Embroidered rizo flowers

I just had to share these little florals I did last night (an by night, I mean really night -- as in after midnight). It's an idea I've had for some time, probably since before I got these beads from Fru Pärla, but having prioritized other projects it wasn't until last night I acutally sat down and tried that little design idea of mine.

When I finished, I just had to share the result so I got the camera out today and took some quick snapshots. (A bit too quick in some cases -- sorry about the blurry quality in the top photo, but it was the best one I had...)

 

I'm rather pleased with how the different flowers turned out. Ok, using partially green beads on a green foundation wasn't that clever and emerald capri gold's not the most petal-like colour, but I just grabbed what I had closest to me -- and you can still see the flowers. It's not like they disappeared into the felt or anything. But try to imagine them in a solid, floral colour as they might look even better if I tried doing them in, say, purple or pink instead of "half green".

For the medium flower, I'm thinking of making a version with green beads in the outer circles, making it a flower with sepals or leaves around the petals.

That slightly wonky rizon on the left side of the small flower in the above photo is annoying: why didn't I see that before taking the photo? Anyway, if using it in jewellery, it's probably best to add a ring of seeds around the flower so the rizos are completely fixed in an upright position. They usually are, but can be flattened if the flower pushes against something, it snags on a loose thread or you put something on it. Not a probably if it's used in a wall hanging etc, but can be an issue in jewellery.

That's just a problem with the small flower, with the larger ones, the subsequent rows of beads keep each rizo in a fixed position.

By the way, this is a simple little design that'd I could whip up a how-to for pretty easily so if you want to see one here on the blog (and on my other blog), just let me know. ;-)

Having fun with rizo beads

No, I haven't disappeared from the online world, though for some reason I haven't blogged since new year's eve and I've forgotten a Meowy Monday. Partially it's been because I've had fun with a couple of "late christmas gifts" I got offered during boxing week.

During christmas, Karin from swedish bead shop Fru Pärla asked me if I wanted to have some new rizo beads to play with and blog about. Fru Pärla was the first swedish shop to get the new beads that were presented by Sabine Lippert in December. If you're into beadweaving, you've probably heard about these new rice-shaped top-drilled little beads. While they've been developed by and for bead weavers, they do work very well in all sorts of beading/jewellery making, from stringing to chain maille. As I hope to show here.

These are just my first designs: I still have beads left and hope to use them soon.

This isn't the first thing I made, but of the designs here it's the pièce de résistance. My own original design, but most of all a design where everything just fell into place. No frustration at all: no ripping up, no re-thinking the whole thing, no design issues at all (apart from choosing whether or not to add the big daggers). If only it was always like that!

sideview

I was really keeping my fingers crossed the colours would work as I picked them out at night in poor light... The preciosa rivoli is crystal honey, the rizo and seeds topaz, the 8 mm daggers crystal apricot and then I don't know the colour name of the 16 mm daggers.

This is actually the first thing I made, partially to show that the beads can be used for more than just bead weaving. It's a simple 2-in-1 chain maille bracelet with two rizos added to each jump ring. Maybe it'd look better with slightly smaller rings, but this is the only size I had. Still like it, though, and the topaz amber rizos have a ½ coat with a metallic finish that matches the rings and clasp beautifully.

Then I tried a few variations of the rizo chain, adding e. g. flower bead dangles, drops etc. However, the next design came about when I wanted to vary sizes rather than shapes. So why not add daggers? Well, it didn't turn out as planned at all as I forgot that even 11 mm daggers are too big to hang as freely and dangle as easily as e. g. rizos, drops or even long magatamas. Instead they form a much more stylized pattern. To keep that interesting new pattern still, the chain was turned into an earring rather than a bracelet.

I don't wear earrings so I'm not sure that the ideal length for this one would be. Any suggestions? Longer, shorter, as it is?

(I'm considering doing a new free tutorial for either the bracelet or the earring -- anyone want that? And if so, which of the two would you rather have instructions to? The earrings might need a little tweaking first, though...)

Last -- and least -- I made a tiny beaded bead. I'm thinking of making a handful and use them as space beads in a necklace or bracelet so it isn't a finished design, but I still wanted to show them now that I got photos of the other stuff I'm been making.

By the way: the colour used in the beaded bead and the earring is called emerald azuro and if you love jewel tones, you might want to check it out. Lovely emerald greens and metallic dark blues in that finish.


I'm going to play some more with my rizo beads today and hopefully I'll also get to work on few things with things I got in a blog partner programme (more on that later!). Then I hope to get some time to work on my first Bead Journal Project panel. So plenty of fun things to do. Don't feel like I'm on a creative roll at the moment, but I'm still being creative and that's a step in the right direction. The year seems to be beginning just fine. Not with a big, fabulous bang, but relaxed and filled with little progresses. And that's pretty decent, isn't it? Whether big or small, every step you take is a good thing. Even if it's slow, it propells you forward.

Forged copper rings

Haven't I showed you these before? I made a coupled of hammered copper rings from 12 G (2 mm) bare copper Artistic Wire as one of my inspiration projects for Fru Pärla (you can find the rest here or in the shop's gallery).
They're really simple to make: just anneal and hammer, anneal and hammer, anneal and hammer. I don't even have a ring mandrel to I shaped these (with my hands and a hammer) around a sort of cardboard core from a note paper roll. It worked. I created different rustic textures using the ball on a ball-peen hammer, the wedge of a cross-peen hammer and, on one of the rings, coarse sandpaper -- se pic below for a close-up. I hand-polished all rings to a subtle shine, except for one that I oxidized using the egg method and one that I blackened.

Decoupaged wood beads bracelet

This is another decoupaged piece of jewellery I've made using Décopatch papers (no 287). Normally I really, really dislike elastic jewellery, but as I didn't have any good clasps I choose to string the beads on elastics so I at least could finish my project (it's a long overdue project made with beads I got from Fru Pärla).

I thought my favourite decoupage paper looked pretty good mixed with the caramel brown wooden beads. On the first close-up you can even see how the graining slightly showns through the thin paper. I left one side free so the bracelet can be worn with some beads facing up and other facing down if one prefers that.

Pink anemone brooch

I really like these lovely big acrylic/lucite flowers. That's why I bought this one eventhough pink is not my favourite colour.

This just a very simple brooch I made by knotting the acrylic flower to a large coconut button -- it had a perfect curve for letting the flower nest in the middle -- and then adding a few matte crystal long magatama beads in the centre. I think it suits the season with its soft spring colours.

Photos of a flower bracelet

Well, I was going to take a few pics of a new bracelet I made for my inspiration gallery at Fru Pärla, but then I couldn't stop taking more photos. So I ended up with a bunch of slightly more "artistic" pictures of it. Not all are great, but I just wanted to share the fun.

Vintage bronze rivoli pendants

Earlier this week I got a "goodiebag" of wire and beads (and buttons) from Swedish bead shop Fru Pärla [= Mrs Bead] as I had taken the opportunity to volunteer and make a few creations for the inspiration galleries. The first thing I made was these rivoli pendants using the 20 G Vintage Bronze wire I got.
One thing I hate about photos is that they enlarge details: the wrapped loops look so much more sloppy on pic than IRL. Ok, now I've said that.
To the left you see a 16 mm crystal volcano Preciosa rivoli attached to a variation of the classic prong setting. I don't really have the tools to set a stone like this so I use what I have. Ideally I would have wanted to press the prongs closer to the crystal, but I was afraid of scratching or chipping it. Still pleased with the result, especially considering I rarely, if ever, make prong settings.
To the right is a 18 mm crystal sahara Preciosa rivoli that I set in a different way. This time I made wavy "frame", using a wire jig to keep the points even, that was shaped and wrapped around the perimetre of the crystal. The back look exactly the same as the front.
I had no intention of making anything steampunk-related (though vintage bronze is the perfect colour for steamy jewellery), but I realised the bigger pendant has the same colours as this book cover. Not my usual palette, but I quite like it. Nice contrast between metal and water (the crystal reflects the colours of the coating in a way reminding of moving water).

This was also my first time using the "invisible thread suspension method" when photographing. I think it made a huge difference as the pendants don't have flat backs, making it hard to shoot them at the same time. As usual I sing praise to Neat Image, my knight in shining armour now that my camera -- having been dropped in the floor a couple of times -- give me such noisy pics. (Keeping on the name dropping I might add the photo is edited in Picasa, the programme I use now that I can't access my laptop with my favourite, Photoshop Elements.)