Wonderful Wednesday

These eggs, made by Ukrainian Eggs, are truly remarkable. Some of you may be familiar with Pysanky, but these eggs are made with a twist. The colors are from hundreds of tiny seed beads.





Here is the arttist's explanation of Pysanky and Her Pysanky:

"Pysanky are made to be given to family members and friends. To give a pysanka is to give a symbolic gift of life. Each of the designs and colors on the pysanka has symbolic meaning--the colors and designs are typically chosen to match the character of the person to whom the pysanka is to be given.

About My Pysanky:

I use beads instead of the typical beeswax designs because I prefer the focus to be primarily on the egg's colors. The beads are very small and each egg can take anywhere from one week to several months. I started making these eggs as gifts for family members and began my "store" as requests came in for specific colors for specific people.”

This one is made from an Ostrich egg. I can't even begin to imagine the time and the amount of beads that went into this work of art.

Beading Daily Reader' Gallery

Beading Daily is a great website for beaders and all jewelry makers. They have free patterns and projcets along with ones that you can purchase. They have great, informative articles, polls and a readers gallery.

The call went out a few weeks ago for submissions for a readers gallery that would showcase combined techniques. I submitted my bead crochet bracelet with copper end caps and clasp and it made it into the gallery along with a lot of other great pieces of jewelry.




Click here to view the entire gallery.

Lifesaver Earrings

I made these earrings from copper wire and some small glass green donuts that I found at a bead shop. I thought they looked like green Lifesavers - they're about the same size. After the earrings were made I added a patina to the copper so the green glass would stand out even more.

Finally, A Sunny Day!

It has been cloudy and rainy here in Northwestern New Jersey for the past 2 days. We definitely needed the rain, but I had a bracelet that I was waiting to photograph for my Etsy Shop. I really need to learn how to take my pictures using artificial light since winter, with its cloudy days and limited hours of sunshine, is on its way.

This is what I was waiting to photograph.

Pink & Gray Bead Crochet Bracelet

I seem to go through phases as to what I am in the mood to create. Lately it has been bead crochet although, tonight I have a new project in mind that I am going to give a try. If it works out I will be posting it here soon.

Bead Crochet

Black & White Bangle

I started doing bead crochet about 2 years ago with no knowledge of how to crochet at all. My mother, who was very crafty, tried to teach my on many occasions, but I was never really interested. So, when I decided I wanted to learn bead crochet - off to the wonderful worldwide web I did go. And I found tons of information. The website that helped me the most was Ann Benson's online
tutorial .It's animated, very clear and easy to follow. She also has a great book with many great ideas for anyone interested in bead crochet. It is called Bead Crochet Designs .

Another great source for tips is Beadwrangler's Site. Lots of great tips on bead crochet and crochet in general.

Last, but not least, I gathered a great deal of information on the forum at Beadwork at About.com.

One of my favorite things about bead crochet is that because you string all your beads before you begin, it travels very well. I just throw it all in a bag and go.

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Peacock Bracelet

Fringe Bracelet

I’m going to be listing this bracelet in my shop later today. It has a seed bead base strung on beading wire. Then I wove beads in between each of the seed beads working my way down one end of the bracelet and then turning around and working my way back up. I then went down the length of the bracelet one more time for a total of 3 passes. If you want a bracelet that is not as dense you just don’t make so many passes down the bracelet.

I learned this technique on Beadwork on the forums. Last year it was discussed many times sometimes as Fringe Bracelet, sometimes as Cha-Cha Bracelet and sometimes as Urchin Bracelet.

My husband and sons can’t believe that I’m going to list this bracelet. They say it too big and beady. Men, what do they know? I made one of these in brown last year for a friend after she saw one and she loved it. I would love opinions from women, after all, they are who I designed it for!

Bookthongs

Do you love to read? I do. And I love using a bookthong instead of a scrap of paper or a piece of junk mail. These are great because they are as thin as a piece of cord so they fit nice and snug inside the book and the beads on the end keep them from getting pulled out.

They also do double duty in my house. One of my cats, Emma (tabby in my profile photo), is the anti-literacy cat. If I am lying down with a book, she likes to get in between my face and the book. If I move the book closer to my face, she climbs over the book to get closer to my face. This is where the bookthong comes in. If I hold the book in my right hand and dangle the bookthong with my left hand Emma gets interested in swatting at the bookthong and I can read my book.

NOTE:The bookthongs I sell in my Etsy shop are not the ones that Emma plays with. She plays with the ones I have for my personal use only.