Beads are trickling in
for the presale Egyptian broad collars! They are all so pretty…Makes me want to make them into other things. But, I’ve promised you kits, so I’ll have to wait.
The current set of beads are for:
Ancient Alchemy
Archetribal Memories
Aurora
Blues for the 90’s
Caribbean Cruise
Christmas
Cranberry Bog
Into the Woods
If you’re interested in getting these on the presale, act fast!
Back to designing for a bit (via use the muse contest)
I finally am getting to play with the beads, rather than counting them for a while.
I joined the Use the Muse II contest and now have a wonderful set of beads to play with! I can’t show you the Muse yet, but it’s beautiful, and very inspiring. It will be challenging to come up with a piece worthy of it.
Alas, this contest is closed now, but there will be a Use the Muse III contest coming up soon. So save your pennies and join the fun!
Going on a beady hunt, gonna catch a big one!
Remember this song from camp?
I’ve been looking for the beads needed to make the new broad collar kits. I didn’t know there were SO MANY different types of beads available! It seems that bead stores carry only the best sellers, and then fill in a bit with unusual beads. I’ve been drooling at all the interesting ones I’ve seen that I can only get in large quantities from wholesalers…. Gives me inspirations for the next round of designs I make.
Some of my current favorites are:
My New Color Wheel
I finally got a CMY color wheel from Margie Deeb. I have had a regular color wheel for a while. This is the one we all used in primary school. Red, Yellow, Blue. However, that wasn’t matching the bead colors very well. Margie’s wheel is a much better fit to the beads. This makes sense when you look at the explanation on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMYK In the old color wheel, the combination of all colors is white. In CMY, the combination of all colors is black. This is much more similar to layering glass beads one on top of the other.
If you’d like good examples of CMY color schemes, check out Margie’s blog http://colorforbeadartists.com especially http://colorforbeadartists.com/2008/10/08/the-colors-of-apple/
When you look at those posts, I’m sure you’ll want one too. You can get them at
http://www.margiedeeb.com/html/product.php?productid=222&type=4
My Current Studio
Lots of the other bloggers have been showing their studio and work rooms, so I decided to also. I moved in with my “crazy boyfriend” (his words) in July. He’s lived here for years, and works from home also. So we had to sort of shoehorn my stuff in. He’s very supportive and helpful with my bead kit endeavor and we decided to set me up in the living room. I managed to get all my beadies into/onto/under the coffee table and 2 shelves of a bookcase YAY!!
How I store my seed beads
My coffee table, where I do my selection work
I keep my size 15 and size 11 beads in large serving trays from Cost Plus. The beads themselves are in flip top boxes, or the dynamite boxes from Fire Mountain Gems (depending on where I bought them). The trays themselves live below the glass top of the coffee table. I will be keeping this technique even when I move to a larger studio, probably with with cafeteria trays and a tray rack. I like that I’m able to pull all the beads out, put them out on top of the coffee table, and start choosing colors.
Where the rest of the beads live
The czech glass and other specialty beads live in cigar boxes and tic tac box storage boxes in the bookcase. I still have quite a lot of room there for beads.
Where I actually sit and bead
I do my actual beading work at a work desk for chairs. It moves around nicely, and adjusts height and angle. My favorite beading table was an adjustable drafting table from Target, but that got jettisonned a couple of moves back as being too big to drag along. It went to my fav landscaper instead, who uses it to draw up yard designs.
Eventually I hope to get my very own room for a studio, but that’s not in the near future. Until then, this setup works very nicely!
I’ve started!
Hi all!
As you can see, I’ve started an new endeavor. I’ll be selling my kits at beadkitsbymail.com and planning to sell other designers kits also. If you are a beadwork artist with a design you’d like kitted, or if you already have some kits and would like a different venue to sell them from, get in touch with me!
Joann Loos
This is SOOOOO Not Working!
I’ve been trying to do the second Kelp necklace in off loom weaving. I am having zero success. I’m looking for a swirling, organic design and the weaving is forcing it into a more geometric shape. Here is a picture of my latest attempt. It’s just got too many straight looking lines in it.
However, all is not lost! I’ve been reading The Lone Beader’s blog, and have become inspired by the idea of doing this in bead embroidery. I think I’ll be able to get the more fluid lines to come out. Check out her wonderful embroideries!
So keep it tuned here for more kelp fun!
Szarka’s treasures have moved!!
Szarka, the gemstone purveyor I have blogged about before, has opened a new store online. She has the most wonderful stones and other supplies, and is an absolute darling to work with. Check out her new store Magpie Gemstones I know you won’t be disappointed!
I Finished the Kelp Necklace!!!
I finally put together the wire wrapped kelp necklace. Here’re the pics!
First the full view
And now the close up
Overall, I like this necklace. However there are a few things I’d do differently.
1) I’d stagger the kelp leaves up their chains
2) I’d put one starfish and one sea horse on each side
3) I’d drop the sea horse a little lower so it could be seen thru the kelp.
Other than that, not too bad for a first wire wrap necklace!
I’m now working on kelp necklace #2, which is done in off loom weaving. As my challenge for this next one, I’m working in free form brick stitch. It’s interesting, because I’m such a fiend for regular structures like crystal lattice. I’m having to loosen up my style a lot. On the good side, I’m working with a color scheme I love (blues) so I only have one lesson to learn.
Joann
I HATE it when life gets in the way….
It’s been weeks since I’ve updated this blog. I keep saying “when I finish the necklace, I’ll post.” However, life keeps getting in the way, and I haven’t gotten back to the necklace
Hope you had a good Halloween, and are enjoying the Fall weather.