First time ...

  ... BEADWEAVING!!!

  During the 6th Bead Soup Blog Party I've seen the wonderful creations of my bead soup partner Amy and beautiful, sometimes even breathtaking pieces of other beadweavers, and I said to myself "I have to learn this!". And yesterday it was just the right day for a first attempt.

ŠIVANJE PERL - MOJ PRVI POSKUS!

 

  Med sodelovanjem v 6. Bead Soup Blog Party-ju, sem se srečala s čudovitimi kreacijami moje partnerice v izmenjavi Amy in krasnimi izdelki iz drobnih perlic ostalih sodelujočih - pri nekaterih sem ostala celo brez besed... Takrat sem si rekla, da to moram vsekakor poskusiti ... in včeraj je bil ravno pravi dan za to.

  Preamble:
In my stash I had only: white and baby-blue Rocailles (2,6 mm), no beading thread - just some dark blue sturdy sewing thread, 3 beading needles and some Beading Daily free tutorials. The Hexagonal Netting tutorial by Dustin Wedekind seemed quite acceptable for a begginer and I decided to try ...

  Opozoriti moram, da sem doma imela samo bele in svetlo modre 2,6 mm perle, iglo za šivanje perl, za nit pa sem vzela kar čvrsto nit za šivanje džinsa, ki je ne moreš pretrgati na roke. Naj omenim še, da je bila temno modre barve, torej ne ravno idealna za svetle perle. Imela pa sem tudi nekaj tutorialov od Beading Daily, med katerimi se mi je zdel Hexagonal Netting tutorial (avt. Dustin Wedekind) kar primeren za začetnika.

  The beginning was not so difficult and a self-confident thought passed through my mind: "oh, it's easy!" ... and just a few minutes later finishing the second (white) round I bumped into a mistake I made in the previous round (see arrow). Aaahhhhh!!! And my self-confidence faced a steep fall ... 

   Na začetku mi je šlo kar dobro in čim je moja samozavest zrasla, je prišel prvi šok - o sem zaključevala drugi krog (svetlo moder), sem naletela na napako v prejšnjem krogu ... Ajajajaj!!! In moja samozavest strmo dol ...

 Let's try again! I was working just fine, finishing the first round (first if not counting the circle in the middle) ... thinking "this time I am not going to make the same mistake" ... when another surpise was waiting for me just around the corner* - the thread stuck! Arrghhhh!!!  :-$

  * In this Hexagonal Netting pattern the "corner unit" is the increase unit of the round on each corner to keep the netting flat.

  No, pa poskusimo še enkrat - lepo počasi in natančno, da ne ponovim iste napake ... ko ravno zaključujem prvi krog (če ne štejemo osnovnega krogca na sredini), pa spet presenečenje!! Nič kaj prijetno, seveda: nit se je zataknila in ni šla ne naprej ne nazaj ... Grrrrr!

  "I'm not giving up!!! If I need a whole day to make it "perfect", I'll keep trying!"  The third attempt ... and  I reached first base! YAY!!!  :-D

  Seveda se ne bom pustila kar tako - če bo treba, bom poskušala ves dan!!! Na srečo tega ni bilo treba in je bil že tretji poskus uspešen! Juhuuuu!

#25/52 PAIR OF EARRINGS

  A piece of wire and here's my very first beadweaved earring. I made another one and this is also my 25 pair for the 52 earrings a year challenge.

  Dodala sem še malo žice in že je bil moj prvi uhan iz šivanih perl končan! Nato sem naredila še drugi del para in to je sedaj moj 25. par uhanov za izziv 52 earrings a year.

  There will be absolutely more beadweaving by me - I find it really relaxing (I know, it doesn't seem so when you read my previous words ;-)) ...  almost a kind of meditation. I just need to get some practice and some material for it. 

  To je torej šele začetek, vsekakor se bo moje prijateljevanje s šivanjem perl nadaljevalo - res je sproščujoče (čeprav iz zgornjega opisa ne izgleda ravno tako ;-)), celo neke vrste meditacija. Potrebujem samo nekaj prakse in pravega materiala.

  Hugs & love,

  Alenka

Flower power (#24/52 Earrings)

  I'm back! ... or better more regularly participating at the 52 earrings a year challenge. This is the 33 week of this year and the theme of the week was nothing else but FLOWER POWER.  
 
  My first idea was to use my millefiori flower canes (all the 3 of them), but then I came accros Elissa Powell's Translucent Chrysanthemum Cane© tutorial and a 25-watt light bulb appeared over my head ;-)

  For the cane I used white Premo, metallic perlmutt Fimo, transparent orange Fimo and some leftovers from a yellow-orange-red-white mokume gane. This is the result:

  It's a very simple cane to make, you can use your leftovers and the result is great, as you can see.

 The only problem I've had was the cracling of the white Premo. I like the snow white colour of Premo after curing and I had a half package left so I used it for the cane; I conditioned it well enough (about 20 times through the pasta machine on 4-5 different settings), just as other pieces, but after rolling the cane it begun to cracle ... I have to say I was quite dissapointed!!!

  Do any of you use Premo clay and do you have the same problems or it's just my package that was old?

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  No, pa sem se le spet vrnila k rednemu sodelovanju v izzivu 52 earrings a year (52 uhanov na leto) z mojim 24. parom. Tema tekočega tedna je bila FLOWER POWER, zato sem seveda razmišljala "rožasto". Prva ideja je bila uporabiti (vse tri) moje cvetlične kačice, nato pa sem naletela na zelo zanimiv in preprost tutorial Elisse Powell Translucent Chrysantemum Cane© in žarnica nad mojo glavo je veselo zasvetila!

  Na zgornji sliki lahko vidite rezultat - uporabila pa sem bel Premo, metallic perlmutt Fimo, prozoren oranžen Fimo ter ostanke rumeno-oranžne-rdeče-bele mokume gane plahtice. Postopek je zelo enostaven, rezultat pa čudovit.

  Edino težavo, s katero sem se soočila pri zvijanju kačice, mi je povzročil bel Premo, ki je začel pokati. Glede na to, da sem ga vsaj 20-krat spustila skozi "pašta-mašino" na 4-5 različnih nastavitvah, se mi ne sanja, zakaj tako pokanje. Ni mi potrebno razlagati, da sem bila zeloooo razočarana in res ne vem, če ga bom še kupila ... čeprav mi je njegova snežno bela barva zelo všeč!!

 Imate kaj izkušenj s Premo? Se tudi vam dogaja enako ali je bil samo moj paketek star?   

Bead Soup Blog Party - (2nd) Reveal

  Here we are!!! It's finally time for the second round - that is also my reveal of the 6th Bead Soup Blog Party (BSBP), hosted by Lori Anderson. First I would like to thank Lori for such a wonderful work and this opportunity to artistically grow and meet other artists.

  My partner in this party is Amy Severino from USA and she sent me an interesting bead soup - just to remember here it is:

  As I've explained in my first BSBP post, the biggest challenge for me was working with such small beads. I've created jewellery mostly from polymer clay until now, and never tried beadweaving ...
 
  I've done some sketches few days after receiving the bead soup, but have begun to really work on the pieces only last weekend. In the meantime all the work was proceeding in my mind ...

  I knew I want to use the focal and the Mother-of Pearl disc beads for a necklace, but I wanted to add some brightness with a touch of orange (do you remember that little seed bead that accidentally fell into the package?) I still have no experience with simple stringing and I prefered some wire work ... But let's see the first piece!

  I didn't want to leave the focal as it was so I made a ring from czech fire polish beads and added three blue dyed Mother-of Pearl rice beads:

  The rest of blue rice beads were used for a "flower" that changes its shape every time the necklace is worn as the beads are moving and turning in different positions:

  I wanted the necklace to be asymmetric and to use a ribbon - and guess what - I was so lucky to find a fabric with the exactly the same shade of blue as the focal is!!! On one end I made a simple knot, on the other I waved around it some wire with an orange bead on each side. I'm not sure this is the arrangemet I like most, so it might happen to change something later:

  This is a totally "out of my comfort zone" piece and I was enjoying the creation process very much!!! Hope you like the final result.

  The second piece is a bracelet - yes, exactly that one from the teaser of my previous post. The brass imprinted beads (with small suns) are surrounded with textured polymer clay rings made by me. The texture on the rings represent the sun rays spreading from the inner sun-beads. I added also some orange seed beads inside the rings and the brown glass pearls from my soup outside of them. The clasp is made by two eye-pins wire-wrapped together. Well, this was pure improvisation - I made a clasp from polymer clay, but while assembling the beads together and trying it on my wrist I realized it won't work ... As I did not have any bronze wire, I played a little with the eye-pins ...

  I love orange and this bracelet is totally me!!!

  A little closer look:

  Yes, I've used that same eye-pins also to assemble the beads together :-)

  As I was left with two more polymer rings I made also a matching a pair of earrings  (my third piece):

 

  From the soup I received I've used the focal, the clasp and all different type of beads, but not all of them. Some of the brass imprinted beads, brown glass pearls and czech fire polish beads will be waiting in my stash for the next occasion.

  This is all from me, but please check first what my partner Amy made with the bead soup I sent to her. And if you still have some free time and are curious (as I absolutely am) about the creations of the other artists participating in the 2nd reveal of the Bead Soup Blog Partly you can find all the contacts on Lori's blog here.

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  Čas kar beži in že je prišel čas za drugi krog Bead Soup Blog Party-ja, ki ga že šestič po vrsti organizira Lori Anderson. V tem krogu sodelujem tudi jaz s svojimi izdelki, ki jih lahko vidite zgoraj:

 - Prvi izdelek je ogrlica, za katero sem uporabila obesek, zaponko in večino perl, ki sem jih dobila v "župci" od Amy. Dodala sem še oranžne perlice, da s kančkom modri kontrastne barve popestrim izdelek, in trak v istem odtenku, kot je obesek. Ta izdelek je povsem izven mojega "območja udobja", torej nekaj, kar običajno ne delam, tako da je zame glavni izziv tega party-ja.

- Drugi izdelek je zapestnica, v kateri sem uporabila male perle z vtisnjenimi sončki, ki sem jih obdala z rinkami iz polimerne gline, ki sem jih sama izdelala. Tekstura na rinkah predstavlja sončne žarke, ki se širijo iz sredinske perle.  Znotraj rink so še oranžne, izven rink pa rjave perlice, skupaj so povezane z bronasto žico, iz katere je izdelana tudi zaponka. Oranžn barvo obožujem, zato je ta zapestnica prav v mojem stilu!!

 - Na koncu sta mi ostali še dve oranžni rinki, ki sem jih seveda uporabila za par uhanov, ki se ujemajo z zapestnico.

 

  Zdaj pa si lahko ogledate še, kaj je naredila Amy  iz "župce", ki jo je dobila od mene; in seveda tudi, kaj so ustvarile vse ostale priden roke sodelujočih v tem izzivu. Kozarec sveže pijače v roko in malo virtuanega sprehoda - seznam s povezavami dobite tukaj.

Summer circular swap / Poletni krožni swap

  V slovenščini lahko prispevek preberete tukaj.

  I enjoy very much participating in swaps. The first of all was the February 2012 swap Valentine's heart, organized by a Slovenian team of 4 polymer clayers Izdelovalnica malih umetnin and then every month followed a new one. For the summer months they organized a Summer circular swap.

  Let me first briefly summarize the rules of this swap: the 4 organizers (from Izdelovalnica) have collected the initial set of 40 polymer clay pearls, focals and other pieces made by themselves. They have sent the package to the first participant that had to take 5 to 8 pieces out and put the same number of pieces (made by her) in. She had one week time to make something from the pieces she had taken out, but not more than two pieces of jewellery. Then she had to send the "renewed" set of polymer pieces to the next participant and so on.

  I was the fourth one in the line and my reveal was scheduled on June 16th. Here is the set I have received: 
 

   Happy as a child I was changing the position of the pieces, combining them in different sets, chosing some of them, then changing my decision again and again ... fortunately there was a deadline for sending the package out to the next participant, and I made this final decision

   There were mainly two criteria I adopted: first, the coordinated colours (as there was a limit of two pieces); and second, I wanted to take the pieces that differ from what I have made until now. The pumpkins were made by Flo; the golden pieces in the middle by Metuljcica and the bottom pearls were made by Roberta.

  For the golden pieces Metuljcica got the inspiration from the Buddhist prayer mills, what recolled to me the red colour (that happens to be also one of my favourites) and the golden tassels as a kind of threads of life ... resulting in this pair of earrings:

  This is also my #22 pair of 52 pairs of earrings a year. 


  The rest of the pieces in matching colours I immediately imagined as a part of a necklace. My starting point were the colours in both Roberta's pearls, but there was no way to achive just the same shades as she did ... so I decided to make a skinner blend from yellow to dark blue and use it to make small pearls from each shade. To break the symmetry and expose the pumpkins a little more I decided to insert between them some wire. I'm quite happy with the final result, what about you?

  The creatins of the other swappers are posted here - well, all the texts are in Slovene language, but you can always admire the pictures :-) You can always use the online translators, but they usually create quite a fun translation ...

  Have fun,
  Alenka

#18 to #21/52 Earrings

  It's been a while from my last post and during these weeks I was able to produce only some half-finished posts that were never published. My brain was overloaded and needed a break, I guess. After a one-week vacation on the island of Rab (Croatia) without any computer nor mail nor internet distraction, I'm finally writting again. I'll try to summarize in the next few posts during the next days most of the "lost posts".

  During last weeks I was mostly hooked on the books, again - when I start I can't let go. That means 200-250 pages a day, day after day... It's a kind of "a return to my teenage years" when I used to read until late at night, in my bed with the support of my night light. At that time I read mostly detective stories (like Agatha Christie or Victoria Holt and many others) and romance books, but I specially liked the ones that intensively and accuratedly described the emotions (of any kind) of and between the characters. Don't need to mention that the books for the school's compulsory reading list were not included :-P

  However, let's go back to my earrings of the 52 earrings a year challenge - the last ones that I posted here were #17/52 (week 24) and I created and posted on Flickr more of them. So let's glance through them with a word or two about the inspiration.

  #18/52 EARRINGS (week 25; theme of the week: the half)

The most obvious interpretation of a HALF would probably be to take a geometric shape, cut it in half and make two earrings from the halves. I was not really thrilled about this idea as I made that kind of earrings before, so I tried to find a diferent interpretation ... when the fractions came to my mind. Well, I always liked Maths at school and I gave a lot of Maths lessons during the college period ... 

 

  Unfortunately, one "one" broke during assembling and I was left with the half of the half. Maybe I will make another "one" to replace the broken part or I will just leave it as single earring - it's quite long and it can be worn like that.

#19/52 EARRINGS (week 26)

  It was the week when I was making the Bead soup for Amy (I'm participating at the 6th Bead Soup Blog Party, remember?) and I was thinking about including also a little gift for her. Then I thought: why not killing two birds with one stone??!! (I really don't like this idiom, in Slovenian it's about flies). 

  The inspiratin was the elder flower and I wanted to make it sparkling ... Amy says she likes them, so I'm very happy :-)

#20/52 EARRINGS (week 27; theme of the week: favourite colour)

  If you take a look at my Flickr photostream it's more that obvious what my favourite colours are, so it was quite obvious also my choice for this week's theme. I opted for a mother-of-pearl leafs and freshwater pearls, no polymer clay this time.

#21/52 EARRINGS (week 27; to catch up the current week)

  As I've mentioned before I joined the challenge 52 earrings quite late - my 1st week was the the 13th of the challenge. I'm catching up the missed 12 weeks making one more pair a week when I manage to and this is one of them. These fishes were made from polymer clay quite some time ago, but waited on my working bench to be painted and assembled with wire. On week 27 I've finally managed to finish them (although the picture is all but good).

  I've missed the last two or three weeks of the challenge (have to check!) and today is the last day of the week 30, so I'm still 9 earrings short!!!

  Hope to be more productive this summer while still on vacation, but at home. However, I have also two important challenges this summer: on August 11th the reveal of the 6th Bead Soup Blog Party and on August 15th the final date to send out the Window ornament swap piece... but more about it in one of my next posts ....

#17/52 Earrings

  The original idea for this week earrings was THE HIDDEN REVEALED: a white cube with a cut out section that reveales the colorful striped interior. During the procedure I was a bit clumsy using a tool that was not sharp enough and the result was not the expected one. Fortunately - as very often with polymer clay - a lot of sanding brought an acceptable solution.

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  Osnovna ideja za uhane tega tedna je bila RAZKRITI SKRITO: bela kocka, iz katere bi bil "izsekan" košček, ki bi razkrival črtasto barvito notranjščino. Ker pa sem bila pri izdelavi nekoliko nerodna in sem izbrala premalo oster pripomoček za izsekanje, se ni izšlo točno tako, kot sem si predstavljala. Na koncu je uhane rešilo brušenje in izdelek sem le pripeljala do konca.

52 parov uhanov na leto / 52 pairs of earrings a year

  I discovered polymer clay only last summer, but it was an immediate love. Searching around the web I discovered an open group on Flickr, created by Anke Humpert. The challenge of the group is to make a pair of earrings each week. As I joned the 13 week and I'll try to catch up befor the end of the year.

  Polimerno glino sem odkrila šele poleti 2011, vendar se mi je kar hitro "prilepila na roke". Pri spremljanju dela drugih ustvarjalk, sem odkrila skupino, ki jo je Anke Humpert vzpostavila v začetku leta in katere izziv je vsak teden v letu 2012 ustvariti en par uhanov. Sama sem se pridružila šele v 13. tednu, zato bom poleg rednega tedenskega para uhanov do konca leta naredila še manjkajočih 12 parov.

These are my first 16 pairs  / To je mojih prvih 16 parov:

  Nekaj več o uhanih lahko v slovenščini preberete na mojem Facebook profilu.

  Some more information in English about the earrings are available in my Flickr gallery, where you can see also my other creations.