Sunday 29 April 2012

Treasures of the Deep

Hi All,

I have finally finished my entry into the Etsy Bead Weavers monthly challenge for May.

I was super please with the outcome, and so was the lady who made the original seahorse stamping!! She is actually using a picture of it in her listing to show people what they can do with her amazing work!!

Check out Claudia's shop as she has AMAZING items for bead embroiderers in there!!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CalliopesAttic

So here is the finished necklace!! I'm hoping to actually get some votes this month as I put A LOT of work into this piece.


It features Swarovski pearls in 3 different colours and sizes, heaps of Swarovski bicones to imitate the sparkle of the water, natural shell beads, shell buttons thousands of seed beads and of course the beautiful Patina'd steam punk seahorse from Calliopes Attic!!


Although this isn't the best picture of the necklace it gives an idea of where it would sit, and it drapes beautifully!!!

If you love this piece don't forget to pop over to the Etsy Bead Weavers Blog between the 9th and 15th of May to vote for this (or your favourite)

etsy-beadweavers.blogspot.com/

I feel extremely honoured at the moment as I have been asked to join in in "The Battle Of The Beadsmith"

This is an elimination based competition involving 80 of the worlds best bead artists.

On May 15th the first pairing of competitors will be announced and then everyone will have 7 weeks to come up with an original piece of work!!

It's very flattering and overwhelming as this competition includes a lot of my idols Whether they be judges or competitors!!

I am also glad to announce the winner of my ring giveaway Is Kristen!! Congratulations Kristen and if you could get in touch with me at jobrowne@live.com.au with your address so that I can send it out to you!! 

Don't forget about my mothers day sale going on at the moment. With only 3 weeks until Mothers Day if you would like one of my OOAK bead embroidered items at 20% off you'd better get in quick!!

Until next time, Happy Beading

Jo :)


Thursday 19 April 2012

A Give Away, A Sale and A new listing

Hi All,

Mothers Day is fast Approaching and I would like to announce a sale in my Etsy store to help you (and me lol) prepare for it!!

A few of the members of the Etsy Bead Embroidery Guild are having this sale so we have a group coupon code. In my store the amount will be 20% off and the coupon code is EBEGMOTHERS.

I did a leather cuff this week using one of Agi from Moon Safari Beads gorgeous polymer clay cabochons.

The cabochon has a butterfly on it and rather than going "cutesy" like everyone else does with butterflies I thought I would make something that represents me instead.

Matte green iris, bright purple, and pink lined blue seed beads and enough Swarovski Crystals so that the person half way down the street can see you, This is the "Not so Sweet" Butterfly cuff.



I recently received some gorgeous Dichroic glass cabochons from my Facebook friend Shirley McManus for free and I was wanting to share with you as well so…..

Now for the giveaway……(I got this idea from my Face Book friend Nancy Dale who recently ran a giveaway for a gorgeous cuff.)

What you do is you share a link to my Etsy shop and my blog on your favourite social network Site (FaceBook, Pinterest, Twitter etc) Come back to my Blog copy the link on here (So I can see where it is) and write your name after it. Also following my blog would be really helpful too!! :D

At the end of the week I will write everyone's names down, put it in a hat and get one of my girls to pick one out!!

The winner will receive this gorgeous Dichroic Glass Ring that I made with one of Shirley's Cabochons.






It's attached to an adjustable Silver plated ring base and surrounded with Black, Purple and Silver Seed beads.

It's Quite a big ring but if you are a fearless beader that won't matter (and if you aren't I'm sure SOMEONE you know would like it as a gift lol)

You have until the 26th of April (Australia time) to enter this comp if you would like to, so start sharing the link!!

Good Luck and until next time, Happy beading!!

Jo :D



Saturday 14 April 2012

Hi All,

I have been beading like crazy this last week and a half to finish my latest collar!!

This is probably my largest piece ever and it seemed to take me FOREVER lol!! What I thought would be a quick piece involved around 35-40 hours of beading.

I started it without naming it and when I posted a work in progress photo, a friend of mine told me that he thought it looked like stars in the night sky, I couldn't quite see stars as it was green but it reminded me of the storms that we get here in Northern NSW.

Before it storms here the sky turns green and you can feel the anticipation in the air and you can smell the rain coming, see the Flashes of lightning and hail in the sky. Hence the name "Before The Storm"

I am quite proud of how it ended up it features 3 dichroic cabochons from Pink Glass Palace on Etsy
     http://www.etsy.com/shop/PinkGlassPalace.

The "balls" of hail are actually Blue Zircon Swarovski flat back crystals that have been surrounded by thousands of seed beads and czech faceted crystals.

I tried to keep the clasp simple so as not to take attention away from the piece so I settled on a plain gold plated jump ring and parrot clasp.






One more picture. This is me wearing it. It sits just below my collar bone.



Thanks for reading.

Until next time, Happy beading!! 

Jo :D