orange, muddy burgundy color that hasn't already been said?  This has to be the least popular Pantone Color of the Year, let alone one that is suppose to be a color for spring and summer. 

At first I decided to completely ignore this uninspiring color and wait until February, but I'm proud to say that I gave it some more thought and decided to improve upon my designing skills by using a color that has very little appeal for me just to see if I could do it.  I'm happy to say that I created an incredibly beautiful and elegant bracelet that I love wearing! 

Burgundy Swarovski crystals, garnet & vermeil beads, lampwork rondelles.

February Color of the Month:  Strawberry Ice:

This fresh, warm, delicious peachy-pink color is much easier to work with!

Indian Pink Swarovski crystals and vintage pressed glass.

 

 

Coming soon-March Color of the Month-Aquamarine!

 

 

30 Day Bead Challenge-The First 3 Days

March is National Craft Month and that means Fusion Beads is hosting their annual 30 Day Bead Challenge.  It's never too late to start!  For a copy of the PDF calender click here.

Family, work, and a nasty back injury has kept me away from beading, and just about every other creative activity I enjoy, for far too long.  I'm super excited to be getting back into my Creative Life and I'm looking forward to the challenge of creating something new almost everyday.

1.  Eye catching earrings:

Made with leftover beads, chain, and findings from other projects.  Now my husband knows why I hang onto so many little bits and pieces.  I really do use them "someday."

2.  Favorite seed bead mix:

An all muted, neutral palette is an unusual choice for me, but this Delica mix is an interesting combination of amber and gray, with just a touch of olive.  The chain was an impulse buy from a local craft store.  It's sparkly and it was on sale!  How could I resist? 

3.  Gemstones:

I think this combination of Peruvian blue opals, carved crystal quartz, Cathedral cut fire polish, vermeil, and vintage Swarovski crystals is causal enough for working at a dance studio!

Web of Confusion

My January Bead Journal Project isn't quite finished yet;  I need to add more strands to the web and decide on a way to display this, but I decided to reveal it anyway.

At the beginning of this year I was feeling caught up in a web of despair, confusion, and self-doubt brought on by an argument I had had with someone a few months earlier.

I began this piece with the idea of using seed beads and crystals in shades of gray and black to match the world I was living in at the time; but, eventually pink hope and red passion made their way back into my life and into my bead work. 

This post is only a few short paragraphs long, but it has been difficult for me to write. 

Even if it was only for a little while I let someone filled with his or her own despair and self-doubt have power over me, and I wish I hadn't let that happen.

I like to say that "sometimes it's a bitch to be human and sometimes it's human to be a bitch."  I'd like to add to that by saying "Don't ever let a bitch treat you like you aren't human."

Just Beading Along On A Big Ol' Rock

For the Freeform Peyote Group Found Object Challenge I decided to do one of the things I do best...cover a rock with beads.

I normally use the quick and easy method of covering a rock with a base of 8'0 and 11'0 seed beads, then surface embellish until I'm satisfied with the over all look.  But this time I'm doing freeform peyote around a center piece of chalk turquoise 2 or 3 rows at a time, then going back and sewing each round down into the base beads.  Time consuming, but in the end it will be worth it.

So, without further ado, here is the list of all the other amazing and creative pieces my fellow challenge participants have done:

Mandi Ainsworth -host
Karen Williams – host
Nancy Dale
Regina Roper
Lisa Jones
Romana Tschunko
Catherine Chinoy
Annita Wilson
Therese Frank
Naan Pocen
Lies Koster
Halina Trolle
Sally Russick
Judy Pennington
Anna Belous

A big THANK YOU to Mandi and Karen for hosting another great challenge!
  

Making Progress

Slowly, but surely I'm making progress with my 100 Days Challenge. 

I decided to kill two birds with one stone, (pun intended) by using the beads I bought in a kit that I wanted for just the instructions with the goal of joining a beading challenge and now I'm covering a rock with beads for the "Found Objects Free Form Peyote Challenge," being hosted by Mandi Ainsworth and Karen Williams.

 

For anyone interested, the last day to sign up for this challenge is Saturday, October 12th, and the reveal date is Friday, November 15th.

The big messy pile of assorted beading, crochet, and cross-stitch kits you see there on the left has now been sorted and organized.  Realistically I won't be able to get through all of this by the end of the year, but it's a start!
 

I can't say enough about how strong and peaceful I've been feeling as a result of starting and ending each day with yoga and meditation.  I think it's safe to say that yoga is my greatest passion because it enhances all of the other things I love to do.

I've also added another bonus challenge to my list, but for now it's a secret.  All will be revealed sometime in late November.

100 Days of "RE"

Reorganize, revitalize, reclaim, rethink, reconnect;  those are some of the things I'll be thinking about and doing over the next 100 days. 

Fellow belly dancer Gina of RaksGina is hosting the 100 Days Challenge again this year and I am totally on board for this for the second time.  In a nut shell, it's at least 10 things you want to do or experience during the last 100 days of the year.

This year I put some thought into what I wanted to accomplish and here is what I came up with:

1.  Reduce the number of beading, crochet, and cross stitch kits I've bought over the decades.  It's a ridiculously large amount and I can use the space.  Pictures to follow in another post.

2.  Reclaim my body with yoga.

3.  Reclaim my mind with meditation

4.  Reclaim myself by doing at least one nice thing for me.  Like so many other moms I fall into that same trap of taking care of myself last.

5.  Reconnect with my creative muse by learning at least one new bead related technique like Viking knit, micro macrame, or crystal clay.

6.  Reduce the "to read" pile.  I'm only doing this so that I can justify buying more books.

7.  Reduce, the countless number of boxed up magazines I have stored in the garage in favor of having back issues on DVDs.

8.  Reconnect with the beading community by joining at least one bead challenge.

9.  Recharge my creativity by participating in either NaNoWriMo or National Seed Bead Month.

10.  Revive this blog for the next 100 days and see where it leads.

11.  BONUS GOAL:  Rethink what I want to do as far as dancing is concerned.  Two less than stellar troupe experiences, plus having an up and coming little dancer to think about, has left me wondering who I am and where I belong in the dance community.
     
*100 Day Challenge banner created by RaksGina.