Swedish Lesson #5 - Easter Witches

H A P P Y E A S T E R ! ! !

All my best,

Malin

Button Swap - REVEAL!!!!!

So here is my reveal. I recieved 6 b e a u t i f u l buttons from Michelle Mach who so kindly offered to be my partner in the Button Swap.

From top left and clockwise:

• A cowboy hat button in plastic, kind of an extra treat coz of Michelle living in a Western-themed area.
• Wavy lines pewter button by MamacitaBeadWorks on Etsy. YUM!!!!
• Gunmetal mosaic button (plastic), coming from a set of two. The first one Michelle used in a piece published in Simply Beads. I am really honoured to get this one. It is soooooo cool!
• Massive black carved wooden button! Wow, I looove this one! Looooove!
• Green ceramic button. I will not have any problem finding a suitable place for this one! Very nice.
• Coconut patterned button. Another pretty pretty and fun button I will love to use.

Thank you so much Michelle! And thank you so much for arranging the swap. Very very nice thing. Hope there will be more of them.

OK, so I had totally mixed up the dates, and I have been without an internet connection for two days. Got it back 3 hours ago and I realized that the Button Swap blog hop is TODAY. Quick photographing session outdoors in the late hour and no extra work on the images in photoshop. So this is it.

Here is my first bracelet. I call it "Hybernation Time". It contains MamacitaBeadWorks' pewter button. And an adorable polymer clay bear bead by TreeWingsStudio. A saffron chain and a green drenched copper bead, by MissFickleMedia. Some gemstones, wooden cubes, seed beads and bright red nylon cord.

Perhaps this is more of an autumn piece considering the theme and the colours. But it made me really happy to make it. A lustful feeling coz I just went with what I felt like, pretty-wise. Kind of playing around. I purpously made it too big for myself, since I have very small wrists and I wish it to be possible to purchase for a larger group of people.

Bracelet number two is under way. How could I resist to do something with that fantastic wooden button? It is so stunning I decided to use it as a focal piece. I am working on a peyote "band" made from size 11 Delicas in a colour scheme I have put together myself. I wanted to enhance and lift forward the button as much as possible but still have an interesting back-drop. The band has a hole where I will attach the button which have a shank. A silver coloured clasp.

An odd detail about the peyote is that I have done it every other row one-drop and every other two-drop. This so I would reach 15 rows but still make it an even count peyote structure. I am a bit proud of that solution. I do not like to work odd-count peyote you see, and I wanted the band to fit precisely in the clasp.

Please visit all the button swap blogs!

1. Cat - Boo Beads
2. Cindy - Sweet Bead Studio
3. Cory - Art with Moxie
4. Cyndi - Beading Arts
5. Dita - Alankarshilpa

6. Donna, Marti, and Michelle - Beads & Books
7. Erin - Treasures Found
8. Hope - Crafty Hope
9. Inca - Zerenity Design
10. Katrine - Army of Sock Monsters

11. Krista - French Elegant Jewelry
12. Kristie - Artisan Clay
13. Linda D. - Lutka and Co.
14. Linda L. - Linda's Bead Blog
15. Lody - Lody's Beadworks

16. Lori - Pretty Things
17. Loretta - Loretta's Boutique
18. Malin - Beading by Malin de Koning - YOU ARE HERE
19. Mary - MK's Creative Musings
20. Maryanne - Zingala's Workshop

21. Melinda - Melinda Orr Metal & Clay Jewelry Designs
22. Saskia - Perlendistel
23. Shannon - For My Sweet Daughter
24. Shirley - Beads and Bread
25. Stephanie - Confessions of a Bead Hoader

Unbelieveble internet connection and computer problem

Big sigh!

It works again.

I've been without an internet connection for 2 days now.

And now I just read some comments on my last post where someone mentioned the Button Swap. OMG - I thought it was on the 29th we were supposed to blog about them. I'll try to wisk something together quickly to present my things. Please please excuse me. I DO have one bracelet ready, and one half ready. But no photographs. It's 7.15 in the evening here. I'll hurry now. See you soon again.

Bye for now.

Lavender Butterfly - New Necklace

• Butterfly pendant and two small disk beads by HumbleBeads.
• Lilac chain, purple copper ring and purple colored copper wire by MissFickleMedia (Shannon's shop is on a short vacation until the 18th, the link will take you to her blog instead).
• Glass beads and facetted bone bead.

There is no clasp since it is long enough to go over the head.

Arabella is modelling for me with the necklace arranged to become slightly shorter when it sits on her. It is longer on an adult.

All my best,

Malin

BTW - Bead Table Wednesday - 13th of April

I saw these spectacular earrings by Emma of FredBean's Nook the other day. I fell in love with the design. I just love love love it. Had to give it a try myself. I did figure out to start with a ladder stitch ring in the center to surround the bead.

The next steps I will give a try in the coming days. I feel very uncertain about how I will do it. I think I know how. But I just think it is gonna look awful when it's coming from me ... You just HAVE to check out Emma's work. www.fredbeansnook.com

These beads arrived in the mail today, from Bead Of The Month Club by Heather Powers of HumbleBeads. Let's just say I do NOT regret I joined that club.

A sneak peek of one of the things I am doing for the Button Swap arranged by Michelle Mach. She sent me some awesome buttons. Reveal day with blog hop will be on the 29th of April. Don't miss that.

A give-away at Barbe Saint John's

They are giving away Industrial Chic components and the booklet. I want to win!
Barbe Saint John - New Treasures from Forgotten Artifacts: All about Industrial Chic and a giveaway!!!!

Lorelei's Blog: 24 hour giveaway

Look! What a generous give-away arranged by Lorelei Eurto with pendants donated by Jade Scott. ! I loooove Jade Scott's things. Just look at them. I so much wanna win them!

Lorelei's Blog: 24 hour giveaway: "That's right, you have exactly 24 hours from now, 8:14am Wednesday, to leave a comment on this post to win these four lovely handcrafted bez..."

Wishful for Spring and Lime Green

Hand painted wood bead from Alicias Bead

Round faceted Prehnite from BeadFrenZ

Peruvian Opal from Norah62

Shop or not shop - Amazing feedback pt 1. And a new bracelet.

Oh the feedback I got from my last post. Absolutely fantastic! So many good ideas there, and ways of thinking, and angles and ... I got more than I ever could have imagined. There are things there I have never thought of. You are simply the best! Now I need a few days to think through it all, and come up with my plan. More likely I need a week or so. Well, I think I already know the basic structure of it all, but the details, the details ...

You have no idea how helpful your comments have been, and will be. You, and they, will make all the difference for me in the future. I am ever so grateful. Thank you thank you thank you!

Speaking of details, Michelle Mach, who's blog is my latest discovery and which I scrutinize every post of (coz she is excellent), wrote about details a few days ago. She is doing a "letter series" of posts paraphrasing Sue Grafton, an author I like to read. Anyway you should check this post "D is for Details". And that picture!

Her post relates strangely and strongly to one of my latest pieces. The bracelet you see in the pictures. I had the basic design laid out very quickly. Actually it was the two beads you see centrally in the image below, that happened to lay next to each other on my table. And BAM! I loved how they looked together. How about Nancy's, RoundRabbit, teal porcelain link to go with that? I've been so eager to use it ever since I got it a few weeks ago. Yes, it looks great! The rest came by itself. Lilac, teal and brass.

But, what about details then? Well, I have assembled, reassembled, assembled, took all the photographs, saw that something was missing on the chain part, took it apart, took it all apart, coz there were more details I wasn't happy with, like the string I had used was too stiff, and the large beads were sort of turned the wrong way, and also the dangles and so on. Why is it that sometimes the details just get right from the beginning, but then sometimes you have to redo and redo until it is all right. I took all the pictures again today, but of course I managed to smear the lens with my thumb after half of the session. Something I only noticed once I had uploaded them to my computer. No, I am not taking a third set of photos. Now these will have to do.

I haven't given the bracelet a name yet. Currently I call it XX.

All my best, and again a HUGE thank you for your support! I shall come up with some kind of give-away for you. Tomorrow I'm going to Ikea.

Shop or not shop - I need feedback

Hello dear friends!

I have this issue I want to come to a decision with. But first I feel I need to analyze it from all possible viewpoints to be able to make that decision on how I shall continue from here?

The images in this post are of Arabella, my daughter. 4 at the time, now 7 1/2. She is wearing a tiara I made. I call it "Punk Princess". And you know she is shouting out "It's Party Time!" on the first picture. There is no connection to the subject in this post. Other than that I love my children, and I wish them to be proud of me. I am sooo proud of them!

I believe you could help me with this process. I had such a good experience from asking about your opinions on the new looks on my blog. (Thank you again for the great response on that, it really helped.) So I am gonna go for this method again. Let's call it "Online Brainstorming for the Benefit of Malin"

I wish to hear your thoughts, different ideas, possibilities you come to think of, obstacles you can see, and so on. Anything and from any angle. And from all angles.

The question is - shall I have an online shop (like one on Etsy for instance), or should I not?

These are the facts:

1.

• I make jewelry.
• I make good enough jewelry too sell it.
• I want to sell my jewelry. I will not make any money from it, but it will help providing enough to keep my hobby going. I can buy more beads and supplies, and I can improve my working area and my tool park.
• Another good reason I want to sell my jewelry is that it makes me happy. It is a great feeling to know that people wear things I have made. That I have helped to improve their lives just a little by providing something they like and makes them feel good.
• It is a great feeling to get positive response on thing you have created. It's a kick, and you become kind of addicted. I know you know what I mean!

2.

• I have MS.
• I got the diagnosis in 2008. But I know now that I have had it since at least 1984, at the age of 19. I have had symptom's that were vague and weird here and there over the years. Sometimes I would go and see a doctor about it, but most of the time I would ignore them, thinking it was just a passing phase of some weirdity going on. Looking at my self as the healthiest person on the earth. "I can do anything I want." "I am strong." (HA!) And the weird phase would pass, coz that is how MS works most often.
• Now over the years the MS has gradually worn my system down, and today I am stuck with some permanent functional disorders.
• It is these disorders that I am afraid stand in the way for me when it comes to selling my jewelry online. Or rather, I can't see really how I should do to work around them and make it possible anyway.

3.

• Basically the main problem for me is to actually make sure the piece reach the buyer in good time and in a good manner.
• I have problems executing such things. And my current thought is that I can't have an online shop coz I would just not be able to provide a good service in that sense.

4.

• My bodily dysfunctions are. I don't walk well at all. And I get dizzy/vertigo from any movement of my head or my eyes. Or if things move within my eyesight. Changing visual focus costs a lot of energy. Basically just moving in any way costs a lot of energy (better explain, this is due to the nerve signals going very slowly and maybe not even reaching their destination, compare driving on a motorway/highway or on a curvy bumpy cow trail through the woods.)
• Cognitive impairment: A lack of ability to organize myself, to keep track of things, to make a plan, to stick to a plan, and to carry it out. I have problems with staying in focus, and to maintain and divide attention, or to monitor my activities. I have a bad short term memory. And it causes me to constantly loose track of what I am doing at the time. I suffer seriously from all these things. I emphasize this strongly coz I have noticed that most people don't understand the severity of the cognitive disorders with me. They are not visible, but they are there. It is not just everyday "charming" wooziness, whimsies or forgetfulness which anyone can experience. This is way way beyond.
• To conclude: the best for me is to be able to be still and/or in the one same context for longer periods. To have to get up to get something I need and that is not within reach (say for instance another pair of scissors) will most likely cause me to realize later, that I never finished that thing I was in the middle of. It could be hours, days, weeks or months even. And when I realize I am most likely not in the situation where I can easily just pick up from where I left. Because I am in the middle of something else then.

So that is what this is all about really. I need some good contribution thinking from you. Should I skip the online shop totally? Or should I try to alter some things to make it possible? What and how in that case?

(There are other possibilities for me to sell my jewelry, but they would mean other types of issues. And at the moment the online shop seems the easiest way after all.)

I am glad for just any little comment on this subject, do not feel you have to solve it all for me. Every little helps. It really does!

Of course their should be a possibility for you to gain something from helping me. How about a good old give-away? Or something else? Let me get back on that. All ideas on that are appreciated.

All my best,

Malin

Ring - Going To the Art Gallery

Made this ring yesterday. I named it "Going To the Art Gallery". It's the opening day, and you walk around there looking at paintings whilst sipping on your white wine. Of course you need a large ring, a boho chic looking one. Black ceramic disk by RoundRabbit, green ceramic disk, dark ceramic round by Gaea, brass wire, black fiber/yarn.

I was inspired by the works of Maire Dodd and Amanda Davie.