23.6-14.9.12 Solomon Knot Earrings for Li-or Birthday

It's been long that I admire Maggie Meister's Solomon's Knot Bracelet. In her last book, Classical Elegance, she offers the instructions for the Solomon's Knot Pendant, on pp. 72-76.

Li-Or has already enjoyed paging Maggie's book. I asked her what she would like me to bead for her birthday present I wanted to give her and she said she would love the Solomon knot.

Obviously, I had in mind earrings and started beading following the pendant instructions.

While arrived to the first oval half, I just gave up. Too much time, too big, not able to accomplish timely. 

So I tried to make an oval with a different beading technique and it was still too big for an earring, especially that Li-or head is relatively small. So I moved on and draw on a paper the size that seems to me the most to fit and followed it to make the following earrings.
The project was on hold till came the Jewish new year and I was again motivated to accomplish this pair. I started all over again and ended up with this design after about 5 beading hrs. I may interpret it wrongly but when I gave it to Li-Or, I was a bit disappointed since it didn't seem to be an exciting present for her :-( Oh well...

17.5.12 "Flame tree earrings" published in Kalmbach "Stitch Workshop: Herringbone Stitch, Basic techniques, advanced results"

This will be the third time now that the "Flame tree earrings" are published (1st, 2nd). Here on the cover page of the Kalmbach book I've just received "Stitch Workshop: Herringbone Stitch, Basic techniques, advanced results".

The article appears on pp. 45-47

30.6.11 "Flame tree flowers earrings" published in Kalmbach "Creative Beading Vol. 6"

On the 26.10.2010 I was announced by Kalmbach assistant editor that my Bead&Button article, "Flame tree flowers earrings" has been selected to appear in the upcoming annual project collection book, Creative Beading Vol. 6, due to be published by Kalmbach Books in summer of 2011. 

Today I have just received the copy of this beautiful collection.  

:-) Happy.

The article appears on pp. 69-71

7.8.10 Pomegranate Flame Tree Earrings

Following the visit of Milda recently, I was motivated to finish the 2nd earring of these small pomegranates, based on the Flame tree earrings design.

26.7.10 Bronze Sunshield Earrings for Yochi

One of the earrings I wear a lot are the purple sunshield earrings that also my dear friend Yochi likes very much.

Since I knew I was going to meet her in Tel-aviv's seashore, I made her for her birthday a pair in Bronze to fit her special honey eyes. This time as well, I managed to bead it just the evening before seeing her, so I am really happy to have made it on time and to appreciate how well it fits her.

6-20.5.10 A Freeform Circle Bracelet for Daffi

As far as I can remember, this is my 1st freeform jewelry. Daffi asked me to make her a bracelet that will fit her special Montana blue Italian dress for a special family occasion. We then chose the colors together and went mainly on the shiny and AB seed beads that Daffi likes very much. The dress rosettes served as my inspiration source for designing it, while the most difficult part of this challenge was to place them in such a way that it will still remain harmonious, but yet interesting. The first half of designing the circle elements on the basis of 8 was quiet fun and gave me several ideas that can be used in the future for other jewelry. The 2nd half out of the 11 working hrs I spent on, was the most difficult one, as I had to sew the elements, decide and choose which to put next to whom. Omer was a great help here, as I was nagging him to hear his opinion for each possible combination I thought of.
Daffi was very happy with the bracelet and that is a great satisfaction :-)

16.8.10
Daffi kindly sent me this great picture of her,
ta da...

27.4.10 My 1st Publication In Print - The Flame Tree Flowers Earrings

About almost a year ago (27.5.09), overwhelmed from the magnificent Brachychiton acerifolius blooming in my surrounding, I decided to immortalize that moment by beading flowers that will not wither.

This is how the Flame Tree Flowers Earrings were born.

Today, I got 2 copies of the Jun/Jul 2010 Bead&Button magazine, issue #97. One of them with a kind note, that something I might be interested in appears on p.48:

and indeed very interesting ;-)

As you can see, I prepared several versions in order to test if my instructions were correct and how I could improve the design.

I can't express how much I appreciate the work done by the B&B team from the very beginning of all this process till the moment I got the earrings back.

When I saw the 1st draft revised by the Editor Julia Gerlach who tested my project, I had one thing in mind. How PROFESSIONAL you are! No words and just a pleasure to work with people like these that know how to present and write so nicely, clearly and concise.

This is my first ever publication and this leaves me with a good feeling. I never managed to publish when I was in Plant Science Research, so this is for me a great opportunity to compensate on that with this article :-)

Additionally, it was great to receive B&B newsletter and see the promotion of my earrings handmade by Julia Gerlach:

Finally, I surely hope you will enjoy beading them and surprise me with your versions of it!

17-21.4.10 Baroque Spades Necklace Inspired by Varda's Netted Necklace

My friend Varda kindly sent me a scheme of a netted necklace she had designed. I haven't seen the necklace yet, but she asked me to try the scheme and tell her how it goes.
I opened the file and saw the first row, which seemed to me at 1st sight to be the whole necklace. I made one element and found it very nice. However, it looked to me too "simple" to repeat this element to the circumference of the neck. A flow of ideas ran through my mind and I decided to flew with them to finally come up without too much hurdles with my own design of the necklace you can see above.
Ammusingly, while chatting with Varda, I discovered I had actually missed the 3/4 of the scheme and related only to the 1st row out of 6 or 7 of them!
Thanks a lot Varda for being a source of inspiration to me!
I gave the necklace today to Nomnom for her coming birthday and another excuse for celebration... She will have to buy some purple clothes now - I know she is not so much excited about that ;-) ...

23.5.09 The Choco-Moka-Vanil Necklace for Naomi's 24th Birthday

My apologize for the bad picture quality , I had very bad conditions to take it.

The 5-petals flowers close to the center motif are the small "Center or Not" from "Crochet Bouquet" p.21.
The Trimmed "Off-Center Round" - is also taken from "Crochet Bouquet" p.27.
The two types of rounded mandalas are taken from a Japanese booklet.
The small white flowers close to the clasp are the "apple blossom crochet flowers" from here (for free) and originally appears in the 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet book by Lesley Stanfield, St. Martin's Griffin, 2009.
I learned the Santolina flowers (look like small beige buttons) with my friend, from the "100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet", p.86. The small stem is a bit different and is adapted from another project.

Finally, I started the center motif with the Santolina flower and moved on, playing a bit till I got this shape, based on many double trebles.
So here it is, I am glad I have finished it, not so much enthusiastic of my sister's response, which apparently didn't find it so nice for her :-( ....

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.

21.4.09 Polymer Clay Mezuzah

I found the instructions for the canes in the book:

"Créer ses bijoux en pâte polymère" de Edith Maccotta Soffiati, Lecon 15 - Les Canes Cervelle, p.33.
I made the Mezuzah in August 2008, but only now had the opportunity to bake it. It was supposed to be a present for the Binder Family, but I gave up since the result was not ai ai ai and I take it more as an exercise/practice than a creation I feel comfort to give.
I like the central "ש" on the front side, that accidently appears while working on the cane.

2.3.09 Omer Acorn Earflap Hat

Inside-out and outside-inOmer asked me to make him an acorn hat. So I started my first trial on it on the 1st of February. I worked for days, decreasing towards the inside. Aposteriori I understood that was the reason why I encountered too many bumps and problems. Omer wasn't satisfied with the result and I was too exhausted from the unsuccsseful creation.
I didn't gave up and tried again, after making the last pink hat. This time it went much much better and quicker. I am quiet satisfied with the result, though the hat looks a bit funny. It's unisex and can be worn as well on the wrong side (inside-out).

19.12.08 Small Sweetheart Rose and a crocheted Bee

The sweetheart flower is done following the instructions in the "Crochet Bouquet" book, p.93-94.
The bee is something I came up with, though I decided finally to leave the small sweetheart rose as is, without anything in the middle.

2.12.08 Brick stitched Mexican Mandela Earrings

14-15.10.08 Linum Grandiflorum Ring

After a while that I haven't found the muse to bead, I asked Omer to choose for me a beautiful flower so that I can try to bead it. He looked in his flower's catalog and found two flowers. One of them was Linum grandiflorum. I immediately searched for better pictures on the net and felt through google on the flickr album of Philip Bouchard with this amazing macro picture:

you can click on the picture to see more of his wonderful photographs or click this link.

Thank you Philip for kindly allowing me to put your picture on my blog.
I got the muse and the inspiration to come up with a flower similar to the Scarlet flax flower (פשתה גדולה):

to which I beaded also a leaf:

But since the leaf didn't suit for a ring, I just altered to make what you see below:
Thank you Omer and Philip for your inspiration and giving me a good reason to touch the beads again :-)

8.8.08 Purple Sunshield Earrings inspired by Elaine Sutton (Gypsy Moon)

In the beginning of my journey with beadwork, I saved a picture of earrings that I liked very much. Later on I couldn't track back its origin, till I found the site of Elaine Sutton a few days ago.

Look at those wonderful "Sunshield" earrings, it's no surprise they are so inspiring. I did mine with peyote stitch, while I think Elaine ones' are done with square stitch, but the idea remains the same...

22.7.08 Congratulations Omer!

A small present I designed for celebrating Omer's B.Sc.Agr!