Winter solstice

Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the magical day celebrated by most people in our part of the world for thousands of years. According to SMHI, the sun rose at 08.41 today and set at 15.32.

While it can be nice with the darkness now, when almost everyone has light decorations outdoors and in the windows -- and the snow brightens the darkness a lot -- we will probably all be glad to know the sun is now returning. At least little by little -- it's still a long time before spring and summer returns.

For tomorrow a Class 1 warning is issued for Southern Sweden as we will get 5-10 cm snow and winds will increase. I will stay indoors baking and making candy for Christmas Eve. And hopefully also get time for some beading.

Crackling stone beads and glass pebbles

As usual I was online googling something from my bead blog when I stumbled over something else. That time it was FireNFusion's How to Make Fried Marble Necklaces (in the oven), that caught my eye. After reading that I felt like trying to find some of my old glass marbles, but failing that I had to use the second best, glass pebbles originally intended for flower arrangement but also useful to make beaded bezels for.

(Bead in the middle not crackled, used as reference.)

Then I began thinking of crackled quartz, glass beads and fired agate so I got out a few beads I felt I could afford to lose (the process is rather tough, not all beads survive and some don't crackle "the right way". My czech glass beads and glass mosaic didn't crackle at all. In the end, they got a few miniscule cracks -- which broke the bead when I put pressure on it. Too hard or well annealed perhaps? But I got some nice crackling on my "smoke" quartz (which lost its colour) and the agates. The somewhat opaque rose quartz did crackle, but the lines don't show up very well.


I know this is bead torture, but it's really fun. And I haven't broken that many of the sacrificed beads yet.

PS! Crackling means making actual cracks in the beads. It can make them very prone to breakage sometimes.

Aklejapussel - Aquilegia puzzle

Want to have a go at my jig-saw puzzle? The photo is of our pink columbines (Aquilegia vulgaris), in Swedish know as aklejor. This is one of my favourite flowers. Love the old-fashioned romantic ones like bleeding hearts, roses, snowdrops, violets (Viola odorata) etc.

Just click the photo to go to the JigZone website were you can choose the amount and cut of the bits. And give all the other puzzles a try, mine and others. My two other puzzles have bead themes, vintage Japanese millefiori and shell pearls, as you can see in the links below.

Millefiori Jigsaw Puzzle

shell pearls Jigsaw Puzzle

Diving into the beads

You might have noticed in my photos that I don't have the best camera. At least it's not as good as it used to be since I've dropped it in the floor both once and twice (...ok, perhaps I've done it three times). I've never had expensive pro or semi-pro cameras, but I do enjoy photographing. Either landscape photography or macro. With a compact, no fancy SLR. And all I can say it thank god for digital cameras because now I can afford taking a zillion pics and not having to pay for expensive development, which limits you to only taking one shot when you would need perhaps ten to get the "perfect" photo.


One thing I've come to like lately is taking close-ups of bead mixes. I did this for a destash I had earlier this year and it has all the elements I love about macro shooting -- plus it includes BEADS! It's all about finding the right angles and dive into the beads. Trying to organize the beads, mixing them so that it looks good on photo. The thing with close-ups is that a boring, ordinary pile of beads can look so much more attractive when you get in close, forget about showing all the beads and just try too capture the "feeling" of the bead mix.

Here -- above and below -- are a few photos I took of the bead mixes. Some I like better than others, but all look better than the photos of the whole mixes (I had that kind too so the buyers would see exactly what they got, not just the "mood-setting" close-ups.)

Why no links?

My blog is still very new so I haven't had the time to add interesting links and many other things yet. In fact, I haven't even told that many people, I even have a new blog. I will be adding more info soon. Or... At least hopefully I will update it before the end of the year.

If you are looking specifically for links to blogs and websites where you can learn more about beading and jewellery making, I would suggest you take a peak at the link lists in the left column on my other blog, Manekis Pärlblogg. Written in Swedish, but the majority of the links go to English-speaking sites.

Lovely purples: Alchemy and montana burgundy luster

Ok, this isn't the fist time I talk about these beads, but I just love the colours. So bare with me just one more time.

The rivoli is from Preciosa and the lovely Alchemy is one of their H.Y.T. Colors. It has gorgeous brownish and heather purples. Rather difficult to describe, but oh so lovely. Preciosa themselves says about Alchemy:

The colour of ancient copper -- at first glance unremarkable yet at second glance enthralling. What is its true colour? Brown or purple? Red or pink. Simply captivating.

The quote comes from their website hytcolors.com -- don't miss all the other H.Y.T. Colors that are presented on the site: Lilac smoke, Graphite, Plum, Dark Orchid, Night Helio, Dream, Lava Flow, Brown Sugar, Light Gold, Caramel, Pinky Peach, Red Fuchsia, Beach Topaz, and Steel.

The fire-polished beads next to the rivoli are in a hue called montana burgundy luster. Stictly speaking it's not a purple colour, it just looks that way. The glass is montana blue and then coated with a burgundy luster. In fact, when holding the beads up against light you can see the blue shine through the coating. But most of the time you see the blues mixed with the dark reddish surface finish. And we all know that blue and red make purple. In this case a lovely dark purple, leaning towards burgundy.

These beads are probably my favourite buy this year, another thing I bought with the gift certificate I won on the R&T blog. And at R&T there's actually a small photo of the beads where you can see how the beads look,being held up in front of a light source. If you think it's hard to see the variation in my pic.

Two different purples, one a warm almost brownish nuance and the other a cooler more metallic look, but both equally gorgeous!

Bead blog recap week 51

A new week of posts from Manekis Pärlblogg. From tin cup necklaces to Swedish pearl fishing.


Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year
Holiday greetings and a bit thank you to all my readers and those who link to my blog, recommend it to other, write comments and -- not least -- send me such greatly appreciated e-mail messages. I'm taking a leave from blogging during the holidays and will be back in early January.

Pearl fishing in Sweden -- from the medieval to modern times
Sweden has never been a large producer of pearls, but did you know that pearls have been taken from freshwater pearl mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera) in Swedish rivers for centuries until they became protected in 1994? Read about the mussels, pearl fishing through history -- including how Carl von Linné (Linnaeus) tried to cultivate pearls -- how the mussels were harvested and how they almost became exstinct.

Oil pastels on metal and painted faux patinas
Explore different ways of adding a colourful paint patina on metals. Use oil pastels, acrylic paint, enamel paints, wood stain, alcohol inks, Sharpies and more. This is not a post on painting metal, rather how to add depth and colour to recessed areas through faux patination techniques.

Finishing elastic jewellery
Elastic threads can be hard to knot and finish in a secure way. Here is a dozen tips on things you might want to consider when making elastic jewellery. Also include tips on patterns for making elastic bead-woven pieces of jewellery.

Icicles
Icicle ornaments, but also a few jewellery projects is the theme in this post. Don't miss the link to the crystal trees.

Essence d'Orient, faux pearls and Swedish bleak
Yet another post on pearl history. This time a short story of how pearl essence was discovered and how the production of glass-based faux pearls started. Includes a description of how the pearls where actually made. And the Swedish angle? There was international interest in starting production of pearl essence in Sweden -- and perhaps also pearls -- but in the end no production began.

Make your own bails
Different ways of making bails for your jewellery. Includes bead-weaving, fabrication, filigree wrapping, wirework, bead stringing and metal clay.

Swivel pendants, globe beads and ceramic bead caps
A few fun products from two American bead shops, with an interesting range of beads and supplies.

Tin Cup necklaces -- and a multi-strand bracelet
How to make the "modern classic" with floating pearls. Also include a bracelet in similar style (pearls on cord), but with a very different look due to the abundance of strands used.