Ice Resin and French Beaded Flowers

During our stay in France at the Chateau, two classes

 were presented by Debbie and Shea from A Gilded Life.

A bracelet using Ice Resin and a crworn decorated with French beaded flowers.

Seeing a package like this waiting for you at your spot in the studio was very exciting.

Inside were all the treasures to make the beaded crown and the bracelet.

I really thought that I would not be able to make the crown, or even a flower,

but I started and I enjoyed every moment.

These pictures were taken of the one Debbie made....

mine is still in progress.

Lizette spent an extra few hours in the studio, and she finished hers!

I am so jealous.... but instead, I got to do her woading!!



All our bracelets turned out beautiful.

I think it was somewhere during the bracelet making process that I was completely blinged!!

"BLINGED": when an addiction starts,

on anything that sparkles

and shines when the light reflects on it.



I think from the smiles you can see that
I was not the only one blinged beyond return!

Go check out Debbie & Shea's blog for even more Bling Inspiration...

A desk view....

This is what is on my studio table at the moment.

I am practising my beading skills..... and sometimes

learning the hard way, but that is the way you learn,

by making mistakes.

I am trying out all the colour combinations I can think of,

but as long as it sparkles, I am happy!

If you look closely, you will see the subtle colour variations.

During our next class you will also be learning

how to make these flowers and leaves.

In the meantime, good lighting, lots of hand cream and

stretching exercises will get me through the next few days.

International Charm Day 2012

This year I will be missing International Charm Day.
The reason is that I am taking a trip with my husband to Namibia for a few days.

My mom and dad (which are both 86) will be going with us.

So instead of hosting a class on the day,
Benice and I decided to make and share our charms this year
- just the way Amber Dawn had intended when she started this initiative!!

Remember those stretched canvas stabilizers?

Well this is what we are turning them into.

 

 

 

 

Prrrrretty little charms!

To all our followers in South Africa:
Send us an email with your vital stats and postal address,
and we will send you one of these pretties.

(We hope to get them out by May 15th!)

For our blog followers from abroad, I am really sorry that we cannot send

you a little charm, but here are a few tips on how to create your own.

 

 

Paint the wood with gesso and the paint colour of your choice.

Then use gel medium to adhere the tissue paper to the wood.

Sand off the extra overlapping tissue paper, once your gel has dried.

Drill a small hole with your Dremel in the top corner.

 

 

Choose a small stamp and your Archival ink to stamp an image onto

both sides of the charm.

Paint the sides and add some dangles or silver charms.

I will be back in May with a few photos of one of my favourite places, Namibia!

Nature's Findings

Sometimes we find beautiful things in nature, but we put it away
somewhere and after a while it gets lost within our stash.
We also gather "stuff" because of it's sentimental value.
I do that quite a lot.

 Then one day you find the paper that can bring it all together.
The only thing you then need is the time to create something.

When you have everything ready and you mix it with a friend
that knows where to find some more stuff and knows
how to combine things, you end up with something very special.

This is a sneak peek of one of the canvasses that we created.

All together there are three canvasses. Two smaller ones and a larger one.

We have mixed something old, something new, something borrowed

and something blue.

These canvasses are featured in the new the Bead Book.

So girls... sometimes you do need to clean out your stuff,

but be careful, rather find a friend and some paper and create something special.

Thanks for stopping by and tomorrow I will share

some of the charms we will be making this year on

International Charm Day.

ELNA

We've been published - The Bead Book Issue 33

 We are so pleased to share the news with you...

Two of our creations are featured in the latest issue of the BeadBook!

The first is Benice's chandelier that was made with a wire cupcake-stand turned upside down.

 

 The second article features a soldered pendant that I made when Michelle from the BeadBook visited us recently.

For detailed instructions on both projects, you will have to buy the magazine from one of your local (South African) bead stores, Spar, CNA or Exclusive Books.

Alternatively you can join us for

an Introduction to Soldering class on 14 January 2012

at my studio in Moreletapark.

See sidebar on the right for more details.

We are looking forward to seeing you in the new year.

Into Bracelets

Two weeks ago we heard that we could join a private jewellery exhibition/market....

WOW, did we have to spark!!

Designing new bracelets, dyeing the silk, selecting the colours... etc.. etc

One day left and we are nearly ready.

Here are a few of the designs in four colours.

We hope that it will be a hit, but one thing I can say.. verrry objectivly...

THESE ARE GORGEOUS!

Dig out the beads and get creative. Use the space you have and enjoy it.

Benice and I both went through a difficult time the last two weeks and

I think the bracelects saved us both from mini insanity, both our studio's are in beading chaos,

but at least we are surviving and you can always clean up the mess afterwards.

Resin Jewelry Class

Michelle Holtzhausen from The Bead Book has just contacted me with some great news...

They will be running a Resin Jewelry class with Larissa Johnson 

on 23 August in Edenvale, Gauteng.

Larissa Johnson is a well known International artist from the UK and she is coming to South Africa!! In collaboration with the Bead Book Larissa is going to teach us how to work with resin and make your own pendants using resin and colourants. 

This exciting workshop will be held on 

the 23rd of August 

at Crafters Market in The Glen shopping centre 

@ only R400 pp all materials included!!

Booking is essential and we only have space for 16 students!! 

There is a morning workshop from 10am-1pm and 

an afternoon workshop from 2pm - 5pm. 

Book now! 

Tel: 018 786 3982 or 

 beadbook@telkomsa.net

Hope to see you there!!

a little ice resin

Ice Resin sounds cold but it is HOT!

I couldn't choose which one of the three pieces I wanted to show you first!
Well here they are....

Benice has been very creative, making some lovely jewelry

pieces on the side, using Ice Resin and experimenting with it.

This is a very special piece she made for herself.

(I believe it is the "Two days after pay day" version!)

She made up the three strands, using lots of pearls

and Swarofski Crystals, seed beads and

metal elements .

She also ordered some Frozen Charlottes from Karla's Cottage a while ago and here you can see how she incorporated it into this piece.

Inside this bezel she made a little collage with lace,
text and an image from a greeting card and then filled it with Ice Resin.

This metal piece is actually floating in the resin and it looks stunning.

Thanks for visiting...!

International Charm Day - A South African version

We hosted our second “International Charm Day” on April 28th, 2011 at my studio in Centurion, South Africa.

(Or as Amber Dawn from Inventive Soul calls it - International Handmade Art Charm Day!)

Guests were treated to Turkish Delight and Passion Fruit cupcakes in honour of our blog name!!

(Elna and I did a whole lot of baking on Wednesday!?)

Ina brought her friend, Tessa, along for the day.

Eretha, Teighler and Jeannie proudly displaying their “Bobbin Fairies”!!

Donè, Dawn, Marnè, Maryke and Rita relaxing after a very creative morning!!  Dawn decided to bring her daughter, Maryke and her two granddaughters with for the morning.

Dawn and Rita attended our workshops at Soul Sisters where they caught the "Bead Bug" and, if you look closely, you will Rita wearing her Soul Sister "Fiber Watch"!?

Guests made a "Bobbin Fairy" - to keep and...

... a "Message on a Thimble" which was swapped out for one made by another guest.

Maryke, Dawn and Marnè trying hard to get the split-pins attached to the ribbon-clasp!?

The studio was a hive of activity with ladies scratching for beads, ribbon and fibers.

Oh, what fun we had!!

A huge "Thank You" goes out to Amber Dawn for starting this wonderful opportunity to share with others!!

Please hop on over to the International Charm Day website to see other related events...

International Charm Day Sneak Peek

Elna and I have just finalised our planning for next week's International Charm Day on April 28th...

This is a sneak peek at what our guests will be making - "Bobbin Fairies" and "A Message on a Thimble".

Cannot wait!?  On Wednesday we are going to bake cupcakes with Passion Fruit or Turkish Delight Icing for our visitors - will post photos...

Thank you for visiting...

A story to tell

This morning a friend phoned and after a while asked me what is happening in my life. I replied, "not much at the moment, I don't have a story to tell you...." That was this morning, by 3 o'clock this afternoon it was a different story.

My dog ate some ant poison, my car had a flat battery when I wanted to take her to the vet, so my friend that was here for class had to rush me to the vet. The dog stayed to be treated, my husband came to fix the battery and asked if I could "mom sit" my mother in law tomorrow afternoon and that he had to take refreshments to work tomorrow, because it is his birthday this weekend.

Benice was here at that stage and I could hear her laugh. That is about all you can do when all of this happened in a matter of 4 hours. And in between all of this we are both busy with a project for the Bead Book that needs to be finished by tomorrow! Luckily we are not going to work on the beehives tonight! (yes, that was also on the cards!)

****

This weekend we are having Fibre Watch Class, so I thought I would show you a picture of what mine looks like. I decided to go for white, grey and pink.

Ok, my dog is fine, for which I am very grateful! The Bead Book projects are looking lovely and

I will buy, and not bake the necessary refreshments for tomorrow (and I have taken some Rescue Remedy), so everything will be ok.

International Charm Day - 28 April

Just a quick post to let you know that we will once again host an event to celebrate International Charm Day!!

(Or as Amber Dawn from Inventive Soul calls it - International Handmade Art Charm Day)

To quote Amber Dawn -

On this day we celebrate life, friendship, artistic charms to wear. We do this by sharing and wearing our own handmade art charms or give gifts of charms, charm making supplies or charm related items. Love, hope, charity, creativity, friendship, kindness, happiness and sharing are many of the founding components behind this event. We share with those we know and those we do not know.

Please join us on 28 April 2011

at my (Benice's) Studio.

You can pop in  at any time between 10:00 and 15:00.

(Allow at least 2 hours to complete your works of art
and socialise a bit)

R50 will buy you a cup of tea, a cupcake (what else?)
& the supplies needed to make two items of handmade art.

 

You will make a "Bobbin Fairy" (to keep), as well as
a "Message on a Thimble" which you will swap for another one
made by one of the other participants.

Please email us to ensure we keep a "spot" for you!?

Be sure to check out Amber Dawn's website to find out what people all over the world will be doing on the 28th...

Another Soul Sisters Class

I received an urgent SMS (text message) from Jaclyn on Sunday to ask if I could teach the beading class for the next series of Soul Sisters workshops due to start this Friday...

So instead of having a quiet week before attending  Hobby-X on Thursday, I am knee-deep in counting beads & charms, measuring ribbons & waxed cord, checking watch faces, gathering all my beading tools and freaking out every so often!?

This is just a hint of what we plan to do at the class...

... a Fibre Wrist-Watch!?

Elna is also in the throws of packing kits for her In2Crafts workshops at Hobby-X, so I guess we will "see you" next week.


Thank you for visiting...

Memories of a Princess - A Closer Look

In my post of 2 December 2010, I promised to give more info on my "Memories of a Princess" pendant once the next issue of theBeadBook has hit the stands...  

I love tins, especially ones with teeny tiny sweets inside!?  Having built up quite a collection of these “gems” over time, I’ve decided it was time to see how I could give them some purpose.

Sand the tin allover and choose papers to cover (some of) the back, sides and front.  I've used gel medium to adhere the papers and added some pearlised ink to give them a shiny finish.

For the front I chose an image from ARTchix Studio, added a crown charm...

... some bling, a paper flower and rubber-stamped "Memories" to complete the picture.

(You can also go to Etsy and search for digital images to purchase on-line)

The dangles are from earrings that I'm allergic to!?  They are attached to a very short length of chain and attached to the tin with brads from my paper-craft stash!!

With a bit of patience you should be able to slide the top of the tin off to remove the inside “thingy”.  You can now fill the inside of the tin with a mini album of photos, a love letter, favourite quote(s), or whatever has special meaning to you...

Thank you for visiting!