Let There Be Light

Let There Be Light

Friday, April 26, 2013

On Being a Productive Little Bunny - 3rd Reveal BeadSoupBlogParty


WHAT A JOURNEY - at times joyful, at times frustrating, but most of the time very satisfying.

A reminder of the wonderful array of beads and components and the three beautiful focals from my BeadSoupBlogParty partner Adlinah


I had so many ideas rushing round my head but a couple of must do’s stood out straight away.

The first necklace literally ‘fell into place’ as I was pushing a variety of the beads round the beading mat.  I loved the colours of the swirly lampwork beads so made a ‘Frosted Peacock’ colour brick stitch base and stitched the beads and components onto that.  The stringing is Blue Agate, Red Coral and Silver.  It can be worn both horizontally and asymmetrically.


My daughter fell in love with this necklace at first sight so I guess it already has a new home J


Adlinah sent me the most beautiful clasp - a vintage Pearl Box from Japan, circa 1960’s. 
I’ve always wanted to create a vintage, nostalgic type of lace bead embroidery, flowery, feminine, and very frou frou, and this clasp was the perfect catalyst to get me started. 
This is the result …

 



So onto a focal …
I simply love the colours and shape of the handmade glass focal disk by mandrel2 (Etsy) - Scarlet Red and Montana Deep Blue, edged with Metallic Silver – yum.  I so wanted to do this lovely focal justice and played with many combinations of what Adlinah had sent and what I had in my stash. 
But everything seems wrong until I realized all it needed was something relatively simple, where the focal itself would be the star. 
I’ve attached two clips on the back so it can be either a brooch or a hairpiece.  Ultra Suede front and back with an insert of Lacy’s Stiff Stiff to keep it perky.




















Earrings …
I luuuuv making earrings and was spoilt for choice.  Here’s three pair I've made so far.







  












The second focal Adlinah sent was a porcelain clay pendant by Mary Hubbard of White Clover Kiln.  
I love the mint colours in the little birdie pendant and the Swarovski Mint Alabaster beads that were in my pack.  He’s so cute, I had fun creating this necklace (and poem).  Hope you enjoy them both …

Billy Bird has built a bower
With love and leaf and twig and flower
A room with a view in a minted tree
Cos a Sensitive New Age Guy is he

Happy and proud as he sits on his branch
And watches the butterflies play and dance
Now all he needs to complete his life
Is a Sensitive New Age Bird called ‘wife’







And some more fun – still a work in progress – Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
I’ve glued little resin bears to the red foam shapes Adlinah sent me and will string them into a necklace.    



I've yet to use the rubber tubing, the third focal and four beads but they ARE earmarked - good things take time ...

Thanks so much for looking and please take the time to visit my beadpartner in Singapore - Adlinah and also check out the other artists who've all taken time out of their busy schedules to create pieces of art for us all to drool over.

Lastly none of this would have happened without the love, patience and support of Lori Anderson whom I can't thank sufficiently with just words.

BeadSoupBlogParty #7 third reveal is today

Yes today is the day -

Watch this space !!!

Monday, March 25, 2013

UFO's and other unfinished business

If you're a creative person, you never seem to have enough hours in the day - which invariably leads to lots of unfinished projects as your brain leaps forward to yet another great idea.

Today I actually finished a necklace that's been sitting waiting for a clasp - yes JUST a clasp, for over a year.  Well to be really honest it also needed rethreading as I'd cut the beading wire a smidgen to short (don't ya hate it when that happens?).

Anyway, for no particular reason today seemed to be the day to do it ...

TA DA!

PAPER ROCK SCISSORS
Paper wrapped beads with Marble, Agate, Jasper and Chalcedony



Then I played with a few pieces of Paua - hairclips and a tie tac
















Plus I've been playing with my Bead Blog beads, lots of ideas forming but I can't say a word till the 13th April (ssshhhhhhh)

Monday, February 18, 2013

And a DRUM ROLL from me

My gorgeous GORGEOUS beads have arrived safely from my partner Adlinah Kamsir in Singapore.  Adlinah posted a really tantalizing distorted photo of them on her blog and I nearly went insane trying to figure out what was there.  I even thought at one point she might have changed the colours in the photo as well just to tease me further ...


but no, the colours are the same and so beautiful ...  And so beautifully packaged too along with some sweet munchies to chew on as I bead.  What a lovely thoughtful thing to do.

I will cringe as she opens her beads from me ... beautifully packed in ... boring bubble wrap.

So here is my BeadSoupBlogParty beads and I can't wait to get started with all these lovely goodies - no less than 3 lovely focals and the clasp is a vintage pearl box clasp.  Heaven!


Will keep you posted as the saying goes :)

Ooo, ooo, ooo

Arrived home tonight to find a card in the letterbox saying a parcel was being held for me at the main Post Office cos it needed a signature for delivery ...

JUST GOT TO BE MY BEADS from the lovely Ally at www.dreamstruckdesigns.blogspot.com

Power on again now but to be off for another 2 hours tomorrow.  Off to bed now, will post more tomorrow when brain has caught up with tired eyes lol

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Ahhh, the best laid plans of mice and men .....

Due to kitchen renovations our power supply has been on and off in the past two weeks more times than I care to remember - and it's about to go off again for another three hours - THEN ***hopefully*** it will stay on and I can start posting again :)

So till then ...


Tuesday, February 5, 2013


Have been asked to re-post this - a poem I wrote a few years ago.


Yesterday's gone – diminishing shapes gauzy and greyed
Tomorrow exists - composed, but not yet played.

Wake with me  
a purple dawn whispering
softly across the silver sea
Golden fingers stretching sensuously
across the sky as an expectant sun
pokes one eye lazily over the horizon
(as if to re-assure herself)
before, in a burst of glory she expels us
from the womb of night.

Fly with me,
I will please you with
diamonds dancing on spider webs
as sunbeams play with the dewdrops
The sweet smell of earth refreshed
after a midnight shower 
Untamed beaches where gulls and spirits soar
and the surf sings to the sand
See new born foals on new found feet
rainbows and flowers
a mountain peak

Cry with me,
I will shame you with
factory ships wallowing in bloody bays
as smiles are slashed from cetaceans' faces 
Death traded for dollars
Political puppets growing fat
on corruption and cocktail parties
Slums, breeding grounds for
race hatred, rats, and kids
fixing in doorways - apathetic stares
no one caring who knows or knowing
who cares.

Lie with me,
I will cover you with a mantle 
of twilight studded with diamonds and destiny  
Tranquility; late summer barbecues
stepping stones and skipping stones across a river  
 Children’s laughter bubbling out of wet togs
and into warm pj’s
Sit on a beach and stare at a sunset
red as the firelight that flickers
on your face my friend
No need for words

The ART of Cooking in a BEING RENOVATED KITCHEN

When I said, “Let’s do it” a couple of months ago – was I having a mental block? OBVIOUSLY !!!
Why had I forgotten the last time I tried to cook and barely coped without a working kitchen for 6 days? Right, it WAS 17 years ago, but you’d think something so challenging would stay in your mind … NO!!!
Perhaps akin to not remembering the pain of childbirth LOL.

To anyone who ‘knows’ about shifting house they’ll understand how general stuff can fit into about 33 large boxes. Linen, (bulky) – about 15 boxes. Kitchen stuff – pots, pans, bowls, utensils, cutlery, food etc – easy peasy, about 9 boxes …

That is unless you’re foodie! - 9 boxes – HAHAHAHA!!! Double that at least, triple it even with all the extra “essential stuff” and all the “extra essential TOYS” one’s accumulated over the past decade or so.

So in order to keep the kitchen going throughout the renovation I had a grand plan utilizing the slow cooker, the BBQ (thank goodness for summer), an electric grill, the microwave and the laundry tub for washing up.

Food storage - I’d planned for all the oils and vinegars in one place – pots and pans in another, herbs and spices in another, canned stuff in another, etc etc. And I could cope without most of the whizz bang toys (very temporarily of course LOL ) …

Last night most of the cupboards and drawers were emptied. I cooked a pork rack in the oven with baked veges (enjoying the last use of the current oven). I should have been forewarned – the cutlery tray (taken out of it’s drawer earlier that day and put on a handy table) was buried under an electric drill, a tape measure and a tea towel covered with a brown sawdust type extremely questionable wet ooook.

To be continued …

Monday, January 28, 2013

And here I am again ...

A great incentive to get my blogs going again was offered by Lori Anderson of Bead Soup Blog Party fame, as participants in the 2013 event have to have a blog site where they can show their progress.

Here's a link to the amazing event  http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com
Can't wait to get started :)

And where have I been the last 2 years?  Well, thinking about how bad I was not publishing more blogs; then there was a house and business shift in 2011, 2012 was our BIG OE and we were in France when I broke my left arm rather badly right up by the shoulder bone.  Four days in a French "Clinic" and surgery to insert various pieces of hardware to line all my arms bits up again meant a huge leap in my previous low ability schoolgirl conversational french, so I guess some good came out of it all.  And I have to admit one also becomes quite creative making ordinary day to day things happen when one only has one working arm / hand.  I'm still on physio but things are still improving so that's good.

So that's about it in a nutshell.