New Works & Publications

I have a new necklace project - "Ravishing Rosettes" - published in the latest December 2011 Bead and Button Magazine.

Also, three of my works are featured in Fabulous Peyote Stitch Jewelry with Crystal Accents - a wonderful e-magazine from Beadwork. This e-Mag is full of sparkling jewelry, all stitched in one of the most favorite stitches - peyote. You will love reading this eMag in its innovative format! There are sections within the pages for tutorials, inspirational galleries of works and what I really loved is the interactive color chart, which is fun to use!

Click on the Image to Go to Site 

The jewelry set below is my latest beadwoven creations - a necklace with a 2-in-1 pendant, made with Swarovski crystals, pearls and beautiful Miyuki Duracoat seed beads (I highly recommend Duracoat!), and a matching bead embroidered cuff.

I Have Made a H U G E Mistake.....

If you was wondering why all the images were not showing my blog in the last couple of days, here's why.
I set my new smartphone to automatically synchronize with my Google account and it had uploaded all my photos to the phone memory. Thinking that I do not need all these hundreds of images, eating up memory space on my phone, I deleted all the albums from my phone. That was a mistake. A HUGE, stupid,  f&^%$^& mistake!

I never knew that when I post an image on my blog (I upload them directly from my hard drive), it automatically add it to my Picasa account (which I don't use for a few years now). So by deleting the albums from my synchronized phone, I actually deleted all the images on that Picasa account. I didn't stop to think about this whole synchronizing thing, and that it could effect all my Google account content...big mistake.

So I woke up the next day just to find out that ALL the images on my blog are missing. And there are hundreds of them! All the images of my long beading journey, back from late 2007 until today. Gone, gone, gone! [shout] I tried to look for help to see if there's a way to restore those images - deleted from the internal memory of the phone, unfortunately not from a micro SD card -  on the phone manufacturer site, on Picasa and the internet, but couldn't find any way I could do it securely.

The meaning of this stupid mistake is that I need to upload all my images to the blog, one by one... And if that's not enough to make one scream, since I didn't keep my blog images in one organized folder, I have to look for them all over my computer and backup devices I have from past years.  I really don't feel like doing this.. I don't have the TIME for this! :((

I have already uploaded the images from 2011 & 2010 - it took me about six hours to find the images and upload them - and the rest I will have to complete in the next few days.

What I learned from all this?

* Learn how Google products are connected to each other, especially if you are dependent on their services;
* Learn more about how this Sync function on your smartphone works;
* Think carefully before deleting anything and know if and how you can undo the deleting later;
* Work in an organized way - create folders and arrange them by dates;
* The most important thing - BACKUP all your content regularly on a separate device; backup your digital images stored on the internet.

Now back to work. No, not to work on the unfinished beautiful beaded earrings project I have on my table, but computer work... Sigh... big sigh...

BAO Color Challenge

I love beading challenges... they push my creativity. More than once I designed things that I probably wouldn't have done if it wasn't for the challenge. Challenges also force me to work on a project - from start to finish - within a time frame, which I find to be a good exercise for my concentration at work. If I had enough time, I would have participated in each and every one of them...There's the EBW monthly challenge; the ABG challenge and a few others that I don't recall now, but I really enjoy entering the Bead Art Originals color challenge.

Given a specific color palette to work with , I enjoy looking over my bead stash to find the right colors for the challenge. That way, I get to see (and use) different kinds of beads that I have long forgotten about their existence... It's fun, and it also sparkle up my creativity!

This bracelet was created especially for the latest BAO color challenge.
I really liked the spicy colors picked up for it (see photo below). I found leftovers of Czech pressed glass spacer beads in very dark chili pepper red that was perfect for the challenge, and designed the whole bracelet around them. With the tiny bit beads that were left, I created a matching button clasp.

Check out the BAO blog to see other member's entries for this challenge

The bracelet came out Xceptionally TeXtured (that's the name I gave it) - the spacer beads add texture to the bracelet and make a repetitive X pattern. I made one more bracelet in cold/warm colors for testing a shorter thread path for the tutorial I made for this design. New thread path worked just fine and much quicker, and I managed to finish the second bracelet in just two hours! :)

This Wednesday we are celebrating the Jewish New Year.

Let's hope that next year 

the wars & terror around the world will end;

poor people will have the ability to live decent lives they deserve 

to have as human beings ;

corruption will be eliminated; 

people will be more caring & nicer to each other;

and we'll manage to take a better care of our larger home - the globe;

 (yes, I know, it almost sounds like too far distant future...but it's up to us!)

I wish you all a very happy, loving, peaceful, prosperous and creative New Year!

Shana Tova!

*!שנה טובה*

Magical Magatamas

Last month at a wedding party, I met a few people I haven't seen in a couple of years. We chatted a bit and they asked me what job do I have and I told them that I am a jewelry designer. Then they were very surprised that I don't wear any jewelry (mine or others), and they said that I am a living example of  "a shoemaker who is walking barefoot" (it's an old Hebrew say). Funny, but true!... I stopped wearing jewelry long before I had started beading due to allergy to metals I had developed, and somehow I got used to being "jewelry-naked" (except for a watch, if that counts). I promised my relatives to show them some of my work the next time we meet, which would be next week in another family relative's wedding. I decided to wear a nice jewelry set to show off at the coming wedding... After all, my jewelry is made from glass beads, so there shouldn't be any allergy excuse... ;)

Luckily, my Muse cooperated and I managed to finish this new necklace and matching bracelet on time before the wedding (a tutorial is also ready & available). They are made with seed beads, glass pearls, Swarovski crystal beads and Miyuki long Magatama beads. (I take this opportunity to thank the people of Bogal, who are always very helpful and come to my rescue whenever I run out of beads before the project is finished... Thank you, Gloria and Avishai for an excellent customer service!).

Once again I had a challenging (read: annoying) designing process with those Magatamas (mainly because of their large, diagonal holes), but I love them, and I didn't want to give up on the texture they add to the beadwork. I am very pleased with the result! The necklace is laying nicely around my neck and the bracelet is softly draping  my wrist.

Now all I have to do is to find something nice to wear that goes with this set, which is another challenge for me! I never had to match the clothes to the jewelry - it usually goes the other way around, right?... ;D

New Beaded Beads Necklace

I decided to design something new with sharp triangle beads. At first, I was trying to make a flat design (without much success), but somehow it evolved into these textured, self-supporting beaded beads...

I made one version of the beads with Swarovski crystals and combined them in this bold plum necklace. The other version, is a longer bead embellished with smaller triangles and used as a focal in the blue/pink necklace.