Monday, 31 January 2011

Bead Table Monday

Bead Table Monday. 5 thick envelopes arrived in my mailbox today!

These are the contents! Oh oh oh! What would YOU do? Pick one of the components and share your ideas with me.

Saturday, 29 January 2011

I won these - hurray!

On ArtBeadScene. Or maybe it was just one of them I won. But anyway - that is so great. Very cool part. What shall I do with it? Mmmmmm ....

And now I would like to take the opportunity to get some more of Cindy's things. Never bought anything from her, although I've been really wanting to. But again I have already spent over my budget for about one month ahead (and guess just how hard it was for me to not go buying anything from either RoundRabbitExtra or KabsCreativeConcepts yesterday when they where listing new stuff in their shops). Well, we'll se if I can manage to solve the Cindy-issue somehow ... I'm off to her shop now: CindyGimbroneBeads

Ok then, from what is currently in Cindy's shop I would like these:

Yum yum yum and double yum again!

Enjoy the rest of the evening ,

Malin

Introducing a new feature on my blog

I am a sucker for music unless you already knew it. Every now and then I have posted a YouTube link to a piece I really like here on my blog. I even tried for a while to have a regular post once a week called Magical Musical Mondays. But I stopped doing that, to be honest simply because I didn't ever get any comments on them, after a while.

But I do wanna share music I like with you. Music and art goes hand in hand for me. I need music to get me by.

So I just now got this idea I could have a little square in my sidebar for a song I currently wanna share with you. I will swap tune on an irregular basis, but rather often. I will NOT write a post everytime I swap, so you will just have to give it a look everytime you check my blog. It will be music of all different kinds, only thing in common will be, I like it all.

So here's the first one now:

Richard III by Supergrass. The point with this one is to play it LOOOOOUUUUUD, dance like crazy, and afterwards feel completely blown away.

Look to the right for a square called "The Song of Today".

Please enjoy!

Thursday, 27 January 2011

Bead Soup Blog Party - Sneak Peek for Anna Creazioni

My Bead Soup Blog Party Partner is Anna Creazioni, a Russian lady living in Rome, Italy. I just looooooove her artist name. Say it out loud! And don't forget to put on the italian accent! See what I mean. Cool!

So today I finally got around to put together the soup I'm sending her. In our mail conversation she said she has no particular wishes or no-no's. So I looked at her blog, and her Picasa and Flickr pages to get an idea of what to send her that would be a challenge for her. Anna and I have rather different styles. Lori matched us very well, just according to her idea behind these parties. Anna works in many different techniques, but it looks to me like whatever she does, she does it with very high quality. I'd say her style is classy for the most. There is a playful and fun touch to some of her things, while others are simply just elegant. Italy and Russia combined in a nutshell.

So for her I have picked things rustic and whimsical. Basically my own bead stash in a nutshell. Here's a sneak peak! Once she has recieved my parcel I will show you pictures of the whole lot.

Links to Anna Creazioni = Anita Denisova:

Blog

Etsy

flickr

Picasa

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

BTW - Purple Rose Earrings

This earrings idea turned up about a week ago as soon as my Tin Bead Caps from Lorelei had arrived. This is the biggest size. And I saw they would go wonderfully with the facetted Rose Quartz Rondelles.

But I haven't been able to figure out how I want to assemble them. So every day I have been looking at different possible ear hooks, wires, directions and so on.

I thought I had settled for a silver hooks and wire solution when I came in to my studio today to take this photo I suddenly saw that purple drenched copper wire by MissFickleMedia. Of course! It is of a lower gauge than the silver wire I looked out before. Much more proportional. And then it was so easy to also go for the earhooks by HigherChakraSupplies. Perfect!

Now it is only the assembling left ...

Tuesday, 25 January 2011

Black and White - Treasury on Etsy by MOI

Check out that necklace in the top left corner. Lorelei blogged about it today. I love it. Then check the buttons right next to it. I bought them last weekend. They have been in my favourites folder for about 6 months now. Finally I got around purchasing them. Check all the other really nice things I have found inspired by those two items.

Here's the link to my treasury on Etsy.

Dragonflies Treasury on Etsy by me

Go to the Treasury on Etsy

Give-away at Lori Andersson's

Photo by Lori Anderson

Lori Anderson at Pretty Things is hosting a great give-away for a stamping set called ImpressArt letter stamps from PJ Tool & Supply

Click the link below to find out what to do to have a chance to win

http://lorianderson.blogspot.com/2011/01/metal-stamp-giveaway.html

I hope to win them myself of course ... it would be a great way to get into the stamping business. Have never tried it before, but I am a bit keen now. I love what she did on the photo above.

All my best,

Malin

Monday, 24 January 2011

Swedish Lesson #2 - Rimfrost

This photo is taken right outside my front door today. My Euonymous Planipes tree that helps me experience the seasons in such a beautiful way. So today's Swedish lesson will be on this word - RIMFROST. Enjoy some rrrrrrrrollling rrrrrrr's!

Sunday, 23 January 2011

Another Fusion - a wilder one ...

I made another necklace for the FusionBeads challenge arranged by Lorelei. I just didn't have the photos for it ready on Friday when I posted about one necklace and one pair of earrings, so I am posting about this one today instead. Here is my other post from Friday.

This is my personal favourite out of the three ones. So many beautiful components joined in a wild exiting marriage.

Look at the four Color Drenched Chains by MissFickleMedia, they're simply gorgeous. And from her also, the black drenched metal long thing in the pendant cluster. In the cluster also a green rustic porcelain shard by MarshaNealStudio. And a decoupage bead, one of the leafs from FusionBeads, the cat's eye facetted beads again. The large Rosey Copper ring that the cluster is hanging from comes from E2SSupplies. The back fiber part I braided with the olive leather cord and two different fiber/yarn strands. I like the way that turned out.

Don't know if I will want to sell this necklace in the nearest while, I wanna get a chance to wear it myself first. Coz I like it, and it's ME! But if you happen to be interested, please let me know :-).

All the three pieces I made for the FusionBeads Challenge together.

All my best,

Malin

Friday, 21 January 2011

The Fusion Beads Challenge

Hi,

Lorelei's wonderfully arranged Fusion Beads Challenge. All wonderful beads and parts to be used however we wished to. And although I was lucky and managed to get hold of all the components I have not used them all. The GGS owl clasp will end up on a bracelet instead, I believe, with round amazonites. And there is one more necklace ready that I just didn't get around to photograph today, so I will post that one tomorrow, along with Swedish Lesson #2. So please come back one more time for that.

I get a very autumny feeling from my pieces. I made one necklace:

See that magnetic big ball brass clasp. I just had to use that one, it goes so well with the other beads I think. I have also added two colours of facetted cats eye beads, Miyuki 4mm cubes in various colours, a few stripey orangey seed beads, a yellow top drilled bicone glass bead, and a big orangey cloisonne type bead with flowers on that I for my life can't remember where I got (I have only very few so I know it was rather pricey).

The earrings:

I directly saw that I wanted to join the lucite leaves with MissFickleMedias black petals. They are dangling from a short bit of chain. Lucite flowers with small Lorelei Tin Snippet bead caps. And from the flower another three orange seed beads dangling.

Now- Get to Hopping!

Thursday, 20 January 2011

Swedish Lesson #1, 2011-01-20.mov

Hi,

after a conversation earlier today with Claire Maunsell of StillPointWorks or The Next Bend, this idea came up. Please give me some feedback on what you wish for the future. I plan to keep these lessons super short each and every one of them. Preferably under one minute, and never more than two minutes.

Please don't ever forget that if you can't stand me, you don't have to look or follow my blog ...

All my best,

Malin

Just had to share this with you ...

... a former boyfriend of mine, Jan Nilsson, is in this band. I LIKE!!!! Their name is Skuld.

3 songs:

How sad you are

Salty Spit

The Stranger

http://soundcloud.com/skuld/the-stranger

Skuld on FaceBook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Skuld/163733383672964

And on SoundCloud:

http://soundcloud.com/skuld

Wednesday, 19 January 2011

WINNER

Oh, thank you all of you who commented on my Celebration and Give-away post. I got a lot of nice and useful feedback from you all. It is thanks to you I posted another VLOG today ... :-) I don't know yet if you have let a monster loose though ...

Due to some people commenting twice and a couple of comments by myself, the list of commentators was stripped down to 22:

1. Courtney

2. Steufel

3. Heidi

4. Erin S
5. FryeStyle

6. Regina

7. Barbara Lewis

8. Tara P.

9. Birgitta Lejonklou

10. maneki

11. Rebecca

12. Beadroe

13. CraftyHope

14. Öbon

15. Janet

16. moonlitfantaseas

17. Alice

18. Noemi

19. Kristen

20. Maria Nyberg

21. TesoriTrovati

22. Rising Designs

So .....

....

... the winner is ALICE!!!

Congratulations! Please send an e-mail to me with the address to where you want me to send the beads.

All my best,

Malin

VLOG - Bead Table Wednesday

Hi,

another Vlog, totally without any manuscript, me just babbling on ... :-) Just to show you my updated studio with a new table. I think I have the BEST BEADING STUDIO IN THE WORLD right now!!!!! (Click the YouTube-link to see the film in better resolution.)

These arrived in the post just after I had filmed this. Wooooooow! I am looking forward to use them.

Later on tonight (21.00 Swedish time = 15.00 east coast US time) I will draw the winner of my give away. See previous post. Don't miss a chance to win some truly beautiful beads.

All my best, and see you later,

Malin

Friday, 14 January 2011

Celebration! And a Give-away! Updated

Updated!

These are the beads in the give away. 100 beads and more. Art beads, gemstones, glass, ceramic, czech, resin, leather button, facetted, round, square and more. Take a chance, write a comment (see green text at the bottom of this post), spread the info about this give-away, become a follower unless you already are one. Drawing will be with a random number generator on Wednesday 21.00 Swedish time (GMT+1).

I've reached 100 followers on my blog!!!!!

I can't believe it. Thank you all of you who are interested in what I have to say, the things I do and what I like. When I started this blog almost a year ago it was from a suggestion by my husband, as a way of showing my jewellery to people who might be interested (and in the end it would hopefully help generating more business, he IS clever isn't he).

The plan/idea behind it has always been very simple:

It is a blog about my jewellery and beading. I show things I have made, things I am working on, ideas and things that inspire me. More imagery than writing. Short texts. Rather frequent updates, at least once a week, but preferably three to four times a week.

I am most often sponanteous about my posts. Don't plan them ahead and my writing style is direct (and therefor sometimes you see bad grammatics or miss-spelling, but I have decided to not worry too much about that).

I want this to be a place like one I would like to visit myself. A fresh mix of this and that, high and low, personal but not private, generous with links and tips (when I have any ...). Visually attractive. I go to other blogs and see wonderful layouts and usage of exciting templates, look at for instance Songbeads or FancifulDevices, and I sometimes think I want to do something similar, coz it makes me happy. But then I realize it just isn't me really. I am after all an Industrial Designer deep down. It became very obvious to me recently when I did the pictures for ABS January challenge, where I added text on the sides, mainly in order to make the actual image square coz it shows up a lot nicer in the post then. In my eyes it looks so typical "industrial design" with a bit of informative text added. And yes, I do like it. It improves my experience when I see things like that.

I don't know though if my jewellery style is clean and informative. I don't think so. I don't even know if I have a style as such. Would be nice to hear what you think. And I would also like to hear which kind of posts you like most, and if there is anything you would like to see more of or less of. Shower me in feedback!!!!!!

It might pay back even. By leaving a feedback comment you will enter my Celebration Give-away for 100 followers. I will put together 100 beads from my own stash. Give me a couple of days to get back and show you a photo of them. And I will use a random number generator to draw the winner. Let's say on Wednesday next week. Please leave a comment even if you happen to not be interested in winning the beads, (I know I have some none-beader followers out there). It means so much to get feedback!

All my best,

Malin

P.S.

I have marked in green the text which is about what you need to do to enter the give-away.

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

BTW - Bead Table Wednesday

Heather Powers has created a group called BTW on flickr. We are supposed to take a photo of our bead table every wednesday, in order to share what is going on in our own little corners of the world. Read here on HumbleBeads blog about this group! I love this concept. I love to see what other's are in the middle of, and I love to get comments on my own doings. Please join you too. The morer the betterer!

So here is my table today:

Firstly, I have done a tidying up, so now it looks a lot better than on my VLOG from Saturday. Which is nice! (Does anyone remember those scetches from Fast Show? My favourite is the one about the original copy of the bible. But that particular one can't be found on YouTube unfortunately.)

Secondly I recieved these silk cocoons yesterday. Lovely aren't they!?! What shall I do with them? So many ideas and possibilities.

I directly came to think of this meat-eating plant when I saw them. Searching for this image on the internet I came across a lot of other beautiful meat eating plants. Gorgeous photos, really inspiring. Unfortunately copyrighted all of them, so I recommend you to do a search yourself for "meat eating plant" images.

And look at this wonderful Macramed Silk Cocoon Table Lamp from Wordly Decor.

All my best,

Malin

(My Fusion Beads has NOT arrived yet. Let's hope for better luck tomorrow)

Tuesday, 11 January 2011

VLOG - The Studio

My first VLOG ever - kind of. Totally spontanous and unprepared I suddenly just picked up the camera last Saturday and started filming, talking about this and that that I happened to come to think of. This is reality in it's purest form ... (?) Be prepared to listen to my Brittish English with a slight Swedish accent.

To see the "VLOG" in better resolution click here, it will take you directly to YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0imMeYXFVE

I was hoping this could go on the BTW-group on flickr. But it is far too big. So I will just post the link to this page instead.

Please leave your comments!

All my best,

Malin

Monday, 10 January 2011

Taken On A Journey by Mary - ABS Jan Challenge

It seems like we are quite a few who have been super inspired by this months challenge painting on ABS. I had never heard of or seen anything by this artist before. But now I am a big fan. This painting is wonderful. The colours, the way he has applied the paint, the composition, the motif, all of it. I feel I can travel into that landscape. And last Saturday I was sitting working on this necklace for a good hour in my studio. All the time with the paining in front of me.

I took a break and went to flickr's ABS-page to see if anyone had put anything there for the challenge. Mary Harding had. And she wrote about her own personal experiences from that particular place on earth. I don't know what happened, but I just made the most extrodinary journey into that painting together with Mary both of us around 8 or 9 years old. It was totally mind blowing, and I sat there with tears down my cheeks. Very very powerful! I guess her telling related to memories from my own childhood. Read on Mary's blog about her entry.

I was still in this feeling all Sunday and half of today as I've continued working on my necklace. So many dimensions have been added for me. Not only have I really enjoyed working on this challenge, and experienced a new artist, completely fallen in love with a painting. But I have traveled to a place I've never been, become a child again and I made a new friend as that child. We were playing in those ditches although we weren't allowed to (always also was where I wasn't supposed to be, often in connection with water...). The sun was really bright and the colour yellow was dominant, aswell as the brown river water. Then we went paddling on the river with Mary's father. Magic!

I can't name this necklace anything else than "Taken On A Journey By Mary". Thank you so much for this special and unusual experiance. I hope I could visit there with you in real life one day. And I LOVE the necklace you made. It is soooooo beautiful.

Of course Mary's necklace was picked for Designer of the Week. Of Course!!!!

I should say something about my own design I guess. And this is what i wrote on flickr:

I just loooove this month's inspiration painting by Walter Thiebaud. I can look for ages at all the little dots of paint in all different colours. (And I really have). All the structures that are created, the composition, the motif. The colour combinations. It is all so utterly appealing. And I can't get enough.

So for my necklace I wanted to create the yumminess of all these colours. And really I could just pick them right there from his marvelous palette (hence the hours of staring…). Lots and lots and lots of colours, and structures and … No need to hold back at all. Just go for it!

Art beads:

Polymer clay filled toggle clasp by Heather Powers of Humble Beads

White dotty ceramic bead by Lisa Stevens of C-Urchin

Shank button in brown-red and dark blue by Shannon LeVart of MissFickleMedia

Pewter dangle from Objects and Elements (the top part of the pendant)

Some of the other components:

Recycled Sari Silk

An unusual chain I believe is in steel and which has a few small rust marks here and there

Opal of different kinds

Agate

Czech glass beads of many kinds and colours

Seed beads of many kinds and colours

Millifiori squares

Brass

Trade beads

and more

All my best,

Malin

Saturday, 8 January 2011

Yes Man!!!!!

Thursday, 6 January 2011

Wishful #14

Butterfly ceramic pendant necklace by OrlyDesign

What's Your Game Dress by IHeartFink

I REALLY like this month's inspiration painting on ArtBeadScene. Brown River by Wayne Thiebaud. I would so much like to have a poster of it to put on my wall. I have searched the net, but no success. Does anyone have a clue where or how I might get lucky, please write a comment. I would be ever so greatful!

All my best,

Malin

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

Some new things on their way

Hi Heather Powers of HumbleBeads, I recieved a bunch of wonderful beads from you yesterday. This snow owl was one of them. Look, he immediately found his place. He shall be "sitting on a stump in the woods" for the rest of his life.

He's made it all comfy with a bit of silk soft moss. He's all proud now, isn't he. And oh so cute. I am very pleased with how he has found his right surroundings.

I also though it would be fun to show you this idea for a bracelet that came up today. My dearest friend Caroline, who nowadays also work 2-3 days a week as my assistant in my home (I have an assistant 5 days a week due to my MS), was here today. We ended up chatting like crazy of course, since it was almost a week since we last saw each other. We sat in my studio and was looking at beads at the same time. I showed her these favourite ones of mine by Jen Zieger of ZBeadz. Hot Tamales Squish Jen calls them. I've had them for a while now and they are so magnificant and "strong" that I haven't known how to do them justice. I want them to stand out and draw attention to how beautiful they are. I've tried so many ideas. None of them good enough. Yet!

I need to tell you a bit about Caroline aswell, I guess. She is an extraordinary beautiful woman, both visually (she's always been a headturner, big time) and in her mind (utterly intelligent, and wise). She is soooooo funny! I most often laugh a lot in her company. She has always been there for me when I need her. She is like a sister to me really. I've known her since I was 16 and she was 17. We have always shared an interest in art and artistic activities. We ended up both of us studying art history, art and design. She took a masters degree in Textile Design and I one in Industrial Design. I am the godmother of her firstborn, she is the godmother of my firstborn. I totally respect her artistic opinions and taste, everything she does looks great. She drewls when she comes into my studio, although she isn't into beading and jewellery making herself. But she could be. Nowadays she is studying Gestalt therapy (link goes to Wikipedia).

This idea for a bracelet derrives from her and mine communal effort. Cooperation is beautiful, isn't it. 5 black thin leather strings shall be mounted with separators in between them so they keep their distance. See, they look just like note-lines. ZBeadz' beads are musical "signs" (notes) dancing on the lines playing a melody. Some extra notes and musical signs are added in form of seed beads picking up the colours of the squishy ones. I hope to make this bracelet come true soon.

Last a pendant I put together a few weeks ago. "Magic Bliss" will be the name of the necklace on which it will hang. Word beads by Diane Hawkey.

All my best,

Malin

Sunday, 2 January 2011

2011, and I am wishing for elephants

Ever since I was a child I have liked elephants. I kind of collected them. Had many cuddly toys for instance. And have you seen that nature film about elephants that mourne their dead? They stop at the spot where someone died years ago and stand still for a day or so. Very moving to see. And later the whole flock goes on a search for a missing young one. They just don't give up, and when the mum and the child finally see each other from a distance they start running, and it is so beautiful. David Attenburgh narrating. I cry rivers. They really are such magnificent animals.

Now I am at it again. I am lusting to add beautiful elephants in my jewellery. I am calling all art bead makers to create toggles, beads, pendants or anything that could be used in my jewellery. Your own personal interpretation of the elephant/s. And I am hereby calling first dibs on your pieces! Thank you!

Here are a few things to be found on Etsy at the moment: