Fashion Through the Ages - EBW Challenge

I can't believe that another month had passed so quickly, but it's already time for posting the Etsy Beadweavers challenge again!  March challenge theme was Fashion Through the Ages.

My Echo of Deco bracelet design was inspired by the Art Deco era between in the 30's. In my bracelet design I used repetitive, symmetrical pattern of geometric shapes, which are often found in Art Deco designs.

Please visit the EBW blog between now and the 15th to see all 38 entries (my entry is #17 on the list) and vote for your favorite.

  Images from: http://tiddley-bits.blogspot.com;

http://www.art-deco-style.com/art-deco-fashion-2.html

A tutorial for my Echo of Deco bracelet is available

Bollywood Glamour - EBW May Challenge "Red Carpet"

Etsy beadweavers' May challenge theme was "Hollywood Red Carpet".
Please visit the EBW blog to see all 21 Red Carpet entries, pick your favorite and vote for it.
Voting starts today and lasts until the 15th, so don't miss it... My entry, called "Bollywood Glamour" is #8 on the list.

While rolling a few possible ideasfor my entry, the name (nickname) Bollywood - India's equivalent of Hollywood- popped in my head. I've never seen a Bollywood movie, but I've seen a TV documentary show about India's culture and I was amazed by the rich, sometimes overloaded, designs of their traditional jewelry and clothes. As I keep being drawn to ethnic designs, I thought I'd try creating something in this style, but wanted to create a relatively delicate design, with just a few hints of India. So I made these up-side-down drop shaped links with picots and attached a Mandala pendant in the center.
I intended to use gold seed beads, but then realized that I didn't have enough of them to complete the necklace and matching earrings, so chose silver to go with the fuchsia. Silver actually goes very nice with the fuchsia-satin Swarovskis I used, as they have a silvery sparkle.

I am going to create another India-inspired set of a necklace, bracelet and earrings in rich colors, for which I already have the design sketched, but I have to wait until I receive my order of gorgeous orange Toho seed beads in a few days. Can't wait... I am excited about this new journey to India.. :)

EBW April Challenge - Time Machine

***Thanks so much to everyone who voted for my entry!, which came in second place***

Etsy BeadWeavers' Challenge theme for April was "Time Machine". This theme was brought to us by Mariya of BeadCatcher, who won the January/February Challenge
Here's what Mariya had to say about this theme:
"I guess everybody once in a while has had that thought "What if?" Yes, what if you were given a once in a life time chance to travel through time and space; to travel into past or future; to travel into a real or imagined world? Where would you go? What would you see there? Just think about it. Take the trip and share it with us in the form of beading art with its unlimited possibilities!".

Voting on this challenge is open and will last until the 15th. Please visit EBW blog, pick up your favorite and vote for it. My entry is #9 on the list.

Excited about this inspirational, imaginative theme, I decided to use the time machine for traveling in the future. The beautiful women I met on my journey had smooth brilliant hair and they were wearing bright silver elegant outfits. This is the necklace, earrings & bracelet I designed for those women I met on my journey to the future… :)

Temptation Dance - EBW March Challenge

Etsy BeadWeavers March challenge theme was Temptation. Please visit the EBW Blog, between now and the 15th, pick your favorite and vote for it. There are fabulous 35 entries, each and every one of them is unique and interesting - real eye candies, so don't miss out! Your comment is also very appreciated. My entry is number 33 on the list.

I named my necklace "Temptation Dance", as I had an image of a man in black and a woman, wearing a hot-red dress, dancing a sensual, seductive Latin dance. I designed the necklace in one continuous line, curling and alternating black and red in the pendant. That part - the pendant, took me 5 or 6 hours of trials and failures, before I was satisfied with the way it turned out. I was so frustrated and almost wanted to give up on the idea, simply because I thought I won't be able to finish it before the deadline. But I did, at almost the last minute, and I'm pretty much satisfied with how it came out. I just need to learn from my own past experience (it was the same with my Yuki Onna challenge necklace) not to postpone working on my challenge piece.. :D It takes some time and it's challenging enough just finding the idea for my entry, and I'm not always good at working under deadlines.. especially if it's something I haven't tried before and it usually is.. :)

Celebration Time!

Carol Dean Sharpe, aka SandFibers, who is a very talented bead artist, is celebrating her 3rd Etsy-versary. Congratulations, Carol Dean!, here's to many more successful years! :)
Check out Sandfibers' blog and her Etsy shop to see how she's decided to celebrate this exciting event with you!

Two Exciting Invitations for YOU!

Bead Art Originals team members invite you to check out our new, fun and exciting features:

An Open House starting from Black Friday through Cyber Monday!
- Nov.28 to Dec. 1st, Bead Art Originals member will be offering as below; When you purchase from our shops, please make sure to include the code 'BAO OPEN HOUSE' in your Note to Seller when you checkout.

* Anna (ARoseByName): free shipping
* Heather (Humblebeads): free shipping on all orders and a free gift with purchases of $50 or more
* Carli (Juiceglass): free shipping
* Lisa (LisaPetersArt): free surprise gift (at least $5 value) with any purchase over $30 (note that this special is being offered through the end of the year)
* Mak (MAKUstudio): free shipping + 10% off purchases over $50 and 15% off purchases over $100
* Dee (Malodora): free shipping
* Swanee (MistyRidgeBeads): free shipping
* Janice (Naftali): free shipping
* Melody (SalamanderHouse): free shipping
* Carol Dean (SandFibers): free shipping and a set of Sand Fibers coasters ($12 value) with every order
* Smadar (SmadarsTreasure): free shipping + 10% off the second item purchased
* Sarah (thebeadedlily): free shipping
* Darcy (thejadedog): free shipping
* MaryLou (time2cre8): free shipping on entire order with the purchase of anything with the "bao team" tag
* Lisa (tqbdesigns): free shipping
* Triz (TrizDesigns): free shipping

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Another fun feature is our 12 HOLIDAYS GIVEAWAYS!!!
A GIVEAWAY EVERY DAY!

You can win one or more of the items donated by Bead Art Originals members! All you need to do to is to visit BAO Gift Guide blog, pick your favorite item and leave your comment on the new Givaway post on our BAO blog! It's that so easy! :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO YOU ALL!

Bead Art Originals Team Event

BAO (Bead Art Originals) Team is going to have a special virtual trunk show in the TreeHouse in Etsy's Virtual Labs. The show will take place on Thursday, October 9^th. A few of our group's talented artists will be showing their wonderful, varied work, so don't miss out the show! We would love to have you there! :)


Also, you are invited to subscribe to the BAO newsletter, to stay updated with new events and information. Just click on the widget below or visit the BAO blog.

Bead Artists Against Breast Cancer Project

A fellow member of the EtsyBeadWeavers Team, Susan of Clinckscales Arts, encouraged all group members to participate in Jeanette Shanigan's project "Bead It Forward" - Bead Artists Against Breast Cancer. Susan will be collecting all the squares and photograph them. She's also trying to get Etsy Admin interested in publishing an article about the project on The Storque. Let's hope that Etsy will agree to help.

The original guidelines are to make 4 beaded squares in any beading technique - 1 for the quilt to be made by Jeanette and 3 more to pass forward to three other beaders, to encourage them to participate in this project. I, and I know that a lot of other members of the group as well, have decided to contribute all the squares to Jeanette's quilt. That way she could make bigger quilt and hopefully, raise more money for this important cause.

OK, so here are my 4 squares:-
The first 2 are done in peyote stitch

The third is done in square stitch

And the last one is embroidered, using Cat-Eye heart beads

If you would like to participate as well, please visit Jeanette's site for more details.

Etsy BeadWeavers August Challenge

This is my entry for the Etsy Beadweavers "Art Deco" challenge.
It's called "A Trip to The Nile" and it is number 16 on the list.

I have already made several works that could have met this challenge, 2 of them are my 3-D Gold Trapezes necklace (made especially for the June challenge) and my Hand Fan necklace.

So, I like the Art Deco style and I came up with an idea almost immediatly after the theme was announced and implementing it was exciting.

I think that everyone who entered this challenge did a great job. I already have a few favorites, but unfortunately, I'll have to pick just one. It will be a tough task, even tougher that last month's challenge, as the works are getting better and prettier every month. Please visit the EBW blog, view all these wonderful entries and vote for your favorite. We would also love to read your comment.

What a Day! 08-08-08

It was the first time ever that one of my items features on Etsy's Front Page! It feels so good and it happened thanks to walrustusk's wonderfully curated treasury...



You might want to check her shop to see some of her colorful, beautiful works! - here's just one of them:




And the other good news is that the Bead&Button magazine is going to publish another one of my original designs, scheduled April 2009!
I just needed this kind of happenings to cheer me up a bit, after having quite an awful, stressful week … What an exciting day!...

Another Front Page by Me

I get a lot of inspiration browsing the items on Etsy and I love collecting them into treasuries - I find this process to be very creative. Amazing how many kinds of beautiful items you can find there and how creative the people who made them are. And I think that I already have the signs of addiction to it, because when Etsy had some problems with that and I couldn't connect to them, it made me angry…
This is another treasury that I have curated and have made it to Etsy's front page. It's a pity that it stayed there for only a short time before the treasury system got mad…

My Treasury on Etsy Front Page !

It's the first time that my treasury makes it to the front page of Etsy, and it feels so good! :)
I like making those treasuries when I have the time for it – it's quite fun. I created this on a very "cloudy" day, when pessimism almost took over me and I thought that playing with those beautiful cheerful colors would be of a help. Eventually it did and I'm so excited about it! :)

I'm in a Treasury! :D

My friend and extremely talented bead artist, Triz of Triz Designs picked my colorful Potawatomi bracelet and featured it on the fabulous Treasury she created. Click this link to see the cheerful Treasury and find more colorful, wonderful creations made by other Etsy designers! You may also want to read what the Etsy Bead Weavers have to say about colors and the use of them.

Thank you, Triz, you're the BEST!!! (hug)

I have been so busy lately...

I have set up my shop on Etsy and also joined the Etsy BeadWeavers group, which is very nice and exciting…
But, it also means that I had to spend too much time working on the computer… and THAT means… I hardly had time left for beading!!! :( … I already gave up some sleeping hours, but as for beading – that I can't give up!
So, in busy times like this, simple and quick herringbone weaving is always a little satisfactory of my beading craving...