EBW July Challenge: The Most Colorful Animals

Yes, I am alive! And, hear hear, I am finally partecipating to the monthly EBW challenge!
This month the theme is The Most Colorful Animals, and my mind couldn't stop thinking about this creature:

Source: Pinterest

I discovered the Mantis Shrimp thanks to The Oatmeal, and I suggest you all jump to his amazing website and read this infographic he created.
Stunning, isn't it?!
This little, amazing creature can break glass. Can you imagine that?!
So playing with CRAW I attempted to make a tiny Mantis Shrimp

and I came up with a wrap bracelet

I love how the tummy came out, even though this part is a work of fantasy

I promise better pics in the morning, in the meanwhile it's already dark in here and I had to rush to post this last minute creation.
Don't forget to jump on out team blog http://etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.co.at/ to vote for your favourite colored animal from the 5th July until the 16th!!!

Inspirational bracelet tutorial

I am often asked how I started beading.
As most people, my first approch to beads was a handmade loom, made by my mom with a shoe box.
When I grew a little older, I learnt with a 70's book how to do flat and round peyote stitch.

For about 15 years and more I haven't been doing anything else. I wasn't aware of the huge beading community existing online. I guess faster internet and websites like Flickr and Pinterest have made it all so much easier.

I have lernt so many techniques and stitches, but in the end I always come back to peyote stitch for one reason or another: I need to make a beaded toggle, or some tubular beaded beads to cover something, or I just need to relax and "switch off" my brain doing something simple.

Lately I have been making these cute bracelets

they are so versatile and easy but give great satisfaction.
So I made a tutorial.
Because many people ask me how I started to understand if they are still on time to start, so I just want to tell you: sure! There is always plenty of time to start!

People who don't know about beadweaving also don't know that some of the most talented beadweavers are not exactly young girls (they surely are at heart) and just started a few years ago.
Excellence is a habit!

You can find my tutorial here.

The "nothing to wear" syndrome

You know when you open your closet, full of clothes of any kind, and still you got nothing to wear?
It also happens with beads.
You might have plenty, but still you feel if you had some more of a different kind, you would be so much more creative and could do amazing things.

Add a very gloomy weather which makes it so hard to take pictures, and you get why I haven't beaded much.
But I made a couple of easy-peasy things to keep myself working.
One is this nice bracelet

found this on so many websites, I wanted to try it and I thought the bicolor beads from Eozy would be perfect.

If only I had had more jump rings of the perfect size, I would have made a necklace too.
I also used the lilac glass beads from the same shop and I love them so much, both color and size are perfect for my flower donuts

This time I started with earrings, but I feel I would love an entire necklace like the Bridal Flower Wreath I made for the EBW challenge in June.
Just need to find the perfect color of crystal bicones to match.
That's all for today, I'm going back to beading!

A new capricho

Capricho means whim in spanish and it's really close to the italian word, which is "capriccio".
As you may know it is also a beautiful cuff made by Alex Unicornio, who shared the pattern on her blog.
It was on every beader's blog some time ago and I joined this madness making a rainbow version.
This week I decided to make another one in gold

I'm going to attend a wedding in a couple of weeks, I have a dark orange long dress and I suddenly pictured myself wearing a big, bold golden cuff to match my purse.
So I made this.

I didn't remember how easy and fast it was to make one.
I used cheap crystals (there are way too many!), but made a netted base with amazing silky metallic amber color Preciosa Ornela seed beads, and used size 15/0 Toho rainbow smoky topaz seed beads between the crystals to give some contrast.
I can't wait to wear it!
I need ideas for the earrings now!

Never ending drilling

No, I am not talking about drilling beads or pebbles. Nothing jewelry related.
It's just wherever I go, the sound of drills follows me - looks like buildings renovations are all over Italy.
And always next to where I live.

The weather is still not too hot, thanks to the strong wind blowing all over, but that means it is almost impossible to stay on a beach.
So I got back beading and making experiments.
By now all I can show is this

a mixture of colors and stones I really love. I'll have some new pieces really soon...in the meanwhile I am knitting hard to finish this shawl and I'm almost there.

Summer gifts and packing

My bead mate Dorota, my favorite chocolate pusher (remember???) has just received a little thing I made for her

Sorry, I had to steal her pic!

I asked for her favorite color combo and it was perfect with the idea I had of making something for summer.

I'm happy to see once again outgoing mail is much faster than incoming.
 I've been waiting for a knitting needle for more than a week now, and it's from Germany. My shawl is stuck halfway and I was hoping to finish it while on train next week, so I hope my mail will come soon!

I am also starting to organize my beads in order to decide which ones I'll take with me this summer.
How do you choose?
Sometimes bringing W.I.P. projects doesn't work and you start regretting not bringing more beads with you.

Last summer I didn't bring much 'cause I wasn't planning on staying more than 2 weeks, and they became 2 months. This summer I already know it will be 2 months and a half and I don't know which beads I can do without. And threads, and jump rings and stuff.
Hard decisions on my way...

Spikey punk bracelet

These amazing orange Delica beads have an AB finish the pic doesn't catch

and I think they make the perfect contrast with the matte color of the spikes.

I just love the punk feeling it gives, mixed with this neon touch.

Kriszten bracelet

Even in the middle of a neon-colors-frenzy I can never forget my first love: red.

A beautiful bracelet designed by Eva Kovacs, who as usual shares amazing free pattern on her website

Takes less than an hour to make it and just the right amount of super duo beads - don't you just hate it when your beads are finished and your project isn't?!! 

This is not the case: I used less than 10gr of super duo.

And I just LOVE the picasso finish. 

I am going to try some other pattern really soon.

EBW Spring Swap 2013

This year I partecipated again in the Spring Swap organized by the Etsy Beadweavers Team.
The person I made a little gift for was different from the one I received it from, so you interact with 2 people from the team. You never know when the package is going to arrive because you don't know when it's sent, so it's a big surprise!
This time I made a bracelet for Andrea Ortiz of Blue Star Arts.

   

I read from the questionnaire we all had to fill in that she practises yoga and likes blue and green.
So I wanted to make something with an Om. I was inspired by my Japanese tradition bracelet and was thinking of following the same pattern, but just one strand of beaded beads. That didn't look nice though.
I started making these tubular thingies not knowing exactly how to use them. I was inspired by Csilla Csirmaz bracelet but didn't want anything that crowded.
I decided knotting with waxed thread was the solution; of course my size 15 seed beads didn't think so. It was impossible to make it through the CRAW tube of the Om piece.

Final option was metal. You know how much I'm clamsy with it. I had some silver chain which made me think about the final solution....

Much better than waxed thread.
I used a magnetic toggle so it's more practical and easy to remove when she goes to her yoga lessons!

________________________________________________________________

On to my benefactor who is Cajsa Lisa Anderson of ajBead.
She made a gorgeous pendant inspired by her father's japanese garden (I knotted a simple grey cord to wear it)

She visited it this winter and decided to capture that moment when snow covers everything, but still you know flowers will come back very soon. You can see the inspiration here.
I was really touched by her story and look at how amazing her father's pieces of art are!
I love both the pendant and the source of inspiration. Looks like destiny that I wrote I'm crazy about Japan and her father had this special hobby. Thank you so much for sharing this with me!

Hope you enjoyed both stories, please hop to the Etsy Beadweavers Team blog to see what the other members made for their partners!

Ready to party with Gatsby?

I'm certainly glad to see you again, Leo.
It's been a long time.
I still remember watching Titanic at the cinema with my 3 best friends, the "WOW" at the close up of his eyes while sketching Rose, the tears of despair in the end.
And what about Romeo+Juliet?!! Oh my. The butterflies in my stomach every time I watch that movie.

The great Gatsby is another of those butterfly-making-movies. The suspance before the two ex-lovers meet again after so many years, the impossible love, the tragedy. I can't wait for tonight to see it on that huge screen.

My intention was to embroidery a cloche to put on for the big event and get dressed up with some friends, but unfortunately they're all working and the weather is horrible today, and I'm too eager (and selfish) to wait for them to see the movie.
I thought I needed at least a small accessory to get in the mood.

Pattern by Eva Kovacs (bracelet) and Kerrie Slade (flower), both free.
Now off to the cinema!

Bead Soup Party 2nd reveal: here I am!

I'm so thrilled this day has come!
This is my first Bead Soup Blog Party and I was lucky to have a European partner, so soups arrived within a week! I had a lot of time to think about each of these creations, but you know: best ideas come at the very last moment!
My partner is Dorota Żerańska from Poland and she was hugely generous with her soup:

My whole production is dedicated to Spring!
I tried to use as much as I could adding just indispensable things. And I committed to working with techniques I had never used before. Like bead embroidery.
So here is the first one, which I call Red Lady necklace:

I had never made a piece like this.When you have such an amazing, bold focal, you can either keep it the most simple you can, or you need to go even bolder. So I created embroidered matching pieces (Dorota had sent some of the beads she had used to bezel the focal cabochon) adding only some golden beads and orange rivolis. I started with bigger, richer pieces and made a dwindling effect with some RAW rings up to the small toggle.

Second piece, the Leaf necklace, also featuring something I never used before: sari silk ribbons and knotting with waxed thread.

I used this gorgeous leaf focal here and also one of the two toggles. Look at the amazing variety of green stones in here...I made some beaded beads with the crystals in the soup and the seed beads I had used in the Red lady necklace, which are orange with a lime green lining, to break all this green nuances. I also made a matching bracelet adding a beaded bead:

and using the same knotting technique, mixing some lilac for a change.
Made another one with these other gorgeous lentil beads

Third necklace, I made some more beaded donuts like the smallest of the first necklace.
I only used beads from the soup and just added some chain maille beads...yes! I tried chain maille for the first time! I know it's nothing special, but jump rings are my sworn enemies, so it's a big deal for me.
What I made is a Cherry Blossom Necklace:

...and looks like in the end a couple of blossoms actually produced some fruit!

Forth necklace, the MultisPring necklace made with some of the remaining beads from the first one:

I used another focal here, put it on one side and on the other there's a ceramic connector from ScorchedEarth, which was the perfect color. The news here is the leather cord I've had in my stash forever and never used before.

Last but not least, the main clasp!
Too beautiful to put it on the back of a necklace, too simple on a multistring bracelet, I changed my mind a thousand times on how to use it; finally I decided for something to complete it, some embroidered leaves

But then I found this old ceramic green flower which looked similar and decided, in the end, to put the toggle in the back. The beautiful freshwater pearls and green crystal from the soup complete the piece and match both the flowers.

This is all for now! I still have plenty of soup left, so I'll produce more until it's finished!
I'll blog about every piece in a more detailed way, one each day, so stay tuned if you'd like to know more about the creative process.
Thank you so much Dorota for being so generous and open to communication, and...for sending chocolate! LOL that is why I love swapping. You get to know some really amazing people!
And BIG thanks to Lori Anderson, our amazing hostess!
Now go see what my partner made and take a nice blog hopping on all the other partecipants, you'll find the list here!!!

Spoiling Mom

I'm packing my things to catch a train back to Milan tonight. Same old story.
I took some time to make something for mom though.
I made a cute little bracelet for her and put it in a small Easter paper egg...no pics of it yet.

Then I made this bracelet to match her necklace:

I don't usually like sets, especially this bold, but I have to admit they look stunning together.
I had also bought her a kit at Creattiva fair, composed of handmade greek ceramic beads, silver components and acai seeds, knotted on a turquoise waxed cord.

I waited to make it because I wasn't sure she was going to like it. But she does.
I didn't bring my cameras here so I took this pics with my cell phone, sorry for the quality.
See you back in Milan!

Spring bracelets

I'm making tones of these to fight the "rain-blues"

Simple, bright and can be stacked all together

Just something quick to make while watching a bedtime movie, hoping for the morning not to bring rain again...

Spikes fever

Some days ago I received another gift from Preciosa Ornela: some amazing amber color Twin beads.
I decided to buy some spikes in the same color and make something beautiful...

The pattern is from Perl'agogo and the original, without spikes, is called Victoria.

I'm making more, different spike bracelets in more vivid colors and hope to finish them before I leave for Easter vacation.

Beaded bento box

A fellow beader from the EBW team suggested I should style my beaded sushi into a bento box. So here it is!
I put out my favorite Shinzi Katoh bento for the occasion:

I added some more beads for styling purpose - just some wasabi and soba...
And here is the bracelet alone

Now go tell my stomach I can't have sushi for lunch...

P.S. If you would like to know more about bentos, scroll down and look at my favorite websites on the right!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!