Beading by Malin de Koning

Thursday, 13 October 2011

I get inspired

Hi,

Like most of you (I assume) I at times surf around quite a bit looking for beautiful and/or inspiring jewelry pieces. On my computer I have a folder with pictures of things that I get inspired by. It is often only a detail that interests me. Like a color combo, or a nicely laid out color scheme, how materials meet each other, an interesting assembly method, or a connection between two parts and so on. But sometimes I find things where everything is just simply fantastic to me. The whole piece! So now I thought I'd share with you a few such jewelry pieces. I find them all particularly awesome and inspiring.

Most of the time I am good at naming the pictures after the maker of the piece when I save them to my computer, as a way of being able to remember and for future tracking. But sometimes I miss out on that. If you see a piece in the collection below, that lacks a name or link for the maker, and you happen to know who it is, please let me know. I also really hope no one will take offence by me showing your piece here. If you do, I am am truly sorry, and please let me know and I will take it away directly.

Necklace by Shyme Design, Dalarna, Sweden

Lariat necklace by Lorelei Eurto, USA

Necklace by Rokdarbi from Latvia, Europe

Bracelet by Tammy Antoinette of Painted Metal. I also adore this photo. Unfortunately I could not find a currently valid link to a shop or blog that would take you to her. She used to be on Etsy. I did find her on Facebook however if you are interested.

Necklace. I am sorry, but I don't know who made this. It's been in my inspiration folder for a loooong long time. And I still love it. I do remember the designer had made the two brushed silver beads herself. Please let me know if you know who it is.

Thank you Cilla W! It is definitely Kelly Baldwin.

Bracelet by Lorelei Eurto, USA

Necklace by Elly Snare, United Kingdom

Hope you enjoyed this!

Have a great day!

All my best,

Malin

Saturday, 8 October 2011

LimaBeads Challenge by Lorelei and Shannon - Reveal

I was lucky to get my hands on one of these beautiful kits from LimaBeads. Fantasticly put together by Lorelei Eurto and Shannon Iko Chomanczuk. Thank you so much!

Shannon and Lorelei's idea was that we simply create something with the beads. We could use them whichever way we wanted, adding our own beads, focals and so on.

I have made three pieces, two necklaces and one bracelet.

Starting with the first necklace

I have recently learned the technique of pearl knotting on silk thread. (I am definitely not a pro yet, my constructions get sort of wobbly, so if anyone could tell me what I do wrong I'd be very happy.) I love the effect of knotting. And the less wanted wobblyness on this necklace will soon go away I believe. Oh I should also mention, I accidently got two bags of the pale yellow potato pearls. Hope no one else missed out on theirs.

Now the bracelet

I tripled the chain, and added beads from the BeadChest and art beads from RadiantMind, Floridity, HumbleBeads, Jubilee, Elaine Ray, Loupiac and Gaea. Strung on waxed linen cord. Clasp from LimaBeads and the cute peace charm I got ages ago, but unfortunately I can't remember from where, it is possible it was actually from LimaBeads.

Necklace number two

Beautiful pendant from HumbleBeads. And I added more pearls, semi-precious, copper and glass beads from my own stash.

Monday, 3 October 2011

Grateful Living

A new blog was born, on the 1st of October. It's called Grateful Living. All initiated by the fantastic Molly Alexander. This is some of what she says about it:

"
For a while now I have been wanting to create a forum for people to express thanksgiving for the blessings in their lives. To show that there are so many things to be thankful for; big and small, they are there, and all we need to do is take the time to stop, look around and recognize them.
...
A blog devoted solely to expressing gratitude,
...
Between us, maybe we can spread a bit of an "attitude of gratitude" together.
...
Seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Finding the small blessings in the big storms.

Waking up, breathing in, and recognizing that each day is a gift.

Seeing the glass as half-full.

Stepping off the treadmill of life and standing still for a moment to stop and smell the roses.

Looking beyond faults and recognizing the good in others.

Being thankful for what you have and not worrying away all your time wishing for what you don't.
"

Here's the list of the contributors:

Barbara Lewis
Chris Kerr
Cindy Wimmer
Crystal Neubauer
Diane Cook
Heather Powers
Holly Westfall
Jan Thomason
Jeanette Blix Ryan
Jen Crossley
Judy Glende
Juli Cannon
Lana Manis
Lori Anderson
Malin de Koning
Mary Jane Dodd
Molly Alexander
Nellie Wortman
Patty Gasparino
Rhonda Marinkovic
Riki Schumacher
Sally Turlington

So did you see my name right in there? I am so very honored to be a part of this group of fantastic ladies.

Molly's idea is that we will be posting 3 to 4 times a week with snippets of our lives that we are grateful for to share with you.

I myself am just now in the middle of completing my own first contributing post. About something I am so immensely grateful for, something I believe not many of you even know exists. So ... until it gets posted ... stay curious ;-) , and please head over now to the Grateful Living Blog and join us on our journey!

All my best,

Malin

Saturday, 1 October 2011

Wake Up With The Feeling Of That Love Is All Around

Hi,

I just thought I should inform you all that I am feeling well and good. I have not been posting here on my blog for a good while now, in fact for two whole weeks. That is a long break for me. The reason is that I simply have been very busy with a lot of stuff, AND that I have not felt I have anything really to write about or share with you here. I could always do a "wishful" post of course, but I just haven't gotten around to it.

So please hold on. I'll be back on my regular pace of posting, (which is about two or three times a week), within shortly.

I am producing jewelry things on a rather steady pace. However, I am currently in a state of seeking to discover new things, which means I try a lot of different and to me previously unknown stuff designwise and assemblywise. Most of my experiments turn out basically crap and not worth showing, but ... I gain knowledge anyway. And it is fun, and ... well ... necessary to me. You know the feeling when you NEED something new and fresh, coz everything you already know is too familiar and "seen it all before". Do you?

Check out the sort of fun and playful earrings I made the other day. I haven't got a clue if they really work, but they are the least crappy thing I've done lately, so I've decided to keep them. :-) I call them Wake Up With The Feeling Of That Love Is All Around.

The lovely quirky resin coin beads with print - Susan K. Nestor, also on Bead Trust

Purple enameled chain - Bead Trust

Purple enameled bead caps - Bumber Shoot Supplies

Enameled headpins - Barbara Lewis of Painting With Fire

Oh, and yes, I have cut my hair short. VERY short, that is! I will show you more soon.

Now, please, tell me! How do you go about when you feel you long for - need -change and new perspectives?

All my best,

Malin

Saturday, 17 September 2011

Bead Soup Blog Party 4 - Reveal

Hi,

Welcome to the reveal of what I did with the soup I got from my party partner Susie Hibdon of VintageSusieAndWings. Check it out, isn't it just perfectly awesome! Very exciting. I love it! Read more about it here.

If you know me from before, you might be thinking this is a way more color-less collection of beads and findings than I normally work with. Yes, that is very true. So I decided that would be my challenge. To work in a completely de-saturated and grey-ish color scheme.

The ten numbered tags was what first caught my attention, and I early on had this idea to make ten pieces on the theme of the ten commandments. Sort of illustrating each of them. I made quite a bit of research which I would be happy to share with you at another time (I found out some pretty interesting stuff, I was not yet aware of). And I am still keen on that idea, although I realize it would be a rather advanced and more of an artistic project for me. At least the way I have thought about it. Perhaps one day ... :-)

So now this is what I have made:

My first piece is a lariat style necklace. With a Christian feel to it. I made quite a few alterations along the way, working with the colors, to create something interesting. Trying to figure this, for me, new thing out (the color scheme). I've used almost only stuff from Susie's soup, adding only a few milky white glass beads, and the black glass cross.

My second piece is a bracelet containing the clasp Susie sent me. So by now I had gotten more used to the color scheme, and I am pleased with the way I managed to work with the grays, whites and blacks and still compose an interesting piece. Simplicity does not have to be boring at all. All the round beads come from my own stash.

A big THANK YOU to Lori Anderson of Pretty Things for making this world wide beading event possible. Have fun blog hopping, here's the list of the participating people/blogs, grouped by partner couples:

The Hostess, Lori Anderson and her partner, Manuela Wutschke

1. Aimee Wheaton and Barbara York

2. Alice Craddick and Sandra Richardson

3. Alison Sachs and Amy Severino

4. Allison Scott and Cynthia Abner

5. Amanda Cargill Austin and Charlene Sevier

6. Amanda Davie and Patsy Evins

7. Amber Dawn and Kim Ballor

8. Ambra Gostoli and Christine Hansen

9. Amy Freeland and Christine Altmiller

10. Ana Krepel-Novak and Eleanor Snare

11. Andrea Morici and Hope Smitherman