EBW February 2011 Challenge: Royalty throughout time

I have changed my mind about next month challenge so many times, I was afraid I didn't have much time left to make my entry.
I wanted to make a necklace inspired by the Evil Queen, so I bought a lot of golden, purple and black Swarovski and beads.
But then I had a beader's block.
Until yesterday, when I realized it was so much better to focus on a different aspect of the story...
So here it is, my beaded version of the Evil Queen box:



and there's also Snow White's heart inside (in the shape of a necklace, of course).



Please visit our team blog, www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com (http://www.etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com) between the 9th and 15th february and vote for your favorite entry!!!

First backed cameo

I finally tried to use one of my Guns N' Roses cameo in a proper way.
I glued it on a piece of leather, waited, embroidered it all around...this is the result



I'm pretty happy with it, though I did something wrong with the edges...so I won't show you the back!

I gave up...

...and made my own Chan Luu bracelet



It's addictive.
Going to make some more with sparkly beads.

Blackberries

I remember summers in the country, when I was a kid. We had that period when wild blackberries were ready, sneaking out from dry stone walls which divide each property there, branches so full they were leaning down on the road.
All the family used to take a walk, everyone with a little empty ice cream box, taking care not to wake up any snake hiding between the grass.
This summer I took such a walk after a long, long time, but there were almost no blackberry due to alternation of heavy rains and heat in the wrong periods.
So I made my own blackberries/beaded beads and made this necklace:



I love black and silver together and I had already used this combination for this necklace.

I also realy love the Pitaya bead, it has such a beautiful shape



Now I'm going back to the five necklaces I'm trying to finish...

Experimenting

I'm still in my hometown, the weather here is so much warmer then in the north of Italy (some days the difference is 10° C) that for the first time I don't mind sleeping in my old bedroom.
I'm back beading after a long break with some new beads I bought in Venice last month, they have a metallic finish and I love how the work turns out



Had I known they were so good, I would have bought more of them. Pictures don't do them justice.

Unfortunately I don't have ALL my beads here, and it's pretty hard to find any here, so I'm still trying to figure out how to make my entry for this month's EBW challenge, "Royalty Throughout Time" which is awesome!
I was thinking about a piece inspired by Elizabeth I, since I loved the 2 movies so much.
I found out I really love "Royal gossips". I started reading World of Royalty Blog and I enjoy it so much.
I'll go back beading now and maybe treat myself with some of this

Nice!!!

Today is so full of nice discoveries.
My copy of Marcia De Coster's Beaded opulence arrived, and I can't wait to start beading!!!
It was a gift for my birthday, one of my favourite!
I think I'm going to buy some more beading books. I recently followed an interesting discussion on Etsy Beadweavers forum about copyright and I realized many beaders don't buy beading books anymore to feel more free to bead without the danger of unconsciously copying.
That's a smart thing to do.
Unfortunately, I feel I still have so much to learn. I usually "copy" (giving the due credit of course, ^_^ )stuff simply looking at it and trying to understand myself how to do it with my own knowledge, and the result is so much gratifying; like with the star shaped Santa Claus.
But some things are so complicated, it's hard to resist buying a pattern or a book.

The nice thing is there are so many people who just share their pattern, or like in the following case, make a sort of friendly competition!
I found this very nice initiative on Renata's blog



please have a look, as you can see from the pic the result is gorgeous!
The deadline is 31 January, hurry up!