Saturday, February 16, 2008

16.2.08 A Flower spiral with a cabochon pendant





This project was a great therapy for this week in which I got a nasty virus.
The virus is gone and the spiral is completed!
This beautiful flower spiral was developed by Naki, a talented women in our bead commune.
This week, I did my first cabochon with a Medium vitrail (Green AB) Rivoli and delicas.
The result was so nice and the ring I made from it was almost completed. I only had to hide the threads.
I was so enthusiastic I succeeded making a cabochon after unpicking only once, I tried to made another one with a simple purple "nuggets" glass and Japanese 11 seed beads.
It came up quiet nice too.
I went to sleep and in the morning I came back to my new Rivoli cabochon, almost completed.
I then discovered huge holes in the sides!!!! Delicas were broken and the cabochon was ruined :(
I was so disappointed and couldn't understand how could that possibly had happened?!
Aposteriori, I discovered it was mistakenly smashed against the table and got bad hits.
My tiny hope was in that nuggets cabochon. I thought it may serve as a pendant, so I looked for a suiting necklace.
It didn't take long before the spiral flower popped up and then the therapy began. Monotonic but therapeutic, this is the way spirals are.
A new challenge arrived when I had to connect the cabochon to the spiral and a simple peyote strip didn't do the job. Finally, a double peyote strip connected to a triangular shape seemed to fit well and I find the result quiet satisfying.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

7.2.08 A set for Neora






It's been a while that I wanted to prepare something for Omer's mom.
Now, I finally had the opportunity to do it, while the "family day" we had this week was just an excuse for that.
I started with the russian leaves earrings I learned from Pnina and I also wanted to prepare a ring that will suit in order to make a small set.
I started with a simple tubular peyote stitch and ended up with the idea to add as a motif of the ring "Tali's button" (which appears in a bracelet she has done in the following link http://talibeads.canalblog.com/albums/bracelets/photos/21002831-reversible.html). I actually don't know if it's her design, but I surely know she gave an extremely clear diagram for it. I saw Varda's version to it on the same morning and I really liked it. Varda told me it's quiet simple and quick. Indeed, it was so and I just had to pick up triangle beads instead of the hexcuts that I didn't have.
Varda and I spent a great day shopping around "Tel-Aviv Bead Center" or as we call it, "the triangle" (like the bermuda triangle, swallowing women into it and also for being a counterpoint between three streets). That day was full of beads and I felt quiet efficient.

Neora got the present and seemed to be happy. The colour was a good match and the ring suited one of her fingers!
The pictures were taken in Bat Shlomo and it was a big fun feeling so close the spring arriving. I love so much the spring! It is the most beautiful season that can be.

Monday, February 4, 2008

4.2.08 The riddle answer for O...D - "Rita Ladenheim's Beaded Dendrobium Orchidea"

Many of you may know this picture. For you who don't, this is the Fire Mountain and Gems 2007-08 Catalog cover.
I got this catalog last summer in my postal box and I couldn't stop watching the cover flower necklace. http://www.firemountaingems.com/catreq.asp?navsrc=1
At first, I guessed it was a new piece from "Karen Paust" - one of my favorite beading artists. At a second look, it was in fact a piece of "Rita Ladenheim". I tried to find more information about Rita on the net, but unfortunately I couldn't find any. In FMG catalog, it is written that Rita did this three-dimensional flower necklace in variations of the peyote stitch and was inspired by Karen Paust. I have a feeling (that might be wrong of course) that Rita prefers working with delicas and Karen with czech seed beads.
On the 1.12.07 I posted in my blog the following:
"I have been starting to work on a very fun project. I won't tell you yet what it is. I can only tell it starts with an O and ends with an A. Any guess? - But even if you are right, I can't tell you because I want it to be a surprise.The thing is I may need to buy a delica color that I don't have for that project and I hope it won't take too long till I get it. Meanwhile, I keep working on it... Ciao!" http://judith27k.blogspot.com/2007/12/11207-marcelle-hadars-hojas-bracelet.html
O R C H I D E A
The missing yellow delica colour wanted to bring with him some friends. I couldn't resist :)
Now I have a class of delica colours.
Back to our story, I got this week the missing colour! I could immediately continue with this project that was patiently waiting for me.
And now, Tadadammmmm..... :
Here is Rita Ladenheim's beaded orchidea I deciphered from the cover. Since I had no way to contact you Rita, I post here a big big Thank you, in case you will see it one day!
Each petal leaf took me about an hour and the petal pattern varies a little bit from the original. In the pattern I got I can see a pink hugging bear (I assure you I didn't mean it to be so, regarding puppets, I would prefer green frogs, tigers and giraffes).
It's also the occasion to thank "Little Woman in the Street" for giving me one fuschia swarovski crystal that was especially, kindly and delicately taken out from her swarovski bead card!