Necklace

Loooooong necklace (over 1 meter) packed with art beads and other goodies. It is telling the story about my house with its immediate surroundings. Our garden, the tiny little wood next to it, and then the field with horses beyond it. It is MY necklace about a place on earth that I really love and that means so much to me. And with loads of gorgeous beads that I love so much. I want to be able to carry it with me when I am away somewhere. 

Cord is a thin nylon cord (Superlon). See photo below for the bead artists. The macramé gives a wonderful casual feel, and softness. Sort of an intimate feel kind of, like friendship bracelets. I have worked on it a little here and there, for about two months, when I haven't had anything else going on. BTW, I do free hand macramé á la this Ornamentea tutorial. No tools or attachements needed. Perfect for in-front-of-the-TV crafting.

Art beads by: ChelleV2, Elaine Ray, Floridity, Gaea, Humblebeads, Jubilee, Mary Harding, Sue Beads, Susan K Nestor and TreeWingStudio.

And now ... 
... here's one of the reveals I promised you the other day: the necklace is one of the projects in the gallery section of Joanne Tinley's, of Daisy Chain Designs, new E-Book about using macramé in jewelry. 

Seriously, this book is absolutely fantastic! And I am not saying that just because I am in it ;-). So packed with information, ideas and inspiration. I know I will come back to it many many times, and use what Joanne teaches in the projects. Many ways are new to me, so I am all excited and eager to try them out. I can truly recommend it to everyone!

The book is available through Joanne's website, or her DaisyChainExtra Etsy shop.


All my best,
Malin

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

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!