Turtle head

I managed to get the rest of my Pink Ribbon Turtle finished over the weekend, and thought you might like to see...

I had a real hard time deciding what to do for the head. I wasn't sure whether I should make it have eyes or not. Every time I put beads on for eyes, it looked kind of silly, so I went with this instead. Now all I need to do is connect it to the background fabric, and embellish the background. It looks as if I wont have any problems getting this done on time...and then on to my Bead Artist Trading Cards (BATC) that are due in October!

Stanley

I sat down yesterday to work on my turtle head, and I got distracted by a thought process. After spending some time browsing Laura McCabe's website and looking at her cell phone fobs, I thought to myself, "hey, I bet I could make myself a turtle fob!" I really like turtles, and since I have turtles on the brain lately with the Pink Ribbon Turtles it just came naturally. So this is what I came up with...I used a 12mm emerald swarovski rivoli for the shell. I stitched a peyote bezel around it, and then made the ridge on the shell with a st. petersburg chain variation. I added a 8mm peridot swarovski for the head, with a head pin inserted for attaching to the fob. The legs are 6mm peridot top-drilled crystals, and two 4mm peridots for the tail. I also beaded the bezel so that it was closed on the back of the rivoli, so that his shell looks complete.
Ive named him Stanley. I'm not sure why, but the name just spoke to me while I was making it, so Stanley it is. I hope he will enjoy dangling from my phone. Now on to bigger, pinker turtles...again...

Pink Shell

I just ran outside, and took this photo of my beaded turtle shell for the Pink Ribbon Turtle 4Q. Thank heavens it is such a sunny day(excuse the glare on some of the stones). I cant wait to get started on the head! This is such a fun project, I cant wait to see what it will look like when everyone gets their quadrant done, and the whole thing is put together. I am so thrilled to be working with such great beaders , Jena Tuntas , Dot Lewallen , and Cynthia Bicker. Well, I'm off to go beading! yippeeee!

Prickly Pear

Finally, the rest of the pieces came in the mail yesterday so I was able to finish constructing, photographing, and mailing off my BFAC project. And what a relief it was to do all of that.

The kit we started with didn't look half bad to me when we first got it back in March. When I finally sat down to play with the beads though, I found I had an obstacle. All of the beads looked quite different when they were strung, and I found that I didn't like the colors at all!

I came up with the idea to make some beaded beads with right-angle weave, and that way I could use small concentrated blobs of color spread out through my project. After adding some 8mm round Jade beads, I came up with this necklace/bracelet set.

All of the beaded beads are different from each other and both the necklace, and the bracelet have magnetic closures that are hidden within the beads, so that each piece seems to be a continuous beaded rope.


One of the other nice features of the magnetic closure, is that the necklace which is 16 and 1/4 inches long, and the bracelet which is 8 and 1/4 inches can be combined to make a necklace which is 24 and 1/2 inches long.

Hopefully the versatility of this set will make it the perfect addition to someones jewelry collection. I am so happy to be done with one more challenge, and on my way to the Pink Ribbon Turtles! Woooohooooo!!!

ahhhh...relief

Well, I finally had to set down the mask, and move on to other things. I still have a reasonable amount of work to do on the mask, but for sanity sake, I know when I need to take a break. I still intend to finish it also, hopefully before Christmas, but I needed to get some other projects done first. The Beadin' Path will be posting pictures in about a month so everyone can see what the talented artists who got theirs done in time did with their masks.

First to get done is my Beading for a Cure project. I finally came up with a pattern that works for me, and made a bunch of beaded beads. I am almost patiently awaiting a delivery of the few last supplies I need in order to take some pictures, and send it on its way before the deadline of July 15Th. Hopefully I will get these pictures up on my blog before the holiday this weekend(fingers crossed).

Then I get to start my turtle for the Pink Ribbon Turtles 4Q. I have all sorts of beads that I have been buying, and getting all my creative juices flowing, and I am revved up, and ready to go! I am hoping to start the shell this weekend, while I am in Fife Lake at the cottage this weekend. Hopefully I will find some time to work on it, but with all the family being there, I am sure I will be distracted.

In the meantime, I am creating a website for myself. This is the year I would really like my beading career to start to take off. I have been playing around for about 24 years now, experimenting, and having lots of fun. Now that my kids are a bit bigger (Xavier is 7 and Aiden is 5) and both will be in full day school in the fall, so I will have some time to concentrate on furthering my goals. Keep your eyes and ears open, because I want to try and get the website up and running this month. The address will be www.libeadobeadwork.com .