Can tab bracelet

Instead of working on my soup, as it should be, I made an experiment to be sure about the toggle clasp I sent to my BSBP partner.
Since I wanted something unexpected and different I beaded a toggle using, of course, a can tab.
I made another one and used it in a bracelet and made some matching beaded beads

I love the result! The toggle works just fine and I like the simmetry of the bracelet.
I have a thin wrist, so it fits perfectly and doesn't move; I should consider adding one more bead for larger wrists.

Little wood spools

MUHAHAHAHAH!!! (devilish laugh)
Look what I accomplished today:

(sorry for the messy pic, just anxious to show off!!!)
All by myself, no tutorials, I finally understood how to bead these tiny little wood spools.
Tomorrow I'll need to figure out how to do the same with the bigger size and then, maybe, a new tutorial will come out.

Deliveries

While I usually have to wait a lot of time (seriously, a LOT) for my purchases, my items travel pretty fast on their way to their new homes. Sometimes, though, they might take more than usual.
In these cases I wish I could deliver them myself, but it's not possible and all I can do is bear the feeling of helplessness.
Luckily my Japan tradition bracelet arrived to Germany in a couple of days and I just received the most wonderful message from the new owner!
This will warm up this snowy day for sure.
I'm going to produce more beaded sushi, but in the meanwhile I'm also desperately trying to bead these...

Not easy for me.

Grellow bangle

Finished my custom order, delivered it, then spent some time playing with the new Miyuki I bought last weekend at Creattiva fair, in Bergamo...yes, I've been there and splurged on beads and knitting needles and didn't want to admit it.

Stayed simple and made a pitaya beaded bead, then I decided to use another small beaded bead I was experimenting with 2 days ago, even though the bangle is not symmetrical this way.
I used my beloved labradorite rondelles; according to crystal therapy this stone improves intuition and clarifies the possessor's own views and objectives and has pain killing properties.
I still have a lot of yellow and grey to use in my stash, so wait for more!

Real soups

Let's set beads aside for a moment and let's talk about a real soup.
We just had a sunny week in Italy, but rain and snow are coming back in a couple of days, so I'm thinking about something comforting and delicious...like chocolate. No, I meant soup.
I want to talk about a Polish soup in honour of my Bead Soup partner Dorota. She told me that a rich broth can be considered as the national soup in Poland, served on Sunday and made with a lot of fresh meat and vegetables.

Here's the recipe she provided (taken from the book Prawdziwa kuchnia polska by Hanna Szymanderska, REA,Warsaw, 2012):

Old Polish broth

500 gbeef (entrecote or prime rib)
100 gpoultry liver
1/2 hen
2 carrots
3 root parsleys
1/2 celery root
Scorched onion
1-2 cloves
Several black pepper pods and allspice
Thyme sprig
Several sprigs of parsley
2 dried porcini mushrooms
Salt and pepper
2-3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Rinse mushrooms and soak in a small quantity of boiled water. Put rinsed beef into saucepan, cover with two litres of water, bring to a boil, simmer for about 30 minutes, skimming frequently. Add rinsed and peeled carrots, onion, roots, thyme, soaked mushrooms and sprigs of parsley. Simmer for about 1 hour and sieve. Remove membrane from liver, rinse, dry and cut into cubes. Move to saucepan, pour sieved broth, bring to a boil, add sliced mushrooms and hen meat, season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with pasta, fine-milled buckwheat cubes or French dumplings, topped with chopped parsley.

I tried it last week and it's delicious!

My soup arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning I received my soup from Poland!!!
I almost hugged the postman. He had some sort of big baby in his arms!

I was beyond excited and was jumping up and down in my kitchen!
When I opened it, a lot of chocolate jumped out of the huge envelope....

There was a beautiful floreal box too, with a lot of goodies inside...basically, I received 3 soups!
Colors are gorgeous, the first is orange (my favorite)

Then brown and yellow

and finally green:

How can a person be so generous?!!! I'm in shock!
And look at the amazing cabochon Dorota made, embroidered with amazing skill. I'm speachless.
Thank you so much my friend!
Take a look at Dorota's blog to see what I sent her and her beautiful works.

Facebook page!

I finally set up a Facebook page for my shop!
Please stop by and like it - if you like it - I'm still trying to make it decent graphically speaking, which is really hard without my laptop, but I'll do my best!
In the meantime check out my latest earrings:

Will be on etsy soon with other new items!

To bead is to be challenged

The main reason why I love EBW monthly challenge is because it's not just a challenge with other beaders, but with your own brain.
An "easy" theme is sometimes harder to translate into a beadwoven item because interpretations are endless and your mind keeps jumping from one possibility to another, unless you have a striking idea from the beginning and are able to stick to it until the end (which is pretty impossible for me).

For this last piece I have received a lot of heart-warming compliments from fellow beaders, was it for the craftmanship or the message it holds; I was in disbelief for the kind words of artists that make much more amazing works than I do.
I want to thank everybody because your messages have really made my day more than you might think!

Source: Pinterest

When I opened my etsy shop I wanted to be different from everybody, easier said than done since there are thousands of beaders out there and many of them come up with new designs every single day!
I'm happy I'm sometimes able to do it and I also thank the Etsy Beadweavers team for pushing my creativity and taking care of challenges, website and forum with such a huge passion.

Bead Perles

I've been featured on Bead Perles website.
I'm so honored!!!
I've known a lot of artists who really inspire me a lot reading those interviews, so it's weird and exciting to be there.
Thanks a lot!!!!

Soup arrived in Poland!

My soup for Dorota has just been unpacked by her!
That was soooo fast, I was worried about the snow but looks like it didn't matter.
Yesterday it's been snowing hard the whole day and this morning too, so it is time for a REAL soup - also these last weeks I enjoyed soups a lot being sick and all.
I usually make chicken soup, adding some vegetables to have more vitamins and flavour. But I also love a typical Italian minestrone, with lot of parmigiano in it (how funny it is to crave for something that you've been hating for your whole childhood - and more?!)
I asked Dorota to send me a Polish recipe for a soup and will publish it when I'll get my own bead soup here.
So stay tuned :)

This time I didn't throw it.

Remember my beautiful-broken-at-the-last-minute-necklace?
Here is the matching bracelet:

I still need a picture of the necklace, but this Christmas I saw it worn a lot of times and felt really proud of it.
This goes in the mail today and hopefully it'll be opened for Valentine's day.

A European soup

It's about time to talk about my partner for the 7th Bead Soup Party!
Now that contact has been made, let me introduce Dorota properly.
She's from Poland and she's a talented seed beader both with beadweaving

and crochet

and also very good at soutache, as you can see

(I'll never have the courage to try soutache!)

She told me she's really into flamenco, which I love, and let me sneak peek a picture of her - I'm not a stalker but it's nice to associate faces to names! Plus, I had my reasons...which you'll understand lately.
I hope the snow won't slow down our soups travel because we both need something to warm up our days!
Even though it took longer, snow arrived in the north of Italy tonight and will be go on for a couple of days, so I'm seeing a lot of beads in the near future. And tea.

February EBW challenge: Japan

It's finally time to vote for this month Etsy Beadweavers Challenge! Theme: Japan!!!

"Japan has a most exciting culture. There is a distinct division between past and future: ancient traditional values with their strong rituals, art forms and language on one side, versus the crazy dazzling fashion modernity, neon colors, and plastic kitsch on the other side. Pick ONE of these two styles to create a piece of jewelry that shows the important criteria needed to convey either the traditional or the modern Japan. OR: combine both styles into one piece accentuating the contrasts!"

Vote for your favorite piece of art from today until the 16th on our team blog!

Logged off

Yesterday I had to send my laptop away to be fixed, and the reason is so stupid I'm even more pissed off.
My BF laptop is slow and has a lot of issues and his tablet, well, let's say I don't really get along with touch devices...plus no photoshop (with a mouse I mean!!!), problem with writing more than a sentence and...did I mention I don't like touch devices? Only my Kindle touch is "friendly" to me.
Guess I'll have a month full of free time (no Pinterest is one of the main reasons why) which I mean to spend reading more, working out at the gym to fix my back once and for all and, of course, beading.

source: Pinterest

I'll try to update the blog regularly somehow, since I'm working on two custom orders which I really want to show off, and the Bead Soup is on its way both towards me and my partner Dorota.
Can't wait for this month to pass!

Bead Soup Party, here I come!

I'm finally taking part in the Bead Soup Party! When I first discovered about it, it was already on. The following time I wasn't picked. Third time I was on holiday and moving a lot, so I didn't partecipate, even though it had become open to anybody. So this is the right time! In the meantime I have partecipated in a couple of swaps and have "warmed up" for this. I'm finishing to cook my soup right now after a couple of rough weeks: stomach problems first, a very bad back pain last week and, just when I had recovered completely, a terrible pharyngitis I'm dealing with right now.

source: Pinterest

Seems like you get thousands of ideas when you aren't able to bead at all, so I'm eager to go back to my table and create something after too much bed. My partner is Dorota Żerańska and I can't wait to start this adventure!

New sushi tutorial

Just listed a beaded sushi tutorial :)

If you want to try and make some salmon-avocado maki yourself...you also have the tuna version!

EBW February challenge: Japan

Progress is necessary for a country to move on and improve, but tradition is indispensable.
Traditions give roots to people so they can always have their feet firmly on the ground and start again whenever they fall down.

Having experienced many differences moving from one place to another, all in the north of Italy -so very different from the south in a million ways- I know for sure that whenever I'm feeling down, or just don't know how to behave, traditions from my family and my town are what really cheer me up and make me feel confident again.
Can be a conforting recipe from my grandma; a saying in my town slang, full of wisdom; a festivity we try to celebrate even though it is not known where we live now.

Japan is a country which has endured a lot of tough situations, and I think it owes that to its people strong faith in tradition.
Bombs, earthquakes, tsunami, just to name some.
Everytime they fall, they always stand up again, more fierce and determined than before.
Fall down seven times, stand up eight.

My piece for this challenge wants to celebrate some typical, traditional Japanese symbols.

Its cooking tradition (sushi); the famous cherry blossoms; a kokeshi doll; a koi, the symbol of perseverance in adversity and strength of purpose; national pride, with the country flag and the rising sun;

mount Fuji, or Fuji-san, the (almost)sacred volcano;

the Daruma doll, symbolizing the ability of recovering from troubles and stand up again.

And I swear, it's really comfortable to wear!
I'm so happy with this bracelet. I really made something out of my comfort zone and love the result.
Can't wait to see all of them all together in the mosaic!

Japan beaded beads

My piece for the Etsy Beadweavers challenge of february is almost ready.
I wanted to show you what I've been doing today...since most of my piece is made of beaded beads, which is virgin territory for me, I tried to make a bead with a landscape of the mount Fuji.
To make you understand better, here's a rough graph I used

The result is...well...weird.

Pictures don't really make you understand, but I'm quite happy with it, although it realy needs a bit of imagination to be interpreted!
Tomorrow I'll make the last beads and shoot some decent pictures.