A Time to Stitch 3 - Update 1 (After Reveal)

If you are looking for the reveal of the Bead Soup Blog Party, please go here!

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  The reveal for this challenge organized by Christine Altmiller and Therese Frank was a few days ago, but at that time I've had two still unfinished pieces, the Cellini spiral and the Russian spiral - as you can see here.

  Today I have finally finished the necklace with the Cellini spiral:

  The flower and the clasp are made from polymer clay - with a technique I've learned from the tutorial Cosmic Ceramic by Iris Mishly and Hila Bushari.  

   
The bead caps (for both ends of the Cellini spiral) and brown oval beads are also made from polymer clay.

 

  I'm quite proud of my first Cellini and these are the colors I wear very often, so I'll keep it for me :-D     However, I'll be more than happy to read your comments! 

  If you want to see the finished Russian spiral necklace, come back in a few days as I'm waiting for the seed beads to arrive...

  Be happy,

  Alenka

  

A Time to Stitch 3 - Reveal!

If you are looking for the reveal of the Bead Soup Blog Party, please go here!

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  Hello, it's finally time for the reveal of this bead-weaving challenge organized by Christine Altmiller and Therese Frank. It's my second time participating in their challenge and it is always so fun.

  
 This time we had to pick one flat stitch between Square stitch and Brick stitch, and one spiral stitch - choosing between Cellini spiral, Russian spiral and African Helix. I have to say I've never tried ANY of these stitches before, so it was my very first time for all of them.

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  I've decided to start with the Square stitch as I've just brought home some cube beads. As for the pattern I've drawn some waves in two colors. After 15-20 rows I was a little disappointed as the cube beads were not the same size and not perfect and I was not sure if continue or not. Well, this last week I've started to kind a like the way they look and I've finally finished it. And I've noticed that the waves actually form the letter N.

 

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  My first pick for spiral stitch was Cellini. I started to follow the tutorial word by word, moment by moment, but met some problems and had to undo the first rows three to four times. It was just a mess!!! Then I've said to myself: "Ok, let's use the logic!" When I've started to look at the logic of the pattern while stitching and not just following the instructions ... eureka! That was it! From the fourth-fifth row on it was just as meditating, I've found it very easy to continue without instructions.

   This is the work in progress - I still need to make some polymer clay parts/components to finish it .. and that means you'll have to come back next week to see the finished piece. 

~~~

  
  The next try for me was African Helix. The main problem with this stitch for me is the tension of the thread. Even if the tension is right the beads tend to slide from their optimal position, just as the bead holes were too large ... 
  I've made a very simple bracelet this time, just following the instructions of the tutorial.

~~~

  And then finally the Russian spiral. I've used a knitting needle for the support and at the beginning I had to keep the thread tight with my left hand, but I've enjoyed very much stitching. You stitch 4 beads at a time (1 4-mm and 3 seed beads) so it proceeds very quickly. When I was starting to imagine in my mind the final necklace design, I've run out of these seed beads. The ones I have in my stash are just slightly darker - and I didn't notice that before. So I can show you now just another work in progress that will be finished next week, when I receive the right beads.

~~~

  I didn't have time for the brick stitch, but I will certainly try it after I finish these pieces.

  That's it for me, but now you should visit the blogs of the other participants - I can't wait to see what have they made (well, they are much more proficient than me)!!!

Therese Frank

ChristineAltmiller

MaryanneGross

Cynthia Machata

Bobbie Rafferty

Katherine Gale

Sally Russick

Niky

Alenka  <-- you are here

Kim Hora

Karin Slaton

Shirley Moore

Tami Norris

Amy Severino

Alicia Marinache

Lola Surwillo

Mandy Duffy

Kristen Stevens

 

Happy hopping!
  Alenka

Carpe diem ...

  When you are going at the doctor's office and you know that you'll be waiting your turn for one hour at least, you have to find a way to pass that time in a pleasant way.
  Ko si namenjen na zdravniški pregled in veš, da se boš načakal, se je potrebno organizirati, da boš ta čas preživel kar se da prijetno.

  Guess what I did. Do you need a hint?
  Ali uganete, kaj sem počela jaz? Potrebujete namig?

  Here it is:
  Tukaj je:

  I've discovered another use of a food container ;-D 
  Ugotovila sem, da je posodica za hrano lahko uporabna tudi drugače ;-D

  Here's what I've made while waiting my turn:
  to pa sem naredila med čakanjem na vrsto:

   If you consider that I'm a beginner in beadweaving ... you can imagine how much time I've spent there last evening ....
  Če upoštevate, da sem začetnica v šivanju perl ... si lahko mislite, da sem včeraj zvečer kar nekaj časa preživela v čakalnici ...

  Well, I've just started enjoying it, so couldn't stop stitching ... and finished these today:
  Sicer pa sem ravno dobila rokico za šivanje in se nisem mogla ustaviti, zato sem danes zaključila ta dva para uhanov:

 Carpe diem :-D

  Alenka

Two days after .. & Autumn swap / Dva dni kasneje ... & Jesenski swap

  Two days after the situation is back to normal - the snow is gone almost at all. A few reminders are left on the shadowy sides of land ...
  Po dveh dneh je pri nas pogled skozi okno spet običajen. Sneg je skoraj povsem izginil, le nekaj spominčkov je ostalo na senčni strani pokrajine ...

  In October I have participated in another Slovenian (polymer clay) swap organized by Izdelovalnica malih umetnin. All the participants had to make two sets of 7 beads in autumn colours, any technique, diameter 1,5-2 cm (0.6-0.8 inches).
  Oktobra sem sodelovala v še eni slovenski izmenjavi izdelkov iz polimerne gline, ki so jo organizirala dekleta iz Ustvarjalnice malih umetnin. Vse sodelujoče smo morale narediti po dva seta 7 perl v jesenskih barvah v poljubni tehniki, obsega 1,5-2 cm.  

These are the beads I made:
To so perle, ki sem jih izdelala jaz:

 Everybody then received one bead of each set, that means 14 different beads:
 Vsaka je nato dobila po eno perlo iz vsakega seta, torej skupaj 14 različnih perl:




 and make a necklace using all of them.
 ter iz njih morala izdelati ogrlico, tako da se uporabijo vse. It was not an easy job combining such different beads in a single necklace, so I tried to pair them and put each pair on the same place at the sides and I also made some green spacers from polymer clay. This is the result:
 Glede na to, da so bile vse perle med seboj različne, to ni bila lahka naloga, zato sem jih poskušala razporediti v pare po podobnosti in perle iz para postaviti na isto mesto na vsaki strani. Za "vmesnike" sem izdelala tudi manjše zelene perle iz polimerne mase. To je moj rezultat:

 I'm not sure this is the final version, I could make some more changes as I'm not totally satisfied.   

 Po moje to ni čisto zadnja verzija in bom naredila še kakšno spremembo, ker nisem povsem zadovoljna z rezultatom.

  You can find the necklaces of the others participants here.

  Ogrlice ostalih sodelujočih si lahko ogledate tukaj.

  Be happy! / Bodite veseli!

  Alenka

Faux Stained Glass Earrings

  One of my favourites techniques for polymer clay is faux stained glass - my way. I made two pairs of earrings this week:
  Spet sem se zabavalo z eno mojih najljubših tehnik s polimerno glino, to je posnemanje vitraža, malo po moje. Ta teden sta tako nastala dva para uhanov:

Sunflower earrings / Sončnica

Tulip earrings / Tulipan

  Be happy!
  Bodite srečni!

  Alenka

Two more Autumn Necklaces / Še dve jesenski ogrlici

  The winter is around the corner, but I'm still feel the autumn in it's beauty. The weather is quite warm here and I like it this way!
  Zima je praktično za vogalom, vendar sama občutim jesen še v vsej svoji lepoti. Prav všeč mi je, da so temperature še vedno kar visoke!

  Vanilla - bronze with a little light green touch for the first necklace (polymer clay, wire, Rocailles, leather cord and linen thread):
  Vanilija - bronasta z dodatkom svetlo zelene za prvo verižico (polimerna glina, žica, Rocailles perle, usnjena vrvica in laneno blago):

  Dark green leaves and bronze owl for the second necklace (polymer clay, Swarowsky cristals, leather cord and wire). It's kind a particular, but I like it:
  Temno zeleni listje in bronasta sova za drugo ogrlico (polimerna glina, kristali Swarovsky, usnjena vrvica in žica). Je kar malo posebna, vendar meni je tako všeč:

 O would love to read your coments! 
 Zelo bom vesela vaših komentarjev!

Wishing you a marvellous day!
   Želim vam čudovit dan!

  Alenka

Work in progress / Delo v teku

  If you are looking for the PEPITA GIVEAWAY, please go here.
  Če iščete NAGRADNO IGRO PEPIRA - kliknite sem. 

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  After an hour of Zumba and a shower I'm tired, but feeling good! I think I'm going to bed now, but I wanted to share with you what is happening on my beading table ...

  Po eni uri zumbe in tušu sem precej utrujena, vendar se počutim odlično! Mislim, da se bom kar spravila spat, sem pa hotela še prej z vami deliti trenutno dogajaje na moji delovni mizi ...

  Good night or a good day!
  Lahko noč in prijeten jutrijšnji dan!

  Alenka

Autumn necklace / Jesenska ogrlica

  If you are looking for the PEPITA GIVEAWAY, please go here.
  Če iščete NAGRADNO IGRO PEPIRA - kliknite sem. 

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  Yesterday I was working on the Autumn necklace. I've made the polymer clay leaves long ago - last autumn I think. I've used real leaves to texture polymer clay and then red and brown acrylic paints to make them more realistic. The inspiration were the beautiful colours of Rhus cotinus (Cotinus coggygria), a bush typical for our karst area:

 Včeraj sem se lotila Jesenske ogrlice, za katero sem listje iz polimerne gline izdelala že pred časom - mislim, da celo lansko jesen. Za odtis v polimerno glino sem uporabila kar pravo listje, nato sem liste pobarvala z rdečo in rjavo akrilno barvo, da jih čim bolj približam izgledu pravih. Za inspiracijo sem imela čudovite barve ruja, ki je tako značilen za naše kraško območje: 



Source / Vir.



 I liked how it came, but I was not totally satisfied. That was probably the reason I still haven't finished it before. Well, yesterday an idea came to my mind and I decided to pain it over with the gold acrylic paint - just random imprinting with a sponge, not to cover the bottom colours, but to give an extra shine. And that was it!

 Rezultat mi je bil všeč, vendar nisem bila povsem zadovoljna. Verjetno je zaradi tega minilo toliko časa, preden sem jo dokončala. včeraj pa se mi je porodila zanimiva ideja - z gobico sem na listje nanesla še zlato akrilno barvo - toliko, da nisem prekrila spodnjih barv, ampak dodala nekaj sijaja. In to je bilo to!

Autumn necklace / Jesenska ogrlica
(Sorry for the poor picture - it's hard to find enoght light in this rainy day. /
Slika je bolj slabo osvetljena, saj v tem deževnem dnevu nisem uspela najti dovolj svetlobe za dobro sliko.)

 I added some shiny brown stones at both sides and antique copper chain. I think I will add also a nice clasp I don't have in my stash right now (the chain is long enough to put it on over the head now).

 Na vsaki strani sem dodala svetleče rjave kamenčke in verižico "starinsko bronaste" barve. Mislim, da bom dodala tudi kakšno zanimivo zaponko, ki pa je trenutno nimam na zalogi (sedaj je verižica dovolj dolga, da se lahko obleče čez glavo).

  I'm not sure if I should add some brown stones on every second larger link of the chain. What do you think?

 Nisem pa se še odločila, ali naj dodan rjave kamenčke še v vsako drugo večjo rinko na verižici. Kaj menite?


  I would really love to hear (read) what do you think.
  Res bi bila vesela vašega mnenja.

  Alenka