18-20.7.09 Papilio machaon syriacus פרפר זנב סנונית נאה

18.7.09

We were in Bat Shlomo, when Omer noticed these beautiful pupa and caterpillars on the same bush. When we came back home, we read that it was a Papilio machaon syriacus.

Look at this belt!19.7.09The caterpillar is preparing the "belt" and checking well that it can bear him for the time he will become a pupa:
20.7.09: Now he is waiting and wondering... soon he will become a pupa.

There it is! Unfortunately I missed this step, it happened very quickly while I was beading with my friend.
and this is the leftovers of his caterpillar period:

Here are some more pictures from Omer's parent garden:

Ciao!

8.5.09 Mom 63rd Birthday's Present - Crochet Lily of the Valley Butterfly Necklace

A closeup on the clasp:

On Sunday this week, I discovered two amazing Internet treasures. The first one was the crochet and knitting flower free patterns on the lionbrand site. The second one was the "mypicot" site with additional amazing flowers AND butterflies to crochet and knit. I immediately fell in love and decided to use these elements to create a necklace from crochet for Mom's birthday.
I made 4 Lily of the Valley Crochet Flowers (also called in French "Muguet de Mai" and offered on 1st of May) , one Rosebud flower for the clasp and finally a Butterfly. For the flowers I used a regular cotton yarn of 125 m for 50 gr (hook of size 2), whereas for the butterfly I used DMC cotton thin threads ( but can't say exactly what size except the hook which was size 1).
With the great help of two girls from the Crochet Israeli forum "פורום סריגה", I succeeded to overcome the obstacles I encountered in the scheme of the butterfly, as how to read it. (Row 2 of the Upper wings of the big butterfly is: 2 ch, sc in 2nd ch from hook, 13 ch, 1 tr to the center of the wing [in the tr of the middle], 5 ch, 1 tr to the center of the wing, 8 ch, double tr to the center of the wing [ yarn 3 times over the hook], 5 ch, 1dc in the middle of the double tr, 5 ch, tr to the center of the wing, 13 ch, sc in same place as sc of this row and sl st to close to a ring). Also the work of crochet with such thin thread was strange to me at first.
I felt afraid and challenged for how to compose all the pieces together and succeeded to finish on Thursday on time, with the help of Omer and Varda. I hope I did well. [Huib, your inspiration is in the air ;-) ]

I think Mom loves it and it is quiet her colours. So sorry if I overcharge you with pictures - but I wanted to show you how it looks on Mom :-)

To another issue, I discovered recently that some of my favorite Francophone artist blogs has disappeared from the net (such as Benedicte Tarrade, Kim Anderson, Frany et ses perles and more). This is a real loss to the beading community and I hope they will create a new one soon - I miss them.
On the other hand, I had the nice surprise to discover today that some of you can find the links I put here in my blog interesting and helpful (Thank you Louise for the credit). It is my pleasure and I am glad if you can enjoy it.

22.3.09 Inspired by the "Butterflies Galore"

Too lazy to make the "Butterflies Galore" bracelet designed by Suzan Mandel (Bead and Button Magazine, April 2009, Issue 90, p. 66-69), I turned it to an individual butterfly. I like its body. Now I need to think of a composition and try to make additional ones.

The Narcist Asteride - After metamorphosis

During a hike in Nahal Peres, in the south-west of the Dead Sea, we met some camels.
Here is one smiling to you :)

When we got back, I finally finished my metamorphosed asteride bracelet and it became full of colourful daffodils.
The daffodils are done following "3-D Beaded Daffodils by Emily Hackbarth":
http://beadwork.about.com/library/weekly/aa060198.htm

I found a daffodil I did about a year ago with Chinese seed beads and simple fishing thread. http://judith27k.blogspot.com/2007/03/narcis-cactus.html It took me then at least three hrs if not more. The beads were exploding all the time and the thread was too thick. I had many many difficulties with it and it was a real achievement to finish it then. It took me one year to recover from the horrible experience with those Chinese seed beads. This time, I did the daffodils with Matsuno and Toho 11 seed beads. The yellow and hot pink Matsuno were behaving so badly I had to use a 15' needle. When I was really efficient, I managed to finish one daffodil in 1 3/4 hr. An additional conclusion, is that it is better to use a monofiber nylon thread to make the yellow center of the daffodils so that it can stand stiff and not fold itself.

I also finally found a home to the bumble bee I showed you lately:
http://judith27k.blogspot.com/2007/12/191207-american-fuchsia-earring-french.html
The bumble bee scheme appears in Marie-Claude Burel's book - "Petites Betes en Perles - 30 Insectes Et Araignees En Perles De Rocaille" p.58-59 (Bourdon Terrestre).



After some shots of the bracelet I encountered a couple of butterflies having some fun together. Aren't they nice?

"A Russian Style Batterfly with an A"

Thanks to Betybou for sharing with me this Russian style butterfly scheme.

The butterfly was designed by Varvara, in her book "My Beaded Garden", p.64-65.

On the scheme it was written: " Diagram for Batterfly Necklace", with an A instead of U.

I found it amusing.

I hope Nomnom will like it because this is for her.

She was complaining she was wearing all the time the same purple necklace with leaves I had given her.

She likes brown and didn't have a jewel to suit her brown guarderobe.

I hope it can suit, though I am afraid the colours are a bit special.

I felt bad with myself I didn't have time to make her a special jewel for her wedding, so I hope I can compensate just a little bit with this one.

In some moments I really dislike all this colours together and sometimes I find it nice. Brown dress with blue eyes. I hope it looks fine.

The necklace is made with Ornelia czech seed beads and took me about 6-7 beading hrs.

9.3.10
I am just so proud of my small sis :-), have a look:

4.4.07 The Lunar Moth Necklace for Mom

5.2.07 The lunar moth - my version to Sarah's beading obsession

http://www.sarahsbeadingobsession.com/w3/butterflypatterns.htm