Imagine my surprise

Imagine my surprise when ..... on the Friday 8th August I got my little email stating that I'd made it through to the 1st round of finalists for the 2008 Create Your Style Swarovski competition. I was so excited and shocked at the same time, only because I firmly believe that there are better pieces out there than mine. But I'd made it. I honestly don't care if I don't go any further in the competition, I'm just stoked I got this far.

This is the piece that got through to the next stage -

Raindrops

and these are the pieces I'd made that didn't get through.

Golden Flower Choker

Winter's Icy Heart

The Colours of Autumn

The Olgas

2008 Create Your Style Swarovski Competition

Well that time of the year is nearly over - as of midnight tonight entries to the comp will close and the judges can start sifting through the multitude of entries that they have.

These are some of my favourite pieces from this years competition.

Rise of the Phoenix - Huan Pham

Dance of the Fire Phoenix - Caroline Fung

Moonstruck - Melissa Player

Daoine Sidhe - Lauren MacGregor

Across the Universe - Annette Sharpe

and finally....

Splash - Noel Wyres

You can see the entries here http://www.crystalpark.com.au/cgi-bin/cn17325/awards_3.html?id=86V83DbY hope you like looking at them as much as I have.

Beaded Agate Slice

As the name says ... I've beaded around one of my collection of Agate slices. Now usually I'm a wire person, and I would wire around said Agate slice, but I decided to take advantage of my new love of seedies and try to encase it instead. Well after this piece I'm sure my love of seedies has waned a bit ... I don't think I've sworn at a piece so much, and I had to unpick the damn thing about 3 times ... ggggrrrr. Those little buggers just didn't want to sit right around the slice.

To make things worse, I broke the middle finger on my left hand a couple of weeks ago, and it just made things so much slower and ever so slightly painful if I held it the wrong way.

Anyway it was finished this morning ... still undecided as to whether I will put a fringe on it, but the more I look at it the more I like it. I'll be visiting a friend later - who is an excellent seed bead artist - so I will ask her opinion.

The seedie bug bites me

Yes ... I'll admit it ... I love the little buggers. I've crossed over to the seedie way of thinking, and I can understand the passion that you seedie ladies (and men) have for these little beadies. Who would have thought that I, me who hates small beadies with big hands, would make anything with seedies.

Once I finished my Davy Jones Locker piece I knew that I had to try this bead embroidery stuff that I've been seeing around the net. So off I went and got myself some Lacy's Stiff Stuff, some ultra-suede, and a new supply of beadies. Now to choose cab to bead around. I didn't have to go far - I have so many polished stones in my collection that one of them must do. I chose a gorgeous stone, whose name escapes me right now, in deep brown and creamy coppery tones.

I must say that at first the passion escaped me until I got past the bezel part. Once I got past that everything just flowed, and by the end of it I was totally in love with yet another part of beading. I love the effect you get with bead embroidery .... I have found a new passion. LOL

I would like to, one day, teach myself to do a spiral or netted rope to hang these beautiful creations off, but I'm taking one step at a time for now. No use rushing these things. :-)

Anyway, here is my first beaded cab - simply strung onto ribbon/cord.

2008 Mackay Show

Well, THAT time of the year has come and gone, again. Yes, June marks the start of Show season around here. Now I wasn't going to enter this, for various reasons, one of them being all the hoo haa that surrounded last years show. But I decided at the last minute to make an effort and enter.

It's not important to me to enter competitions with the sole aim of winning - I'm realistic ... I know there are ladies (and men) out there who are far more talented at this game than what I am, so my expectations are always pretty low. So I entered four pieces - 3 x wire work pieces, and 1 x threadwork.

Imagine my surprise when I went into the Show on the first day to find that not only had I won 1st prize for three of my entries, but I also had won Champion of Show for the second year running. I was gobsmacked, and just a little bit humbled by it all. I had great pleasure in texting my hubby and letting him know - he is my greatest critic and still doesn't understand my passion for this craft. I think he secretely hopes that one day I'll pack it all in and go back to being boring old Maryanne. Not a hope in hell darl :)

Anyway here are my entries for this year's Mackay Show. Enjoy.

1st Prize ~ Threadwork ~ Necklace

1st Prize ~ Wire Work ~ Necklace

and finally ....

1st Prize ~ Wire Work ~ Bracelet
and
Champion of Show

First foray into Threadwork

Now it's common knowledge that I generally hate seed beeds, or for that matter any small beads. Me with the big hands that I have and small beadies just don't go!!! Well recently on the Beading Forum they had a Challenge with the theme being "Davy Jones Locker". So with that in hand I decided to bit the bullet and make something that was predominantly seedies. I researched how to get started, and decided that freeform netting was probably the easiest of stitches I could go for ... and I could do a smattering of peyote in there somewhere.

Now I had a certain image in my head when I started, and true to form I changed it as I went along, and the fringe, well that was an after thought!!! LOL.

Anyway it took me a while to do it, but the end result is something I am sooooo happy with. Presenting "Lost Souls" ~ it represents the jewels scattered over the ocean bed (sand), the fringe representing not only seagrass, but also the outstretched arms of lost souls reaching out for a treasure they can never obtain. Pretty deep hey .. LOL it sounded good at the time.

Musical Theatre

On the Beading Forum they have weekly challenges, incorporating a different theme each week. This week's theme was "Musical Theatre". I love the theatre, and even though I haven't been for years, I still have my old theatre programs. So when this theme came up I rummaged through all the programs to get inspiration for this challenge. I found my inspiration in "My Fair Lady". This first pic is my inspiration photo from the program and following on from that is my interpretation of the piece.

Our local little beadie shop doesn't have much in the way of stampings/filigree, or at least what I had envisaged in my head. So I purchased the biggest bead caps I could and pounded them flat to make these cute little filigree pieces. I then wired some pink freshwater pearls and crystal AB Swarovski Crystals into them to make my interpretation of the theme.

Presenting .... "Eliza"

Note to add: I just looked on the forum at the poll results and I WON!!! WOW I completely gobsmacked. It's not very often I win something, the talent on the forum is just so much greater than mine ... but I won. LOL, if you can't tell ... I'm happy. :-)

Include a Pearl - pendant swap

Recently on the Beading Forum, I participated in a Metalwork/Wirework pendant swap, with the theme "Include a Pearl". Everyone's pieces were beautiful, I'm amazed at the talent of people. Anyway a lovely young lady (beadybaby) did a beautiful pendant for me ... for a beginner in wirework she certainly did herself proud. Thankyou so much Beadybaby. :-)

This is the pendant I made for my recipient. I took the Pearl theme and created something that represented the swirling waters that surround the Pearls while they are being made. I'm so glad that my recipient loved it ... in fact I loved it that much I nearly didn't send it off ... so with that I'm going to make myself one in different colours.

Such a long since I posted

Ugh ... it's just been such a busy year ... LOL so far, and we're only in March.

OK to go over what's been going on, beading wise, since October. After the River to Reef Festival I went back to doing nice sedate market days, and surprisingly did quite well with them as well. I was also finalising the orders I got from that "big" day ~ all of which turned out really well, and I had happy customers.

Since Christmas though, things have been fairly quiet. The markets here tend to have a bit of a rest period until the heat of our summer dies down. So in the interim I have been getting ready for the main market to start back up again ... which is at the end of this month. YAHOO!!!!

Been making lots of beady goodies, buying up lots of beadies ... ssshhhhh don't tell my husband LOL. I've started playing with wire again, which feels soooooo good. I've been entering a few challenges on the Beading Forum ~ which I have enjoyed so much ... I love creating things to a theme.

I've also started studying at TAFE (Technical College), part-time. I'm doing a Certificate I in Visual Arts. Glasswork and Drawing are my subjects this semester, and oh I am having soooo much fun. I have a new appreciation of what it takes to make glasswork. It's an amazing medium to work with. Cutting glass to make something, and then firing it to see the end result ... beautiful. I love the way glass melds in together without losing it's form ... I may just have found another expensive hobby. LOL

My main news though is that I'm having another Jewellery Showing/Party, with my very good friend Penny. We're invading the country town of Collinsville with our beadies!!!! We have so much fun at these events, and Penny has friends and family in Collinsville, so hopefully it will be successful.

Well, I think that just about brings you up to date with what I've been doing beading wise. Hopefully I'll remember to keep posting here on a more regular basis.

Round and Round the Rose Garden

I made this piece for a very good friend down in Melbourne. She loved one of the pieces I entered into the Swarovski competition this year - and put in a request for one to wear to her brothers wedding ... only it had to have lots of pink and it had to have a butterfly. So after much searching I found this pink Cubic Zirconia 18ct White Gold butterfly .. perfect!!!!

Finished it today - and promptly packaged up and mailed. While it does sort of look like it's original "sister" ... it's definately just as pretty ~ I'm sure you'll agree ... and LOL it looks great on. Below is the comparison of both pieces.

"Round and Round the Rose Garden" ~ September 2007


"Round and Round the Garden" ~ Swarovski Challenge - June 2007

LOL ... excuse my crappy photos ~ especially of the version 2. In my haste to get it photographed and mailed off, I didn't realise my hand/camera shadow was in the picture.

Anyway darl, I hope you enjoy your necklace ... I enjoyed making it for you.

To bead or not to Bead

That is the question .... LOL, excuse my play on these most famous of words

Welcome to my space.

My reasoning behind creating this space ... I'm hoping to document for my family and friends my journey through this beading bug that I seem to have caught ... and just can't get rid of. This bug caught me, or did I catch it? in early/mid 2006. Since then I've evolved from just plain stringing - which I look back on and just cringe at ... to designing and creating not only more complex stringing pieces, but also elaborate and time-consuming wire pieces. I seem to have found my niche with wire ... I love it. It's such a beautiful medium to play with, to create with, to do anything with.

I've even started entering competitions ... yes me, shy, reserved, not bothering anyone, ME!!! My greatest and proudest is winning First, Second and Champion at my local Show here in Mackay (2007). My main piece (below), "Jewelled Sea", took me 16 hours to make, the seemingly endless wire-wrapping used up two spools of artistic wire, some beautfiul Swarovski crystals, and made a few fingers raw and sore!!! My inspiration for it ... our beautiful oceans. The waves and swirls represent the waves and currents of the ocean, the circles are the bubbles bubbling along as they do, and the Crystals represent all the creatures of our oceans ... our "jewels".

"Jewelled Sea"
First prize and Champion

My Second prize is a beautiful (well I think so), cuff bracelet called "Autumn's Wings". By the time I finished this one it looked remarkably like a butterfly, hence the "wings". I love these colours, they are gorgeous and create a warmth about the piece.

"Autumn's Wings"
Second prize

I even entered three pieces into the 2007 Swarovski competition this year ... piccie of one of my pieces "Round & Round the Garden" is up the top of this page. I didn't make it through to the finalists, but I am proud that I can say that I entered the competition and at least made a go of it. And that's all you can do isn't it? Make a go of it, do your best - always, and to just be happy doing it.

I hope you enjoy this space and share with me my journey through this creative phase of my life.