Wishful Wednesdays #5

Sometimes what we wish for and what we get is the same thing:

Lampworked ButterNut beads by RadiantMind ... mmmmmmm ... I just couldn't resist them ... and now they are on their way. Yum!

Perhaps soon ... clever ICE Resin syringe. I have never tried resin, but boy would I like to. This one makes it easy enough for me. I found it at Objects & Elements. I already got a couple of bronze coloured adjustable rings with square resin "containers", they arrived in the mail today. It will be fun to think about which images I shall use, or maybe seed beads or maybe ... And then I will go ahead and get the resin.

Why oh why ... they where sold out just when I discovered them today in a shop I have never been to before, Two Scoops. Large 20 cm beautiful carved and burned wood rondelles.

My Green And Orange Crush - new bracelet

Granulated toggle clasp in chestnut and verdigris by MissFickleMedia

Green African Jade puffed squares

Raw Baltic Sea Amber

Yellow Opal rondelles

Facetted rondelles of green Apatite

Orange-red irregular rounds of Carneol

Orange and green drop nugget in Magnesite

Brass small ring spacers

Yellow acrylic nugget bead

Strung on brass coloured beading wire

Home at last!!!

Hi!

First I would like to thank everyone who commented on my previous post. Your replies means so very much to me. Thank you thank you thank you! It is so nice to have wise and caring friends in the beading cyberspace. I feel connected to you although we have never met. Writing that post and the comments I got has helped me to move on in this moment and right now.

And ...

... today, the three bats that has been living temporarily with me for a rather long time now finally came to their right home. With Kata! Where they belong. I got them for her coz I knew they would have a good home at her's. And she just love them.

I don't know who is the cutest, she or them.

Bats in pewter by Green Girl Studios.

Wishful Wednesdays #4

Right now I wish I was brave. A lot more brave than I really am. Coz really I am scared, frightened, terrified of what I am about to do. But I will dare! Now I am daring. Very very sooon.

Two questions lately has had my thoughts going in a certain direction over the last few days:

First the one Shannon LeVart asked on Studio Saturday on ArtBeadScene:

"What obstacle is in YOUR way of seeing a project to completion?"

This is part of what I answered:

"Oh, I would say my own health issues is the biggest obstacle. On the other hand I wouldn't be doing jewellery on the scale I am doing now unless it was for my health issues. It is the only arena where I express myself and work creativly nowadays. Although I have to admit I am constantly hunted by everything I WANT to do, but don't get around to. I keep thinking that I could be so so productive. But I just can't ... "

I have been thinking about it ever since, and the answer I gave. I have been thinking I need some kind of outlet for my thoughts and feelings about my own illness. Maybe I shall start a blog about it. To keep as a diary mainly for myself. But free for anyone who wants to read it. I do NOT want this blog to be that arena. (Apart from today, and this particular post that is.)

Second question was from Maire Dodd:

"who do you allow in your inner sanctum? do you let in many? few? none? how does that place feel to you? do you open it and share it? do you protect it? do you hide inside of it?"

I did not answer yet. I've been thinking a lot about it. And here it is now:

You hit a very weak spot there Maire. Right on. This is what it is all about at the moment, I realize. My inner sanctum. I don't know where it is. I have lost it. And now I don't dare to search for it. I am so afraid of what I will find. I just don't want to deal with it. I just try for all I know to avoid any thoughts in that area. I don't want to think about it! I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT!!!!!!! I don't want to feel, think or be at all aware of anything to do with my illness. I constantly try to distract myself with anything else, so I don't have to deal with it.

And I certainly don't let anyone even close to near where there is a chance it could be. I just hate to talk about it. I don't even talk to the people closest to me. I don't want to, don't want to, don't want to!

Here it comes:

I wish I did not have MS! I wish wish wish wish wish! Coz I hate hate hate hate hate it sooooooooo!

Sh*t - do you have any idea how difficult that was?

Now it is said! I don't know if it will make any difference at all. I just feel sick at the moment from overcoming my fear of saying it. And posting this. But I do believe it sometimes is easier to let out your inner thoughts to people you are not so very close to. You Maire and Shannon asked questions which made it possible for me. Thank you so so much!

Please be gentle with me.

Magical Musical Mondays #7

Novos Baianos. One of Brazil's most important bands ever. Peak period in the first half of the 70's. Part of the music movement MPB (Musica Publica Brasil). Their music is a mix of Bossa Nova, Samba and Rock. The album Acabou Chorale from 1972 is considered one of the best albums ever by Rolling Stones magazine.

This video is filmed when they are playing live outdoors at their "farm" in Bahia where they lived as a big collective. Look out for my favourite part where there suddenly are a few super cool shots of the speakers. And then a kind of peak view from behind and between some narrowly standing houses/sheds. Goes so very well with the music there.

If you like this, which I hope you do, you can find more on YouTube. I discovered this band a couple of years ago via an album review of a compilation album of brasilian music (in DN, the biggest newspaper here in Sweden) . It made me curious. So I searched the internet, and found a diamond. I love this!

By the way, I have myself been on the "famous people's page" in Fohla de Sao Paolo, Brazil's biggest newspaper. I shall have that article scanned so I can show you. I have been to Brazil twice. First time in 1990, when me and my boyfriend at the time were travelling through South America for 6 months. Second time when I in 1995 went to Brasil to do a two months internship at an Industrial Design company. It was part of my education to go on internship. And I just wanted to go somewhere abroad, and I also wanted to go back to Brazil. So I worked my ass off to make it happen, and it did. And I ended up among the creme de la creme of Brazil in the paper. Pretty bizarre.

I really like Brazil, although it is a land of huge social differences. I looove the people, friendliest you could imagine. And today I read they have a brand new law. "The bullshit law". You are not allowed to talk badly to your children about the other parent. Or make it difficult for them to meet and see each other. I suppose it is mainly meant for families where the parents don't live together anymore. Very good indeed!!!!

Nature's own jewellery

Euonymus Planipes. You just don't believe they are for real, but they are. I have a small tree growing just outside my kitchen window and by the entrance to our small front garden. These photos I took a few days ago. Now the leaves has started to shade in wonderful red and orange colours. I love the autumn!

Andrew Thornton is hosting another Thursday Giveaway ...

If you are the lucky one you will win this gorgeous raku pendant by Diana Ptaszynski of Suburbian Girl Studio. Simply go to Andrew's blog to find out what you need to do to havbe a chance to win. I myself did it ALL (apart from twitter, coz I'm not on twitter). I would LLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE to be the winner of this beauty!

Good Luck!

Wishful Wednesdays #3

Today I wish for BEEEEEEEAAAAAADDDDDDSSSSSSS!1. Dear MissFickleMedia - Shannon LeVart, you drive me crazy by constantly presenting new wonderful things you have made in your studio. The leaves, patinated in many different tones, I adore them. Your popular light pink almond flowers, but now in blue instead, simply gorgeous. And the diamond chain I have already got in verdigris (I used it in my necklace for the ABS september challenge), here in russet colour instead, wonderful.
2. Astrophyllite. I had never heard of this stone until a few weeks ago, when Mari Älgkrans who runs the excellent shop StarEyes here in Sweden presented it as a new gem in her stock. It is soooooo beautiful! Very rare apparently, discovered about hundred years ago in Norway. On Etsy CindyLouWho2 has a necklace for sale, with a big focal astrophyllite stone. In my mind it is beyond gorgeous.
3. Cobalt Sky by Sue Beads - Susan Kennedy. A couple of weeks ago Andrew Thornton had a giveaway with beads from SueBeads. To participate we where asked to look around in the SueBeads webshop and find our favourite beads and let Andrew know which ones they were. I voted for these ones which I would like to use in a necklace for all the soon to come winter parties, and especially the one at New Years Eve. And now I just can't stop thinking about those beads. I have been to the SueBead site many times since, just looking at them and dreaming away. (By the way, I won the giveaway, luuuuuuuckyyyyyy me!)
4. Mary Harding, ceramic bead artist. She has made these three wonderful components. Unfortunately both the Wild Grass Toggle and the Ceramic Pendant with Blue Wild Daisies are already sold, but hey we can enjoy the pictures anyway, can't we. The Queen Anne's Lace Charm is still available though. So so pretty!

Magical Musical Mondays #6

Can it be smoother and/or more soothing?

Orange and Green

I am sooo in the mood to combine these two colours. Just look at the little "working stash" that has kind of developed by itself over the last few days.

Seems like everything I pick from my stored beads is in this colour scheme right now. Yummie if I may say it myself! Now let's see what I shall do with it all. There is a breacelet hidden in there, that I already made. But I am not pleased with it so I will take it apart. But a bracelet it will be I am shure. To be worn with a plain white shirt with folded up arms. Nice! What do you think of when YOU see this stash? Please write a comment. I loove getting comments!

2 new necklaces and one "old"

Persian Influence Necklace

For this month's ABS Challenge Heather Powers chose the painting Persia by George Barbier (made in 1912).

It is a wonderful Art Deco illustration and when I first saw it I was struck by all the curvy movement in the composition, whereas the motif itself is so still. That contrast is very exciting to me. And I am attracted to all the shapes in the painting.

Art Bead Parts:

• Robin eggs blue enameled focal pendant, plus two enameled almond shaped beads, by Molly Alexander of Miss Molly's Designs.
• Verdigris diamond shaped chain, plus light pink almond flower, by MissFickleMedia.
• Rosey copper S-clasp, plus headpins, by E2S Supplies.
• Lilac ceramic bead, by Gaea
• Small hammered copper swirl, plus copper "surrounding with leaves" (around the almond flower) by myself, Malin de Koning

Other parts:

Crab fire agate rounds, round orangy gemstones (that I can't remember the name of), copper parts and beads, facetted glass beads in black and lilac, verdigris lucite twisted triangular tubes, carved flowers in pink coral.

You Are My Home

With this necklace I started with that wonderful strand of recycled sari. Which is a bit unusual for me, I generally start with one or a few beads, and then I build from there.

I have a big bunch of ribbons hanging on my wall, and suddenly that red one just spoke to me. I thought, "oh dear, such a vivid colour, will anything manage to match that?" I found SwoonDimples focal in my stash, and not thinking really I picked it and saw it worked really well together. Now when I think about it, maybe the love and passion in the message is lifted forward by the red. And then it just went from there. I used a lot of components in matte antiqued silver. And the shorter chain to the left I put together myself. I really like the every other thick and thin rings.

What I find fascinating though is that I had not looked at any other jewellery with that shape of focal before I made this necklace. The connection links are sitting a bit oddly. But after I had made that circle with the red three-cut czech glass, I got a bit curious and looked around a little. And guess what, Lorelei Eurto has used the same solution with a ring shape on the right connector and a little dangle on the left one to kind of balance it up.

How extraordinary weird in a sense. Or perhaps some pleasant forms and compositions are just universal. I don't know. Or perhaps I just like the same things as Lorelei. I do LOOOOOOVE her jewellery and she is one of my biggest inspirations. I just want to let you know Lori, considering this discussion about copy cats that has been going on lately, that I did NOT copy your design. I would never dream of doing that. Ever. It would be so embarrising. I love to be influenced by others, but I do want to create myself.

That piece you posted about is so interesting, coz although the other person copied your design so shamelessly, his/her piece looks like crap, and yours look great. It is all in the feeling for the details and the proportions. That is why you are a great and world wide appreciated designer and the other person is just a pathetic copy cat. Nuf said!

I really like Gaea's approach on the topic too. I hope I will end up being one of the designers drawn for the challenge. It would be such great fun.

Wild Summer

This is a 6-strand necklace I made last summer. I haven't had any good photos before, but now I think I can show you.

I had so much fun making this crazy wild composition. I kind of see myself wearing it for a wild summer's garden party in the countryside on midsummer, where we would dance like crazy outdoors until 4 o'clock in the morning, and the sun would never totally disappear behind the horizon. The rest of my clothes would be all white, and I would probably take off my shoes after a while and be barefoot on the grass. This would not happen nowadays though, but not too many years ago I would wirl around there in the grass, and then chatting like crazy with some nice and equally talkative people.

Hope you enjoyed this post, and I wish you a great Sunday.

All my best,

Malin

Wishful Wednesdays #2

I want to share with you this great shop I discovered recently, when I was in England a few weeks ago. Went there to visit the wedding between my brother-in-law Ryan and Rebecca. They live in York, a wonderful picturesque town with a huge Abbey and medieval wall around the city center. The wedding was absolutely beautiful. But I am not going to talk about that now. Coz today is Wishful Wednesday #2. During the stay in England I and my family stayed in a hotel in Leeds, a neighbouring town to York. And while there I of course wanted to check out if there was any nice bead shops in the area. I found YumYum Beads right in the fashionable and beautiful shopping area in the city center of Leeds, called the Arcades. The whole area is full of stunningly beautiful arcades built in the Victorian era. A true pleassure to walk around there.

Anyway, the YumYum Beads shop is soooooo mouthwatering to enter. Crowded with for me many new and very interesting designs on beads and findings. I could easily have gone way to far with my shopping in there. But I managed to stay on a super tight £17 budget. That is $26. Can you imagine that? And look here below at all the goodies I got for that sum.

I didn't go for any of all of the wonderful, bigger and more expensive parts in metal though. They were the ones that I was really super keen on. And still am. The good thing is that they have an on-line shop. Just look at some of the things they have.

If you wish to check out the shop on-line, there is currently two sites to visit.

www.yumyumbeads.co.uk

www.thefrenchbeadshop.co.uk

(From what I understand they will eventually end up being just one. The company is in the process of merging them.)

The French Bead Shop is YumYum Bead's sister site and a summer shop in the medieval town of Dinan in Brittany, France. Open seasonally from Easter until mid September.

The two lovely helpful and friendly ladies that was working in the shop the day I visited gave me their names on a piece of paper, but of course I have lost that paper (sorry about that). Please write a comment if you see this. And hey, next time I am in the area I will pop by for shure! See you then!

Below, some nice earrings for sale in the shop.

Until next time, all my best,

Malin

Magical Musical Mondays - #5

Hey, before the music today I first have to tell you about my incredible luck over the last few days. TWO giveaways I have won! Look! Thank you so much Andrew & Sue, Lori & Barbara.

And here is another give away that Janet McDonald of Singingwoods is having right now. Hurry and go to her blog to find out what you need to do to have a chance to win this big bunch of beauties.

Swedish artist, singer song writer, Timo Raisanen does a cover of Radiohead's Creep.

A sucker for cuties

1. If you go to Harem6's blog you will find (among lots of other things) a pair of dogs eyes staring at you in a begging way. It's a link to something. I don't have a clue to what, it's written in Romanian. But I just HAVE to click on that link, don't I. Oh it's an adoption center for dogs, I DO understand that from the name of the site Adoptii Caini. I directly find these two cuties. There are hundreds of dogs in need of a new home on that site. If you are weak hearted like myself, you will immediately start to consider how you would go about adopting one of them. Of course I woun't in the end, but I just can't help being carried away. One day I will have a dog, one day.

2. A raven. Ravens are NOT cute. Powerful and majestic, yes. But not cute. Have you seen the ones living in the "Tower of London"? They are massive. But what about this one then? He is tiny, only about an inch. In fact he is so tiny he will be travelling all the way to me here in Sweden in an envelope from the USA. Coz he just happens to be so incredibly cute, I couldn't resist him. By ALD Designs.

3. Darth Vader? Is he cute? Well if he is portraited like this he certainly is. By StoneMe. Darth is also on his way to me in an envelope. He's gonna end up sitting on a necklace I will make for my daughter's 7th birthday in October. She likes Darth Vader, she does, you see.

Wishful Wednesdays #1

Hi,

I thought I would start with another regular post here on my blog. It shall be called "Wishful Wednesdays". Guess what it will be about! Yes, you guessed right. I will tell you about things I wish for. Meaning I really like them in some way or other. They could be expensive or cheap. They could be beads, or books, or any other thing really. I might get them one day, or they might be something I probably would never get around to purchase. But I can dream! Beautiful and exciting things always kind of cheer me up. And I wanna share that feeling with you.

I should say thank you to Jade Scott really. On her blog she posts every now and then her "Five Faves" from Etsy. Very inspiring to look at. Makes me very happy. So I thought I'd do something similar. Thank you so much Jade!

So here we go:

Wishful Wednesdays #1

These beads are made by Claire Maunsell of StillPointWorks and the blog the Next Bend. She wrote this wonderful post telling us about the process to come up with this design. Very nice to read. And those beads I just love! So special, organic and like object you could find in nature. Just beautiful shapes and colours. Really has my fantasy going.

Say Hello to Amaguq! He was all handmade by Harem6 from Romania/Germany. From their own clay formula and with pencil drawings on. They do jewellery too and dolls, apart from art pieces. All their things are so utterly special and unique! Like they come from another universe. I get a strong Eastern European feeling, being reminded of animated films I saw in my childhood.

This Krinkle Chain from Ornamentea keeps saying "buy me buy me buy me buy me" to me. So what am I supposed to do? I guess I will end up buying it soonish.

It's something about unevenly facetted gemstones. I am sooooo attracted to them. These Golden Pyrite Rough Nuggets is sold by Lima Beads. Yummie Yummie!

Hope you enjoyed this post. Please let me know what you think.

All my best

Malin