23.11.07 Mom and Dad Birthday's presents

Among the presents I received from my dears, Mom bought for me this year, a birthday present in Paris. It was covered with orange "papier de soie", like a big candy. It reminds me of a Hanuka present I got about 25 years ago in Nice, in the Jewish school Hanuka party. I think this giant candy filled many good dreams I had since then:


And in the picture below you can see the moment every child is waiting for:
Sometimes, I miss this age :)

Mom wanted to give me the present immediately when she came back from Paris - but I asked her to wait and give it to me only on my real birthday date. Dad was so curious, he couldn't wait, but I insisted.

The big moment arrived and I opened this orange candy. I found inside a beautiful jewels-stand and some lampwork beads from "La rue des Rosiers" (Paris):

On the other hand, I sent Dad to bought for me 60 excellent plastic jars for my beads in Etz Hachaim 79 St, Mahane Yehuda - Jerusalem. He decided he is offering them to me for my birthday. I even had the time to make some order and fill some of them! I was waiting to do it for months...

22.11.07 Gita's and Anat Kariv's version to the Hojas bracelet

Gita's version:
Anat Kariv's version:

Nice new versions of the Hojas bracelet by two students.

21.11.07 Finally we have some Rain - so here again are new Drop Earrings - but this time they are FLAT!

Today we can finally really feel the winter. It is so rainy outside! With all these lightnings and thunders, it is a bit frightening!

On the 14.11.07 I taught 7 girls the Hojas workshop for the second time.

In this workshop I taught the new version of the Drop Earrings - which is the flat version.

This could happen thanks to Little woman in the street that commented how to make a flat drop in the following post: http://judith27k.blogspot.com/2007/10/261007-little-woman-in-street-hojas.html

I prefer it flat like these ones.

Without any relation to that, I will remain for only the following 2 days at the age of 27. I am very attached to that number and I don't want to change it. But I have no choice haven't I? :(

10.11.07 My bead treasure card index

I spent the whole weekend on preparing that bead card index which is very difficult to photograph, especially with no daylight conditions.

Now, I can finally know what I have in one shot.

I think this card is going to be very helpful, at least I hope so, after all these hours (maybe 10 or more).

I still need to put the bugles and maybe the swarovski - but I did the most important part: all the seed beads.

I didn't put any identifying information next to the colors since I can't write on the material which I used. I don't know exactly what material it is, but is resembling very smooth foam.

Additionally, I recall most of the beads origin. I didn't track systematically what is what but I count on that I can recognize something if I want to buy some more of it. For the future, I think I'll start tracking more systematically, it would be more easy.

Anyway, it is a good and challenging exercise, to try and guess whether a bead is Matsuno, Toho, Miyuki, Czech or Chinese. It's another bead riddle.

6.11.07 "Zebra" Hojas Bracelet with 2 different endings

After:
Before:


Zebra originates from south Africa and lives in the desert of Israel.
She belongs to my israeli bead commune, she is very active in my blog - no way she is not up to date and she is also a friend.
You can see some of her works in the link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zebrasonja

Namib Zebra came to the "Hojas drop and bracelet Workshop" directly from Eilat!
For us, in Israel, "Eilat - Rehovot" means crossing half the country. So you can imagine yourself how much I appreciate her for coming from that far to my workshop :)

Today, I have discovered how much perfectionist she is. Much more then I could imagine and even more perfectionist than I am!
I bring here above her two different options for the challenging ending of the Hojas asymmetric bracelet.
The "Before" was Zebra's first attempt to make the toggle and clasp as symmetric as possible (I think it is in ladder stitch). The "After" is her second attempt and it is made from a brick stitch clasp and a big bead as the toggle.

The "before" doesn't exist any longer. A long night of beading replaced it and I learned this morning that instead, the "after" bracelet was born in the shiny desert of Israel.

Zebra, I am happy to bring your work here in my blog.

31.10.07 Nice surprise!

Looking for a new project, I tried to find some inspiration or an idea.
I had one, but choosing the colours is still a tough task for me and I still need to think of the technique I will use to realize it, which is even tougher.

So I told myself, why not go and visit some bead blogs?

However, about a month ago, Mali1 unraveled to me a new fantastic world of a talented artist, named "Svetlana Eltsova".
It was a discovery. Not only the artist herself but her wonderful blog and all the links she gives there.

I remember I had been there for 1 mn and told myself "I MUST come back when I have time" in order to visit it thoroughly. I then put the link to her blog in a special place, separately from the sea of links I accumulate without even time to arrange them by categories, hoping to come back sometime.
N.B. The blog link is: http://reijo.multiply.com/journal

Finally, today I thought to jump to her blog and start breathing some inspiration.

The funny thing is that I suddenly found myself there :), in the post of "Forget me not flower necklace" which was one of the pieces I fell in love from the first sight in my first quicky visit about a month ago. She brought there my margarita bracelet and ring I did in July 2007:

http://judith27k.blogspot.com/2007/07/i-offer-you-margarita-after-long-time.html

I had to share it!

I bring here a bad resolution picture which shows all the context of my "discovery".

By the way, Svetlana is specializing in floral beading and what I like so much in her blog (that I have only started to discover) is her writing that is so associative! She collects various artists works which tried to give an answer to a specific subject. Each one takes his own way and they often have a lot in common.

I recommend you to go there.

I think the universe had something to tell me. If you look for self design and creation, you can look outside, but finally the only place you will find it is in yourself. This is the real place where you should look for it. The problem is that it seems the most unreachable place in the world, too many clouds are hiding the sight, too many trees in front of the path, too many light blind your eyes and it is difficult to close your eyes, concentrate and still remain awake and creative.

"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: