12.6-19.8.12 Vine / Bacchus Earrings by Maggie Meister

It took two months to bring myself complete these Vine earrings, but this is finally done.

The instructions can be found in Maggie Meister's Classical Elegance, pp.24-29.

The leaf design is wonderful!

I made a slight modification in the last part of the leaf instructions and had to unpick the 2nd grape to make one that will look similar enough to the 1st one. The grape freeform part wasn't so fun for me.

The colors I chose were a compromise since I didn't have in my stash reddish drop beads nor gold Delicas. Maybe this is why it took me so long to finish. Not my favorite combo.

17-19.8.12 Open Teardrop Earrings based on Diane Fitzgerald's design

Happy New Year!
שנת תשע"ג טובה ומתוקה

To fit a new blue dress with white dots, Omer helped me choose an earring design that would fit to. He had in mind triangles. We looked together in Diane Fitzgerald's Shaped Beadwork book. From the several options that could be relevant, we decided on the open teardrop rhombus (דלתון).

After an earring was done, I discovered the 11/0 Delica blue tone I had chosen was more going to the purple instead of to the grey. That is why I added grey embellishment hoping that it would give from some distance a more grayish-blue tone.

This is a very odd combination, I know. I hope it works  though.

The second earring I made contained two mistakes. One of them was that I considered all the points as an hexagon increase pattern instead of 3 hexagon points and 1 triangle one. Finally, I liked the curvature it formed and left the 1st earring to make a third one like the second one. Working on the teardrop brought me a therapeutic sense of feeling :-)

14-17.8.12 Zoe Earrings by Maggie Meister

I have recently encountered a Beadshop seller in my city wearing beautiful and very delicate earrings. I patiently waited her to be available for answering my question and asked "what are the earrings?" (probably badly asked...) "what do you mean" she said surprised. "Is this your design?" I asked hesitating. "Yes, it is". So, I added "They are beautiful and very delicate".  I went out the store and was a bit thoughtful. Coming back home I had a flash and immediately opened the last book by Maggie Meister. Zoe earrings. "Proper design of  the beadshop seller". She made a slight variation and took herself generously all the credit that comes to Maggie. 

It made me quiet cross for her dishonesty!

The earrings were so beautiful, I decided to make a pair as well.

The instructions appears in Maggie Meister's Classical Elegance, under the Zoe Earrings project, pp. 59-61.

Though they seem to differ in 4 ways from the picture shown in the book:

1 - the 15/0 beads fringe number, 

2 - apparently 15/0 Delica beads are used for the smaller square in the pictured earrings, whereas round ones are used in the written instructions, 

3 - decorations next to the join area between the squares, 

4 - the earwires hanging loop

The materials I used are: Japanese 15/0 and 11/0 seed beads, 4 mm Czech multicut beads and 5/16 mm Czech Daggers.

In the pair I made, there is a slight modification to Row 7 when embellishing the large square, which seems to be mistakenly omitted from the instructions (pick up 2 beads instead of one and then pick up 4 beads. In Row 8 insert one bead between the pair of beads from Row 7 etc...).

Hanging on a tree

Reminding me of Muslim Tiles

On the way taking pictures, look what I found:

Reflection on Amber

9-10.8.12 Twin Spades Bracelet by Smadar Grossman

Looking for making a present consisting of the new twin/superduo beads, I encountered Smadar's stunning twin spades bracelet design and wanted immediately to try one.

The day after preparing the presents I was available to decipher it, based on Vielekleineperlen, Shannah and Pearly creations. It went much smoother than I expected. The ends were challenging though. I didn't want to add a magnetic clasp, after the bad experience I had with a heavy bracelet that slipped off. I tried with a regular metal clasp and toggle but it didn't work, so I finally unstitched to attach 2 magnetic clasps and reinforced the work. I hope it will make it. The bracelet is slightly large on my wrist. If I had to do it again, I would content of 6 spades instead of 7.
*About 6 working hrs.

8.8.12 Presents for the Kindergarten teachers

Eshchar has just finished his first kindergarten year. In the 2nd part of the year he moved to the young toddlers class with 2 kindergarten teachers and an assistant. He has been often sick this year, mainly viruses and standard childhood diseases. It wasn't obvious, but seems to be quiet common at this age and hopefully strengthened his immunity system.

The teachers were very caring. I really felt self-assured he is being kept in good hands.

To thank them for all their love and caring to the children, among them to Eshchar, I made them some small beadwoven presents.

There was a party about a week ago in which Eshchar received plenty of gifts. One of them was a spiral notebook with his creations, drawings, stickers and scribblings. I was overwhelmed to see the investment in each of the presents and in this notebook. The teachers made it very personal, cropped  the childs' pictures of the appropiate creation period and sticked them beside.

For Avezo, full of optimism and good energies, patience and trust in Eshchar, I beaded a pair of Gwen Fisher - DNA Earrings. She loves turquoise and bottle green, so this is the combo I chose, though I should have taken turquoise bugle beads for the background. Avezo, immediately loved it and wore them :-) 

It made me especially happy to score for her taste. 

Gwen Fisher DNA earrings for Avezo

Batya is a great cooker and I learnt from her a rescuing recipee for the period Eshchar was approximately between 5 to 8 months. It is a baby soup, based on chicken breast and root vegetables. It was the only crushed salty food he would devor. I thought that small and delicate earrings would fit her, so I prepared her a version on a pair of Mosaico Earrings designed by Meggie Meister.

Meggie Meister Mosaico Earrings version for Batya

Finally, for one of the assistants, full of joy of life, I prepared a Preciosa TWIN - Rivoli Pendant, designed and kindly shared by SashaSi. This was an opportunity to use for the first time the Twin beads with double holes. Since 2006, I don't remember to have beaded another pendant. On the way, the Rivoli broke after falling on the floor, but luckily it was still in a stage I could replace it with a new one. Hope she will love it.

SashaSi TWIN-Rivoli Pendant for Diana