Round 3 - BOTB

WOW this is getting so much harder to vote on. The pairings for Round 3 were announced last week, and you could almost hear a collective gasp when we all saw who we were up against. This Challenge is down to the "prickly" end now, and its getting harder and harder to choose which one you like best in the pairings ... especially if you like both of them equally. I uummed and aahhed over every battle - and I'm sure I changed my mind a dozen times when making the decision.

My worthy opponent for this round is the very accomplished bead artist from Russia, Irina Chikineva and her piece "Bright Summer". Both of us have used similar inspirations, feelings, and colours behind our pieces. Two green pieces up against eachother :).  This round is the only time I have chosen to vote in my own Battle. I abstained from doing that in the last two Battles. However this time I couldn't let this one pass ... Irina's piece is sooooo gorgeous, that I just had to give it that extra boost to get through .. and I hope I have. I bow down gracefully to her piece .. it is gorgeous, and I'm sure you will agree.

Good luck Irina :)

Irina Chikineva

Bright Summer

Round 2 results - Battle of the Beadsmith

Well BOTB leader Steven Weiss definately did it this time!! Round 2 saw me pitted against fellow Aussie Noel Wyres, and her gorgeous piece "Chaos" (pictured below). How could he do that? LOL

The results are out today, and happily or sadly, I don't know which one yet, "Evergreen" made it through to Round 3. It means there's one less Aussie in the mix now, sorry Noel ... but two other Aussies have survived the cut - Melissa Ingram with her piece "Arabesque Armour", and Lauren Macgregor with her piece "Belisama".

From 80, down to 40, and now we're left with 20. There is not one piece in this remaining 20 that I want to be up against ... the talent is amazing!!!

Congratulations to all those that made it through Round 2 ... commiserations to those that didn't ... and good luck to everyone for Round 3.

My beautiful opponents piece ~
"Chaos" by Noel Wyres

So who are the final 20?

Cynthia Newcomer Daniel - USA

Miriam Cielo Shimon - Israel

Christian Rodriguez - USA
Ann Braginsky - Israel
Melissa Ingram - Australia
Helena Tang - Singapore
Lauren Macgregor - Australia
Ekaterina Kalinina - Russia
Betty Stephan - USA
Sue Horine - USA
Marsha Wiest Hines - USA
Sandra Dokter van Esveld - Netherlands
Kinga Nichols - USA
Heather Kingsley Heath - United Kingdom
Ella Des - Serbia/Belgrade
Julia Turova - Russia
Alla Maslennikova - Russia
Irina Chikineva - Russia
Mikki Ferrugiaro - USA
and
Me :) - Australia

Battle of the Beadsmith ... update

Well I'm very surprised at the outcome, but I'm happy to say my humble little piece has made it through round one. There was no dancing on tabletops, or shouting it out loud. Besides the fact my back probably wouldn't let me get on said tabletop LOL, one has to remember that where one person made it through, another did not.

There was, as some of us expected, some backlash against those that made it through. Cries of foul play and favouritism were heard all over the BOTB group page. Now I've stayed out of the kerfuffle that was BOTB the last couple of days because I didn't like what I was seeing as far as the comments go. There was no need for any of that. We all came into this competition knowing that we had a 50/50 chance of making it through to the next round ... complaining about it doesn't do anyone any good!!

I had consigned myself from the beginning that I was not going to make it through .. and was at peace with it. Now I've made it through, but I look at the calibre of the remaining artists and know that I have no hope in hell of making it through round two ... and I'm at peace with that. I participated in this competition for one reason only ... to have fun!! Yep have fun ... and I did. I made a piece that I'm totally in love with, and I'm happy with that. I've met some AMAZING artists ... drooled over pieces that I'm still trying to figure out how they did it - my keyboard and desk will need replacing by the time all this is over I'm sure of it LOL ... but more importantly, I've found the inspiration to keep doing what I'm doing.

This competition has opened up a whole new world of beading and inspiration for me. I can only hope to one day be as good as all of you. You all rock my world!!!!

Battle of the Beadsmith

It started with a sketch ...

and then grew from there. My original sketch didn't incorporate the leaves and flowers - they were added in later when I changed what theme I was going to do. In my original design I was going to make it more water based, and have this beautiful cascading fringe and a multitude of bead strands to represent a waterfall. Somehow, at the time, part of me thought this was all too hard, so I changed it to the floral design you see above.

From a sketch to the gluing of cabs ... gorgeously scrumptious dichroic cabs by Glass Artist Lyn Owen of Silvermoonlyn ... the blue/green fern like colours coming from these cabs also lent themselves to a more "plant" based design than my original water design.

and then the fun began ... first the bezelling of the cabs, then the subtle placement of the flowers and leaves, and the freshwater pearls - in my original "water" design - stayed in. I love pearls, what can I say :)

then some bling with a Swarovski winding vine ...

and finally the teeny tiny beadies came out to play ...

and even more tiny beadies  ... lots of two bead fringes enveloping the floral display

till there was no more to do ... but to back it and do the edging.



It was then that I faced a dilemma ... what to do with the other side of the necklace? My original design was out the window, what do I do? I turned to my bookcase for inspiration. That inspiration was a book on Celtic and Asian knots that I've had sitting there in my bookcase for ages. I fell in love with the figure 8 knot, and I knew it would fit in with my piece ... and so the other side of my necklace came to life. To carry on the theme of the piece, flowers and leaves were added to the knotting.

My piece was finished!! The Battle within myself was complete - I had finished it .. with a couple of days to spare. The stress of not getting it done was finally lifted off my shoulders. aaaaahhhh that feels good :)

Now its time for the "good" photos :)

Hope you enjoyed my little journey.

If you want to see some jawdroppingly gorgeous beadwork, then you need to check out all the wonderful entries from all over the world on the Facebook "Battle of the Beadsmith" group page ... https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/274053372682035/ . Believe me, they are jawdropping!!!

Beading Babes - Four leaf clover bracelet

I've joined this lovely little group of "Beading Babes", and this is the first project that I've managed to find time to participate in. We were given the choice of two patterns - could make both if we wanted - and I decided to make the very beautiful Four Leaf Clover cuff by Helena Tang Lim.

Originally I wanted to make a whole heap of these bracelets/cuffs in lots of different colourways, and I was going to mix it up as far as design goes ....  but life seriously got in the way. The colours I chose are the very beautiful, and elegant, grey and white. Using clear AB seedies, and a lovely smokey grey as the secondary seedie, I set about incorporating white and light grey Swaro pearls and alternating them. To fit in with the smokey grey I used a dark grey 8mm pearl for the clasp.

I absolutely adored making this cuff, and I really hope that I'll get more of a chance to make more of these very soon. Thankyou Karyn for organising these little challenges, and thankyou Helena for sharing your beautiful tutorials with us. oxoxox

"Battle of the Beadsmith"

Well all participants are named, judges have been selected, and this comp is ready to go. It is such an honour to be included in this International competition ... and to be put up against people who I consider to be "beading royalty" is daunting, but awe-inspiring. Now I just have to design something totally spectacular to enter :)

Below is an explanation of the competition taken from their FB page, and below that the list of participants and judges.

******
In an effort to create more awareness of some of the incredible bead artistry being executed by bead masters worldwide, I thought it would be fun to set up a beading "tournament" where original works can be viewed, shared, and celebrated both by the participants, and the beading public alike.

80 seed bead artists have been invited to participate in an elimination "tournament" to determine which piece of their original beadwork best captures the imagination of 119 of their fellow designers, specialty bead shop owners, and members of various beading magazine editorial staffs.

On May 14th, random artist pairings will be created, establishing a first round of competition, consisting of 40 artists vs. artist "contests". (For example, round one might have the work of Californian Linda Roberts paired up against the work of Vermont's Nancy Dale, and so on.)

Artists will then have Seven weeks from the announcement of the first round pairings to create, a single piece of original beadwork, and submit four photos best highlighting the works most important elements. The 78 competitors not involved in a particular round one "contest", plus 41 invited judges, will vote for the piece that best captures their imagination. A majority of at least 85 of the possible 119 total voters will be enough to determine a winner. All necklaces, bracelets, earring, brooches, headpieces, belts, handbags, or any other wearable adornments are acceptable for submission. The deadline for all of the submissions, by the artists, is July 10th, Tuesday

If an artist drops out of the competiton before 5 PM EST, on Thursday June 7th, a replacement artist will be sought to join the competition (though they are at an obvious time disadvantage). After the June 7th, the artist paired with the departed competitor will be declared a winner, and advance to round 2

The 40 winners of round one will be randomly paired again in one of 20 new "contests" in round 2 and the voting process will begin again.

The 10 winners of round two are again randomly paired in 5 new round 3 "contests" which after judging takes place will leave 5 remaining artists in the competition.

The public will then have a chance to vote for their favorite piece from the remaining 5 artists. The selected artist will recieve a pass straight through to the final round of competition.

Round 4 will be two "contests" to determine which two artists will compete in round 5 for the right to move to the championship round against the public's favorite piece.

The winner of the competition will be decided on by the 119 eligible voters......

Competitors can use almost any beads or materials, so long as the piece falls under the umbrella of beadweaving, or bead embroidery. Japanese seed beads***, Metal seed beads, Preciosa Czech seed beads, semi precious stones, Swarovski and Preciosa Crystal, fire polished glass, and individually created art glass and ceramic beads etc are all perfectly acceptable.

***As the Beadsmith has a relationship with the Miyuki Company of Japan, we have requested that competitors preferably use Miyuki Seed beads when using Japanese beads for this competition.

The Participants

2012 Battle Of The Beadsmith:

Australia:
Patrick Duggan
Melissa Ingram
Joanne Browne
Neva Brown
Lauren Macgregor
Maryanne Villalba
Karyn Healey-White
Noel Wyres

Belgium:
Laurence Dethier

Belgrade/Serbia:
Ella Des

Canada:
Jacquie Champion

Czech Republic:
Lea Palickova
Katka Vaclavikova
Marta Koudelova
Denisa Kangas
Iva Jar

Dominican Republic:
Edgar Lopez Disenos

France:
Anneta Valious
Mouna Marini

Georgia:
Tamuna Lezhava

Germany:
Elke Leonhardt Rath
Olga Haserodt

Hungary:
Annie Hatvani
Eva Dobos
Orsolya Füzesi
Ibolya Ingesné Barkóczi
Éva Csizmadia Lajosné
Katalin Budainé Nagy

Ireland:
Anastasia O'sarantseva

Israel:
Ann Braginsky
Miriam Cielo Shimon

Italy:
Eliana Maniero

Japan:
Guzialia Reed

Mexico:
Sigifredo Contreras

Netherlands:
Sandra Dokter van Esveld

Russia:
Irina Chikineva
Nella Moskvichjova
Julia Turova
Alla Maslennikova
Olga Shumilova
Ekaterina Kalinina
Marina Nosova

Sweden:
Olga Petterson
Misan Tejre
Nausikaa Dahllof
Anna Lindell

Singapore:
Helena Tang

Ukraine:
Alla Vizir
Katherine Gezey
Anna Bystryk

United Kingdom:
Heather Kingsley Heath
Jill Thomas
Lynn Davy

USA:
Linda Roberts
Sharayah Sheldon
Nancy Dale
Cynthia Newcomer Daniel
Marsha Wiest Hines
Carol Dean Sharpe
Christina Neit
Sue Horine
Alexandra Sydorenko
Betty Stephan
Callie Mitchell
Christian Rodriguez
Kinga Nichols
Mikki Ferrugiaro
Amy Katz
Kassie Inman
Dini Alves
Jennifer Chasalow VanBenschoten
Rosita Pisarchick
Roxan O'brien
Christine Boyer Maj
Kathy King
Susan Brackett
Hannah Rosner
Terri Richards
ARachel Nelson Smith
Ulyana Rakcheyeva Seryankina-USA

The Judges

2012 Battle Of The Beadsmith:

Australia:
Kelly Nealon (Australian Beading Magazine Editor),

Finland:
Jana Tarhala

Germany:
Sabine Lippert
Claudia Schuman
Verena Greene-Christ (Perlen Poesie Magazine)

Israel:
Smadar Grossman
Patrizia Tager

Japan:
Kenj Katsuoka (Miyuki Company)

Netherlands:
Marjon Donker-Netherlands ( Editor Polymer To Art Magazine)

Russia:
Galina Pchelkina-Russia (Editor of Чудесные мгновения Magazine)

South Africa:
Heather Collin

Sweden:
Karin Nilsson

Switzerland:
Cath Thomas

United Kingdom:
Kerrie Slade
Chloe Menage (Bead Magazine Editor)
Jean Power
Jo Lochhead
Juliet Browse

USA
Maggie Roschyk
Adele Rogers Recklies
Diane Hyde
Jean Campbell
Zoya Gutina
Laura Boudloche Zeiner
Laura Andrews
Kathleen Mccabe-Elsey
Julia Gerlach-USA (Bead and Button Magazine Editor)
Diane Fitzgerald
Ana Garcia
Paulette Rosner Baron
Amy Blevins
Melinda Barta (Beadwork Magazine Editor)
Kandra Norsigian
Jamie Cloud Eakin
Pamela Hawkins (Bead Design Studio Magazine Editor)
Kate Bannister Tracton
Deb Moffet Hall (Bead- Patterns The Magazine & Quick Stitch Peyote Card
Barbara Conrad
Lea Avroch
MaryLou Holvenstot
Anna Elizabeth Draeger

******

New for this week ...

Just some small things, but its beading nonetheless :) My resolution of doing some sort of beading every week has started off well :)

This one sold within a few hours of being put on Etsy, which I was so surprised with.

New Year tidings to you all

Well here we are at another New Year ... they seem to be going by faster and faster these days.

We leave behind a year that has been fraught with

~ many ups and downs ~

Stock crashes

~ A world in turmoil ~

Egyptian uprising

~ Natural disasters that made us cry ~

Tsunami hits Japan

Christchurch Quake

Cyclone Yasi (Category 5) hits Far North Queensland

 ~ and miracles that have blessed our hearts ~

2 week old baby rescued ~ Turkish Quake

 Personally 2011 was stressful to say the least,

an emotional roller-coaster.

It also wasn't a very productive year as far as jewellery making goes ...

its amazing how "life in general" just got in the way.

The last few months of the year, however, were great,

and have given me hope that everything has righted itself

and we can look ahead to a wonderful year.

I'm grateful for the love and support of my wonderful husband ~ my best friend,
and my gorgeous children, who even though they made life
interesting throughout the year, are the absolute light of my life.


I wish you all a happy and safe New Year,

may you be blessed with lots of love.

~ Maryanne ~

Sakura

Just finished this morning .... Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)

Made as part of a "Sakura" themed YOJ Challenge on the Beading Forum. I'm really happy with how this turned out, especially since it was my first try at making the tiny Cherry Blossoms. The gorgeous focal is, of course, a Peruzi creation. The softness of the colours in this focal worked perfectly with my little Cherry Blossoms.

The necklace is a matt black seedie peyote rope with soft pink drop embellishments, and finished off with Black Onyx, Swarovski Crystals and Sterling Silver.

 

Note: the tutorial I used for the Cherry Blossoms is this one ... really easy once you get into the swing of it :)

SOLD - "Burlesque Nights"

Well I guess it had to happen one day ... my most favourite piece in the world has finally sold. "Burlesque" started my love affair with using in lace in my designs, and one I'm still passionate about. It will be sad to see it go in the post tomorrow, but I know its going to a wonderful home and I think she will treasure it just like I have.

Crimson Willow

With just one kiss,
My crimson tears start falling down blissfully,
For crimson tears is what you need,
When underneath the willow tree.
And underneath the willow tree,
I shall stay with you all night.
For I am yours, eternally,
With only, just one bite.

This piece is a UFO that I've had sitting on my desk for AGES ... finally got the inspiration to finish it today. Each clay cab has been hand beaded with seed beads, with the focal embellished with around 60 Garnet Swarovski Crystals.
 

Brisbane Show results

As usual, I entered two pieces into the Beading category at the Brisbane Show ... more commonly known as the Ekka. I'm proud to say that both pieces placed and are pictured below.

1st Prize

"Snow Queen"

 3rd Prize
"Alice and the Queen of Hearts"

Soutache beading

I bought some Soutache braid during the week, as I've been wanting to try beading with it for such a long time. This weekend I took the plunge, sat myself down, and made a pendant.

Oh WOW, I love this style of beading ... the opportunities are endless!!! Anyway, I've started basic, but I do have plans for a grander piece - maybe a cuff.

Large Swarovski Cosmic flatback, with Swarovski rounds, Soutache braid and a satin rose.

The Big Bang

The Beading Forums' recent YOJ theme was "The Big Bang" ... and what better way to get the creative juices flowing again than with a YOJ Challenge.

The cab in this piece is by a lovely lampie girl call Bree. The first time I saw this cab I just had to have it ... and when I saw this theme, I knew I had the right cab for it. This beautiful black cab has an explosion of colour down the centre that just reminded me of those images you see in space. To create the impression of new stars forming and the explosion of colour that emanates from a "Big Bang", I used, of course, Swarovski Crystals in Jet, Jet AB and a gorgeous Sapphire ABx2.

I love this piece, not only for the colour, but for getting my mojo back into first gear. Hopefully many more will come, and my mojo will switch into second gear. :)

Bit quiet on the beading front

I've been very quiet on the Beading side of things for a little while now. It's amazing how work, kids before/after school activities, and life in general, can get in the way of creative time. Mix that with being sick a couple of times and you have absolutely no creations coming out of this house.

We're in school holidays here at the moment, but slowly my creativity is coming back ... and not just making jewellery. I've been sewing as well!!!! OMG sewing. I've always hated sewing, but the older I get the more I'm getting into things that I once hated. I'd also love to learn how to crochet and knit, but might leave them for a little while.

So what have I been sewing? Well, lots of kids stuff ... and not for my kids. Although they're still my babies, they are just a tad old for the stuff I've been sewing, and I'm pleased to say, selling. mmmm Didn't I just get through saying I have no time to make jewellery or create? LOL well I'm having a hard time finding time to sew as well. Perhaps I should just give up this arty farty thing and just concentrate on the home and kids. NAH, can't do it sorry!!! :)

Anyway, I apologise for not doing any regular posting in the last six months. I'm hoping that this second half of the year will be kinder to me and I'll start churning out some of the pieces I have swirling around in my head. Really must get my sketch book out so I can get some of this stuff out of my head!! So, until the next time I post - which hopefully will be soon - have fun, create and be happy. :)


Oh, before I forget .... this is the one and only piece I've made recently for a friend in Germany. I hope her mum loves it, coz I'm sure in love with it.

This lovely little one features a Peruzi made clay cabochon, surrounded by a bed of seed beads and those gorgeous metal rose sliders I've had in my collection for years.