Spring Around the Corner

This is "Early Spring", my entry for the April challenge of Etsy BeadWeavers - Spring Around the Corner.Check out the EBW blog to see all 49, spring inspired, beautiful entries and vote for your favorite (my necklace is #21 on the list). Voting ends on the 15th of April.

Bead Artists Help Fight Breast Cancer Project

A few months ago I blogged about my contribution to Jeanette Shanigan's project "Bead It Forward" - Bead Artists Against Breast Cancer. Jeanette Shanigan collected the beaded squares, donated from beaders from all over the world and stitched them into quilts. A few members (15) of the Etsy BeadWeavers team donated 35 beaded squares, and Jeanette stitched them into one EBW quilt. The finished quilts are all beautiful and colorful - you can see more of them on Jeanette's site.
The quilts are going to be auctioned at the Bead&Button show and the money raised will be donated to help fight breast cancer. I am happy that I have participated in this project. I might do this again next year.
Special thanks goes to Susan of Clinkscalesarts, who organized the whole thing for EBW team and did a great job at it!

Etsy Beadweavers Quilt

First row (left to right): Susan Clinkscales, Eddy Downing, Eddy Downing, JoJo Curley, Swanee Hielscher
2nd row: Swanee Hielscher, Swanee Hielscher, Swanee Hielscher, Linda Davis, me
3rd row: me, me, me, Lisa Savoy, Lisa Savoy
4th row: Lisa Savoy, Jama Watts, Jama Watts, Jama Watts, Kerrie Slade
5th row: Kerrie Slade, Kerrie Slade, Kerrie Slade, Victoria Thompson
6th row: Kim Shaver, Dawn Nelson, Melody Murray, Melody Murray
7th row: Ileana Munteanu, Ginny Bracht, Ginny Bracht, Ginny Bracht, Ginny Bracht

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… :)

EBW "Ancestral Expressions " Challenge and My Unlisted Entry

Voting to Etsy Beadweavers' November Challenge "Ancestral Expressions" has begun! Please visit the EBW blog to see what beautiful pieces, created especially for this interesting challenge and vote for your favorite entry. Your comment is also appreciated ;)
Good Luck to all the participants!

I have made this embroidered cuff for the challenge but decided NOT to list it, although I have finished it just before the deadline. In this work, I tried to imitate some traditional designs and ornaments that I really love, used in Yemenite silversmith work and embroidered ornaments of clothes. I also used black, red, silver and gold, which are commonly used in the Yemenite costumes.
The main reason for not listing it is that I have noticed (too late..) that some of the gold seed beads just lost their color :( (bad coating I guess), but I'm also not very pleased with how the whole design and work came out.
I probably worked too tight, shrinking the backing material. It supposed to be a symmetrical design, but then I didn't have the same enough room on both sides. I tried to press together the lines, but ended up with piled up beads at some parts.
I did finish it off, though, attached UltraSuede on the back, and also the clasp – Why? I don't know. I just needed to see it finished. Maybe it's because I wanted it so much and worked so hard on it and I'm a bit "emotionally attached" to this piece, that I couldn't leave it in my "to unpick" box… I'll just keep it, or wear it on a special family occasion.

But, despite of the outcome, I am happy I made it. I have learned some important lessons that I'll use in the future.

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was when the theme was published, Thank You! Deb of Beadandbloom. Not only did I enjoy creating something in this Yemenite style, but also and mostly I enjoyed talking with my mother about it, bringing back memories and stories of times, when life was much simple and everything was so different from now… (I am excited almost to tears as I type these lines and, yes, I know I am very emotional…).

My grandfather from my mother's side was a Yemenite silversmith. Back in Yemen, apart from being a Rabi and a Jewish teacher, he used to create beautiful gold and sterling silver beads, findings and also Jewish ritual objects. When my mother's family left Yemen 60 years ago to come to Israel, they had to leave behind almost everything they had (they were very rich back then). They were allowed to take only a parcel of clothes and some personal stuff, but they didn't care much about it – the only thing that mattered to them was to finally come to the Holy Land. My grandfather took some of his working tools with him and after the family settled in a small, poor neighborhood of Tel Aviv, he opened his little work shop again and continued his silversmith work.

I remember when I was a child, I used to sit beside him in his tiny shop (I mean really small- like the space of a small bathroom) and was fascinated by his intricate, delicate and detailed work and by all his tools, which he never let me try using any of them ("too sharp/heavy/hot", he used to say) . Most of his creations were for the bride's costume for the traditional Jewish Yemenite wedding, called Henna. The Henna party is still celebrated by the Yemenite people in Israel (unlike other traditional things that were abandoned).
My mother still have this very rich, colorful bride&groom's costumes that consists of a lot of handmade jewelry, and she's working very hard at keeping this tradition alive.
I could have write more and more on this subject, branching out to others, but this post has become an endless one, so I'll stop here. You can read and see a bit more about this Yemenite costume in this post.

Guess What? The EBW Challenge Winner Is...

There are two Challenge winners! There's a nice say in Hebrew: "two are better than one", and in this case - it's true! I'm honored to share the winning with another Israeli and one of my most favorite beading artists! How fun! :)

My entry, the Cat & Mouse bracelet won the EBW "Animal Instinct" challenge together with one of the most beautiful pieces of Triz, called the "Black Panther", so, Congrats also to Triz!

If you are not familiar with Patrizia Tager's of Triz Designs work, you should visit her blog or her shop and you will probably have to pick your jaw up from the floor...

Thanks so much for everyone who voted for my bracelet!
:)

EBW Challenge - "Animal Instinct"

Etsy BeadWeavers' theme for October Challenge was "Animal Instinct".

I couldn't find any idea just until a few days before the deadline. But then, I remembered a nice cat & mouse toggle clasp I saw the other day at Bogal's, my bead supplier. The cat & mouse clasp is humorous and fun and I thought it would be nice to make something that is unusual for me, somewhat "out of the box". So, this is my entry -"Gotcha!", a beadwoven cat & mouse bracelet, No.17 on the voting list.

I used BeadTool program to help me design the cat's head, which was the easy part of implementing the idea. The mouse was a bit of a challenge to make. I had to unpick it a few times because it wasn't stiff enough to act as a toggle, but then I came up with the idea of filling its body with pieces of wire to make it stiffer, and that led me to the idea of making the tail and ears from wire as well.

It was quite fun making this bracelet, and I enjoyed having my two kids looking over my shoulder every few minutes to see its progress :)

There are 19 wonderful entries this month and it is interesting to see each participant's interpretation of the theme. Please visit the Etsy BeadWeavers blog to see all 19 entries, pick your favorite and vote for it. Voting lasts from the 9th to the 15th. You might as well leave your comment.

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.

EBW July Challenge - I Won :)

My entry was the "Roses in the Night Sky" cuff bracelet.
Thanks to everyone who voted for me!
The person who wins the challenge has to pick the theme for next month's challenge. I still haven't decided yet. I didn't think that it would be hard to do, but it is! :)

Second runner-up is the gorgeous piece by ThePreciousBeads,
"Worlds Collide Necklace"

Third runner-up is the stunning piece by Triz, called "Midsummer Nights Dream".

Congratulations to you too, Erin and Triz!

Thanks to all of you who visited the Etsy BeadWeavers blog and voted.
I am sure it wasn't easy to pick only one from all the gorgeous entries for this month's challenge; it was hard for me… My favorite piece was the piece "A Free Form Dream Peyote Cuff" by SandFibers.

I found this piece amazingly beautiful, not only because I love free-form, but also because (if I am not mistaking) it is the first free-form piece that Carol Dean of SandFibers have created! Well done, Carol Dean, I really love it! and I hope that this is the first of many more!

Etsy Bead Weaver's June Challeng – Anything Goes

This is the first time I enter the Team Challenge. The theme for June was "Anything Goes". There are 37 entries for this challenge and they are all so beautiful! I am amazed to see how much talent there is in this group! The voting starts on June 7 and lasts until the 14th. So you might want to visit the Etsy Bead Weavers blog and look closely at all those wonderful creations. You can also vote for your favorite. I can already tell you it will be hard to pick just one as a favorite !.

As I said, this is the first time I enter the challenge. The necklace I made is the 3D Gold Trapezes Necklace. I came up with this design by accident, or shall I say by mistake. I started to bead a 3D square for another design that I had in mind, but I mistakenly didn't string the right number of beads required for a square and ended up with a trapeze. I decided to go along with that and made four more of them. Each one of the trapezes took me about an hour to finish, and another hour to put them all together to make a necklace. It was quite fun to make! :)

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...