Giveaways and contests

A few tips on new giveaways, but this time also a few current contests of interest to beaders.

First, SoftFlexGirl's latest giveaway featuring the new Trick or Treat Trios package (se pic above). This set consists of beading wires in Black Onyx, Citrine and Yellow Lemon Quartz.

Malin de Koning is celebrating now having 50 followers of her blog and her birthday by hosting a giveaway of mixed beads in all sorts of materials from all over the world.

Andrew Thornton is giving away a copy of Sculptural Metal Clay Jewellery by Kate McKinnon. You can also read his review of the book here.

Then the contests. (For the Swedish contests, please see my other blog.)

Vintaj July Challenge: the challenge for this month's design challenge is secret garden.

Art Bead Scene Blog's July challenge is centred around Alexander Calder's sculpture Blue Feather.

Flex Your Creativity: this year SoftFlex Co. has chosen steampunk as the theme for their annual beading contest.

Haute Couture Beading Contest: seedbeaders, let yourself be inspired by haute couture fashion in this second annual beading contest.

Fire Mountain Gems Jewelry-Making Contest has been split into several. This year you still have time to enter Swarovski Elements and Metal Clay, Metal Beads, Wirework & Chain.


Now, did I miss any good contests or giveaway in my list? As mentioned above, contests and challenges hosted by Swedish bead shops are listed in my other blog.

Bead blog recap weeks 25-26

Ah, time flies. The summer days pass by faster and faster it seems. Now again has two weeks passed and I thought I'd do a recap of the lastest posts over at Manekis Pärlblogg.


New products from BeadSmith
A pick of interesting and nice new products from BeadSmith's July New Product Update. Lots of copper.

Summer contests
A list of currect beading contests, Swedish and American.

Jump rings as spacers
Use jump rings -- single or several at the time -- instead of spacers when stringing jewellery.

Coloured memory wire
French bead shop Perles & Co sells bracelet size memory wire in several different finishes. How about using their fuchsia or turquoise wire for colourful summer jewellery?

Tool guides
What tools do a newbie need? What is that hammer used for? What new tools do you need if moving from beading to silversmithing? Here you find several tool guides for jewellery makers and beaders, including a 30-or-so pages guide from Jewelry Making Daily.

Industrial Chic
Susan Lenart Kazmer designed this line exclusively for North American craft store chain Michaels. Includes project instructions and gallery that might be of interest even to us outside the US.

Vintaj Jewelry Technique Book review
A review of Vintaj's compilation of interesting techniques from filigree wrapping to mixed media. See above for pic of the cover.

Bottle cap flower charms
On Glass Garden Beads' website you can now find not only bottle cap beads and pendants but also charms cut into the shape of five-petal flowers.

Rivet first, think later

Ok, I think I really like riveting. (After all, I really liked hammering nails as a kid so this was probably a logical development.) But I think I might like it a wee bit too much. This is my second riveted flower. As seen before in the Flowers and leaves post, but now without the centre bead.

So what's the problem? Well, I've riveted these layered flowers together before thinking about what I wanted to do with them. If I'd been smart, I would've waited long enough to determine if I should've added some sort of finding, bail, metal blank or other part to the layers of metal before riveting them together. E.g. adding a brooch pin to the back or a bail so I can use it as a pendant without having to add a bail or drill a hole afterwards. Well, while riveting the second flower that did hit me. And now I try to plan ahead a bit more before hammering down that rivet.

Ah, yes, unlike with my first riveted flower, I can actually show you a pic of the back. I use pre-made rivets so it's only this one side of the rivet I hammer down. Not the best pic, but -- well -- at least you can see what a hammered rivet looks like if you're unfamiliar with the technique.

Stamping on leather

I've never stamped on leather before, but now that I got a nice, tough piece of vegetable tanned leather I thought I had to give it a go. This is my first test where I wanted to see how much I had to soak the leather before stamping and to see how hard I must hit the stamps (as you can see, hitting them hard makes the stamp cut through the coloured surface, totally damaging it). The stamps I used are just some common letter and number stamps for metal. Not even mine, my sis bought these at Jula or Clas Ohlson or some such.

I'm a novice when it comes to this type of leatherwork so I really don't know what I'm doing, but that much I have picked up from info online that I have to soak or dampen the leather first (in cold water -- warm/hot water is used to harden leather) and that it shouldn't be chrome tanned. There are special leather stamps/punches, but as mentioned above I used metal stamps, also something I read online, that some stamps made for metal works well on leather too. The biggest problem with stamping leather is that the imprint can rise and thus fade away. You can also use a knitting needle or other "dull point" to trace a pattern on the leather. And, yes, I will be needing to colour those imprints so they show up better.

There are other ways of working with leather too, such as cutting and pauting, but I'm not looking to do anything more elaborate that I can make using just metal stamps. I have used another method of leatherworks in school as a kid: in woodshop class we got to try pyrography on wood as well as leather. It stinks, but it was a not-too-difficult way of decorating leather. I do have a Dremel Versatip that can be used for pyrography, but I haven't yet tried it on my leather.


PS! For another example of my "leatherwork", see my shaped leather flower. Also an amateur experiment.

*Edited to add: Since writing I read about and clicked my way to Tandy Leather Factory. Not only do they share info on leather working, but they have so many stamp that I just must have. And embossing rolls. I've never been that fond of metal stamping, but now I feel like leather stamping might be something for me!*

A barn swallow drama

Ok, as you can see, I'm no good at shooting flying swallows. And barely sitting swallows for that matter. So I hope you see these photos as more documentary in style. Think newspaper photographer on site of accident. And if you make it to the end of this short, but slightly dramatic, tale, you'll find a couple of nice pics of a sweet young swallow.


It's been a warm and sunny day today and I spent the afternoon outdoors. As usual, the swallows were circling in the air. Our beloved barn swallows. They build nests in our stable every year.


They circled low this afternoon, which is unusual on sunny days like these. Normally, the fly around catching insects and on warm days the insect fly high up in the air. And thus do the swallows. They did not behave as I was used to.


In fact, they even seemed to swoop down on me. As if trying to scar me away. I didn't pay much attention at first, but the closer I came to stand to the greenhouse, the lower they flew. Still, I was too focused on other things to "connect the dots" yet.


It wasn't until I fetched my camera, thinking I'd give it another shot, trying to photograph these elusive (to the camera at least) birds. When I began focusing on the birds I soon realised that there really was something wrong. I wasn't imagining it when I thought they were "aiming" at me. I got the final proof when one swallow actually swooped down on Mini, one of our cats that had just wandered into the yard and laid down on the gravel. He wasn't doing anything to aggrevate the birds so something had to be really, really wrong from the birds' point of view.


Still not knowing what was wrong, I stepped closer and this is what I found. Can you see what it is? A kid, a young swallow that probably wanted to try its wings, but failed. As you can see below, the vent hole on the top of the barn wall is right above our greenhouse. The swallow must have either fallen from the hole or perhaps bumped into it during one of its first flights.


Poor soul. There this little one sat, while the parents were soaring above, trying to defend it from the carnivores that called the farm theirs. Humans and cats. And also, by flying, trying to get their little one to get airborn. Poor birds, they can't pick their kids up in their arms or carry them from danger by holding them by the nape.


At one point, which I got a good look at and which was so touching to watch, one of the adult swallows sat down on the clothes line that run from the greenhouse to a nearby tree. As if trying to comfort the youngster and at the same time trying to coax it to get into the air to get to mummy/daddy. At this point I'm standing about two metres away from the birds.


Oh, look at the poor defenseless one as she or he is looking up into the sky, following the flights of mummy and daddy. At one point it tries to flap its wings, but alas, it remains stranded on the glass roof.


As the adult swallows didn't seem intent on attacking me, I got into the greenhouse to get closer to the poor baby. Some of the panes are missing since the autumn storms and snowy long winter and when dad got ill, no one got around to repairing them. Luckily for me, this meant I could get a couple of good shots, being within a meter of the bird. It was heartbreaking, seeing this lost little child looking up in the sky at mummy and daddy.


I wish I could end this story with a happy note, but the truth is I don't know what happened to the bird. I turned my back and the next time I got there, the swallow was gone. I didn't hear anything that resembled the sound of a cat catching a frightened bird. I don't know if it fell to the ground, but I didn't see it inside the greenhouse at least. If it did fall it would probably be the end for it. But the swallows disappeared so maybe, just maybe, they didn't abandon a falling child, but flew away with their little one. Maybe it did, in the end, flap its wings and soar into the sky. On should never give up, but try and try again. Baby birds know that better than most of us. Let us hope the story ended so.

Happy Midsummer's Eve!

Summer solstice was this Monday (21st), which means that today is Midsummer's eve. Midsummer was originally celebrated on the day of the summer solstice, in a celebration of the longest day of the year (and there fore the midsummer as opposite the midwinter). Midsummer Eve in Sweden, however, is nowadays celebrated on a Friday between June 19 and 25.

While I won't dance around any Maypoles or get drunk -- nor pick flowers for that matter -- I will spend this day peacefully eating some yummy new potatoes with matjes (soused herring) and sourcream. I only eat it once a year and I've been longing so for it! No midsummer's eve is complete without it. And I hope the strawberries have ripened so they're plump and sweet despite the cold days this spring. Because one does need strawberries in cream on Midsummer.

Whether you celebrate this day or not, I wish you all a happy midsummer!





These pics are from May so not strictly midsummer flowers. But pretty notheless -- and they do still blossom. As kids, these were one of the flowers my sis and I would pic for the flower wrethes we would wear during the day and to decorate the maypole with.

The things I buy...

Do you know what that is in the pic above? It's a dozen bolo slides -- a finding normally used when making bolo/bola ties (a country/western thing). I'm not planning on making anthing along those lines. This was a thing that just had to find it's way to my wishlist after reading the post Make your own big bracelet blanks by Dave over at the Rings & Things blog. The background for the post was that one of the R&T employees had a smart idea for how to make a bigger bracelet blank, as requested by a costumer. She found the bolo slides to be ideal for the purpose.

And of cause that sort of idea triggers my creativity. I began thinking about what other ways you could use this slightly unusual -- if you're not into the whole country & western thing -- finding. I got one idea just while reading the post and when I received the slides -- of cause I had to buy them in the end -- I had a new idea.

So, I know how to use the first two slides. That leaves ten more to come up with ideas for. I did hesitate to buy a package as I felt I didn't have enough ideas for a whole dozen, but I do think I'll get around to using them all. Good thing is they weren't too expensive either so can experiment freely without feeling like I'm wasting money.


I've been on a spending spree lately, I feel, and so the bolo slides weren't the only thing I bought just to try them out.


This is a new typ on "clip-on" earrings for me. I'm always trying different versions -- from screws to cuffs -- in search for less painful fake earrings than the horrible clip-ons I found as a kid. This version is very simple and with the right typ of wire (I'm thinking springy steel) you could probably do these yourself. Also they weren't too expensive, something that is often the problem with clip-ons as they have all sorts of springs and hinges to keep the earring on the earlobe.

I've already got a favourite type of clip-ons that are similar to these, but with a spring thingy, which makes them more expensive. Below is an example of what I've made with that type.


And, oh, I got some bezel lace too. Isn't it pretty?


Had only seen it in sterling before, which is beyond my budget, so I was thrilled to find it in my latest favourite metal, brass. Bezel lace is used for setting stones and the smart thing is that the loops make this type of gallery wire useful for wireworkers that doesn't solder as well. The top bezel is so pretty on its own I'll probably use it as a decorative trimming on a pendant or something too.