Beaded Bookmark Treasures

Its been a while since I posted any beaded things, so here are a few of my more recent pieces. I rather enjoyed beating that wire into interesting shapes.
I think my fav is the next pic where the wire takes on the form of little sea creatures and treasures. A fish and the spiralled internal compartments of a shell.

Of course there are also pearls and other interesting left over beads in many gorgeous tones of blues and green. Once again these remind me of those beautiful colours found in the coral sea around North Queensland. I used silver plated bookmarks, 925 chain and head pins.

Bookmarks are a good way to use up beads with no remaining partners and make wonderful little gifts for lovers of books. Gee I should make one for myself...these were either gifts or pieces that I sold at a recent jewellery party.

Highlights of 2007 continued....

Here's another wire piece I put together last year. The only tools I used to make this one were a pair of wire cutters. The Swarovski crystals caught my eye one day whilst out bead shopping, at the time had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I think they were put to good use with the making of this wire necklace.
The wire that holds the necklaces in place is just one long piece that I wire wrapped with fine wire and then hooked onto the necklace. Actually the whole thing was a bit of an experiment, but I like how it turned out and so did a customer who snapped it up at one of my jewellery shows. I also made matching earrings for her.

My Fun Froggy Pendant Project

Pick yourself up a copy of the latest(Dec 07) Australian Beading Magazine and have a go at my fun Froggy Pendant project. You'll be twisting wire in no time and probably get as addicted as I am. You can adapt this technique to any type of large focal bead. This is another of Sabine E Wilkins Beads... Have fun!!

Customer Commission

I just finished this piece which a customer commissioned a little while back.
Her brief was for something pink, but when she looked over my Swarovski stash, it was decided that pink, white and crystal were to be the embellishments.
The fine wire wrapping took me approximately 4 hours, but that was ok, as I occupied myself by listening to the American Music Awards on Fox 8 at the same time.
I really don't mind wrapping wire, its actually rather therapeutic!

My Challenge Winner

You may have notice a little blue and white challenge winner badge over to the right of my blog. Recently I decided to try my hand once again at another challenge on the Australian Beading Forum. The theme was "Masquerade". Great theme. Of course lots of ideas later and a bit of doodling on paper, this mask which I named "Venetia" is what I came up with.

It now also features on my new business cards. I plan to frame the piece in a 3D photo frame too, so I can hang it with my certificates etc from previous competitions.

Medieval Queen

I made the base of this piece a while back, then left it sitting in a box, forgetting all about it whilst I got on with other things.
One of the reasons I put it aside was because my original idea for embellishing it didn't really workout, so I figured inspiration would hit sooner or later.

My idea for a recent Wire work/Chain Maille Beading forum "Medieval" challenge was for a gold headdress littered with gems, Pearls, Rubies, Emeralds and Diamionds, as was popular with Kings and Queens of the day, but in my case I used Swarovski crystals and pearls.

Decided to add the basic chain maille in order to fit the period, not that I've actually been able to find any headpieces of the day with CM dangling in this manner, so it's just my take on a theme. Its worn with the chain down over the forehead sort of like a circlet.

Copyright or Not

Just recently I had the unfortunate experience of some-one try to copy one of my wire Tiaras.

I spent hours perfecting this particular design, won an award for it and placed highly in another competition for a another model only to find my absolute thrill taken away by a non thinking individual.

That brings me to question copyright laws, I studied these closely. If you happen to see unauthorised pics of my wirework floating around on the net or copies of my work in shops, please let me know. These individuals are probably breaking copyright laws.

Please respect the work of Artists, ask permission before copying anything and if permission is granted, reference the orginal Artist. Play nice.

Back home safe and sound

Argyra's Crown my award winning Bridal Tiara arrived home safe and sound yesterday from the Sydney Bead and Gem Show co-ordiators (Conference and Exhibition Organisers).

I also received my certificates and prizes along with a lovely letter encouring me to enter again next year. The standard of finalists entries was very high this year, so will certainly have to come up with something even more amazing next year. Already have a few ideas about what I'd like to submit.

This piece "Cooper for Cleopatra" was also a finalist at the 2007 Sydney Bead and Gem show.

But as I'd entered it the 2007 Creative Beading Awards of Excellance and it was selected amongst the Top 25, I couldn't send it for judging at the Bead and Gem show.

But its all good, "CC" is currently doing the rounds of the Craft and Quilt Fairs in Australia and New Zealand as part of the Swarovski Creative Beading exhibition which is great exposure.

Check out the Craft and Quilt fair website www.craftfair.com.au for dates and locations.

Design Award - 2007 Sydney Beading Extravaganza Comp

Finally the wait is over for one competition.

The winners of 2007 Sydney Bead and Gem Show Extravaganza Juried Competition were announced today and I got a phone call around lunch time.

My entry a free form Bridal Tiara embellished with Swarovski Crystals and Pearls was placed Third in the Finished Jewellery category.

"Venetia" - Masquerade Ball Beading Challenge

I've been busy working on a piece for a beading challenge on an Australian Beaders forum that I belong to. I finally finished it last night. I used all the pink toned Swarovski crystals (Light and Dark Rose, Rosewater Opal, Pink Alabaster, and Fuchsia, along with some baby pink Swarovski pearls) that I had in my collection. Non tarnish Silver Artistic Wire was used to make the form and for the fine wire wrapping. I found some stunningly beautiful organza ribbon in baby pink and Fuchsia, in my local embroidery shop to add a bit of fullness and Sterling Silver enamel spray paint I bought at Bunnings to coate the dowel to which I attached the Mask.

Edited: 19th Nov, 07 - Won this Challenge, how exciting is that!!

Beading Project

Just been informed that my Wired Frog Pendant project is to appear in the December 07 (Vol- 1 No. 4)issue of Australian Beading Magazine. Keep an eye out for it. Yes more of Sabine's really cool froggies.

On the subject of Frogs

Know anyone who has an obsession with Frogs? Well me for one. A lovely lampworker friend of mine by the name of Sabine E Wilkins of Sydney, Australia, made these froggie beads for me.

A whirl or two of wire, a couple of glitzening Swarovski Bicones and ta da....this is what I came up with.

The Green one is mine, the Teal and Blue one was grabbed by my friend Simone who is a musical theatre director and loves unusal jewellery.

Check out more of Sabine's Lampwork at http://www.freewebs.com/sabinewilkins/

Whoo Hooooooo - Competition Update

As you may or may not be aware one of my free form wire Tiara's "Copper for Cleopatra" was nominated as a finalist in the 2007 Swarovski Creative Beading Awards here in Australia. This year there were 300 entries and I made the top 40.

I then got notified by the organisers of the 2007 Sydney Bead and Gem Show Beading Extravaganza Competition that the same Tiara made the finals of the finished jewellery category. Exciting... heck yes! but a real dilemma, well sort of. I'd already sent the Tiara for judging and it was unlikely that I'd have it back in time to send it off to be judged for the Bead and Gem show... I was mad at myself for being so silly. Fancy entering the same piece in two comps with judging so close. What on earth was I thinking??

A couple of days later, God must have been smiling down on me for a change. I was sharing my pain with friends on the Aus Beading Forum, when the lovely Anne, told me that the closing dates for the Bead and Gem show competition had been extended.. I think my heart may have just temporarily stopped beating, before I was outta my chair and on the phone to the organisers in Sydney.

"Yes its true," they said. "We were a little late in getting things organised, so the closing date has been extended". I mentioned my little problem and was told, "Yes by all means enter another piece, your work is beautiful."
To cut to the chase, I've been advised that my second piece "Argrya's Crown" has been accepted as a finalist.

Today I received an email from the Swarovski Comp organisers asking me to complete a questionnaire as they're running a feature on the finalists in the Creative Beading Magazine (usually this will appear around December or January next year). Could this mean that I made the next round of the competition? Deep breath, Bernadine....

Stay tuned for the next installment.