Earthquakes

The earth is still shaking in Italy.
This morning I was awakened by a magnitude 6 earthquake with its epicentre at less than 100 km from here.
A lot of other old buildings are collapsing and a lot of people are still sleeping in their cars after beeing evacuated last week, among them also a great number of university student who are very far from home.
The Etsy Italia Team has set a shop for charity, which has already donated money to the Cinque Terre flood cause.
Please share the link to this shop so we can help re-building some school and give these people a little comfort.

Bellflower

One of the Pantone spring-summer 2012 colors is a bold Lilac called Bellflower.

via Pinterest

Seems pretty neglected from what I've seen in shops, while Tangerine Tango and Margarita are going to be the big hits of this summer.
I was just looking at a huge bag of beads in this wonderful tone on Ilenia's blog. Have a look and drool!
Yes, because Ilenia (a fellow beader from Etsy Beadweavers team) is one of the participants of the Pantone 2012 swap, and she was lucky to receive her partner's gift in no time...
Maybe sharing brings good luck, 'cause after reading her post I looked at my shop and saw...1 more sale!!!
This puppies are going to leave me tomorrow

and they happen to be in the same Bellflower color I was watching.
Hope they will bring some colorful joy to my customer's summer!

EBW Spring Swap 2012

This year I took part again in the Etsy Beadweavers Spring Swap.
As usual we were provided with some info on our partner for whom we had to create something, and we had our data sent to a mysterious doner.
My partner was Skylar Bre'z and this is what I made for her:

Among her favorite colors were blue and green, so I got carried away with all the tones I have in my stash. And decided to use some can tabs to give a quirk attitude to the necklace

On the other side, here's what I received from my doner, Ginny Brecht

This necklace was on my neck 10 minutes after unwrapping the envelope! I really love grey and the style of it really suits me.
Besides, look at the closure:

How clever is this??!!
If you want to take a look at all the other creations from this swap, visit the Etsy Beadweavers Blog and don't forget to also look at Skylar's and Ginny's shops, they're worth it!

Needles

Source: via Pinterest

Ever feel this way?
LOL

Beaded dolls - the tutorial

I finally made a tutorial for my beaded dolls.
Just listed it on Etsy...my eyes are tired, but I'm so happy!

Been wanting to make one for a long time, but there wasn't enough time to draw all the graphs (all those tiny beads! argh!) so I kept on procrastinating.
My first doll was a copy of one my grandmother brought from one of her trips to Spain when I was about 10.
It was the classic Indian doll (don't know why it came from Spain!) and was attached to a beaded necklace which started tearing apart very soon.
Fortunately this gave me a chance to look at the "anatomy" of both necklace and doll, and -being already handy with tubular peyote- I decided to give it a try. And then they came...

Possibilities are huge, I hope people will have fun as I'm having!

Princess Leia beaded doll

Lately I'm having fun with beaded dolls again.
Making them with n.15 seed beads is much more difficult, but the result is hilarious. A new generation of beaded dolls!
Since I'm a huge Star Wars fan, it was just a matter of time before I made a Princess Leia doll:

"Help me Obi Wan..."

She even has her tiny hood!
It's a pity you can't see her hair-buns. They're there, I swear!

Not sure who I'm going to make next...

Mint pitaya earrings

I bought the golden loops, very simple since the pitaya beads are already pretty bold...couldn't find my pliers to shorten the wire, so I just left them this way...

...and I kind of like them.
Just bought a top in the same color and I'm pretty happy after so many black clothes and silver earrings to finally move towards some lighter colors!

Pitaya beading frenzy

Yesterday I was caught by a pitaya beading frenzy.
I had these gorgeous mint-green green Miyukis and couldn't think of anything else but a pair of pitaya beaded earrings.
After a couple of experiments I finally decided to use the 24kt Gold Plated 15/0 Miyuki Delica beads I was treasuring for a special occasion and this is the result:

I only need two fancy golden loops and it's done!
Meanwhile I'm finishing another pitaya with a matte dark grey border, it's a gift to cheer up a friend.

After these I promise to return to my previous projects!

Will our hero be able to...

...finally make:

-an urchin bead necklace without changing her mind constantly about the color combo

-finish a Chain of Jewels Bracelet and maybe also the necklace she started a year ago...

I'm thinking positive and trying my best to succeed. It really helps to look at other beaders' working table and see they are working on as many project as I am right now.

Pantone swap - color choice

Talking again about the Pantone 2012 Bead Swap, my partner Lori and I chose the colors we want to work with.

They are: Driftwood, Solar Power, Cabaret and Tangerine Tango. Aren't they awesome together?! I just happened to find this pic on Pinterest and it shows how perfectly they mix up:

Source: via Pinterest

We agreed to use the same colors since it's funnier to see different possibilities in terms of bead and technique choice.

I'm really looking forward to this afternoon when I'll go bead shopping!

EBW May Challenge "Nautical Inspired" poll open!

As usual, here's the mosaic with all the entries for the Etsy Beadweavers monthly challenge.

This month we have a Nautical theme:

"One of my favorite things about being from the Oregon Coast is how much the culture and economy is tied to the ocean (and it's storms), the ports, and all the lush ocean life. My challenge is to make something Nautical inspired -- be it sailor stripes, a pirate's life, sea stars and octopi, or a siren atop a hefty, rusty anchor -- with Memorial Day on the way, I will definitely make my way down to the docks to see all the boats and fisherman, and welcome in all the sunshine.. With an occasional high-winds warning and some dark, churning ocean waves." So said our last month winner...isn't it inspiring?!!

Voting starts May 9 - May 15th on EBW blog, please stop by and take a look at all these lovely creations, it'll make you feel like summer is already here!

Pantone Spring 2012 swap

I'm really excited today! Lori Anderson from Pretty Things, who usually hosts the Bead Soup Blog Party, had an amazing idea to involve all the people who didn't make it through the BSBP lottery: a Pantone Swap based on the Spring 2012 fashion color report.

Source: via Pinterest

The swap has been organized on facebook and Lori picked the couples yesterday. My partner is Lori Wishart Finney, from Canada!

These events are great to make new friends all around the globe and I'm happy to work with somebody who has taken part in several swaps before, so we're just sharing ideas on how to organize everything.
We're lucky this spring Color Report gives some interesting possibilities in terms of combos...and it's nice to see a bit of grey (which I adore) together with brighter tones. Which tones will be chosen?