New Bead Class Project - Mandella Medallion

There is a local-ish shop that I teach the advanced classes on beading just about every Saturday. The owner is really nice and the regulars there are ready to lend a hand whenever you need one.


I'm writting this beaded medallion up to be a new class for the next schedual. Pretty simple, quick design, but has crystals in it. One of the things we've noticed is that people will sign up more for the projects that have crystals in them. Personally, I'm beginning to feel that crystals are being over used, and I tend to stay away from them as the focus of my designs....most of the time =)


Plus, people tend to like doing projects that they can finish in one class setting. Unfortunatly, most of the classes I teach take longer than the 3 hours per class to finish a project, as I try to focus on the technique oover a finished piece. And we lost one of intermediate teachers for a little bit, so I'm covering some of her classes. I'm having a blast, plus it gets me out of the house.






A color variation for the samples for the class.

No pay, but the owner lets us take other classes for free. Last week I got to take a Russian Snake class. It's one of the few weaves I hadn't gotten around to learning and it's a pretty neat one. I have to figure out a varaition to use it for...though, it's rather pretty on it's own.... hard to take a nice photograph of it.

Dryad Necklace

Something a bit new..... something that a dryad might wear...

Another random experiment in playing with those lovely rivolis. They are very intimidating to work with. How can anything compare to their sparkle and fire?

I created a beaded cab for this one that completely encases the back side in 15's to help hold it. The bail lets it slide along the bugle and seed beaded strap. The beaded Russian Leaves also slide around and sometimes lets the rivoli peek out as if darting through a forest.

Color-wise, the leaves are not as purple or light brown...something strange seems to be going on with my camera.

You Made My Day Award

I am truely honored, thank you Smadar!

I am absolutly fasicinated by beaders from other parts of the world and how different, yet the same way they approach beading. Do yourself a favor and check out her blog....you will be blown away by her creations!

Rules say it is not time for me to pass this honor onto 5 other bloggers who make this little corner of cyberspace a little more colorful =)

Talk about hard!!!


1. Judi Wellnitz - who makes my day happier with her wonderful dolls. They are filled with such joyful life, you can't help but smile when you look at them...so go, have a smile!

2. Kriszta - who makes my day more interesting with her amazing designs. Unfortunatly I cannot understand her native tongue, but the language of beads is universal.

3. Sand Fibers - who makes my day by sharing such wonderful inspiration. She has to be one of the luckest people on Etsy recently, as they have taken a shine to her work =) Which in turn, she gets to post a ton of treasury shots with a lot of inspiration to drool over.

4. Micki - who makes my day with her lovely mixed media fiber art. I see stories in her work that just make you want to sit and be a part of her world for a bit.

5. FaeryDi - who makes my day with such abbandon with her colorful fabric creations! You just want, na, need to reach out and touch her creations, they are so alive with activity.

*** Pass the award on, here are the details:***

1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make your day.

2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.

3. Display the You Make My Day Award logo.

4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.

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Harpy Lady Beaded Doll

I guess you would call her my signature piece to date.....

She started out as an idea to enter a Guardian Angel contest a quilting magazine was having, but grew too ambicious for the alotted time.

Black quilter's cotten with grey swirls was used to make her body. I gave her a wired armature, with the intention of making her posable, but by the time I had finished beading her legs, her hip joint broke. So I set her into a kneeling pose.
Black polymer clay face from the Sculpty Art Doll mold, dusted with a few different shades of pigment powders.

Her hair is a black chinel yarn, and her thighs are wrapped in soft eyelash yarn.
Her wings are done in two different types of feather trim, and are still quite poseable.

If you could stand her up, she would be about 15" tall.

Embelished Mini-Quilt Wall Hanging

It was a morning several years ago that I got the idea of making a quilt square logged firmly in my head.

The delight in how the fabrics lined up is very seductive...but still the beads hold my heart. But the siren call of the fabric is always there.

Embelished beyond my imagination....but I still think I need to add a bit more to it eventually.

"Sing in the Rain, Dance in the Sun, Dream by the light of the Moon"

About 16" x 20"

Gia - Beaded Tree

This is Gia.

I have a love of willow trees, if you can't tell by now.

Gia was made a few years ago, but was such a pain in the neck to make that I can't let her go just yet.

The yellow "fronds" were brown when I started beading her....but have faded over time but is still enjoyable to look at.

She has runes beaded into her trunk. She is a mix of a lot of different beadweaving types. Peyote trunk, herringbone branches, and fringe fronds.

I learned that while branches may look nice...the fringe kept catching on what was done before.

Willow Doll

This is Willow.

She's a little over 12" tall.

She started life as some wire and aluminum foil. then I built up parts by wrapping them in tulle strips. I like using tulle to form a base as it has a nice "grip" to the other layers I put on it. Then I patchworked some velvet and lace scraps over her torso and thighs, and lined the edges with brown seed beads. Her arms are uplostry cording that I wound some wire into and her hands are wire wrapped in floral tape.

Her legs are root-like wires wrapped in floral tape. She wears a train of random netted beads with leaf beads strung throughout.

She has a ruffle of greens and black seed beads around her arms. Her hair is various eyelash yarns. Her face is polymer clay dusted with pearlx powders from theSculpty Artdoll mold.

A fun doll...and she can balance on her own....but not very stable.....might have to revisit her..... But click on her to see a larger picture...it is very worth it.

Beaded Dragons....HairStick Topper

I've always held a fasination with dragons. I'm not sure when it started, but I remember reading anything and everything having to do with them growing up. So of course, they found their way into my beading.....

This little fella is just a simple hair stick/pen topper.

I wrote out a tutorial on him, but it still needs a few bits of tweeking before I release him on the world.

Beaded Jumble Pin

This was an experiment in making a jumbled pin. Just trying to use up a bit of beads that I had left over after making a random bead catapillar bracelet.

I need to find a supply of thick wire where the coating is bonded, as this was done with black plastic coated copper craft wire, and is starting to wear off. I still enjoy it though....when I remmber to wear it.

It is a bit heavy to wear on a shirt....unless pinned to the bra strap, but makes a wonderful coat or hat pin.