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Wednesday 28 July 2010

Going to a wedding in England

In about two weeks my dear brother-in-law, Ryan, is getting married to his beloved Becca. The wedding will take place in beautiful York in good old England. Mark & I are in the middle of the final preparations for what we will wear. Our children's clothing are already done. Conrad being page boy, and Arabella brides maid. Mark is the best man. I am just a "normal" wedding guest.

These are my plans so far and at this point:


Doesn't that come together nicely? I already got the two top parts from Jade Scott, and now just waiting for the "love matters" pieces from SwoonDimples to arrive hopefully any day. Thank you Lorelei for giving that tip about her sale!

Monday 26 July 2010

Calder Earrings

This is my entry for the Art Bead Scene Challenge for July. Inspired by the beautiful sculpture Blue Feather by Alexander Calder.


I wanted to capture the lightness of the sculpture, and the feeling of the black smaller pieces kind of floating in the air. I don't know if I managed doing that. But I was certainly intrigued by the spaces in between the materia in this sculpture. I would very much like to see it in reality to see it move around slowly. Must be very sort of meditative and calming.


The black and orange beads are handmade by myself in polymer clay. After they were baked I sanded them to sharpen up the shapes. I had planned to make them all smooth. But when I saw them like they are now I decided to leave the surface rough and with traces of the larger grade of sanding paper. I like the rustic feel it creates. I added turqouise Dupioni silk and some black matte Delicas.



Magical Musical Mondays - #1

Thought I would start a regular post every monday. Some of you already know that music is really important to me. I live with it. I don't perform at all myself, but I love to find excellent music of various genres. And I love to share my finds with others.

(Some of you might also know, or have understood, that I love setting up plans, but that I sometimes fail in completing my plans ... So if I don't post a piece of Magical Music every Monday, please excuse me. And just consider my intention, and that I hopefully will come back next week.)

This song, Edit by Regina Spektor, I have chosen because I spend a lot of time editing my jewellery before they are completely ready. And because I just LOOOOVE Regina Spektor. I could put many of her songs here.

Friday 23 July 2010

Immense Love

Just look at them! I am filled with an immense love. Soon, very soon, I will fondle them, take care of them, and make sure they end up in a suiting environment with the best of company. I will treat them like my own babies. I long for them! I want to meet them now.


Wednesday 21 July 2010

Some of the stuff that is going on

These new earrings look so great on. If I may say so myself. I am planning to list them at my Etsy Shop that I started last week. Still only one item there. But I need some more photos of the things I want to sell. (Thank you Lorelei for your great advice!) Some things in my life moves very slowly, but I will get there in the end. Did a whole big photo session the other day (see photo below), with jewellery on, but none of those turned out good, so they all need to be retaken. Big sigh!

Materials in the "GreenGreenGreen & Petal Earrings" are:
Green glass beads from Happy Mango Beads
Chestnut Patinated petal links from MissFickleMedia
Antiqued copper earstuds
Antiqued copper eyepins
Antiqued copper jumprings

This action shot from the photo session is basically the only photo that turned out OK.
From my scetchbook. Idea for the july ABS challenge. Also something in pipeline. Gosh - there are so many things I want to do. Too little energy and capacity for me though, with that b*y decease I have. It sucks really! I get around doing or finishing less than 50% of my ideas or plans. Maybe even as little as 10%. I have never calculated. But this idea I SHALL complete. Because I believe it will be something really good and exciting, and I am challenging myself to try new things. And I love that.

Wednesday 14 July 2010

The protector of our house

The dragon branch just outside my bedroom window. Makes me feel safe. He is protecting us, me, my family and our house.

Saturday 10 July 2010

2 new pieces of jewellery by me

Necklace with rondelle beads by Heather Powers of Humble Beads and candy Jade. Copper findings and circular copper chain.
Earrings. Czech glass beads, cut to 3-sided, in green and two shades of turqouise and a bit of picasso finish. Brass findings and wire.

Friday 9 July 2010

Giveaway alert - by CopperDiem

CopperDiem is having a giveaway. This lovely charm in silver and enamel, that she made. I loooove it! Just look at the colour. It gives you a refreshing and cooling sensation on these really hot summer days we are having here in Sweden at the moment. In order to have a chance to win this, simply go to CopperDiem's blog and check out what you need to do. That's what I did and why I am writing this post on my own blog, coz I really really would like to win that beautiful charm. Pleeeease let me! And good luck to everyone else too!

Thursday 8 July 2010

Winner of Celebration Giveaway!

It is time to reveal the winner of my "Celebration Giveaway". Really, every single tip I received was a really great tip. What a success! Thank you all so much for your contributions. However, I said I would pick my favourites and a winner, so without further ado, here is the top-tip list in no particular order. (It has not been easy for me, since all the tips are so good. It ended up being six in the top instead of ten like I said before. And I may have shortened your texts slightly, that's why I have not put quote-signs there.)

One of my favorite places to look for beads is in thrift stores. I like to take jewelry apart and remake them, my style. I have made some great finds in bags of jewelry sold as one cheap lot.

Stephanie in Tuscon Arizona, USA


Oh, that sounds so exciting. Great tip! Thank you!



A tip ... well sometimes when my bead tray's not working, the beads want to fall over or don't fit ... what do I use? Rice. Sound silly? Its amazing and the beads stay right where I opt them and in the direction! I spread the rice out on a dinner plate ... they never move and stay for however long I wish. (Long grain by the way).

Janet McDonald of Singingwoods


I will definately try this. Just the other day I got irritated that some rondelle beads kept falling on their sides so that I couldn't see properly how they would look together. Had to test-string them. Now that won't be necessary anymore. Thanks Janet!





Never let anyone tell you you have enough beads!

Lori Anderson of Pretty Things


Clearly the winner in the sub-category of being most funny, this one made me laugh out loud. And Lori, I promise! I shan't ever ever let anyone do that. Thank you so much!



This tip is for connecting beads with wire wrapping. If you want to bulk up the wire by having some of the wire wrap down on the crown of the bead ... put the wire through the bead, on the one end create just a single loop without the extra wrapping. This will secure the bead in place. Leave eight inches of wire for wrapping, but don't wrap yet. Go to the other end of the wire, do a wire wrapped loop and continue wrapping and wrapping, bringing the wire down over the crown of the bead. Now that the bead is in place, go back to the other end and repeat by wrapping the crown. You have to have the bead securely in place in order to wrap both ends of the crown, you can't simply wrap the first loop with lots of wire without having the bead securely in place.

Barbara Lewis of Painting With Fire


I already have had a chance to use this tip, the other day, when I did some wire wrapping. I wasn't wrapping down on the crown, but just ordinary looped connector type wire wrapping. And I had the other end folded 90° when I started on the first loop. It helped a lot. Thank you so much Barbara! Very useful for me.



I just discovered this website a few days ago. This woman does great buttons and I want to buy everything on her site. I hope you will enjoy too. www.susanclarkeoriginals.com

Pascaline Loricourt of Beadjouls



Oh, absolutely beautiful Art Buttons there Pascaline! I thank you sooo very much for that tip!



AND ... my number one favourite tip and the winner of my beads is Rebecca Anderson of Songbeads, UK


My tip will be to KEEP LOOKING. Look beyond other beading artists; look to decorative/high/folk artists and see what they do and how they can inspire your work. Look beyond the obvious and you will find inspiration everywhere.


The Jury's Motivation:

Your tip goes along so well with my own general philosphy in life. And although I feel it is something I almost could have said myself already, I am so grateful for being reminded. And refreshed! This attitude is easy to forget at times. And just now in my life it just happened to be PERFECT timing to get this tip. So utterly perfect, you just couldn't believe it. Thank you so much Rebecca! I hope you will enjoy the beads I am sending, and that YOU will be able to make something "beyond the obvious" with them. (Please let me know your address, and I will send them right away.)


And I really wish everyone who is doing something creative could take this tip to their hearts. I believe it is the source of development in all fields, and the mother of inventions. I could keep going on about this, but I believe it would end up being a whole article (or even a book) about all my thoughts about creating things, creativity, life, exsisting, co-exsisting, being human and so on. One day I might write that article, but not now. Until then I leave you with another wise person's (along with Rebecca and myself, that is of course) very wise and very very beautiful words:


To see a World in a Grain of Sand


And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,


Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand


And Eternity in an hour

William Blake



Monday 5 July 2010

Giveaway REMINDER!!!!!

Hello there! Hope you haven't missed I am having a giveaway. There is still time to participate and have a chance to win. Please have a go! It is a nice and fun collection of odd beads from my own beadstash that YOU can win. A giveaway to celebrate all followers of my blog and also my birthday, which was last week.

There is a mixture of:
  • high & low
  • expensive & inexpensive
  • exclusive materials & "simple" ones
  • gemstones
  • coral
  • porcelain
  • glass
  • clay
  • resin
  • lucite
  • ceramic
  • lampwork
  • metalized acrylic
  • carved acrylic
  • wood
  • brass
  • copper
  • pewter
  • bone
  • nuts
  • seeds
  • czech
  • indian
  • german
  • african
  • trade beads
  • matte
  • shiny
  • facetted
  • classic geometric shapes
  • fun fantasy shapes
  • stripy
  • dotty
  • chequered
  • plain colour
  • and so on ....
The thing is that there is only ONE of each bead. But on the other hand very many different ones. I haven't weighed them yet, but I estimate the weight to be just under 1 pound or about 0,8kg. (I compared to a litre of milk just now ...)

So what do you need to do to have a chance to win? I wished to try something different, so ...
  1. You have to be a follower of my blog, so if you are not yet sign up now!
  2. Write a comment on this post, AND ...
  3. ... give me a beading tip in that comment. Something you believe would be useful for ME. Just anything - a great shop, a clever technique, a fun class, a book I should look at, some beautiful beads I should discover, tools, tips on blogging ...
I will be compiling a list of the ten top tips. Top ten for ME that is! And I will present that list here on my blog. The person who gave me tip number ONE will be the winner of the giveaway. It is all very subjective, isn't it!

The last day for leaving a comment and have a chance to win is on Wednesday the 7th of July (one week after my birthday). And I will present the list and the winner on Thursday the 8th of July.

Please go on, have a go now! :-) I have already recieved some of very nice, good and entertaining tips, but there is plenty of room for more. (I will combine the answers from all the posts I made on the subject).